YuGiOh GX The Future
by judodave
Summary: Rewritten version of an old fanfic, original cast: It's been 20 years since Jaden graduated from Duel Academy and now Chloe and Lance, two friends who love to duel have enrolled in the school but what challenges await them at Duel Academy?
1. The Adventure Begins

The streets of Domino City where relatively quiet, though on the other hand it was still pretty early in the morning, well aside from one young duellist bolting down the street as fast as his legs could carry him.

"_How the hell did I sleep in this morning?"_ The duellist, a young man with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes who was wearing a red t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots and wearing a duel disk on his arm, thought as he ran towards his destination, namely where Duel Academy was holding there entrance exams, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the building in site, he slowed down in order to catch his breath when he saw a car pull up, the passenger side door opened and a teenage girl around his age (17) stepped out, she had elbow length dark brown hair, green eyes and was wearing a green jacket over a stomach exposing black top, blue jeans and black boots, and most importantly she was carrying her own Duel Disk.

"Thanks for the lift dad." The young woman said as she got out, the other duellist blinked a couple of times before he recognised her voice.

"Chloe? You didn't tell me you where applying." The male duellist said, the girl turned around and smirked.

"Neither did you Lance." Chloe pointed out before rubbing the back of her head nervously. "How else am I going to get better at Duel Monsters anyway?"

"I thought your step dad was teaching you?" Lance asked.

"I can answer that for her." Chloe's stepdad said stepping out of the car, he was bald and had blue eyes; he was wearing a nice looking business suit. "I may have been a good duellist back in the day but I'm out of practice, besides the folks at Duel Academy will be able to teach her stuff I couldn't even dream off."

"That's if I qualify." Chloe sighed before getting her deck out of the duel disk; she looked through it before finding Silent Magician Level 4 (4/1000/1000). "If nothing else though my Silent Magician should help me qualify and get into Duel Academy, actually that reminds me." Chloe said putting the card back in her deck. "How did you do on the exam Lance?"

"I did pretty well." Lance shrugged. "And don't worry Chloe you'll do fine, sure you've only been duelling for two months now but other than that I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Chloe said. "I honestly don't know how well I did on the exam; after all I'm still learning the game."

"Guess we'll have to see." Lance said. "Anyway let's head in, I don't want to be any later than I am already."

"I agree there." Chloe said, her dad got in the car and drove off and the two teens entered the building, it was packed with people ranging from students that where already at the academy to prospective students like Chloe and Lance.

"Your dad's not sticking around?" Lance asked.

"He can't, he has a gameshop to run remember?" Chloe pointed out as she leaned forward on the rail. "Looks like we're in luck, the duels haven't started yet."

"So I ran from my home for nothing?" Lance said causing Chloe to look at him funny.

"You ran half way across the city? Why didn't you ask your parents for a lift?" Chloe asked and Lance blushed a bit.

"I didn't want to wake them up." Lance admitted. "I couldn't call you either because my cell phone needs topping up."

"Chloe Richardson, please report to Duel Field 1 for the first duel of the day." A voice rang out over the PA system, Chloe grinned.

"That's my cue, wish me luck." Chloe said before pausing. "How do I get down to the duel field?" Chloe asked and Lance facepalmed.

"You forgot already?" Lance asked before shaking his head. "Never mind, I'm sure that there's someone that can show you around."

"You guys need some help?" A male voice rang out; they turned around and saw a blonde teenager in an Obelisk Blue Uniform who had been sitting not far from the two of them.

"Err, yeah my friend here is up first and she doesn't know the way to the duel fields." Lance replied; the Obelisk Blue student nodded in understanding.

"I understand; this place can be a pain to navigate if you've never been here before." The student said standing up. "I'll show her the way."

"Are you sure? I could find it myself?" Chloe blinked in surprise.

"I'm sure, besides new students are given five minutes to get to the Duel Field in time and this place is hard to navigate if you don't know the way." The student said stepping out of the row and onto the walkway. "My name's Brandon by the way."

"I'm Chloe, he's Lance." Chloe introduced the two of them. "To be honest I wasn't expecting an Obelisk Blue to be so friendly."

"Not all Obelisk Blue students are uptight assholes with too much money." Brandon shrugged as he led Chloe to the elevator that would take her down to the duel arenas, Brandon pressed the button for the ground floor and whilst he waited for the elevator he turned to her. "Chloe, if you don't mind me asking how long have you been duelling?"

"I've only been duelling a little over two months." Chloe sighed.

"Don't worry about it, most of the students in Osiris Red are rookies, what kind of deck do you run?" Brandon reassured her.

"Combination of warriors and Spellcasters, alongside support spell and trap cards." Chloe said, the elevator arrived at that moment and Chloe entered. "If you want to see them in action you'll have to watch my duel."

"I look forward to it." Brandon said walking off, the elevator doors closed and the elevator took her to the due fields and when the elevator arrived she exited and looked around for the duel field.

"Chloe Richardson?" A male voice rang out; she turned around and saw a male duel proctor with blonde hair and blue eyes. "Let me guess, had trouble finding the way?"

"Guilty as charged." She admitted, the proctor led her to the duel field and they stood opposite each other. "So, who's going first?"

"I am." The proctor said activating his duel disk, Chloe did likewise and the two duellists drew their opening hands, Chloe took one look at her hand and winced.

"_Great, this isn't exactly my strongest opening hand."_ Chloe sighed. _"At least he's going first."_ She thought as the proctor drew his first card.

"_Not bad." _The proctor thought as he observed his hand. "I will begin by activating the spell card Dangerous Machine Type 6!" The proctor slid his spell card into the slot and a large, circular machine with six symbols in the centre of it in a circle and in the middle of it was an arrow.

"Okay...what does that do?" Chloe blinked.

"You'll find out soon enough." The proctor said as he picked up another card. "Now I'll summon the mighty Tiger Axe in attack mode." The proctor put the card down and a humanoid tiger in grey armour and wielding an axe appeared on the field. (4/1300/1100). "And I'll end my turn by setting two cards facedown, make your move."

"Gladly." Chloe said drawing her card. _"Why would he open with such a weak monster? He'll regret soon enough."_ She thought before turning her attention to the card she had drawn. "I summon Neo the Magic Swordsman in attack mode." Chloe put the card down on the disk and a tall blonde man with shoulder length hair appeared on the field, his grey armour was decorated with various symbols and he was wielding a large sword. (4/1700/1000) "Neo, attack Tiger Axe now!" Neo charged at Tiger Axe, as he did his sword started glowing...

"You've fallen into my trap, GO MAGIC CYLINDER!" The proctor activated one of his face down cards and two jars appeared on the field. "But that's not all, I activate my other face down card Rush Recklessly, this quick play spell allows me to increase the attack power of a monster of my choice by 700 points."

"So you're choosing Tiger Axe?" Chloe asked but the proctor shook his head.

"Your thinking too small, my choice is Neo the Magic Swordsman!" As the Proctor said this Neo's attack increased to 2400. "And with Magic Cylinder the attack that would've destroyed Tiger Axe instead decimates your life points!" Chloe's eyes widened as Neo went in one Cylinder and came out the other; she braced herself for the attack as Neo slashed her.

P: 8000

C: 5600

"If you keep making mistakes like that you'll never get into Duel Academy." The Proctor said folding his arms. "Any other moves you want to make?" Chloe examined her hand and picked up two cards.

"Yes, I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the two cards and the proctor drew his card.

"And now I activate the effect of Dangerous Machine Type 6." The proctor said as the arrow started spinning. "Here's what it does, depending on what number it lands on it can have a variety of effects that affect both players." As the proctor said that the arrow slowed down and landed on five. "For example when the arrow lands on five I can destroy one monster on your side of the field." The machine fired a laser at Neo, when it hit Neo collapsed to the ground and the hologram shattered. "Now I shall sacrifice Tiger Axe to bring out Swordstalker in attack mode." Tiger Axe disappeared and in its place stood a purple, muscular being wearing a red cape and carrying a jagged yellow sword. (6/2000/1600) "Swordstalker, attack her lifepoints!" Swordstalker charged at Chloe who quickly activated her facedown card.

"Don't count on it; I activate my trap card Call of the Haunted to bring back Neo." As she said that Neo reappeared on the field. "And now I activate my other trap card Reinforcements increasing Neo's attack by five hundred." She activated her other card and Neo's attack rose to 2200, as Swordstalker lowered it sword to attack Neo Chloe's monster rose its own sword to defend it's self.

"Not bad but I activate a second Rush Recklessly from my hand." The proctor said picking up the last card in his hand and just like that Swordstalker's attack rose to 2700, Neo's sword broke in half and Swordstalker slashed it down the middle.

P: 8000

C: 5100

"Your friend's not doing well." Brandon commented. "She's lost a lot of lifepoints and it's still early in the game."

"Don't count her out just yet." Lance said folding his arms. "She's been in tougher spots before."

"There you are." A female voice rang out; the two boys turned around and saw a female Obelisk Blue student with dark brown hair in a ponytail and blue eyes. "Wanted to get a better look at her duel huh?"

"Yes, though I honestly doubt she'll last much longer." Brandon admitted. "Lance this is Theresa, she's my girlfriend." Brandon introduced Lance.

"It's nice to meet you." Lance said with a nod. "And like I just said I wouldn't count her out yet."

"With that much of her lifepoints already lost?" Theresa asked. "It'll take a miracle."

"Is it my move now?" Chloe asked, the proctor nodded and she drew her card. _"I don't have anything in my hand that can beat Swordstalker and I've already wasted my Reinforcements card."_ Chloe thought before looking at her new card. _"But this might help."_ Chloe thought before activated the card she drew. "I activate my Spell Card, Card Destruction."

"Is that how desperate you are? You're willing to discard your entire hand?" The proctor asked before discarding his three cards and drawing a new set of cards, Chloe did likewise and drew her cards.

"Call it what you want but that move has worked in my favour, I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Chloe activated her card and three golden swords rained down from the sky pinning down Swordstalker. "Now you can't attack for three turns but that's not all." Chloe said picking up another card. "It's time I brought out my most powerful monster, Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode." Chloe put her card down and a young girl in white and blue robes appeared, she was also wearing a large white hat with a blue gem in the centre of it and was she was carrying a staff (4/1000/1000).

"That's your strongest monster?" The proctor scoffed. "You're a fool, when Swords of Revealing Light expire my Swordstalker will make quick work of it but failing that if my Dangerous Machine lands on a five it will be destroyed." However back in the rafters Brandon and Theresa knew better.

"Where did she get such a rare card? She told me herself that she only has two months worth of experience." Brandon asked.

"Duelling runs in her family, her stepdad is a former duellist who retired to run a gameshop, he taught her everything she knows." Lance answered. "That card was a birthday present from him to her, out of respect for her privacy I won't go into detail but that card means a lot to her, much more than any birthday present."

"If you're done mocking my monster I'll end my turn." Chloe said, the proctor said nothing a drew his card, as he did that the gem on Silent Magicians hat glowed and suddenly Silent Magician's attack rose to 1500.

"What's the meaning of this?" The proctor demanded as the Dangerous Machine's arrow started spinning.

"My Magician gains a Spell Counter every time you draw and for each spell counter she gains 500 attack points." Chloe said folding her arms. "It does have a limit though, it can only hold a total of five spell counters but by then it'll have a grand total of 3500 attack points."

"Yes thank you I can do basic math as well." The Proctor responded. "But your assuming that I will allow you to get that far in the duel, for all you know Dangerous Machine could destroy it right now." As the proctor said that the arrow slowed down and landed on four. "Seems Dangerous Machine decided to be merciful, when it lands on four you get to draw an extra card." Chloe smirked at that and drew her card, Chloe looked at it and her grin drew bigger.

"_Yeah, it's being merciful in more ways than one."_ She thought before turning to him. "Anything else you want to do?" The proctor looked at his card and shook his head.

"There's nothing I can do, go ahead." The proctor said; Chloe looked at her card.

"_Thanks to Dangerous Machine I was able to draw Pitch Black Power Stone early, with this I can add three more counters to Silent Magician." _She thought as she drew her card. "I set two cards face down and I summer Gearfried, The Iron Knight in attack mode!" Chloe set the two cards down and a knight in jet black armour that seemed to have a sword a shield for its hands (4/1800/1600). "That's all for me." The proctor drew his card and Silent Magician's attack rose to 2000 and the arrow started spinning again this time stopping on three.

"When Dangerous Machine lands on 3 I can draw an extra card." The proctor drew his card and Magician's attack rose again to 2500. "Your Magician may be stronger than my Swordstalker now but not for long, first I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy your swords." He played the card and a tornado appeared on the field sweeping away the remaining swords. "And next I will sacrifice Swordstalker to bring out my ultimate creature, the unstoppable Jinzo." Swordstalker disappeared from the field...

"That's what you think, I activate my trap card Trap Hole which automatic..." Chloe never got a chance to finish as twin red lasers cut through the holograms of both cards and the android appeared on the field much larger than Chloe's monsters. (6/2400/1500). "What...what happened to my traps?"

"You want to join Duel Academy and yet you don't know what Jinzo does? Pathetic, when Jinzo is summoned to the field it automatically negates the effects and activations of any and all trap cards." The proctor explained.

"In case you haven't noticed my Silent Magician still has a higher attack power than Jinzo does." Chloe pointed out.

"Yes, and that is exactly why I activate my own Swords of Revealing Light!" The proctor said activating his card and just like that three swords rained down on Silent Magician and Gearfriend. "Jinzo attack Gearfriend now!" Jinzo put its palms together and charged up its attack and a ball of black energy appeared between its hands, Jinzo fired it at Gearfriend who screamed before it was disintegrated.

"And I activate the effect of Kuriboh, by discarding this card from my hand I can reduce the damage I would've received to zero." Chloe said discarding her card. _"But the bad news is that leaves me with no cards in my hand and that was my only copy of Kuriboh."_

"I'll give you credit for a good move, with your lifepoints so low you can't afford to lose anymore lifepoints." The proctor complemented her. "I'll set a card facedown and activate Amplifier which I equip to Jinzo." The proctor played his last two cards and a small dome shaped helmet appeared on Jinzo's head. "With this spell card I can now activate any trap cards I want."

"That leaves your friend with a serious disadvantage." Theresa said folding her arms. "And the proctor's right, for all she knows Dangerous Machine could destroy her monster before his Swords wear off."

"My turn." Chloe said drawing her card. _"I need to get rid of Jinzo and fast; I know I have Eternal Rest in my deck but I have no way of getting it to my hand."_ She thought. "I set a monster in defence mode, which will do it for me." Chloe said setting the card down, the card appeared on the field and the first of the swords disappeared, the proctor drew his card and Silent Magician's attack rose to 3000 as the arrow started spinning, it eventually stopped...on a five, Chloe's eyes widened. "No!"

"To bad, your Silent Magician is gone!" The proctor said and just like that the machine fired its laser, Silent Magician raised its staff in defence but it was disintegrated. "And now I activate my facedown card Stop Defence forcing your facedown monster into attack mode." The proctor activated his card and Chloe's facedown Battle Warrior (3/700/1000) appeared on the field. "And that's not all, you may remember my other card, it's another Rush Recklessly! Now Jinzo attack Battle Warrior and annihilate her life points!" The proctor said as Jinzo charged up its attack and fired it at Chloe's monster, it was quickly destroyed.

P: 8000

C: 2700

"_This is nuts! His lifepoints haven't even been touched and I can't take another attack like that!"_ Chloe thought. _"Come on Deck; give me something I can use!" _Chloe thought as she drew her card, when she saw it she grinned. "I activate Card of Sanctity!" She activated her card and both players drew 6 cards, when she saw what she had drawn her grin widened. "I activate the Spell Card Eternal Rest!"

"NO! That destroys all monsters with equip cards attached to them!" The Proctor's eyes widened as Jinzo started to short circuit before exploding.

"I'm not done yet!" Chloe said discarding a card and playing another card. "I activate Monster Reincarnation, by discarding a card from my hand I can return one card from my graveyard to my hand and I think you can guess what my choice is."

"You're bringing back your Silent Magician." The proctor realized as Chloe retrieved the card.

"Bingo and I'm summoning her now!" She said as the Magician returned to the field. "But she's not staying around, I activate Level Up!" She said sliding the card into the card slot and Silent Magician started glowing. "I must confess, I wasn't being entirely truthful when I said that Silent Magician was my strongest monster, to be more pacific it's my second strongest!" The magician started growing until it eventually stopped revealing a grown up version of Silent Magician Level 4. "Say hello to my strongest monster, Silent Magician Level 8!" (8/3500/1000).

"Impressive monster, but Swords of Revealing Light is still in play!" The Proctor pointed out, Chloe just grinned.

"Silent Magician, attack his lifepoints directly." Chloe commanded and to the proctor's surprise the monster charged up her staff and fired a beam hitting the proctor in the chest.

P: 4500

C: 2700

"How is this possible?" The proctor demanded.

"My Silent Magician isn't affected by your spell cards, even your swords." Chloe said looking at her last card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." The proctor drew his card and the Machine's arrow started spinning again. _"Come on, anything but five, anything but five!"_ Chloe thought as she watched the arrow slow down...and to the proctor's shock it landed on 6.

"NO! This can't be happening, when the arrow lands on 6 the machine Self Destructs!" The proctor said as the machine started to short circuit, both duellists shielded themselves as the machine exploded.

"_Good riddance."_ Chloe thought, then to her surprise the proctor surrendered.

"There is nothing I can do, you win." The proctor admitted. "Welcome to Duel Academy." Chloe blinked a couple of times as it started to set in; once it did she jumped for joy.

"YES! Way to go Chloe!" Lance shouted with a grin before turning to Theresa. "See? What did I tell you?"

"That magician of hers packs a punch, I have to admit that." Theresa admitted. "But the fact that she is a rookie is pretty obvious, still she has potential."

"I have to agree there." Brandon nodded as they watched Chloe make her way back to the elevator, soon she rejoined them. "Congratulations Chloe, you had us worried there."

"Thanks, I thought it was over once Silent Magician was destroyed to be honest." Chloe admitted.

"Sorry to interrupt your celebration young lady." Chloe turned around and saw an elderly woman in a business suit. "I am the Headmistress of the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm, I thought I'd take the opportunity to welcome you, not to mention get you fitted for a blazer." The woman introduced herself.

"Osiris Red? I'm going to be in the worst dorm?" Chloe said with clear disappointment in her voice.

"Now, now, don't fret." The woman reassured her. "I acknowledge the fact that you where able to turn back the duel in your favour despite the massive difference in life points but it was agreed that due to your clear inexperience and bellow average test score Osiris Red would be best for you."

"I guess you're right." She admitted, Lance put a hand on her shoulder.

"Relax; it's better than not making it altogether."Lance reassured her.

"Lance has anyone ever told you that you're cheering up skills need work?" Chloe joked.

"Lance Alvers, please report to Duel Field Five." A voice over the PA called out.

"And that's my cue." Lance said walking off towards the elevator. "Here's hoping I have an easier time in this duel than you did." Lance added glancing towards Chloe who nodded in agreement before turning to the older woman.

"Do we have to get me fitted now? I'd like to watch my friend duel." Chloe asked.

"I understand, out of curiosity what deck does he play?" The headmistress nodded in understanding.

"He plays a fire deck; he has a ton of Trap and Spell cards that can severely damage his opponent's life points." Chloe explained.

"A burn deck in other words." Theresa nodded. "Not something I'd recommend running myself, if used incorrectly it could wreck havoc on the user's lifepoints."

"He's had plenty of practice using it." Chloe answered leaning forward on the rail as Lance arrived at the duel arena. "Unless his test proctor is as tough as mine was he shouldn't have any problems."

"Then I have some unfortunate news, the proctor you faced was the weakest test proctor in Duel Academy's employee." The headmistress sighed.

"What? But...but I could barely beat him." Chloe said in surprise before sighing. "No wonder I'm being stuck in Osiris Red."

Whilst that was going on Lance stepped onto the Duel Field and activated his duel disk. "Oh right, where's my opponent?"

"Impatient aren't we?" An old sounding voice rang out and an elderly duel proctor with glasses so thick Lance couldn't see his eyes and balding grey hair stepped onto the field. "Welcome Mr. Alvers, I will be your evaluator for today."

"Err; please just call me Lance, your embarrassing me." Lance responded. "Just a fair warning, I don't hold back on anyone regardless of age."

"Excellent, I like to have a challenge once in a while." The old man clapped his hands together with a grin. "I have my own fair warning for you young man, not only am I the most experienced test proctor but I am the best."

"He's kidding, right?" Chloe said her eyes wide.

"He isn't." Brandon shook his head. "When I applied last year I had to duel him, it was the toughest duel I had ever fought up until I met Theresa, and Lance has a tough duel ahead of him." Chloe gulped.

"Suddenly I'm glad that I ended up duelling that other guy." Chloe gulped. "How tough can he be any way? I doubt he can see threw those glasses of his."

"I made the same assumption but believe me Chloe, if you had duelled him at your current skill level you would've failed." Brandon said, usually Chloe would try to defend her duelling skills but now she had a feeling Brandon was right, Lance and the old proctor drew their cards and Lance observed his hand.

"_Hmmmm, this combo of cards could work in my favour." _Lance thought. _"Still, it's better to be safe than sorry." _Lance thought before turning to the proctor. "I'll let you go first."

"Very well." The elderly proctor said drawing his first card. "Very interesting, I'll set a card facedown and a monster facedown, your move."

"Oh right then." Lance said drawing his first card. "I kick things off by bringing out Great Angus in attack mode." Lance played his card and a muscular blood red beast appeared on the field. (4/1800/600) "Great Angus attack his defence." Great Angus leaped forward and took a bite out of his facedown card, but what it was caught him off guard. "RIGHT ARM OF THE FORBIDDON ONE?" (1/200/300) Lance yelled in surprise.

"Ah, so you know about the all powerful Exodia." The old man said pushing his glasses further up his nose. "Do you have anything else to play?"

"As a matter of fact yes." Lance nodded. "I set the remainder of my hand facedown and end my turn." Lance said, the old man drew his card and as he did Lance activated two of them. "I activate two of my traps, Solemn Wishes and Bad Reaction to Simochi, with Solemn Wishes I gain five hundred life points each time I draw and with Bad Reaction any cards that would heal you would instead deal the same amount of damage as the card would've restored your lifepoints with."

"Ah, very impressive." The old man nodded. "Unfortunately for you I lack any healing cards in my deck."

"Is that a fact?" Lance asked as he activated another card. "I also activate Backfire, with this card every time you destroy a fire type monster you suffer 500 points of damage, and my deck is loaded with fire types."

"Very good but I have noticed a glaring flaw in your strategy young man, based on the fact that you've loaded your magic and trap card zones with cards on your first turn I think it's a safe bet that your deck is made up mostly of trap and magic cards." The old man said pushing his glasses up your nose. "A flaw that could be easily exploited by a duelist with the right card in his deck." The old man then looked at the card he drew. "And I just happen to have that card in my hand, I set a card face down and a monster in defence mode, it's your move."

"Right then." Lance said drawing his card, Solemn Wishes took effect giving him an extra five hundred lifepoints.

P: 8000

L: 8500

"Enjoy those lifepoints whilst you can for I activate the Trap Card Royal Decree." The old man said as he activated his trap, Lance's eyes widened when he saw that. "Remember the last duel where my associate used Jinzo? This trap card has the exact same effect, normally this would be devastating enough but you've just crippled your duelling field."

"And I thought I was in trouble in my duel." Chloe said. "Most of Lance's deck is magic and trap cards but usually when he plays this strategy he has some kind of backup plan."

"Let's hope for his sake that he has." Brandon nodded.

"Sorry old man but I came prepared; I activate my facedown card Mystical Space Typhoon!" Lance activated his card and a tornado prepared to wreck havoc on the field.

"I don't think so; I activate my other facedown card Magic Jammer." The old man said picking up one of the cards in his hand. "Now by discarding one card from my hand I can negate the activation of Mystical Space Typhoon and since you chained your activation of Mystical Space Typhoon with the activation of Royal Decree and I chained the activation of Magic Jammer with the previous two chains..."

"Magic Jammer's unaffected by Royal Decree." Lance finished it for him as he put Mystical Space Typhoon in his graveyard. _"Well the good news is I now have a Magic/Trap slot free, bad news is he's rendered my traps useless."_ Lance thought.

"By the way Lance, if you are curious the card I just discarded was another Exodia piece." The old man said causing Lance to do a double take.

"Wait what? You're getting rid of Exodia pieces on purpose?" Lance realized, up on the rampway Chloe had the same reaction.

"I'm surprised that guy's won any matches, let alone against duellists like Lance." Chloe commented folding her arms.

"Don't underestimate him young lady, your proctor made the same mistake when he was duelling you." The headmistress scolded her.

"Yes ma'am." Chloe gulped nervously.

"Now back to my move." The old man said as he looked at the card he drew. "Very interesting indeed, I shall set this card face down in defence mode and I shall end my turn at that." Lance drew his card and his eyes narrowed.

"_Soul Release? This card is useful as it would allow me to remove up to five cards from either my graveyard or his."_ Lance thought. _"However I want to know just what he's up to before I activate anything else."_ Lance thought before turning his attention to Great Angus. "Great Angus attack his defence." Great Angus leapt forward again and bit into it revealing it to be Exodia, The Forbidden One. (3/1000/1000). "I don't know what you're up too old man; initially I thought your plan was to use Backup Soldier to return the two discarded Exodia pieces but since the card I just destroyed was an effect monster that throws that idea out the window."

"How observant of you." The Proctor said pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Do you have any other moves?"

"No, it's your move." Lance said as the old man drew his card.

"I shall now activate the Spell Card, Card Destruction." The old man said activating it. "I can now force both of us to discard the remainder of our hands and draw new hands." The old man drew his cards and Lance did likewise "Lance, you have fought well but this is where the duel and your hopes of getting into Duel Academy end." The old man said with a chuckle. "Now that all five pieces of Exodia are in my graveyard I can activate the dreaded Spell Card Contract with Exodia!"

"Contract with Exodia?" Lance echoed. "I've never heard of that card."

"I am not surprised, it is a very rare card and as I stated before it requires that all five pieces of Exodia be in my graveyard but it is well worth it because with it I can summon a monster that rivals Exodia himself in terms of power." The old man placed the card down and grinned. "Come forth Exodia Necross!" The old man called and a single massive, Jet Black Hand suddenly came out of the ground, it was soon accompanied by a second and soon a monster that could only be described as a jet black version of Exodia. (4/1800/0) Lance did a double take when he saw the stats.

"That's supposed to rival Exodia? My grandmother is a better rival for Exodia than that thing." Lance said with a smirk.

"Well in that case I wouldn't want to meet your grandmother in a dark alley." The old man answered back. "Allow me to demonstrate just one of Exodia Necross' many abilities; Exodia Necross attack Great Angus with Exodia Crush!" Exodia pulled back his fist and slammed it into the Great Angus flattening him.

"What just happened? That should've been a tie!" Lance pointed out.

"That's the thing young man." The old man said folding his arms. "Exodia Necross cannot be destroyed in battle, you may not have lost any lifepoints in that attack but I have just crushed your only defence."

"_He's right, unless I draw something I can use I'm done for."_ Lance thought as he drew his card, when he saw it he grinned. "Exodia Necross is no more! I activate Lightning Vortex, now by discarding one card from my hand I can destroy all faceup monsters on your side of the field and I count one!" Lance said discarding his card and lightning struck the massive monster, however Lance's grin quickly disappeared once the lightning faded and he saw that Exodia Necross was still standing. "Please don't tell me that Spell Cards can't destroy it either?"

"You catch on fast young man." The old man said with a nod. "Not that it matters thanks to Royal Decree but it can't be destroyed by traps either."

"That thing has to have a weakness, right?" Chloe asked once the realization hit her.

"It does, whether or not your boyfriend can figure it out is..." Theresa started.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Chloe quickly asserted.

"Really? You do seem to be blushing." Theresa pointed out before shaking her head. "As I was saying, whether or not Lance can figure it out is another story."

"In that case I have no choice but to end my turn." Lance said bracing himself for the upcoming assault, the proctor drew his card and to Lance's surprise Exodia Necross' strength increased by 500 making its strength 2300. "It has a similar effect to Silent Magician Level 4?"

"Indeed, but unlike Silent Magician it gains its strength during each of my standby phases, and it doesn't have a limit." The proctor answered pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Exodia Necross attack his lifepoints directly, EXODIA CRUSH!" Necross pulled back its fist and slammed it into Lance sending him flying back.

P: 8000

L: 6200

Lance got back to his feet and winced. _"I have to think of something fast."_ Lance thought as he drew his card. _"Rush Recklessly? Chloe's opponent used this in her duel."_ Lance thought glancing at the other Rush Recklessly in his hand. _"And I have two, and my Obnoxious Celtic Guardian provides an adequate de...wait a second..._._" _Lance thought. "It seems Exodia Necross has a weakness after all."

"Really? Would you mind sharing it?" The proctor asked.

"Gladly, I start by summoning Obnoxious Celtic Guardian in attack mode." Lance played the card and Obnoxious Celtic Guardian appeared on the field. (4/1400/1200).

"What's he thinking? That monster is nowhere near the strength of Necross." Chloe said as she watched the duel.

"And now I activate Megamorph, as long as my lifepoints are lower than yours my Celtic Guardian's attack is doubled and as you can see." Lance said raising his duel disk so that his lifepoint counter was showing. "There's a fairly large gap between my lifepoints and yours." As Lance said that Obnoxious Celtic Guardian's attack rose to 2800. "And now I activate the one Facedown Card that wasn't affected by Royal Decree, go Rush Recklessly!" Lance activated his card and Celtic Guardian's attack rose to 3500. "And I have two more copies of that card in my hand and I'm activating them both." Lance slid the two cards in one after the other increasing Celtic Guardian's attack to 4900. "Now let's see if my theory is correct, Celtic Guardian attack Necross!" Celtic Guardian charged at Necross and slashed it, the monster remained standing but the proctor's life points where another story.

P: 5400

L: 6200

"Well done young man, you have discovered one of my monster's weaknesses, can you discover the other?" The proctor applauded.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see." Lance said before smirking even as Celtic Guardian's attack was cut in half. "And guess what? Whilst Obnoxious Celtic Guardian's attack might be cut in half by the side effect of Megamorph it can't be destroyed by monsters with 1900 attack or more so in other words my lifepoints will be safe once I switch him to defence mode, for now though I'll end my turn."

"Very well." The proctor said drawing his card and just like before Necross' attack rose to 2800. "Exodia Necross doesn't need to destroy your monster in order to deal damage to your life points; and with your monster's attack at 700 it's perfect bait for my monster, Exodia Necross attack Obnoxious Celtic Guardian! EXODIA CRUSH!" Necross pulled back its fist and slammed it into Celtic Guardian; Celtic Guardian got up slowly and glared at the much larger monster.

P: 5400

L: 4100

"That ends my turn for now Lance." The old proctor said and Lance drew his new card as Celtic Guardian's attack doubled again.

"I switch Obnoxious Celtic Guardian to defence mode and I activate Hinotama which deals 500 points of damage to your life points." Celtic Guardian knelt down and raised its sword in defence, as he did this a meteor came down from the sky and struck the proctor.

P: 4900

L: 4100

"I'm not done yet, I activate Pot of Duality!" Lance said activating his card. "This card requires that I show you the next three cards in my deck, once I do that I can add one of them to my hand and return the rest to my deck which is subsequently shuffled." Lance said showing his cards to the proctor: Heavy Storm, Little Chimara (2/600/550) and a second Backfire, Lance picked up one of the cards and shuffled the other two into his deck. "And now I activate the spell card I just drew Heavy Storm!" As Lance activated it a storm swept through the field destroying all the spell and trap cards. "Sure, I lost all my remaining trap cards and my Megamorph but they took your Royal Decree with them." Lance said before looking at his remaining cards. "That's all for me." The proctor nodded and drew his card; he frowned even as Necross' power increased to 3200.

"Why did Lance destroy his own card?" Chloe asked.

"Megamorph is to unreliable, you saw that Celtic Guardian's attack strength was cut in half due to Lance's lifepoints being higher than the proctor's and it cost him heavily." Brandon said folding his arms. "Still, it worked in his favour as he was able to figure out one of the weaknesses of Exodia Necross.

"I pass for now." The proctor said and Lance drew his card.

"_My second Soul Release? Great off all the times to get a dead draw...wait I just realized something, in order to summon Necross he sent the Exodia pieces to the graveyard but what happens if I remove the Exodia pieces? It's worth a shot." _Lance thought as he activated his Spell Card. "I activate my Spell Card Soul Release!" As Lance activated his card the proctor's jaw dropped. "Judging from the look on your face I think it's a safe bet that this was the last thing you needed to happen, off course my graveyard doesn't contain anything special but yours on the other hand? It contains the five pieces of Exodia and I'm targeting those cards!" The proctor reluctantly retrieved the Exodia pieces and to Lance's surprise Necross started falling apart until there was nothing left. "Well, that was unexpected." Lance said as the proctor sent Necross to the graveyard, Lance regained his composure and switched Obnoxious Celtic Guardian to attack mode. "I switch my Celtic Guardian to attack mode and I summon Darkfire Soldier number 1 in attack mode!" Lance placed the card on the duel disk and a topless blonde man appeared on the field whose lower half was covered entirely in fire. (4/1700/1150) "And to top things off I activate the Field Spell Card Molten Destruction! With this I can increase my Soldiers attack by 500, sure it also reduces its defence by the same amount but that's not my concern!" As Lance activated his card the scenery changed as it now included a massive volcano, just as Lance said Darkfire Soldier's attack rose to 2200. "Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, Darkfire Soldier, attack his lifepoints directly!" The two monsters charged at the proctor, Celtic Guardian slashed at him with his sword and Darkfire Soldier punched him with a fist encased in flame.

P: 1300

L: 4100

"Are you all right?" Lance asked the proctor who was breathing heavily, he nodded in response and Lance smiled. "I end my turn at that." The proctor drew his card and smiled.

"Lance, you have certainly earned your place at Duel Academy, but unlike my associate I have too much pride to surrender on the spot, so instead I'll set one monster in defence mode and end my turn." The proctor said, Lance drew his card and added it to his hand. "Celtic Guardian attack his defence." Celtic Guardian leapt forward and slashed the facedown card revealing it to be Sangan (3/1000/600), the proctor added a card to his hand thanks to Sangan's effect but both duelists knew that it didn't matter at that point. "Darkfire Soldier, finish it." Darkfire Soldier leapt forward and punched the proctor with a fist encased in flame.

P: 0000

L: 4100

"Congratulations Lance, welcome to Duel Academy." The proctor nodded, Lance smiled and deactivated his duel disk, and he left the field and made his way back to the elevator.

"Lance Alvers?" Lance blinked and turned around and saw a tall muscular man with brown hair who was wearing a business suit. "I am the headmaster for the Ra Yellow boy's dorm; I wanted to personally welcome you to the dorm."

"Ra Yellow?" Lance asked. "Looks like me and Chloe are in different dorms."

"Chloe? You mean that girl who duelled before you?" The Ra Yellow headmaster asked as Lance pressed the button for the elevator.

"Yeah, we've been friends for as long as I can remember, truth be told I'm disappointed we won't be in the same dorm." Lance answered.

"Just because you're not in the same dorm doesn't mean you can't see her, it'll just be a tad bit more difficult." He answered. "In the meantime I need to get you fitted for a Ra Yellow blazer." He added as the elevator arrived.

"In that case lead the way." Lance said entering the elevator, to his surprise the headmaster followed him in, the headmaster pressed the button for the floor where Chloe was.

"We need to pick up your friend first; she wanted to watch your duel before she got fitted for a blazer." The headmaster explained.

"I'm not surprised, Chloe loves watching me duel." Lance shrugged. "Will we have to stick around for the other duels?"

"You can if you like." The headmaster nodded. "But seeing as how you two have already qualified for the Duel Academy your presence isn't required." The Ra headmaster said as the elevator door opened, they were greeted by Chloe and the headmistress for the Osiris Red dorm. "Maria, I'm guessing you're going up as well."

"Yes I am Jeffery." The Osiris Red headmistress said as she and Chloe entered the elevator. "And I see that Lance will be in the Ra Yellow dorm."

"Yes I will be." Lance nodded, he glanced towards Chloe. "And that means that we will be in separate dorms."

"Yeah." Chloe nodded clearly disappointed by this. "At least this means that we'll still get to see each other though."

"You know by the way you two are interacting I'd say that you too are more than just friends." The Ra Yellow Headmaster pointed out.

"Then you'd think wrong." Lance said trying desperately to hide his blush. "When does the boat leave for Duel Academy?"

"In about four days, you two can use the time to strengthen your decks." The Ra Yellow headmaster said as the elevator arrived at its destination. "And pack of course."

"Believe me, we'll be doing both." Chloe answered and Lance nodded in agreement. "The fact that my dad runs a gameshop will definitely help."

"It certainly sounds like it." The Osiris Red headmistress nodded as they stepped out of the elevator. "Chloe come with me, Lance your going with Jeffery." Chloe didn't say anything and followed her and Lance did likewise.

"Tell me Lance, is there any special reason you duel?" Jeffery asked.

"I'm afraid I don't understand the question." Lance blinked. "I duel because I enjoy duelling."

"Many prospective students do, however for some duelling is much more than that, some duel for fame and fortune, some even duel for a personal reason." Jeffery answered.

"Now that you put it that way, Chloe duels for a personal reason." Lance said and Jeffery stopped in his tracks and glanced at him.

"She must trust you a lot if she's willing to tell you that." Jeffery said folding his arms. "Out of respect for her privacy I won't ask for the details."

"You wouldn't get them if you did." Lance said and Jeffery smiled.

"It's good to see that her trust is well placed," Jeffery nodded before motioning to the door that he had stopped in front of. "We have arrived at Ra Yellow's training room." Jeffery said opening the door for him, Lance entered and whilst that was going Chloe was having a bit of trouble keeping up with the headmistress.

"Err, could you slow down a bit?" Chloe asked nervously, Maria smiled and slowed down.

"Chloe, if you don't mind I would like to ask you something." Maria said stopping in front of a door. "Why do you duel?"

"Huh?" Chloe blinked. "Do you ask every possible student this or am I special case?"

"I ask all my possible students this." Maria asserted.

"The reason why I duel is none of your business." Chloe folded her arms. "Just know that it's for personal reasons."

"Then I will respect your right to privacy." Maria nodded seemingly unaffected by Chloe's bluntness, though Chloe bit her lip already regretting her choice of words. "We have arrived young lady." Maria said opening the door for her, she entered the room and the door closed behind her, around five minutes later both duelists emerged wearing their blazers, Chloe was wearing hers open showing that she was still wearing her top, Lance on the other hand was wearing his blazer closed, the two duelists followed their respective headmasters and met up with each other again.

"You know, despite how you feel about being in Osiris Red that blazer does suit you Chloe." Lance commented and Chloe blushed a bit.

"I could say the same." Chloe said and Jeffery smirked.

"Are you sure there isn't something more between you." Jeff asked causing both teens to blush furiously.

"I'm as sure as she's inexperienced...no offence." Lance said before turning to Chloe who shook her head.

"No offence taken." Chloe said before pausing. "So Lance, do you want to check out the other duelists' duels or head home?"

"Let's head home; I can't wait to tell my parents the good news." Lance said before pausing. "Would your dad be willing to give me a lift? I am not running half way across the city again." Lance asked earning himself odd looks from the dorm heads. "What can I say? I slept in."

"You did stop for rests along the way, right?" Jeffery asked.

"I'm a lot of things, stupid isn't one of them." Lance said. "So Chloe, about my question."

"I'm sure dad won't mind," Chloe nodded before reaching into her pocket and retrieving her cell phone. "Err, what's the reception like in here?" Chloe asked the dorm heads.

"It's pretty good." Jeffery said pushing the button for the elevator; Chloe started dialling as the dorm heads entered the elevator. "If you excuse us we have to return to the other dorm heads but we look forward to seeing the both of you on the island." The elevator doors closed and Lance leaned against the wall.

"Chloe, be honest with me, how nervous are you about going into Duel Academy." Lance asked, Chloe sighed.

"Honestly? I was nervous enough going into my test match and we had a hard enough time defeating our proctors..." Chloe trailed off.

"And the students at the academy beat them in order to make it that far." Lance finished for her. "I think it's best that we avoid duellists like Brandon and Theresa whilst looking for opponents, at the very least we should try duelling students in our own dorms." Lance said as he pressed the elevator button.

"I agree there." Chloe nodded. "Though knowing our luck we'll probably face them somewhere down the line, I thought your Dorm Headmaster said that the reception was good here..." Chloe stopped when she finally got through. "Hey Dad, me and Lance had our duels, yes we did well, I'd rather tell you the result in person which reminds me, would you mind giving Lance a lift home, really? Great thanks!" Chloe hung up. "He'll be here in a few minutes and yes, he agreed to give you a lift." Chloe said as the elevator arrived, the two teens entered and Lance pressed the button for the floor where Brandon and Theresa was, once they arrived they made their way to where Brandon and Theresa was and walked over to them. "Hey guys."

"Chloe, Lance, great timing." Brandon said motioning to the duel arenas. "The duels are really heating up."

"Unfortunately we are heading home; we're both excited to give our respective parents the good news." Lance said with a smile. "Did anyone else qualify?"

"As a matter of fact no." Theresa said shaking her head. "The duellist that duelled after you did got creamed in four turns, I think his nerves got the better of him."

"To bad." Lance nodded. "I guess we'll see you on the island."

"Good because we'd like a match with either of you two." Brandon said and the two teens gulped.

"Please tell me you're joking." Chloe said nervously.

"He isn't." Theresa said. "I can see that your nervous about that but you can't exactly get better by not challenging yourself."

"You have a point, and we look forward to it." Lance smiled, unprepared for Chloe subsequently yelling in his ear.

"SINCE WHEN DO YOU SPEAK FOR ME!" Chloe yelled, she regained her composure whilst Lance rubbed his ear. "Well, we'd better get going; my stepdad's picking us up." Chloe said as the two teens left the building.

"Thanks for costing me my hearing." Lance said annoyed. "Seriously though they had a point."

"Lance you know as well as I do that they have far more experience than I do and I could barely beat the weakest proctor." Chloe sighed. "Hell if I hadn't drawn Monster Reincarnation and Eternal Rest when I did I would've failed."

"Just like how I would've failed if I hadn't drawn Soul Release." Lance nodded. "Don't worry about it Chloe, we qualified and that's all that matters in the end." Lance added and Chloe couldn't help but agree there, it was around that time that the car that Chloe's stepdad drove pulled up and her stepdad stepped out.

"Chloe, Lance how did..." It was then that her stepdad saw the uniforms. "You qualified? Congratulations, I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks dad." Chloe said blushing a bit at the praise. "I'm guessing you're still willing to drive Lance?"

"Of course I am, hop in." Her dad said opening the door for the two teens, they climbed in and her dad got in the driver's seat and started the car. "I'll drop you off first Lance, Chloe's mother was called in at the hospital and I don't want to think of what could happen if I leave her alone in the store and some idiots decide to rob it."

"I thought it was mom's day off?" Chloe asked.

"It was an emergency, that's all she could say, she did say that she plans on treating the three of us to a meal out on the night before the boat left if you two qualified though." Her stepdad added.

"Sounds good, speaking of food I haven't eaten all day." Lance said once he realized that his stomach was rumbling.

"I'm sure your parents can sort something out for you when you return home, though they were worried sick that you had taken off without telling them where you were going." Chloe's stepdad said and Lance winced. "I told them that you didn't want to wake them up and that you where worried about being late though."

"Thanks." Lance sighed in relief. _"Well, we made it this far, god only knows what's ahead of us."_ Lance thought as the car drove away.


	2. Trouble on the High Seas

Lance glanced towards the ship as his mom's car pulled up, he had spent the last few days strengthening his deck when he wasn't packing in anticipation for the duels that where to come once he arrived at Duel Academy and to be honest he was feeling a bit nervous going into it.

"_Then again Chloe told me she felt the same way when we had that meal out."_ Lance thought as he got out of the car, her mother and his two siblings, his sister Sophie who was the youngest and his brother Mike who was the second youngest, got out so that they could help him unload his bags, they had black hair like Lance but their hair was shorter.

"This sucks bro." Mike groaned as he unloaded the bag containing Lance's duel monster cards. "I've been trying to get into Duel Academy for years but you've managed to get in the first time."

"Is that jealously I detect?" Lance asked before shaking his head. "Look dude, your water deck's good but it needs more firepower, you ever consider going to the shop that Chloe's dad owns? That's where I got my new cards from."

"You know I can never find the place." Mike shook his head. "Here's hoping I'll have similar success next year."

"Indeed, and if it's any consolation I didn't even get to use my best cards against the Test Proctor I was against." Lance admitted as he retrieved the last of his bags. "Speaking of Chloe weren't we going to meet her here?"

"I'm here." Chloe said as she ran over, her hair was in a ponytail for once and she was dragging her bags behind her, not far behind her where her parents, her mother had short blonde hair and blue eyes and was fairly tall for a woman. "Yes, I realize that my hair's in a ponytail, mom insisted." Chloe groaned.

"Don't act like that, the look suits you dear." Chloe's stepmother asserted. "Now you had better behave yourself on Duel Academy island young lady."

"Yes mom." Chloe groaned. "We all know you love to nag." Chloe muttered, only to wince when her mother span her around.

"And I won't endure any of your smart mouth young lady." Her mother scolded her causing Lance and his siblings to sweatdrop.

"And I thought mom was strict...I just know I'm going to regret saying that." Lance winced as his own mother glared at him. "Err; if you're done with Chloe I think their waiting for us."

"Yes off course." Chloe's mother sighed. "Your growing up so fast, especially after you started off." Chloe's mother sighed before reaching into her pocket. "Here, something to help you in your duels." Chloe blinked before taking her card.

"Gift of the Mystical Elf?" Chloe blinked. _"Pretty situational but I'm not about to turn down a gift from my mom."_ Chloe thought. "Thanks mom, and don't worry I'll call you whenever I can."

"No love for your old man?" Chloe's stepdad laughed. "After all I was the one that taught you everything you know...well almost everything, I never did get around to telling you about Jinzo did I?"

"Don't worry dad, I'll call you as well." Chloe smiled looking down at her duel disk. "You know when I'm not kicking ass and taking names."

"That's a healthy attitude to have, you keep it up and this time next year you'll be in Obelisk Blue." Chloe's stepdad but Chloe's response was cut off by a scoff.

"A member of Osiris Red in Obelisk Blue? Please." A German accent rang out, they looked up and saw a male teenager with shoulder length read hair and blue eyes which were behind reading glasses and most importantly he was in an Obelisk Blue uniform. "You have as much a chance of that as the Rare Hunters returning."

"If you're so confident why don't you back it up in a duel, right here right now?" Lance said turning on his duel disk.

"Why would I waste my time with...wait a second, aren't you the duellist who defeated Proctor Peters?" The German student asked before smirking. "Ah yes Lance Alvers was it? I believe you will be a worthy challenge to me after all." The student said activating his own duel disk.

"Not here you two." A familiar voice rang out and the Ra Yellow headmaster approached them, this time wearing the uniform of his dorm. "Heinz, I don't think Obelisk Blue's headmaster would appreciate you harassing the new arrivals again." The German student's eyes narrowed before he walked off. "I'm sorry about that, as you've probably guessed not all students in Obelisk Blue are as friendly as Brandon and Theresa." Lance nodded and turned off his duel disk. "Huh, Scott it's been too long, I had no idea you had a daughter." Jeffery smiled at the site of Chloe's stepdad.

"And I never would've guessed you'd go anywhere near teaching." Her stepdad laughed. "I hope you don't intend to give her any preferential treatment."

"Off course not, besides I run the Ra Yellow boys dorm, she's in Osiris Red so I couldn't even if I wanted too." The Ra Yellow headmaster laughed.

"Wait, you two know each other?" Lance asked.

"We where rivals back in the day, not quite as famous as the rivalry between Seto Kaiba and Yugi Moto but it was pretty notable in the underground duelling scene." Chloe's stepdad responded. "It was a friendly rivalry and out of it evolved our friendship."

"We had some fierce duels back in the day but unfortunately we eventually decided to give it a rest." Jeffery said before turning his attention to Chloe. "And as much as I'd like a rematch I think it's clear that we are both too out of the game to relive the glory days, unless I duelled you Chloe but, no offence, I'd duel circles around you."

"None taken." Chloe nodded in agreement. "So, did you come down here to lead us to the ship?"

"Well, that's partially right; I came down here when I saw that a duel was about it start in order to stop it before it began." The Ra Yellow headmaster said. "It'll be explained later once you're on the ship which reminds me, I'm going to need you Duel Disks, not your decks mind you just you Duel Disks." Chloe and Lance blinked but took off their duels disks, once they took their decks out they handed the disks to him. "You'll understand once you're on the ship." The Ra Yellow Headmaster said before he walked off. "Are you two coming? I'm leading you to the entrance to the ship." He asked, Chloe and Lance looked at each other and ran in order to catch up with him. "Maria, Chloe Richardson has arrived." The Ra Yellow headmaster called out, the headmistress for the Osiris Red dorm and she walked over, like her colleague she was wearing the uniform for her dorm.

"Ah yes, glad you made it Chloe." The headmistress said before she spotted her stepdad. "Jeffery, is that?"

"Yes, it's Scott." The Ra Yellow headmaster nodded. "She's his daughter but that doesn't mean she gets any preferential treatment."

"Please, I don't give preferential treatment to my own grandchildren." Maria chuckled. "Follow me young lady." Chloe blinked but did as she was told, Lance was equally confused.

"The dorms have their own sections of the ship I take it?" Lance asked and the Ra Yellow headmaster nodded.

"Don't worry, the boat ride will only last a day but in the meantime the only time students from different dorms can interact is in the mess hall." The Ra Yellow headmaster explained as they boarded the ship. "I'm too busy to show you around but I think I can find someone to help there." Jeffery said looking around; he spotted an overweight Ra Yellow student with short black hair and brown eyes. "Hey Marcus, you have a moment?" The student looked up and blinked.

"Err sure, what do you need?" Marcus blinked.

"Marcus, meet Lance Alvers he's a new student and I'm too busy to show him around the Ra Yellow section of the ship and the mess hall, would you mind showing him around?" The Ra Yellow Headmaster asked and Marcus grinned.

"Sure I can do that." Marcus nodded, Lance approached him and Marcus extended his hand out. "Hi, I'm Marcus Reynolds; I'm a second year student here."

"Lance Alvers, I'm a first year student." Lance introduced himself as the two boys started to walk off.

"Remember boys; be in the mess hall by 3pm sharp." The Ra Yellow Headmaster called out to them before he walked off.

"3pm?" Lance asked before checking the time on his watch. "That only gives us 20 minutes."

"Don't worry about it, it's just an introductory speech by the Obelisk Blue headmaster, sure all students are required to attend but it's pretty much the same speech every year." Marcus shrugged. "So what deck do you run?"

"I run a fire deck, I do have some non fire types in there but other than that it's mostly fire." Lance said, just then realization hit Marcus.

"Hey you're that kid duelled Peters aren't you?" Marcus asked and Lance nodded. "Man that was a close duel, I'd love to duel you but duelling isn't allowed on the ship." Lance blinked at that.

"Why's that?" Lance asked.

"Same reason they keep the dorms separate, the Obelisk blue students, save for guys like Brandon and Theresa, tend to pick on students in Ra Yellow but they can be downright nasty towards guys in Osiris Red, I should know, when I joined I was initially in Red." Marcus answered.

"I noticed, I have a friend who was picked on by a German Obelisk Blue Student because she was in Osiris Red." Lance nodded.

"Let me guess, long red hair, glasses, treats the people in Ra Yellow and Osiris Red like dirt?" Marcus answered and Lance nodded. "Sounds like you met Otto Franshier, everyone calls him Heinz even the teachers, and he's a nasty piece of work, thing is though he's one of the top ranked duellists in Obelisk Blue and people are scared to stand up to him."

"I did, I came this close to duelling him, and I'll challenge him when we get to the island." Lance trailed off. "I forgot to ask, what deck do you run?"

"Dragons, I've always been a fan of dragons so it kind of fits." Marcus answered. "I know this might sound crazy but my dream is to one day own the Blue Eyes White Dragons."

"That's probably because it is crazy, no offence." Lance pointed out.

"No worries, I get that a lot." Marcus laughed. "You mentioned a friend earlier, she have a name?" Marcus asked.

"Chloe Richardson." Lance said and Marcus blinked.

"When she didn't show up I thought she had forgotten to come in, guess I was wrong." Marcus shrugged. "Sorry to say but I missed her duel."

"Then you missed a hell of a comeback, she was able to go from being on the verge of defeat to forcing the proctor to surrender." Lance answered.

"If she managed that why is she in Osiris Red?" Marcus asked. "Let me guess, she somehow pissed off a higher up?"

"Actually that's not the case." Lance shook his head. "Despite that she's still a rookie, that and she only managed an above average test score."

"Huh, you should introduce me when we get to the Mess Hall; well I've shown you around the Ra Yellow section, so what now?" Marcus asked.

"All students report to the mess hall immediately." A voice came over the PA system and Lance smiled.

"Guess that answers your question." Lance said folding his arms. "So Mr. Tour Guide, where do we go to reach the Mess Hall?"

"Follow me, be sure to keep you hands, legs and decks onboard the ship at all times during the tour." Marcus joked, he led Lance up the stairs and down the hallway, he opened a large pair of double doors and the two boys entered, the mess hall was packed but Lance was on the lookout for Chloe.

"Hey Lance." Chloe called out, Chloe ran over to the two boys, her hair was no longer in a ponytail and her blazer was closed. "So how are you finding the ship so far?"

"It's good but Duel Academy will be much better." Lance said, it was then that he noticed several botched dye jobs in Chloe's hair. "I thought you hated the thought of dying your hair?" Chloe groaned.

"It was my new roommate's idea; she thinks it would suit me." Chloe shook her head. "The sooner I have a shower and get this junk out of my hair the better."

"Wait, she thinks that having a weird combination of green, red, purple and dark brown hair would suit you?" Lance asked.

"That's exactly my point." Chloe groaned. "So you have any idea why they took our duel disks?"

"You'll find out soon." Marcus said before blinking. "Oh sorry, I'm Marcus and I'm Lance's unofficial tour guide." He introduced himself. "You are Chloe Richardson right? Lance told me about you."

"Yeah that's me." Chloe said with a nod. "I'm just hoping I don't bump into that German asshole again!"

"You know, it is rude to talk about people behind their backs, but then again what does a lowly Osiris Red know about manners?" Otto asked and Chloe groaned.

"And this is coming from the guy who is obviously overcompensating for his small penis." Chloe muttered under her breath at which point Otto span around.

"You'll pay for that you little bi..." Otto never got a chance to finish as an Indian Ra Yellow student got between them.

"Please, this isn't the time to fight!" The Indian boy pleaded.

"Give me one reason you little runt." Otto growled.

"He doesn't need too." Otto froze and slowly turned around, a tall bald man in a Obelisk Blue uniform. "Otto, return to your classmates now." Otto didn't hesitate and ran off. "Miss, are you hurt?"

"No, this little guy prevented him from getting that far." Chloe sighed.

"Good." The man nodded. "I can tell that your new here so take my advice, stay out of trouble." The man said before he walked off.

"Who was that?" Lance asked.

"You don't know? That was the Obelisk Blue headmaster, or as we like to call him, the strict teacher with the heart of gold." Marcus answered.

"Is he really that bad?" Chloe asked.

"Let me put it this way, you never piss off Otto." The young Indian boy answered. "Well this is certainly an interesting way to introduce myself, my name's Rajin, I'm a first year student."

"Join the club." Chloe said with a nod. "I'm Chloe, he's Lance, now that the introductions are done how about we find somewhere to sit before I pick any more fights with Obelisk Blue students, preferably away from the Obelisk Blue students that aren't Brandon and Theresa."

"Now that sounds good to me, or even better let's avoid picking fights all together, even if they are gigantic assholes." Lance suggested.

"You're no fun, you know that right?" Chloe joked. "Yeah, let's go." Chloe nodded.

"Follow me; I was sitting at an unoccupied table when I saw the fight." Rajin said leading them to the table and they sat down at it.

"So what deck do you run Rajin?" Lance asked, Rajin smiled and reached into his pocket producing his deck.

"I use a deck full of Spirit monsters." Rajin answered. "It's a risky deck due to the fact that they return to your hand after the turn is complete but I have enough cards in it to make up for that fact, what about you guys? I already know what Marcus runs."

"Did you know each other before duel academy or something?" Lance blinked but Rajin shook his head.

"Actually no, when it came time for me to duel there was no proctors left so Marcus volunteered." Rajin answered. "He was good but I won in the end, so about my question?"

"I run a fire deck, whilst it does contain some non fire types like Obnoxious Celtic Guardian the fact remains that it's mostly a fire deck, alongside spell and trap cards that deal damage to the opponent's life points." Lance answered.

"As for me, I use warriors and spellcasters with the appropriate support cards." Chloe answered before retrieving her deck and digging out her Silent Magician Level 8. "This card's my strongest." Marcus looked over and did a double take.

"You use Level Monsters as well?"Marcus asked but Chloe shook her head.

"No, I only use one." She shrugged before putting the magician back in her deck.

"Well regardless I'd like to pit my Horus and Armed Dragon cards against you." Marcus said with a smirk.

"You'll have to put a rain check on that." Lance said pointing to the stage at the other end of the mass hall; they looked up and saw the Obelisk blue headmaster on stage with a microphone in his hand.

"Welcome back returning students and please welcome the students who have qualified for Duel Academy, now I'm sure your eager to make as many friends as you can and talk about Duel Monsters to your heart's content but this is important, as of 20 minutes ago this ship left Domino peer for our destination: Duel Academy Island, however there are some rules that will be strictly enforced whilst on the ship." The Headmaster cleared his throat making sure to ignore the collective groans from the new students. "Whilst you are free to explore the rest of your dorm's section of the ship to your heart's content you are expected to return to your dorms before curfew which is at Midnight tonight and secondly the use of duel disks on the ship is prohibited, any questions? And I mean other than the new students moaning about how unfair the rules are." The headmaster said and the majority of the hands went down. "Now then, this next part is for the new students: some of you are here to improve your skills at duel monsters, some are here to make friends and some are here because they are rookies who are in Osiris Red to learn how to play, regardless of why they are here I want some of the more experienced students to make them feel welcome and if any new students feel that they are being bullied the headmaster for your dorm is always willing to lend an ear and put a stop to it, if the bullying is by an Obelisk Blue student do not hesitate to let me know." The headmaster stepped off the stage handing the mic to one of his assistants.

"Curfew? What are we twelve?" Lance groaned.

"If I had a dollar for every time I heard new students say that." Brandon said walking over. "Glad you guys could make it, though from I've heard you have met Otto."

"If by "met" you mean he tried to demean Chloe than yeah, we met him." Lance frowned. "Is the curfew really as strictly enforced as they said?"

"Let me put it this way, the penalty for violating curfew is being confined to your room on the ship for the rest of the trip." Brandon said sitting down. "It may seem a bit excessive to you but it works."

"Yeah, just a bit." Chloe said rolling her eyes, it was then that Brandon noticed the various colours in her hair.

"Did you pick a fight with several bottles of hair dye and lose?" Brandon asked semi-jokingly and Chloe groaned.

"I'm going to make this as short and sweet as I can my roommate if a wannabe hair stylist who thinks I would look good with dyed hair." Chloe groaned. "The sooner I can get in a shower and wash this shit out of my hair, the better." She added before looking around. "So what do we do now? Do we head back to our rooms or something?"

"Not just yet." Brandon said as the Ra Yellow headmaster walked over to them.

"Chloe, Lance, Rajin, I hope you guys aren't having too much trouble." The Ra Yellow headmaster said sitting down. "You know, aside from certain Obelisk Blue students."

"Teach, you do know there's an Obelisk Blue student sitting next to you right?" Lance pointed out; Jeffery looked up and smiled at the site of Brandon.

"Yes but he wasn't who I meant, Chloe, Lance, Rajin, what the Obelisk Blue headmaster said was true, if anyone like Otto is bullying you me and my colleagues are all ears, and I do know that the only Osiris Red student at this table did pick a fight with him but believe me, that isn't the solution for dealing with him." The Ra Yellow headmaster said. "And for that matter what on Earth happened to your hair Chloe?"

"My wannabe hairstylist of a roommate happened, that's what." Chloe groaned. "For some reason she thinks that dyed hair would suit me."

"Needless to say, she disagrees." Lance added. "So did you just come over here to chat with us?" Lance asked, the Ra Yellow headmaster shook his head and motioned to some of his assistants to come over, they did and they carried over three new dueldisks, two yellow and one red. "Are those for us?"

"The bigger yellow one is for Lance, the red one's for Chloe, these disks are for use on the school property and during field trips if you feel the need to duel and you'll get your old duel discs back at the end of the school year...or if you drop out but we're hoping that that doesn't happen." The Ra Yellow headmaster said as the assistants handed the two yellow duel disks to Rajin and Lance and the red one to Chloe. "As you can probably guess they colour coded to match your dorm and if and when you change dorms, for example Chloe moving up Ra Yellow, you will get a new duel disc, it also has one other benefit, one that only applies to teachers like me."

"Why do I get the feeling we're going to hate this benefit?" Lance asked.

"Relax; this will only be used if a duellist is in clear violation of the rules or if it's obvious that, due to a hologram malfunction, the holograms are causing serious injury to one of the players." The Ra Yellow Headmaster explained. "With just one call to Duel Academy's tech squad and as long as we know the serial number of the duel disc we can shut it off remotely and the duel is declared a draw, regardless of whose winning."

"So wait, you mean to tell me that the holograms can hurt is if something goes wrong?" Lance asked.

"It's only happened once, the result was ugly as the student who had suffered the damage went into a two month long coma, it was because of this that the academy started using its own duel disc, hopefully we won't have to use it on you." As the Ra Yellow headmaster explained this Chloe, Lance and Rajin finished putting on their duel discs and putting their decks into the slot. "Well that's everything I needed to tell you, I have other new students to worry about." The Ra Yellow headmaster said before he walked off, Chloe stood up.

"I'm going outside to get some fresh air." Chloe said as she started to walk off.

"That sounds good actually, mind if I join you?" Lance asked, she shrugged and Lance followed her outside. "Things are pretty strict on this boat huh?"

"Yeah, I don't even want to think about how strict things are on the island." Chloe said leaning forward on the rail. "At least the view's nice."

"No argument there." Lance agreed.

"Such a shame that lowly students such as yourself are here to ruin it." A familiar voice rang out, the two teens span around and saw Otto there.

"What do you want?" Lance demanded.

"Oh I don't know, a bigger room, a nice girlfriend..." Otto said ignoring the scoff from Chloe. "And most importantly off all I want A DUEL WITH YOU!" Otto said pointing to Chloe. "You will pay for humiliating me!"

"Didn't you hear you headmaster? Duels on the boat are forbidden." Lance was quick to point out. "So you'll have to wait until we reach duel academy."

"I am afraid I can't wait that long." Otto frowned. "Here's the deal, meet me at the front of the ship in twenty minutes or else."

"Or else what?" Chloe asked.

"Or else I will spread word around the campus that you are a coward; you think the bullying is bad now? If I spread that rumour around you'll drop out in a week due to the bullying." Otto smirked.

"You're on." Chloe said glaring at him. "I don't care if it's in violation of the rules; any chance to shut you up is fine by me."

"Excellent, then you puny Silent Magician will fall before my mighty machines!" Otto said walking off.

"Chloe, what are you thinking?" Lance asked. "Never mind the fact that this match might end up being like my grandmother taking on the heavyweight boxing champ off the world you'll be breaking one of the rules set in place by duel academy BEFORE you reach duel academy, that has to be some kind of world record."

"Lance, I learned long ago that the only way to deal with bullies like him is too stand up to them, I'm not about to stop now." Chloe said as she started making her way to the front of the ship. "Besides if we're caught I'll tell the teachers the truth, that Otto challenged me and not the other way around."

"If there's no changing your mind than please, let me come with you so I can at the very least act as a lookout." Lance pleaded, she merely nodded and motioned for him to follow her, around 20 minutes later they were at the front of the ship and Otto was waiting for them.

"Well, well, it seems you have had the courage to arrive after all, very admirable of you Ms. Richardson." Otto mocked her before he spotted Lance. "What is he doing here?"

"Look Otto, I don't like you and you don't like me but I think we can agree that the last thing we need is to get in trouble before reaching Duel Academy which is why he's acting as lookout." Chloe answered, Otto stroked his chin before nodding in agreement.

"You bring up an excellent point; I'm surprised I didn't think of it." Otto said activating his duel disc, Chloe did likewise and both duellists drew their opening hands. "I will begin." Otto said drawing a card. "I set two cards face down and summon the mighty Cyber Commander in attack mode." Otto set the two cards down and a heavily armed muscular man appeared on the field, (2/750/700) when Chloe saw the monster's stats she sweatdropped.

"You call that mighty?" Chloe said shaking her head. "Is it my move?" Otto nodded and Chloe drew her card. "I summon Breaker, The Magical Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a wizard in red armour appeared on the field carrying a jagged sword and a shield. (4/1600/1000). "And now its effect activates, when he's summoned I can add a spell counter to him raising his attack power by 300." As Chloe said this Breaker's sword started to glow and his attack rose to 1900. "But his attack won't stay at 1900 for long, I activate his other effect: now by removing that spell counter I can destroy one Spell or trap card on the field and I chose the facedown card on the left." Chloe said as Breaker's attack dropped back down to 1600 and it charged driving it's sword into the hologram of the facedown card shattering it.

"Ack, my Mirror Force." Otto growled. _"I give her credit for knowing how her monster's effect works but that's where the credit ends."_ Otto thought.

"And now for the fun part, Breaker attack Cyber Commander." Chloe commanded her monster who charged at Cyber Commander; however the attack was stopped in its tracks by a trio of priestesses. "Let me guess, you other card was Waboku?"

"Yes it was." Otto nodded holding up the Trap Card. "Which keeps my monster and my lifepoints safe."

"Yeah, it will keep you safe for now." Chloe said picking up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." The holograms of the three cards appeared on the field and Otto drew his card.

"There you are, we were wondering where you...is that a duel?" Brandon said as he, Theresa, Rajin and Marcus approached them."Chloe what are you thinking?"

"He challenged me, not the other way around." Chloe said as she waited for Otto to make a move.

"And besides Brandon, this duel has only just started; please have the decency to let us have a little fun by not reporting this." Otto said looking at his hand. "I summon Mechanicalchaser in attack mode and switch Cyber Commander to defence mode." Otto switched the position of his weaker monster and Cyber Commander knelt down, next to it a spherical shaped machine with wings and several pairs of arms appeared on the field (4/1850/800) "But that's not all, I activate the spell card Seven Complete, this equip card can only be used on Machine type monsters and it gives them a power boost of 700!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble but I activate my trap card, DNA Surgery!" Chloe activated her card and Otto's machines started to shapeshift.

"So you intend to change my monster's types, big deal all that does is render my spell card useless." Otto said sending Seven Complete to the graveyard. "What exactly are you going to change them too anyway?"

"That's simple; I'm changing them to Spellcasters!" Chloe said and just like that Otto's monsters finished their transformation now clad in robes.

"She does know there are simpler methods of destroying Spell Cards right?" Marcus asked blinking as she did. "Unless one of her other traps requires the presence of a spellcaster on the opponent's side of the field."

"That's just what I was thinking." Theresa nodded in agreement.

"So Theresa, hypothetically, how much trouble would Chloe be in if she was caught?" Lance asked and Theresa sighed.

"They'd probably go easy on her since it's her first offence but that will depend on who catches them." Theresa said. "You'd better hope for her sake that if she does get caught it's by someone other than the Obelisk Blue headmaster."

"So what if you've given it a makeover? My Chaser can still attack! Mechanicalchaser attack Breaker the Magical Warrior!" Mechanicalchaser charged in and Chloe smirked.

"That's just what I was hoping for; I activate my other trap card Magician's Circle!" Chloe activated her card and a large circle appeared in the centre. "This card could only be activated when you attacked my monster with a spellcaster type and thanks to DNA Surgery that's exactly what's happened."

"Clever but I fail to see the point as it's obviously hasn't stopped my attack!" Otto said pointing to Mechanicalchaser which was still charging.

"True but now that you've attacked I can summon one Spellcaster type monster with an attack of 2000 or less." Chloe smirked and Otto took a step back.

"Your bringing out Silent Magician aren't you?" Otto asked.

"Not exactly, my target is Gemini Elf!" Chloe dug through her deck for the card and once she found it she placed it on the field and two identical female elves appeared, one wearing a blue dress and the other wearing a purple dress (4/1900/900). "You'd normally be allowed to summon a spellcaster as well but I don't think you have one in your deck."

"That is true but really, is this lame tactic supposed to scare me? Mechanicalchaser continue your attack on Breaker!" Otto commanded and Chaser did as it was commanded.

"Did you forget about my other trap?" Chloe asked and Otto's eyes widened. "I activate Shift! This allows me to change the target for your attack, take a guess at my choice!"

"Gemini Elf!" Otto realised. "HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

"Too late Otto, you've already declared your attack!" Chloe said, Gemini Elf leapt at Mechanicaasher and fired simultaneous blasts at it causing it to explode.

C: 8000

O: 7950

"Great combos Chloe, keep it up!" Lance shouted from the sidelines whilst keeping an eye out. _"I swear Chloe will have to do a lot of grovelling for forgiveness if I get in trouble for this."_ Lance thought.

"YOU DARE MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME!" Otto growled. "That does it; I was going to go easy on you but now? THE KID GLOVES ARE OFF!"

"Call me crazy but I think he's overreacting a bit." Lance said. "He didn't even lose a hundred life points!"

"You're crazy." Brandon said before folding his arms. "You are right though, thing is Otto is obsessed with going the entire duel without suffering any damage, and when he does suffer damage, like he did just now...let's just say that I'm hoping for Chloe's sake that they get caught." Brandon said as Otto picked up a card.

"First I get rid of DNA Surgery with Mystical Space Typhoon!" Otto said and a tornado ripped through the hologram of DNA Surgery and Chloe sent it to the graveyard, just like that Cyber Commander returned to its regular form. "Now I set one card facedown and end my turn." The hologram of the facedown card appeared and Chloe drew her card.

"You're in trouble now; I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode!" Chloe plaid the card and the Magician appeared on the field. "Breaker, attack Cyber Commander." Breaker charged at Cyber Commander.

"Not so fast, I activate Negate Attack!" Otto said and Breaker was bounced back to Chloe's side of the field via an invisible field. "Nice try though." Chloe frowned and set two cards facedown and motioned to Otto to take his turn, when Otto drew his card he grinned even as Silent Magician's attack rose to 1500. "I sacrifice Cyber Commander to summon Machine King in attack mode!" Cyber Commander disappeared and in its place stood Machine King. (6/2200/2000). "And it gains 100 attack points for each Machine on the field, including its self." Otto said as Machine King's attack rose to 2300. _"I can't let her Magician get strong enough to destroy Machine King, as a result that will be my target."_ Otto thought. "MACHINE KING! Destroy Silent Magician Level 4 now!" Machine King raised one of its arms and fired a rocket fist at Silent Magician.

"Sorry Otto but you're not the only duellist with Waboku." Chloe said activating her card, the three priestesses blocked the attack and the fist returned to Machine King.

"Fine, I end my turn." Otto growled as Chloe drew her card.

"I switch Gemini Elf and Breaker to defence mode and activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Chloe's elves and Breaker knelt down and swords rained down on Machine King pinning it down. "That ends my turn." Chloe added and Otto drew his card and whilst Silent Magician's attack rose to 2000 Otto grinned.

"I may not be able to attack but I can now summon my ultimate monster, first I activate Silent Doom to revive Cyber Commander in defence mode." Cyber Commander reappeared on the field in defence mode, as a result Machine King's attack rose to 2400. "And now I sacrifice both monsters to bring out Perfect Machine King!" The two monsters disappeared and a red and white and larger version off Machine King appeared. (8/2700/1500) "Now, like its previous version Perfect Machine King gains strength for each Machine type monster on the field, except this time it's 500." Otto said as Perfect Machine King's attack rose to 3200. "I end my turn but in two turns I unleash my monster upon you." Chloe rolled her eyes and drew her card.

"I activate Level Up!" Chloe said activating the card, the Silent Magician started growing until it was transformed into Silent Magician Level 8 (8/3500/1000).

"_Damn it, she was able to bring out her strongest monster." _Otto thought with a frown.

"Silent Magician, attack Perfect Machine..." Chloe never got a chance to finish as both duel disks shut off. "What just happened?" Chloe said before realization hit her and Otto. "Oh crap!" Chloe and Otto said simultaneously and Chloe turned around and sure the Ra Yellow headmaster there alongside her headmistress, neither teacher looked happy to say the least.

"Did you two fall asleep when it was said that Duel Disk assisted duels aren't allowed on the ship?" The Ra Yellow said stepping forward. "I want both of you to return to your rooms now."

"But..." Chloe trailed off.

"I'm asking nicely." The Ra Yellow headmaster interrupted her before turning to the Osiris Red Girls Dorm head.

"Chloe, I want you to report to my office at 4:00pm sharp, do I make myself clear?" The Osiris Red headmistress said sternly, Chloe sighed before nodding and walking off.

"So...does that mean I'm off the hook?" Otto gulped.

"Not my place to say, why you don't ask him." The Ra Yellow headmaster said motioning to the previously unnoticed Obelisk Blue headmaster, Otto's eyes widened and the Ra Yellow headmaster turned to Lance, Marcus and Rajin who were trying to sneak away. "Lance, Rajin, Marcus, back to your rooms now." The three boys didn't need to be told twice and ran off.


	3. Settling in

"The ship will arrive at Duel academy in five minutes." A voice over the PA system announced causing Lance to awake with a start, he had no idea what happened to Chloe and Otto after their duel but in the back of his mind he knew that they were in trouble, as Lance, Rajin, Marcus, Brandon and Theresa had no direct involvement in the duel they weren't punished, Lance swung his legs over and climbed out of bed thankful that he had done his packing the night before and got dressed, once his blazer and duel disk was on he left his room and glanced around.

"_Maybe I can get out of here without being spotted by..."_ Lance's thought was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Lance, you got a sec?" The Ra Yellow headmaster said as he leaned against the wall, Lance sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Can it wait? I want to meet up with Chloe before the ship docks." Lance said, it had been explained yesterday that the dorm restrictions would be lifted once they were near the island during the meeting/earful courtesy of the headmaster.

"If you want to ask her what her punishment is she was let off with a warning since Otto challenged her and she was honest during her talk with Maria." The headmaster shook his head. "I thought I'd like you to know that I didn't enjoy interrupting your friend's duel, personally speaking I think the no Duel Disk duels on the ship rule are pointless, but I had no choice."

"It's cool." Lance shrugged. "What about Otto."

"That was his third offence and as a result he has detention for a week, it would've been five days if Chloe hadn't mentioned that he had challenged her." The Ra Yellow headmaster said before smiling. "Now are you sure there's nothing between you and Chloe?" Lance blushed.

"I'm sure, now can I go?" The Ra Yellow headmaster nodded and Lance left the Ra Yellow section of the ship, he looked around and saw Chloe nearby, it became obvious that she had finally gotten around to washing the hair dye out of her hair. "Hi Chloe, did your teacher give you too much trouble?" Chloe looked up and shook her head.

"No, once I told her that I was challenged by him she let me off, though from what I've heard he wasn't so lucky." Chloe shrugged.

"No, he wasn't." Chloe and Lance turned around and saw Theresa approaching them. "Good morning guys."

"Good morning." Chloe said. "So, what will happen when the boat docks and we get off it?"

"You'll get shown to your respective dorms, just don't expect much when it comes to Osiris Red, oh and Chloe take my advice: try to steer clear of Obelisk Blue Boys dorm." Theresa said folding her arms. "According to Brandon Otto's been spreading lies about the duel you had with him, saying that you pressured him and cheated."

"But that's bullshit, I'd never cheat." Chloe asserted.

"Chloe, I believe you and I was there myself and from what I saw you didn't cheat but I think the boys there are more willing to believe one of the top ranked duellists instead of a rookie who has some damn good cards." Theresa said.

"Hey there she is." A male voice rang out behind them; they turned around and saw three male Obelisk Blue students.

"What do you want?" Lance said stepping forward.

"Our beef isn't with you; our beef is with that cheating rookie." The Obelisk Blue student in the centre said, he had short black hair and brown eyes with a scar down his right eye.

"Two things: number 1 that cheating rookie is a friend of mine and I won't let you gang up on her." Lance said before smirking. "As for number 2, just look behind you." The three Obelisk blue students laughed.

"Oh yeah, like we're really going to fall for that trick! Try something original." The leader of the trio laughed.

"I'd suggest following his advice boys." The three boys froze and turned around seeing the Obelisk Blue Headmaster. "Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you, whilst Ms. Richardson was wrong to except the challenge in the first place she has been cleared of any wrong doing, I have already warned half of my students for spreading these lies about her but ganging up on her? You are lucky that we are not in class." The three boys ran off and the headmaster sighed. "Ms. Richardson, what did I tell you about staying out of trouble?" Chloe bit her lip. "Never mind, I have made it perfectly clear to most of my students that I will not be tolerating this, Theresa if there is any further incidents report them to me."

"Yes sir." Theresa nodded, the Obelisk blue headmaster walked off. "See what I mean? It's a good thing you have someone like Lance watching your back."

"I try my best." Lance nodded. "You know now that I think about it we don't know what deck you use Theresa." Theresa smiled.

"Actually I use several decks; it helps keep my skills sharp." Theresa said. "Anyway it looks like the boat's about to dock." Theresa said and true to her word the ship stopped at the peer. "Well I'm off to find Brandon, oh and don't forget guys we still want that match."

"Actually we were hoping you had forgotten." Chloe gulped.

"Well she was hoping for that anyway." Lance said, Theresa walked off and Lance turned to her. "Chloe, you weren't that nervous about duelling Otto yesterday, why are you so nervous about facing either Brandon or Theresa?"

"Lance, Otto is an asshole who deserves to have his ass handed to him, Brandon and Theresa on the other hand have been helpful towards us." Chloe said leaning against a wall. "That and we don't know how they are at duelling and you know how I can get once I lose." Lance frowned before nodding.

"Yeah, sorry I completely forgot, and since they're in Obelisk Blue I think it's safe to say that they are damn good at duelling." Lance nodded. "We will have to duel them at some point though." Lance said before the two of them got off the ship, the two teens looked around before Lance sighed. "Okay, where are our dorms?"

"You're asking me?" Chloe asked before looking around and seeing some other girls in Osiris Red Uniforms approaching them. "Hopefully they will be able to lead me to the dorm."

"Oh look, more new blood." The tallest of the trio, a blonde girl with her hair in a ponytail and brown eyes, said. "Welcome to Duel Academy, not often that you see Ra Yellow students hanging out with Osiris Reds."

"We knew each other before duel academy, I'm Lance." He introduced himself.

"Lance? Ah that fire duellist from the test exams." The blonde giggled. "You're certainly a lot cuter in person." Lance started blushing like a madman.

"Err, thanks ladies." Lance said trying as hard as he could to hide his blush. "Would any of you know where the Ra Yellow Boys Dorm is?"

"Yeah, it's on the south section of the island, right across from the Obelisk Blue girl's dorm." One of the girls that hadn't spoken yet told him.

"Thanks." Lance said before walking off. "See you later Chloe." Lance said as he made his way to the south section of the island, it was a bit of a long trek but he made it, and found himself staring at the dorm in awe. _"THAT'S the dorm? This place is nicer than the last three places I lived in combined."_ Lance thought before regaining his composure.

"Well, well, if it isn't prince charming." Lance cringed when he heard the familiar voice; he turned around and saw the three Obelisk Blue students from the boat. "No teacher to save you this time." The leader smirked.

"I don't need a teacher to deal with cowards like you." Lance said as he activated his duel disk. "I can probably take on all three of you at once without breaking so much as a sweat." Lance added.

"Oooohhh, the Ra Yellow reject thinks he can hang with the big boys, I'm so scared." The leader said activating his duel disk. "Here's a deal for you, you win I'll leave you and Chloe alone, same goes for my friends, I win, which I will, you have to kiss my feet and beg for forgiveness for being so rude to us." Lance smirked.

"Oh yeah, because standing up for a female friend when she's being ganged up on by three assholes is definitely being rude." Lance said sarcastically, the leader of the trio growled at this. "You have a name or will I have to go around saying that I beat an Obelisk Blue student called John Doe?"

"Funny." The leader of the trio said with a frown. "You can call me Dwayne, not that it'll matter much once this duels over."

"Is there a problem here?" Lance looked over his shoulder and saw the Ra Yellow Headmaster behind him.

"No sir, I was just about to teach Dwayne here a lesson in manners, not to mention duel monsters." Lance said with a grin causing Dwayne to scoff.

"You teach me? Hah! You just made your upcoming asskicking all the more satisfying." Dwayne said confidently.

"That duel isn't going to happen, at least for now." The Ra Yellow headmaster said folding his arms. "You three are late for the Obelisk Blue welcome dinner, as are you Lance." Lance frowned and turned off his duel disk as did Dwayne before he and his cohorts walked off.

"You have the worst timing, you know that right?" Lance said as he followed him, the Ra Yellow Headmaster laughed.

"I get that a lot." He nodded. "I overheard those three talking about Chloe before they approached you, sounds like what Martin said about Otto lying about the duel between him and Chloe was true." The Ra Yellow headmaster said with a frown.

"Martin? You mean the Obelisk Blue Headmaster?" Lance asked and the Ra Yellow headmaster nodded. "Someone needs to put that idiot known as Otto in his place."

"How about we worry about him after the welcome dinner?" The Ra Yellow Headmaster said as they neared the entrance to the dorm, he opened the door for Lance and he entered the dorm, the dorm was even bigger on the inside than it was on the outside and there were several students standing around. "You get yourself acquainted with your new classmates; I have to prepare the dinner." The Ra Yellow headmaster said before walking off, Lance gulped and entered the dining area sitting down at an unoccupied table.

"Hey buddy, your one of the new student's right?" Lance looked up when he heard the German accent and almost did a double take as the student looked like Otto but in a Ra Yellow uniform, the student sighed. "Based on your reaction I'm guessing you've met my twin brother Otto?"

"Yeah, though I had no idea he had a brother." Lance said setting his bags aside. "The name's Lance."

"I'm Andreas, and unfortunately I am related to Otto Freshier." Andreas sighed. "Every time a new student comes here I have to explain, in detail, how I'm nothing like my brother."

"As long as you don't pick on female Osiris Red students I'm not complaining." Lance reassured him. "What deck do you run?"

"I run a nature deck, in other words I use a mixture of beasts, beast warriors, insects and plants." Andreas said with a smile. "Yes, yes, I know that no serious duellist in his right mind would use plant type monsters in his deck."

"You get that a lot don't you?" Lance asked and Andreas nodded. "It's cool; my deck mostly uses Fire type monsters with some exceptions like Obnoxious Celtic Guardian."

"Ah yes, very useful card to have in your deck." Andreas nodded. "So have you made any friends here?"

"A couple, I met Marcus Reynolds and Rajin on the boat and Theresa and Brandon from Obelisk Blue at the entrance exam." Lance said before frowning. "I also met your brother at Domino peer just before me and Chloe where set to board."

"Chloe? Ah yes, I believe I remember my brother ranting about someone called Chloe on the way to the Obelisk Blue dorm." Andreas said shaking his head. "You knew her before you applied here?"

"We've been friends since childhood, even though she's still learning the game." Lance answered. "Her stepdad was teaching her but according to him there's stuff that he can't teach her but Duel Academy can."

"I can certainly see his reasoning." Andreas said with a nod. "Do you know what room you're in?"

"Room 25, second floor, that's pretty much all I was told." Lance said after thinking for a bit.

"Excellent, that room is right next to mine, after the welcome dinner I can help you find it if you want." Andreas offered.

"Sounds great, but I can't get over how an asshole like Otto has such a nice brother." Lance pointed out and Andreas sighed in annoyance.

"Otto has always had an ego problem, it was increased tenfold however when he was excepted into Obelisk Blue last year and I was excepted into Ra Yellow, he even refuses to talk to me, his own brother, because I'm not in the same dorm as him." Andreas said it was at that moment that everyone stopped talking and turned their attention to the front of the dining hall; the two boys looked up and saw the Ra Yellow headmaster there.

"Hello students, both old and new, and welcome to the start of the new year at Duel Academy." The Ra Yellow headmaster said before clearing his throat. "I see a lot of new faces here and I want the old students to make them feel welcome, now with that out of the way I am Professor Trenton but please call me Jeff and please enjoy your food." As the headmaster said that the staff started laying out food for the students, Lance couldn't help but grin at the site of the food.

"Man, this had better taste as good as it looks." Lance said licking his lips in anticipation, around 20 minutes later Lance finished the food. "Damn that was good."

"Indeed it was." Andreas agreed, it was then that Lance's PDA went off.

"You think the headmaster would mind me sneaking out to answer this?" Lance said digging out the PDA from his pocket; he frowned when he saw who it was from.

"No I won't, Maria just called saying some boys from Obelisk Blue are bullying Chloe Richardson and it sounds like your friend's in trouble." Lance nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the Ra Yellow Headmaster's voice, once he recovered Lance nodded. "I'll call ahead and let Maria know that you're on the way."

"Thanks a lot." Lance nodded as he got up and ran from the dorm, he played the message, which pretty much confirmed what he said; he ran to the girl's dorm with his duel disk in hand and once he arrived he saw Chloe trying desperately to get away from a trio of Obelisk Blue students and he growled when he recognised one of the Obelisk Blue's. "Dwayne, you couldn't leave well enough alone could you?" The Obelisk Blue student turned around and narrowed his eyes at him.

"You can't mind your own business, can't you?" Dwayne said activating his duel disk. "You still want to duel? Fine, I can spare a few minutes."

"You'll need much longer than that, same rules from the duel that never happened apply here, I win you three leave her alone, you win, I kiss your feet." Lance said and Chloe turned around.

"Actually I'd like to make an addition to that rule, I win and Chloe gives me a kiss." Dwayne smirked and Chloe narrowed her eyes.

"Not on your life." She spat before turning to Lance. "Lance you can't accept those terms."

"Don't worry Chloe, I won't lose." Lance reassured her before he activated his duel disks. "Who's going first?"

"I am." Dwayne said drawing his card. _"Perfect, I have everything I need to make quick work of this punk."_ Dwayne thought. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Baron of the Fiend Sword in attack mode." Dwayne set the two cards down a smartly dressed yellow demon appeared on the field wielding a red sword (4/1550/800). "That's it for me." Lance nodded before drawing his card.

"I activate the spell card Heavy Storm to destroy your face down cards." Dwayne shielded himself from the storm as the holograms of the two cards he had set face down, Nightmare Wheel and Shrink, which Dwayne sent to the graveyard. "And now I summon Great Angus in attack mode." Lance played the card and the beast appeared on the field with a growl. (4/1800/800) "Great Angus attack Baron of the Fiend Sword." Great Angus charged at the Baron and bit at its neck causing the hologram to shatter.

D: 7750

L: 8000

"That was a lucky shot." Dwayne growled as he sent Baron of the Fiend Sword to the graveyard. "And guess what? That was just one of my fiends and I have plenty more where that came from."

"Then I look forward to destroying the rest." Lance spat before picking up two more cards. "Whilst you lick your wounds I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Don't you dare taunt me you lowly Ra Yellow." Dwayne growled before drawing his card. "First I activate Silent Doom to bring back my Baron in defence mode." As Dwayne said that the Baron reappeared holding his sword out in a defensive manner.

"If that's the best you can do than this duel will be short." Lance said folding his arms.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that fact, which is exactly why I'm sacrificing him to bring out Earl of Demise in attack mode." The Baron vanished and in its place stood a blue, humanoid creature dressed in aristocrat's clothing and wielding a sword (5/2000/700). "Sure, I can summon stronger monsters for the same amount of tributes but what happens when the Earl is equipped with the Sword of Dark Destruction? Let's find out." The Earl's sword was replaced with a similar one that was surrounded by sinister light which engulfed the fiend raising its attack to 2400 but reducing its defence to 500. "Fits him like a glove, Earl of Demise it's time to put that overgrown puppy to sleep, ATTTACK GREAT ANGUS NOW!" The Ear charged at Great Angus but Lance smirked.

"First of all, it's closer to a pig than a dog, second I activate my facedown card Reverse Trap." The card flipped up and Dwayne blinked. "This card reverses any increases or decreases that are inflicted upon a monster, in short your Earl's attack is going down to 1600." True to Lance's word the Earl's attack decreased to 1600, the Earl swung at Great Angus but the beast swiftly missed it before tackling him to the ground and biting into his neck. "I'm surprised you're even in Obelisk Blue given the number of rookie moves you've made."

"Don't celebrate too soon, by discarding Kuriboh to the graveyard I can reduce any damage I would've taken to zero." Dwayne said discarding the card. "And now I enter Main Phase 2, where the real fun begins, I remove Baron of the Fiend Sword, Earl of Demise and Kuriboh from my graveyard to special summon a monster that has been the end of many lesser students, Dark Necrofear in attack mode!" Dwayne removed the cards from the graveyard and slammed the card onto his duel disk and a blue, skin headed woman appeared on the field wearing some kind of twisted battle armour (8/2200/2800). "Fortunately for you I have already attacked this turn but next turn I'll turn that pig into bacon, I tend to like mine extra crispy."

"Is that supposed to worry me? It's only slightly more powerful than your last monster." Lance said as he drew his card. "Not that it matters because now I'm sacrificing Great Angus to summon Thestalous, The Firestorm Monarch in attack mode!" Great Angus vanished from the field and in it's place a giant of a man appeared, covered almost head to toe in robes (6/2400/1000) "But before I attack Thestalous' effect kicks in, I can discard one card at random from your hand and you'd better hope it's not a monster because if it is you lose lifepoints equal to its level times a hundred and I chose the one on the right." Dwayne breathed a sigh of relief before turning it around showing it to be a second Sword of Dark Destruction which was sent to the graveyard. "Thestalous attack Dark Necrofear now!" Thestalous held up one of his hands and a large flame appeared on top of it, he threw it at Dark Necrofear who was quickly consumed by flames.

D: 7350

L: 8000

Even as his lifepoint counter went down Dwayne laughed causing Lance to blink in confusion. "Did I miss a joke somewhere?"

"The jokes on you because by destroying Necrofear you've triggered her effect, but don't take my word for it, just look at Thestalous!" Lance looked up and too his surprise Thestalous was grabbing his head in pain, Chloe, who was sitting on the grass at this point, was equally confused.

"What's wrong with Thestalous?" Chloe asked outloud, then to Lance and Chloe's shock Thestalous' eyes where glowing an unnatural blue colour and he seemingly walked over to Dwayne's side of the field willingly.

"What's wrong? Oh nothing much, when Dark Necrofear is destroyed in battle I can take control of the monster you used to destroy it." Dwayne smirked as Lance frowned.

"You wasted that much time just so you could take control of my monster?" Lance asked before shaking his head. "I end my turn."

"I'm not surprised." Brandon said as he approached Chloe. "This is Dwayne's trademark style, he's willing to waste away monsters just so he can get Necrofear on the field and if the opponent destroys it he takes manic glee in destroying them with their own monster."

"It sounds pretty damn low if you ask me." Chloe answered folding her arms. "You've duelled him before?"

"A couple of times, and I've beaten him every time." Brandon said sitting beside her. "Why is Lance duelling him?"

"Long story short, if Lance wins they leave me alone, Dwayne wins I've got to kiss him and Lance has to kiss his feet." Chloe said with clear disgust in her voice.

"And you'll be puckering up soon." Dwayne said drawing his card. "Thestalous, attack your former master's lifepoints directly." Lance braced himself as Thestalous through a fireball at him, he grunted as his lifepoints took a hit.

D: 7350

L: 5600

"That thing has a weakness right?" Chloe asked.

"Well technically Necrofear is now an equip card and it carries with it the same weaknesses as a equip card." Brandon said resting his hands on his knees. "I know he used Heavy Storm during his examination duel so that might help."

"Bit of a problem there, Lance already used Heavy Storm earlier." Chloe winced as Lance got up from the attack.

"Well, I'm stumped." Brandon shrugged causing Chloe to sweatdrop.

"And I thought Lance was bad at shouting advice." Chloe said shaking her head.

"I HEARD THAT!" Lance shouted back as he drew his card. "Not much I can do save for setting a monster in defence mode." Lance said as Dwayne drew his card.

"This is too easy, Thestalous attack his defence." Thestalous threw his fire at the facedown card but Dwayne frowned when he saw that it was Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (4/1400/1200) which emerged unscathed. "You're starting to get as obnoxious as your monster."

"You're one to talk." Lance said folding his arms. "Is that everything?" Dwayne nodded and Lance drew his card. "Now to turn this duel around in my favour, I summon Ultimate Baseball Kid in attack mode and I activate my other facedown card Call of the Haunted to bring back Great Angus." Lance played the card and the beast reappeared on the field alongside what could only be described as a little boy in a Red Baseball Uniform appeared on the field (3/500/1000), at the site of the monster Dwayne and his pals started laughing hysterically.

"THAT'S your big play?" Dwayne said once he stopped laughing. "I've seen fairy type monsters that are more intimidating than that thing!"

"Really? Maybe you idiots should pay closer attention." Lance smirked, Dwayne blinked as Ultimate Baseball Kid's attack rose to 1500. "Ultimate Baseball Kid gain's 1000 attack points for every other fire type monster on my side of the field and I count one, my Great Angus."

"HAH! Even so the Baseball Kid's still too weak to take down my Monarch." Dwayne smirked.

"First of all that's MY Monarch, second I'm not done yet, I activate the Equip Spell Card Scroll of Bewitchment which I equip to Obnoxious Celtic Guardian." Lance played the card and smirked.

"Scroll of Bewitchment, since when did he have that card?" Chloe asked. "I've never heard of it."

"It's a very situational card to say the least, with it Lance can change the attribute of the monster it's equipped too and if my guess is correct than he's using it to change it to a Fire type monster." Brandon said and Lance nodded.

"The Obelisk Blue student with more than two braincells is correct and you know what that means." Lance said.

"I don't know if I should take that as a complement or not." Brandon said rubbing the back of his head.

"My Ultimate Baseball Kid is now strong enough to destroy Thestalous, BATTER UP BASEBALL KID AND SEND THESATALOUS OUT OF THE BALL PARK!" Lance said switching Celtic Guardian to attack mode and a baseball appeared in the air in front of baseball kid, he hit it with his bat hard enough to cause it be encased in flames, it struck Firestorm Monarch causing the hologram to shatter. "Three strikes and you're out, Celtic Guardian, Great Angus attack his lifepoints directly." The two monsters charged at Dwayne and attacked him one after the other.

D: 4050

L: 5600

"How long is he going to continue with these baseball puns?" Brandon asked annoyed already, Chloe sweatdropped.

"Only as long as Ultimate Baseball Kid's on the field, if we're lucky." Chloe said and Brandon sighed.

"Please tell me you have some alcohol." Brandon sighed, unprepared for what happened next.

"NO I DON'T!" Chloe yelled causing Brandon to blink. "Sorry, bad history with the stuff, long story." Chloe said and Brandon blinked.

"Your seventeen, how could you have a bad history with alcohol?" Brandon pointed out,

"Err, Brandon, trust me you don't want to know." Lance called out before continuing his move. "Now I activate Ultimate Baseball Kid's other effect, by sacrificing fire type monsters on my side of the field I can deal five hundred points of damage for each one and I think I'll chose Great Angus and Obnoxious Celtic Guardian as long as he's equipped with Scroll of Bewitchment!" Great Angus and Celtic Guardian turned into baseballs which Baseball Kid launched at Dwayne.

D: 3050

L: 5600

"Sure Baseball Kid's attack is back to normal but with Necrofear gone you may as well surrender." Lance pointed out but Dwayne only laughed.

"Did you honestly think that was my only copy of Necrofear?" Dwayne said with a smirk. "I have two more in my deck and thanks to you I'm one step close to bringing out my second copy."

"That's if you're able to draw them, for now I set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance said folding his arms after his set his card, Dwayne drew his card and grinned.

"Chloe might be familiar with this card, I activate Card Destruction!" Dwayne played his card and both players discarded their hands and drew a new one, Dwayne grinned when he saw his new hand. "And now I remove the Dark Necrofear that was sent to my graveyard when Thestalous was destroyed alongside two monsters I just discarded, Gross Ghost Of Fled Dreams (4/1300/1800) and The Headless Knight (4/1450/1700) to bring out my second Dark Necrofear." Dwayne removed the cards and a second Dark Necrofear appeared on the field. "Dark Necrofear attack Ultimate Baseball Kid now!" Dark Necrofear charged at Baseball Kid and punched it once causing the hologram to shatter.

"Before I send Baseball Kid to my graveyard I activate Backfire, with this you also take damage." Lance said before placing the card in the graveyard.

D: 2550

L: 3900

"Well he's still in the lead, that's a good thing right?" Chloe said and Brandon shook his head.

"Not as long as Necrofear's on the field, even if he destroys it he'll just start the whole process over again." Brandon said shaking his head. "Unless he draws something that he can use soon I'd suggest getting ready to kiss Dwayne."

"Please don't make me think of that mental image." Chloe said as she sweatdropped in response to Brandon's statement clearly embarrassed and clearly not liking the idea one bit.

"Not to worry Chloe." Lance said drawing his card. "I activate Lightning Vortex, now by discarding a card from my hand your Necrofear goes bye bye with no monsters for you to control." Lance discarded his card and lightning struck Necrofear destroying it. "Now I summon Fire Princess in attack mode!" Lance placed the card down and a woman with blonde hair in a red dress appeared on the field. (4/1300/1500). "But before I attack I activate Red Medicine to restore five hundred life points."

"And that helps you how exact..." Dwayne never got a chance to finish as Fire Princess blasted him with a spell. "What the hell was that?"

"That was the effect of Fire Princess; every time I get life points restored she deals five hundred points of damage to your lifepoints and guess what?" Lance said holding up another two Red Medicines. "You where kind enough to give me all three of my Red Medicines in my deck thanks to Card Destruction, remind me to thank you later." Lance said sarcastically.

"Oh, crap." Dwayne said upon realizing his mistake, Fire Princess blasted him two more times bringing his lifepoints down to 1050. "Well at least it can't get any...wait, Fire Princess hasn't attacked yet!"

"Exactly, Fire Princess finish him off!" Fire Princess charged up another spell and fired it at Dwayne.

D: 0000

L: 5400

"How, how could I lose to a Ra Yellow student! I'm supposed to be among the best in the school." Dwayne demanded punching the ground in frustration as he did, it was then that Brandon got up.

"Because you spent so much time getting rid of monsters that you forgot to have a backup plan." Brandon said glancing towards the other three Obelisk Blue duellists. "You know the terms of the duel, if I see you anywhere near the Girl's Dorm again you'll be sorry." The three duellists gulped and ran off. "They won't bother you anymore Chloe, I'll make sure of it."

"Thanks." Chloe said standing up. "In all my excitement I forgot to pack the rest of my stuff." It was at that time that Lance panicked,

"AH! I FORGOT TO PACK MY STUFF!" Lance said before running off.

"Ah Duel Academy, something's never change around here." Brandon said with a laugh. "Chloe, if you want to talk about...well you know, you know where to find me."

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Chloe said before making her way to the girl's dorm, Brandon shook his head.

"_Is it me or do the new students get crazier every year?"_ Brandon thought before walking off.


	4. Dealing with the past

Lance sat down next to Marcus and Andreas as he waited for the first class of the day (not to mention the semester) to start, Chloe was late but the teacher hadn't arrived yet so he was hoping that she would arrive before the teacher did, just as he thought that the door opened and Chloe hurried in taking an unoccupied seat directly in front of Lance's.

"Sleep in Chloe?" Lance asked and Chloe shook her head.

"No I didn't, the reason I was late is the fact that the cronies of a certain German Obelisk Blue Student wouldn't leave me alone." Chloe said shaking her head.

"Was it Dwayne again?" Lance asked and she shook her head. "Good, at least they are honouring their word."

"Now if you only you can beat the rest of Obelisk Blue with the same stipulations." Chloe added before resting her arms on the table. "Did the teacher arrive whilst I was out?"

"Yes, he did." Otto called out with a smirk. "I'm sure he'll have some choice words for you when he returns."

"Otto, I'm only going to say this one: shut it." Brandon warned him before turning to Chloe. "Don't listen to him, the teacher's running late as well."

"And be glad the class isn't with the Obelisk Blue headmaster." Marcus added before resting his hand on the desk. "Speaking of which where is the teacher?"

"I'm here students." Everyone's eyes focused on the front of the room where a short man with black hair in a ponytail with a matching goatee and brown eyes in a Osiris Red uniform entered the room. "Welcome students, both new and old, I am Professor Hamden, headmaster for the Osiris Red Boys Dorm and Professor of strategy." Hamden said before looking around the room before resting his eyes on Chloe. "Now, how about we start with you, young lady?" Chloe gulped.

"Me?" She asked and Hamden nodded.

"Don't waste your time Hamden, what does an Osiris Red student know about strategy?" Otto scoffed.

"She knew enough to outsmart you." Lance answered back and Otto growled.

"Settle down boys." Hamden said sternly before turning to Chloe. "I'll give you a simple scenario: your opponent has three Harpie Ladies (4/1300/1400) on the flied alongside Harpie's Pet Dragon alongside one facedown card, you on the other hand only have a single Kuriboh, Curse of Dragon and two facedown cards one of which is Blast Held By A Tribute, the scores are 500 lifepoints for you and a thousand for your opponent and it's his turn, how do you win in this scenario? Oh and no one is allowed to help her."

"_Crap, what does Blast Held By a Tribute do again?"_ Chloe thought as she struggled to figure out the solution, after five minutes she sighed. "I give up."

"Not to worry, you are here to learn." Hamden reassured her before turning to the others. "Anyone else want to give it a shot?"

"Well I'd say that this scenario is so simple that a monkey could solve it but then I'd be comparing monkeys to Chloe and that would be an unfair comparison." Otto chuckled. "I'd let the opponent attack with Harpie's Pet Dragon then activate Blast Held By A Tribute, as per the effect of the card the Harpie Ladies and Pet Dragon would be destroyed and the opponent would suffer a Thousand points of damage, simple."

"Not so." Brandon pointed out. "For all you know the opponent could attack with one of the Harpie Ladies and you don't have the lifepoints to spare to wait for the Pet Dragon to attack."

"Okay, then I'd activate it when one of the Harpy Ladies attacked, either way I'd win." Otto grinned but Hamden shook his head.

"You're both wrong, yes you can activate Blast Held by a Tribute but the opponent's facedown card is Trap Jammer which negates the effect of Blast Held by a Tribute, now Chloe was it?" Hamden said turning back to her. "What do you do now?"

"Err, activate my other trap card and hope for the best?" Chloe said nervously.

"Good choice, the other facedown card was Last Turn which sends all cards except a card you select on the field back to the deck and requires both players to summon monsters to do battle and whoever has the strongest card wins, the opponent summons Harpie's Brother which has an attack of 1800, your choices are Curse of Dragon which has an attack of 2000 and the previously mentioned Kuriboh." Hamden said folding his arms.

"That's easy, my choice is Curse of Dragon and since the effect of Last Turn requires them both to do battle Harpie's Brother is destroyed and the duel is mine." Hamden smiled and turned to Otto who was quite angry by this point.

"I believe you said something about an unfair comparison to monkeys Otto?" Hamden chuckled and Otto growled.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR! Last Turn is on the Forbidden List!" Otto was quick to point out and Hamden chuckled.

"I'll admit that I came up with that scenario prior to Last Turn's addition to the forbidden list, I've been meaning to modify it." Hamden admitted before turning to Lance. "It's your turn young man."

"Shoot away." Lance said confidently.

"Well you certainly don't lack for confidence, why don't I put that to the test and give you a challenging scenario?" Hamden said and Lance gulped.

"Me and my big mouth, alright what do you have in mind?" Lance asked.

"Your opponent has Exodd, Master of the Guard on the field in defence mode with a defence of 4000, a Wall of Revealing Light with its barrier set at 3000 and a face up Final Countdown which is on its last turn, you on the other hand have Vorse Raider on the field in attack mode with an attack of 1900 and the spell card Shield and Sword in your hand alongside a facedown card, the lifepoints are as follows: the opponent has 4000 lifepoints whilst yours are untouched as he has played a purely defensive strategy, how do you win in this turn?" Lance gulped before thinking for a few moments.

"I'd activate Shield and Sword to swap Master of the Guard's attack and defence around then activate my facedown card which is..." Lance trailed off.

"The trap card Ring of Destruction." Hamden nodded. "And that does what exactly..."

"Destroys one monster on the field and deals damage equal to a monster's attack to the players and my choice would be Exodd." Lance said before Otto spoke up again.

"This is bullshit; Ring of Destruction has been on the Forbidden list far longer than Last Turn has." Otto pointed out. "How are these strategies supposed to help us if we use forbidden cards in the scenario?"

"Can't believe I'm saying this but I agree with Otto." Chloe nodded.

"I never said anything about using these strategies, these scenarios are supposed to teach you how to think on your feet." Hamden said putting his arms behind his back. "Keep that in mind the next time you duel." Hamden added just before the door opened and a proctor ran in handing over a form to Hamden, he looked at the form and raised an eyebrow. "Hmm, seems you're quite popular Chloe, you have a duel request form from one of the top students in Obelisk Blue." Hamden said handing over the request form to her.

"Who's it from Chloe?" Lance asked trying to read over her shoulder, when he saw it he paled. "Theresa's challenged you?"

"Oh great, just what I need." Chloe groaned. "How the hell am I supposed to compete with her?"

"Remembering what I taught you might help." Hamden chuckled before turning to the proctor. "Any other request forms or can I continue?" The proctor shook his head and left the room.

"Oh, that should be good; I get to watch Theresa mop the floor with that amateur's deck." Otto chuckled.

"You're just bitter that this amateur's deck duelled circles around yours." Chloe answered back.

"Don't make me come down there!" Otto shouted back and Hamden frowned.

"That's enough, both of you." He demanded. "I am well aware of that duel you two had on the boat and I will not let my classroom become a battleground, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Chloe gulped nervously.

"Whatever." Otto muttered under his breath.

"Good." Hamden nodded, the rest of the lesson went on without a hitch until the bell sounded and the students breathed a sigh of relief. "Ah good, now I can give all of you your homework." Hamden said picking up several piles of textbooks causing the students to groan; regardless they took the textbooks as they left Chloe and Lance being the last to leave. "Remember to read the pages that I have bookmarked." He called out to the students as they left.

"Oh great, first I have a request for a duel with Theresa now I have a week's worth of homework, what next?" Chloe groaned as she put the textbooks in her backpack.

"You could always duel Kaiba." Lance grinned as he put the books in his own backpack. "You're seriously considering it though?"

"Well it's not like I've backed down from a challenge before." Chloe answered. "Hell, that's how we met."

"And I kicked your ass in a duel." Lance pointed out. "Though to be fair you only had a week's worth of experience at the time."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Chloe said looking at the request form again. "So what do I do now?"

"If that was directed at me...I have no idea." Lance said rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"No but I do." Brandon said approaching them. "All you need to do is write down here whether you accept or deny the challenge and take it to her dorm."

"Easy enough can't say the same for the match though." Chloe said as she searched her pockets for a pen, she found one and wrote down "challenge accepted" on the form. "What am I getting myself into?"

"You'll see." Brandon said as Chloe pocketed the pen. "Come on I'll take you to the dorm."

"I'm coming along as well, in case any nimrods like Dwayne try anything." Lance said with a grin.

"That won't be necessary, most of the Obelisk Blue students are in class." Brandon said with a grin. "Besides that the head of the girl's dorm isn't trusting of boys from outside of Obelisk Blue."

"So she doesn't trust the majority of the students?" Lance asked and Brandon shrugged.

"Hey with some of the Ra Yellow students it's justified...no offence." Brandon said quickly.

"All right, when you have a location set send me a message on my PDA, I don't want to miss this match." Lance said with a nod. "In the meantime I'm going to read up on the homework I got from Hamden, which should keep me occupied for an hour or two."

"Yeah, that's if you're lucky." Brandon nodded. "Come on Chloe." Brandon said motioning her to follow him; she followed him out of the main building and to the south side of the island. "There was another reason you got that request Chloe." Chloe blinked when Brandon said that and reread the request form.

"If Theresa wins I have to tell her and you anything you ask about my past?" She read out loud. "How did I miss that?"

"Doesn't matter, truth is Theresa was equally concerned about you as I was when you mentioned your bad history with alcohol yesterday." Brandon said. "She thought you'd be unwilling to tell me and came up with this idea; don't take it the wrong way."

"It's fine, though I'm not happy with having to air all my troubles in public." Chloe said bluntly as they approached the Girl's Dorm.

"You won't be airing them in public, just name a private place and we'll talk there, if you lose of course." Brandon said as they approached the door. "Go ahead Chloe, the door won't bite you."

"It's not the door I'm worried about." Chloe muttered under her breath before knocking on the door, it was answered by Theresa who smirked.

"Ah Chloe, I see you got my request." Theresa said folding her arms, Chloe handed over the request form and Theresa read it over. "Good, I'll see you at the Obelisk Blue Duel Arena in 20 minutes, have to get one of my decks and my duel disk."

"Luckily for me I have both of those things covered already." Chloe said holding up her duel disk. "See you at the duel field...as soon as Brandon shows me where it is."Chloe said, Theresa closed the door behind her and Brandon led her away. "That was surprisingly painless."

"I'm going to assume your referring to the other residents of Obelisk Blue, if you are then don't worry, the girls in Obelisk Blue are a lot nicer to the students in Red and Yellow." Brandon told her as they left the south section and returned to the centre of the island where they found Lance sitting on a bench reading the text book intensely. "The match is set."

"And what happened to you calling me?" Lance asked as he read the text book. "Hamden really knows how to make things hard for me...I just realized how incredibly wrong that sounded."

"I'm sure you can beat him off...that came out wrong as well." Chloe said blushing intently. "How about we just change the subject before we embarrass ourselves even further?" Chloe suggested.

"Yeah, like how I'm sure you'll beat off Theresa...that came out even worse than my first sentence." Lance said using the textbook to hide his blush. "Where is the match being held?"

"It's being held at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field." Brandon told him.

"They'll let a Osiris Red in there?" Lance asked suspiciously.

"And a Ra Yellow as long as there's an Obelisk Blue with them, that way we can watch two women go at it...damn it now you've got me started!" Brandon said shaking his head.

"Anyway there's something you should read." Chloe said putting the request form in front of the textbook with her thumb on the section that said "special rules". "To be more specific I want you to read the part about the rules."

Lance read the part and nodded. "Huh, that's nice." Lance said as he continued to read the textbook...that is until it dawned on him.

*meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm*

Theresa left the girl's dorm with her deck and duel disk in hand, ready for the match against Chloe.

"_Chloe's good but I've seen her duel twice, if she tries to combine her Silent Magician with one of her spell cards I'll be ready for her."_ Theresa thought looking at her deck before putting it in the Duel Disk.

"YOU AGREED TO DO WHAT?" Lance yelled causing Theresa to sweat drop.

"Looks like Lance has found out about the stipulations." Theresa said before making her way to the centre of the island.

*back with Chloe, Brandon and Lance*

"No need to yell." Brandon said rubbing his ear in pain.

"Don't you understand?" Lance said once he calmed down. "It's not something simple like "I stole money whilst I was drunk", which before you ask never happened to me, it's...it's not something that Chloe's ever gotten over."

"Relax, when she beats Chloe..." Chloe cleared her throat. "IF she beats Chloe then I and Theresa will take her to my room where she can open up...that sounded not nearly as bad in my head." Brandon blushed. "I'm going to shut up before a faculty member misinterprets what I say."

"Please do." Lance said nodding in agreement. "Let's just get to the damn duel field already."

"I agreed." Theresa said walking up to them. "So, you ready to duel Chloe?"

"Honestly? I don't know what I'm getting into but I've never backed down from a challenge before." Chloe said with a nod. "Can you lead the way?"

"Sure." Theresa nodded leading the younger woman away.

"HEY WAIT FOR US!" Lance and Brandon called out once Lance had put his textbooks back in the backpack, the four duellists where led to the duel field and the two girls activated their duel disks.

"So who's going first?" Chloe asked as she drew her cards, Brandon and Lance took their seats and Theresa scanned her hand.

"Since I'm feeling generous you'll go first." Theresa said maintaining her poker face. _"Soon as I activate this trap card Chloe will have a hell of a time getting her Silent Magician Level 8 on the field."_ Theresa thought as Chloe drew her card.

"_Alright, I've got Level Up! On my first draw, I just need to draw Silent Magician and the duel will be in the bag, in the meantime though..."_ Chloe thought before picking up her card. "I summon Neo, The Magic Swordsman in attack mode." She said as Neo appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1700/1000). "And I set this facedown for later." The hologram of the facedown card appeared on the field behind Neo. "That ends my turn." Chloe said with a smirk. _"Come on, attack Neo I dare you! My Mirror Force will send it back at you!"_ Chloe thought as Theresa drew her card.

"I summon Chiron the Mage in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a centaur whose human body was covered in Roman armour carrying a staff with a red orb on the end appeared on the field (4/1800/1000). "You know Chloe when you set a trap you should really try to make it less obvious."

"What do you mean?" Chloe said trying to hide her surprise.

"What I mean is I'm activating Chiron the Mage's special ability, by discarding a spell card from my hand I can destroy one Spell or Trap card on the field." Chloe's eyes widened when Theresa discarded the card and Chiron pointed the orb at the hologram of the facedown card, the orb emitted a pulse that shattered the hologram.

"Oh crap." Chloe muttered as Neo got ready for battle.

"Sorry kid but moves like that won't work on me, Chiron attack Neo now!" Chiron galloped at Neo and whacked him with the staff causing the hologram to shatter.

T: 8000

C: 7900

"Okay, that was a minor setback." Chloe said scanning her hand.

"You call it a minor setback; I call it a rookie mistake." Theresa said picking up another card. "One card facedown will end my turn." Chloe gulped and drew her card.

"_Breaker the Magical Warrior, with his effect I can destroy Chiron and tie the game, but I'm not sure if I trust her facedown card."_ Chloe thought. _"Screw it, it's worth a shot."_ Chloe thought before summoning her monster. "I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior in attack mode." Chloe played the card and Breaker appeared on the field (4/1600/1000) "And thanks to his effect he's strong enough to destroy Chiron." Chloe added as Breaker's attack rose to 1900.

"Not bad but aren't you forgetting something?" Theresa said motioning to her facedown card. "Either destroy Chiron or destroy my card, tough choice."

"Not really, nice try but I know a bluff when I see, Breaker attack Chiron now!" Breaker charged at the mage and slashed it down the middle.

T: 7900

C: 7900

"Just as I thought, that facedown was a bluff." Chloe said with a smirk. "I end my turn." Theresa drew her card and smirked.

"Who said that was a bluff?" Theresa asked causing Chloe to do a double take. "You really should've destroyed the facedown card after destroying Chiron."

"But...but you didn't..." Chloe stammered as her mistake dawned on her.

"Activate it? Well I'm activating it now, GO IMPERIAL ORDER!" The card flipped up and an elderly king appeared on the field. "As long as this is on the field you can't activate any Spell Cards, which means no Swords of Revealing Light or Level Up for you."

"What?" Chloe said once it dawned on her. "You had me scouted didn't you?"

"Didn't need too, your strategies are too predictable." Theresa said picking up another card. "As for Breaker I have something that will take care of it before you can use its effect to destroy Imperial Order." Theresa said playing the card. "I summon Axe Dragonite in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a black and purple dragon wielding a double headed axe appeared on the field. (4/2000/1200).

"Did she just summon a level four monster with 2000 attack?" Lance asked and Brandon nodded.

"Don't worry, it has its drawbacks." Brandon said folding his arms.

"Axe Dragonite attack Breaker now!" Axe Dragonite took flight and dive-bombed at Breaker before slashing at it with its axe causing it to shatter.

T: 7900

C: 7800

"_Damn it, nothing in my hand is strong enough to beat that dragon."_ Chloe thought before looking back at Dragonite which to her surprise was kneeling down.

"Surprised? When Axe Dragonite attacks it shifts to defence mode after damage calculation." Theresa explained, Chloe blinked and sighed on relief. "For now I'll set a card facedown and end my turn."

"Right." Chloe nodded before drawing her card. _"Oh for the love of god, off all the times to draw Silent Magician Level Four." _Chloe thought the frustration clear on her face, and then she spotted another card in her hand. _"Pitch Black Power Stone, didn't Hamden say earlier that I needed to think outside the box?"_ Chloe thought before turning her attention back to Axe Dragonite. _"But first I have a dragon to slay."_ "I set a card facedown and summon Gearfriend, the Iron Knight in attack in attack mode!" The holograms of the facedown card and Gearfriend the Iron Knight appeared on the field (4/1800/1600). "Gearfriend, it's time to slay that dragon, ATTACK!" Gearfriend charged at Dragonite and decapitated him with a single blow. "Lucky for you Dragonite was in defence mode...well lucky for me actually since..."

"Forget it, just finish your move." Theresa said plainly, Chloe looked at her hand before motioning for her to take her turn.

"Hey, who's that Osiris Red that Theresa's duelling?" Lance looked up at the sound of a cockney accent and saw a redheaded male Obelisk Blue student with short hair and brown eyes. "She isn't doing to badly for a student from there."

"That's Chloe, one of the new students." Lance told him. "And a friend of mine I might add."

"You don't say." The Redhead said sitting down. "She may be good but no one from outside of Obelisk Blue has been able to beat Theresa in a duel, and even then we had a tough enough time beating her, what's the story so far?"

"The score's close, Theresa's in the lead with 7900 points whilst Chloe's behind at 7800 and thanks to Imperial Order Theresa's eliminated one of Chloe's main strategies." Lance told him. "The name's Lance by the way."

"Evan." The Englishman nodded in acknowledgement. "How long has Chloe been duelling?"

"Two months." Lance shrugged causing Evan to give him an odd luck. "Her dad taught her the basics."

"Ah I see." Evan nodded. "I doubt her dad's ever faced anyone like Theresa though."

"All right Chloe, I was going to go easy on you due to your inexperience but not anymore, first I pay 700 lifepoints to keep Imperial Order in play." Theresa said as her lifepoints dropped to 7200, after drawing her card. "You may remember this card from your duel with Otto; I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode." Theresa played the card and the two elves appeared (4/1900/900).

"Not bad but you've forgotten about my trap." Chloe said pointing to it, Theresa just smirked at this.

"Do you really think I'd fall for my own bluff?" Theresa smirked.

"Do you want to take the chance that it isn't a bluff?" Chloe asked and Theresa frowned.

"_Maybe she's right, for all I know it could be her Reinforcements trap."_ Theresa thought folding her arms. "All right, I'll end my turn at that." Chloe smirked.

"That's just what I wanted to hear." Chloe said drawing her card. "Activate trap card, Pitch Black Power Stone!" The hologram flipped up and Theresa's jaw dropped.

"Not bad, you beat me at my own game but that trap won't help you." Theresa said with a grin. "How will adding Spell Counters to your knight help it destroy Gemini Elf?"

"Because I'm adding spell counters to this." Chloe said playing the card. "I summon Silent Magician Level Four in attack mode." As Chloe said that the Silent Magician appeared on the field staring straight at Theresa (4/1000/1000). "And with Pitch Black Power Stone I can add a Spell Counter to her increasing her attack to 1500."

"She was able to work around Imperial Order's effect, not bad." Brandon said leaning back in his chair. "At this rate she'll have Silent Magician Level 8 on the field in no time."

"Where the bloody hell did she get that card?" Evan said with a gulp. "Do you know how long I've been trying to get the Silent Magicians in my deck?"

"Yeah, since you joined Duel Academy." Brandon answered folding her arms. "You can ask her after the duel."

"Is there anything else? Because you do know that there's no way in hell I'm letting you summon Level 8 right?" Theresa pointed out.

"There's one more thing." Chloe said picking up the card that she had drawn. "One card facedown will end my turn." Theresa said nothing and drew her card as Silent Magician's attack rose to 2000.

"You made a big mistake by not switching Gearfriend to defence mode and now you're going to regret it." Theresa said drawing her card. "First, I no longer need Imperial Order so I chose not to pay for it." Theresa said as the king disappeared from the field. "Why did I do that? Because your Silent Magician isn't sticking around and I'm not falling for the same bluff twice; I sacrifice Gemini Elf to summon Armed Dragon Level 5!" Gemini Elf disappeared and in its place stood a huge brown and red dragon appeared on the field (5/2400/1700).

"_Crap, I was expecting her to attack with Gemini Elf."_ Chloe thought glancing towards her facedown Shift.

"I'm not done yet Chloe." She said discarding Curse of Dragon. "By discarding a card with an equal amount of attack power to my selected target I can destroy one monster with the same attack on your side of the field and my choice is Silent Magician!" Chloe's eyes widened as Armed Dragon took a deep breath and incinerated Silent Magician with a breath of fire. "Armed Dragon attack Gearfriend." Armed Dragon took another deep breath and Gearfriend was incinerated.

T: 7100

C: 7200

"I set a card facedown and..." Theresa stopped when she noticed that Chloe hadn't moved since Silent Magician was taken out. "Err, Chloe, you there?"

"Lance what's up with Chloe?" Brandon asked concerned. "You said that card meant a lot too her but..."

"It's complicated." Lance said plainly. "You didn't hear it from me but Chloe was adopted by her current parents."

"What does...oh, I get the feeling something happened before she was an orphan?" Brandon said and Lance nodded.

"Chloe, come on I'm not getting any younger here!" Theresa said, Chloe snapped out of it and shook her head.

"Sorry, I was miles away." Chloe tried to shrug it off as she sent her knight to the graveyard. "You where saying?"

"I set a card facedown and I level up my Armed Dragon to his Level 7 form." The dragon started to grow until it was much larger in height and was covered in armour (7/2800/1000). "That ends my turn." Theresa said unable to hide her concern at this point, Chloe drew her card and gulped.

"I set a card in defence and end my turn." Theresa drew her card and smirked.

"I activate Stop Defence forcing your monster into attack mode." Theresa played the card and Chloe's monster flipped up revealing a young redheaded girl in a blue dress (1/0/100).

"This is going to be painful to watch." Lance winced when he saw the vast difference between the two monsters attack.

"No kidding." Brandon said with wide eyes as he sweatdropped.

"I'd hate to do this to ya Chloe but I'm in it to win." Theresa said pointing to Chloe's monster. "Armed Dragon attack her monster now." Even the Armed Dragon's hologram seemed to feel bad about this but did the deed stomping on the monster.

T: 7200

C: 4300

"Not that it matters but the monster you destroyed was The Unhappy Maiden, when she's sent to the graveyard as a result of battle your battle phase ends immediately." Chloe said sending it to her graveyard.

"Fine, I'll end my turn." Theresa said and Chloe drew her card, when she saw it her eyes lit up.

"You're going to regret getting rid of Imperial Order." Chloe said with a grin, Theresa blinked in confusion before Chloe turned her card around. "I activate Monster Reincarnation, by discarding a card from my hand I can return Silent Magician to my hand." She discarded her Maha Vilo (4/1550/1400) and returned Silent Magician to her hand. "And I summon her now!" She played the card and Silent Magician returned to the field.

"And that's supposed to worry me, why?" Theresa asked as her dragon roared at the Hologram of Silent Magician who stood its ground.

"Maybe not in her current form but with a little help from my Level Up spell card I can bring out her strongest form." Chloe said activating the card.

"Okay, now I'm worried." Theresa gulped as Silent Magician started glowing.

"So you should be, say hello to my strongest monster Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe said playing the card and the grown up version of Silent Magician appeared on the field (8/3500/1000). "To bad Theresa, you're dragons strong but not strong enough, Silent Magician attack Armed Dragon now!" Silent Magician pointed her staff at the dragon and started charging the attack.

"Big mistake, I activate Magical Cylinder!" Theresa said and Chloe's eyes widened. "I see you remember its effect from the test duel." The cylinders appeared on the field and the attack went in one jar and out the other striking Chloe in the chest.

T: 7200

C: 800

"You...you wanted me to bring back my magician." Chloe said once she caught her breath.

"Guilty as charged, I wanted to see how my strongest monster stood up to yours." Theresa admitted and Chloe blinked.

"No offence Theresa, but his attack is nowhere near as strong as mine." Chloe pointed out.

"Who said I was talking about my current Armed Dragon?" Theresa asked. "End your turn and you'll see what I mean." Chloe scanned the remainder of her hand before nodding.

"Fine I'll end my turn." Chloe said as Theresa nodded and drew her card.

"Chloe, this duels over." Theresa said removing her Armed Dragon from the Duel Disk. "I level up Armed Dragon to its final form, Armed Dragon Level 10!" She played the card and Armed Dragon grew until it was a giant of a dragon whose head nearly touched the ceiling, its upper body was covered completely in armour including its head. (10/3000/2000).

"Holy shit, that's huge!" Lance gulped but it was then that he noticed that stats. "But it's still not strong enough to beat Chloe's magician."

"You have no idea mate, that thing beat me the last time I duelled her and I had a stronger monster out." Evan gulped.

"And now I activate his effect." Theresa said discarding the last card in her hand. "By discarding one card from my hand I can destroy all monsters on your side of the field." Chloe's eyes widened.

"_Oh crap, not again, not again."_ Chloe thought, the magician braced it's self as the dragon breathed fire at it incinerating the magician, Chloe dropped to her knees and simply said. "Just finish it." Theresa blinked but nodded.

"Go easy on her Armed Dragon." She commanded, the hologram looked at her funny but nodded letting lose a small flame at Chloe who winced but the damage was done.

T: 7100

C: 0000

"That was weird." Lance blinked as Brandon stood up.

"You'll understand someday." Brandon said. "Are you sticking around Evan?"

"Nah, I've got class in five minutes with the Obelisk Blue Headmaster, I don't think I need to say that I can't risk being late." Evan said checking the time on his watch. "Let me know if she's okay, reacting to losing a monster like that ain't normal." Evan said as he left.

"We will do." Lance nodded as Theresa approached Chloe.

"You okay?" Theresa asked kneeling down in front of her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said trying to hold back her tears. "I just got something in my eyes." Theresa smiled before she stood up and offered her hand to Chloe.

"Come on, you have your end to keep up in our deal remember?" Theresa said, Chloe nodded and accepted the hand at which point Theresa pulled her up.

"As much as I hate to say it she's right." Lance said approaching the two girls. "Just a fair warning, it's not going to be pretty."

"Thanks for the warning." Theresa said. "So where too?"

"My room at the Obelisk Blue boy's dorm, if anyone asks why I have two women and another guy in my room I'll just tell them that we're discussing Duel Monsters." Brandon said before turning to Lance. "That's if you're coming along."

"I am, she'll feel more comfortable if I'm in the room." Lance said as the two women deactivated their duel disks.

"Let's go." Theresa said as Brandon led them out of the duel arena and to the Obelisk Blue dorm and up to his room, Lance gulped when he saw the size of it.

"What I wouldn't give to have a room this big." Lance said before turning to Brandon and Theresa. "Well we're here, ask away but remember what I said about her past not being pretty." Lance said taking a seat on a couch. "Is there anything to drink in here?"

"Yeah, there are some soft drinks in that mini fridge by the couch; you can have some if you want." Brandon said as Lance opened the fridge. "Though if there's none left by the time we're finished in here you can expect to buy me some more."

"Duly noted." Lance nodded as he took a drink; Chloe sat down on the bed and sighed.

"As Lance said it's not exactly pretty, you mind locking the door?" Chloe asked and Brandon did so. "Well for starters I'm not originally from Domino, I moved here from New York about ten years ago where my biological parents lived...where my dad beat me and my mom day in and out." Brandon and Theresa where taken aback by that. "He was an alcoholic, hell the only time he wasn't drunk was when he was sleeping, and I still have some scars from those days."Chloe said removing her right arm from her blazer revealing an old, long scar that went from her shoulder to her elbow; Brandon clenched his fists at the sight.

"What happened? Did you and your mother manage to escape from that son of a bitch?" Brandon asked as he sat down.

"I did but mom..." She trailed off.

"Chloe if...if you don't want to mention the next part then its fine, I know that it still haunts you." Lance said but Chloe shook her head.

"No, I'm fine, my dad...he came home even more drunk than usual one night, I was asleep at the time but when I woke up I saw him standing over her bloodied form with a gun in his hand." Chloe shuddered at the memory. "My mom had brought it for protection but he must've gotten to it first, he shot her point blank in the head, he would've killed me as well but I fled before he could get a shot off."

"Shit..." Brandon said simply. "Chloe, I'm sorry I didn't know."

"You couldn't have known Brandon." Theresa said simply. "Chloe, please tell me he's in jail for what he did."

"He is, a neighbour had heard the shot and called the cops, I stayed with them during the trial." Chloe said raised her legs and started cuddling them. "He got a life sentence for what he did no possibility of parole so it's unlikely I'll ever see him again, I was adopted a few months later by my current parents, they were desperate enough for a kid to travel to New York to adopt one, despite being warned about my mental scars they adopted me regardless." Chloe reached into her deck and produced her two Silent Magicians. "I know it sounds weird but during those years I read numerous fantasy novels as a way to escape from reality, stories featuring swords and sorcery where always my favourites hence the theme of my deck, when I was adopted by my dad he gave me my first duel monsters deck at the age of seven though I didn't start playing until I turned seventeen, and in a way I see my Magicians as the manifestations of me as a kid and my mother when she was alive which is why I use them in my deck."

"I met her shortly after she started playing." Lance chimed in. "We had entered a local tournament for different reasons, her to test out her deck and me to outdo my brother, long story, we ended up fighting in the first round and well, to put it simply she was learning the rules as she went along against a two year veteran, it was so one sided it wasn't even funny, the only good thing that came out of it was that after I defeated her we became friends."

"And I told him and his brother the same story I just told you guys because I had freaked out during the duel similar to when I freaked out during the duel against you." Chloe said looking at Theresa after she said the last part. "Lance has been like a brother to me ever since."

"Chloe, I'm sorry that I made that challenge, I should've..." Theresa shook her head.

"Its fine, you wanted the match anyway remember." Chloe pointed out before returning the magicians to her deck. "But if you don't mind, I'd prefer it if this information didn't get spread around the other dorms."

"Our lips are sealed." Brandon said handing her a handkerchief for her eyes. "Same goes for the teachers?"

"No, the teachers can't find out." Theresa said folding her arms. "Think about it, if they find out about this they might hold her back a year out of concern for her mental state."

"Or worse, kick her out for the same reason." Lance nodded. "If they do find out than at the very least Chloe should be the one to tell them, who knows? Maybe that'll convince them that despite that her mental state is sound enough for her to stay."

"We won't find out until she gets enough courage to do so and something tells me that won't be for quite some time." Brandon said checking the time on the clock. "We're due for class in a few minutes but it's with the Ra Yellow headmaster, I don't think he'll mind us being a little late so that Chloe can calm down."

"How do we explain it to him?" Lance asked.

"It's not often an Osiris Red gets challenged by an Obelisk Blue so it's safe to say that word has spread about the match, we'll just tell them that the match went on longer than expected." Theresa said sitting down.

"And if that doesn't work? Chloe's already in hot water thanks to the duel on the boat do you really think she wants to be in trouble for being late?" Lance pointed out as he finished his drink.

"We'll worry about that later." Brandon said before he left the room, as he unlocked it Theresa walked up to him.

"Brandon, can we talk outside?" Theresa asked Brandon nodded and led her outside; Theresa closed the door behind her. "How long do you think we can keep that a secret?"

"Honestly? I don't know, Duel Academy has trained shrinks on their payroll but getting her to visit them might be easier said than done." Brandon said folding his arms. "They'll find out sooner or later, for now we keep it between us, Lance and Chloe."

"Fine, though what she told us about will keep me up for quite some time." Theresa said with a shudder. "Sad part is, I get the feeling that was just the tip of the iceberg as far as the abuse goes."

"You think she has repressed memories? It wouldn't even surprise me." Brandon said shaking his head.

"Attention all students: the following students are late for class." A voice came over the PA system. "Lance Alvers, Chloe Richardson, Brandon Thomas and Theresa Daniels, that is all."

"Guess they've noticed." Brandon said with a frown. "And that means they'll be checking Chloe and Lance's rooms in Osiris Red and Ra Yellow at some point."

"Let's hope that Chloe calms down before that happens." Theresa said.

"And if she doesn't? Lance was right to point out that the last thing she needs is more trouble." Theresa said and Brandon frowned.

"We'll think of something." Brandon said, just as he said that the door opened and Chloe and Lance stepped out.

"She's ready for class; hopefully no one will notice that she's been crying." Lance said, Brandon nodded and the two Obelisk Blue students led them to class.


	5. Consequences

Lance moaned as he plopped down on his bed, it had been an hour since Chloe's duel with Theresa and due to them being late the Ra Yellow Headmaster had "volunteered" them to be the first to try the obstacle course as part of the gym class, luckily no one had noticed that Chloe had been crying recently and the Ra Yellow headmaster had brought the story about the duel running long.

"_Even though certain Obelisk Blue students didn't believe it."_ Lance thought before resting his hands behind his head. _"I'm even more surprised that no one noticed the scar on Chloe's arm since we were required to take off our blazers."_ Lance thought, his train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Come in!" Lance called out, the door opened and Marcus entered.

"Hey dude, how did the duel between Chloe and Theresa go?" Marcus asked.

"As one sided as you'd expect towards the end but she held her own at first." Lance said with a shrug. "I also saw Theresa's Armed Dragon cards as well."

"Did she bring out Level 10?" Marcus asked and Lance nodded. "Man, that's the only Armed Dragon card I don't have."

"It packs a punch, that's for sure." Lance nodded. "So did you come here to just talk about Chloe's duel with Theresa?"

"Actually no, Brandon asked me to bring you this." Marcus said handing over a Duel Request form, Lance blinked.

"Guess it was just a matter of time." Lance said taking the request form and reading through it thoroughly. _"Good, no history revealing stipulations."_ Lance thought remembering the stipulations to Chloe's duel.

"Oh and the Ra Yellow headmaster wants to see you." Marcus said causing Lance to sit up from the surprise.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU MENTION THAT FACT SOONER?" Lance said a look of dread on his face.

"I forgot." Marcus shrugged and Lance facepalmed.

"Never mind, where's his office?" Lance asked.

"First floor, four doors down from the cafeteria." Marcus said stepping aside as Lance rushed out the door, Lance ran down the stairs narrowly avoiding the other Ra Yellow students and made his way to the Ra Yellow headmaster's office which was a fairly spacious one.

"I see you got my message." Jeff said putting some paperwork aside. "So, how are you finding Ra Yellow so far?"

"Err, pretty well." Lance said unsure. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes I did." The Ra Yellow Headmaster said with a frown. "Lance you know you can share anything with the staff members right? Same goes for your friends."

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Lance asked more than a little unsure of what he meant.

"The reason I asked is because during gym class I noticed a large scar on Chloe's arm, and I wasn't the only one." The Ra Yellow Headmaster said and Lance gulped. "Several other students, including Marcus, Andreas and Rajin, spotted the scar during her obstacle course run."

"She got it from a fall during her duel with Theresa." Lance said thinking quickly.

"Lance, I'm no medical professional by any stretch of the imagination and even I could tell that the scar was very old and couldn't off been caused by a fall." Jeff said folding his arms. "I don't appreciate being lied too."

"It's...it's a long story." Lance said with a wince.

"You're not leaving this room until I hear it." Jeff said assertively. "And believe me that was my last class of the day so you'll be here all day."

"Fine, what do you want to know?" Lance sighed.

"I just want the truth." Jeff said standing up and closing the door. "Brandon, Theresa and Chloe are being asked about it by their respective headmasters as we speak so one way or another we'll find out."

"This info won't leave the room, right?" Lance asked leaning against the door.

"You have my word." The Ra Yellow headmaster said, Lance sighed.

"I'll give you the abridged version, Chloe was adopted by her current parents, who you know as your former rival and his wife, and prior to that she lived in New York where she...was abused by her biological dad." Lance said plainly.

"How long have you known about it?" Jeff asked unable to hide his disgust.

"Since I met her at a tournament, I know I lied about knowing her since childhood but..." Lance trailed off.

"I understand, both your reluctance to tell me outright and lying about how long you've known her." Jeff said with a frown. "I'll have to talk with my colleagues to see if..."

"To see if she's too mentally scarred to stay at the school?" Lance asked. "That was the reason I didn't want to tell you."

"No, that's not what I meant at all; aside from her temper she hasn't shown any violent tendencies." Jeff shook his head. "Look Lance, I understand why you wanted to keep that a secret but someone was bound to notice that scar at some point."

"I know." Lance said running a hand through his hair. "You couldn't ignore it though?"

"Not a scar that big." Jeff shook his head. "You're free to go." Jeff said picking the paperwork back up, Lance left the room and went back up to his room where he saw Marcus.

"Hey man, how did the talk with Jeff go..." Marcus never finished as Lance pushed him against the wall and pinned him there. "Hey, what the hell is your problem?"

"You told him about the scar, that's what." Lance said angrily.

"Scar? What scar...oh THAT scar." Marcus said as realization hit him. "Look I wasn't the only one that told him about it."

"I know." Lance's eyes narrowed. "But I had to tell him where Chloe's scar came from, something I had zero intention of doing."

"I...I just assumed that she had gotten into a fight as a kid that's all." Marcus said, by this point Andreas had come out of his room to investigate the noise.

"Lance, Marcus, what is this about?" Andreas asked.

"That scar wasn't caused by a fight." Lance growled. "And believe me Andreas I'm just as pissed off at you for telling him."

"Lance, I didn't mean any harm I swear." Marcus pleaded. "Why the hell are you getting so worked about it up anyway, she's hardly the first kid to get injured growing up?"

"Because that scar was inflicted on her by her dad..." Lance covered his mouth when the words came out; needless to say Andreas and Marcus looked equally as shocked.

"Oh, oh crap." Marcus said as it dawned on him. "Look dude, if I had known..."

"Forget it." Lance said letting go of Marcus and storming into his room.

"Lance, please wait! Let's talk about this!" Andreas called after him but it was no use. "No one else needs to know about that, understand?"

"I understand perfectly." Marcus said straightening out his blazer. "Damn it, I show concern for one of my friends and her other friend flips out about it." Marcus said before getting an idea. "Lance, I know you are pissed off at me but I know a way to work out your frustrations that won't end with me and Andreas in the infirmary."

"How do you suggest I do that?" Lance called out.

"By accepting the duel request from Brandon...hey look here is now!" Marcus looked up to see Brandon approaching them.

"Lance, what happened to not telling anyone?" Brandon called through the door.

"The teacher forced me okay?" Lance called out. "I had no other choice...wait does..."

"Chloe knows and Theresa's hard at work trying to stop her crying over at the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm." Brandon said clearly angry. "Damn it man, what happened to the brother/sister relationship you had?"

"It's not like I told him right away, I tried to lie my way out of it but he had none of it." Lance said opening the door. "Look, arguing about it isn't getting us anywhere..." Lance was cut off by a punch to the jaw from Brandon sending him to the ground. "Okay, I deserved that." Lance admitted forcing himself up. "And if you want to punch anyone punch them, they were among the ones that reported the scar."

"Maybe, but they didn't betray a friend's trust." Brandon said folding his arms. "But your right, arguing won't work, what do you suggest instead?"

"You sent me a duel request form; consider this my way of telling you that the challenge is accepted." Lance said rubbing his sore jaw. "You win, I apologize to Chloe..."

"No, you'll apologize to her either way." Brandon said folding his arms. "I win, you carry her textbooks for a week to show how sorry you are, and no you can't stuff them in your backpack either, you win...I don't know but either way you'd better have a way to make it up to her." Brandon said turning to Marcus and Andreas. "Did he tell you?"

"Well blurted it out due to threatening to kick my ass would be more accurate." Marcus said shaking his head. "We're keeping our lips sealed about it."

"Good." Brandon said. "At least someone is, meet me on the Obelisk Blue duel field in five minutes, and don't forget your deck." Brandon added before walking off.

"Damn it." Lance cursed as he went into his room to retrieve his deck and duel disk. "This wouldn't have happened if you had kept your mouths shut guys."

"I know, we're sorry about it as well." Marcus said with a sigh. "Look, my dad's a social worker and he's dealt with cases like Chloe's before, maybe I can get him to put in a good word with the teachers."

"He's never even met Chloe." Andreas was quick to point out as Lance came out of his room. "You want us to come with you?"

"Yeah, there's a good chance that Theresa's just as pissed off at me as Brandon is." Lance said before pausing. "And for the sake of my ability to reproduce, don't mention that you know about the abuse Chloe suffered."

"Got it." Marcus nodded.

"Did you consider that Brandon might have told her?" Andreas asked as the three boys climbed down the stairs.

"Good point." Lance winced as they left the dorm and made their way to the centre of the island. _"Maybe I can get there without Theresa noticing me."_ Lance thought as he approached the building.

"Lance." A familiar feminine voice rang out and Lance winced.

"Theresa's behind me isn't she?" Lance asked his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Yup, she is." Marcus answered.

"How angry is she?" Lance asked.

"Very angry indeed, in short you're screwed." Andreas said and Lance winced before slowly turning around.

"Oh hi there Theresa, how's Chloe?" Lance asked with a gulp at the angry looking Obelisk Blue student.

"I finally got her to stop crying, no thanks to you." Theresa said shaking her head, Lance gulped audibly.

"I can explain..." Lance started but Theresa shook his head.

"No need, Brandon sent me a text with a summary of your explanation." Theresa said with a frown. "Come on, they won't let you into the duel field without me being present." Theresa said leading the three students to the duel field. "Damn it Lance, I thought you said that you and Chloe where like siblings?"

"I did, but I...the Ra Yellow Headmaster wasn't going to let me go unless I told him and I tried lying to him." Lance said with a sigh. "If it helps I'm ready to apologize to her."

"At least you're willing to owe up to your mistake." Theresa said. "She's at the duel field; I left her there to get us a drink."

"Crap..." Lance winced as they entered the duel field; Brandon was waiting for them at the other end of the field. _"Huh, there's no sign of Chloe, maybe this won't be so bad..."_ Lance thought.

"Lance." Chloe's voice rang out from above them; Lance looked up and saw his friend glaring at him.

"_I really need to stop testing my luck."_ Lance thought. "Chloe, I can explain..."

"Save it." Chloe interrupted and Lance winced.

"Is everyone going to treat me like dirt?" Lance asked.

"We're not." Marcus and Andreas pointed out.

"I meant everyone who didn't mention the scar to the teacher." Lance amended his statement. "Fuck it; I have a duel to win." Lance said activating his duel disk and stepping onto the duel field.

"You don't get it, do you Lance?" Brandon said activating his own duel disk. "Three of the faculty members know about...well you know." Brandon said folding his arms. "Hell Chloe broke down in tears when her dorm's headmistress mentioned your name."

"I know I fucked up but my dorm's headmaster pretty much forced me to spill the beans." Lance said as he drew his opening hand.

"If you're going to keep blaming the teacher then I guess I'll have to beat some sense into you." Brandon said drawing his hand, whilst they were arguing Marcus, Theresa and Andreas took seats in the bleachers.

"Damn it, we should've kept our mouths shut." Marcus said frustrated.

"It doesn't matter." Theresa said sitting next to Chloe. "Maybe I should've leant her one of my long sleeve tops in preparation for gym class but that's behind us."

"I'll go first." Brandon said drawing his first card. "I set three cards facedown and I summon Dark Scorpion Menea the Thorn in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and a woman with waist length brown hair and brown eyes appeared on the field clad in a black and red bodysuit and carrying a whip appeared on the field (4/1000/1800).

"She's the best you've got?" Lance blinked.

"Maybe not but this spell card will help, it's called Burden of the Mighty." Brandon said playing the card. "Now for each level it has your monster will lose a hundred attack points."

"WHAT?" Lance yelled. "No matter, the monsters in my hand are still strong enough to beat her."

"Maybe, maybe not, for now I'll end my turn." Brandon said and Lance drew his card.

"I summon Solar Flare Dragon in attack mode." Lance played the card and a red dragon seemingly made from flames appeared on the field (4/1500/1000) and true to Brandon's word the Dragon's attack dropped to 1100. "And to counteract your cards effect I activate the field spell card Molten Destruction." Lance said playing the card.

"I don't think so; I activate Magic Drain, now as long as you don't have a spell card in your hand the effect of Molten Destruction is negated." Lance frowned and sent Molten Destruction to the graveyard.

"So what? I have two more copies in my deck." Lance said folding his arms. "And even without it Solar Flare Dragon's still strong enough to destroy Menea, attack!" Lance's dragon breathed fire at the female monster...

"Sorry Lance but my Negate Attack trap card says otherwise." Brandon said activating his trap and the flames bounced off an invisible forcefield. "Now I activate my other trap, Ultimate Offering, as long as this is on the field I can pay 500 lifepoints to special summon a monster from my hand and I think I'll do just that and summon Don Zaloog in attack mode." Brandon activated his other trap and a silver haired man wearing a similar outfit to Menae appeared alongside her, he was holding a pair of daggers (4/1400/1500).

"So you have a slightly more powerful monster on your side of the field, why should I worry?" Lance asked and Brandon shook his head.

"Lance, most of your deck consists of effect monsters, I thought you'd understand." Brandon said.

"So they have an effect, should I worry?" Lance asked before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and call it a turn, and when I do Solar Flare Dragon takes off five hundred points of damage from your lifepoints." Brandon winced as the Dragon breathed fire at him.

B: 7000

L: 8000

"Well played, and now we have reached the fun part of my duels." Brandon said drawing a card. "I activate Mustering of the Dark Scorpions which allows me to summon Don and Menae's partners in crime as long as they are in my hand so say hello to Gorg The Strong, Chick The Yellow and Cliff the Trap Remover."

"NO WAY! YOU'RE SUMMONING THREE MONSTERS IN THE SAME TURN?" Lance asked his eyes wide.

"That's pretty much it." Brandon said playing the cards, alongside Don appeared a tall muscular bald man wielding a hammer (5/1800/1500), a scrawny looking man with blonde spiked up hair (3/1000/1000) and a fairly muscular man wearing glasses who had short brown hair (3/1200/1000), all clad in the same outfit as Don and Menae and all looking at Lance with hatred which confused him to no end. "And just for the icing on the cake I'll think I'll activate Lightning Vortex destroying, at the cost of the only card in my hand, a second Burdon of the Mighty, Solar Flare Dragon." Brandon discarded the card and lightning struck Solar Flare Dragon causing the hologram to shatter.

"This is going to suck." Lance gulped as he sent Solar Flare Dragon to the graveyard.

"You have no idea; go my Dark Scorpions attack Lance's lifepoints directly!" All five Dark Scorpions charged at him and attacked Lance at once, once they stopped attack Lance dropped to his knees and watched his lifepoints plummet.

B: 7000

L: 600

"Holy shit that was brutal!" Marcus muttered as Lance slowly got up.

"Don't forget about my monster's effects." Brandon said pointing to Don. "First Don Zaloog can force you to either discard a card from your hand or I can force you to discard two cards from your deck, I think I'll choose your hand." Lance winced and discarded the card. "Next up is Menae's effect, she lets me search for another Dark Scorpion card and I'll choose a second Gorg The Strong." Brandon said adding it to his hand. "Now for Chick The Yellow's effect, I can look at one card from the top of your deck and send it to either the top or the bottom of your deck." Lance reluctantly tossed the card at Brandon who caught it. "Lightning Vortex? You can put this at the bottom." He said tossing it back at Lance and he did so. "And guess what? Gorg has the same effect as Don does for decks except I can only remove one." Lance sent the top card from his deck to the graveyard. "Last but not least Cliff let's me send two more cards from the top of your deck to the graveyard." Lance winced but did so.

"Are you done?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, just thought I'd show you how it felt." Lance went to draw his card but hesitated.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lance demanded.

"To be attacked by your friend." Brandon said and Lance growled clenching his fist.

"How dare you? I'd never lay a finger on Chloe!" Lance said drawing his card.

"I know but I didn't mean physically, I meant emotionally." Brandon said folding his arms. "We get it, your teacher pressured you into telling him the truth but the truth hurts, especially when it's about someone with her past." Brandon said and Lance's eyes widened.

"Shit, what...what have I done?" Lance said as his eyes started to water. "I didn't mean to make her upset."

"I know Lance." Brandon nodded. "But the fact remains that you owe her an apology."

"Chloe, I know you're pissed off at me and quite frankly I can't blame you but I know that no amount of pleading can take back what I said but...can you forgive me?" Lance called out to her, she hesitated before nodding.

"Apology accepted." Chloe shouted back. "Just kick his ass and we'll call it even."

"I'll try." Lance said looking at his newly drawn card. "Mind if I look at my graveyard?"

"Knock yourself out." Brandon nodded and looked at it, he grinned when he saw one card.

"Oh you're going to regret sending this card to the graveyard." Lance grinned. "I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back a monster you sent to the graveyard via Gorg's effect, Thestalos The Firestrom Monarch!" Lance played the card and Thestalos climbed out of the ground (6/2400/1000) and due to Burden of the Mighty's effect its attack dropped to 1800.

"Good move but Burden of the Mighty means it can go toe to toe with Gorg and his other effect lets me send cards back to my opponent's hand." Brandon grinned.

"I'm not concerned with that card, not with my newly drawn Mystical Space Typhoon!" Lance played the card and a tornado ripped through the hologram of Burden of the Mighty. "Thanks for letting me draw that card so soon Brandon." Lance taunted as Brandon discarded the card and Thestalos' attack returned to normal. "Next I remove my Solar Flare Dragon from my graveyard to summon Inferno in attack mode!" Lance removed the dragon and a small flame with blue eyes and a mouth appeared on the field (4/1100/1900).

"That's supposed to worry me?" Brandon asked raising an eyebrow.

"It will in a minute." Lance said. "Thestalos attack Gorg, Inferno attack Menae." The two monsters charged, Thestalos with a fire encased fist which slammed into Gorg and Inferno incinerated Menae.

"Not bad." Brandon said before looking at his lifepoints.

B: 4800

L: 600

"Hey what gives? Inferno's attack isn't 2600!" Brandon demanded.

"True, but Inferno has an effect of its own and it's a nasty one." Lance grinned. "When it destroys a monster as a result of battle it deals 1500 points of damage to your lifepoints on top of the damage you already received."

"I don't believe it; Lance might make the comeback of the century!" Marcus said folding his arms. "Guess that attack by the Dark Scorpions knocked some sense into him!"

"If that happens I'll eat Marcus' porn stash." Andreas added.

"How...how did..." Marcus stammered.

"I didn't." Andreas smirked.

"As for the rest of my move, I'll set a monster in defence and a card facedown and end my turn." Lance played the cards and Brandon drew his card.

"I sacrifice Chick the Yellow to bring out my second Gorg The Strong." Brandon said as Chick The Yellow disappeared from the field and in its place stood a second Gorg. "Gorg, finish Lance off, ATTACK INFERNO!" Gorg charged at Inferno.

"Thanks Brandon, you've triggered my trap card Shift which lets me chose your target." Lance flipped up the card and Gorg stopped in its tracks.

"So you're choosing Thestalos?" Brandon asked and Lance shook his head.

"What did Hamden say about thinking outside the box? Your new target is my facedown card!" Lance said as Gorg charged at Lance's facedown.

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Brandon pointed out as Gorg slammed his hammer into the facedown monster revealing a strange turtle/UFO hybrid (4/1400/1200). "Lance, what the hell was that?"

"That was UFO Turtle." Lance said holding up the card. "When it's destroyed in battle it lets me summon one fire monster with 1500 attack or less." Lance sent the card to the graveyard and picked up another card.

"I still don't see how that's supposed to..." Brandon said before it dawned on him. "Unless you card's Ultimate Baseball Kid!"

"Bingo!" Lance said playing the card as the young kid in baseball gear appeared on the field. (3/500/1000) and just like that the kid's attack jumped to 2500.

"Big deal, I have two other cards that can destroy Inferno and bring Ultimate Baseball Kid's attack down to 1500, GO DON ZALOOG!" Don charged at Inferno and Lance smirked.

"Not with my other card, go Waboku!" Lance said activating the card and Don was stopped by three priestesses.

"Why didn't you activate it earlier when my Dark Scorions did a number on your lifepoints?" Brandon asked.

"Honestly? I don't know." Lance shrugged as Don returned to Brandon's side of the field.

"Whatever the case I'll end my turn." Brandon said as Lance drew a card and smiled.

"Now things get interesting, I activate the Spell Card Soul of Fire." Lance said playing the card. "Here's how it works, first you get to draw an extra card." Brandon shrugged and drew his card.

"And you're being so helpful, why?" Brandon asked.

"Because in exchange I can select one fire type monster in my deck and send it to the graveyard in exchange for dealing half of that monster's attack to your lifepoints, and I think my Lava Golem (8/3000/2500) will do nicely." Lance sent the card to the graveyard and Brandon winced.

B: 3300

L: 600

"Fortunately for you I can't attack on the same turn that I use Soul of Fire so instead I'll summon Great Angus to the field and sacrifice him for Baseball Kids other effect." Lance said as the beast appeared on the field on to be turned into a baseball and Baseball Kid launched it and Brandon.

B: 2800

L: 600

"That ends my turn." Lance said as Brandon drew his new card.

"You really should've attacked dude because now I can finish you off!" Brandon said picking up his card. "My next card can only be summoned if I have three Dark type monsters in my graveyard and I have just that: my first Gorg, Menae and Chick the Yellow." Brandon played the card. "Say hello to Dark Armed Dragon!" Brandon played the card and a massive, snake like dragon appeared in the air above the field completely covered in armour (7/2800/1000).

"Okay, that's pretty impressive." Lance gulped.

"Not only that Lance, but he has an effect as well, by removing a dark type monster from my graveyard I can destroy one monster and I chose Thestalos!" Brandon said removing Chick The Yellow from the graveyard and Dark Armed Dragon slammed its tail into Thestalos destroying it, Lance gulped as Ultimate Baseball Kid's attack dropped to 1500. "Dark Armed Dragon attack Ultimate Baseball Kid!" Dark Armed Dragon raised its tail again and slammed it into Baseball Kid finishing the duel.

B: 2800

L: 0000

As the holograms disappeared Brandon approached a disappointed Lance. "Look man, we both said and did things we regret during that duel and even before it but...friends?" Brandon said offering his hand; Lance smirked and shook it firmly.

"Yeah, we're good." Lance smirked.

"That was a great duel guys!" Marcus said approaching them.

"I concur." The teens blinked and looked up seeing the Obelisk Blue Headmaster who was applauding them. "That was one of the finest inter dorm duels I've seen." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster looked around and spotted Chloe. "Let me guess, the duel had something to do with Mr. Alvers revealing Ms. Richardson's' past?"

"Well I sent him the request before that happened but the duel ended up being about that in the end." Brandon said and the Obelisk Blue headmaster nodded.

"I'm sorry if the decision to share the information between the headmasters caused issues between you two, honestly it was out of concern for her mental state than anything else." The headmaster said but Lance shook his head.

"No it's my fault; I should've kept my mouth shut." Lance said deactivating his duel disk.

"No we should've kept our mouths shut." Andreas said approaching them.

"Are they going to argue about everything?" Chloe asked and Theresa sighed.

"Chloe, you have no idea how the male mind operates." Theresa said shaking her head.

"It doesn't matter, what does matter is that, well, you'll see a bit later in the week." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster said leaving before anyone could ask what he meant; when he left Chloe left the bleachers and approached the two male duellists.

"Lance...I..." Chloe trailed off.

"Hey relax." Lance said sitting on the edge of the duel field. "I already apologized so if you want to be mad at anyone be mad at the teachers...or Andreas and Marcus."

"Gee thanks." Marcus muttered.

"I know but..." Chloe trailed off. "I should be the one apologizing for not letting you explain."

"Forget it, if we keep playing the blame game we'll be here all day." Brandon said pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yes, even if Lance was kind of a dumbass for not coming up with a cover story."

"Oh ha, ha, ha, very funny, I think I might break a rib from laughing so hard." Lance rolled his eyes. "Besides you punched me."

"You earned it." Brandon said before checking his watch. "Well, I don't have classes for the rest of the day so what about you guys?"

"My schedules free for the day, why do you ask?" Lance asked.

"Well you still have to carry my textbooks as per the deal." Chloe said getting her textbooks from her backpack.

"I was hoping you had forgotten." Lance sweatdropped as Chloe dropped the books into his lap.

"Yeah, nice try but not nearly good enough." Chloe grinned. "But since you apologized I'll only make you carry them for the rest of the week."

Whilst they were chatting the Obelisk Blue Headmaster observed them from a doorway that connected the duel field to the rest of the main building, with him where the headmasters for Osiris Red and Ra Yellow.

"So, you think they're ready for this?" Jeff asked as he watched them. "I know Brandon and Theresa are good students and excellent duellists but it's Chloe and Lance that have me concerned, they've only been in the school for a few days."

"Chloe's shown a natural talent for duelling; it's just a little rough around the edges." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster said folding his arms. "Lance? Well he did hold his own against Brandon but his pride maybe an issue, he didn't want to admit that he had forgotten about his trap card when Brandon decimated his lifepoints."

"Yeah about that, I'm not exactly happy with you guys telling his friends." Jeff said folding his arms. "Or did you not notice the massive ass kicking he got on his second turn?"

"We noticed but that doesn't matter now." Maria said shaking her head. "What about Marcus and Andreas? I have no doubt that Marcus is ready but we have already selected Otto."

"So what? A bit of sibling rivalry will make things interesting." Professor Hamden shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe we'll get a rematch between Brandon and Lance during the event."

"Hmmm, that's an excellent point." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster nodded. "All right, who's teaching them next?"

"That would be me." Hamden nodded. "That's not until tomorrow so I'll let them know then."

"Good, not a word to them until then, understand?" The Obelisk Blue Headmaster said and the other teachers nodded.

"Are you sure? They could use the time to prep their decks." Jeff pointed out.

"True, they will be dealing with tournament level duellists and for all her natural talent Chloe's still a rookie." Hamden agreed.

"We'll see." The Obelisk Blue headmaster said as he watched the students leave. _"If only they knew what we had in store for them."_


	6. City of Battles

Lance entered the classroom and too his surprise found it mostly empty save for Chloe, Marcus, Andreas, Brandon, Theresa and, to his and Chloe's annoyance, Otto, Lance blinked before sitting down.

"I must be earlier than I thought." Lance commented.

"Nah, most of the other students are off sick." Marcus told him. "Though for some reason Hamden told us to stay put."

"And no, we still don't know the reason." Chloe said looking up at Lance. "You got my textbooks?"

"Right here, though I doubt you'll need them." Lance said dumping them onto her desk. "What's in them anvils? Those things weigh a ton!"

"Stop complaining, you need the exercise!" Chloe answered back with a smirk.

"Yes, especially after that crushing defeat courtesy of Brandon." Otto said with a smirk.

"Otto, does the school pay you to be the most annoying student or do you do it for free?" Lance asked with a smirk.

"Cute." Otto muttered under his breath.

"Hey calm down you two, the teacher could be back at any time." Brandon said sternly.

"Oh come on, it's not like the headmasters for the three dorms are going to enter the room..." Marcus started only to be cut off by the three headmasters entering the room. "Is it me or do we have a talent for tempting fate?" Marcus asked as the other student's facepalmed.

"Ah good to see you've joined us Lance." Hamden said sitting on the desk. "I originally planned a regular class but everyone but you guys called in sick so we're cutting to the chase." As Hamden said this the Ra and Obelisk Blue headmasters set up a projector at the back of the room.

"We're not going to regret that decision right?" Chloe asked and the teachers shook their heads.

"No, you won't regret it at all." Hamden said as the other two teachers gave them the A-OK to start the presentation, it started on a shot of the highlights of the duel between Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba at the original Battle City. "As most of you know Yugi Moto defended his title as King of Games at the first Battle City tournament and they've been running yearly ever since in a variety of cities all over the world."

"And your point is?" Otto asked impatiently leaning back on his chair. "We don't need a duel monsters history lesson."

"If you would let us finish you'd know Otto." Hamden said with a frown. "This year Duel Academy has been asked to sponsor the Battle City tournament, as a result we have been asked to nominate seven students who we consider to be the best and brightest to participate and we've nominated you." It took a few seconds for it to dawn on them and once it did they where understandably excited.

"Did you say best and brightest? If that was true then students from Ra Yellow and Osiris Red would be nowhere near this tournament!" And off course Otto was there to spoil the mood.

"Can we leave him behind?" Chloe asked and Otto growled.

"Now, now students don't fight." Maria said folding her arms. "When Hamden said best and brightest he meant from all three dorms."

"So, why am I the only Osiris Red in the group?" Chloe asked. "Actually, I just answered my own question haven't I?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Hamden shrugged. "Now kids, this won't be all fun and games as there will be tournament level duellists competing."

"So in other words no one will be surprised when Chloe is among the first to be eliminated." Otto smirked earning him a glare from Chloe.

"Ignoring the German idiot in blue when does the tournament start?" Lance asked.

"Two weeks from now, I expect the eight of you to use this time to train when you're not studying and try not the get in any fights, yes that means you Otto." The Obelisk Blue headmaster said folding his arms. "We want you kids to do the school proud in this tournament; if even half of you make it to the Semi Finals you would have done the school proud."

"So no pressure in other words." Chloe muttered sarcastically. "Do our parents know about this?"

"We cleared it with them before we entered the room." The Ra Yellow Headmaster reassured her. "And as for where the tournament is taking place this year, well its taking place in New York this year." Chloe tensed up at that.

"What's up with her?" Marcus whispered to Lance.

"She used to live in New York with her biological parents." Lance whispered back and Marcus winced.

"Ah, that explains a lot." Marcus whispered back.

"I don't care where the tournament's being held, I'll walk away from it after I win it." Otto said arrogantly.

"Or you'll walk away humiliated after I eliminate you." Chloe responded and Otto growled.

"Okay, that's it." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster said pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Any more arguments between you two from now until the start of the tournament and neither of you will participate, am I clear?"

"Yes sir." Chloe gulped nervously.

"Dear teacher, can't you see that if anyone should be left behind it's her?" Otto protested and Chloe bit her lip. "She's the least experienced out of all of us and it's inevitable that she'll be the first one to be eliminated so why waste her time by including her?"

"I won't leave her out of this tournament because this tournament will double as a learning experience for all of you, regardless of experience, skill level or what dorm they're in." The headmaster said folding his arms. "Don't forget Otto, you where once a rookie yourself."

"No further comment." Otto said through gritted teeth. _"No matter, I'll eliminate her myself during the tournament,"_

"So you won't hold it against us if we don't reach the Semi Finals?" Marcus asked.

"No but as we said if even half of you make it to the semi-finals we'll be proud of you." Hamden said before frowning. "Before you ask, no you won't be in New York unsupervised; the four teachers in this room will be accompanying all of you on the trip."

"Well, there goes my plan to hit the strip clubs." Lance joked getting a laugh out of the other students and some of the teachers. "So who will fill in for you guys?"

"We have substitute teachers who will fill in for us during the tournament and assistants who will run the dorms whilst we're gone." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster answered before he and the other teachers started to leave. "As for you students, you have the rest of the day off to prepare for the tournament and do any overdue homework assignments; I know Hamden is waiting on several of you." He added before the he and the other teachers left.

"So what do we do now?" Lance asked. "Head back to our dorms and get our duel disks?"

"Unlike you amateurs I don't need to prepare for the tournament." Otto said as he got up and started to leave.

"Don't come crying to us when you get eliminated." Brandon called after him but by then he had left. "As for the students who don't have their heads up their asses, I suggest getting your duel disks and meeting me and Theresa outside the Obelisk Blue boy's dorm, and saving up for that matter because as soon as we're in New York me and Theresa will be on the lookout for any card shops so we can update our decks."

"I wish I could help there but I haven't been in New York in ten years so I don't know if any of the shops I visited whilst I was at the orphanage are still open." Chloe said plainly.

"Don't worry; I think we'll be able to find our way around no problem." Brandon reassured her.

"Brandon, do you even know how big a city New York is?" Chloe asked him and Brandon sweatdropped.

"Err, no." Brandon said rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"Just as I thought, luckily for you I do." Chloe said with a sigh.

"Yeah, even though you haven't been there in ten years." Marcus said shaking his head. "So in short, we'll be like dears in the headlights come tournament time."

"How about we worry about finding our way around the city when the tournament starts?" Theresa said annoyed as she and Brandon got up to head to the duel field. "We'll see you at the duel field once you have your duel disks."

"Guess we'd better get our duel disks." Lance said standing up and leaving, the others quickly followed him and they made their way to their respective dorms and Lance, Andreas and Marcus went to their respective rooms, as Lance retrieved his duel disk he frowned. _"Knowing our luck we'll have to catch up on a shitload of work once the tournament's over, still I'm not complaining."_ Lance thought before looking through his deck. _"Maybe I should get rid of Soul of Fire, that card did ultimately cost me the match against Brandon."_ Lance thought before shaking his head. _"Then again its effect is pretty damn useful."_ Lance thought before putting his deck in his duel disk and leaving his room and saw Marcus and Andreas waiting for him. "Guys, I've been meaning to apologize for what happened yesterday..."

"Forget it man, its cool." Marcus told him as the three of them made their way to the stairwell. "I'd probably be looking to kick some ass if I were in your shoes anyway."

"What he said." Andreas said as they left the Ra Yellow dorm and made their way to the centre of the island where they spotted Chloe making her way to the main building.

"Hey Chloe." Lance said running up to the Osiris Red Student, she looked up and smirked. "So, ready for the tournament."

"If I had a time machine I would be." Chloe joked as the four students entered the building. "Truth be told though, I am feeling a bit out of place since I'll be the only Osiris Red student competing."

"Yeah, against three students from Ra Yellow and three students from Obelisk Blue, though I do know that you've been wanting a rematch with Otto since your duel on the ship got cut short." Lance said and Chloe frowned.

"Am I really the easy to read? Don't answer that." Chloe said as they made their way to the Obelisk Blue duel field only to be stopped by campus security.

"Sorry kids, only Obelisk Blue students are allowed in here." The security guard said, before either of the students could protest Theresa came up behind the guards.

"Let them in, they're with me and Brandon." She told the guard who looked at her funny.

"Well, if you say so." The guard shrugged before letting them through.

"Sorry about that, we almost forgot about that rule." Theresa apologized as they made there way to the duel field.

"It's cool." Lance shrugged. "So how do we decide who's duelling?"

"We draw straws." Brandon said holding up six straws. "Whoever gets the shortest and longest straws will duel."

"You're kidding?" Lance sweatdropped.

"No I'm not, so draw!" Brandon said and the students drew their straws. "And our first duel is between...Chloe and Marcus!"

"Sweet, I wanted a match with you anyway!" Marcus said with a grin as they stepped onto the duel field.

"Well, I hope for your sake that you're not opposed to getting your ass kicked by a girl." Chloe grinned as the two of them activated their duel disks.

"How about we save the trash talk for the tournament?" Brandon asked sheepishly. "This is supposed to be a friendly contest."

"Chloe doesn't know the meaning of the term." Lance yelled from the bleachers.

"This is coming from the guy with Lava Golem in his deck?" Chloe shouted back.

"THAT'S A LOW BLOW!" Lance shouted back. "Besides you know I don't like using that thing's effect."

"Is she even paying attention to me?" Marcus asked sheepishly. "Hey Chloe, this isn't a shouting match with your boyfriend!"

"First of all, Lance isn't my boyfriend." Chloe said finally turning her attention to Marcus. "Second I would've thought you would be welcome to any delays to getting your ass kicked by a girl." Chloe smirked as she drew her opening hand.

"Let's see if you're still so confident after I beat you in this duel." Marcus said drawing his card.

"Theresa, I get the sneaking suspicion that any hopes of this being a friendly match just went out the window." Brandon sweatdropped as he listened to the trash talk.

"You sound surprised." Theresa said shaking her head. "Okay, who's going first?"

"I am." Chloe said drawing her card. _"Sweet, I was hoping to take this card out for a test drive ever since Dad gave it to me before I left for Duel Academy, I just need to draw the other card."_ Chloe thought before picking up another card. "I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode." Chloe said as her magician appeared on the field. (4/1000/1000).

"Not wasting any time huh?" Marcus asked.

"Nope, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." The holograms of her facedown cards appeared behind the magician and Marcus drew his card and Silent Magician's attack rose to 1500.

"I summon Masked Dragon in attack mode." Marcus played the card and a small silver and red dragon wearing a mask appeared on the field (4/1400/1100). "And I'll set these two cards down for later, your move." Chloe nodded as she drew her card.

"Silent Magician attack Masked Dragon!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician started charging it's attack. "But first I activate my facedown card Magician's Circle."

"I know what that does; I watched your duel with Otto remember?" Marcus said picking up his deck. "My monster of choice is Lord of Dragons!" Marcus played the card and a robed tanned man wearing what appeared to be armour made of dragons appeared on the field (4/1200/1100). "As long as he's on the field Dragons can't be targeted by the effects of Spell, Traps or Monster cards."

"And my monster of choice is A Man with Wdjat!" Chloe played the card and a man in a red robe appeared on the field (4/1600/1600). "And I'll change Silent Magician's target to Lord of Dragons." Chloe announced as Silent Magician turned her attention to the other spellcaster.

"Nice try but I activate my trap card Waboku which puts a stop to your attack." Marcus activated the card and the three priestesses appeared blocking Silent Magician's attack.

"Fine." Chloe muttered looking over the rest of her hand. "I'll call it a turn at that." Chloe said and Marcus drew his card causing Silent Magician's attack to rise to 2000.

"I set this card in defence mode and shift Lord of Dragons and Masked Dragon to defence mode." A hologram of the set monster appeared and Lord of Dragons and Masked Dragon knelt down. "That ends my turn." Chloe drew her card and smirked.

"Now that it's my standby phase I can activate Wdjat's effect which lets me have a look at your facedown monster." Chloe said as her robed spellcaster put his hands to his head only to stop.

"Did you forget about Lord of Dragon's effect so soon?" Marcus asked.

"Then I guess it's a good thing that neither he or Masked Dragon will be sticking around but first it's time I summoned a new addition to my deck, Allure Queen Level 3 in attack mode." Chloe played the card and a young woman in a red and black dress appeared on the field, she had light brown hair in a bun and was carrying a staff (3/500/500).

"That's a joke right?" Marcus asked facepalming. "That monster's stats are weak."

"Let's see if you're still laughing on my next turn." Chloe said with a smirk. "But for now, Silent Magician attack Masked Dragon, Wdjat attack Lord of Dragons!" Chloe commanded, Silent Magician fired a beam at Masked Dragon disintegrating it and Wdjat put his hand to his temple and started chanting in an unknown language, soon Lord of Dragons clutched its head in pain before disintegrating. "Luckily for you they were in defence mode." Chloe said but then noticed the grin on Marcus's face.

"That maybe true but by destroying Masked Dragon you have played right into my hand!" Marcus said sending the two monsters to the graveyard. "When Masked Dragon is destroyed in battle I can summon a Level Four or lower dragon monster from my deck and you may be familiar with this monster." Marcus said selecting a card. "Or at least it's grown up versions: meet Armed Dragon Level 3!" Marcus played the card and a tiny orange dragon in armour appeared in Masked Dragon's place (3/1200/900).

"If you think cute monsters will help you win this duel than your duelling the wrong girl." Chloe rolled her eyes. "Anyway I set a card facedown and end my turn." Marcus drew his card and Silent Magician's attack rose to 2500 and Armed Dragon started growing.

"During my standby phase I can level up Armed Dragon to its Level 5 stage." Marcus said playing the card and the massive dragon from Chloe's duel with Theresa appeared on the field (5/2400/1700). "Lucky for you I have no monsters that I can discard to destroy Silent Magician so instead I'll attack Allure Queen!" Armed Dragon took a deep breath.

"Sorry to disappoint you Marcus but I activate Shift, and your new target is A Man with Wdjat." Chloe said as the dragon turned it's attention to the robed spellcaster and breathed fire it him incinerating it.

M: 8000

C: 7200

"Ignoring the fact that that move makes as much sense as..." Marcus started but stopped when he saw Chloe's lifepoints shoot up to 8200. "HUH?"

"My other facedown card was Numinous Healer." Chloe said with a grin. "When I take damage as a result of battle this handy little trap gives me an extra 1000 lifepoints plus 500 more if I have another copy of it in the graveyard."

M: 8000

C: 8200

"Let me guess, you have two more copies in your deck?" Marcus frowned as Chloe sent her monster and trap cards to the graveyard. "Doesn't matter, you only gain a small lead with that move and now that he's destroyed a monster in battle I can level up Armed Dragon to his Level 7 form!" Marcus removed the card and played it's stronger version and the dragon appeared in the Armed Dragon's place (7/2800/1000).

"Crap." Chloe gulped as she saw the monster.

"Relax; I don't have level 10 in my deck." Marcus reassured her and Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. "I end my turn." Chloe drew her card and Allure Queen started growing.

"Now that it's my standby phase Allure Queen levels up to her Level 5 form." Chloe said playing the card and Allure Queen no longer had her hair tied up and one of her hands was on fire (5/1000/1000).

"Chloe, I know you're new to the game and all but seriously? The best you can do is a level five monster with 1000 attack points? I have level 4 monsters that are stronger than that thing!" Marcus said shaking his head.

"Really? Maybe you should give me a chance to explain her effect!" Chloe said catching his attention. "During my first Main Phase I can target one of your monsters, in this case Armed Dragon Level 7, and now if you try to attack her your dragon will bite the dust instead."

"She does know that Armed Dragon level 7's effect is similar to level 4's right?" Theresa whispered to Brandon.

"She'll find out soon enough." Brandon whispered back as Chloe looked at her new card.

"_Fusion Sword Marasamie Blade? I don't have any warrior type monsters to equip it too!"_ Chloe thought before adding it to her hand. "I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode." Chloe played the card and the two elves appeared (4/1900/800). "Silent Magician attack his defence." Silent Magician fired a beam at the facedown monster revealing it to be a humanoid dragon in armour (2/700/800) which was quickly disintegrated.

"Thanks Chloe that was my Troop Dragon!" Marcus grinned as he searched his deck. "And since you destroyed it I can summon another in defence mode!" Marcus played the card and shuffled his deck.

"Gemini Elf attack his Troop Dragon!" The elves fired simultaneous blasts at the dragon disintegrating it, Marcus searched his deck again and played his final Troop Dragon. "It's your turn Allure Queen, attack Troop Dragon!" Allure Queen nodded and fired a pulse from her staff disintegrating the dragon. "I end my turn but come next turn your Dragon's history!"

"I beg to differ." Marcus said drawing his card and as Silent Magician's attack rose to 3000 he grinned when he saw the card he drew. "Because now I can activate the effect of level 7, by discarding Dark Horus (8/3000/1800) my dragon can destroy all monsters on your side of the field that are weaker than or just as strong as the monster I discarded and the monster I discarded has an attack of 3000!"

"Oh, crap." Chloe gulped as Armed Dragon breathed fire at Chloe's monsters incinerating them all.

"And now that the coast is clear, Armed Dragon, attack her lifepoints!" Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire Chloe who grunted.

M: 8000

C: 5400

"That ends my turn." Marcus grinned as Chloe drew her card, her eyes lit up when she saw what she had drawn. "Draw something good?"

"You could say that." Chloe said playing the card. "First I activate Card of Sanctity allowing us to draw until we each have six cards in our hands." Chloe played the card and drew her cards as did Marcus, she drew three and Marcus drew two. "Next I summon Gearfried, the Iron Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played her card and the knight appeared on the field (4/1800/1600).

"Encase you haven't noticed my dragon's far stronger than Gearfried, and all it would take is one Spear Dragon (4/1900/0) for me to use my Dragon's effect again." Marcus grinned.

"I have noticed, that's why I'm letting my knight let loose." Chloe said picking up another card.

"You don't think..." Theresa trailed off.

"Well, if she's about to play what I think she's about to play than Marcus is in trouble." Brandon smiled.

"I activate the spell card Release Restraint." Chloe played the card and Gearfried's armour started to fall off. "This can only be activated when Gearfried the Iron Knight is on my side of the field and with it I can sacrifice him to bring out my strongest Warrior type monster, Gearfried The Swordmaster!" Chloe said removing Gearfried from the field and playing another card as the last piece of armour fell off revealing a muscular man with long black hair wearing only a kilt appeared on the field (7/2600/2200).

"Nice try but my dragon's still stronger!" Marcus pointed out.

"He won't be for long but first I activate my spell card Level Modulation, with it I can bring back Silent Magician level 4 from the graveyard in exchange for you drawing two cards." Marcus drew his cards and Silent Magician reappeared.

"I know what that card does and I also know that you can't attack or use its effect for this turn." Marcus said before it dawned on him. "Don't tell me you have Level Up in your hand!"

"You hit the nail on the head; I activate Level Up allowing me to bring out my strongest monster Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe played the card and Silent Magician grew into her adult form (8/3500/1000).

"Okay, now I'm worried." Marcus gulped.

"You should be because I have one more card in my hand to play." Chloe said playing the card. "The equip spell card Fusion Sword Murasame Blade, and since Swordmaster can be equipped with spell cards unlike its weaker form it gains 800 attack points AND his effect kicks in!" Chloe equipped the card to Swordmaster and its attack jumped to 3400 and Gearfried charged at Armed Dragon. "When Swordmaster is equipped with a equip card I can destroy one monster on your side of the field."

"WAIT WHAT?" Marcus yelled but it was too late as with a mighty leap Gearfried decapitated his dragon.

"Did I mention that they still have their attacks?" Chloe asked and Marcus gulped.

"Is it too late to talk about this?" Marcus gulped as the two monsters got ready to strike.

"Sorry Marcus but yes it is." Chloe said pointing to her monsters. "Silent Magician, Gearfried, attack his lifepoints directly." Silent Magician charged up her staff and fired a beam at Marcus whilst Gearfried slashed at him with his sword.

M: 1100

C: 5400

"You okay Marcus?" Chloe asked as the Ra Yellow student got to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm good." Marcus winced; Chloe nodded and motioned for him to take his turn. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn."

"Then I guess it's over." Chloe said drawing her card. "Silent Magician attack his defence." Chloe commanded and Silent Magician sent it's beam at the monster revealing a Komouri Dragon (4/1500/1200) which was quickly destroyed. "Gearfried, finish it!" Gearfried charged at Marcus and slashed him.

M: 0000

C: 5400

"And Chloe's the winner, though Marcus's ego may never recover!" Brandon announced as Marcus slowly got up.

"What ego?" Marcus grunted as the holograms disappeared. "You must've gotten me mixed up with Otto because I know when I'm beat, even against female Osiris Red students with two months worth of experience."

"Right, Chloe I'd suggest getting rid of those Allure Queen cards, Marcus you need more traps." Theresa said before Brandon grabbed the straws again.

"Okay, Lance, Andreas get down here, Chloe and Marcus will be left out of this draw in the interest of fairness." Brandon said as the two duellists got off the duel field, little did the six duellists know that the Obelisk Blue headmaster was watching them alongside the Ra Yellow Headmaster.

"They've made progress, but they still have a lot to learn." The Ra Yellow Headmaster said folding his arms. "Especially Chloe, seriously who uses the Allure Queen cards?"

"Regardless they should do well; I'm surprised that Chloe hasn't looked into getting the Silent Swordsman cards." The Obelisk Blue headmaster said shaking his head. "Come on, we have class to teach." The two teachers left unaware of another man, one who wasn't affiliated with Duel Academy in any way, was watching the students duel clad in a black hooded robe that hid his face, watched from the rafters.

"Michael, report." A voice coming from the robed man's earpiece rang out.

"Your source within Duel Academy was correct as always." The man whispered as he observed the duellists. "Three students from Obelisk Blue, three from Ra Yellow and one from Osiris Red will be competing at the tournament; I trust I will be as well."

"Off course, I can't risk having the best duellist in my organisation not participate in this tournament, so many strong duellists so many strong souls; I'll need all my men for this." The voice on the other end said.

"Why not attack the rookie and get it over with? Her soul will be like taking candy from a baby." Michael asked.

"Where's the fun in that?" The voice on the other end chuckled. "Besides you'd be wasting your talents on that girl and one of my other operatives has already called dibs on her."

"Ah yes, him." Michael said with venom in his voice. "You should've fed his soul to the great beast the minute you found out what he did."

"Now, now Michael, what he did was reprehensible even by my standards but he is among the best duellists I have in my employ." The voice on the other end answered and Michael frowned.

"_Yes, all the more reason to feed his soul to the beast and put him out of MY misery."_ Michael thought annoyed.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Michael turned around and saw one of janitors that the academy employed, before he could do anything else the janitor ran off, apparently to get security.

"_Damn it."_ Michael thought. "I'll have to call you back, I've been spotted." Michael said before making a break for it.

"And it looks like the next duel will be between Andreas and Lance." Brandon said once the straws where drawn. "And that leaves us to duel last Theresa." He added turning to his girlfriend who smirked.

"Don't worry; I'll go easy on ya." Theresa teased him before a security guard ran up to them.

"You kids okay in here?" The guard asked.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Lance asked.

"An intruder was spotted up in the rafters but he escaped before we could catch him, don't worry we'll catch him." The guard said and Brandon blinked.

"Why not give us a description? Maybe we can be on the lookout?" Brandon asked.

"I don't know, my boss will have my ass nailed to the wall if something happened to you kids on my watch." The guard sighed. "Besides that the janitor didn't get a good look at him, the only description he could give was a tall guy in a robe talking into in earpiece."

"Even so he won't be that hard to pick out, how many robe clad weirdoes are there on Duel Academy Island?" Marcus pointed out. "And he can't of gotten far, the next boat from Duel Academy island isn't until this Satturday."

"Besides that we can look after ourselves." Lance sad holding up his duel disk.

"Okay fine, but if something happens to you I want no part in it!" The guard said with a sigh. "If you spot him report back to me, you can usually find me patrolling the area in and around the Obelisk Blue duel field, if not than report to one of the teachers, they would've found out by now." The guard said before walking off.

"Great, first we have a tournament to worry about and now there's an intruder on the island." Chloe shook her head.

"Lance is right we can look after ourselves...though if he is a duellist he'll probably target you first Chloe since you're the only Osiris Red in the group, you're the joint youngest with Lance and..." Brandon started.

"BRANDON!" Theresa cut him off.

"Huh...oh, shit." Brandon winced as he saw that Chloe now had a worried look on her face. "Err, sorry if I worried you there." Brandon said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head nervously, Chloe said nothing and entered the bleachers with Marcus and took a seat.

"Little tip Brandon, next time when you figure out the most likely target for an intruder, do so when said target isn't within earshot!" Lance called out from the duel field as Andreas stood opposite him. "Hopefully this duel will be friendlier than the one between Chloe and Marcus." Lance said activating his duel disk.

"Yeah, won't stop me from kicking your ass though." Andreas said activating his duel disk.


	7. First Strike

Otto lay down on his bed in his room whilst the other students who were competing in the tournament were training, his room wasn't as big as Brandon's but it was still pretty big.

"_Why did the teachers even consider the Osiris Red wannabe for the tournament? Did her parents owe the school money or something?"_ Otto thought before removing his glasses in order to scratch his right eye. _"This tournament should only feature Obelisk Blue students like myself, Brandon and Theresa but no, the teacher's had to play nice."_ Otto thought shaking his head. _"No matter, I'll crush them all one by..."_

"Otto." A voice cut his train of thought off, the German student sat up and looked around frantically.

"Who's there, show yourself!" Otto demanded.

"Relax, it's me." Otto turned around and saw the robed figure from the duel field by the window, he smirked.

"Running a bit of a risk, aren't we Michael?" Otto said folding his arms. "Word's spread about there being an intruder in the school and whilst I won't report you all it would take is one nosy student and your cover is blown."

"You know me better than that Otto, and you know I'll be out of here before security will arrive." Michael pointed out before leaning against the wall. _"Arrogant spoiled brat, if he wasn't as skilled a duellist as he is I would've taken him down when I first met him."_ Michael thought. "I came here to tell you that the organisation's operatives will be competing at the tournament, I included." Otto smirked at that.

"Just remember that I want to be the one who takes down that weak brother of mine." Otto spat.

"The boss knows, and he also knows that you'll need this." Michael said tossing a duel monsters card onto the bed, Otto picked it up and smiled evilly when he saw it.

"And my new duel disk?" Otto asked.

"In the mail, it'll arrive on the day before the tournament starts." Michael said, Otto added the card to his deck.

"Off course, should that operative who wants to take down Richardson fail I want to be the one to annihilate her." Otto smirked but when he looked up Michael was gone. _"Ah yes, I forgot he has the typical manners of an American, or a complete lack of manners for that manner."_ Otto thought.

*meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Duel Arena*

"Okay, who will go first?" Lance asked as he stood opposite Otto's brother Andreas ready to duel him, both duellists had drawn their opening hands and Brandon and Theresa stood at ringside.

"I will." Andreas said drawing a card. "And I will summon Wolf Axeweilder in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and a humanoid wolf in brown and yellow armour and carrying a nasty looking axe and a shield appeared on the field (4/1650/1000). "And I set this facedown for later." Andreas said as a facedown card appeared behind Axeweilder. "You're move."

"If you think a weak monster like that will help then you're dead wrong." Lance said drawing his card. "First I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy your facedown card." Lance played the card and a tornado ripped through the card.

"Before it's destroyed I'll activate it, it's a quick play spell card called Rush Recklessly giving my monster a boost in its attack strength!" Otto said playing the card and Axeweilder's strength increased to 2350.

"Okay, so you where able to keep your lifepoints safe but since I know that Rush Recklessly's effect is only good for the remainder of the turn I'll summon Great Angus in attack mode." Lance played the card and the beast appeared on the field (4/1800/800). "And I'll set three cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas drew his card as Axeweilder's attack went back down to 1650 and Lance activated one of his cards. "I'll activate Solemn Wishes, now I gain 500 lifepoints each time I draw."

"You're going to need those lifepoints, I sacrifice Axeweilder to summon Big Tusked Mammoth!" Axeweilder disappeared and in its place stood a purple mammoth with massive tusks (5/2000/1000).

"That's not something you see every day." Lance muttered.

"True but my mammoth has a special effect, any monsters you summon, including flip and special summons, can't attack on the same turn they are summoned, so even if you are able to summon something stronger than my mammoth you'd have to wait a turn before attacking." Andreas said before pointing to Great Angus. "Big Tusked Mammoth attack Great Angus now!" The mammoth charged at Lance's beast...

"Sorry to disappoint you but I activate my trap card Draining Shield!" Lance flipped up the card and the mammoth's charge was stopped by a forcefield. "It stops your attack and gives me 2000 lifepoints."

A: 8000

L: 10,000

"I'll bring your lifepoints back down soon." Andreas said as Lance sent his trap card to the graveyard.

"I'd like to see you try." Lance said. "Anyway, is there anything else you can do?"

"Nope, it's your move." Andreas said and Lance drew his card bringing his lifepoints up to 10,500.

"All right, I sacrifice Great Angus to summon Thestalous, The Firestorm Monarch!" Lance played the card and Great Angus disappeared and in its place stood the Firestorm Monarch (6/2400/1700). "And whilst I can't attack I can use Thestalous' effect, I pick a card at random from your hand and it's discarded, if it's a monster you lose a hundred lifepoints for each level."

"All right, chose." Andreas said holding up his four cards.

"I'll choose the card in the middle." Lance said and Andreas winced before turning it around and showing it to be Vorse Raider (4/1900/1200), he discarded the monster and Thestalous threw a fireball at him.

A: 7600

L: 10.500

"That ends my turn." Lance said and Andreas drew his card.

"Not much I can do so I'll set two cards facedown and switch my mammoth to defence mode." Andreas said setting the card and the mammoth knelt down, Lance drew his card and Solemn Wishes increased his lifepoints to 11,000.

"I activate Lightning Vortex which lets me destroy your mammoth." Lance played the card after discarding a card from his hand and lightning struck the mammoth causing it to shatter. "Now I summon Fire Princess in attack mode." Lance said playing the monster and Fire Princess appeared alongside Thestalous (4/1300/1100). "Fire Princess attack his lifepoints."

"I'm afraid not Lance, you've triggered my trap card Battle Instinct!" The card flipped up and Andreas picked up a card. "This can only be activated when you declare an attack on my lifepoints and it lets me summon a level four or lower beast monster from my hand, and my choice is Berserk Gorilla!" Andreas played the card and a large, red gorilla appeared on the field, it pounded its chest and got ready for battle (4/2000/1000).

"A level four monster with 2000 attack points?" Lance asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes but it has its drawbacks, it's destroyed if it's shifted into defence mode and it must attack whenever possible, regardless of whether or not you have a stronger monster." Andreas explained.

"Seems to be more trouble than it's worth if you ask me, anyway I'll stop Fire Princesses' attack and let Thestalous pick up where she left off." Fire Princess stopped her attack and Thestalous threw a fireball at the Gorilla.

"And this is where my other trap comes in!" Andreas said activating his other card. "I activate Waboku negating your attack!" The priestesses blocked the attack and Lance frowned.

"I end my turn then." Lance said and Andreas drew his card.

"I activate Card of Sanctity, now we both draw until we have 6 cards in our hands." Lance and Andreas drew their new cards, Lance drew four cards and Andreas drew four as well. "It's time I took you to the home of my beasts Lance."

"Say what?" Lance blinked as Andreas picked up his card.

"I activate the Field Spell Card Closed Forrest!" Andreas said and the scenery changed to a heavily forested area. "For starters my beasts gain 100 attack points for each Beast type monster in my graveyard and so far I count one, the Big Tusked Mammoth you destroyed on your last turn." Andreas explained as Berserk Gorilla's attack rose to 2100. "But that's not all, Field Spell Cards can't be activated whilst this is on the field and even if you destroy it you have to wait a turn before activating a field spell card."

"_Crap and I used my Mystical Space Typhoon earlier."_ Lance thought looking at the Molten Destruction in his hand.

"I'm not done yet: first I set two cards facedown." Andreas set the two cards down and the holograms of the facedown cards appeared behind Berserk Gorilla. "And now I sacrifice my Gorilla to summon Manticore of Darkness."

"Huh? Why'd he summon that? That's a beast warrior monster; Closed Forrest won't have an effect on it." Theresa wondered.

"Good question." Brandon agreed.

Berserk Gorilla disappeared from the field and in its place stood a muscular hybrid of a human with the head of a lion, the wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion (6/2300/1000). "Impressive, isn't it?" Andreas asked and Lance folded his arms.

"Maybe but my Monarch's stronger." Lance pointed out.

"Ah yes, I almost forgot about that messy little detail." Andreas said picking up another card. "Which is why I equip my Manticore with Mystical Moon, this equip spell card increases his attack to 2600." A large moon appeared on the field above Manticore and shone down on the beast increasing its attack to 2600. "And don't think I don't know about Fire Princesses' effect either so she's my target, Manticore of Darkness attack!" Manticore took flight and dive-bombed at Fire Princess before cutting her to ribbons with its claws.

A: 7600

L: 9700

"That's all for me." Andreas announced, Lance drew his card and after his lifepoints increased to 10,200 Andreas activated his traps. "I activate my trap cards, Howl of the Wild and Roaring Earth!" The two traps flipped up and Andreas smirked. "Pay close attention Lance because I'm only explaining the effects of these cards once; first Roaring Earth allows me to inflict battle damage even if the monster I attack is in defence mode but that's only if I attack with a Beast Monster and also when you lose damage due to a this effect I can select one monster on your side of the field and that monster loses 500 attack points, as for Howl of the Wild when I destroy a monster on your side of the field you lose 300 lifepoints for each Beast I control."

"I'll give you credit, that's a powerful combo." Lance admitted before looking up at Manticore. "Or it would be if Manticore wasn't a Beast Warrior."

"I'm getting to that part." Andreas smirked.

"Lance is right though." Brandon pointed out. "You'd of been better of activating them, not to mention Closed Forrest, when your Mammoth was on the field."

"You think I don't know that? That was my strategy from the start but when Lance destroyed my Mammoth with Lightning Vortex I had to come up with a new one." Andreas explained clearly getting frustrated.

"I'm just saying, no need to get snappy!" Brandon pointed out.

"What do you know? You don't have a sibling that your parents always compare you unfavourably too!" Andreas snapped catching everyone else off guard.

"You mean Otto?" Lance asked and Andreas nodded.

"It didn't matter to them that I got good grades, that I shared my brother's talent for duelling, HE was always the favourite!" Andreas said clearly angry at this point. "Nothing I did was ever good enough for them!"

"That can't be true." Brandon said folding his arms.

"Oh really, can't it? Did you know that me and my brother where originally slated to join Ra Yellow together when we qualified last year?" Andreas said clenching his fist in anger. "My dad has connections within the school district, he got them to put Otto in Obelisk Blue but did he do the same for me? No, he didn't!" Andreas spat to the side after saying the last sentence. "I've had to fight for everything I've got and my damn brother got a free pass!"

"Damn, my dad would have a field day with his anger issues." Marcus shook his head. "I had no idea he felt that way."

"Look, Andreas no one's blaming you for being so frustrated." Lance said looking at his card. "Believe me I have a younger brother who feels the same way and he hasn't even been able to get into Duel Academy but you can't get this angry during the Battle City duels, anger leads to rash decisions and your opponents will take advantage of that fact." Lance said and Andreas sighed.

"You're right." Andreas said as he started to calm down. "I believe it's still your move."

"It is, I switch my Monarch to defence mode and set another card in defence." Lance said as his Monarch knelt down and a facedown monster appeared next to it. "That's it for me." Andreas drew his card and smiled.

"I summon Ape Fighter in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and an ape wearing a pair of cargo pants and a helmet appeared on the field (4/1900/1200) and thanks to Closed Forrest's effect its attack rose to 2100. "This monster has a rather useful effect, each time this monster destroys a monster it gains an extra 300 attack points and if it can't attack then it's attack becomes zero but I don't think that'll be a problem now!" Andreas smirked. "And now for the fun part, Manticore attack Thestalous, Ape Fighter attack his defence monster!" Manticore divebombed at Thestalous before cutting it to ribbons with its claws reducing Lance's lifepoints by 300, Ape Fighter charged at the facedown monster, revealed to be Darkfire Soldier number 1 (4/1700/1100) and uppercutted it causing the hologram to shatter and Ape Fighter's attack rose to 2400.

A: 7600

L: 8600

"That ends my turn." Andreas announced and Lance drew his card, Solemn Wishes took effect increasing his lifepoints by 500.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I'm about to summon a monster with Three Thousand attack points." Lance smirked and Andreas laughed.

"Really, you expect to do that with no monsters on your side of the field and two on mine? I'd like to see you try!" Andreas smirked.

"I never said anything about summoning the monster on my side of the field; I'm actually summoning it on your side!" Lance said and the smirk on Andreas's face was quickly replaced with a look of confusion. "Here, read it for yourself!" Lance tossed the card at Andreas who caught it and read it.

"Okay...I guess I sacrifice Manticore of Darkness and Ape Fighter to summon Lava Golem in attack mode." Andreas said as Manticore, alongside Mystical Moon, and Ape Fighter disappeared and in their place stood a grotesque being made of lava (8/3000/2500).

"Its official, Lance has lost it!" Marcus said but Chloe shook her head.

"Not quite." Chloe said with a frown. "That thing has a nasty effect and Lance usually combines it with some kind of card that prevents it from attacking."

"You mean like Paralyzing Potion?" Marcus asked and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, he hates using it though and only uses it if he sees no other option." Chloe added.

"Well Lance, I don't know why you're being so helpful but thanks for a monster that can rival the Blue Eyes White..." Andreas never finished as a cage dropped from the lava surrounding him. "What is this?"

"You didn't read the rest of the card text didn't you?" Lance asked, Andreas blinked and looked at the card text again.

"Okay...read that...read that...the monster's controller takes 1000 points of damage during each...of...there...standby...phases." Andreas' face quickly went from calm to panic. "Heh, no worries, I can still attack with this thing!"

"That's where you're wrong!" Lance said picking up another card. "I activate the spell card Paralyzing Potion, when it's equipped to a non machine type monster that monster can't attack and Lava Golem's a fiend monster."

"Oh, crap." Andreas said with a gulp as the fiend drank the potion and suddenly stopped moving save for the lava dripping from it, then he smirked. "This card comes with a price Lance; you can't summon a monster on the turn that it's summoned to my side of the field."

"I'm well aware of that, it is my card after all." Lance said before picking up another card. "So I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance said and Andreas smirked.

"Before I draw I think I'll activate Manticore's effect, during the end phase I can discard a Beast, Beast Warrior or Winged Beast from my hand I can special summon him back to the field." Andreas discarded his Tiger Axe (4/1300/1100) and Manticore reappeared on the field, Andreas drew his and winced as lava dropped onto the cage, somehow the cage survived but his lifepoints dropped to 6600. "I never thought I would find a use for this card." Andreas said turning his card around revealing it to be Ancient One of the Deep Forest (6/1800/1900). "But now I sacrifice Lava Golem..."

"Sorry but no dice." Lance said activating his long forgotten about trap card. "I activate Mask of Restrict, which means that monsters can't be tributed!"

"You planned for this?" Andreas asked as he returned the monster to his hand.

"It pays to be prepared." Lance shrugged his shoulders in response. "So yeah, you can't attack with Lava Golem and you can't sacrifice him, in short unless you have Mystical Space Typhoon your screwed."

"I'll find a way out of this and in case you haven't noticed my Manticore's back on the field, Manticore attack his lifepoints directly." Andreas commanded and Manticore divebombed at Lance who smirked as he activated his card.

"I activate my other trap card Gravity Bind." Lance flipped up the card and Manticore came crashing down to earth. "Now all level four or higher monsters can't attack."

"You have got to be kidding." Andreas sighed before surrendering. "I surrender; it's easier than slowly losing." Andreas shrugged as the holograms disappeared.

"Well, if you say so." Lance shrugged; Andreas tossed Lava Golem back at him. "So, Brandon, Theresa, do you have any words of wisdom?"

"Err yeah a couple, Andreas needs to plan better and Lance...I don't think there was anything wrong with the strategy towards the end." Brandon rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Actually I think Lance needs to plan better as well." Theresa said as Lance and Andreas returned their cards to their decks. "Whilst it didn't happen in the duel Lance didn't seem to account for the possibility of Andreas having something like Magic Jammer or Seven Tools of the Bandit."

"Good call." Brandon said as the two duellists got off the duel field. "We'll call it a day after the duel between me and Theresa, meet us tomorrow after class so we can resume." He told the others.

"That's good, because I've got homework to finally catch up on." Lance said sitting next to Chloe in the bleachers whilst Andreas sat next to Marcus.

"And you also have my homework to carry." Chloe said dumping her textbooks into his lap. "Anyway I thought you hated using Lava Golem?"

"I do, and I also hate having heavy textbooks dropped onto my groin." Lance winced and Chloe cringed.

"Oops, I'm sorry about that." Chloe apologized. "You where saying?"

"My hand left me with no other options." Lance said. "My only other cards where Molten Destruction which I couldn't use due to Closed Forrest, Obnoxious Celtic Guardian which wouldn't of protecting my lifepoints due to Roaring Earth, Soul Of Fire which I couldn't risk using due to the effects of Andreas' traps and Heavy Storm which I couldn't use because I planned to use Mask Of Restrict in some form, at least Andreas surrendered before things got too cringe worthy."

"Yeah, like in our first duel." Chloe shuddered.

"Wait, you used that thing on her when you first duelled her?" Marcus asked. "I'm afraid to ask but how inexperienced was she?"

"I only had a week's experience." Chloe said with a shudder.

"I had just gotten the card at the time and I wanted to take it for a spin, used the exact same combo as I used in our duel Andreas, it's not fun watching a rookie cringe as that thing sucks away her lifepoints turn by turn whilst she's too stubborn to surrender." Lance shuddered. "Her dad eventually talked her into surrendering, but not before she lost over 4000 lifepoints to that thing, the crowd quickly turned on me after that and I didn't even know about her childhood at the time."

"Yeah, he keeps a video tape of that duel to remind him not to use it unless he needs to." Chloe added with a shudder. "I had nightmares about it for weeks."

"Remind me never to watch that video tape." Andreas gulped. "Sad thing is it sounds like something my brother would do."

"If we end up sharing a room during the tournament you might end up watching it." Lance said.

"I'll try to avoid it." Andreas grimaced. "I'm surprised that your still duelling after that Chloe."

"It wasn't exactly my first duel; I had several practice duels against my stepdad in the weeks leading up to the tournament, plus I was a bit overconfident going into it." Chloe admitted.

"How is that any different from now?" Marcus asked only to get a playful elbow to the ribs from Chloe.

"Very funny Marcus, if duelling doesn't work out than maybe try stand up comedy." Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Well my dad always said I should try comedy." Marcus winced.

Whilst that conversation was going on Brandon and Theresa had drawn their opening hands. "Seeing as how I'm a gentleman I'll let you go first." Brandon said as he scanned his hand.

"Oh, how considerate of you, I'll try not to kick your ass too badly." Theresa teased as she drew her first card. "I'll kick things off with Amazoness Paladin in attack mode." Theresa played the card and a blonde, tanned woman with long flowing hair appeared on the field wearing a skimpy outfit and carrying a sword (4/1700/300).

"Using your Amazon deck against me again?" Brandon raised an eyebrow. "I was hoping for a challenge."

"You'll regret those words." Theresa said picking up two extra cards. "Anyway due to her effect my Paladin's attack increases to 1800." Theresa said as the warrior's attack increased. "I set these cards facedown for later and end my turn." The holograms of the two facedown cards appeared on the field and Brandon drew his card.

"I summon Don Zaloog in attack mode!" Brandon announced as he played the card and the leader of the Dark Scorpions appeared (4/1400/1300). "And I'll take a page from Chloe's playbook by activating the spell card Swords of Revealing Light!"

"Yeah sorry, that's not going to happen." Theresa said flipping one of her facedown cards. "I activate Imperial Order!" She said as the elderly king appeared on the field. "Let me guess, your other card was going to be Mustering of the Dark Scorpions, right?" Brandon frowned before nodding.

"Yeah but that's also backfired against you, you can't use spells either." Brandon pointed out as he sent Swords of Revealing Light to the graveyard. "Still I'll set three cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced, Theresa drew her card and paid 700 lifepoints to keep Imperial Order in play.

"I summon Paladin's faithful pet to the field, Amazoness Tiger!" Theresa played the card and a red tiger with a gold collar around its neck appeared on the field (4/1100/1500). "I'm sure you remember his effect?"

"Yeah, he gains 500 attack points for every card with Amazoness in its name on the field including him." Brandon said as the tiger's attack rose to 1600 and Paladin's rose to 1900.

"And you can't attack another monster with Amazoness in its name as long as it's on the field, and I know for a fact that none of your Dark Scorpion cards are strong enough to defeat either of my Amazonesses." Theresa said before pointing to Don Zaloog. "Amazoness Tiger, attack Don Zaloog." The Tiger pounced at the thief and ripped his throat out with its teeth.

B: 7400

T: 7300

"That's just what I wanted you to do; I activate my trap card Rope of Life!" Brandon flipped up the card and discarded the rest of his hand. "All I have to do is discard the rest of my hand and I can revive Zaloog with a power boost of 800." As Brandon said that Don Zaloog returned to the field and his attack jumped to 2200.

"Not bad Brandon but there's just one problem with that tactic." Theresa pointed out. "You don't have a hand because of your trap."

"I know." Brandon said flipping his other trap. "That is why I activate Dust Tornado and use it to destroy Imperial Order." A tornado ripped through the field before blowing the king away.

"Huh, those guys know each other's tactic's like the back of their hands." Marcus observed. "This will be a hard duel to criticise."

"True." Lance agreed. "That is why I vote that you criticise it when it's over."

"What, that's not fair!" Marcus protested.

"All right fine, since attacking Zaloog now would be a suicide mission for Paladin I'll end my turn." Theresa announced and Brandon drew his card.

"All right, first I activate Card of Sanctity which lets me refresh my hand." Brandon announced as he drew six cards whilst Theresa drew four. "And now I activate Mustering of the Dark Scorpions, since Don Zaloog is on the field I can summon his partners in crime: Menae The Thorn (4/1000/1800), Gorg The Strong (5/1800/1500), Chick The Yellow (3/1000/1000) and Cliff The Trap Remover (3/1200/1000)." Brandon announced as the rest of the Dark Scorpions appeared on the field. "Don, attack Amazoness Tiger!" Brandon commanded but Theresa smirked.

"Just what I wanted you to do, I activate Amazoness Archers!" Theresa flipped up her card and Brandon's eyes widened. "This trap card can only be activated when you declare an attack on one of my Amazoness monsters and now all the Dark Scorpions lose 500 attack points and must attack my Paladin!" As Theresa said that Don's attack dropped to 1700, Gorg's attack dropped to 1300, Chick's and Menae's attacks dropped to 500 and Cliff's attack dropped to seven hundred.

"This is going to hurt!" Brandon muttered under his breath as Don charged at the Tiger only to have his throat cut out, the other Dark Scorpion's followed suit in this order: Gorg, Cliff, Chick and Menae.

B: 2600

T: 7300

"I end my turn." Brandon said reluctantly as Theresa drew her card. "I activate Thunder of Ruler, now you can't attack on this turn."

"Good save, and lucky for you I have no more Amazoness cards in my hand but I do have this." Theresa said playing her card. "I activate the Field Spell Card Amazoness Village!" Theresa announced as the scenery changed to a rural looking village. "First all of my Amazoness monsters gain 200 attack points." Theresa said as Paladin and Tiger's attacks rose to 2100 and 1800 respectively. "Second if a Amazoness monster is sent to the graveyard via being destroyed in battle or a card effect I can summon a Amazoness monster from my deck with a level equal to or lower than the destroyed monster."

"So in other words you could potentially have an army of those things." Brandon folded his arms.

"Yeah, but since I can't attack I'll end my turn." Theresa announced as Brandon drew his card.

"You won't be able to attack for another three turns; I activate my second Swords of Revealing Light!" Brandon announced as swords rained down on Theresa's monsters. "Since I can't do anything else I'll end my turn." Theresa nodded and drew her card.

"I can't do much save for summoning Amazoness Scouts in attack mode." Theresa played the card and two young girls appeared on the field, one with red hair and the other with blue hair, the redhead was wearing a brown and yellow outfit and was carrying a sword and the girl with blue hair was wearing a blue and black outfit and was carrying a bow and arrows (2/500/1100), the Scout's attack rose to 700 and Paladin's and Tiger's attack rose to 2200 and 2200 respectively. "I end my turn." Brandon drew his card and the scouts disappeared from the field and Tiger's and Paladin's attack dropped back down to 2100. "By tributing my scouts I can protect my Amazonesses from the effects of Spells, Monsters and trap cards."

"That was a good choice, because thanks to your Amazoness Archers trap I can summon this since I have Dark Type monsters in my graveyard." Brandon said playing the card. "Come forth Dark Armed Dragon!" Brandon played the card and the massive dragon appeared above the field (7/2800/1000). "And whilst I can't use its effect I can destroy Amazoness Tiger!" Dark Armed Dragon rose it's tail and slammed it into the tiger destroying it and dropping Paladin's attack to 2000.

B: 2600

T: 5700

"Thanks to the effect of Amazoness Village I can summon a new monster from my deck." Theresa announced picking up a new card. "I chose my second Amazoness Scouts." She said as the scouts reappeared, there attack rose to 700 and Paladin's attack rose to 2200.

"That's it for me." Brandon announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I sacrifice my scouts to summon my strongest Amazoness monster, Amazoness Queen!" The scouts disappeared from the field and in their place stood a blue haired scantily clad woman carrying a sword (6/2400/1800) and her attack rose to 2600. "And now I activate two spell cards, first the continuous spell card Amazoness Fighting Spirit, as long as this is on the field my amazons gain a thousand attack points whenever they attack a stronger monster but only during Damage Calculation and second I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your swords, in short this duels over!" Theresa said as a typhoon cleared the field of Brandon's swords.

"I guess you're right." Brandon shrugged.

"Amazoness Queen, attack Dark Armed Dragon!" Theresa commanded and the queen leapt up to the dragon as her attack rose to 3600 and decapitated it. "Paladin, finish it." Theresa commanded, Paladin charged at Brandon and slashed him with her sword.

B: 0000

T: 5700

"So, anyone want to critique the duel?" Brandon called out to the others once he got up as the holograms disappeared.

"You do realize that you're asking three Ra Yellow students and one Osiris Red student to give you, two Obelisk Blue students, feedback right?" Marcus asked.

"Well, I'm not colour blind so yes, I realize that!" Brandon replied. "But yeah, I see what you're saying."

"Don't worry, I can give feedback." The teens looked up and saw Professor Hamden sitting in the bleachers. "Sorry, snuck in during the duel between Chloe and Marcus, my next class isn't until this afternoon so I figured I'd watch you guys train."

"No worries." Brandon shrugged. "You heard about the intruder?"

"Yeah, and I also caught wind of you kids volunteering to keep an eye out." Hamden frowned. "Just let the guards do their jobs and worry about the tournament okay? The school would be in trouble if anything happened to you."

"Fine, now can you give us that feedback?" Theresa asked.

"Well both strategies where sound but I'd have to say that Brandon should try not to rely on his Dark Scorpions so much, sure he has Dark Armed Dragon in his deck but who has anyone ever seen him play anything other than those cards? I thought not." Hamden shrugged. "As for Theresa...I'll have to get back to you on that, it's not easy critiquing one of the top Obelisk Blue Students."

"You see? That's why I didn't want to do the criticising." Marcus said to Lance who simply rested his hand behind his head.

"You're just terrified of facing her in the tournament, aren't you?" Lance asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, there's that too." Marcus said nodding.

"Anyway that should do it for today's training." Brandon said as he and Theresa hopped off the duel field. "So, we'll meet tomorrow after class for more training?"

"Yeah, we'll meet tomorrow after class." Lance nodded as he and the other students left, unknown to them Michael was watching from the rafters again.

"Yes, the Obelisk Blue student's souls will do nicely." Michael muttered before putting a hand to his earpiece. "Sir, I have the info you need and Otto has the card, I request pick up from the island."

"Excellent, a speedboat will pick you up at the peer outside Osiris Red boys dorm at midnight." The voice on the other end said and Michael frowned.

"What am I supposed to do for eight hours? Capture the souls of the duellists here?" Michael said as he left the building.

"You figure something out." The voice on the other end said before hanging up, Michael started making his way to the west area of the island.

"Hey what are you doing here?" Michael stopped before turning around seeing a blonde male Obelisk Blue student with short hair standing next to a female Obelisk Blue student with raven hair that reached just below her shoulders; it was the male that had spoken up.

"Oh, my most sincere apologies students, my son is thinking about enrolling here next year and I wanted to check it out for myself." Michael lied; the female folded her arms and looked at him suspiciously.

"If that's true and he wanted to enrol why wasn't he at the test exams earlier this week?" The female pointed out.

"He isn't very experienced in the game." Michael said simply.

"So? A rookie was able to get into Osiris Red this year." The male pointed out before activating his duel disk. "You know what I think? I think you're the intruder that was spotted above the Obelisk Blue duel field." Michael frowned.

"So what if I am? What do you intend to do about it?" Michael asked eyeing the student. "Here's a deal for you, I'm a duellist myself and what I propose is a duel, if you win I'll turn myself in."

"And if you win?" The male asked drawing his hand, Michael smiled evilly under his cloak before stretching out his arm and revealing a black, scythe like duel disk.

"When I win...well you'll see." Michael said activating his duel disk.

*meanwhile outside the Obelisk Blue duel arena*

"Guys, I've just thought of something." Chloe said as she, Andreas, Marcus, Lance, Brandon and Theresa walked down the hall surrounding the Obelisk Blue arena. "Maybe once the tournament starts we should avoid challenging each other until the semi finals."

"Yeah, that would increase the chance of all of us making it to the Semi-Finals." Brandon nodded in agreement. "Good thinking Chloe."

"What about my brother? He's made it clear that he has no interest in training with us and I doubt that he'll agree to this." Andreas pointed out.

"We'll just avoid him." Lance shrugged, or at least tried too but failed due to the heavy textbooks. "He's an asshole anyway." Lance added, Theresa was about to add something when the students heard a blood curdling scream coming from outside the building. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

"Come on, someone might be injured." Brandon said and the six students ran towards the source of the scream but when they reached outside Michael was long gone and the female student was crying over the male's unconscious and bloody body. "Kimberly? What happened?" Brandon asked as he and the other students ran up to her.

"I don't know." Kimberly said looking up. "I and Nathan where on our way to the peer to chill out for a few hours when we spotted some guy in the cloak, he claimed to be the father of a prospective student but his story made no sense so Nathan challenged him to a duel."

"A duel did this?" Brandon said looking at the numerous wounds all over Nathan's body.

"I'm still trying to make sense of it." Kimberly said shaking her head. "Nathan never stood a chance, the masked guy played some freaky spell card and suddenly everything went to hell, nothing Nathan could summon could lay a finger on his monsters and the attacks on his lifepoints...JUST LOOK AT WHAT THE ATTACKS DID!" Kimberly said clearly distressed.

"Chloe, go find professor Hamden and whoever else you can find." Theresa said. "Tell him that an Obelisk Blue student is injured."

"That's not the worse part." Kimberly said in between sobs causing Chloe to stop in her tracks. "The spell card was a field spell right, but like no field spell I've ever seen before, once the duel finished the scenery changes caused by the spell shrank down until it completely surrounded Nathan, one blood curdling scream later and Nathan collapsed." Brandon and Theresa looked at each other worried.

"Kimberly, this is important." Theresa said looking her dead in the eye. "What was the name of the field spell card?"

"I don't know, Seal of the something or another." Kimberly shook her head. "I could barely pronounce its name."

"Chloe, get Hamden, now!" Brandon told her and Chloe ran off.

"Can someone explain how one field spell can do so much?" Lance said scratching the back of his head confused.

"It's a long story." Brandon said shaking his head as he saw Chloe return with Hamden and the Obelisk Blue headmaster.

"Chloe gave us the gist of what happened, a med team's on the way." Hamden said kneeling next to Nathan. "Nathan, can you hear me?"

"I've tried that already, no response." Kimberly said in between sobs as the Obelisk Blue headmaster led her away from the scene to calm her down.

"Kimberly, do you know where the intruder went?" Hamden asked before spotting a duel monsters card underneath where Kimberly was kneeling, he picked it up and all colour drained from his face. _"Oh no, it's back."_ Hamden thought before turning to the Obelisk Blue headmaster. "Martin, you'd better see this."

"What is it?" Martin asked walking over to Hamden, his usually calm expression turned to shock before he closed his eyes. "Marcus, Lance, Andreas, Chloe, you've done enough but I need you to return to your dorms now."

"Not until I get some answers as to what the he..." Lance started but stopped when Martin looked at him sternly.

"I wasn't asking." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster said sternly. "I'll let you know of any developments in his condition." Lance went to protest further but Marcus put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Let it go man, it isn't worth it." Marcus said sternly, Lance sighed and followed his fellow students back to Ra Yellow.

"That means you as well Chloe." Martin said turning to Chloe who gulped before running off, once she was out of earshot Martin turned to Brandon and Theresa. "What I'm about to show you can't be reported back to Andreas, Marcus, Lance or Chloe, is that understood."

"Yeah, though I have an idea of what you're about to show us." Brandon nodded solemnly as did Theresa, when Martin showed them the card they paled. "So, it is back." Brandon said punching the ground. "I thought Yugi Motu destroyed it?"

"That's what I thought as well." Martin sighed as the med team came to take Nathan away.

"Yeah but what if one of them ends up in a duel where the card is played during the tournament?" Theresa pointed out. "It would be pretty hard to hide then!"

"If that happens we won't hide it from them, we'll tell them at the hotel." Martin said with a sigh as the med team took Nathan away, Kimberly ran after him and Martin waited until Kimberly was out of earshot before saying the next part. "And if the worse comes to pass, we'll say a prayer for the friend whose soul was consumed by the Orichalcos."


	8. Duel of the Spellcasters

It had been a day since Nathan was hospitalized after his duel with Michael and Kimberly hadn't left his side since then, whilst school continued as usual for the other students, including those competing in the upcoming Battle City tournament, she had opted to skip class to be with her stepbrother.

She heard the door to the medbay open and assumed that it was one of Nathan's friends coming to check up on him, when they didn't say anything however she looked up and saw Chloe. "Come to check up on him kid?" She asked.

"Yeah, seeing the aftermath of that duel shook me up pretty badly." She admitted. "And for the record, I'm 17."

"Sorry force of habit, I tend to call all Osiris Red students kid regardless of their age, nothing personal." Kimberly shook her head. "I appreciate you coming by though, and I'm sure Nathan appreciates it as well."

"Yeah, even though it involved me lying by telling the Obelisk Blue headmaster that I needed to go to the bathroom." Chloe said with a small smile. "It was that or come up with a reason for visiting a guy in medbay that I barely knew."

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." Kimberly smiled at her honesty before shaking her head. "Damn it, why did this have to happen to Nathan? He's never hurt a fly!" Kimberly said sadly.

"I wish I knew." Chloe shook her head. "How did you know him?"

"He's my stepbrother; I was adopted by my current parents." Kimberly said looking up at Chloe who looked away sadly. "You're an orphan too?"

"Yeah, it's not something I'm not comfortable talking about it though." Chloe said with a sigh.

"Neither am I." Kimberly nodded in understanding. "Did they catch the guy who did this?" Chloe shook her head.

"No, they think that he slipped away in the middle of the night or something, they've alerted the police on the mainland to be on the lookout for him." Chloe answered. "That's what Brandon told me anyway."

"He's usually pretty reliable so that's probably what happened." Kimberly shrugged before she recognised her. "Wait, aren't you Chloe Richardson, the rookie from the test duels?"

"Was it that obvious?" Chloe asked before shaking her head. "Forget I asked but yeah, that's me." Chloe admitted.

"And they chose you for the Battle City tournament? You must be doing something right." Kimberly said and Chloe just shrugged. "If Nathan was awake he would've challenged you on the spot, he wanted to test out his Spellcaster deck against yours, and yes he noticed that you also use Warriors, but..."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Chloe sighed. "Considering I got my ass kicked the last time I was challenged by an Obelisk Blue I would've been more than a little hesitant to except the challenge." She added, before the older student could add anything else the bell rang signifying the end of class and Chloe's eyes widened. "Shit, time must've passed by quicker than I thought." She said checking the time on her watch. "I'm out of here before the teachers spot me."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Kimberly agreed as Chloe left the med bay, Chloe looked around before remembering that she was to meet the others at the duel field and started making her way there.

"Needed to use the bathroom huh?" Chloe froze on the spot and turned around seeing the Ra Yellow Headmaster.

"I...I can explain..." Chloe stammered but Jeff put his hand up.

"Relax, the Obelisk Blue Headmaster figured out that you had left to check on Nathan when you where gone longer than five minutes, you didn't need to lie, he would've understood." The Ra Yellow Headmaster reassured her. "Though people where worried that you had fallen victim to the intruder as well."

"Oh crap." Chloe said as she started to feel bad. "It's just that...never mind." Chloe shook her head. "So I'm not in too much trouble?" She winced.

"Well you did lie about the reason for leaving the class but that's a minor offence, hardly anything to call you parents about." The Ra Yellow Headmaster said before shaking his head. "Just don't make a habit of it."

"Yeah, thanks." Chloe said before walking off.

"Oh and another thing, Lance has more homework for you." The Ra Yellow Headmaster said and she winced.

"_Oh, great."_ Chloe thought before sighing. "Thanks for the heads up." Chloe winced before walking off to the duel field. _"As long as I can avoid the Obelisk Blue Headmaster I'm not complaining."_ Chloe thought as she approached the duel field and saw Theresa waiting for her.

"Either that was the world's longest bathroom break or you wanted to check on Nathan." Theresa said shaking her head. "You do know the teachers don't like being lied too, right?"

"It's a long story." Chloe shook her head. "But yeah, I wanted to check up on him, seeing how he was after the duel shook me up pretty badly."

"Same here but I didn't sneak out in the middle of class under the guise of going to the bathroom." Theresa sighed. "Sorry, that was harsh; at least tell me you got rid of those Allure Queen cards."

"Yeah, traded them with an Osiris Red Student who was looking to get rid of her Silent Swordsman cards, yeah I know how little sense that makes but she wanted to try out a Dragon Deck." Chloe said shrugging her shoulders.

"All of them?" Theresa asked as the two students entered the duel field.

"You mean the Allure Queen cards or the Silent Swordsman cards? Regardless my answer is yes." Chloe said as they entered the duel field.

"That's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me." Theresa said before shaking her head. "I know you're concerned about Nathan but breaking all these rules isn't helping you as far as the teachers are concerned."

"I only broke two," Chloe asserted.

"Speaking back in class whenever Otto mocked you?" Theresa pointed out.

"Okay that too..." Chloe trailed off and Theresa noticed she was starting to feel sad and stopped in her tracks.

"Look I'm not trying to be nasty to you, especially not after hearing about your upbringing; I'm just giving you a fair warning, okay." Theresa reassured her. "Look Chloe, most of the Obelisk Blue students see potential in you, I and Brandon included, and all of the teachers for that matter but I don't want it to be wasted."

"Yeah, I know." Chloe said starting to feel a little better. "Has there been any news about Nathan's attacker?"

"No, last I heard the police on the mainland have put out an all points bulletin on the guy, my mom's a cop and when I spoke to her last night she told me that as far as she's concerned what he did was attempted murder." Theresa told her.

"She's allowed to discuss open cases with you?" Chloe asked.

"No, but she knows that I know better than to go to the press about it." Theresa said shaking her head. "Just keep in mind what I said next time you pull a stunt like that okay? I meant it, for a few minutes' people where thinking that you had fallen victim to the intruder like Nathan did."

"Yeah, thanks for the nightmares." Chloe said with a shudder. "Besides the Ra Yellow headmaster already told me about that, but I'll keep that in mind next time I even think along those lines."

"Good to hear." Chloe looked up and saw Brandon. "Lance was going crazy with worry over that possibility, well crazier than usual."

"I HEARD THAT!" Lance yelled.

"_Now I know how Lance felt when he told the Ra Yellow headmaster about my past."_ Chloe thought before shaking her head. "So, are we using the same format as yesterday?"

"Nah, Evan and Rajin wanted to join in our training so we decided to make the training open to join since duelling the same people over and over would get pretty damn repetitive." Brandon said as he led the two girls to the duel field. "We decided to abandon the whole "straws" system and use a similar attack strength model; I think you can guess how that works."

"Duellist who draws the monster with the strongest attack duels the duellist who draws the weakest monster?" Chloe asked and Brandon nodded. "So, who's going first?" Chloe asked.

"We were waiting for you to arrive." Brandon told her. "All though we didn't take into account the possibility of you being the intruder's second victim." Brandon added as he led them to the group of boys that where waiting to duel. "Chloe's here guys so we can get started."

"As long as she doesn't sneak out to go to the bathroom again I'm not complaining." Marcus said earning him a glare from Chloe. "What?"

"Just draw your cards already." Theresa said before Rajin, Brandon, Theresa, Evan, Lance, Andreas and Chloe drew their cards and Chloe sweatdropped.

"Err; I've drawn a spell card." Chloe said showing her Level Modulation.

"Just keep drawing until you get a monster and send every other card to the bottom of the deck." Brandon told her and Chloe did that, all though it was a good twenty minutes before she drew her monster.

"I've finally drawn a monster...after shuffling enough cards for ten duels." Chloe said sheepishly before looking at the monster. "And I may as well head to the duel field." Chloe added before showing it to be The Unhappy Maiden (1/0/100) and heading to the duel field.

"Well unless Pegasus created a card with an attack power that goes into negatives Chloe's duelling first, we just need to determine her opponent." Brandon sweatdropped as the other duellists showed their cards, Rajin showed Inabba White Rabit (700) Brandon showed Don Zaloog (1400), Theresa showed Amazoness Paladin (1700), Lance showed Great Angus (1800) Marcus showed Armed Dragon Level 5 (2400), Andreas showed Behemoth The King of All Animals (2700) and Evan showed Blizzard Princess (2800). "And our first duel is a clash of the spellcasters...with some warriors thrown in...Evan vs. Chloe!"

"Oh great, I'm duelling an Obelisk Blue." Chloe muttered sarcastically as Evan got up on the duel field.

"Don't worry, I don't bite." Evan said returning Blizzard Princess to his deck. "I'll go first if you don't mind." Chloe shrugged after both duellists drew their opening hands and Evan drew an extra card. "I'll kick things off with Defender the Magical Knight!"

"Did you say Defender?" Chloe blinked.

"Yep." Evan said as he played the card and a warrior in blue and gold armour with red gems and a purple cloak appeared on the field carrying a large shield (4/1600/2000). "Like Breaker its ability revolves and the use of Spell Counters but I'll get to that in a minute." Evan said picking up two cards. "I set these two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe drew her card and Evan activated one of his traps. "I activate my trap card Gagaga Shield and I swear to god if anyone calls it the baby talk shield I'll lose my mind, anyway this trap is treated like an equip card which I can only equip to Spellcasters like Defender, as long as it's equipped to the monster that monster can't be destroyed in battle."

"Either that has a weakness or it's one of the most broken cards I've seen." Chloe pointed out.

"It has a weakness, this effect can only be used twice and after the second time it's destroyed." Evan said as Defender's shield was replaced by an oddly shaped red, black, gold and blue shield.

"Don't count on that thing protecting your monster for too long then!" Chloe said looking at her card. "I summon Marauding Captain in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a man in white armour with short light brown hair and carrying two swords appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "When he's normal summoned I can summon another monster from my hand as long as he's level four or lower, and my monster of choice happens to be my second most powerful Spellcaster."

"You're Silent Magician." Evan nodded as the magician appeared next to Captain (4/1000/1000). "In case you haven't noticed Defender's more powerful than both of your monsters!"

"I've noticed." Chloe said picking up another card. "First I activate Card Of Sanctity, allowing us both to draw until we have 6 cards in our hands and more importantly boosting my Magician's attack to 1500." Chloe said activating the card, both duellists drew three cards and Silent Magician's attack rose to 1500.

"Well at least she's mixing things up with her card combos." Brandon nodded. "All though, it goes without saying that Evan has more experience with Spellcasters than she does."

"Brandon, most of the school has more experience with Spellcasters than she does." Theresa pointed out.

"Good point." Brandon admitted.

"Clever move but Breaker's still more powerful and Marauding Captain's protection effect only applies to Warriors." Evan pointed out.

"I know." Chloe said picking up two of her drawn cards. "I set these cards facedown for later and end my turn." Chloe announced, Evan drew his card and Silent Magician's attack rose to 2000.

"I think I'll start my turn off my activating a Continuous Spell Card, Arcane Barrier." Evan said playing the card that he had drawn. "Now each time a Spellcaster is destroyed as a result of battle, regardless of what side of the field it's on, this spell card gains a counter and it can carry a maximum of four."

"So what happens when it reaches the limit?" Chloe asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well I can activate the second part of its effect at any time but for arguments sake let's say that the spell card currently has four spell counters, all I'd have to do is sacrifice it alongside one spellcaster on my side of the field and I can draw until I have drawn the same amount of cards as the spell counters on Arcane Barrier, in that scenario I would draw four." Evan explained.

"It seems to be a bit risky if you ask me." Brandon said.

"I noticed but I have yet to summon a monster this turn." Evan pointed out. "For now I'll set this monster in defence mode." Evan announced as the hologram of a defence monster appeared next to Defender. "Defender, attack Marauding Captain!" Evan commanded, the knight charged at the Captain but Chloe smirked.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but you have triggered both of my traps Shift and Magician's Circle!" Chloe said flipping her cards up. "For starters Defender's new target is Silent Magician!" Chloe said as Defender charged at her magician who fired a beam from her staff, Defender raised its shield and it started to crack but didn't break.

E: 7600

C: 8000

"And I doubt I need to explain what Magician's Circle does to a fellow Spellcaster user." Chloe said as she started searching her deck.

"You'd be right there." Evan agreed as he searched his own deck. "My monster of choice is Alchemist of Black Spells!" Evan played the card and a magician covered completely in back and yellow armour appeared on the field, he seemed to be carrying the Pitch Black Power Stone in his hand (4/1200/1800). "And I trigger his effect before you get any ideas, once per turn I can shift him into defence mode and place a spell counter on a card that I control, my card of choice is Arcane Barrier."

"_Great my Magician's Circle ended up helping him; I'd better get something strong."_ Chloe thought as she searched through her deck. _"Huh, haven't used this card since my first duel with Lance, guess it couldn't hurt."_ She thought. "My monster of choice is Magical Exemplar!" Chloe played the card and a woman with long black hair wearing a dress with various shades of blue on it appeared on the field (4/1700/1400).

"Huh, they both have monsters whose effect revolves around spell counters." Brandon observed folding his arms. "Fairly obvious what Chloe's going to use hers on." Brandon added.

"And I activate my Quick Play Spell Card, Magician's Academy!" Evan announced flipping his other face down card. "First I have to discard two spellcasters from my hand and in exchange I can special summon a Spellcaster type monster from my hand!"

"I've lost track of the number of summons in this turn." Marcus said rubbing the back of his head nervously as Evan discarded two cards, Neo The Magic Swordsman and Gemini Elf, and placed a card down.

"Laugh all you want, my monster of choice is Magician's Valkyria!" Evan played the card and a woman with long flowing brown hair appeared on the field, she was wearing an oversized blue hat and a form fitting blue and purple dress and she was carrying a blue staff (4/1600/1800). "As long as she's on the field you must target her instead of any of my other spellcasters!"

"Yeah? Well by activating Magician's Academy you've triggered Exemplar's effect!" Chloe smirked. "When a spell card's played and she's on the field I can add two spell counters to her."

"There's one other thing I forgot to mention, for this turn only Valkyria's protected from the effect of your spell and trap cards by the magic of Magician's Academy!" Evan added with his own smirk. "Magician's Valkyria, it's time to pick up where Defender left off! Attack her Marauding Captain now with Mystic Scepter Blast!" Valkyria leapt into the air and pointed her staff at the captain before she started charging it, once a sizable ball of energy had been gathered she launched it at the captain disintegrating him.

E: 7600

C: 7600

"I set a card facedown and now I end my turn!" Evan said as Chloe drew her card.

"Okay, I set this facedown for later, now Silent Magician attack Magician's Valkyria!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician fired a beam from her staff at Valkyria causing a large explosion.

E: 7200

C: 7600

"I guess that's it for...HUH!" Chloe was cut off mid sentence by the fact that Valkyria had survived the blast. "Your Magician should be destroyed!"

"Normally that would be true but did you forget about Defender's Spell Counter?" Evan smirked. "When a spellcaster's about to be destroyed whilst Defender's on the field I can remove one of his Spell Counters from him and protect the spellcaster from being destroyed, sorry to disappoint you but Defender isn't going anywhere!"

"What's that the hundredth effect that's been activated during this duel!" Lance asked from the bleachers.

"Don't forget, I have my other spellcaster on the field!" Chloe said pointing to Exemplar. "Exemplar, attack Magician's Valkyria!" Chloe commanded and Exemplar started chanting in an unknown language...

"I activate my Trap Card, Ready For Intercepting!" Evan announced and too Chloe's surprise Valkyria disappeared from the field. "This can only be used on a Warrior or a Spellcaster type monster and this lets me flip that monster into facedown defence mode, now do you want to continue the attack?"

"Just because I'm inexperienced doesn't mean I'm stupid." Chloe pointed out as Exemplar stopped chanting. "But you made a big mistake by flipping Valkyria facedown because I'm now free to attack Defender and get rid of that ugly ass shield!" Chloe said as Exemplar started chanting again; Defender screamed in pain but only the shield shattered which was quickly replaced by Defender's original shield.

E: 7100

C: 7600

"I set two cards facedown and that ends my turn." Chloe announced, Evan drew his card and Silent Magician's attack rose to 25000.

"I think I'll help both of us, I activate the Field Spell Card Secret Village of the Spellcasters!" Evan played the card and the scenery changed to a mystical looking village in a forest. "Now aside from adding a counter to Exemplar this has another effect, if I have spellcasters on my side of the field and you don't you can't activate any spell cards however if I don't have any spellcasters myself I can't activate Spell Cards myself."

"Sounds pretty situational to me, and besides I'm two turns away from being able to bring out Silent Magician Level 8 so I don't see the point." Chloe pointed out and Evan smirked.

"Did you forget about the monster I set earlier?" Evan asked flipping it over and revealing an old, frail looking magician carrying a staff and wearing red armour (2/450/600), Chloe smirked when she saw the stats.

"How's that supposed to help against my..." Chloe stopped when the old magician fired a beam from its staff at Silent Magician disintegrating it. "What the hell was that?"

"That was the spellcaster's answer to Man Eater Bug, the Old Vindictive Magician, same stats, same level, and same flip effect!" Evan said before picking up another card. "That just leaves Exemplar and I have just the card for the job, a fusion monster that can be formed by combining any two Spellcasters!"

"You're bluffing! If that card exists than Yata Garasu has competition for most broken card ever!" Chloe pointed out.

"Am I?" Evan asked. "I activate Polmerization, fusing Old Vindictive Magician with Alchemist of Black Spells to summon the ultimate Spellcaster, the Supreme Arcanite Magician!" Evan played the card and the two magicians fused together and out of the vortex came a magician in dark blue and purple armour and carrying a huge staff (10/1400/2800), Chloe nearly burst out laughing at the stats.

"That's it? After all the buildup the best you can summon is a monster that even some of my weaker magicians can beat?" Chloe laughed and Evan frowned.

"Sure, he may not look like much but then again neither does Silent Magician Level Four." Evan said folding his arms; Chloe stopped laughing and looked at Evan angrily. "What did I say?"

"It's a long story Evan." Brandon called from the sidelines.

"Right...okay like most of the cards played today my Magician's effect revolves around Spell Counters, he gets two when he's summoned and for each spell counter he gains a thousand attack points." Chloe gulped as Arcanite's attack jumped to 3400. "But before I attack I activate Monster Reincarnation to bring back Alchemist of Black Spells and summon him in attack mode!" Evan played the card and after discarding a card the alchemist reappeared on the field. "First I activate his effect and place a spell counter on Arcanite!" Alchemist shifted to defence mode and Arcanite's attack jumped to 4400. "And now I sacrifice Alchemist and Arcane Barrier to draw a card!" The two holograms disappeared from the field and Evan drew a card. "And finally I activate Arcanite's other effect, by removing a spell counter from him I can chose to destroy one monster you control or draw a card."

"Please tell me you're choosing to draw a card." Chloe gulped as Arcanite's attack dropped to 3400, he pointed his staff at Exemplar and fired a beam at her disintegrating it. "This is going to hurt." Chloe gulped.

"In more ways than one, or did you forget about my facedown Valkyria?" Evan asked as Valkyria reappeared on field. "Defender, Arcanite, Valkyria, ATTACK HER LIFEPOINTS DIRECTLY!" Evan shouted as Arcanite and Valkyria fired beams from their staffs at Chloe's chest and Defender bashed her with his shield sending her to the ground

E: 7100

C: 1000

"You know Chloe; no one will blame you for surrendering at this point." Evan said sincerely, Chloe slowly got to her feet and grinned.

"Not...as...long...as...I...have...lifepoints...left." Chloe said breathing heavily, Evan blinked before smiling.

"You have guts, but I have the most powerful spellcaster in the game on my side!" Evan said folding his arms. "I end my turn." Chloe drew her card and grinned.

"I think he's confusing guts for stupidity." Marcus said.

"I HEARD THAT!" Chloe shouted. "Besides, I'm about to activate a Spell Card or two that will turn the duel around in my favour." Chloe said causing everyone to look at her oddly.

"Not with Secret Village of the Spellcasters on the field." Evan pointed out.

"I know." Chloe said activating her trap. "I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back my Silent Magician." Chloe announced as Silent Magician reappeared on the field.

"Huh? Why didn't she activate that sooner?" Marcus blinked.

"I think I know why." The teens looked up and saw the Ra Yellow Headmaster standing near them. "I've been watching the duel from the start and from what I can gather she knew that without it's spell counters Silent Magician would get slaughtered and that she had enough lifepoints to whether the storm." The Ra Yellow Headmaster said folding her arms. "What she does next might turn things around."

"Or it could backfire." Andreas added folding his arms.

"First, I activate Spell Reproduction; by discarding two spell cards from my hand I can add a spell card from my graveyard to my hand." Chloe said discarding her Book of Secret Arts and Eternal Rest and retrieving another Spell Card. "And I activate the card I retrieved from the graveyard, Card of Sanctity!" Chloe said drawing three cards and Evan drew two, she looked at her new cards and her eyes lit up. "So he's the Ultimate Spellcaster huh? Let's put that to the test." Chloe said playing the card. "I activate Level Up to bring out my strongest monster, Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe played the card and Silent Magician started glowing and growing until it was fully grown (8/3500/1000).

"Oh right! Arcanite Magician is toast!" Lance said with a grin.

"Not quite, Chloe will have to attack Valkyria due to her effect and next turn Evan can use Arcanite's effect again and win the duel." Marcus said.

"Silent Magician attack Valkyria!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician charged up her staff and fired a beam at Valkyria disintegrating it.

E: 6300

C: 1000

"And now that damage has been applied I can activate my trap card Enlightenment!" Chloe activated the card and Evan paled.

"Oh bloody hell." Evan muttered.

"Huh? What does that do?" Marcus asked.

"That lets me attack again with Silent Magician, immediately after damage calculation!" Chloe answered as Silent Magician started charging up her staff, she fired it at Arcanite disintegrating it.

E: 6200

C: 1000

"I'll set these two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe said and Evan drew his card.

"I can't do much so I'll switch Defender to defence mode and end my turn." Evan announced as Chloe drew her card.

"All right, first I activate my facedown card Emergency Provisions which lets me gain a thousand lifepoints for each spell or trap card that I send to the graveyard and I chose Call of the Haunted and Emergency Provisions." Chloe said sending the two cards to the graveyard and increasing her lifepoints to three thousand. "Next I'll summon Neo The Magic Swordsman and attack Defender with Silent Magician." Chloe announced as Neo appeared on the field (4/1700/1000), Silent Magician fired her beam at Defender shattering it. "Neo, attack his lifepoints." Neo charged at Evan and slashed him with his sword.

E: 4500

C: 3000

"That ends it for me." Chloe said as Evan drew his card.

"Ah crap, I have to pass; the card I drew was a spell card." Evan groaned, Chloe drew her card but didn't bother looking at it since both duellists knew the duel was over at this point.

"Neo, Silent Magician, finish it." Chloe commanded and Neo charged at Evan and slashed him with his sword dropping his lifepoints to 2800; Silent Magician charged her staff and fired a beam at Evan dropping his lifepoints to zero. "That was a lot more evenly matched than I was expecting." Chloe said once the holograms disappeared.

"Yeah, I agree there, especially after I summoned Arcarnite." Evan agreed as the two duellists deactivated their duel disks.

"_She definitely takes after her stepdad."_ The Ra Yellow Headmaster thought as he watched the two duellists. _"She keeps this up and she'll do well in the Battle City tournament, though her attitude needs just as much work as her duelling skills, though that might be a product of her upbringing."_ Jeff thought before standing up. "Great duel you two, but I must be off, I've got a class to teach." Jeff said before walking off.

"I didn't even realize that he was there." Chloe said sheepishly.

"Never mind, we have to determine the next duel." Brandon said as Chloe and Evan left the duel field. "Okay, Chloe and Evan are being left out of this so they can rest up from the duel, time to determine the next duel." Brandon said as he and the remaining duellists drew their cards, Chloe was about to take a seat when her mobile cell phone went off.

"You guys mind if I go out and take this call?" She asked.

"Sure, just don't fall victim to any intruders." Marcus said earning glares from everyone. "What?" Chloe shook her head and left the duel field.

"_As long as I don't bump into the Obelisk Blue headmaster I'm not complaining."_ Chloe thought before answering it. "Hello?"

"Chloe, it's me." Her eyes lit up when she recognised her dad's voice.

"Oh hi Dad, can this wait? It is in the middle of school hours." Chloe asked.

"I'm afraid not, I've received word of that comatose student, they say that he was attacked by an intruder." Her dad said his voice a mixture of concern and seriousness. "I just wanted to make sure you're all right."

"Yeah, I'm fine, shaken up due to being one of the students to find him but I'm otherwise fine." Chloe said leaning against the wall. "I hadn't seen that much blood since..." She trailed off.

"I know Chloe, I know." Her dad said understandingly. "This isn't going to affect you going into your first major tournament is it?"

"Honestly? I don't know." Chloe said with a shrug despite the fact that she knew her dad couldn't see her. "The others don't seem too affected by it but then again I'm no mind reader...if I was I'd be undefeated at Duel Monsters but that's beside the point."

"Based on what I've heard I wouldn't be surprised if they were affected." Her dad sighed. "Look, I have to go I have some customers coming in, just be careful Chloe, okay?"

"Yes dad, bye." Chloe sighed before turning off her cell phone.

"You know cell phones aren't allowed during school hours, right?" The Ra Yellow headmaster said making her jump.

"I do now." Chloe said sheepishly. "It was my dad; he just wanted to make sure I was okay." She added.

"Let me guess, because of the intruder right?" The headmaster said and Chloe nodded. "Yeah, that whole story has parents on edge for obvious reasons, some of the younger students have gone home for a few days due to what happened to Nathan, and the scare over you possibly being a second victim didn't help."

"I know, Theresa gave me an earful about it." Chloe said as she pocketed her cell phone.

"Yeah, and it was for good reason." The headmaster shook his head. "Look I know you had a rough upbringing but you need to get yourself in gear, all of this rule breaking you've been doing since joining the academy isn't helping you in the eyes of some of the teachers."

"I know." Chloe said simply, she went to go back into the duel field but the Ra Yellow headmaster spoke up again.

"This won't be the last time we'll talk about this Chloe, and if you keep this up I may have to get your parents involved." Jeff said and Chloe tensed up at the last part of the sentence. "Also, the school has trained shrinks on its payroll, if you feel the need to talk to them let me know and I'll take you to their offices." Jeff said and Chloe nodded before entering the duel field.

"_Damn it, I should have taken the Obelisk Blue Headmaster's advice and try to stay out of trouble."_ Chloe thought before taking a seat next to Theresa who was in the bleachers with Evan.

"So what kept you this time?" Theresa asked.

"It was a combination of call from my dad and being caught with my cellphone by the Ra Yellow headmaster." Chloe said.

"It was because of the intruder, right?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded. "I know Brandon's got a couple of calls from his dad about it, which is rare enough in its self."

"Why is that so rare?" Chloe asked.

"Oh, I forgot you didn't know." Theresa said briefly facepalming. "His dad is the CEO of a small gaming company; he rarely has time to see him let alone call him."

"So why does he use the Dark Scorpion cards? I thought they were considered to be the thieves of the duel monsters world or something?" Chloe asked and Theresa shrugged.

"I honestly don't know, maybe it's mild teenage rebellion against his dad or something but the fact that he doesn't tell his own girlfriend why he uses those cards should give you a clue as to how personal it is for him." Theresa replied.

"Yeah, I get the idea." Chloe said before turning her attention to the duel field. "So, who's duelling next?" Chloe asked.

"I am, but the boys kept drawing spell and trap cards so I opted to make myself comfortable whilst I wait." Theresa answered.

"You ever consider they might be doing that on purpose?" Chloe asked getting a laugh out of Theresa.

"Possibly." She shrugged.

"We finally have an opponent for you Theresa." Brandon called out as Lance hopped onto the duel field.

"Lance huh? I have just the deck for dealing with him." Theresa said as she retrieved a deck from her pocket and loaded it into her duel disk, she left the bleachers and the other boys took seats near where Chloe was sitting.

"We'll see just how useful the deck is when it comes to dealing with me." Lance said activating his Duel Disk. "All though, something tells me that it won't be very useful."

"Let's see if you're so confident after...let's say four turns." Theresa said as she hopped onto the duel arena. "No one's been able to touch my lifepoints with this deck."

"Well, I guess there's a first time for everything." Lance said with a grin. "Besides I've seen two of your decks in action, how many do you have exactly?"

"20." Theresa said simply and Lance's jaw dropped. "And the decks you've already seen are my weakest ones."

"Why did I have to open my big mouth?" Lance asked.


	9. Heaven's Fire

Lance gulped as he drew his opening hand, ready to duel Theresa who had claimed just a few moments ago that with her current deck no one had been able to lay a finger on her lifepoints, he observed the cards in his hand.

"I'll let you go first." Lance said as he started to think of a strategy, Theresa nodded and drew her card.

"I'll start with this spell card; it's called Cards from the Sky!" Theresa said playing the card. "At the cost of two light monsters and the ability to Special Summon or attack I can draw two cards but since it's my first turn I wouldn't have been able to attack anyway." Theresa said pocketing Shining Angel (4/1400/800) and Hysteric Fairy (4/1800/500) and drawing two extra cards. "And now I'll activate a Continuous Spell Card called Court of Justice!" Theresa played the card and Lance raised an eyebrow. "Whilst this is on the field and as long as I have one Level 1 Fairy Monster on my side of the field I can special summon a fairy type monster from my hand once per turn."

"But you obviously can't use that effect this turn due to Cards from the Sky." Lance pointed out.

"I know that, so I'll prepare for my next turn by summoning this monster, Freya, Spirit of Victory!" Theresa played the card and what Lance saw caused him to do several dozen double takes, it was a little girl in a black and purple dress with rings around her wrists and ankles and carrying pom-poms (1/100/100).

"Did...did you just summon a cheerleader or did I go crazy prior to the duel starting?" Lance asked as he and the other boy's sweatdropped.

"No, your sanity's intact." Theresa assured him before picking up two cards. "And she has the added benefit of adding 400 attack points to each Fairy Monster I control." Theresa added as Freya's attack rose to 500. "I set these two cards facedown for later and end my turn." Lance, whilst still confused, drew his card.

"Well, I'd never thought I'd find myself about to kill a cheerleader in the middle of a duel but weirder things have happened." Lance shrugged.

"I'd like to see you try." Theresa folded her arms with a smirk.

"Theresa, even with her power boost that cheerleader's weaker than the majority of my deck." Lance said shaking his head,

"Maybe but I activate one of my trap cards Miraculous Descent." Theresa said flipping up one of her cards. "Remember the monsters I removed from my hand to use Cards from the Sky? This lets me bring back one of them."

"Not good." Lance gulped.

"Lucky for you I didn't have anything with over 2000 attack points in my hand otherwise I'd use this combo on that card, but I think Hysteric Fairy will do nicely." Theresa retrieved the card from her pocket and played it and a blue haired man in glasses appeared on the field, he had big protruding wings coming out of his back and was wearing a blue business suit (4/1800/800) and due to Freya's effect his attack rose to 2200.

"That power boost is only good as long as Freya's on the field, and so is your Court of Justice card for that matter." Lance said picking up a card. "And I summon Great Angus to take care of that problem for me!" Lance played the card and the beast appeared on the field (4/1800/800). "Attack Freya, Spirit of Victory!" Lance commanded as Great Angus pounced at Freya and Theresa chuckled.

"Lance, did you honestly think I'd leave such a weak card out on the field without a backup plan? I activate my trap card Negate Attack." Great Angus bounced off the invisible force field and Lance frowned.

"All right, I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Lance announced as he set the cards, Theresa drew her card.

"I bet you've been wondering why I said earlier that no one's been able to touch my lifepoints with this deck." Theresa said picking up a card. "It's thanks to this Field Spell Card Sanctuary in the Sky!" Theresa played the card she had drawn and the scenery changed to a magnificent palace in the clouds. "As long as this is in play any damage I'd suffer from you doing battle with a fairy type monster is reduced to zero."

"Don't tell me, every monster in that deck is a fairy type monster?" Lance asked and Theresa nodded. "Theresa, my younger sister uses these cards; I know what most of them do."

"And how long has your sister been duelling?" Theresa asked and Lance rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"She's only been duelling a little over a month." Lance said honestly.

"Exactly, so it's unlikely that you know everything about my deck." Theresa said folding her arms.

"I'll still win this match." Lance asserted as he waited for Theresa to continue her move.

"We'll see about that." Theresa said picking up another card. "I sacrifice Hysteric Fairy to summon Arknight Parshaff in attack mode!" Hysteric Fairy (alongside the hologram of Miraculous Descent) and in his place stood a blonde centaur with shoulder length hair who's human half seemed to be covered in feathers and his lower half was white and it was carrying a sword in one hand and a shield in the other (5/1900/1400) and thanks to Freya's effect his attack rose to 2300.

"Even taking into account Freya's power up ability, that's still a Five Star Monster with 1900 attack points, unless it has a damn good effect you just wasted a tribute summon." Lance was quick to point out.

"Oh ye of little faith." Theresa muttered under her breath. "Have you always been this impatient Lance? This was the first deck I got and yes my Arknight does have an effect."

"I don't see what this has to do with the duel." Lance said folding his arms.

"You'll see soon enough, first I can now use Court of Justice's effect to bring out another fairy." Theresa said picking up another card. "So I summon Nova Summoner in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a small, spherical creature appeared on the field, the top half was orange and blue whilst the lower half was green (4/1400/800) and thanks to Freya's effect it's attack rose to 1800.

"Okay, this won't be so bad." Lance gulped.

"I'm not done yet." Theresa said playing another card. "I activate the spell card Celestial Transformation, this lets me Special Summon another fairy monster from my hand at the cost of half its attack power and the monster's destruction at the end of the turn and I chose my second Shining Angel." Theresa played the card and a male angel in a white dress appeared on the field, he had brown hair and blue eyes (4/1400/800) and due to the effect of Celestial Transformation its attack dropped to 700 and thanks to Freya it jumped back up to 1100. "And if you make any comments about him being a crossdresser you'll regret it."

"I wasn't going to." Lance said rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"I was." Marcus said nervously.

"Whatever, my next spell card is Book of Moon." Theresa said playing the card. "And I use it to flip Great Angus facedown." Before Lance could question the move Great Angus disappeared from the field.

"Why'd you do that? You could've done damage to my lifepoints with him in attack mode?" Lance asked.

"Oh, I must've forgotten to mention, my Arknight can deal damage to the opponent even if the monster he's attacking is in defence mode." Theresa explained.

"There's about a million swear words going through my head right now, but I'll keep them private since there's a lady present." Lance gulped.

"AHEM!" Chloe shouted from the sidelines.

"TWO ladies present even." Lance corrected himself.

"Good for you." Theresa rolled her eyes. "Arknight attack his defence, the rest of you attack his lifepoints directly." Theresa commanded, Arknight Charged at him and pieced Great Angus through the heart causing the hologram to shatter, the rest of the monsters charged and kicked his ass.

T: 8000

L: 4900

Lance slowly got up rubbing his sore chin from the last attack, a high kick from Freya. "I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be unhappy that a cheerleader spread her..."

"Lance, try to keep your comments clean." Theresa cut him off. "There is a 14 year old present." She said pointing to Rajin and Lance saw Marcus and Andreas frantically trying to cover his ears. "Anyway when I deal damage with Parshaff I can draw an extra card." She said drawing her card.

"Right, sorry." Lance grunted as he picked up his hand that had been dropped during the attack. "Are you done yet?" Theresa scanned her hand and motioned for him to go after sending Shining Angel to the graveyard.

"Good." Lance sighed as he drew his card. _"That Arkknight's going to be a problem, unless I draw something that can clear the field my lifepoints are in trouble regardless of what position my monsters are in and my lifepoints are too low for me to take another hit like that."_ Lance thought before looking at his new card. _"YES! THIS IS JUST WHAT I NEEDED!"_ Lance thought with a massive grin.

"Lance, you should really learn what a poker face is." Theresa pointed out as she sweatdropped.

"Why? You don't have anything facedown!" Lance pointed out.

"Yeah, point taken." She admitted.

"Anyway there's no point in keeping you suspense." Lance said playing the card. "I activate Lightning Vortex!" Lance said discarding his Fire Princess and lightning struck Theresa's three fairies destroying them. "Time to break your streak of not receiving damage with this deck, I summon Ultimate Baseball Kid!" Lance played the card and the kid in baseball gear appeared on the field (3/500/1000), Theresa raised an eyebrow.

"You do realize that card's useless on its own right?" Theresa pointed out; Lance rolled his eyes before activating one of his traps.

"Gee, I never noticed that about MY OWN CARD!" Lance said before shaking his head. "Anyway I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Great Angus and give Ultimate Baseball Kid a power boost of one thousand!" Great Angus repapered on the field and Ultimate Baseball Kid's power increased to 1500. _"Hmmm, activate Soul of Fire or attack her lifepoints directly, decisions, decisions, eh I don't want to risk giving her a card that might help her regain control of the duel so attack it us."_ Lance thought. "Great Angus, Baseball Kid, ATTACK!" Great Angus charged first and bit at Theresa and Baseball Kid launched a ball at her.

T: 4700

L: 4900

"Congrats Lance, you're the first duellist to inflict damage on me whilst I was using the deck." Theresa said looking at one card in particular in her hand. "I may have to bring out the strongest monster I have in this deck now."

"Well regardless I think I'll activate another card so go Backfire!" Lance activated his card and grinned. "I'm sure you remember it's effect from my test duel?"

"Yeah, I lose 500 lifepoints for each fire type monster I destroy." Theresa nodded. "Do you really think that will help though?"

"It doesn't hurt to try." Lanceshrugged. "Anyway I'll end my turn." Lance announced, Theresa drew her card and grinned.

"Lance, this duels just about over." Theresa said summoning a card. "I summon Warrior of Zera in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a muscular human in green and blue armour appeared on the field brandishing a sword (4/1600/1600). "Tell me Lance, do you want to succeed at life?"

"Huh? Err, yeah of course." Lance blinked taken aback by the question.

"That's good, because Warrior of Zera feels the same way." Theresa said removing her warrior from the field. "And I'm about to help him do just that, you see by tributing him whilst The Sanctuary in the Sky is on the field I can bring out his strongest form and the strongest monster I have in this deck." Theresa played the card and Warrior of Zera was consumed by a holy light, Lance had to shield his eyes because of how bright it was, when the light died down he looked up and his jaw dropped.

"Holy..." Lance muttered.

"That's the most appropriate thing you've said all day." Theresa interrupted him. "Say hello to Archlord Zerato!" Theresa said pointing to her card, there stood a massive, muscular man with wings and a orange robe wearing a helmet similar to Warrior of Zera's (8/2800/2300).

"Well, this duel's over." Brandon shrugged.

"You could be a bit more supportive you know." Chloe sweatdropped and Brandon shook his head.

"Chloe, you're asking me to choose between my girlfriend and a guy who I've known for under a week." Brandon pointed out.

"You have a point there." Chloe admitted.

"That's pretty impressive." Lance gulped.

"You think he's impressive now? I haven't even triggered his effect yet!" Theresa grinned broadly. "By discarding one Light type monster from my hand I can destroy all of your monsters."

"What did I do to deserve this?" Lance gulped as Baseball Kid and Great Angus where consumed and destroyed by a holy light.

"Well you did run with that gang..." Theresa started but Lance motioned for her to keep quiet, clearly sweating bullets. "Huh? Oh, Chloe doesn't know? Crap, forget I said that."

"What gang, I thought you said your record was clean?" Chloe shouted from the sidelines and Lance turned around.

"Well once I turn 18 it will be but that's beside the point!" Lance gulped.

"Err, Lance you'd better turn around." Marcus pointed out, Lance blinked only to be hit by a beam from behind.

T: 3700

L: 2100

"There should be a rule against declaring an attack whilst the opponent's back is turned!" Lance said clearly annoyed. "How'd you find out about that anyway?"

"You mean the gang? My mom's a cop and she does background checks on every guy I meet, your name came up on an assault charge where you beat the crap out of some gang leader about two months ago, the charge was dismissed as self defence though." Theresa said and Chloe blinked.

"Wait, that guy was a gang leader?" Chloe blinked.

"Wait, you DO know?" Theresa blinked.

"Some asshole was flirting with her and didn't take no for an answer, I beat the shit out of him when he got too touchy feely and the subsequent assault charge was dropped, I have no idea where the gang member thing came from." Lance said.

"Err, Lance, technically your record is clean because you never went to jail for that." Theresa pointed out. "Anyway I have a duel to win so I end my turn."

"Yeah, and thanks for bringing that up, I'm sure the teachers will be thrilled to learn that I almost had a criminal record." Lance muttered sarcastically as he drew his card. "Say does Archlord Zerrato's effect work on facedown monsters?"

"Yep." Theresa nodded.

"Well there goes that plan." Lance muttered shaking his head, and then he saw what he drew. _"I'm not out of this yet."_ Lance thought. "I set a card facedown and end my turn."

"Then it's time to end it, Archlord attack!" Theresa commanded not looking at her drawn card; Zerato fired a beam from its sword at Lance which consumed him. "Well, that was fun whilst it lasted..." Theresa said as she started to walk off.

"The duel's still on." Theresa stopped and turned around seeing Lance getting up, and then she noticed his lifepoint counter.

T: 3700

L: 3300

"What? But I had you beat!" Theresa said in surprise.

"Not quite, the trap I set last turn? It's called Nutrient Z and it can only be activated when I'm about to receive battle damage that comes to 2000 or more, before the damage is applied I gain 4000 lifepoints, more than enough to stay in the game." Lance grinned.

"Thanks for the heart attack Lance!" Chloe called from the sidelines.

"I try my best!" Lance called back and Theresa smirked.

"Truth be told Lance? I'm glad this duel's going a bit longer, just to see if you can find a way out of this." She grinned. "I set a card facedown and end my turn."

"Right." Lance said drawing his card, he grinned when he saw what it was. "Time I got rid of Sanctuary in the Sky; I activate the spell card Heavy Storm!" Lance announced as a storm came over the field.

"Nice try but Magic Jammer says otherwise." Theresa said discarding a card from her hand, just as soon as the storm had arrived it had dissipated.

"Well, can't blame me for trying." Lance said before spotting something. "You just made a big mistake Theresa."

"Huh?" Theresa blinked before it dawned on her. "Crap, I discarded the last card in my hand for Magic Jammer's effect."

"And it's still my turn." Lance said with a grin. "First I activate Spell Reproduction, by discarding two spell cards from my hand I can return a spell card to my hand." Lance said discarding Soul Release and Soul of Fire and retrieving a spell card. "I'll give you two guesses as to what it is." Lance said slowly turning it around.

"Lightning Vortex." Theresa said trying her best to keep calm.

"Yep." Lance said discarding the second to last card in his hand; Theresa shielded her eyes as Zerato was struck by lightning and disintegrated. "And now too summon a six star monster." Lance said causing Theresa to raise an eyebrow.

"You're going to summon a six star monster with no monsters on the field? Unless one of your facedown cards is another Call of the Haunted I don't see it happening." Theresa said folding her arms.

"Just watch." Lance said playing the card. "I summon Laval Lancelord in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a muscular being wearing He-Man like armour and a red kilt appeared on the field, it was armed with a spear that seemed to be covered in lava (6/2100/200).

"Okay, either you cheated or there's something seriously wrong with your duel disk." Theresa said as she stared down the monster.

"Actually it's the third option, none of the above!" Lance grinned. "Laval Lancelord can be normal summoned to the field without having to sacrifice a monster but he's destroyed at the end of my turn in exchange for that effect." Lance explained.

"Okay, so you have a strong monster on your side of the field, but once it's in the graveyard your lifepoints will be wide open." Theresa grinned.

"Well I'd better make the most of it then, LAVAL LANCELORD ATTACK HER LIFEPOINTS DIRECTLY!" Lance commanded and the lancelord threw its spear at Theresa who winced as it grazed her.

T: 1600

L: 3300

"And I end my turn at that, see you later Lancelord." Lance said as the hologram of Lancelord disappeared from the field and he sent the card to the graveyard, Theresa drew her card and grinned.

"This was just what I was looking for." Theresa said playing the card. "I activate Card of Sanctity!" Theresa said as she and Lance drew six cards, "I activate Polmerization..."

"Sorry, but they'll be no fusions today." Lance said flipping one of his traps. "I activate Flamvell Counter, now by removing a Fire Type monster from my graveyard with 200 defence points I can negate the activation of your spell card." Lance said as he retrieved Lancelord from the graveyard and pocketed it. "You where saying?"

"Nice counter." Theresa said sending Polmerization to the graveyard. "But I have more tricks up my sleeve."

"So do I." Lance said simply. "But since it's still your turn why don't you show us some of these tricks?" Lance asked and Theresa grinned.

"Those will be your famous last words." Theresa said summoning a card. "I summon my second Freya, Spirit of Victory!" Theresa said as the cheerleader reappeared on the field.

"Yay, they'll be more cheerleading!" Lance said sarcastically.

"Be a smart ass all you want but did you forget about Court of Justice already?" Theresa asked and Lance gulped. "I use its effect to summon Dunass Dark Witch!" Theresa announced playing the card and a woman with purple shoulder length hair in a small red dress appeared on the field with two wings protruding from her back (4/1800/1050) and her attack jumped to 2200 thanks to Freya's effect,.

"She's a witch that's also a fairy?" Lance asked raising an eyebrow. "I'm no expert on religion but that seems pretty contradictory."

"Don't worry; it also confuses the hell out of religious duellists like me." Theresa shrugged. "Anyway Freya, Dark Witch, attack his lifepoints directly!" Dark Witch fired a spell at Lance whilst Freya kicked him in the jaw.

T: 1600

L: 600

"I set a card facedown and that ends my turn but unless you have a second Nutrient Z this duels over." Theresa said as Lance drew his card.

"I don't need a second Nutrient Z to win this duel Theresa." Lance grinned as he activated his trap. "I activate Return from a Different Dimension, at the cost of half my remaining lifepoints I can summon all my monsters that have been removed from play, off course I only have one but I think Laval Lancelord will be more than enough." Lance said as his lifepoints dropped to 300 and Laval Lancelord returned to the field.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Theresa asked pointing to Sanctuary. "As long as I have fairy type monsters on my field my Sanctuary keeps my lifepoints safe."

"That's true but your sanctuary's about to be destroyed." Lance said picking up a card. "First I sacrifice Laval Lancelord to summon Goka, The Pyre of Malice in attack mode." Laval Lancelord was consumed by a massive flame, on that flame soon appeared an angry looking face (6/2200/1900). "And now I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Sanctuary in the Sky!" Lance announced as a tornado destroyed the Sanctuary and Theresa sent it to the graveyard. "Goka, attack Freya Spirit of Victory and win me this duel!" Lance commanded as Goka launched its self at Freta.

"Did you honestly think it would be that easy? I activate Shift and changed Goka's target to Dark Witch!" Theresa said as Goka launched its self at Dark Witch.

"But that'll be a tie...you intend to beat me with Freya don't you?" Lance asked and she nodded. "Well, goodbye dignity it was nice knowing you because I'm about to lose a duel thanks to an attack by a cheerleader." Lance muttered as the two monsters attacks destroyed eachother. "I end my turn."

"Freya, try not to damage his ego too much!" Theresa said after drawing his card, Freya nodded and launched herself at Lance kicking him...in the balls.

"Ow." Lance winced as he went cockeyed before falling over.

T: 1600

L: 0000

"And the winner of this ridiculously long duel is Theresa!" Brandon announced with a wince. "Somebody get an icepack for Lance's balls!"

"No way, that was just a hologram." Lance said getting up. "Besides if anyone's hand is going anywhere near my balls it's mine...that came out wrong."

"Yes, yes it did." Brandon said facepalming. "Let's just determine the next duel before Lance embarrasses himself even more." Brandon added shaking his head; Lance quickly made his way to the bleachers and sat next to Chloe.

"Well, there are worse ways to lose a duel." Chloe tried to reassure him.

"What could be worse than being kicked in the balls by a cheerleader?" Lance asked.

"Just ask the guy in the infirmary." Marcus said as he made his way to the duel field.

"That's not funny asshole!" Marcus blinked and turned around seeing Kimberly who was looking pissed.

"Err, oops." Marcus gulped. "Please don't castrate me!" Marcus said running off.

"Kimberly? Why aren't you with Nathan?" Brandon asked.

"Why? Because I was getting bored out of my mind sitting next to Nathan, that and I talked to the Obelisk Blue headmaster and he agreed to let me join the tournament as well." Kimberly said with a sigh. "There's a good chance that whoever attacked Nathan will be at the tournament, I want a chance at revenge against him."

"You sure about that? Revenge isn't a great motive to enter a tournament." Brandon said.

"I'm sure, besides Theresa and Chloe might need more female company on this trip." Kimberly said before sitting down next to Lance.

"So who's duelling next?" Lance called out to Brandon who looked up.

"Just deciding that Lance, just enjoy being between two young women for the time being." Brandon said.

"Err, Brandon..." Theresa trailed off.

"Caught it the moment it came out of my mouth." Brandon said blushing furiously. "Let's just draw our cards already!" Brandon said as he drew his Gorg The Strong (1800), Marcus drew his Troop Dragon (700), Evan drew his Neo the Magic Swordsman (1700), Andreas drew Wolf Axeweilder (1650) and Rajin drew his Fushi No Tori (1200). "Next match is between me and Marcus."

"Oh great, I look forward to getting my ass kicked." Marcus muttered.

"You'd better not carry that attitude going into the tournament, I'm good but they'll be tournament level players at the tournament." Brandon said and Marcus nodded.

"Yeah, you're right." Marcus said pumping his fists. "I'm ready to kick ass and take names."

"That's more like it!" Brandon said as the two boys got on the duel field. "Just don't expect me to let you off that easy." Brandon said as both boys activated their Duel Disks.


	10. Dragons, Scorpions and Fiends

Marcus and Brandon drew their opening hands ready for their duel, Lance, whilst still reeling from the end of his duel with Theresa, was curious if Marcus was going to fair as well as he did during his duel with Theresa.

"Okay Brandon, who's going first?" Marcus asked as he looked over his hand, Brandon looked over his hand and shrugged.

"I'll let you go first." Brandon said looking over his hand. _"Not my best hand but those new cards I got after my duel with Theresa will help."_ Brandon thought as Marcus drew his card.

"Alright, first I activate a spell card called Cards of Consonance!" Marcus played the card and pocketed one of his cards. "In exchange for removing one Dragon type monster with 1000 attack points or less from my hand I can draw two cards." Marcus drew his next two cards and looked at them. _"Yeah, this could work!"_ Marcus said as he started to form a strategy in his head. "I summon Decoy Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and a small blue dragon with orange scales appeared on the field (2/300/200), Brandon looked at the small monster in confusion.

"Marcus, unless that thing has an effect that's one of the dumbest opening moves I've seen." Brandon said facepalming.

"Oh believe me; you'll be eating those words." Marcus said playing another card. "I activate Card Destruction." Both boys discarded their hands and drew new ones; Marcus looked at his new hand and grinned. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Marcus played the two cards and Brandon drew his new card.

"Time I took one of my new monsters for a spin; I summon Shadowpriestess of Ohm in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and a woman with flowing silver hair appeared on the field, wearing an odd black hat and a blue dress with black sleeves and a gold belt buckle (4/1700/1600). "Shadowpriestess attack Decoy Dragon." The priestess fired a spell at Decoy Dragon but to Brandon's surprise it disappeared. "What the hell? Did you activate a trap?"

"Didn't need to, you know why it's called Decoy Dragon Brandon? Because that's just what it is, a decoy!" Marcus grinned as he sent his dragon to the graveyard. "When he's attacked I can tribute him to bring out a Level 7 or higher monster from my graveyard, and thanks to Card Destruction I have just that so say hello to my good buddy Dark Horus!" In Decoy Dragon's place stood a massive, jet black dragon which roared at Brandon (8/3000/1800). "Oh and did I mention that this big guy's your new attack target?"

"Wait, what?" Brandon said once it dawned on him, the priestesses' spell had no effect on the dragon, the dragon breathing fire on her however did have an effect and the priestess was quickly incinerated.

B: 6700

M: 8000

"Oh right, I've taken an early lead!" Marcus grinned before activating one of his traps. "And this trap will help me keep it; it's called Dragon's Rage!" Marcus said as the hologram flipped up. "As long as this is on the field I can deal damage to your lifepoints even by attacking a defence monster but only as long as I do so with a dragon type monster which is where my other trap comes in." Marcus said activating his trap. "Dragon Tribe, as long as this is on the field all monsters on my side of the field are treated as Dragon type monsters." Brandon blinked before chuckling.

"Good move Marcus, keep this up during the tournament and you'll be a force to be reckoned with." Brandon said picking up two cards. "I'll set these two cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon played the cards and Marcus drew his card.

"You thought things where bad for you before? Just watch." Marcus said playing a card. "I activate Polmerization to fuse the Lord of Dragons and Divine Dragon Ragnorok in my hand to form King Dragun!" The two monsters appeared on the field and fused together to form a brown, serpent like dragon with black wings and a white mane (7/2400/1100). "Whilst he's on the field my dragons are protected from being targeted by the effects of Spells, Traps or Monster cards but that's not all because once per turn I can Special Summon a Dragon Type monster from my hand so say hello to Spear Dragon!" Marcus played the card and a blue and light brown dragon with a ridiculasly long nose appeared on the field (4/1900/0). "Go my dragons! Attack his lifepoints!" The three dragons charged forward and Marcus grinned. _""I don't believe it! I'm actually going to beat a Obelisk Blue student in just three turns! I'll be the talk of the school! All the chicks will want me, I'll..."_ Marcus's train of thought was interrupted by...

"I activate my trap card Mirror Force!" Brandon announced and Marcus' jaw dropped.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Marcus said as the three monsters shattered on contact with a forcefield.

"Come on, you really didn't think I'd go down that easy would you?" Brandon asked. "Luck on the Brightside, you haven't normal summoned yet." Marcus blinked before realizing he was right.

"Oh yeah, err just give me a sec." Marcus said looking at his only remaining card. "I set this card facedown in defence mode and end my turn." Brandon nodded and drew his card.

"All right then." Brandon said looking at his drawn card. "I summon Don Zaloog in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the leader of the Dark Scorpions appeared on the field (4/1400/1500). "And I activate Mustering of the Dark Scorpions to summon his partners in crime, Meanae The Thorn (4/1000/1800), Gorg The Strong (5/1800/1500), Chick The Yellow (3/1000/1000) and Cliff, The Trap Remover." Brandon said as the four monsters appeared on the field. "Activate Trap Card Dark Scorpion Combination!"

"Okay, what does that do?" Marcus blinked and Brandon grinned.

"This card can only be activated if I have all five Dark Scorpions on the field, it lets them bypass your monster and attack your lifepoints directly in exchange for the battle damage becoming 400." Brandon said.

"Wait, what is four times five again?" Marcus said trying to do the math by counting his fingers, Brandon sweatdropped.

"20, in other words you're losing 2000 lifepoints." Brandon informed him before pointing to the Dark Scorprions. "Go my Dark Scorpions, bypass his monster and attack his lifepioints directly!" Brandon commanded and the five monsters charged forward going straight past Marcus' facedown monster and attacking him directly.

B: 6700

M: 6000

"Well, that wasn't too bad." Marcus muttered as he got up.

"Did you forget about my Dark Scorpion's effects?" Brandon asked and Marcus gulped.

"Honestly? Yes, care to give me a refresher course?" Marcus asked and Brandon nodded.

"Okay, normally Don Zaloog would allow me to discard cards from your hand but since that isn't an option you'll discard the two cards from the top of your deck instead." Brandon said and Marcus did so reluctantly. "Next Chick the Yellow's effect let's me look at the top card in your deck and send it to the top or bottom of your deck."

"All right, catch!" Marcus said throwing the card at Brandon who caught it and looked at it.

"Call of the Haunted, this can go on the bottom of the deck." Brandon tossed the card back and Marcus placed it at the bottom. "Next, Gorg will allow me to send your monster back to your hand but since I'm feeling generous you'll instead send the top card from the top of your deck to the graveyard." Marcus did so and waited for him to continue, Brandon retrieved another Manea from his graveyard and added it to his hand. "That's Meanae's second effect out the way which just leaves Cliff and as his name implies he's a trap remover so Cliff remove Dragon's Rage!" Cliff charged at the hologram of Marcus trap and slashed it with his knife. "I'm done for now." Marcus drew his card and his eyes lit up.

"Oh yeah, now I'm back in business!" Marcus grinned. "I summon Horus of the Black Flame Dragon Level 4 in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and a small dragon in grey armour appeared on the field (4/1600/1000). "Go Horus, attack Meanee the Thorn!" Horus breathed fire at the sole female member of the Dark Scorpions incinerating her.

B: 6100

M: 6000

"I end my turn and it's time for my dragon to grow up!" Marcus said sending Level Four to the graveyard. "When Horus destroys a monster in battle I can level him up to his Level 6 form!" Marcus said as a much larger, more bird like version of Horus appeared on the field (6/2300/1600), Brandon frowned and drew his card.

"I switch my remaining Dark Scorpions to defence mode and end my turn." Brandon said as the four thieves knelt down, Marcus drew his card and raised an eyebrow.

"I activate Card of Sanctity!" Marcus said as he and Brandon drew their cards, he saw one spell card and started thinking. "Mind if I check my graveyard?" Marcus asked, Brandon shrugged and motioned for him to do so and Marcus looked. "Heh, thought that might be the case." Marcus said when he spotted a certain card. _"Horus' final form, it must've been sent to the graveyard by one of Brandon's monster effects." _Marcus thought before returning the cards to the graveyard. "I activate The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension, it allows me to add two monsters with LV in their names to my deck and shuffle it and I chose my two Horus cards." Marcus said returning the monsters to his deck and shuffling it. "Now Horus, attack Gorg the Strong!" Marcus commanded and the bird like dragon breathed fire at the strongest member of the Dark Scorpions incinerating him. "I'm not done yet, I summon Horus' Servant in attack mode." Marcus played the card and a human in robes that strongly resembled Horus' armour appeared on the field (1/100/100). "As long as he's on the field Horus can't be targeted by the effects of Spells, Monsters or Trap cards."

"That would be a good play if it weren't for the fact that his stats are incredibly weak." Brandon said folding his arms.

"True, that's why I'm setting two cards facedown and ending my turn, oh yeah and since Horus destroyed a monster in this turn I can level him up to his ultimate level so come forth Horus Of The Black Flame Dragon Level 8!" Marcus played the card and the dragon grew into its ultimate form which closely resembled a Phoenix at this point (8/3000/1800) Brandon drew his card somehow keeping his composure.

"All right, I activate Lightning Vortex, now by discarding a card from my hand I can..." Brandon started but Horus breathed fire at the hologram of Lightning Vortex incinerating it.

"Oops, forgot to mention that Horus let's me chose to negate the activation of a spell card and destroy it or not." Marcus grinned. "My dragon's here to stay Brandon!"

"Maybe but I can't say the same for his servant!" Brandon said switching Don Zaloog to attack mode. "Don Zaloog, attack Horus' Servant now!" The leader of the Black Scorpions charged forward.

"To quote Theresa did you really think I'd play such a weak monster without a backup plan?" Marcus asked activating his trap. "Negate Attack, it stops your attack and ends your battle phase." Brandon frowned before motioning for Marcus to take his turn and he drew his card. "Okay, I switch Horus' Servant to defence mode and I'll have Horus himself attack Don Zaloog." Horus' Servant knelt down and Horus breathed fire at the leader of the Dark Scorpions incinerating him.

B: 4500

M: 6000

"Looks like I'm in the lead again." Marcus grinned before picking up the card he drew. "But just in case I'll set this facedown and end my turn." Brandon drew his card and looked up at the dragon.

"_Nothing in my hand is strong enough to beat his dragon and that servant of his protects it from the effects of monsters and traps."_ Brandon frowned as he looked towards Marcus' facedown. _"That facedown is likely another trap encase I try attacking Horus' Servant again, but I need him gone from the field if I am to win this match."_ Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Marcus drew his card and didn't even look at it before pointing at Brandon's facedown card.

"Horus, attack his defence." Marcus commanded, Horus breathed fire at the monster revealing a man in black robes carrying a pair of daggers that where glowing blue (3/200/500) before the attack connected the man threw a dagger at Horus' Servant destroying him and the man was consumed by flame. "What the hell was that?"

"That was Night Assailant." Brandon said holding up the card. "When he's flipped I can choose to destroy one monster on your side of the field and since your dragon was protected from such an effect I went for the next best thing, his servant." Brandon said sending Night Assailant to the graveyard and Marcus did likewise with Horus' Servant. "Now I just need to work on getting rid of that oversized bird."

"If you think you can succeed than go ahead." Marcus said folding his arms. "I end my turn!"

"_He's getting overconfident; lucky for him Night Assailant is on the Limited List otherwise I'd set another one and let him attack it."_ Brandon thought before looking at the card he drew. _"But this is the next best thing."_ Brandon thought. "I set this card facedown in defence mode and end my turn." Brandon announced as Marcus drew his card.

"Okay Horus, time to roast another one of his monsters, attack his defence!" Marcus commanded and Horus breathed fire at the monster revealing it to be a red haired man in multi coloured armour wielding a sword (4/1200/1000) before the flames engulfed him the man tossed his sword at the dragon impaling it in the chest.

"TIMBUR!" Lance yelled from the sidelines as Horus fell over and the hologram shattered.

"What the hell was that?" Marcus blinked.

"That was D.D. Warrior, after he does battle with a monster that monster, alongside D.D. Warrior is removed from the game." Brandon said pocketing the monster; Marcus did so reluctantly and looked at his hand which at the moment had 8 cards in it.

"_Good thing I still have my defence monster from earlier." _Marcus thought before picking up two cards. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_Huh, so these are the duellists this place has selected for Battle City?"_ An African American male with long hair in a ponytail and brown eyes thought as he observed the duel, he was wearing a red basketball jersey, blue jeans and black boots. _"I can see why they've selected them."_

"Ah Edward, glad you could make it." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster said as he approached the youth. "So what do you think of our choices?"

"I think I'll have some stiff competition if I want to keep my Battle City crown, and please you know I prefer to be called Eddie." Eddie chuckled. "That Lance guy has some sweet moves."

"Yes, he's certainly one of our brightest new students." Martin nodded in agreement. "A bit unruly but what teenager isn't?"

"True that." Eddie nodded in agreement. "I thought there was going to be seven duellists though?"

"Evan and Rajin asked to join in the training to better their own skills, Kimberly on the other hand asked me to add her to the roster of competing duellists, her stepbrother was the student attacked by the intruder and she thinks he'll be at Battle City." Martin explained folding his arms. "I don't agree with her motives but she's an excellent duellist and she should do well in the tournament."

"Yeah, I heard about that attack." Eddie frowned. "I also heard rumours saying that he was hospitalized by the Seal of the Orichalcos."

"Unfortunately those rumours are true." Martin sighed. "You remember the rules about that card from your time here?"

"The students in Ra Yellow and Osiris Red won't find out." Eddie nodded. "But if the Orichalcos is back then..." Eddie trailed off.

"We're prepared for the possibility of it being used in the tournament." Martin said as he observed the duel. "You know the Osiris Red student in the group reminds me a lot of you when you joined."

"Let me guess, she's a troublemaker with potential as well huh?" Eddie asked with a small smile. "Well, this place straightened me out so I don't see why it can't do the same for her."

"It'll be more complicated than that, I won't go into detail but her childhood was far from happy." Martin frowned. "It's a miracle she's as well adjusted as she is."

"It's that bad?" Eddie asked before frowning. "I think I get the basic idea, no kid should have to suffer through that."

"Agreed." Martin said shaking his head.

"Okay, it's my move." Brandon said looking at his newly drawn card. "I activate Pot of Avarice, since I now have five monsters in my graveyard, namely Shadowpriestess, Gorg, Zaloog, Meanae, and Night Assailant I can shuffle them back into my deck and draw two cards." Brandon said and after retrieving the cards he shuffled them back into his deck and drew two cards. "Perfect, I summon Don Zaloog back to the field." Brandon announced as the leader of the Black Scorpions reappeared on the field and Brandon switched Cliff and Chick the Yellow to attack mode. "Next I activate Reinforcement of the Army which lets me add Gorg the Strong to my hand." Brandon said adding the monster back to his hand. "And last but not least I activate Mustering of the Dark Scorpions to bring Meanae and Gorg back out." Brandon said as the two thieves reappeared.

"And Theresa calls my strategies predictable?" Chloe muttered under her breath.

"Oh great, now I'm back at square one." Marcus said sarcastically. _"Unluckily for him I still have a trick or two up my sleeve."_ Marcus thought.

"Gorg the Strong, attack his defence." Gorg charged at the facedown monster and slammed his hammer down...only to be sent flying back. "Huh?" Brandon blinked before looking at his lifepoint counter.

B: 4300

M: 6000

"Brandon, I'd like you to meet Golem Dragon!" Marcus grinned as a small rocky dragon appeared on the field crouching down (4/200/2000). "On top of his defence being too tough for any of your Dark Scorpions to crack his effect means that you can't target any other dragon type monsters I have for an attack."

"So? I've gotten past your defences before." Brandon reminded him. "I'll set this card facedown and end my turn." The hologram of the facedown card appeared behind the scorpions and Marcus drew his card.

"_Knowing my luck that's another Dark Scorpion Combination, luckily I've come prepared this time." _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. "I pass for now."

"Okay then." Brandon said drawing his card. "I activate my facedown card, Hope for Escape!" Brandon announced. "Here's how it works: this can only be activated if my lifepoints are at least 1000 points lower than yours and as long as I pay a thousand lifepoints I can draw one card for each depending on how far apart our lifepoints are in multiples of 1000, in this case I'll draw three cards." Brandon announced as his lifepoints dropped to 3300 and he drew three cards, he sent Hope for Escape to the graveyard and looked at his new cards. "Sorry to say this Marcus but I have what I need to beat you."

"I'd like to see you try." Marcus grinned.

"Oh, you will." Brandon grinned. "I activate Stop Defence." Brandon played the card and Marcus's grin disappeared in record time as Golem Dragon stood up. "Gorg, destroy Golem Dragon, the rest of you? Finish him!" Brandon commanded, Gorg charged forward and slammed his hammer into Golem Dragon's head shattering the hologram, the rest of the Dark Scorpions charged forward and laid a beatdown on Marcus.

B: 3300

M: 0000

"Damn it, I had you beat." Marcus said as he got up. "If it weren't for that stupid Stop Defence card I could've beaten you."

"Yeah, that was a tough break Marcus." Brandon agreed as the holograms disappeared, the two boys heard clapping and looked up seeing Eddie approaching them.

"That was a great duel guys." Eddie said as he approached them.

"Err, do I know you?" Marcus asked and Brandon facepalmed.

"Marcus, that's Eddie Roberts he's the reigning Battle City champ and a Duel Academy alumni." Brandon said annoyed.

"Oh, err, I knew that." Marcus said rubbing the back of his head nervously; Eddie shook his head with a chuckle.

"Don't worry, I'm just here to check out the duellists that my old stomping grounds nominated for the tournament." Eddie shook his head. "From what I've seen this year will be a challenging one for me if I want to regain my title." Eddie added.

"That's not for another two weeks though, and we've only just started the training." Marcus pointed out.

"That's just what I meant." Eddie answered before taking a seat. "If you don't mind I'd like to watch the rest of the duels, see what I've got in store for me when the tournament starts."

"Sure, just don't complain when we scare you out of competing." Lance joked getting a laugh out of Eddie, Brandon and Marcus went into the bleachers and Chloe and Kimberly joined in the draw to determine the next duel, Chloe drew Silent Magician Level Four (1000), Lance drew Fire Lord (1500), Theresa drew Dumnass Dark Witch (1800), Evan drew Chaos Sorcerer (2300), Andreas drew Ancient Crimson Ape (2600), Rajin drew Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi (2800) and Kimberly drew Archfiend Empress (2900).

"It looks like the duellist who got added to the roster at the last minute gets to duel." Brandon said as he watched the two girls get onto the duel field.

"Hey Brandon, how good is Kimberly anyway?" Marcus asked.

"I've never duelled her myself; you'd have to ask Theresa that since they faced off in a duel a couple of weeks back." Brandon said and Marcus turned to Theresa.

"She's good, not exactly in the top three ranks of Obelisk Blue but she and her stepbrother are easily in the top ten." Theresa said sitting down. "Basically Chloe has an uphill battle against her in this match."

"So, who's going first?" Chloe asked as she drew her hand, Kimberly looked at her hand and looked up.

"I will." Kimberly said drawing another card. "I start by discarding Archfiend General (4/2100/800) from my hand, by doing this I can add a field spell card that my monsters can thrive in too my hand." Kimberly discarded the monster and added the card to her hand. "As a matter of fact I'll activate that Field Spell now, go Pandemonium!" Kimberly played the card and the scenary changed to a hellish looking place that seemed to be an arena of some sorts. "For starters neither of us have to pay lifepoints to keep Archfiends on the field as long as this card is active."

"Archfiends? But I don't have any." Chloe said and Kimberly grinned.

"Too bad, my deck's full of them." Kimberly said picking up a card. "I'll get to its second effect a bit later but for now I summon Archfiend Soldier in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and a purple demon in a green cape, purple armour and gold boots appeared on the field. "And I activate the continous Spell Card Archfiend's Oath, with this I can pay 500 lifepoints to guess the top card in my deck, if I guess correctly it gets added to my hand, if I guess incorrectly it gets sent to my graveyard."

"That's a pretty big risk to take this early in the duel isn't it?" Chloe raised an eyebrow.

"True but I know what I'm doing." Kimberly said picking up her two remaining cards. "I set these two cards facedown and end my turn."

"_Yeah, that coming from the girl who emptied her hand on her first turn."_ Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"I don't have anything that can beat her soldier so I'll play it safe." _Chloe decided. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defence that ends my turn." Chloe said and Kimberly drew her card and added it to her hand.

"I pay 500 lifepoints to guess the top card in my deck." Kimberly announced as her lifepoints dropped to 7500. "My guess is that it's the trap card Battle Scarred." Kimberly picked up the card and looked at it.

"So? Is it the trap card or not?" Chloe asked.

"Yes it is." Kimberly said adding it to her hand. "I summon Terrorking Archfiend in attack mode!"

"You're summoning a monster that sounds like the name of a cheesy metal band?" Chloe asked.

"Kid, stick to your dayjob." Kimberly groaned as she played the card and a demon in red armour that had parts that closely resembled the look of Summoned Skull (6/2500/1200) appeared on the field wielding a blue sword (4/2000/1500).

"A level four monster with 2000 attack points? That thing has to have a weakness!" Chloe pointed out and Kimberly smirked.

"Under normal circumstances it would." Kimberly said folding her arms. "Terrorking would normally require me to pay 800 lifepoints per turn to keep it on the field but thanks to Pandemonium that's no longer an issue, well for me anyway." Kimberly said and Chloe gulped.

"She definitely knows how to use her cards effectively." Eddie commented.

"Yes and Chloe might be in over her head, she's only been duelling for two months now." Martin said sitting next to him.

"Two months? I almost feel sorry for her going into Battle City." Eddie said leaning back on his chair.

"And here's the fun part, I activate one of my spell cards Checkmate." Kimberly said activating the card. "All I have to do is send Archfiend Soldier to the Graveyard and I can have Terrorking attack you directly."

"Oh crap." Chloe gulped as Archfiend Soldier disappeared from the field and Terrorking roared.

"I've heard much worse profanity being use when I used this combo in the past kid so don't be afraid to let lose more colourful swearwords." Kimberly said.

"I won't because of him." Chloe said pointing to the Obelisk Blue Headmaster.

"You have a point there." Kimberly admitted before activating her trap. "I activate Archfiend's Roar, which allows me to bring back Archfiend Soldier." Kimberly said as her Archfiend returned to the field. "Only downside is he's destroyed at the end of my turn but he'll do nicely, Terrorking attack her lifepoints directly." Terrorking charged forward and slashed Chloe with her sword.

"I activate Numinous Healer, which lets me recover half of the lifepoints I just loss." Chloe said with a grimace.

K: 8000

C: 7000

"Nice recovery, but let's see how your facedown monster fairs against my other archfiend." Kimberly said as Chloe sent her trap to the graveyard. "Archfiend Soldier, attack her defence!" Kimberly demanded and her soldier charged forward and slashed the monster revealing it to be a young boy in a grey cloak wielding a staff (3/500/1500) and Chloe grinned.

"That was Dharc The Dark Charmer, and when he's flipped I can take control of one dark type monster on your side of the field and I think I'll chose Terrorking." Chloe grinned and Kimberly folded her arms with a smirk.

"Do you wanna bet?" Kimberly asked. "By targeting Terrorking with an effect monster you've triggered his own effect." Kimberly said as a giant, six sided die appeared on the field. "If that dice lands on a 2 or a 5 that effect of Dharc is negated and the monster is destroyed." Kimberly said and Chloe's grin quickly disappeared, it only got worse when it landed on a five. "Nice try Chloe but it seems fate's not on your side." Kimberly said as Chloe sent her spellcaster to the graveyard. "Any other moves you want to make?"

"Actually yes, there is." Chloe said activating her trap. "I activate Call of the Haunted to bring Dharc back." She said as her spellcaster returned to the field. "Are you done yet?" Chloe asked and Kimberly looked at her hand.

"Yeah, I'm done." Kimberly said sending Soldier and Archfiend's Roar to the graveyard; Chloe drew her card and smirked.

"I sacrifice Dhark to summon Cybernetic Magician in attack mode." Chloe announced and Dhark disappeared from the field, in the spellcaster's place stood a magician in white, high tech looking robes with a pair of blue pants underneath it and carrying a small, high tech looking staff (6/2400/1000). "Cybernetic Magician, attack Terrorking Archfiend." The magician pointed its staff towards Terrorking Archfiend and lightning emanated from the staff striking Terrorking and causing the hologram to shatter.

K: 7600

C: 7000

"That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"All right, first I use Archfiend's Oath again and I guess that the top card in my deck is Cyber Archfiend." She said as her lifepoints dropped to 7100, she drew her card and smirked. "Well would you look at that, luck's on my side again." Kimberly said adding the monster to her hand. "Next I activate Heavy Storm to destroy all spell and traps on the field." Chloe blinked in confusion as the scenery changes caused by Pandemonium where whipped away by a tornado, both girls shielded themselves before the storm dissipated.

"That makes no sense, now your Archfiends will do you more harm than good." Chloe pointed out.

"It'll make sense soon enough." Kimberly said as she sent Archfiend's Oath and Pandemonium to the graveyard. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defence, your move." Kimberly said and Chloe drew her card. "I activate Thunder Of Ruler, sorry but your Cybernetic Magician's going to have to wait a bit longer before attacking." Kimberly said and Chloe groaned.

"Fine, I set a monster in defence mode and call it a turn." Chloe said placing the monster down, Kimberly drew her card and smirked.

"_Just need her to set another monster and my plan will be in motion."_ Kimberly thought before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon Dark Ruler Ha Des in attack mode!" Kimberly announced and the hologram of the facedown card disappeared and in its place stood a green demon clad in heavy robes with a skull design on the frount appeared on the field (6/2450/1600).

"_Crap, that thing's stronger than my Magician!" _Chloe thought once she saw the stats.

"I end my turn at that." Kimberly announced causing confused looks from the other duellists.

"Why didn't she attack? Ha Des is stronger than Cybernetic Magician." Lance wondered as he watched the duel.

"If she's planning what I think she's planning than Chloe's in trouble." Theresa said plainly as she watched the duel, Chloe drew her card and looked up at Ha Des.

"_Nothing in my hand can beat her Dark Ruler, and whilst her reasons for not attacking my Magician confuse the hell out of me I'd better take advantage of it."_ Chloe thought. "I switch my Magician to defence mode and set another monster facedown, that ends my..." Chloe never finished because of Kimberly's next move.

"I activate my trap card, Nightmare Archfiends!" Kimberly grinned as the facedown card flipped up. "All I need to do is tribute your magician and I can summon three Nightmare Archfiend tokens to your side of the field." Chloe blinked as Cybernetic Magician was consumed by flame and three identical demons appeared on the field alongside Chloe's facedown monsters, black in colour and with blue hair (6/2000/2000). "Not only are they weaker than Ha Des but when their destroyed you suffer 800 points of damage to your lifepoints." Chloe gulped when she heard that. "You where saying?"

"I end my turn." Chloe said as Kimberly drew her card.

"First I activate my trap card Battle Scared, as long as this is on the field both players have to pay lifepoints to keep Archfiends on the field." Kimberly said as the trap card flipped up.

"Then I guess it's a good thing you don't have any archfiends." Chloe laughed nervously.

"Thanks for the reminder; I summon Infernalqueen Archfiend in attack mode." Kimberly played the card and a female demon in a purple cloak appeared on the field, her eyes where glowing red and she was wearing a red helmet (4/900/1500).

"Oh great just what I need, as Lance would say if he was in this situation me and my big mouth at least she's weak enough for my monsters to destroy." Chloe gulped before she saw the stats of Kimberly's new monster.

"You may think that now." Kimberly said picking up another card. "But you won't soon; first I activate Card of Sanctity allowing us to refresh our hands." Kimberly said and both girls drew until they had six cards, Kimberly looked at her new cards and smirked. "I equip my queen with the equip spell cards Axe of Despair and Black Pendant increasing her attack power by one thousand and five hundred respectively!" The queen grabbed onto an evil looked axe and at the same time a pendant appeared around her neck causing her attack to skyrocket to 2400. "Infernalqueen, Ha Des, attack her Nightmare Archfiends!" Kimberly commanded and both monsters charged forward, Infernalqueen chopped one of the nightmare archfiends in half and Ha Des launched a spell at the other.

K: 7100

C: 4550

"That ends my turn." Kimberly announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Man this is hopeless, our lifepoints are nowhere near each other and even if I switch my remaining Archfiend to defence mode she'll still do..."_ Chloe thought before she looked at the card she had drawn, the frown on her face quickly turned into a grin. "I have to thank you for giving me your archfiend tokens." Chloe grinned causing Kimberly to blink in confusion. "Why? It's simple, because without them I wouldn't be able to summon my next monster and turn this duel around."

"What is she blabbering on about?" Marcus blinked.

"You're asking me?" Lance asked.

"I sacrifice my remaining Archfiend Token alongside my two facedown monsters to summon Gilford the Lightning!" Chloe announced as the Archfiend Token and her facedown monsters disappeared from the field and in their place stood a mountain of a man covered almost completely in armour and carrying a massive sword (8/2800/1400).

"What? That thing wasn't in her deck before!" Lance yelled in surprise at the sight of her new monster.

"And he has an effect as well, you see the three tribute summon is completely optional but necessary for his effect, when he's summoned this way I can destroy all your monsters on your side of the field." Chloe grinned and Kimberly's cool composure was gone in an instant, Gilford charged the two fiends and his sword started charging with lightning, he slashed both fiends and Ha Des was the first to fall, Infernalqueen was the next to fall but not before Black Pendant fired a beam at Chloe striking her in the chest.

K: 7100

C: 4050

"Oh I forgot to mention, when Black Pendent is destroyed and sent to the graveyard you suffer 500 points of damage." Kimberly said as she sent the four monsters and her equip cards to the graveyard.

"Yeah? Well guess what, Gilford can still attack!" Chloe grinned. "Go Gilford attack her lifepoints directly with Lightning Sword!" Chloe commanded and Gilford charged at Kimberly and slashed her with her sword.

K: 4300

C: 4050

Kimberly winced as she got up staring down the warrior and Chloe. "So what if you were able to narrow the gap between our lifepoints? I'm not done yet." Kimberly asserted folding her arms. "Are you done yet kid?"

"Yeah, just remember that this kid tore through your strategy like a hot knife through butter." Chloe said as Kimberly drew her card.

"Sorry kid, I hate using this but you've left me with no choice." Kimberly sighed. "I remove Terrorking, Infernalqueen and Ha Des from my graveyard to summon Dark Necrofear to the field in attack mode!" Kimberly pocketed the monsters and the fiend from Lance's duel with Dwayne appeared on the field.

"Crap, if I destroy that thing you'll just take control of Gilford." Chloe gulped.

"_Huh? Oh right, Dwayne mentioned that she watched his duel with Lance."_ Kimberly thought before picking up two cards. "As for my Normal Summon I'll use it to set a monster in defence mode and a card facedown, your move." Chloe nodded and drew her card.

"_Silent Magician? I can't use her, not with Dark Necrofear on the field."_ Chloe frowned as she saw her monster. "Gilford attack her defence with Lightning Blade!" Chloe commanded and Gilford charged forward.

"Sorry kid but no dice, I activate Shift to change your target to Dark Necrofear!" Kimberly announced as Gilford changed its course and slashed Necrofear down the middle, once Gilford returned to Chloe's side of the field he started clutching his head in pain.

K: 3700

C: 4050

"I may have lost my lead but it was worth it." Kimberly said as Gilford walked over to her side of the field.

"Maybe but I still have a normal summon." Chloe said as she played the card. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Chloe announced as the hologram of the facedown monster appeared on the field and Kimberly drew her card.

"I summon a second Terrorking Archfiend to the field." Kimberly announced as the Terrorking returned to the field. "And I activate Stop Defence and use it on your monster." Chloe's eyes widened but she flipped the monster up reluctantly revealing it to be The Unhappy Maiden (1/0/100)

"I can't watch." Marcus said covering his eyes.

"Gilford, attack her monster and be done with it." Kimberly said simply, Gilford charged forward and slashed The Unhappy Maiden down the middle.

K: 3700

C: 1250

"Terrorking, finish it." Kimberly commanded but Terrorking didn't move. "Terrorking I said finish it!" She yelled.

"Yell all you want, he won't listen." Chloe said holding up The Unhappy Maiden. "When Unhappy Maiden's destroyed in battle your battle phase ends immediately."

"Okay fine, if you think that delaying your defeat by one turn will help you then I'll end my turn." Kimberly announced and Chloe drew her card and grinned.

"My defeat will be delayed for a lot longer than that." Chloe said before pausing. "You know what I mean!" She added before summoning a monster. "I summon Silent Magician Level Four in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and her magician appeared on the field seemingly unintimidated by the two more powerful monsters on Kimberly's side of the field (4/1000/1000).

"So? I saw your test duel kid and I know that thing's effect, Gilford will destroy it before you can even get it strong enough to beat Terrorking." Kimberly said folding her arms.

"Then you'll be familiar with my next card." Chloe grinned turning a card around and showing it to be Level Up!

"You're not." Kimberly gulped.

"I am, I activate Level Up tributing Silent Magician to bring out her strongest form and my strongest monster, Silent Magician Level 8." Chloe sent level 4 to the graveyard and Silent Magician Level 8 appeared on the field staring down Kimberly's two monsters (8/3500/1000).

When he saw Chloe's monster Eddie couldn't help but let out an impressed whistle. "Looks like our rookie might pull this off after all."

"Don't count Kimberly out just yet, she made it into Obelisk Blue for a reason." Martin said as he watched the duel.

"Silent Magician, attack Terrorking Archfiend!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician pointed her staff at the fiend and fired a beam at it completely engulfing the fiend.

K: 2200

C: 1250

"On my next turn my Gilford's coming home." Chloe said picking up another card. "But just to be safe I'll set this card facedown and end my turn."

"You're assuming that they'll be a next turn." Kimberly said confidently as she drew her card. "I activate Lightning Vortex to get rid of your magician." Kimberly said discarding a card from her hand.

"She won't be defeated that easily, I activate Magic Jammer to negate the effect of the Spell Card." Chloe said discarding her Magical Exemplar (4/1700/1400) and purple fog blocked the lightning from making contact with her Magician.

"Your annoyingly persistent, you know that?" Kimberly asked rhetorically. "I'll switch Gilford to defence mode and end my turn." Kimberly said as Gilford knelt down.

"I've been called worse things." Chloe shrugged as she drew her card. "Silent Magician, attack Gilford!" Silent Magician pointed her staff at Gilford and fired a beam at him engulfing him. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced.

"Don't celebrate too soon." Kimberly said tossing Chloe's Gilford the Lightning back at her and she caught it, barely but she caught it, and sent it to her graveyard whilst Kimberly drew her card. _"I may like Chloe but there's no way in hell I'm losing to a rookie, I don't care if it's here or at the tournament."_ Kimberly thought before looking at her new card. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Kimberly said and Chloe drew her card.

"Silent Magician, attack her defence!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician pointed her staff at the monster and fired a beam at it revealing it to be a red shoe with teeth and a single eye (2/500/300) which was quickly disintegrated.

"What is it with women and shoes?" Lance said...only to be met with glares from Chloe, Kimberly and Theresa. "I'm shutting up now!"

Chloe turned her attention back to her magician and too her surprise her magician was kneeling down. "What the hell? I didn't switch my monster's position!" Chloe exclaimed.

"No but my monster did." Kimberly said holding up her card. "My monster was Bite Shoes and when it's flipped I can shift one monster to defence mode." Kimberly said sending it to the graveyard.

"Ugh, fine I'll end my turn." Chloe groaned and Kimberly drew her card.

"_Sorry to do this to you kid but the duels over."_ Kimberly thought setting the card she had drawn. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chloe drew her card and switched Silent Magician back to attack mode.

"Silent Magician, finish it!" Chloe commanded and her magician pointed her staff at Kimberly who smirked.

"Nice try but I activate my trap card Magical Cylinder!" Kimberly said flipping her card just as Silent Magician fired its beam. "Sorry Chloe but you were right on one thing, Silent Magician IS finishing the duel just not in the way you intended." Kimberly said as the beam went in one cylinder and out the other striking her in the chest.

K: 2200

C: 0000

"Damn it." Chloe said as she got up. "I knew I should've set that card." Chloe said causing Kimberly to raise an eyebrow.

"What card?" Kimberly asked as the holograms disappeared, Chloe held up the last card in her hand revealing it to be Seven Tools of the Bandit. "Why didn't you set it? You could've won."

"I didn't think you'd draw anymore traps." Chloe admitted with a sigh as she returned the cards in her graveyard and on the field to her deck and deactivating her duel disk. "It was a good duel though so I guess I can't complain."

"Yeah, maybe we can duel again in the tournament." Kimberly said as the two girls got off the duel field.

"Well that only leaves one duel to go, Andreas vs. Rajin." Brandon said as he turned to the two boys. "Spirits vs. Nature, this should be a interesting match."

"Indeed it should." Rajin said hopping on the duel field as did Andreas.


	11. Tensions build

Whilst Lance, Chloe, Brandon, Theresa, Rajin, Andreas and Kimberly trained for the Battle City tournament on Duel Academy Island Michael was returning to his bosses' safehouse in Domino City having waited a day to let the heat die down, the safehouse was a small building near the docks of Domino City and he had just returned to Domino.

He entered the building and glanced around, wondering if anyone else was there, this was pretty much confirmed when he felt the cold steel of a gun against his head.

"State the password before I blow your brains out." A gruff, English voice said and Michael chuckled.

"We who hide in the shadows will always fight the darkness within." Michael said plainly, the owner of the gun stepped out of the shadows revealing a young man with greased black hair and blue eyes who was wearing a black cloak. "Now Damien, will you please put that gun away." Damien frowned and holstered the gun.

"You have a lot of nerve showing your face around here Michael." Damien said with a growl. "The police know about the attack on that Obelisk Blue student and are on the lookout for you and so does the boss."

"Is that supposed to concern me?" Michael asked with a chuckle. "He has another soul for his collection, that's all that matters."

"Maybe." Damien frowned. "But your trip to Duel Academy was supposed to be recognisance and nothing more."

"Ignore him Damien, the main point is that SHE will be competing." A thick Brooklyn accented voice rang out and Michael growled.

"Robert, what are you doing here?" Michael said as his eyes narrowed.

"Me and Damien where preparing for the tournament when you arrived." Robert said choosing to remain in the shadows. "Besides that your recognisance wasn't complete."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" Michael bellowed. "What could I have possibly missed?"

"That girl you let go? According to our source at Duel Academy she's been added to the roster of competing duellists." Damien said with a frown. "And thanks to your little fuckup you can't go back and finish the job."

"Then we'll have our contact do some recognisance in my place." Michael said folding his arms. "We should've done that from the beginning since he's actually a student there."

"No need, I have several agents on the island already." A posh sounding voice from the other end of the room spoke up, the three men immediately stood to attention upon recognising the voice.

"Oh sir, I didn't realize you where there." Michael said respectively. "Are the other agents ready for the tournament?"

"Indeed they are, they have been training rigorously ever since the tournament's location was announced, and I trust I can say the same for you three?" The leader said stepping out of the shadows revealing him to be a tall, lanky man with short, silver hair in a cloak.

"I'm ready to finish what I started." Robert said.

"I was born ready." Damien smirked folding his arms. "Those punks from Duel Academy won't know what hit them."

"Do I even need to answer that?" Michael asked rhetorically. "You know that I'm the best duellist in your employ and that I am ready for any challenge, just look at what happened to that student I duelled."

"Ah yes, you beat the poor youngster in...six turns was it?" The leader said with a smirk. "Don't you normally beat your opponents in a shorter amount of time?"

"Heh, looks like the old man's slipping up." Damien chuckled only to be met with a glare from Michael, well he assumed it was a glare because he couldn't see his eyes thanks to the cloak but the way his head whipped around to Damien's direction seemed to indicate that.

"Let me make one thing very clear to you Damien." Michael said threateningly. "I am NOT slipping up, the boy just happened to get lucky with a couple of traps that's all." Michael said folding his arms. "Once I had THAT monster on the field however it was all over for him."

"Indeed it was." The leader nodded looking directly at Damien. "And as you are the weakest duellist in my organisation I'd appreciate it if you didn't bad mouth your superiors." The leader added and Damien frowned at that. "Now, speaking of Duel Academy, let's see what they are up too, shall we." The leader said as several TV screens turned on behind him revealing the Obelisk Blue Duel Field. "Ah, it seems Otto's brother is about to duel."

"What, that little squirt?" Damien scoffed. "Judging by his performance in his last duel we chose wisely when choosing between the siblings."

"Maybe we should watch this duel before casting judgement." Michael said as he watched the TV screen.

*meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field*

"Okay then Rajin, who's going first?" Andreas asked as the two boys drew their hands, Rajin looked at his hand and shrugged.

"I don't mind either way, you can go first if you wish." Rajin said looking at his hand, Andreas raised an eyebrow before drawing his first card.

"Okay, I set three cards facedown and summon Catsnipped Kitty in attack mode!" Andreas said playing the card.

"He's summoning WHAT?" Lance shouted from the sidelines as the monster, if you could call it that appeared on the field, it was a blue kitten with several spiral designs on it (2/0/500) and Lance and Marcus nearly died of laughter when they saw the monster.

"You gotta be kidding me, is that a duel monster or the protagonist in a preschool TV show?" Lance said in between fits of laughter.

"I've seen plushies more intimidating than that thing!" Marcus added whilst Chloe and Kimberly, who were sitting behind the two boys, pinched the bridge of their noses in annoyance.

"I can't believe I'm saying this but they are making Otto look mature." Chloe muttered under her breath.

"The fact that anyone's making Otto look mature is a scary enough thought." Kimberly agreed. "And if you boys value your genitals you won't be making any jokes about female genitalia, understood?"

"Yes ma'am!" Lance and Marcus gulped in unison.

"Err, Andreas are you sure your more experienced than Chloe?" Rajin asked as he sweatdropped at the site of the monster. "I like cats and all but that thing's attack power is nonexistent!" Rajin added as he looked at his hand.

"Believe me; I get enough ridicule over this card from my own brother." Andreas said pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "That said I end my turn." Andreas said and Rajin drew his card. _"For this to work I need him to summon one of his weaker spirits."_ Andreas thought as he watched Rajin scan his hand...for a good 20 minutes. "Erm, Rajin...some of us do have class to attend to so we'd appreciate it if you made a move by day's end." Andreas said as he sweatdropped.

"Have patience Andreas." Rajin said.

"Marcus, I didn't stick around for his test duel, does he usually take this long?" Lance asked his fellow Ra Yellow student.

"He took even longer during our duel; I was beginning to regret not bringing any food to eat." Marcus said honestly at which point Lance put his feet up.

"Better get comfortable then." Lance said resting his hands behind his head.

"Just don't kick off your shoes, the last thing we need is everyone in the room going to the infirmary because of how bad your feet smell." Chloe muttered under her breath.

"Oh come on! I washed my socks...last month." Lance said and Chloe facepalmed.

"You're not helping your defence Lance." Chloe said simply.

"Okay, I'm making my move." Rajin announced and Marcus barely surpassed the urge to yell "hellujah" at the top of his lungs. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn."

"You...your ending your turn...what?" Andreas blinked as he drew his card. "Rajin, I have the weakest monster in my deck on the field in ATTACK MODE! Most duellists would take advantage of that."

"Most duellists are impatient." Rajin answered back. "I on the other hand am not."

"I'm pretty sure there's a difference between patience and just plain stupidity." Marcus said scratching his head in confusion.

"That kid's up to something." Eddie said once his own surprise wore off. "Why else would he defend against a monster with zero attack points?"

"Good question." Martin agreed.

"Err, anyway I switch my Catknipped Kitty to defence mode and I summon Enraged Battle Ox in attack mode." Andreas announced as the kitten knelt down with a soft meow and the Battle Ox appeared on the field enraged as his name suggested (4/1700/1000). "And unlike his other counterpart Enraged Battle Ox can deal damage even if he attacks a monster in defence mode and that's what he's about to do so go Enraged Battle Ox! ATTACK HIS DEFENCE WITH AXE SLAM ATTACK!" Andreas commanded and the Minotaur charged forward and raised its axe...only to change course and attack Catknipped Kitty instead. "What the hell was that?" Andreas blinked as a small golden lamp appeared on the field (2/400/1500).

R: 8000

A: 6800

"Allow me to explain, the monster your Battle Ox almost attacked was Ancient Lamp, when it's flipped up I can make the attacking monster attack your own monster." Rajin explained.

"I guess it's a good thing I switched Catknipped Kitty to defence mode then." Andreas lamented as he sent his monster to the graveyard. _"I didn't even get a chance to use my monster's effect, oh well I have more tricks up my sleeve." _Andreas thought before activating one of his traps. "Before I end my turn I'll activate a trap card called Beast Rising!" Andreas announced as a trap flipped up. "As long as this is in play I can remove from play one beast or beast warrior type monster target another monster on my side of the field, said targeted monster gains that removed monster's attack points in addition to its own."

"Ah, that sounds like a powerful trap." Rajin nodded.

"That's not all though, I activate a Spell Card called Summoner's Art!" Andreas said activating the spell from his hand. "To put it simply this card allows me to add one Level 5 or higher monster from my deck to my hand." Andreas said as he started searching his deck. "Ah, this shall do nicely." Andreas nodded adding his Big Koala (7/2700/2000) to his hand.

"Andreas has some powerful spells and traps in his deck." Eddie observed folding his arms. "Off course they are useless if he doesn't use them correctly."

"Good to see that the stuff I taught you still rings true." Martin nodded in agreement.

"With that I'll end my turn." Andreas said and Rajin drew his card.

"Ah yes, this will do nicely." Rajin said almost immediately (too the relief of everyone else) before removing Ancient Lamp from the duel disk. "I sacrifice Ancient Lamp to summon Dark Dust Spirit in attack mode!" The lamp disappeared from the field and in its place stood a hideous being with crimson skin and long silver hair (6/2200/1800).

"And there's the monster that will be haunting my nightmares for years to come." Lance gulped at the site of the monster.

"By summoning this spirit I can destroy all other faceup monsters in on the field." Rajin added as the spirit ripped open his own chest and a strong wing sprung forth sucking Enraged Battle Ox in.

"Make that the rest of my life." Lance gulped.

"Dark Dust Spirit, attack his lifepoints directly!" Rajin commanded as the spirit went to rip open his chest again.

"Sorry, but I don't need any more nightmares." Andreas said activating his traps. "I activate my other trap cards, Battle Instinct and Horn of the Phantom Beast!" Andreas said picking up a card. "Battle Instinct lets me special summon a Beast type monster from my hand if you declare a direct attack so say hello too Ape Fighter!" Andreas played the card and the ape in cargo pants appeared on the field (4/1900/1200).

"It's a pleasure to meet you Ape Fighter." Rajin said bowing respectfully and Andreas blinked in confusion even as Dark Dust Spirit resumed its attack.

"Err, I didn't mean that literally." Andreas blinked before shaking his head. "As for Horn of the Phantom Beast, this trap is treated like an equip spell that can only be equipped to Beasts and Beast-Warriors, I was originally going to use it on Catknipped Kitty but that went out the window, anyway the equipped monster gains 800 attack points." Ape Fighter grabbed onto a funny looking horn and blew into it as his attack jumped to 2700, it charged forward and gave Dark Dust Spirit a fierce uppercut shattering the hologram.

R: 7500

A: 6800.

"But that's not all, Ape Fighter against 200 attack points for each monster he destroys and when a monster equipped with the horn successfully destroys a monster I can draw a new card." Andreas explained as Ape Fighter's attack rose to 2900 and he drew a new card.

"Very well then, I'll set this card facedown and end my turn." Rajin announced as the hologram of the card appeared on the field.

"_He's surprisingly calm about the fact that I have a monster on the field and he doesn't."_ Andreas thought as he drew his card. _"No matter, Ape Fighter has more than enough attack points to give me the lead."_ Andreas thought before looking at his new card. "I activate the Spell Card Spiritual Forrest, as long as this is on the field any beast type monsters can't be destroyed in battle." Andreas announced as he played the card. _"Better to be safe than sorry, Spirit Monsters can be lethal in the right hands."_ Andreas thought before pointing to Ape Fighter. "Ape Fighter, attack his lifepoints directly!" Ape Fighter pounded it's chest before charging at Rajin.

"What did I say about most duellists being impatient?" Rajin asked before activating his facedown card. "I activate my trap card Negate Attack which means my lifepoints are safe for the time being." Rajin said as Ape Fighter bounced of an invisible field.

"All right, I'll end my turn." Andreas said as Ape Fighter returned to his side of the field, Rajin drew his card.

"Hmmm interesting, I remove Dark Dust Spirit from play in order to summon Yamato-No-Kami in attack mode!" Rajin retrieved the spirit from his graveyard and pocketed it before summoning the monster and a wild looking man with various claws protruding from his back appeared on the field, he had wild looking hair and was wearing white pants with gold belts (6/2200/1200).

"So you removed that...thing...from the graveyard in order to summon something just as powerful?" Andreas asked raising an eyebrow. "Am I the only one not seeing a logical connection here?"

"You will in a moment." Rajin said picking up three more cards. "For starters I shall destroy Spiritual Forest via the magic of Mystical Space Typhoon!" Rajin announced as a tornado ripped through the spell card's hologram. "Like the monster I removed from play in order to summon him Yamato will return to my hand at the end of my turn but by then he will of fulfilled his purpose for I equip Yamato will the following spell cards, Axe of Despair and Orb of Yasaka."

"Oh great, this is the same combo he used on me during our duel." Marcus said folding his arms. "Because of that card he prevented me from levelling up my Horus and was able to turn the duel around."

"It's that bad?" Chloe asked.

"Let's just say that I'm glad Rajin isn't competing in the tournament." Marcus replied.

"As I'm sure your aware Axe of Despair increases my monster's attack to 3200." Rajin announced as Yamato's attack rose up to 3200. "As for the effect of my orb you'll find out soon enough, now Yamato attack Ape Fighter!" Rajin commanded and the warrior charged forward and slashed him with his axe.

"Damn it that was one of my best cards." Andreas muttered before looking at the lifepoint counter.

R: 9400

A: 6300

"Let me guess, that's the effect of your Orb?" Andreas asked with an annoyed grunt.

"You catch on fast." Rajin nodded. "When a Spirit monster equipped with my orb destroys a monster in battle that monster's original attack points get added to my lifepoints but that's not all, when Yamato destroys a monster card in battle his own effect kicks in allowing me to destroy one spell or trap card on your side of the field and I can't risk you using the effect of Beast Rising now, can I?" As Rajin said that Yamato charged forward and destroyed the hologram of the Beast Rising card with a swing of his axe. "That ends my turn and due to its other effect my Orb gets returned to my hand as well." Rajin said as Yamato returned to his hand and he and Andreas sent their respective cards to the graveyard, Andreas drew his card and smirked.

"All right, I summon Bazoo the Soul Eater in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and a large, blue mandrill appeared on the field staring down Rajin (4/1600/1900). "Like your Yamato Bazoo's effect revolves around removing monsters from play so..." Andreas said retrieving Catknipped Kitty and Ape Fighter from the graveyard. "I remove these two monsters from my graveyard in order to increase Bazoo's attack to 2200." The souls of the two removed monsters appeared on the field, Bazoo opened its mouth and sucked them in and as Andreas said it's attack rose to 2200.

"Wait, didn't he have a third monster in his graveyard?" Chloe realized.

"Yeah Enraged Battle Ox, maybe he's hoping to bring it back from the graveyard at some point." Brandon remembered. "That or he forgot."

"Now Bazoo, attack his lifepoints directly!" Andreas commanded and Bazoo charged forward slamming his body into Rajin's.

R: 7200

A: 6500

"Lucky for you Bazoo's attack boost doesn't stick around so I'll set this facedown and end my turn...and advise anyone squeamish to look away now." Andreas added as the hologram of the facedown card appeared behind the monster, everyone else blinked before seeing what he meant as Bazoo quite literally vomited up the two souls.

"ANDREAS THAT'S JUST GROSS!" Chloe yelled out from the sidelines.

"I did warn you." Andreas shrugged as Rajin drew his card.

"Whatever the case maybe I summon Susa Soldier in attack mode." Rajin said playing the card and a man with silver hair wielding a large sword appeared on the field (4/2000/1200). "Sure the damage I'll inflict to your lifepoints is halved for this turn but given the gap between our lifepoints that's a small price to pay, attack Bazoo the Soul Eater!" Susa Soldier charged at the monster and Andreas smirked.

"Or it would be if you were going to inflict any damage to my lifepoints, I activate the Trap Card Super Rush Recklessly!" Andreas flipped the card up and to everyone's surprise (everyone besides Andreas) Bazoo charged forward at Susa Soldier, the Soldier struck the beast with his sword but at the same time Bazoo slammed it's body into Susa Soldier sending the monster flying. "This trap card can only be activated if I have a Beast type monster on my side of the field, by sacrificing that beast type monster I can return one monster on your side of the field to your deck!" Andreas smirked as Rajin returned the monster to his deck and Andreas sent Bazoo to his graveyard.

"Well played, I'm afraid that I can't do anything else so I'll end my turn." Rajin said and Andreas drew his card.

"_Excellent."_ Andreas thought before looking up at Rajin. "There was another reason I removed those monsters from my graveyard Rajin."

"Really? What was it?" Rajin asked curiously.

"This spell card, I activate Unicorn Beacon!" Andreas announced playing the card. "By removing one card from my hand from play I can special summon one Level 5 or lower monster that's been removed from play in attack mode and my monster of choice is Ape Fighter!" Andreas said removing the Big Koala he had added to his hand earlier and summoning Ape Fighter back to the field. "But that's not all; I also summon the Tuner monster Cherry Inmato in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and what could only be described as humanoid cherries appeared on the field (2/700/400).

"Tuner monsters?" Chloe asked confused.

"I'm guessing your stepdad never got around to telling you about them." Brandon asked and she nodded. "They are a special breed of monster used to summon Synchro Monsters, think Fusion monsters only with no limits on the material used and not requiring the use of a spell card, I'm not a big fan myself but from what I've seen some of these Synchro monsters can be very powerful." Brandon commented.

"Huh, maybe I should look into getting some for my deck." Chloe commented as she watched the duel.

"As Brandon just helpfully explained for me I can use this turner monster in combination with Ape Fighter to summon the Synchro Monster Zeman the Ape King!" Andreas retrieved the card from his extra deck and sent Ape Fighter and Cherry Inmato to the graveyard before summoning the monster, it was an ape in robes and armour who pounded his chest upon being summoned (7/2500/1600).

"That's an Impressive monster." Rajin commented folding his arms. "But I still have some tricks up my sleeve."

"Let's see if you're still so confident after my Ape King attacks, Zemen attack his lifepoints directly!" Andreas commanded and the massive ape charged forward and punched Rajin in the stomach.

R: 4700

A: 6500

Rajin got back to his feet with a wince. "I see your beast is as powerful as he looks."

"You don't know the half off it, for now I'll end my turn." Andreas announced and Rajin drew his card.

"_Ah good, Mirror Force will let me destroy his monster next turn."_ Rajin thought before setting the card he had drawn. "I set this facedown and I summon Inaba White Rabbit in attack mode!" Rajin announced as the hologram of the facedown monster appeared on the field alongside a small white rabbit on some sort of pogo stick (2/700/500).

"What is this? Duel Monsters or a petting zoo?" Lance asked from the sidelines.

"Laugh all you want, Inaba White Rabbit has the ability to bypass your monster and attack your lifepoints directly so go Inaba White Rabbit!" The rabbit bounced up and down on the stick several times and on the last bounce it bounced towards Andreas...only to be grabbed by Zeman and slammed to the ground. "What...What just happened?"

"And you call me inpatient? On top of being a Synchro monster the Ape King has the ability to negate any attacks I chose and I happen to like my lifepoints the way they are thank you very much." Andreas folded his arms as the Rabbit bounced back to Rajin's side of the field seemingly dejected.

"That's broken Andreas!" Marcus shouted from the sidelines.

"Do you see Zemen on the forbidden list? No? Then I'm free to use him as I wish." Andreas shrugged his shoulders.

"He's right Marcus and frankly that's why I'm not a big fan of Synchro Monsters, most of their effects are ludicrously unfair." Brandon informed him.

"Oh please, I haven't even unveiled my Ape King's other effect yet!" Andreas said confidently. "Is that everything Rajin?"

"Yes it is." Rajin said returning Inaba White Rabbit to his hand; Andreas drew his card and looked at it.

"_Mystical Space Typhoon, I won't need this, not with Ape King's other effect."_ Andreas thought before pointing to Ape King. "I attack with Ape King!" The ape charged forward and Rajin grinned.

"You've fallen for my trap, MIRROR FORCE!" Rajin announced pressing the appropriate button; however the card didn't flip up no matter how frantically Rajin pressed the appropriate button. "Wait! Something's wrong with my duel disk it's not responding to my commands!" Rajin said sweating bullets at this point.

"Nothing's wrong with your duel disk, that's just Ape King's other effect taking, well, effect, when he attacks trap cards can't be activated until after Damage Calculation." Andreas explained and Rajin's eyes widened before the ape's fist made contact.

R: 2200

A: 6500

"Can someone please tell me how that card isn't on the forbidden list?" Marcus exclaimed and Brandon frowned.

"You'd have to ask the Duel Monsters committee that." Brandon said as Rajin got up. "The fact still remains though, since Mirror Force can only be activated when the opponent declares an attack Andreas has pretty much rendered Rajin's trap useless."

"I end my turn." Andreas said folding his arms, then to his surprise Rajin surrendered.

"There's nothing I can do, your monster's too powerful." Rajin admitted and the holograms disappeared from the field, Andreas said nothing and made his way to the bleachers.

"Andreas, what the hell was that?" Theresa said stepping in front of him. "I know you wanted to win but he's 14 years old and you used that monster on him?"

"I don't need this." Andreas said brushing past her.

"You're no better than your brother." Theresa said causing Andreas to stop in his tracks.

"DON'T YOU DARE COMPARE ME TO HIM! I am nothing like my brother." Andreas snapped at her. "Yes, I wanted to win, yes I used a monster that he couldn't possibly beat but you know what? We need to be that ruthless at Battle City!" Andreas said frowning. "Do you think the other duellists would care if they find out that we're Duel Academy students? Do you think they'll care if they find out that Chloe is a rookie with two months of experience? Do you think they'll care if they find out that Chloe was abused as a kid...?" Andreas's eyes went wide when he realized that he said the last sentence out loud. "Oh, crap..."

"Nothing like your brother huh? You could've fooled me." Marcus said storming off.

"Wait Marcus..." Andreas called out to him but he wasn't listening, the next thing he knew he was spun around and slapped by a clearly upset Chloe who stormed off as well. "Open mouth, insert foot." Andreas muttered under his breath as he rubbed his sore cheek.

"As much as I disagree with his tactics, he does have a point." Eddie frowned as he stood up. "I'm going to find Chloe, see if I can get her to calm down."

"This is just what this school needs, internal conflicts between the students nominated for the Battle City tournament." Martin sighed before getting up. "I'm going to defuse that situation before Andreas ends up in the infirmary."

"So wait, what Andreas said about Chloe was true?" Evan said scratching his head.

"Pretty much, you really don't want to know the details." Brandon said pinching the bridge of his nose. "Andreas, I've only got one thing to say to you; you're an idiot." Brandon said before storming off.

"Brandon, wait." Theresa called after him but he didn't stop. "Andreas, you'd better start working on ways of apologizing to Chloe."

"I'm already ahead of you on that." Andreas said before turning to Lance. "Feel free to kick my ass."

"That won't be necessary, we already have one student in the infirmary and the last thing we need is two students in the infirmary." The three teens looked up and saw the Obelisk Blue Headmaster approaching them with a stern look on his face. "Questionable duelling practices aside you duelled well Andreas, keep that up and you'll do well in the tournament."

"Do you really think that's my top concern right now? I've possibly screwed up at least two of my friendships." Andreas pointed out.

"Yes, I noticed." Martin said with a sigh. "I think it'd be best for everyone if you apologize to her before the tournament starts."

"Agreed, off course it would help if I knew where to find her!" Andreas said annoyed, he started to leave the duel field but Theresa, Lance and Kimberly ran to catch up with him. "What? You're not pissed off at me as well?"

"Well yes we are and quite frankly I should be throwing you into the girl's locker room after gym for being so rude to Chloe but my main priority is making sure Chloe doesn't do anything stupid." Lance said plainly.

"Did you say anything stupid? What's that supposed to mean?" Theresa asked looking for Lance suspiciously.

"Look you know how badly her abuse...among other things that I won't mention on the off chance of her being around the corner...has affected her? Well, ever since her mother's death...she's been on ant depression meds." Lance said and Theresa stopped in her tracks.

"Anti-Depression meds...you know that's not funny Lance!" Theresa pointed out.

"You really think I'd joke about something like that? About one of my closest friends, who I'm the closest thing to a big brother she's had?" Lance pointed out and Theresa looked at him.

"You...you weren't joking." Theresa realized. "Shit, I had no idea."

"Look, I'm not going to discuss it any more but keep in mind that what she endured would probably reduce anyone else to a mental trainwreck." Lance said.

"You know this shit isn't exactly making me feel any better." Andreas pointed out.

"Do you have to make everything about yourself?" Kimberly accused him before sighing. "Look we're not going to make any process arguing..."

"You guys looking for Chloe as well?" The four teens looked up and saw Eddie standing in front of a door. "Good news is I've narrowed her location down to this room, bad news is I can't go in."

"Why can't you go in?" Lance asked and Eddie motioned above their heads, they looked up and saw the sign for the girl's toilets.

"Who said gentlemen are extinct?" Kimberly asked rhetorically.

"Anyone who's met my brother." Andreas pointed out.

"Oh right, touché." Kimberly admitted. "Well either me or Theresa are going in there, we're pretty much the only ones who can go in their without arousing suspicion."

"I'll go in, besides Lance and Brandon I know her the best." Theresa said stepping forward. "Andreas, be ready with your apology or we'll make you swim ten laps, in the nude, around Duel Academy Pear."

"Well if you're THAT eager to see me naked..." Andreas was cut off by simultaneous punches to the head from Theresa and Kimberly. "How about I just shut up?"

"You do that." Theresa said stepping up to the door and opening the door, it didn't take her long to find Chloe; she was sitting at the other end of the bathroom on the floor and curled up in a ball. _"What Lance said about Chloe being on anti-depressants...damn it if I ever meet that dad of hers I'll chop his balls off with a rusty chainsaw."_ Theresa thought before walking up to Chloe and keeling down next to her. "Chloe, hey it's me, are you okay?"

"No, I'm not." Chloe said, her tone of voice made it clear to her that she had been crying quite a bit since slapping Andreas. "I never should've applied here in the first place."

"Chloe, you know that's not true." Theresa said putting a comforting hand on her unscarred shoulder. "Just look at all the friends you've made since applying."

"Friends, what friends are you talking about? One's an idiot who can't keep his mouth to himself and doesn't know the meaning of restraint; the others probably think I'm mentally ill or something." Chloe said, it was at that point that Theresa noticed that Chloe's blazer was off showing the scar on her right arm for the entire world to see.

"Chloe, don't even think about thinking along those lines." Theresa sighed before pausing. "That didn't make any sense did it?"

"Nope, none at..." Andreas said approaching the door but was stopped by two things 1. One of Chloe's shoes narrowly missing his head and 2. Andreas noticing the scar on Chloe's shoulder again. "Chloe, I know you're pissed at me but I just want to apologize."

"Why should I?" Chloe demanded.

"You forgave Lance for telling his headmaster." Andreas pointed out.

"Yeah but not until after I got my ass kicked by Brandon's Dark Scorpions." Lance pointed out.

"Err, why are you guys hanging out outside the girl's bathroom?" Brandon asked sheepishly as he approached them.

"Chloe's in there." Lance answered simply. "So is Theresa and Chloe's self esteem is about as low as Unhappy Maiden's attack points."

"Gee, I wonder who could've caused that." Brandon said sarcastically.

"At least I'm trying to apologize to her." Andreas said before pausing. "Whilst I am looking like a pervert with no sense of subtlety."

"Err; yeah let's take this someplace else before..." Lance started before pausing. "Brandon...how many teachers are behind us?"

"Err, all three of the headmasters for the Ra, Osiris and Obelisk dorms." Brandon said with a gulp. "No female counterparts though."

"Why do I keep testing my luck? It always ends badly." Lance gulped. "Gentlemen, this is not nearly as bad as it looks, Chloe and Theresa are in there and...I'm not helping our case am I?"

"Nope, you're not." Brandon said before pausing. "Has Martin told you two about..."

"Yes, he did." Jeff said pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Andreas, do you even know what subtlety is?"

"Yes...maybe." Andreas hesitated. "I'm trying to apologize to her and so far my attempts have been met with one of Chloe's boots nearly missing my head."

"Once again I wonder why?" Brandon said sarcastically and Andreas growled. "Basically Chloe's self esteem is in the toilet, no pun intended, because he can't keep his mouth shut!"

"I'm not surprised, look just try to get her back to her room at Osiris Red, have someone keep an eye on her just in case." Jeff said folding his arms. "That is unless you want to explain to a woman who actually needs the bathroom why several male students are hanging around the girl's bathroom."

"Yeah, I'm already ahead of you in that regard." Theresa said leading Chloe out of the bathroom. "I'm taking her back to Osiris Red, and I'll be keeping an eye on her for the rest of the day." Theresa said leading the younger woman away.

"Send me a text when she's feeling better okay Theresa?" Lance called after her.

"I will." She responded as she led the younger woman away, the Obelisk Blue headmaster turned to him.

"Lance, you know her better than anyone else here, will she be ready for the tournament?" Martin asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"She will." Lance said looking off to the side a bit. "She may be emotionally fragile at times, and I don't think I need to tell you why, but she'll snap out of it in an hour or so."

"Okay, now if you excuse us we have lessons to attend to." Hamden nodded before the three teachers departed as did most of the students save for Lance, Kimberly and Evan.

"Lance...oh crap I don't know what to say at this point...how close are you to Chloe, really?" Evan asked.

"We're like brother and sister, me and my brother where the first ones she's told about her abuse." Lance said with a sigh. "May god help me if I ever meet her biological dad."

"It just seemed to me like there was something...deeper than that." Evan said and Lance's frown.

"There isn't and there never will be, you want to know the truth? I do care for her but not that much, you saw how she is and I'm worried that having to live with that would drive me nuts." Lance said before pausing. "I know I just sounded like a selfish prick but I'm just being honest."

"No worries, I understand." Evan nodded. "You ever thought the possibility that she feels the same way though?" Evan asked.

"Honestly? I haven't a clue." Lance shrugged. "I'm not a mind reader and if I was I'd be undefeated in Duel Monsters." Lance said before looking to the two Obelisk Blue students dead in the eye. "One more thing, no one else finds out about her abuse as a kid or do I have to remind you about what happened back at the duel field."

"You didn't need to say that to us." Kimberly folded her arms,

"Call me paranoid but I've noticed that most of the duellists here have mouths as big as their duel monsters." Lance said leaning against the wall.

"You're paranoid." The two Obelisk Blue students said simultaneously.

"Ha, ha, that was very funny." Lance grunted before kicking off the wall and leaving the building.

"Where are you going?" Evan asked and Lance glanced over his shoulder.

"Osiris Red Girls Dorm, I want to check on Chloe." Lance said with a grunt as he left, he made his way to the west side of the island and glanced around.

"Lance? What are you doing here?" Lance blinked before looking over his shoulder and saw the Osiris Red Headmistress.

"I'm checking up on Chloe." Lance said honestly.

"Ah yes, I heard that she was upset." Maria nodded. "Though you really should've had Jeff call me in advance,"

"Relax; I wasn't going to make any pit stops to watch girls get dressed." Lance reassured her. "Especially since Theresa and Chloe are in there and I actually value my ability to reproduce."

"Most boys do." Maria chuckled. "Just so there isn't any misunderstands I'll take you too her room myself."

"Thanks." Lance smiled as the two of them approached the dorm.

"What are you doing here young man?" Lance froze and turned around seeing a young woman with black hair in a ponytail and blue eyes in a Ra Yellow uniform.

"I'm checking up on a friend who lives here." Lance gulped. "Maria here can vouch for me." The woman turned to Maria who nodded.

"Sorry about that, being in charge of the Ra Yellow girl's dorm makes me suspicious of boys even looking at the girl's dorm." The woman smiled.

"You think you're paranoid? You should meet my parents." Lance joked before following Maria into the dorm; he ignored the looks and giggles he was getting from the female students as he followed Maria. "Maria, something's been bugging me since you announced that I, Chloe and the others would be participating in Battle City." Lance said and Maria stopped.

"Well, what has been bugging you?" Maria asked looking at Lance.

"As much as I like Chloe there's no way she's ready for a tournament like Battle City, hell she lost her first duel in her first tournament...granted it was against me but you get the idea." Lance said folding his arms. "I'm sure there are Osiris Red students that have been duelling for longer than Chloe has so why was she chosen?"

"That's a valid question young man." Maria admitted folding her arms. "And it is true that Chloe is the least experienced duellist in the dorm but there's something not many duellists know about, you met Eddie Roberts at the duel arena correct?" Maria asked and Lance nodded. "He was allot like Chloe when he applied, a hot headed troublemaking rookie who used a deck consisting of two types of monsters but the teachers and some of the students saw potential in him, much like Chloe, and look at what he's become."

"You know of Chloe's past so you know that it won't be quite that simple." Lance pointed out leaning against the wall. _"Well, some of her past."_ Lance thought. "I know she's a quick learner of the game but Eddie hasn't been through what she has."

"True but it's also true that Eddie was in and out of prison for most of his childhood, we managed to straighten that young man out and whilst it'll be difficult with her this tournament will do her good." Maria said and Lance blinked.

"How did a guy with a criminal record get into Duel Academy?" Lance asked.

"How did I get in? It's simple, my folks where friends with the chancellor at the time, that's how I got in." Lance looked up and saw Eddie. "Lance right? You did well against that Obelisk Blue Student."

"And got my ass kicked." Lance said with a smirk. "Checking on Chloe as well?

"Yeah, she may be a rookie but she will be a tough opponent come Battle City." Eddie said with a nod. "That and the fact that she was abused disturbs me."

"Just be glad you don't know the whole story, it's far from pretty." Lance grunted. "So, you where saying about the reason why Chloe was chosen?"

"Ah yes, basically we selected her, and the others for that matter, because we believe that out of all the duellists at the academy that they have the most potential, Kimberly included." Maria said stopping in front of a door. "Speaking of Chloe this is her room."

"Thanks, I think I can take it from here." Lance said walking up to the door and knocking on it, he waited a few moments and the door was opened, not by Chloe but by Theresa.

"Oh hi Lance, what's up?" Theresa greeted him once her surprise wore off.

"I'm here to check up on Chloe." Lance said plainly. "And so is he." Lance said motioning to Eddie with his head.

"She's calmed down, we've been going over her deck and makeup kit." Theresa said letting the two boys in.

"Can I join in...going over her deck that is." Lance said quickly upon realizing what he almost said.

"Sure." Chloe said looking up from the bottom bunk of her bed, Lance sat down next to a table where the majority of her cards where and Eddie leaned against the wall.

"So...how are you feeling? Self esteem still in the toilet?" Lance asked and Theresa glared at him. "What did I say?"

"No, it's fine Theresa." Chloe said looking at the older student who nodded somewhat reluctantly. "It took a hell of a pep talk but Theresa restored my confidence, she used the fact that I was the only representative for Osiris Red in the Battle City tournament as motivation for doing well, those cards you see on the table? She's helping me reconstruct my deck using an old Spellcaster deck that she's retired."

"Yeah, my parents are so religious that they warned me about going to hell unless I retired that deck." Theresa said sheepishly.

"What, you're serious about that?" Eddie asked.

"As serious as I'll ever be." Theresa shrugged. "Her deck now contains some of the cards Evan used in her duel against him amongst other cards, but since that took her deck ten cards over the limit we selected some of her weaker monsters and spells to get rid of." Theresa added.

Lance blinked before looking through the cards Chloe was getting rid of. "A Man with Wdjat, Neo the Magic Swordsman, some of these cards has been in your deck since the beginning, are you sure?"

"I'm sure; the cards that Theresa gave me are more than worth it." Chloe nodded. "Besides I'll be keeping those cards in my side deck so I'm not getting rid of them completely."

"I did suggest trading them but Chloe insisted, I guess nostalgia can be a funny thing." Theresa commented.

"That it is." Eddie nodded. "I'm glad you okay Chloe, and if it comes too it I look forward to duelling you at Battle City."

"Guess what? We are looking forward to duelling you as well." Lance said looking up at the older man and Theresa nodded in agreement.

"Right, should warn you though that some of my old opponents are returning for the tournament, like Alex Fenix and Miranda Trayson." Eddie said and Theresa raised an eyebrow at this.

"You know them?" Lance asked.

"Not personally, Alex is a three time Semi-Finalist in three regional tournaments, his deck changes every time he competes, Miranda uses a Harpy deck and she's pretty lethal with them, she was a grand finalist at last year's Battle City tournament in London wasn't she Eddie?" Theresa asked.

"Yeah, I beat her in the last match of the tournament, she gave my deck a run for my money but I won the tournament." Eddie nodded.

"Knock, knock!" Andreas knocked on the door. "Err, if it's not too late I want to apologize for my comments earlier Chloe."

"Apology accepted Andreas, next time though keep your comments regarding my past too yourself." Chloe asked.

"Well he was right though, because of your status as Duel Academy students you'll be seen as easy targets by the other duellists; you're going to have to prove them wrong by showing no mercy." Eddie said before his cell phone went off. "I'm heading out to answer this." He told the others before leaving the room.

"So that's why you used that Synchro monster against Rajin earlier." Lance commented folding his arms. "If I see you pull a similar stunt again though expect an asskicking."

"You just don't want to admit that I'm right." Andreas said as Eddie entered the room.

"Well, my ride's arrived so I'm off to New York for the tournament, see you there." Eddie said walking off.

"Hey Eddie, me and the other students have an agreement not to duel each other until the Semi-Finals, any chance you could stick to that?" Lance asked him.

"You want me to do that for a bunch of duellists from my old stomping grounds? Sure." Eddie nodded before leaving.

"What about Kimberly? Does she know?" Theresa asked and realization dawned on Lance.

"I knew I forgot to ask her that, any chance you could next time you see her?" Lance asked and Theresa nodded.

"I will." Theresa said before walking off. "Chloe, are you going to be okay for a few hours? I'm heading back to the Obelisk Blue Girls Dorm."

"Yeah, but if I'm feeling down I'll text you." Chloe said as the older student left. "You ready Lance?"

"You mean for the tournament? I was born ready, and with your new and improved deck you'll be a force to be reckoned with." Lance said before looking at his deck. "Actually I'll think I'll stop by the Duel Academy Card Shop and pick up some fire packs, I've been meaning to update my deck as well." Lance said before leaving. "We need to be ready for anything in this tournament."

"Agreed." Chloe nodded as her friend left, as Lance left Theresa watched him from a small distance.

"_Damn it, I want to warn them about the Seal of the Orichalcos but if they spread word among the others I'll be in big trouble."_ Theresa thought before leaving the dorm. _"He's right though, we'll need to be ready for anything come tournament time."_


	12. Let the madness begin

The two weeks before the Tournament started passed by (mostly) without a hitch and the training went well, finally it was the day of the tournament and the eight duellists where at the airport waiting for their plane to arrive.

"Is it here yet?" Marcus asked.

"No." Brandon said annoyed.

"Is it here yet?" Marcus asked again.

"No." Brandon and Theresa said simultaneously.

"Is it here..." Marcus started.

"NO!" All of the other students (save for Otto who was keeping his distance) yelled earning odd looks from the other soon to be passengers.

"Marcus, contrary to popular belief asking "is it here yet" over and over again doesn't make the plane arrive any sooner." Brandon said annoyed.

"If it did then we'd be in New York by now." Lance added equally annoyed. "Can someone tell me why we can't use our duel disks here?" Lance asked looking towards his deactivated duel disk.

"We didn't make the rules this time Lance." Jeff chuckled folding his arms. "I trust you kids used the two weeks wisely."

"Aside from arguing and the German brothers being idiots yeah we've used it wisely." Lance said ignoring the glares from Andreas and Otto.

"Flight 280 from Domino City to New York City now boarding..." The students pretty much leaped out of their seats ready for the tournament.

"Ah, finally, I can't wait for the tournament!" A gruff sounding voice echoed from behind them and they turned around seeing a massive man with a bald head and blue eyes wearing a denim jacket with a brown t-shirt underneath, blue jeans and black boots. "Roberts, your title's mine!"

"Alex, Alex, Alex, we're not even in New York City and you're already getting a head of yourself?" A feminine voice scolded him and the Duel Academy students looking up seeing an attractive woman with waist length black hair and brown eyes wearing a small red dress and black boots.

"You're just mad that I beat you in the regionals Miranda." Alex grinned and Miranda rolled her eyes.

"I was a rookie back then and ever since I've left you in the dust." Miranda scoffed before noticing the students. "Don't look know Alex but it looks like the Duel Academy students are here." Alex looked in their direction and grinned.

"They selected these little tykes? They don't make them like they used too." Alex laughed.

"You won't be laughing when I eliminate you." Lance smirked.

"I like your attitude kid but time will tell if you can back it up in a duel." Alex grinned.

"Now, now Lance, how about we save the trash talk for when the tournament actually begins." Jeff said folding his arms. "You two would do well not to underestimate the students, we selected the best and brightest students we have at the academy for the tournament."

"Are you just saying that to make them feel better about facing tournament level duellists or are you being honest?" Miranda asked with a smirk.

"Oh believe me, you'll see for yourself once we're in New York." Lance grinned. "Who knows, maybe the old folks will actually learn something from watching us duel."

"What did you say?" Alex demanded.

"You heard what I said." Lance grinned.

"Chill out Alex, let the preschooler have his fun before we knock him out of the tournament." Miranda said as she walked towards the plane, Alex and the others followed her onto the plane with Lance and Chloe bringing up the rear.

"Must you trash talk every duellist you meet?" Chloe asked with a playful smirk on her face.

"Yeah, but only when they start it." Lance grinned as the two teens boarded the plane. "Look Chloe, if we end up duelling each other at the tournament...well let the best duellist win."

"Don't worry I will." She grinned before a serious look came over her face. "Lance, I need you to promise me one thing if that does happen, don't use Lava Golem."

"I wasn't going too." Lance said before pausing. "How about this for a suggestion if we do duel I'll only use it in the duel if there's no other options." Lance suggested and Chloe hesitated before nodding.

"Okay but be sure to warn me first." Chloe asked and Lance nodded.

"You have a deal." Lance said though the two teens were unaware of the fact that Miranda was listening in.

"_Well, well, it seems love is in the air between those two, it would almost be sweet if it wasn't so corny."_ Miranda thought before she boarded the plane.

*elsewhere*

Whilst the teens and the other duellists where boarding the plane Michael and the other agents where travelling to New York via boat, it was a large boat and Michael was at the front of the boat surveying the view.

"Can I have a penny for your thoughts Mike?" Damien asked walking up to him.

"That's Michael to you Damien." Michael said sternly. "And no, you can't because I'm thinking about the past."

"Ah yeah, that's the whole reason why you don't remove your hood." Damien frowned. "Most of the agents are doing some last minute preparation for the tournament you know."

"I'm the best duellist in the organisation's employee, I don't need to prepare." Michael said sternly. "If anyone needs to prepare it's you."

"And if anyone needs to get his head out of his arse it's you." Damien muttered under his breath before walking off. "The boss said that we should be arriving at Battle City soon, and that he wants to see you in his office."

"Tell him that I'll be in his office soon." Michael said plainly.

"I'll pass the message along." Damien said walking off.

"_Fool."_ Michael thought as he watched the scenery. _"As soon as he and Robert are eliminated I'll be happy."_ Michael thought before entering the boat and making his way to the boss's office, he knocked on the door.

"You may enter." The leader's voice rang out and Michael entered the office, it was a simple office converted from the captain's quarters off the ship's previous owners. "Ah, I see you got Damien's message."

"This had better be important." Michael said impatiently. "The ship will be at New York in a few hours and I must use this time to prepare."

"That won't be necessary Michael." The Leader said plainly. "I have withdrawn you from the tournament."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY? Why, with my skills we are guaranteed to get many souls?" Michael demanded.

"It's simple Michael, if by some miracle someone beats you in a duel then I'll lose my top duellist and my organisation will soon crumble." The leader and Michael clenched his fist.

"Well, if I'm not in the tournament than why am I on this boat?" Michael demanded.

"Oh you'll duel at some point, just not during the tournament." The leader said folding his arms. "In the meantime you'll serve as an observer, keep some of my weaker duellists in line."

"So be it." Michael grunted. "But when everyone else fails I'll be there to pick up the pieces." Michael said as he left the office.

"We'll see about that won't we?" The leader said to himself as he poured himself a glass of wine.

*several hours later, on board the plane*

"Ladies and gentlemen this is you captain speaking, we are about to land in New York City, and we hope that you have enjoyed your flight." The captain announced over the PA, Lance stretched his arms and yawned.

"Man, how long was I out?" Lance asked as he looked at his watch. "This can't be right, I could've sworn I was out longer for that." Lance wondered, Alex, who was sitting next to him, looked over.

"You haven't adjusted your watch to the time zone kid." Alex pointed out.

"I knew that." Lance said as he started adjusting the watch. "So, how long have you been duelling?"

"For as long as I can remember." Alex shrugged.

"I've only been duelling for two years." Lance said sheepishly as he finished adjusting his watch, Alex smirked.

"Heh, you do realize that by saying that most of the duellists on this plane will see you as an easy target right?" Alex pointed out.

"I never backed down from a challenge before and I'm not starting now." Lance said simply. _"Though if they knew how inexperienced Chloe was they wouldn't even bother with me."_ Lance thought.

"Then you'll be eliminated first." Alex smirked.

"We'll see about that." Lance smirked, meanwhile Chloe, who was sitting next to Theresa, was just waking up herself.

"How long was I out?" Chloe yawned as she woke up.

"You where asleep for the majority of the flight Chloe, I was wondering if you where ever going to wake up." Theresa told her with a small smile. "Sleep well?"

"As well as I could." Chloe shrugged as she let out another yawn. "Off course once the tournament starts I won't have much time for sleeping."

"I'm not even going to point out the health risks of duelling for that long." Theresa said folding her arms. "Anyway we should be landing soon."

"Good." Chloe yawned. "Actually I'll think I'll have another nap the moment I'm in the hotel room and packed."

"You slept for 3 hours and you're still tired? Brandon doesn't sleep that much and he stays up most nights studying." Theresa pointed out.

"Gee, thanks." Brandon, who was sitting in front of the girls with Kimberly, muttered. "At least wait until you get some duelling done Chloe."

"That is unless you intend to sleep through the whole tournament." Jeff, who was sitting behind them with Professor Hamden, added.

"Cute." Chloe responded stretching her arms. "When is this thing going to land anyway?" Jeff was about to respond to that when the announcement that they had landed came over the PA system. "Hey look, our talent for tempting fate actually worked in our favour for once." Chloe muttered getting a laugh out of her fellow students and the teachers, the students retrieved their bags and Duel Disks from the overhead compartments and they were soon outside of the airport with their luggage in hand.

"All right students, I hope you enjoyed the flight, those of you who didn't sleep through it but that's beside the point." Martin said turning to them. "Now you have two options 1: go to hotel, unpack then go straight to Times Square for the Battle City announcement which isn't for another two hours or go to the hotel, unpack, get something to eat and then go to Times Square for the announcement." Martin said, before any off the students could answer the simultaneous rumblings of their stomachs answered the question for them. "Get something to eat it is; now our ride should be arriving any time now." Martin laughed and just like that a large stretch limo pulled up. "Ah, here it is now." Martin said causing the student's jaws to drop.

"Pinch me, I must be dreaming." Lance said...only to get playfully pinched on the arm by Chloe. "That was a figure of speech Chloe!"

"Oh please, my dad has bigger stretch limos than this." Brandon joked as he and the other Obelisk Blue students climbed in, the other students climbed in as well and the teachers went in last with Hamden getting in last.

"Now, now Brandon, you had better show a bit of appreciation, we had to pay for this out of our own pocket." Martin said and Brandon gulped.

"You're right, I'm sorry." Brandon apologized. "I'm just saying that this isn't the biggest limo I've seen." Brandon said looking outside the window. "So this is New York, it looks like a nice place."

"Yeah, a nice place to duel!" Marcus said cracking his fists in anticipation, Brandon just smirked and folded his arms.

"I don't care." Chloe said catching everyone else's attention. "I just want to get this tournament over with."

"I would've thought you be happy to be back in...actually I'm going to shut up before we have a repeat of the situation back at the duel field." Andreas said quickly covering his mouth.

"You do that." Lance frowned. "Chloe you said it yourself, that asshole that dared to call himself your dad is behind bars for the rest of his life, he can't hurt you anymore."

"It doesn't mean that I don't have any bad memories of this place though." Chloe answered back looking outside the window.

"Let's change the subject before we accidently make her relive those memories." Hamden suggested and Lance nodded in agreement. "Hey driver, how long will it be until we reach the hotel?"

"Should be about five more minutes Mr. Hamden." The driver responded.

"Good." Hamden said before turning to Chloe. "Chloe I know your memories of this place aren't exactly pleasant but try not to think about it and have fun okay."

"I'll try." Chloe said resting her hands on her legs. "So what'll happen once the tournament starts? Will we walk around in a group or just separately?"

"Ideally we'd like you students to split off into pairs with a teacher keeping an eye on you, unfortunately we have a meeting to attend to at Kaibacorp headquarters regarding the Duel Academy's participation in the tournament so for now you'll just split off into pairs." Martin said with a smile. "We've already decided to pairs before you ask: Lance and Chloe, Marcus and Andreas, Brandon and Theresa and Kimberly and Otto."

"Great, I'm being paired up with the idiotic half of the Freshier twins." Kimberly muttered under her breath.

"Sorry Kimberly but it was process of elimination." Maria apologized before reaching into her pocket and handing out pieces of paper with a phone number on it to the students. "You can reach us at this number should anything bad happen."

"Thanks, I'll get this stored on my Cell-Phone right away." Lance said getting his cell phone out; the others did likewise before handing back the papers to Maria.

"And no, you can't use that number for prank calls or duelling advice." Jeff said folding his arms. "That number's for emergencies only."

"So is there a number for Prank Calls and duelling advice?" Marcus asked.

"Yes, it's 555-figure-it-out-yourself-and-stop-wasting-my time." Martin chuckled.

"Holy crap, is he developing a sense of humour?" Jeff asked in mock shock.

"That or someone's kidnapped the real Obelisk Blue Headmaster." Marcus suggested.

"We're here." The driver said stopping the limo; Jeff opened the door and stepped out holding the door open for the students and the staff members, the hotel was a fairly large one and from what the students could tell it was easily a Four Star hotel, the driver retrieved their heavy bags from the boot of the limo and entered the hotel, whilst Martin went off to get them checked in Theresa took a look around the hotel's other guests.

"Are you on the lookout for other duellists?" Andreas asked looking around.

"Mostly for other duellists I recognise, so far no one stands out." Theresa answered folding her arms. "Off course that won't matter once the tournament starts."

"Yeah, until we end up fighting each other." Andreas shrugged. "Let's face it, it is inevitable." Andreas added.

"True, just don't mention that to Chloe." Theresa said with a sigh. "Our match was less of a match and more of a massacre at the end even after she summoned Silent Magician."

"Given her inexperience I'm not surprised." Andreas said glancing around. "I just want a decent challenge for my first match."

"I think most of the duellists competing here want the same thing." Marcus chimed in. "Though they may avoid us if they find out we're Duel Academy students for the same reason."

"Then we'll just have to prove them wrong." Theresa said confidently. "Though for Chloe that will be easier said than done."

"It'll be tough for the non Obelisk Blue Students, never mind Chloe." Marcus said folding his arms. "I look forward to proving them wrong though."

"All right kids we're checked in so here are your room keys." Martin said handing over room keys alongside pieces of paper to the students. "Now, the girls will have their own room since there isn't an equal amount of male and female students on this trip but other than that the boys will have their own rooms."

"It looks like we're rooming together Chloe." Theresa said turning to the younger woman.

"Yeah, looks like it." Chloe sighed and Kimberly placed a comforting hand on her unscarred shoulder.

"Relax, we won't bite." Kimberly reassured her.

"It's not you two that I'm worried about." Chloe said plainly as she followed the others to the elevators, once they reached the floor they were staying on for the tournament. "Okay, what room are we staying in?" Chloe asked once the boys where in their rooms.

"We're staying in room 24." Theresa said as the three women looked for their room, they found it quickly enough and entered it; the room was a large one with three separate bedrooms. "At least we're not cramped in the same room, so who gets..."

"I call dibs on the big bed." Chloe said almost immediately sitting on the bed in the central room.

"Well?" Theresa asked Kimberly who shrugged.

"She is the only Osiris Red on the trip so why not?" She shrugged as Chloe started unpacking. "You need some help Chloe?"

"No, I'm good, thanks anyway." Chloe said as she unpacked her bag.

"Well if you say so." Theresa said entering her room; once the three women unpacked they got changed out of their uniforms into their civilian clothes and grabbed their duel disks.

"_Hopefully my deck will be good enough to beat any duellists I face."_ Chloe thought as she tied her Osiris Red Blazer around her waist, she had been modifying the deck pretty consistently since the incident at the Obelisk Blue duel field but she was still having her doubts.

"Knock, knock." Chloe looked over her shoulder and saw Theresa. "You ready for the tournament?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Chloe said before looking at herself in the mirror, pretty much the only thing that had changed about her outfit, aside from tying her blazer around her waist, was the fact that she was wearing a red, long sleeve navel exposing top. "What about you?"

"Same." Theresa nodded leaning against the door. "The teachers are waiting for us outside, we have that meal out to attend too remember."

"I don't think my stomach is going to let me forget." Chloe said sheepishly as her stomach rumbled.

"Well, let's go." Kimberly said from the main part of the hotel room, Chloe grabbed her duel disk and put it on and followed the two older women out of the room and saw the teachers waiting for them.

"Okay students, do you have your duel disks and decks?" Martin asked and the students held up their duel disks in response. "Excellent, I'm sure I don't need to say this but you'll need them, what about your cell-phones."

"Did you honestly think teenagers would go anywhere without them?" Brandon asked with a smirk.

"An excellent point, what about money for food, new booster packs or anything else you want to buy?" Martin asked.

"We've got that as well." Lance said after looking around the other students. "Wait, does that mean we're paying for the meal out?"

"No, any group meals will be paid for by us." Jeff answered folding his arms. "Snacks on the other hand? You're on your own."

"Good thing I saved up then, speaking of food can we go?" Marcus asked and the teachers nodded before leading them to the elevators, once they were in the lobby Lance looked around for a bit.

"Hey Lance, over here!" A familiar voice rang out, Lance blinked before turning around and seeing his younger siblings Sophie and Mike running towards him and smiled broadly.

"Guys, what are you doing here?" Lance asked clearly surprised to see his siblings.

"We're here for the tournament silly!" Sophie said with a broad smile and Lance chuckled.

"No seriously what are you doing in New York?" Lance asked.

"She is being serious man!" Mike said holding up his duel disk. "After mom told us that you where competing in battle city we plead and plead and plead to mom to take us to New York to compete in the tournament, she eventually agreed.

"Wait does that mean she's here?" Lance asked.

"Yes I am young man!" Lance's mother said walking over. "I hope you've been behaving at Duel Academy."

"I've been behaving as much as I could." Lance said sheepishly.

"Hey man, you going to introduce us or not?" Marcus said as he and the others walked up to Lance.

"Oh oops, mom, Mike, Sophie, these are some friends I've met at Duel Academy, Marcus Reynolds, Andreas Freshier, Brandon Thomas, you already know Chloe, Theresa Daniels and Kimberly...now that I think about it I never learned her surname." Lance said sheepishly and Kimberly facepalmed. "Guys, these are my younger siblings and my mother, my siblings are competing as well."

"This little tyke's competing? Don't worry I'll go easy on her." Marcus said with a laugh. "Seriously, it's nice to meet ya all."

"Please don't, I want some actual competition in this tournament." Sophie said with a pout.

"Even though you're the only competitor here that has less experience than Chloe?" Lance pointed out and Sophie and Chloe sweatdropped.

"I've been practicing; well I and Mike have both been practicing but you get the idea." Sophie grinned. "I hope you've been practicing as well."

"You're kidding right? I and my friends have been practicing around the clock." Lance said with a grin. "Any opponent that stands in our way will get annihilated."

"Yeah right, in your dreams kid, you may have been a big shot in the minor leagues but you're a small fish in a big pond here." Alex said walking up.

"You won't think that after you watch me duel Alex." Lance grinned. "And the same goes for my friends as well."

"We'll see about that." Alex said walking off.

"Who was that guy?" Mike asked.

"Three time regional championships semi finalist and one time Battle City quarter finalist Alex Fenix." Theresa said folding her arms. "Not the most charming guy in the world but he can duel with the best of them."

"In other words my big brother will kick his ass." Sophie said with a smile.

"Let's worry about him once the tournament starts." Lance's mother suggested before getting an idea. "Now I won't be able to keep an eye on you all the time during the tournament but I'm sure Lance can do that for me."

"Well, if it's okay with the teachers..." Lance trailed off.

"Oh what's the harm? They seem like nice enough kids and they'll have Chloe to help keep an eye on them." Hamden said with a smile.

"Thanks Hamden." Lance said with a smirk. "Now can we focus on getting something to eat?"

"Yeah, let's go." Jeff said as the teachers led the students to the car and opened the door for the students, one meal out and another car trip later they were in Times Square waiting for the announcement for the tournament including Lance's siblings.

"So when is the tournament starting?" Lance asked as he leant against a nearby wall. "I want to duel ASAP."

"Be patient Lance, we'll be kicking ass soon." Andreas chuckled as he surveyed the crowd. "Looks like a who's who of tournament level duellists."

"What do you mean?" Lance asked.

"Well we've already met Miranda Trayson and Alex Fenix but there are a couple of guys I recognise from my home country." Andreas said folding his arms. "Like that guy over there, that's Axel Loather, Germany's national champion." Lance looked in the direction Andreas was looking and sure a teenager with blonde spiked up hair and brown eyes wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and brown boots.

"Is he any good?" Lance asked and Andreas chuckled.

"I would've thought that the fact that he's the national champion for my home country would've clued you in to that fact." Andreas said pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "But yes, he is good, undefeated as a matter of fact."

"And it shall remain that way." Axel said walking up. "Ah one of my fans flew all the way from Germany to watch me duel, I'm flattered."

"Please, I'm here to duel just like you are Axel." Andreas said holding up his duel disk. "Or did you forget about that duel you had with my brother Otto?"

"Ah yes, Otto Freshier I remember him, he was the only duellist to give me a decent challenge." Axel chuckled. "That would make you Andreas Freshier right?"

"That's him, and as long as we're in this tournament your undefeated streak will end." Lance chimed in.

"We shall see." Axel chuckled before walking off.

"Is it me or does every Tournament Level Duellist who isn't the champ seem to be competing with Otto for the Nobel Arrogance Prize." Lance wondered and Marcus scoffed.

"This is coming from the two year veteran challenging more experienced duellists left and right?" Marcus laughed.

"I'm just trying to make things interesting." Lance shrugged. "So Andreas, what kind of deck does Axel run?"

"Gladiator Beasts, they are tricky to use but very powerful at the same time, as long as they are used by someone who knows how to use them." Andreas said leaning against the wall. "Obviously Axel knows how to use them."

"Never heard of them, I guess I'll have to see them for myself." Lance folded his arms. "Are there any other familiar faces?"

"I don't see any." Andreas said looking around. "Strange, I would've thought we'd of seen Eddie by now."

"Eh, he's the champ; he'll be arriving in style." Brandon shrugged his shoulders before checking the time on his watch. "And by my watch the tournament announcement should be any time now." As Brandon said that everyone else stopped talking and focussed on the TV screen facing them and saw a woman in her thirties with short dark brown hair and blue eyes on the TV screen.

"Welcome duellists from all over the world, I am Chancellor Wilkins, Headmistress of Duel Academy and one of the the organisers for this year's Battle City Tournament, as soon as this speech is over the tournament will begin so I'll keep this as short as I can." The woman said clearing her throat. "Many of you have travelled from all over the world for one purpose; to duel for fame and glory, however out of the thousands of duellists here tonight only 20 duellists will qualify and the opening rounds will determine who will qualify for the top twenty, these will be determined by duels and the winner of each duel will win the loser's rarest card." Lance noticed that Chloe had tensed up at the prospect of losing her Silent Magician and quite frankly he wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of losing his rarest card as well. "Alongside a predetermined number of Locator Cards which will be essential for making your way to the semi finals, you'll need 6 of them in total."

"_No pressure then, if I lose at any point I might lose my Armed Dragon Level 10."_ Theresa thought.

"Now as I mentioned before I am the headmistress of Duel Academy and because of my participation in this tournament the school was asked to nominate some of its brightest students for the tournament, don't let the fact that they are learning the game fool you as they are talented duellists, so with that said here's their names and pictures." Wilkins said.

"_Well, isn't that nice of her to...WAIT WHAT?"_ Lance thought looking up at the screen, sure enough the pictures of the students where on the screen with their names and Dorms underneath. "Oh great, people will be on the lookout for us because we're students!"

"Relax man; they won't notice...crap, too late!" Marcus started but stopped when he realized that several duellists where looking at them.

"Marcus, you should really keep your mouth shut at times like these." Brandon said facepalming. "Teach, we never agreed to have our names revealed to the other duellists, so why where are names revealed!"

"Sorry guys but the Chancellor thought it would motivate you." Jeff shrugged. "Too late now, they're already talking about you."

"Probably about how I'll be an easy target since I'm the only Osiris Red student." Chloe muttered under her breath.

"With that out of the way here's a word from our reigning champion Eddie Roberts!" The sounds of a Helicopter hovering above where heard and the duellists looked up seeing Eddie leaning out of a open Helicopter door with a microphone in one hand and the other making sure he didn't fall out.

"I've never been one for speeches so I'll make this quick, as the reigning champion I want a challenge from all other competitors in this tournament, young or old, veterans or rookies, it doesn't matter because as long as you bring your A Games than I look forward to facing you in the tournament." Eddie said before closing the helicopter door and the helicopter left.

"Stirring words from our champion, with that in mind, ladies and gentlemen, duellists of all ages, LET THE BATTLE CITY TOURNAMENT BEGIN!" The screen shut off and the duellists started to disperse.

"Oh right students, you know who you're being paired off with, Lance I trust you too look after your siblings." Martin said and Lance nodded. "You have our phone number to contact us if anything happens."

"Yeah like us being eliminated." Chloe muttered as she watched the duellists leave. "We should probably give our Cell Numbers to each other, so we can keep in contact."

"Good idea." Brandon nodded sending his cell number to the other duellists. "All though if anyone uses my number for a prank call it'll be deleted in record time." Brandon added as they sent the numbers to each other. "Maybe we should meet back up here later, you know to catch up on our progress."

"Right, see you guys around." Lance said and the other students left. "So guys, where do we want to go first?"

"Well, I was thinking..." Chloe started only to be cut off by Lance's siblings.

"The Statue of Liberty!" Mike suggested, followed by a seemingly endless stream of famous landmarks.

"Guys, those places are closed for the tournament." Chloe sighed once they finally shut up. "All right, before I was interrupted I about to suggest that we wonder about the city until we find an opponent or two and most importantly kick their asses!"

"That's more like it." Lance grinned as the four teens made their way off, unaware of the fact that Michael was watching them from the rooftops, he put a hand to his earpiece.

"Master, the targets are making their move." Michael said. "Andreas and Reynolds are heading south, Daniels and Thomas are heading South West, Richardson and Alvers as heading west and Kimberly is heading north."

"Excellent, seems Damien's the closest agent to their current location, he is nearest Alvers and Richardson." The leader responded.

"Tell him that its open season on them, that other agent may have his eyes on the girl but anything that makes him unhappy is fine by me." Michael said before pausing. "Where is Damien anyway?"

"He is in Central Park West and I will relay your message." The leader said hanging up.

"_Central Park West it is."_ Michael thought before making his way to the west.

*sometime later*

Chloe, Lance and his siblings had made their way to Central Park and where exploring the area, though the older teens were more interested in duels.

"So this is Central Park? It's a lot bigger than it looks on TV." Lance commented looking around, Chloe smirked.

"And it's also the source of one of my first happy memories as a kid." Chloe remembered. "The orphanage took me and the other kids here on a field trip, it was a blast...you know for a seven year old child abuse victim."

"I don't doubt that." Lance nodded in agreement. "Hopefully they'll be some duellists here; I want to get an early a start as possible."

"I agree there." Chloe said as the four teens came to a picnic area.

"Ah good, I can rest at last!" Lance said sitting down on the grass and Chloe fell over from surprise.

"Here you are complaining about a lack of duels and your first instinct is to rest?" Chloe said flabbergasted.

"Oh come on Chloe, we have been walking for some time now." Lance pointed out looking around.

"Yeah, I guess that's true!" Chloe admitted sitting down on the grass next to Lance. "So Lance are you nervous about the tournament?"

"Well the organisers practically painted gigantic bullseyes on our backs thanks to the announcement so yeah I am nervous." Lance sighed, whilst they were talking Damien, who had ditched the cloak for a black jacket over a white t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots, entered the area.

"Ah, there they are." Damien muttered under his breath with a grin before approaching them. "Excuse me, are either of you duellists?"

"We both are, why do you ask?" Lance asked turning to Damien.

"Ah excellent, I'd like to challenge you to a duel." Damien said bringing out his scythe like duel disk. "You can call me Damien, and I'm looking for a challenge!"

"Sorry Damien but I'm not interested, I'm resting from walking for about twenty minutes." Lance said honestly, Chloe hopped up and activated her duel disk.

"He's not but I am!" Chloe said confidently. "Stupid looking duel disk and lack of fashion sense not withstanding!"

"Hey, I have impeccable fashion tastes!" Damien said before smirking. "You have a name little girl?"

"The name's Chloe." Chloe said with a grin. "So where too?"

"Follow me, if you dare." Damien said and Chloe followed him to an area with more space for them to duel. "As I'm a gentlemen I'll let you go first."

"Gee, how kind of you." Chloe muttered as the two duellists activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands, Lance blinked and stood up making his way to the area so he could get a better look.

"Careful Chloe, I've got a bad feeling about him." Lance said leaning against the tree.

"Don't worry, I can handle him." Chloe said confidently as she looked at her hand. _"Sweet, I get to test out some of my new cards!"_ Chloe thought before playing the card she drew. "I summon Defender, the Magical Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the knight in blue armour appeared on the field (4/1600/2000). "And when he's summoned he gains a spell counter but more on that later, for now I'll set three cards facedown and end my turn!"

"You're going to regret not playing a monster with such a high defence in defence mode!" Damien drew his card and chuckled evilly. "Especially when you consider what the card that I've just drawn is, in fact I'm willing to bet that you're dying to see what I've got in store for you is, little girl!"

"You think I'm scared of what you've got? Not with my trap card Gagaga Shield!" Chloe activated the card and Defender's shield was replaced with the Gagaga Shield. "This trap is treated like an equip spell and the monster that's equipped with it can survive two attacks before being destroyed."

"Not bad, but let's see if that trap can withstand the mighty Hayabusa Knight in attack mode!" Damien played the card and a small birdlike warrior in silver armour appeared on the field wielding twin swords (3/1000/700)

"I'd say he holds up pretty well since his attack is much lower than her knight." Lance pointed out, by this point a crowd had formed to watch the duel and Damien smirked evilly.

"Maybe so, but there's more than one way to destroy a monster, not to mention your opponent, and I'm about to show you how! I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Damien played the card smirking evilly as he did.

"THE SEAL OF THE WHAT?" Lance managed to utter out before a massive green circle encircled the two duellists sending him flying back, Chloe looked around her new surroundings curiously noticing a pentagram on the ground...and on Damien's forehead as well as his knight's.

"LANCE!" Chloe heard Lance's siblings yell as they ran over to him, she glanced over her shoulder and saw her friend on the ground.

"I'm fine; I've never seen a field spell act that way before though." Lance said getting up. "Hang in there Chloe!"

"Oh believe me fool!" Damien laughed evilly. "She will need more than that to beat me!"

*elsewhere in the city*

"Theresa, do we REALLY need all this stuff?" Brandon moaned as he carried several shopping bags as he lagged behind his girlfriend, the two Obelisk Blue students were walking down a shopping district in the city. "Can't we look for duels instead?"

"Off course we will silly, but shopping takes priority!" Theresa said with a smirk and Brandon groaned.

"We interrupt this program to bring you exclusive coverage of the first Battle City Duel!" A news report on a TV in the window of a shop said causing Brandon to stop in his tracks. "We take you live to Central Park West where one of the Duel Academy students, Chloe Richardson, is duelling a duellist known only as Damien."

"Huh, Chloe didn't waste any time finding a duel." Brandon commented as he looked at the TV set.

"She'll do fine, she's improved a lot!" Theresa said with a shrug; however the footage of the duel caused all colour to drain from Brandon's face. "Brandon, what's wrong?"

"We need to get to Central Park West now! Call the teachers as well!" Brandon said running in the opposite direction.

"What? Why, what's the problem?" Theresa asked before looking at the TV screen and her eyes widened _"Oh no, Chloe what have you gotten yourself into!"_ Theresa thought before calling after Brandon. "Brandon, wait! I'll flag down a cab!" Theresa called after him and Brandon ran back. "TAXI!" Theresa called out and a taxi pulled up, the driver loaded the shopping bags into the boot and the two teens climbed in. "Get us as close to Central Park West as you can and as fast as you can."

"That'll a lot of money lady!" The driver pointed out and Brandon dropped a small pile of ten dollar bills in his lap.

"Will that cover it?" Brandon asked.

"You bet your ass it will, strap in!" The driver said before driving off.

*elsewhere*

"Okay, so I'll have six hotdogs with all the trimmings!" Marcus ordered from the hotdog stand.

"Six...six hotdogs, are you serious?" The vender said flabbergasted. "I know you're a big guy but are you eating them yourself?"

"Nah, three of them are for my friend over there!" Marcus said motioning to an equally flabbergasted Andreas.

"Eh, it's your funeral and my pay check!" The vender shrugged. "That'll be $8.99."

"Keep the change!" Marcus said handing over a ten dollar bill, the vender shrugged and took the bill and Marcus walked over to Andreas.

"Err, Marcus when I said yes to your question about if I wanted any hotdogs or not, this wasn't what I had in mind!" Andreas said flabbergasted.

"Hey man, I treat my friends and don't you forget it!" Marcus said handing over three hotdogs to Andreas. "Besides this'll help keep our energy up come duel time!"

"Hey are you guy's duellists?" An old man standing in front of a nearby TV store asked them. "The first duel's started and they are showing footage of it on the news."

"Hey thanks for the info." Marcus said as he and Andreas walked up to the TV screen. "Hey is that Chloe?"

"Yeah, who's she duelling though?" Andreas asked. "And what's up with the field?"

"I don't know about the field but the reporter identified her opponent as some guy called Damien." The man responded with a shrug. "You know her?"

"We're classmates at Duel Academy." Marcus said honestly.

"Really? My grandson's in Osiris Red!" The old man said proudly.

"It's a small world after all." Andreas mused as he watched the duel.

*elsewhere*

"I wonder how the students are doing." Jeff wondered as he sat inside the limo with the other teachers.

"They'll do fine." Hamden said as he watched the news on a small TV. "We selected them for a reason."

"I'm more concerned about Chloe; she wasn't thrilled to be in her hometown." Maria said folding her arms.

"Hey speaking of Chloe she's in the first duel!" Hamden said only to have the mini TV snatched from his hands by Maria.

"LET ME SEE THAT!" Maria demanded. "Yeah, you kick his ass Chloe!" Maria cheered causing the other teachers to sweatdrop, her grin quickly disappeared though. "Oh dear god..." Maria said all previous joy in her voice long gone.

"What is it?" Martin said looking over. "Oh no, driver the meeting at Kaibacorp will have to wait, get us to Central Park West!"

"But you said..." The driver started.

"DAMN IT DRIVER ONE OF MY STUDENTS IS IN TROUBLE AND SHE'LL NEED MY SUPPORT!" Maria yelled and the driver gulped.

"Yes...yes ma'am!" The driver said turning the limo around, Jeff's cellphone went off and he answered it.

"Hello? Theresa, what is it? You know about Chloe's duel as well? We'll meet you at Central Park!" Jeff said hanging up. _"Hang in there Chloe."_

*back with Chloe and Lance*

"Now then, let me explain a couple of my cards effects!" Damien laughed evilly. "For starters, each monster that I control gains 500 attack points whilst your monster's attacks remain the same!" Damien said as his knight's attack increased to 1500.

"That's still too weak to defeat Defender." Chloe said confidently.

"Oh believe me, I noticed!" Damien smirked as he picked up another card. "So say hello to the Sword of Deep Seated, this spell card increases my knight's attack and defence by 500!" Damien said and a sinister looking sword appeared in place of one of the knight's swords increasing its attack to 2000 and his attack to 1200. "And don't think that shield can save you because my knight can attack twice so go my knight eliminate her shield!" The knight charged forward and slashed Defender twice with its swords shattering the shield.

C: 7200

D: 8000

"You're going to have to do better than that." Chloe said defiantly.

"So I noticed." Damien said picking up two cards. "I set these two cards facedown and end my turn!"

"_Okay, I need to get rid of that Seal thingy so the sooner I draw Mystical Space Typhoon or Breaker I can turn this duel around."_ Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"Perfect!"_ Chloe thought. "I summon Breaker, The Magical Warrior!" Chloe played the card and Breaker appeared on the field (4/1600/1900) and his attack rose to 1900 doe to his effect, to Chloe's surprise her Warrior gave a respectful nod to Defender.

"Even with his effect Breaker's too weak to stand against my knight!" Damien pointed out with a grin.

"That's not my concern, I activate Breaker's other effect because by removing a spell counter from him I can destroy one Spell or trap card on the field and quite frankly this seal is becoming quite the eyesore!" Chloe announced as Defender's attack dropped drown to 1600, he charged at the seal and stuck his sword into it. "Say goodbye to your field card!" Chloe said confidently...but her confidence disappeared quickly when Breaker was repelled by the shield. "What...what the hell, Breaker's effect should've destroyed the seal?" She said as Breaker slowly got up.

"I couldn't of said it better myself! The seal should be destroyed!" Lance pointed out.

"Did you honestly think you could destroy an evil this ancient with a mere card effect?" Damien taunted. "The seal can't be destroyed or negated!"

"You're kidding!" Lance called out from the sidelines, Chloe was equally as shocked.

"The only way this card leaves the field is when either of us looses the duel, when that happens you're soul will be consumed by the seal!" Damien taunted.

"Okay, this guy's officially lost it." Chloe said as she sweatdropped.

"CHLOE!" Chloe looked over her shoulder and saw Brandon and Theresa approaching quickly.

"You guys do know they're broadcasting the match all over the city right?" Lance said sheepishly as he pointed out several cameramen.

"Lance, this REALLY isn't the time!" Brandon said as he stopped. "Chloe, listen! Whatever you do don't lose the duel!"

"I wasn't planning too!" Chloe said looking at her hand. "Besides he only has a small lead!" Chloe added.

"Guys, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Lance said concerned. "It's just a spell card."

"Lance, it's a long story." Brandon said turning to him. "Just know that this is the card that put Nathan in the infirmary."

"WHAT...BUT...?" Lance exclaimed as realization dawned on him and Chloe. "You mean Chloe could..."

"Yeah, let's not think about that!" Chloe interrupted activating one of facedowns. "I may not be able to destroy the seal but I can destroy your knight with this spell card Rush Recklessly increasing Breaker's attack to 2300."

"Oh no, you can destroy my knight! Whatever will I do?" Damien said sarcastically. "Just try it you little bitch!"

"HEY WATCH IT PUNK! THERE'S KID'S PRESENT!" One of the audience members called out.

"Don't worry, I'll shut him up!" Chloe said pointing to Breaker. "Breaker, attack Hayabusa Knight!" Breaker charged at the night and Damien smirked.

"You fool, that's just what I wanted you to do, ACTIVATE MIRROR FORCE!" Damien laughed as the attack was reflected back at Chloe's spellcasters destroying them both.

"NO!" Chloe said as he eyes widened.

"Yes and you've already used up you're summon, in short your lifepoints are mine for the taking!" Damien said confidently.

"I...I end my turn." Chloe said her hair overshadowing her eyes at this point.

"And now the fun begins!" Damien said drawing his card. "Ah excellent, all right little girl, feel the wrath of the Mad Dog of Darkness!" Damien played the card and a rabid looking orange dog with horns appeared on the field (4/1900/1200) and as the symbol of the Seal appeared on its head its attack rose to 2400.

"Err, nice doggy!" Chloe said nervously.

"Let's see if you feel the same after it takes a bite out of your lifepoints!" The mad dog charged forward and bit Chloe's arm and she yelled in pain. "Your turn Hayabusa Knight, decimate her lifepoints!" The knight charged forward and slashed her twice knocking her to the ground.

C: 800

D: 8000

"NO CHLOE!" Lance yelled as he saw his friend fall.

"I'm fine, don't..." Chloe said weakly as she struggled to get up, it was then that she got a good look at the attacked parts of her body, her right arm and lower torso, and her eyes widened. "I'm...I'm bleeding?" Chloe said her tone a mixture of surprise and pain, the bleeding wasn't too bad but it was bound to get worse.

"Looks like you've discovered another of the Seal's effects the hard way!" Damien chuckled. "In the seal the monsters are as real as you and I and so is the damage!"

"HEY CALL OFF THE DUEL! SHE NEEDS MEDICAL HELP!" A female passerby shouted as she watched the duel and several other passersby shouted in agreement.

"Silence fools or you'll feel the wrath of my monsters for yourself!" Damien threatened.

"You can't!" Chloe said weakly gritting her teeth.

"Do you really want to take that chance?" Damien asked.

*meanwhile*

Andreas and Marcus had been watching the duel since the start but their eyes widened when they saw the blood.

"Oh shit! We have to get there!" Marcus said running off.

"Marcus, you don't even know where to go!" Andreas called out and Marcus stopped.

"But...but she needs our help!" Marcus protested and Andreas sighed.

"I know!" Andreas said with a sigh. "But you spent possible taxi money on the damn hot dogs.

"Hold on, I'll drive you!" The old man offered.

"What have we to lose? Let's go!" Marcus said as the three men ran off to the man's car.

*meanwhile at the duel*

"When I said you can't I meant that I'll beat you before you have the chance!" Chloe said getting to her feet.

"You may as well give up little girl! The orichalcos will take pity on you!" Damien taunted folding his arms.

"No...not as long as I have lifepoints left!" Chloe said defiantly as she went to draw her card.

"Then you're a fool!" Damien taunted. "What the...who invited the old folks home?" Chloe blinked before turning around and seeing the teachers.

"Chloe, don't listen to..." Maria stopped in her tracks when she saw that Chloe was bleeding. "I TOLD THAT DRIVER TO TAKE A LEFT TURN!"

"I thought you had a meeting at Kaibacorp?" Lance pointed out.

"That doesn't matter Lance." Hamden said plainly.

"Err, yeah blowing off a meeting with the organisers for this? I'd say that's a pretty big deal." Lance folded his arms. _"Damn it Chloe, hang in there!"_

"That's beside the point Lance." Maria said plainly, it was then that Andreas and Marcus arrived and, once Marcus caught his breath, joined up with the others.

"What is this? Is the Duel Academy convention in town?" Lance wondered out loud.

"No but the "friends concerned about their friends being injured in a duel" convention is in town!" Andreas said plainly.

"Don't let this guy intimidate you Chloe, you can still win this." Marcus shouted.

"Have you been noticed the gap between their lifepoints?" Lance said folding his arms.

"Not the point." Marcus shook his head as Chloe drew her card.

"I...I set this card facedown and end my turn!" Chloe said weakly.

"CHLOE, I TAUGHT YOU BETTER THAN THIS AND I WON'T LET IT DOWN IF YOU LOSE THE FIRST MATCH IN THE TOURNAMENT." Maria shouted from the sidelines causing Lance to do a double take.

"Guys, remind me never to piss her off." Lance whispered to the other students who nodded in agreement.

"You may as well of given up little girl, oh well." Damien grinned as he drew his card. "Hayabusa Knight, finish her off and feed her soul to the Orichalcos." The Knight charged forward and Chloe weakly activated her trap.

"I...I activate my trap card..." Chloe said as it flipped up only pausing because she was breathing heavily at this point.

"Activate whatever you want, it won't save you!" Damien said with a grin...which disappeared the moment he saw the trap card.

"...Mirror Force..." Chloe finished as the attack was reflected back at Damien's monsters destroying them both.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT YOU CU..." Damien said but was cut off by various objects being thrown at the seal.

"Leave her alone you bully!" Sophie shouted.

"That's enough Sophie." Lance warned his sister and she stopped in her tracks. "And questionable language aside it seems Damien has forgotten about the side effect of Sword of Deep Seated."

"What..." Damien was cut off when realization dawned on him. "NO! The Sword goes to the top of my deck when sent to the graveyard and I have no more monsters in my hand."

"Then...then I guess it's my turn." Chloe said drawing her card. "I activate Card of Sanctity to...to give us new hands." Chloe said and both duellists drew until they had 6

"_Blast, even with my new cards I don't have any monsters; I'll have to hope that I draw something on my next turn!" _Damien thought before looking up at Chloe.

"It's time I turned this thing around." Chloe said and Damien grinned.

"And how do you expect to do that with a mere 800 lifepoints against my untouched lifepoints?" Damien asked.

"I intend to do that with my second strongest monster, GO SILENT MAGICIAN LEVEL 4!" Chloe played the card and the magician appeared on the field (4/1000/1000) and Damien laughed when he saw the monster.

"You manage to destroy my monsters in one go and THAT'S the best you can do?" Damien laughed. "What's she going to do? Attack me by pulling a rabbit out of her hat?"

"If she's going to play what I think she is then you won't be laughing for too much longer." Maria said with a grin,

"And unfortunately for you my monster isn't sticking around, I activate another Spell Card from my hand, LEVEL UP! This lets me summon my strongest monster from my deck or hand regardless of summoning conditions as long as I tribute Silent Magician so..." Chloe winced from the pain as she retrieved her card from her deck. "I sacrifice my Magician to bring out her strongest form, Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe played the card weakly and the Silent Magician disappeared and in her place stood her grown up form (8/3500/1000).

"3500 ATTACK POINTS?" Damien yelled his eyes wide with fear. _"Nothing in my deck even comes close to that magician's power!"_ Damien thought as the magician looked around concerned before seeing her master's injured form and covered her mouth in shock, before turning to face Damien with a look of hatred in her eyes.

"I knew the holographic technology in the Duel Disks was good but not that good!" Andreas said out loud.

"I was about to say the same thing." Andreas turned around saw a concerned looking Alex standing behind them. "I saw the duel on TV, called for an ambulance when I realized that she was bleeding." Alex said.

"Thank you Alex, we appreciate your help." Hamden said with a nod.

"Any time, now then, her name's Chloe right?" Alex asked and Hamden nodded. "HEY CHLOE, KICK THIS PUNK'S ASS!" Alex yelled and the crowd cheered in agreement, Chloe smiled weakly before pointing to Damien.

"Silent Magician, give him a taste of his own medicine and attack his lifepoints directly!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician pointed her staff at Damien and charged it up before firing a beam at Damien, he screamed in pain as his liifepoints plummeted.

C: 800

D: 4500

"You...you will pay for that!" Damien grunted as he slowly got up.

"Just try it, for now I'll..." Chloe thought before remembering something. _"My facedown Gift of the Mystical Elf, I completely forgot about it."_ Chloe thought looking at her facedown card. _"Damien said that the damage was as real as we are but I wonder if the same can be said for restoring life points? At this point I'll try anything."_ Chloe thought before activating her card. "First I'll activate the last trap I set earlier, Gift of the Mystical Elf, this restores 300 lifepoints for each monster with have on the field, sure I'll only gain 300 lifepoints but at this point I'll need them!" Chloe said as her lifepoints rose to 1100, she found herself having a lot less difficulty standing up after her lifepoints where restored.

"_She's smarter than she looks, I'll give her that much."_ Damien thought before folding his arms. "Anything else you want to do?"

"Yeah, I'll set this card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced, Damien drew his card and grinned.

"You and your magician are finished! I activate Lightning Vortex; by discarding a card from my hand I can destroy your magician!" Damien played the card and laughed evilly as lightning struck her magician. "Soon your lifepoints will be destroyed as your...WHAT?" Damien started but stopped when the Magician shrugged off the lightning. "EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"

"My Silent Magician isn't affected by your spell cards." Chloe smirked and Damien growled.

"_How is she still standing? My past opponents would've been crushed by now!"_ Damien thought before picking up a card. "If I can't destroy that magician then I'll just have to defend against it, I set a card in defence mode and activate not one, but two Scapegoat cards!" Before Chloe could object the facedown monster alongside eight scapegoat tokens (1/0/0) appeared on the field.

"HEY YOU CAN'T HAVE MORE THAN FIVE MONSTERS ON THE FIELD AT THE SAME TIME!" Andreas yelled from the sidelines.

"Oh, can't I? Then how do you explain the presence of 9 monsters on my side of the side?" Damien chuckled. "Don't bother answering that! This is another one of the Orichalcos's effects; I can use the magic and trap card slots to summon monsters."

"And I thought Zeemen the Ape King was broken!" Marcus exclaimed.

"You're not going to let me live that down are you?" Andreas asked annoyed as a massive sweatdrop rolled down his head.

"To put it bluntly, no I'm not." Marcus said folding his arms.

"CHLOE, YOU MUST BELIEVE IN THE HEART OF THE CARDS!" Maria shouted as she went to draw her card.

"Well. It's official; she's gone senile." Marcus said bluntly.

"Marcus, you'd better run, NOW!" Andreas said backing off.

"But I just ate three hotdogs..." Marcus started but was cut off by Maria tugging on his ear.

"SENILE AM I? I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I WAS WINNING CHAMPIONSHIPS BEFORE YOU WHERE EVEN BORN YOUNG MAN..." Maria shouted in Marcus's ear.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't hurt me!" Marcus pleaded as everyone else sweatdropped.

"_Maybe she had a point."_ Chloe thought closing her eyes. _"Heart of the Cards, give me something I can use!" _She thought as she drew, she looked at the card she drew. _"I still have Token Feastevil in my deck? I've been meaning to get rid of this for a...wait, I can use this!"_ Chloe thought. "I set one card facedown and I'll have Silent Magician destroy your monster!" Silent Magician pointed her staff at the facedown card and launched a beam at the monster, revealed to be another Mad Dog of Darkness, and destroyed it. "I end my turn!"

"Very well, I draw!" Damien said as he drew. "I think I'll bring out two more tokens for my army so I'll activate Stray Lambs summoning two Lamb Tokens." Damien said as the two tokens appeared on the field (1/0/0) and Chloe smirked.

"I was hoping for that, I activate my trap card Token Feastevil!" Chloe activated the card.

"Token what? How is that supposed to help?" Damien asked.

"Well let's see, with your two new tokens on the field you now have ten monsters on your side of the field, all tokens, Token Feastevil lets me destroy all of them and inflict 300 points of damage for each one." Chloe explained and Damien's eyes widened.

"That...that's 3000 points of damage!" Damien realized as one by one the tokens self destructed.

C: 1100

D: 1500

One the smoke cleared Damien smirked. "I can still summon a monster little girl so I'll set this monster in defence mode and end my turn but come next turn you're finished!"

"There won't be a next turn." Chloe said with a wince as she drew her card. _"I have to finish this quickly; I don't know how much blood I've lost."_ Chloe thought before pointing to Silent Magician. "Silent Magician, attack his defence." Silent Magician pointed it's staff at the card and fired a beam at it revealing it to be Sangan (3/1000/600) and Damien smirked.

"Good, I'll use his effect to add this to my hand." Damien said holding up DD Warrior Lady (4/1500/1600). "On my next turn I'll set this facedown and when you attack it your magician will go with..."

"Oh for the love of god, SHUT UP!" Chloe cut him off as she activated her trap. "Besides there won't be a next turn because I'm activating my other trap card Enlightenment!"

"What does that do exactly?" Damien demanded and Chloe smirked.

"This trap can only be activated when I destroy a monster using a spellcaster, after damage calculation is applied my spellcaster attacks again immediately." Chloe smirked. "So in short, you're finished."

"NO! STAY BACK!" Damien said clearly panicking at this point.

"Silent Magician, finish him!" Chloe demanded and Silent Magician pointed her staff at him, she charged up her beam and fired it at him, Damien screamed in pain as the attack hit.

C: 1100

D: 0000

Chloe collapsed to her knees from a combination of exhaustion and pain but smiled when she heard her friends cheering her victory.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Marcus shouted pumping his fists. "One duel down, six to go Chloe!"

"_That kid's good, maybe I shouldn't underestimate these duel academy duellists after all."_ Alex thought. "Wait, why hasn't the hologram of the seal disappeared from the field yet, the duel's over?"

"He's right!" Andreas realized that Silent Magician's hologram at disappeared but the seal hadn't. Damien on the other hand was looking around panicked as the Seal shrunk down until it completely surrounded him.

"NO! DON'T TAKE ME PLEASE!" Damien pleaded with the seal, one blood curdling scream later and the seal disappeared whilst Damien fell over backwards.

"Is anyone else feeling a case of déjà vue?" Marcus asked as he saw the scene.

"Yeah, that's how Nathan was taken." Kimberly said running up. "Damn it, I was too late!" Kimberly said as Lance knelt down next to Chloe who had passed out from the pain at this point.

"Hold on Chloe, the ambulance is coming." Lance said before turning his attention to Damien's prone form, he clenched his fists in anger and narrowed his eyes. "HEY YOU!" Lance said storming up to the prone form of Damien. "You think its okay to hurt my friend you piece of shit!" Lance demanded, when Damien didn't answer he grabbed him by his jacket. "ANSWER ME DAMN IT!" Lance demanded as he pulled back his fist for a punch...only for the punch to be stopped by a firm hand. "Huh?" Lance wondered before looking up and seeing the Obelisk Blue headmaster.

"Lance, I understand your anger but it isn't worth it." Martin said sternly. "Chloe needs you more than he needs a beating, go tend to your friend, I'll retrieve his locater card and rarest card." Martin said, Lance let go reluctantly and stood up.

"I know but..." Lance trailed off when he saw a card next to Damien's prone form, he bent over and picked it up but when he saw it all colour drained from his face. "What the...what the hell is going on?" Lance asked.

"Let me see." Martin said looking over his shoulder, it was the Seal of the Orichalcos card but with Damien's panicked face behind the seal, at that moment the ambulance arrived for Chloe. "Lance, I'll explain at the hospital, for now your friend needs you." Lance nodded reluctantly and walked off, Martin retrieved the locater card and looked through his deck before finding the rarest cards. _"Magical Citadel of Endymion and Endymion, the Master Magician, these cards will fit in perfectly with her deck."_ Martin said standing up. _"That's if she still feels up for duelling after I tell her the truth." _Martin thought before turning to the students. "Lance, Brandon, Theresa, Kimberly, Marcus, Andreas and Lance's siblings, come with us, we'll follow the ambulance in the limo." Martin said as he started to walk off.

"Hey wait." The headmaster looked up and saw Alex. "When the kid wakes up give my regards to her, I have kids around her age and I hate seeing someone so young in pain."

"I will thank you again for your help Alex." Martin nodded as he and the students walked off.

"What's the matter man? You look like you've seen a ghost?" Marcus asked.

"I don't know." Lance said as the crowd started to disperse, unaware of the fact that Michael was watching from the trees.

"Master, Damien has failed." Michael said into his earpiece.

"No matter, the Orichalcos has a soul regardless." The leader said with a chuckle. "We have more agents in the city that's all that matters."

"Indeed." Michael said before walking off.


	13. Fighting Water with Fire

It had been an hour since Chloe's duel with Damien and naturally word had spread among the city's duelling population that both competing duellists had been injured in the first duel of the tournament, as far as the rest of the duellists where concerned Damien had been put into a coma due to a malfunctioning Duel Disk but only a handful of them knew the truth.

One such duellist was Alex Fenix and even he didn't know the whole story, he was currently enjoying a drink at a small bar near where he had had his first duel of the tournament defeating some kid who had apparently won his regional championship, it had been a relatively easy duel and thankfully he hadn't hospitalized him in the process.

"Give me another." Alex said putting the now empty glass on the bar counter; the bartender nodded and started pouring him a drink.

"Still haven't heard of manners, hmmm Alexander?" A feminine voice with a Southern Drawl said and Alex turned around and saw Miranda behind him.

"I'm not in the mood Miranda, go bug someone else." Alex grunted turning his back to her.

"It's because of that Duel Academy duellist, the one who got injured, isn't it?" Miranda asked sitting down next to him. "I saw you on the news footage so I know you where there."

"It is." Alex sighed. "She was a mess throughout the duel once that punk's attacks drew blood, to the point that I could tell that it hurt her to move let alone do anything Duel Monsters related, it's a miracle that she got away from that with minor injuries."

"I don't like seeing duellists get injured myself Alex, I'm just glad she'll be okay." Miranda sighed. "So, injuries aside, how did she do?"

"She was obviously a rookie, couldn't tell you how long she had been duelling but I do know that much, but she did well and knew how her cards worked so there's definitely potential there." Alex said as the bartender handed him his drink. "And she was the Osiris Red Student; I want to see the other kids in action now."

"Yeah, no kidding, the fact that she came back from a lifepoint difference of 7800 impressed me enough." Miranda nodded before ordering a drink for herself. "I heard one news station speculate that she rigged her own duel disk on purpose."

"That's bullshit Miranda; she didn't seem the type to do something like that." Alex shook his head. "Besides, she's the same age as my kids; the day that someone in that age group acquires the knowhow to do something like that is the day that I eat my duel disk."

"What a coincidence Alex, those were my thoughts exactly." Miranda nodded in agreement. "Never mind the fact that the news was speculating on a story involving two hospitalized teenagers."

"That's another reason why I don't bother with News Stations." Alex agreed. "So, how are you doing as far as duels go?"

"I haven't found an opponent yet but I'm still looking." Miranda said with a sigh. "I don't intend to duel those Duel Academy kids anyway, I want to see how many of them make it to the semi finals."

"Yeah same here, except for the fact that, since I have kids, I want to let them have their fun first." Alex smiled. "As for me I just beat some kid who won his regional tournament, he didn't last too long and I got a sweet card out of it." Alex said holding up the spell card Power Bond.

"Running a machine deck this time huh? Where do you get the money for all these cards?" Miranda asked as the bartender brought Alex's drink over.

"Those regional tournaments I entered gave me some sweet prize money for winning, that and my regular construction job." Alex shrugged as he downed his beer in one gulp. "I'm off to find another duel."

"See you around Alex." Miranda said waving to him.

"Hey Miranda, there's one more thing." Alex said stopping at the door and glancing over his shoulder at the younger woman. "Don't underestimate those Duel Academy kids, you might just regret it."

"Right, thanks for the warning." Miranda said as Alex left.

*meanwhile at the hospital*

"Damn it, what's taking so long?" Lance asked as he paced back and forth, the teachers had fronted the money for Chloe and Damien's hospital stays since neither teen had insurance and Chloe's parents had been called on the way over, they where currently in the waiting room waiting to visit Chloe.

"Lance, I know you're worried but pacing back and forth won't help." Brandon said putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Besides you heard the doc, she sustained minor injuries and needs her rest."

"I know man." Lance grunted clenching his fists. "Damn it, I should've accepted the duel in Chloe's place, then she wouldn't be injured."

"Lance, blaming yourself won't help either." Brandon sighed. "Besides, do you think your siblings would enjoy watching their older brother get injured?"

"I would've been able to take it." Lance said finally sitting down on a chair. "But Chloe on the other hand, where do I even begin? She's a rookie; she hasn't been in a situation like that before."

"And she's tougher than she looks." Theresa said reassuringly.

"I know but..." Lance started but stopped when he saw the doctor approaching them.

"Chloe Richardson is ready to see visitors." The doctor said and all the teens and teachers got up and went to her private room and entered it, Chloe's arm was stitched up and her abdomen was bandaged up and she was in a hospital gown, before he entered however Jeff turned to the doctor.

"Doc, will she have to stay here much longer?" Jeff asked.

"Well the blood loss was minor all things considered and she will be in pain for another hour by my estimate, she should be ready to leave and duel again in an hour or so though I'll have to advise that she take it easy whilst duelling." The doctor responded after checking his notes. "As for her opponent it's hard to say, duel induced comas are so rare that we don't typically have a set time frame for recovery."

"Thanks." Jeff said before entering the room.

"Hey guys." Chloe said sitting up with a wince. "I was starting to get bored without you."

"We're just glad you're okay." Lance said with a small smile on his face. "No thanks to Damien mind you." Lance said bitterly.

"Lance, I defeated him that's all that matters." Chloe said plainly. "Though the fact that I got a hospital stay out of the deal isn't exactly fun."

"That reminds me actually." Martin said reaching into his pocket. "Here's your prize from the duel, a Locater card and his rarest cards." Martin said handing them over.

"I thought that Seal thingy was his rarest card?" Marcus blinked.

"Technically it was but I don't think she wants anything to do with it." Martin said and Chloe nodded in response taking the cards.

"Besides Marcus, these will be perfect for my deck." Chloe said swapping out her Unhappy Maiden and Battle Warrior for the two cards. "Speaking of the seal, why haven't I heard of it before?"

"I must admit, I was wondering the same thing." Lance agreed and his siblings nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, you'd think we'd of heard of such a powerful card before." Marcus chimed in.

"I think there's a reason we've never heard of it, just look at what happened to Chloe and her opponent." Andreas said sternly.

"Andreas is right but not for the reasons he thinks." Martin said with a sigh. "Truth is the Orichalcos was supposed to be destroyed years ago by the first Battle City champion Yugi Moto but apparently it's returned, I must warn you that the card is incredibly dangerous, if you lose whilst that card is in play your soul will be taken from you."

"That's what happened to Nathan and Damien?" Lance asked and Martin nodded. "Why didn't you tell us sooner? We could've prepared for any duels involving that thing!"

"I'm with Lance." Marcus nodded in agreement.

"I must admit, I am wondering the same thing." Andreas agreed.

"Guys, we wanted to tell you." Theresa said causing everyone's attention to turn to her.

"Wait, what? You knew all this time?" Lance asked, the tone of his voice making it clear that he didn't know whether to be confused or angry.

"Me, Theresa and Kimberly knew." Brandon nodded. "Quite frankly you guys weren't supposed to learn about the seal until you reached Obelisk Blue, obviously given the circumstances we can't keep the secret from you any longer."

"Lance, I'd suggest sending your siblings out of the room." Hamden said turning to them. "I think they've seen enough of the seal for one day."

"But I'm only two years younger than Lance!" Mike protested.

"Mike, I want you to leave, now." Lance said sternly, Mike gulped and went to leave the room. "Actually hold on." Lance said reaching into his pocket and handing over a five dollar bill. "I saw a vending machine in the waiting room, maybe you can get you and Sophie something to eat."

"Thanks bro." Mike said taking the five dollar bill and leaving with Sophie.

"You where saying?" Lance asked turning to the teachers.

"Truth is Lance...Duel Academy policy says that only students in Obelisk Blue can learn about the Orichalcos on the slim chance that, say for example, a Ra Yellow student gets curious and tries to revive it, and obviously you already know about it so there's no point in hiding it." Jeff said resting his hands on his lap. "The Seal of the Orichalcos is no ordinary card, it's powered by an ancient magic long thought to have been destroyed by Yugi Moto."

"Didn't Damien describe the Orichalcos as an ancient evil during the duel?" Chloe remembered and Lance nodded.

"Yeah, after you tried to destroy it with Breaker's effect." Lance nodded. "I just thought he was being Melodramatic."

"I kind of wish he was." Chloe said with a wince looking at her stitched up arm and bandaged abdomen. "So what do we do if we encounter more duellists with duel disks like Damien's? We can't refuse a request to duel."

"We can't? I refused Damien's request before you accepted it." Lance pointed out.

"I think the organisers let that slip based on the fact that he wasn't challenging any pacific person Lance." Martin told him before sighing. "As for what you should do if challenged, don't be afraid to accept, there's no telling what they'll do should you refuse." Martin said before turning to the Ra Yellow students and the sole Osiris Red student. "Kids, I need you to promise me one thing before any of you get into any more duels." Martin paused, wondering how to word the next sentence. "Whoever has revived the Orichalcos might try to trick you into using the Orichalcos, the temptation will be great but I need you to promise that under no circumstances that you play the seal, if you do the staff might have to consider expulsion from the school, among other things."

"You're kidding right? That thing put my friend in the hospital and the guy who used it in a coma, there's no way in hell I'm using it." Lance said folding his arms.

"I couldn't of said it better myself Lance." Marcus agreed. "Just the thought of being in an Orichalcos duel after seeing what it did to Chloe sends shivers up my spine, the day I use it is the day I turn in my blazer."

"This Orichalcos...it's no simple Spell card, its pure evil." Andreas said with rage in his eyes. "I don't even want to think about what could've happened if the duel had continued past the turn that Chloe had finished it, you have my word that I will not use that card."

"Do I even need to say it? Look at where that damn thing has landed me!" Chloe said sitting up with a wince. "I won't use that damn card, not even if it was the last card in my deck."

"Well said, all of you." Jeff said with a sigh. "This tournament was hard enough on you kids already but now that the Seal of the Orichalcos is involved I expect all of you to put your training to good use."

"We would've put it to good use even if the Orichalcos wasn't involved." Lance said with a grin. "Hell if anything the Orichalcos just gives us extra motivation to win our matches."

"Yeah, not losing our soul is great motivation, isn't it?" Marcus agreed with a nod, Andreas nodded in agreement. "Not that I'm complaining about him not being here but has anyone seen Otto since the announcement of the tournament's start?"

"He ditched me shortly after we split off from you guys." Kimberly said resting her arms on the arm rests of her chair. "I haven't seen him since."

"Well it's not like anyone's missing him." Lance shrugged. "Besides we did plan on avoiding him throughout the tournament so it's perfect."

"Okay then, Chloe according to the doctor you should be ready to leave in an hour so..." They were cut off by the door opening and they looked up seeing Chancellor Wilkins who had a concerned look on her face.

"Soon as I heard about the duel I delayed the meeting until tomorrow." Wilkins said looking around. "Ms. Richardson, I'm sorry that you where dragged into such a duel but I'm glad that you only suffered minor injuries."

"What you should be apologizing for is putting our names on the big screen without our consent." Lance grunted.

"Lance, this is the worst possible time to bring that up, you know that right?" Brandon said glancing at him. "As much as I agree with you..."

"No, Brandon he's right." Wilkins sighed. "I apologize if my decision to put your names on the screen put unnecessary pressure on you." Wilkins said before turning to her fellow teachers. "Do they know about the Orichalcos?"

"They do." Martin nodded. "And we've warned them against using it; they are strongly in favour of not using that card."

"I can see why." Wilkins said with a nod. "Okay, the NYPD is hard at work trying to figure out who Damien's employers are as they found an earpiece in his personal effects, they obviously can't interrogate him but there was no other way around it."

"If they need statements from me, my siblings and Chloe we'll be happy to give them." Lance said assertively and Chloe nodded in agreement.

"I'll let them know." Wilkins said before leaving the room.

"She doesn't waste any time, does she?" Lance commented.

"Well she is a busy woman." Martin pointed out. "Anyway with the meeting delayed we will now be able to accompany you throughout the city, I will accompany Brandon and Theresa, Jeff will accompany Andreas and Marcus, Maria will accompany Kimberly and Otto, provided he chooses to show up, and Hamden will accompany Lance, his siblings and Chloe."

"So in other words, I'm stuck here for another hour." Hamden said folding his arms. "At least I'll have some company."

"Yeah, we're off to get some duelling done." Brandon said as he and Theresa stood up. "Lance, give me a call when Chloe's discharged okay?"

"You got it." Lance nodded as the two Obelisk Blue students left with Martin; the other students watched them leave and Kimberly left with Maria leaving the three Ra Yellow students and the Osiris Red Student in the room alone.

"I hope the news about the Orichalcos hasn't dampened your hopes for winning this tournament, students." Hamden said folding his arms.

"Nah, besides I want to test out my new cards." Chloe said, she would've shrugged but the pain she was in due to her injuries prevented that. "All though I personally never want to see that damn card again."

"I don't think we'll get a choice." Marcus said leaning back in his chair. "There's bound to be more guys like Damien in the city and I'm willing to bet that they are much better duellists than him to boot."

"We'll be ready for them, I don't know about you but the last thing I want is for my soul to be trapped by some twisted card." Lance said as the door opened and his siblings came in with armfuls of candy. "What the...I only gave you five dollars!"

"We had some of our own cash." Sophie said sweetly before elbowing Mike.

"Huh...oh right, bro here's the change that we got from your five dollar note." Mike said reaching into his pocket and retrieving some lose change which he handed to Lance; Lance pocketed the change and leaned back in his chair. "So bro, what's the plan once Chloe's discharged?"

"Find me a duel, that's what." Lance said resting his hands behind his head. "I don't want to be left in the dust by Chloe...no offence."

"None taken but just be careful if you end up in a duel where the Orichalcos is played." Chloe said before wincing. "I just worried your siblings, haven't I?"

"Nah, my bro's unbeatable!" Mike said patting his older brother on the back.

"_If that was true I'd be in Obelisk Blue but that's beside the point."_ Lance thought with a small smile on his face. "Did you guys catch any news on any more duels?"

"That Alex guy from the duel beat some kid who won a regional tournament." Mike remembered. "I don't think I remember any other duels though."

"They'll be others; hell there's a city full of duellists here." Andreas shrugged. "Speaking of which, as much as I'd like to be here for when you're discharged, I and Marcus need to do some catching up off our own."

"Yeah, I understand." Chloe nodded. "Hopefully I should be discharged soon though; I overheard Jeff talking to the doctor."

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Jeff said checking the time on his watch. "Give us a call when she is discharged though."

"I will." Hamden nodded and the three duellists left. "This was certainly an interesting way to start the tournament." Hamden said and Lance frowned.

"That's the best way you can think of to describe it?" Lance asked before shrugging. "It doesn't matter; as soon as Chloe's discharged I'll be on the hunt for a duel." Lance said honestly and his younger siblings pouted.

"Don't forget about us bro, I've improved my deck a lot since my last attempt at applying for Duel Academy." Mike said with a grin.

"And I've improved a lot since...well since I started playing a few weeks ago." Sophie said sheepishly.

"I guess we'll have to see for ourselves." Lance chuckled, just then the door opened and the doctor entered.

"Well Ms. Richardson, you're free to go." The doctor said and Chloe grinned. "Just need some information; are you on any medication?"

"I'm on Anti-Depressants." Chloe said honestly causing Hamden to look at her surprised. "Other than that I don't take anything."

"Okay then, any allergies?" The doctor asked and she shook her head. "Okay then, here's a prescription from some pain relief medication, be careful not to take them shortly after taking your anti-depressants."

"Is it possible I could pick them up for her?" Hamden offered but the doctor shook his head.

"No, you can't unless you're a trusted guardian of her." The doctor shook his head.

"Don't worry, I'll cover it." A familiar sounding voice rang out and they looked up seeing Chloe's stepdad. "How are you feeling Chloe?"

"Like hell." Chloe said honestly but was clearly happy to see her dad. "Not that I'm complaining about seeing you dad but...you flew in just because I was hospitalized?"

"Well, we flew in because this is our daughter's first major tournament." Chloe's stepmother said walking up. "All though I didn't expect to receive news about you and your opponent being hospitalized."

"I didn't exactly expect it to happen either." Chloe said standing up. "You guys mind giving me a few minutes to get dressed?"

"Sure." Lance said as he, his siblings and Hamden left the room and Lance closed the door behind him. "Look, I can understand if you're mad at me for not preventing Chloe's hospital stay but..."

"Lance relax we don't blame you, we blame her opponent." Chloe's stepdad reassured him before turning to Hamden. "I heard rumours that the Seal of the Orichalcos is to blame for my daughter's hospital stay, is it true?"

"Unfortunately yes, it is." Hamden said with a regretful nod. "We also believe there are more duellists with the card in the city."

"We'll be ready Mr. Richardson, don't worry about us." Lance said folding his arms. "We've been training practically nonstop since our participation in the tournament was announced."

"That's good to know." Chloe's stepdad said with a nod. "Lance, just do one thing for me throughout the tournament, look after Chloe, you know how emotionally fragile she can get and given her history here..."

"Say no more." Lance nodded before the door opened and a fully clothed Chloe stepped out of the room.

"So, what's the plan?" Chloe asked the others.

"First we'll need to pick up the painkillers, after that Lance can worry about finding an opponent." Mr. Richardson said as he led them away from the teens unaware of a cloaked figure listening in.

"Hey boss, I found your target." The man said into his earpiece. "He's just leaving the hospital with that girl who defeated Damien."

"Arrr that be excellent news shipmate, after that landlubber's failure my boss will be happy when I defeat my target and feed his soul to Davy Jones' Locker, as for whatever rare card he has, well I guess I can use it as a coaster." The voice on the other end said.

"Err, by Davy Jones' Locker do you mean..." The cloaked figure asked and the voice on the other end groaned.

"Yes, I meant the Orichalcos." The voice on the other end said before hanging up, the cloaked figure groaned before leaving.

"I don't get paid enough for this." The figure muttered as he walked away.

*elsewhere*

Monitoring the conversation between the two minions was Michael, much to his displeasure, who was standing on a rooftop opposite the hospital that Chloe was just discharged from; he put a finger to his earpiece and contacted his boss.

"Sir, Captain Leviathan is in position." Michael said with a groan. "What should we do about Damien?"

"He won't be a problem; he'll be in that coma for as long as his soul is within the Orichalcos, with any luck he'll be declared brain dead before his soul can return." The leader said simply. "What about my other operatives?"

"They are trailing their targets as we speak." Michael said simply.

"Good." The leader said before hanging up.

"_Where does he find fools like Captain Leviathan?"_ Michael thought before walking off.

*20 minutes later*

With her parents back at their hotel Chloe and the others were making their way through the city and they where currently in the area known as Queens, Lance was on the lookout for any duellists but so far they found none.

"How long have we been searching again?" Lance wondered as he looked around, he did see some duellists but most of them where already duelling. "Seriously by the time I find an opponent the Semi Finals will start!"

"You'll find one, don't worry." Hamden reassured him.

"Halt landlubbers, which one of you be Lance Alvers?" A heavily accented male voice rang out.

"What did he call us?" Lance asked Chloe who just shrugged her shoulders, he sighed before turning around...and nearly died laughing at the site of the source of the voice, and he was a big burly man in a pirate uniform complete with a plastic Parrot and eyepatch with a long black beard, brown eyes and shoulder length black hair. "Nice outfit but you're a couple of months early for Halloween."

"Don't you dare mock me landlubber, are you Lance Alvers or not?" The man demanded and Lance stopped laughing.

"I am, let me guess you saw my picture on the big screen and you think I'm an easy target?" Lance asked folding his arms. "And can you please stop calling us that?"

"No." The man said plainly. "I am Captain Steven Leviathan, scourge of the seven seas and the duelling arenas, and I think your female friend met an associate of mine, a yellow bellied coward by the name of Damien."

"_Wait, he knows Damien? I'd better start taking this guy seriously if he has the Seal of the Orichalcos in his deck."_ Lance thought. "I accept your challenge Cap, and to prove it I ante up my rarest card Lava Golem."

"Ah, that will be a fine coaster for my drinks." Leviathan grinned. "I ante up my rarest card as well, but unlike you I won't reveal it just yet."

"Fine, though based on your name and attire I'd say you run a water deck so whatever you ante up won't be of much use to me." Lance said activating his duel disk, his eyes narrowed when Leviathan activated his duel disk, the same type of duel disk used by Damien. "Guys get back as far as you can, I don't think I need to remind you what happened the last time we encountered someone with that duel disk."

"Right, got it." Chloe nodded as she and the others backed off.

"Oh, how noble of you to warn them, not that it matters." Leviathan grinned. "Don't worry; once I defeat you I'll focus my attention on them."

"You just made your first mistake of the match; no one threatens my friends and family and gets away with." Lance growled as he drew his opening hand.

"Oh I'm so scared." Leviathan said sarcastically as he drew his hand. "Who's going first landlubber?"

"If you call me that one more time I'll scream." Lance groaned. "Anyway you can go first." Lance said looking at his hand.

"You just made your first mistake." Leviathan said drawing his card. "But don't take my word for it; I start by summoning Airorca in attack mode!" Leviathan played the card and a red and white fish with wings appeared on the field (3/1400/300). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Leviathan played the cards and Lance drew his card. "I activate the continuous trap card Forgotten Temple of the Deep, as long as this card is on the field it is treated as the spell card Umi and once per turn I can remove one Aqua, Fish or Sea Serpent monster from my field as long as it's level four or lower."

"_That's probably to make up for the fact that Seal of the Orichalcos will take up his field spell card slot."_ Lance thought before Airoca disappeared from the field. "You're using it already?"

"Aye and you'll see why soon." Leviathan grinned.

"Regardless of what you have planned you just made a big mistake by leaving your field open." Lance said looking at his new card. "But don't take my word for it; I summon Darkfire Soldier number 1 in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the soldier appeared on the field (4/1700/1100). "Darkfire Soldier, attack his lifepoints directly!" The soldier charged forward and Leviathan grinned.

"Not so fast kid, I activate my trap card Poseidon Wave!" Leviathan activated the trap and a wall of water blocked the attack. "This trap card can only be activated when an attack is declared, with it I can target the attacking monster and negate its attack and if I had Airoca on the field I would've been able to deal 800 points of damage to your lifepoints."

"Is it me or is his tactics not making any sense?" Chloe commented.

"I noticed that as well." Hamden frowned. "If he had kept his monster on the field he could've gained an early lead and kept his own lifepoints safe, what is he planning?"

"Guys, please stop giving my opponent ideas." Lance said as he sweatdropped. "I end my turn by setting three cards facedown." Lance announced but too his surprise Airoca returned to the field. "Huh?"

"I forgot to mention, at the end of the turn that I use Hidden Temple's other effect I can Special Summon the monster I removed from play." Leviathan grinned as he drew his card. "You're finished Landlubber! I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Lance's eyes narrowed when he heard the name of the card and sure enough the infamous seal surrounded the two duellists, Lance shielded his eyes as the card activated before looking up seeing the seal on Leviathan's forehead as well as Airoca's increasing its attack to 1900.

"Do you have any idea what you've just done?" Lance demanded as Leviathan cackled evilly.

"Other than seal my victory against you?" Leviathan taunted and the other duellists groaned.

"I haven't heard jokes that bad since Lance took part in amateur night at a comedy club." Chloe said as she facepalmed.

"Gee, thanks." Lance muttered. "Don't bother explaining its effects; I watched my friend's duel with Damien."

"That maybe but do you know about Airoca's effect?" Leviathan asked and Lance shook his head. "In order to activate it I have to remove one Fish, Sea Serpent or Aqua Type monster from my hand so say goodbye Kairyu-Shin (5/1800/1500)." Leviathan said pocketing the monster. "And say hello to the effect of Airoca which lets me destroy Darkfire Soldier in return for removing Airoca from play until my next standby phase!" The fish charged forward and bit into Darkfire Soldier destroying it and Leviathan's monster, Lance sent his monster to the graveyard and Leviathan pocketed his card. "And now I activate the spell card Fish and Swaps, all I need to do is discard two cards from my hand and I can return the monster I banished for Airoca's effect to my hand alongside Airoca himself." Leviathan said discarding two cards and returning the monsters to his hand.

"Is there a point to all of this?" Lance asked scratching his head.

"I was wondering the same thing." Chloe said equally confused.

"You'll see soon enough Landlubbers!" Leviathan grinned. "But first I think I'll help us both with the spell card Card of Sanctity!" The two duellists drew until their hands had six cards and Leviathan grinned. "I now summon The Dragon Dwelling in the Deep in attack mode!" Leviathan played the card and a large blue dragon appeared on the field roaring at Lance (4/1700/1400) and soon enough the Orichalcos symbol appeared in the dragon's head raising its attack to 2200. "On top of being a mighty beast my dragon has a special ability, during each of our standby phases this dragon gets an Ocean Counter, this however won't come into effect until it's removed the field but for now I'll have my dragon attack directly!" The dragon reared its head back and Lance braced himself remembering what happened to Chloe in her Orichalcos duel, the dragon fired a stream of water from its mouth sending Lance flying.

C: 8000

L: 5800

Lance got to his feet coughing up water as he did. _"Damien wasn't kidding about the battle damage being real, at least I'm not bleeding."_ Lance said standing up straight.

"Still standing huh? I'll set this card facedown and activate Soul Release to remove one monster from my graveyard." Leviathan said retrieving the monster and pocketing it. "That ends my turn!" Leviathan said and Lance drew his card and Leviathan's dragon gained its first Ocean Counter.

"Well, that's my first battle city duel won." Chloe blinked and glanced over her shoulder seeing Axel Loather looking at a locater card and a duel monsters card. "Now then, I need to find another duel...what on Earth?" Axel said upon seeing the field. "Who's duelling?"

"Lance Alvers, one of the duellists from Duel Academy, and Captain Leviathan." Hamden answered. "I'm going to guess that your next question is about the duel field?"

"Yeah, what's up with the field?" Axel blinked.

"You really don't want to know." Lance said glancing over his shoulder at Axel before looking at his new card. "First I'll activate one of my Trap cards Call of the Haunted to bring back my Darkfire Soldier!" Lance announced as the soldier reappeared. "But he isn't sticking around; I sacrifice him to bring out Thestalos, The Firestorm Monarch!" Darkfire Soldier disappeared from the field and in his place stood the firestorm monarch who looked wearily at his surroundings (6/2400/1500). "And now his effect activates..."

"Not so fast, I activate my trap card Oh Fish!" Leviathan grinned as he retrieved the monster he removed from play from his pocket and returned him to his deck and shuffled it. "This trap card can only be activated when an effect monster's effect is about to be activated, not only does it allow me to return the monster I removed from play to my deck BUT I can negate Thestalos' effect and destroy him!"

"WHAT?" Lance yelled as Thestalous was consumed by a tidal wave. _"Great, unless I think of something soon I'm about to suffer another direct attack from his dragon."_ Lance thought before picking up a card. "I set this facedown and end my turn."

"Then it's time for you to take another hit!" Leviathan said as he drew his card and the dragon gained another counter. "Go my dragon, wash away his lifepoints!" The dragon reared its head back again and Lance smirked.

"Not this time, I activate Draining Shield!" Lance activated the card and the stream of water was blocked by an invisible forcefield. "This negates your attack and adds your dragons attack points to my lifepoints." Lance said as his lifepoints went back up to 8000.

"You'll be walking the plank soon enough." Leviathan grunted as Lance sent Draining Shield to the graveyard. "I end my turn."

"I'm going to assume you mean that you're going to get your ass kicked by me." Lance said drawing his card. _"Okay, my lifepoints are back up to a comfortable level but I need to get rid of that dragon, never mind the fact that I don't know what those counters will do once that dragon's destroyed."_ Lance thought before looking at his card. "I set this monster in defence mode and end my turn." Lance announced and Leviathan drew his card and a third counter appeared on the dragon.

"Time I increased my army; I summon Spearfish Soldier in attack mode!" Leviathan played the card and a humanoid Spearfish wielding twin lances appeared on the field (4/1700/1100) and as the Orchalcos symbol appeared on its forehead the Soldier's attack rose to 2200. "That's not all; I activate a second Soul Release which I use to remove the other monster I discarded for Fish and Swap's effect." Leviathan retrieved the card and pocketed it and Spearfish Soldier's attack rose to 2300. "That be the effect of Spearfish Soldier boy, for each monster that I have removed from play it gains a hundred attack points."

"_Great, now I have two powerful monsters to deal with, at least my monster will buy me some time." _Lance thought,

"Go my dragon, strike down his monster and clear a path for my Spearfish!" Leviathan commanded and the dragon reared its head back and let loose with a stream of water engulfing the monster. "Now Spearfish attack his...WHAT?" Leviathan shouted when he realized that the monster was not only still on the field but it was Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (4/1400/1200).

"I'd say you're going to have to do better than that but no, you're actually going to have to do WORSE than that to get past my Obnoxious Celtic Guardian because he can't be destroyed by any monsters with more than 1900 attack points and thanks to your seal both of your monsters qualify." Lance smirked and Leviathan growled.

"Fine Landlubber, I end my turn." Leviathan growled and Lance drew his card and smirked.

"That's good, because I'm about to slay that dragon of yours, ironically with a dragon of my own!" Lance grinned as he looked at his new card. "I sacrifice my Celtic Guardian to summon Cthonian Emperor Dragon in attack mode!" The Celtic Guardian disappeared and in its place stood a massive green and black dragon which roared at Leviathan (6/2400/1500).

"That doesn't concern me, even if you destroy my dragon my Spearfish will still stand!" Leviathan grinned.

"That's where you're wrong because my dragon can attack twice!" Lance grinned and his siblings cheered him on from the sidelines.

"That's the way bro! Send that captain to Davy Jones' Locker!" Mike cheered.

"Something's wrong." Axel observed and the others turned their attention to him. "For someone who's staring down a monster that has more attack points than either of his monsters and can attack twice this Leviathan character is surprisingly calm."

"Axel has a point." Hamden agreed stroking his chin. "Then again his whole strategy so far has been a complete mystery, he has good spell and trap cards but it seems to me that he isn't much of a strategic thinker."

"What are you waiting for landlubber? Give me ya best shot!" Leviathan said with a manic grin as Lance observed Leviathan's field.

"_The only trap card that guy's got on the field is Hidden Temple of the Deep which aside from acting as Umi has no benefit for him as it will only remove one monster from the field until my end phase, why is he taunting me?"_ Lance thought before pointing to his dragon. "Cthonian Emperer Dragon attack The Dragon Dwelling in the Deep now!" Lance commanded as his dragon took a deep breath before breathing fire at the weaker dragon which suddenly disappeared as Leviathan removed it from his duel disk.

"That's just what I was hoping you'd do, I once again trigger the effect of Hidden Temple of the Deep!" Leviathan said pocketing the monster.

"_Okay I'm convinced; this guy's an escaped mental patient who Damien's employer outfitted with a water deck, that stupid duel disk and the Seal." _Lance thought before narrowing his eyes. "Fine, I guess I'll just attack Spearfish...WHAT!" Lance yelled once he realized that Spearfish Soldier's attack had jumped to 3000.

"Did you forget about my Dragon's Ocean Counters so soon Landlubber?" Leviathan asked with a massive grin. "First off since I removed my dragon from play my Spearfish gains an extra 100 attack points bringing its total to 2400, now by my count my dragon had 6 Ocean counters before I removed it from play and when it's removed from the field, regardless of circumstance, each of my beasts of the deep gain 100 attack points for each Ocean Counter until the end of the turn bringing my Spearfish's attack all the way up to 3000! Good luck getting past him!"

"As much as I hate to admit it, this guy's smarter than we gave him credit for." Chloe said with a gulp.

"Why thank you little lady! Maybe after I'm done with your boyfriend I'll show you a real man!" Leviathan grinned.

"First of all he's not my boyfriend, second you're like twice my age so no thanks." Chloe said clearly disgusted.

"And third I wouldn't be thanking her just yet because you just made a mistake." Lance added with a grin.

"What are you talking about? My plan is foolproof!" Leviathan snapped.

"You're the fool Leviathan or did you forget about my remaining facedown card?" Lance grinned. "You see I knew that by removing your dragon from the field your soldier would have enough attack points to slay my dragon but with my Quick Play Spell Card Rush Recklessly, that all changes!" Lance grinned as Emperor Dragon's attack jumped to 3100. "Now, as I was saying, Emperor Dragon, roast Spearfish Soldier!" The dragon breathed fire at the soldier incinerating him.

C: 7900

L: 8000

"That wasn't so bad." The captain muttered with a grin...which quickly disappeared once he remembered the Dragon's effect.

"Go my dragon, deep fry the captain!" Lance said and the dragon breathed fire at Leviathan, he dived out of the way but his jacket caught on fire, fortunately he had the presence of mind to quickly take off the jacket revealing a black muscle shirt underneath.

C: 4800

L: 8000

"Wait, did...did his jacket just catch on fire?" Axel said clearly shocked.

"That's an effect of the spell card that's in play, the Seal of the Orichalcos, the monsters are real and so is the damage." Chloe said rubbing her injured arm worriedly.

"Yeah, and that's not even the nastiest effect." Lance chimed in before folding his arms. "It's your turn Captain." Leviathan growled and drew his card, even as Dragon Dwelling in the Deep returned to the field with its attack boost intact.

"You'll pay for that!" Leviathan growled before looking at his new card...and he grinned maniacally. "Especially now that I've drawn the mightiest sea beast in my deck, it's only a matter of time before I feed your soul to the Orichalcos!" Leviathan taunted and Lance raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to summon the thing or are you going to stand there taunting me all day?" Lance asked folding his arms.

"I'll be glad too; I sacrifice The Dragon Dwelling in the Deep to summon The Rage of Deep Sea!" The dragon disappeared and in its place stood a semi transparent muscular bearded man with long hair, he was muscular but seemed to be missing the lower half of his body and he was wielding a trident (5/0/0) and when they saw the stats all the other duellists fell over anime style.

"A...a Five Star Monster...with zero attack points...even with the Orichalcos's magic powering him up that's still weaker than the majority of the monsters in my deck." Lance said flabbergasted as the symbol of the Orichalcos appeared on its forehead boosting its attack to 500...and to Lance's surprise it jumped up to 2000. "Let me guess, it has an effect."

"Right you are matey, Rage of Deep Sea gains 500 attack points for each Sea Serpent, Fish and Aqua type monster in my graveyard and I have two; Spearfish Soldier and The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave." Leviathan explained and Lance raised an eyebrow.

"My dragon's still stronger." Lance pointed out clearly unimpressed.

"Then allow me to change your tune, you see the majority of the cards, five to be precise, in my hand are monsters of the variety I just mentioned, you want to know what the other card is?" Leviathan said turning his card around slowly, Lance's eyes went as wide as dinner plates when he saw it.

"Card...card destruction?" Lance stammered upon seeing the monster. "If you play that card then..."

"My monster will have 5000 attack points." Leviathan grinned as he played the card; both players discarded their cards and drew new ones, when Leviathan saw his new cards his grin grew wilder. "But why stop there? I activate Spell Reproduction to bring back Card Destruction at the cost of two spell cards." Leviathan played the card, discarded two cards and retrieved the card from his deck and quickly played it, once again both players discarded their hands and drew new which was around the time that Lance noticed that Leviathan's deck was running low, Leviathan didn't seem to notice as Rage of Deep Sea's attack jumped to 7000.

"Guys, please tell me that monster's stats are a technical glitch." Brandon gulped as he approached them.

"You have no idea how much I wish it was!" Lance called out with fear in his eyes.

"What brings you here? I thought you were with Theresa and Martin?" Chloe asked before noticing an equally concerned Theresa and Martin.

"We were in the neighbourhood, noticed an orichalcos duel going on." Theresa said folding her arms. "Who's the guy that Lance is facing?"

"Some nutball calling himself Captain Leviathan, that monster of his gains 500 attack points for each Sea Serpent, Aqua and Fish monster in his graveyard." Chloe explained folding her arms. "He already had two in the graveyard, he sent another five monster cards to the graveyard with Card Destruction and when he used it again via Spell Reproduction he spent another four to the graveyard."

"So in other words, unless Lance thinks of something quick he's done for." Brandon said with a frown. "How are you holding up?"

"Still sore from my duel with Damien but the painkillers I got from the hospital helped." Chloe explained.

"Glad to hear it." Brandon nodded. "Well, at least he hasn't got an equip card in his hand."

"Funny you should mention that, I equip Rage of the Deep Sea with my Axe of Despair increasing his attack points to 8000!" Leviathan grinned as the monster's attack rose to 8000.

"Brandon, if I get out of here I'm kicking your ass for that!" Lance shouted at his friend who gulped.

"Lance, don't listen to him, trust in your deck." Hamden shouted and Lance grinned.

"No need, he's made a big mistake that I can exploit on my next move!" Lance said before smirking. "Give me your best shot."

"Gladly, Rage of the Deep Sea attack Cthorian Emperor Dragon!" The monster tossed its trident at the dragon impaling him; it went through the dragon and grazed Lance's shoulder.

C: 4800

L: 400

"Good luck exploiting any weakness I have with a monster that NOTHING in Duel Monsters can match on my side of the field landlubber!" Leviathan taunted. "I end my turn but next turn your soul will be fed to the Orichalcos."

"There won't be a next turn." Lance said drawing his card. "I don't even need a monster to defeat you!" Lance said picking up a card. "First I set a card facedown and I activate Emergency Provisions, sending the card I set to my graveyard and giving me one thousand lifepoints." Lance said sending his Backfire to the graveyard and boosting his lifepoints to 1400.

"No amount of lifepoints can save you!" Leviathan grinned.

"You didn't let me finish, next I activate Delinquent Duo, now by paying a thousand lifepoints I can send two cards from your hand to the graveyard, the first one is at random and the second is up to you." Lance explained.

"I thought that was on the Forbidden list?" Chloe asked.

"Only in the advanced format, this tournament's using the Traditional Format where it's merely limited." Axel explained. "Obviously he's done his research."

"It doesn't matter because guess what? The two cards you just sent to my graveyard with Sea Serpents and you know what that means!" Leviathan laughed maniacally as Rage of the Deep Sea's attack rose to 9000.

"It's...it's..." Chloe stammered unable to finish her sentence.

"IT'S EXACTLY 9000!" Someone in the audience shouted only to get odd looks from everyone else.

"If you're that desperate to lose you may as well have given up!" Leviathan taunted and Lance grinned.

"Tell me, how many cards do you have left in your deck?" Lance asked and Leviathan blinked before checking.

"Three cards left, why do you ask?" Leviathan asked, Lance noticed that he had two cards left in his hand and grinned.

"Perfect, I activate Card of Sanctity!" Lance said and Leviathan's jaw dropped.

"But...but I only have two cards left in my hand!" Leviathan said as realization dawned on him, he reluctantly drew his cards until he decked out giving Lance the win.

"YES! Way to go Lance!" Chloe shouted as the rest of the audience cheered him on.

"No...no...don't let the Seal take me!" Leviathan said growing increasingly more desperate with each word as the holograms disappeared.

"You brought this upon yourself Leviathan, live with it, whilst you can." Lance said sternly...only for his eyes to widen when Leviathan drew a gun on him.

"Well, if the seal's going to take me than I'm taking you with me!" Leviathan said with a crazed look in his eyes, before anyone could make a move though the Seal closed in around Leviathan, he fired several shots in Lance's direction but the bullet's bounced off the seal, he dropped the gun in fear and let out a blood curdling scream as his soul was taken, he fell face first to the ground out like a light.

"Lance, you okay?" Chloe asked as Lance collapsed to his knees.

"Yeah...yeah, I've just never had a gun drawn on me before." Lance said visibly shaken from the experience.

"The academy has trained shrinks on its pay role if you want to talk about this when you get back Lance." Hamden said putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Thanks." Lance said slowly getting up and walking up to Leviathan's prone form, being careful not to look at the gun he picked up the Locater Card he won before searching for Leviathan's rarest card before he found it. _"Huh that's weird, Sacred Pheonix of Nephtys? Why would a water duellist have this? Not that I'm complaining." _Lance thought before adding it to his deck and walking back to the others. "Looks like we're on even ground as far as Locater Cards go Chloe."

"Yeah, just don't go pulling stunts like that again; you nearly gave me a heart attack." Chloe joked before turning to Brandon and Theresa. "How are you guys doing as far as duels are concerned?"

"We're still looking." Brandon said as the crowd started to disperse. "We heard that a bunch of duels where happening here which was what brought us here."

"I think what just happened killed their interests in any other duels for the rest of the day." Lance commented observing the leaving crowd "Quite frankly I can't blame them."

"Yeah, I think I'll go back to my hotel room." Axel agreed before walking off. "You did well though Lance, I look forward to our eventual match."

"Yeah, I agree there." Lance said watching as the teen walked off. "Two duels, two comatose opponents, at least the winner didn't end up in hospital this time."

"Yeah, I vote we try to keep it that way." Brandon said before pausing. "And by that I mean no more hospital trips for us."

"Yeah, I agree there." Theresa nodded before turning to Chloe and Lance. "So, what are you guys going to do now?"

"I think we'll head back to the hotel, I think we both want to rest up as my arm's sore from that monster's attack." Lance said turning to Chloe who nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I'm sore as well." Chloe said nodding in agreement,

"But bro, me and Sophie haven't duelled yet!" Mike pointed out.

"Relax, we'll keep an eye on them, make sure they'll get some duels." Brandon offered and Lance smiled.

"Thanks, though I still owe you an asskicking for mentioning equip spells to Leviathan." Lance joked.

"How about we save that for when we duel?" Brandon said sheepishly and Lance nodded before he, Chloe and Hamden left.

"Oh and Brandon, if they end up in a Orichalcos duel call me as soon as possible." Lance said glancing over his shoulder.

"You have my word." Brandon nodded as the teens and they're teacher left. "You guys aren't going to be too much trouble right?"

"We'll be good." Sophie said sweetly.

"Good, come on let's search for some duels." Brandon said leading the group in the opposite direction unaware of the fact that Michael had been watching the duel from an alleyway.

"Sir, Captain Leviathan has fallen, the fool was too busy powering up his own monster to notice how low his deck was." Michael said plainly.

"No matter, he was our second weakest duellist behind Damien." The leader said plainly. "My other agents are in position."

"And I'll be there to witness their duels." Michael said before walking off. _"Not to mention their failures."_ Michael thought as he walked off.


	14. The Hunter and The Hunted

It had been an hour since the duel between Leviathan and Lance and word had once again spread about the ending of the duel, however since Leviathan had drawn a gun on the winner of the duel it had spread even quicker, if anything the match had confirmed one thing for the remaining competitors who weren't in the area where the duel was taking place, the duel between Chloe and Damien was far from an isolated incident.

Something that Eddie Roberts, the reigning champ, was concerned about, he had just won his first match of the tournament when he received word of the duel thanks to the news, he was sitting on a bench near Central Park resting up from his last duel against an insect duellist who fancied himself as the second coming of Weevil Underwood, yeah he didn't last long.

"_I don't even have a use for his rarest card."_ Eddie thought as he looked in the card, Insect Queen (6/2200/2400). _"Maybe I can trade it for something that will fit in with my deck's theme."_ Eddie thought before pocketing the card.

"Well, well, the reigning champ isn't travelling around the city in his helicopter." Eddie looked up and saw Miranda standing in front of him.

"Well, I'm not going to find duellists above the city!" Eddie chuckled as he looked up at her. "As a matter of fact I just won my first duel."

"That makes two of us!" Miranda said holding up her first locater card. "The guy I duelled got me to agree to a date if he beat me, I think you can guess how that went."

"At least tell me he had some decent cards?" Eddie asked folding his arms; she groaned and held up her new card. "Wait, you're not kidding about Happy Lover (2/700/1400) being his rarest card?"

"My sense of humour isn't that good!" Miranda rolled her eyes. "He was honest after the fight though, said that it was his first duel, no I don't know how he intended to do well in Battle City."

"Yeah, at least the Duel Academy kids have some talent, even the rookie on their team." Eddie said resting his hands on his legs. "From what I've heard two of them already have their first locater cards, unfortunately..."

"Don't tell me, another comatose opponent?" Miranda asked with a groan.

"It gets worse, the opponent Lance beat apparently drew a gun on him, and he went back to his hotel room afterwards." Eddie said running a hand through his hair. "One thing's for sure, this aint no simple tournament, not anymore."

"Yeah, so I noticed." Miranda said tossing the Happy Lover card in the trash. "Hopefully things will quieten down once the Semi Finals start."

"Yeah, the day we get a quiet Semi Finals for Battle City is the day that I give up duelling and take up a career as a male stripper." Eddie rolled his eyes. "Let's face it; Semi Finals that go normally just aren't that exciting."

"I know." Miranda said before walking off. "I'm off to find more victims, unless you intend to duel everyone whilst sitting in that bench I suggest you do the same."

"I will, in my own time." Eddie shrugged as he watched her leave. "I just hope that no more duellists end up in the hospital." Eddie muttered.

*elsewhere*

Whilst Chloe and Lance made their way back to the hotel with Hamden Brandon, Theresa and Lance's siblings where on the search for their first opponents in an area not far from where Lance duelled Leviathan and so far their search was unsuccessful.

"Man, every duellist we've met is either already duelling or resting up from another duel." Mike groaned as he followed the older duellists.

"Be patient Mike, there's still a city full of duellists left." Brandon reassured him. "You're just as impatient as your older brother."

"That's not fair Brandon, he's just eager to duel." Theresa pointed out folding her arms. "Let's face it, we all are." She added and Brandon frowned.

"Truth is? I don't want to risk them getting into an Orichalcos Duel, Lance is already overprotective of Chloe who she sees as an older brother, how'd you think he'd handle his actual siblings getting hurt...or worse." Brandon admitted.

"That's...an excellent point." Theresa admitted with a sigh. "Well if they have a third of their brother's duelling talent..."

"I would've joined Duel Academy long before Lance did." Mike interrupted her and the older duellists stopped in their tracks.

"Don't beat yourself up Mike; lots of duellists get rejected from Duel Academy every year." Brandon said reassuringly.

"That's the thing; I've been trying every year since I started duelling." Mike sighed leaning against the wall. "My brother says it's because of my deck not being powerful enough." Mike added and Brandon raised an eyebrow.

"May I see it?" Brandon asked.

"You mean my deck? Sure, here." Mike said taking it out of his duel disk and handing it over to Brandon who looked through it.

"_Hmmm water deck, quite an interesting contrast with his older brother's deck."_ Brandon thought as he looked through it. "Well here's your problem, you have more monsters than you have spell and trap cards."

"So? Lots of duellists have more monsters than Spells and Traps." Mike said confused.

"Err, yeah Mike...I can only count one spell, A Legendary Ocean, and one trap, Tornado Wall, useful cards to have in a water deck but without more spells and traps your cards are pretty much useless." Brandon said as a massive sweatdrop rolled down his head, he looked around before seeing a card shop across the street. "Here, I'll be back in a minute." Brandon said handing the deck back to Mike, he entered the card shop and went up to the counter. "Hey, do you have any Water Deck boosters?"

"Yeah, we're stocked up on boosters for the tournament, anything in particular?" The clerk, a young woman with shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes, asked.

"Yeah, something Spell and Trap card oriented." Brandon asked as he got his money ready, the girl typed the information into the computer and sighed.

"Sorry, I only have three of them in stock at the moment." She sighed.

"That's fine; I'm helping a friend reconstruct his deck." Brandon said putting the money on the counter.

"Well, aren't you sweet?" The woman said with a smile as she went off to get the packs, as he waited he heard the door open and saw a tall, muscular man with short dark hair, blue eyes and a tan clad in a grey muscle shirt, blue jeans and black boots, though the one detail Brandon DID notice above all else was the duel disk strapped to his arm.

"Hey kid, you see a blonde chick around here?" He asked.

"Only blonde woman I've seen is the clerk and she's serving me at the moment." Brandon said leaning against the counter.

"Yeah, that's the one I'm looking for." The man nodded just as the woman returned with the cards, once the cards where paid for she looked up and frowned.

"What are you doing here Zane?" The clerk frowned folding her arms. "What part of "restraining order" don't you understand?"

"Oh come on Louise, you know we're made for each other!" Zane grinned.

"Yeah, the fact that she has a restraining order against you means that you two are a great couple!" Brandon said sarcastically.

"Stay out of this punk! This doesn't concern you!" Zane snapped at him before noticing the duel disk. "In fact here's a deal, we're both duellists and I think it's a safe bet that you're a battle city competitor as well."

"Yeah, what's your point?" Brandon asked folding his arms.

"We duel outside, I win you mind your own business, you win I leave her alone." Zane said and Brandon smirked.

"You do know that we can simply report you to the cops for violating the restraining order right?" Theresa said entering the store. "Sorry Brandon, I was wondering what was taking you so long."

"No problem." Brandon said with a grin. "And she's right, what's to stop us from doing that?"

"If it where that simple they'd of thrown his brainless ass in jail already!" Louise groaned.

"But the fact of the matter is my folks are close friends with the police commissioner and he makes any charges against me go away just like that." Zane said snapping his fingers at the last word clearly angering Theresa.

"So in other words your folks prevent the cops from doing their jobs." Theresa said folding her arms. "As the daughter of a cop you disgust me."

"I didn't ask for your opinion!" Zane snapped at her before turning to Brandon. "So what about it, do you accept my request or not?"

"Actually, he doesn't." Theresa said stepping in between the two boys. "I accept your request for a duel in his place."

"But Theresa what if he has...you know..." Brandon trailed off.

"Relax; he's obviously not one of them, just look at his duel disk." Theresa said with a smile. "Besides, putting punks like him in his place is a favourite hobby of mine."

"I don't know what you two are talking about but any duel is fine with me!" Zane grinned. "What's your name little lady?"

"Theresa." Theresa said with a smirk. "Let's see if you still feel the same after I beat you, same stipulations as before."

"You have a deal." Zane said leading her outside. "I should warn you though; I'm one of the top ranked duellists in the US."

"Then I should warn you likewise, back at Duel Academy I'm considered one of the best duellists in Obelisk Blue." Theresa said as they stood opposite each other in the street.

"Oh, thought I recognised ya from somewhere, honestly I was hoping I'd duel that Osiris Red chick for an easy win but you'll do nicely." Zane grinned and Theresa frowned.

"Keep talking, you're only making your defeat that much more satisfying." She said before removing her bag from her shoulder and looking through it.

"Err, what are you doing?" Zane asked scratching his head.

"I'm choosing my deck." Theresa said plainly. "Ah, this will do nicely." Theresa said loading her deck into the duel disk putting her bag back on. "Okay, who's going first?"

"I'm kind of curious to see your deck so I'll let you go first." Zane said as he and Theresa drew their hands, at this point Brandon came out of the store to watch the duel.

"Fine then, I will." Theresa said drawing her card. "I start by activating a Spell Card called Card Destruction forcing us to discard our hands and draw new ones." Theresa announced and Zane frowned before doing so. "Next I activate Reinforcement of the Army; this lets me add one warrior from my deck to my hand." Theresa said retrieving her deck and searching through it, she chose the card and added it to her hand before shuffling the deck and returning it to the deck slot. "Next I'll summon the card I retrieved from my Deck: Marauding Captain!" Theresa played the card and the captain appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "When he's normal summoned successfully I can Special Summon one Level 4 or lower monster from my hand so I'll summon Field Commander Rahz in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a man with short dark brown hair in blue and gold armour appeared on the field wielding a large sword (4/1600/1400). "My Field Commander has an effect of his own; when he's normal summoned or special summoned successfully I can take one Level 4 or lower Warrior type monster and place it at the top of my deck as long as it's not another copy of Field Commander." Theresa explained before searching her deck and adding the card she wanted to the top. "I'll set three cards facedown and end my turn."

"_So, she's using her Warrior deck, it's been a while since she's used that."_ Brandon thought as he looked over the field. _"If I know her strategies for using that deck as well as I think I do she has this is the bag."_ Brandon thought with a smirk.

"All right, I draw!" Zane announced as he drew his card. "I summon Panther Warrior in attack mode!" Zane played the card and the humanoid panther appeared on the field (4/2000/1600).

"What...why on Earth would you open with that? Panther Warrior requires a sacrifice in order to attack." Theresa blinked in confusion and Zane grinned.

"I'll worry about that later, for now I activate Scapegoat!" Zane played the card and the four small beasts appeared on the field (1/0/0). "And I sacrifice one of them so that Panther Warrior can attack Marauding Captain!" One of the Scapegoats disappeared and Panther Warrior charged at the captain and slashed him in two with his sword.

"I activate my trap card Desperate Tag!" Theresa announced after sending the card to the graveyard. "For starters this trap reduces any Battle Damage I would've taken to zero and at the end of the battle step I can special summon one Level 4 or lower monster from my hand!" Theresa announced picking up a card. "So I summon Sword Master in attack mode!" Theresa summoned the monster and a tanned muscular man with short dark hair and a tan appeared on the field wielding two swords and carrying a third on his back and wearing only a pair of white pants (3/1200/0). "Not only that but Desperate Tag is a continuous trap card so I can keep using it as long as it's on the field."

"_Not bad, I can see why she's in Obelisk Blue, not that it matters."_ Zane thought before picking up a card. "I set this facedown for later and end my turn!" Zane played the card and Theresa drew the card she retrieved from her deck via the effect of Field-Commander Rahz.

"In that case I summon the monster I retrieved with Field Commander's effect, Gauntlet Warrior, in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a short warrior in blue, green and silver armour appeared on the field wielding a red gauntlet (3/400/1600).

"HAH! Is that wimp supposed to scare me? It's barely strong enough to beat my Scapegoats never mind Panther Warrior!" Zane scoffed.

"Maybe you should learn the value of patience because Gauntlet Warrior has a special ability; by sacrificing him I can give my two existing warriors an attack boost of 500 points!" As Theresa said this Gauntlet Warrior disappeared from the field and Rahz and Sword Master's attack points rose to 2100 and 1700 respectively.

"Oh crap!" Zane gulped.

"That's not even the worse part because my monsters aren't targeting you Panther Warrior; they're targeting your Scapegoats!" Theresa said as the two warriors charged at two of the scapegoats.

"But that makes no sense! You could've destroyed my warrior and done some damage to my lifepoints." Zane pointed out and Theresa grinned.

"Yeah, the key word there is "some" because as long as Sword Master's on the field my monsters can deal damage to your lifepoints even if they're attacking defence monsters." Theresa said and Zane's eyes widened.

"Wait...time out!" Zane said as the warriors closed in on his monsters.

"Sorry, no time out in Duel Monsters!" Theresa said as Sword Master cut one of the scapegoats to ribbons with its swords and Rahz cut the other in half.

Z: 4200

T: 8000

"Are you starting to regret your decision yet?" Theresa taunted before looking at the sole remaining card in her hand. _"Just need a Tuner monster and this guy's lifepoints will be mine for the taking."_ Theresa thought. "I end my turn but look on the Brightside, Gauntlet Warrior's effect has worn off." Theresa said as her two warrior's attack points returned to normal.

"Ugh, I won't be beaten by some snobby little bit..." Zane started but Brandon cleared his throat.

"That's my girlfriend you're talking about so if I were you I wouldn't even consider finishing that sentence." Brandon warned him.

"Fine, I'll just go ahead and draw!" Zane said angrily as he drew his card. "Just the card I needed, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy Desperate Tag, not that it matters since you only have one card left in your hand!" Zane said as a typhoon ripped through the hologram of Desperate Tag. "And just so you don't get any ideas next turn I'll tribute another Scapegoat token and have Panther Warrior attack Sword Master." The second to last Scapegoat disappeared from the field and Panther Warrior charged at Sword Master slashing him with his sword.

"There's more than one way protect my lifepoints Zane, I activate the Trap Card Spirit Force!" Theresa activated her card and grinned. "This trap can only be activated after Battle Calculation and it reduces any battle damage I would've taken to zero." Theresa said before retrieving the cards in her graveyard. "Not only that but I can special summon one tuner monster with 1500 attack points or less from my graveyard!"

"But you don't...unless..." Zane realized.

"That's right, I discarded one earlier when I used Card Destruction." Theresa said selecting the card. "I think Attack Gainer will do nicely!" Theresa played the card and a young boy with long red hair in futuristic looking green and white armour appeared on the field (1/0/0). _"Good, I have the cards I need to finish this guy off."_ Theresa thought.

"_I'd better be prepared for whatever she Synchro summons, and my Sakeretsu Armour trap card will help me do just that!" _Zane said picking up the card. "I'll set this facedown and end my turn."

"_How did this guy get in the top ranked duellists in the US again? If I didn't know better I'd say he was a Osiris Red student."_ Theresa thought before drawing her card. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Theresa announced and both duellists drew until they had 6 cards in their hands, she looked at her new cards and grinned broadly. "Next I summon another Marrauding Captain to the field and activate my last remaining trap card Copy Knight, now that I've summoned a Warrior type monster that has a level equal to or less than 4 I can bring out an exact duplicate of that monster in terms of level and name." Theresa said as her captain appeared on the field alongside a exactly duplicate of it save for the fact that it had 0 attack points. "Next I tune my tuner with the two Marauding Captains to summon Driven Daredevil in attack mode!" The three monsters disappeared and in their place stood a monster of a man with long wild hair and brown eyes wearing a green muscle top with white pants and wielding twin swords (7/2400/2100).

"You went through all that trouble to summon something that's only slightly stronger than my Panther Warrior?" Zane grinned.

"You'd better take another look at Panther Warrior's attack." Theresa said and Zane blinked before looking...and too his shock Panther Warrior's attack had been cut in half. "That's the effect of Attack Gainer, when he's used to Synchro Summon a monster I can cut one monster's attack by one thousand, but I'm not done yet because I activate Heavy Storm and use it to get rid of your facedown cards." A storm washed up the two traps on Zane's side of the field and Zane growled.

"Damn it, my Skill Drain." Zane frowned as he looked at the facedown card he set earlier, Theresa raised an eyebrow.

"And you didn't activate it sooner because?" Theresa asked and Zane clenched his fists in anger.

"I have my reasons lady, just attack with your damn monster already!" Zane snapped at her.

"_No wonder Louise has a restraining order against him."_ Brandon thought shaking his head in disgust.

"Well, if you're in that much of a hurry to lose, Daredevil attack Panther Warrior, Field Commander attack his last Scapegoat token!" Theresa commanded and Daredevil charged at Panther Warrior cutting it in half whilst Field Commander finished off the scapegoat.

Z: 2800

T: 8000

"Wait...wait I surrender!" Zane said putting his hand over his deck; Theresa raised an eyebrow at him but shrugged before deactivating her duel disk. "I want to come clean with ya anyway, I was paid by someone to duel you or your boyfriend."

"Paid? Do you honestly expect me to believe that?" Theresa asked folding her arms.

"Look, I have my payment right here, this Ultra Rare card." Zane said holding up Caius the Shadow Monarch (6/2400/1000). "Ask Louise, she helped me construct my deck whilst we were still dating, she can confirm that I never had that card in my deck before." Brandon turned to Louise who nodded.

"It's true, and he couldn't of brought it either, part of the reason we broke up was because he's a gambling addict." Louise nodded.

"Okay, but that doesn't explain your lacklustre performance." Theresa said folding her arms.

"Part of the deal was that I'd let you have your way with my lifepoints for a few rounds and never use any traps, I was ready to go back on that promise when you destroyed those traps." Zane grunted. "Just so the guy could get a good look at your duelling strategies." Zane added.

"Are you even in the Battle City Tournament or did you lie about that too?" Brandon asked and Zane shook his head.

"By the time I arrived here in New York it was too late for me to participate in the tournament." Zane sighed. "Hell I arrived in the middle of the announcement."

"What did you do? Walk from your hometown?" Brandon asked flabbergasted.

"That matters not foolish boy." A deep sounding voice emerged from a nearby alleyway and out of the alleyway stepped a tall, African American man with a shaved head and brown piercing eyes wearing a black t-shirt, black pants and boots, Theresa's eyes narrowed when she saw his duel disk however, it was the same type used by Damien and Leviathan.

"You wouldn't happen to know duellists by the names of Damien and Captain Leviathan, would you?" Theresa asked and the man scoffed.

"What, those weaklings? I may have known them but that doesn't mean I tolerated them, you may only know me as The Hunter and you." The Hunter said pointing at Theresa. "Are my prey, even if this fool went back on our agreement."

"No way, she was just in a duel!" Brandon said standing between them. "Let me duel you in her place."

"How noble of you but I will only duel her." The Hunter said activating his duel disk, Brandon's eyes narrowed but Theresa activated her own duel disk.

"Relax Brandon; I barely broke a sweat against Zane." She said before swapping out her warrior deck for another one. "Besides I have to catch up with Lance and Chloe somehow."

"The only catching up you'll be doing is with my comrades in the Orichalcos." The Hunter smirked as he and Theresa drew their hands.

"Mike, Sophie, get over here." Brandon called out to the younger duellists who did so rather quickly, he turned to Louise and Zane. "I suggest that you back off as well."

"Why?" Zane demanded.

"You'll see." Brandon said sternly and Zane reluctantly backed off as did Louise. _"If this guy uses the Orichalcos than Theresa will have a hell of a fight ahead of her."_

"Now, let the hunt begin!" The Hunter said drawing his first card. "Ah excellent, you may be familiar with this card after all...two of my comrades have used it." The Hunter smirked before playing the card. "I shall activate The Seal of the Orichalcos!" The Hunter played the card and soon the pentagram appeared on the field surrounding the two duellists, soon the Orichalcos symbol appeared on The Hunter's head and he grinned. "Now then, I shall set three cards facedown and a monster in defence mode, make your move if you dare." As the four cards appeared on the field Theresa drew her card and The Hunter activated one of them. "I activate the trap card Ordeal of a Traveller, as for what it does, try finding out for yourself."

"Fine, I will." Theresa said picking up a card. "I summon Masked Dragon in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the small masked dragon appeared on the field (4/1400/1100). "All right Masked Dragon, attack his defence!"

"And the prey has fallen for the hunter's trap, when you attack with a monster Ordeal of a Traveller's effect kicks in." The Hunter said holding up his hand. "As you can see I currently have two cards in my hand, I pick one at random and you must guess if it's a monster, spell or trap card, guess correctly and the attack goes through, guess incorrectly and Masked Dragon returns to your hand." The Hunter picked the card on the right and held it up. "Now, choose!" Theresa bit her lip knowing that she had no trap cards in her hand and, as a result, if she guessed wrong than she would be defenceless.

"Much as I hate leaving things to chance I don't have a choice." Theresa said plainly. "I'll say that a Spell Card." The Hunter frowned before turning it around showing it to be Polmerization, Masked Dragon breathed fire at the monster consuming it...but when the smoke cleared a figure resembling the grim reaper appeared.

"The monster you attacked was Spirit Reaper (1/300/200) and this monster, on top of receiving a bonus from the Orichalcos cannot be destroyed in battle." The Hunter explained as Spirit Reaper's attack increased to 800..

"I knew that, and I also know that Spirit Reaper can't be equipped with equip spells because it would be destroyed by its side effect." Theresa pointed out and The Hunter folded his arms with a scowl on his face.

"Are you done?" The Hunter asked impatiently, Theresa looked at the remaining cards in her hand before nodding. "Very well, it's my move." The Hunter said drawing his card and The Hunter activated his second trap. "I activate Non Aggression Area!" The Hunter announced and Theresa frowned. "Now that I've activated this trap card you are unable to summon a monster on your next turn and all I have to do to make this effect possible is discard one card from my hand." The Hunter did so before looking at his new card. "Perfect, I activate Polmerization from my hand to fuse the Spirit Reaper with Nightmare Horse (2/500/400) to form the unstoppable beast known as Reaper on the Nightmare!" The Hunter played the card and the two monsters fused together to form a monster that was basically Spirit Reaper riding atop a bandaged up horse made of blue flame (5/800/400) and it's attack rose to 1300 as the Orichalcos Symbol appeared on Nightmare Horses' head.

"Even with its power boost it's still too weak to beat Masked Dragon." Theresa pointed out and The Hunter smirked.

"Reaper on the Nightmare I command you to attack her lifepoints directly with Galloping Slash!" The Hunter commanded and Reaper on the Nightmare galloped forward past Masked Dragon and slashed Theresa.

T: 6700

TH: 8000

"What...what the hell was that? There's no way in hell that should've worked." Zane stammered as Reaper on the Nightmare returned to The Hunter's side of the field.

"Did you really think I'd waste Polmerization on such a weak monster if it didn't have a special ability?" The Hunter asked with a grin. "Reaper on the Nightmare has many abilities, for one he can bypass your monsters and attack your lifepoints directly, second when he does battle damage you are forced to discard one card from your hand." Theresa, after checking for blood and, to her relief, only seeing a small amount of blood being drawn, discarded her Card of Sanctity. "It also carries with it the weaknesses of Spirit Reaper but also its ability to withstand any attacks, in other words I have a monster that acts as the perfect defensive and offensive weapon." The Hunter smirked. "And with Ordeal of a Traveller on the field you can't risk attacking in case you get guess my card wrong."

"No strategy is perfect, you said it yourself that Reaper on the Nightmare shares Spirit Reaper's weakness and you emptied your hand on your last move." Theresa pointed out. "As soon as I draw a spell, trap of effect monster your perfect strategy is ruined." Theresa said drawing her card. _"Good, just what I needed."_ Theresa thought. "I set this card facedown and I'll have Masked Dragon attack Reaper on the Nightmare." Theresa said and Masked Dragon breathed fire at the zombie.

"The hunter always comes prepared for the hunt; I activate the trap card Spirit Shield!" The Hunter retrieved Spirit Reaper from the graveyard and pocketed it. "In order to activate this powerful trap card I must remove one Zombie or Fiend type monster from my graveyard as I just did, in doing so I have ensured that my lifepoints remain safe as this card immediately ends your battle phase."

"Much as I hate to admit it, this guy's a damn good duellist." Brandon said leaning against the wall. "Theresa's facedown card will have to be a good one in order for her to survive."

"Fine, I'll end my turn." Theresa admitted and The Hunter drew his card.

"Excellent, I activate the magic of Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." The Hunter said and both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hands. "I now activate two spell cards from my hand, Call of the Mummy and Pyramid of Wonders!" The Hunter played the card and grinned. "Call of the Mummy's effect won't come into play until later but Pyramid of Wonders will come into play right now, for each monster you control my monsters gain 200 attack points." The Hunter explained as Reaper on the Nightmare's attack rose to 1500. "Now then, Reaper on the Nightmare I command you to attack her lifepoints once again!"

"I don't think so; I activate my trap card Sakeretsu Armour which destroys Reaper!" Theresa said as a large explosion engulfed The Hunter's side of the field, once the smoke cleared however she saw Reaper on the Nightmare still on the field abet with its attack back at 1300.

"Surprised? You can't get rid of the Reaper that easily little girl, if a Zombie type monster is about to be destroyed and Pyramid of Wonders is on the field I can send Pyramid of Wonders to the graveyard in its place." The Hunter said with a smirk. "Now, where was..." The Hunter started but stopped when Reaper on the Nightmare's hologram shattered. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Aren't you forgetting something? Sakeretsu Armour targeted Reaper on the Nightmare and whilst you destroyed Pyramid of Wonders to save it from Sakeretsu's effect you didn't save it from its own weakness." Theresa said with a grin.

"Very well, I'll enter my second main phase and set one card facedown before calling on the powers of Call of the Mummy, you see once per turn if I don't have any monsters on my side of the field I can Special Summon one Zombie type monster to the field and my monster of choice is Vampire Lord!" The Hunter played the card and a tall silver haired man in a purple cape and a blood red suit appeared on the field baring his fangs at Theresa (5/2000/1500), the Orichalcos symbol appeared on the Vampire's forehead raising its attack to 2500. "Even if you destroy one mighty zombie another takes its place, I shall end my turn."

"_And Chloe thought her opponent talked too much."_ Theresa thought before drawing her card. "I activate a spell card called Offerings to the Doomed, at the cost of my next draw phase I can destroy Vampire Lord!" Theresa said as a hand rose up from the ground to grab Vampire Lord.

"Or so you think, I activate my trap card Tutan Mask; this negates the activation of Offerings to the Doomed and destroys it!" The Hunter said as the hand shattered.

"_At least I still get to draw next turn."_ Theresa thought before picking up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and switch Masked Dragon to defence mode, your move." Theresa said as the dragon knelt down and the holograms of the three facedown cards appeared.

"Yes, kneel down before a truly superior duellist!" The Hunter taunted before drawing his card. "Vampire Lord attack Masked Dragon now!" The Hunter commanded and Vampire Lord flew towards Masked Dragon.

"The only one who's going to be doing any kneeling is Vampire Lord! I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Book of Eclipse, this flips all face up monsters facedown until your end phase at which point I flip up my monster and you draw a card for each monster I flip up." Theresa explained as she activated her spell card and just like that Vampire Lord and Masked Dragon disappeared from the field the holograms of a facedown monster appearing in their places.

"Very clever, I shall end my turn." The Hunter said as Masked Dragon reappeared on the field and he drew his new card as did Theresa.

"Why did she do that? Her monster was in defence mode?" Louise pointed out.

"Unless she has something planned." Brandon said folding his arms.

"I activate the Spell Card Nobleman of Crossout." Theresa said as a warrior in grey armour with long blonde hair appeared on the field, he charged at the facedown card and drove his sword into him shattering it. "This spell card destroys and removes from play one facedown monster on your side of the field." The Hunter growled before pocketing Vampire Lord. "I knew Vampire Lord's effect would allow it to return to the field on your next turn if I destroyed it which was why I made this move."

"Very clever but I still have Spirit Shield and Ordeal of a Traveller on the field!" The Hunter pointed out and Theresa grinned.

"That's where you're wrong, I activate Heavy Storm to clear the field of spell and trap cards!" Theresa said as a storm cleared the field of Ordeal of a Traveller, Call of the Mummy, Spirit Shield, and Theresa's remaining facedown cards.

"Huh? Why wasn't the Seal destroyed?" Zane wondered as Theresa and The Hunter sent their respective cards to the graveyard.

"The Seal can't be destroyed or negated." Brandon told him plainly. "And it looks like Theresa has yet another trick up her sleeve." Brandon added as two Wicked Tokens (4/1000/1000) appeared on the field.

"Let me guess, your facedown cards where two copies of Statue of the Wicked?" The Hunter asked and Theresa nodded.

"Yeah but my Wicked Tokens aren't sticking around, I sacrifice them both to summon Dark Horus in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the two tokens disappeared and in their place stood the massive jet black dragon (8/3000/2000). "Dark Horus, attack his lifepoints directly." Theresa commanded and the dragon breathed fire at The Hunter.

T: 6700

TH: 5000

Even as the smoke cleared The Hunter was laughing maniacally even as the flames burnt him. "You fool, by attacking my lifepoints with such a powerful monster you have fallen for my trap."

"Well, now I've seen everything." Brandon muttered. "I never thought I'd see anyone so happy to take 3000 points of damage."

"You'll see soon enough boy, when I suffer damage I can special summon my mightiest creature from my hand!" The Hunter said picking up and playing the card. "Come forth Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness!" Suddenly a massive creature appeared on the field, it was humanoid in form and was covered in grotesque looking armour (7/2700/2500) and its attack rose to 3200, Theresa gulped but too her surprise a transparent version of Horus appeared on the field with Horus's stats to boot, alongside the power boost from the Orichalcos. "What the hell is that?"

"That my child is an Emissary of Darkness Token (7/?/?). And its master can summon him with the exact same stats as the monster that dealt damage to my lifepoints, are you done?" Theresa looked at her hand before nodding reluctantly and The Hunter drew his card. "Emissary of Darkness Token I command you to attack your counterpart and destroy Horus!" The copy of Horus breathed fire at the real thing incinerating him. "Gorz, destroy her pathetic Masked Dragon!" Gorz stuck his gigantic palm in the face of Masked Dragon and fired a beam of black energy in the Dragon's face destroying it.

T: 4400

TH: 5000

"My Masked Dragon maybe gone but his effect kicks in allowing me to summon Armed Dragon Level 3 in attack mode!" Theresa searched her deck for the card and played it after finding it at the bottom of her deck and the small dragon appeared on the field (3/1200/900).

"What, another pathetic monster? Your soul will be easy prey." The Hunter said before motioning for her to take her turn, she drew her card and sent Armed Dragon to the Graveyard and replaced it with its Level 5 form (5/2400/1700) and the larger dragon appeared on the field. "Level him up all you want my Emissary is still far too powerful."

"Actually now that you mention it levelling him up again sounds like a great idea so I activate the Spell Card Level Up!" Theresa played the card and swapped out Level 5 for its Level 7 form (7/2800/1700) and the massive dragon appeared on the field, The Hunter stood there with a massive grin on his face.

"Bring out as many forms as you want, it won't help you." The Hunter taunted and Theresa just grinned.

"Well, there is one more form I need to bring out...and that form just happens to be in my hand!" Theresa said sending Armed Dragon Level 7 to the graveyard and in its place stood the massive final form of Armed Dragon easily towering over the small card shop (10/3000/2000). "Say hello to Armed Dragon Level 10!"

"Why am I suddenly glad so didn't use this deck against me?" Zane gulped as she saw the dragon which let out a mighty roar.

"Your dragon's mighty but it's still no match for my Emissary!" The Hunter pointed out and Theresa smirked.

"This is exactly where Armed Dragon's effect kicks in." Theresa said discarding a card from her hand. "By discarding this card from my hand I can destroy all monsters on your side of the field."

"Oh..." The Hunter said showing fear for the first time in the duel as the dragon breathed fire at Emissary incinerating the monster.

"That's not all." Theresa said pointing to The Hunter. "My dragon can still attack, so go Armed Dragon Level 10!" Theresa said and the Dragon breathed fire at The Hunter, he grunted in pain as the fire consumed him.

T: 4400

TH: 2000

As the smoke cleared The Hunter started laughing maniacally as he held up a card. "Foolish girl, did you honestly think that was my only copy of Emissary of Darkness?" The Hunter played the card and Emissary reappeared on the field power boost in tact as did the token, Theresa sighed knowing that she used the last card in her hand to bring out Armed Dragon Level 10 and ended her turn, The Hunter drew his card and pointed at Armed Dragon. "Emissary of Darkness, Emissary of Darkness Token, I command you both to attack her!" The dragons copy incinerated Armed Dragon Level 10 with a breath of fire and Emissary of Darkness fired its beam of dark energy at her consuming her.

T: 700

TH: 2000

"NO! THERESA!" Brandon shouted as the smoke cleared, his girlfriend was breathing heavily and her clothing was damaged in several areas.

"One more turn and your soul will be consumed foolish girl!" The Hunter taunted before ending his turn, Theresa closed her eyes as he drew her card.

"_Come on Heart of the Cards, guide me!"_ Theresa thought before looking at the card. "I set this facedown and end my turn!" Theresa announced as the hologram of the facedown card appeared on the field, The Hunter laughed maniacally as he drew his card.

"Emissary of Darkness, I command you to finish this foolish girl off!" The Hunter commanded and the monster fired its beam at Theresa.

"The only one who will be finished off is you!" Theresa said activating her trap. "I activate Magic Cylinder!" Theresa announced and The Hunter's eyes widened.

"No! But that means..." The Hunter realized as the beam went in one cylinder and out the other, he looked at the card he drew and his eyes widened. _"Mystical Space Typhoon, if I had played this then the duel would be mine!" _The Hunter realized just before the beam made contact with him.

T: 700

TH: 0000

"Okay heart, you can resume beating." Brandon muttered with a sigh of relief. "That was a great duel Theresa!" He called out to his girlfriend who smiled at him, before anyone could say anything else the Orichalcos closed in around The Hunter, he was silent for a few moments before letting out a blood curdling scream as his soul was consumed by the Orichalcos, he fell over backwards once the Seal disappeared.

"What...what did you do to him?" Zane asked his eyes wide with fear.

"I did nothing, The Seal of the Orichalcos consumes the soul of the loser of the duel, in this case him." Theresa said before walking over to the Hunter's prone form. "And now I can claim my prize, his locater card and his rarest card." Theresa said bending over in front of him; she looked for his rarest card and found Vampire Genesis (8/3000/2100). "Perfect, this will complete the zombie deck I'm working on."

"Won't you need Vampire Lord for that?" Brandon asked and she shook her head.

"Already have a copy in my deck." Theresa said reaching into her pocket and retrieving her deck, she added Vampire Genesis too it and added the deck to her bag. "That reminds me." Theresa said motioning with her head to Mike.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot with all that's happened." Brandon said sheepishly before handing over the boosters to Mike. "Here, these packs contain water based Spells and traps, these should help you in the tournament and who knows? Maybe next year they'll help you join Duel Academy alongside your brother."

"Thanks man." Mike said smiling broadly, he ripped open the packs and added the cards to his deck; Zane looked between the teens and The Hunter's unconscious form with a look of fear in his eyes.

"Screw this, I'm moving out of the country!" Zane said running off.

"Should we tell him that we don't live in New York?" Theresa blinked as she watched him flee.

"Where's the fun in that?" Brandon laughed before frowning. "Well, so far three of us have won our first duel, maybe we should call the others, tell them what happened." Brandon said, Theresa took one look at the state of her clothes and frowned.

"Actually I'll head back to the hotel, in case you haven't noticed my clothes are ripped." Theresa said with a frown.

"You don't hear me complaining." Brandon grinned and Theresa rolled her eyes.

"You're lucky you're my boyfriend otherwise you'd be on the ground clutching your balls in pain." Theresa grinned before getting her cellphone out. "I'll tell Lance and Chloe what happened when I get there."

"So why are you getting your phone out?" Brandon asked.

"I'm calling a cab, unless you want your girlfriend to walk across New York in ripped clothes." Theresa said as she called a cab company. "You guys can go ahead if you want; I'll catch up with you."

"Well I do have to do some duelling of my own." Brandon said before walking off in the opposite direction. "And if Lance asks his siblings are safe for now."

"Right, I got it." Theresa nodded before calling the cab company. "Come to think of it have you guys seen Martin?"

"I'm here." Martin said running over. "I stop to look in a shop window for five minutes and you wonder off, what did I miss?"

"An Orichalcos duel. I won." Theresa said pointing to The Hunter's prone form with her free hand. "Before you ask I'm fine if a little sore from his attacks."

"Well, you won that's the main thing." Martin said folding his arms. "Are you heading back to the hotel for a change of clothes?"

"No, I'll be walking around New York in ripped up clothes, off course I will." Theresa said with a smile. "In fact I'm waiting for a response from the cab company." She added with a hint of annoyance in her voice as she waited for someone to answer, unbeknownst to them Michael had been watching the duels from a nearby rooftop.

"_And another duellist falls; if I was in the tournament we'd have their souls by now."_ Michael thought before putting a hand to his earpiece. "Sir, The Hunter has fallen."

"Curses, he was one of my stronger duellists." The leader growled. "No matter, another agent is nearby and he should be able to take care of the girl's boyfriend."

"We wouldn't be losing agents so quickly if I was in the tournament!" Michael said with a growl.

"Are you questioning my orders?" The leader said sternly.

"No, I'm just pointing out the obvious flaw in them." Michael said folding his arms. "What about the remaining Ra Yellow students?"

"I have the tag team specialists in my organisation ready to duel them in a tag team duel, they won't stand a chance." The Leader said before hanging up.

"_Maybe they will actually succeed." _ Michael thought before walking off.

*elsewhere in the city*

"Yes I get it Marcus, you like to eat." Andreas said more annoyed than flabbergasted this time as Marcus returned with six hot dogs, three in each hand, the two boys and the Ra Yellow headmaster where sitting on a bench in the city centre. "It's a miracle that you haven't had a heart attack by now."

"Hey I exercise...sometimes." Marcus defended himself. "Mostly during Jeff's gym class or when I'm duelling."

"You can't blame him for having a healthy appetite Andreas." Jeff chuckled as Andreas took his hot dogs from Marcus. "Besides my younger brother makes him look like someone who frequently goes on hunger strikes in terms of how much he eats."

"Remind me never to meet your brother." Andreas said as he started eating the hotdog, he got a text and he read it on his cell-phone. "It's Brandon, Lance and Theresa where involved in Orichalcos duels."

"They okay?" Marcus asked concerned.

"A little sore, and in the case of Lance still pissing himself from having to face a monster with 9000 attack points...not sure if he's joking...and Lance and Chloe are back at the hotel." Andreas said pocketing the cell phone.

"He won despite facing a monster with 9000 attack points? How did he manage that?" Marcus asked and Andreas shrugged.

"He didn't specify." Andreas shrugged. "Err, Marcus is it my imagination running wild, again, or are two attractive young women approaching me?" Andreas asked once he noticed two young women, both of whom looked to be in their late teens, one was a redhead with shoulder length hair, blue eyes and wearing a short blue dress and black boots, the other had waist length raven black hair, brown eyes and was wearing a stomach exposing black top, blue jeans and black boots.

"No your imagination isn't running wild, besides their approaching me!" Marcus responded with a grin.

"Err; yes I'm sure they're interested in the fat pervert who can't take his eyes off of their breasts." Andreas said sarcastically. "Besides you're wrong, they're interested in me!"

"Me!" Marcus asserted.

"Me!" Andreas asserted.

"_Sometimes I wonder why I gave up duelling for teaching."_ Jeff thought pinching the bridge of his nose as the two boys went nose to nose with their argument; Jeff went to take a sip of his drink when the redhead spoke up.

"Actually gentlemen and I use that term as loosely as possible, we're interested in sharing the both of you." The redhead said with a distinctly French accent causing Jeff to do a spit take and the two boys to do double takes.

"Marcus, did I just hear those words comes out of her mouth?" Andreas said his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Yep, you did, high five!" Marcus said as the two boys went to slap their palms together.

"She meant in a duel dumbass." The raven haired girl interrupted them in an American accent causing the two of them to fall over anime style, when they got up Andreas's eyes narrowed.

"Marcus, you see what I see?" Andreas asked.

"You mean their amazing racks?" Marcus asked and Andreas facedpalmed.

"Their duel disks, anything familiar about them?" Andreas said annoyed, he saw them and Marcus's eyes narrowed when he saw the scythe like duel disks.

"Where did you get those? No use lying because we've seen those disks in action before." Marcus asked and the girls grunted.

"Our employer, that's all you need to know about them, well other than the fact that they will be your doom." The French girl said as the two girls activated their duel disks. "Here's how it's going to work, we're going to duel tag team style."

"Tag team?" Marcus blinked.

"What she means is the four of you will be split into teams of two with 4000 lifepoints each, you are allowed to use your monsters, spells or traps to defend your team mate." Jeff explained.

"What he said." The American girl said. "You can call me Karen."

"And you can call me Amanda." The French girl said before smirking. "We already know who you are Andreas and Marcus."

"Gee, I'm flattered." Marcus said as the two boys activated their duel disks. "But what will happen once the Seal's played?"

"Hmm, you know about that? You're smarter than you look." Karen scoffed as the two teams drew their hands. "You'll have to wait and see I'm afraid."


	15. Tag Team Madness

Many interested onlookers had gathered when they realized that a tag team duel was about to start, Marcus and Andreas exchanged uneasy looks unsure of how it would play out but they had no intention of losing either.

"All right, before we get started we need to know something." Marcus said folding his arms. "How is the order going to play out?"

"Well since you asked nicely." Amanda said folding her arms. "I will start followed by you, then Karen and finally Andreas, no one can attack until we've each had a turn."

"That sounds fair." Andreas said pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "One other thing, do you both have the seal in your decks?"

"No, only one copy of the Seal can be played at a time, however since we're a team we both benefit from it." Karen said before smirking evilly. "As for who has it, wait and see."

"Wonderful." Andreas muttered sarcastically before looking at his hand, Amanda drew her card and smirked.

"If it's any consolation boys, you won't have to wait that long." Amanda said playing the card she drew. "I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!"

"Oh boy, this will be fun!" Marcus said sarcastically as the two boys braced themselves, the seal encased the four duellists sending onlookers unlucky enough to get too close flying back, soon the seal's symbol appeared on the two girls heads and they looked directly at them.

"You're right, it'll be fun." Amanda said as her evil grin grew. "Fun for us that is!"

"You know, now that I think about it, your racks really aren't that great." Marcus said causing the other duellists to fall over anime style.

"Is this really the time to insult them Marcus?" Andreas asked once he recovered.

"Well there are more colourful insults I could use." Marcus said and Andreas groaned.

"Forget I asked." Andreas said as the two women got up.

"You'll pay for that you sexist pig!" Amanda snapped at him before looking at the rest of her hand. "As for the rest of my move I set two cards facedown and summon Shining Abyss in attack mode." Amanda said playing the card and a strange circular being appeared on the field, it was blue in colour and had golden wings (4/1600/1800) and the seal appeared on its head increasing its attack to 2100.

"A fairy, Theresa's going to be thrilled when she learns that an Orichalcos duellist used fairies against us." Marcus said and Andreas nodded in agreement.

"It's your move," Amanda announced as Marcus drew his card.

"_Great, I don't have anything that can destroy that Shining Abyss card."_ Marcus thought before picking up four cards. "I set three cards facedown and a monster in defence, your move!" Marcus said as the four cards appeared on the field, Karen drew her card and smirked.

"Your defence won't help you Marcus, I activate the spell card Stop Defence forcing your monster into attack mode." Marcus's eyes widened as Golem Dragon (3/200/2000) appeared on the field.

"Ah damn it." Marcus grunted.

"Don't worry, I have you covered!" Andreas reassured him looking at his hand.

"Well, if you say so." Marcus shrugged.

"They're learning to learn together pretty quickly." Amanda said into a headset concealed by her hair.

"Doesn't matter, we've been teaming together longer and we'll dismantle their defences." Karen answered back.

"You know we can here you right?" Jeff pointed out and the two girls panicked. "And one of the main rules of tag team duels is no sharing strategies."

"What are you going to do? Disqualify us?" Karen taunted before picking up 4 cards. "I set four cards facedown and end my turn." Karen said and Andreas drew his card.

"He won't need to because we'll defeat you." Andreas said looking at his card. "I set four cards facedown and summon Vorse Raider in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the hideous halberd wielding beast warrior appeared on the field (4/1900/1200).

"Are you nuts! That thing's weaker than Shining Abyss!" Marcus quickly pointed and out and Andreas turned to him before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Trust me; I know what I'm doing." Andreas grinned before turning his attention back to Amanda. "Feel free to make your move!" Amanda said nothing and drew her card.

"Shining Abyss, attack Golem Dragon!" Amanda commanded and Marcus grinned.

"Nice try but I activate my trap card Negate Attack!" Marcus grinned but Karen grinned as well.

"Then I'll chain that with Seven Tools of the Bandit, by paying a thousand lifepoints I can negate your trap!" Karen grinned as her lifepoints dropped to 3000. "Small price to pay compared to what your going to lose."

"This is where MY traps come in!" Andreas interrupted activated his trap. "I activate Shift, changing Amanda's target to my Vorse Raider!" Andreas said and Karen's jaw dropped. "What's the matter? Was that your only Seven tools of the Bandit?" Andreas asked as Shining Abyss changed its target to Vorse Raider and put its hands together.

"It doesn't matter, they'll lose lifepoints anyway." Karen grunted once her surprise wore off and Andreas grinned.

"Not with my other trap card, Horn of the Phantom Beast!" Andreas played the card and Vorse Raider grabbed the horn and blew into it increasing its attack to 2600, Vorse Raider evaded the blast and sliced Shining Abyss in two.

A&K: 3600 and 3000

A&M: 4000 each

"Nice save man!" Marcus said with a grin before giving Andreas the thumbs up in gratitude, this was a gesture that Andreas was all too happy to return.

"Just remember to return the favour if need be!" Andreas said before turning to the girls who where fuming at this point. "I believe you said something about crumbling our defences?"

"How could they be working so well together? They've never even been in a tag duel before?" Amanda said into her headset.

"You want to know why? We've watched each other's duels so many times since enrolling at Duel Academy that we practically know each other's decks backwards!" Marcus interrupted.

"Relax Amanda; I have some traps that will change their tune." Karen said folding her arms. "You haven't summoned yet so I suggest you do so quickly!"

"I'm on it." Amanda nodded picking up a card. "I set this is defence mode and end my turn." Amanda said and Marcus drew his card and grinned.

"That defence of yours is about to be rendered useless! First I activate Dragon's Rage; this trap will allow me to inflict damage with my dragons even if they attack a defence monster." Marcus grinned as the trap flipped up.

"So? Golem Dragon's too weak to do anything!" Karen pointed out.

"I know which is why I sacrifice Golem Dragon to summon a new addition to my deck, KAISER GLIDER!" Golem Dragon disappeared and in its place stood a mighty dragon with gold scales (6/2400/2200).

"Good card Marcus, but allow me to make it even stronger!" Andreas said activating one of his facedown cards. "With the magic of Rush Recklessly I can increase the attack of Marcus' dragon to 3100."

"_They are learning quickly."_ Jeff thought as he watched the duel. _"But I don't trust that girl's remaining facedown cards."_

"Hey handsome, mind if I sit with you?" Jeff looked up and saw Miranda.

"Sure." Jeff shrugged and Miranda sat next to him.

"Tag team duel huh? It's been ages since I've seen one." Miranda commented crossing one leg over the other. "Who's duelling?"

"The boys are two Duel Acedemy students, Marcus Reynolds and Andreas Freshier, the girls are Amanda and Karen, and they belong to the same organisation as the comatose duellists." Jeff explained.

"Great that means that no matter who wins someone's leaving on a stretcher." Miranda grunted. "So how do you know them?"

"I'm one of their teachers, duel academy wasn't comfortable with having teens roam New York unsupervised." Jeff explained with a smile. "All though I didn't expect to spend an hour in the hospital because of one of the duellists' first duel."

"I didn't expect the first duel to end with both duellists in the hospital." Miranda shrugged. "I can't place my finger on it but I think I've seen the Raven Haired girl before."

"Karen? I've never seen her before." Jeff responded.

"And now we reach the fun part! Kaiser Glider, attack her defence!" Kaiser Glider took flight and divebombed towards Amanda's facedown card and Amanda quickly activated one of her traps.

"I activate my Trap Card Hallowed Life Barrier!" Amanda announced as a barrier blocked the attack. "All I have to do is discard one card from my hand and any damage I receive is reduced to zero." Kaiser Glider broke through the barrier and breathed fire at the monster revealing it to be Shining Angel (4/1400/900), the monster was incinerated but Amanda's lifepoints where safe, she searched her deck before picking a card. "As for my replacement monster I chose a second Shining Angel in defence mode!" Amanda summoned the monster and a second Shining Angel appeared on the field.

"That's my cue! I activate Torrential Tribute to clear the field of all the monsters!" Karen announced causing Amanda to do a double take just before a tidal wave cleared the field.

"Sorry about that man!" Marcus apologized to Andreas.

"Don't worry about it." Andreas said as the three duellists sent their monsters to their graveyards. "Besides she now needs to worry about her partner in crime!"

"What the hell was that? I had a strategy in the works!" Amanda snapped at Karen not even bothering to use the headset.

"So do I, and my strategy requires that they have no monsters on the field." Karen said plainly. "You're monster was just collateral."

"Did you say collateral? You left me wide open for an attack!" Amanda snapped.

"Just watch and learn!" Karen said before turning to Marcus. "Are you done?"

"That depends, are you done arguing?" Marcus asked and Karen growled. "Anyway yeah I end my turn." Karen drew her card and activated her remaining traps.

"I activate my traps, Embodiment of Appophis! Well more specifically they are trap monsters!" Karen said as the humanoid traps appeared on the field (4/1600/1800) and their attacks rose to 2100 thanks to the seal. "Go my monsters, finish Andreas off!" The snake like beings charged at Andreas ready to strike.

"Time I paid you back man! I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Kaiser Glider and I'll have him intercept the attacks!" The dragon reappeared on the field and flew in front of Andreas, Kaiser breathed fire at the Snake closest to Andreas incinerating it and the second snake stopped in its tracks.

A&K: 3600 and 2700

A&M: 4000 each

"Well, so much for your strategy!" Amanda snapped at her tag partner.

"How was I supposed to know he had Call of the Haunted? Or for that matter that they would figure out that they can use monsters to save their partners?" Karen snapped back at her.

"It looks like we're even." Andreas said with a smile. "Thanks for the save, I'd hate to imagine what would've happened if those attacks went through."

"Hey, when I said I treat my friends I meant it." Marcus grinned.

"How sweet, I think I may throw up!" Amanda spat to the side in response.

"What would you know? It's clear to us that you've never had friends." Andreas said folding his arms and Marcus nodded in agreement, the two girls scoffed.

"Friends? Please, they're nothing but a distraction, same goes for family." Karen said though what caught the boy's attention was the apparent sadness in her voice as she said the last part.

"Did you catch that last part?" Andreas whispered to Marcus who nodded.

"Yeah, I caught it loud and clear." Marcus said turning his attention to Karen. "I think it's your move."

"Gee, you just noticed?" Karen snapped at him before looking at the rest of her hand. "I'll end my turn."

"And that's my cue." Andreas said drawing his card. _"Hmmm, I wonder if I could use Marcus's dragon for an attack since we're a team, worth a shot."_ Andreas thought. "Mind if I borrow your dragon for a minute?"

"She's all yours!" Marcus nodded and Andreas grinned.

"Good, because it's time we got rid of that eyesore Karen calls a monster!" Andreas grinned before looking at his new card. "But first I activate the Continuous Spell Card Poison Fangs!" Andreas played the card and grinned. "Now every time I inflict battle damage to either of you with one of my beasts you'll lose an extra 500 lifepoints."

"Is that supposed to scare me? You don't have any beasts out!" Karen pointed out.

"In case you haven't noticed I haven't summoned yet, allow me to rectify that!" Andreas grinned playing a card. "I summon Ape Fighter in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the ape appeared on the field (4/1900/1200).

"_Damn it, he has enough fire power to finish me off unless I do something quickly."_ Karen thought looking at her trap cards. _"And I have no intention of loosing, not until I confront that bitch of a big sister!"_ Karen thought.

"Normally I'd be opposed to laying a finger on a pretty woman...so I'll let my duel monsters do that for me." Andreas said grinning broadly. "Kaiser Glider attack Embodiment, Ape Fighter attack I command you to attack her lifepoints!" The two monsters charged forward, Karen went to activate her last trap but Amanda beat her too it by activating her remaing trap.

"I activate Waboku to protect Karen's lifepoints!" Amanda announced as the three priestesses blocked the attack.

"_Guess I'll save my trap for later." _Karen thought as Kaiser Glider returned to Marcus' side of the field.

"I guess I'll end my turn." Andreas announced as Amanda drew her card.

"Since I'm feeling generous I'll activate the spell card called Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Amanda announced and the four duellists drew until they had six cards, when she saw what she had drawn however she grinned manically. "Oh boys, I have the monster in my hand that will finish you off."

"Oh, you've drawn the only worthwhile card in your entire deck, are we supposed to be impressed?" Karen mocked her and Amanda glared at her.

"Okay, who pissed in your coffee this morning? Being hostile towards us is one thing but being hostile to your own partner?" Marcus said and Andreas groaned.

"Marcus, this is hardly the time to play Dr. Phill." Andreas said pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "All though I will agree that your behaviour has been odd."

"That's for me to know and you to never find out!" Karen snapped at the two boys before turning to Amanda. "Just play the damn card already."

"Fine, I will." Amanda grunted before playing a spell card. "I activate the Ritual Spell Card Shinato's Ark!" Amanda said as a massive wooden ship appeared behind her.

"A ritual spell, this should be fun." Marcus said sarcastically.

"In order to activate this ritual spell card I have to sacrifice monsters whose level equals 8, so I chose Hysteric Angel from my hand...and my partner's Embodiment of Appophis!"

"Wait, what?" Karen demanded but it was too late as the snake like being was absorbed into the massive ark.

"Consider that payback for leaving my field wide open!" Amanda said as the Ark opened up revealing a massive blue fairy with two sets of green wings and raven black hair (8/3300/3000). "Gentlemen, say hello to Shinato, King of a Higher Plain!"

"3300..." Andreas managed to mutter out at the site of the monster. "That's almost as powerful as Chloe's Silent Magician."

"And that's not even taking into account the bonus from the Orichalcos." Marcus added as the Orichalcos symbol appeared on the king's head increasing its attack to 3800. "Nothing in my deck can beat that thing."

"I have something that can, a fusion monster." Andreas said turning his attention to Marcus. "I have Polmerization and one of the required monsters in my hand, if I can draw the other we'll be safe."

"Yeah, but that's provided that thing doesn't wipe out our lifepoints first." Marcus said with a gulp.

"You should be worried, Shinato attack Ape Fighter NOW!" Amanda commanded and Shinato placed its hands together forming a ball of light, he launched at Ape Fighter disintegrating the monster burning Andreas in the process.

A&K: 3600 and 2700

A&M: 2100 and 4000

"Ack, this is not good!" Andreas grunted in pain.

"Make your last pathetic moves boys!" Amanda said with a grin as Marcus drew his card.

"_Huh, I drew this card; if I can draw the other we might have a chance."_ Marcus thought before activating his remaining card. "I activate Jar of Greed; this lets me draw one more card from my deck." Marcus drew his card and looked at it. "Okay I set one card facedown and a monster in defence, over to you Karen!"

"You fool; not even defending will help you!" Karen said drawing her card. "I'll take control of my partner's monster for this round."

"Do I have a choice?" Amanda said clearly annoyed, Karen ignored her and Shinato floated over to Karen's side of the field.

"Hmmm, whilst I can end the duel by attacking Andreas, the Orichalcos only needs one soul after all, where would the fun in that be? Shinato attack Marcus's defence." Shinato placed his hands together before firing an energy ball at the defence monster, Luster Dragon Number 2 (4/1900/1600), the dragon was disintegrated and the attack carried through to Marcus who screamed in pain as the attack hit.

"Marcus, are you..." Andreas asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Marcus said gritting his teeth in pain before looking at his lifepoints counter.

A&K: 3600 and 2700

AM: 2100 each

"What the hell...why on Earth did I just suffer damage from that monster's attack, that shouldn't be possible my...my monster was in defence for crying out loud!" Marcus stammered in surprise.

"Shinato's the King of a Higher Plain for a reason! If he destroys a monster in defence mode that monster's attack comes out of your lifepoints." Karen explained with a maniacal grin. "Face it boys, it's hopeless! No matter what position your monsters are in our monster will do damage to you!"

"For once I agree with my partner!" Amanda grinned. "Just give up boys, the Orichalcos will go easy on you!"

"As a friend of mine would say..." Andreas said clenching his fists. "Not as long as we have lifepoints left!"

"Damn straight!" Marcus said with a grin.

"_Though if I don't draw the card I need we may as well give up!"_ Andreas thought looking at his deck. _"Heart of the cards, guide us to victory!" _Andreas pleaded mentally as he closed his eyes and drew his card, the other duellists looked at him with baited breath, slowly he opened his eyes and looked at the card...and a massive grin spread across his face. "Your right ladies, it is hopeless...FOR YOU!" Andreas said playing the card. "I activate Polmerization to fuse Des Kangaroo and Big Koala in my hand to summon MY strongest monster...BEHOLD THE MASTER OF OZ!"

"It doesn't matter; nothing can match Shinato's power!" Amanda said confidently as the two monsters fused together and out of the Vortex came a gigantic green and yellow koala wearing a purple jacket and boxing gloved (9/4200/3700).

"You where saying?" Andreas grinned. _"Too think, I added this to my deck to contend with Chloe's Silent Magician."_ Andreas thought the irony far from lost on him.

"K...Karen...please for the love of God, tell me you have something that can deal with that thing!" Amanda stammered her past arrogance long gone and replaced with fear.

"I do, just wait and see!" Karen grinned.

"Master of Oz, it's time to overthrow the king, attack Shinato!" The massive beast charged forward and Karen grinned.

"You're done for Andreas, I activate Magic Cylinder!" Karen activated her card and Andreas's eyes widened.

"Well, it was nice knowing you Marcus!" Andreas said dejectedly.

"You're not out of it yet! I activate Solemn Judgement to negate the activation of and destroy Magic Cylinder at the cost of half of my remaining lifepoints!" Marcus announced as his lifepoints dropped to 1050 the Cylinder's shattered and Master of Oz uppercutted Shinato shattering it. "And don't forget about Andreas's Poison Fangs!"

"Oh fu..." Amanda was cut off mid sentence by a sudden feeling of pain.

A&K: 2700 and 2600

A&M: 2100 and 1050

"Marcus, next time you see a hot dog stand I'll buy 12 hot dogs for both of us!" Andreas grinned.

"Now you're speaking me language!" Marcus grinned before turning his attention to the two girls. "We know the damage is real in an Orichalcos duel and I don't know about you but a direct attack from that thing? That'll easily earn you a few broken ribs."

"Marcus is right you must surrender whilst you can, you may be evil but we don't want to hurt you!" Andreas agreed.

"That's coming from the ones that are behind on lifepoints! What a joke!" Amanda said defiantly. "I won't surrender."

"Me neither." Karen agreed and Andreas sighed before closing his eyes.

"So be it, I end my turn but come Marcus's turn you're finished." Andreas said sadly as Amanda drew her card.

"Who said gentlemen are extinct?" Miranda mused and several onlookers agreed with her, Amanda gulped before setting a monster down and motioning for Marcus to make his move, Marcus drew his card and looked at it.

"I activate Big Bang Shot and equip it to Master of Oz; it increases his attack by 400 and lets him deal damage even if the monster is in defence mode." Marcus said plainly and Amanda's eyes went wide.

"Karen, please tell me you have something that can save me!" She pleaded and Karen scowled.

"Even if I did why would I waste it on you?" Karen snapped at her causing a collective gasp from everyone else. "All you've done throughout this duel is hold me back and since the Orichalcos only needs one soul and the duel will end if one side loses a partner...well I guess you won't be holding back anyone anymore." Karen said coldly. "Do what you want with her, she's nothing to me."

"You cold hearted bitch..." Marcus gritted his teeth in disgust. "What do you think Andreas?"

"Amanda has more lifepoints than Karen, better to deal with her encase Karen's lying." Andreas said equally as disgusted as Marcus. "You can control Master of Oz for this turn Marcus."

"Yeah, I got it." Marcus grunted as Master of Oz marched over to his side of the field. "Master of Oz, attack her defence monster." Master of Oz charged at the facedown monster, revealed to be Sangan (3/1000/600), who was quickly destroyed alongside Amanda's lifepoints.

A&K: 0000 and 2700

A&M: 2100 and 1050

Karen started to walk away from the duel as the Orichalcos closed in around Amanda, Andreas and Marcus looked away even as the blood curdiling scream echoed from Amanda's lips as the Orichalcos took her soul. "Where are you going? You have a prize to give to us remember?" Marcus called after Karen who turned around.

"Hmmm...oh yeah, the locater cards and rarest card, you'll be able to find enough Locater Cards to cover the both of you on her person." Karen said plainly...but her eyes narrowed when she saw Miranda. "YOU BITCH!" She yelled at Miranda whose eyes widened.

"Karen? What are you doing with a card such as that?" Miranda demanded as Marcus retrieved Amanda's locater cards and Shinato alongside his Ritual Card.

"Doing what I can to survive." Karen said with a snarl. "When mom and dad threw me out I had no choice but to join up with the organisation!"

"I would've supported you sis, you know that!" Miranda said honestly and Karen spat to the side.

"Yeah, right we both know you where too loyal to daddy to even speak to me again!" Karen snapped before storming off. "I'll see you at the Semi-Finals." She said holding up three locater cards.

"Wow, and I thought I had issues with my brother." Andreas said as he witnessed the confrontation. "Miranda, are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine kid." Miranda sighed as a tear rolled down her cheek. "My parents threw her out because she was a drug addict, I had no idea she'd go this far."

"You would have supported her, even after that?" Jeff asked shocked.

"I don't care if she is an addict, she's still my sister!" Miranda said sadly. "I'm off, if you see Karen again tell her that her big sister still loves her." Miranda said walking off.

"Damn it, never thought I'd be enraged at the ending of my first Battle City match." Marcus said as he handed over a Locater card to Andreas. "Did you see how many locater cards she had? We need to do some serious catching up!"

"We still have a while to go before the tournament semi finals start, don't worry." Andreas reassured him before realization dawned on him. "Marcus, call 911 now!"

"Huh...oh I get it; if they catch her they can interrogate Karen about her boss!" Marcus grinned before getting his cellphone out.

"I'm way ahead of ya." Alex said walking up. "I called the cops during the argument and they are on the lookout for her."

"Good." Andreas said shaking his head. "How could someone be so cold hearted towards someone she works with?"

"I'm no shrink but that argument with her sister just screamed abandonment issues to me, that and the dialogue during the duel it's self." Jeff said folding his arms. "So, what do you want to do now?"

"We're not to busted up from the duel, and we'd go through her deck for her rarest cards but neither of our decks support fairies, Theresa might get some use out of Shinato though." Andreas said running a hand through his hair as he held Shinato's Ark and Shinato, King of a Higher Plain in his hand. "That card, combined with the Orichalcos, was just nightmare inducing as far as power levels go."

"Yeah, speaking of Theresa I'll call her and Brandon to let them know what happened." Marcus said getting his cellphone out.

*elsewhere*

Mike had managed to find his first Battle City duel not long after Theresa's duel with The Hunter, his opponent was an English duellist by the name of Owen McIntyre who's deck specialized in the Iron Chain archtype, Owen had short black hair, blue eyes behind a pair of sunglasses and was wearing what could only be described as a typical biker outfit, on the field he had the Continuous Spell Card Poison Chain alongside Iron Chain Repairman (4/1600/1200) and the Syncro Monster Iron Chain Dragon (6/2500/1300), due to the effect of Poison Chain Mike's deck was down to 3 cards and he had A Legendary Ocean on the field alongside Amphibian Beast (6/2400/2200) who's attack was boosted to 2600 by the effect of Legendary Ocean, three facedown cards and two cards in his hand, the lifepoint score was this:

O: 200

M: 300

"All right mate, it's been a good duel but it's time I ended this!" Owen said drawing his card. "I summon a second Iron Chain Snake in attack mode!" Owen played the card and the steel snake appeared on the field (3/800/1200). "I'm sure you remember his effect from when I used it on Abyss Soldier earlier."

"Yeah, I know!" Mike said as the Snake coiled it's self tightly around Amphibian Beast lowering its attack to 1800. "Which is why I came prepared if you summoned another one!"

"You...you...came prepared...what?" Owen yelled in surprise as Mike activated one of his traps.

"I activate my trap card Collected Power! Since Iron Chain Snake is now treated as an equip card I can force it to be equipped to Iron Chain Repairman!" Owens's eyes widened behind his glasses as the snake uncoiled it's self from Amphibian Beast, restoring it's attack in the process, and coiled it's self around Repairman reducing its attack to 800.

"Fine, I could just end my turn and force you to deck out with Poison Chain's effect!" Owen said with a grin.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen either." Mike said flipping one of his facedown cards. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy Poison Chain!" A tornado ripped through Poison Chain's Hologram shattering it.

"All right fine, I won't end my turn, instead I'll use Iron Chain Dragon's effect again removing one Iron Chain monster from my graveyard and increasing his attack to 2700!" Owen said removing his first Iron Chain Snake from the graveyard and his dragon's attack rose to 2700. "Right then, finish Mike off my beasts!" Owen commanded as the Dragon charged at him.

"Nice try but I activate my last trap card and the card that'll defeat you, Poseidon Wave!" Mike said as a wall of water blocked the attack of Iron Chain Dragon. "Not only does it block your attack BUT if I have a fish, sea serpent or Aqua Type monster on my field you lose 800 lifepoints."

"Wh...what..." Owen stammered as two massive hands emerged from the wave punching him in the face.

O: 0000

M: 300

"I don't bloody believe it." Owen chuckled. "Me, a guy who came in second place in England's National Championships last year, was beaten by a kid."

"I'm 15 years old!" Mike asserted as the holograms disappeared.

"Regardless I'll never here the end of it from the National Champ." Owen said handing over his Locater Card and Iron Chain Dragon. "Here, ya earned them kid."

"Keep your dragon, my deck wouldn't support it that well." Mike said and Owen smiled.

"That's a fair point." Owen admitted. "Oi Mikey, win this tournament for me okay?" Owen requested.

"I'd like too but my brother and his friends are competing." Mike said sheepishly as Owen walked off.

"After all these Orichalcos duels I'm glad to see a duel where both competitors walk away with nothing but the loser's pride damaged." Brandon admitted, he, Sophie and the Obelisk Blue headmaster where watching the duel from a bench.

"Indeed." The Obelisk Blue Headmaster nodded in agreement. "At least Owen was a good sport about it." He added as Mike walked over clearly pleased with himself. "Well done Michael. It's surprising that you failed to enter Duel Academy before based on that performance."

"Yeah well, I taught Lance everything he knows so at least that's something!" Mike lied and Sophie shook her head.

"Now we have to find duels for me and Brandon and we'll be all set!" Sophie grinned even as Brandon's cell phone went off.

"Hello?" Brandon asked as he answered it. "Marcus, hey what's up? You and Andreas where in a Orichalcos Tag Team Duel?" Brandon asked as his and the other's facial expressions darkened. "No serious injuries? Good, one of the losers's escaped since the Orichalnos only needed one soul? And you just let her go!" Brandon said surprised. "Forgive my French but she sounds like a real bitch, keep in contact okay?" Brandon asked before hanging up. "Well the good news is that the police have someone who's confirmed to be a member of that organisation that revived the Orichalcos to capture, bad news, she could be anywhere in the city."

"Yes, and this is a big city." Martin agreed folding his arms. "At least Marcus and Andreas won't be needing hospital stays."

"True." Brandon nodded running a hand through his hair. "Marcus gave me a description of the woman who escaped; she's in her late teens with long black hair, blue eyes, wears revealing outfits, attractive, and carries a scythe duel disk." Brandon added. "Oh and she's Miranda Trayson's drug addicted younger sister."

"I didn't even know she had one." Martin admitted and Brandon shook his head.

"Her parents disowned her, that's probably why." Brandon answered. "Anyway I need to find me a duel next otherwise the others will leave me in the dust."

"Hey, what about me, I haven't duelled yet?" Sophie pouted; Brandon smiled and patted her on the head.

"Don't worry, we'll find you a duel as well." Brandon said smiling sweetly unaware of someone watching the four of them from a nearby rooftop.

"Sir, I've spotted my target." The cloaked figure spoke with a male Cajun accent. "You want me to take care of the young duellists after I take care of him?"

"Deal with them however you wish, and be sure to report any sightings of Karen to the boss, he wants a word with her for abandoning Amanda." Michael responded.

"Shame, I'll miss having three ways with them." The figure grinned before hanging up and walking off, whilst that was going on Brandon, Sophie, Mike and Martin where making their way down the street in search of a duel.

"Unless I find an opponent soon I may die of boredom." Brandon said impatiently as he looked at his duel disk.

"Excuse me; did you say that you're looking for an opponent?" Brandon stopped in his tracks and looked down a nearby alleyway where the voice was coming from, the cloaked figure from the rooftop emerged from it having ditched the cloak, he was tall and tanned with short dark brown hair with a matching goatee, brown eyes and was wearing a black jacket under a red t-shirt, black pants and brown boots.

"Yeah, are you looking for a duel?" Brandon asked and the Cajun man chuckled.

"That I am, you can call me Felix Truman." Felix grinned before revealing a black scythe like duel disk. "I already know who you are Brandon!" Brandon's eyes narrowed.

"What do you want Felix?" Brandon asked.

"Oh not much, fame, glory, to feed your soul to the Orichalcos, you know the usual." Felix shrugged. "So, do you accept or not?"

"I accept your challenge Felix." Brandon said activating his duel disk. "Just tell me one thing, why would you associate yourself with an organisation like the one that's revived the Orichalcos?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Felix grinned activating his own duel disk. "But I'll make you a deal, if you beat me in this duel and I'll reveal as much information as I can before the Orichalcos takes my soul."

"That's a pretty big risk to take." Martin pointed out and Felix grinned evilly.

"I wouldn't be taking it if I wasn't unbeatable at this game." Felix chuckled and Brandon's eyes narrowed.

"No one's unbeatable at Duel Monsters Felix." Brandon said as the two duelists drew their opening hands. "And I'll prove it in this duel!"

"Then you won't mind if I go first?" Felix asked and Brandon shrugged, Felix drew his first card and smiled. "Very interesting, I'll set one card facedown and a monster in defence mode, your move."

"Strange, I was expecting you open with the Seal." Brandon pointed out as he drew his card and Felix shrugged.

"What can I say? We can't always be lucky enough to get that card on our first draw." Felix said as Brandon looked at his hand.

"Yeah but me on the other hand, I was lucky enough to get my signature cards on my first draw." Brandon smirked looking at his hand. "I summon Don Zaloog in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the leader of the Dark Scorpions appeared on the field (4/1400/1500).

"You use The Dark Scorpions? I wasn't aware that anyone used those pathetic cards anymore." Felix mocked him and Brandon growled.

"Mock them all you want but as a team the Dark Scorpions are unbeatable!" Brandon said picking up another card. "I activate the Spell Card Mustering of the Dark Scorpions! This allows me to summon Don Zaloog's partners in crime to the field."

"Or it would if not for my trap card; I activate Snake Deity's Command!" Felix said activating the trap. "I hope you're not afraid of snakes Brandon because me deck's full of them, and with this trap card I'm required to show you one Venom type monster in my hand and in exchange I can negate the effect of Mustering of the Dark Scorpions!" Felix said showing Brandon Venomningagga, The Deity of Poisonous Snakes (10/0/0).

"Did you say Venom type monsters?" Brandon asked raising an eyebrow.

"They are an archtype of Reptile type monsters, very tricky to use." Felix said sending Snake Deity's Command to the graveyard. "That is unless you have the skills to use them, as I do."

"Regardless I still have Don Zaloog on the field." Brandon said pointing to Felix's facedown monster. "Don Zaloog, attack his defence monster!" Brandon commanded and Don charged forward and stuck his dagger into the facedown monster...only to be sent flying back.

F: 8000

B: 7400

"Oh, I'm sorry; it appears that you attack Venom Cobra!" Felix mocked him as a silver and red cobra appeared on the field (4/100/2000). "You'll need more firepower than Don Zaloog to get past him."

"I end my turn by setting three cards facedown." Brandon said reluctantly and Felix drew his card.

"This was just the card that I was looking for!" Felix grinned before playing the card. "I activate the spell card Terrorforming! This lets me search for one Field Spell card in my deck!"

"You mean the Seal of the Orichalcos?" Brandon asked and Felix chuckled.

"No, I won't play that card, not just yet anyway." Felix chuckled as he selected the card. "I activate the Field Spell Card Venom Swamp!" Felix played the card and the scenery changed to that of a swamp. "As for its effect, wait and see but first I activate the Spell Card Snake Rain!" Felix said picking up a card. "All I have to do is discard one card from my hand and I can send four Reptile type monsters from my deck to my graveyard but first I think that you'll be interested to know what card I'm discarding." Felix said turning the card around.

"You're discarding the Seal of the Orichalcos?" Brandon asked surprised as he sent the card to the graveyard alongside four monster cards. "Why on Earth would you discard that card, it makes no sense?"

"I have my reasons." Felix said with a smirk. "Now then I sacrifice Venom Cobra to summon Venom Boa in attack mode!" Nothing happened for a few minutes before a blue snake leaped out of the bushes and swallowed Venom Cobra whole.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Mike said turning green at the sight, the snake that swallowed Venom Cobra stood in its place glaring at Don Zaloog (5/1600/1200).

"Is a level five monster with 1600 attack points supposed to scare me?" Brandon asked folding his arms.

"No, he's supposed to defeat you." Felix smirked. "Now I activate his effect, it lets me target Don Zaloog and place two Venom Counters on him..."

"Not going to happen, I activate my trap card Dark Illusion!" Brandon said flipping the card up. "This negates Venom Boa's effect and destroys it!" Felix's eyes widened as a dark light consumed the snake destroying it.

"Fine." Felix grunted folding his arms. "I end my turn and the effect of Venom Swamp kicks in." Brandon blinked before boils started to appear on Don Zaloog's arms lowering his attack to 900. "At the end of our end phases your Don will get a Venom Counter which lowers his attack by 500, when his attack reaches zero he will be destroyed." Brandon's eyes narrowed at that news.

"_Great, unless I draw Mystical Space Typhoon soon Don Zaloog will be destroyed in another three turns." _Brandon thought as he drew his card. _"On the other hand though I can still use Don Zaloog's effect and wreck havoc on his hand."_ Brandon thought before looking at his new card. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands!" Brandon announced and both players drew until they had six cards in their hands. _"Perfect."_ Brandon thought before picking up another card. "You may remember this card from my last turn."

"Let me guess, another Mustering of the Dark Scorpions?" Felix said with a yawn. "Don't you get tired of the same old strategies?"

"You know what they say, don't fix what isn't broken." Brandon said activating the card. "As I was about to say earlier this spell lets me summon Don's partners in crime, Gorg The Strong (5/1800/1500), Meanae The Thorn (3/1000/1800), Chick The Yellow (3/1000/1000) and Cliff The Trap Remover (3/1200/1000)." Brandon announced as the four Dark Scorpions appeared on the field. "Go Dark Scorpions, attack his lifepoints directly." Brandon commanded and the Dark Scorpions charged forward and attacked Felix.

F: 2100

B: 7400

As the Dark Scorpions returned to Brandon's side of the field Felix forced himself to his feet. "But that's not all, now their effects kick in; first Cliff will get rid of Venom Swamp!" Cliff charged forward and slashed Venom Swamp's hologram shattering it and returning the scenery to normal. _"Don's attack isn't back to normal though, I guess that counter is there to stay."_ Brandon thought before picking up his deck. "Next Meanae lets me search my deck for a card with the words "Dark Scorpion" in its name and I chose a second Gorg the Strong." Brandon announced adding the card to his hand. "And speaking of Gorg his effect now kicks in, which allows me to send the top card in your deck to the graveyard." Felix did so reluctantly though for some reason he showed it to be another Venom Cobra which he sent to the graveyard. "Next Chick The Yellow let's me look at the top card in your deck and decide if it stays at the top of your deck or goes to the bottom." Felix tossed the card at him and Brandon caught it before looking at it. "Spell Reproduction, you where planning on using this to return the Seal to your hand in case your Venom Swamp was destroyed weren't you?"

"Guilty as charged." Felix admitted with a shrug before Brandon tossed the card back to him. "Let me guess, the bottom right?"

"You got it." Brandon nodded and Felix sent the card to the bottom of his deck. _"Good, he can't use the Orichalcos against me unless he has another copy of that spell card."_ Brandon thought with relief before smirking. "Last but not least Don Zaloog may be weakened but his effect still works, I can now chose to either send two cards in your hand or your deck to the graveyard and I chose your deck!" Felix did so and Brandon noticed how low his deck was at the moment, he showed the monsters to be two more Venom Boas. "I end my turn." Felix drew his card and laughed manically.

"I may have lost the Orichalcos but I can still beat you, sure the boss won't have a soul for his collection but that's the least of your worries!" Felix said activating two spell cards. "I activate two Silent Dooms to revive my Venom Cobras!" Felix announced as the two cobras returned to the field. "And I sacrifice them both to bring out the second most powerful card in my deck, Vennominon, The King Of Poisonous Snakes!"

"I'm not even going to try to pronounce that monster's name." Mike said as a massive sweatdrop rolled down his head and in the place of the two cobras stood a massive snake wearing a cape and armour (8/0/0).

"That thing has zero attack points? Even my weakened Don Zaloog can beat him and he's a four star monster!" Brandon said confidently...until he saw the monster's attack raise to 4000.

"My king has a special ability to make up for his lack of attack or defence points, well to be more accurate he has several special abilities but the one you should worry about is the one that gives him 500 attack points for each Venom type monster in my graveyard." Felix announced with a grin. "But why stop there? I activate Lightning Vortex, discarding yet another Venom type monster to my graveyard in order to clear the field." Brandon's eyes widened as lightning struck the Dark Scopions destroying them, at the same time the king's attack rose to 4500.

"I am really glad that the Orichalcos isn't in play right now." Brandon gulped.

"So you should be, Vennominon, attack his lifepoints directly!" The snake wrapped it's self around Brandon and squeezed causing Brandon to yell in pain.

B: 2900

F: 2100

"I set this card facedown and end my turn." Felix said with a grin. "You may have the lead but I have a monster with 4500 attack points, you're done in this tournament kid." Felix said with a grin as Brandon drew his card.

"I set this card in defence mode and end my turn." Brandon said plainly as Felix drew his card.

"Venominon attack his defence!" Felix commanded and the snake coiled around the defence...and Felix's eyes widened when he saw it. "WHAT THE HELL...HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO DRAW NIGHT ASSAILENT OF ALL CARDS?" (3/200/300) Felix yelled in shock as Night Assailant managed to throw a dagger into the snake's throat before being crushed to death, both players sent their cards to the graveyard and Felix grinned. "I was hoping you'd do that actually."

"What did you just say?" Brandon demanded.

"I activate the trap card Rise of the Snake Deity!" Felix announced as he picked up a card. "This trap can only be activated if my king is sent from the field to the graveyard by a method other than destroying him, when he is this will allow me to summon my most powerful monster; in fact you may remember her from earlier."

"You mean that card you showed me in order to use Snake Deity's Command." Brandon realized.

"That's right, come forth Venomnagga, The Deity of Poisonous Snakes!" Felix played the card and in Venominon's place stood a massive three headed blue and red snake, the first two heads where regular snake heads but the third had the head of a hideous green skinned woman with black snake like hair (10/0/0). "Like the king she gains 500 attack points for each Reptile type monster in my graveyard." Felix explained as his monster's attack rose to 5000. "This monster also can't be targeted by the effects of, and in unaffected by, the effects of monsters, spells and traps in fact the only way to destroy it is in battle."

"_Great, I don't have anything that can beat her."_ Brandon thought.

"Finish him off my deity!" Venomnagga charged forward...but was stopped by a wall of Kuribohs. "Looks like your lifepoints are safe for now." Felix grunted as Brandon sent Kuriboh to the graveyard. "It's your move." Brandon nodded and drew his card.

"That's your most powerful monster huh? Then allow me to introduce you to mine, since I have three dark type monsters in my graveyard, well more than three but that's beside the point, I can summon Dark Armed Dragon to the field in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the massive dragon appeared in the skies above the field (7/2800/1000).

"Nice toy, but he can't hope to beat my Deity!" Felix taunted.

"That's why I'm risking everything on this trap card, Fiend Comedian!" Brandon said as the trap card flipped up.

"What part of "isn't affected by Spells, Traps or Effect Monsters" didn't you understand?" Felix demanded.

"My target isn't your monster Felix, it's your graveyard!" Brandon said reaching into his pocket and producing a coin. "I flip a coin and call it, if I call it right every single card in your graveyard is removed from play, if I call it wrong then I send the same amount of cards from my deck to my graveyard as you have in your graveyard."

"That's a lot of cards Brandon, you sure you want to risk it?" Felix asked with a cocky smirk.

"Sometimes you have to run a risk to get ahead in life." Brandon said with a smirk. _"I can't believe I just used my dad's motto."_ Brandon thought. "I call Heads!" Brandon announced flipping the coin.

"Come on tails!" Felix yelled out as the coin started to descend.

"Give me heads, give me heads!" Brandon yellowed out, the coin landed on his hand and Brandon placed it onto the back of his hand, he took a deep breath before removing the hand.

"Well?" Felix demanded after Brandon didn't announce the.

"I called it right!" Brandon finally said and Felix's eyes widened.

"But...but that means..." Felix realized. "My monster will lose all its attack points!" Felix said before he reluctantly removed the cards from his graveyard sending the deity's attack plummeting all the way down to zero.

"This duel's over Felix just be glad that the Orichalcos was among the removed cards." Brandon said before pointing too Dark Armed Dragon. "Dark Armed Dragon, attack his Deity and end this duel!" Dark Armed Dragon raised its tail and slammed it into the deity.

B: 2900

F: 0000

"Then I guess that's my cue to leave." Felix said deactivating his duel disk, he dug into his pocket and tossed a locater card at Brandon who caught it between his fingers. "I'd give you my rarest card but I don't think it'd suit your deck but rest assured we WILL meet again, I still have two more locater cards." Felix added before running off.

"HEY WAIT!" Brandon called after him, Felix span around and threw down a smokebomb before running off. "Damn it...I lost him." Brandon said once the smoke cleared.

"It doesn't matter Brandon." Martin shook his head as he approached him. "You where able to prevent the activation of the Orichalcos, that's what matters."

"Not to mention the fact that I won for that matter." Brandon added before checking his watch. "Anyway it's getting late; I vote we return to the hotel."

"But I haven't duelled yet." Sophie moaned.

"Relax, there's still plenty of time between now and the Semi Finals." Brandon said giving her a small smile. "You'll duel tomorrow, I promise."

"I'd better." Sophie pouted as Martin started calling for a cab.

"As I'm sure you're aware Brandon I won't be able to accompany you tomorrow due to the meeting at Kaibacorp, are you and Theresa going to be all right on your own?" Martin asked and Brandon nodded.

"What about after the meeting?" Brandon asked.

"I will call you and arrange a meeting place; the other teachers will do the same to the students that they are supervising." Martin answered as he got through to the cab company.

*elsewhere*

"_How the hell could I let that little brat beat me?"_ Felix thought as he walked down an alleyway. _"Next time we fight I'm bringing out the Orichalcos, no doubt about it."_ Felix thought kicking away a empty coke can...which landed at Karen's feet. "Karen? I thought you lost your Orichalcos duel?"

"It's nice to see you too Felix." Karen said sarcastically. "It was a tag team duel and the Orichalcos only needed one soul, Amanda was just collateral."

"Shame, I'll miss the nights we spent together...in my bed." Felix grinned and Karen rolled her eyes.

"You mean the nights where you got us drunk and got us to agree to a three-way." Karen said folding her arms. "Face it that was the only way you could even hope to score with us."

"Ouch." Felix winced. "You gotta admit though, those where the best nights of your life." Felix grinned and Karen shook her head.

"That would be giving you too much credit." Karen said turning around as she started to walk off.

"You're just a fucking junkie bitch who can't keep her legs closed, nothing more." Felix spat at her and Karen glared at him.

"Do you really want me to castrate you with a rusty Butcher's knife?" Karen warned, before Felix could respond his eyes widened. "What?" Karen asked and Felix pointed behind her, she turned around and covered her mouth with a gasp as she saw Michael.

"The two of you failed, I don't accept failure." Michael spat as he folded his arms. "Fortunately for you the boss still has some use for the two of you."

"Well, we are the three best duellists in the organisation." Felix smirked cockily.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, don't forget that you lost to that Obelisk Blue Student and didn't get a chance to use the Orichalcos because of your own stupidity!" Michael said before holding out two briefcases. "These contain very rare and very powerful cards that the master thinks will fit in perfectly with your deck." Michael said as the other two duellists exchanged uncertain looks before taking the cases and opening them up, when they saw the cards they grinned manically. "Just remember that there won't be any second chances."

"What, with these cards in our decks? Not only will we succeed but either one of us will have the reigning champion's soul." Felix grinned as he started adding the cards, 40 in total bringing his deck count up to 80, to his deck.

"What he said." Karen agreed as she did likewise. "What about that kid from Duel Academy?"

"His deck has been upgraded as well, so as everyone's deck." Michael said folding his arms. "But I swear to god if you fail again I will personally rip up your soul cards."

"And if we end up facing each other?" Felix asked.

"Don't use the Orichalcos in that case." Michael said plainly before walking off. "Well truth be told I haven't upgraded the deck of the agent that's tracking Kimberly, hopefully I can find her before she duels her."

"What, that crazy old lady? What does the boss she in her?" Felix asked.

"He sees the fact that she's an excellent duellist, nothing more." Michael said before walking off.

"So, is there any chance of me getting good luck sex from you?" Felix asked only to be kneed in the crotch by Karen.

"Don't get your hopes up." Karen said before walking off as Felix collapsed to the ground.

"Is that a no?" Felix asked as he grits his teeth in pain.

*elsewhere*

"Kimberly, it's getting late." Maria said as she struggled to keep up with the younger woman, they where currently in a shopping district of New York in the search of Duels. "Are you sure you want to keep looking?"

"Lance, Chloe, Theresa, Andreas and Marcus have won their first duels." Kimberly said folding her arms. "Unpleasant consequences of Chloe's duel aside I have some catching up to do."

"If you insist, though if we end up searching until midnight then we're heading back to the hotel." Maria said with a yawn, Kimberly smiled.

"You have a deal." Kimberly said looking around. "Off course it would help if there were other duellists out this late." Kimberly complained as she looked at her duel disk.

"Hear ye, hear ye, come have your fortunes told by Madame Ruska." An old sounding Russian voice came from around the corner, when the two women rounded the corner they saw an old woman, older than Maria to be precise, with grey hair in a bun who was wearing a typical gypsy outfit sitting in front of a small desk covered in a ugly table cloth and a crystal ball.

"Just ignore her dear; she'll try to rip you off." Maria said leading Kimberly away.

"What about you...Kimberly?" Madame Ruska asked causing Kimberly to stop in her tracks.

"How...how do you know my name?" Kimberly stammered in surprise.

"My crystal ball knows all dear." Ruska said and Maria rolled her eyes.

"She probably recognises you from the big screen, now let's go!" Maria insisted but Kimberly shook her head.

"What's the harm? I've always been interested in fortune telling." Kimberly shrugged as she stepped in front of the desk. "So how much will it cost to have my fortune told?"

"Normally I'd charge $20 but for you? I'll do it for free, just this once." Ruska said getting a duel monsters deck out, she drew three cards and placed them facedown. "Pick one."

"It seems simple enough." Kimberly shrugged before pointing to the card on the left, Ruska picked up revealing it to be Ruin, Queen of Armageddon (8/2300/2000).

"Hmmm, this tells me that you are a good person who recently had her world turned upside down by a tragic event." Ruska said before returning it to the deck.

"_Nathan."_ Kimberly thought knowing exactly what she meant before choosing the card in the middle, Ruska picked it up revealing it to be the Spell Card United We Stand.

"Ah, this tells me that you feel as though you are nothing without your friends." Ruska said before returning it to the deck, Kimberly was taken aback by the bluntness of the statement.

"_Though it is true, since I've never had any family of my own I had to make do with friends being the closest thing to a real family for a long time."_ Kimberly thought. "Okay, but what does that mean for me in the future?"

"Select the last card and it'll be all the more clear to you." Ruska said, Kimberly hesitated for some reason before selecting the card, Ruska held it up...and Kimberly's eyes widened with fear.

"The Seal of the Orichalcos...but that means..." Kimberly trailed off as Ruska stood up and kicked the table away after retrieving the card and the deck.

"That's right Kimberly." Ruska said laughing sinisterly before revealing a black, scythe like duel disk that had been hidden under her cloak. "There's only one fate that awaits you in the next few hours...AND IT IS OBLIVION!"


	16. Events Foretold

Kimberly's eyes narrowed at Ruska as the much older woman took her position opposite her, Maria had overheard what Ruska had said and had rushed over in time to see the old woman's duel disk activate.

"My, my, do I sense hostility from you dear?" Ruska mocked as the two women activated their duel disks; Kimberly clenched her fist into a ball and grits her teeth.

"DON'T PATRONISE ME!" Kimberly snapped at the older woman. "One of your associates put my stepbrother in the hospital and I swear to god I will take each and every one of you down until I find the one who did!" Kimberly said with rage in her eyes.

"_She probably means Michael, doesn't mean I'll tell her that I know him."_ Ruska thought as the two women drew their opening hands. "I will go first, age before beauty dear." Ruska said drawing another card. "I set four cards facedown and end my turn." Kimberly frowned and drew her first card.

"_She didn't play the seal; maybe she hasn't drawn it yet."_ Kimberly thought before she drew her card. "I summon Archfiend Soldier in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the Archfiend appeared on the field (4/1900/1500. "Attack her lifepoints directly!" The Archfiend charged at Ruska and the old woman smirked.

"Come in to my parlour, said the spider to the fly." Ruska said activating one of her traps. "I activate Wall of Revealing Light!" As the card flipped up, and much to Kimberly's surprise, Ruska's lifepoints plummeted down to 3000. "As you just saw I have paid 5000 lifepoints but as a result you can't attack with any monsters with an attack lower than the amount I paid."

"But...that's...that's nearly every monster in Duel Monsters!" Kimberly realized as her eyes widened.

"That's exactly my point." Ruska grinned as she activated her other traps. "And now to complete my strategy I activate three trap cards, Eye of Truth, Ominous Fortune Telling and Bad Reaction to Simochi." Ruska said with a sadistic grin. "Eye of Truth requires you to show me your hand, if you have any spell cards you would gain a thousand lifepoints each turn...but Bad Reaction To Simochi means that any lifepoints you would've gained instead becomes battle damage and last but not least Ominous Fortune Telling...well I overheard you say that that you where always interested in fortune telling."

"Yeah, what's your point?" Kimberly demanded with a scowl after she reluctantly revealed her hand, Pandemonium, Terrorking Archfiend (4/2000/1500), Skull Archfiend of Lightning (6/2500/1200) and Archfiend's Roar.

"My point is this trap will determine whether or not you're still interested in fortune telling, this trap's effect can only be activated once per turn during my standby phase, it lets me pick one card at random from your hand and guess if it's a trap, spell or monster card, if I guess correctly then you suffer 700 points of damage." Ruska said with a grin.

"But since Eye of Truth has revealed my hand you only need to look at it to know what my cards are." Kimberly said as her eyes narrowed. _"She's smarter than I gave her credit for, my only chance is if I draw Heavy Storm and sacrifice Soldier to bring out Skull Archfiend of Lightning...but for all I know that could be at the bottom of my deck."_ Kimberly thought before sighing. "Seeing as how there's no use in hiding it I set Archfiend's Roar facedown and end my turn." Ruska smirked and drew her card, without bothering to look at it she placed her fingers to her temple. "Hmmm, hmmm, I see all and no all dear child..." As Ruska chanted that a large transparent hand appeared out of Ominous Fortunetelling's hologram and pointed to Pandemonium. "I believe that that is the field spell card Pandemonium."

"Gee, how'd you guess?" Kimberly asked sarcastically as lightning shot out of the hand's finger's striking her in the chest.

R: 3000

K: 7300

"Man that actually hurts." Kimberly winced as she clutched her chest in pain and Ruska chuckled evilly.

"Most of the agents in the organisation rely on the Orichalcos to make the damage real, me? I simply turned off the safeties long ago." Ruska said with a sadistic grin.

"THAT'S AGAINST TOURNAMENT REGULATIONS AND YOU KNOW IT!" Maria shouted from the sidelines.

"Why do you think I duel exclusively at night? Most of the techs at Kaibacorp are either calling it a day or are too tired to even notice by now." Ruska said arrogantly and Kimberly smirked.

"That would be a brilliant plan...if you weren't blinded by your arrogance." Kimberly smirked and Ruska growled.

"YOU DARE INSULT ME? I HAVE THE SEAL OF THE ORICHALCOS IN MY DECK!" Ruska said angrily before looking at her drawn card...and smirking evilly. "Correction, I have the Seal of the Orichalcos in my hand!" Ruska said playing the card and Kimberly's eyes widened. "I ACTIVATE THE SEAL OF THE ORICHALCOS!"

"_Oh fuck."_ Kimberly thought as she braced herself and the Seal surrounded the two women, the symbol appeared on Ruska's head.

"You still want to mock me child?" Ruska taunted.

"As a matter of fact, yes I will." Kimberly smirked folding her arms. "Do you really think Kaibacorp's technicians are that lazy?" Ruska smirked before holding up four locater cards.

"Does this answer your question?" Ruska asked and Kimberly's eyes narrowed.

"That doesn't prove anything; you could've beaten your opponents before they could report you." Kimberly pointed out.

"That doesn't matter." Ruska grunted before looking at the rest of her hand. "I end my turn." Kimberly drew her card, the hologram for Eye of Truth glowed as did Bad Reaction to Simouchi, and Kimberly grimaced as her lifepoints dropped to 6300. "So, what is your new card?" Ruska asked, Kimberly turned it around revealing it to be Archfiend's Oath which she added to her hand.

"_I can't risk using Archfiend's Oath, not with that combo of hers."_ Kimberly thought looking at her hand. _"And for the same reason I can't summon either of my other archfiends since the seal would block my attempt to activate Pandemonium."_ Kimberly thought annoyed. "I have no choice but to pass.

"Don't worry dear; the pain will be over soon." Ruska said with a tone of voice that screamed mock sympathy as she drew her card and once again put her hands to her temples. "Hmmm, Hmmm, I see all and know all, dear child." Ruska said as the hand appeared again pointing to Skull Archfiend of Lightning. "I say that that card is the monster card Skull Archfiend of Lightning."

"Yeah...that routine's getting old and it's only been two turns already." Kimberly said annoyed as lightning shot from the hand's fingers striking her in the chest.

K: 5600

R: 3000

"I'll teach you to mock me!" Ruska said playing the card she had drawn. "I activate the spell card Hinotama which deals another 500 points of damage to your lifepoints!" Ruska said activating the card and a meteor struck Kimberly in the chest.

K: 5100

R: 3000

The attack brought Kimberly to her knees but with a grimace she forced herself to her feet. "Are you done using Burn Strategies to shut me up?" Kimberly said through gritted teeth.

"_How is she still standing?"_ Ruska thought before looking at her hand. "I end my turn." Kimberly said nothing and drew her card wincing as the effect of Eye of Truth and Bad Reaction To Simochi brought her lifepoints down to 4100. "So, what is the card you've drawn?"

"It's my strongest monster, Archfiend Empress." Kimberly said showing her the card (8/2900/2100) before adding it to her hand. "Not that I'd be able to summon her even if I wanted to."

"Nor would you be able to attack with her." Ruska smirked and Kimberly sighed.

"_I can't end up like Nathan! I refuse to end up like Nathan!"_ She thought before picking up another card. "I summon Terrorking Archfiend to the field and end my turn." Kimberly announced as the archfiend appeared alongside the soldier (4/2000/1500) and she motioned to Ruska to take her turn, Ruska drew her card and smirked.

"Since you found it annoying last time I'll cut to the chase." Ruska said as the transparent hand appeared on the field and pointed to Archfiend Empress. "I say that that's the monster card Archfiend Empress." Kimberly screamed in pain as lightning emerged from the hand and struck her in the chest.

K: 3400

R: 3000

"But why stop there?" Ruska asked holding up the card she drew and playing it. "I activate Tremendous Fire which deals an additional 1000 lifepoints to you, sure I suffer 500 points of damage but you're hardly in a position to do anything about it!" Ruska said as both women were burned by a large flam.

K: 2400

R: 2500

"This is your last turn dear, use it wisely." Ruska smirked as Kimberly went to draw her card.

"_I need Heavy Storm and I need it now! Heart of the Cards, please help me!" _Kimberly pleaded mentally as her hair overshadowed her eyes, slowly but surely she drew the card and looked at it ignoring the pain from Ruska's traps as best she could, to make matters worse she suffered 800 points of damage due to Terrorking's effect.

K: 600

R: 2500

"So, what is the card dear?" Ruska asked confidently.

"It's a spell card..." Kimberly said slowly turning the card around. "...it's called Heavy Storm!" Kimberly played the card and Ruska's eyes widened.

"NO!" Ruska shouted in surprise as a storm ripped through the field destroying her traps. "How the hell did she manage draw that card this late in the game...especially when I was so close to victory, it doesn't make sense?" Ruska lamented.

"It looks like fate's abandoned you to the Orichalcos." Kimberly said bitterly as she turned her cards around and picked up another card. "I sacrifice Terrorking Archfiend to summon Skull Archfiend of Lightning!" Terrorking Archfiend disappeared from the field and in its place stood a demon that was a dead ringer for Summoned Skull (6/2500/1200). "I could just attack you with Archfiend be done with it...but that's more than you deserve so I'm not done."

"No...you...you can finish me of in one hit, have mercy!" Ruska pleaded as her eyes widened in fear.

"Your associate didn't show my brother any mercy, why should I do the same? This...is for everyone you've hurt using the Orichalcos and that modded duel disk, Archfiend Soldier attack her lifepoints." Kimberly announced and Archfiend Soldier Charged forward slashing Ruska with his sword bringing her lifepoints down to 400, as Kimberly said the next part tears started rolling down her face. "This...this is a message to everyone else in your organisation and especially to the bastard that hurt my brother, I'm coming for you next...Skull Archfiend of Lightning...I want you to send her to hell." Kimberly said coldly as the demon stretched out his arms and fired lightning at Ruska, the old woman collapsed as Archfiend Soldier and Skull Archfiend of Lightning disappeared from the field.

K: 600

R: 0000

The Orichalcos closed in around Ruska but no scream was heard even as the Orichalcos took her soul, Kimberly walked up to the old woman and checked her pulse. "She's alive, just unconscious and the Orichalcos taking her soul didn't help." Kimberly said picking up the locater card and turning around...to see the others save for Lance and Chloe standing behind her. "How long have you been there?"

"We've been here since she first used the Ominous Fortune Telling card against you." Brandon said folding his arms. "That was a nice comeback but attacking her twice with your archfiends? You're stooping to their level."

"Stooping to their level?" Kimberly echoed clearly disgusted by the implication. "Brandon, I like you but these bastards put Chloe in the hospital and my brother in a coma, she herself claimed three other victims before duelling me, as far as I'm concerned this is karma biting them in the ass."

"We know your angry but taking your frustrations out on an elderly duellist, regardless of affiliation, will make other duellists reluctant to duel you." Jeff said folding his arms. "Kaibacorp knows that she tampered with her duel disk and they will be reinstating duellists who lost to her and weren't consumed by the Orichalcos as a result."

"Come on, it's getting late and we need our sleep." Martin said leading them away, unaware that Michael was watching them from an alleyway.

"Sir, I must advise against sending any more agents after Kimberly, she is too strong and ruthless." Michael said plainly.

"Indeed, I will remove her from the target list." The leader said plainly. "Return to the ship Michael, it's getting late."

"Very well, I will." Michael said before walking off.

*elsewhere*

Lance had been chilling out in his room since his duel with Leviathan, and had been constantly updated on the duels going on thanks to the news coverage; he had ordered room service for a snack and was currently enjoying it.

"_At least those creeps who are using the Orichalcos are losing operatives."_ He thought as he ate his food, his bed was covered in food but he planned to remove the food before going to bed, he glanced towards his duel disk briefly wondering what he could do to improve his deck, his train of thought was interrupted by a knock at his door. "Come in!" Lance called out as he ate the last of his food, the door opened and Chloe entered the room. "Oh, hi Chloe, what's up?" Lance greeted his friend after swallowing his food.

"I didn't realize you where half pig." Chloe joked upon seeing the state of his room; Lance shook his head and tossed the last of the candy wrappers in the bin.

"I'm not nearly as bad as Mike, if you ever saw his room back home you'd think a Tornado AND World War 3 had occurred simultaneously in the same room." Lance joked before folding his arms. "So, what's up?"

"I...I wanted to tell you something...preferably when the others weren't around to hear it." Chloe said, Lance could tell from her tone of voice that the subject made her uncomfortable so he cleared some room on the bed before inviting her to sit down next to him. "Thanks." Chloe said sitting down next to him. "You know that I was born here...and abused here..."

"Yeah, I know." Lance nodded placing a comforting hand on Chloe's unscarred shoulder.

"Back at the hospital, when I was still recovering from my duel with Damien, I...fell asleep but I had to be sedated because I was becoming restless and running a high risk of accidently pulling my stitches out, the only reason I know this because a nurse told me once I awoke." Chloe said as tears started pouring down her face. "I didn't tell the nurse but...the reason I was being restless was because I was dreaming of the day my mom died."

"Shit..." Lance trailed off; he knew Chloe often had nightmares about the abuse she suffered but rarely about her mom's murder. "Chloe, have you taken your anti-depression meds?"

"I took the recommended dosage an hour ago and earlier this morning before we left for the airport." Chloe said.

"Six hours ago." Lance nodded running a hand through his hair. "At least you're sticking to the instructions."

"Yeah...Lance there's one other thing I wanted to tell you about my dream..." Chloe said clearly getting choked up at the memory. "You know how in real life I was able to escape before my dad could shoot at me...but in my dream some unknown force was preventing me from escaping...I was sedated before he could shoot me but..."

"Hey, hey come here." Lance said pulling his upset friend into a comforting hug. "Just remember, he can't hurt you anymore."

"I know." Chloe sobbed into his shoulder, Lance didn't really care that his jacket was getting wet he just wanted to comfort his friend, eventually she stopped crying and pulled away though still in Lance's embrace. "Lance?"

"Yes Chloe?" Lance asked as she wiped away a dry tear.

"Thanks..." Chloe trailed off, Lance smiled...

"Err are we interrupting something?" Lance and Chloe's eyes went as wide as dinner plates when they realized how sexual the scene looked and they slowly looked up seeing the others at the door to his room, Theresa was closest to the door and it was her that spoke up.

"I...I realize how bad this looks but it's REALLY not what it looks like." Lance stammered as he blushed furiously. "We were just sharing a passionate moment and...I'm not helping my case at all, am I?" Lance realized and Jeff chuckled.

"Neither is the way you're holding her." Brandon pointed out and the two teens quickly let go off each other.

"Yeah...I'm heading back to my room; see you in the morning Lance." Chloe said standing up and leaving the room brushing past the others.

"See you in the morning Lance." Marcus echoed whilst making kissing noises with his mouth.

"Shut up before I throw one of my pillows at you." Lance grunted and Marcus quickly shut up.

"Oh look at the time; we'd better get some sleep as well." Andreas said quickly walking off, Marcus did likewise and slowly the other students departed save for Theresa.

"Lance, I saw the dry tears around her eyes." Theresa said folding her arms. "What really happened?"

"You won't tell the others?" Lance asked and Theresa shook her head. "She just needed someone to talk to...she's been having nightmares about the night her mom died."

"Oh." Theresa said as her eyes widened. "So the hug was..."

"I was trying to calm her down, I succeeded obviously." Lance said with a nod. "If she wakes up screaming in the middle of the night let me know okay?"

"I will." Theresa said as she started to walk off before pausing and glancing over her shoulder at the younger student. "All though if you do feel that way about her...it's nothing to be embarrassed about." Theresa said honestly holding back a chuckle at the embarrassment on Lance's face. "Good night."

"Good night." Lance said and Theresa closed the door behind her. "I swear most of the students at Duel Academy are so immature." Lance muttered under his breath as he removed the jacket. _"Maybe some Metal will help me take my mind off things."_ Lance thought getting his IPod out and started playing "Souls of Black" by Testament. _"How fitting that I play this song given the current situation."_ Lance thought drumming his fingers along to the bass line at the beginning of the song.

"Theresa...was what Brandon said true?" Theresa looked up and saw Kimberly leaning against the door to the room the female students where sharing.

"You mean about you stooping to their level?" Theresa asked and Kimberly nodded. "Well, attacking Ruska with both Archfiends was pretty unnecessary as far as I'm concerned as you could've beaten her with one attack from Skull Archfiend of Lightning but instead you showed her no mercy...but on the other hand I understand why you are angry at them." Theresa sighed in resignation before folding her arms. "Just promise me one thing, if your next duel is against someone who isn't an Orichalcos agent don't take your frustrations out on them."

"You have a deal." Kimberly said shaking her head. "If I do end up facing the bastard that put Nathan in the coma then...may god have mercy on my soul..." Kimberly trailed off and Theresa nodded in agreement.

"I'm sure he'll understand." Theresa said reassuringly, before either woman could say anything else they heard a terrified scream coming from Chloe's room. "Oh shit." Theresa said immediately opening the door to the room; the two women entered Chloe's room and saw Chloe clad only in a red nightshirt curled up in a ball, her eyes where as wide as dinner plates and in one of her hands was a duel monster's card which she was holding onto for dear life, the bed sheets where a mess and Theresa walked up to the younger woman's side. "Chloe, are you okay?" Theresa asked but she didn't answer, now that she was closer she saw that tears where streaming down her cheeks.

"Should I get one of the teachers?" Kimberly asked equally concerned.

"No, I'll...I'll try to calm her down myself." Theresa responded with a sigh before turning to Chloe. "Chlo, I can't help you if you don't talk to me." She said honestly but she still didn't answer, she looked at the duel monsters card in Chloe's hand and her eyes widened. _"Shit, its Silent Magician Level 8...was this one of the nightmares Lance mentioned."_ Theresa thought as Brandon and Andreas showed up at the door. "You heard the scream as well?"

"Yes, I could hear it from a mile away." Andreas nodded. "Is she..."

"She's fine, she just had a nightmare." Theresa said and Brandon raised an eyebrow.

"It must've been a hell of a nightmare." Brandon said and Theresa motioned to the duel monsters card, he looked at it and realization dawned on him. "Oh." Brandon said once he put two and two together. "Andreas, we'd better give her some privacy."

"But..." Andreas protested clearly concerned.

"Trust me, it's for the best." Brandon said sternly and Andreas nodded reluctantly before the two boys left.

"Chloe its okay he can't hurt you anymore." Theresa said reassuringly, Chloe finally looked up at Theresa.

"But...but...he..." Chloe stammered in between sobs and Theresa rubbed her unscarred shoulder reassuringly.

"I know, I know." Theresa said reassuringly and slowly but surely Chloe lay back down on the bed, still clutching onto the Duel Monsters card even as the older woman tucked her in.

"You want me to get you anything to drink?" Theresa offered and Chloe shook her head, Kimberly sighed sadly before leaving.

"Are you coming Theresa?" Kimberly asked and Theresa shook her head.

"I'll keep an eye on her for now." Theresa said taking a seat. "If she goes 15 minutes without waking up with a scream again I'll go to bed." Theresa added.

"Well if you say so, good night." Kimberly said before walking out of the room.

"_Man, how can Chloe be as well adjusted as she is given what happened to her?"_ Theresa thought sadly as the younger woman started going to sleep. _"At least that bastard who dared to call him her dad can't hurt her anymore."_ Theresa thought before glancing at the two medicine bottles on the nightstand, the Anti-Depression meds where almost used up but the painkillers where filled up. _"I should probably mention that to her parents, they'll know where to find a fresh batch of meds for her."_ Theresa thought with a yawn, she waited ten more minutes and, confident that the younger woman wasn't going to awake with a scream anytime soon, got up and left the room. "Good night." Theresa whispered softly in her ear before leaving the room, she sighed softly before opening the door to her room and entering it.

*elsewhere in the city*

"I can't believe that old bat beat me." A young Italian man grumbled as he walked down the street, he had neck length black hair and blue eyes and was wearing a red jacket over a black t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots. "And I can't believe Kaibacorp blew off my complaint just because I lost, I'm Italy's National Champion for crying out loud."

"Luigi Malverio?" The young man looked up and too his surprise saw the Chancellor Wilkins there. "I believe this is yours." She said holding up a locater card and his rarest card.

"Yes, it is but I don't understand." Luigi answered honestly.

"You lost to a duellist calling herself Madame Ruska correct?" Wilkins asked and Luigi nodded. "She was found to be in violation of the Battle City rules and regulations, as a result all of her previous opponents prior to her defeat are being reinstated."

"Re...really...this isn't you idea of a sick joke?" Luigi stammered out of surprise. "Thank you, I appreciate it." Luigi said taking the cards. "Wait, who defeated her?"

"She was defeated by one of the Duel Academy students, Kimberly Troy." Chancellor Wilkins told him and he smiled broadly.

"Hmmm, did she now? I'll have to thank her in person." Luigi said returning the card to his deck. "What's going to happen to her?"

"Ruska? I'm afraid that she's in a coma, she was found to be in the possession of the same card that resulted in four other duellists being comatose." Wilkins explained and Luigi's eyes widened.

"Wait, you mean I could've ended up like them!" Luigi asked and Wilkins nodded. "To think, I came to this tournament to win the championship."

"Yes but believe me the organisers didn't expect this to happen either." Wilkins said before walking off. "Good luck it the tournament, it's not often that people get second chances in tournaments like this."

"Indeed." Luigi said pocketing the locater card. "Well, I guess I'd better find a duel then..." Luigi said out loud before checking the time on his watch. "Err...in the morning." Luigi said sheepishly before making his way to his hotel.

*the following morning*

"Lance, it's time to get up!" Theresa said knocking on his door, most of the other students where already up, well except for Chloe but she was willing to let that slide given what happened last night, which only left Lance to wake up for the second day of the tournament.

"Give me five more minutes." Lance grumbled and Theresa rolled her eyes.

"Brandon, what did Chloe say the name of his favourite band was again?" Theresa whispered.

"Err, Exodus, why?" Brandon asked and she smirked.

"Fine but you'll miss the meet and greet with Exodus downstairs." Theresa called out to Lance looking at her nails as she did, roughly five seconds later Lance emerged from his room fully clothed with an excited look on his face.

"Why didn't anyone say there was a meet and greet with Exodus at the tournament?" Lance asked and Theresa and Brandon tried very hard to not burst out laughing, he quickly caught on though. "That was just sadistic." Lance grumbled.

"It got you out of bed, didn't it?" Theresa pointed out with a playful smirk on her face. "Besides we've got more duelling to do remember?" Theresa added and Lance promptly disappeared back into his room and retrieved his duel disk.

"Eh don't blame him for not wanting to get up in the morning." Marcus grumbled as he yawned. "He was probably fantasizing about Ch..." Marcus started but was stopped by a punch to the head from Lance.

"How many times must I say "we weren't about to make out" before it gets through your thick head?" Lance asked. "Speaking of Chloe I heard the scream last night, she okay?"

"Yeah, I just had a nightmare." Chloe yawned as she emerged from the girl's room; Lance's expression darkened quickly catching onto the fact that she meant the nightmare that she told him about. "Where are the teachers?"

"They left earlier this morning for the meeting at Kaibacorp." Theresa responded. "They tasked me with waking you guys up for the second day of the tournament." She added.

"Well, at least you didn't pour water on anyone." Lance said running a hand through his hair and Theresa winced. "You did, didn't you?"

"Yes, she did." Andreas said as he dried himself off with a towel. "Honestly I was having a nice dream, was that tactic really necessary?"

"I had to wake you up somehow." Theresa shrugged before turning to Chloe. "Are you going to be up for duelling after what happened last night?"

"I'm not going to let some nightmare stop me from duelling." Chloe shook her head.

"Good." Theresa sighed in relief before turning to the others. "Everyone have their duel disks?" Everyone nodded before Andreas remembered something.

"Oh, that reminds me." Andreas said returning to his room and coming out a few seconds later with a pair of duel monster cards in his hand. "Me and Marcus won these from those girls we duelled, the ones we told you about yesterday? We claimed this as our prize but since it doesn't fit in with either of our deck themes we figured that you'd get more use out of it." Andreas said handing over the cards to Theresa, she looked at them and smiled.

"Shinato, King of a Higher Plain and Shinato's Ark, thanks Andreas I've been looking for these cards for god knows how long." Theresa said getting her Fairy deck out of her backpack and adding the cards to her deck. "Is that everything?" The others thought for a moment before shaking their heads. "Good, you know who you've been partnered with for the tournament, or in the case of Kimberly her partner can't be bothered to show up, if you get into any Orichalcos duels and win call me." Theresa said before leading the others to the elevators.

"Yeash, who died and made her boss?" Marcus muttered...only to be met with a death glare from Theresa. "I'm going to shut up now."

"Good." Theresa said as she pressed the button for the ground floor, when the elevator arrived they got in it and Theresa pressed the button for the ground floor.

"So did I miss any duels whilst I was trying to sleep in?" Lance asked scratching his tired eyes and Theresa shrugged.

"No clue, I was too busy waking up everyone to notice." Theresa said honestly. "Besides, don't you need to wait for your siblings before you leave?"

"Mike sent me a text whilst I was retrieving my duel disk; they are waiting for me in the hotel restaurant." Lance said before pausing. "Maybe we should stop for breakfast before we start duelling?"

"Yeah I was thinking the same thing." Theresa nodded in agreement as the elevator arrived at the ground floor; the teens got out of the elevator and glanced around.

"Excuse me, which one of you is Kimberly Troy?" The teens looked up and Luigi approaching them.

"That's me, why?" Kimberly asked stepping forward, Luigi smiled.

"Ah yes, I wanted to thank you for defeating Ruska and getting me reinstated." Luigi said and Kimberly blinked.

"She didn't use the Orich..." Kimberly started but Theresa quickly covered her mouth.

"Do you really want to cause a panic?" Theresa whispered and Kimberly shook her head, Theresa removed her hand.

"She didn't send you into a coma?" Kimberly corrected herself and Luigi blinked before shaking his head.

"Err, no she merely hurt me...quite a bit but compared to some other duellists I got off lucky." Luigi said before pausing. "Oh that's right, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Luigi Malverio, and I am the national champion of Italy."

"Who?" Kimberly blinked and Luigi fell over Anime style.

"Where's the respect?" Luigi muttered as he got up. "Anyway now that I'm back in the tournament I hope that we get a chance to face each other in the semi finals, see ya." Luigi said walking off.

"Well, at least he isn't an Orichalcos duellist, unlike most of the other duellists we've met." Kimberly said as she watched the other duellist leave. "And as much as I'd hate to admit he's kinda cute."

"Kimberly and Luigi sitting in a tree..." Marcus started.

"Don't even consider finishing that song." Kimberly said glaring at Marcus.

"Err...how about we focus on getting something to eat." Lance said sheepishly, the two duellists nodded reluctantly and followed them to the restaurant before Lance realized something. "Wait, who's going to pay?"

"Oh, the teachers anticipated this and gave me enough money to pay for our meals and your siblings." Theresa said holding her a stack of 20 dollar bills; Lance breathed a sigh of relief before they entered the restaurant and he looked around for his siblings. "Any sign of them?" Theresa asked and Lance shook his head.

"No sign of them so far." Lance answered.

"Hey bro, we're over here!" Mike called out to him and he saw them at a table at a far corner of a restaurant.

"_We're going to need a bigger table."_ Lance thought as they approached the table. "Hey guys, hope you're ready for your next duels."

"I have, Sophie hasn't even duelled yet." Mike explained and Lance blinked before glancing at Brandon.

"It was getting late at the time." Brandon explained.

"Whatever, let's eat." Chloe said sitting next to Lance only for the two teens to nearly jump out of their skin when a loud "AHEM!" came from behind them, Chloe turned around and saw her cross looking dad. "Oh hi Dad, what's up?" Chloe gulped.

"Well, I'm just wondering about that intimate moment you almost shared last night?" Her stepdad said and Lance's eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

"Okay, who told him?" Lance called out to the other students.

"Oh look at the time; I'd better get to duelling!" Marcus said quickly walking off.

"But you haven't eaten yet." Andreas pointed out.

"I'll eat somewhere else..." Marcus started and Lance cleared his throat. "Or I'll just stay put and anticipate a ass kicking."

"Look dad, nothing happened, intimate or otherwise." Chloe said pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "I'll explain later." Chloe added her tone of voice making it clear that this wasn't something that should be explained in public.

"Okay, fine." Her stepdad sighed before handing her a bottle of pills. "No these aren't birth control pills, your friend Theresa said that you where almost out of them." Chloe read the label and smiled.

"Thanks dad." Chloe said as her dad walked off. "Marcus..." She said threateningly.

"I didn't tell him directly I just posted on Facebook about it, someone must've forwarded it to him because he isn't on my friends list." Marcus explained with a gulp.

"How about next time you keep blatant lies off Facebook." Lance suggested with a grunt. "At least the whole city doesn't know..."

"Err, yeah about that." Marcus said pointing to a small TV screen in the corner of the bar, the sound was muted but it was clearly a chat show and it had Lance and Chloe's pictures with the words "duelling couple?" underneath them.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" Lance said with a facepalm. "I thought this was a Duel Monster's tournament not a place to spread gossip."

"There's a difference?" Chloe asked equally as annoyed. "Marcus, did you at any point think that this was likely to happen?"

"Err, no." Marcus said with a gulp.

"Okay, how about we just worry about eating our breakfast for now...not to mention ordering it." Theresa said as a waiter came over.

*meanwhile at the docks*

The ship was a lot less crowded than it was when the organisation's members arrived in New York, mostly due to the fact that Damien, Leviathan, The Hunter, Amanda and Ruska had been defeated with their souls consumed by the Orichalcos, still the organisation had more than enough operatives to make up for it and two of them, Karen and Felix, where about to leave the ship.

"I can't believe I was drunk enough to sleep with you Felix." Karen grumbled as the two duellists got off the ship.

"Face it babe, you wanted me in your pants." Felix grinned.

"Going somewhere?" A Brooklyn accented voice rang out and the two duellists groaned.

"Oh great, the one operative I can't stand more than you." Karen grumbled before turning around and seeing Robert there, his body covered in a black cloak. "What do you want Robert?"

"What do I want? I thought you knew that by now." Robert grinned under his cloak.

"Ah yeah, you want to duel the Osiris Red duellist." Felix rolled his eyes as the two duellists got off the ramp to the ship. "You know there are much more skilled duellists for you to obsess over right?"

"This isn't about skill." Robert said as he got off the ramp. "If it was...well..." Robert dug into his cloak pocket and produced, to the surprise of Felix and Karen, six locater cards. "I'd be at the semi-finals by now."

"How the fuck did you get 6 locater cards so quickly?" Felix demanded folding his arms. "The Tournament started yesterday for fuck's sake."

"Nonstop duelling, that's how." Robert said walking off. "I'm off to figure out how I'm going to lure that brat into a duel where she must face me."

"That guy gives me the creeps." Karen whispered to Felix who grunted.

"What creeps you out about him exactly? The fact that he never takes his clothes off or the fact that he obsesses over a girl who's young enough to be..." Felix said before realization dawned on him. "You don't think."

"I'd rather not think about it." Karen said shaking her head.

"I say we follow him and find out." Felix said walking off.

"We still have duelling to do remember?" Karen called after him and he stopped in his tracks.

"Oh yeah, we'll do that first." Felix grunted holding up his duel disk. "Let's avoid the Duel Academy brats for now and work on getting into the semi-finals, besides they have agents tailing them already."

"You actually have a good plan for once, did hell freeze over whilst you where screwing me?" Karen asked before walking off.

"_If it did you wouldn't be Ice Queen." _Felix thought before following her.

*elsewhere*

"Lance, your gross...you know that right?" Chloe asked as she walked side by side with him after he let out a burp, after Breakfast the teens went their separate ways in the same pairs as yesterday and Lance's siblings were not far behind Lance and Chloe, they where currently walking down the Manhattan district of New York.

"Better out than in I always say." Lance smirked and Chloe folded her arms.

"You don't say that, you just stole it from a Shrek movie!" Chloe smirked and Lance smiled sheepishly.

"Bro, when am I going to get a chance to duel?" Sophie moaned and Lance smiled at her.

"Don't worry; you'll get a chance to duel." Lance reassured her before turning to Chloe. "Here's hoping your next duel doesn't end with you in the hospital again."

"If I'm able to play the cards I won from Damien that won't be a problem." Chloe smirked looking at her deck. "Besides I know your just as eager to try out the card you won from Leviathan."

"Guilty as charged." Lance admitted with a smile. "Anyway I don't think we'll find any duellists here."

"Don't speak to soon." Lance and Chloe blinked before turning around, they saw a male duellist with black dreadlocked hair, blue eyes and was wearing a red jumper, blue jeans and white trainers approaching them. "I'm guessing this little lady's Chloe Richardson?"

"Yeah, are you looking for a duel?" Chloe asked activating her duel disk, the male smirked holding up two locater cards.

"Naturally, name's Zach Michaels, like you I'm a student at Duel Academy...well North Academy to be precise." Zach said with a grin holding up his duel disk. "Just so we're clear, I don't care if you're in Osiris Red or not, just as long as you give me a good fight."

"You'll get more than that; you'll get a ass kicking." Chloe smirked, however the two duellists where unaware that they were being watched.

"_Drat, I was too late."_ A cloaked figure on a nearby rooftop thought. _"No matter, this is a chance for me to scout her."_


	17. Dark World Unity

As Zach and Chloe took their positions on opposite ends of the street Lance and his siblings watched with interest wondering what kind of deck Zach run, the two duellists drew their opening hands and Chloe looked at hers.

"So, who's going first?" Chloe asked as Zach looked at his hand.

"It would be rude of me to declare otherwise so ladies first." Zach shrugged and Chloe drew her first card.

"Gee, how thoughtful of you." Chloe said as she drew her card. _"Not bad."_ Chloe thought before playing some cards. "I set four cards facedown and summon Gearfried, The Iron Knight in attack mode."

"_Wait, what? I thought the news identified her as a spellcaster user."_ Zach thought as the knight appeared on the field alongside the four facedown cards (4/1800/1600). "I thought you used spellcasters." Zach said raising an eyebrow.

"I do, but my deck is a hybrid of Spellcasters and Warriors." She explained and Zach nodded in understanding. "Anyway I end my turn." Zach said nothing and drew his card.

"I'll start things off with a Field Spell Card called Dragon Ravine!" Zach played the card and suddenly a massive chasm opened up between the two duellists. "This little spell card will benefit my dragonunity monsters greatly."

"You're Dragonunity monsters?" Chloe asked raising an eyebrow. "I've never heard of them."

"Then let me give you a crash course." Zach grinned before picking up another card. "I summon Dragonunity Miltium in attack mode!" Zach announced as a winged male carrying twin swords appeared on the field, he was wearing a green dress and knee high boots (4/1700/1200). "It's not too bad, huh?"

"It would be even better if it could beat my knight but I guess your shit out of luck in that department." Chloe pointed out and Zach grinned.

"Don't you use Silent..." Zach started but Lance cleared his throat.

"Take it from me dude, insulting her Silent Magician isn't smart." Lance said and Zach blinked before nodding.

"Oookayyyyy." Zach said before shaking his head. "As I was saying don't underestimate the Dragonunity cards because they're special abilities are equal to none."

"Okay you've got my curiosity, what do they do exactly?" Chloe asked and Zach grinned.

"Glad you asked, you see unlike most monsters Dragonunity cards double as equip cards so I'll equip Miltium with Dragonunity Darkspear." Zach played the card but nothing happened.

"Err; I think your duel disk's broken." Chloe pointed out and Zach shook his head.

"Nothing wrong with my duel disk, this little combo just needs another spell card for it to work, so I activate Dragon Mastery, this spell card increases the attack of any monster equipped with a Dragonunity card 500 attack points." Zach explained as Miltium's attack rose to 2200. "But I have something bigger planned so this is where Miltium's effect kicks in." Zach said picking Darkspear back up. "Once per turn I can use his effect to special summon one Dragonunity monster from my Spell and Trap card zone!" Zach played the card and grinned. "So please welcome to the field Dragonunity Darkspear." Zach said as a small red and black dragon wearing a strange back and silver helmet appeared on the field (3/1000/1000). "So, what do you think so far?"

"I think you went through a lot of trouble just to bring out two monsters that are weaker than my knight." Chloe pointed out.

"Oh yeah I almost forgot, Darkspear's a tuner monster!" Zach announced and Chloe's eyes widened.

"Oh, great, let me guess, you're about to do a Synchro Summon?" Chloe gulped and Zach grinned.

"Exactly, so I send Miltium and Darkspear to my graveyard to summon Dragonunity Knight Vajrayana in attack mode!" Zach retrieved the card from his Extra Deck and the two Dragonunity monsters disappeared from the field and in their place stood a red, serpent like dragon with a woman in red armour riding on top of it (6/1900/1200).

"Oh boy, this match will be over soon." Lance blinked and turned around in time to see a blonde male with short blonde hair, blue eyes and a goatee wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots.

"I wouldn't underestimate his opponent; she's been in tougher spots before." Lance said and male looked up.

"Do you really think so? I doubt that she's ever faced someone like Zach." The male grinned as Zach retrieved a monster from his graveyard.

"When I synchro summon this Dragonunity Knight I can bring out one level 3 or lower Dragonunity card and equip it to her, as long as it's a dragon type monster that is." Zach said playing the card and the knight's attack rose to 2400. "However by sending said Dragonunity monster to my graveyard I can double my Knight's attack." Zach said returning the monster to the graveyard and the knight's attack jumped all the way up to 3800. "Dragonunity Knight attack Gearfried!" The knight charged at Gearfried and Chloe smirked.

"Not just yet, I activate Waboku!" Chloe activated the card and three priestesses blocked the knight's path.

"Nice save." Zach complemented her before looking at the rest of his hand. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Zach said and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, these Dragonunity cards seem powerful from what I've seen so far but I won't let that stop me."_ Chloe thought looking at her drawn card. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Chloe announced and both players drew until they had 6 cards in their hands. _"I've been meaning to use this."_ Chloe thought with a grin. "I sacrifice Gearfried to summon Magical Marionette in attack mode!" The knight disappeared from the field and in its space stood a masked magician in a red robe carrying puppet strings (5/2000/1000).

"She does know that if she had summoned that thing first and then played Card of Sanctity it would've gained 200 attack points right?" The male blinked and Lance raised an eyebrow at him.

"I doubt it; she's only been duelling for two months." Lance said folding his arms. "Are you a spellcaster user as well?"

"Nah, my sister is." The male shook his head. "I'm more into fiends."

"Thanks for the advice." Chloe addressed the male before she played a card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy Dragon Ravine."

"I thought you might try something like that so I activate Magic Jammer!" Zach played the card and after he discarded a card a purple mist blocked the tornado from destroying the Ravine, however due to its effect Marionette's attack rose to 2200. "Nice try though."

"I know, especially since I can still attack your Synchro monster, Magical Marionette attack Dragonunity Knight." As Magical Marionette charged forward Chloe activated one of her traps. "But before the attack makes contact I'll activate another Trap Card called Magician's Circle which..."

"I know what it does." Zach cut her off as he searched through his deck. "I summon Lord of Dragons!" Zach played the card and the dragon protector appeared on the field (4/1200/1100).

"_It figures, it wouldn't make sense for him not to have a card like that in his deck."_ Chloe thought as she searched her deck. "My monster is a relatively new one, as far as my deck's concerned anyway, Crusader of Endymion!" Chloe played the card and a magician in futuristic looking armour which covered everything including his face, the armour was blue and brown in colour (4/1900/1200).

"_So, she has the Crusader of Endymion huh? Wonder if she has the other cards."_ Zach thought before crossing his arms. "So, are you going to attack or not?

"As if you needed to ask, Crusader, attack Lord of Dragons, Magical Marionette resume you attack on Dragonunity Knight!" Crusader leapt into the air and stetched out his arms, balls of energy started to form in them before he launched them at Lord of Dragons disintegrating the Spellcaster, meanwhile Marionette's puppet strings stretched out before ensnaring Dragonunity Knight two of the puppet strings wrapped themselves around the heads of the dragon and the woman and slowly choked them to death.

C: 8000

Z: 7000

"What did I tell you? You're friend used his strongest monster too early and it bit him on the ass." Lance grinned and the male shook his head.

"I would've thought that Duel Academy would teach its students not to jump to conclusions." The male chuckled before looking directly at Lance. "Look, that wasn't even his strongest monster kid, so my advice to you is to watch and learn."

"Watch and learn how a North Academy student got his ass kicked by a rookie?" Lance smirked.

"You'll see." The male smirked.

"Is it me or are they hell bent on turning this match into a pissing contest between our schools?" Chloe asked as a massive sweatdrop rolled down both duellists heads.

"Pay no attention to Ray; he's always been this competitive." Zach shook his head as Chloe sent Magician's Circle to the graveyard. "Anyway are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm done." Chloe shrugged and Zach drew his card.

"_Okay, considering how inexperienced she is she's doing pretty well, I'd better take the kid's gloves off if I want to win this."_ Zach thought before looking at the card he drew. "Okay first I activate the spell card Cards of Consonance, by removing two dragon type monsters from my hand this will allow me to draw two more cards." Zach played the card and pocketed the other two cards in his hand before drawing two new ones.

"Don't forget that since you played a Spell Card my Marionette gets another Spell Counter." Chloe pointed out as Marionette's attack rose to 2400.

"I know, and speaking of Spell Cards I think it's time I called upon the effects of Dragon Ravine!" Zach answered discarding a card. "Once per turn I can activate one of two effects as long as I discard a card from my hand, I can chose to either send a Dragonunity card from my deck to my hand as long as it's a Level 4 or lower monster OR I can send one Dragon type monster from my deck to my graveyard and since I don't have any cards that can bring monsters back from the graveyard I chose the former." Zach announced as he picked up his deck and searched through it.

"If he's searching for what I think he's searching for that kid's done for." Ray said folding his arms.

"I'm guessing you two have duelled in the past?" Lance asked.

"Yeah we have, don't ask how many times because it's way too many times to count." Ray chuckled as Zach added a card to his hand. "What about you and your girlfriend?" Ray asked and Lance fell over anime style.

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND! SHE'S JUST A FRIEND WHO HAPPENS TO BE A GIRL!" Lance quickly asserted.

"_Oh yeah, he definitely has the hots for her!"_ Ray thought with a smirk. "The news outlets happen to tell a different story."

"Yeah, they tell a story which is full of shit!" Lance asserted.

"Well, if you say so!" Ray grinned.

"Err; anyways...I think I'll summon the monster I brought out with Dragon Ravine Dragonunity Aklys!" Zach played the card and a small red armoured dragon appeared on the field with a massive spear attached to its head (3/1000/800). "And when he's normal summoned successfully I can Special Summon another Dragonunity monster from my hand and equip him to it so say hello to Dragonunity Dux!" Zach played the card and a winged man in silver robes appeared on the field (4/1500/1000) and quickly grabbed onto Aklys increasing its attack to 2000.

"Is anyone else noticing a pattern with these Dragonunity monsters?" Lance commented but Ray blinked in confusion.

"Huh? Why didn't he summon Dux first? He could've equipped another Dragonunity card from the graveyard with him...unless." Ray's eyes widened and he chuckled. "Hey Zach, you're really going to use THAT monster against her?"

"You bet your ass I am!" Zach grinned. "You should consider yourself honoured Chloe; it's not often that I use this next monster!"

"But you've already summoned!" Chloe pointed out.

"I noticed but this card can be Special Summoned if I remove from play one monster equipped with a Dragonunity monster!" Zach said pocketing Dux and sending Aklys to the graveyard. "Say hello to my deck's strongest monster, Dragonunity Arma Leyvaten!" Zach played the card and a massive orange dragon with two sets of wings flew out of the chasm, it roared at Chloe and her monsters before producing a massive scythe (8/2600/1200).

"That's...that's pretty powerful..." Lance stammered.

"You don't know the half of it." Ray grinned.

"When Leyvaten is normal or special summoned I can equip one dragon type monster that's in the graveyard to him as it's not another copy of him!" Zach explained as Darkspear appeared on Leyvaten's scythe increasing the dragon's attack to 3100.

"_Crap, crap, crap, come on Chloe think!" _Chloe thought looking frantically between her remaining facedown cards.

"Well, I hope you enjoyed your time in the tournament Chloe because it's all downhill from here, Dragonunity Arma Leyvaten attack Crusader of Endymion!" The massive dragon swooped down at Crusader slicing it in two with its scythe.

C: 6900

Z: 7000

"I'll end my turn for now." Zach announced as Leyvaten returned to his side of the field, Chloe gulped and drew her card.

"_Great, what a perfect time it is for me to draw Silent Magician Level 4."_ Chloe thought with a sigh before switching Marionette to defence mode and setting another monster in defence mode. "That'll do it for me." Chloe announced and Zach drew his card.

"Well, that's the meeting over, now to find Chloe and..." Hamden said as he approached the duel area only to blink in surprise when he saw the two teens. "Well, that was easy." Hamden said making his way through the crowd of spectators and over to Lance. "Hey Lance, who's Chloe's duelling?"

"Some guy from North Academy called Zach Michaels; he's the one with the massive dragon on his field." Lance explained. "And I do not like Chloe's chances right now."

"GEE THANKS!" Chloe yelled at Lance before shaking her head. "Don't you have a move to do?"

"That I do, I activate the spell card I just drew; Stop Defence, which I use on your facedown monster!" Chloe's eyes widened as Alchemist of Black Spells (4/1200/1800) appeared on the field and Marionette's attack rose to 2600.

"Crap, crap, crap." Chloe muttered out before remembering something. "I activate Alchemist's effect; by switching him back into defence mode I can add another counter to Marionette!" Chloe said quickly as Alchemist knelt down and Marionette's attack rose to 2800.

"I think your friend almost had a panic attack just now." Ray said shaking his head. "How long did you say she's been duelling for?"

"Two months." Lance said and Ray shook his head.

"Then this'll be a massacre, Zach's practically been duelling his whole life." Ray said sadly.

"Not even that will save you; I activate the other card I got from Cards of Consonance BIG BANG SHOT!" Zach played the card and Chloe's eyes widened even as Magical Marionette's attack rose to 3000 but at the same time the Dragon's attack rose to 3500. "And since I can't risk that monster being a threat to my dragon...Dragonunity Arma Leyvaten attack Magical Marionette!" The dragon dived down at the puppet master and sliced him in two with its scythe.

C: 4400

Z: 7000

"This is bad." Lance gulped as Chloe sent Magical Marionette to the graveyard. "That monster was her best chance at beating that dragon!"

"What did I just tell you? This will be a massacre; she may as well give up." Ray grunted folding his arms.

"Ray's right Chloe, this dragon's the best monster I've got and no matter what position you're monsters are in your lifepoints will take a hit, what do you say?" Zach asked, Chloe didn't respond at first and Zach shook his head. "I'll take that as a..."

"No!" Chloe said determinedly causing Zach and Ray to do double takes. "Not as long as I have lifepoints left."

"Ah to be a naive rookie again, takes me back." Ray chuckled shaking his head. "Ah well, it's her funeral."

"Fine, I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn." Zach said playing the card and Chloe drew hers.

"_This won't help at all, but maybe one of my traps will."_ Chloe thought as she looked at Marauding Captain (3/1200/800). "I activate my trap card Hope For Escape!"

"Hope for what? She's really risking it all on that?" Ray asked.

"Hey if you got a better idea I'd like to hear it!" Chloe snapped at Ray as her lifepoints dropped to 3400 and she drew 5 cards. "It's time I slayed that dragon!" Chloe grinned and Zach raised an eyebrow. "I activate Spell Reproduction, by discarding two cards from my hand I can bring back one Spell Card from the graveyard, namely Mystical Space Typhoon!"

"And you're going to target Big Bang Shot aren't you?" Zach asked with a facepalm. _"Good thing I came prepared for this."_

"Considering I know Big Bang Shot's side effect? Yes, I am." Chloe announced as a tornado destroyed Big Bang Shot's hologram taking the dragon with it.

"Huh? I don't understand." Mike blinked.

"Big Bang Shot has a nasty side effect; if it's removed from the field in anyway the monster equipped with it is removed from play." Lance explained.

"Or it would be if not for my trap card, Dimensional Inversion!" Zach played the card and too everyone's surprise Dragonunity Arma Leyvaten returned to the field, though with his attack returned to 2600. "This trap card can only be activated if a monster of mine is removed from play; this lets me return my Dragon to the field."

"Huh, I knew he would have a backup plan...wait, why is she smiling." Ray blinked when he saw Chloe's broad smile.

"Why? It's simple, because now I can put my strongest monster against his!" Chloe said playing the card. "I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the magician appeared on the field staring down the dragon (4/1000/1000) and Ray burst out laughing when he saw the stats.

"That's a joke right? That thing's pathetic!" Ray roared with laughter.

"Ray, shut up." Zach said sternly and Ray blinked. "Aren't you forgetting about her first duel?"

"Her first duel, what do you...?" Ray asked before realization hit him. "Your next cards Level Up! Isn't it?"

"You got it; I activate Level Up to bring out Silent Magician's strongest form and my strongest monster, Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe played the card and Silent Magician grew up to its strongest form (8/3500/1000).

"I was hoping you'd do that!" Zach said with a grin. "I activate my trap card Evil Blast!" Zach played the card and suddenly numerous evil looking spirits entered Silent Magician's body.

"What...what did you just do?" Chloe demanded and Zach smirked.

"What's the matter? Are you ungrateful for the free power boost?" Zach asked, Chloe blinked but to her surprise Silent Magician's attack rose to 4000.

"Okay, unless that thing has a side effect that's one of the dumbest moves I've seen!" Lance said scratching his head. "And believe me; I've seen some dumb moves! And I've occasionally done some dumb moves!"

"He knows what he's doing." Ray said with a smirk. "And come next turn your little lady friend will regret ever summoning that monster."

"Thanks for the free power boost, allow me to show my appreciation by attacking your dragon!" Chloe smirked as Silent Magician pointed her staff at the dragon and started charging it up, she fired a beam at the dragon consuming it whole.

Z: 5600

C: 3400

"Not bad Chloe, but I still intend to...what trap card are you activating?" Zach started but stopped when he saw Chloe activate her trap.

"Didn't you say you watched my first duel in the tournament? Then you may remember this trap, it's called Enlightenment!" Chloe said and Zach's eyes widened.

"Oh, this is going to suck!" Zach gulped as Silent Magician charged up its beam again and fired at Zach.

Z: 1600

C: 3400

"Do you still think I should give up?" Chloe asked rhetorically as Zach got to his feet.

"You won't be so cocky on your next turn, count on it!" Zach grinned.

"Fine, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe said discarding another card due to the hand size limit, Zach drew a card and grinned.

"I activate my own Card of Sanctity, but since you already have 6 cards in your hand I guess you won't be drawing." Zach said as he drew until he had six cards. "Ah just what I need, I set this facedown and a monster in defence mode, your move." Chloe drew her card and Zach quickly activated his trap. "I activate Thunder of Ruler, now you can't attack during this turn but that's not all!"

"What do you...?" Chloe started but was cut off by one of the spirits exiting Silent Magician's body and passing through hers causing her to grunt in pain.

C: 2900

Z: 1600

"What...what was that?" Chloe demanded and Zach grinned.

"That's the side effect of Evil Blast; as long as it's on the field you'll lose 500 lifepoints during each of your standby phases, so in essence I'm attacking you with your own monster." Zach grinned.

"What did I tell you? It's only a matter of time before Zach wins this." Ray grinned; Chloe said nothing and looked at her new card."

"I set this facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced as Zach drew his card.

"Not much you can do huh? I pass as well." Zach shrugged and Chloe drew her card grimacing as another spirit passed through her body.

C: 2400

Z: 1600

"Silent Magician, attack his defence!" Chloe demanded as Silent Magician fired another beam at the facedown card...but to her surprise a small pink being with big eyes hit her in the chest.

C: 1400

Z: 1600

"Did I just see that or have I officially lost it?" Lance blinked.

"The monster you attacked is one of two non Dragonunity cards in my deck, Marshmallon!" Zach said as the creature returned to his field (3/300/500). "For starters this little guy can't be destroyed in battle but since you where kind enough to attack him whilst he was facedown you suffer a thousand points of damage."

"So what, was this a backup plan if I destroyed your dragon?" Chloe asked and Zach smirked.

"Actually I like to call it "Bringing down Chloe Richardson's Silent Magician Level 8 with a monster who's attack doesn't even come close", yeah I know the plan's name is a bit of a mouthful but you can't argue with the results!" Zach grinned but it disappeared once Chloe started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"You're what's funny!" Chloe grinned. "You spent all this time building up a perfect defence that you forgot about my own traps!"

"And how are those supposed to help?" Zach asked.

"Just watch, first I activate Collective Power so now your Marshmallon is equipped with Evil Blast!" Chloe said and the remaining spirits fled Silent Magician, returning her attack to 3500, and flooding into Marshmallon increasing his attack to 800.

"So now I'll suffer damage each turn!" Zach said as his eyes widened but Chloe shook her head.

"Not quite, I enter my second main phase and activate the spell card Eternal Rest!" Chloe said as Marshmallon disintegrated.

"You gotta be kidding me; she might actually pull this off!" Ray said the surprise clear in his voice.

"I'm not out of this yet!" Zach snapped at him before turning to Chloe. "Are you done yet?"

"Yeah, I'm done." Chloe said as Zach drew his card.

"Come on Zach, you're not going to let some rookie beat ya are ya?" Ray called from the sidelines and Zach shook his head.

"_That's easier said than done, that combo was my best shot at beating her."_ Zach thought before looking at his new card. "I set this in defence mode and end my turn." Chloe drew her card and played it.

"I summon Defender the Magical Knight in attack mode!" Chloe announced as the knight appeared on the field alongside Silent Magician (4/1600/2000).

"Well, I guess the duel's over then." Zach shrugged as he braced himself for the upcoming attacks.

"Your right there, Silent Magician attack his defence, Defender finish him." Chloe commanded and Silent Magician fired it's beam at the monster, another Darkspear, which was quickly disintegrated, Defender charged forward and slashed Zach with his sword.

C: 1400

Z: 0000

"Did...did Zach just loose to a rookie..." Ray stammered in surprise as the holograms disappeared.

"I told you she'd pull through." Lance grinned folding his arms. "Looks like North Academy's students aren't what they are cracked up to be!"

"Please, she just got a lucky draw." Ray shook his head with a scoff as Zach approached Chloe.

"Well here's your prize, one locater card and my rarest card, which I don't use in my deck since it clashes with my deck theme." Zach said handing over the cards too her, Chloe took them and smiled.

"Chaos Command Magician (6/2400/1900) thanks." Chloe said as she started to walk off.

"There's one more thing Chloe." Zach said walking up to the younger duellist, she stopped in her tracks and turned around...only to blink in surprise when Zach offered her a handshake. "Good luck in the tournament, maybe we'll meet again in the semi-finals." Chloe smiled and accepted the handshake.

"Yeah, just don't expect him to go easy on ya in that match!" Ray smirked and Zach turned to him.

"Ray, if I was going easy on her why did I summon my dragon?" Zach pointed out; before Ray could respond a mad chuckle emerged from the alleyway.

"Yes, yes, very good, now allow me to be her next and last opponent!" The duellists looked up and saw the figure from the rooftop sans cloak, he was pale with long white hair, blue eyes and was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots though what caught Chloe's. Hamden's and Lance's attention was the black scythe like duel disk on his arm.

"No way, she was just in a competitive duel!" Lance snapped at the duellist who chuckled.

"I'm not giving her a choice." The duellist grinned and Ray's eyes narrowed.

"Look punk, if you want to duel her fine but let her rest up first." Ray said folding his arms. "I don't know who you are or where you got that duel disk from and quite frankly I don't give a shit but if you're anything like most duellists I know you'll want a decent challenge." The duellist's eyes narrowed before he grinned.

"Very well, I accept your terms." The duellist said pointing to a far off building. "Meet me at the top of that building in one hour."

"You have a deal." Chloe said, the duellist walked off and she sighed. "I can't do this."

"Huh...why not, he gave you an hour?" Ray pointed out and Chloe rolled up the sleeve covering the arms that was injured during her last duel showing him the stitches.

"These stitches where caused by an associate of his in my last duel, that's why." Chloe said rolling the sleeve down. "I don't know about you but I'm not up to spending most of the tournament in a hospital bed."

"So that guy's with the guys who revived the orichalcos?" Zach asked as he and Ray's eyes narrowed, Lance and Chloe glanced at them surprised.

"You know?" Lance asked and Ray nodded.

"It's required learning for all second year students at North Academy, I thought it was a myth before I saw Chloe's duel." Ray explained folding his arms. "Hey, weren't their two younger kids with you?" He asked turning to Lance.

"Huh..." Lance said looking around and seeing Mike nearby. "Mike, where's your sister."

"She went off to duel that creep." Mike said honestly.

"That isn't funny." Lance said folding his arms.

"She told me herself." Mike said and Lance threw his hands in the air.

"Oh, God damn it! Mom will kill me if she finds out Sophie's soul was trapped by an ancient evil...I can't believe I just said that!" Lance said clearly frustrated.

"Your jumping to conclusions, aren't you?" Ray asked raising an eyebrow.

"She's only been duelling for a month; I think I have a right to jump to conclusions here!" Lance answered.

"Lance, relax, maybe we can get their before she does." Chloe said folding her arms. "Anyone know how far that building is from here?"

"No but Ray can drive you." Zach said and Ray folded his arms.

"I'll go one better than that, I'll drive you there and challenge the punk to a duel if we beat your sister there." Ray said digging his car keys out of his pocket. "My car's not far from here, let's move!" Ray ran off and Lance, Chloe, Mike and Hamden chased after him.

"_Sophie, what on Earth was you thinking?" _Lance thought as he followed the older man.

*elsewhere, an hour later*

The building that the Orichalcos Duellist had chosen was closed for renovations which meant both duellists had to sneak around in order to reach the rooftop; luckily said renovations had been delayed by the Tournament so the duellists didn't have much to worry about in terms of being caught.

"_Where is that girl?" _The duellist thought as he sat on the edge of the rooftop. _"I can feel the Orichalcos' hunger, I must feed it!" _He thought just before he heard the rooftop access door opening. "Ah good, you made it." The duellist said standing up. "Well then Chloe, I hope you enjoy your inevitable trip to the Orichalcos." The duellist added before activating his duel disk and turning around...only to be taken aback by the presence of Sophie. "Who are you? You're not the duellist I challenged!"

"I'm a friend of hers, and I'm duelling you in her place!" Sophie said activating her duel disk, the man growled before smirking.

"_This may not be so bad, first I'll defeat this brat and feed her soul to the Orichalcos then I'll duel her friend and defeat her, the master will get two souls for the price of one!"_ The duellist thought before folding his arms. "Very well you can call me Victor, or as my associates call me, the Grim Reaper!"

"The name's Sophie and I'm not scared of you!" Sophie said as she and Victor drew their first hands.

"Believe me little girl, there's plenty to be scared off!" Victor said as he drew his first card and grinned manically. "Don't take my word for it! I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Victor played the card and grinned as the seal encased both of them. "Don't worry dear; I'll make it as quick and painless as I can." Victor said sarcastically.

*elsewhere*

"Can this thing go any faster?" Lance demanded impatiently as Ray drove them to the building, Chloe was sitting in the passenger side seat whilst the other males where in the backseat.

"I'm going as fast as I can, unless you want me to pull a helicopter out of my ass and fly us there CALM THE FUCK DOWN!" Ray snapped at the teen.

"You can do that?" Mike said with awe in his voice causing the other duellists to sweatdrop.

"It's called sarcasm kid, look it up." Ray said plainly before turning to Hamden who was looking up information on the building on the internet via his laptop. "Any luck Hamden?"

"Well I found one match but it doesn't make any sense, according to the website the building that duellist selected is closed for renovations, which have been put on hold due to the tournament." Hamden said before realization hit him and the other duellists.

"That makes it a perfect place for an Orichalcos duel if you don't want media attention!" Ray realized. "Strap in kids!"

"We're already strapped in!" Chloe pointed out as Ray slammed his foot on the accelerator. "And Hamden's not exactly a kid for that matter!"

"And that's a week's worth of detention for you, starting the exact moment we return to Duel Academy, for you Ms. Richardson, unless you start grovelling now." Hamden said and a massive sweatdrop rolled down Chloe's head.

"I...I meant that in the nicest way possible..." Chloe said smiling as sweetly as she could, Ray shook his head as they approached the building...nearly running over Brandon, Theresa and Martin the process.

"Oh crap." Ray sighed as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. "Sorry guys, I was in a hurry."

"You're that eager to duel huh?" Brandon asked noticing Ray's duel disk, then he spotted the others getting out of the car. "Lance, Chloe? What's going on?"

"First here's the good news." Chloe said holding up her two locater cards. "I beat a friend of his."

"Congrats, and what's the bad news?" Theresa asked folding her arms.

"Immediately after her duel with my friend some punk with an Orichalcos duel disk challenged her, I got him to give her an hour to prepare and he told us to meet atop a building closed for renovations but Lance's little sister has gone off to duel him." Ray explained.

"You're kidding, right?" Brandon asked and Ray shook his head.

"I'm not, name's Ray Edwards, I'm a student at North Academy." Ray introduced himself before turning to Hamden. "How far is it?"

"20 minute walk from here." Hamden answered.

"I'd drive you but my car only has enough seats for five passengers." Ray said but Brandon shook his head.

"We'll meet you there; wait for us outside the building." Brandon said, Ray nodded and the others entered the car and drove off.

*back at the duel*

Victor chuckled evilly as the seal appeared on his head, Sophie tried to keep her calm but the 13 year old was having trouble doing just that.

"Now let the fun begin, I summon Beiige, Vanguard of the Dark World in attack mode!" Victor played the card and a skeleton like being appeared on the field, it had blue skin under its bones and was wearing a small brown hat (4/1600/1300) and the seal appeared on its head increasing its attack to 2100.

"Did you say D-d-d-dark W-w-w-world?" Sophie stammered clearly afraid.

"You have nothing to fear child, it's only a duel monster...oh that's right, in the Orichalcos duels the monsters are real and so is the damage!" Victor said putting on a face of mock shock. "But why stop at one? I have another Beiije in my hand and by discarding it to the graveyard I can Special Summon it to the field!" Victor announced holding up a spell card. "And I'll discard him with this, the Spell Card known as Card Destruction which forces us both to discard our entire hands and draw new ones." The two duellists discarded their hands and true to his word another Beiije appeared on the field with its stats raised to 2100. "They weren't the only Dark World cards in my hand child, for example by discarding the monster known as Broww, Huntsmen of the Dark World (3/1400/800) I can draw one card from my deck and as luck would have it I had one in my hand!" Victor drew the card and grinned. _"Ah, excellent I drew my strongest monster early, on my next turn I'll sacrifice my Vanguards to bring it out and annihilate her lifepoints!"_ Victor thought before grinning. "Ah yes, the other card in my hand was Ceruli, Guru of the Dark World (1/100/300) and like my vanguards he is summoned to the field when discarded only he is summoned to your field in defence mode!"

"I guess that's not so bad!" Sophie gulped as a hideous looking mage in a blue cloak appeared on her side of the field kneeling down and using its staff to defend its self.

"But the fun's just beginning child, I activate the Spell Card Dark World Dealings!" Victor played the card and grinned. "Now we each draw one card but in exchange we have to discard a card from our hand!" Victor grinned as both duellists drew a card.

"_Well, with the Orichalcos in play I can't use Sanctuary in the Sky so I guess it's best that I discard that."_ Sophie thought discarding the Field Spell.

"I shall discard this monster, Kahhki, Guerrilla of Dark World (2/300/500) and I have unfortunate news for you, when he's discarded I can destroy one monster on the field and I think I destroy your guru!" Sophie's eyes widened as the guru shattered, she reluctantly tossed it back at Victor who caught it. "Now for the rest of my brilliant strategy, I activate the Continuous Spell Card Dark World Grimoire!" Victor played the card and grinned. "Its effect won't come into play just yet so I'll end my turn."

"Finally, I thought the tournament would be over by the time you finished!" Sophie groaned as she drew her card.

"SOPHIE!" She heard a familiar voice ring out; she turned around and saw a very angry looking Lance approaching the duel field with his friends in tow.

"Ah, so my next victims have arrived!" Victor chuckled. "How very kind of you to show up, I promise that I'll make your defeats painless!"

"This duel shouldn't even be happening! Chloe accepted the duel not her!" Lance yelled once he caught his breath. "And for that matter, Sophie, tell your older brother one thing, WHAT THE FUCK WHERE YOU THINKING?"

"I didn't want Chloe to end up the hospital again." Sophie said clearly on the verge of tears at this point. "Please, don't be mad."

"Lance, there's nothing you can do about it now." Theresa said putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "All we can do is hope for the best."

"Theresa, aren't you forgetting how long she's been duelling?" Lance asked with a groan. "Okay fine, he has two monsters out so obviously a few turns have passed right?"

"Actually, it's only been one turn!" Victor told him and Lance and Chloe's jaws hit the floor. "That's the power of the dark world you fools!"

"Dark World...words can't describe how much I hate that archtype." Ray shook his head. "Basically they revolve around effects requiring cards to be discarded to the graveyard, that coupled with the Orichalcos' power means this punk could have an army of monsters on the field in a matter of turns."

"So why do you hate them?" Lance asked.

"Because they are a cheap and easy way to swarm the field, they require almost no strategy!" Ray scoffed.

"You obviously don't know what you are talking about...that or you got your ass kicked by them one too many times, which is it?" Victor mocked and Ray snarled.

"That's none of your damn business." Ray said as his eyes narrowed.

"Very well, I believe it was the girl's turn..." Victor started.

"YOU GET HER OUT OF THE DUEL RIGHT NOW OR I'm...I'M...GOING TO CALL YOU UGLY!" Lance said causing the other duellists to fall over anime style.

"Oh, I'm so scared." Victor scoffed. "Even if I wanted too I couldn't, the only way this duel ends is when either of our souls gets consumed by the Orichalcos!"

"And for the record Lance, work on your threats." Ray said with a facepalm.

"You think that's bad? You should see his attempts at shouting advice." Chloe agreed earning her an annoyed look from Lance,

"Anyway as Victor said it's my move!" Sophie said looking at her card. "Err...I summon Freya, Spirit of Victory in attack mode." Sophie gulped as the young girl in the cheerleader uniform appeared on the field (1/100/100) and Victor nearly died of laughter.

"Are...are you serious? I was able to summon two powerful agents of the dark world...and you follow it up with THAT?" Victor laughed.

"And I'm getting unpleasant flashbacks to how I was defeated in my last duel against Theresa." Lance said with a grimace.

"It couldn't off been that bad a defeat, could it?" Ray asked.

"Yeah...my copy of Freya kicked him in the balls to finish the match." Theresa said with a wince.

"Oh...forget what I said." Ray said with a shudder.

"As I was about to say, I also activate a spell card called Court of Justice!" Sophie played the card and Victor raised an eyebrow. "Since I have a level 1 fairy type monster on my side of the field I can Special Summon another fairy type monster from my hand so I summon Hysteric Fairy in attack mode!" Sophie played the card and the fairy appeared on the field (4/1800/500).

"Summon all the monsters you want, my beasts are far stronger!" Victor said triumphantly...only to blink when Fairy's and Freya's attacks rose to 2200 and 500 respectively. "What? You don't have any powerup cards on the field!"

"That's where you're wrong; Freya's special ability increases the attack of fairy type monsters by 400!" Sophie said with a grin. "Hysteric Fairy, attack the Vanguard on the right!" Sophie commanded and the fairy adjusted his glasses...seconds before twin beams of light emerged from them incinerating the Vanguard.

V: 7900

S: 8000

"That does it, next turn that little bitch in the cheerleader outfit is going to die." Victor said threateningly making the slit throat motion with his thumb.

"You do that." Sophie said rolling her eyes before setting three cards facedown. "That'll do it for me."

"Indeed." Victor said drawing a card. "Ah excellent, prepare yourself foolish child because I hold in my hand the level 8 monster that will seal your fate."

"What, with only one card on the field? I'm a rookie and even I know that's impossible!" Sophie was quick to point out and Victor grinned.

"Under that right summoning conditions it is possible, as it stands I have four Dark Type Monsters in my graveyard, Beiije, Kahhki, Cerull and Broww, and another Beiije on my side of the field, with these summoning conditions I can bring forth a monster best described...as a fallen angel." Victor explained and Theresa's eyes widened.

"Oh no, this is bad!" Theresa gulped. "If he means what I think he means than Sophie's in big trouble."

"What do you mean?" Lance asked.

"You know I use Archlord Zerato in my Fairy Deck right? There's an evil counterpart to him, with that summoning condition." Theresa explained.

"Oh great, I had enough trouble dealing with him during our duel, how do you think my sister's going to do?" Lance asked as his eyes widened.

"Why don't we find out? I sacrifice my Vanguard to summon DARKLORD ZERATO!" The remaining Beiije was consumed by dark light and in its place stood what could only be described as an evil version of Archlord Zerato appeared on the field, he swung a massive sword menacingly and glared at Sophie (8/2800/2300) and almost immediately the Seal's symbol appeared on its head increasing its attack to 3300.

"3300...that's way too powerful for Sophie to handle, at least if it was Chloe that was duelling she could bring out Silent Magician!" Lance gulped.

"Indeed, unfortunately my dark lord isn't long for this world." Victor said discarding a card. "I activate my Darklord's special ability, by discarding one card from my hand I can destroy all monsters you control!"

"NO!" Lance shouted pounding on the Orichalcos Wall. "Don't you dare!"

"Just watch!" Victor chuckled evilly as Darklord Zerato fired twin dark beams into the air which came down on top of Sophie's monster's destroying them. "This effect comes with a drawback though, at the end of the turn that Zerato uses this effect he is destroyed...oh yes I almost forgot, the card I discarded for Zerato's effect? It was another Beiije." Victor laughed evilly as the fiend returned to field powerboost intact.

"SOPHIE, GET OUT OF THERE!" Lance shouted as the young girl looked at him hopelessly.

"Darklord Zerato, Beiije, Vanguard of Dark World, attack the foolish girl's lifepoints directly!" Sophie could only scream as the monster's attacks connected, Lance continued to pound away at the Orichalcos wall even as the screaming died down.

V: 7900

S: 2600

"YOU SICK SON OF A BITCH! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU YOUR GOING TO WISH YOU WHERE NEVER BORN!" Lance should as the smoke cleared; Sophie was on her back barely moving and was clearly in severe pain.

"Lance...its okay..." Sophie said weakly activating one of her traps. "I activate Numinous Healer, since I just suffered damage I gain a thousand lifepoints back." Sophie said as her lifepoints rose up to 3600 and slowly but surely she got back to her feet.

"Is that the best you can do?" Victor scoffed. "Chloe will be child's play compared to you! Anyway I end my turn and Darklord Zerato is destroyed!" A dark light consumed Zerato and he was sent to the graveyard, Sophie weakly drew her card and looked at it.

"_Card Destruction...I can't use this, his deck revolves around discarding monsters."_ Sophie thought before adding it to her hand and setting a monster. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Sophie said and Victor drew his card.

"Excellent, I activate Spell Reproduction discarding two spell cards from my hand to bring back Card Destruction from my graveyard; I think you can guess what's happening next!" Victor said playing the two spell cards and both duellists discarded their hands. "Zerato maybe gone but I have something almost as powerful waiting to be unleashed."

"This guy's getting predictable quick." Lance muttered under his breath.

"Since my next monster is in my graveyard all I have to do to summon it to the field is return Beiije to my hand so..." Beiije disappeared from the field and the card was returned to his hand. "I summon Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World!" In Beiije's place stood a massive jet black dragon with two sets of horns around its mouth and blood red eyes (7/2700/1800) and almost immediately the dragon's attack power was boosted to 3200 by the seal. "I have bad news for you little girl, that was a special summon so I am free to summon another monster so please welcome the only Normal Monster that belongs among the Dark World monsters, Zure, Knight of Dark World!" Victor played the card and a humanoid figure in grey armour appeared wielding a large sword, its skin was blue in colour and it had a purple Mohawk (4/1800/1500) and the seal appeared on its forehead as well boosting its attack to 2300.

"As much as I hate to admit it, this guy's an excellent duellist." Theresa sighed.

"Indeed, his strategy so far has been flawless." Martin agreed.

"Now then, Zure I command you to attack her defence!" Zure charged forward and slashed at Sophie's facedown monster revealing it to be Spirit of the Harp (4/800/2000) which was cut in half by Zure's attack. "Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World attack her lifepoints directly with Dark World Inferno!" Sophie braced herself for the attack as the massive dragon breathed fire at her incinerating her.

V; 7900

S: 400

"That son of a bitch is going to pay for this!" Lance said clenching his fists in anger as Sophie got to her feet.

"As much as I'd hate to admit it, your sister's in over her head in this duel." Hamden frowned folding his arms. "Unless she draws something soon we're going to have to explain why your youngest sister is in a coma."

"On the other hand if she wins she's going straight to the hospital and quite frankly I don't know what I'm looking forward to explaining the least!" Lance said clearly stressed. "SOPHIE, LISTEN TO ME! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE IN THE HEART OF THE CARDS IF YOU WANT TO WIN THIS...AS INCREDIBLY CHEASY AS THAT SOUNDS..." Lance yelled.

"Wow, he's actually shouting good advice for once." Chloe said causing Lance to fall over anime style.

"His sister's in danger, that's why!" Ray said with a nod. "I don't know what I'd do if my sister was trapped in there with a lunatic like him." Ray added and the other duellists with siblings nodded in agreement.

"Make your final, pathetic move girl!" Victor ordered and Sophie closed her eyes.

"_Well, it helped Chloe in her duel with Damien, it should help me now."_ Sophie thought. _"Heart of the Cards, help me!" _Sophie thought before drawing her card. "I set this in defence mode and end my turn." Victor laughed maniacally as he drew his card.

"Zure, take down her last line of defence!" Zure charged at the monster and sliced it...only for Marshmallon to slam into Victor's chest.

V: 6900

S: 400

"You can't be serious...you drew that monster now?" Victor asked disbelief clear in his voice.

"Yep, and what's even better is the fact that Marshmallon can't be destroyed in battle so unless you have another copy of Kahhki in your hand my lifepoints are safe!" Sophie pointed out as Marshmallon returned to her field and Victor looked at his hand.

"_Blast, I have Kahhki in my hand but I lack the means to discard him!"_ Victor thought with a frown. "I end my turn!" Sophie drew her card and looked at it.

"This duel's over." Sophie announced and Victor grinned.

"I'll take that to mean that you've finally come to your senses and are surrendering the duel to me?" Victor asked.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Sophie said with a frown. "You're just a bully, your prey on the weak and helpless to satisfy your own ambitions, well I have bad news for you, and I'm not weak and helpless...I ACTIVATE THE SPELL CARD LIGHTNING VORTEX!"

"WHAT?" Victor yelled as lightning struck his two monsters destroying them both.

"But that's not all, I activate Cost Down, by discarding a card from my hand I can reduce the levels of all monsters in my hand by 2 for the remainder of the turn and thanks to this card's effect I can now bring out my strongest monster so I sacrifice Marshmallon to summon Guardian Angel Joan in attack mode!" Marshmallon disappeared from the field and in its place stood a beautiful woman with short red hair and blue eyes with wings wearing majestic looking white and gold armour (7/2800/2000).

"No way, she has THAT card in her deck?" Theresa shouted out of surprise.

"Whilst impressive it's still not enough to beat him." Ray said folding his arms. "That is, unless those facedown cards are meant to help with that!"

"Right you are, I activate my remaining facedown cards Rush Recklessly, which gives Joan a power boost of 700." Sophie announced as Joan's attack strength increased to 3500.

"Hah!" Victor scoffed as Sophie activated her last card. "That's STILL not enough to beat me!" Victor said with a grin...which disappeared the moment he saw the other facedown card. "Don't tell me that's m-m-m-m-Megamorph?"

"It is and since my lifepoints are much lower than yours my Guardian Angel's attack is increased all the way up to 7000." Victor's eyes went wide with fear as Guardian Angel Joan doubled in size as her attack rose to 7000. "Guardian Angel Joan, attack his lifepoints directly with Judgement Spell!" Joan spread her arms wide as a blinding light slammed into Victor, he screamed in pain as his lifepoints where sent plummeting down to 0.

V: 0000

S: 400

Victor collapsed as the seal closed in around him, no scream was heard as his soul was taken by the Orichalcos and Sophie collapsed to her knees. "SOPHIE!" Lance yelled running up to his younger sister.

"I'm sorry big brother." Sophie said softly as tears rolled down her cheeks and Lance smiled.

"Hey, don't cry, I'm just glad your okay." Lance sighed before turning to the others. "I don't think I need to say that they both need an ambulance."

"I'm on it." Ray said getting his cellphone out. "Want me to call your mom for you?"

"I think it'd be better if she hears it from me, no offence." Lance told him and Ray nodded in understanding.

"No offence taken." Ray said as he dialled 911, Brandon went over to Victor's prone form and retrieved his locater card.

"I'm guessing Sophie doesn't want his rarest card." Brandon said looking at Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World, Sophie shook her head and Brandon frowned. "Well the only fiend duellist we have among our friends is Kimberly and her deck revolves around Archfiends so it wouldn't fit in there."

"I'll have it." Ray said stepping up once the call to 911 was complete. "I may hate Dark World monsters but its effect might come in handy." Brandon nodded and handed it over; the teens were unaware of the fact that Michael was watching the duel from the shadows.

"_That fool couldn't win even with Zerato and Grapha in his deck."_ Michael thought with a frown. _"No matter, there's still more duellists in the organisation."_ Michael thought before walking off.


	18. Warriors, Dragons and Fire

"All right guys, let's finish this punk off!" Alex grinned as he pointed towards his helpless opponent, he was in the middle of duelling a regional semi-finalist from the Midwest who's only defence was his facedown monster, Alex on the other hand had three monsters, X-Head Cannon (4/1800/1500) a blue and gold machine with cannons atop its head, Robotic Knight (4/1600/1800) an android dressed in red and gold armour and Drillago (4/1600/1100) a yellow machine whose body was covered in drills, three monsters had been powered up by Alex's Limiter Removal spell card which doubled the attack points of the three monsters (3200 for Robotic Knight and Drillago and 3600 for X-Head Cannon). "Robotic Knight, attack his defence, Drillago, X-Head Cannon, finish the job!" Robotic Knight charged forward and slashed the facedown monster, Tool Alligator (3/800/1600) which got sliced in half, X-Head fired its cannons at the duellist followed by Drillago charging forward and attacking him with its drills.

A: 1600

D: 0000

"Nice moves Alex." A feminine voice rang out from behind Alex once he retrieved his prizes; Alex turned around and saw Miranda with her left hand on her hip. "You're still relying on pure power I see."

"Don't knock what works Miranda." Alex said as the young duellist ran off. "I'm at three locater cards already!"

"Really...well aren't you special?" Miranda asked rhetorically holding up 5 locater cards, Alex's eyes widened.

"How did you get that many locater cards so quickly?" Alex asked and the woman grinned.

"You'd be surprised how many male duellists will line up to duel you if you're an attractive female offering a date to the winner." Miranda grinned before pausing. "I don't think it would work that great for you but still."

"Cute." Alex grumbled pocketing his locater cards. "That Osiris Red student duelled again, won after a competitive duel but..."

"Don't tell me that duel was an Orichalcos duel?" Miranda cut him off but Alex shook his head.

"Worse, Lance Alver's little sister ended up in one." Alex said and Miranda's eyes widened. "She won but she's being treated for injuries at the hospital."

"Damn it, isn't she 13 years old?" Miranda asked and Alex nodded. "I can't imagine what's going through his head."

"If I where him I'd just be glad that she's all right." Alex said before walking off. "I'm off to find me some more duels, encase you haven't noticed I have catching up to do."

"You do that, I have all the time in the world." Miranda grinned before walking off in the opposite direction.

*elsewhere*

Once again the Duel Academy students found themselves at a local hospital though this time it was due to a relative of one of the students being injured in a duel, Andreas and Marcus had been called on the way to the hospital and they had met the other students outside the hospital alongside Jeff and they were in the waiting room.

"Okay...so how am I going to explain this to mom?" Lance gulped as he paced back and forth.

"What do you mean? Didn't you call her on the way over?" Marcus asked and Lance nodded.

"I did, she hung up after I told her that Sophie was in the hospital." Lance sighed before sitting down next to Chloe. "I think it's a pretty safe bet that she's on her way though."

"What about your dad? Is he coming?" Marcus asked and the expressions on Lance's and Mike's faces darkened instantly.

"My dad divorced from my mother years ago." Lance said folding his arms. "Shortly after Sophie's birth to be precise, to make matters worse he fled the country before he could start paying child support." Lance explained. "Mom remarried eventually but that wasn't until after a stint in rehab to deal with her alcoholism...and fighting tooth and nail to keep being the legal guardians of me and my siblings."

"Is that why you're so overprotective of your siblings?" Andreas asked and Lance nodded.

"I pretty much had too during my brief time in Child Services, if that bastard had won the match...I don't know what I would've done." Lance said sadly.

"Though I get the feeling it would've involved your fist colliding with his face." Ray added folding his arms. "Try not to worry about explaining this to your mom kid, just be glad that she's going to be okay."

"Easier said than done, in terms of over protectiveness my mom makes me look laid back in comparison." Lance answered shaking his head. "But yeah, I'm glad she got away with minor injuries despite that."

"LANCE!" A female voice rang out making the teens jump, Lance looked up and saw his mom approaching him looking angry.

"Oh...hi mom..." Lance gulped as she approached him...completely unprepared for the ensuring slap.

"How on Earth could you let this happen to your sister, I trusted you to look after your siblings?" His mother demanded as Lance rubbed his sore cheek.

"Mrs. Alvers, it's not his fault." Chloe said approaching the older woman. "Sophie snuck off to challenge that guy because she didn't want me to end up in a hospital bed again."

"Yes, but now his sister's in the hospital in your place." Mrs. Alvers pointed out.

"I don't like it anymore than you do but you can't change the past." Lance pointed out with a frown. "Ideally I would've challenged that idiot in her place but obviously that didn't happen."

"Lady, if it's any consolation, your daughter held her own against her opponent and won despite suffering quite a bit of damage." Ray said and Mrs. Alvers turned to him. "And like Lance I would've gladly challenged that moron in her place."

"And you are?" Mrs. Alvers asked as she started to calm down.

"Ray Edwards, I'm a student at North Academy and I'm the one who drove your sons here." Ray introduced himself; Mrs. Alvers sighed and sat down.

"Thank you for your help Ray." She sighed looking at him.

"Err...excuse me." The four of them looked up and saw a clearly uncomfortable doctor. "Sophie Alvers is ready to see visitors."

"Yes, thank you doctor." Mrs. Alvers said as she followed the others to Sophie's room, Lance trailed behind and Chloe caught on to this.

"Is there something on your mind?" Chloe asked as she slowed down a bit until she was walking at her friend's pace.

"Plenty of things, my anger towards that bastard who hurt my sister, the pain from my mom's slap, the fact that I need to do some catching up in the duel department...and that's just for starters." Lance admitted glancing down at his duel disk. "I'm just glad that it was Victor whose soul was taken and not Sophie's."

"Yeah, I agree there." Chloe said brushing some of her hair behind her ear. "You'll find another duel eventually."

"Thanks, but I'd prefer to find an opponent before the Semi-Finals start." Lance admitted before turning to Chloe. "Does your dad know about the nightmares you've been having since we got here?" Lance asked and Chloe shook her head.

"He doesn't the most he knows is that the others walked in at the wrong time." Chloe said with a sigh. "It was awkward enough telling you, let alone my stepdad."

"You'll tell him eventually right?" Lance asked concerned.

"Yeah, I will eventually." Chloe nodded as the others reached the private room where Sophie was, Lance stopped and Chloe looked at him concerned. "Is there something wrong?"

"I don't know if I feel comfortable going in there." Lance said leaning against the wall. "During our brief time in foster care I told my siblings that I'd look out for and protect them no matter what, but..."

"You think you failed her, right?" The two teens looked up seeing Brandon standing there, Lance nodded and sighed.

"Yeah, and there's strong evidence to support that fact." Lance sighed motioning to his sister's room. "What kind of a big brother am I? I let my sister get injured because I wasn't keeping an eye on my siblings."

"Do you always blame yourself when people close to you get hurt?" Brandon asked and Lance smirked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Lance admitted.

"Don't, it's not exactly healthy." Brandon said plainly. "Come on, even if you did fail her..."

"That's not exactly helping." Lance frowned and Brandon gulped.

"Fair point, basically she still wants to see you." Brandon said once he amended his statement. "Besides, you'll find a duel soon."

"Excuse me I couldn't help but overhear but are you looking for a duel?" A male Irish accent rang out and the three students looked up and saw a young man with shoulder length light brown hair in a ponytail and brown eyes wearing a red t-shirt, khaki pants and brown boots, Lance smirked and stepped up.

"I am, are you in the tournament?" Lance asked and the male smiled.

"That I am, the name's Phillip Masters, you're three of the duellists from Duel Academy right?" Phillip asked and they nodded.

"Yeah I'm Lance, she's Chloe and he's Brandon." Lance introduced the three of them. "Would you mind waiting a few minutes? My sister's in the hospital."

"Sorry to hear that, it's not too bad is it?" Phillip asked and Lance shook his head.

"No but it could've been a lot worse." Lance answered shaking his head. "So...are you up for meeting me outside in 20 minutes for our duel?"

"20 minutes it is." Phillip nodded before walking off; Lance hesitated before entering the room. "Err, Brandon...have you heard of this Phillip Masters guy before?"

"I remember reading his name in a report from a regional tournament over in Ireland that mentioned his name; he won the tournament and went on to win the nationals." Brandon said with a shrug. "Other than that I don't have a clue about him."

"Don't tell me you found an opponent at a time like this Lance." Theresa said disapprovingly and Lance shook his head.

"Well, to be specific he found me." Lance said assertively. "Besides if I wait around the semi-finals will start before I get to win my first duel."

"Okay, that's fair enough." Theresa admitted.

"Besides he was kind enough to wait 20 minutes before the duel starts." Lance added sitting down. "How are you feeling Sophie?"

"Better now than I was at the end of the duel." Sophie admitted with a smile. "You're going to kick that guy's ass right?"

"Off course I am." Lance smiled before sighing. "Sophie, I know you meant well but please don't pull stunts like that again, I don't know what I'd do if you had lost that duel."

"But..." Sophie protested but Lance's mom shook her head.

"Listen to your brother Sophie." Mrs. Alvers said assertively and Sophie sighed in resignation, twenty minutes passed by relatively quickly and once Lance realized that he stood up.

"Well, I have a duel to win." Lance said as he went to leave the room. "I'll come back as soon as the duel's over, regardless of result."

"You promise?" Sophie asked and Chloe stood up.

"I'll make sure he does." Chloe told Sophie and followed her friend out of the hospital; they found Phillip waiting outside on the opposite end of the street.

"I see you kept your word Lance." Phillip smiled as he revealed his duel disk. "I don't think I formerly introduced myself, my name's Phillip Masters, national champion of Ireland."

"I know that much Phillip, Brandon's heard of you before." Lance said activating his duel disk. "The only thing I don't know is what kind of deck you run."

"I suppose it's only fair that I tell you then." Phillip smiled. "I run a hybrid deck like your girlfriend; only difference is that I use Warriors and Dragons."

"That's all well and good...apart from one thing." Lance said folding his arms. "She's not my girlfriend, regardless of what the news outlets say."

"Well, if you say so." Phillip shrugged activating his duel disk. "So, how fair does putting two locater cards on the line sound fair to you?" Phillip asked.

"That's fine by me." Lance said. "Who's going first?"

"If you don't mind I'd like to go first." Phillip asked and Lance shrugged.

"Go for it." Lance answered as he drew his opening hand, Phillip did likewise and Chloe backed off to give the two boys some room.

"All right then." Phillip said drawing his first card. "I summon Familiar Knight in attack mode!" Phillip played the card and a knight in silver armour appeared on the field, he had red hair poking out the back of his head and had a red cape draped over his back, he drew his sword ready for battle (3/1200/1400). "I set three cards facedown and call it a turn." The three cards appeared on the field and Lance drew his card.

"_Why did he open with such a weak monster? That is unless it has an effect that will help him." _Lance thought before turning to Chloe. "Are you familiar with that card?"

"I'm afraid not." Chloe shook her head. "I'm guessing the pun wasn't intentional."

"Err...no it wasn't." Lance blushed upon realizing how bad the pun he just made was. "Anyway I summon Great Angus in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the beast appeared on the field (4/1800/800). "Great Angus, attack Familiar Knight!" The beast charged at Familiar Knight and bit him on the neck causing the knight's hologram to shatter.

P: 7400

L: 8000

"Nice move, but you've triggered the effect of Familiar Knight!" Phillip grinned as he picked up a card. "When my knight's destroyed in battle we can both summon a level four or lower monster from our hands, I chose Queen's Knight!" Phillip played the card and in Familiar Knight's place stood a blonde woman with long hair wearing red and gold armour and wielding a sword (4/1500/1600).

"Okay, that's a slight improvement over the last knight you summoned." Lance said picking up a card. "It's still not good enough though, I summon Flamvell Firedog!" Lance played the card and a dog that was seemingly made of magma appeared on the field, it had wings on its back but apart from that it closely resembled a Rottweiler (4/1900/200). "Attack Queen's Knight!" Lance commanded and the dog charged forward.

"Not this time, I activate Negate Attack to...well negate your attack and end your battle phase." The dog bounced off a forcefield and Lance blinked.

"Why did you wait until now to activate that trap?" Lance asked and Phillip shrugged.

"You'll see next turn." Phillip said plainly.

"Fine, I'll set three cards facedown and end my turn." Lance announced, Phillip drew his card and smiled.

"I activate Reinforcement of the Army, this lets me add a Warrior type monster from my deck to my hand," Phillip played the card and searched his deck for the appropriate card, once he found it he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck before he returned his deck to the appropriate slot. "I won't keep you in suspense much longer Lance, I'll summon the monster I just added to my hand so come forth King's Knight!" Phillip played the card and a knight in gold armour appeared on the field, he was blonde and had a long beard and a purple cape, he drew his sword ready for battle (4/1600/1400).

"What, another weak warrior?" Lance asked.

"Don't get ahead of yourself; if I summon King's Knight successfully and I have Queen's Knight on the field already I can summon a third knight from my deck so come forth Jack's Knight!" Phillip once again searched his deck and found the appropriate card and summoned it, the next knight was a blonde man in silver armour wielding a sword and a shield (5/1900/1000).

"Crap, now you can destroy Great Angus." Lance gulped but Phillip shook his head.

"Not yet." Phillip said after he shuffled his deck again. "I have one more card to play, the spell card Polmerization!"

"Oh great, now what will happen, you know besides the obvious?" Lance asked and Phillip grinned.

"Just watch, I fuse my three knights together to summon Arcana Knight Joker!" The three knights fused together and out of the vortex came a knight in gold armour over a business suit and a kilt wielding a sword (9/3800/2500).

"3800...I'm in trouble." Lance gulped as he saw the stats.

"You don't know the half of it, Arcana Knight Joker attack Great Angus!" The knight charged at the beast and Lance smirked.

"Nice try but I activate my trap card Sekeretsu Armour which destroys Arcana..." Lance never finished as the knight cut the hologram of the trap card in half.

"Sorry, but once per turn my knight can negate the activation of a Spell, Trap or the effect of an Effect Monster and destroy it." Phillip explained as the knight decapitated Great Angus.

P: 7400

L: 6000

"Gee, how lovely." Lance muttered sarcastically as he sent his trap and monster cards to the graveyard. _"Great, not only do I lack any cards that come close to that thing's power but now I have to be careful about what spells and traps I use."_

"I'll end my turn at that Lance." Phillip announced and Lance drew another card.

"I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Lance announced and both duellists drew until they had six cards, Lance looked at his new hand and frowned. _"Better build up my defences."_ Lance thought. "I set a monster in defence mode, switch Flamevell Firedog to defence mode and I remove Great Angus from my graveyard to summon Inferno in defence mode!" Lance set the monster before retrieving Great Angus from his graveyard and pocketing it and the small flame appeared on the field (4/1100/1900).

"Smart, this way I'll have to work in order to get to your lifepoints." Phillip complemented him. "Is that everything?"

"Yeah, I'm done for now." Lance nodded and Phillip drew his card.

"I summon Luster Dragon Number 2 in attack mode!" Phillip announced as a beautiful silver dragon appeared on the field (4/1900/1600). "Luster Dragon, attack his facedown monster." The dragon breathed fire at the monster...but to Phillip's surprise it was revealed to be Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (4/1400/1200).

"Nice try but you'll have to try harder." Lance said folding his arms.

"That I will, Arcana Knight Joker I command you to attack Inferno!" The knight charged at the flame and slashed it down the middle. "Don't think your Celtic Guardian will protect you for long, I activate The Warrior Returning Alive to return Queens Knight to my hand!" Phillip announced as he added the warrior to his hand from his graveyard.

"Is it my move?" Lance asked and Phillip nodded, he drew his card and grinned. "I sacrifice Obnoxious Celtic Guardian and Flamevell Dog to summon Infernal Flame Emperor in attack mode!" Lance's two monsters where consumed by flame and in the place of Obnoxious Celtic Guardian stood a massive centaur made completely of fire with the head of a Lion (9/2700/1600).

"Not bad but I've seen worse." Philip shrugged and Lance grinned.

"That is why I activate Rush Recklessly to increase my emperor's attack to 3400." Lance announced and Phillip shook his head.

"You forgot already? I activate the effect of Arcana Knight Joker to negate the activation of Rush Recklessly!" The knight charged forward and slashed the hologram of Rush Recklessly in half.

"I didn't actually; I activated Rush Recklessly as part of a chain!" Lance grinned and Phillip blinked.

"You activated it as part of a chain? What did you chain it with?" Phillip blinked and Lance pointed to his emperor.

"It was none other than my emperor's!" Lance grinned as he retrieving Flamvell Firedog and Inferno from the graveyard. "When he's tribute summoned successfully I can remove up to five Fire Type Monsters from my graveyard."

"Okay but I don't see the point." Phillip blinked and Lance grinned.

"I wasn't finished, for each monster I remove from play using my Emperor's effect I can destroy one Spell or Trap card on the field, and since I removed two I'm targeting your remaining facedown cards." Phillip shielded himself as the holograms of his facedown cards where consumed by fire and he sent them both to the graveyard.

"Even so your emperor's only strong enough to defeat Luster Dragon." Phillip pointed out and Lance said nothing, instead picking up another card.

"That was another reason I chained Rush Recklessly, so you couldn't negate this Spell Card's effect, I activate Lightning Vortex!" Lance played the card and Phillip could only watch as his monsters where struck by lightning.

"Well, well, looks like I underestimated ya." Phillip admitted as he sent his monsters to the graveyard.

"I'm in Ra Yellow for a reason." Lance asserted before pointing at his emperor. "Infernal Flame Emperor, attack his lifepoints directly." The emperor charged at Phillip and threw a fireball at him causing the Irish duellist to flinch in pain.

P: 4700

L: 6000

"Not bad, but I won't be beaten that easily." Phillip said folding his arms. "Sure you defeated my knight but I have more where that came from."

"Then let's see those monsters, for now I'll end my turn." Lance said and Phillip drew his card.

"Oh, you will." Phillip said drawing another card. "I set a monster in defence mode and a card facedown, your move." The holograms of the two cards appeared on the field and Lance drew his card. "I activate Thunder of Ruler, now you can't attack."

"Fine, I guess I'll have to pass for now." Lance said as Phillip sent his trap to the graveyard, he drew his card and smirked.

"All right, first I flip summon the monster I set last turn, the mighty Blackland Fire Dragon!" Phillip flipped over the monster and a small green dragon appeared on the field (4/1500/800).

"Err; yeah you might want to look up the word mighty in the dictionary." Lance said as a massive sweatdrop rolled down his head.

"Cute." Phillip said shaking his head. "Let's see what you think of my next monster, Delta Flyer!" Phillip played the card and an even smaller dragon appeared on the field, brown in colour it glared at Lance's much larger monster (3/1500/900).

"That still does not impress me." Lance pointed out and Phillip grinned.

"Watch and learn, first I invoke Delta Flyer's effect, once per turn I can increase the level of one of my monsters by one and I chose Blackland Fire Dragon." Phillip announced as the green dragon's level increased to 5. "By the way, did I mention that Delta Flyer's a Tuner Monster?"

"Oh, crap." Lance winced.

"That's right; I tune Delta Flyer with Blackland Fire Dragon to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon!" The two dragons disappeared from the field and in the place of Delta Flyer a massive jet black, mechanical dragon appeared on the field (8/2800/2000). "I think it's time I dethroned that emperor, Scrap Dragon I command you to attack Infernal Flame Emperor now!" The dragon breathed fire at the massive centaur incinerating it.

P: 4700

L: 5900

"_Well, I'm still ahead in lifepoints...but for how much longer remains to be seen."_ Lance thought as he sent his emperor to the graveyard. "Is it my move yet?" Lance asked and Phillip looked at his hand.

"Go for it." Phillip said and Lance drew his card.

"I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Lance announced as the facedown monster appeared on the field, Phillip drew his card and grinned.

"I summon Element Dragon in attack mode!" Phillip played the card and alongside Scrap Dragon stood a small pink dragon with a long neck (4/1500/1200). "Element Dragon, attack his defence monster!" The dragon breathed fire at the monster, revealed to be Ultimate Baseball Kid, and incinerated it. "Scrap Dragon, attack his lifepoints directly!" The larger dragon breathed fire at Lance and he winced.

P: 4700

L: 3100

"You're move!" Phillip said and Lance drew his card.

"I set another monster in defence mode and end my turn." Lance announced as Phillip drew his card.

"Element Dragon, attack his defence!" The dragon breathed fire at the monster, revealed to be Flame Ruler (4/1500/1600) which was quickly incinerated. "Before you ask, Element Dragon gains 500 attack points when attacking a fire type monster, and on that note Scrap Dragon, I command you to attack his lifepoints directly!" The massive dragon breathed fire at Lance who winced.

P: 4700

L: 300

"Only one turn left Lance, use it wisely." Phillip said as Lance drew his card.

"I activate the Spell Card Pot of Avarice, now I can return five monsters from my graveyard to my hand and draw two more cards." Lance did and so and raised an eyebrow. _"Hey, it's that ritual card...haven't used this since...well before I joined Duel Academy."_ Lance thought adding it to his hand. _"This maybe my only chance at beating his dragon but I don't have the monster to go with it."_ Lance thought before picking up another card. "I set this in defence mode and a card facedown and end my turn at that."

"Very well then, I'll take my move." Phillip announced drawing his card. "Element Dragon, attack his defence." The dragon breathed fire at the monster revealing it to be UFO Turtle (4/1400/1200) which was quickly incinerated.

"Since you destroyed my UFO Turtle I'm allowed to search my deck for a Fire type monster with 1500 attack points or less and I choose another UFO Turtle." Lance explained as another UFO Turtle appeared on the field.

"Not bad but not good enough, Scrap Dragon attack his second UFO Turtle and finish it!" Phillip instructed and the much larger dragon breathed fire at the turtle incinerating it.

"Not quite, I activate Enchanted Javelin which increases my lifepoints by Scrap Dragon's attack." Lance announced as a javelin went through Scrap Dragon.

P: 4700

L: 1700

"Rather than bring out another turtle I instead chose to summon Solar Flare Dragon from my deck in attack mode!" Lance announced as the dragon made of flames appeared on the field (4/1500/1000). "Since you already attacked my lifepoints are safe for another turn."

"True." Phillip admitted before looking at the rest of his hand. "I'll call it a turn for now." Phillip announced and Lance drew his card.

"Just what I needed, I summon Senju of The Thousand Hands in attack mode!" Lance announced as and a man with many arms appeared on the field, he was muscular and his face was covered by a tribal mask (4/1400/1000).

"And how is that supposed to help?" Philip asked and Lance grinned.

"Because when Senju is summoned to the field I can add one ritual monster from my deck to my hand." Lance did but his eyes narrowed when he saw how low his deck was getting. _"I'll need to finish this fast if I want to avoid decking out."_ Lance thought. "I activate the Ritual Spell Card Incandescent Ordeal, in order to activate it I must send monsters whose level equals seven or more so I'll send Senju and Solar Flare Dragon to the graveyard to summon Legendary Flame Lord in attack mode!" Lance played the card as the two monsters where consumed by fire and in Senju's place stood a king with long red hair and blue eyes carrying a staff with a glowing red gem on top (7/2400/2000).

"That thing's only strong enough to beat my Element Dragon." Phillip scoffed but Lance smirked.

"I noticed but my Flame Lord has a special ability, first I activate the spell card Monster Reincarnation to add Solar Flare Dragon back to my hand." Lance announced as he returned the monster to his hand and Flame Lord's staff glowed even brighter. "Next I activate the two Red Medicines in my hand to increase my lifepoints to 2700." Lance said as his lifepoints increased to 2700 and the Flame Lord's staff started to glow twice as much.

"Okay, I'll bite, why is the Flame Lord's staff glowing so much?" Phillip asked as he shielded his eyes.

"He gains a spell counter every time either of us plays a spell card and encase you haven't noticed I've played three spell cards." Lance said with a grin.

"Yeah, so what, that doesn't change a thing?" Phillip asked and Lance grinned.

"That's where your wrong, now that Flame Lord has three counters I can activate his effect, by removing three spell counters from him I can destroy all monsters on the field save for him!" Phillip's eyes widened as fire consumed his dragons. "However before I do anything else I'll summon Solar Flare Dragon back to the field!" Lance played the card and the dragon reappeared on the field. "All right guys, attack his lifepoints directly!" The two monsters fired streams of fire, Flame Lord from his staff and Solar Flare Dragon from its mouth, burning Phillip.

P: 800

L: 2700

"I'm still in the game!" Phillip said but Lance shook his head.

"Sorry but at the end of my turn Solar Flare Dragon will deal a thousand points of damage to you, this duel's over in other words." Lance explained and Phillip's eyes widened. "And with that I end my turn!" Lance said as the dragon once again breathed fire at Phillip.

P: 0000

L: 2700

"Well played." Phillip said digging into his pocket and retrieving his locater cards. "As promised here are my locater cards and..." Phillip thumbed through his deck before picking up a card. "My rarest card, look after him will you?" Lance nodded before taking the card...and did a double take when he saw the card.

"The Red Eyes Black Dragon (7/2400/2000) were on Earth did you get this rare a card?" Lance asked and Chloe was equally shocked.

"It was a prize for winning Ireland's national championships." Phillip explained and Lance frowned.

"Problem is it doesn't really fit in with my deck." Lance said rubbing the back of his head nervously.

"I'll take it." The three duellists looked up and saw Marcus standing by the hospital's entrance. "I've been searching for that card for god knows how long!"

"That's fine by me." Phillip shrugged handing over the card to Marcus. "Look after this card all right?"

"You bet I will." Marcus said taking the card and adding it to his deck. "Looks like you're up to four locater cards already Lance."

"Yeah, which means you guys have catching up to do." Lance laughed before he and Chloe followed Marcus inside the hospital.

"Oi, Lance." Phillip called out to him and Lance turned around. "Good luck in the tournament and I hope your sister gets well."

"Thanks." Lance nodded as he and his friends entered the hospital, unbeknownst to the duellists however a cloaked figure had been watching the duel from a nearby rooftop.

"Soon you're soul will be consumed Lance Alvers." The figure muttered to himself before putting a hand to his earpiece. "Are you in position?"

"Yes, I am." A voice on the other end said and the figure smirked.

"Good." The figure said before walking off.

*an hour later*

Lance, his siblings, his mother, Chloe, Brandon, the teachers and Theresa left the hospital after Sophie was discharged, Sophie and her mother was heading back to their hotel room and Marcus and Andreas had left earlier in search of duels.

"All right kids, good look in the tournament." Mrs. Alvers said as she and Sophie got into the rent car. "Mike, try to stay out of Orichalcos duels as well."

"Yes mom." Mike moaned as she drove off. "Man, now I have to find another duel to catch up with you bro."

"So do I for that matter." Chloe agreed with a smile, before Brandon or Theresa could say anything else a little kid bumped into Lance knocking him over.

"Sorry mister." The kid said quickly running off.

"You okay bro?" Mike asked as Lance got up.

"Yeah, he just caught me off guard." Lance said putting his hand into his pocket...and his eyes went as wide as dinner plates. "MY LOCATER CARDS!"

"What about them?" Brandon asked as Lance started searching frantically around his pockets.

"They're not in my pocket, that's what!" Lance said looking around the ground where he had fallen. "They didn't fall out of my pocket so..." Lance's eyes narrowed. "HEY KID! GIVE ME BACK MY LOCATER CARDS!" Lance said running after the kid.

"Make me!" The kid shouted back.

"We should probably help him." Chloe said running off after them.

"Or we could call the cops..." Theresa called after them but no one paid attention. "Does he even realize that kid could have a gun on him?"

"What, that little kid?" Brandon asked and Theresa shook her head.

"Encase you forgot this is New York we're talking about." Theresa sighed.

"We should probably help anyway." Hamden said running after the students, the Obelisk Blue students sighed and ran after him.

*meanwhile*

"Another one bites the dust." Axel Loather grinned as he looked at his new locater card; he had declined the loser's rarest card because it didn't fit in with his deck theme but the fact that he had another Locater Card was good enough for him. _"I wonder how the other duellists are doing."_ Axel thought.

"GIVE ME BACK MY LOCATER CARDS YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Axel blinked before turning around and seeing Lance chasing the pickpocket.

"Sorry, finder's keepers, losers wee..." The kid was cut off by bumping into Axel who looked at the scene with a raised eyebrow.

"Lance, what's going on?" Axel asked as Lance picked up the kid by his shirt.

"This kid stole my locater cards outside of a hospital; I had just won two locater cards to boot." Lance grunted. "And you're going to give me them back."

"I'...I'm sorry, here, take them!" The kid said handing over three locater cards, Lance frowned.

"Where's the fourth one?" Lance demanded after he took the locater cards.

"Looking for this?" Lance looked up and saw the cloaked figure holding up his locater card. "Oops." The figure mocked as he snapped it in half.

"You piece of shit." Lance growled as he let go off the kid. "Do you have any idea how hard I worked to win that Locater Card?"

"Why yes, I did see your duel against Phillip Masters." The figure chuckled before taking off his hood and revealing a shaved head with multiple piercings. "You want to earn back that locater card? Beat me in a duel." The figure said revealing a black scythe like duel disk.

"Oh great, as if I needed another reason to hate you, now I find out that your an orichalcos duellist." Lance's eyes narrowed. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"You can call me Edward, the boy who stole from you is...an associate of mine." Edward said and Lance and Axel turned to him.

"He...he just paid me 20 bucks to take your locater cards as soon as you left the hospital, when I went to give them back he only wanted the one." The kid stammered and Lance growled.

"Using little kids to do your dirty work for you, that is low even for someone working for the organisation that brought back the Orichalcos." Lance growled as Brandon, Chloe, Mike, the teachers and Theresa rejoined them.

"Lance, do you have your locater cards?" Theresa asked and Lance shook his head.

"I have three of them, that piece of shit snapped the other one in half." Lance explained with a frown. "All so he could challenge me to an Orichalcos duel."

"Not the way I would've put it but the boy is correct." Edward said activating his duel disk. "So what about it Lance, do you accept my challenge?"

"I accept it in his place." Theresa said stepping forward. "He was just in a duel but me? I haven't duelled all day so you'll get a better fight out of me." Theresa said and Edward smirked.

"Hmmm...sure, why not, one soul is as good as another." Edward chuckled as Theresa searched through her bag and selected a deck. "I know of your duel against The Hunter foolish girl, I know you run and Dragon and a Warrior deck."

"Then I have bad news for you, I have more decks where that came from and the one I'll be using against you is something I've been working on for a while." Theresa said; Brandon blinked before realization dawned on him.

"You mean THAT deck, I thought it was still a prototype?" Brandon asked and Theresa gave him a reassuring smile.

"Relax; I've improved it a lot since I last used it." Theresa said before putting the deck in the deck slot and activated her duel disk.

"What deck is she talking about?" Lance asked and Brandon frowned.

"It's a bit of a long story but...well Theresa's always been a big Seto Kaiba fan and one of her first decks was a deck based off of Seto Kaiba's Battle City deck but slightly updated...no she doesn't have the Blue Eyes White Dragons or Obelisk The Tormentor but she has the closest equivalent to those monsters in the form of Armed Dragon Level 10 and...well just see for yourself." Brandon explained. "The main problem with the deck has been balance but if she's been able to fix that issue than this guy's in trouble."

"How powerful is this deck anyway?" Chloe asked.

"She used an earlier version against you in that duel you two had a few weeks back." Brandon explained and Chloe shuddered at the memory.

"Doesn't matter what deck this foolish girl uses." Edward said with a sadistic grin. "I will make quick work of her with my Different Dimension deck!"


	19. Different Dimension Chaos

Lance, Chloe, the teachers, Mike and Brandon backed off a good distance as Theresa and Edward got ready to duel, the Orichalcos duellist chuckled evilly as he and Theresa drew their opening hands.

"So, who's going first?" Theresa asked as she looked at her opening hand. _"No sign of my Armed Dragon cards yet but I know they're in my deck somewhere."_ Theresa thought.

"I'll let you go first." Edward announced as he looked at his hand. _"No sign of the Seal of the Orichalcos yet but it's only a matter of time before I draw it."_ Edward thought as Theresa drew her card.

"I'll start things off simply." Theresa said picking up four cards. "I set a monster in defence mode and three cards facedown, that'll do it for me."

"What a pathetic opening move, I have a hard time believing that you beat The Hunter." Edward announced as he drew his card. "I summon Card Trooper in attack mode!" Edward played the card and what could only be described as a small blue tank with a huge red robot head and arms appeared on the field (3/400/400) and every other duellist fell over anime style when they saw the monster.

"You're kidding right? THAT'S his opening move." Lance said flabbergasted. "You know Theresa I could still take him if you want me to take over!"

"Thanks but no thanks, besides if he keeps making moves like that this match won't last long anyway." Theresa smirked and Edward chuckled.

"Really? Then maybe I should demonstrate Card Trooper's special ability." Edward said holding up three fingers. "I chose a number between one and three and I remove the same number of cards from my deck as the number I've chosen, in this case three." Edward announced removing three cards from the deck and to everyone's surprise Card Trooper's attack shot up to 1900. "As you can see Card Trooper gains 500 attack points for each removed card."

"So? If you keep removing cards you'll deck out eventually." Lance pointed out and Edward smirked.

"True but this also serves another purpose, or haven't you noticed the lack of a certain Field Spell Card on the field?" Edward asked and the other's blinked...before it dawned on them.

"You haven't drawn the Seal of the Orichalcos yet, have you?" Theresa asked and Edward nodded. "That still doesn't impress me."

"If I wanted your approval I would've asked for it, now Card Trooper attack her defence monster!" Edward commanded and the small machine charged forward before skewering Theresa's monster...and Edward winced in pain as his lifepoints dropped to 7500. "What on Earth?" Edward demanded as Theresa held up her monster.

"The monster you attacked was Giant Germ (2/1000/100) and when one of them is destroyed it deals 500 points of damage to your lifepoints and lets me summon two more germs to the field." Theresa explained as she sent the monster to the graveyard and searched her deck before playing two of them, soon afterwards two giant pink organisms appeared on the field alongside each other.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Edward snarled as he picked up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Edward played the cards and Theresa drew her card.

"Maybe not by those cards but this one should do the trick." Theresa said but before she could play it Edward activated one of his traps.

"I activate the Trap Card Macro Cosmos, this has two effects, first as long as this trap card remains on the field any cards that would be sent to the graveyard are removed from play instead, as for its second effect it allows me to Special Summon a monster from my deck or hand known as Helios, The Primordial Sun!" Edward searched through his deck and played the card once he found it, the monster that appeared on the field was an odd one to say the least, it was a invisible humanoid figure covered with bandages and had a sun for a head (4/?/?).

"That wins the award for weirdest looking monster ever." Mike said scratching his head.

"This monster's attack points are equal to the number of monsters removed from play X100, in this case 300." Edward explained as the monster's attack rose to 300.

"That's still pretty damn weak; hell her germs can beat it!" Lance pointed out and Theresa nodded in agreement.

"Just watch." Edward chuckled.

"Anyway as I was saying, I sacrifice my germs to bring out Dark Horus in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the two germs vanished, she instinctively went to send them to her graveyard before remembering about Macro Cosmos's effect so she pocketed them instead and in the place of one of the germs stood a massive jet back dragon which roared at Edward (8/3000/1800). "Dark Horus attack Helios!" The Dragon breathed fire at the monster and Edward smirked.

"Big mistake, I activate my other trap card Dimension Prison!" Edward said as the card flipped up and to Theresa's surprise Dark Horus disappeared from the field. "This trap can only be activated when you declare an attack, this trap lets me target that monster and remove it from play."

"Shit that means I'm wide open." Theresa gulped as she pocketed Dark Horus. _"And in big trouble if his next draw is the Seal of the Orichalcos."_ Theresa thought. "I end my turn."

"Very well." Edward said drawing his card. "Ah yes I almost forgot, since you just removed three monsters from play Helios gains another 300 attack points." Edward explained as his monster's attack was shown to be 600; he looked at his card and grinned manically. "And now I will play the instrument of your demise right now, I ACTIVATE THE SEAL OF THE ORICHALCOS!"

"Not again." Theresa muttered as the seal surrounded both duellists, soon the Seal's symbol appeared on the foreheads of Edward's monsters and Edward himself and at the same time Card Trooper and Helios's attacks grew to 1100 and 900 respectively.

"But why rely on such weaklings to do the damage? I summon D.D. Assailant in attack mode!" Edward played the card and a tanned man in tattered robes appeared on the field alongside the two monsters (4/1800/500) and his attack rose to 2300 as soon as the Seal's symbol appeared on his head. "Go my monsters, attack her lifepoints directly!" Theresa braced herself as the monsters charged forward and attacked her sending her to the ground

E: 7500

T: 3700

Theresa grit her teeth in pain as she got up to her feet, her ponytail had come loose during the attack and as a result her shoulder length hair was shadowing her eyes. "Is...that...the...best...you...can...do?" Theresa said in between deep breaths as she gathered up her hand.

"That's not even half of it." Edward said picking up and setting a card. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Theresa drew her card and Edward activated it. "I activate the trap card Graverobber's Retribution, during each of my following standby phases this trap card will inflict 100 points of damage to you for each monster that's been removed from play and I count three."

"And thanks to Macro Cosmos that number will keep increasing every time I destroy a monster." Theresa frowned before looking at her new card, "I summon Blindly Loyal Goblin in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a small red goblin wearing purple pants and wielding a sword appeared on the field (4/1800/1500).

"Oh no, it's only strong enough to beat my weakest monster, whatever will I do?" Edward said mockingly before laughing. "You will have to try harder than that!"

"Whoever said I was done? I activate my trap card Metalmorph and I equip it to my Goblin!" Theresa announced as her goblin was covered in metal armour and his attack rose to 2100.

"That's still too weak!" Edward pointed out and Theresa smirked.

"Blindly Loyal Goblin, attack DD Survivor!" Theresa commanded and everyone else did a double take...before the Goblin's attack shot up to 3250. "That's the effect of Metalmorph, on top of the initial power boost during an attack on a monster that my opponent controls it takes half of the opponent's monster's attack and adds it to his attack points, in this case 1150."

"Oh dear." Edward gulped as DD Survivor was slashed in half.

E: 6450

T: 3700

"Big deal, I still have the lead." Edward said as he pocketed DD Survivor and Helios's attack rose to 2200, Theresa looked at her hand.

"I noticed but for now I'll end my turn." Theresa said and Edward drew his card.

"Why didn't she attack one of his weaker monsters?" Mike asked.

"Metalmorph's secondary effect only works during her turn; if she had then Edward would've been able to destroy her goblin." Brandon explained as Graverobber's Retribution's effect kicked in.

E: 6450

T: 3400

"_I need to get rid of Graverobber's Retribution if I want to win this duel."_ Theresa thought as Edward looked at his card.

"Ah excellent, I activate Chaos Greed!" Edward played the card and smirked. "This can only be activated if I have four or more monsters that have been removed from play and no cards in the graveyard and it will allow me to draw an additional two cards." Edward drew the cards and pocketed the spell card. "Excellent, I summon the mighty Necroface in attack mode!" Edward played the card and a truly hideous site appeared on the field, it was a floating, disembodied blue head with various tentacles coming out of it and part of its brain exposed (4/1200/1800) and it's attack rose to 1700 thanks to the seal.

"And there goes my will to eat for the rest of the trip." Lance gagged at the site of the monster.

"You should be thankful because when Necroface is normal summoned every card that has been removed from play is returned to our decks!" Theresa blinked before returning her two Giant Germs and Dark Horus to her deck and shuffling it, Edward did likewise shuffling his four cards into his deck grinning even as Helios's attack dropped.

"Why would you do that? Your Graverobber's Retribution card is useless now!" Theresa pointed out and Edward grinned.

"It won't be useless for long, first Necroface gains a hundred attack points for each card that's been returned to our decks." Edward explained as Necroface's attack rose to 2400. "More than enough to destroy that pesky goblin, Necroface attack her goblin!" The monster's eyes started glowing a demonic colour and Theresa grinned.

"That's just what I was hoping for; I activate Magic Arm Shield which will make you target Card Trooper instead!" Theresa said as Edward's eyes widened as a pair of pliers pulled the small machine into the path of Necroface's attack, it was turned to stone before one of the tentacles lashed out and destroyed it.

E: 4950

T: 3300

After both players pocketed their respective cards Edward grinned. "You may of destroyed Card Trooper but his secondary effect now kicks in allowing me to draw another card." Edward explained as he drew another card. "Now I enter my second main phase and activate the magic of Dark Core!" Edward played the card and pocketed another card raising Helios's attack to 200 in the process. "As long as I discard a card from my hand this spell card will allow me to remove one face up monster from play."

"Let me guess, my Goblin right?" Theresa asked and Edward shook his head.

"Actually no, my target is Necroface!" Theresa did a double take before Necroface disappeared from the field but two of its tentacles still remained both of which struck Theresa's and Edward's decks. "When Necroface is removed from play both players are forced to remove five cards from the top of their decks."

"But if any of them are monsters that means..." Chloe trailed off.

"Theresa's in for some major hurting." Lance cut her off as Theresa and Edward removed their cards, Theresa looked at her cards and her eyes widened.

"_Damn it, each one of them are monsters." _Theresa thought as she pocketed them and Helios's attack rose to 1200. "Nice try but that monster's still too weak to defeat my goblin."

"We'll see about that, for now I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Edward played the card and Theresa drew hers.

"_Chiron the Mage, with him I'd be able to get rid of Graverobber's Retribution but..." _Theresa looked at the rest of her hand and frowned. _"I don't have any spell cards in my hand."_ Theresa thought before adding the monster to her hand. _"Still it'll be good to give some backup to my Goblin."_ Theresa thought before picking up another card. "I summon Axe Dragonite in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the axe wielding dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/1200). "Blindly Loyal Goblin, attack Helios!" The goblin charged at the monster and Edward grinned.

"Sorry but Waboku says otherwise." Edward said as the three priestesses blocked the attack.

"Fine, I'll end my turn." Theresa said and Edward drew his card, the effect of Graverobber's Retribution kicked in again and she winced.

E: 4950

T: 2900

"You're finished!" Edward chuckled as he played a card. "I activate Lightning Vortex; in exchange for discarding a card from my hand I can destroy your goblin and your dragon!" Edward said pocketing the card and, just before Helios's attack rose to 1300, Lightning approached Theresa's monsters.

"Sorry but I have a trap card of my own, it's called Magic Jammer!" Theresa activated the card and, after pocketing another card, a purple fog blocked the lightning. _"Shit, the card I discarded was another monster."_ Theresa realized as she pocketed Magic Jammer.

"Very well." Edward said picking up another card. "I guess I'll settle for the magic of Swords of Revealing Light!" Edward played the card and three golden swords rained down from the sky pinning down Theresa's monsters. "As I'm sure you're aware your now unable to attack for another three turns but who knows, maybe I'll defeat you by then."

"Don't get overconfident." Theresa said folding her arms. "Are you done?" Theresa asked and Edward nodded, Theresa drew her card and frowned.

"_Not a spell card but this can come in handy later."_ Theresa thought before setting the card facedown. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced as the first sword disappeared, Edward drew his card and Theresa winced as Graverober's Retribution kicked in again.

E: 4950

T: 2300

"I'll set this in defence mode and end my turn." Edward announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_Still no Spell cards." _Theresa thought before adding her new card to her hand. "I pass for now." Edward nodded before drawing a card and Theresa winced as Graverobber's Retribution kicked in again.

E: 4950

T: 1700

"Very well, I think I'll reveal my facedown monster, the dreaded Morphing Jar!" Theresa's eyes widened as the small black jar with a demonic looking face appeared on the field (2/700/500). "Judging from the look on your face you know his effect."

"Yes, when Morphing Jar is flipped we are forced to discard our hands and draw five cards." Theresa said discarding her hand, Edward did likewise and they drew their new hands, Theresa's eyes lit up when she saw her new hand even as Helios's attack rose to 2100. _"I have what I need to turn this around."_ Theresa thought before looking up at Edward.

"You're finished!" Edward grinned as he played his new card. "I activate Chaos End, this can only be activated if I have seven or more cards removed from play and in exchange it destroys all monsters on the field!" Theresa's eyes widened as the four monsters disintegrated. "And now I summon my ultimate beast, the almighty Gren Maju Da Eiza in attack mode!" Edward played the card and a large demon that looked like a red version of Summoned Skull appeared on the field (3/?/?). "This beast gains 400 attack and defence points for each card of mine that's been removed from play and thanks to Macros that brings it's attack points up to a grand total of 7600 plus the 500 from the seal!" Edward explained as the demon's stats skyrocketed to 8100.

"Well, it was nice knowing you Theresa!" Lance said...only to get punched in the head by Brandon.

"That's my girlfriend you're talking about so try to be a bit more supportive...even if the odds are stacked against her." Brandon reminded him as Lance moaned.

"Gren Maju, finish her off!" The massive demon lunged forward...

"I activate Negate Attack!" Theresa announced as the demon bounced off an invisible force.

"Next turn, you're finished." Edward growled as Theresa drew her card.

"There won't be a next turn because I can beat you on this turn." Theresa said confidently and Edward snickered.

"I have a beast that's more powerful than every single duel monster in existence; I'd like to see you try!" Edward scoffed.

"Gladly, I activate my facedown card Call of the Haunted to revive the Giant Germ that was destroyed before Macro Cosmos was activated." Theresa announced as the first germ reappeared on the field. "Next I sacrifice my germ to bring out Armed Dragon Level 5!" She pocketed the germ and the hologram of it disappeared from the field and in its place stood the massive dragon (6/2400/1700). "Next I activate Level Up to level up my Dragon to its level 7 form!" She played the card and the dragon grew into its larger form (8/2800/1700). "Finally I sacrifice my dragon's current form to summon my strongest monster, Armed Dragon Level 10!" The dragon started growing again until it reached it's humongous final form (10/3000/1000).

"Your dragon maybe mighty but Gren Maju far surpasses it's power!" Edward scoffed...only to blink in confusion when he saw Theresa discard and pocket the second to last card in her hand. "What are you doing?"

"Activating Armed Dragon's effect, by discarding a card from my hand my dragon can destroy every monster on your side of the field." Theresa explained and Edward's eyes widened.

"WHAT?" Edward shouted but it was too late as the mighty dragon breathed fire at Gren Maju incinerating it. "I'm not concerned, not only do I have another copy of Gren Maju in my hand BUT since your dragon isn't strong enough to defeat me he'll be even stronger."

"You should be concerned, or have you forgotten about the last card in my hand?" Theresa said turning it around. "It's called Megamorph, as long as my lifepoints are lower than yours my Dragon's attack is doubled!" Edward's eyes widened as the already huge dragon doubled in size and it's attack points doubled as well all the way to 6000.

"NO! STAY BACK!" Edward shouted as Theresa pointed at him.

"I'm sure Lance will enjoy this part..." Theresa started.

"Already have the popcorn ready!" Lance said as he munched away at the popcorn.

"Err, Lance where did you get that?" Brandon asked and Lance pointed to a popcorn vender across the street. "You sharing that?"

"Anyway...Armed Dragon finish him off!" Theresa finished as the dragon breathed fire at Edward incinerating him.

E: 0000

T: 1700

"Phew, that was a close one." Chloe breathed a sigh of relief and Theresa nodded in agreement.

"Come on, you didn't think I'd go down that easy would you...first one to make any dirty jokes gets kicked in the balls, yes even you Brandon." Theresa said before she realized what she had said and started blushing like a mad woman.

"We weren't going to!" Lance, Brandon and Mike said simultaneously before Theresa picked up her hair clip and started tying her hair up in a ponytail, as she finished tying her hair up the Orichalcos shrank down until it completely surrounded Edward who was barely conscious by this point, one blood curdling scream later and Edward's soul was consumed by the Orichalcos, Theresa returned the removed from play cards from her pockets to her deck and walked over to Edward so she could retrieve both of his locater cards, once she did she went to hand one over to Lance.

"Here, to replace the one he snapped in half." Theresa said but Lance shook his head.

"Keep it you earned those Locater Cards, besides I'd rather earn the rest of my locater cards rather than be given them." Lance said and Theresa looked at him suspiciously.

"Are you sure?" Theresa asked and Lance nodded and she pocketed the locater cards. "Oh, I almost forgot." Theresa said walking back to Edward's prone form and searching through his deck and found his rarest card, Dimension Fusion among the scattered cards in his hand. _"Probably a backup plan in case Gren Maju failed."_ Theresa thought before getting one of her decks out and adding it to her deck.

"So what now? Mike and Brandon have yet to duel and I have another duel to do if I want to catch up with you." Lance asked and Theresa stroked her chin.

"So do I for that matter." Chloe pointed out.

"Let's worry about that later." Theresa said shaking her head. "We have one less Orichalcos Duellist to worry about, that's all that matters."

"True, anyway how are you feeling after that duel?" Lance asked.

"I'm feeling fine, sore but otherwise fine." Theresa answered before looking at her clothes. "At least my clothes aren't ripped unlike what happened to them in my last duel."

"Yeah, shame about that." Brandon laughed...only to get punched in the head by Theresa.

"Not helping." Theresa said plainly as Brandon moaned. "So, where too now?" Theresa asked as Brandon got back to his feet.

"Well, me, Chloe and Mike will look around the city in search of duels, what about you guys?" Lance asked and Brandon and Theresa looked at each other.

"We'll do the same, or haven't you noticed that Brandon hasn't duelled yet? Theresa said and Brandon nodded in agreement. "You have our phone numbers so if anything happens give us a ring."

"Will do." Lance nodded as he and his companions walked off. "See you around Axel...Axel?" Lance asked before realizing that Axel had left.

"He left after the duel ended." Hamden explained as he caught up with them. "So, where too?"

"I saw a news report earlier that said there was some duelling going on in Manhattan so I guess we'll head there." Chloe said as they walked off unaware that Michael was watching the duel from a nearby rooftop.

"Another duellist falls." Michael said with a frown. "At this rate me, Felix and Karen will be the only duellists left in the organisation by the time the semi finals start." Michael said as he put a hand to his earpiece. "Sir, Edward has fallen in battle."

"Blast, he was one of the strongest duellists in the organisation." The leader said the anger clear in his voice. "That Alvers kid is becoming a nuisance."

"It wasn't Alvers that duelled him, it was Theresa Daniels one of the Obelisk Blue students and the duellist who defeated The Hunter." Michael answered.

"I see." The leader answered. "The agent assigned to her is in the area so they should duel soon, in the meantime the agent assigned to the other two Ra Yellow students is close to their location, I'll need you to observe the inevitable duel between them."

"Off course, where are they?" Michael asked.

"Near Central Park." The leader said and Michael smirked.

"_The site of Damien's defeat, how fitting."_ Michael thought before walking off.

*elsewhere*

"I swear Marcus will have used up his spending money by the time the Semi-Finals start!" Andreas said out loud as he and Jeff waited for their companion outside of a card shop not too far from Central Park.

"At least he's spending it on support cards for that card he got from Lance's opponent." Jeff commented with a small smile.

"True." Andreas shrugged as he looked around, he got a text and dug into his pocket too retrieve his cell phone, he frowned when he read the text message. "Oh great, Theresa was in an Orichalcos duel."

"Is she okay?" Jeff asked and Andrea nodded.

"Yes, she won the duel by the skin of her teeth but she's fine." Andreas said with a sigh of relief. "Just how many Orichalcos duellists are there?"

"Doesn't matter how many there are, we'll take them down one by one!" Marcus said walking up to them as he added his new cards to his deck. "The cards I got from the card shop will definitely help in that department."

"Indeed." Andreas nodded in agreement. "Speaking of duels I'm hoping that I get one soon, Lance, Theresa, Chloe and Sophie are already ahead of us in that department, unfortunate circumstances surrounding Sophie's duel aside."

"We'll find a duel soon." Marcus said before spotting a girl around their age with shoulder length light brown hair with blonde streaks and blue eyes wearing a black sleeveless t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots being harassed by a group of four boys. "You see what I see Andreas?"

"As clear as day." Andreas nodded with a frown as they saw the boys follow her into an alleyway. "I think we should help her."

"I agree, besides I always did want to play Prince Charming." Marcus said as they got up and followed them into the alleyway.

"Leave me alone!" The girl said defiantly as she reached a dead end.

"Or what?" One of the boys said as they closed in on her.

"Or you'll have to deal with us." The boys blinked before turning around and seeing Andreas and Marcus standing there with frowns on their faces, it was Marcus that had spoken up. "We don't appreciate bullies ganging up on people weaker than they are."

"And what do you plan to do about that? You're outnumbered four to two!" The leader pointed out with a smirk.

"So? We can still kick your..." Andreas started but stopped when he saw that the gang of boys where armed with crowbars. "You...you wouldn't hit a boy with glasses would you?" Andreas asked and Marcus fell over anime style.

"You'd better listen to them." Jeff said walking up to them. "In fact I'd run if I were you because I just called the cops on you boys." The boys' eyes widened before they ran off. "Are you okay miss?"

"Y...yeah." The young girl said nervously, it was then that the boys noticed a duel disk on her arm.

"You're a duellist?" Andreas asked, the girl blinked before nodding.

"Err, yeah." The girl nodded. "I'm competing in the Battle City tournament." The girl added and the two boys shared a look before grinning.

"That's perfect, we were looking for an opponent!" Marcus said and the girl smiled broadly. "Just one thing, which one of us will face you?"

"I...I'd like to face the boy with the glasses." The girl said and Andreas blinked.

"Err, why?" Andreas asked and the girl blushed.

"He's cute." The girl shrugged and the boys fell over Anime style.

"Well...I certainly like to think so." Andreas laughed as he got up. "So...do you have a name?"

"Nicola." The girl smiled as she activated her duel disk. Andreas motioned her to follow him out into the open and she did so followed by Marcus and Jeff, the latter two sat down on a nearby bench whilst Andreas and Nicola took up positions opposite each other and Andreas activated his duel disk. "I hope you're not going to go easy on me just because I'm a girl."

"Certainly not." Andreas said as the two duellists drew their opening hands. "One of the best duellists I know is a woman after all, name's Andreas by the way."

"Isn't that a girl's name?" Nicola blinked and Andreas blushed.

"Err, no that's Andrea, Andreas is a German boy's name." Andreas explained. "So who's going first?" Andreas asked and Nicola looked at her hand.

"Erm...I think I'll let you go first." Nicola said and Andreas drew his card.

"All right then." Andreas said looking at his hand. "I set two cards facedown and I set a card in defence mode, you're move."

"Err, yeah." Nicola said drawing her card.

"Hey Jeff, am I the only one noticing something odd about her?" Marcus whispered and Jeff nodded.

"No, I noticed that as well." Jeff nodded in agreement.

"I can hear you!" Nicola said turning to the two of them and they blinked.

"Okay, so she has some really good hearing." Marcus said once his surprise wore off. "Sorry about that!"

"No problem." She sighed before looking at her card. "I activate the Field Spell Card Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins!" Nicola played the card and the scenery changed to an ancient looking arena with a rainbow above it.

"_Hmmm, so she uses that archtype." _ Jeff thought scratching his chin. _"This'll be interesting to see."_ Jeff added mentally as Andreas looked around his new surroundings.

"Well, the surroundings are pretty I'll give you that." Andreas said turning his attention to Nicola. "But does it do anything?"

"Just watch, I play this card Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth!" Nicola played the card and a grey mammoth with two sets of tusks appeared on the field with a small orange and red gem on its head (4/1700/1600). "Amber Mammoth attack his defence monster!" The mammoth charged forward and skewered the facedown monster with its tusks...only to be sent flying back. "Huh?" Nicola blinked before looking at her lifepoint counter.

A: 8000

N: 6300

"Ever hear of the phrase "look before you leap?" Andreas asked as a small brown koala appeared on the field (4/1100/1800). "Meet Des Koala, not only is his defence too strong for your mammoth to penetrate but now his effect kicks in, after he's flipped he deals 400 points of damage to your lifepoints for each card in your hand and I count four cards so you lose 1600 lifepoints on top of the hundred lifepoints you lose from your failed attack."

"Nice move Andreas!" Marcus shouted from the sidelines, Andreas smiled at his friend before turning to Nicola, though the smile quickly turned into a look of concern when he saw that she was stressing out.

"Nicola, are you okay?" Andreas asked as she ran a hand through her hair.

"No, I...I screwed up." Nicola sighed. "On my first turn as well."

"Hey, relax we all make mistakes." Andreas said reassuringly, Nicola took a deep breath before nodding. _"Marcus was right, there's something definitely odd about this girl."_ Andreas thought as she picked up a card.

"I...I set this card facedown and end my turn." Nicola announced as the card appeared behind Amber Mammoth and Andreas drew his card.

"Very well." Andreas said before looking at his new card. "I sacrifice Des Koala to summon my own mammoth, Big Tusked Mammoth in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and Des Koala disappeared from the field and in its place stood a massive purple mammoth (5/2000/1000). "My mammoth has a special ability, any monsters you summon from now on have to wait a turn before attacking."

"Right." Nicola nodded seemingly unfazed by the news, Andreas raised an eyebrow at this.

"_She doesn't seem concerned that my monster's stronger than hers, either that or she has a really good poker face."_ Andreas thought before pointing to his mammoth. "Big-Tusked Mammoth attack Amber Mammoth!" The larger mammoth charged at the smaller one and Nicola smiled.

"I activate Amber Mammoth's effect!" Nicola announced as Amber Mammoth was skewered by Big-Tusked Mammoth and Andreas did a double take when he saw the monster card appear in the Spell and Trap Card zone.

"Marcus, am I the only one seeing a monster card in her Spell and Trap card zone?" Andreas asked and Marcus shook his head.

"No, I see it as well." Marcus responded equally as confused. "What gives Nicola?"

"My deck runs the Crystal Beast archtype and those monsters double as Continuous Spell Cards, you see when they are destroyed in battle I can send them to the Spell and Trap Card zone rather than my graveyard." Nicola explained. "Only downside is I still lose lifepoints."" Nicola added and Andreas nodded adjusting his glasses.

"Ah I see, I'm assuming your Field Spell Card supports this archtype?" Andreas asked interested.

"Yeah, it has numerous effects depending on how many Crystal Beasts have been played as Spell Cards." Nicola said with a smile. "For example, since I have one card in play my Field Spell card can't be destroyed."

"I see, does this persist despite how many Crystal Beast cards you play?" Andreas asked and Nicola nodded. _"This could be troublesome."_ Andreas thought.

A: 8000

N: 6000

"Anyway, I'll end my turn for now." Andreas announced as Nicola drew her card.

"All right, I summon Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus in attack mode!" Nicola played the card and a beautiful looking white horse with golden wings appeared on the field, it had a horn on its head and large blue gems on the inside of its wings (4/1800/1200). "When she's summoned successfully I can take one Crystal Beast from my hand, deck or graveyard and play it as a continuous spell card, I'll chose a second Amber Mammoth from my deck." Nicola retrieved the card from her deck and placed it in the appropriate slot. "But now you're in trouble, I activate my trap card Crystal Raigeki!" Nicola said as the card flipped up. "In order to activate this trap I have to send one monster from my Spell and Trap Card zone to my graveyard as long as it has Crystal Beast in its name." Nicola retrieved the Amber Mammoth and looked at it sadly for a few minutes before sending it to the graveyard. "Now that I've done that I can target one monster you control and destroy it."

"WHAT?" Andreas blurted out as Big-Tusked Mammoth was slowly turned into crystal before shattering. "I see, you didn't want to lose the protection your field spell got hence why you waited."

"Yeah, that's it!" Nicola nodded.

"She's a lot better than I was expecting her to be, I'll give her that." Marcus admitted and Jeff nodded in agreement. "Wonder why I've never heard of her before now?"

"I've only been duelling for a short time." Nicola admitted and the boys did a double take. "Only a month to be honest."

"Only a month?" Andreas echoed clearly impressed.

"Man, I wish I was this good when I was starting out!" Marcus said and Nicola blushed clearly embarrassed by the praise that she was getting.

"I had a good teacher." Nicola said rubbing the back of her head nervously.

"_That much is obvious and I still don't know about her field spells other effects, In short, I need to get rid of that Field Spell if I want to win this."_ Andreas thought as Nicola pointed at her Pegasus.

"Sapphire Pegasus, attack his lifepoints directly!" The Pegasus took flight and without missing a beat Andreas activated one of his traps.

"I activate my trap card Battle Instinct!" Andreas said as the trap flipped up. "This trap can only be activated if you declare a direct attack on my lifepoints and I have no means of defending myself, once those conditions are met I'm allowed to special summon a Level 4 or lower Beast monster from my hand!" Andreas looked at his hand before picking up a card. "I summon Bazoo, The Soul Eater in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the Mandrill appeared on the field (4/1600/900) Nicola smiled when she saw the stats.

"Fine, I'll just destroy your new monster instead!" Nicola said as the Pegasus dived towards Bazoo.

"That's where my other trap card comes in, Horn of the Phantom Beast!" Andreas flipped the card and Bazoo grabbed the horn and blew into it. "This trap is treated like an equip spell card, one that can only be equipped to Beasts and Beast Warriors and when it is equipped to them the monster in question gains a powerboost of 800 points!" Andreas explained as Bazoo's attack rose to 2400.

"Fine, Sapphire Pegasus call off your attack!" The Pegasus landed back on the ground and Nicola was silent for a few minutes as her hair overshadowed her eyes.

"Nicola, is something wrong?" Andreas asked and she looked up at him with what could only be described as pure joy in her eyes.

"No, it's...it's just been so long since I've had a competitive duel." Nicola said shaking her head. "Most of my opponents go easy on me because..." She trailed off and Andreas raised an eyebrow.

"Because of what?" Andreas asked but Nicola shook her head.

"I'd rather not talk about it in public." Nicola sighed before pausing. "Tell you what, since you're the only opponent to give me I good fight up until now I'll tell you anything you want to know if you beat me, preferably somewhere private"

"Sounds fair to me." Andreas shrugged. "Anyway it was still your turn last I checked."

"Oh yeah." Nicola said before looking at the rest of her hand. "I'll end my turn for now." Nicola announced and Andreas drew his card.

"Bazoo, attack Sapphire Pegasus!" The mandrill charged at the Pegasus and slammed it's body into it disintegrating it.

"Like Amber Mammoth Sapphire Pegasus can be sent to the Spell and Trap card zone rather than the graveyard." Nicola explained as she played the card. "And now that I have two Crystal Beasts in my Spell and Trap card zone any battle damage I receive is cut in half."

"_Blast, if it had been sent to the graveyard I could've drawn a new card." _Andreas thought annoyed.

A: 8000

N: 5400

"Very well." Andreas said looking at his drawn card. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Andreas set the card and Nicola drew her card...and her eyes lit up.

"_All right, I've drawn my strongest monster!"_ Nicola thought as she added it to her hand before picking up another card. "I activate a spell card called Rare Value, this allows you to chose one of my Crystal Beast cards in my Spell and Trap card zone and send it to my graveyard, in exchange for that I'm allowed to draw two cards from my deck."

"All right, I chose the Amber Mammoth you played first." Andreas announced and Nicola picked it up, she looked at it sadly for a few moments before sending it to her graveyard and drawing two cards from her deck.

"All right, I activate a Continuous Spell Card called Crystal Tree!" Nicola played the card and a tree seemingly made of crystal sprouted from the ground. "From now on every time I play a Crystal Beast card in the Spell and Trap card zone this spell card will get a Crystal Counter, as for what they will do, wait and see."

"_Hmmm, that card could be troublesome."_ Andreas thought as Nicola played another card.

"I now summon Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise in attack mode!" Nicola played the card and a turtle with various emeralds on its shell appeared on the field (3/600/2000) Andreas blinked when he saw the stats.

"Why would you summon something so weak in attack mode?" Andreas asked.

"Let's see who's weak after I play Shield and Sword!" Nicola played the card and Andreas's eyes widened as the attack and defence stats where swapped around, Emerald Tortoise's attack shot up to 2000 and Bazoo's attack plummeted down to 900. "Emerald Tortoise attack Bazoo the Soul Eater." The turtle retreated into its shell and started spinning, without warning it charged at Bazoo destroying it.

A: 6900

N: 5400

"_I can't believe I fell for the oldest trick in the book!" _Andreas thought as he sent his monster and trap card to the graveyard._ "At least her Shield and Sword spell card will only work during this turn." _Andreas thought.

"I'll end my turn at..." Nicola started.

"Ah Nicola there you are." Nicola blinked before looking over her shoulder and saw a man with short light brown hair and blue eyes who was wearing a business suit. "Who's the lad you are duelling?"

"His name's Andreas dad." Nicola said with a small smile and Andreas blinked.

"It's nice to meet you sir." Andreas said with a respectful nod towards her dad, he smiled and returned the nod.

"Likewise, I hope your giving her a challenge." Her dad smiled and Andreas nodded.

"Indeed, and she's giving me a challenge as well." Andreas said as he drew his card, Nicola's dad smiled as he watched the duel. "Anyway, I summon Enraged Battle Ox in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the Minotaur appeared on the field with rage in its eyes (4/1700/1000). "And since your monster's stats are back to normal my Battle Ox can destroy it, AXE SLAM ATTACK!" The Battle Ox charged forward...but to the surprise of everyone except Nicola and her dad she switched the monster to defence mode and the tortoise retreated into its shell, as a result the Ox's axe bounced off of the Tortoise's shell.

A: 6600

N: 5400

"What the...it was my turn you shouldn't of been able to change your monster's position." Andreas stammered in surprise as the Battle Ox returned to his side of the field.

"That's the effect of Emerald Tortoise, once per turn I can switch the battle position of a monster that's been targeted for an attack." Nicola explained,

"I see." Andreas said looking at his hand. "I'll end my turn for now." Andreas said, Nicola nodded and drew her card.

"I summon Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger in attack mode!" Nicola played the card and a white Sabre Tooth Tiger appeared on the field, it had horns on its head and legs and it growled at the Battle Ox (4/1600/1000).

"_Why did she summon that? It's weaker than my Battle Ox."_ Andreas thought but too his surprise Nicola pointed towards Battle Ox.

"Topaz Tiger attack Enraged Battle Ox!" The tiger charged at the Battle Ox who got ready to fight back...but to Andreas's surprise the tiger's attack rose to 2000 and it ripped out the Battle Ox's throat.

A: 6300

N: 5400

"Don't tell me, that's Topaz Tiger's effect right?" Andreas asked as he sent Enraged Battle Ox to the graveyard and Nicola nodded.

"Yeah, when it attacks an opponent's monster it gains 400 attack points during the damage step." Nicola explained as Topaz Tiger returned to her side of the field as it's stats returned to normal. "That ends my turn." She announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_Drat, I have nothing that can beat her monsters, better play it safe."_ Andreas thought picking up a card. "I set this in defence mode and end my turn." Andreas announced and Nicola drew her card.

"I summon Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat in attack mode!" Nicola played the card and a pink cat appeared on the field, it had a blue gem with a gold wing design surrounding it around its neck and a similar design was attached to its feet (3/1200/400).

"_Another weakling, but if it's anything like her other monsters it'll be a mistake to underestimate it."_ Andreas thought as Nicola pointed to her cat.

"Amethyst Cat attack his lifepoints directly!" Nicola commanded.

"ATTACK MY WHAT?" Andreas shouted in surprise as the cat charged forward past his facedown monster and scratched him.

A: 5700

N: 5400

"Okay, what the hell just happened?" Andreas demanded.

"My cat can attack your lifepoints directly even if you have a monster on your side of the field, only downside is that the damage is cut in half." Nicola explained. "Topaz Tiger, attack his defence." The tiger charged forward as it's attack rose to 2000 again...only to be bounced back to Nicola's side of the field. "What?"

"The monster you attacked was Prevent Rat!" Andreas announced as a small blue rat with a tough outer shell appeared on the field (4/500/2000). "Since the attack of your tiger and the defence of my rat was equal neither of us take damage."

"Okay...err, I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Nicola announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_I need to get rid of that cat of hers before it does anymore damage."_ Andreas thought before looking at his new card. _"Excellent."_ Andreas thought before playing the card. "I sacrifice Prevent Rat to summon Manticore of Darkness in attack mode!" Prevent Rat vanished from the field and in its place stood the manticore which roared at Nicola (6/2300/1000). "Manticore of Darkness attack Amethyst Cat!" The manticore took flight and divebombed at Amethyst Cat.

"I activate Emerald Tortoise's effect, allowing me to switch Amethyst Cat to defence mode!" Nicola announced as the cat knelt down just before the manticore's claws ripped it to shreds. "And like the other Crystal Beasts my cat can be placed in the Spell and Trap Card zone instead of being sent to the graveyard." Nicola played the card and the hologram of the monster card appeared behind Emerald Tortoise.

"And your tree gets its first counter." Andreas pointed out as one of the gems on the tree started glowing. _"At least I don't have to worry about direct attacks."_ Andreas thought. "I activate a spell card called Dian Keto The Cure Master to restore a thousand of my lifepoints and end my turn." Andreas announced as his lifepoints shot up to 6800 and Nicola drew her card.

"I activate the Spell Card Crystal Beacon, this lets me special summon a Crystal Beast Monster from my deck." Nicola announced as she searched through her deck. "I chose to summon Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle in attack mode!" Nicola played the card and a small black cat with a ruby at the end of its tail appeared on the field (3/300/300).

"That's supposed to scare me?" Andreas asked as a massive sweatdrop rolled down his head, Nicola finished shuffling her deck and smiled.

"There's a reason I summoned him in this manner, when Ruby Carbuncle is Special Summoned I can bring out as many Crystal Beast monsters from my Spell and Trap card zone to the field as possible, obviously I only have room for one more monster so I summon Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus!" Nicola played the card and the Pegasus returned to the field. "I'm sure you remember her effect?"

"Yes I do." Andreas nodded as she retrieved Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle (4/1400/800) from her deck and played it. "I don't see the point though, none of those monsters come close to Manticore's power!" Andreas pointed out as the tree got another counter.

"You'll see, first I activate the effect of Crystal Tree's Crystal Counters." She said as Crystal Tree vanished from the field. "Now that it's gone I can add a number of Crystal Beast card to my Spell and Trap card zone equal to the number of counters it had from my deck." Nicola explained as she played another Topaz Tiger and Amber Mammoth. "Sorry Andreas but this duel will be over soon, first I activate the trap I set last turn, Ojama Trio!"

"Ojama what?" Andreas asked as three strange beasts appeared on his side of the field, one yellow, one black and one green, they shared one common trait though, they were wearing red thongs (2/0/1000).

"I think I speak for everyone when I ask WHAT IN THE HOLY NAME OF FUCK ARE THOSE!" Marcus said upon seeing the monsters.

"Those are the Ojama Tokens, you can't tribute them and when they are destroyed you lose 300 lifepoints which is where my next card comes in, I activate a Spell Card called Crystal Abundance!" Nicola played the card and Andreas blinked.

"What does that do?" Andreas asked raising an eyebrow.

"For starters I have to send the four Crystal Beast cards in my Spell and Trap Card zone to my graveyard, in exchange it destroys all monsters on the field!" Nicola sent the cards to the graveyard and Andreas's eyes widened as all the monsters on the field shattered. "But that's not all, now I can special summon the same number of monsters from my graveyard with Crystal Beast in its name as you had and I chose Sapphire Pegasus, Emerald Tortoise, Cobalt Eagle and Amethyst Cat." She announced as the monsters returned to the field alongside a brown eagle with a gem in its wing, she dug through her deck again and played a second Sapphire Pegasus. "Sapphire Pegasus, Emerald Tortoise, Amethyst Cat, Cobalt Eagle attack his lifepoints directly!" The monsters charged forward and attacked Andreas one by one sending him to the ground.

A: 900

N: 5400

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Nicola announced and Andreas got up and drew his card.

"_Damn, I don't have anything to discard to bring back Manticore of Darkness."_ Andreas thought as he looked at his hand. "I activate Card of Sanctity, this allows us both to draw until we have 6 cards in our hands." Andreas announced and both duellists drew. "I activate Lightning Vortex, by discarding a card from my hand I can destroy all monsters on your side of the field." Nicola's eyes widened as lightning struck her monsters destroying them and she sent them to the graveyard. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Andreas set the monster and Nicola drew her card.

"I activate another Rare Value card." Nicola said playing the card, Andreas wordlessly pointed at the hologram of Sapphire Pegasus and she sent it to the graveyard before drawing two cards from her deck. "First I activate Soul Release which allows me to remove cards from either of our graveyards, I chose to remove all extra copies of monsters already in my graveyard." She removed the cards from her graveyard and pocketed them.

"Why did you do that?" Andreas asked raising an eyebrow.

"You'll see soon, first I activate the other card I drew with Rare Value's effect, Reload which lets me send my hand back to my deck and draw a new one." She did so and once she shuffled her deck and drew a new hand she grinned. "I activate my trap card Rainbow Gravity!"

"Rainbow what?" Andreas and Marcus asked simultaneously.

"In order to activate this trap I needed seven Crystal Beast monsters in my graveyard with different names, hence why I removed several of them." Nicola explained as she started searching her deck. "Once that condition is met I can Special Summon my strongest from my deck or graveyard whilst ignoring the summoning conditions so come forth Rainbow Dragon!" She played the card and Andreas and Marcus had to shield their eyes when a bright light enveloped the field.

"TOO BRIGHT!" Andreas shouted, once the light died down he looked up...and his jaw dropped. "Holy shit."

"Whoa." Marcus said in awe of what he saw, it was a majestic silver dragon that was floating above the battle field (10/4000/0).

"Holy mother of God." Jeff blurted out when he saw the monster.

"This is my strongest monster Rainbow Dragon, he's led me to victory before and now won't be any different." Nicola explained. "And now I summon my final Sapphire Pegasus." Nicola said as another Pegasus appeared on the field and she pointed to it. "Sapphire Pegasus attack his defence monster!" The Pegasus took flight and divebombed at the facedown monster, revealed to be Alligator's Sword (4/1500/1200) which was destroyed, tears started rolling down Nicola's eyes as she started saying the next part. "Andreas...thanks for giving me a good match..."

"The pleasure's all mine." Andreas smiled as he looked up at the dragon. _"Anytime now."_

"Rainbow Dragon, finish him off." The dragon breathed fire at Andreas...

"But the match isn't over yet, I activate my trap card Nutrient Z!" Andreas activated the card and smiled. "This trap can only be activated if I'm about to lose 2000 or more lifepoints, it gives my lifepoints a boost of 4000 points before the attack hits!" Andreas said as his lifepoints shot up to 4900 and was brought back down to 900 by the attack.

A: 900

N: 5400

"Thanks for the heart attack dude!" Marcus called out from the sidelines and Andreas smiled.

"Anytime." Andreas said cheekily before turning to Nicola. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm done." Nicola nodded.

"Though you may as well give up son, her Rainbow Dragon has more than enough power to finish you off." Nicola's dad chimed in and Andreas smiled closing his eyes as he said the next part.

"You know your daughter reminds me of a friend of mine, she's a rookie as well and like your daughter she has a powerful monster in her deck." Andreas said looking at them directly. "What I'm getting at is that she has a motto that I've come to live by whenever I duel."

"And what is this motto?" Nicola asked.

"I won't give up as long as I have lifepoints left and last I checked I have just under one thousand points left." Andreas said before reaching for his deck. "And now, I DRAW!" Andreas declared as he drew his card. Andreas closed his eyes. _"Heart of the Cards, help me!" _Andreas thought before opening his eyes.

"So, did you get a good card?" Nicola's dad asked and Andreas smiled.

"Why don't you judge for yourself, I activate Polmerization which allows me to fuse Des Kangaroo and Big Koala to form my strongest beast yet, THE MASTER OF OZ!" Andreas played the card and the two monsters fused together to form the massive green koala in the purple jacket and boxing gloves (9/4200/3700).

"Whoa." Nicola gulped at the site of the monster.

"Relax dear, you have enough lifepoints to survive the attack." Nicola's dad reassured her and Andreas shook his head.

"Sorry to say but I have another card to play and it's the card that'll lead to your daughter's defeat." Andreas said picking up another card. "I activate Megamorph, as long as my lifepoints are lower than yours my Master of Oz's attack will be doubled." Nicola's eyes widened when the Master of Oz doubled in size and attack power increasing its attack all the way to 8400. "For what it's worth Nicola, this has been a fun duel."

"The feeling's mutual." Nicola nodded with a smile as Andreas pointed to his monster.

"Master of Oz, attack Sapphire Pegasus and end this duel!" The monster pulled back it's fist and slammed it into the Pegasus squashing it like a bug.

A: 900

N: 0000

Nicola stood there with her hair overshadowing her eyes and her arms by her side as the holograms disappeared, some of the people who had stopped to watch the duel cheered for Andreas who smiled as he deactivated his duel disk before approaching Nicola and offering a handshake. "That was a close one."

"Yeah, it was." Nicola said looking up with a smile on her face before accepting the handshake. "Dad, I'm sorry I ran off but I wanted to look for a duel."

"It's fine dear, you had a good duel that's all that matters." Her dad said as she dug into her pocket and handed over her locater cards to Andreas alongside Rainbow Dragon. "Here, you earned them." Nicola said and Andreas took the locater cards but declined the monster.

"Your monster's strong but I don't have any Crystal Beasts, it would be useless in my deck." Andreas said, she smiled and returned the monster to her deck. "Didn't you say that you wanted to tell us something if I beat you?" Andreas asked as Marcus and Jeff walked over, her dad blinked before catching on.

"Nicola, are you sure about this?" Her dad asked and she nodded.

"He was my first real challenge in a while dad, I think it's only fair." Nicola said before turning to the boys. "Can we go somewhere private?"

"Sure." Andreas nodded and they followed Nicola to a more secluded area. "So what did you want to tell us?"

"You know how I mentioned earlier that people tend to go easy on my when I'm duelling them? It's because...well it was because I made the mistake of revealing that I'm...different to them." Nicola explained and Andreas blinked.

"I'm afraid I don't follow." Andreas said and Marcus nodded in agreement.

"My fault for trying to be subtle about it." Nicola sighed before leaning against a wall. "How familiar are you boys with Autism?"

"My dad's a social worker, he occasionally works with people with Autism." Marcus said before realization dawned on him. "Are you saying you have it?"

"Yeah, I have high functioning autism." Nicola said looking at her deck. "My dad got me into the game so that I can work on my social skills."

"He brought you the deck?" Andreas asked and she nodded. "That's rather powerful deck to give to a rookie."

"He got it for me because it reflects how unique I am, I'm actually hoping to apply for duel academy next year." Nicola said and Andreas smiled.

"With those skills you'll get in easily, we should know we're duel academy students." Andreas said and Nicola smiled.

"You don't think my Autism will get in the way off that?" Nicola asked and Andreas shook his head. "Thanks." She said with a smile.

"Aw, how sickeningly sweet." The three teens looked up and saw a man with shoulder length black hair and brown eyes leaning against a nearby wall, he was dressed smartly but the boys' eyes narrowed when they saw the Black, Scythe like duel disk on his arm. "Sorry to break up the chit chat kids but I want to be your next opponent."

"You got it!" Marcus said stepping forward. "Nicola, I strongly suggest that you get away from here." Marcus said turning to her.

"Why? Because he has an ugly duel disk?" Nicola blinked.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you little lady." The man smirked pointing to a nearby rooftop where a man was standing armed with a sniper rifle. "Guess who he has in his sites, here's a hint, he's your daddy."

"Dad..." Nicola's eyes widened and Marcus clenched his fist.

"You bastard, leave him out of this!" Marcus snapped at him. "Why do you even care if she sticks around?"

"I like having a captive audience." The man grinned sadistically. "My name is Presario The Great, master magician and Orichalcos duellist!" Presario grinned before activating his duel disk. "Allow me to show you you a trick that'll make your soul...disapear!"


	20. All the World's a Stage

Marcus and Presario took up positions opposite each other whilst Nicola and Andreas backed off a short distance from them occasionally casting worrying glances towards the sniper on the roof, Marcus's eyes narrowed as he activated his duel disk.

"So what's the matter Presario? Where you too much of a coward to face us head on without dragging an innocent girl into this?" Marcus spat and Presario's eyes narrowed.

"Don't you dare mock me!" Presario growled before smirking. "Just for that when I win not only will I take your soul but the little lady's daddy..." Presario made a slit throat motion with his thumb with a sadistic grin on his face and Nicola's eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

"That's all well and good except for two things, 1: I don't intend to lose this match and two there's no way in hell I'm letting you get that shot off so here's your end of the bargain, when I win you call off the sniper before your soul gets consumed." Marcus said folding his arms, Presario said nothing for a few moments before smirking.

"You know what? I agree to your terms, you want to know why? Because this deck is the strongest magician deck there is, and to prove it I'll put my two rarest cards up for grabs alongside my two locater cards." Presario smirked.

"Fine, I'll do the same!" Marcus nodded in agreement. "You going to tell me what those cards are?"

"You'll find out during the course of the duel, not before." Presario grinned.

"_He's keeping his cards close to his chest, so to speak, they must be really powerful." _Andreas thought before turning his attention to Nicola who was starting to be stressed out. "Hey relax, Marcus is one of the best Dragon duellists I know he won't let this creep beat him!"

"Are...are you...sure?" Nicola stammered.

"I'm sure." Andreas nodded before getting an idea. "Mind if I text somebody?" Presario turned his attention to Andreas and shrugged.

"As long as it's not the cops." Presario said plainly and Andreas started writing his text message.

*elsewhere*

Brandon and Theresa had watched the duel between Nicola and Andreas on TV whilst they were searching for duels and once it had finished they started walking off.

"That girl had some impressive skills for someone so inexperienced." Brandon commented. "I can see where Andreas was coming from with the comparison to Chloe."

"I'm surprised she hasn't tried out for Duel Academy." Theresa added just before she got a text, she retrieved her cell phone and read it. "It's Andreas, we already know about the victory and..." Theresa's eyes widened.

"Something wrong Theresa?" Martin asked and Theresa looked up.

"Marcus is in an Orichalcos duel, and his opponent is threatening the life of the girl's dad with a sniper." Theresa said and the two men did a double take. "I don't think Andreas would joke about this,"

"Agreed." Martin nodded getting his cell phone out. "I'll call the cops, you two go provide support for him."

"How do we keep getting into situations like this?" Brandon whispered to Theresa as she flagged down a cab.

"Tell that to the asshole who employs them." Theresa said as she sent a text back saying that they'll be there soon.

*back at the duel*

"Who did you text?" Nicola asked as the two duellists activated their duel disks, Andreas smiled and turned to her.

"Mutual friends." Andreas said plainly before turning to Presario. "You said no one can leave but what about people entering the area?"

"I have no problems with that." Presario said as the two duellists drew their opening hands. "I shall go first."

"Go for it." Marcus said looking at his hand, rather than draw however Presario retrieved a card from his jacket sleeve and manipulated his hand so that it looked like he had drawn it, something Nicola noticed almost immediately.

"Now let's get this show on the road, I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Presario played the card and Andreas turned to Nicola almost immediately.

"Nicola, get as far back as you can now!" Andreas said sternly and Nicola blinked.

"Why?" Nicola asked as the seal surrounded the two duellists sending her to the ground. "Ow." She winced and looked up in time to see Andreas offering to help her up, she accepted the offer and saw the seal on Presario's forehead.

"See what I mean?" Andreas asked as he helped her up.

"What the hell was that?" Nicola asked once she got up. "And why is this Seal on his forehead?"

"That's just one of the seal's powers little lady, for now the real fun begins!" Presario said picking up a card. "I'll start this magic show by summoning to the field Anarchist Monk Ranshin in attack mode!" Presario played the card and a monk with a hideous face in red robes and carrying a staff appeared on the field, he was wearing a straw hat and had magical armour underneath the robes (4/1800/100) and his attack increased to 2300 almost immediately due to the seal.

"Another power of the seal?" Nicola asked and Andreas nodded.

"Yes, and it only applies to his monsters." Andreas explained.

"I'll set two cards facedown and call it a turn." The holograms of the two cards appeared on the field and Marcus drew his card.

"_Aw man nothing in my hand is strong enough to beat that monk, but I have cards that can buy me some time!"_ Marcus thought as he picked up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and a monster in defence mode..."

"Two of those facedown cards are about to become useless to you!" Presario interrupted as he activated one of his trap cards. "I activate Xing Zhen Hu!"

"Xing Zhen what?" Marcus blinked before a rain of arrows came down upon two of his traps. "What did you just do?"

"I'll keep things simple for you fool; Xing Zhen Hu lets me target two Spell and Trap cards and as long as it's on the field those cards are useless to you." Presario explained with a cocky smirk on his face.

"Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!" Marcus exclaimed with a facepalm. _"He just had to target Dragon's Rage and Mystical Space Typhoon didn't he?" _Marcus thought before grumbling. "As I was saying I end my turn at that." Presario nodded and once again retrieved a card from his jacket sleeve which was once again noticed by Nicola,

"_I'll save this spell for later, no point in halving my lifepoints at such an early stage."_ Presario thought before pointing to Ranshin. "Anarchist Monk Rashin cast your magic and make that facedown monster disappear!" Ranshin pointed his staff at the facedown monster and a beam fired from it, the monster was revealed to be a small dark blue and yellow dragon which exploded when the beam made contact...and to everyone's surprise taking the monk with him, "WHAT?"

"The monster you attacked was Exploder Dragon (3/1000/0), when he's destroyed in battle he takes the monster that destroyed him with it." Marcus grinned and Presario's eyes widened.

"Those facedown cards..." Presario started.

"Oh, you mean those cards I set last turn? They where a bluff to see if any of your facedown cards effected trap and spell cards." Marcus grinned and Presario growled. "Look on the Brightside, you can still summon."

"So I can." Presario said picking up a card. "I set this monster in defence mode and end my turn." Presario played the card and Marcus drew his.

"This is more like it; I summon Alexandrite Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and a beautiful dragon seemingly made of gems appeared on the field roaring at Presario (4/2000/200). "I know what you're thinking; it's a level four monster with two thousand attack points so it has to have some kind of weakness right?"

"Yes, it must have a weakness!" Presario nodded and Marcus grinned.

"WRONG! Alexandrite Dragon's one of two level four normal monsters with 2000 attack in existence." Marcus explained and Presario's eyes widened, "Alexandrite Dragon, attack his defence monster!" The dragon took flight and breathed fire at the monster which was revealed to be a woman with short blonde hair with a red headband around it wearing a purple dress and carrying a staff (2/400/800), her attack rose to 900 due to the seal for the brief time that she was on the field before she was incinerated.

"Thank you, the monster you destroyed was Apprentice Magician and when she's destroyed in battle I can special summon a level 2 or lower Spellcaster type monster from my deck to the field facedown in defence mode!" Presario searched through his deck and held up another Apprentice Magician card before setting it down.

"_Wonderful, now he has a monster he can sacrifice to summon something stronger than his Dragon."_ Andreas thought as he watched the duel, Nicola gulped nervously realizing the same thing.

"I'll end my turn for now." Marcus announced and Presario retrieved another card from his jacket sleeve rather than draw which Nicola again caught.

"Then let's get this show on the road." Presario said activating his other trap. "I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Apprentice Magician from my graveyard." Presario activated the trap and Apprentice Magician reappeared on the field and her attack almost immediately rose to 900 due to the seal. "But neither of my magicians are staying around..."

"MARCUS!" Everyone's attention turned to the source of the noise and saw Theresa and Brandon approaching, it was Brandon that had spoken up.

"I see you got my text." Andreas said with a smile. "Guys meet Nicola, talented duellist who's dad is basically being held captive by the asshole in the cheap suit."

"I'll SHOW YOU!" Presario snapped.

"Don't worry, the cops are on the...oh fuck." Theresa started but stopped upon realizing that Presario could hear her.

"Oh, the cops are on the way are they? ARNOLD, TAKE THE SHOT!" Nicola's eyes went as wide as dinner plates before covering her ears, when no shot was heard everyone blinked. "ARNOLD, TAKE THE FUCKING SHOT!"

"Arnold isn't there." Presario's eyes went as wide as dinner plates and he slowly turned around

"M...Michael...I can explain..." Presario stammered upon seeing the cloaked figure.

"The boss made it clear that no innocents where to be harmed, but no, you went and put that girl's father in danger." Michael said marching up to the Orichalcos wall. "Not only that but you've been disgracing the organisation by cheating to get the cards you need."

"Wait, what?" Marcus and Andreas said simultaneously.

"I knew it; he's been hiding cards up his sleeves." Nicola said and Andreas turned his attention to her.

"Why didn't you speak up before?" Andreas asked and Nicola rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"I was worried that he'd order his henchmen too..." Nicola trailed off.

"Look, regardless of how I did it I am THIS close to sealing that fool's soul away so why don't we worry about that AFTER I beat him." Presario said; Michael frowned for a few moments before smirking.

"Very well but know this, should you fail I'll personally rip your soul card to pieces!" Michael said walking off.

"So not only are you a dirty rotten coward but you're a dirty rotten cheat as well, do you have any other reasons for me to hate you?" Marcus asked and Presario growled.

"As I was saying, I sacrifice my two Apprentice Magicians to summon one of my strongest monsters." Presario played the card and the two monsters on the field vanished, in their place stood a familiar looking magician in crimson robes, he had a tan and white hair and was carrying a green staff (7/2500/2100) and his attack rose to 3000 thanks to the seal.

"Andreas, do you see what I see?" Marcus said as his eyes widened.

"The Dark Magician..." Andreas trailed off. "Where did you get that card?"

"Fool, Yugi Moto may be the most famous Dark Magician user in the world but he's hardly the first to use the monster." Presario chuckled as he held up another card. "But wait, there's more where that came from, I tribute Dark Magician to special summon his ultimate form Dark Eradicator Warlock!" The Dark Magician disappeared from the field and in his place stood a similar looking magician wearing a long purple robe and carrying a longer staff (7/2500/2100) and it's stats rose to 3000 thanks to the seal.

"Why'd you do that? That monster has the same stats as the regular Dark Magician." Marcus pointed out and Presario grinned.

"You'll find out soon enough but if I were you I'd worry about that dragon!" Presario said pointing to the dragon. "Dark Eradicator Warlock attack and destroy Alexandrite Dragon with Dark Eradication Attack!" The warlock pointed it's staff at the dragon and fired a beam from it, the dragon was eradicated in seconds by the attack.

M: 7000

PTG: 8000

"I shall end my turn at that." Presario said folding his arms, Marcus drew his card and a smile crept upon his face.

"_All right, I have the best monster in my deck in my hand right now, but I can't summon this bad boy just yet."_ Marcus thought as he added it to his hand. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn."

"That's all you can do in the face of my warlock, defend, defend, and defend." Presario smirked as went to retrieve a card from his jacket sleeve.

"You even try that and I will subject you to a torment worse than hell." Michael's booming voice rang out, Presario looked around for the source of the voice but couldn't find it.

"Fine." Presario said drawing a card from his deck for the first time in the duel. "I don't need to cheat to beat this fat ass anyway."

"I'll have you know that I'm just big boned!" Marcus shouted and Presario shook his head.

"Whatever makes you sleep better at night, I activate the Spell Card Dark Magic Curtain." Presario said before wincing as his lifepoints where cut in half plummeting down to 4000.

"Why did you do that? You've just given me..." Marcus was cut off by a blast from Dark Eradicator Warlock's staff.

M: 6000

PTG: 4000

"Two reasons really, first each time a normal spell card is activated you lose a thousand lifepoints thanks to Dark Eradicator Warlock's effect." Presario smirked as he prepared to say the next part. "Second Dark Magic Curtain allows me to special summon one Dark Magician from my deck to the field at the cost of half my lifepoints and the ability to summon anymore cards, well I can still set them but that's beside the point so come forth Dark Magician!" Presario searched through his deck in search of the monster and played it, the regular Dark Magician appeared on the field ready to do battle (7/2500/2100) and like his predecessor his attack rose to 3000 due to the effect of the seal. "Dark Eradicator Warlock, attack his defence with Dark Eradication Attack!" The warlock pointed it's staff at the facedown monster and fired it's beam at it, it was revealed to be Twin Headed Behemoth (3/1500/1200), a purple two headed dragon, which was destroyed. "Dark Magician, DARK MAGIC ATTACK!" The magician stretched out his palm and fired a beam at Marcus striking him in the chest.

M: 3000

PTG: 4000

"That'll end my turn." Presario announced...before seeing Twin Headed Behemoth return to the field minus one head and with its attack and defence down to 1000.

"That's the effect of Twin Headed Behemoth, when he's destroyed in battle I can bring him back during the end phase of the turn he was destroyed in with only a thousand lifepoints." Marcus explained once he got over the pain from the direct attack. "The other downside is that I can only use this effect once."

"Just draw your card already." Presario grunted and Marcus did so.

"Now this is more like it, I summon Spirit Ryu in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and a small blue and yellow dragon appeared on the field (3/1000/1000) and Presario burst out laughing when he saw the stats of the monster, the others on the other hand looked at Marcus curiously wondering what he was thinking.

"That has got to be the most pathetic dragon I've ever seen!" Presario laughed even as Marcus held up three cards.

"Laugh all you want but this little guy's my ticket to victory!" Marcus said with a grin. "First I equip him with two copies of the Axe of Despair equip spell card increasing his attack to 3000!" As Marcus said that his dragon's attack rose to 3000.

"So? It's only strong enough for a stalemate with either of my magicians!" Presario pointed out and Marcus grinned.

"That is why I'm entering my battle phase and having Spirit Ryu attack Dark Eradicator Warlock!" Marcus said as the dragon charged towards the magician he held up his copy of Kaiser Glider. "And now that I've entered the damage step I activate his effect, once per turn I can discard one Dragon type monster from my hand to increase his attack to 4000!" Presario's eyes widened as the dragon's attack increased further to 4000 and breathed fire at the warlock incinerating him.

M: 3000

PTG: 3000

"I end my turn by switching Twin Headed Behemoth to defence mode!" Marcus said and the purple dragon knelt down.

"That was a good move Marcus!" Brandon shouted from the sidelines. _"Though he still has the other copy of Dark Magician to worry about and now Spirit Ryu's attack is back to three thousand."_ Brandon thought, Presario drew his card and grinned.

"Don't get too attached to that Behemoth, I activate Stop Defence to force him into attack mode!" Marcus's eyes widened as the purple dragon got up. "Dark Magician, attack that dragon with DARK MAGIC ATTACK!" The magician once again fired a beam from the palm and disintegrated the dragon.

M: 1000

PTG: 3000

"I'll set a card facedown and end my turn but don't worry, it'll be over soon." Presario mocked as Marcus drew his card.

"Spirit Ryu attack his Dark Magician!" Marcus commanded discarding Golem Dragon (4/200/2000) to power up his dragon again, the dragon charged forward and Presario grinned.

"You fool, that was exactly what I wanted you to do, I activate my Mirror Force trap card!" Marcus's eyes widened as the dragon's fire was bounced back at the dragon incinerating it and Marcus reluctantly sent his dragon and equip spells to the graveyard.

"I can still summon!" Marcus said defiantly. "So I set a card in defence mode and end my turn!" Marcus announced as the facedown monster and Presario drew his card.

"Fine, Dark Magician destroy his facedown monster with DARK MAGIC ATTACK!" The magician fired a beam from his hand at the monster, revealed to be Masked Dragon (3/1400/1100) which was quickly destroyed.

"When Masked Dragon is destroyed I can special summon a Dragon type monster with 1500 or less attack points from my deck to the field and this monsters going to do you in Presario." Marcus grinned after sending Masked Dragon to the graveyard and searching his deck. "Come forth Red-Eyes Black Chick!" Marcus played the card and a small red egg appeared on the field, it soon cracked and the head of a baby Red-Eyes Back Dragon appeared on the field (1/800/500) and every other duellist facefaulted at the site of the monster.

"Marcus, please for the love of god tell me that has an effect!" Theresa said as she got up, Marcus gave her a reassuring grin.

"Trust me, there's a method to my madness." Marcus grinned giving her a thumbs up.

"Aww, it's so cute!" Nicola cooed at the site of the dragon who blushed at the comment and Andreas ended up facefaulting again once he heard her comment whilst Marcus merely sweatdropped.

"She does realize she's talking about a hologram right?" Marcus asked as Andreas got up.

"How soon you forget that the monsters are real in the Orichalcos." Presario said shaking his head. "I end my turn." Marcus went to draw his card and closed his eyes.

"_Come on Heart of the Cards; give me the card I need!" _Marcus thought before drawing his card, he opened his eyes and looked at the card. "You want to know why I summoned that card last time Presario. Simple, her effect lets me tribute her to bring out her daddy, THE RED EYES BLACK DRAGON!" Marcus played the card and the dragon started growing eventually growing out of the egg until it was at its full grown stage (7/2400/2000).

"All that build up for a monster weaker than my Magician? Give me a break!" Presario laughed and Marcus grinned.

"I have some bad news for you Presario, I'm not done yet." Marcus said picking up another card. "I tribute Red-Eyes Black Dragon to summon my best monster, RED-EYES DARKNESS DRAGON!" Marcus played the card and the Red-Eyes Black Dragon transformed into a jet black version of the dragon with crimson highlights (9/2400/2000).

"That still doesn't impress me!" Presario grinned...but the grin quickly disappeared once the dragon's attack skyrocketed to 5100. "What's the meaning of this?"

"My dragon gains 300 attack points for each dragon in my graveyard so let's count, there's the Exploder Dragon you destroyed first so that brought it up to 2700, then there's Alexandrite Dragon which you destroyed with Dark Eradicator Warlock, that brought his attack to 3000, then there's the two monsters I discarded for Spirit Ryu's effect, Golem Dragon and Kaiser Glider, that brought his attack to 3600, then there's Twin Headed Behemoth and Spirit Ryu its self bringing his attack to 4200, then there was Masked Dragon, Red-Eyes Black Chick and Red Eyes Black Dragon which brings his attack to 5100!" Marcus explained with a grin, Presario panicked for a minute before grinning cockily.

"Impressive monster but I'll still have lifepoints left at the end of this turn!" Presario grinned looking at his hand. _"Next turn I'll use Monster Reborn to bring back Dark Magician who he'll undoubtedly destroy during this turn and use Thousand Knives to destroy Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon thus clearing the path for my magician to finish him off!"_ Presario thought looking up at Marcus.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I have one more cards to play, it's called Card Destruction!" Marcus declared and Presario's eyes widened before reluctantly discarding his cards, Marcus did likewise and just like that Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack shot up to 6000. "Now math has never been my strongest subject but from where I stand my dragon was more than enough attack points to finish you off for good so this is for dragging an innocent girl's father into this mess!" Marcus said pointing to his dragon. "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon attack Dark Magician now! Inferno Darkfire!" The dragon took flight and let loose with a massive fireball that consumed the Dark Magician destroying him and Presario's lifepoints.

M: 1000

PTG: 0000

Presario dropped to his knees in shock as what was about to happen started to sink in, as he did this the rest of the cards he had in his jacket sleeve fell out. "I'd ask you to hold up your end of the bargain but it's pretty pointless at the moment since that Michael guy ordered that sniper away." Marcus said as he gathered up his cards. "Now hand over your locater cards and rarest cards before the seal consumes you." Presario reached into his pocket and produced the locater cards before picking up the Dark Magician and Dark Eradicator Warlock cards and tossing the four cards at him, Marcus picked them up and grinned. "I know a Spellcaster and Warrior user who will be ecstatic to have these in her deck." Marcus said as he deactivated his duel disk.

"I was just thinking the same thing." Theresa nodded in agreement as the Seal closed in around Presario, one blood curdling scream later and his soul was consumed.

"Wh...what just happened to him?" Nicola stammered in surprise.

"His soul was consumed by the Orichalcos." Michael said walking forward. "Leave this area at once, I will deal with this idiot personally." Marcus's eyes narrowed but he left with the others and Michael walked over to Presario's prone form. _"Having one of the most powerful decks among the agents wasn't enough for you, was it Presario?" _Michael thought before bending over and picking up the Orichalcos card that now had Presario's soul trapped in it. _"You had to threaten innocent lives and cheat for your own needs, well no more." _With that final thought Michael ripped the card in two destroying Presario's soul and leaving his body an empty shell; he walked off before the cops, who had already arrested Arnold by this point, could find him.

*elsewhere*

"Err, thanks for your help back there." Nicola said to the two Obelisk Blue students as she, Andreas and Marcus walked away from the duel site; Marcus had pocketed the cards keeping the monster cards he had won from Presario in a separate pocket and the two boys, and their new friend, where heading back to the hotel. "I don't know what I'd do if dad was..."

"No problem and try not to think about that." Theresa said nodding in understanding. "What matters is that both Marcus and Andreas are one step close to the finals."

"And I'm out of the tournament." Nicola said sadly and Theresa winced.

"Okay, bad choice of words." Theresa said as a massive sweatdrop rolled down her head. "Me and Brandon saw your duel on TV though; you did well given how inexperienced you are."

"Thanks." Nicola said with a smile. "I'm actually thinking of applying for duel academy next year."

"I say go for it, far as I'm concerned your good enough to get in already." Brandon said.

"Should we tell them about...you know...?" Marcus whispered to Andreas.

"Let Nicola tell them in her own time." Andreas whispered back putting his hands in his pockets. "Don't forget that Theresa almost accidently caused the death of Nicola's dad."

"Tell us what?" Brandon asked and Marcus and Andreas stopped in their tracks upon realizing that their companions had heard them.

"Well...there's a reason she hasn't applied for Duel Academy yet." Marcus said as a massive sweatdrop rolled down his head. "But I think it would be really better if you hear it from her rather than us."

"If she has self esteem issues than what's the big deal?" Brandon asked scratching his head and the two boys ended up facefaulting to the ground.

"Not even remotely what I meant...though it may have something to do with it." Marcus said as he got up.

"What Marcus is trying to say is that it's a lot deeper than simple self esteem issues." Andreas said as he got up. "Hell the only reason she told us is because I was the only opponent to give her a decent fight."

"Yeah, we noticed that whilst we were watching the duel." Brandon said as he and Theresa sweatdropped. "Maybe an unofficial duel against either of us?"

"I said a decent fight not a massacre." Andreas said plainly.

"I'm up for it." Nicola said and Andreas facefaulted. "I'd like to duel you Theresa." Nicola added and both male duellists facefaulted.

"Nicola, you remember what I said about one of the best duellists I know being a woman?" Andreas asked as he got up. "YOU JUST CHALLENGED THAT DUELLIST!"

"Oh come on, she did well against you." Jeff pointed out.

"Jeff, the one time I duelled against Theresa I barely lasted five turns and she had a counter for everything I did." Andreas pointed out.

"Oh...yeah that's a really bad example." Jeff realized.

"I don't mind, really." Nicola said confidently as Theresa searched through her backpack.

"Err, Theresa maybe you should use one of your weaker decks against her." Brandon whispered unprepared for the response from Nicola.

"NO!" Nicola shouted catching both duellists by surprise. "Err; what I meant to say was that I'm kind of sick of people going easy on me."

"You heard her Brandon, she wants a challenge." Theresa said rubbing her ear. "And she has better hearing then I was expecting."

"Yeah, we learnt that the hard way." Andreas said as a big sweatdrop rolled down his head.

"In that case..." Theresa said picking up a deck. "I'll use my Amazoness Deck." Theresa said loading the deck into the slot.

"Amazoness vs. Crystal Beasts, now this should be interesting." Marcus said running off towards a popcorn vender.

"Five bucks says he returns with twenty bags of popcorn." Andreas said plainly. "Though I do agree with him."

"Right." Nicola said activating her duel disk. "Just don't go easy on me due to my inexperience." Nicola said nervously.

"I won't, I'll even let you go first!" Theresa said as the two girls drew their opening hands, Nicola smiled and drew her first card.

"All right." Nicola said looking at her first card. "I activate my Field Spell Card Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins!" Nicola played the card the ruins from her first duel appeared complete with rainbow. "And now I summon Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus!" Nicola played the card and the Pegasus appeared on the field (4/1800/1200). "Now I activate her effect which lets me add a Crystal Beast monster from my deck or graveyard too my spell and trap card zone." Nicola said playing the card and a hologram of Crystal Beast Emerald Tortoise appeared behind the Pegasus.

"Now your field spell can't be destroyed." Theresa said looking around. "Good opening move but I've seen better."

"Err, yeah." Nicola laughed nervously with a gulp. "I set this card facedown and end my turn."

"Okay then." Theresa said drawing her card. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Theresa played the card and Andreas blinked.

"Theresa's playing defensive against her; I thought she said she wouldn't go easy on Nicola." Andreas whispered to Marcus as he returned with bags of popcorn.

"Maybe her facedown monster is something that can burn a major hole in Nicola's strategy." Marcus whispered back as Nicola drew her card.

"_I'll save this for later." _Nicola decided adding it to her hand. "Sapphire Pegasus attack her defence monster!" The Pegasus took flight before divebombing at the monster...only to be sent flying back. "Huh?"

"The monster you attacked is the only male monster in this deck, Witchdoctor of Sparta!" Theresa explained as a kneeling muscular man appeared on the field wearing a headdress that resembled a horse (4/400/2000). "Not only is his defence to strong for your Pegasus to penetrate but his effect pretty much cripples one of your monsters namely Ruby Carbunkle."

"Huh?" Nicola blinked as she started to process the information.

"To put it simply, his effect inflicts 500 points of damage each time a monster is special summoned from your deck." Theresa explained and Nicola's eyes widened.

T: 8000

N: 7800

"That's pretty nasty." Marcus gulped.

"Indeed...oh crap, she's stressing out again." Andreas said upon realizing that Nicola was stressing out.

"Relax, you'll bounce back." Theresa said quickly catching on to the fact herself, by then a crowd had gathered around the duel.

"Right, right." Nicola gulped before looking at her hand. "I have no monsters to play so I'll end my turn for now." Theresa nodded and drew her card.

"Fair enough." Theresa said drawing her card. "I summon Amazoness Swordswoman in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a redheaded muscular woman appeared on the field wearing what basically amounted to a fur bikini and wielding a sword (4/1500/1600) "That's not all, I equip her with the equip spell card Amazoness Heirloom!" Theresa announced as a strange looking green gem appeared around the Amazaoness's neck.

"Okay but that hasn't changed your monster's attacks one bit." Nicola blinked.

"She used this combo on me." Andreas remembered. "I couldn't draw Heavy Storm on time."

"Amazoness Swordwoman, attack Sapphire Peggasus!" The swordswoman charged at the Pegasus who took flight and divebombed at the swordswoman knocking her to the ground...and to Nicola's surprise she got back up.

"What the...!" Nicola stammered in surprise.

"A monster equipped with the Heirloom can survive one attack before being destroyed but that's not all." Theresa said as a beam of light emerged from the gem completely engulfing Sapphire Pegasus. "After the damage step the monster that was attacked is destroyed."

"So? You still took damage." Nicola said with a smirk.

"Really?" Theresa asked holding up her lifepoint counter which was still at 8000. "I think this disagrees with you."

"HUH?" Nicola balked before checking her own lifepoint counter.

T: 8000

N: 7500

"That's the effect of Amazoness Swordswoman, any damage I would've taken from a battle involving her gets dealt to your lifepoints instead." Theresa explained and Nicola picked up her Pegasus...before getting an idea.

"I chose not to send Sapphire Pegasus to my Spell and Trap card zone." Nicola said sending the monster to her graveyard. "And I activate my trap card Crystal Reigeki!"

"WHAT?" All the other duellists yelled simultaneously as Amazoness Swordswoman was slowly turned to crystal before shattering, Nicola sent Emerald Tortoise and her trap to the graveyard and Theresa sent her cards to the graveyard.

"As Marcus would say, there's a method to my madness." Nicola said with a triumphant grin.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced as a facedown card appeared next to the hologram of Witchdoctor of Sparta, Nicola drew her card and smirked.

"I activate the Spell Card I drew last turn, Crystal Promise!" Nicola played the card and retrieved the two Crystal Beast monsters from her graveyard. "This spell card lets me target two of my Crystal Beast monsters in my graveyard and place them in my Spell and Trap card zone."

"And now any battle damage you suffer will be cut in half." Theresa said folding her arms as the two cards appeared on the field. "Well then I'll chain Crystal Promise with my trap card Amazoness Willpower!" Theresa activated the card and retrieved Amazoness Swordswoman from her graveyard and summoned her back to the field.

"So it lets you bring back your Amazoness?" Nicola asked and Theresa nodded.

"On top of that she can't change position and must attack whenever she can." Theresa said with a smile. "Off course that isn't a problem when you don't have any monsters on your side of the field."

"Yeah? Well last I checked it's still my turn and I summon Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth in attack mode!" Nicola played the card and the four tusked mammoth appeared on the field trumpeting at Theresa (4/1700/1600). "I'll choose not to attack though since the damage would go to me anyway, halved or not, so instead I'll activate Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy Amazoness Willpower!" Nicola played the card and a tornado tore Amazoness Willpower to shreds taking Swordswoman with it. "I'll end my turn." Theresa nodded and drew her card.

"Smart move, but not smart enough."Theresa said looking at her new card. "I summon Amazoness Paladin in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the blonde amazoness appeared on the field brandishing her sword (4/1700/300). "She gains a hundred attack points for each Amazoness on the field and I count one, namely Paladin hersel." Theresa explained as Paladin's attack rose to 1800. "I chose to end my turn with a facedown card." Theresa announced causing everyone else to blink.

"Is anyone going to attack?" An impatient news reporter shouted out.

"Why are you even here? This isn't an official Battle City duel." Theresa pointed out as Nicola drew her card.

"My job is to cover EVERY duel lady, official or not." The news reporter said plainly.

"Well I guess I'd better give him a show, I summon Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger in attack mode!" Nicola played the card and the tiger appeared on the field (4/1600/1100).

"_I remember that thing's effect from her duel with Andreas; it could be troublesome...if not for my facedown card." _Theresa thought looking at facedown card.

"Topaz Tiger attack and destroy Amazoness Paladin!" Nicola commanded and the tiger leaped forward.

"Your right on one thing, he will be attacking my Paladin but she'll be doing the destroying!" Theresa said activating her trap. "I activate Amazoness Archers!"

"This is going to hurt." Marcus and Andreas said simultaneously when they saw the trap flip up.

"Err, why?" Nicola blinked...before seeing that Amber Mammoth's attack had been reduced to 1200 and Topaz Tiger's attack had been reduced to 1100. "What just happened?"

"That's the effect of Amazoness Archers...well one of their effects, for starters every monster you control looses 500 attack points and is forced to attack a monster of my choice, and since she's the only Amazoness on my side of the field my choice is Paladin!" Nicola could only watch as her monsters where slaughtered one by one by Paladin.

T: 8000

N; 7050

Nicola was silent for a few moments as her hair overshadowed her eyes and Theresa raised an eyebrow. "Nicola are you okay?" She asked, Nicola looked up with a look of pure joy in her eyes and a broad smile.

"Yeah...I'm just happy to be receiving two tough duels in a row." Nicola said holding up her two cards. "Besides I can now add these guys to my Spell and Trap card zone which means I get the following effects, with the addition of Amber Mammoth I can send one Crystal Beast I control to the graveyard to negate the activation of a Spell or Trap Card, with the addition of Topaz Tiger I get to draw an extra card drawing my Main Phase." Nicola explained, Theresa said nothing for a few moments before smiling.

"I think I know why you haven't applied for Duel Academy yet." Theresa said and Nicola blinked.

"You do?" Nicola asked before shaking her head. "Even if you do can we continue the duel please?"

"Sure." Theresa nodded; Nicola looked at her hand and shook her head.

"There's nothing I can do so I end my turn." Nicola announced and Theresa drew her card.

"All right then, I switch Witchdoctor to attack mode and I summon Amazoness Blowpiper!" Theresa switched the position of her monster and the man stood up, she played the card...

"Did she just say Amazonesss Blowjobber?" Marcus said scratching his head and the other duellists ended up facefaulting alongside several members of the crowd and the news reporter.

"No, I didn't." Theresa said somehow keeping her composure as a scantily clad purple haired muscular woman appeared on the field holding a blowpipe (3/800/1500) and Paladin's attack rose to 1900. "Be thankful that the damage will be cut in half, Amazoness Blowpiper, Paladin and Witchdoctor of Sparta attack her lifepoints directly!" Blowpiper attacked first firing a pebble through her blowpipe reducing her lifepoints to 6650, Paladin attacked next with her sword reducing her lifepoints to 5700; Witchdoctor of Sparta finished the attack off by casting a spell at Nicola reducing her lifepoints to 5500.

"I knew this would happen, Theresa's so far out of Nicola's league that it's not even funny." Andreas said folding his arms.

"Well she did want a challenge and that's what she's getting." Marcus pointed out.

"This isn't a challenge, it's a massacre!" Andreas pointed out.

"Andreas, relax!" Nicola said turning to him. "I have a way out of this!"

"Well then, let's see it." Theresa said folding her arms. "I'll call it a turn at that," Theresa announced and Nicola drew her card.

"_Just what I needed."_ Nicola thought before drawing another card due to Rainbow Ruin's effect, she saw the card and added it to her hand before playing the card she had drawn. "I activate a spell card called Crystal Abundance!"

"Oh crap!" Theresa gulped remembering the card's effect.

"Now I send the four crystal beasts in my Spell and Trap Card zone to the graveyard and in exchange for that your monsters are destroyed." Nicola explained as the four monsters disintegrated. "And now I can special summon the same number of monsters you had on the field so I chose Sapphire Pegasus, Amber Mammoth and Topaz Tiger!" Nicola played the cards and three Crystal Beasts appeared on the field ready for battle, Nicola picked up a Crystal Beast Cobalt Eagle (4/1400/800) and placed it in the Spell and Trap card zone. "I'm not done though; I activate Crystal Promise which allows me to summon Cobalt Eagle to the field!" Nicola played the card and the eagle appeared on the field. "Go my Crystal Beasts, attack her lifepoints directly!" The monsters charged at her and attacked her one by one sending her to the ground.

T: 1100

N: 5500

"And in a stunning turn of events virtual unknown Nicola Hastings has managed to mount a comeback against the Obelisk Blue student Theresa Daniels but it's still anyone's game!" The news reporter said and the others sweatdropped.

"Would anyone mind if we knocked him out?" Andreas asked.

"I'm pretty sure he'd mind." Marcus said as Theresa got up.

"Nice move kid, but I still have some cards left to play." Theresa said as she gathered up her hand, Nicola looked at the remainder of her hand before motioning for her to take her turn and Theresa drew her card. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." The two girls drew until they had six cards and Nicola's eyes lit up when she saw two of the cards.

"_Rainbow Gravity and Rainbow Dragon, in a couple of more turns I'll be able to bring out my strongest monster and win this duel!" _Nicola thought with a smile.

"I activate Cost Down; by discarding a card from my hand I can reduce the level of all monsters in my hand by two for the rest of the turn." Theresa played the card discarding a second blowpiper to activate it. "And now I summon my strongest Amazoness Monster, Amazonesss Queen!" Theresa played the card and the queen of the amazons appeared on the field (6/2400/1800) and due to the effect of cost down her level was at 4. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Nicola blinked before drawing a card.

"I shift my beasts to defence mode and set a card in defence mode, that'll end it for me." Nicola announced as a fifth card appeared on the field and the other monsters knelt down, Theresa drew her card and smirked.

"One monster in defence mode, that'll end it for me!" Theresa announced as a facedown monster appeared on the field, Nicola drew her card and switched Sapphire Pegasus to attack mode.

"Sapphire Pegasus, attack her defence." Nicola commanded as the Pegasus took flight but Theresa activated her trap card. "Another Amazonesss Archers?"

"Yes and an effect I didn't mention earlier is that all your monsters are shifted to attack mode including your facedown monster." Theresa said and Nicola reluctantly shifted them all to attack mode including her facedown Ruby Carbunkle, almost immediately the stats of the monsters dropped by five hundred and in the case of Carbunkle to zero.

"I...I guess this duel's over." Nicola said sadly as one by one her beasts charged at, and where slaughtered by, Amazoness Queen, the last to be killed was Ruby Carbunkle and even the cat didn't get any mercy.

T: 1100

N: 0000

"And despite a brief comeback from her opponent Theresa wins in dominating fashion!" The news reporter exclaimed pointing to Theresa as she deactivated her duel disk. "I don't know about you guys back at the studio but I think she'll be one to watch in this tournament." As the reporter said that the crowd started to disperse and the reporter and his crew left as well, once the crowd left Theresa approached Nicola and offered her a handshake.

"You did well, all things considered." Theresa said, Nicola smiled and accepted the handshake.

"Yeah, you did a lot better than I was expecting to be honest." Andreas said only to be met with a glare from Nicola. "What? I'm being honest!"

"Considering the vast difference in skill level I'm inclined to agree with Andreas." Brandon said rubbing the back of his head nervously. "So why haven't you applied for duel academy yet?"

"Can we take it somewhere a bit more private?" Nicola asked, the two older students shrugged and led her away unaware that another Orichalcos duellist was watching them from a rooftop.

"It doesn't matter if I duel Brandon or Theresa, their souls will be consumed!" The cloaked figure chuckled.


	21. Forbidden Alliens

Nicola led the two older students away from the crowded streets and to a quieter alleyway next to a small Pizza restaurant not too far from where Nicola and Theresa had duelled each other, once the three teens where a good distance into the alleyway Nicola stopped in her tracks and turned to the two older teens.

"Theresa, Brandon, as Andreas and Marcus mentioned there's a reason I haven't applied for Duel Academy yet..." Nicola started before leaning against the wall.

"You have Autism, don't you?" Theresa asked catching Nicola off guard.

"Yeah...how did you know?" Nicola asked once her surprise wore off, Theresa smiled.

"I have a younger brother who's autistic, high functioning like you are." Theresa explained. "To be honest I'm surprised I didn't catch on sooner."

"You never mentioned that." Brandon whispered to Theresa.

"You never asked if I had any siblings." Theresa pointed out.

"Touché." Brandon admitted before turning to Nicola. "I don't get how your autism would prevent you from being admitted though."

"Is Duel Academy even equipped for students with Special Needs?" Theresa realized and Brandon blinked.

"Well it was a couple of years before they finally built girl's dorms for Ra Yellow and Osiris Red, heck weren't they being built when you where starting out Theresa?" Brandon asked and Theresa punched him in the head.

"I'm not that old!" Theresa said annoyance clear in her voice as Brandon moaned.

"Yeah...I'm not even going to comment on that." Nicola said as a massive sweatdrop rolled down her head. "So out of the two of you who hasn't duelled yet?"

"That would be me." Brandon said getting up too his feet. "Theresa's duelled twice in the same day, against you and an Orichalcos duellist who's deck specialized in removing monsters from play." Brandon said looking at his duel disk. _"And we still have those three duellists on the run."_ Brandon thought before looking up at Nicola. "I shouldn't have any trouble finding another duel though, there's still a while to go before the Semi-Finals start." Brandon added.

"Hopefully we'll get enough Locater cards in time." Theresa added. "Lance and Chloe are behind on locater cards even after two duels though in Lance's defence that was only because my opponent stole one of his locater cards and destroyed it."

"So is Mike for that matter, Otto...who knows how well he's doing..." Brandon shrugged and Nicola looked at him confused. "Otto's Andreas's twin brother and he is, quite frankly, an egotistical prick." Brandon explained.

"He can't be that bad if he's related to Andreas." Nicola blinked and Brandon shook his head.

"If you ever met him you'd understand." Brandon sighed rubbing the back of his head nervously. "If you do decide to try out for Duel Academy though don't let your autism stop you."

"I won't, thanks." Nicola said with a smile.

"Which one of you is Brandon Thomas?" Brandon blinked before turning around and seeing a slightly younger Asian man with spiked up hair and big glasses in front of brown eyes wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots.

"Considering I'm the only male in this group?" Brandon pointed out and the Asian teen blinked before realizing he had a point.

"Excellent point." He admitted before holding up a duel disk. "I am Ketoshi Miyama, most of my friends like to call me Ket, and I'm looking for a duel!"

"Well you came to the right place; I'm looking for an opponent myself." Brandon said...before his and his female companions' stomachs rumbled and Brandon sweatdropped. "After we eat." Brandon added and Ket laughed.

"Well this alleyway is next to a pizza place and I've heard stories about how big New York Pizzas can be." Ket said rubbing the back of his head. "Mind if I join you?" Brandon looked towards his female companions who shrugged their shoulders before turning to Ket.

"Sure." Brandon nodded before leading the three teens out of the alleyway. "By the way, what deck do you run?"

"Oh that's easy, I run an Alien deck." Ket said and the other teens did a double take. "What can I say? I've always been a Sci-Fi nerd so it fits perfectly."

"Even so Alien monsters are generally pretty weak." Brandon pointed out. "Though I'm hardly one to talk since I use Dark Scorpions."

"Yes but like Dark Scorpions Alien monsters can be powerful in the hands of a skilled duellist and...well I'm not my Region's Regional Champion for nothing." Ket responded as they exited the alleyway. "And you...well your an Obelisk Blue student so I guess that fact speaks for its self."

"Yeah but Theresa's a lot better." Brandon admitted as Andreas and Marcus approached them.

"So, what's up Brandon? Did you find an opponent or something?" Marcus asked looking at Ket for a moment.

"Yeah, but first we're going to grab a bite to eat." Brandon said motioning to the Pizza Restaurant. "Want to join us?"

"Well if Duel Academy's paying for it." Marcus said as the group turned to the two teachers, Martin smiled and nodded. "That settles it." Marcus said and the eight people entered the restaurant, they ate their meals and once they had their meals they exited the restaurant. "Man that was the biggest Pizza I've ever had."

"I'm more surprised that you where able to finish that Pizza." Theresa said rubbing her full stomach, Andreas smirked and turned to her.

"Aren't you forgetting who we're talking about?" Andreas pointed out and Theresa smiled.

"Good point." Theresa admitted. "So I guess all that's left is the match between Brandon and Ket." Theresa added and the two boys smiled.

"Yeah, let's see just how good this regional champ is." Brandon said activating his duel disk, Ket did likewise and the two boys drew their opening hands. "How many locater cards do you want to put on the line?"

"I have two and I saw your duel against that Felix Truman fellow so I'm guessing you're putting up your two locater cards." Ket said and Brandon nodded. "All that's left to decide is who's going first."

"I'll go first." Brandon said drawing another card. "I start by activating Allure of Darkness, with this I can draw two cards but in exchange I have to remove one Dark type monster from my hand otherwise I have to discard my entire hand." Brandon explained before pocketing a monster and drawing two cards, he looked at one of his cards and smiled. "Now I summon Dark Crusader in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and a skeleton with shoulder length red hair in jet black armour and a tattered red cape carrying a huge sword appeared on the field (4/1600/200). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Not bad." Ket said adjusting his glasses. "Your crusader is certainly formidable." Ket added before drawing his card. "I summon Alien Hunter in attack mode!" Ket played the card and a strange two headed being appeared on the field, one head was jet black and the other was more reptile like, it was carrying a strange staff like weapon and it had a tail (4/1600/800). "It seems we're at a stalemate."

"It seems so." Brandon nodded. _"That is until I activate Dark Crusader's effect next turn." _Brandon thought.

"Except my hunter won't be sticking around, I activate a Spell Card called A Cell Scatter Burst!" Ket played the card and Allen Hunter's chest started expanding at a high rate, eventually it burst open covering Dark Crusader in Alien guts.

"Okay, number one thanks for the nightmares." Brandon said with a shudder. "Number two, what did you just do?"

"In order, you're welcome and that's the effect of Scatter Burst, it requires that I sacrifice an Alien monster to activate it and once it is activated I get to spread around what's known as A Counters among your monsters, obviously you only have one so Dark Crusader gets four counters." Ket explained as suddenly numerous tumours started appearing on Dark Crusader's body. "They're effect will be explained in due time."

"Okay but you just left your field wide open for attack." Brandon pointed out.

"I'm well aware of that fact but I have more cards to play, like the Field Spell Card Code A Ancient Ruins!" Ket played the card and the scenery changed to Alien like ruins. "Each time a Alien type monster on the field is destroyed this spell card gets an A Counter, but most importantly I can remove two A Counters from anywhere on the field to bring back one Alien monster per turn so return to the field Alien Hunter!" Two of the tumours on Dark Crusader disappeared and Alien Hunter returned to the field. "Now I activate the Spell Card Mysterious Triangle, this lets me destroy one monster with an A Counter on the field and Special Summon one level four or lower Alien Type monster from my deck."

"Sorry to disappoint you but my trap card says otherwise, I activate Dark Illusion!" Brandon flipped up the card and Ket's eyes widened. "Since your spell card targets a monster my Dark Illusion trap card can negate and destroy it!" Brandon announced as the hologram of Mysterious Triangle was consumed by dark light destroying it.

"Why didn't he activate that sooner and negate Scatter Burst?" Nicola blinked in confusion.

"Dark Ilusion requires that the card it negates targets a Dark Type monster, Scatter Burst distributes A Counters to all of Brandon's faceup monsters." Theresa explained.

"Yeah, it was just a coincidence that Dark Crusader was his only monster on the field at the time." Marcus added.

"Not for much longer, I activate my other trap card Escape from Dark Dimension." Brandon flipped the card up and grinned. "Remember the monster I banished for Allure of Darkness's effect? This trap card lets me bring it back and summon it to the field so..." Brandon retrieved the card from his pocket and played it. "So I summon Beast of Talwar in attack mode!" Ket raised an eyebrow as a green demon with purple wings appeared on the field wielding twin curved swords (6/2400/2150).

"Nice way to get a powerful monster on the field." Ket complemented him before looking at his hand. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Brandon nodded and drew his card.

"Time I took care of that Alien of yours, Dark Crusader attack and destroy Alien Hunter!" Brandon commanded and the skeleton warrior charged forward.

"But...but they have the exact same attack strength!" Ket was quick to point out as Alien Hunter got ready for battle.

"That's where Dark Crusader's effect comes in!" Brandon said discarding a card from his hand. "By discarding a card from my hand Dark Crusader's attack increases by 400!" Brandon explained as Dark Crusader's attack rose to 2000.

"And this is a perfect time for me to activate my trap card, go Mass Hypnosis!" Ket activated the trap card and Dark Crusader stopped in its tracks. "This trap can only be activated if I have an Alien type monster on my side of the field and as you can see Alien Hunter fits that role quite nicely."

"So it lets you negate the attack?" Brandon asked...only for his eyes to widen when Dark Crusader marched over to Ket's side of the field.

"Not exactly, Mass Hypnosis lets me take control of up to three of your monsters as long as they have A Counters on them." Ket explained.

"Sorry to disappoint you but I don't intend to let you keep my Crusader, Beast of Talwar attack Dark Crusader with Talwar Slash!" The demon took flight and flew at Dark Crusader before splitting it in two with his swords.

B: 8000

K: 7600

"Yes, but now you have my hunter to deal with." Ket grinned.

"A monster that my beast outclasses in every single way? I'm not worried." Brandon said looking at his drawn card. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced as the Hologram for Mass Hypnosis shattered.

"I almost forgot, Mass Hypnosis is destroyed at the end of the turn that it's activated." Ket explained sending the trap to the graveyard before tossing Dark Crusader back at Brandon who sent it to his graveyard. "However Dark Crusader would've stayed on my side of the field regardless so it doesn't make a difference."

"Though that does beg the question of why he bothered activating that trap in the first place." Theresa said as she watched the duel. "Either way he would've lost lifepoints."

"Well this way he was able to save himself from a direct attack." Andreas said rubbing his chin. "Aside from that I have no idea."

"You'll see shortly." Ket chuckled as he drew his card. "I set this card facedown for later." Ket announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And now I activate a spell card called A Cell Breeding Device!" Ket played the card and, to Brandon's surprise, a breeding tank appeared on his side of the field rather than Ket's.

"What on Earth?" Brandon blinked.

"Now during each of my standby phases your monsters get A Counters." Ket explained pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "For now though I switch Alien Hunter to defence mode and set a monster in defence mode that will end my turn." Ket announced, Brandon raised an eyebrow at him before drawing his card.

"_What's his strategy? I can't make sense of any of moves."_ Brandon thought before looking at his new card. "Well, well, well, I was wondering when you'd show up, I summon Don Zaloog in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the leader of the Dark Scorpions appeared on the field ready to do battle (4/1400/1500).

"And I activate my trap card Crop Circles!" Ket said as the trap flipped up and too Brandon's surprise Alien Hunter and the facedown monster disappeared from the field. "Surprised? Don't be, my Crop Circles trap card allows me to send any number of Alien type monsters from the field to the graveyard."

"And what good will leaving yourself open for a direct attack do?" Brandon asked raising an eyebrow; Ket chuckled as he held up his cards revealing the facedown monster to be Alien Dog (3/1500/1000).

"I'm not leaving myself wide open, I'm paving the way for one of my strongest monsters to wreck havoc on your lifepoints!" Ket said as he picked up his deck after sending the two monsters to the graveyard. "You see in exchange for sending those two monsters to the graveyard Crop Circles allows me to Special Summon one Alien monster from my deck who's level equals the combined level of the two monsters."

"But that means he can bring out a Level 7 monster!" Marcus realized.

"Exactly, so come forth Cosmic Horror Gangi'el in attack mode!" Ket played the card after returning the deck to the appropriate slot and if there was ever a more appropriate name for a monster than this one it hadn't been made yet, the monster was huge and grey in colour, it's lower body was like that of a spider whilst the top half was more human like with various bulges on its chest, it had several glowing red hairs and what looked like long flowing brown hair (7/2600/2000).

"Holy fucking shit." Andreas and Marcus said simultaneously at the site of the monster.

"Whoa..." Nicola gulped at the site of the monster, Brandon however wasn't worried.

"_My Dark Armed Dragon can beat this "cosmic horror" easily, I just need to send two more monsters to the graveyard and I'll be all set." _Brandon thought before realizing something. _"Hell, I don't even need to bring him out to do it."_ Brandon thought before looking up at Ket. "Did you forget about the trap I set last turn?"

"What about it?" Ket blinked as Brandon activated it.

"It's called Darklight and like Crop Circles it requires me to get rid of a monster so goodbye Beast of Talwar!" Brandon said as the monster was consumed by a dark light.

"You just took out the one monster that stood a remote chance of beating my Cosmic Horror!" Ket chuckled. "How did you get into Obelisk Blue again?" Ket asked and Brandon's eyes narrowed. "Did I just touch a nerve?"

"Yeah, you did." Brandon said angrily. "As I was saying Darklight requires me to tribute a Dark Type monster with 1500 or more attack points and in exchange it destroys any monsters that where special summoned during this turn."

"Wait, what?" Ket stammered as the dark light continued onwards completely engulfing Cosmic Horror and destroying it. "Oh crap." Ket said upon realizing it was still Brandon's turn.

"But I'm not done!" Brandon said holding up another card. "First I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Brandon played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards. "Next I activate Mustering of the Dark Scorpions; this lets me special summon Don's partners in crime as long as they are in my hand so come forth Chick the Yellow (3/1000/1000), Maenae The Thorn (3/1000/1800), Cliff The Trap Remover (3/1200/1000) and finally Gorg The Strong (5/1800/1500)." Brandon played the cards and one by one the Scorpions appeared on the field.

"This is going to suck so badly." Ket muttered under his breath as be braced himself for the attack.

"You have no idea." Brandon said before pointing to his Dark Scorpions. "Dark Scorpions, attack his lifepoints directly!" The monsters charged at Ket and attacked him similtaniously.

B: 8000

K: 1200

"Well, at least the worst of it's over." Ket said as he got up and Brandon shook his head.

"I haven't even gotten into the effects of the Dark Scorpions, first Cliff lets me destroy one Spell or Trap card on the field and my card of choice is your ruins." Cliff charged forward again and slashed the hologram of the Field Spell destroying it. "Next Chick lets me look at the top card in your deck and decide whether it stays where it is or it goes to the bottom of the deck." Ket reluctantly picked up the card and looked at it.

"OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Ket yelled in frustration and Brandon sweatdropped.

"You're not allowed to look at the card Ket." Brandon pointed out and Ket blushed.

"I knew that." Ket said before tossing the card at Brandon who caught it.

"Another Cosmic Horror..." Brandon took a moment to read the effect and his eyes widened. _"Pretty nasty effect."_ Brandon thought. "This is going at the bottom of your deck." Brandon said tossing the card back and Ket reluctantly sent it to the bottom of the deck. "Now Maenae's effect lets me search for another Dark Scorpion in my deck and I chose another Gorg the Strong." Brandon said holding up the card. "Next Gorg lets me send the top card in your deck to the graveyard." Ket picked up the card and sent it to the graveyard reluctantly. "Last but not least Don Zaloog lets me choose to send a card from your hand or deck to your graveyard, I chose your hand." Brandon said and Ket sent the card to his graveyard.

"Hey Theresa, what's with Brandon all of a sudden?" Marcus whispered to Theresa. "I've only seen him duelling this ruthlessly once and that was in his duel with Lance."

"Well, as you've probably gathered when Brandon is angry about something he takes it out in duels with his unfortunate opponent being on the receiving end of his anger, in this case Ket." Theresa said folding her arms. "He was mad at Lance for telling the teachers, and by extension you and Andreas, about Chloe's childhood but in this case it's a lot more personal."

"How so?" Andreas asked.

"When Brandon applied for Duel Academy last year he was originally slated for Ra Yellow however his dad pulled some strings and got him promoted to Obelisk Blue instead, most students would be welcome for this but Brandon protested that decision until he was blue in the face, no pun intended, as he wanted to earn his way into Obelisk Blue rather than his father's checks paying his way into the dorm." Theresa said with a sigh. "By then it was too late so he opted for working extremely hard in order to feel like he belonged in Obelisk Blue including challenging all the top ranked duellists, that's how we met."

"So he resented the fact that his dad's money made life easier for him at Duel Academy? If my dad had brought my way into Obelisk Blue I'd buy him a Steak Dinner each and every father's day from that moment onwards!" Marcus grinned and Theresa smirked at him.

"Anyway...I'll set this card facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced and Ket drew his card. "I activate Dark Spirit Art – Greed, in order to activate this I have to tribute a dark type monster on my side of the field so say goodbye to Chick the Yellow!" Brandon said as Chick the Yellow disappeared from the field. "Now I get to draw two cards BUT if you have a Spell Card in your hand you can negate it by removing it from play."

"_Tempting but I need the sole Spell Card in my hand."_ Ket thought before shaking his head. "Draw your cards, it won't matter soon enough." Ket said and Brandon drew his cards. "Now I activate another Field Spell Card called Otherworld – The A Zone!" Ket played the card and the scenery changed to an Alien planet with a multicoloured skyline.

"_Why didn't he remove that card? Unless it was the only one in his hand." _Brandon thought as he watched Ket make his move.

"Now allow me to demonstrate the ability of Otherworld by summoning Alien Hypno in attack mode!" Ket played the card and a small alien with a tube for a lower body appeared on the field, it had a big head and equally big, orange eyes and it's head and hands where grey in colour (4/1600/700). "Alien Hypno, attack Gorg the Strong."

"Wait, what?" The other duellists yelled simultaneously as the Alien's hand reached out, Gorg got ready for battle...only for his attack and defence to drop to 1500 and 1200 respectively.

"What just happened?" Brandon asked and Ket grinned.

"The effect of Otherworld, that's what!" Ket grinned pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Any monster that does battle with one of my Aliens immediately loses 300 attack and defence points." Ket explained as the hands grabbed a hold of Gorg the Strong and ripped him in two.

B: 7900

K: 1200

"Off course I have a long way to go before I can match the damage you did to me a couple of turns ago so I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Ket played the card and Brandon drew his card.

"_Not quite my Dark Armed Dragon but a powerful monster in his own right." _Brandon thought as tumours appeared on his remaining Dark Scopions. _"Oh right, almost forgot about that spell card he set a couple of turns back." _Brandon thought. "I sacrifice Maenae the Thorn to summon the mighty Lich Lord, King of the Underworld in attack mode!" Manae vanished from the field and in her place stood a zombie in red, tattered robes carrying a staff with a glowing gem on top (6/2400/1200). "Lich Lord attack and destroy Alien Hypno." Lich Lord pointed it's staff at the alien and, even though his attack dropped to 2100, a beam of light emerged from it destroying the alien.

B: 7900

K: 700

"Finish him Don Zaloog!" Brandon commanded and Don Charged forward...

"I won't be defeated that easily, I activate Cell Explosion Virus!" Ket activated the card and Don Zaloog stopped in his tracks. "This trap card can only be activated when you attack with a monster that has an A Counter on it; once condition is met it destroys all of your monsters unfortunate enough to be in attack mode!"

"Oh, great!" Brandon said sarcastically as the remaining Dark Scorpions and Lich Lord clutched their sides in agony before their chests exploded one by one. _"What's worse is I used up my normal summon when I brought out Lich Lord."_ Brandon thought before looking at his hand. _"No traps either, I'll have to take the damage for now."_ Brandon thought. "I end my turn."

"Very well." Ket announced drawing his card. "Ah this is useful, you may remember this monster from my failed attempt at summoning Cosmic Horror Gang'iel earlier." Ket said holding up the card.

"Another copy of Alien Dog?" Brandon blinked in confusion. "How will that help?"

"Why don't you see for yourself? I summon Alien Shocktrooper in attack mode and when I normal summon a Alien monster whilst Alien Dog is in my hand I can special summon Alien Dog to the field!" Ket played the cards and the first monster to appear was a humanoid reptile type being wielding a sword (4/1900/800) and it was closely followed by a dog that closely resembled a Jack Russell appeared on the field, it was white and blue in colour (3/1500/1000). "If you had any monsters his other effect would kick in now adding A Counters too them but I guess you can't win them all." Ket shrugged as Brandon braced himself. "Alien Dog, Alien Shocktropper, attack his lifepoints directly!" The two monsters charged forward and attacked Brandon in the order that they were summoned, Shocktrooper with his sword and Dog with its teeth.

B: 4500

K: 400

"I'll make my comeback yet!" Ket said triumphantly as Brandon got to his feet. "And before you ask, yes I am aware of the fact that I'm almost out of lifepoints."

"Then you know that all it would take for me to win is another Dark Crusader." Brandon pointed out with a grin. "Is it my move?" Brandon asked and Ket nodded, Brandon drew his card and raised an eyebrow. "I activate another Allure of Darkness." Brandon said pocketing a monster and drawing two cards. "Not quite the monster I was hoping for but she'll do nicely; I summon Maiden of Macabre in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and a blue skinned woman wearing a Geisha dress appeared on the field, her hair was black and in a huge bun partially concealed by a headdress and she was carrying a scythe (4/1700/0). "Maiden of Macabre, attack Alien Dog!" The maiden charged forward and decapitated the dog with one slice of her scythe.

B: 4500

K: 200

"Encase your getting any ideas about destroying my Maiden next turn, don't." Brandon said as the Maiden's attack rose to 1900. "That's the effect of Maiden of Macabre, every time she destroys a monster in battle she gains a spell counter and for each one she gains 200 attack points." Brandon explained.

"Interesting monster for sure." Ket nodded before turning to Brandon. "Any other moves you want to make?" Brandon looked at his hand and picked up the other card he drew.

"I set this card facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced and Ket drew his card...before doing a double take. "You get a good card?"

"Not only did I get a good card but I get to use a monster that I rarely get a chance to use!" Ket said triumphantly. "I summon Alien Ammonite it attack mode!" Ket played the card and a small bug like alien appeared on the field (1/500/300).

"How does that help you?" Brandon asked raising an eyebrow.

"In two ways Brandon, first his effect lets me Special Summon one Alien type monster from my graveyard as long as it's destroyed at the end of my turn and it's a Level 4 or lower monster so welcome back Alien Dog!" Ket played the card and Alien Dog returned to the field, it growled at Madame of Macabre obviously not happy about being destroyed last turn. "As for the second way, Alien Ammonite is a Tuner monster!"

"Not good." Brandon gulped.

"Yes, for you that is, now I tune Alien Ammonite with Alien Shocktrooper to summon the almighty Cosmic Fortress Gol'Gar in attack mode!" The two aliens vanished and in the place of Ammonite stood a huge bulging Alien that closely resembled Cthulu in appearance, it had a slug like lower body, several tentacles protruding from its chest and several scales on its back (5/2600/1800).

"And I thought that Cosmic Horror monster was ugly!" Marcus gulped at the site of the monster.

"Yes but the two monsters have the same attack." Andreas observed scratching his chin. "What makes this Fortress any different from Cosmic Horror?"

"It won't matter, I activate Gravity Bind!" Brandon activated the card and grinned. "Now the only monster that can attack in Alien Dog!"

"That would be a nice save, if not for the effect of Cosmic Fortress!" Ket grinned. "Once per turn my Cosmic Fortress can send one face up Spell or Trap card back to the opponent's hand so goodbye gravity bind!" As Ket said that one of Cosmic Fortress's tentacles lashed out shattering Gravity Bind's hologram, Brandon returned it to his hand before frowning. "But why stop at just one of my strongest monsters? I activate Monster Reborn to bring back an old friend of ours!"

"Please don't tell me he means Cosmic Horror; please don't tell me he means Cosmic Horror..." Marcus started praying.

"Welcome back to the field Cosmic Horror Gang'iel!" Ket played the card and the massive alien returned to the field.

"Me and my big mouth!" Marcus exclaimed.

"But why stop there? I activate Meteor of Destruction to deal you a thousand points of damage!" A meteor struck Brandon in the chest bringing his lifepoints down to 3500. "Cosmic Horror attack and destroy Madame of Macabre at once!" The alien's tentacles lashed out and grabbed Madame by her arms and legs before slowing ripping her apart.

B: 2800

K: 200

"Cosmic Fortress, attack his lifepoints directly." Rhe fortress's tentacles lashed out and struck Brandon in the chest and he winced and grunted in pain clutching his chest with his free hand...before he noticed a card in his hand.

"_How did I forget I had this card until now?"_ Brandon thought.

"Alien Dog, finish it!" The dog charged forward but Brandon shook his head.

"I'm not done yet!" Brandon said discarding a card from his hand and a wall of Kuribohs blocked the charge of the Alien Dog.

"Why didn't you activate that sooner?" Ket asked as Alien Dog returned to his side of the field, Brandon sweatdropped and sighed.

"I forgot I had it in my hand." Brandon said, it took a few moments for that to sink in for everyone else and once it did they facafaulted.

B: 200

K: 200

"No matter!" Ket said getting back to his feet. "Our lifepoints are both one attack away from being wiped out and unless you draw something soon this duel will be mine on my next turn!" Ket announced and Brandon took that to mean he was ending his turn and went to draw his card before closing his eyes.

"_Come on Heart of the Cards, guide me!" _Brandon thought before drawing his card, he looked at it and smirked. "There won't be a next turn Ket, this duel's over!"

"You mean your surrendering?" Ket asked hopefully and Brandon shook his head.

"Not exactly, you may remember this guy from the beginning of the Duel!" Brandon turned the card around and Ket's eyes widened when he saw Dark Crusader. "I think it goes without saying but I summon Dark Crusader back to the field in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and Skeleton knight reappeared on the field. "Dark Crusader, attack and destroy Alien Dog and end this!" Brandon said and as the Crusader charged forward he discarded a card from his hand to activate Crusader's effect increasing its attack to 2000 and Crusader decapitated the dog with its sword.

B: 200

K: 0000

"I don't believe it, I had both of my strongest monsters out and I still lost!" Ket said as the holograms disappeared, shaking his head he walked over to Brandon and handed over his locater cards and Cosmic Fortress, Brandon took the former but declined the latter.

"Keep it, it wouldn't fit with my deck theme and I don't like Synchro monsters anyway." Brandon said and Ket nodded in understanding before returning it to his extra deck.

"Well done Brandon, now allow me to be your next opponent!" A Russian accent rang out and the two teens looked up and saw a cloaked figure emerge from the alleyway next to the Pizza Restaurant, Brandon's eyes narrowed when he saw the Scythe like Duel Disk on his arm. "I see you recognise my duel disk from your encounter with my associate Felix Truman."

"I'd recognise that duel disk anywhere even if I hadn't duelled Felix." Brandon said as his eyes narrowed. "Who are you?" The figure chuckled before removing his hood revealing a man whose lower half of his face was covered by a half mask, he had short brown hair and blue eyes.

"Ivan." The man chuckled activating his duel disk. "So, what do you say?"

"I accept the challenge on his behalf!" They turned around and saw Lance there with Chloe, his sibblings and Professor Hamden behind him. "I've been meaning to duel one of you assholes ever since an associate of yours stole and broke one of my Locater cards."

"Are you sure about that Lance?" Brandon asked and the teen smirked activating his duel disk.

"Please, my match against Phillip Masters was two hours ago, I have the energy to spare!" Lance said confidently, Ivan chuckled before activating his duel disk.

"Very well, I accept your challenge young man." Ivan chuckled before leading him out into the open. "Ah, now I recognise you." Ivan said with a nod. "Lance Alvers correct? Seems I'll have to do the job Edward couldn't."

"Because he was too busy duelling Theresa." Lance pointed out as the two duellists drew their opening hands. "And by duelling I mean getting his ass kicked ten ways from Sunday by her Armed Dragon."

"Yes, I saw that duel and that fool was too arrogant." Ivan said plainly. "I shall go first." Ivan said, Lance said nothing but simply nodded his head and Ivan drew his first card. "Fortunately for you I haven't drawn the Orichalcos yet, so instead I set three cards facedown and a monster in defence mode, your move." Ivan said and Lance drew his card.

"Fine, I summon Great Angus in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the blood red beast appeared on the field (4/1800/800).

"And I chain your summon with my trap card Reckless Greed!" Ivan activated the trap and chuckled. "Now I get to draw two cards from my deck but in return I have to skip my next two draw phases." Ivan drew his cards and added them to his hand.

"Well, allow me to make you regret that decision if you didn't draw any monsters, Great Angus attack his defence!" The beast charged forward and took a bite out of the monster revealing it to be Sangan (3/1000/600).

"The only one regretting anything will be you!" Ivan said as he searched his deck, he found the card and added it to his hand. "Oh yes, I have to show you the card don't I?" Ivan remembered before turning it around.

"That's an Exodia piece." Lance's eyes narrowed at the site of Right Arm of the Forbidden One (1/200/300). _"The last time I faced one of those was in my test duel but this guy seems more interested in using Exodia for its original purpose." _Lance thought before looking at his hand. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance said, Ivan didn't draw due to Reckless Greed's effect but he did activate one of his traps.

"I activate Legacy of Yata-Garasu, this lets me draw a card from my deck." Ivan drew his card and smirked under his mask. _"I only have one piece of Exodia so far but with my strategy that will change soon."_ Ivan thought before picking up a card. "I activate the Spell Card Stray Lambs; this lets me special summon two Lamb Tokens to the field." Ivan played the card and the two Tokens appeared on the field. "Don't get too attached to them, I sacrifice them both to summon Yamata Dragon in attack mode!" The lambs disappeared and in the place of the first one stood a huge, multi-headed dragon that was grey in colour (7/2600/3100).

"That's a spirit monster!" Marcus realized and the other teens turned to him.

"Are you sure?" Theresa asked and Marcus nodded.

"Yeah, Rajin used it against me in his test duel, he never explained it's effect though since he finished the duel with it." Marcus answered.

"Your friend is correct but I am more than happy to educate the both of you about his effect, Yamata Dragon attack and destroy Great Angus." All of the dragon's heads breathed fire at once roasting Great Angus alive.

L: 7200

I: 8000

"Now his effect activates, when Yamata Dragon does damage to your lifepoints I can draw five cards from my deck." Ivan did so and Lance's eyes narrowed.

"_His way of working around Reckless Greed's side effect is clever but at this rate he'll deck out quickly, not that I'm complaining."_ Lance thought.

"Now I enter my second main phase and activate the following Spells, first I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Ivan played the card and swords rained down on Lance's side of the field. "As for the other...I believe you and your sister are familiar with it."

"Leave her out of this!" Lance growled as his eyes narrowed. "That bastard that you call an associate put her in the hospital!"

"I seem to remember that it was your negligence as an older sibling that ended with her in the hospital, Victor just happened to be the instrument that carried out the deed." Ivan said coldly.

"Oh no, this isn't good." Chloe shook her head. "I never thought I'd find myself feeling sorry for an Orichalcos Duellist but now I'm making an exception." Chloe added and the others looked at her funny.

"Why?" Brandon asked.

"Just watch." Chloe said pointing to Lance, he was quiet for a few minutes as his hair overshadowed his eyes, then he looked up and Ivan took a step back when he saw the rage in them.

"Listen you son of a bitch." Lance said coldly as he glared at him. "I may be a lot of things but a negligent big brother isn't one of them, if you know what's good for you'd drop the subject right...fucking...now!"

"I'm merely stating the cold hard facts boy; if you can't handle it then maybe your sister would be better off in the Orichalcos!" Ivan said coldly. "In fact once I'm done with you I'll go after them next." Ivan added and Lance clenched his fists.

"Make no mistake." Lance said glaring at the other duellist. "I will fucking kill you before you can even think about doing that you son of a bitch!"

"Holy..." Brandon trailed off. "I knew Lance is overprotective of his siblings but..."

"Yeah...be glad that he never went into detail about the time we spent in foster care." Mike interrupted him.

"We'd better hope Lance can keep his cool from here on out." Theresa said as she watched the duel.

"The only one who will be doing any killing is me and I will do it with this Spell Card, THE SEAL OF THE ORICHALCOS!" Ivan played the card and the seal encased the two duellists, Lance didn't even blink as the seal surrounded him and the Seal appeared on Ivan's forehead as well as Yamata Dragon's many heads increasing its attack to 3100 in the process.

"What on Earth is this?" Ket yelled as he saw the Orichalcos.

"You'll find out soon enough." Ivan said picking up the Yamata Dragon card. "I end my turn." Ivan announced discarding two cards from his hand due to the Hand size limit; Lance said nothing and drew his card.

"_This quick play spell will come in handy if he brings back Yamata Dragon."_ Lance thought. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defence mode, your move." Lance played the cards and the first of the swords disappeared as Ivan activated a trap.

"I activate Jar of Greed; this allows me to draw one card from my deck." Ivan drew his card and didn't draw for his actual draw phase due to Reckless Greed's effect. "I activate three Spell cards from my hand, they are called 7!" Ivan played the cards and grinned under his mask. "Now that I have three copies of 7 on the field I can draw three cards from my deck." Ivan drew his cards and picked up the copies of 7. "Now that that's done I must destroy all three copies of 7 but when they are sent to the graveyard from the field they each increase my lifepoints by 700 points."

I: 10,100

L: 7200

"Don't worry, I won't be keeping the extra lifepoints for long, I activate Ancient Leaf!" Ivan played the card and too Lance's surprise Ivan's lifepoints dropped to 8100. "This could only be activated if I had 9000 or more lifepoints, in exchange for paying 2000 lifepoints this card will allow me to draw an additional two cards from my deck." Ivan drew his two cards and his eyes lit up. "I have bad news boy, I currently have three Exodia pieces in my hand."

"But at what cost?" Lance asked folding his arms, Ivan blinked before looking at his deck...and his eyes widened when he saw how low his deck was.

"Shit, I was too careless." Ivan cursed himself before chuckling. "No matter, once I have all five pieces of Exodia in my hand you and your siblings will be doomed."

"Are you going to make a move or not?" Lance growled.

"Ah yes, I set one card facedown and end my turn!" Ivan played the card and Lance drew his and grinned.

"I'm about to blow your whole strategy wide open, I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon Thestalous, The Firestorm Monarch in attack mode!" The hologram of the facedown monster disappeared from the field and in its place stood the Firestorm Monarch (6/2400/1000). "Whilst it's true that my monarch can't attack due to the swords his effect activates when he's summoned, when that happens I can discard one card at random from your hand and if it's a monster you lose lifepoints equal to its level X 100."

"Or it would if not for my trap card, BY ORDER OF THE EMPEROR!" Ivan activated the card and Lance's eyes narrowed.

"What does that do?" Lance asked.

"When it's activated I can chose to negate the effect of an Effect monster that activates when it's normal summoned but in exchange you get to draw a card from your deck." Lance frowned but said nothing as he drew his card.

"Wait, aren't you going to send that card to the graveyard?" Lance asked and Ivan shook his head.

"No, By Order of the Emperor is a Continuous Trap Card so the only way it's going to the graveyard is if you destroy it." Ivan explained and Lance frowned.

"Seeing as how I can't do anything else I'll end my turn." Lance said as the second sword disappeared and Ivan drew his card.

"I activate a Spell Card called Cup of Ace!" Ivan played the card dug into his pocket before producing a coin. "I flip a coin and if it's heads I get to draw two cards, tails you get to draw two cards."

"Either way we get extra cards." Lance said as Ivan flipped the coin.

"_Little does this fool know that this is two headed coin."_ Ivan thought as he caught the coin and placed it on the back of his hand.

"That'll be quite enough Ivan." Ivan's eyes widened and he turned around.

"Michael? How long have you been there?" Ivan demanded.

"Hey Andreas, it's the same guy from my duel against Presario." Marcus whispered and Andreas nodded.

"Yeah, cloak and all." Andreas said with a nod.

"I've been watching this duel from the start." Michael said marching up to the Orichalcos wall. "You've been playing an honourable game...up until now!"

"What do you mean?" Lance demanded.

"Show him both sides of the coin Ivan." Michael demanded and Ivan folded his arms in protest.

"What if I refuse?" Ivan asked.

"Then I will subject you to a torment worse than hell!" Michael snarled, Ivan frowned under his mask and showed both sides to Lance.

"You son of a bitch, it wasn't bad enough that you threatened my siblings but you cheated as well." Lance shook his head.

"I'll offer you a compromise Lance; I'll use one of your coins for the coin toss." Ivan said, Lance dug into his pocket and tossed the coin at Ivan, he tossed it and it landed in the palm of his hand and he put it onto his other hand, he removed the hand and looked at it. "It's tails."

"Thanks for the extra cards." Lance said drawing his two cards, his eyes lit up when he saw them. _"This is just what I need."_ Lance thought.

"It doesn't matter." Ivan said tossing the coin back at Lance and he caught it. "I am two Exodia pieces away from beating you."

"We'll see about that." Lance said folding his arms. "Any other moves you want to make?"

"Yes, I activate Upstart Goblin, now I draw a card but in return you gain a thousand lifepoints." Ivan drew his card and Lance's lifepoints increased to 8200. "Excellent, all I need now is the final Exodia piece; in the meantime I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Lance said nothing and drew his card.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance announced as the last of the swords disappeared and Ivan drew his card. _"Come on, bring out Yamata Dragon."_ Lance thought.

"Perfect, I activate Cost Down; by discarding a card from my hand I can reduce the levels of all monsters in my hand by one." He discarded the card, another copy of Jar of Greed, and picked up another. "Now I sacrifice my facedown card to summon Yamata Dragon back to the field in attack mode!" The facedown card disappeared and in its place stood the multiheaded dragon who roared at Lance as its attack rose to 3100. "Yamata Dragon attack and destroy Thestalous!" The dragon's heads started breathing fire again and Lance grinned.

"That's just what I wanted you to do; I activate my Trap Card Double Passé!" Lance activated the card and too everyone's surprise he ran in front of Thestalos's hologram. "This trap card can only be activated if you attack one of my monsters; now that I've activated it its effect lets me take the hit instead!"

"WAIT, WHAT?" All the other duellists yelled in surprise just before the attack hit sending Lance flying.

I: 8100

L: 5100

Lance breathed heavily as forced himself back to his feet. "My whole body hurts like hell...but I'll be damned if it wasn't worth it!" Lance said through gritted teeth.

"What do you mean?" Ivan asked he drew five cards. _"Blast, even after that I still don't have the final Exodia piece."_

"There are two reasons why I activated that trap; number one the other half of Double Passé's effect now kicks in allowing Thestalous to attack your lifepoints!" The monarch threw a fireball at Ivan who screamed in pain as the attack hit.

I: 5700

L: 5100

"As for the other reason...it ties into the card I set a couple of turns back." Lance said activating the card. "I activate the Quick Play Spell Card Inferno Tempest!

"Inferno what?" Marcus asked blinking as he did.

"This Spell Card can only be activated if I take 3000 points of damage or more from a single attack." Lance grinned as he looked up at Ivan. "Now each and every monster card we have in our decks and graveyards is removed from play."

"NO! NOT MY EXODIA PIECE!" Ivan yelled as his eyes widened but he reluctantly removed all the remaining monsters in his deck as well as the Sangan in his graveyard, Lance did likewise and gritted his teeth in pain. "The jokes on you boy, now we each only have one card left in our decks."

"Just end your turn already." Lance said and Ivan ended his turn by returning Yamata Dragon to his hand, Lance drew his last card and without looking at it he activated his trap. "I activate my final trap card and the card that will destroy you Ivan, Return from a Different Dimension, by paying half of my lifepoints..." Lance winced as his lifepoints dropped to 2550. "I can summon as many monsters that I have removed from play as I possibly can so I summon Cthonian Emperor Dragon (6/2400/1500), Abaki (4/1700/1000), Blast Magician (4/1400/1700) and Ultimate Baseball Kid (3/500/1000)." Lance played the card and the monsters appeared on the field, next to the dragon stood a blood red ogre carrying a massive club and next to Ultimate Baseball Kid, whose attack was at 4500 thanks to it's effect, stood a Magician in crimson armour. "Finish him off guys."

"Wait...wait, time out!" Ivan shouted as he was clearly panicking.

"You threatened my siblings; you don't get a time out." Lance frowned as the monsters charged at him and attacked him one by one.

I: 0000

L: 2550.

Ivan collapsed to the ground and the seal quickly circled him, one blood curdling scream later and Ivan's soul was consumed by the Orichalcos, Lance collapsed from the pain but smirked. "Guys, if I ever get an idea like that again feel free to kick my ass." Lance said looking over his shoulder at the other students.

"We should kick your ass for going overboard with your attack." Chloe said folding her arms as she approached him, Lance frowned and scoffed.

"That bastard threatened to go after my siblings if he defeated me; this is my way of making sure that none of his friends get the same idea." Lance said forcing himself to his feet. "Besides my usage of Inferno Tempest had left me with only one card in my deck so I had to go all out otherwise I would've decked out on my next turn." Lance added before turning to Michael. "Anyway I hope you got the message loud and clear."

"Your siblings will not be threatened or harmed by any of my associates, I'll see too it." Michael said plainly before bending over and picking up Ivan's locater cards and tossing them at Lance. "There's your prize, now leave." Lance picked up the locater cards and pocketed them.

"You'd better keep to your word or I'll come after you next." Lance warned him before he and the others left.

"So, what are you going to do with him?" Michael looked up and saw Felix standing outside the alleyway with a smirk on his face. "He did cheat after all."

"Not to the extent Presario did." Michael said walking off. "Let the authorities deal with him, I need to see how many agents are left."

"All that's left is just you, me, Karen, Robert and the Duel Academy student Michael." Felix said and Michael stopped before spinning around.

"I need to know Robert's location NOW!" Michael demanded and Felix did a double take.

"Err, okay." Felix said getting his cell phone out and dialing a number. "Hey boss it's me, Michael wants to know the location of Robert and it seems pretty urgent." Felix waited a couple of minutes before nodding, "Last seen entering the hotel that the students are staying at?"

"Ask him if there are any immediate family members of the students staying there." Michael ordered.

"Is there any immediate family members staying at the hotel?" Felix asked and waited a few moments before pulling the phone away from his mouth and answering. "There's just that Richardson chick's folks and Lance Alvers' mom." As soon as Felix answered the question Michael stormed off. "Where are you going?"

"Worry about that later, tell the boss to tale Robert's movements." Michael said as he walked off. "Let's just hope we're not too late."

*elsewhere in the city*

Kimberly sighed as she looked around, she had just gotten texts from Brandon about the duel between Lance and Ivan and knew that she had to find a duel soon in order to keep up with her classmates, she and Maria where near the New York docks but so far their luck in finding an opponent for Kimberly wasn't good.

"I'd better find an opponent soon." Kimberly thought out loud as she sat down on the edge of a peer with her legs dangling off the edge. "Otherwise the others will leave me in the dust."

"You'll find an opponent soon enough dear." Maria reassured her with a smile. "Besides this way you can look at all the cute boys in the city whilst you wait."

"Yeah but unless one of the cute boys in the city is a duellist who's searching for an opponent and has at least two locater cards, that is not really at the top of my list of priorities." Kimberly said rolling her eyes.

"Maybe I can help you there miss?" Kimberly looked up when she heard a Posh sounding English male voice and saw a young man with short brown hair and blue eyes who was smartly dressed and had a duel disk on his arm. "My name is Charles Kingston the III, England's national champion and I happen to be looking for an opponent." Kimberly smiled and got up.

"That makes two of us, the name's Kimberly Troy." Kimberly said with a smirk. "I don't care if you are England's national champ because I still accept your challenge."

"Kimberly Troy? Ah yes one of the Duel Academy students, I'll be happy to put my skills against a student of the game." Charles said as both duellists activated their duel disks.


	22. Pride of the Normal

Kimberly and Charles backed off a good distance from each other so that they could begin their duel, Maria sat down on a nearby bench in order to watch the duel and both duellists activated their duel disks.

"I must warn you milady." Charles said as the two duellists drew their opening hands. "My father outfitted my deck with the most powerful cards possible."

"Power means nothing if you don't have spell or trap cards to back them up." Kimberly pointed out with a smile.

"Ah yes, touché'." Charles admitted. "Since I'm a gentleman I'll say ladies first." Charles added and Kimberly drew her first card.

"Right, I start off by activated the Field Spell Card Pandemonium!" Kimberly played the card and the scenery changed to the hellish arena.

"Ah yes, you used Archfiends in your duel against that dreadful Madame Ruska." Charles remembered as he looked around the scenery. "I'm not the least bit surprised that you have this spell in your deck."

"I didn't even get to use the majority of my cards in that duel so don't get too ahead of yourself." Kimberly said picking up a card. "As far as monsters go I start things off by summoning Infernity Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and a demon with spiked up red hair and purple skin appeared on the field, he had a green gem on his forehead and was smartly dressed (4/1800/1200). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Kimberly played the cards and Charles drew his.

"That's a strong opening move, but with that said let's see how you handle this move!" Charles said picking up a card. "First I activate a Spell card of my own called Heart of the Underdog!" Charles played the card and smiled. "This card's effect won't come into effect until my next draw phase but in the meantime I'll summon a monster of my own, Beaked Snake in attack mode!" Charles played the card and a small green snake with a beak appeared on the field hissing at Kimberly (3/800/900).

"You're kidding, right?" Kimberly asked as a massive sweatdrop rolled down her head. "That thing's nowhere near as strong as my Archfiend." Kimberly added and Charles chuckled in amusement as he picked up two cards.

"What was it you said earlier about power being useless without Spell and Trap cards? I set two cards facedown and end my turn." The holograms of the two facedown cards appeared behind Beaked Snake and Kimberly drew her card.

"_On one hand that monster's incredibly weak, on the other his facedown cards might be traps in anticipation of me attacking." _Kimberly thought as she looked at her drawn card. _"Then there's Heart of the Underdog, I don't even know what that card does but since he stated that it won't come into effect until his draw phase it obviously can't help Beaked Snake."_ Kimberly thought.

"Having a bit of trouble deciding what to do are we? Why don't I simplify it for you?" Charles asked as he activated one of his traps. "I activate the trap card Common Charity; this lets me draw two cards from my deck in exchange for removing from play one Normal Monster from my hand." Charles pocketed the monster and drew two cards.

"_Well that's one mystery solved."_ Kimberly thought. "I sacrifice Infernity Archfiend to summon Lesser Fiend in attack mode!" Infernity Archfiend disappeared from the field and in its place stood a demon with two sets of arms and a dog's head, its body was muscular and it was wearing brown pants (5/2100/1000). "Lesser Fiend, attack Beaked Snake now!"

"_Perfect."_ Charles thought as the fiend charged forward towards the snake, it grabbed the snake by its head and tore it in half.

C: 6700

K: 8000

"I activate my Trap Card Death and Rebirth which will..." Charles went to activate the trap but nothing happened. "What on Earth is going on, why isn't my trap activating?"

"Probably because any monster that Lesser Fiend destroys is removed from play rather than sent to the graveyard." Kimberly explained and Charles's eyes narrowed...before he chuckled.

"It seems I underestimated your intelligence, a mistake I won't be repeating." Charles said before folding his arms. "Are you done?" Kimberly looked at her hand and Charles drew. "Ah perfect, I drew a normal monster."

"And that helps you, how?" Kimberly asked...before doing a double take when she saw him draw again. "Hey, you've already drawn!"

"Oh yes, I forgot to explain Heart of the Underdog's effect didn't I?" Charles asked before smirking. "As long as it's on the field and I draw a normal monster during my draw phase I get to draw another card, if the new card is a normal monster as well I draw again, the process continues until I either run out of cards to draw or I draw a Spell, Trap or Effect monster."

"You run an Exodia deck, don't you?" Kimberly asked folding her arms with a smirk. "I mean that's two cards you've played that let you draw extra cards."

"Please, I don't dabble in Alternate Win strategies." Charles scoffed before looking at his drawn card. "A Spell Card but a useful card none the less, I activate the spell card Enchanting Fitting Room!" Charles played the card and too Kimberly's surprise his lifepoints dropped to 5900. "At the cost of 800 lifepoints I'm allowed to look at the next four cards in my deck and any Level 3 or lower normal monsters among them are immediately special summoned to the field." Charles picked up the cards and looked at them before picking up two. "My lucky day, I summon Dragon Zombie (3/1600/0) and Alinsection (3/950/700) both in defence mode." Charles played the cards and the two monsters appeared on the field. The first was a large purple, decaying dragon with a large mouth and the other was a small purple insect with nasty looking pinchers; both monsters knelt down almost as soon as they were summoned and Charles shuffled his deck.

"If bringing out two weaker monsters to face my monster is supposed to impress me then I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it doesn't." Kimberly said folding her arms.

"Remember the monster I drew first? It's a Level 7 monster with more than enough attack points to deal with Lesser Fiend." Charles chuckled as he picked up the card. "I sacrifice my two monsters to bring out Hronzanryu in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Dragon Zombie stood a massive slender dragon, it was silver in colour with a orange belly, had a horn in its nose and two additional horns on the top of its head (7/2100/2800).

"I don't know about you but you just sacrificed two monsters to bring out a monster with the same attack points as a monster that requires one sacrifice." Kimberly said folding her arms. "Not only is that a waste of your spell card but you're going to have to do better than that if you want to beat me."

"Funny you should mention that, I activate one of the cards I drew with Common Charity's effect, Shield and Sword!" Charles played the card and Kimberly's eyes narrowed. "Judging from the look on your face you are well aware of what this spell card does, am I correct?"

"Yeah, it swaps the attack and defence points around." Kimberly said as Lesser Fiend's attack dropped to 1000 whilst Hronzanryu's attack rose to 2800.

"Quite so, now Hrozanryu attack Lesser Fiend!" Charles commanded and the dragon took flight.

"I was hoping you'd do that." Kimberly said and Charles raised an eyebrow. "I activate my Trap Card Hate Buster!" The card flipped up and Charles blinked. "This trap can only be activated if a Fiend Type monster I control is selected as an attack target and as the name implies Lesser Fiend is such a monster."

"All right, what does it do?" Charles asked.

"What it does is destroys both monsters and inflicts damage to the opponent equal to the attacking monster's attack points." Charles's eyes widened as a chasm opened up on the field and the two monsters where dragged into hell, he winced as the dragon breathed fire at him before being dragged into the chasm which subsequently closed up.

C: 3800

K: 8000

"You have anything else you want to do or are you going to keep defeating yourself?" Kimberly asked before Charles picked up the other card he drew with Common Charity's effect.

"As I matter of face there is something else I wish to do, I set this card facedown and end my turn." Charles announced as the facedown card appeared on the field, Kimberly nodded and drew her card; she looked at it for a few moments before adding it to her hand and picking up another card.

"In that case I summon Shadowknight Archfiend to the field in attack mode!" Kimberly playing the card and a demon in silver armour appeared on the field, its skin was ghastly grey, he had long blue hair and was wielding a sword in one hand and had some nasty looking claws in the other (4/2000/1600). "Shadowknight, attack his lifepoints directly!" Kimberly commanded and Shadowknight charged towards Charles.

"Did you really think I'd be defeated THAT easily?" Charles asked as he activated his trap. "I activate Birthright, this allows me to Special Summon one Normal Type monster in my graveyard to the field in attack mode and I'm sure my monster needs no introduction." Charles said as Hronzanryu returned to the field by bursting out of the ground.

"Hold your attack Shadowknight." Kimberly commanded and Shadowknight returned to her side of the field. "I end my turn."

"So you should." Charles chuckled as he drew his card. "Well what do you know? The card I drew is a normal monster." Charles added the monster to his hand and drew another due to Heart of the Underdog's effect, "Oh look at that, another Normal Monster!" Charles drew again and frowned. "I drew a Trap Card."

"Judging from the look on your face it's not a very good one." Kimberly pointed out and Charles looked up at her.

"We'll see about that, I set the card I just drew facedown and summon the first monster I drew, Vorse Raider, in attack mode!" Charles played the cards and the hideous Beast Warrior appeared on the field (4/1900/1200). "Hronzanryu, attack Shadowknight Archrfiend now!" The dragon took flight and let loose with a breath of fire incinerating the knight.

K: 7900

C: 3800

"Vorse Raider I command you to attack her lifepoints directly!" The Beast Warrior charged forward and Kimberly grinned.

"You'll have to do better than that because I activate my Trap Card Archfiend's Roar, at the cost of 500 lifepoints I can bring back Shadowknight Archfiend from the graveyard!" Kimberly activated the card and Shadowknight Archfiend returned to the field even as her lifepoints dropped to 7400. "Small price to pay compared to your Beast Warrior's attack."

"That is very true." Charles nodded in agreement. "Vorse Raider, halt your attack at once!" Charles called out and Vorse Raider returned to his side of the field.

"_Only thing is Shadowknight Archfiend will be destroyed as soon as Charles ends his turn due to Archfiend's Roar's side effect."_ Kimberly thought with a frown. _"I'd better hope that I draw something good during my draw phase."_

"I end my turn at that." Charles said and a chasm opened up under Shadowknight Archfiend sending him plummeting down to hell. "The side effect of Archfiend's Roar?"

"Yeah, it is." Kimberly nodded as she drew her card.

"I activate the Trap Card I set last turn, Dark Scheme." Charles announced as the trap flipped up. "You can choose to negate this effect by discarding a card from your hand but I don't see why you would, you see it allows us both to draw two cards in exchange for discarding two cards."

"In that case I won't negate it." Kimberly said as both players discarded two cards from their hands and drew additional ones.

"Use my gift wisely." Charles advised her as he looked at his new cards. _"Excellent."_

"Oh, I will." Kimberly said looking at her new cards. "I set a monster in defence mode and two cards facedown, you're move!" Kimberly announced as she played the cards she drew thanks to Dark Scheme alongside a third card the once that she had drawn during her draw phase, Charles said nothing and drew his card.

"No Normal Monster this time but this will suffice." Charles said as he looked at the card. "I summon Coach Goblin to the field in attack mode!" Charles played the card and a small goblin appeared on the field wearing a yellow t-shirt and black pants (4/1200/1500).

"How does that help you exactly?" Kimberly asked raising an eyebrow.

"You'll see soon enough, now Hronzanryu attack her defence monster!" The dragon took flight again and breathed fire at the facedown card revealed to be Sangan (3/1000/600) which was quickly incinerated.

"I'm assuming you're familiar with Sangan's effect." Kimberly asked and Charles nodded.

"I didn't come to be England's National Champion without becoming familiar with the effects of most monsters." Charles said as Kimberly searched through her deck before finding a monster and adding it to her hand. "Now Vorse Raider, Coach Goblin, I command you both to attack her lifepoints directly!" The two monsters charged forward and attacked Kimberly, Vorse Raider with its blade and Coach Goblin with his fists.

K: 4300

C: 3800

Kimberly forced herself to her feet and glared at Charles. "Are you done?"

"As a matter of fact, I am." Charles said before remembering something. "Oh yes, Coach Goblin's effect now activates, by sending one card from my hand to the bottom of my deck I can draw one card during my end phase." Charles sent the card to the bottom of his deck and drew a new card, Kimberly said nothing and drew her card.

"_It's time I took care of that dragon."_ Kimberly thought before playing a card. "I activate Silent Doom, this lets me special summon a Normal Monster from my graveyard to the field in defence mode and thanks to Dark Scheme I have just the card." Kimberly played the card and Warrior of Zera appeared on the field in defence mode (4/1600/1600).

"So? That monster's defence points can only protect it from Coach Goblin!" Charles pointed out and Kimberly grinned.

"There's a reason I brought him out with Pandemonium on the field." Kimberly said picking up a card. "It's fairly well known that Warrior of Zera is used by Fairy users to bring out Archlord Zerato but he has his uses for Fiend users like me." Kimberly said and Maria did a double take.

"You're bringing out THAT monster?" Maria said the surprise evident on her face.

"Yeah, I know it's been a while since I've had the opportunity to use it." Kimberly grinned. "This monster can only be summoned by sacrificing Warrior of Zera whilst Pandemonium is on the field and since I meet those requirements I tribute Warrior of Zera to summon Mazera DeVille in attack mode!" Warrior of Zera stood up and slowly started to mutate and grow, eventually he was transformed into a massive winged demon whose head and wings closely resembled Warrior of Zera's helmet as well as it's nasty looking claws, it was grotesquely muscular and was wearing purple pants (8/2800/2300). "If you think he's bad enough due to the fact that he's stronger than your dragon then you're in trouble."

"What do you mean?" Charles asked.

"When he's summoned this way and Pandemonium is on the field my opponent is forced to discard three cards from their hand at random." Kimberly explained and Charles picked up three cards.

"Well. I guess there's no use in hiding it any longer." Charles said turning the cards around revealing them to be three pieces of Exodia, Right Arm, Right Leg and the Head to be exact.

"I thought so." Kimberly said with a triumphant grin as Charles sent the cards to the graveyard.

"Don't get too cocky, the Exodia pieces where merely a backup plan." Charles said defiantly, Kimberly shook her head and pointed to Mazera.

"Mazera DeVille attack and destroy Hronzanryu now!" Kimberly commanded and the demon took flight before putting it's claws together, a large ball of energy formed between them and it launched it towards the dragon destroying it.

K: 4300

C: 3100

The demon landed besides its mistress who smirked triumphantly. "Looks like I've beaten you're best card and your backup strategy in one fell swoop." Kimberly said and Charles chuckled.

"You really think that dragon was the best I've got? Sorry to disappoint you but that is far from the case." Charles said folding his arms.

"In that case I end my turn." Kimberly said and Charles drew his card.

"Ah yes a Normal Monster, not only that but it's exactly the card I was looking for!" Charles said before drawing another card due to the effect of Heart of the Underdog. "I've drawn a spell card but no matter." Charles shrugged before playing it. "I activate De-Spell, this lets me destroy one spell card on the field."

"Let me guess, Pandemonium?" Kimberly asked. _"If that's the case than Magic Jammer will prevent my field spell's destruction."_ Kimberly thought looking at her trap.

"Actually no, Heart of the Underdog has lived out its usefulness so I'm destroying that instead." Charles said as the Hologram for Heart of the Underdog shattered.

"That's pretty callous don't you think?" Kimberly blinked as Charles sent his two Spell Cards to the graveyard, a quick glance over at Maria confirmed that the older woman was thinking the same thing.

"Don't tell me an intelligent woman like you believes in that Heart of the Cards nonsense." Charles scoffed. "My father has a saying, you must make sacrifices to get ahead in life and the same applies to Duel Monsters." Charles added as he picked up the card he drew first. "Allow me to demonstrate by sacrificing Vorse Raider and Coach Goblin to summon my strongest monster, the mighty Gogiga Gaggagido."

"Yeah, I'm not even going to try to pronounce that monster's name." Kimberly said as a massive sweatdrop rolled down her head.

"Believe me; it took me several days to pronounce its name correctly when I first got it!" Charles responded before playing the card, the two remaining monsters vanished from the field and in the place of Vorse Raider stood a humongous beast that seemed to be half reptile, half machine (8/2950/2800).

"_Crap, that thing's stronger than my Archfiend Empress!" _Kimberly thought as her eyes widened.

"Hang in there Kimberly!" Maria shouted from the sidelines.

"Go my beast, slay Mazera DeVille this instant!" The monster charged towards Kimberly's demon and tore it in half with its bare hands.

K: 4150

C: 3100

"I shall end my turn at that!" Charles announced and Kimberly drew her card before remembering something.

"_My Level Conversion Lab trap card, I completely forgot about it."_ Kimberly thought as her eyes darted towards her second facedown card. _"This could help me turn things around but in the meantime I'd better play it safe."_ Kimberly thought before looking at her card. "I start by activating the Spell Card Allure of Darkness, by removing from play a Dark Type monster from my hand I'm allowed to draw two more cards." Kimberly removed from play the Bite Shoes (2/500/300) that she had added to her hand thanks to Sangan's effect and drew two new cards after pocketing the monster. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Kimberly set the monster and Charles drew his card.

"I'll take a page from your playbook; I activate my own Allure of Darkness." Charles played the card and, after removing a card from play, he drew two cards. "Sorry to have to disappoint you dear but that monster won't be protecting you for much longer, I activate my Spell Card Nobleman of Crossout to remove your facedown monster from play."

"Don't count on it." Kimberly said chaining the Spell Card's activation with one of her traps. "I activate Magic Jammer; by discarding a card from my hand I can negate the activation of your spell card." Charles frowned as she discarded a card from her hand and they sent their cards to their graveyards.

"That was a minor setback." Charles shrugged.

"_Again with the callousness towards his own cards, no matter I'll teach him a lesson in the Heart of the Cards."_ Kimberly thought.

"Besides I drew another card with Allure of Darkness and whilst not quite as potent as Nobleman of Crossout it still has its uses." Charles said playing the card. "I activate Stop Defence to force your facedown monster into attack mode!" Kimberly's eyes widened but she reluctantly flipped up the monster revealing it to be Cyber Archfiend (4/1000/2000) a metallic looking winged demon. "Now I summon Gene Warped Warwolf in attack mode!" Charles played the card and a strange wolf like being appeared on the field, it stood on its hind legs and had two sets of arms (4/2000/100). "Before you ask, no it doesn't have any hindering special abilities, now Gene Warped Warwolf attack and destroy Cyber Archfiend." The Warwolf charged at Cyber Archfiend before choking it to death and reducing Kimberly's lifepoints to 3150. "Now my ultimate beast, attack her lifepoints directly!"

"This is going to hurt on so many levels." Kimberly muttered as she braced herself for the attack, the huge monster charged at Kimberly and slammed its fists into her.

K: 200

C: 3100

"_If it wasn't for Magic Jammer I would've lost and I'd be out of the tournament."_ Kimberly thought as she forced herself to her feet. _"I can't lose at this early a stage, for Nathan's sake I have to continue!" _Kimberly thought as she looked up at Nathan. "Are you done?"

"Indeed I am, but unless you draw something useful on your next turn you're finished!" Charles nodded and Kimberly drew her card.

"I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands!" Kimberly played the card and both players drew until they had 6 cards in their hands, Kimberly's eyes lit up when she saw two of her new cards. "Charles, I'm about to give you a lesson in the Heart of the Cards."

"What this nonsense again, for the sake of argument I'll humour you and ask just how you intend to do that?" Charles scoffed.

"I will with the trap card that you gave to me via Dark Scheme, Level Conversion Lab!" Kimberly activated the card and a large six sided die appeared on the field. "Here's how it works, I show you one monster in my hand that die rolls, if it lands on one that monster is sent to my graveyard, if it lands on anything above one then that number becomes that particular monsters level for the rest of the turn."

"So you're risking everything on the roll of a dice? Okay, I'm game." Charles shrugged. "Show me the monster." Kimberly did so revealing the monster to be Archfiend Empress (8/2900/2100). "Funny, I thought Mazera was the strongest monster in your deck."

"You thought wrong now go dice roll!" The giant dice rolled across the field. _"Come on Heart of the Cards, give me anything bellow 5 and above 1."_ Kimberly thought biting her lip as she watched the dice slow down eventually landing on 4. "YES!"

"Blast, how lucky can you get?" Charles cursed as she picked up the card.

"And now that I can summon her without a sacrifice I summon my deck's strongest monster, Archfiend Empress in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and a female demon appeared on the field, her skin was purple and she was wearing a revealing black and white dress with a matching headdress and she was carrying a sinister looking staff (4/2900/2100).

"Doesn't matter, next turn my ultimate beast will destroy her and another one of my monsters will finish you!" Charles said and Kimberly smirked.

"We'll see about that, now Archfiend Empress, attack and destroy Gene Warped Warwolf!" Kimberly commanded and the empress pointed her staff at the wolf like creature and lightning emerged from it striking the wolf in the chest destroying it.

K: 200

C: 2200

"I set a card facedown and end my turn!" Kimberly set the card down and Charles drew his card.

"You're finished; I summon Giant Red Seasnake in attack mode!" Charles played the card and a large red seasnake appeared on the field (4/1800/800). "Now my ultimate beast, clear the path for my seasnake and destroy Archfiend Empress!" The monster charged towards the empress and Kimberly smirked.

"Sorry, but you've just defeated yourself." Kimberly said activating her trap. "I activate my trap card Magic Cylinder!"

"NO!" Charles's eyes widened as the massive monster went in one cylinder and out the other striking its own master.

K: 200

C: 0000

"Defeated by my own monster..." Charles trailed off as the two duellists deactivated their duel disks and returned their cards to their decks. "I suppose there are worse fates."

"_You have no idea."_ Kimberly thought thinking back to Nathan's duel against Michael back at Duel Academy as she approached him. "I'll be taking my prize now." She said holding her hand out.

"Off course, I know when I'm beaten." Charles said digging into his pocket and retrieving his locater cards before handing them over. "And off course my rarest card." Charles said digging through his deck and handing it over.

"Summoned Skull (6/2500/1200), not bad and it should fit my deck like a glove." Kimberly commented before adding it to her deck, Charles walked off and she pocketed the locater cards. _"Four down, two to go."_ Kimberly thought.

"Nice duelling, though I've seen better." A female voice rang out from behind her and Kimberly turned around seeing Karen standing behind her, Kimberly's eyes narrowed when she recognised her.

"You're one of the girls that duelled Andreas and Marcus yesterday." Kimberly realized and Karen smirked.

"So what if I am? You intend to call the cops on me?" Karen scoffed. "I'll be out of here before those idiots get within five minutes of the docks."

"What do you want then?" Kimberly demanded.

"I need you to give a warning to a friend of yours on my behalf, the Osiris Red student to be precise." Karen said folding her arms.

"What do you want with Chloe?" Kimberly demanded.

"Relax; it's not me that has a beef with her." Karen said narrowing her eyes. "It's another agent of the organisation that employs me and just between you and me I don't trust him at all."

"Why don't you trust him?" Kimberly asked folding her arms. "Did he refuse to let his penis get within your STD infected ass?"

"Cute." Karen said rolling her eyes. "Most of the employees at the organisation have beefs with someone, mine is against my older sister for example, but this agent...he's not just angry with the kid, he wants her dead." Karen said as she started to walk off.

"Wait!" Kimberly called out to her and Karen stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder at the younger woman. "Why was my brother targeted by your organisation, he never harmed anyone?"

"_Who does she mean by her brother? Wait; is this the same girl Michael let go?" _Karen thought as her eyes narrowed. _"Definitely fits her description."_ Karen thought. "You mean that kid Michael defeated on Duel Academy Island?" Karen asked and Kimberly nodded, Karen smirked and shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "By all reports you and your brother got in the way, you're lucky that idiot didn't drag you into the Orichalcos with him!" Karen said before continuing to walk off...or she would've if not for the fact that Kimberly span her around and punched her in the mouth.

"How dare you talk about my brother that way you bitch?" Kimberly snarled as Karen looked up at the Duel Academy student the look on her face being a mixture of surprise and pain, Phillip Masters, who was passing through the area, saw the confrontation and got in between the two women.

"Hey, hey, hey, no need to get violent!" Phillip said standing in between the two women. _"Never thought I'd be unhappy to be in-between two attractive women but what can you do?"_ Phillip thought.

"This is none of your business!" Kimberly spat at Phillip who was trying his hardest to defuse the situation.

"Is this really the way to behave after losing a duel?" Phillip asked and Kimberly's eyes narrowed. "I had heard that you had found an opponent."

"She wasn't her opponent, I was." Phillip looked up and saw Charles approaching. "Surprised your still here Phillip, weren't you eliminated?"

"Just because I'm out of the tournament doesn't mean..." Phillip started but was cut off by the site of Karen tackling Kimberly to the floor and brawling with her. "Oh for God's sake, what is they're issue with each other?" The Irish duellist said clearly getting annoyed by this point. "Okay Charles, you said that you where her opponent, did you win?"

"No, I almost did but she used Magical Cylinder on me." Charles said folding his arms. "We should separate them before either of them gets injured."

"True, better us than the cops right?" Phillip asked. "I'll grab Kimberly, you grab Karen."

"You have a deal." Phillip said and the two men went to separate the two women and eventually they did...unfortunately for Phillip and unfortunate placement of his hands gave Kimberly the wrong idea.

"Are you trying to grope me asshole?" Kimberly yelled and Phillip's eyes widened.

"No, I swear..." Phillip started but his response was cut off when Kimberly's foot collided with his balls. "That...wasn't...where...I...meant...to...grab...you." Phillip said in a high-pitched voice before falling over. "That...came...out...wrong..." Phillip realized as he clutched his balls in pain.

"Worry about your balls later." Charles said as he helped him up. "I can't believe I just said that."

"Wait, if your here then who's restraining the woman with the longer hair?" Phillip said just as his voice was returning to its normal pitch, Charles's eyes widened in realization.

"Oh dear, this is bad." Charles said turning around just in time to see Kimberly bull rushing Karen only to be wacked in the face by Karen's duel disk.

"That'll teach you to cheap shot me bitch!" Karen spat before strapping her duel disk to back onto her arm.

"Wait, Charles isn't that the same duel disk those Orichalcos Duellists have been using?" Phillip asked the moment he saw the disk.

"Yes it is." Charles said kneeling down in front of the unconscious Kimberly. "Give me one reason why we shouldn't call the cops on you."

"Oh, that's easy." Karen said digging into her pocket and producing 6 locater cards. "As of five minutes ago I'm a Battle City Semi Finalist and those idiots in the police force are under orders not to arrest anyone who's a semi-finalist." Karen said before walking off. "If I were you, I'd be more interested in getting her to the hospital." Karen said before leaving the area.

"She has six locater cards already?" Phillip blinked before shaking his head. "She's right; we'd better call for an ambulance."

"It's already taken care of." Maria said walking up to the pair with her hands behind her back. "I appreciate your efforts to break up the fight boys; my only regret is that it ended like this."

"No problem." Phillip said with a nod. "She took a pretty nasty hit and considering how heavy these things can be..." Phillip said looking at his own duel disk.

"Let's try not to dwell on that Phillip." Charles said standing up and turning his attention to Maria. "I know she's a duel academy student but I don't think I caught your name."

"Maria, I'm a teacher at Duel Academy and Head Mistress for Osiris Red." Maria introduced herself as the ambulance pulled up.

"What happened here?" One of the paramedics said running up to Kimberly.

"She got into a fight with another female duellist; it ended with the other woman whacking her on the head with her duel disk." Maria said as the Paramedic loaded Kimberly onto the stretcher, she frowned when she saw him riffling through Kimberly's pockets. "I'm a representative from Duel Academy and I can tell you right now that that isn't necessary as Duel Academy will cover her medical expenses."

"That works for me." The paramedic shrugged as he loaded her into the ambulance and closed the door behind him, Maria got her cell phone out and Phillip raised an eyebrow.

"Who are you calling?" Phillip asked.

"I'm calling my co-workers at Duel Academy who came with me on this trip." Maria answered as she waited for a response.

*elsewhere in the city*

Mike was in the middle of his second Battle City duel this time against an Australian Duellist called Ray Lanza who's deck specialized in dinosaurs, so far the match was fairy even as Ray had his copy of Ultimate Tryanno (8/3000/2200), a massive dinosaur with hunger in its eyes on the field as well as the field spell card Jurassic World which, alongside changing the scenery to a thick jungle with a volcano in the distance, increased Ultimate Tryanno's attack and defence to 3300 and 2500 respectively as well as a faceup Seismic Shockwave which had been activated two turns earlier and its final turn was approaching, Mike's side of the field was empty due to Ultimate Tryanno's effect save for a single facedown card, the lifepoints where as follows.

R: 2200

M: 100

"Well mate, it's been fun but come next turn the fun will end!" Ray, a man with short brown hair which was currently under a fairly sizable fedora and blue eyes who was wearing a brown jacket with a red jumper underneath it, blue jeans and black boots, said with a grin as Mike drew his card.

"We'll see about that!" Mike said defiantly before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Giant Red Seasnake in attack mode!" Mike played the card and the seasnake appeared on one of the only remaining spaces Mike had (4/1800/800). "And I activate the trap I set last turn Torrential Tribute which I chain with Emergency Provissions, by sending Torrential Tribute to my graveyard I gain a thousand lifepoints!"

"Oh crap." Ray muttered as a huge tidle wave cleared the field of monsters and Mike's lifepoints increased to 1100. "Even with the extra lifepoints my dinos will feast on your lifepoints next turn."

"There won't be a next turn, I activate Premature Buriel to bring back an old friend from earlier in the duel at the cost of 800 lifepoints!" Mike played the card and grinned even as his lifepoints dropped to 300. "So welcome back to the field the one, the only, the almighty..."

"GET ON WITH IT!" Every other duellist in attendance yelled simultaneously and Mike facefaulted.

"Yesh, all I'm doing is putting on a show for the cameras." Mike muttered under his breath as he got back to his feet.

"He's almost as bad as you are Lance whenever you try to impress a girl." Chloe teased him.

"Yeah...HEY WAIT A SEC!" Lance agreed just before he realized what he was agreeing with.

"Right, as I was saying." Mike said retrieving the card. "Welcome back to the field my second strongest monster Leiva-Dragon – Daedulas in attack mode!" Mike played the card and the gigantic seasnake returned to the field (8/2600/1500). "But where would be the fun in leaving it there?"

"You have something else to summon?" Ray blinked.

"As a matter of fact yes, I can now summon a monster that can only be summoned by sacrificing Daedulas at his current stage so..." Mike sent the monster and Premature Burial to the graveyard. "I summon my strongest monster, Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo Deadulas!" The seasnake on the field started to evolve until it was much bigger in height, had two heads and more closely resembled a dragon in its current form (9/2900/1600).

"Holy shit, that's huge!" Marcus whistled as Andreas nodded in agreement, Nicola on the other hand gulped loudly, whilst that was going on Martin got a call on his cell phone.

"Neo Deadulas, attack his lifepoints directly." The dragon's heads opened their mouths and breathed water at the older duellist.

R: 0000

M: 300

"Nice duelling kid!" Ray said deactivating his duel disk and approaching him, he extended his hand out for a handshake which Mike was happy to accept before handing over his Locater Cards and Ultimate Tryanno.

"Thanks, but this doesn't really fit in with my deck." Mike said looking at the Dinosaur.

"I'll take it." Theresa said stepping forward. "I've been working on a Dinosaur deck anyway." Theresa added.

"That seems fair to me." Ray shrugged before handing over the card to Theresa, he left the area without another word and the crowd started to disperse.

"Mike, where the hell did you get that powerful a card, I know Brandon helped you strengthen your deck but that's ridicules?" Lance asked confused and Mike laughed.

"I've had that thing in my deck like forever man!" Mike said looking at Neo Daedulas proudly. "Problem is that I haven't been able to use it until now!"

"Guys, we have a situation." Martin said and the others turned their attention to him. "Maria just phoned me, Kimberly's in hospital with a possible concussion after being hit in the head with a duel disk."

"You're kidding? Who attacks someone with a duel disk?" Marcus asked and Martin turned his attention to him.

"I don't joke about things like serious injuries but it's funny you should mention that, it was an old friend of yours." Martin said and Marcus blinked.

"Did you say old friend? But none of my buddies from New York would do...wait, was it Karen?" Marcus asked and Martin nodded. "We'd better get to the hospital."

"Agreed, I'll call the limo driver and have him drive us there." Martin nodded getting his cell phone out.


	23. Power vs Skill

Kimberly moaned as she sat up in her hospital bed, her head hurt like hell and she didn't need a mirror to know that most of it was bandaged up, she took a look around the room and saw her clothes and Duel Disk on a bedside table before looking at her body and seeing that she was in a hospital gown, it wasn't much longer before she realized that she was in a private room at a local hospital.

"Ugh, what happened?" Kimberly said out loud as she held her head in pain, it wasn't long before her memory of what had happened after her duel with Charles came back to her alongside Karen's warning for Chloe. "Did anyone catch the number of that duel disk?" Kimberly said out loud thinking that she was alone in the room.

"Ah good, you're awake Ms. Troy." An unfamiliar voice rang out making Kimberly jump, she looked up and saw a doctor in his early 50s with short grey hair and a matching beard with blue eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been whacked on the head with a duel disk, how do you think?" Kimberly moaned leaning back in her bed. "Where the cops able to catch the bitch who did this too me?"

"Unfortunately no, colourful language aside the cops where never called." The doctor answered and Kimberly's eyes narrowed.

"Why the hell not? I didn't whack myself on the head with a Duel Disk." Kimberly protested and the doctor sighed.

"I'm not saying you did." The doctor sighed before shaking his head. "The police are under orders not to arrest Battle City semi-finalists and unfortunately Ms. Trayson is in fact a Battle City semi-finalist."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me?" Kimberly demanded but the doctor shook his head. "Fine, what's the worse of my injuries?"

"You suffered a minor concussion, lost several teeth, have numerous bruises on your body from your brawl with Ms. Trayson, which the cops will want to speak to you about, and suffered minor bleeding from the head, namely from the area where the Duel Disk made contact." The doctor said after consulting his notes. "If your teacher hadn't called for an ambulance sooner your injuries would be a lot worse."

"Yeah, remind me to thank her later." Kimberly muttered. _"Bullshit regarding that bitch aside."_ Kimberly thought.

"That reminds me actually, your classmates from Duel Academy want to see you, do you want me to let them in?" The doctor asked.

"Go ahead." Kimberly instructed him and the doctor left the room, a few minutes later the door opened and the doctor let the other Duel Academy students and the teachers in before closing the door behind him, the teachers and the students took seats around her bed.

"How are you feeling Kimberly?" Brandon asked as he sat down.

"Well, my head hurts like hell and most of my head is bandaged up, I think you can draw your own conclusions." Kimberly said bluntly.

"Yeah I've been wanting to ask you about that actually." Marcus said and Kimberly turned her attention to him. "How did you end up being whacked upside the head with a duel disk?" Marcus said earning glares from everyone else except Kimberly. "Oh, like I'm the only one curious about that!"

"It's fine guys, the story ties into something I have to tell Chloe anyway." Kimberly said and Chloe blinked in confusion.

"Something you have to tell me?" Chloe echoed the confusion clear on her face, Kimberly nodded and turned her attention to the younger duellist.

"It's a warning, from the same bitch that put me in the hospital in the first place." Kimberly started and Marcus frowned.

"You mean Karen?" Marcus asked and Kimberly nodded. "Why would she care enough to give someone she's never met a warning? She didn't even care about her tag partner when me and Andreas duelled her."

"It seems that even she has standards, one of her associates is coming after you Chloe." Kimberly said before pausing. "Only he doesn't just want to seal your soul in the Orichalcos, he wants to kill you."

"WHAT?" Chloe yelled out in surprise. "You've gotta be joking, you must be!"

"I wouldn't joke about shit like this kid." Kimberly said shaking her head. "That's all the info she gave though, no description, no name, no age...you get the idea." Kimberly added.

"Kimberly, you have a concussion are you sure about this?" Martin asked a look of complete seriousness on his face.

"I can back up her story, so can her opponent and Philip Masters." Maria said and Kimberly stiffened up at the mention of Philip.

"Something wrong?" Lance asked her.

"That pervert tried to grope me whilst I was brawling with Karen." Kimberly said and Lance and Chloe blinked in surprise.

"Who, Philip?" Lance and Chloe asked surprised.

"I doubt it was intentional, he didn't make any perverted comments towards me whilst he was duelling Lance earlier." Chloe said plainly but Kimberly shook her head.

"Maybe you're too young for him." Kimberly shook her head.

"I have to agree with Chloe, Philip has been regarded as one of the more respectful male duellists towards female duellists." Brandon agreed resting his hands on his legs. "That and it's pretty well known that he's been dating the women he beat to win Ireland's National Championships."

"You guys done talking about me behind my back?" The teens looked up and saw Philip at the door. "I was ready to explain myself to you Kimberly but your friends beat me too it."

"Okay fine, it was an accident and I'm sorry for kicking you in the balls." Kimberly sighed in resignation. "Why where you even in the area anyway? Weren't you eliminated by Lance?"

"Eliminated duellists are allowed to watch duels, including the finals." Philip shrugged. "I heard that Charles was duelling and I was hoping to get there in time to watch it, obviously I arrived too late."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Kimberly said sheepishly.

"That reminds me actually, my girlfriend's convinced that your victory over me was a fluke Lance, she wants to duel one of the academy students to see if they are as good as they say," Philip added and Chloe stood up.

"In that case I accept, I need to some catching up anyway." Chloe said with a smirk.

"I'll go with you, I'm pretty sure that I don't need to explain why." Lance said standing up.

"Me too." Theresa nodded getting up, Chloe smiled and turned to them.

"Thanks guys." Chloe said and Philip led them outside the hospital. "So, where is she?" Chloe asked Philip who grinned.

"That eager to lose huh?" Philip asked good naturedly. "Hey Fran, I found an opponent for you."

"Is it a duel academy student?" A thickly accented female Irish accent rang out and Philip nodded, a redheaded woman with shoulder-length hair and blue eyes approached them wearing a red t-shirt, a denim skirt and black boots. "All right, who's my victim?"

"I don't know about the victim part but I'm your opponent." Chloe said stepping forward, the woman scoffed.

"The Osiris Red student? Sure, I can spare a few minutes." The woman shrugged. "Name's Francesca Burns kid, you may of beaten those other chumps, including that Orichalcos duellist, but you won't beat me."

"We'll see about that." Chloe said defiantly and Francesca crossed the street to allow for enough room for the holograms to do their work. "So, how many locater cards do you want to put on the line?"

"I have two, and I have it on good authority that you have three." Francesca said holding up her two locater cards to prove it. "Let's make this interesting, I put my two locater cards on the line and you put your three on the line."

"All or nothing in other words." Chloe nodded before smiling. "You have a deal." Chloe responded before activating her duel disk, Francesca did likewise and both women drew their hands.

"Hey Philip, what deck does your girlfriend run anyway?" Lance asked and Philip turned to him.

"It doesn't have a theme as far as monsters go but her deck revolves around quickly swarming the field with powerful monsters and inflicting effect damage on the opponent." Philip responded with a smile. "In short, Chloe has a hell of a fight on her hands."

"So who's going first?" Chloe asked looking at her hand. _"Pretty good hand but I've drawn better opening hands." _Chloe thought.

"I will." Francesca said drawing another card. "Nice, I summon Familiar Knight to the field in attack mode!" Francesca played the card and the knight from Lance's duel with Chloe appeared on the field ready for battle (3/1200/1400). "That's not all, I equip him with the spell card Cursed Bill." Francesca played the card and Familiar Knight started glowing.

"Okay but that card hasn't changed his stats." Chloe pointed out.

"Worry about that later, for now I set two cards face-down and end my turn." Francesca set the card and Chloe drew a new one.

"_I remember that Knight's effect from Lance's duel against her boyfriend, when it's destroyed we'll both be allowed to summon a Level 4 or lower monster from our hands."_ Chloe thought before frowning. _"Then there's cards like Cursed Bill and that face-down card, who knows what they'll do."_

"Are you going to make a move sometime this century?" Francesca called out too her and Chloe gulped as a sweatdrop rolled down her head.

"Fine, fine." Chloe said picking up a card. "I summon Blade Knight to the field in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a knight in light blue armour appeared on the field wielding a sword and a shield (4/1600/1000). "Blade Knight, attack Familiar Knight now!" The knight charged towards the weaker one and Francesca smirked.

"Just what I wanted you to do, I activate my trap card Desperate Tag." Francesca said as Familiar Knight was decapitated with Blade Knight's sword. "This has two effects, one as long as it's on the field I can reduce any battle damage I receive when a Warrior's destroyed in battle to zero and two it lets me summon a Level 4 or lower Warrior type monster from my hand,"

"So in short, your getting two monsters for the price of one." Chloe said picking up a card. "Don't forget that Familiar Knight's effect works on both players."

"Oh I know." Francesca smirked. "But that's the least of your problems because now that Familiar Knight's destroyed Cursed Bill's effect activates."

"What effect..." Chloe was cut off when a blast hit in the chest.

C: 6600

F: 8000

"That effect." Francesca said with a grin. "When a monster equipped with Cursed Bill is destroyed the opponent looses life-points equal to the equipped monster's defence points."

"Ouch." Lance winced. "That's a pretty good combo."

"Indeed, I wasn't kidding when I said that she was in for a hell of a fight." Philip said with a smile.

"Now onto my two new monsters, I summon Rare Metal Dragon and Blindly Loyal Goblin both in attack mode!" Francesca played the cards and the goblin from Theresa's last duel appeared on the field (4/1800/1500) and a dragon made of metal with a horn on it's nose appeared on the field roaring menacingly at Chloe (4/2400/1200).

"Wait, why didn't you open with that Dragon?" Chloe asked raising an eyebrow.

"It's effect, that's why." Francesca said with a frown. "The dragon can't be normal summoned or set face-down."

"Right, as for my monster I chose one I've been meaning to try out for a while, Silent Swordsman Level 3 in attack mode." Chloe played the card and a small boy in white armour carrying a large sword appeared on the field (3/1000/1000).

"You have got to be kidding." Francesca said with a sweatdrop when she saw the monster. "I summon two powerful monsters and THAT'S the best you got? Even with 6600 life-points?"

"Just you watch." Chloe said picking up two cards. "I set these two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe said as she set the two cards down, Francesca said nothing and drew her card.

"_I'll save this for later, but for now this is a perfect time to activate my other trap."_ Francesca thought as she added the card to her hand and activated her trap card. "I activate my trap card Pole Position!"

"Okay, what does that do?" Chloe asked.

"What it does is protect the strongest monster on the field from the effects of Spell Cards, namely Rare Metal Dragon." Francesca said with a smirk, "So don't get any ideas about using Lightning Vortex or Dark Core on it, oh yeah before I forget it's a continuous trap card so even if Rare Metal Dragon's destroyed it'll protect my more powerful monsters."

"Oh, great." Chloe sighed _"At least trap cards will still work."_ Chloe thought.

"Now onto the rest of my move." Francesca said looking picking up a card. "Now for the fun part, I sacrifice Blindly Loyal Goblin to summon Des Vostgalph in attack mode!" The goblin vanished from the field and in it's place stood a large red and blue dragon (6/2200/1700). "Rare Metal Dragon, attack Silent Swordsman, Vostgalph attack Blade Knight!" The two dragons breathed fire at Chloe's monsters...

"Sorry but I'm not stupid enough to put a weak monster like Silent Swordsman on the field without some kind of backup." Chloe said flipping up one of her traps. "I activate Negate Attack to block one of your attacks and end your Battle Phase." The attacks where blocked by an invisible forcefield and Francesca frowned.

"Crap, I knew I was forgetting something." Francesca frowned. "No matter, I'll destroy those monsters next turn, make your move." Francesca added and Chloe drew her card and as she did Silent Swordsman started glowing and growing, seeing this Francesca blinked in confusion. "Err, what's up with your weaker monster?"

"Oh not much, he's just growing up that's all." Chloe said as she searched through her deck. "If my Silent Swordsman is still on the field during the standby phase of the turn after I summon him I can level him up to his stronger form, Silent Swordsman Level 5!" Chloe played the card and once he stopped growing and glowing the swordsman was now fully grown and had a much larger sword.

"So he went through puberty, big deal!" Francesca laughed...but stopped when she saw the Swordsman's stats (5/2300/1000). "Crap, that thing's stronger than Vostalgh!" Francesca cursed and Chloe smirked when she saw her new card.

"That's not all I'm doing, I activate Heavy Storm to clear the field of Spell and Trap cards." The two women shielded themselves as a storm blew over the field destroying Desperate Tag, Pole Position and Chloe's remaining face down card.

"Aren't you forgetting something? Namely your own facedown card?" Francesca pointed out and Chloe grinned.

"Oh, that thing?" Chloe asked holding up the Seven Tools of the Bandit that she had set facedown. "That was a backup plan encase your other facedown card was a card that could prevent the effect of Negate Attack," Chloe explained as she sent the card to her graveyard...before noticing that Des Vostalgh's attack had rose to 2400.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about my monster's effect." Francesca said folding her arms. "My dragon gains 200 attack points each time a normal or quick play spell card is played until the end of the turn that it's activated." Francesca explained. "So much for Silent Swordsman being stronger."

"That would be the case...if not for the side effect of Pole Position." Theresa pointed out, Francesca blinked...before her eyes widened.

"SHIT!" She yelled out as Des Vostalgh and Rare Metal Dragon's holograms shattered, Chloe blinked in confusion and Francesca sighed in resignation. "If Pole Position's removed from the field in any way it takes the strongest monster, or in this case monsters, with it." Chloe couldn't help but grin broadly at this revelation.

"Well then, I guess it's time I gave myself the lead." Chloe grinned before pointing at her Warriors. "Blade Knight, Silent Swordsman, attack her life-points directly!" The two knights charged at Francesca and Blade Knight struck first with his sword...

"You're not getting that big a lead this early kid!" Francesca declared before discarding a card from her hand. "I discard Kuriboh (1/300/200) from my hand to negate the battle damage I would've suffered at the hands of Silent Swordsman!" As she said this a wall of Kuribohs blocked Silent Swordsman's charge.

C: 6600

F: 6400

"But that's not the only effect Kuriboh had." Philip said folding his arms. "In order to level up her Silent Swordsman even further it had to inflict battle damage via a direct attack."

"_Crap, he's right!"_ Chloe thought as the realization hit her like a freight train, she looked at the rest of her hand and picked up a card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Francesca drew her card.

"I activate the Spell Card called Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Francesca played the card and both duellists drew until they had 6 cards in their hands, Francesca's eyes lit up when she saw one of the cards she drew. _"I'll save you for later."_ Francesca thought before adding it to her hand. "Time I took out that Silent Swordsman, and I'm doing it with this monster, Dark Blade in attack mode!" Francesca played the card and a knight in jet black armour appeared on the field, he was wearing a red cape and was wielding twin swords (4/1800/1500).

"Please, that thing's only just strong enough to beat Blade Knight!" Chloe scoffed and Francesca smirked.

"Don't get ahead of yourself because I have four more cards to play, first up is the Spell Card Cost Down which reduces the levels of all monsters in my hand by two in exchange for my discarding a card from my hand." Francesca discarded the card after she played it and Chloe blinked.

"But you've already summoned a monster, what good will that do you?" Chloe asked the confusion clear on her face.

"Just watch, I activate the second card I have to play, the continuous Spell Card Front-line Base." Francesca played the card and picked up a card. "This spell cards lets me summon one Union monster from my hand as long as it's a Level four or lower monster and Dark Blade just so happens to go with a Union monster, however that union monster is a Level 5 monster so I had to reduce it's level first."

"Oh great." Chloe muttered as Francesca played the card.

"I Special Summon the Union Monster Kiryu to the field in attack mode using the effect of Frontlin Base!" Francesca played the card and a large red dragon appeared on the field roaring menacingly at Chloe (3/2000/1500). "And now I equip Kiryu to Dark Blade increasing his attack all the way up too 2700!" The dragon knelt down and Dark Blade jumped on it's back, true to her word the Warrior's attack points jumped up to 2700. "Dark Blade attack Silent Swordsman now!" The dragon took flight and divebombed towards the swordsman cutting it to ribbons with it's swords.

C: 6200

F: 6400

"This is where the third card comes into play, the Quick Play spell card Combination Attack!" Francesca played the card and too Chloe's surprise Dark Blade hopped off the dragon. "This lets me split up the Kiryu from Dark Blade and summon Kiryu back to the field in attack mode, and as an added bonus the monster that the Union monster split from gets to attack again." Francesca explained and Chloe's eyes widened. "Dark Blade attack Blade Knight, Kiryu attack her life-points directly!" The warrior charged towards Blade Knight and decapitated him with his swords, the dragon wasn't far behind breathing fire at Chloe who winced.

C: 4000

F: 6400

Chloe got back to her feet and winced when she saw how many life-points she had just lost. "You don't exactly pull any punches do you?" Chloe asked and Francesca smirked.

"I wouldn't of gotten this far in Duel Monsters if I did!" Francesca grinned. "Now for card number four, I set this card facedown and end my turn." Chloe nodded and drew her card.

"_I have nothing that can beat that dragon of hers but I can beat that warrior of her's!" _Chloe thought as she looked at her hand. "I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900). "Gemini Elf, attack Dark Blade now!" The elves charged up their attacks.

"I had a feeling you'd try something like that, I activate my trap card Formation Union!" Francesca activated the card and grinned. "This lets me either equip or unequip Dark Blade with Kiryu, no prizes for guessing what option I'm going with." As Francesca said this Dark Blade hopped back on Kiryu's back increasing his attack to 2700. "Want to reconsider that attack?"

"Actually no, that was what I was hoping for actually!" Chloe answered and Francesca blinked. "I activate my own trap card, Dust Tornado to destroy Kiryu!" Francesca's eyes widened as the dragon was blown away by a tornado.

"I don't get it." Lance blinked in confusion.

"Union monsters are treated as equip spells, meaning that they can be destroyed just as a spell card can." Theresa explained as Dark Blade's attack returned to 1800, the Elves continued the attack destroying the knight.

C: 4000

F: 6300

"I have other monsters waiting in the wings." Francesca said defiantly as she sent her two monsters to the graveyard and Chloe sent her trap card to the graveyard.

"Well lets see them!" Chloe said looking at the rest of her hand. "I'll end my turn." Chloe said and Francesca drew her card.

"Not much I can do." Francesca shrugged as she saw her card. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defence mode, your move." Chloe nodded and drew her card.

"I activate my own Card of Sanctity to Refreash our hands!" Chloe played the card and both duellists drew their cards. "Now Gemini Elf attack her monster!" The elves fired twin beams at the monster, revealing it to be a muscular green gremlin with horns all over it's body (4/1600/1800) destroying it but Francesca grinned as she held up the card.

"The monster you destroyed was Des Feral Imp, when he's flipped up I can shuffle a card back into my deck from my graveyard and I'm choosing the monster I discarded for Cost Down's effect." Francesca selected the card and shuffled it into her deck before sending Des Feral Imp to the graveyard. "You'll find out what that card is soon enough!"

"Well in that case..." Chloe said before looking at her hand. "I'll end my turn." Chloe said and Francesca nodded before drawing her card.

"I activate the Spell Card I just drew, Summoner's Art!" Francesca played the card and picked up her deck again. "With this I can add one level 5 or higher monster from my deck to my hand." She searched through it before finding the card she needed and adding it to her hand. "Now I summon Kaiser Sea Horse in attack mode!" Francesca played the card and a humanoid fish appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1700/1650). "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe nodded and drew her card.

"You're going to regret not setting that monster, Gemini Elf attack Kaiser Sea Horse!" The elves fired their beams at Kaiser Sea Horse and Francesca grinned.

"Sorry, but your not the only duellist with Negate Attack!" Francesca flipped up the card and the beams bounced off of the forcefield.

"Fine, I'll set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." The facedown monster appeared alongside Gemini Elf and Francesca drew her card.

"There's a reason why I summoned my Sea Horse in attack mode last turn." Francesca said picking up a card. "To put it simply, if I tribute it it counts as two tributes for a light type monster that would normally require two tributes." Francesca said and Philip grinned knowing what was coming next.

"That doesn't sound good." Chloe gulped and Francesca grinned.

"You have no idea, I tribute Kaiser Sea Horse to summon my strongest monster, the BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON!" Francesca said playing the card and the three duel academy students, along with the passers-by who had stopped to watch the duel, did a double take.

"THE BLUE EYES WHITE WHAT?" Lance yelled out as Kaiser Sea Horse vanished from the field and in it's place stood the huge white dragon made famous by Seto Kaiba (8/3000/2500). "What...where...how...why?"

"What I think Lance is trying to say is, where the hell did you get that card?" Chloe demanded as she stared down at the monster. "Aren't there supposed to be on three in existence?"

"That's true." Francesca admitted. "But in a few months they'll be a lot more of these dragons." Francesca added.

"That's right, they're reprinting the Blue Eyes White Dragon for an upcoming booster pack." Theresa remembered before her eyes narrowed. "But that doesn't explain how you have your hands on one."

"That's easy, a month prior to this tournament me and Philip entered a tournament in Belfast, our home town, where the winner would win a copy of the Blue Eyes White Dragon before the Booster Pack's release, guess who won?" Francesca asked before continuing. "I know it sounds fishy but the Tournament was hosted by Industrial Illusion's English branch with support from Kaibacorp and even if it was counterfeit how do you explain it working on my Duel Disk?"

"She has a point there." Lance admitted having finally regained his composure.

"Now that that's out of the way why don't we let the fun begin hmm? Blue Eyes White Dragon attack Gemini Elf with White Lightning!" The dragon charged up it's infamous attack and launched it at the elves disintegrating them both, Chloe and her classmates shielded themselves from the blast as Chloe's life-points took a huge hit.

C: 2900

F: 6300

"I end my turn but at this rate it'll be a matter of time before I beat you." Francesca said with a cocky smirk on her face. "Off course, you could surrender, I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Number 1: those TV cameras defeat the purpose of not telling anyone." Chloe said pointing too the cameras as she did, Francesca nodded even as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Number 2: I've said it once and I'll say it a million more times, I won't surrender as long as I have life-points left."

"Your funeral." Francesca scoffed before motioning for Chloe to take her turn. _"She has guts, I'll __give her that much but this dragon hasn't failed me once since I won it and she won't be any different."_ Francesca thought as Chloe drew her card.

"Okay first I flip summon my facedown monster, Royal Magical Library!" Chloe flipped over the card and a mystical looking library with several orbs surrounding it appeared on the field (4/0/200) and everyone else face faulted when they saw the monster.

"I would like to reassure our viewers at home and all over the city that Chloe Richardson's defence against the Blue Eyes White Dragon is a bookshelf and that they are not seeing things." Chloe overheard one of the reporters say and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"If that's the best you've got then you may as well surrender!" Francesca scoffed as she got up.

"Who said I was done?" Chloe asked rhetorically as she played the card she drew. "I activate Swords of Revelling Light to buy me enough time!" As Chloe said that several golden swords rained down pinning down Francesca's dragon, Francesca shielded her eyes from the light of the swords and when she looked up again one of the orbs on the library was glowing. "Before you ask that's Royal Magical Library's effect, each time a spell card's played by either of us it gets a counter but they won't come into play until it has three counters."

"Okay but that doesn't explain what you meant by "buy me enough time"." Francesca pointed out and Chloe grinned.

"I'm getting to that part, I summon Silent Magician Level Four in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and one of her signature monsters appeared on the field (4/1000/1000) and Francesca smirked.

"I get it, these swords are to keep my dragon at bay until your magician gets strong enough to beat him." Francesca said before shaking her head. "Aren't you forgetting something? By the time the swords wear off that weakling,,,,,,,"

"Don't you dare call her a weakling!" Chloe angrilly snapped at Francesca who was taken back by her outburst alongside Philip and several passers-by.

"Err, did I miss something?" Philip whispered to Lance.

"It's a long, depressing story, trust me." Lance whispered back.

"Err, as I was saying that monster will only have 2500 attack points, powerful yes but not merely enough to beat my Dragon!" Francesca corrected herself.

"We'll see about that." Chloe said also regaining her composure. "I end my turn." Francesca nodded before drawing her card as Silent Magician's attack rose to 1500.

"_I know duellists tend to get attached to their monsters but this girl just took it to a new level."_ Francesca thought as she looked at Chloe. _"To be honest it's kind off unnerving."_ Francesca thought before looking at her drawn card. "I'll increase my forces by summoning La Jinn, The Mystical Genie of the Lamp to the field in attack mode!" Francesca played the card and a green genie appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/1000). "Since I can't attack I'll end my turn." Francesca added as the first sword disappeared and Chloe drew her card and grinned.

"Sweet, first I activate the Spell Card Magical Blast!" Chloe played the card and from out of nowhere twin blasts struck Francesca in the chest.

C: 2900

F: 6100

"What was that?" Francesca demanded as she got back up to her feet.

"That was Magical Blast's effect, as long as I have at least one Spellcaster on my side of the field it lets me inflict 100 points of damage for each Spellcaster I control and I count two!" Chloe said as another one of Royal Magical Library's orbs started glowing. "As an added bonus if it's in my graveyard then I can skip my draw phase and return it too my hand." Chloe said as she sent the Spell Card to her graveyard. "For now I switch my Library to defence mode, never thought I'd say that, and end my turn." Chloe announced and Francesca drew her card and Silent Magician's attack rose to 2000.

"_Unless I draw something that can remove cards from the graveyard she'll use that spell card again next turn and she'll be able to use her Royal Magical Library's effect,_ _whatever that is."_ Francesca thought before looking at her card. "Just what I needed, I activate Soul Release to remove five cards from your graveyard, I chose your Silent Swordsmans, Blade Knight, Gemini Elf and most importantly Magical Blast!" Chloe frowned before retrieving the cards and pocketing them. "As for the rest of my...HUH?" Francesca shouted once she realized that the library had it's third token.

"My Library gains counters each time a spell card is played, doesn't say anything about which player activates them." Chloe grinned.

"Great, I ended up helping her!" Francesca muttered under her breath. "As I was saying I sacrifice La Jinn to summon Cyber Tech Alligator in attack mode!" Francesca played the card and the genie vanished, in it's placed stood a massive alligator in red, futuristic armour with nasty looking claws (5/2500/1600).

"Great, now I have two powerful monsters to put up with." Chloe sighed in annoyance.

"Yeah, just be thankful that you have two more turns before I can attack!" Francesca grinned. "For now I'll end my turn." Francesca added and Chloe drew her card.

"Now's as good a time as any to activate Royal Magical Library's effect, by removing it's spell counters I'm allowed to draw an extra card." Chloe announced as the three orbs stopped glowing.

"Really? I spent all this time worrying about that thing's effect and THAT'S all it does?" Francesca said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Doesn't matter anyway, I activate my long forgotten about trap card Null and Void!" Francesca said as the card flipped up. "This can only be activated if an effect that involves drawing a card is activated and it means that you have to show the card too me and it's immediately discarded!"

"Shit!" Chloe cursed herself before picking up the card and looking at it, she frowned before turning it around.

"Ohhh, Silent Magician Level 8 (8/3500/1000), that's gotta hurt!" Francesca said with a grin, Chloe's hair overshadowed her eyes as she discarded it.

"Oh crap." Lance muttered as he saw his friend's demeanour change dramatically, for the worse to boot.

"Now what?" Philip asked.

"If you think Chloe's overprotective of Silent Magician's regular form than you haven't seen nothing yet." Theresa said shaking her head. "Hold it together Chloe!" She called out to her.

"I'll...I'll try." Chloe sighed clearly upset by the development, shaking her head she looked at the card she had initially drawn. "I'm about to take that dragon down!"

"Really?" Francesca scoffed whilst trying to hide her concern. "How exactly do you intend to do that?"

"With this, I summon D.D. Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the redheaded warrior appeared on the field (4/1200/1000). "D.D. Warrior, attack Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

"WHAT?" Francesca and Philip yelled simultaneously as the warrior charged towards the much stronger dragon.

"Blue Eyes, counter attack with White Lighting!" The dragon fired it's infamous attack at the warrior disintegrating it.

C: 1100

F: 6100

"Well, that was a waste of time..." Francesca started but stopped once she saw Blue Eyes collapse to the ground with D.D. Warrior's sword sticking out of it's chest, her eyes widened when she saw it disintegrate. "What just happened?"

"Any monster that D.D. Warrior does battle with is removed from play alongside D.D. Warrior himself." Chloe said with a grin as she wiped away some tears, Francesca frowned but said nothing as both girls pocketed their cards.

"Okay then." Francesca sighed obviously annoyed at having lost her monster. "But you still have Cyber Tech Alligator to deal with."

"I intend to deal with him." Chloe asserted. "As for now I'll end my turn." Francesca nodded before drawing her card and as Silent Magician's attack rose to 2500 she grinned.

"_Good, the card I drew was Return from a Different Dimension, on my next turn I'll use it to bring back Blue Eyes and if I draw Burst Stream of Destruction her life-points will be mine for the taking!"_ Francesca thought before setting the card. "I set this facedown and end my turn...and the effect of Swords of Revealling Light for that matter!" Francesca said as the last of the swords disappeared and Chloe drew her card.

"I set this facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced as the facedown card appeared on the field, Francesca drew her card and even as Silent Magician's attack rose to 3000 she grinned.

"Sorry kid but this match is over, I activate my trap card Return From A Different Dimension!" The card flipped up and Francesca's life-points plummeted down to 3050. "Now that I've paid half of my life-points I can bring back the Blue Eyes White Dragon to the field!"

"Or you would if not for my second copy of Seven Tools of the Bandit!" Chloe activated her trap as her life-points dropped to a mere 100. "At the cost of 1000 life-points I can negate the effect of your trap card and destroy it!" Francesca's eyes widened as the hologram shattered, she growled in frustration as she and Chloe sent their traps to the graveyard before pointing to Cyber-Tech Alligator.

"Cyber-Tech Alligator attack and destroy Royal Magical Library!" The alligator charged forward and ripped the library to shreds with it's claws. "Bet your glad that you switched your library to defence mode now."

"Yeah, I am." Chloe nodded. "Can I take my turn?" Francesca looked at the rest of her hand before nodding and Chloe drew a card, when she saw it her eyes lit up. "This duel will be over soon Francesca!"

"You mean your finally surrendering?" Francesca asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Not quite, I activate the Spell Card I just drew, Monster Reincarnation, by discarding a card from my hand I can return one monster from my graveyard to my hand and I chose the card you made me discard with Null And Void's effect!" Chloe said returning Silent Magician Level 8 to her hand, Francesca's eyes narrowed before shaking her head.

"So? For all you know I could wipe out the rest of your life-points before then!" Francesca scoffed.

"Even so I can still get rid of your alligator, Silent Magician attack Cyber Tech Alligator now!" The magician pointed it's staff at the alligator before firing a beam at it destroying it.

C: 100

F: 2550

"I'll end my turn at that!" Chloe announced and Francesca drew her card, she looked at it even as Silent Magician's attack reached it's limit of 3500.

"I'll set this in defence mode and end my turn." Francesca said and Chloe drew her card before picking up her Silent Magician.

"So, you still think your boyfriend's loss was a fluke?" Chloe asked and Francesca shook her head.

"Not after the comeback you've managed." Francesca said shaking her head. "One thing's been bugging me though, namely your sudden change in demeanour after I made you discard Silent Magician Level 8 a few turns back." Francesca added and Chloe sighed as Silent Magician started glowing.

"That's...that's a personal matter." Chloe said plainly and Francesca blinked. "If it's all the same too you I'd rather not discuss it in public."

"Fair enough." Francesca shrugged.

"Anyway, now that Silent Magician's reached her power limit I can level her up to her strongest form and my strongest monster Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe played the card and the magician grew into it's strongest form (8/3500/1000). "Now I summon the monster I just drew, Magician's Valkyria in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and Magician's Valkyria appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1600/1800). "Valkyria, attack her facedown monster, Silent Magician finish it!" The two monsters pointed their staffs at Francesca and her monster, the monster, revealed to be Vorse Raider (4/1900/1200) was destroyed by Valkyria and Silent Magician finished the job soon afterwards.

C: 100

F: 0000

"And in a truly impressive display Chloe Richardson has won the match despite only having a hundred life-points left, she maybe the only Osiris Red student among the Duel Academy students competing in the tournament but this match has solidified her as the Joey Wheeler of this year's tournament, a true underdog!" The two duellists heard a reporter say before he and the rest of the crowd dispersed, once they had left Francesca walked over to Chloe and handed over her locater cards.

"Here, you earned them." Francesca said and Chloe took them. "And this for that matter." Francesca said reaching into her pocket and handing over the Blue Eyes White Dragon.

"Thanks but that card doesn't really fit in with my deck theme." Chloe admitted.

"I'll take it." Marcus said walking up. "When I saw the Blue Eyes White Dragon from the window in Kimberly's room I had to have a closer look."

"Here, take it." Francesca said handing the card over to an ecstatic Marcus. "Can't believe I went out before the finals."

"Could be worse I guess." Philip shrugged before blinking. "Is that guy in the cloak a friend of yours?" The teens blinked before turning around and seeing a cloaked figure.

"No I'm not but I am here with a message." The figure said holding up his arm and revealing two things, an Orichalcos Duel Disk and a piece of paper. "Chloe Richardson, we have your father at this address, if you want to see him alive again I suggest that you and your friends come to this address at midnight tonight and bring your duel disks."

"Dad..." Chloe's eyes widened when she heard that.

"We'll be there." Theresa said glaring at the figure, "We'll make sure that whoever did this pays for it." Theresa added before snatching the note from his hand, the figure walked off and Lance frowned.

"Is there no depths to which these bastard's won't sink?" Lance yelled in frustration.

"My last opponent was willing to kill Nicola's dad to get his way so no, there isn't." Marcus said before remembering something. "There's one more thing Chloe." Chloe looked up as Marcus dug into his pocket. "I won these cards from my last opponent but they'll fit in better with your deck." Chloe took them and her eyes lit up when she saw them.

"Dark Magician and Dark Eradicator Warlock, thanks Marcus." Chloe said with a smile before swapping out two of her Spell Cards for the monsters. "So, what's the plan."

"We'll go there and save your dad." Theresa said plainly.

"On your own? You'd have to be crazy." Philip said shaking his head. "Let me make a few calls, maybe I can get some other duellists to help with this."

"We'd appreciate the help, thanks." Lance said with a nod. "Marcus, you'd better tell the others, me and Chloe will return to the hotel."

"On it." Marcus nodded before returning to the hospital.

"Your close to your dad, aren't ya?" Francesca asked Chloe who nodded. "Don't worry we'll get him back." Francesca reassured her as Lance called for a cab.

"Thanks." Chloe sighed in relief as she finally returned her cards to her deck and deactivated her duel disk, Francesca did likewise and Chloe sighed. "I hope Mom's all right." Chloe added.

"We'll check up on her before we return to our rooms." Lance said hanging up. "The taxi should be here soon." Lance said looking at the time on his phone. "It's 5pm now, I suggest we use this time to finetune our decks."

"Yeah, who knows what they have in store for us." Theresa agreed as the taxi pulled up, as they went to enter it Brandon and the others, minus a still injured Kimberly, ran up.

"WAIT!" Brandon said as he caught up with them. "Marcus told us what happened, Chloe don't worry we will get your dad back."

"Kimberly won't be duelling though." Andreas said folding his arms. "She's still recovering from her injuries."

"But we'll find a replacement in time." Brandon said and Chloe smiled.

"You kids want me to send for another car?" The taxi driver asked and the duel academy students sweat-dropped before nodding. "Okay, who's getting in this car?"

"Lance, Chloe, Theresa, you get in that car, Brandon, Marcus and Andreas will get in the next one and we'll take the limo." Martin said and the students nodded before Lance, Chloe and Theresa got in the taxi, they told him where to take them and he nodded before driving off.

*elsewhere*

Whilst the Duelling was going on the leader of the Orichalcos organisation was on board the ship that doubled as their temporary headquarters enjoying a fine wine in his office.

"_I may of lost the majority of my operatives to the Orichalcos but no matter."_ The leader thought as he took a sip. _"Only my strongest duellists remain!"_ He thought and as he went to take a sip Felix burst into the room.

"Sir, we have a situation." Felix said once he caught his breath. "Robert's used the organisation's resources to kidnap Chloe Richardson's father." Felix added and the leader's eyes widened.

"HE DID WHAT?" The leader yelled his usual calm composure long gone. "I made it clear long ago that the blood of the innocent must not be spilled but first Presario disobeys that order and now Robert!"

"What do you want to do?" Felix asked.

"Assemble a group of your finest men and go to where Robert's holding her father." He commanded and Felix left without a second thought. _"Let's hope that we're not too late."_ The leader thought.


	24. Sins of the Father

Chloe ran a hand through her hair as the time ticked closer to midnight, it had been six hours since her duel with Francesca and not much had been happening since then aside from training for the inevitable match between Chloe and whoever had kidnapped her dad whilst the others had been training in case they ended up duelling as well.

Chloe was sat on her bed in her room at the hotel waiting for the time to come for when they would leave the hotel for the location where her dad was being held. "Penny for your thoughts?" Chloe jumped a bit when she heard Theresa's voice, she looked up and saw her standing at the doorway with Professor Hamden who was carrying his laptop under his right arm. "Sorry, I just wanted to check up on you."

"I'm fine, thanks." Chloe said with a smile before shaking her head. "Who am I kidding? Those psychos have my dad and all I can do in the meantime is wait." Chloe sighed running a hand through her hair.

"We'll get him back." Theresa reassured her sitting on the bed next to her. "There's no way in hell we're going to let those bastards get away with this."

"That reminds me actually." Hamden said sitting down on a chair and opening the laptop up. "You still have the note with the address on right?"

"Yeah." Chloe nodded before reaching into her pocket and retrieving the note. "Why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to double check the address, you mind handing it over?" Hamden asked and Chloe handed him the note. "Yeah, this is the building all right but it doesn't make any sense."

"Why not?" Chloe asked and Hamden turned the laptop around so that the two teens could see it, on the computer screen was an image of an old looking shopping mall.

"This was what came up when I typed the address into a search bar but this mall's been closed for renovations...ARGH! Why didn't I think of that?" Hamden yelled once realization hit him.

"That it's a perfect place to hide a kidnapping victim?" Theresa asked and Hamden nodded. "At least we know where we're headed."

"So Theresa, what deck will you be using anyway?" Chloe asked her.

"I've been a bit torn on that decision truth be told." Theresa admitted. "I want to use a deck I haven't used in this tournament so far so that eliminates my dragon, warrior and Kaiba decks but that still leaves me with 18 to chose from."

"What about your fairy deck? Isn't that your strongest?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head.

"No, the Kaiba Deck is the strongest one." Theresa said shaking her head. "My fairy deck's strong but my other decks have stronger cards."

"Why not use the deck you use whilst teaming with Brandon?" Hamden suggested and Chloe could've sworn that she saw a lightbulb go off above Theresa's head.

"My dark attribute deck, why didn't I think of that!" Theresa said before digging through her backpack and retrieving the deck, once she added it to her duel disk she turned to Chloe. "That reminds me, did you add the Dark Magician support cards I gave you to your deck?"

"Yeah, swapped out some of my more situational Spells and Traps for them." Chloe nodded. "I just hope it'll be enough."

"It will." Lance said as he entered the room. "It's time we got going." Lance said motioning to the clock which read 11:30pm.

"Right, let's go." Chloe nodded as she followed Lance outside, they met up with the others and left the hotel with the teachers being careful not to wake anyone up, when they left the hotel they blinked when they saw three familiar faces waiting for them outside two cars, namely Ray Edwards, Zach Michaels and Alex Fenix.

"A little birdy told us that the Orichalcos duellists have gone too far, we're here to help in anyway we can." Ray said plainly. "Philip and Francesca are waiting for us near the building alongside Axel Loather."

"Don't worry, those bastards will pay for what they've done." Alex added folding his arms. "That's my car, three of you will get in Ray's and the rest of you will get in mine." Alex added and Chloe smiled at this.

"Thanks, now lets go kick some ass!" Chloe said before she, Lance and Theresa got in Ray's car whilst the others got in Alex's much larger car and the teachers got in the limo, the three cars drove off with Ray and Zach in the front and Chloe, Lance and Theresa in the back, whilst they where driving Ray adjusted the rear-view mirror until he could see Chloe through it.

"Chloe, do you have any idea why these ass-holes kidnapped your old man?" Ray asked and Chloe shook her head.

"I wish I did but I don't, he was never present for any of my duels so they wouldn't know that we were related." Chloe answered before realization hit her. "Well, we're not related strictly speaking."

"Ah I see, he's your step-dad." Ray said with a nod. "What happened to your biological dad?" Ray asked and Chloe stiffened up.

"I'd...I'd rather not talk about it." Chloe said after a few minutes.

"I see." Ray nodded in understanding, he could sense that this conversation was heading down an uncomfortable path for Chloe so he readjusted his rear-view mirror. "Anyone up for changing the subject?" Ray asked and the others nodded. "Good."

"Ray, no offence but do you even know where your going?" Lance asked and Ray nodded.

"Sure I do, Philip narrowed the address down to an old shopping mall that's closed for repairs thanks to his laptop." Ray said with a nod. "So how are you kids doing for locater cards?"

"Me and Chloe have five each, the others have four." Lance answered. "What about you two?"

"Six locater cards each." Ray said with a smile.

"Your kidding?" Chloe said doing a double take before turning to Zach. "I thought I took your only locater card?"

"Sorry but no, I had three at the time." Zach said and Chloe nearly face-faulted right out of her seat.

"Why didn't you say so at the time?" Chloe asked, the look on her face could be best described as a mixture between confusion and anger.

"You didn't ask." Zach shrugged and Chloe moaned in frustration."Sorry about that." Zach said sheepishly before shaking his head. "Hey relax, let's just focus on what's important."

"Right, getting my step-dad back safe and sound." Chloe nodded before smirking. "Though if your expecting an easy fight should we meet in the Semi-finals than don't because my deck's a lot stronger now."

"And I'll say the same to you." Zach returned the smile, "Jesus, I didn't think it was possible but we're making Ray look like someone who plays the game for fun." Zach added...only to be punched in the head by Ray.

"Try to keep smart ass remarks like that to yourself." Ray said as he resumed driving. "So, what's the plan once we reach the building?"

"Well the messenger said to bring our duel disks so I think it's safe to assume that they'll be duelling going on." Theresa said as she and the other teens held up their duel disks. "I chose my deck before we left."

"Couldn't settle on one deck huh?" Zach asked and Theresa shrugged her shoulders.

"What can I say? It helps keep my skills sharp." Theresa said and Zach nodded in understanding.

"We're here!" Ray said suddenly before stopping the car, the three teens got out first followed by Ray and Zach, they saw Alex's car parked nearby and Theresa waved the rest of the Duel Academy students over.

"Good to see you guys made it one piece." Andreas said as he and Marcus walked over, Alex and Nicola where behind them. "So, do we have any idea what awaits us in there?"

"Honestly? No, my advice is to be prepared for anything." Philip said walking over with Axel Loather and Francesca alongside him. "I know your down one duellist so Axel here has volunteered to join you in a duellist role,"

"Indeed, besides I only need one locater card before I can qualify for the finals." Axel said with a nod before frowning. "Off course that's the least of our worries."

"Yeah." Chloe nodded before glancing towards the mall. "So, what's the plan?"

"The guys that'll be duelling, namely the Duel Academy Students and Axel, will enter through the front entrance alongside the teachers." Philip said looking towards the mall. "We on the other hand will enter via the back and try to locate Chloe's father."

"Not exactly a perfect plan but what choice do we have?" Chloe said plainly. "Okay we could've tried calling the cops but they could of planned for that."

"Yeah, maybe some booby traps or maybe even a plan to kill your dad if that happens." Marcus said...only to be punched in the back of the head by the other students. "What did I...oh, err...sorry Chloe." Marcus said laughing nervously as he got up.

"Let's just go in." Chloe said as she led the others towards the mall, Philip did likewise leading the other duellists around the back, she hesitated for a second before opening the door and looking around, the mall was completely dark not helped by the fact that it was night-time outside. "I can't see anything."

"You sure we have the right place?" Marcus said as he felt around with his hands.

"WHO'S HAND IS ON MY BREAST?" Theresa yelled out.

"Err sorry, I think that's my hand." Marcus said quickly pulling back his hand, before the teens could say anything else the lights turned on all at once, the teens shielded their eyes as their eyes adjusted to the new light.

"You made it." The figure from the hospital said with a chuckle. "Welcome Chloe Richardson to the site of your demise."

"Where's my dad?" Chloe demanded and the figure chuckled.

"Up there." The figure said pointing upwards, they looked up and Chloe's eyes widened when she saw her step-dad with his hands tied behind his back in the company of several armed men.

"Let him go you bastard!" Brandon demanded.

"Your hardly in a position to be making demands." The figure said plainly, Chloe wasted no time in activating her duel disk.

"Then I'll duel you." Chloe said glaring at the figure.

"He's merely the messenger, he doesn't even have a deck." A thick Brooklyn accent rang out and Robert stepped forward dismissing the messenger. "My name is Robert, and we meet again...Chloe."

"_Again? Wait, where have I heard that...no...it's no possible."_ Chloe thought as she glared daggers at the man. "Who are you?" Robert chuckled and at that moment the other duellists had entered the mall unbeknownst to Robert.

"What? You don't recognise me?" Robert said before tossing his cloak aside, he had neck-length long hair, blue eyes and a stubble, he was wearing a black jacket with a matching t-shirt underneath, blue jeans and black boots. "Then again I almost didn't recognise you, how long has it been again? Ten years?" Chloe blinked...but once realization hit her she dropped to her knees.

"No..." Chloe said her eyes as wide as dinner plates. "It's...not..."

"Chloe, who is this..." Marcus started but was ignored by Chloe.

"You...YOU SHOULD BE IN JAIL YOU SON OF A BITCH!" She snapped at Robert who chuckled.

"Chloe, what...oh my god." Lance said once it hit him, he slowly turned to Robert with a look of hatred in his eyes. "Your Chloe's biological father aren't you?"

"Guilty as charged." Robert chuckled and the others did double takes.

"Wait, I thought we where saving her dad." Alex said confused.

"Chloe told me in the car that the man we're saving is her step-dad." Ray said as his eyes narrowed. "And based on her reaction..."

"You son of a bitch." Brandon said angrily as he glared at him. "Tormenting her for years wasn't enough for you? Now you have to go and kidnap her father?"

"I am her father you idiot!" Robert snapped at him before smirking, "All right, here's the deal, I will take on all seven of you...at once."

"Seven on one?" Philip said doing a double take. "Is he insane?"

"Off course if we proceeded with life-points as they normally are then this would be the shortest match in Duel Monsters history." Robert added before strapping on and activating his Orichalcos Duel Disk. "Here is how this will work, you guys will start with the normal amount of life-points but me? I will start with 66,000 life-points."

"Sixty Six Thousand?" Marcus echoed. "That's insane!"

"No, it makes sense if you think about it." Theresa chimed in whilst she glared daggers at the man. "That's the normal total of life-points times 7 so it only makes sense for his life-points to be that high."

"It doesn't matter anyway, Chloe's in no shape to duel!" Lance pointed out motioning to Chloe with his head, sure enough she was still on her knees from the shock.

"I don't care, I will duel all of you or he dies!" Robert said pointing to Chloe's stepfather as he said the last part.

"Give us time to find a replacement..." Axel started but he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked seeing Chloe on her feet with a look of determination on her face,

"No." Chloe said shaking her head. "I want this, this bastard ruined my childhood and I'm not going to let him get away with it."

"Ruined your childhood? What do you...oh." Axel said once it hit him, "As you wish." Axel said with a nod of understanding.

"Now for layout, as you can see there isn't enough room on this floor for each of us to duel simultaneously." Robert said before pointing to the other floors. "As a result of this six of you will occupy one floor each whilst one of you will stay down here, and before you get any ideas the floor where my bargaining chip is being held is off limits."

"I volunteer to stay on the ground floor." Chloe said almost immediately, the others nodded and started climbing the stairs to their floors, Lance took the second floor, Andreas took the third floor, Marcus took the fourth, Andreas took the fifth floor, Axel took the sixth floor, Brandon took the seventh floor and Theresa took the eighth floor. "What will the order be?"

"That's simple, Theresa will go first then Brandon then Axel then Marcus then Andreas then Lance then...the little bitch in front of me...then myself." Robert said before grinning maniacally. "Oh yes, before I forget if one of you even does a little damage to my life-points then the hostage dies."

"WHAT?" The other duellists yelled simultaneously once the weight of that statement dawned on them.

"Great, you've just crippled most of my deck and the duel hasn't even started yet." Lance grunted as his eyes narrowed.

"Me on the other hand? I'm free to attack as many times as I wish." Robert said a smug smirk on his face.

"Okay, this is already diving into incredibly unfair territory." Marcus said with a grunt. "If we can't attack and he can our life-points will be wiped out in no time."

"Not if we play it smart." Axel called out. "Now then, for Chloe and her step-father, LETS BEGIN!" Axel declared and the eight duellists drew their opening hands and Theresa drew another.

"It's began." Zach whispered to Ray who nodded. "What did Chloe mean by "ruin her childhood"?"

"I don't even want to think about it." Francesca said with a shudder. "Something about him sends shivers up my spine."

"Come on, he's too distracted by the duel to notice us make our move." Philip said before leading them up the stairs.

"I set two cards facedown and summon Exarian Universe in attack mode!" Theresa played the cards and a centaur with a reptile like upper body appeared on the field, it was heavily armoured and was carrying a lance (4/1800/1900). "Your move Brandon."

"Right." Brandon nodded before drawing his card. _"She's using her Dark Attribute deck, good thing too since our two decks complement each other."_ Brandon thought.

"Theresa, why did you open with that monster? It's effect inflicts piercing damage!" Andreas called out too her.

"Let me worry about that." Theresa called back.

"Regardless, I set my own two cards facedown and summon Maiden of Macabre to the field in attack mode!" Brandon played the cards and the Scythe wielding Geisha appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1700/0). "All right Axel, it's your move."

"Indeed it is." Axel nodded as he drew his cards. _"They've started off strong so it's only fitting that I follow suit."_ Axel thought. "I summon the mighty Gladiator Beast Andal to the field in attack mode!" Axel played the card and a one eyed black bear appeared on the field, it was wearing blue armour and it roared ready for battle (4/1900/1500). "I shall set a card facedown and end it at that."

"A centaur, a Geisha and a one eyed bear, this seems like a bad joke waiting to happen." Marcus chuckled before shaking his head. "Anyway I start things off by summoning Red-Eyes Wyvern to the field in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and a smaller version of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared on the field (4/1800/1600). "I set a card facedown and end my turn, over to you Andreas!"

"Got it!" Andreas nodded before drawing his card. _"The fact that Theresa opened things up with that monster still concerns me but I'll trust her judgement for now."_ Andreas thought glancing towards Theresa's monster. "I summon Ape Fighter to the field in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the Ape Fighter appeared on the field (4/1900/1200). "Just to be on the safe side I'll set this facedown and end my turn."

"Finally, I was wondering when my turn would come." Lance said before drawing his card. "I summon Great Angus to the field in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the blood red beast appeared on the field (4/1800/400). _"I can't set Backfire, not with that stupid stipulation." _Lance thought before turning to Chloe. "Your move Chloe." Chloe said nothing and drew her card.

"I...I set a monster in defence mode and two cards facedown." Chloe set the three cards all the while glaring at her dad. "Your move."

"Off course it is." Robert said drawing his card. "Now to seal all of your fates, I activate the field spell card The Seal Of The Orichalcos!" Robert played the card and the seal encased Chloe and Robert first before stretching upwards and encasing the other duellists, the seal appeared on Robert's head and he grinned "Now I'll activate the spell card I just drew, Nobleman of Crossout."

"Oh crap, that'll remove Chloe's facedown monster from play." Marcus realized as he watched the noble charge towards the facedown monster.

"Not with my trap card it won't, GO MAGIC JAMMER!" Andreas activated his card and discarded a card from his hand. "Now that I've discarded this card from my hand your spell card is negated and destroyed!" As Andreas said that a purple fog blocked the nobleman's path before he disappeared.

"Thanks for the save." Chloe called out to him and he grinned.

"I was hoping you'd do that!" Robert announced as he sent his spell card to the graveyard. "Because now that you have wasted your trap card on a decoy I can focus on my real strategy."

"Real strategy?" Andreas blinked.

"Is there an echo in here?" Robert said annoyed before picking up a card. "No matter, I activate another spell card called Dark Hole to destroy every single monster on the field."

"OH SHIT!" Robert's opponents shouted out simultaneously before shielding themselves as their monsters where sucked into a black hole which closed up after the last monster, Chloe's facedown monster was sucked in.

"Sorry guys." Andreas apologized running a hand through his hair.

"Don't worry, we have more monsters where that came from!" Lance reassured him.

"You hear that? We're not done, not by a long shot!" Marcus taunted Robert who smirked.

"But can you say the same for my dear daughter?" Robert said as he picked up a card. "I summon Doomcallibur Knight to the field in attack mode!" Robert played the card and a knight on horseback appeared on the field, however it was no ordinary knight as the knight was skeletally in appearance and was wearing white and black armour, was armed with twin lances and had a ridiculously long blonde ponytail sticking out of it's helmet, the horse was jet black in colour and was quite scary looking (4/1900/1500) and it's attack increased to 2400 thanks to the seal. "Doomcallibur Knight, attack her life-points directly." Robert said pointing at Chloe, the horse started galloping towards Chloe who was struck in the chest by it's lances.

C: 5600

L: 8000

M: 8000

A: 8000

AL: 8000

B: 8000

T: 8000

R: 66,000

Chloe fell to her knees clutching her chest in pain as Doomcallibur Knight returned to Robert's side of the field, without a second thought she activated her trap. "By damaging my life-points you've activated my trap card Numinous Healer, now that I've taken damage my trap card will restore a thousand of my life-points." Chloe announced as her life-points went up too 6600. "But that's not all, I chain it with my other facedown card Emergency Provisions, by sending my trap card to the graveyard with this card I can increase my life-points even further by another thousand points!" Chloe activated her facedown card and true to her word her life-points increased to 7600, as he saw this Robert growled.

"Why won't you stay down!" Robert snapped at her.

"Maybe because I'm not the same scared 7 year old girl that you used to beat on a daily bases!" Chloe responded and Robert growled.

"Fine, I'll end my turn at that." Robert announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_I have nothing that can beat that knight of his, I'd better play it safe."_ Theresa thought before picking up a card. "I set this monster in defence mode and end my turn, Brandon I hope you have some kind of plan for getting rid of that knight."

"Don't I always?" Brandon asked rhetorically before drawing his card._ "It's obvious that Robert has forgotten about his own monster's effect otherwise he would've opened with a different monster, no matter I'll exploit it." _Brandon thought. "First I activate one of my trap cards, Call of the Haunted, to revive Maiden of Macabre to the field in attack mode!" Brandon activated one of his cards and the geisha returned to the field. "But she's not sticking around, I tribute her to summon Dark General Freed in attack mode!" Brandon swapped out the monsters and the geisha disappeared, in her place stood a zombified general with long silver hair wearing gold and black armour and a green cape (5/2300/1700) Robert scoffed when he saw the monster.

"And here I was worried that you had something stronger than my knight!" Robert taunted him. "Not that it would've mattered unless you want him to die." Robert said pointing towards Chloe's step-father.

"If your done I'll end my turn." Brandon said folding his arms and Axel drew his card.

"_I don't know what Brandon's thinking summoning a weaker monster than Robert's but I'll give him __the benefit of the doubt, he is an Obelisk Blue student after all."_ Axel thought before looking at his card and setting it in defence mode. "I set this in defence mode and end my turn."

"All right." Marcus nodded before drawing his card. _"Awesome, I've drawn Exploder Dragon, if I can force Robert's Knight to destroy it it'll take the knight with him!" _Marcus thought. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn."

"And that's my cue!" Andreas said drawing his card. _"Blast, the monster I drew can't help me now."_ Andreas thought as he looked at Berserk Gorilla (4/2000/1000) before adding it to his hand and picking up another. "I set this monster in defence mode and end my turn." Andreas set the card and Lance drew his.

"_Good, I drew a trap that can help me this time!" _Lance thought. "I set this facedown and a monster in defence, that ends my turn." Lance announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Magician's Circle, this trap could help later."_ Chloe thought. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defence."

"That's all? The only one with the guts to stand up to me is blondie up there!" Robert grinned as he drew his card.

"Before you do anything I activate my trap card Solemn Wishes!" Lance flipped up his trap card and grinned. "Now each time I draw a card I gain an extra five hundred life-points."

"Your smarter then you look, I'll give you that much!" Robert grunted before looking at his card. "I activate Pot Of Greed which allows me to draw two..."

"Hold it, that's on the forbidden list!" Andreas protested.

"Yes but this tournament's using the traditional format remember?" Robert grinned as he played the card. "As I was saying I use the magic of Pot of Greed to draw two cards from your deck."

"Or you would if not for my trap card!" Theresa interrupted as she flipped up her trap. "Null And Void forces you to reveal the cards you would've drawn to us and discard them both to the graveyard."

"Son of a..." Robert grunted before showing the two monsters he had drawn, Aswan Apparition (3/500/500) and Brain Golem (6/2500/1800) before discarding them both. "You will pay for that you little bitch, but I guess I'll settle for summoning Giant Orc to the field in attack mode!" Robert played the card and a giant grey ogre appeared on the field, he was wearing green pants and was wielding a bone like club (4/2200/0) and his attack went up to 2700 almost immediately thanks to the seal. "Giant Orc attack Dark General Freed now!" The Orc leaped up towards Brandon's monster...

"Not so fast, I activate my trap card Shift to switch Giant Orc's target to my facedown monster!" Marcus flipped up the card and Giant Orc changed direction midair instead heading towards Marcus's facedown monster.

"Fine, I guess you'll be the target for my next direct attack!" Robert grinned as Giant Orc slammed it's club into Exploder Dragon destroying it and causing a massive explosion.

"Yeah, at a price! The monster you destroyed was Exploder Dragon and when he's destroyed he takes the monster that destroyed him with him!" Marcus said triumphantly.

"Or so you think!" Robert grinned and Marcus blinked...before doing a double take as the smoke cleared revealing that Giant Orc was still standing and Doomcalliber Knight was long gone.

"What...Giant Orc should have been destroyed, not Doomcalliber Knight!" Marcus said the surprise evident on his face.

"That's the effect of Doomcalliber Knight, when the effect of an effect monster is activated I can tribute my knight to negate the effect and destroy the effect monster." Robert explained,

"Well, at least I saved myself from a direct attack." Marcus said wiping the sweat off of his brow.

"That's not all you did Marcus!" Brandon called out pointing to Giant Orc who was suddenly kneeling down. "When Giant Orc destroys a monster he immediately shifts into defence mode and he can't shift it back into attack mode until his next turn."

"Yeah, and that thing's defence is so low that even my Decoy Dragon can destroy it!" Marcus said grinning triumphantly.

"But even if you destroy my Orc you cannot follow up with a direct attack, unless you want him to die!" Robert said before looking at the rest of his hand. "I end my turn." Robert announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I activate my trap card, Dark Spirit Art – Greed, now by tributing my facedown monster I can draw two cards from my deck." Theresa's facedown monster disappeared and she drew two cards. "Not only that but the monster I tributed was Sangan (3/1000/600) and when he's sent to the graveyard..."

"Err, Theresa, I think most of us are familiar with Sangan's effect." Brandon cut her off and Theresa blushed before sweat-dropping.

"Oh, right." Theresa said before searching through her deck and adding a monster to her hand. _"He could've negated my trap's effect by revealing a spell card in his hand, he obviously uses Dark attribute monsters so what's he up too?"_ Theresa thought before playing the card she had retrieved via Sangan's effect. "I summon Prometheus, King of Shadows to the field in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a cloaked muscular figure appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1200/800). "When he's summoned I can remove from play any number of monsters from my graveyard as long as they are Dark Attribute monsters so I remove Sangan and Exarian Universe and Prometheus gains 400 attack points for each monster." Theresa pocketed the two monsters after retrieving them and her monster's attack shot up to 2000. "Prometheus attack Giant Orc now!" The monster spread it's arms out and a beam of darkness shot out at the orc consuming it. "That ends my turn!" Theresa announced as Prometheus' attack dropped back down to 1200 and rather than draw his card Brandon picked up his deck.

"Now that it's my draw phase Dark General Freed's effect activates, rather than draw a card I can search through my deck for a Level 4 or lower Dark Type monster and add it to my hand." Brandon explained as he searched through his deck, he found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand before shuffling his deck and returning it to the deck slot. "Now I summon the monster I retrieved via Dark General Freed's effect, the leader of the Dark Scorpions himself Don Zaloog!" Brandon played the card and Don Zaloog appeared on the field (4/1400/1500). "Now I enter my battle phase..."

"BRANDON DON'T!" Theresa shouted and Brandon's eyes went wide as he realized what he almost did.

"Shit, I almost forgot." Brandon said facepalming, naturally Robert laughed at this.

"What's the matter? Is the temptation proving too great for you?" Robert taunted Brandon who growled.

"I end my turn." Brandon said and Axel drew his card.

"All right, I flip summon the monster I set last turn, Gladiator Beast Laquari in attack mode!" Axel flipped the monster and a muscular humanoid tiger appeared on the field wearing red armour (4/1800/400). "I'll end my turn at that."

"Oh right, my turn." Marcus said drawing his card, when he saw what he had drawn he couldn't help but grin. "Oh yeah, this is what I'm talking about, first I summon Lord of Dragons to the field in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the dragon protecting spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1200/1100). "That's not all, I flip my facedown card Flute of Summoning Dragon, now that I have Lord of Dragons on the field this Spell card will allow me to special summon up to two Dragon Type monsters from my hand to the field ignoring any summoning conditions, and I have two in mind."

"You mean the dragons you got from me and Chloe?" Lance asked and Marcus nodded.

"You got it, so come forth Red-Eyes Black Dragon...AND BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON!" Marcus played the cards and the two famous dragons appeared on the field roaring menacingly at Robert (7/2400/2000) and (8/3000/2500).

"What the fuck?" Was all Ray was able to say upon seeing the dragons.

"Okay, where the fuck did they get their hands on those monsters?" Zach asked as his eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

"They won them from me and Philip after they beat us, Marcus ended up getting them because they didn't fit in with our decks." Francesca explained.

"Regardless he'll be a force to be reckoned with in the finals if he and the others win the match." Alex said with a nod. "Come on there's only two floors to go until we reach the the floor where Chloe's step-father is being held." Alex said and he led the others up the stairs.

"Be thankful that I can't attack due too your stipulation." Marcus said as his eyes narrowed. "So I end my turn." Marcus said and Andreas drew his card.

"I flip summon my facedown monster, no I'm not making this monster's name up, Super Nimble Mega Hamster!" Andreas announced ignoring the insane amounts of laughter coming from Lance as he heard the monsters name. "I would like to take the time to assure everyone that yes, this monster is real and no I don't know what they where smoking at Industrial Illusions when they came up with this monster." Andreas added as his monster, a grey large hamster, appeared on the field (4/1100/1800). "Laugh all you want but he has a very useful ability, when he is flip summoned I can special summon one monster from my deck as long as it's a level 3 or lower Beast monster." Andreas searched through his deck before setting the card facedown. "Now I sacrifice both monsters to summon the monster I just drew, the mighty King of Beasts!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of the first monster stood a huge black bear with razor sharp claws and tentacles coming out of it's body (7/2500/800). "As much as I'd like to unleash the full fury of my beast upon you I must end my turn."

"Believe me Andreas, the feeling's mutual." Lance said drawing his card, Solemn Wishes took effect increasing his life-points to 8500. "As much as I hate giving you ANY kind of advantage." Lance started glaring at Robert. "This will help us all the same so I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Lance activated his spell and all eight duellists drew until they had six cards in their hands, Lance cursed when he saw one of them even as his life-points went up to 9000. _"I can't risk summoning Thestalos, there's a chance that his effect will cause damage to Robert and that means that Chloe's dad will die."_ Lance thought as he looked over the rest of his new cards. "Okay first I remove Great Angus from my graveyard to summon Inferno in defence mode!" Lance pocketed the monster and the small flame with a face appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "Now I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon Firewing Pegasus to the the field in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the facedown monster disappeared, in it's place stood a mighty pegasus with flame like wings (6/2250/1800). "Over to you Chloe."

"Right." Chloe said with a nod before drawing her card. _"Dark Designator? Why would I use this? Wait, technically I'm part of a team so maybe I can use this on one of my partners decks." _Chloe thought before glancing over her shoulder at her step-father. _"Didn't he say that the Red-Eyes had a stronger form? Ugh, what was it called again?"_ Chloe thought.

"Looking up at my hostage won't do you any favours, so make your move already!" Robert shouted impatiently breaking Chloe's concentration.

"Your funeral, I activate my Spell Card Dark Designator!" Chloe played the card and Robert laughed.

"How could you possibly know what's in my deck?" Robert said with a scoff and Chloe grinned.

"It's not your deck I'm targeting, it's one of my partners." Chloe said before pointing at Marcus. "Namely Marcus."

"Err, okay." Marcus blinked in confusion. _"What's she up too? My deck has changed a lot since our duel back at Duel Academy." _Marcus thought.

"The way my Spell Card works is simple." Chloe continued as she turned her attention back to her dad. "I name a monster card and if Marcus has it in his deck it gets added to his hand, so Marcus..." Chloe said turning to him. "Do you have Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon in your deck?" Chloe asked, Marcus blinked a couple of times before grinning broadly.

"You bet your ass I do!" Marcus said picking up his deck and searching through it, he found the monster at the bottom of his deck and added it to his hand. "Thanks Chloe, I never would've gotten this card without your help."

"Any time." Chloe grinned before turning her attention to her dad as she sent her spell card to her graveyard. "Now for the rest of my move." Chloe said picking up a card. "I summon Silent Magician Level 4 to the field in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and one of her signature cards appeared on the field (4/1000/1000) and, much to Chloe's surprise, when her magician saw Robert her eyes widened in fear.

"That weakling has every right to be scared!" Robert said glaring evilly at the monster. "My monsters will rip her to shreds."

"Just take your turn already!" Chloe snapped at him and Robert drew his card as Marcus discarded a card from his hand due to size limit...only to blink in surprise when he saw Silent Magician's attack raise to 1500. "My monster gains a spell counter each time you draw and for each spell counter she gains five hundred attack points."

"Is that supposed to impress me?" Robert scoffed before looking at his card. "Yes, this may work, first I set a monster in defence mode." Robert set the monster and the facedown monster appeared. "But he won't be facedown for long, I activate a spell card called Book of Taiyou, this allows me to flip my monster into attack so meet Jowles of Dark Demise!" Robert played the card and a floating mouth with a tongue sticking out appeared on the field (2/200/100) it's attack increased to 700 Brandon's eyes widened when he saw the monster.

"Oh no, when that thing's flipped it can take control of one of the opponents monsters." Brandon said and the other duellists immediately cast worrying looks towards Marcus's dragons.

"Not to worry guys, Lord Of Dragons protects Dragons from the effects of spells, traps and effect monsters via his effect." Marcus reassured them.

"_Great, I was planning on targeting his stronger dragon as well."_ Robert thought before glancing up at Dark General Freed. "Well if I can't target your dragons I'll go for the next best thing, Jowles of Dark Demise I command you to take control of Dark General Freed!" The mouth opened up revealing a pair of cat like eyes, they glowed and Dark General Freed's marched over to Robert's side of the field, once it was there it's attack almost immediately went up to 2800. "And my target is you!" Robert said pointing to Chloe.

"No, my Magician!" Chloe shouted as Silent Magician got ready for combat.

"Weren't you listening? MY TARGET IS YOU! You see when the monster under the control of Jolwes attacks it can attack the opponents life-points directly!" Robert explained and Chloe's eyes widened.

"_Damn it, where's Negate Attack when you need it?"_ Andreas thought as he and the others searched frantically through their facedown cards.

"Dark General Freed, attack the little bitches life-points directly!" The general charged forward past Chloe's monsters drawing a sword as he did, Chloe raised her scarred arm instinctively as the sword slashed her sending her to the ground.

C: 4800

L: 9000

A: 8000

M: 8000

AL: 8000

B: 8000

T: 8000

R: 66,000

"Is...is that blood?" Francesca's eyes widened when she saw Chloe get up clutching her bleeding arm in pain, the sleeve was almost completely torn off and was basically holding on to the rest of her shirt by a thread but somehow her arm only suffered minor damage, seeing this Chloe ripped off what remained of the sleeve and used it as a makeshift bandage in order to stop the bleeding remembering the damage she had suffered during the duel with Damien.

"Unfortunately yes." Ray nodded as his eyes narrowed. "The monsters are real in the Orichalcos and so is the damage." Ray added as they continued up the stairs, when he looked again his eyes widened when he saw Chloe's scar. "Oh my god, there's no way in hell that scar was recent."

"Then how do you...oh no." Francesca said as her eyes widened. "You don't think."

"That bastard caused it." Zach cut her off anger clear in his voice. "It's starting to make sense now."

"I'd give every duel monster I own for five minutes alone with him." Alex said as his eyes narrowed, Robert saw the scar and grinned.

"Ah, I remember the day I inflicted that upon you." Robert said with a sadistic smile on his face, Chloe's eyes narrowed once she realized what he was about to say.

"Dad...shut up!" Chloe said angrily.

"Oh, don't you want to remember the time I broke a bottle over your head and used one of the glass shards to cut into your arm, your screams of pain, yes I remember all of it." Robert said with a massive sadistic grin. "I would've gone further than the elbow you know, ALL the way down to your hand but I passed out from the alcohol I was drinking before that could happen." A deathly silence fell over the mall as he recounted the story, even the guards keeping watch over Chloe's step-father where visibly uncomfortable by this point.

"That bastard." Ray said anger clear in his voice, Francesca had covered her mouth in shock by the end of the story, Zach looked like he was about to throw up and Alex and Philip where just as angry.

"KEEP TALKING YOU BASTARD!" Marcus yelled the rage clear in his eyes. "When my next turn comes my dragons will roast that...THING you call a monster and your life-points."

"Marcus, I know it's hard but keep calm." Brandon said clearly just as enraged as Marcus was. "If you do that then..." Marcus's eyes widened as it dawned on him.

"You mean...that whole story about Chloe's scar was..." Marcus trailed off.

"Psychological warfare, he wants us to attack him and he's using every underhanded trick that he can think off." Theresa answered him as she glared at him.

"The only reason you survived was because Mommy got you too a hospital in time, but I have bad news you little bitch, mommy can't save you!" Robert finished in a mocking tone, Chloe was looking at the ground the whole time with her hair overshadowing her eyes the whole time but once Robert finished she looked at him with rage in her eyes.

"Just end your turn already." Chloe said angrily, Robert looked at the rest of his hand and shook his head.

"Fine, I'll end my turn." Robert announced but before Theresa could draw her card footsteps echoed behind Robert from the shadows, slowly a familiar figure emerged from them."Felix?" Robert shouted in surprise as the younger man approached the wall with a look of disgust on his face.

"You bastard." Felix said as he approached the Orichalcos wall with the mother of all death glares on his face. "You complete and utter bastard."

"Who are you to judge? Your no saint!" Robert snapped at him, Felix said nothing as two other figures came out of the shadows, Michael and Karen. "M...Michael?"

"In the flesh." Michael said disgusted. "And we heard every, single detail of that story." Michael said walking up to the wall. "Let me make one thing clear, me, Karen and Felix have made mistakes in the past but they NEVER laid a hand on a child let alone put a child through agonising pain like you just confessed to doing."

"But..." Robert trailed off.

"What? Are you going to try to justify this?" Karen cut him off.

"Know this, should you lose you will suffer." Michael said and just like that the trio disappeared back into the shadows.

"As I was saying." Robert said tugging nervously at his collar. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." As Robert said that Dark General Freed lost it's power bonus from the Orichalcos returning it's attack to 2300 and the monster returned to Brandon's side of the field.

"That's the side effect of Jowles I'm assuming?" Axel asked and Brandon nodded.

"Yeah, it is." Brandon nodded as Theresa drew her card. "Chloe, I'm sorry for what just happened." Brandon called out to her and the Osiris Red student turned her attention to him.

"Brandon, don't apologize for something my dad did to me." Chloe said bluntly though what caught Brandon off guard was her wording, he nodded however and Chloe turned her attention back her dad.

Whilst that was going on Theresa was considering what to do for her move. "_Okay, this spell card could help."_ Theresa thought before activating it. "I activate Allure of Darkness, by removing one Dark Type monster from my hand I can draw two cards." Theresa pocketed the card and drew two cards, "Now I sacrifice Prometheus to summon a new monster, Archfiend of Gilfer!" Prometheus disappeared from the field and in it's place stood a bulky winged demon who growled menacingly at Robert (6/2200/2500). _"Much as I'd like to rip that thing to shreds I can't do so without damaging his life-points."_ Theresa thought as she looked at Jowles. _"But at the same time we can't run the risk of him possibly having a copy of Book of Moon and another copy of Book of Taiyou."_ Theresa thought. "I end my turn." Theresa announced and Brandon drew his card without a second thought.

"Okay, first I summon Dark Crusader to the field in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and zombie crusader appeared on the field (4/1600/200). "Next I activate a Spell Card called Dark Genocide Cutter!" Brandon played the card and too everyone's surprise Dark General Freed, Don Zaloog and Dark Crusader raised their blades in union. "This spell card can only be activated if I have three or more Dark Type monsters on my side of the field which I do, now that those conditions are met I can target one monster on the field and remove it from play!" Robert's eyes widened and as the three blades struck the ground, or the air since the monsters where floating, sending a shock-wave towards Jowles of Dark Demise destroying it it. "That ends my turn!" Brandon announced and Axel drew his card.

"Excellent move Brandon but I'm afraid that I must upstage you." Axel complemented him as he looked at his newly drawn card. "I summon Gladiator Beast Darius in attack mode and activate my trap card Double Tag Team!" Axel played the card and a black humanoid horse wearing red armour appeared on the field (4/1700/300). "Now onto my trap card, when I successfully summon a Gladiator Beast monster as I just have I can special summon another from my hand or deck as long as it's Level 4 or lower and I chose to summon Gladiator Beast Equeste from my deck in attack mode!" Axel played the card and a winged centaur appeared on the field, it was heavily armoured and was carrying a shield (4/1600/1200). "Now the stage is set."

"For what?" Brandon asked curiously and Axel grinned.

"To Contact Fusion the strongest monster in my deck!" Axel said picking up the three monsters. "A beast so powerful that it requires the presence of not one but three Gladiator Beasts on my side of the field so I return Laquari, Darius and Equeste to my deck to fusion summon the all mighty Gladiator Beast Herklinos!" The three monsters fused together and in their place stood a huge humanoid lion that was heavily armoured and was carrying an axe and a shield (8/3000/2800).

"Whoa, that thing that go toe to toe with my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Marcus said clearly in awe of the monster.

"That's not all it can do." Andreas said with a smile. "I still remember the look on my brother's face when he heard it's effect."

"Indeed, it was quite priceless." Axel chuckled before folding his arms. "Fortunately for you I cannot attack so I end my turn." Axel announced and Marcus drew his card, he added his new card to his hand before picking up another.

"I would like to once again thank Chloe for helping me get the card!" Marcus grinned. "I tribute Red-Eyes Black Dragon to Special Summon his stronger form, RED-EYES DARKNESS DRAGON!" Marcus played the card and the dragon transformed into it's strongest form (9/2400/2000). "Aint she a beaut? It's gets better because my dragon gains 300 attacks points for each dragon in my graveyard and I count three, Red-Eyes Wyvern, Exploder Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon himself!" Marcus announced proudly as his dragon's attack shot up to 3300. "But why stop there? I activate the Spell Card I just drew, Polmerization to fuse the Lord of Dragons on my side of the field with Divine Dragon Ragnorok in my hand to form King Dragon!" The two monsters fused together and the dragon king came out of the vortex (7/2400/1100) and as Marcus sent Polmerization, Divine Dragon Ragnorok and Lord of Dragons to the graveyard Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack rose to 3600.

"Marcus now has a combined attack power of 7000 on his side of the field!" Zach exclaimed and Ray nodded.

"Yeah, pity he can't attack." Ray grunted. "Come on, we're almost there." Ray said and Zach followed him further up the stairs.

"As much as I'd love to attack I have to end my turn." Marcus said folding his arms, Andreas drew his card and grinned.

"Perfect, I activate my own Polmerization to fuse Des Kangaroo and Big Koala in my hand to fusion summon my strongest monster, THE MASTER OF OZ!" Andreas played the card and the two monsters fused together into the massive green koala wearing the purple jacket and boxing gloves (9/4200/3800). "I end my turn." Andreas announced and Lance drew his card, he looked at it even as Solemn Wishes increased his life-points to 9500.

"I summon Blast Magician to the field in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the red clad spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1400/1700). "That ends my turn." Lance announced and Chloe drew her card.

"Dad..." Chloe said looking directly at Robert. "What you said earlier about my mom not being here maybe true...but she's here in spirit."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Robert demanded and Chloe played the card that she had drawn.

"I activate Level Up, levelling up my Silent Magician to her strongest form and my strongest monster, SILENT MAGICIAN LEVEL 8!" Chloe played the card and her Silent Magician started glowing and growing until it reached it's final form (8/3500/1000). "This was what I was talking about!" Chloe said as Silent Magician glared at Robert. "Unfortunately I have to end my turn." Robert wordlessly drew his card but the worry was very evident on his face.

"_First Michael, Felix and Karen show up and now these brats have enough firepower to do some major damage to my life-points, no matter though, as long as my hostage doesn't break free I'll be safe!"_Robert thought before glancing at his facedown card. "Now is as good a time as ever to activate my trap card Destiny Board!" Robert flipped up the card and the ghostly image of the letter F appeared on the field. "See that letter? It's a part of a word and at the end of each of your turns more letters will appear until the word is spelt out and once it is the duel will immediately end."

"But that gives us until the end of Andreas's turn to destroy it!" Brandon realized.

"He won't go that far!" Axel declared as he discarded a card from his hand. "I activate Herklinos's effect, by discarding one card from my hand I can negate the activation of and destroy one Spell or Trap card and I chose Destiny Board!"

"NO!" Robert yelled as Herklinos charged towards the letter and slashed it with it's axe. "You will pay for that!" Robert yelled as he sent his trap to the graveyard. "But I guess I'll have to beat you the old fashioned way, I summon Diskblade Rider in attack mode!" Robert played the card and the roar of a motorcycle filled the air.

"What the hell?" Marcus exclaimed, suddenly from out of nowhere a muscular green demon on a blue motorbike leaped off a ledge and landed on Robert's side of the field, the demon was weilding a lethal looking discblade and was ready for battle (4/1700/1500) and it's attack went up to 2200 thanks to the seal.

"Now who to attack..." Robert wondered as he surveyed the field. _"Chloe, Theresa, Axel, Andreas and Marcus's monsters are too powerful, Lance's magician is an obvious weakness but it most likely has an effect, that just leaves Brandon's monsters and I know what Don Zaloog does so I'll target him!" _Robert thought before pointing at Zaloog. "Discblade Rider attack Don Zaloog now!" The fiend revved up it's motorcycle and took off towards Don, it stretched out the arm that was holding the blade and decapitated Brandon's warrior.

C: 4800

L: 9500

A: 8000

M: 8000

AL: 8000

B: 7200

T: 8000

R: 66,000

Brandon sent his warrior to the graveyard and frowned. _"Just need one more monster in my graveyard and I can bring out my Dragon!" _Brandon thought as the fiend returned to Robert's side of the field.

"I end my turn." Robert said and Theresa drew her card, before she could do anything however there was a commotion near where Chloe's step-father was being held."What the hell?" Robert wondered out-loud before putting a hand to his earpiece. "What's going on up there?" The was no response and Robert growled, unbeknownst to him the armed group had been ambushed by the group that Philip was leading, Philip knocked out one with a pair of powerful punches whilst Alex had knocked out another by banging his head against the rail, the third tried pointing his gun at them but was whacked in the back of the head by Ray's duel disk knocking him out.

"Are you okay Mr. Richardson?" Ray asked as Zach started untying him.

"I am now, thanks to you." Scott said once Zach untied him, he marched up to the edge of the railing with the others. "HEY ROBERT!" Robert looked up and his eyes went as wide as dinner plates when he saw that he was free. "You just lost your bargaining chip."

"Oh no!" Robert said as his eyes widened. "But that means..."

"That we are free to attack." Theresa said with a grin. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this, first I activate Lightning Vortex to clear your field!" Theresa played the card and, after discarding a card, lightning struck Robert's fiend destroying it. "Next I activate Monster Reborn to bring back the monster I discarded for Lightning Vortex's effect, Perditious Puppeteer in attack mode!" Theresa retrieved the monster from her graveyard and played it, a monstrous demon appeared on the field controlling a metallic puppet (7/2700/500. "And finally I normal summon Opticlops to the field in attack mode!" Theresa played the last card in her hand and a red muscular cyclops appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/1500. "Attack his life-point directly!" The three monsters, or in the case of the puppeteer it's puppet, charged forward and attacked Robert. "Your turn Brandon!"

"Gladly!" Brandon said drawing his card. "I sacrifice Dark Crusader to summon Lich Lord, King of the Underworld in attack mode!" Dark Crusader vanished and in it's place stood the king of the underworld himself (6/2400/1600). "Now that I have three dark type monsters in my graveyard I can now summon my deck's strongest monster, Dark Armed Dragon!" Brandon played the card and his signature dragon appeared on the field (7/2800/1000). "This is for everything you put Chloe through you bastard, go my monsters attack his life-points directly." Dark General Freed charged forward and seemed to take pleasure in slashing into Robert, his other two monsters followed up by firing remote attacks. "Axel, show him no mercy."

"As if it needed to be said." Axel grinned as he drew his card. "I won't be able to do as much damage as my comrades but this will be just as satisfying, Herrklinos attack this monster's life-points directly!" Axel commanded and Herrklinos charged towards Robert and slashed him with his sword. "Marcus, I know you've been waiting for this."

"Gee, you think?" Marcus grinned as he drew his card. "I summon Luster Dragon Number 2 in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the beautiful sapphire dragon appeared on the field (4/1900/1600). "Go my monsters, roast this bastard alive!" The four dragons charged up their attacks and fired them at Robert who screamed as the attacks hit. "Andreas, your turn buddy."

"All right." Andreas nodded before drawing his card. "So Robert tell me, how does it feel?" Andreas asked and Robert blinked as he got up.

"How does WHAT feel?" Robert demanded.

"To feel the full force of your victim's, your daughter's, friends come upon you? King of Beasts, Master of Oz, attack his life-points directly!" The two monsters charged forward and attacked him.

"Jesus Christ, this has got to be some kind of record for most damage dealt to the opponent!" Zach exclaimed and Ray nodded.

"Couldn't of happened to a more deserving person!" Ray agreed.

"Lance, it's your turn!" Andreas announced and as Lance drew his card as his life-points went up to 10,000 thanks to his trap.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time!" Lance said before looking at his card. "I sacrifice Inferno to summon Thestalos The Firstorm Monarch!" Inferno vanished and in it's place stood Thestalos himself (6/2400/1000). "When he's normal summoned successfully you have to discard a random card from your hand and if it's a monster it's level times a hundred comes out of your life-points!" Thestalous threw a fireball at Robert's only card in his hand and he winced as it was his copy of Ryu-Kishin Powered (4/1600/1200) causing him to lose 400 points before discarding it. "Now I activate my own Monster Reborn to revive the monster I sacrificed earlier to summon Firewing Pegasus, ULTIMATE BASEBALL KID!" Lance played the card and the small boy in the baseball uniform appeared on the field (3/500/1000) and his attack went up to 2500 due to his effect. "Attack his life-points directly!" Thestalous and Pegasus fired fireballs at Robert striking him in the chest whilst Ultimate Baseball Kid hit a ball at Robert with his bat. "I would end my turn at that, you know out of mercy...except you don't deserve any mercy so I activate the second effect of Ultimate Baseball Kid, by sending a fire type monster from my field to the graveyard I can deal 500 points of damage to you so goodbye Firewing Pegasus and Thestalous the Firestorm Monarch..." The two monsters where turned into firery balls which where launched one at a time at Robert by the kid. "...Hello 1000 points of damage." Lance said triumphantly even as Ultimate Baseball Kid's attack dropped to it's original 500. "But there's one person here who has been waiting for this far longer than we have, Chloe it's your turn."

"Thanks Lance." Chloe said drawing her card, when she looked at it she got an idea. "Hey, can I take control of one of my partners monsters for a turn?"

"As much as I hate to say it, yes." Robert grunted knowing what was coming next, Chloe turned to Marcus and grinned.

"Can I borrow your Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon for a few minutes?" Chloe asked and Marcus nodded as the Dragon flew over to her side, the dragon lost the 1200 attack points due to Chloe not having any dragons in her deck, let alone her graveyard, but she knew that it was powerful enough to do some serious damage. "Now I activate the Spell Card I just drew, Dark Magic Curtain!" Chloe played the card and winced as her life-points dropped to 2400. "It may cost me half of my life-points but it's worth it because now I can summon a new monster from my deck, the Dark Magician!" Chloe played the card and the famous magician appeared on the field (7/2500/2100).

"Holy..." Zach whistled when he saw the monster. "She wasn't kidding when she said that her deck's a lot stronger!"

"And it doesn't look like she's done." Ray added and Chloe sent Dark Magic Curtain to the graveyard and picked up another card.

"I equip my Magician with the spell card Megamorph, as long as my life-points are lower than yours my Dark Magician's attack points are doubled, Chloe announced and true to her word Dark Magician's attack shot up to 5000. "Silent Magician, Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, Dark Magician, attack his life-points directly!" The three monsters fired their attacks at Robert who screamed as the attacks hit.

C: 2400

L: 10,000

A: 8000

M: 8000

AL: 8000

B: 8000

T: 8000

R: 11, 150

"Even after all that he still has a massive lead." Nicola spoke up for the first time.

"Not for long though, even if he draws a monster they don't have too worry about her step-father being killed if they do attack." Ray said shaking his head. "The only reason he's lasted this long is because of Mr. Richardson being held captive but now? It's only a matter of time."

"I end my turn." Chloe announced and Robert shakily drew his card...only to drop it in shock.

"No...no...this...is..." Robert stammered, Chloe looked at the card and realized that it was the spell card Allure of Darkness but since he had no cards in his hand Robert couldn't use it.

"Impossible? No, it's justice for everything you've done to me." Chloe said folding her arms and Robert growled.

"I will never surrender to you!" Robert growled. "I end my turn."

"In other words, it's over!" Theresa said drawing her card.

"Guys, wait!" Chloe called out to them and the other teens blinked. "I...I want to be the one who finishes him off, please." Chloe pleaded with them, the teens shared a look before Theresa nodded.

"You got it Chloe, I pass for now." Theresa said and Brandon didn't even bother looking at the card he drew.

"I pass as well, Axel?" Brandon announced before turning to the German duellist, he drew a card and like Brandon he didn't bother looking at it.

"I shall pass as well." Axel nodded, the process continued for Andreas, Marcus and Lance until it was finally Chloe's turn, when she drew her card she turned to Marcus.

"Can I borrow Blue-Eyes White Dragon?" Chloe asked and Marcus nodded,

"She's all yours!" Marcus nodded as the dragon flew over to Chloe's side of the field.

"I enter my battle phase and..." Before Chloe could continue she remembered about her trap card. "_Magician's Circle, I couldn't activate it last turn because of Dark Magic Curtain but now? It's a perfect time to use it..." _Whilst Chloe was thinking these things Robert's impatience was growing by the second.

"What are you waiting for? Finnish me off! Isn't this what you wanted?" Robert shouted at Chloe who remained silent. "What do you want? A confession? Is that what you want you little bitch? Fine...I NEVER WANTED YOU! Whilst your mother was pregnant with you I pleaded with her to get an abortion, did she listen? NO! So I tried to make her have a miscarriage and make it look like an accident but obviously that failed and you know what? I enjoyed every moment of the abuse I inflicted on you! You want to know why? Because you are a fucking accident!" A deathly silence fell over the mall which was quickly broken by Chloe quietly sobbing. "Yeah, cry you little bitch!"

"If it weren't for the Orichalcos I'd be beating the shit out of him by now!" Alex said angrily.

"We all would." Philip agreed, down on the floor Chloe collapsed to her hands and knees as the information started to sink in.

"I was afraid of this." Theresa sighed. "Chloe's done well to make it this far but what that bastard just said..."

"Has left her in no condition to continue." Brandon finished for her folding his arms as he did. "Even I wouldn't be in any condition to duel if I had learned that from my father." Brandon added. "What do you think Axel."

"I think that bastard deserves to rot in hell for what he just confessed to doing." Axel said with a scowl on his face. "As for Chloe, I don't know maybe Lance can talk her into passing her turn."

"There's a problem with that." Brandon pointed out. "It's Robert's turn after Chloe's, what if he draws something like Swords of Revealing Light or worse."

"If he draws a spell card that effects monsters than Chloe's Silent Magician would be...wait she's getting up!" Theresa realized as Chloe forced herself to her feet glaring at her father through crying eyes.

"Dad..." Chloe said in a tone of voice that sent shivers up everyone's spines. "Your finished, Dark Magician attack that bastard's life-points directly Dark Magic Attack!" As the magician charged up it's famous attack Chloe activated her trap card. "I activate Magician's Circle, now I'm allowed to Special Summon another Spellcaster to the field, Magical Marionette!" Chloe searched through her deck and played the card, the magical puppet master in red appeared on the field ready for battle (5/2000/1000). "Off course now you and my partners can do the same, if you have any Spellcasters." Robert frowned and shook his head.

"I don't have any spellcasters." Robert said frowning, the others searched through their decks due to Magician's Circle's effect and Theresa summoned her copy of Maiden of Macabre, Brandon summoned Shadowpriestess of Ohm (4/1700/1600), Axel summoned Witchdoctor of Sparta (4/400/2000), Marcus summoned another Lord of Dragons (4/1200/1100) and Lance summoned Blazing Hilta (3/800/1500). as they had no spellcasters in their decks Andreas and Robert shuffled their decks as did the others, Dark Magician resumed it's attack bringing his life-points down to 6150.

"Magical Marionette, it's your turn." Chloe commanded and the enigmatic puppet master lashed Robert with it's strings bringing his life-points down to 4150. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, WHITE LIGHTNING!" The dragon charged up it's famous attack and launched it at Robert sending his life-points plummeting down to 1150, Chloe didn't even notice Dark Magician's attack dropping to 1250 due to Megamorph's side effect as she pointed to Silent Magician.

"Chloe wait...have mercy!" Robert pleaded with her.

"Mercy?" Chloe echoed as she glared at him, tears and all. "You kidnapped my step-father, you beat me and my mom for days on end, you scarred me for life in more ways than one..." Chloe tears where coming out quickly at this point.

"He's just a coward Chloe, ignore him and finish him off!" Marcus shouted out, Chloe said nothing for a few moments save for the occasional sob, that was until she said the next sentence.

"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!" She shouted at him before collapsing to her knees again, Marcus Andreas and Axel did double takes at this. "And you expect me to give you mercy? Where was my mercy? WHERE WAS MOM'S MERCY!" Chloe continued in between sobs.

"Jesus Christ..." Ray trailed off as his eyes widened.

"Believe or not, this will be good for her in the long run." Philip sighed. "That's a lot of pent up emotion she's unleashing, it's not good for your mental health to pent up stuff like this." Philip added as Chloe forced herself back to her feet and pointed at Silent Magician.

"Silent Magician Level 8, finish this bastard off!" Chloe commanded and the magician charged up it's attack and fired it at Robert striking him in the chest.

C: 2400

L: 10,500

A: 8000

M: 8000

AL: 8000

B: 7200

T: 8000

R: 0000

The holograms disappeared and Chloe stood there motionless for the longest time, Robert was somehow still conscious but aware of what was going to happen next. "Chloe." Robert said with a sadistic grin on his face. "Before the Orichalcos consumes me I have another confession."

"Save it." Chloe said in between sobs. "I don't care what you have to say."

"What? Aren't you interested in a little secret your step-father's been keeping from you for the past ten years?" Robert taunted and Chloe's eyes narrowed.

"W...what are you talking about?" Chloe stammered, Scott's eyes widened instantly realizing what he meant.

"Robert that's enough!" Scott shouted from the sidelines. "Haven't you done enough damage already?"

"I'm not the one doing the damage this time you son of a bitch, it's your little secret." Robert shouted back before turning to Chloe. "Funny thing about your mother's murder...I never spent a day in jail for it." Robert said earning a collective gasp from everyone.

"No...no...your lying, you...must be." Chloe stammered.

"I'm not the one lying here, your step-father is!" Robert continued even as the Orichalcos closed in. "My conviction was overturned by the court of appeals, for the charges of Child Abuse and Murder!" Robert said with a grin. "And that bastard stole you from me!" That was the last thing Robert said before the seal consumed his soul and he collapsed to the ground Chloe stood there for the longest time before collapsing to her hands and knees.

"Mr. Richardson, is that..." Philip started but when he turned around he saw that Scott was running down the stairs.

"Sorry, my daughter needs me!" Scott called out, he ran down the stairs and eventually reached the ground floor, the other students where already there gathering up Robert's twelve locater cards distributing them between themselves, Theresa had just handed Chloe her locater card when Scott ran up. "Theresa was it? May I have..."

"Some private time with Chloe?" Theresa asked, Scott nodded and Theresa sighed. "Go ahead." Scott said nothing and approached his daughter.

"Chloe..." Scott started and Chloe turned to him, her eyes where red from all the crying.

"Dad...please tell me he's lying." Chloe pleaded with a look of desperation on her face, Scott sighed and knelt down next to her.

"Chloe, I'm sorry but I was there when it happened, your father's conviction was overturned." Scott sighed and Chloe's eyes went as wide as dinner plates, she backed away from him and he tried to move closer to her.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" She snapped at him before curling up in a ball, Brandon approached him and sighed.

"I...I think it's best if you leave, we'll get her back to the hotel." Brandon said and Scott nodded in agreement.

"I'll come round in the morning and try to explain myself to her." Scott told them, the students said nothing and Scott left without another word.


	25. Dealing with the present

Author's note: I don't usually do this but this time it's needed, some of you may of noticed that the last three chapters had disappeared only to reappear on the site a few minutes later and to be honest, it's because of a mistake I made.

To keep it as brief as I can Chapter's 23 and 24 where written in Open Office, the other chapters where written in Microsoft word, why the change? My laptop died on me and I'm using a desktop, something went wrong when I uploaded the last two chapters and I took them off to correct the error...only to accidentally delete Chapter 22 in the process, after a brief time of panic and continuity issues where I accidentally uploaded Chapter 23 as Chapter 22 I have corrected the issue and I thank you for my patience with me, with that said back to the fic.

None of the students where able to get any sleep that night, not after what had happened back at the mall, Chloe just went straight to her room the minute she arrived and hadn't come out of her room since.

That was hours ago and the first person to come out of her room was Theresa, she rubbed her tired eyes with a yawn and glanced towards Chloe's room sadly. _"I should check on her, she was a mess last night."_ Theresa thought before walking up to the door, she hesitated before knocking on the door and waiting for a response.

"Who...who is it?" Chloe called out from the other end, Theresa bit her lip as it sounded like she was still crying.

"Chloe it's me, can I come in?" Theresa called out unsure what to expect, a few minutes passed and Chloe opened the door still in her clothes from last night, including her now ruined top. "You couldn't get any sleep either huh?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded meekly.

"Yeah." Chloe sighed looking off to the side. "Why did he lie Theresa? Why?" Theresa bit her lip again, she knew almost immediately what she meant and as much as she wanted to say otherwise she had no answer.

"I wish I knew." Theresa said sadly. "Look, if you want me to come back later that's fine, besides you do need to get rid of that top." Chloe said nothing and glanced at her ruined sleeve, it was then that Theresa noticed that the bleeding was still being stopped by the makeshift bandage. "We should probably change that bandage, come on there's a First Aid kit in my room."

"You know First Aid?" Chloe asked surprised.

"I took a course in it prior to joining Duel Academy." Theresa explained, Chloe hesitated before following her to her room, Chloe sat on the bed whilst Theresa searched for the first aid kit.

"Theresa, can I be honest with you?" Chloe asked and Theresa turned around as she grabbed the first aid kit.

"Sure, what's on your mind?" Theresa asked sitting down on a chair.

"I...I'm considering giving up Duel Monsters." Chloe said and Theresa looked at her surprised.

"What? But your officially a Battle City semi-finalist, you've come so far as a duellist." Theresa pointed out.

"I know!" Chloe sighed brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "But it was my step-father that got me into the game, now? I don't even know if I can trust him again." Chloe explained and Theresa closed her eyes, to be honest she couldn't blame Chloe not after what she had learnt last night.

"But what will you do if you do decide to give up Duel Monsters?" Theresa asked picking up a pillow. "Rest your scarred arm here please." Chloe did so and Theresa carefully removed the bandage that was once a sleeve.

"I don't know." Chloe sighed brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I rarely plan that far ahead when I'm not duelling." Chloe said. "I still feel the pain you know." Chloe said and Theresa blinked.

"Err, can you explain what you mean by that?" Theresa asked sheepishly.

"Sure, I still feel the pain from where he cut into my arm."Chloe explained and Theresa's eyes widened.

"Chloe, that was ten years ago." Theresa said as she carefully applied a bandage to Chloe's wound, her concern for her friend was clear in her face. "You should have that looked at it."

"I did, when I was at the hospital after my duel with Damien and whilst you guys where in the waiting room, I told the doctor everything when he asked about the scar." Chloe explained. "He had an X-Ray done and found nothing so there isn't any glass shards in there, he theorized that the attack did more than just leave a massive scar on my arm, it caused some permanent damage to the inside of my arm."

"Jesus Christ." Theresa said sadly. "How is your mobility with it?"

"I can't stretch too much with it without pain so I use it as my Duel Disk arm, despite being left handed." Chloe explained. "That took some getting used too at first but now?"

"It comes natural right?" Theresa asked as she continued applying the bandage and Chloe nodded. "Chloe, look I don't exactly blame you for being tempted to give up duel monsters after last night but at the least give it a bit more thought, your parents did pay a lot of money for you to attend the Academy and I'd hate to see you throw it all away before you become a second year student." Theresa said with a sigh as she finished applying the bandage, she cut off the applied bandage from the bandage roll with a pair of scissors. "Is that too tight?"

"No, it's fine." Chloe said standing up, it was then that they noticed Brandon by the door. "You heard everything didn't you?"

"Yeah," Brandon nodded before noticing how tired the two women where. "You guys didn't get any sleep last night either?"

"No, we didn't." Theresa shook her head as she stood up and returned the First Aid Kit to it's appropriate spot. "Though that wasn't helped by the fact that the duel went on until three in the morning."

"No, it didn't help." Brandon agreed. "At least we all have six locater cards which means that we won't have to worry about duelling until the Semi-finals...that's if Chloe's still up for duelling." Brandon sighed. "How are you feeling after...well you know."

"About as well as you'd expect." Chloe said shaking her head. "Brandon, about what I said last night after Robert attacked me with your monster." Chloe started. "I...I want to apologize, it's just that..." Chloe trailed off and Brandon smiled before he ran a hand through his hair.

"Don't worry about it." Brandon said with a smile, Chloe smiled meekly and Brandon stepped aside sensing that she wanted to leave Theresa's room and head back to her room, Theresa looked up at her boyfriend and sighed.

"Are the teachers talking about Chloe?" Theresa asked and Brandon frowned leaning against the door-frame.

"Yeah, I overheard them talking with Chancellor Wilkins on the way over." Brandon said before pausing. "You remember the talk we had shortly after Chloe told us about the abuse?"

"The one about how the teacher's can't find out?" Theresa asked and Brandon nodded. "Yeah, fat lot of good that did as they found out anyway." Theresa said shaking her head. "Why do you...oh no."

"Yeah, they are discussing whether or not Chloe should be held back a year for mental health reasons." Brandon let out an audible sigh of annoyance. "Given what happened last night I can't blame them."

"But if she gives up Duel Monsters like she told me she was considering doing it won't matter." Theresa said with a frown. "I don't know which is the lesser of two evils."

"Her being held back, at least then we'd still see her on campus." Brandon said shaking his head. "Let's try not to think about it too much okay? And don't mention this to Chloe, her self esteem really took a beating last night, not to mention her psyche, if she finds out about what the teachers are discussing...I don't even want to think about what could happen."

"You don't need to tell me twice." Theresa said shaking her head. "At least that bastard's soul has been sealed by the Orichalcos."

"Yeah but not before he smashed his own daughter's world to pieces with a sledgehammer, so to speak." Brandon said shaking his head. "I'm heading back to my room, I have a call to make."

"A call? To who?" Theresa asked.

"My dad." Brandon said plainly before walking off, he exited the girls room and saw the teachers leaving the room where they where holding the meeting with Wilkins, part of him wanted to ask them what the meeting was about but he had a feeling that they'd just avoid the question so he dropped that line of thought.

"Morning Brandon." Brandon nearly jumped out of his skin when Lance greeted him, Brandon turned around and saw the fire user scratching his eyes. "Couldn't get any sleep either?"

"No, I couldn't." Brandon said once he regained his composure. "Lance can we talk privately? It's about Chloe." Lance tensed up when he heard the last part before inviting Brandon into his room, he followed him in and did a double take when he saw how messy the room was. "I hope you don't plan on leaving the room in this state."

"Nah." Lance shook his head with a sigh. "Besides my brother's room back home is a lot worse." Lance added before folding his arms. "I was meaning to ask you actually, how is Chloe? I saw you emerging from the girl's room and unless you where having some quality time with Theresa..."

"No, I wasn't." Brandon cut him off blushing like a mad man. "But yeah, your guess is correct, I went in there to check up on Chloe, only we ended up going to Theresa's room instead." Brandon said, Lance looked at him strangely for the longest time.

"You and Theresa are into three-ways?" Lance finally said and Brandon face-faulted.

"That was about as far removed from what I meant as humanly possible." Brandon said as he got up. "Even if we where we wouldn't take advantage of Chloe when she's this emotionally vulnerable and young, Lance Chloe's considering giving up Duel Monsters because of what Robert said right before he was sealed."

"WHAT?" Lance yelled the shock evident on his face. "I know Robert's little revelation was a bit much for her but isn't she jumping to conclusions?"

"That's the thing Lance, it's not just Robert, it's her step-father." Brandon sighed running a hand through his hair. "She doesn't know if she can trust him again because of the secret that he had been keeping from her for all these years and it was her step-father that got her into the game in the first place so..."

"So what your saying is, Chloe might try to distance herself from her dad as much as possible, including Duel Monsters?" Lance asked and Brandon nodded. "She's only ever felt this way once before, after me and Chloe's first duel."

"I remember, Marcus told me the story whilst we where in Alex's car." Brandon nodded in understanding. "I'm not going to question your judgement at the time as you didn't know better but what does that have to do with this."

"We had a rematch one day after school about two weeks after the tournament, I agreed to not use Lava Golem against her under any circumstances." Lance started sitting down on the bed. "It was one of the best Pre-Duel Academy matches I've ever had, it helped reawaken Chloe's passion for the game and I earned a good friend that day." Lance explained and Brandon nodded.

"I get it, a competitive duel might get her out of this rut, maybe even get her fired up for the finals." Brandon nodded in understanding before yawning. "There's just one problem, we're too tired to do anything productive, let alone duel."

"Maybe I can help then." The two teens nearly jumped out of their skin and turned around seeing Jeff by the door, Duel Disk in hand. "Before you ask, yes I heard everything and Brandon should be more discreet when listening in on meetings." Jeff added and Brandon laughed nervously as he sweat-dropped. "Look, I know your concerned about the possibility of Chloe being held back for mental health reasons so I'll tell you now, we voted against it in the meeting."

"Good." Brandon sighed in relief. "Are you sure that you'll even get her to duel you though?"

"I'm sure I can, besides it sounds like she hasn't made her mind up yet." Jeff answered before going to leave the room.

"Jeff, wait." Lance called out to him and Jeff stopped in his tracks.

"What is it Lance?" Jeff asked.

"You've known Chloe's step-father for years, longer than anyone else I know." Lance said and Jeff nodded. "What's your opinion on him keeping such a big secret from Chloe?" Lance asked and Jeff frowned.

"Honestly, I don't know." Jeff sighed after thinking for a few minutes. "As you said I've known him for years but I've never known him to keep a secret this big for this long from anyone, let alone his adopted daughter, unless he had a good reason for it." Jeff said folding his arms. "I've been trying to call him all morning but he isn't picking up his phone."

"So what do you plan to do?" Brandon asked.

"I'll challenge Chloe to an unofficial Battle City match, win or lose if I can get her spirits up in time for the Semi-finals then that will be good enough for me." Jeff said. "Is Chloe in her room?"

"Last I checked yes." Brandon nodded and Jeff walked off towards the girl's room, he entered the room and saw Theresa fixing her hair in front of a mirror.

"Oh hi Jeff, what's up." Theresa greeted him after seeing his reflection in the mirror.

"Is Chloe still in her room?" Jeff asked and Theresa nodded.

"Yeah, I checked up on her a couple of minutes ago, why?" Theresa asked as she grabbed a hairbrush.

"I intend to challenge her to a duel." Jeff said plainly, Theresa dropped the hairbrush out of shock and turned to him seeing the Duel Disk on his arm.

"I thought you retired?" Theresa asked once her surprise wore off. "Besides she's a Battle City Semi-Finalist."

"I know but it'll be an unofficial duel, Lance thinks that a competitive duel will help her out of her current rut but since he's too tired to do it himself I volunteered." Jeff explained before bending over and picking up the hairbrush. "You dropped this." Jeff said handing it to Theresa.

"Thanks." Theresa said as she took it and resumed brushing her hair. "I can see where he's coming from but are you sure your the right man for the job? You have years of experience over Chloe."

"I'm sure I'll do fine." The two of them blinked and turned around, Chloe was standing there with her duel disk on her arm, she was no longer wearing her ruined top having swapped it for a white and red naval exposing tanktop under a black jacket, her blazer was still tied around her waist. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear, anyway Jeff? I accept your challenge."

"It's okay, so where do you want to meet for the duel?" Jeff asked, she thought for a few minutes before deciding.

"Outside the hotel." Chloe said plainly, Jeff nodded and walked off.

"Sounds good to me, meet me out there in five minutes, any later and I'll assume that you've forfeited the match." Jeff said sternly before leaving the room passing by Professor Hamden.

"What's with him?" Chloe asked.

"Don't mind him, he's always been that competitive towards possible opponents." Hamden said with a shrug. "Even your step-father." Hamden added and Chloe stiffened up at the mention of him. "Crap, I forgot that that's a touchy subject at the moment."

"It's fine." Chloe sighed before folding her arms. "Is that everything? I have a duel to get too."

"There is one more thing." Hamden said reaching into his pocket and producing a Duel Monsters card. "This card should help you against Jeff's duel strategy." Chloe took it and blinked, it was a Trap Card called Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror.

"Err, okay." Chloe blinked before swapping out a Spell card for it. "But why are you helping me?"

"This duel's supposed to help you remember?" Hamden asked and Chloe nodded. "Just don't tell Jeff I gave it too you."

"I won't, thanks." Chloe said with a small smile as she pocketed the spell card, she left the room and eventually the hotel and found Jeff waiting for her.

"Ah good, you made it." Jeff said activating his duel disk. "You may be one of the more promising Osiris Red Students Chloe but that doesn't mean that I intend to go easy on you."

"I wouldn't want you too." Chloe said activating her own Duel Disk. "So, who's going first?" Chloe asked.

"I will." Jeff said as the two duellists drew their opening hands and Jeff drew another before adding it to his hand. "I start with a field spell card called Necrovalley!" Jeff played the field spell and the scenery changed to that of a desert surrounded by mountains with the two duellists in the middle of it. "As long as this is on the field each of my Gravekeepers monsters will gain an additional 500 attack points, not only that but this card effectively eliminates the graveyard as a resource."

"Your going to have to explain that one to me." Chloe said nervously,

"I was going too anyway, you see as long as Necrovalley is on the field cards in either of our graveyards can't be removed from play or be effected by card effects accept their own." Jeff said and Chloe's eyes widened.

"_Crap, that eliminates the chance of me using something like Level Modulation or Monster Reborn."_ Chloe thought.

"Encase you get any ideas about destroying Necrovalley with something like Mystical Space Typhoon I activate another Spell Card called Field Barrier." Jeff played the card and the desert and rocky terrain was suddenly covered by a green dome. "As long as this is on the field Field Spell Cards like Necrovalley cannot be destroyed.." Jeff explained just as Lance and the others left the hotel in order to watch the duel. "Seems we have an audience."

"Yeah, you do." Brandon said sitting down. "What have we missed?"

"Not much, the match has only just started." Jeff informed them before picking up another card. "Now Chloe, let me introduce one of my Gravekeepers to you, I summon Gravekeeper's Curse to the field attack mode!" Jeff played the card and a robed Egyptian man appeared on the field, he had short hair and his robe had gold trimmings, as for weaponry he was carrying a staff that curved into a question mark at the top (3/800/800) and thanks to Necrovalley his attack went up to 1300 almost immediately.

"Even with the power boost that monster's still weak." Chloe pointed out and Jeff chuckled.

"Let's see how you feel after I activate Gravekeeper's Curse's effect." Jeff said as Gravekeeper's curse started glowing.

"What effect..." Chloe was cut off when Gravekeeper's Curse pointed it's staff at her and fired a green beam of light at her hitting her on the chest.

C: 7500

J: 8000

"That effect, you see when Gravekeeper's Curse is successfully summoned to the field it inflicts five hundred points of damage to your life-points." Jeff explained folding his arms. "I told you I wouldn't be going easy on you."

"Even so your still left with a weak monster on the field." Chloe pointed out.

"So I noticed." Jeff admitted before picking up another card. "I set this face-down and end my turn." Jeff announced and Chloe drew. _"Okay, let's see how badly the shock she received yesterday has effected her duelling...hey wait a minute."_ Jeff thought. "Err Chloe, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here by saying that I'm assuming that you forgot that you can only draw one card at a time." Jeff said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down everyone's heads, Chloe blushed and returned the card to her deck.

"Err, my mistake." Chloe said blushing a bit.

"That's the kind of mistake I'd expect from someone who's picked up a deck for the first time, not from someone who's been duelling for two months andis a semi-finalist in her first tournament." Jeff said folding his arms and Chloe cast her eyes downward. "Something on your mind?" Jeff asked and Chloe sighed.

"It's...the incident with my two dads last night, I can't think straight because of it." Chloe admitted and Jeff nodded in understanding.

"Fair enough, I wouldn't be able to think straight either if I was in your shoes." Jeff admitted. "Just continue with your turn and try not to think about that." Chloe nodded before looking at her hand.

"Okay, I set a card face-down and summon a monster I got in preparation for yesterday's duel, Familiar Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the armoured knight appeared on the field ready for battle (3/1200/1400). "Familiar Knight, attack Gravekeeper's Curse!" The knight charged towards the weaker monster and Jeff grinned.

"Sorry Chloe but I activate my face-down card Book of Moon to flip Gravekeeper's Curse face-down!" Jeff activated the card and the his monster disappeared replaced by the image of a face-down card. "Now not only are my life-points protected but I get to use his effect again!" Sure enough Gravekeeper's Curse returned to the field holding it's staff out in a defensive manner, as the blast hit Chloe in the chest Familiar Knight chopped it and it's staff in half.

C: 7000

J: 8000

Chloe looked at the rest of her hand and shook her head after Familiar Knight returned to her side of the field. "I end my turn for now." Jeff nodded and drew his card.

"I activate the Spell Card I just drew, it's called Allure of Darkness and with it I can draw two cards from my deck in exchange for removing a dark type monster from my hand." Jeff did so and drew two cards, he looked at the cards in his hand for a minute before nodding. "Okay then, first I summon Gravekeeper's Spear Holder in attack mode!" Jeff played the card and an Egyptian man wearing robes similar to Jeff's last monster appeared on the field wielding a large spear (4/1500/1000) and it's attack rose to 2000 almost instantly due to Necrovalley. "Now I activate a Spell Card called Royal Tribute!" Jeff played the card and grinned.

"Okay, what does that do?" Chloe asked.

"It's simple, this spell card can only be activated if I have Necrovalley on the field, which I do, and now we both must discard all monster cards in our hands." Jeff explained and Chloe's eyes widened before she discarded nearly the entirety of her hand, however as Jeff's hand was empty he didn't discard any cards.

"Man, Jeff just crippled her Familiar Knight's effect." Marcus winced and Theresa nodded.

"Yeah and if she lost any powerful monsters she can't bring them back thanks to Necrovalley." Theresa pointed out.

"Now Spear Soldier attack Familiar Knight!" The soldier threw his spear at the knight.

"Err, just to double check but is Spear Soldier a Spellcaster?" Chloe asked, Jeff nodded and Chloe grinned. "Well in that case I activate Magician's Circle!" Chloe flipped her card up and Jeff raised an eyebrow.

"Now we can both special summon a Spellcaster from our decks." Jeff said as both duellists picked up their decks.

"Right, and I'll use it to summon a monster I used to help me beat my..." Chloe trailed off. "...opponent last night." Chloe finished, it didn't take Jeff long to figure out who she meant and what she had almost called him. "Magical Marionette in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the red robed puppet master appeared on the field (5/2000/1000) "Now I have a monster that can go toe to toe with Spear Soldier."

"True, but your forgetting two things, 1: I can Special Summon as well and 2: sometimes strength isn't everything!" Jeff said before turning the card he was summoning around.

"Another Gravekeeper's Curse." Chloe's eyes widened when she saw the monster, Jeff wasted no time in playing it and once the monster reappeared on the field it fired a beam of light from it's staff at Chloe.

C: 6500

J: 8000

"Now then Spear Soldier, resume your attack on Familiar Knight!" The soldier threw his spear at the knight impaling him.

C: 5700

J: 8000

"Okay but now I can activate Familiar...oh crap..." Chloe winced remembering the effect of Royal Tribute as she sent Magician's Circle and Familiar Knight to the graveyard.

"It sucks not being able to summon a monster due to your monster's effect, doesn't it?" Jeff asked and Chloe nodded. _"I challenged her to this duel to help Chloe but she's not making that easy for me."_ Jeff thought. "I end my turn." Jeff announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, I can't attack Spear Soldier because I'd lose Marionette in the process but that doesn't mean I can't defend against him."_ Chloe thought. "I set a monster in defence mode and I'll have Marionette destroy Gravekeeper's Curse!" Chloe set the monster face-down and the puppet master's strings shot forward strangling Gravekeeper's Curse.

C: 5700

J: 6800

"All right, Jeff's life-points are no longer untouched." Marcus said pumping a fist as he did.

"But he still has a large lead." Brandon frowned. "And with Spear Soldier's effect it's about to get even larger."

"I end my turn." Chloe announced either having not heard what Brandon had said or she simply wasn't paying attention to them, Jeff drew his card and looked at it.

"_This will help a bit later." _Jeff thought. "I set the card I just drew face-down for later, now Spear Soldier attack her defence monster!" The soldier threw it's spear at Chloe's face-down monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800), the monster was impaled and Chloe grinned.

"The monster you destroyed was Apprentice Magician, and when she's destroyed..." Chloe was cut off by Spear Soldier's spear going through Apprentice Magician's dead body and grazing her shoulder.

C: 4500

J: 6800

"What the..." Chloe trailed off and Jeff grinned.

"Do you want me to explain my monster's effect first or do you want to continue?" Jeff asked and Chloe frowned.

"You first." Chloe said with a wince.

"Very well, basically Spear Soldier can inflict what's known as Piercing Damage, do you know what that means?" Jeff asked and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, it basically renders my defences useless until I get rid of that thing because the difference between Spear Soldier's attack and my monster's defence comes out of my life-points." Chloe frowned. _"Luckily I can use Apprentice Magician's second effect on my next turn."_ Chloe thought. "Anyway since you destroyed Apprentice Magician I can search my deck for a Level 2 or lower Spellcaster monster and set it face-down" Chloe explained before searching through her deck, she found the monster she was looking for and held it up revealing it to be a second Apprentice Magician which she set face-down

"Well in that case I end my turn." Jeff declared and Chloe drew a card.

"Right, I start by flip summoning the Apprentice Magician I set last turn." Chloe announced and the monster flipped up revealing the young female spellcaster. "And when she's flipped her second effect activates allowing me to add a Spell Counter to one of my cards and my choice is Magical Marionette." As Chloe said this Apprentice Magician glowed briefly, Magical Marionette did as well and at the same time Marionette's attack increased to 2200.

"No need to explain this to me, I'm familiar enough with Magical Marionette's effect." Jeff said somehow keeping a poker-face in-spite of the fact that he knew what would happen soon.

"But I'm not done yet!" Chloe said picking up the card that she had drawn. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands and give Magical Marionette another Spell Counter." Chloe played the card and both players drew until they had six cards in their hands, whilst that was happening Marionette's attack increased too 2400...only to subsequently drop back down to 2000.

"What happened to your monster's attack?" Jeff asked and Chloe grinned.

"I thought you where familiar with the effect of Magical Marionette? Well to be fair this is Marionette's second effect in action." Chloe said as without warning Marionette's puppet strings launched towards Spear Soldier strangling him.

"What? You didn't declare an attack and even if you did it should have been a tie." Jeff pointed out and Chloe grinned.

"That was Marionette's second effect, with it I can remove two spell counters from him and destroy one monster on your side of the field." Chloe said folding her arms. "Oh and did I mention that he can still attack?"

"Oh boy." Jeff muttered under his breath.

"Marionette, Apprentice Magician attack his life-points directly!" The two monster's launched their attacks at Jeff...

"Your going to have try harder than that." Jeff said activating his trap. "I activate my Trap Card Rite of Spirit!" The card flipped up and too Chloe's surprise he retrieved Spear Soldier from the graveyard and returned it to the field.

"I thought your field spell prevented you from reviving monsters?" Chloe asked clearly confused.

"Under normal circumstances that is true but Rite Of Spirit's effect isn't negated by Necrovalley and with it I can bring back one Gravekeeper monster from my graveyard." Jeff explained with a grin. "You want to continue your attack?" Jeff asked and Chloe shook her head, the two monsters called off their attacks and Chloe looked at the rest of her hand.

"I set two cards face-down and end my turn." Chloe set the two cards and Jeff drew another card.

"All right Chloe, it's time you met the leader of the Gravekeepers." Jeff said holding up a card. "I sacrifice Spear Soldier to summon Gravekeeper's Chief in attack mode!" Jeff swapped out the monster and Spear Soldier disappeared from the field, in it's place stood a bearded Egyptian man in white and black robes with a purple shirt and green pants underneath, he was carrying a gold staff in his hand (5/1900/1200) and due to Necrovalley's effect his attack rose to 2400 almost as soon as he appeared on the field. "So, what do you think?"

"I think he needs to be arrested by the Fashion Police." Chloe said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Other than that all I need to do is activate two more spell cards and my Marionette will be strong enough toe go toe with the Chief."

"I'll worry about that later, now before I get around to attacking Apprentice Magician there's two things you need to know, namely Gravekeeper's Chief's effects! First all cards in my graveyard are unaffected by Necrovalley, second when Gravekeeper's Chief is Tribute summoned I can Special Summon one Gravekeeper's monster from the graveyard, my monster of choice is Gravekeeper's Curse!" Jeff retrieved the card and summoned it to the field Chloe braced herself for Gravekeeper Curse's effect as soon as it appeared on the field, sure enough once Necrovalley's effect increased his attack to 1300 Chloe was hit by the beam from his staff decreasing her life-points to 4000. "Now Gravekeeper's Chief attack Apprentice Magician!" The chief pointed it's staff at the magician and fired a beam of gold light from it which consumed the much weaker monster.

C: 1900

J: 6800

"Err, yeah Chloe I have a piece of advice for you." Marcus called out from the sidelines. "STOP LEAVING WEAK MONSTERS IN ATTACK MODE!"

"This coming from the guy who uses Decoy Dragon?" Chloe shouted back before activating her trap. "Besides now that you've destroyed Apprentice Magician I can do two things, number one use Apprentice Magician's effect again and number two activate my Trap Card Numinous Healer to restore one thousand life-points." Chloe explained as he life-points went up to 2900 and Chloe's third and final Apprentice Magician appeared face-down on the field next to Magical Marionette.

"Even with Numinous Healer you still have quite a mountain to climb before our life-points come even close." Jeff pointed out.

"I've been in though spots before." Chloe said defiantly.

"You mean like last night's match against your father?" Jeff asked and Chloe frowned.

"Don't...bring...that...bastard...up..." Chloe growled as her eyes narrowed. "He lost the right to call me his daughter when he first laid a hand on me."

"I don't doubt that Chloe, in fact I couldn't agree more with you." Jeff said folding his arms. "But what's clear to me is that that match is still affecting your judgement as a duellist, I'm not saying I blame you for it given everything that happened last night but the other duellists in the Semi-Finals will rip you apart if you keep duelling like this."

"Err, wasn't Jeff supposed to be helping Chloe with this duel?" Marcus whispered to Brandon.

"I think he is,he's trying to get her fired up for the finals." Brandon theorized. "Granted if I was duelling her then I wouldn't be bringing up painful and sensitive topics to do so but that's beside the point." Brandon said before yawning. "On the other hand I'd probably be asleep by now if I was duelling her."

"I get it, I haven't been doing well." Chloe said pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Though that's not exactly helped by the fact that you've had a counter for almost every move I've made." Chloe added.

"That? That was luck of the draw, something you've been relying upon ever since you joined Duel Academy...from what I've seen of your duels so far anyway." Jeff said with a frown. "What I'm getting at is that you haven't been duelling at your best throughout the duel and I think that the scores speak for themselves before you even think about saying otherwise."

"You really expect me to duel at my best considering all that's happened?" Chloe asked with a frown.

"Your step-father did." Jeff added and Chloe did a double take.

"Err, what?" Chloe asked clearly surprised by that fact.

"Your step-father faced a similar situation during a tournament back during the height of our rivalry." Jeff continued with a small smile on his face. "You can ask him about it the next time you see him but he didn't let that event effect his performance in the tournament, and since he trained you prior to you joining Duel Academy I'd expect the same determination from you."

"_That's easier said than done." _Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"Huh? Silent Magician Level 4? She's only strong enough to...wait how the hell did I miss drawing Level Up when I activated Card of Sanctity last turn?"_ Chloe thought as she looked at her hand and then at her face-down cards. _"This may be my only chance."_ Chloe thought before looking up at the teacher. "Jeff..." Chloe said as a big smile crept onto her face. "Be careful what you wish for because I have three cards in my hand that can help me turn this around."

"_It worked!" _Jeff thought. "Really? Why don't you play them?"

"Gladly, here comes Card Number 1, I summon Silent Magician Level 4 to the field in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and one of her trademark magicians appeared on the field (4/1000/1000).

"Silent Magician may be one of your trademark monsters." Jeff said folding his arms. "But there's no way I'm letting her get even close to Gravekeeper's Chief's power."

"Who said I was giving you a choice in the matter? I activate Card Number 2, the Spell Card Level Up!" Chloe played the card and Silent Magician started glowing and growing until it reached it's final form. "And here's Card Number 3, my strongest monster Silent Magician Level 8 (8/3500/1000)."

"_Just like the ending of me and Scott's duel during that tournament."_ Jeff thought with a smile.

"I don't know why your smiling because you've left a big bull's eye on your side of the field." Chloe pointed out, Jeff blinked...before it hit him.

"Damn, I left Gravekeeper's Curse in attack mode!" Jeff cursed himself as Chloe pointed to her strongest monster.

"But first I flip summon my last Apprentice Magician and use her effect to power up Magical Marionette." Chloe announced as the young Magician appeared on her side of the field and just like that Magical Marionette, who's attack was already at 2200 thanks to Level Up's activation, attack rose to 2400. "Now then, Silent Magician Level 8 attack Gravekeeper's Curse!" The Magician charged up her staff before firing a beam of light at the man consuming him.

C: 2900

J: 4600

"Not bad Chloe but I still have my Gravekeeper's Chief...on...the...please tell me your not activating what I think your activating." Jeff gulped as he saw Chloe flip up one of her traps.

"That depends, do you think I'm activating Enlightenment?" Chloe asked as the trap card flipped up, the Magician charged up her staff again before firing a beam of light at the chief destroying him and reducing Jeff's life-points to 3500. _"Same I don't have another card as strong as Silent Magician on the field otherwise I'd be able to win the duel right here."_ Chloe thought before looking at her remaining monsters. "Magical Marionette, Apprentice Magician, attack his life-points directly." The two monsters launched their attacks and Jeff grimaced as the attacks hit.

C: 2900

J: 700

"Holy crap, now that's what I call a turnaround!" Marcus said with a grin.

"Chloe's not out of the wood's yet Marcus." Brandon said folding his arms. "Jeff didn't become the Ra Yellow headmaster for nothing."

"I end my..." Chloe started before glancing down at her remaining Trap. _"Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, I completely forgot about it, no matter I'll use it next turn to secure the win."_ Chloe thought. "I end my turn." Jeff nodded and drew his card.

"First, I activate another Allure Of Darkness and chain it with Emergency Provisions." Jeff played the cards and, after removing a card from play he drew two cards and sent his two Spell Cards to the graveyard, as he did this his life-points increased to 1700. _"Sorry Chloe, but this is over."_ Jeff thought. "I set two cards face-down and a monster in defence mode, that ends my turn." Chloe nodded before drawing her card.

"Magical Marionette attack his defence!" The puppet master launched it's strings towards the face-down monster, revelled to be a bald Egyptian man in black and white robes and what looked like a gold skirt (3/1200/1500) who was quickly strangled even as his attack rose to 1700.

"Thank you Chloe, the monster you attacked was Gravekeeper's Recruiter and now that he's destroyed his effect activates..."

"Sorry but I activate my Trap Card Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror!" Chloe activated the card and grinned. "Now that this has been activated..."

"I know what it does and quite frankly it's not going to work." Jeff said activating one of his traps. "I activate Seven Tools of the Bandit, by paying a thousand life-points I can negate the activation off and destroy Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror!" Jeff explained as his life-points dropped back down to 700 and the hologram of Chloe's last trap card shattered. "Now as I was saying Gravekeeper's Recruiter effect is pretty much a Gravekeeper's exclusive version of the forbidden card Witch of the Black Forest (4/1100/1200)." Jeff explained as he searched through his deck and added a card to his hand.

"So? My Magician has more than enough attack points to finish you off!" Chloe said pointing at her magician. "Silent Magician finish him off!" The magician fired a beam from it's staff at Jeff...

"Yes but I won't be the one who'll be finished off!" Jeff said activating his trap card. "I activate Magical Cylinder to send Silent Magician's attack right back at you!" Chloe's eyes widened as the beam of light went in one cylinder and out the other striking her in the chest.

C: 0000

J: 700

"Damn it, I made that mistake again!" Chloe cursed herself once she had a good look at her final hand, Jeff raised an eyebrow and she sighed before revealing the last card in her hand to be another copy of Seven Tools of the Bandit.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll remember to set it next time." Jeff reassured her as the holograms disappeared and both duellists deactivated their duel disks. "I'm assuming your ready for the Semi-Finals now...and that you won't be giving up duel monsters."

"I'm ready and I'm definitely not giving up on the game any-time soon." Chloe grinned.

"Good to hear Chloe." Chloe blinked before glancing over her shoulder and seeing her step-dad standing there with a look of regret on his face.

"Dad..." Chloe trailed off obviously still hurting emotionally from last night's revelation. "Can we talk somewhere a little more private?" Chloe eventually asked.

"I was hoping you'd be willing to talk." Scott sighed before leading his daughter into the hotel and too her room, once they where inside her room Chloe sighed.

"Dad...just why? You know that my mom was the only good memory I had of those days so why did you lie?" Chloe asked.

"Chloe, believe me it's a decision I regret." Scott said with a sigh. "Truth is I was planning on telling you when you where older, most likely when you where in your early 20s, but Robert changed those plans...back when me and your mother adopted you our plan was originally to move to New York so that you could still see your friends and visit your biological mother's grave-site whenever you wanted too."

"My dad's conviction being overturned changed all that, didn't it?" Chloe asked and Scott nodded.

"Too be honest I had a feeling he would try to appeal the conviction but I never anticipated it being overturned because it seemed like an open and shut case to me." Scott continued with a sigh. "But Robert's lawyer convinced the court of appeals that the chain of custody in the case of one of the key pieces of evidence, the gun used to kill your mother, had been broken and on that fact alone his conviction was overturned, I changed the plans after that and decided to take you with me to Domino City."

"My dad never tried to get custody of me?" Chloe asked and Scott shook his head.

"He did once but the DA knew how evil he was and agreed to represent me pro bono." Scott said before noticing the confused look on Chloe's face. "For free basically, he was able to convince the judge that you where better off living with me and Robert never tried again afterwards." Scott said folding his arms. "I never told you until now because that bastard had caused you enough trauma to put a psychiatrist's grand-kids through college but I'll understand if you never want to speak to me again." Scott said as he went to leave...only for Chloe to put her hand on his shoulder.

"Dad, these past few hours and the duel against Jeff have given me some time to think about it and...I don't care if you've lied to me for most of my life as a dad you...you've done more for me than my biological dad ever did." Chloe said as she started to cry again. "There's...there's no way in hell I can stay mad at you." Scott smiled and pulled his daughter into a hug.

"Chloe, I'm sorry for lying to you." Scott sighed as she cried into his chest. "And I appreciate the fact that, even after all that, your still willing to forgive me."

"Dad...apology accepted." Chloe said as Scott let her go...it was around that time that she finally noticed the duel disk on his arm. "Dad...is that..."

"My old duel disk, still works like a charm." Scott said before frowning. "I guess there's no point in hiding it, I entered the Battle City tournament around the same time that that boy was attacked back at Duel Academy." Scott explained, Chloe blinked.

"Err, out of curiosity how many locater cards do you have?" Chloe asked, Scott smiled before reaching into his pocket and producing 6 Locater Cards. "You'll be in the Semi-Finals as well..."

"Which means there's a chance we could duel each-other." Scott said with a nod. "If that happens don't let the fact that you've never been able to beat me deter you from trying."

"I'll try not too." Chloe said with a sigh. "But why didn't you say so back at the hospital?"

"I wanted to surprise you once the Semi-Finals started." Scott said honestly. "Same reason I wasn't present for any of your duels save for the unofficial match between you and Jeff." Scott added with a frown. "Try not to let everything that's happened in the past few hours affect you in the Semi-Finals Chloe, especially if you end up duelling me."

"I'll try." Chloe said before Scott left the room. _"I wonder what's on TV?"_ Chloe thought before turning on the TV in her room, it was a small one but the picture and sound quality where good enough for her considering that she rarely watched TV.

"We are reporting live from an abandoned shopping mall where a comatose man, believed to be the victim of an Orichalcos duel, has been found, we don't have that much information available at this time but we'll keep you posted." It didn't take Chloe long to change the channel once she realized that the reporter was reporting on the aftermath of last night's duel.

"So how did the talk with your dad go?" Chloe nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Theresa's voice, she looked up and saw the Obelisk Blue Student by the door.

"Haven't you heard of knocking?" Chloe asked before sighing. "Despite everything he's lied to me about I still forgave him, he's still a better dad than my biological dad ever was." Chloe said, the older teen smiled and sat down next to Chloe's bed.

"Your a lot more forgiving than I would be if I were in your shoes, I'll give you that." Theresa said with a small smile. "You ready for the finals?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Chloe asked with a grin. "So when are we going to find out where the finals are being held?"

"Soon as Lance's siblings and Kimberly have enough locater cards, according to Lance they managed to find themselves in a tag duel with the same "all or nothing" stipulation as your duel with Francesca and Hamden's gone to pick up a freshly discharged Kimberly so we shouldn't have to wait too much longer." Theresa said, Chloe smiled at that.

"Good." Chloe said before frowning. "Though I am a bit nervous about who I'll end up facing."

"Relax, I mean what's the chances of you facing someone like me or Axel in the finals?" Theresa asked.

"Err, pretty high." Chloe pointed out.

"Good point." Theresa admitted. "You'll do fine no matter who you face." Theresa said and Chloe sighed.

"To be honest aside from you and Axel there's one duellist who I'm nervous about facing." Chloe added and Theresa raised an eyebrow. "My step-father, he revealed to me during our talk that not only has he come out of retirement for the tournament but he's a semi-finalist as well."

"Well he taught you everything you know so how tough can he be?" Theresa asked trying to be helpful.

"Well considering that he has beaten me every time we duelled in the past?" Chloe asked and Theresa blinked.

"Every time?" Theresa echoed and Chloe nodded. "Yeah, I can see why your nervous." Theresa said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "What deck does he use?"

"He uses an Ancient Gear deck, most centred on getting powerful monsters on the field as quickly as he can." Chloe informed her before turning off the TV.

"_Sounds similar to Dr. Crowler's deck before he retired from teaching and duelling." _Theresa thought. "I'm sure you'll do well." Theresa said before leaving the room, whilst the two women where talking Brandon was trying to make a call via Skype in his room.

"_Come on, pick up already."_ Brandon thought as he tapped his fingers against the desk that his laptop was on. _"You said that you'd set time aside for a chat today dad, don't you dare go back on that promise."_ Brandon thought, eventually live footage of Brandon's father was shown, he shared his son's blonde hair but unlike Brandon's messy style his hair was well kept.

"Ah Brandon, sorry I was late the meeting ran a bit later than I was expecting." Brandon's father greeted him, Brandon smiled at that.

"No problem, I got a bit sidetracked myself due to one of my friends from Duel Academy duelling." Brandon said with a smile. "Speaking of which me and my friends are now Battle City Semi-Finalists!" Brandon said proudly before holding up his locater cards.

"That's great news son." Brandon's father said with a smile before frowning. "What about that Chloe girl you told me about during our last chat?"

"She's been through a lot emotionally but she's a semi-finalist as well." Brandon told him and his father frowned.

"Well she seems to be coping with it well so that's what matters." Brandon's father said with a solemn nod. "Oh that reminds me, I got the e-mail with the list of cards to take from your personal stash, they should be arriving at your hotel room by day's end."

"Thanks dad." Brandon said with a smile. _"Those cards should help me in the finals."_ Brandon thought. "Shame you can't be here to watch me duel though."

"You can't always get what you want son, I taught you that long ago." Brandon's father said with a frown. "Don't worry, I'll be there with you in spirit."

"I know you will." Brandon said with a small smile...which quickly disappeared when he heard a phone ringing on his father's end. "I guess you'd better take that."

"Yes, off course." His father said before getting up and walking over to the ringing phone. "Roman Thomas speaking, how can I help you? I see, give me a moment." Roman said before putting down the phone (though not hanging up on the person on the other end) and walked back to his computer. "Sorry Brandon but I have to cut this short, I have an important meeting with the in house attorneys soon."

"I thought that wasn't until later?" Brandon asked glancing over to the computer clock.

"Err, Brandon it's 3pm over here." Roman pointed out and Brandon blushed a bit.

"Sorry, I've just gotten so used to the American Time Zone." Brandon apologized and Roman smiled.

"I'll call you back when I can, I promise." Roman promised before closing the chat window on his end, Brandon sighed in annoyance before doing likewise and removing his headset.

"_This is the first time I've been able to chat with dad since I found out about Chloe's abuse and he still cut it short." _Brandon thought with a sigh. _"Chloe's dad may have lied to her but at least he took time out of his schedule to explain why."_ Brandon thought before grinning. _"At least I know that the cards I requested are on their way."_

Whilst that was going on Lance was congratulating his siblings on winning enough locater cards for the finals as he headed back to his room.

"Yeah, Neo Deadilus kicks ass! This little beauty is going to carry me all the way to the finals AND the grand championship!" Mike said triumphantly as he looked at his newly won locater cards.

"Don't forget that if it weren't for my trap cards we would've been out of the tournament." Sophie pointed out and Mike sweat-dropped whilst laughing nervously.

"Relax you two, you did fine!" Lance reassured them as they neared his room.

"Hey Lance, got a minute?" Lance looked up and saw Marcus and Andreas by the door to Marcus's room with serious looks on their faces.

"Sure, guys you go ahead." Lance told his siblings, they nodded and walked off. "So, what's up?" Lance asked turning his attention to the other Ra Yellow students.

"How long did you know about the extent of Chloe's abuse?" Andreas asked. "And her mother's death for that matter?"

"For almost as long as I've known her." Lance sighed sensing where this was going. "Though I didn't know how Chloe got her scar and I didn't tell you guys about her mother's death because, well you saw how she reacted to me telling the teachers about her abuse."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Marcus said with a nod. "I'm guessing the teachers didn't find out about it until yesterday's duel." Marcus asked and Lance nodded.

"I may have a big mouth but I know when to keep it shut." Lance said shaking his head. "Besides before she came to duel academy there was only one person outside of her adoptive parents that she trusted enough to tell the story too, namely me, I wasn't about to break that trust."

"We understand Lance." Andreas said after a few minutes. "If you don't mind me asking, how did Chloe know that...that bastard killed her mother?"

"She...she was the only witness." Lance said and the two boy's eyes widened. "It's why she was in my room last night, she had been having nightmares about that night recently and wanted someone to talk too."

"And she went too you." Andreas finished for him before shaking his head. "At least that bastard can't hurt her any-more."

"Yeah, no chance of this conviction being overturned either." Marcus added before shaking his head. "All in favour of changing the subject say I."

"I." His two friends said simultaneously.

"Good, so what are you guys doing to prepare for the Semi-Finals?" Lance asked and the two teens grinned.

"I added a monster to my extra deck that's going to carry me to the Semi-Finals." Marcus said holding up his duel disk. "I won't reveal what it is until my match though."

"Scarred that we'll think up some counter strategy?" Andreas teased and Marcus grinned broadly.

"If there is a counter strategy for this thing of beauty I haven't seen it yet." Marcus said confidently. "But all the same I'm keeping this card close to my chest."

"I'm saying the same for a strategy I've got planned." Andreas said folding his arms. "But as far as I'm concerned, as long as Otto got eliminated early I'm not complaining."

"Same here, though knowing our luck he'll join us at the Semi-Finals, say what you will about him but he is a damn good duellist." Lance agreed and the other teens nodded in agreement.

"Well I'm off to do some last minute preparations for the Semi-Finals, I suggest you do the same." Andreas said before walking off.

"Yeah, I'll go ahead and do that." Marcus nodded before entering his room. "Catch ya later Lance." Marcus said before closing the door behind him.

"Catch ya later." Lance called out running a hand through his hair. "I know your there Chloe." Lance said and his friend came out from behind the doorway.

"Was I that obvious?" Chloe asked rhetorically before shaking her head. "Lance, I know this is going to sound weird coming from me but how have you been feeling since last night's duel." Lance thought for a moment before shrugging.

"I don't know who I'm more pissed off at, the bastard for putting your through it, the legal system for basically giving him a Get Out Of Jail Free Card, don't tell Theresa I said that, or your step-father for lying to you about it." Lance said leaning against the wall. "How did the talk with your old man go?"

"I forgave him for lying to me." Chloe said with a sigh. "He may of lied to me for the past ten years of my life but I don't care, he's still done more for me in those ten years than that bastard who dared to call him my father ever did."

"That's true enough I guess." Lance said with a shrug. "Well the only thing ahead of us now, as far as the tournament is concerned anyway, is the Semi-Finals, I hope your ready despite everything that's happened."

"I was born ready." Chloe said confidently.

"Same here." Lance said with a nod...before letting out a yawn. "But first I think it's about damn time that I got some sleep." Lance added, Chloe went to say something but ended up yawning as well.

"Yeah, sleep sounds good." Chloe agreed before entering the girl's room. "See ya later Lance." Chloe said before closing the door behind her, Lance let out another yawn before entering his room and closing the door behind him.

*elsewhere in the city*

"Come on Hamden, where are you?" Kimberly said outloud as she paced back and forth outside the hospital's emergency room, the doctors thought that she was making a quicker recovery than expected hence why she was being discharged from the hospital, she knew that the other students had qualified for the Battle City Semi-Finals but that was all she knew. _"Maybe I can get into a duel whilst I'm waiting, don't want the others to leave me in the dust."_ Kimberly thought as she glanced down towards her duel disk.

"All right, four locater cards down, two to go." An Scottish Male Accent rang out and Kimberly looked up seeing a young man in his early twenties with short dark brown hair and blue eyes walking by, he was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and black combat boots though the first thing that caught Kimberly's attention was the duel disk on his arm.

"You looking for a duel?" Kimberly called out to the older duellist, he looked up and grinned the moment he saw her duel disk.

"As a matter of fact, yes I am." The male said before activating his duel disk. "Name's Seth Deacon, I'm Scotland's national champ." Kimberly grinned before activating her own duel disk.

"Name's Kimberly Troy, and I have bad news for you." Kimberly said with a grin. "In my last duel I defeated England's national champ so if you think you've got easy pickings than your sadly mistaken." Kimberly added before the two duellists got into position.


	26. Semi Finals Begin

Kimberly and Seth where in the middle of shuffling their decks in anticipation for the duel, a crowd had formed around the two duellists knowing that there was a duel about to start and it was Kimberly who finished shuffling her deck first and the two duellists drew their opening hands.

"Okay, two things, 1. how many locater cards will we put up for grabs? We both have 4 of them, 2. who's going first Seth?" Kimberly asked as she looked over her opening hand. _"Not my best hand but it'll do for now."_ Kimberly thought as Seth looked over his hand.

"In order, two each and I will." Seth said with a shrug as he looked over his hand. "I start by setting a monster in defence mode, that ends my turn."

"And begins mine." Kimberly said before drawing her card, she took one look at it and frowned. _"This can't help me yet."_ Kimberly thought before adding it too her hand and picking up another card. "I activate the spell card Allure of Darkness, as long as I remove one dark type monster from my hand this will let me draw two cards from my deck." Kimberly said as she pocketed one of her monsters and drew two cards. "Now I summon Archfiend Soldier to the the field in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the cape wearing purple demon appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1900/1500). "Archfiend Soldier attack his defence!" The fiend charged towards the facedown monster, which was revealed to be a large red circular machine with four metal claws (4/1400/1400) and to Kimberly's surprise the machine latched onto Archfiend Soldier's chest sending it flying back to her side of the field.

"Sorry lass but the monster you attacked was Blast Sphere, when this monster is attacked whilst facedown it equips it's self to the attacking monster." Seth explained with a smirk on his face. "But that's not all, during your next standby phase Blast Sphere will self destruct and Archfiend Soldier's attack will come out of your life-points."

"_Shit, I could really use Mystical Space Typhoon right now, at least I have an idea of what kind of deck this guy runs." _Kimberly thought as she looked over the rest of her hand. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Kimberly said clearly annoyed by the turn of events, Seth drew his card and smirked.

"I start by activating the Continuous Spell Card Machina Armoured Unit." Seth played the spell card and Kimberly blinked. "It's effect will be explained a bit later but for now I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Kimberly drew her card and braced herself for Blast Sphere's effect, sure enough the machine exploded taking Archfiend Soldier with it and knocking Kimberly on her backside.

K: 6100

S: 8000

"Are you sure you beat England's national champ lass?" Seth mocked her as Kimberly got to her feet, she frowned once what the Scottish Duellist had said dawned on her.

"You gain an early lead and your already mocking my skills as a duellist? Keep it up, I'll enjoy beating you that much more." Kimberly grunted before looking at the card she had drawn. "I summon Lancer Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and a fiend in purple and gold armour appeared on the field, it was wearing a red cape, was wielding a lance in each hand and the only part of it's body you could see was it's eyes (4/1600/1400). "Lancer Archfiend attack his defence."

"_Just what I was hoping for."_ Seth thought as the armoured fiend charged towards the facedown monster...only to be bounced back to Kimberly's side of the field. "Sorry lass but the monster you attacked was Jade Knight." Seth explained as a jade coloured fighter plane appeared on the field (4/1000/1800). "Not only is it's defence too tough for your archfiend to crack but it also protects face-up Machine type monsters with 1200 or less attack from the effects of trap cards, in short I've inflicted more damage to your life-points and rendered any destructive traps useless."

"Really? Maybe you should have another look at your life-points." Kimberly responded, Seth blinked before doing so.

K: 6100

S: 7800

"Before you ask Lancer Archfiend has an effect of his own, once per turn when a monster I control attacks one of your defence monsters I can use his effect to transfer the damage I would've taken to you." Kimberly explained and Seth frowned.

"_That archfiend will be a problem if I don't get rid of it soon."_ Seth thought as he looked over his hand.

"Anyway I set a card facedown and end my turn." Kimberly announced and Seth drew his card.

"Hmm, this could work, okay I start by switching Jade Knight to attack mode!" Seth switched the monster's position and the plane took flight.

"I'm supposed to be worried, why?" Kimberly asked clearly confused.

"The spell card I just drew will give you a reason to be worried, it's called Shield and Sword and with it I can switch around the attack and defence stats." Kimberly's eyes widened as Jade Knight's attack went up to 1800 whilst Lancer Archfiend's attack dropped to 1400. "Now I summon Blue Thunder T-45 in attack mode!" Seth played the card and a white spaceship with a blue window appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Blue Thunder, attack Lancer Archfiend!" The spaceship took flight and bombarded the field with bombs destroying it.

K 5800

S: 7800

Kimberly coughed into her hand as the smoke cleared, once the smoke cleared she saw two things, that Blue Thunder was back on Seth's side of the field and that a smaller grey aircraft that seemed to resemble a pair of pliers with a gold glowing centre had appeared on the field next to Blue Thunder (4/1500/1500). "Hey you've already summoned this turn!"

"True but my new monster was summoned by Blue Thunder's effect, when it destroys a monster in battle I can special summon one Thunder Option Token, only downside is that I can't tribute these tokens for something stronger." Seth explained before pointing to his remaining monsters. "Jade Knight, Thunder Option Token, attack her life-points directly!" The two machines took flight...

"Your going to have to do better than that or have you forgotten about my trap?" Kimberly said before activating it. "I activate Archfiend's Roar, this lets me bring back one Archfiend Monster from my graveyard at the cost of 500 life-points and my monster of choice is Archfiend Soldier!" Kimberly winced as her life-points dropped to 5300 but as soon as they did Archfiend Soldier emerged out of the ground ready to intercept the attacks by the two weaker monsters, "Small price to pay compared to what I would've lost if that attack had gone through."

"Aye lass, that was a good move." Seth complemented her as his machines landed on his side of the field. "I end my turn." Seth announced and just like that the ground underneath Archfiend Soldier gave way sending the fiend back to hell whilst Jade Knight's attack returned to normal. "Archfiend Roar's side effect?"

"Yeah, any monster that is summoned using the card is destroyed at the end of the turn that it's activated." Kimberly said as she drew her card. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Kimberly played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hands, when Kimberly saw the last card she had drawn she grinned. "It's time I took you to the home of the archfiends."

"Say what?" Seth asked confused.

"I activate the effect of Archfiend General (4/2100/800), by discarding him from my hand to the graveyard I can search my deck for the field spell card Pandemonium!" Kimberly discarded the card from her hand and searched through her deck for the field spell, she found it towards the bottom of the deck and added it to her hand before shuffling her deck. "And now I'll activate the spell card Pandemonium!" Kimberly activated the card and the scenery changed to the hellish arena. "Now we don't have to pay any life-points to keep any Archfiend monsters on the field."

"But I don't have any." Seth said before it dawned on him. "But that's the point of this little move isn't it?"

"Yep." Kimberly nodded before picking up another card. "Now I summon Mist Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and a large red demon wearing black armour appeared on the field, it's lower body was completely made of mist and it had some nasty looking claws (5/2400/0).

"Hey hold on, that monster requires a tribute in order to summon it!" Seth protested once he saw the stats.

"True but Mist Archiend's effect lets me normal summon him without a tribute, however at the end of the turn that I summon him this way he's destroyed and I lose 1000 life-points." Kimberly explained.

"Seems to be more trouble than it's worth." Seth scoffed and Kimberly just smirked.

"We'll worry about that later, Mist Archfiend Jade Knight!" The fiend spun around on the spot until it disappeared from the field, seconds later it repapered behind Jade Knight and reduced the plane to ribbons with it's claws.

K: 5300

S: 6400

As Mist Archfiend returned to Kimberly's side of the field she smirked. "Still think I'm easy pickings?"

"I'd be an idiot to think that now." Seth admitted. "But I'll still have a free shot at your life-points next turn and by destroying Jade Knight you triggered the effects of Jade Knight AND Machine Armoured Unit, with armoured unit I can special summon a Machine Monster as long as it has a weaker attack than Jade Knight and shares it's light attribute, my monster of choice is Cyber Valley!" Seth played the card and a small metal dragon with red orbs down it's stomach (1/0/0). "As for Jade Knight's effect it allows me to add a Level 4 or lower Light Attribute Machine type monster from my deck to my hand." Seth did so and looked up at Kimberly.

"I end my turn by setting a card face-down and activating the Quick Play Spell Card Spell of Pain!" Kimberly said as Mist Archfiend disappeared in a cloud of fog, and to Seth's surprise one of the claws reached out from the mist and slashed him.

K: 5300

S: 5400

"Okay, what the hell was that? I thought you said that Mist Archfiend's effect inflicted damage on you, not me!" Seth asked once he got up.

"That was Spell of Pain's effect in action, it transfers the effect damage I would've suffered to you but that's not all, now that an Archfiend monster has been destroyed outside of battle Pandemonium's second effect kicks in, with it I can add another Archfiend from my deck to my hand as long as it has a lower level than the destroyed monster." Kimberly said as she picked up her deck and searched through it. _"Since Mist Archfiend's a Level 5 monster I have most of my deck to chose from."_ Kimberly thought before picking up a card and adding it to her hand before shuffling her deck again.

"Doesn't matter, your life-points are still mine for the taking!" Seth said as he drew his card. "I'll start by setting the monster I got from my deck last turn via Jade Knight's effect in defence mode, now Blue Thunder and Thunder Option Token, attack her life-points directly!" The two machines took flight...

"Not going to happen, I activate Waboku to reduce the damage I would've suffered to zero!" Kimberly flipped up the card and the three priestesses blocked the aircraft from getting any closer to Kimberly, Seth muttered some choice words under his breath as his machines returned to his side of the field.

"I end my turn." Kimberly blinked before drawing her card.

"_Why didn't he shift Cyber Valley to defence mode? That thing has no attack points."_ Kimberly thought before looking at her drawn card. "Very nice, I summon Infernity Archfiend to the field in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the red-headed purple fiend appeared on the field (4/1800/1200). "Attack Cyber Valley!" The fiend leaped towards the weak machine monster.

"I activate Cyber Valley's effect!" Seth declared and too Kimberly's surprise Cyber Valley disappeared. "Well to be more accurate it's one of Cyber Valley's effects, when he is targeted for an attack I can remove him from play and draw one card." Seth pocketed the monster and drew a card. "Oh yes and this effect also ends the battle phase." Kimberly frowned as she heard this as Infernity Archfiend returned to her side of the field.

"I'll end my turn in that case." Kimberly said and Seth drew his card, whilst that was going on the car that had Hamden in it pulled up at the hospital.

"Well Hamden, we're here but there seems to be a duel going on." The driver said as Professor Hamden got out.

"Knowing Kimberly she won't want to miss it." Hamden commented. "Go ahead and park the car, I'll call you when the match is over."

"Right." The driver nodded before driving the car into the hospital's parking lot, Hamden pushed through the crowd until he was at the front and saw Kimberly duelling Seth. "Couldn't resist the urge to duel, Kimberly?" Kimberly looked up and saw Hamden.

"No, I couldn't." Kimberly said honestly. "Especially with the other Duel Academy students being ahead of me in terms of Locater Cards."

"_Other Duel Academy Students? I thought I recognised her from somewhere."_ Seth thought before looking at his new card. "Perfect, I sacrifice Blue Thunder and my facedown card to summon the mighty Zoa in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Blue Thunder stood a massive blue demon standing on four legs (7/2600/1900).

"But that's a fiend type monster." Kimberly blinked when she saw the card. "What's that doing in a Machine Deck?"

"_If one of the cards in his hand is what I think it is then Kimberly's in trouble."_ Hamden thought.

"Worry about that later, Zoa attack Infernity Archfiend, Thunder Option Token attack her life-points directly!" The massive fiend leaped forward and cut Infernity Archfiend to ribbons with it's claws, the small aircraft took flight and fired a laser at Kimberly hitting her on the chest.

K: 3000

S: 5400

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Seth set the card and Kimberly drew hers.

"_Okay, I have nothing in my hand that can beat that fiend off his, Thunder Option Token on the other hand is easy pickings."_ Kimberly thought before picking up a card. "I summon Mad Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and a hideous red-headed fiend appeared on the field, it's arms where covered with bones, there was a hole in it's chest with a skull inside in and it was wearing yellow and black pants (4/1800/0). "Mad Archfiend attack Thunder Option Token!" The fiend charged forward and ripped the aircraft apart.

K: 3000

S: 5100

"I'm sure you remember the effect of my Spell Card." Seth said before his eyes widened. "Crap, Machina Armoured Assault only works if the monster's sent to the graveyard."

"And since it was a token it doesn't get sent to the graveyard." Kimberly said with a smirk on her face. "Not so tough now huh?"

"Maybe but I activate my trap card Metalmorph and equip it to Zoa!" Seth flipped up the card and Zoa became coated in metal, at the same time it's attack rose to 2900.

"Crap, now it's even stronger." Kimberly gulped. "I end my turn at that." Seth nodded and drew his card.

"Since I'm feeling generous I'll activate my own Card Of Sanctity." Seth played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards in there hands, "Now your going to see why a Machine user like myself uses a Fiend like Zoa, you see my strongest monster requires that Zoa be on the field and equipped with Metalmorph, since I meet those conditions I can tribute Zoa to summon it's strongest form, Metalzoa!" Seth swapped out the cards and sent Zoa and Metalmorph to the graveyard before summoning the monster, before Kimberly knew it Zoa was completely encased in metal, it had become jet black and had spiked shoulder-pads (8/3000/2300).

"Oh, crap." Kimberly gulped at the site of the monster.

"Metalzoa attack Mad Archfiend!" The huge metallic monster leaped forward with surprising agility and ripped the fiend to shreds with it's claws.

K: 1800

S: 5100

"All it'll take is one more attack from Metalzoa and you'll be out of the tournament!" Seth declared with a grin as his monster returned to his side of the field. "You could always surrender though."

"Yeah, I'll surrender...the same day that Yata Garasu is taken off the Forbidden List!" Kimberly said defiantly as she drew her card, she took one look at it and the other cards in her hand and grinned. "I summon Double Coston in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and two grey ghosts appeared on the field sticking their tongues out at the much stronger monster (4/1700/1600) "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Kimberly set the card she had drawn and Seth drew his card.

"Well sorry to say this but this duels over!" Seth grinned as he played his card. "I summon Jinzo 7 in attack mode and I'll have Metalzoa wipe the floor with your last defence." Seth played the card and a small rusty android appeared on the field (2/500/400) and the monster leaped across the field reducing the ghosts to shreds.

K: 500

S: 5100

"I'm not out of the woods yet, I activate my trap card Time Machine which lets me bring back a monster as soon as it's destroyed!" Kimberly's trap activated and the ghosts returned to the field, Kimberly sent the trap to the graveyard and Seth grinned.

"If you think that'll be enough to save you then I have bad news for you, Jinzo 7 can attack directly!" Seth announced before pointing to the android. "Jinzo 7 finish it!" The small machine charged forward.

"I knew that." Kimberly said grinning as she activated her last trap card, Seth's eyes widened when he saw it.

"M...Mirror...F...Force?" Seth stammered as Jinzo 7 bounced off of a mirror destroying it in the process, a beam of light from the mirror struck Metalzoa in the chest destroying it. "Why didn't you activate that to begin with?"

"Dramatic effect." Kimberly shrugged causing everyone else to face-fault. "Are you done?"

"Yeah I'm done." Seth said once he got up, Kimberly drew her card and grinned.

"You want to know why I summoned these little guys last turn?" Kimberly asked pointing to Double Coston. "Because Double Coston's effect states that it can count as two tributes when tribute summoning a Level 7 or higher Dark Type monster, and I have just the one I need to turn things around!"

"Really? Why don't you summon it then?" Seth asked confidently and Kimberly just grinned.

"You'll regret those words, I sacrifice Double Coston to summon the strongest monster in my deck, ARCHFIEND EMPRESS!" The two ghosts merged into one and started glowing and growing eventually taking the form of Kimberly's best monster (8/2900/2100).

"You where right there, I am regretting those words." Seth gulped at the site of the monster. _"Good thing I have another Blast Sphere in my hand, next turn I'll set it and as soon as she attacks it, whether it be with her Empress or another monster, I'll have enough Locater Cards to enter the finals."_ Seth thought.

"There's one more card I want to play, it's called Megamorph and with it I can double my Empress's attack strength as long as my life-points are lower than yours but I don't think that'll be a problem." Kimberly played the card and the empress doubled in size and strength, all the way up to 5800. "You where right last turn Seth, this duel is over only it'll be me going to the finals, Archfiend Empress finish it!" The empress pointed her staff at Seth and fired a beam of dark light at him striking him in the chest.

K: 500

S: 0000

"Man, I lost despite having a huge lead!" Seth said dejectedly as the holograms disappeared, the crowd started to disperse and Seth approached Kimberly. "Here's your locater cards and copies of both versions of Zoa, good luck in the finals."

"Thanks but you can keep Metalzoa, I don't have a copy of Metalmorph in my deck." Kimberly said before taking the two locater cards and the monster, Seth left soon afterwards and Kimberly turned to Hamden. "Sorry for the wait, I didn't want to be left in the dust by the others."

"No problem, how about we get you to the hotel?" Hamden asked and Kimberly nodded, he led Kimberly to where the limo was parked.

"So how did last night's duel go? I know that the others have 6 locater cards but that's all Martin was willing to tell me." Kimberly asked and Hamden frowned.

"Well they won, you know that much." Hamden said holding the door open for her. "I'll explain on the way over." Hamden added as Kimberly entered the car, he entered as well and the car drove off towards the hotel.

*meanwhile at the hotel*

"LANCE WAKE UP!" Theresa yelled as she knocked on his door, she had just woken up Chloe from her slumber and was in the middle of trying to wake up Lance, Chloe stood by with an annoyed expression on her face and her messy hair, another result of her slumber, was currently being straightened out by Maria.

"Five more minutes!" Lance called from the other end and Theresa groaned in annoyance.

"Lance, it's the middle of the day, I know you and Chloe are tired from last night's duel but sleeping all day and being awake all night isn't the solution!" Theresa said with a groan.

"I still don't get why you interrupted my sleep!" Chloe groaned as Maria went over her hair with a hairbrush. "That was the best night's sleep I've ever had...well day's sleep but you know what I'm OW!" Chloe yelled out in pain as Maria's hairbrush caught a not in her hair.

"Sorry Chloe, I'm being as gentle as I can." Maria apologized as she brushed the teen's hair. "You ever considered wearing your hair short?"

"That depends, do you want to see the scar from wear my dad broke a bottle over my head?" Chloe asked and the two older women sweat-dropped.

"Touché." Maria admitted before resuming the brushing. "Given what that monster put you through it's a miracle your not insane."

"Considering I'm on Antidepressants?" Chloe pointed out and Maria sweat-dropped now feeling very uncomfortable.

"Err, yeah lets change the subject." Theresa said quickly before resuming her pounding on Lance's door. "Lance I swear to god if you don't get out of bed soon I'll feed your balls to my Armed Dragon!" Theresa said causing Andreas, Marcus, Brandon and Mike, who where standing nearby, to wince, five seconds later Lance opened the door with a look of panic on his face.

"I'LL BE GOOD! I'LL BE GOOD!" Lance said quickly, Maria and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"That was a bit extreme, wasn't it?" Chloe asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"It got him to wake up, didn't it?" Theresa asked ignoring the death glare from Lance. "Anyway there's another reason I interrupted your beauty sleep."

"Unless hot half naked supermodels are serving dinner downstairs I'm not interested." Lance shrugged.

"I think you'd be more interested in this." Theresa said clearly annoyed by Lance's crude comment. "Word has spread about us being semi-finalists and the organisers have sent someone to officially welcome us to the semi-finals."

"Who? Some pencil pusher?" Lance scoffed.

"No, just the CEO of Kaibacorp." A gruff sounding voice rang out from behind Lance, Lance's eyes widened and he slowly turned around, behind him was world famous duellist Seto Kaiba, he had retired some time ago to focus on running Kaibacorp but rumours where circulating that his son had taken up duelling, not much about him had changed appearance wise save for the fact that he was now sporting a goatee. "What's the matter kid? You look like you've seen a ghost?"

"No, just wasn't expecting the CEO of Kaibacorp to be the one to welcome us to the Semi-Finals." Lance gulped.

"That's not the only reason I stopped by, myself and the other organisers are aware that the 7 of you have been having trouble with an organisation that has revived the Orichalcos." Kaiba said bluntly and the other duellists stiffened up at the mention of the Orichalcos, Chloe in particular seemed to be very uncomfortable as a result of last night's events. "I assure you that we at Kaibacorp are doing everything in our power to track down these maniacs to their HQ before more people end up in the Orichalcos."

"Didn't you fight the Orichalcos alongside Yugi Moto back in the day?" Marcus asked and Seto nodded.

"Yes I did, off course at the time I didn't believe that their was some magical force behind it but that's not important." Kaiba said bluntly before folding his arms. "I will be in attendance for the semi-finals, my advice is to worry about that first as they will begin tomorrow." Kaiba said before walking off.

"Well that was fun, back to bed." Lance said going back into his room and closing the door behind him, Theresa stormed in after him and tugged him out of the room via his ear. "Not the ear, not the ear!"

"Would you rather I drag you out by your penis?" Theresa asked threateningly. "Yes, I realize what I just said, shut up!"

"I'll be good." Lance said and Theresa let go off his ear. "What gives Theresa?"

"Oh, I don't know maybe the fact that THE SEMI-FINALS ARE TOMORROW!" Theresa yelled as a massive sweat-drop rolled down Lance's head. "As soon as Kimberly has her 6 locater cards we'll find out where the semi-finals are being held and head over there tonight."

"What time do you mean by tonight? It's 5pm by my clock." Chloe asked and Theresa stroked her chin.

"Well first we'll get dinner downstairs and, depending on how quickly Kimberly can get her last locater cards..." Theresa started but was stopped by the sound of a woman clearing her throat.

"You called?" Kimberly asked holding her six locater cards. "I managed to get in a duel before Hamden arrived at the hospital, do I even need to say that I won it?"

"Well, that was convenient." Theresa muttered under her breath. "Okay, what time is good for you guys to get something to eat?"

"Well, I'm hungry now." Marcus said and Andreas facepalmed.

"Marcus, you're always hungry." Andreas pointed out. "Hell you've spent most of your spending money on food from the vendors!" Andreas added...only to sweat-drop as his own stomach rumbled followed by the others. "Err, yes...lets eat now." Andreas said and Theresa led the others to the elevator, Chloe and Kimberly where at the back of the group.

"Hey kid, got a minute?" Kimberly asked and Chloe turned to her.

"Sure, what's up?" Chloe asked the older student.

"Hamden...he told me the details of the duel last night." Kimberly said before pausing. "All the details." Chloe stiffened up before sighing.

"I thought that bastard was out of my life when he was arrested for my mom's murder." Chloe said sadly rubbing her scarred arm uneasily. "As if that wasn't bad enough he tried to ruin my relationship with my step-father."

"Yeah, I hear ya." Kimberly said sadly before putting a hand on her unscarred shoulder. "If you need someone to talk to and Lance isn't available give me a shout okay."

"Thanks." Chloe said with a small, somewhat uneasy smile. "Come to think of it, you never talked about your real parents."

"Nothing to talk about." Kimberly shrugged. "My parents died when I was a baby, my first memories are off the orphanage I grew up in before Nathan's parents adopted me."

"Oh." Chloe said with a gulp now feeling uncomfortable. "I'm...I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, it's not like you knew." Kimberly said reassuringly before walking off. "Come on, I'm sure your as hungry as I am."

"Didn't you eat at the hospital?" Chloe asked as she started to follow the older student, Kimberly had longer legs than Chloe which made it difficult for her to keep up.

"Kid that was hospital food, I'd sooner drink my own piss than eat that junk." Kimberly said, when no response came she stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder seeing that Chloe was about 20 yards away from her, she sweat-dropped before waiting for her to catch up which she soon did. "Sorry about that."

"No problem." Chloe said sheepishly before following the older student to the elevator thankful for the fact that Kimberly was now walking at a slower pace. "But yeah, I guess your right about hospital food." Chloe added as the older teen pressed the button for the ground floor, once the elevator arrived they entered it.

"Hey wait up!" The two women blinked before looking up and seeing Philip and Francesca running up to the elevator, Kimberly held the door open for them and the two Irish duellists got in, Kimberly waited a few seconds to see if anyone else was heading in the direction of the elevator but once she saw that that wasn't the case she pressed the button for the ground floor and the doors closed. "Thanks...oh, err, hi Chloe." Philip said before noticing her.

"Hey." Chloe said leaning against the back of the elevator. "I'm sure you have some questions regarding last night's duel..." Chloe sighed.

"Yeah but mostly related to what judge in their right mind would let that son of a bitch walk." Francesca said bluntly and Chloe smirked.

"I've been asking myself the same question since I got back to the hotel." Chloe said folding her arms. "I never got the chance to thank you guys for your help last night so thanks."

"Any-time kid." Francesca said with a smile, Philip nodded in agreement. "Look on the bright-side, your a semi-finalist now."

"Yeah, any idea who else has qualified?" Chloe asked and the two Irish duellists shrugged.

"No clue, I've heard that Eddie's qualified but lets be honest, who didn't see that coming? I know that an Orichalcos duellist has qualified but other than that I have no clue." Philip answered and the two Duel Academy students stiffened up at the last part. "Yeah, that's probably the last thing you guys needed to hear."

"You think?" Kimberly asked. "No matter, as long as I get to face that bitch known as Karen I'm not complaining."

"Try not to get whacked in the head with a duel disk again whilst your at it." Chloe said jokingly.

"Whacked in the head with a duel disk?" Francesca echoed clearly confused.

"It's a long story." Kimberly said clearly annoyed by the younger duellist's teasing. "Ask your boyfriend about it, he was there when it happened."

"And my balls still hurt as a result." Philip added just as the door opened revealing a bemused looking older couple who had apparently heard the last thing he said and nothing else. "That...was badly timed." Philip said before he and the three women got out of the elevator quickly, the couple got in the elevator and Philip couldn't help but blush. "Well, at least it can't get any worse."

"There you are." Chloe and Kimberly looked up and saw the other Duel Academy students waiting for them, it was Theresa that had spoken up.

"Sorry, wanted a chat with Chloe." Kimberly apologized as Philip and Francesca walked off. "Went on a bit longer than I thought it would."

"Never mind." Theresa said shaking her head. _"Doesn't take a genius to figure out what the talk was about if she knows the details about last night's duel."_ Theresa thought. "Come on, the teachers are waiting for us in the restaurant." Theresa added before leading the other teens into the restaurant, they looked around and saw Hamden waving them over to a large table where he and the other teachers where sitting, they sat down at the table and took a menu each, whilst they chose something to eat and drink a news report on TV caught their attention.

"In late breaking news, we can confirm the 20 duellists who have qualified for tomorrow's Battle City Semi-Finals though there isn't any word on where the Semi-Finals will be held." The news reporter said and Brandon motioned a waiter over.

"You mind turning the TV up a bit?" Brandon asked, the waiter nodded and walked over to the TV and turned up the volume.

"With that said here are the Battle City Semi-Finalists, Brandon Thomas, Chloe Richardson, Kimberly Troy, Theresa Daniels, Marcus Reynolds, Andreas Freshier, Lance Alvers, Mike Alvers, Sophie Alvers, Ray Edwards, Zach Michaels, Axel Loather, Luigi Malverio, Miranda Trayson, Karen Trayson, Felix Truman, Alex Fenix, Scott Richardson, Otto Freshier and the reigning champion Eddie Roberts, that is all." The news reporter finished his report and the rest of the restaurant went about their business, however the Duel Academy students frowned at hearing one of the names.

"Great, Otto's qualified as well." Kimberly said annoyed. "And those Orichalcos duellists for that matter."

"So? One of us will kick his ass in short order." Chloe shrugged she shoulders as she looked over the menu. "Don't forget that I had him beat back during our duel on the boat."

"Chloe, you only had the lead because you managed to do 50 points of damage to his life-points." Theresa pointed out and Chloe sweat-dropped. "Besides he could've upgraded his deck since then."

"So? I'll still beat him!" Chloe said confidently before frowning. "He's right behind me isn't he?"

"Aren't you as perspective as ever." Otto chuckled as he folded his arms. "Miss me?"

"Like being hit in the balls with a crowbar." Lance said bluntly and Otto frowned. "Do us a favour Otto and go crawl under whatever rock you found five locater cards under and stay there for the rest of the tournament."

"What? You think I stole my locater cards?" Otto scoffed.

"Yes." Chloe said almost immediately earning her a death glare from Otto. "What? You asked."

"_Insolent little bitch!"_ Otto thought. "I don't know why your so cocky, everyone knows your the weakling in our little group!" Otto said and Theresa's and Kimberly's eyes narrowed.

"Otto, that's enough." Martin said sternly. "Leave Chloe alone or you'll have detention starting from the exact moment we return to Duel Academy!" Martin added, Otto scowled before storming off.

"Great, so much for avoiding the arrogant little twit for the rest of the tournament." Lance muttered under his breath as he made his choice. "You okay Chloe?"

"Yeah...I think so." Chloe said uncertainly though it was clear to the other students that Otto's harsh words had dealt an even harsher blow to Chloe's fragile self-confidence.

"Hey Andreas!" Andreas blinked before looking up, he smiled as he saw Nicola waving to him from a nearby table where she was eating with her dad, who he assumed pointed him out for her and waved back.

"Got a crush Andreas?" Hamden asked teasingly and Andreas face-faulted out of his seat.

"Oh come on, just because I met a cute girl during the tournament...she can here me, can't she?" Andreas said blushing like a maniac.

"Yeah, she can." Marcus said playfully patting the German student on the back as he did, Andreas looked over and saw Nicola looking just as embarrassed.

"Whatever, I'm going to say hi to her anyway." Andreas shrugged as he got up. "And if I hear anything along the lines off "Andreas has a girlfriend" or even "Andreas and Nicola sitting in a tree" you'll be sorry." Andreas said almost immediately after seeing that Marcus was going to say something. _"Yeash, now I know how Chloe and Lance felt after that unfortunate incident last night."_ Andreas thought as he walked over to Nicola. "Hi Nic."

"Hi Andreas, so you made it to the finals." Nicola said hapily as Andreas sat down on a nearby chair.

"Well I was in that duel last night." Andreas said and Nicola and her dad frowned.

"Ah yes, Nicola told me about it when she came back last night." Her dad frowned shaking his head. "How any man can treat his daughter that way is beyond me."

"Indeed." Andreas agreed with a sigh. "So will you two be in attendance for the Semi-Finals tomorrow?"

"We wouldn't miss it for the world." Nicola said before frowning. "That boy your group was just talking too, was that Otto?"

"Yeah, he's a nasty piece of work." Andreas said shaking his head. "I wouldn't worry about him though, he's all bark and no bite, speaking of bite I'm going to rejoin my other friends and grab a bite to eat, nice talking to you." Andreas said standing up and walking off, Nicola smiled before returning her attention to the menu whilst Andreas sat down at his table...only to face-fault at the extremely off key singing of "love is in the air" by Marcus. "WHAT DID I TELL YOU BEFORE I WENT TO TALK TO HER?" Andreas yelled as storm clouds formed over his head.

"You didn't say anything about songs that didn't mention you or Nicola by name." Marcus shrugged ignoring the fact that the others where rubbing their ears from his bad singing.

"I swear, you guys are so immature." Theresa said pinching the bridge of her nose as she did. "You guys had better not act like this tomorrow or do I have to remind you that the duels will be broadcast worldwide, INCLUDING Duel Academy."

"What she means to say is, we'll be world famous!" Lance said with a cheaky grin on his face and Theresa facepalmed.

"Lance, you just missed the point by about a hundred miles!" Theresa said pinching the bridge of her nose.

"_Worldwide? Oh crap." _Chloe thought with a gulp. _"Maybe Otto is right, I'm the weakling un the group and everyone in the world will know it." _Chloe thought.

"Okay, that's enough you four." Martin said clearly annoyed. "I'd rather not be kicked out of the restaurant for you kids causing a disturbance."

"Your right, sorry teach." Theresa sighed as the four students resumed reading the menus, no one noticing that Chloe was sweating bullets because of what Theresa said.

*elsewhere in the city*

Whilst that was going on three of the four remaining Orichalcos Duellists where meeting with their leader on board his ship.

"Karen, Felix, I want to once again thank you for dealing with that idiot known as Robert, I trust that his soul card was destroyed?" The leader asked as he took a sip of his wine.

"Yeah it was, I was tempted to put a bullet in his head for good measure but Michael stopped me." Felix said folding his arms. "Anyway the tournament finals are starting tomorrow, we'll need to find out where it's being held if we're going to participate."

"Yes, off course." The leader agreed with a nod. "You can do so as soon as this meeting has ended, for now I want the two of you to train...and not in how many ways your penis can interact with her vagina Felix."

"Your no fun." Felix pouted, Karen on the other hand had a massive grin on her face.

"Cock-blocked by the boss himself, that's gotta sting." Karen said before folding her arms. "Why isn't the Duel Academy kid with us?"

"He still has a cover to maintain." Michael said folding his arms. "He nearly blew it when I told him what happened last night but he's maintained it."

"Please tell me he nearly blew it due to how angry he was at that." Felix said with a frown which only deepened when Michael shook his head. "I thought as much."

"You two are dismissed." The leader said, the two duellists bowed to them before leaving the room, once the door was closed the leader turned to Michael. "Michael, on the off chance that they and the duel academy student fail you need to be prepared."

"I'm well aware that Kaibacorp has been tracking their movements." Michael said specifically referring to Felix and Karen. "But I'm already prepared."

"You know the old saying, there's no such thing as not enough preparation." The leader said handing over a Duel Monster's card to Michael. "Use it wisely." Michael took one look at the card and grinned.

"Oh, I will." Michael said before adding it to his deck.

*the next day*

"Are we there yet?" Marcus asked, after the seven duellists had eaten their dinners they had found out via Chloe's duel disk where the tournament finals where being held and they, alongside Lance's siblings, where currently being driven there, namely Kaibacorp's New York branch, whilst Otto had taken a taxi.

"Marcus, we're not putting up with that again, so shut it." Theresa said pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Okay, everyone have their locater cards?"

"Yes." The other students said simultaneously.

"Duel Disks?" Theresa asked.

"We are wearing them!" Chloe pointed out as she held up her duel disk, Theresa sweat-dropped before deciding to have a little fun at their expense.

"Virginity?" Theresa asked, Kimberly, Chloe, Sophie and the teachers quickly caught on and tried not to laugh.

"Yes." The other students moaned...only to face-fault when they realized what they where saying yes too, at which point the three girls and the teachers burst out laughing.

"Man, you guys should have seen the looks on your faces, it was priceless!" Chloe laughed as the boys got up.

"Besides, I think Theresa definitely knows that Brandon DOESN'T have his..." Lance started only to be punched in the back of the head by Brandon who was blushing like a maniac.

"Do you really want to make comments like that in front of your siblings?" Brandon asked as Lance moaned.

"We're here kids!" The driver called out, without missing a beat the driver rolled down the driver's side window and a security guard poked his head in.

"Here for the tournament finals?" The guard asked and the driver nodded. "Are they spectators or duelling?"

"The younger ones are duelling, the old ones are spectating." The driver explained, the guard nodded and let them through and, after rolling the window open he drove onto the grounds and once they where parked the students got out.

"WILL ALL PARTICIPATING DUELLISTS PLEASE USE THIS ENTRANCE!" Another guard by the entrance to a large duelling dome yelled out.

"That's convenient." Lance said with a smile as Theresa led them to the entrance whilst the teachers took the other entrance.

"May I see you Locater Cards please?" The guard asked once the students approached him, Theresa held up her's. "Okay, name?"

"Theresa Daniels." Theresa introduced herself and the guard wrote it down on a piece of paper.

"What deck do you run?" The guard asked.

"I run several decks." Theresa said, the guard simply wrote that down and handed her a piece of paper with the number 10 on it.

"This is your assigned duellist number, don't lose it as it will be vital from here on out, NEXT!" The guard said and Theresa entered the dome after pocketing the paper, the others soon followed and they entered the main part, the duelling ring was a small elevated platform wide enough to allow for enough room for the duelling to begin with a podium for the announcer above it, surrounding it was an open area where the other Semi-Finalists where hanging around and the rows of chairs for the audience.

"The students are here, at this point I'm not surprised that they made it this far." Alex said gruffly. "Hey kid, how you holding up after last night?" Alex asked Chloe as she walked by him.

"I was a bit rough at first but I'm fine now." Chloe said and Alex smiled.

"Good to hear." Alex said with a nod as Scott walked up to her.

"Hi dad." Chloe said with a smile.

"Glad you could make it to the finals Chloe." Scott said with a small smile. "I hope your ready, the competition will only be more fierce from here on out."

"I was born ready." Chloe said confidently whilst trying to hide her stage fright, whilst they where talking the patrons where pouring into the duel dome including the teachers, however Chloe noticed Alex's eyes narrow as two duellists entered the arena. "Something wrong?"

"It's those Orichalcos Duellists from two nights ago, two of the guys that confronted that bastard." Alex said and Chloe turned seeing the two of them, Felix was leaning against the wall whilst Karen was staring daggers at Miranda. "Wouldn't be a Battle City Semi-Final without something going wrong."

"Hey, look up there!" Mike called out and everyone looked up seeing Seto Kaiba standing there.

"Welcome duellists to the Battle City Semi-Finals, most of you have come from far and wide to be here tonight but only one duellist will walk out with the title, now when you entered you where assigned numbers through 1 to 20, these determine who you will duel in the first round." Kaiba explained as a TV screen with the numbers on them came out from a panel in the ceiling. "You see those numbers represent you in this stage and the matches will be determined by what random numbers they stop on." Kaiba added and Alex, Chloe and Scott rushed to view the screen as a cursor jumped from number to number at random. "Now to determine the first matches." The number slowed down before eventually stopping on Number 20. "Will duellist Number 20 please step onto the duelling ring." Chloe gulped.

"_Great, that's my number." _Chloe thought before stepping onto the podium, the cursor started jumping again before stopping at Number 4. _"Great, knowing my luck that's probably someone like Axel or..."_

"That would be me." Scott said hopping onto the duel arena, all colour drained from Chloe's face as it dawned on her.

"_This isn't happening, I'm not really fighting my step-father in the first round, this HAS to be a joke."_ Chloe thought as she started sweating bullets.

"_Poor kid, she's been hit hard by stage fright."_ Alex thought with a frown, the cursor jumped around again before stopping on numbers 12 and 7.

"12's my number." Andreas said looking at his number intently. "So who's number 7?"

"That would be me, deer brother." Otto said with a smirk, Andreas frowned as he glared at his twin and the cursor next stopped on numbers 13 and 1.

"YEAH I'M NUMBER 1!" Mike shouted and everyone else sweat-dropped. "Who am I facing? Come on I promise I'll go easy on ya!"

"I certainly hope not Michael." All colour drained from Mike's face before he turned and saw Axel looking at him.

"Oh great." Mike gulped as it dawned on him, the cursor started jumping again eventually stopping on 2 and 19.

"Oh great, I'm number 2." Sophie said dejectedly. "And that means I'm facing."

"Me." Ray finished for her and Sophie gulped, the cursor started jumping around again stopping on numbers 3 and 18.

"18's my number." Marcus said scratching his head. "So who's number 3?"

"That's me Marcus." Marcus looked up and saw Brandon looking at him, he grinned broadly knowing that it would be a good match, the cursor started jumping again this time stopping on 5 and 15.

"15." Karen muttered before digging into her pocket and producing her number. "That's my number, so who am I facing." Karen wondered, she saw Miranda looking at her number and smirked. "Hey sis, you number 5?"

"Yeah, why?" Miranda blinked, Karen smile grew even broader as she showed her her number.

"Why? Because now I can get my revenge on you and my parents for abandoning me." Karen said with an evil smirk.

"That lady maybe hot but she has issues." Karen heard an audience member say, she growled at him and he quickly shut up, whilst that was going on the TV screen was showing the next two numbers, 9 and 6.

"I'm number 6." Kimberly said looking around. "So who's..."

"Then we are facing each-other!" Luigi said walking up to her. "How ironic, I face the woman who helped me get reinstated in the tournament in the first place."

"Well sorry to disappoint you but I'll also be kicking your ass back out of the tournament." Kimberly grinned before frowning and glancing over at Marcus. "Marcus, don't even THINK about making any 69 jokes."

"I'll be good!" Marcus said quickly, the next numbers to be shown where 14 and 17.

"14, isn't that your number Zach?" Ray asked as he turned to him.

"Yeah." The North Academy Student nodded. "But who's number 17?"

"That would be me." Eddie said with a smirk. "So let the best man win."

"I will." Zach said with a confident grin, the cursor started jumping again eventually stopping on 10 and 16.

"Great, I was hoping to face the champ." Alex muttered. "Who's number 10 anyway?"

"I am." Theresa said and Alex turned to her.

"Really? Heh, THIS should be interesting." Alex chuckled.

"That just leaves two more duellists, 11 and 8." Kaiba said folding his arms, Lance stepped out from the crowd of duellists holding up his number and Felix did likewise. "The matches have been determined and they are as follows, in a match between father and daughter Duel Academy's Chloe Richardson takes on Scott Richardson, in a clash of the siblings it's Otto Freshier taking on his twin Andreas Freshier, both from Duel Academy, in a David vs. Goliath match virtual unknown Mike Alvers takes on Germany's National Champion Axel Loather, in a match between unknowns Ray Edwards takes on Sophie Alvers, in another clash of the siblings Karen Trayson takes on her sister Miranda, then Italy's National Champion Luigi Malverio takes on Duel Academy's Kimberly Troy, in another David vs. Goliath match virtual unknown Zach Michaels takes on reigning champion Eddie Roberts, then it's a battle of the sexes as Duel Academy's Theresa Daniels takes on Alex Fenix and finally Duel Academy's Lance Alvers takes on former Regional Champion of New Orleans Felix Truman."

"_Former regional champion? How did he go from that to an Orichalcos Duellist?" _Lance thought and a quick glance over at Brandon revealed that he was wondering the same thing, they looked up at the screen again and saw that their pictures where now on the TV screen with arrows pointing between the duellists that where fighting, Chloe and Scott's pictures had a red outline around them and it didn't take people long to figure out that that meant that they where duelling.

"And the match between Chloe Richardson and Scott Richardson will begin...NOW!" Seto said and Chloe's eyes widened, however he walked off before she could protest.


	27. Father vs Daughter, Brother vs Brother

"Ahem, Chloe I'm over here." Scott cleared his throat, his daughter gulped before turning around and facing her dad, just then the TV screen above them switched to a pair of security guards.

"Hi folks, we'll be your commentators for the evening, I'm Bob." The first guard said and the duellists sweat-dropped.

"And I'm Bill." Bob's co-announcer announced. "Seems we have an intergenerational match to start things off this year Bob."

"That's right, Duel Academy's Chloe Richardson is taking on her father Scott who has come out of retirement for the tournament." Bob said with a smile. "He's a twenty year veteran who has never really hit the big time and he runs an Ancient Gear deck, what about Chloe Bob?"

"Well she's the only Osiris Red student among the Duel Academy students here today, scored an above average score on her test exam and has only been duelling for two months." Bob read out the stats and as he did a progressively bigger sweat-drop appeared on his head. "Oh dear, this is not going to be pretty."

"_Oh great, as if things weren't bad enough!" _Chloe thought...only to blink as the crowd started chanting her name. "Err, what the?"

"Seems the crowd likes an underdog Chloe." Scott chuckled, Chloe smiled finding new confidence in that fact and turned to face her dad. "I'm ready when you are." Scott added as both duellists drew their opening hands. "I'll let you go first." Scott announced and Chloe drew another card...only for her eyes to go as wide as dinner plates when she took one look at her hand.

"_Shit, shit, shit, shit, there isn't a single monster I can summon, trap I can set or spell I can play!" _Chloe thought as she started sweating bullets again, her hand consisted of her two more powerful Silent Swordsman cards, Cybernetic Magician, Magical Marionette, Chaos Command Magician and her newly drawn Gilford The Lightning. _"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad."_

"Err, Chloe are you going to make your move sometime today?" Scott eventually asked and Chloe looked up from her hand, she eventually sighed in resignation.

"There's nothing I can do, I have to pass." Chloe admitted causing everyone who had been cheering for her a second ago to face-fault.

"Tell me I didn't just hear those words come out of her mouth." Lance said as he facepalmed.

"You did." Theresa said with a wince. "And if her dad is as good as she told me he was than this will not be easy to watch."

"How can you say that Theresa?" Otto said as he relaxed against a wall. "You must enjoy watching Osiris Red students be put in there place."

"Otto, I'm only going to say this once." Theresa said with a scowl. "Shut...the...fuck...up!"

"_How did this girl beat Damien and Robert again?" _Karen thought as she watched her panic, frowning Scott drew his card.

"Very well, I start by activating the Continuous Spell Card Ancient Gear Castle!" Scott played the card and a large ancient castle appeared on the field, it was heavily fortified. "Now as long as this card remains on the field..."

"Dad, you've used this card against me enough times for me to know what it does like the back of my hand." Chloe pointed out before folding her arms. "As long as it's on the field each of your Ancient Gear Monsters will gain three hundred attack points and each time a monster is normal summoned or set it'll get a Spell Counter."

"Well remembered." Scott complemented her. "But do you remember what the Spell Counters do?" Scott asked.

"Hey this a duel, not a pop quiz!" Mike called from the sidelines.

"_For her it's both."_ Scott thought. "Well in that case I start with the mighty Ancient Gear Knight in attack mode!" Scott played the card and a mechanical looking knight appeared on the field, it was wielding a lance and a large shield in the shape of a gear (4/1800/500) and thanks to the effect of Ancient Gear Castle it's attack rose to 2100 and the castle gained it's first counter.

"I can't watch!" Marcus exclaimed the sidelines.

"Ancient Gear Knight, attack her life-points directly!" The monster charged forward and struck Chloe in the chest with it's lance.

C: 5900

S: 8000

"Ohhhh and Chloe's taken a nasty hit in her first turn Bob!" Bill winced as Chloe got up.

"CHLOE!" Maria shouted from where the teachers where sitting. "IF YOU LOSE AT THIS STAGE I'LL GIVE YOU DETENTION FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR!" Chloe winced as she got up.

"That ends my turn." Scott announced as Ancient Gear Knight returned to his side of the field, Chloe drew her card and looked at it.

"_Card Destruction? I haven't used this thing in ages." _Chloe thought as she looked at the rest of her hand. _"On the other hand this maybe my best chance." _Chloe thought before activating it. "I activate the spell card I just drew Card Destruction." Scott frowned but discarded the four cards in his hand and Chloe discarded her entire hand and drew a new one, after sending Card Destruction to the graveyard she looked at her new hand and grinned. _"This is much better!" _Chloe thought as she picked up a card. "I start by summoning Blade Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the knight in light blue armour appeared on the field (4/1600/1000), Scott raised an eyebrow even as his castle gained another counter.

"But that thing's weaker than Ancient Gear Knight!" Mike pointed out.

"_That is unless this girl plans on using Blade Knight's effect." _Kaiba thought as he watched the duel.

"Now I set four cards facedown." Chloe set the four cards which appeared behind her knight. "And activate the Quick Play Spell Card Rush Recklessly which increases Blade Knight's attack by 700!" Chloe played the card and her knight's attack increased to 2300...only to rise again to 2700.

"What just happened?" Mike blinked.

"Blade Knight gains an extra 400 attack points if it's controller has one or less cards in his or her hand, and she just emptied hers." Ray explained.

"Blade Knight, attack Ancient Gear Knight!" Chloe commanded her knight and the knight charged towards the mechanical knight and decapitated it with it's sword.

C: 5900

S: 7400

"_Okay, I have to admit, that was a good move."_ Otto thought begrudgingly. _"Even once Rush Recklessly's effect wears of Blade Knight will still have it's power boost from his effect."_

"I end my turn at that dad." Chloe announced as Blade Knight's attack dropped to 2000, Scott drew his card and smiled.

"Good move Chloe but I have one better." Scott said playing the card he had drawn. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands and rob Blade Knight of it's power boost." Chloe frowned but reluctantly drew 6 cards reducing Blade Knight's attack back to 1600.

"_No sign of Silent Magician, good I can use my trap card in case dad destroys Blade Knight." _Chloe thought, as her dad already had six cards in his hand he didn't draw any additional cards.

"Now I'll remove the two spell counters on Ancient Gear Castle, by doing so I am allowed to summon a high powered Ancient Gear monster whilst using those Spell Counters as tributes, I think you and I both know what I'm about to summon." Scott said picking up a card, Chloe blinked...before realization hit her like a ton of bricks.

"Oh crap, not that monster!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Yes, that monster." Scott played the card and a dark, humongous figure emerged from the castle. "Come forth Ancient Gear Golem!" Scott announced and the figure became more clear, it was a giant robot that was silver in colour and had huge arms (8/3000/3000) and it's attack rose to 3300 almost immediately.

"Holy shit." Ray said as his jaw dropped. "He got that thing on the field during his second turn!"

"I was afraid of this." Lance said folding his arms. "Chloe's never been able to beat her dad because of this monster!"

"Yeah, she told me the same thing." Theresa nodded. "Though she didn't mention that monster specifically."

"Now this will be fun to watch." Otto said with a big, shit eating grin ignoring the glares from the other Duel Academy Students.

"Ancient Gear Golem, attack Blade Knight with Ancient Gear Fist!" The golem reared back it's fist before slamming it into Blade Knight, Chloe shielded herself from the blast as her life-points took a hit.

C: 4300

S: 7200

"I activate my trap card Numinous Healer and chain it with Emergency Provisions!" Chloe activated the two cards and they flipped up. "Since I just took damage Numinous Healer will restore a thousand of my life-points but by sending it to my graveyard with Emergency Provisions I can restore another thousand of my life-points." Chloe explained as her life-points jumped to 6300. "I won't be beaten that easily dad."

"_Duel Academy's taught her well, I may have to bring out the big guns."_ Scott thought before folding his arms. "Your move Chloe." Chloe nodded and drew her card.

"Dad, I'm about to take down that Golem." Chloe said confidently as she looked at her hand. "First I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back one of the monsters I discarded with Card Destruction's effect, Magical Marionette!" Chloe played the card and the red robed puppet master appeared on the field (5/2000/1000),

"How will that help you?" Scott asked raising an eyebrow.

"Just watch!" Chloe said picking up another card. "I activate the Spell Card Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Ancient Gear Castle!" Chloe played the card and a tornado ripped through the castle destroying it, at the same time however Magical Marionette's attack increased to 2200. "Each time either of us activates a Spell Card Marionette gains a Spell Counter and for each one he gains 200 attack points."

"_Somehow I doubt that she has enough Spell Cards in her hand to match that Golem's attack."_ Eddie thought folding his arms. _"Unless she plans on using the other effect." _Eddie thought.

"Now I equip Marionette with Wonder Wand increasing his attack by 500!" The Marionette grabbed a small wand increasing it's attack to 2700 and rose again to 2900...only to drop down to 2500 as Marionette's puppet strings leaped forward and started strangling the Ancient Gear Golem, it was brought down to it's knees before it's hologram shattered.

"What the..." Alex muttered under his breath

"That was Marionette's second effect, by removing two Spell Counters from him I can destroy one card on the field." Chloe said triumphantly before pointing at Marionette. "Magical Marionette attack his life-points directly!" The puppet master lashed out with it's strings lashing at Scott.

C: 6500

S: 3700

"That ends my turn." Chloe said and Scott drew his card.

"I start by summoning another Ancient Gear Knight." Scott announced as another copy of the Mechanical Knight appeared on the field. "And now that I have an Ancient Gear monster on my side of the field I can special summon this monster from my hand, Ancient Gear!" Scott played the card and a small robot literally made of gears appeared on the field (2/100/800). "And finally I Special Summon another Ancient Gear using the same effect!" Scott played the card and another Ancient Gear appeared on the field. "Now I activate this Spell Card, Spell Gear!" Scott played the card and the three Ancient Gear monsters disappeared. "Now by sending the three Ancient Gear monsters on my side of the field I can revive Ancient Gear Golem!"

"Crap." Chloe gulped as the three Ancient Gear monsters disappeared and the Golem returned to the field. Magical Marionette's attack rose to 2700 but Chloe knew that it wouldn't be nearly enough.

"Ancient Gear Golem, attack Magical Marionette with Ancient Gear Fist!" The massive machine reared it's fist back before slamming it into the puppet master crushing him.

C: 6000

S: 3700

"Things aren't looking good for Chloe." Marcus observed and the others nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, she may have the lead but her dad has so many ways off getting that Golem on the field it's insane." Brandon added with a frown. "Here's hoping for her sake that she can find a way to take it out of the game for good."

Whilst that was going on Chloe had just sent Magical Marionette, Call of the Haunted and Wonder Wand to the graveyard and was trying her best to ignore them and drew her card, she looked at it before looking up at Ancient Gear Golem.

"_This might be my only chance."_ Chloe thought. "I activate my own Card of Sanctity." Chloe announced and both duellists drew until they had six cards, Scott rose an eyebrow when he saw three of the cards.

"_Well, well, now I'll really get to test my daughter's skills."_ Scott thought with a chuckle.

"I set a card facedown and a card in defence mode, your move!" Chloe set the two cards and Scott drew his,

"Okay Chloe, now the kid gloves are off." Scott said and every other duellist face-faulted.

"THAT was you holding back?" Lance yelled out once he got up off the ground.

"Truth is, I never got to use the full strength of my deck against my daughter, a strength Jeff knows all too well." Scott replied and Jeff's eyes widened.

"Oh boy, I know what he's up too." Jeff said with a nod. "Let's just say that Golem is far from his strongest monster."

"Allow me to show you, first I activate not one but two copies of Ancient Gear Workshop, with these I can add two Ancient Gear monsters from my graveyard to my hand and I'm choosing the Ancient Gears I sent to the graveyard last turn!" Scott retrieved the two monsters and added them to his hand. "They won't be in my hand for long, I activate Polmerization to fuse them with Ancient Gear Golem to form my strongest monster." The three monsters fused together and Scott grinned. "Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, come forth!" Out of the vortex came a robot so big that it's head nearly touched the ceiling, this version was closer to a centaur than the other version and was quite terrifying to look at(10/4400/3400).

"4...44...00...attack points." Chloe gulped at the site of the monster, on the sidelines Felix let out an impressed whistle.

"Wouldn't mind putting Venonningagga against that thing." Felix said as he looked up at the monster.

"Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem attack her defence monster now!" The massive machine reared it's fist back and slammed it into the monster, revealled to be Familiar Knight (3/1200/1400), which was crushed, however the fist continued and slammed into Chloe as well.

C: 3000

S: 3700

"That thing inflicts piercing damage?" Lance said as his jaw dropped. "That does it, if I come up against that thing later on in the tournament I'm surrendering on the spot."

"Your assuming Chloe will lose." Brandon pointed out.

"Probably because she will." Otto said with a massive shit eating grin on his face. "She barely beat Ancient Gear Golem at it's weakest form but now? If she wins then I'll eat a duel monsters card."

"You do know that we'll hold you to that, right?" Lance pointed out and Otto scoffed.

"That's why I said it." Otto scoffed.

"You may of destroyed Familiar Knight...and my life-points...but in doing so you've triggered Familiar Knight's effect." Chloe said as she got up, once she was on her feet she picked up a card. "With it we're allowed to special summon one monster from our hands as long as we have one and that the monster is Level 4 or lower."

"Fortunately for you the Ancient Gears I used to help form my Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem where the only monsters in my hand." Scott admitted before folding his arms. "So what monster are you going to send against my Golem?"

"That's an easy choice to make." Chloe said playing the card. "Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode." Once she plaid the card one of her signature monsters appeared on the field undaunted by the massive machine's presence (4/1000/1000).

"Chloe, you do realize even if you get her strong enough to level her up to her Level 8 form it still won't be enough to beat my Golem right?" Scott pointed out ignoring the laughter coming from Otto.

"I know, that's why I'm going to rely on this trap card to beat your monster, GO FAIRY BOX!" Chloe announced and the card flipped up, almost immediately Silent Magician was surrounded by a whack a mole box and was hopping in and out of the various holes.

"Chloe, your kidding right?" Lance asked with his eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"I'm not." Chloe said simply and **everyone else **in the building face-faulted, even the announcers. "In order for me to use it's effect my dad has to attack my monster first."

"And since I have no monsters with which to do so I'll end my turn." Scott said once he got up, Chloe drew her card and to everyone's surprise her life-points dropped to 2500.

"I have to pay 500 life-points during my standby phases in order to keep Fairy Box in play." Chloe explained and Scott frowned.

"_Is that trap card really worth the risk?" _Scott thought as he glanced at the trap's hologram. _"It wasn't in her deck before she went to Duel Academy, I should know I helped her construct the first version of her deck, so who knows what it'll do."_ Scott thought.

"I'll pass for now." Chloe declared and Scott drew his card giving Silent Magician her first spell counter and her first five hundred attack points raising her attack to 1500.

"Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, end this duel by attacking Silent Magician!" The Golem drew back it's fist and hesitated due to the box, Chloe dug into her jacket pocket and produced a coin.

"Now you've triggered the effect of Fairy Box." Chloe said showing both sides of the coin to confirm that it wasn't double headed. "I toss a coin and call it, if I call it wrong the attack goes through, if I call it right the attack goes through..." Chloe grinned as she got ready to say the next part. "But Ultimate Gear Golem will lose all it's attack points."

"She does realize that she's pretty much putting the whole duel on the line by doing this right?" Theresa said as a massive sweat-drop appeared on her forehead.

"This will be fun to watch." Otto chuckled.

"I call heads!" Chloe called out as she flipped the coin, all eyes in the stadium followed the coin as it flipped through the air and landed on Chloe's palm, when she saw the result her hair overshadowed her eyes.

"Well?" Scott asked anxiously, Chloe looked up with a big grin on her face and showed that the result was indeed heads. "Oh no." Scott managed to blurt out as Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem's attack plummeted to zero.

"Silent Magician, COUNTER ATTACK!" Chloe commanded and the magician popped out of the box long enough to fire a beam at Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem causing it to slowly lose body parts.

C: 2500

S: 2200

"I don't believe it, the little tyke's gamble paid off!" Alex said as he watched the machine fall apart, however to everyone's surprise once the machine fell apart completely Ancient Gear Golem stood in it's place.

"When Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem is destroyed in battle I can Special Summon one Ancient Gear Golem from my graveyard." Scott explained before folding his arms. "And before you ask, no I won't run the risk of losing to Ancient Gear Golems in a row so instead I end my turn." Chloe nodded and drew her card.

"I don't need Fairy Box any more so I won't pay to keep it on the field." Chloe explained as the box disappeared from the field.

"But that was her only defence!" Mike pointed out. "Why would she get rid of it?"

"_If she's drawn what I think she's drawn then we'll know for sure."_ Theresa thought as she watched the duel.

"Why? Because this duel's over!" Chloe said as she sent Fairy Box to the graveyard. "I activate the Spell Card I just drew, it's called Level Up!" Scott's eyes widened when he heard the name of the spell card.

"I see, your bringing out your strongest monster." Scott said with a nod of acknowledgement, Chloe searched through her deck before finding the monster she needed and swapped out Silent Magician for it, as she did this Silent Magician Level 4 started glowing and growing until it had reached it's final form (8/3500/1000).

"Your still relying on that tired old hag? Please!" Otto scoffed earning himself a death glare from both Chloe and Silent Magician.

"Otto, if it weren't for the fact that your in the next match I would've asked Lance to knock you out for that remark." Chloe said simply before turning her attention back to her dad.

"Don't tempt me Chloe." Lance said cracking his knuckles.

"Silent Magician Level 8, attack Ancient Gear Golem now!" The magician pointed her staff at the golem and fired a beam at it destroying the monster and reducing Scott's life-points to 1700.

"Nice try Chloe but I'm still in the game." Scott said confidently but Chloe shook her head.

"Sorry dad but when I said this duel's over I meant it." Chloe said flipping up her long forgotten about trap card. "I activate Enlightenment, this trap can only be activated if a Spellcaster type monster destroys a monster in battle, and that monster attacks again immediately." Scott said nothing as the Magician started charging up her staff again.

"Congratulations Chloe, you've won." Scott admitted with a small smile. "Just as I hoped you would."

"Wait, what?" Chloe blurted out as the beam of light struck Scott in the chest.

C: 2200

S: 0000

"What an upset!" Bill yelled over the cheering crowd. "Despite a massive difference in life-points and experience Chloe has won the match!"

"_Hmm, I might have to be cautious of that trap of her's should I face her in the next round." _Otto thought...only for a copy of Fireyarou (4/1300/1000) to be shoved in his face by Lance.

"You said you'd eat a Duel Monster's card if she beat her dad Otto." Lance said with a massive grin, Otto said nothing and stormed off. "Hey, what happened to the deal?"

"Let him go Lance, he's just a sore loser." Theresa said shaking her head before turning her attention to the duel ring. "Unlike Chloe's step-father." She added when she saw Chloe shaking her dad's hand out of sportsmanship, both duellists had deactivated their duel disks and returned their cards to their decks at that point.

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next match." Kaiba announced over the PA system, most of the duellists stayed except for Scott who headed into the corridor, Chloe hopped off the duel field and, whilst ignoring the praise from the other duellists for the most part, followed her dad until she saw him in front of a vending machine.

"You wanted me to win?" Chloe asked folding her arms, Scott looked up and smiled.

"I had a feeling you'd ask about that." Scott said honestly before putting a quarter in the machine. "Can I get you anything?"

"That machine have soda in it?" Chloe asked, Scott nodded and got two soda cans from it tossing one to his daughter who caught it with her duel disk arm. "Thanks." Chloe said before leaning against the wall to give the drink enough time to settle from being thrown.

"Truth is Chloe, I didn't come out of retirement for the chance to win the tournament, though that would've been a nice bonus, I joined to see how far you had come as a duellist and see if I had anything left to teach you." Scott said opening his can.

"Okay, I think I get it now." Chloe said with a nod. "If I had beaten you, which I did, then you'd have nothing left to teach me, but what would've happened if I had lost?" Chloe asked before opening her can.

"I had a chat with the teachers before I headed back to my room, they knew of my plan and supported it as, regardless of the outcome, it would ultimately help you with your skills as a duellist." Scott explained before taking a sip. "If you had lost then the teachers would arrange for you to have more classes at the academy to improve your skill."

"Either way you'd be helping her." The two of them looked up and saw Theresa there. "Sorry, I was wondering where Chloe had disappeared too."

"Wouldn't you be wondering why your opponent wanted you to beat him?" Chloe asked.

"Good point." Theresa admitted before walking up to the vending machine and getting a quarter out. "I noticed you where quite panicky when the duel began Chloe."

"Yeah, that was stage fright." Chloe admitted rubbing the back of her head nervously, "If I hadn't been duelling first then maybe it wouldn't of been so bad...though the fact that the crowd started cheering for me still confuses me."

"It's like your dad said." Theresa said making her choice and getting a soda can out of the machine once it dropped. "The crowd loves an underdog and you where the clear underdog."

"Yeah, true." Chloe shrugged as she opened the can and took a sip. "So, Andreas and Otto are up next."

"Yeah, personally I want Andreas to win." Theresa said with a frown. "Anything to put Otto in his place."

"If not him then I'd like to be the one to defeat him." Chloe said honestly as she looked down at her deck. "I'm pretty sure he noticed during the duel that my deck's a lot different from the one I used during our duel on the boat."

"Well for one thing you didn't use any warriors during that duel." Theresa pointed out.

"Attention duellists, the second match of the semi-finals between Otto and Andreas Freshier is about to begin." Chloe and Theresa shared a look after they heard the voice and walked back towards the duel field.

"You coming dad?" Chloe called out to him and he shook his head.

"I'll be joining your mother in the audience, don't worry we have front row seats with the others." Scott said before walking off.

"Others?" Theresa echoed the confusion clear on her face.

"Maybe he meant the teachers?" Chloe asked before realization hit her. "No that makes just as little sense since it raises the question of why didn't he just say teachers."

"That's true." Theresa admitted before the two girls made their way back to the duel arena with a their cans in hand, Chloe went to take a sip but spat it out when Alex patted her on the back.

"Nice job out there kid." Alex said with a grin before handing her a handkerchief, she took it and used it to wipe her mouth.

"Thanks." Chloe said with a smile before she and Theresa made their way closer to the duel field, it was then that she noticed the twins where already on the duel field though Otto was without his duel disk. "Where's Otto's duel disk?"

"You can tell them apart?" Alex asked as he walked up too them before shaking his head. "Apparently something went wrong with it during his last pre semi-final duel but he managed to fix it last night, sounds fishy if you ask me."

"I don't know, Otto's very talented at technology." Theresa said folding her arms. "He built Brandon's desktop PC back at Duel Academy for one thing."

"I'll take your word for it." Alex shrugged.

"Give me a moment to retrieve my duel disk." Otto said removing his duffel bag and getting his duel disk out with his back turned to the other duel disk.

"Whilst he's doing that what do we know of the Freshier twins Bill?" Bob asked as the security guards reappeared on the screen.

"Well they're German, one's in Obelisk Blue whilst the other is in Ra Yellow and one uses a Machine deck whilst the other uses a Nature deck, other than that I can't tell them apart." Bob said with a shrug, Otto retrieved her duel disk and put it on before turning around...and the other duellist's eyes widened when they saw the Orichalcos Duel Disk.

"Theresa, please tell me that I'm the only one seeing him with an Orichalcos Duel Disk?" Chloe asked with a gulp.

"I wish I could." Theresa said before her eyes narrowed. "Where did you get that Otto?" Theresa called out to him.

"Oh, this?" Otto asked motioning to his duel disk. "A friend of a friend." Otto shrugged.

"Don't lie to us." Andreas said as his eyes narrowed. "Every time we duelled someone who used that duel disk someone has ended up in hospital."

"Oh yes, I almost forgot about that." Otto said before glancing over at Chloe. "In fact didn't the little Osiris Red bitch who could put her own father in the hospital because he didn't hug her enough as a kid?" Otto said bluntly causing a collective gasp from the audience

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!" Marcus snapped as he tried to bum-rush the stage only to be quickly restrained by Ray and Eddie.

"Hey Otto, I thought we agreed never to speak of that again." Felix said angrily and Otto chuckled.

"You agreed, I kept my fingers crossed behind my back." Otto shrugged his shoulders.

"Err, we would like to apologize to anyone offended by Otto's...incredibly bad choice of words regarding the winner of the last match." Bob said feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"What? I'm just telling the truth." Otto chuckled evilly and Andreas growled.

"Otto, if you know the truth than you know that that's only half of the story." Andreas said as his eyes narrowed. "Chloe might have been beaten as a kid..."

"ANDREAS!" Theresa shouted from the sidelines.

"Well it's this or the audience goes home thinking that she put her loving father in the hospital." Andreas pointed out, Theresa sighed in resignation and motioned for him to continue. "Chloe might have been beaten as a kid but that was by her biological dad and not the one she faced in the last match."

"Ruin my fun why don't you." Otto rolled his eyes and Chloe gritted her teeth.

"Okay that's enough." Kaiba said storming out of his office and glaring at Otto. "Otto, another word of this and you'll be disqualified from the tournament for unprofessional conduct."

"Oh, did I hit a nerve Kaiba?" Otto smirked.

"Don't push your luck." Kaiba said plainly before walking off, an awkward silence fell across the room only to be subsequently broken by the sounds of Chloe crying and running off backstage.

"Chloe, wait!" Theresa called after her but knew it was no use, she glared at Otto before running after her, Theresa glanced around the rooms before picking up the sounds of Chloe sobbing nearby and saw her sitting on the floor. _"Damn it Otto."_ Theresa thought angrily before approaching her. "Hey Chloe, you okay?"

"No, I'm not." Chloe said sadly as she looked up at the older student. "Those things he said...how did he even know all that to begin with? He wasn't present at that duel."

"Maybe Robert's associates told him." Theresa shrugged before searching her pockets for a handkerchief for Chloe to wipe her eyes with but couldn't find one. "Damn I should have come prepared for this."

"Looking for something?" The two teens looked up and saw Miranda handing a handkerchief to Chloe, she took it and started wiping her eyes. "So you don't know that punk knew those things huh?" Miranda asked and Chloe shook her head.

"No, there's no reason for him to know anyway, we don't exactly get along." Chloe said picking herself up off the floor.

"He doesn't get along with any of us period." Theresa added folding her arms. "He's an arrogant prick who's only in Obelisk Blue because his parents paid his way in."

"Yeah, I got that vibe from your friend's reaction to him." Miranda said with a nod. "So...was what he said about your dad..."

"It was true, well partially." Chloe said knowing where this was going. "The man I faced in the last match is my step-dad, he and his wife adopted me, my real dad...he did this to me." Chloe said removing the arm with the scar on it from her jacket sleeve and showed the scar to Miranda who's eyes widened when she saw it, Chloe returned her arm to her sleeve.

"You REALLY don't want to know how she got it." Theresa said sitting down on a nearby bench. "It was partially the reason why none of us got any sleep the night after our last pre semi-final duel." Theresa added and Miranda nodded in understanding.

"Hey, the match is about to start." The three women looked up and saw Marcus waving them over, Chloe however shook her head.

"I'd rather keep my distance from Otto." Chloe said plainly, Theresa frowned and folded her arms.

"But you'll miss the match." Theresa pointed out before Miranda thought of something.

"Not quite." Miranda said motioning for the two girls to follow her, they did and she lead them to a small room with a TV in it that was showing the duel arena and a comfy looking couch in the middle of the room. "This room was meant for VIP guests of Kaiba but given the circumstances I'm sure he won't mind."

"Thanks." Chloe said before plopping down on the couch. "You two sticking around?"

"Nah, I'll watch the duel up close." Miranda said before walking off, Theresa however sat next to the younger duellist.

"Someone has to keep you company." Theresa shrugged and Chloe grinned.

"Yeah, thanks." Chloe said before turning to the TV.

*meanwhile at the duel arena*

Andreas and Otto had just finished shuffling their decks for what seemed like ages, mostly because Andreas spent most of his time glaring at Otto.

"All right Otto." Andreas said with a sneer as the brothers activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "Who's going first?"

"I've always believed that the superior duellist should go first, so I will." Otto said as he drew his card, when he saw the card that he had drawn he grinned maniacally. "Don't fret dear brother, I'll put you out of your misery soon enough, I ACTIVATE THE SEAL OF THE ORICHALCOS!"

"WHAT?" Lance and Brandon yelled out simultaneously but ended up shielding themselves as the seal encased the two duellists, when they looked up Otto had the seal's symbol on his forehead.

"Oh how have I waited for this moment...to eliminate my pathetic weakling of a brother." Otto said with a smirk as he picked up a card. "I start by setting a monster in defence mode and end my turn." The facedown monster appeared on the field and Andreas drew his card.

"_Playing defensively on his first turn? That was never Otto's style before."_ Andreas thought before looking at his newly drawn card. "I summon Enraged Battle Ox in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the snarling Minotaur appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Enraged Battle Ox attack his defence monster, AXE SLAM ATTACK!" The Minotaur charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be Cyber Commander (2/750/700) who was quickly decapitated.

"You may of destroyed Cyber Commander but my life-points remain safe!" Otto pointed out and Andreas just grinned.

"You'd better take another look at your life-point counter deer brother." Andreas said in a mocking tone. "Enraged Battle Ox's effect lets any beasts, winged beasts and beast warriors, such as himself, inflict piercing damage." Otto blinked before looking at his life-point counter.

O: 7000

A: 8000

"Yeah that's the way Andreas!" Marcus shouted from the sidelines, Brandon however frowned.

"Some thing's wrong." Brandon said folding his arms. "Otto may be an arrogant prick but he's an excellent duellist, it's not like him to make armature moves like that."

"You think he's toying with Andreas?" Marcus asked and Brandon shrugged as Enraged Battle Ox returned to Andreas's side of the field.

"_Much as I hate to admit it, Brandon has a point."_ Andreas thought as he picked up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Very well." Otto said before drawing his card. "I summon Cyber Dragon in attack mode!" Otto played the card and a large metallic snake like dragon appeared on the field (5/2100/1600) and it's attack rose to 2600 thanks to the seal.

"Hey, that's a Level 5 monster!" Ray pointed out from the sidelines. "It needs a sacrifice before it can be summoned."

"Don't be so hasty, I was about to explain my dragon's effect." Otto said with a scoff. "Whilst it is true that Cyber Dragon is a Level 5 monster it's ability allows me to special summon it to the field if my opponent controls a monster and I don't." Otto explained before picking up another card. "And to further boost my army I summon Biofalcon in attack mode!" Otto played the card and a mechanical falcon with a propeller on it's back appeared on the field (4/1700/1200) and it's attack rose to 2200 thanks to the seal. "Biofalcon attack Enraged Battle Ox now!" The falcon took flight before divebombing at Enraged Battle Ox ripping the monster in half with it's wings and reducing Andreas's life-points to 7500. "Cyber Dragon, attack his life-points directly!" The dragon charged up it's attack.

"I don't think so, I activate Battle Instinct!" The trap card flipped up and Andreas grinned. "I'm sure you remember what this does from our past matches."

"Yes, I do." Otto said with a nod. "It lets you special summon a Level 4 or lower beast monster from your hand if you are about to be attacked directly and you lack the means to defend yourself."

"Right you are, and my choice is Sunlight Unicorn!" Andreas played the card and a white unicorn with a mane and a tail made of flames appeared on the field, it's hoofs where also surrounded by blue flame (4/1800/1000).

"That's supposed to impress me? Cyber Dragon, your new target is Sunlight Unicorn!" The dragon changed it's target to Andreas's new monster.

"I'd think twice about that if I where you dear brother, I activate Horn of the Phantom Beast!" Andreas flipped up the trap and the unicorn blew into the strange horn. "Do you remember this card's effect or do I have to remind you?"

"No, you don't." Otto said rolling his eyes. "Horn of the Phantom Beast is treated as an equip card that can only be equipped to Beasts and Beast Warriors, the equipped monster gains 800 attack points and each time the equipped monster destroys one of mine you get to draw an extra card." Otto said folding his arms. "Cyber Dragon, call off your attack!" Otto commanded and the mechanical dragon did so.

"Why didn't he use that on Battle Ox?" Sophie asked confused.

"Because Battle Ox would've been destroyed by Cyber Dragon even with the power boost." Ray pointed out. "Though that does beg the question of why he didn't use Battle Instinct's effect to summon something stronger than that Unicorn."

"There's also the fact that Otto is far to familiar with his brother's strategies, as solid as they are." Axel chimed in. "If Andreas wants to beat him he'll need something new."

"I set two cards facedown end my turn." Otto announced and Andreas drew his card.

"I activate Sunlight Unicorn's effect!" Andreas announced as the Unicorn's horn started glowing. "I can only activate it once per turn during my main phase but with it I can reveal the top card in my deck, if it's an Equip Spell Card it goes to my hand but if it isn't it goes to the bottom of my deck." Andreas picked up the card, looked at it and grinned before showing it to Otto.

"Beast Fangs." Otto said with a frown as Andreas added the Spell to his hand. "I assume that you intend to equip it to your Unicorn."

"How did you guess? I equip Sunlight Unicorn with Beast Fangs which increases it's attack to 2900." Andreas announced as Sunlight Unicorn bore it's fangs increasing it's attack to 2900. "Sunlight Unicorn attack Biofalcon now!" The unicorn charged towards Biofalcon...

"I activate my trap card Interdimensional Matter Transporter, this lets me remove one monster from play until the end of the turn that it's activated and I chose Biofalcon!" The falcon vanished and the unicorn hesitated.

"Fine, I target Cyber Dragon instead!" Andreas announced and the Unicorn turned it's attention to the mechanical dragon before charging at it.

"Your not the only one with Traps that double as Equip Cards, activate Rare Metalmorph!" The card flipped up and too Andreas's surprise Cyber Dragon's attack rose to 3100. "This a version of Metalmorph that can only be used on Machine type monsters and with it I can increase the attack of one Machine type monster by 500." Otto explained as the dragon breathed a laser at Sunlight Unicorn destroying it.

O: 7000

A: 7300

"That was a clever move on Otto's part." Axel admitted. "Using his first trap to protect his weaker monster whilst powering up his stronger monster.

"Yeah, it's easy to see why he's in Obelisk Blue." Ray agreed and Brandon scoffed.

"Don't act to impressed, the only reason he's an Obelisk Blue student in the first place is because his parents have connections." Brandon said rolling his eyes.

"So why isn't Andreas is Obelisk Blue as well?" Axel asked.

"It's a long story." Lance said shaking his head. "According to Andreas it's because his parents always favoured Otto more but that's the only side of the story we've heard."

"You may have destroyed my unicorn but don't forget that I can still summon a monster this turn." Andreas said as he sent Sunlight Unicorn, Beast Fangs and Horn of the Phantom Beast to the graveyard. "So a set a monster in defence mode and a card facedown, that ends my turn." Andreas set the two cards and and Otto drew another.

"_Good, I have the spell card I need, all I need to do is draw two more Cyber Dragons and Andreas will be out of my misery." _Otto thought before adding the spell card to his hand. "Biofalcon attack his defence!" The falcon took flight before divebombing at the monster...

"Nice try but I activate Raigeki Break!" Andreas flipped up the card and discarded a card from his hand, without warning lightning struck Biofalcon destroying it. "Think of it like a trap version of the Lightning Vortex spell card only it destroys one monster." Otto scowled before sending Biofalcon to the graveyard.

"Fine then, Cyber Dragon finish what Biofalcon started!" The dragon breathed a laser at the facedown card disintegrating it. "Well that was easy..." Otto started only to grunt in pain.

O: 5800

A: 7300

"Sorry Otto but the monster you destroyed was Des Koala." Andreas said holding up the monster (3/1100/1800). "He has a pretty nasty flip effect, you see when he's flipped the opponent loses 400 life-points for each card in his/her hand, I count three so you lose 1200 life-points."

"I'll give you credit for being as annoyingly persistent as ever!" Otto said spitting to the side. "I end my turn." Otto announced and Andreas drew his card. _"Draw whatever pathetic cards are in your deck, none of them can match the power I control!" _

"I activate Card of Sanctity, this allows us to refresh our hands." Andreas announced and the brothers drew until they had 6 cards in their hands, Otto did a double take when he saw two of the cards he had drawn before grinning. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Andreas set the monster and Otto drew his card. _"Soon as he attacks Man Eater Bug (2/450/600) with Cyber Dragon or some other monster I'll use it's effect to take Cyber Dragon with it."_ Andreas thought as he watched Otto make his move.

"My apologies deer brother but this match is over." Otto said picking up the spell card that he had drawn the previous turn. "I activate Power Bond, this spell card allows me to fuse together the Cyber Dragon on the field with the two Cyber Dragons in my hand to form my ultimate beast, CYBER END DRAGON!" The three dragons fused together and out of the vortex came a massive three headed mechanical dragon which roared menacingly at Andreas (10/4000/2800) and it's attack went up to 4500 thanks to the seal.

"Holy shit!" Lance gulped when he saw the monster. "Since when did Otto have that kind of power in his deck?"

"It's about to get a lot worse." Alex said with a frown, Lance blinked...only for his jaw to hit the floor when Cyber End Dragon's attack sky-rocketed to 8500.

"What you are witnessing is the effect of Power Bond." Otto said with a chuckle. "Any fusion monster that is summoned via it's effect has it's original attack power added to that monster's attack points."

"Nice try Otto but encase you haven't noticed I have a monster in defence mode." Andreas pointed out and Otto chuckled.

"That is true but it'll be all for nothing, because like Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem Cyber End Dragon inflicts piercing damage." Andreas's eyes widened when he heard that and Otto chuckled evilly. "Let me guess, the monster you set was a weakling...how fitting because in that case it's just like you and that Osiris Red Bitch!" Otto said before pointing to Cyber End Dragon. "Cyber End Dragon, attack his defence monster now!" The three dragon heads breathed fire at the monster and Andreas shielded himself from the explosion only to be sent flying back.

O: 5800

A: 0000

"Oh no...oh god no..." Theresa trailed off when she realized what had just happened, Chloe's eyes had gone as wide as dinner plates knowing what was about to happen, back at the arena Otto had approached Andreas as the holograms disappeared.

"Well, well, well deer brother, it seems that I have far outclassed you yet again!" Otto chuckled ignoring the glare he was getting from Andreas. "Don't worry, I'll look after that little friend of yours, you know the one you where talking too at the restaurant?"

"You stay away from her!" Andreas spat as he tried to get to his feet, Otto scowled and punched him in the face sending him down to the ground and sending his glasses flying.

"You stay on the ground where you belong!" Otto scowled before walking off.

"I may of failed today but one of us WILL bring you down Otto!" Andreas shouted at Otto even as the seal closed in around him. "Mark my words." Otto stopped in his tracks and glanced over his shoulder.

"Fare well, deer brother!" Otto spat, the next thing the arena heard was Andreas's blood curdling scream as the seal consumed his soul.

"ANDREAS NO!" Marcus shouted but it was too late, unlike the ending to the last match there was no cheering only a deathly silence.

"Someone get a medic now!" Kaiba ordered his subordinates who quickly ran off to carry out his orders, he turned to a telephone and dialled the number for security. "This is Kaiba, don't let the remaining Freshier sibling out of your site, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." The guard on the other end answered before hanging up back on the floor Otto had finally gotten off the duel arena ignoring the site of Nicola running past him.

"Hey ass-hole." Otto looked up only to be met with a punch to the face from Ray. "That was for what you said about Chloe." Ray said cracking his knuckles. "And this next one is for Andreas!" Ray went to punch him again but Otto ducked under the punch and kneed the larger man in the gut knocking the wind out of him.

"I'd advise against trying anything like that again." Otto said reaching into his pocket and producing Andreas's soul card. "Or I will destroy this and Andreas's soul."

"You wouldn't dare!" Ray snapped at him.

"Do you really want to test that theory." Otto chuckled as he wiped some blood from his mouth, a result of the first punch, Ray growled but Zach put a hand on his shoulder.

"Forget it, he's not worth it." Zach said plainly glaring at Otto, he returned the card to his pocket and walked off.

"What should we do Brandon?" Lance asked as the paramedics carried Andreas's comatose body away.

"I don't know for certain." Brandon sighed before shaking his head. "Otto has always been a prick but I never thought he'd go this far." Brandon added before he spotted the teachers approaching them. "You guys have any ideas?"

"A few." Hamden nodded before glancing around. "But we won't discuss them here, there's eight more matches to go today so I suggest we discuss it at the hotel, as for what happens to Otto if he's stopped, expulsion seems likely."

"Personally I'd suspend him just for what he said about Chloe." Jeff said plainly before shaking his head. "I know it'll be hard but try to focus on your matches for now."

"That's the understatement of the century." Lance pointed out. "By the way has anyone seen Chloe or Theresa since Chloe ran off?"

"Chloe chose to stay backstage and after what Otto said I don't blame her." Marcus told him. "I'm guessing Theresa thought that she would need seem company."

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next match." Kaiba announced over the PA but most of the duellists chose to stay behind, that is for Lance.

"Where you going?" Marcus asked and Lance glanced over his shoulder.

"I'm going to check up on Chloe." Lance said before heading backstage, he saw Chloe grabbing something to drink from the vending machine and approached her. "Hey." Lance said making Chloe jump.

"Oh Lance." Chloe said once she caught her breath. "You scared me."

"Sorry about that." Lance said leaning against the wall. "I just wanted to check up on you after Otto's...choice words." Lance said and Chloe sighed.

"I'm fine, having Theresa to keep me company helped a lot with that." Chloe said before frowning. "Only now we have bigger problems."

"Yeah, Andreas's soul was captured and Otto's an Orichalcos duellist." Lance said before sighing. "Ever since I saw Karen and Felix hanging around I knew someone's soul was going to be taken but I didn't think it was going to be one of the other students."

"None of us did Lance." Lance looked up and saw Theresa approaching them. "How are you taking what happened Lance?"

"Pissed off mostly." Lance said running a hand through his hair. "No prizes for guessing who I'm pissed off at."

"Yeah, doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist." Theresa nodded in agreement before realizing something. "Crap, if you think we're taking it badly how must Nicola be feeling?"

"That girl Andreas met during the tournament?" Lance asked and Theresa nodded. "She seemed pretty shook up from what I could see, it took her dad comforting her to get her away from Andreas long enough so that they could get him to the hospital."

"I'm not surprised, before she duelled you he was the only duellist to give her anything resembling a decent challenge." Chloe remembered. "Anyway Lance what do you think Mike's chances against Axel are?"

"About as high as your biological dad winning Father of the Year." Lance said with a frown. "Mike's good but Axel's in another league."

"You just had to use him as an example, didn't you?" Chloe asked annoyed and Lance sweat-dropped. "Besides can't you be a bit more supportive of him? He is your brother."

"Hard to be supportive when he's going up against those odds." Lance shrugged. "Speaking of that match will you two be present for it or will you be spending your time backstage again?"

"That's up to Chloe really." Theresa shrugged her shoulders in response and Lance turned to his friend.

"I'll be present for the next match, but if Otto's there I'll be keeping my distance." Chloe decided and her friends nodded in understanding.

"I'll be keeping my distance as well, so I don't get tempted to punch that arrogant prick in the face." Lance said bluntly. "If only we can get Andreas's soul card away from him."

"Knowing him he wouldn't be stupid enough to leave it laying around." Theresa frowned as she folded her arms. "The only way to get Andreas's soul card from Otto may be to beat him in a duel."

"And at the moment the only other person who's through to Round 2 is Chloe." Lance said before turning to her. "Your going to be okay if he uses the Seal against you?"

"Lance, it'll hardly be my first Orichalcos match." Chloe pointed out. "Besides I held my own against him on the boat."

"Attention duellists, the third match of the evening between Mike Alvers and Axel Loather will begin in five minutes." A voice over the PA system rang out and the three teens turned to each-other.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go." Lance said leading the two women back to the duel arena, Mike and Axel where busy shuffling their decks by the time they approached the duel arena.

"Heh, I'm not scared of your Gladiator Beasts Axel!" Mike said confidently as they finished shuffling their decks and drew their opening hands. "In fact I'll take great pleasure in breaking your undefeated streak."

"If I had a quarter for each time someone said that to me I'd be rich." Axel chuckled before frowning. "You may be Lance's younger sibling Michael but that doesn't mean I intend to go easy on you."


	28. Mismatches of the Century

"Any sign of that brat?" A security guard asked the two guards he was approaching as they searched through the Kaiba dome, the three guards where currently patrolling the area above where the audience where seated, the two guards shook their heads.

"Nah, we lost site of the kid." The guard said shaking his head. "Just once I'd like to enjoy a Battle City semi-final where something DOESN'T go wrong."

"Yeah, I hear ya." The third guard agreed. "We'd better keep looking, if he wants to know who his potential opponents in the next round will be he'll stick around, that and I don't want to be the one to tell Kaiba that we lost an Orichalcos duellist."

"Yeah tell me about it." The guards agreed before going their separate ways, once they dispersed however Otto emerged from the nearby doorway that he had been hiding in.

"_Idiots."_ Otto thought with a scoff as he glanced around. _"They probably started searching through the lower sections so I should be able to watch the rest of the matches."_ Otto thought as he approached a balcony overlooking the duel arena, as for the duel it's self Mike was looking over his opening hand excitedly.

"_Oh yeah, this is in the bag!"_ Mike thought paying no attention to the announcers.

"Well Bob, after that last duel I'll be glad to never hear the words Seal and Orichalcos again so let's focus on this match." Bill said tugging on his shirt nervously. "I'm fairly certain that Axel needs no introduction after all he is the undefeated national champion of Germany but what about Mike Bob?"

"Well I couldn't find any information on him save for the fact that he runs a water deck, tends to be a bit hyper and is the second youngest sibling of Duel Academy student and fellow Battle City Semi-Finalist Lance Alvers." Bill said. "In others we might end up with what the match between Chloe and Scott could've been like."

"Say Bill, shouldn't we be looking for Otto?" Bob asked and Bill shrugged.

"Eh, big deal." Bill said before turning his attention to the duel.

"So, who's going first?" Axel asked as he looked over his hand.

"I will." Mike said drawing another card. "And I start by activating the Field Spell Card A Legendary Ocean!" Mike played the field spell and a massive tidal wave washed over the field unintentionally getting several duellists wet.

"Bro, next time watch where you aim your tidal waves!" Lance said thankful for the fact that it was just a hologram effect. "I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth!"

"Sorry." Mike said sheepishly before turning to Axel. "As long as my field spell is in play all Water type monsters gain 200 attack points and lose a level like this little beauty, Cyber Shark in attack mode!" Mike played the card and out of the ocean's depths came a large shark with some kind of machine on it's nose (5/2100/2000) however since A Legendary Ocean was on the field it's level dropped to 3 and it's attack increased to 2300.

"Not bad." Brandon said once he saw the monster, however Lance shook his head.

"He should have waited a turn before summoning that monster." Lance said and Brandon raised an eyebrow at him. "Cyber Shark's effect states that if the controller has another Water type monster on the field he/she can normal summon a card without tributes."

"Yeah but he was able to do that anyway thanks to A Legendary Ocean." Brandon pointed out with a frown. "Though I can see where your coming from."

"Now I set two cards facedown and end my turn, just try beating that champ!" Mike set the two cards down and Axel drew his card.

"Not bad Michael but allow me to do one better." Axel said picking up a card. "I activate my own Field Spell Card Coliseum – Cage of the Gladiator Beasts!"

"Wait, what?" Mike yelled out in surprise as the Ocean was dried up and replaced by a large coliseum at the same time costing Cyber Shark it's power boost and level reduction.

"I'll explain, as long as this is on the field it'll gain a counter each time a monster is summoned from the deck and for each of those counters my Gladiator Beasts will gain 100 attack points." Axel explained before smirking. "It has a third effect but it won't come into effect until later."

"_Man, so much for Tornado Wall protecting my life-points."_ Mike thought as he looked towards his second facedown card. _"At least I have Cyber Shark to protect me."_

"Now I summon the first of my Gladiator Beasts, Gladiator Beast Andal in attack mode!" Axel played the card and the one eyed bear appeared on the field (4/1900/1500).

"Nice try but my shark's stronger!" Mike said confidently and Axel chuckled.

"Who said anything about me wanting to destroy the beast? I have something more tactical in mind." Axel said playing a card. "I activate Creature Swap, with this I can swap one of my monsters for one of yours until the end of the turn but since we each have one monster on the field I don't think it's any secret what monster I'm choosing." Axel played the card and too Mike's surprise the two monsters switched sides of the field.

"Err, okay this isn't too bad." Mike said laughing nervously.

"Who said I was done? I activate the Quick Play Spell Card Gladiator Taming!" Axel played the card and Mike blinked. "This can only be activated if there is a Gladiator Beast monster on the field and it'll let me activate one of two effects, either I can change the battle position of a monster of yours or the effect I'm going for...to take control of one Gladiator Beast monster you control!" Mike's eyes widened as Andal returned to Axel's side of the field.

"Wait...but that's..." Mike said as he tried calculating the damage on his fingers, Axel sweat-dropped.

"4000 points of damage." Axel said before pointing to his monsters. "Cyber Shark, Gladiator Beast Andal, attack his life-points directly!" The two monsters charged at Mike and attacked him one by one.

A: 8000

M: 4000

"Ouch, Mike has already lost half of his life-points!" Bill announced as Mike got too his feet.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn!" Axel announced as Cyber Shark and Gladiator Beast Andal returned to Mike's side of the field...only for Andal to jump back to Axel's side of the field. "Oh yes, I forgot to mention that, like Creature Swap, Gladiator Taming only works until the end phase of the turn that it's activated." Axel added, Mike grunted and drew his card.

"You'll pay for that!" Mike declared angrily as he drew his card. "I activate Moray of Greed, by returning two Water type monsters from my hand to my deck this will allow me to draw three cards from my deck!" Mike returned the monsters to his deck, shuffled it and drew three cards before sending the Spell Card to the graveyard, when he saw his new cards he grinned. "Now your really going to regret that move."

"Oh?" Axel asked raising an eyebrow.

"Now what's he up too?" Brandon asked and Lance shrugged.

"Don't know, what do you think An..." Lance started but stopped in his tracks, Brandon placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find a way to get him back." Brandon said reassuringly and Lance nodded.

"I know we will." Lance said simply. "As I was saying I don't know what he's up too, his deck's changed a lot sing the tournament started."

"I start by activating my trap card, Hidden Temple of the Deep!" The trap flipped up and suddenly the Coliseum floor was covered in water. "As long as this card is activate it's treated as the Field Spell Card Umi which gives me a perfect opportunity to use my other trap card Tornado Wall!" The second trap flipped up and the water beneath Mike started to become restless. "I may be down to 4000 life-points but as long as Umi, or in this case a card that's treated like it, is on the field this trap will protect my life-points."

"Err Mike, why didn't you use this combo to begin with?" Lance asked and Mike sweat-dropped.

"I wasn't sure if it would work." Mike said sheepishly before shaking his head. "Not that it matters, I summon Armed Sea Hunter in attack mode!" Mike played the card and a strange monster appeared on the field, it's upper body was brown, white and muscular whilst it's lower body resembled an octopus's and it was wielding a spear (4/1800/400). "Cyber Shark attack Andal!" The shark leaped towards the bear.

"I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Indomitable Gladiator Beast!" The spell card flipped up and to Mike's surprise Andal's attack increased to 2400. "During the turn this spell card is activated in one of my Gladiator Beasts will gain 500 attack points but as we both know there's only one Gladiator Beast on my side of the field." As Axel explained this Andal charged towards Cyber Shark, drew out it's sword and decapitated it.

"Man, Mike's getting creamed out there!" Marcus observed as the two duellists sent their respective cards to the graveyard.

"He'll bounce back...somehow..." Theresa said as she watched the duel. "Though I am beginning to see where Lance was coming from as far as how far out of his league Mike is."

"I end my turn with a facedown card!" Mike set the card facedown and Axel drew his card.

"I start by activating Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Axel played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards. "Now then Michael, it's time I showed you the true power of the Gladiator Beasts."

"True power?" Mike asked looking confused.

"I start by sacrificing Gladiator Beast Andal to summon Gladiator Beast Alexander in attack mode!" Andal vanished from the field and in it's place stood a muscular humanoid lion in gold armour (6/2400/600).

"HAH! The jokes on you Axel! I activate Torrential Tribute to clear the field!" Mike activated the card and and a tidal wave prepared to consume both monsters.

"I'm afraid not, I counter Torrential Tribute with my own Trap Card Parry!" Axel activated the card and returned one of the cards in his hand to his deck. "In order to activate this trap I must return one Gladiator Beast monster from my hand to my deck but in exchange I can negate the activation of and destroy one trap card!"

"OH COME ON!" Mike yelled in frustration as Gladiator Beast Alexander slammed his fist into the ground somehow stopping the tidal wave. "Is there any moves of mine you don't have a counter for!" Mike continued and Axel remained silent.

"Mike, keep calm." Mike blinked before turning to the crowd of duellists, Lance stood there with his arms folded. "Yes, I realize that the majority of your moves have been countered in one way or another and yes I know there's a massive difference between his life-points and yours...I really need to work on my motivational speech skills." Lance said and Mike face-faulted at the last part. "But you've been in tougher spots before."

"He's right Michael." Axel agreed and the two brothers turned to him. "On both counts." Axel added and it was Lace's turn to face-fault. "You've just had a string of bad luck these past few turns, just trust in your deck and I'm sure that you can bounce back."

"Err, right." Mike gulped as the two duellists sent their cards to the graveyard.

"Now then, Gladiator Beast Alexander attack Armed Sea Hunter!" The massive monster leaped forward and uppercutted the monster destroying it.

"At least Tornado Wall saved my life-points." Mike said wiping the sweat from his brow as Tornado's blocked Alexander from getting to his life-points.

"That ends my turn and starts the tagging out process." Axel said and Mike blinked.

"Tagging out?" Mike asked just before Gladiator Beast Alexander disappeared from the field. "Hey where'd your monster go?"

"Back to my deck." Axel said holding up the monster. "You see each Gladiator Beast, save for Andal who's the only Normal Monster in the set and the fusion monsters, share the ability to be returned to the deck and replaced with another at the end of the turn that they are attacked or they attack.." Axel explained, Mike blinked before grinning.

"Okay, that doesn't sound too bad." Mike said as he looked over his hand. _"Especially since none of my monsters could beat Alexander."_ Mike thought.

"You may think that but certain Gladiator Beasts gain special abilities from being summoned this way, such as Gladiator Beast Bestiari!" Axel played the card and a green humanoid bird in grey armour appeared on the field (4/1500/800). "Now then not only does my field spell gain it's first counter, whilst increasing my new monster's attack to 1600, but Bestari's effect kicks in, allowing me to destroy one spell or trap card on the field, my choice is Hidden Temple of the Deep." The Gladiator Beast took flight before shattering the hologram of Mike's trap card taking Tornado Wall with it. "Be thankful that this card is on the Limited List."

"Err, yeah." Mike gulped as he sent his two traps to the graveyard and drew his card. _"Man, Tornado Wall was the only thing keeping my life-points and now I've lost it." _Mike thought before looking at his new card. _"Oh great, how can this help...hey wait a sec!"_ Mike thought as an idea formed in his head. "I start by summoning Tinplated Goldfish!"

"He's summoning what?" Lance, Brandon and Marcus asked simultaneously as a small, mechanical goldfish appeared on the field (4/800/2000).

"There are so many things wrong with that move." Lance said with a facepalm. "Most importantly why leave a monster with 2000 defence in attack mode?"

"Because of my goldfish's effect, that's why!" Mike said with a grin. "When he is normal summoned I can special summon another monster from my hand as long as it's Level 4 or lower and my choice is...Giant Red Seasnake!" Mike played the card and the giant red snake appeared on the field (4/1800/800).

"Okay, I think I see what he's going for." Brandon said as he looked over the field. "He'll attack Bestiari with Seasnake then use his goldfish for a direct attack...wow I can't believe I actually found a situation where the words "use his goldfish for a direct attack" would be appropriate." Brandon said sweat-dropping as he said the last part.

"Actually no, I have something else in mind!" Mike said picking up a card. "And it starts with my second copy of A Legendary Ocean."

"Oh god damn it not again!" Lance yelled out as he and the other duellists backed off, a tidal wave crashed over the duel field washing away the coliseum, at the same time Giant Red Seasnake and Tinplated Goldfish's attack and defence rose to 2000, 1000, 1000 and 2200 respectively whilst their levels dropped to 3 and Bestiari's attack returned to normal.

"At least we knew what was coming this time." Chloe said folding her arms, Lance nodded in agreement.

"So you have more fire-power, the ability of my Gladiator Beasts will prevent you from even thinking about a direct attack." Axel pointed out and Mike grinned.

"A direct attack wasn't what I had in mind, because my move has set the stage for an XYZ summon." Mike declared as he retrieved a card from his extra deck.

"An XY what now?" Lance asked confused.

"XYZ summon, their a bit complicated but pretty satisfying to pull off successfully." Brandon explained.

"Okay, for those that are confused, namely my brother, I'll explain." Mike said as he carefully placed Tinplated Goldfish on top of Giant Red Seasnake, as he did this the two holograms started glowing. "An XYZ summon requires the presence of two monsters of the same level on my side of the field and the cards have to be placed on top of each-other, otherwise known as overlaying, and the new monster is placed on top of them, any questions?"

"Can you repeat that?" A clearly confused Marcus called out and Mike face-faulted.

"Brandon, would you mind repeating what I just said to Marcus, I'm a little busy." Mike asked once he got up and Brandon did so. "This monster in particular requires two Level 3 monsters in order for it to work so come forth Black Ray Lancer!" Mike placed the card on top of the other two and the two monsters morphed into a strange winged humanoid fish that was black in colour and was carrying a large red spear (3/2100/600).

"This is going to be troublesome." Axel said raising an eyebrow at the new monster.

"Black Ray Lancer attack Gladiator Beast Bestiari now!" The monster flew towards the beast and skewered it with his spear.

A: 7400

M: 4000

"I end my battle phase which means you can tag out your monster." Mike announced as Axel returned the monster to his deck.

"True." Axel nodded as he searched through his deck.

"Let me guess, your summoning Alexander right?" Mike asked but Axel shook his head.

"I'm afraid not, Alexander can only be special summoned with the effect of a certain Gladiator Beast and Bestiari wasn't the beast in question." Axel explained as he picked up a card. "This will do nicely, I special summon Gladiator Beast Hoplomus in defence mode!" Axel played the card and a rhino in sturdy looking green armour appeared on the field (4/700/2100). "When Hoplomus is summoned this way his original defence becomes 2400."

"Or it would if not for my Black Ray Lancer's effect!" Mike said retrieving Giant Red Seasnake from underneath Black Ray Lancer and sending it to his graveyard. "What I just did is known as Detaching and I have to do this in order to activate the effect of a XYZ monster, in this case Black Ray Lancer I can negate Hoplomus's effect until the end phase...which is right now." Mike added and everyone else face-faulted.

"Well that was pointless." Chloe remarked as she got up, Axel drew his card and raised an eyebrow.

"I activate the spell card Gladiator Beast Respite, think that Moray of Greed card you activated earlier only applied to Gladiator Beasts." Axel played the card and shuffled two of the cards in his hand into his deck before drawing three cards. "Now I activate another Coliseum – Cage of the Gladiator Beasts!" Axel played the card and, too Mike's annoyance, the ocean dried up revealing an in tact Coliseum. "Now I sacrifice Hoplomus to summon the mighty Gladiator Beast Spartacus!" Axel swapped out the monsters and Hoplomus vanished from the field only to be subsequently replaced by a large dinosaur with horns on his nose wearing brown armour and carrying a huge axe (5/2200/1600.

"NO! I'm Spartacus!" Marcus shouted out only to be punched in the back of the head by Brandon. "I'll shut up now!"

"Err, anyway." Axel cleared his throat before pointing to his monster. "Gladiator Beast Spartacus...okay if anyone else is about to say "I'm Spartacus" raise your hand now." Axel said and everyone except Chloe, Brandon, Theresa, Marcus and Lance rose their hands, even the announcers. "I kindly ask all of you to don't say it, now Gladiator Beast Spartacus attack Black Ray Lancer!" The monster charged forward and split Mike's monster down the middle with it's axe.

A: 7400

M: 3900

"I end my turn and thus Spartacus is returned to my deck." The Gladiator Beast disappeared from the field and Axel started searching for a new monster. "Come forth Gladiator Beast Dimacary!" Axel played the card and a blue bull standing on it's hind legs appeared on the field wearing blue, red and gold armour (4/1600/1200) and thanks to the Coliseum getting it's first counter it's attack rose to 1700.

"Your not going to tell me what it does when it's summoned that way?" Mike asked confused and Axel shook his head.

"In due time Michael, now make your move." Axel responded and Mike drew his card.

"I activate Soul Release to remove five monsters from my own graveyard from play." Mike activated the card and retrieved five monsters before pocketing them.

"Err, okay why did you do that?" Axel asked raising an eyebrow.

"You'll see soon, for now I set this card facedown and a monster in defence, your move." Mike set the two cards and Axel drew his card, he added his new card to his hand and pointed to his beast.

"Gladiator Beast Dimacary attack his defence!" The bull like creature charged forward towards the facedown monster, revealed to be a large blue bear (4/1400/1000) who was quickly gored.

"Hah, jokes on you because the monster you destroyed was Mother Grizzly!" Mike said holding up the card. "When she's destroyed in battle I can special summon another Water type monster as long as it's a Level 4 monster and it has 1500 attack points or less, and I'll choose another Mother Grizzly!" Mike sent the card to the graveyard before summoning another to the field, the bear returned to the field ready for battle.

"Very well, I'll destroy her as well." Axel declared and Mike blinked.

"But you've already attacked!" Mike protested.

"Yes, but when Dimacary is Special Summoned by way of another Gladiator Beast's effect he can attack twice in the same turn." Axel said before pointing to his beast. "Dimacary attack Mother Grizzly!" The bull charged forward and gored the bear this time ramming her into the wall.

A: 7400

M: 3600

"I chose to summon my third and final Mother Grizzly!" Mike said once he sent the second Mother Grizzly to the graveyard and summoned a third in it's place.

"Then I shall end my turn thus returning Dimacary to my deck." Axel said as his monster disappeared from the field, he searched through his deck and selected a card. "I chose Gladiator Beast Darius in attack mode!" Axel played the card and the humanoid horse in red armour appeared on the field (4/1700/300) and as the coliseum got it's second counter Darius's attack rose to 1900. "When Darius is summoned in this way I can special summon another Gladiator Beast from my graveyard, however it's effect is negated and it'll be reshuffled into my deck."

"Funny you should mention negating, I activate my trap card Oh Fish!" Mike activated the trap and the card's hologram flipped up.

"I beg your pardon?" Axel asked raising an eyebrow...only to be caught by surprise when Gladiator Beast Darius was washed away in a stream of water. "What did you just do?"

"Remember those monsters I removed from play? This trap was the reason, not only does it allow me to shuffle one of those monsters back into my deck but it also negates the activation of an effect monster's effect and destroys it." Mike said with a massive grin. "In short, I just crippled your whole strategy!"

"Not bad Michael." Axel admitted before taking a look at his hand and picking up the card he had drawn. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Axel set the card down and Mike drew his card enthusiastically.

"Now to begin my comeback!" Mike said before looking at his new card. "Hey what do you know? I drew another Moray of Greed!" Mike played the card and returned the two remaining cards in his hand to his deck and drew three cards, Mike took one look at his new cards and grinned broadly. "This is in the bag, first I activate Monster Reborn to bring back the first Mother Grizzly you destroyed." Mike played the card and next to the first Mother Grizzly stood a second. "But neither of them are staying around for long, I sacrifice them both to bring out my second strongest monster, Levia-Dragon – Daedalus!" The two bears disappeared from the field and in their place stood the might sea serpent ready for battle (7/2600/1500).

"Impressive monster." Axel admitted upon seeing the monster.

"Thanks but believe it or not he's not staying around either." Mike said with a grin and Axel rose an eyebrow at this, Mike picked up the last card in his hand and played it. "This next card can only be summoned by tributing Levia-Dragon so bye bye Levia-Dragon hello Ocean Dragon Lord – Neo-Deadalus!" Mike played the card and Levia-Dragon started to morph eventually transforming into a giant twin headed dragon that was blue and red in colour (8/2900/1600).

"I don't believe it! Mike actually might pull this off!" Lance said as he saw the monster roaring at Axel who somehow kept a cool head in the face of the dragon.

"Neo-Deadalus, attack his life-points directly!" The twin headed dragon breathed water at Axel in mighty twin bursts, Axel grunted as the attack hit.

A: 4500

M: 3600

"It's only a matter of time before your undefeated streak ends man!" Mike said folding his arms. "So for now I'll end my turn, enjoy your streak while it lasts!" Axel said nothing as he drew his card, he glanced up at the dragon before nodding.

"It's not often that I find myself in a position where I have to use this card but so be it, go Swords of Revealing Light!" Axel played the card and Mike shielded himself as the three swords pinned down his dragon.

"_Doesn't matter, as soon as I draw my last A Legendary Ocean card I'll use Daedulas's effect to clear the field and attack his life-points again!" _Mike thought confidently as he waited for Axel to finish his move.

"Now I summon Test Ape in attack mode!" Axel played the card and a small monkey appeared on the field (2/700/300).

"Are you trying to make a monkey out of me?" Mike shouted only to be met with collective groans from the other duellists and audience members. "Oh come on, like I was the only one thinking about making that joke!"

"_He's certainly been one of my most entertaining opponents since I joined this tournament, wonder if his brother will be any different."_ Axel thought glancing over at Lance who didn't seem to notice that Axel was looking at him. "I end my turn for now Michael." Axel announced and Mike drew his card...and grinned broadly when he saw it.

"Your swords, along with the rest of your cards. are history! I activate my last A Legendary Ocean!" Mike played the card and the other duellists quickly got out of the way as the tidal wave approached.

"Not this time Michael, I activate my Trap Card Disarm!" The card flipped up and Axel returned the last card in his hand to his deck. "This trap card can only be activated if I return one Gladiator Beast from my hand to my deck but by doing so I can negate the activation off and destroy one spell card!" Mike's jaw dropped as the tidal wave dispersed just as it was about to hit the field. "I am well aware of Neo Daedalus's special ability Michael but unless you have a card that can return spell cards to your hand my life-points are safe for another three turns."

"Well, guess I'll end my turn in that case." Mike said as the first of the swords disappeared, Axel drew his card and looked at it.

"_Good, here's one piece of the puzzle."_ Axel thought. "I set this card facedown...and I attack Neo-Deadalus with Test Ape!" Axel said pointing to the massive monster, the ape leaped towards the much larger monster only to drown in a jet of water.

A: 2300

M: 3600

"Thanks for the lead...I guess." Mike said scratching his head in confusion.

"Don't thank me just yet, when Test Ape is destroyed in battle I can Special Summon one Gladiator Beast from my deck to the field and I chose the monster I sent to my deck for Disarm's effect, Gladiator Beast Laquari!" Axel played the card and the humanoid tiger with red hair wearing red armour appeared on the field (4/1800/400) and thanks to the Coliseum's new spell counter it's attack rose to 2100.

"Lance, isn't that one of the monsters Axel used to contact fusion that monster?" Chloe asked and Lance nodded.

"Yeah, kind of difficult to forget a monster that powerful." Lance said with a nod. "Maybe he's hoping to summon it before the swords wear off."

"Whatever it is I'm sure Mike can beat it!" Sophie said confidently. "Besides if it weren't for those swords Mike would cream that overgrown pussycat!"

"I'll end my turn." Axel announced and Mike drew his card.

"_Man, I can't use this card!" _Mike thought with a frown as he looked at another copy of Tornado Wall. "I'll pass." Mike announced as the second sword disappeared and Axel drew his card.

"_Blast a dead draw."_ Axel thought as he looked at Gladiator Beast Murmillo (3/800/400). _"If I had summoned this monster to the field via the effect of a Gladiator Beast I could rid the field of Neo-Deadalus and pave the way for my strongest monster."_ Axel thought with a frown before adding the card to his hand. "I shall pass as well."

"Not much happening Bob." Bill said with a yawn.

"Neither player can do anything until those swords wear off Bill." Bob pointed out with a yawn as Mike drew his card. "That or Mike draws something that can clear the field of Spell Cards." As Bill said that Mike drew his card.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Mike set the card down and as the last of the swords disappeared from the field Axel drew his card.

"Perfect, I summon a second Gladiator Beast to the field, Gladiator Beast Tygerius in attack mode!" Axel played the card and a blue humanoid cat with a long white beard appeared on the field, it was wearing black armour and was wielding a large sword (4/1800/800).

"Yeah, just keep stacking up monsters for my Dragon Lord to wash away, you're making my victory all the more easier and I appreciate it!" Mike said confidently and Axel chuckled.

"I'm afraid that there's only one monster who's going to be washed away as you put it." Axel said as he pointed to Tygerius "Tygerius attack Neo-Deadulas!" The monster charged forward only to be washed away by a stream of water.

A: 1200

M: 3600

"Yeah, yours!" Mike said with a grin but Axel chuckled.

"Watch and learn, as you know at the end of the Battle Phase that a Gladiator Beast monster attacks or is attacked they are returned to my deck and another takes it's place, I chose Gladiator Beast Murmillo and activate Double Tag Team!" Axel played the card and a small seasnake in makeshift armour appeared on the field. "I'll get to my trap card in a second but first you must know Murmillo's effect that activates when it's summoned in this way."

"Okay...what does it do?" Mike blinked...only to let out a yell of surprise as Murmillo leaped towards Neo Deadalus and drove a hole through it's chest destroying it.

"It destroys one faceup monster." Axel said plainly as he searched through his deck. "As for my trap card it can only be activated when a Gladiator Beast is Special Summoned and it allows me to special summon another, my card of choice is Gladiator Beast Tygerius!" Axel played the card and the previously destroyed Gladiator Beast returned to the field. "Now I contact fusion my three monsters to form my strongest monster, GLADIATOR BEAST HERAKLINOS!" Axel played the card and the three monsters where absorbed into the vortex, out of the vortex came the massive centaur with the lion's mane (8/3000/2800) and thanks to the new spell counter it's attack rose to 3600. "Be thankful that my Battle Phase has ended, I'll end my turn." Mike gulped as he shakily drew his card.

"I pass, there's nothing I can do." Mike said sadly. _"Or so he thinks, as soon as he attacks I'll spring Posseiden Wave on him and negate the attack and at the same time buy me some time!" _Mike thought as Axel drew his card.

"My apologies Michael, you've duelled well but the duel's over, Heraklinos attack his life-points directly!" Axel commanded and the giant monster charged forward.

"I activate Poseidon Wave, this negates your monster's attack..." Mike was cut off when Heraklinos slashed through the wave and his life-points reducing them to 0.

"Sorry Michael but by discarding a card from my hand Heraklinos can negate the activation of and destroy one spell or trap card during either of our turns." Axel said as Mike got too his feet.

A: 1200

M: 0000

"I lost." Mike said casting his eyes downward as the holograms disappeared, Axel said nothing as he returned his deck to and deactivated his duel disk before approaching Mike.

"Don't be so down on yourself Michael." Axel said reassuringly as he approached him, once he was close enough he extended his hand out for a handshake. "You did well and proved to be one of my more entertaining opponents since the tournament began." Axel added and Mike shook his hand happily before two duellists got off the stage.

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next duel." A voice over the PA system rang out and the duellists started to disperse whilst some audience members left to grab a snack, whilst that was going on Mike approached Lance.

"Sorry bro, I tried." Mike said sadly and Lance smiled.

"Hey, relax you held your own." Lance said with a smile. "Besides me and Sophie can make up for your defeat."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up about that Lance." Ray said folding his arms. "I intend to win the next match."

"Not against my sister you won't." Lance said with a smirk, whilst that was going on Otto was watching the aftermath off the duel with a critical eye.

"_Good to see that Axel hasn't lost lost his touch since we last duelled."_ Otto thought as he folded his arms. _"But on the other hand his deck hasn't changed one bit, he won't stand a chance against my deck."_

"There you are." Otto glanced over his shoulder and saw Felix standing there. "Revealing that girl's past in public is one thing but holding your own brother's soul hostage."

"Oh, like your any better." Otto said with a scoff. "That little bitch needed to be put in her place and Andreas? He was always a weakling." Otto added. "Besides, how is that any different from your incident?" Felix growled and grabbed Otto by his collar.

"That was self-defence." Felix said angrily as his eyes narrowed. "And I'd appreciate it if you didn't go around telling everyone."

"Or what?" Otto spat with a smirk. "Sugar-coat it all you want but the fact remains that your a murderer who never went to jail for it, much like Robert if I'm not mistaken."

"Don't you dare compare me to that bastard!" Felix spat before letting him go. "I don't have time for this, the next match will be starting soon and I need to scout the competition."

"You can scout the competition just fine from up here." Otto said and Felix glared at him.

"And spend an indefinite amount of time near you? I'd rather French Kiss Vorse Raider's hologram!" Felix said before storming off, back on the floor Ray and Sophie had gotten into position ready for their duel.

"Kick his ass sis!" Mike shouted from the sidelines, Sophie glanced over at her brother and smiled before turning to Ray.

"I'll try." Sophie said as both duellists activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. _"Ray may not be as famous as Axel but he must be good since he made it this far."_ Sophie thought as she examined her hand.

"_Maybe I shouldn't judge her skills based on her duel against Victor."_ Ray thought as he looked over his hand. "Okay kid, who's going first?"

"Erm, I'd like to go first if that's okay with you." Sophie said, Ray shrugged his shoulders and Sophie drew her card.

"Seems they've started without us Bill." Bob said as the two announcers returned to their podium. "What have you got on our duellists Bill?"

"Well Ray is one of the top students at North Academy and he uses a Fiend deck, Sophie is a rookie who uses a fairy deck and she is the youngest Alvers sibling so this should be an interesting match." Bill said as Sophie contemplated her move.

"Okay, I set a card facedown and a monster in defence, that will end my turn." Sophie played the two cards and Ray drew his card.

"That's all huh? I'll make things easy for you by summoning Twin-Headed Wolf in attack mode!" Ray played the card that he had drawn and a two headed wolf appeared on the field, it's heads where pink whilst the rest of it's body was green and blue (4/1500/1000). "Twin-Headed Wolf attack her defence!" The wolf charged towards the monster and both heads ripped it to pieces.

"Thanks Ray, the monster you just destroyed was Skeleangel (2/900/400)." Sophie said as he held up the monster. "When he's flipped I can draw an extra card from my deck." Sophie explained before drawing another card and sending her monster to the graveyard.

"_If I had waited another turn before bringing out my Wolf I could've negated that monster's flip effect."_ Ray thought with a frown. _"No matter, I have more tricks up my sleeve and there's definitely nastier flip effect monsters out there." _Ray thought before picking up another card. "I set these two cards facedown and end my turn." Ray's facedown cards appeared behind his wolf and Sophie drew a card.

"I activate Cards From The Sky, in order to activate this spell card I have to remove one Light-type fairy monster from my hand but in exchange I can draw two cards." Sophie pocketed one of the monsters in her hand and drew two cards.

"Don't get too attached to them, I chain Cards From The Sky with my trap card Null And Void!" Ray's second facedown card flipped up and he grinned. "Now you have to show me the cards you just drew with your spell card and immediately discard them to the graveyard." Sophie's eyes widened but she reluctantly revealed the cards, they where the Field Spell Card Sanctuary In The Sky and the monster card Victoria (4/1800/1500) before discarding them both to the graveyard.

"I have other cards I can play, I summon Gellenduo in attack mode!" Sophie played the card and two small strange beings appeared on the field, one was pink, the other was green and their bodies where surrounded by halos (4/1700/0).

"Those things are supposed to scare me?" Ray asked bluntly.

"No but my trap card will, I activate Spirit Barrier!" The card flipped up and Sophie grinned. "As long as this is on the field, provided that I have a monster on the field, it will protect my life-points from damage."

"Why activate that now? Your monster is stronger than mine!" Ray asked raising an eyebrow,

"You'll see soon enough, now Gellenduo attack Twin-Headed Wolf!" The two fairies surrounded the wolf and started spinning around him faster and faster until they where nothing but a blur...

"Nice try but I activate my own trap card Bark Of Dark Ruler!" Ray flipped his remaining trap card up and winced as his life-points dropped to 7700. "This could only be activated during the damage step and by paying 300 life-points your monster loses 300 attack points." Ray explained as Gellenduo's attack dropped to 1400 and Twin-Headed Wolf's heads grabbed the two fairies. "My only regret is the fact that your trap card protects your life-points."

"It'll do more than that!" Sophie countered back, Ray blinked...only to yell in surprise as the two fairies broke free from Twin-Headed Wolf's mouths and returned to Sophie's side of the field. "Gellenduo can't be destroyed in battle but they would be destroyed if I suffered any damage."

"Which your trap card protects you from." Ray realized as he sent Bark Of Dark Ruler to the graveyard. _"Great, I intentionally lowered my own life-points for nothing."_ Ray thought.

"It has a third effect but I'll get to that next turn, for now I end my turn." Sophie announced and Ray drew his card.

"I may not be able to defeat those...things...but I can still do this!" Ray said before removing Twin-Headed Wolf from his duel disk. "I sacrifice Twin-Headed Wolf to summon the mighty Doom Shaman!" The wolf disappeared from the field and in it's place stood a headless man in black and orange armour wielding a staff (6/2400/2000).

"Huh? That looks more like a Spellcaster than a fiend." Lance blinked. "You know, besides the missing head."

"Maybe it has an effect that benefits fiends." Chloe shrugged.

"That it does, once per turn I can use it's effect to Special Summon a Fiend type monster from my graveyard and since I only have one such monster in my graveyard I'll bring back Twin-Headed Wolf!" Ray retrieved the monster and played it, soon afterwards the Twin-Headed Wolf returned to the field. "I'll set a card facedown and end my turn for now." Ray said with a frown and Sophie drew her card. _"Knowing my luck she intends to sacrifice those things to summon something stronger than my Shaman."_ Ray thought as Sophie picked up a card after removing Gallenduo from the duel disk.

"Okay, I sacrifice Gellenduo to summon Guardian Angel Joan in attack mode!" Sophie played the card and the two fairies vanished, in their place stood the angel Joan who was ready for battle (8/2800/2000).

"Hey wait a minute, that monster requires two sacrifices!" Ray protested and Sophie grinned.

"That's Gellenduo's third effect, if I need too bring out a Level 7 or higher Light-Type Fairy monster, like my Angel here, they count as two tributes." Sophie explained.

"Oh great." Ray muttered as it set in.

"Now Guardian Angel Joan attack Doom Shaman!" The Angel prepared to fire her attack.

"You'll have to do better than that, I activate my Trap Card Scrubbed Raid!" Ray activated the trap and Twin-Headed Wolf vanished from the field. "This can only be activated during the battle phase and in exchange for sending one monster I control to the graveyard I can immediately end the battle phase."

"Fine." Sophie sighed in resignation as Joan stopped her attack. "Wait, why haven't you sent your trap to the graveyard?"

"It's a Continuous Trap Card, that's why." Ray explained with a frown. "Only downside is that I can't send Scrubbed Raid it's self to the graveyard via it's own effect."

"So in short they both have traps that protect their life-points." Brandon said with a frown. "Guess it comes down too who draws Mystical Space Typhoon first."

"Not quite, Scrubbed Raid's only good as long as Ray has another card on the field and I doubt he's willing to get rid of his Shaman." Theresa pointed out. "Spirit Barrier doesn't have that limitation and Ray can still take damage, in short Sophie has the advantage."

"We'll see how long that lasts." Brandon said with a nod.

"I end my turn." Sophie said and Ray drew his card.

"I activate a Spell Card called Allure of Darkness, by removing from play one Dark Type monster from my hand I can draw two cards." Ray pocketed the card and drew two cards. "Now I activate another Spell Card, Mirage of Nightmare." Ray played the card and the card's hologram appeared on the field. "Now during your next standby phase I will get to draw until I have four cards in my hand but during my next standby phase I'll have to discard the same number of cards from my hand as the number of cards I drew."

"Only if that Spell Card's still on the field." Brandon remembered. "He's probably planning on using it as fodder for Scrubbed Raid."

"It would make sense." Theresa said folding her arms. "But Sophie knows about Scrubbed Raid's effect so she won't be stupid enough to try to arrack."

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Ray announced and Sophie drew her card, whilst she was contemplating her move Mirage of Nightmare's first effect kicked in and Ray drew two cards before activating his trap. "I activate my trap card Battle Mania!" Ray flipped the card faceup and Sophie blinked. "This could only be activated during your standby phase and now all off your monsters must attack."

"But that means you'll be able to send your spell card to the graveyard before it's side effect kicks in." Sophie realized and Ray smirked.

"I know." Ray said simply and Sophie frowned.

"Fine, Guardian Angel Joan attack Shaman of Doom!" The angel charged up her attack and without missing a beat Ray sent Mirage of Nightmare to the graveyard.

"I send Mirage of Nightmare to the graveyard so that Scrubbed Raid can end the battle phase." Ray said and the Angel reluctantly stopped her attack.

"Not a bad combination." Otto chuckled to himself as he watched the duel. "This Ray certainly isn't a slouch as far as duellings concerned."

"I'll end my turn." Sophie announced and Ray drew his card.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Ray set the card and Sophie drew hers.

"I activate another Cards From The Sky." Sophie announced before she pocketed a monster and drew two cards. _"Good, that facedown isn't another Null And Void."_ Sophie thought with a sigh of relief before looking at her new cards. _"Yeah, this could work."_ Sophie thought. "I set my own card facedown and a monster in defence, your move." Sophie played the cards that she had drawn and Ray drew his card.

"I summon Skull Knight Number 2 in attack mode!" Ray played the card and a skeleton in light blue and gold armour appeared on the field, it's helmet had horns on it and it was wielding a sword (3/1000/1200). "Skull Knight, attack her defence!" The knight charged forward.

"That's what I was hoping you'd do, I activate my trap card Malevolent Catastrophe!" Sophie flipped up the card and Ray blinked...just before a vortex opened up in the middle of the field sucking in Spirit Barrier, Scrubbed Raid and Ray's facedown card, another Bark of Dark Ruler, before closing back up.

"What did you just do?" Ray demanded once the surprise wore off, Sophie smirked.

"Malevolent Catastrophe can only be activated if my opponent attacks, which you just did, once it's activated all Spell and Trap cards on the field are destroyed." Sophie explained, Ray shook his head.

"So? Skull Knight's attack wasn't negated by it." Ray said as the knight slashed Sophie's facedown monster...only for Ray to be hit in the chest by Marshmallon (3/300/500).

R: 7000

S: 8000

"I'm sure you remember Marshmallon's effect from my duel against Victor." Sophie said folding her arms as Marshmallon returned to her side of the field.

"Yeah, I remember it." Ray grunted as he got back to his feet and Skull Knight returned to his side of the field. _"Great, now I have nothing to stop her from taking out my Knight and my Shamen next turn."_ Ray thought. "I end my turn." Ray said and Sophie drew her card.

"Okay, I sacrifice Marshmallon to summon Airknight Parshafth in attack mode!" The small monster disappeared from the field and in it's place stood the centaur like fairy ready for battle (5/1900/1400). "Parshaff attack Skull Knight, Guardian Angel Joan attack Doom Shaman!" The two monsters launched their respective attacks destroying Ray's monsters. "There's a couple of things I need to explain, when Parshaff deals damage to your life-points I can draw a card and when Guardian Angel Joan destroys a monster it's attack gets added to my life-points."

R: 5700

S: 10, 400

Sophie drew her card and grinned. "Weee, the monster I drew with Parshaff is Watapon!" Sophie said happily before doing a victory dance.

"Okay kid, Number 1 how much sugar did you consume during the recess, Number 2 how does that help you?" Ray asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Because when Watapon is added to my hand via the effect of a Spell, Trap or Monster card I can Special Summon it to the field!" Sophie played the card and a small pink being appeared on the field, it had big adorable eyes and antennas sticking out of it's head (1/200/300) and every male present ended up face-faulting when they heard the other females cooing over the monster.

"Theresa, you use that card in your fairy deck." Brandon said to his girlfriend as he got up too his feet. "Why are you cooing over it!"

"Just because I use it doesn't mean I can't find it cute." Theresa protested before glaring at her boyfriend. "And question why I find something cute again and you won't get any sex until we return to Duel Academy."

"Yeah, I'm going to drop that subject." Brandon said laughing nervously as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Good." Theresa smiled before returning to cooing over the monster.

"Watapon attack his life-points directly!" The fairy bounced over to Ray who laughed.

"What's it gonna do? Make me laugh until I lose life-points?" Ray said laughing and the other males joined in...only to stop laughing the moment Watapon made a scary face, opening it's mouth up wide revealing sharp fangs.

R: 5500

S: 10, 400

"Why did I open my big mouth?" Ray muttered under his breath as Watapon bounced back to Sophie's side of the field.

"Suddenly that thing's not quite as cute." Theresa said and Brandon face-faulted.

"You never attacked with that thing?" Brandon asked as he got up and Theresa looked at him like he just declared himself to be the love child of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.

"Off course not, I mostly use it as Sacrifice Fodder." Theresa answered and Brandon just shook his head.

"That ends my turn!" Sophie said sweetly and Ray swiftly drew his card.

"_Okay, there's no way in hell I'm going to let her keep her 5000 life-point lead!" _Ray thought as he looked at his hand. _"And I have just the card to do it!" _Ray thought before picking up two of his cards, one of which being one of the cards that Ray got with Mirage of Nightmare. "I set a card facedown and summon Flash Assailant in attack mode!" Ray played the cards and Brandon and Theresa did a double take.

"Flash Assailant? Why would he play that?" Brandon wondered as the facedown card appeared on the field alongside an one eyed Indian man with purple hair who was wearing a red scarf and white pants (4/2000/2000) and almost immediately his stats dropped to 800.

"Flash Assailant looses 400 attack points for each card in my hand." Ray explained with a frown. "But it's still more than enough to destroy Watapon so go Flash Assailant!" The man charged towards Watapon drawing out a knife as he did, he cut Watapon to ribbons before jumping back to Ray's side of the field. _"This had better work, if not then I'll lose a hell of a lot of life-points."_ Ray thought.

R: 5500

S: 9800

"That ends my turn." Ray announced and Sophie drew her card.

"Guardian Angel Joan attack Flash Assailant!" The angel prepared for her attack and Ray grinned before activating his trap.

"Thought you'd try something like that, that's why Flash Assailant was the bait for my Mirror Force trap card!" Sophie's eyes widened as the attack bounced back to Sophie's two monsters destroying them both. "If you can I suggest summoning something and quick." Sophie looked at the remaining cards in her hand and quickly set a monster.

"I set this in defence mode and end my turn." Sophie announced and Ray drew his card, as he did Flash Assailant's attack dropped to 400.

"_Okay I got rid of her monsters but she still has a huge lead." _Ray thought before playing the card he had drawn. "I offer Flash Assailant as a tribute to summon King of Yamimakai in attack mode!" Flash Assailant was consumed by darkness and in it's place stood a huge muscular behemoth of a field (5/2000/1530). _"Not exactly my best single tribute monster but he'll do for now."_ Ray thought. "King of Yamimakai attack her defence monster!" The fiend charged up two huge balls of dark energy in it's hands before launching them at the monster, revealed to be Shining Angel (4/1400/800) which was destroyed.

"The monster you destroyed was Shining Angel, it's effect is pretty much the same as my brother's Mother Grizzly cards only applied to fairies." Sophie explained as she sent her monster to the the graveyard, searched through her deck and played a second Shining Angel.

"Fine, I'll end my turn." Ray said with a frown and Sophie drew her card...and grinned broadly.

"All right, I get to play another copy of a card your trap card forced me to discard earlier!" Sophie said grinning broadly.

"_Trap Card? Oh yeah, I used Null and Void to prevent her from benefiting from those cards she drew with Cards From The Sky, one of them was a monster but the other...oh great..."_ Ray thought as realization hit him. "You just drew another Sanctuary In The Sky, didn't you?"

"You got it and I'm activating it!" Sophie played the card and the scenery changed to the great palace in the clouds.

"_Great, now I can't touch her life-points as long as she has fairies on her side of the field."_ Ray thought with a frown. _"As if I wasn't having enough trouble already."_

"I'll end my turn at that." Sophie announced and Ray quickly drew his card.

"Time I gave my King some backup, I summon The Bistro Butcher in attack mode!" Ray played the card and a purple fiend in a red chef's outfit appeared on the field wielding a meat cleaver (4/1800/1000). "King of Yamimakai attack Silent Angel!" The monster charged up it's attack and once again destroyed Silent Angel, Sophie searched through her deck and summoned her third and final one to the field. "Your turn Bistro Butcher, carve up Silent Angel!" The butcher charged forward and cut Silent Angel's throat open, Sophie searched through her deck for the last time before summoning a muscular man in gold armour with a matching mask and a knife (4/1500/1800)...and Ray's jaw dropped when it's attack skyrocketed to 3500. "What the hell?"

"Ray, meet Mudoria." Sophie introduced her new monster with a grin. "He gains 200 attack points for each Fairy type monster in my graveyard and I count ten so he gains 2000 attack points."

"Yeah, but at what cost?" Ray asked, Sophie blinked before looking at her duel disk...and her eyes widened.

"I...I only have one card left." Sophie said once realization hit her, Ray nodded and held up his own duel disk which had plenty of cards left in it's Deck Zone.

"Yeah, you spent too much of the duel drawing cards from the deck and now it's cost ya." Ray said folding his arms. "I'll end my turn." Ray announced and Sophie reluctantly drew her last card, she looked at it before sighing in resignation and surrendering.

"Even if I do attack you I won't do enough damage to finish you off." Sophie admitted as the holograms disappeared, both duellists said nothing but deactivated their duel disks and hopped off the stage.

"Looks like we're up next Brandon." Marcus realized and the Obelisk Blue student nodded.

"Yeah, may the best man win." Brandon said with a nod. _"I only hope that the cards that dad sent me yesterday serve me well."_ Brandon thought as he glanced down at his duel disk.

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next match." Kaiba announced over the PA and some of the duellists and spectators started to disperse, however two duellists didn't exactly go far namely Lance's siblings as they had approached their older brother.

"Your not disappointed in us, are you bro?" Mike asked catching his older brother off guard.

"Disappointed? Why would I be disappointed?" Lance asked and the two siblings blinked in confusion.

"But...but we lost our matches." Sophie said after a few minutes, Lance smiled at them reassuringly.

"You still had good duels, hell Mike you almost beat the only undefeated duellist here." Lance said pointing to Axel who was going through his deck. "You where just unlucky that's all."

"Thanks bro." Mike said with a smile, the two younger siblings walked off and Lance frowned.

"_Now I have to make sure that I don't lose my match."_ Lance thought before glaring at Felix. _"And if that means he joins his friends in the Orichalcos than so be it."_ Lance thought before turning to Theresa. "So Theresa, who are you backing in the next match?"

"Good question, and not one I have an answer too." Theresa said honestly. "Ideally I'd want them both to go through but that's not the way it works."

"True." Lance shrugged. "I'd be thinking the same thing if my siblings ended up fighting each-other rather than Axel and Ray."

"Or worse, either of them ended up facing you." Theresa pointed out and Lance nodded in agreement.

"Will Marcus Reynolds and Brandon Thomas please step onto the duel arena for the fifth match of the day." Kaiba's voice rang out and the two Duel Academy students shared a look.

"Good luck out there man." Marcus said with a respectful nod.

"Same to you." Brandon agreed as the two duellists got onto the arena and activated their duel disks.

"_Sorry Brandon but I don't intend to lose this."_ Marcus thought thinking back to Andreas's match against Otto. _"I have a friend to save and I'm not letting anyone get in my way!" _


	29. Rematch and Grudge Match

Marcus and Brandon shuffled their decks as they got ready for battle, the spectators where starting to pour back into the duel dome ready for the match to begin and once the two duellists where satisfied they drew their opening hands.

"What do you think Hamden?" Jeff asked as they watched the duel. "Who do you think will walk out with the win?"

"It's anyone's game Jeff." Hamden shrugged his shoulders. "Marcus and Brandon are excellent duellists in their own right but after what happened to Andreas emotions will be running high for the both of them."

"What do you say to a friendly wajor then? $10 on Brandon!" Jeff suggested.

"Really Jeff? Placing bets on your own students?" Martin asked and his colleague shrugged his shoulders. "$20 bucks on Marcus!" Whilst the teachers made bets Marcus was examining his hand closely as was Brandon.

"Okay Brandon, if you don't mind I want to go first." Marcus eventually said, Brandon took another look at his hand and shrugged his shoulders.

"That's fine by me." Brandon said and Marcus drew another card.

"Okay, I start with a monster in defence mode and a card facedown." Marcus played the cards and the two cards appeared facedown on the field. "That will do it for now." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_Hmm, on one hand I could play it safe in case that facedown monster is either Golem Dragon or Exploder Dragon."_ Brandon thought as he surveyed the field. _"On the other hand if I don't attack then he'll be free to tribute summon another, stronger monster."_ Brandon thought. "I start with the spell card Allure of Darkness, by removing one Dark Type monster from my hand this spell card allows me to draw two cards from my deck." Brandon pocketed a monster and drew two cards. "Now I summon Maiden of Macabre in attack mode!" Brandon played the card the scythe wielding geisha appeared on the field (4/1700/0).

"_That's it Brandon, attack my monster!"_ Marcus thought with a grin.

"Maiden of Macabre attack his defence monster now!" The geisha charged towards the monster, which to Brandon's surprise was a large white egg (1/300/250), and destroyed it with her scythe.

"Thanks Brandon, that monster was White Stone of Legend!" Marcus said as he sent the monster card to the graveyard. "By sending it to the graveyard you activated his effect which lets me search my deck for a monster that I'm sure needs no introduction, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

"Wait, what?" Nearly every other duellist blurted out when he said the name of the monster before adding it to his hand.

"Nicely played." Brandon admitted as his Geisha returned to his side of the field. "But Maiden of Macabre has an effect of her own, she gains a spell counter each time she destroys a monster and for each spell-counter she gains 200 attack points." Brandon explained as Maiden of Macabre's attack increased to 1900.

"I know that, I watched your match against Ket remember?" Marcus pointed out before examining his hand. _"Good, I have everything I need to get the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on the field in a couple of more turns."_ Marcus thought. "You done?"

"Not quite, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the card and Marcus drew another card.

"All right, I'll summon a monster that can beat your maiden, Vanguard of the Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and a medium sized blue dragon appeared on the field, it was standing on it's hind legs and was wielding a sword and a shield (4/1700/1300).

"Nice try but my Maiden's still stronger!" Brandon pointed out as his Geisha got ready for battle, Marcus just grinned.

"Yeah but like your maiden my Vanguard has an effect." Marcus said picking up a card. "By discarding one Dragon type monster from my hand I can increase his attack points to 2000!" Marcus discarded the card and like just like he said Vanguard's attack increased to 2000. "Vanguard of the Dragon attack Maiden of Macabre!" The Dragon threw it's spear at the Maiden...

"Sorry but you've fallen for my trap, go Sekeretsu Armour!" Brandon activated the trap and suddenly the vanguard was wearing hideous looking armour. "This trap can only be activated if you attack with a monster and it's effect destroys the attacking monster!" Before Marcus could say anything else the armour exploded taking his dragon with it, once the smoke started to clear however a familiar looking silhouette appeared. "What the..." Brandon muttered...only for his eyes to widen when the smoke cleared and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was standing beside a grinning Marcus (8/3000/2500).

"Surprised? Don't be, the dragon I discarded for Vanguard's effect was Blue-Eyes White Dragon and his effect allows me to special summon one normal type Dragon Monster from my graveyard when it's destroyed via a card's effect." Marcus explained before pointed to his dragon. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, WHITE LIGHTNING!" The dragon charged up it's famous attack before letting it lose destroying Maiden of Macabre.

B: 6900

M: 8000

"Nice move Marcus." Brandon commented once the smoke cleared.

"Yeah, I wasn't anticipating using my Vanguard's second effect so soon but who's complaing?" Marcus asked rhetorically. "Well aside from you, and before you get any ideas I activate my trap card Dragon's Rage which will allow my dragon to inflict piercing damage."

"Marcus is playing a lot more seriously than he usually does." Lance observed.

"I think what happened to Andreas lit a fire under him." Theresa commented before folding her arms. "Then again that's just speculation on my part."

"And with that I end my turn." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card, he looked up at Marcus's dragon then back down towards his newly drawn card.

"Time I took one of the cards I got from my stash for a spin." Brandon announced as he played the card he drew. "I activate Nightmare's Steel Cage!" Marcus blinked as a large cage completely surrounded Brandon. "Now neither of us can attack for two turns."

"I see, your binding your time until you can get a card that can beat my dragon on the field." Marcus said with a nod before grinning. "But you seem to forget that the only card in your deck that comes close to my dragon's attack power is Dark Armed Dragon and he falls a bit short."

"I know that." Brandon said before picking up a card. "I set this in defence mode and a card facedown, that ends my turn!" Brandon set the monster down and Marcus drew his card.

"Brandon your going to hate me for this, just a fair warning." Marcus said as he picked up two of the cards in his hand, Brandon blinked in confusion.

"Hate you? Why would you say that?" Brandon asked and Marcus grinned.

"Well first off, do you have Dark Armed Dragon in you hand?" Marcus asked and Brandon blinked.

"Err, no." Brandon said honestly and Marcus quickly played one of the cards.

"Well you do now, I activate Dark Designator!" Marcus played the card and Brandon did a double take. "With this I can declare one monster's name and if it's in your deck it gets added to your hand, my card of choice is Dark Armed Dragon!"

"Err, okay." Brandon blinked before searching through his deck and adding the card to his hand, Marcus sent his first spell card to the graveyard and played the second one. "I don't know why...your...oh crap!" Brandon blurted out when the hologram for Card Destruction appeared on the field.

"I couldn't of said it better myself, now we both have to discard our entire hands to the graveyard and draw new ones!" Marcus and Brandon discarded their hands and drew new ones, when Marcus saw three of the cards in his hand he grinned. "Sorry to disappoint you Brandon but I'm about to render your spell card useless."

"How do you intend to do that?" Brandon asked clearly annoyed after loosing the strongest monster in his deck.

"By summoning Lord of Dragons in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the dragon protecting Spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1200/1100) at which point Brandon facepalmed.

"Marcus, that monster protects monsters from being targeted by Spells, Monster effects and Traps, Nightmare's Steelcage doesn't target monsters!" Brandon pointed out and Marcus sweatdropped upon realizing his mistake. "But that's not all, I activate my trap card Hidden Soldiers! This trap can only be activated if you successfully normal summon a monster and it lets me special summon another monster to my side of the field as long as it's Level 4 or lower and it's a dark type monster, my card of choice is Newdoria in defence mode!" Brandon played the card and a small pink fiend appeared on the field, it had nasty looking claws and was wearing green and blue armour (4/1200/800)

"Thanks for the easy target for when Nightmare's Steelcage wears off, as my mistake okay, I admit that I should have planned that better." Marcus admitted before picking up and playing a card. "Doesn't mean I can't bolster my forces with The Flute Of Summoning Dragon though, this spell card lets me Special Summon up to two Dragon Type monsters, my monsters of choice are Cave Dragon and Rare Metal Dragon!" Marcus played the cards and the two dragons appeared on the field, the first was a massive green dragon (4/2000/100) and a large metallic dragon (4/2400/1200).

"Not bad, you now have more than enough firepower to finish me off." Brandon said calmly. "Just one problem, you won't be able to attack me until Nightmare's Steelcage wears off."

"I know so I'll end my turn." Marcus announced and Brandon drew a card.

"_I'd better hope that this combo works otherwise I'd be out of the tournament."_ Brandon thought as he looked at his new card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced and Marcus drew his card.

"Well what do you know, I won't have to wait as long as I fought!" Marcus said with a grin. "I activate the Spell Card A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon took flight. "In order to activate this card I have return one Level 5 or higher monster to my hand and my Blue-Eyes definitely qualifies."

"And is there a reason your getting rid of your strongest monster?" Brandon asked only to subsequently shield himself when the dragon flapped it's wings causing a harsh wind to wash over the field, then to his surprise the cage shattered followed by his facedown card and Marcus's copy of Dragon's Rage, once the wind settled down the dragon disappeared from the field.

"Because in exchange for that A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon destroys every Spell and Trap Card on the field." Marcus explained before grinning. "But don't worry, my dragon won't be gone for long, I sacrifice Rare Metal Dragon and Cave Dragon to bring back the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the two dragons vanished from the field and in the place of Rare Metal Dragon stood the famous Blue-Eyes White Dragon (8/3000/2500). "Blue-Eyes White Dragon attack Newdoria with White Lightning!" The dragon charged up it's attack before letting lose disintegrating the fiend. "Your turn Lord of Dragons..." Marcus started only to be taken aback when he saw Lord Of Dragons on the ground with a nasty looking gash across his neck before the hologram shattered. "What the? A Wingbeat Of Giant Dragon wiped out your spell cards."

"True but Newdoria has an effect of his own." Brandon said holding up the card. "When he's destroyed in battle he takes one monster with him but since it's effect targets a monster I couldn't get rid of Blue-Eyes so instead I went for the next best thing, your Lord Of Dragons."

"Anyone else feeling a sense of deja vue?" Chloe asked as the boys sent their cards to the graveyard.

"Yeah, it's similar to what happened in their first duel back at Duel Academy." Theresa nodded in agreement. "Pretty much the only difference aside from the monsters is the fact that Newdoria isn't a flip effect monster."

"Heh, nice move Brandon." Marcus complemented him before folding his arms. "But you still have my Blue-Eyes White Dragon to deal with so for now I'll end my turn."

"Believe me, I'll deal with that thing in due time." Brandon said as he drew his card. "I activate Pot of Avarice, which will allow me to return five monster cards from my graveyard to my deck and draw two cards, my monsters of choice are Maiden of Macabre, Dark Crusader (4/1600/200), Dark Armed Dragon (7/2800/1000), Newdoria and Armageddon Knight (4/1400/1200)." Brandon returned the monsters to his deck, shuffled it and drew two cards. "Sorry Marcus but my Dragon isn't gone for good."

"Okay but you still need three Dark-Type monsters in your graveyard to summon it." Marcus pointed out with a grin. "And by my count you only returned three of the monsters discarded with Card Destruction so you won't be able to bring out Dark Armed Dragon just yet."

"I know that, but truth be told the three monsters I mentioned that where in my hand? Those where the only monsters in my hand." Brandon admitted with a grin. "Which means I'll have a clean slate once I actually draw Dark Armed Dragon, for now I set a card facedown and summon Dark Hunter in attack mode!" Brandon played the cards he drew with Pot of Avarice and a humanoid dog that was black with green streaks appeared on the field, it was wearing a cape that matches it's fur colour and was carrying a dagger (4/1600/400) but almost as soon as it appeared Dark Hunter's attack dropped to 200. "Dark Hunter's a fairly unique monster in the effect that it has various effects depending on how many Dark-Type monsters I have in my graveyard, at the moment I have none so he instantly looses 400 attack points."

"So what? Even if it was at full strength that thing's no match for my Blue-Eyes." Marcus said confidently and Brandon grinned.

"Why don't you try attacking him then? I end my turn." Brandon announced and Marcus drew his card.

"All right I will, Blue-Eyes attack Dark Hunter with White Lightning!" The dragon charged up it's attack and fired at Brandon's fiend...

"I activate my trap card Interdimensional Matter Transporter!" Brandon activated the card and Dark Hunter vanished from the field before the attack could hit. "This trap card lets me remove one faceup monster I control from play until your turn ends." Brandon explained as he pocketed Dark Hunter, since the attack had no target it instead impacted the ground beneath where Dark Hunter used to be and Brandon shielded himself from the blast.

"Fine, my Blue-Eyes can attack again since your side of the field changed, Blue-Eyes White Dragon attack his defence with White Lightning!" The dragon charged up it's attack again before letting lose a stream of destruction towards the facedown monster which was quickly destroyed. "That takes care off...huh?" Marcus started but trailed off when he saw the Blue-Eyes disappear from the field. "What did you just do?"

"The monster you attacked was Wall Of Illusion (4/1000/1850)." Brandon said as he held up the monster. "Any monster that does battle with it is returned to the owner's hand immediately."

"NO WAY!" Marcus blurted out before sighing and returning the monster to his hand, Brandon said nothing as he sent his monster to the graveyard. "I'm not done yet though because encase you haven't noticed I can still summon a monster so I summon Luster Dragon number two in attack mode and set a card facedown." Marcus played the cards and the beautiful sapphire dragon appeared on the field (4/1900/1600). "I end my turn." Marcus announced and as Brandon drew his card Dark Hunter reappeared on the field.

"Okay, I sacrifice Dark Hunter to summon a new monster, Penumbral Soldier Lady in attack mode!" Dark Hunter vanished from the field and in its place stood an attractive blonde woman wearing green and grey midriff exposing armour that had what looked like the moon on her chest who was wielding a matching sword and shield (6/2100/1400). "Penumbral Soldier Lady attack Luster Dragon!" The woman charged forward...

"Nice try Brandon but I activate my trap card Dragon Reincarnation!" Marcus flipped up his trap and to Brandon's surprise Luster Dragon vanished from the field, his warrior hesitated due to not having a target. "This trap can only be activated if I remove a Dragon type monster from play first so bye-bye Luster Dragon." Marcus said as he pocketed the monster. "But here's the sweet part, in exchange this trap will let my special summon a Dragon type monster from my hand or graveyard and I'll give you two guesses as to what monster I'm bringing out."

"Your Blue-Eyes White Dragon." Brandon said calmly as Marcus played the card and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon returned to the field.

"That's right and he doesn't appreciate being bounced back to my hand last turn!" Marcus said with a grin. "So, you going to call off the attack?"

"Actually no, Penumbral Soldier Lady resume your assault!" Brandon commanded and the female soldier charged towards the dragon,

"WHAT?" Nearly every other duellist yelled out when they heard the command, Brandon remained confident though and it soon became obvious why as his warrior's attack increased to 3100.

"Where did that power boost come from?" Marcus yelled out in surprise as the warrior leaped up and decapitated his dragon with one blow.

M: 7900

B: 6900

"Her own effect, you see when Penumbral Soldier Lady does battle with a Light-Type monster she instantly gains 1000 attack points!" Brandon explained as his warrior returned to his side of the field. "Your dragon maybe mighty Marcus but he's far from invincible." Brandon added and Marcus said nothing as he sent his dragon to the graveyard.

"_No matter, I have ways of getting him back on the field."_ Marcus thought as he looked over his hand. _"Even if I don't draw one of those ways I still have Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and even if that fails I have my trump card in my extra deck."_ Marcus thought before looking back at Brandon. "You done yet?" Marcus asked and Brandon nodded, Marcus drew his card and did a double taken when he saw it. "I activate the Spell Card Future Fusion, in order to activate this I have to reveal one monster in my extra deck to you and send the fusion material monsters from my deck to the graveyard." Marcus explained as he retrieved a card from his extra deck. "Feast your eyes Brandon, this monster will take me all the way to the championship!" Marcus showed the card and Brandon did a double take,

"Five-Headed Dragon (12/5000/5000)?" Brandon blurted out when he saw the monster. "How long have you had that card?"

"It was one of the first cards I got when I originally constructed my Dragon Deck." Marcus explained as he returned it to the extra deck. "But I've been saving it for a special occasion and as far as I'm concerned the Battle City Semi-Finals are a perfect time to use it and in two more turns it will be summoned by the effect of Future Fusion!" Marcus explained as he retrieved five monsters, Golem Dragon (4/200/2000), Kaiser Glider (6/2400/2200) and his three Troop Dragons (2/700/800), from his deck and sent them to the graveyard.

"Brandon's in big trouble if he brings that out." Chloe realized but Ray shook his head.

"Not quite, if Brandon can destroy Future Fusion before the monster's summoned then it won't be summoned at all." Ray said folding his arms. "If that happens Marcus will just have a deck that's lacking 5 monsters and nothing to show for it."

"Marcus isn't stupid." Lance said shaking his head. "He probably has a backup plan if Future Fusion fails."

"_Yeah, I do." _Marcus thought as he glanced at two cards in his hand, Red-Eyes Black Chick and Red-Eyes Black Dragon. _"And as soon as I can draw Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon I'll set it in motion."_ Marcus thought before glancing up. "For the time being I'll set a monster in defence mode." Marcus set the card and held up two cards. "Two more turns Brandon and this duel will be over!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself!" Brandon answered back before drawing his card. "I set a card facedown for later, now Penumbral Soldier Lady attack his defence!" The female soldier charged towards the monster, revealed to be Masked Dragon (3/1400/1100) which was quickly destroyed.

"Since you destroyed Masked Dragon I can search my deck for a Dragon type monster with 1500 or less attack from my deck and summon it to the field." Marcus explained as he searched through his deck and selected another Masked Dragon which appeared on the field where the first one used to be, Marcus shuffled his deck before turning his attention to Brandon.

"_More deck milling, what's he up too?" _Brandon thought before folding his arms. "That will end my turn." Brandon announced and Marcus drew his card.

"Just a fair warning, during my next standby phase Five-Headed Dragon will be summoned and will be ready to carry me to the finals." Marcus said before looking at his card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Marcus set the drawn card down and Brandon drew his card...and grinned.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your dragon's staying in the Extra Deck!" Brandon said as he played the card he drew. "Go Mystical Space Typhoon!" Brandon played the card and a tornado started making it's way to Future Fusion's hologram...

"I don't think so, I activate Magic Jammer!" Marcus activated the trap and, after discarding a card from his hand, a purple fog protected Future Fusion's hologram from the tornado.

"Fine I'll settle for destroying your second Masked Dragon instead, go Penumbral Soldier Lady!" The female warrior charged towards the dragon and slashed it in half with her sword, Marcus wordlessly picked up his deck and searched through it before picking up and summoning his last Masked Dragon. "I'll end my turn."

"And so it begins!" Marcus said before drawing his card, the hologram for Future Fusion started glowing and a mighty roar was heard.

"I don't like the sound of that!" Lance yelled out as he covered his ears, soon a huge dragon with five heads appeared on the field, two of the heads where black, one was yellow, one was made of fire and the last one was blue, it's body was yellow as well (12/5000/5000). "Holy fucking shit!"

"Think he's impressive now? I haven't even began to describe his ability, you see he can't be destroyed in battle if he's doing battle with a Earth, Water, Wind or Dark monster." Marcus said triumphantly. "And I've seen enough of your duels to know that you have nothing but dark type monsters in your deck." Marcus said before switching Masked Dragon to attack mode. "Five-Headed Dragon, destroy Penumbral Soldier Lady, Masked Dragon attack his life-points directly!" The five heads of the dragon fired their attacks simultaneously at the warrior destroying her quickly, Masked Dragon was the next to strike...

"I don't think so, by attacking my life-points directly you've allowed me to Special Summon Battle Fader from my hand!" Brandon played the card and a small fiend that resembled a clock appeared on the field (1/0/0). "Now that he's been summoned this way the battle phase ends immediately."

B: 4000

M: 7900

"I should have known that you wouldn't be that easy to beat!" Marcus happily before frowning. "But all the same, I can't let you win." Marcus said with a tone of voice that caught Brandon off guard.

"Why? Because of Otto?" Brandon asked and Marcus nodded.

"I'm not about to let him get away with what he said about Chloe or what he did to his own brother." Marcus continued with a frown. "My only regret is that in the process I have to knock one of my friends out of the tournament." Marcus added and Brandon nodded in understanding. "I end my turn."

"Now I'm feeling a bit guilty for betting on this match." Jeff confessed with a frown. "All in favour of calling the bet off say I."

"I." The other teachers said simultaneously as Brandon drew his card.

"Sorry Marcus but I'm about to bring that dragon down." Brandon said pointing to Five-Headed Dragon.

"Oh really?" Marcus asked raising an eyebrow. "How do you intend to do that?"

"With this, I sacrifice Battle Fader to summon Caius, The Shadow Monarch in attack mode!" Brandon swapped out the cards and Battle Fader disappeared from the field, in it's place stood a massive black fiend in tattered robes appeared on the field (6/2400/1000).

"Dude, I think your math might be a bit off!" Marcus pointed as as the five heads of Five-Headed Dragon roared at Caius who started forming a ball of black energy in his hand.

"Sorry Marcus but Caius has an ability of his own, when he's successfully tribute summoned he removes one monster card on the field from play and if that monster happens to be a Dark Type monster it's controller looses one thousand life-points." Brandon explained and Marcus's eyes widened. "Caius use your ability to remove Five-Headed Dragon from play!" The fiend launched it's ball off energy at the dragon striking it in the chest, the dragon's heads roared in agony before disintegrating.

B: 4000

M: 6900

"Oh and one more thing, Caius can still attack!" Brandon said as Marcus pocketed Five-Headed Dragon and sent Future Fusion to the graveyard. "Caius attack and destroy his last Masked Dragon!" The fiend prepared another attack before launching it at Masked Dragon destroying it.

M: 5900

B: 4000

"I'm sure I don't need to repeat Masked Dragon's effect." Marcus said as he sent Masked Dragon to the graveyard and searched through his deck. _"I already used up my Troop Dragons in order to summon Five-Headed Dragon so they are out of the question...AHA! Got it!" _Marcus thought before selecting the card and Decoy Dragon appeared on the field (2/300/200).

"Marcus, if you think I'm dumb enough to attack that thing after what happened in our last duel then your sadly mistaken!" Brandon pointed out before folding his arms. "I'll end my turn for now." Brandon said and Marcus drew his card.

"_He won't have a choice soon enough."_ Marcus thought as he saw his newly drawn card. "I set a card facedown and summon Red-Eyes Black Chick in attack mode!" Marcus played the two cards and the egg containing the baby Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared on the field (1/800/500). "That ends my turn." Brandon said nothing as he drew his card though the confusion was evident on his face.

"_Why didn't he use Red Eyes Black Chick's effect to bring out it's strongest form? At least then he'd have a monster that can go toe to toe with my Monarch."_ Brandon thought before glancing at his newly drawn card. "I summon Don Zaloog in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the leader of the Dark Scorpions appeared on the field (4/1400/1500). "Don Zaloog attack Red-Eyes Black Chick!" The leader of the Dark Scorpions leader charged towards Decoy Dragon...

"Sorry Brandon but there's been a change of plans, I activate Shift which lets me change Don Zaloog's target to Decoy Dragon and you know what that means!" Brandon's eyes widened as Don Zaloog turned towards Decoy Dragon which vanished before the blades could make contact, Marcus sent Decoy Dragon to the graveyard and retrieved Blue-Eyes White Dragon before playing it and just like that the legendary dragon was back on the field (8/3000/2500). "Blue-Eyes, counter-attack with White Lightning!" The dragon charged up it's attack before letting lose destroying the Dark Scorpions leader.

M: 5900

B: 2600

"Fine, I'll end my turn!" Brandon announced and Marcus drew his card, as he did Brandon quickly activated his trap. "I activate Thunder of Ruler, now you can't conduct your battle phase."

"Good choice, otherwise I'd be able to finish you off in this turn!" Marcus said before picking up a card. "I use Red-Eyes Black Chick's effect allowing me to tribute her to summon her daddy, Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" The egg started to hatch and once it was open Red-Eyes Black Chick started glowing and growing eventually growing into it's fully grown form (7/2400/2000). "But he's not sticking around, I tribute Red-Eyes Black Dragon to summon it's strongest form and my strongest monster, RED-EYES DARKNESS DRAGON!" The Red Eyes Black Dragon vanished and in it's place stood it's strongest form (9/2400/2000).

"Oh great, that thing gains three hundred attack points for each dragon in your graveyard!" Brandon realized and Marcus nodded.

"And I have a lot of dragons in there so lets count, first there's White Stone of Legend and Vanguard Of The Dragon which gives him 600, then there's the three dragons I discarded with Card Destruction which gives him 900, then there's Rare Metal Dragon and Cave Dragon which gives him 600, then there's the five dragons I sent to the graveyard for Future Fusion's effect giving him 1500, then there's the three Masked Dragons which gives him 900, then there's Decoy Dragon which gives him an extra 300 and last but not least there's Red-Eyes Black Chick and Red-Eyes Black Dragon which gives him 600 so in total that's a whopping 7800 attack points!" Marcus explained and Brandon's eyes widened once it dawned on him.

"7800...attack...points..." Lance managed to blurt out once it dawned on him and his jaw hit the floor.

"_My, my, for a Ra Yellow student Marcus is showing some good strategy."_ Otto thought as he watched the duel. _"Pity that Brandon's trap has brought him some time."_

"However like you said I can't attack so I end my turn." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card.

"I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands!" Brandon played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hands, "I set two cards facedown, switch my Monarch to defence mode and set a monster in defence mode, your move." Brandon announced and Marcus drew his card.

"You're going to regret giving me this card, I activate the Cheerful Coffin!" Marcus played the card and Brandon blinked. "This lets me discard three monster cards from my hand to my graveyard and you know what that means!" Marcus discarded the cards and Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack increased to 8700 attack points.

"I am so glad I'm not in Brandon's shoes right now." Chloe gulped at the site of the monster.

"Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon attack Caius, INFERNO DARKFIRE!" The dragon took flight before letting lose with a mighty fireball destroying the fiend. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon attack his defence, WHITE LIGHTNING!" The dragon charged up it's famous attack before letting lose...

"Bad choice Marcus!" Brandon yelled over the noise of the attack, Marcus blinked...only for his eyes to widen when he saw that the monster was another Wall of Illusion (4/1000/1850).

"HOLD YOUR ATTACK!" Marcus yelled but it was too late, the Wall of Illusion was disintegrated by the attack and Blue-Eyes White Dragon disappeared from the field, Marcus reluctantly returned it to his hand.

"_I was hoping he'd attack Wall of Illusion with Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon but one less powerful monster to deal with is fine by me."_ Brandon thought with a frown.

"I'll end my turn." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card.

"I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Brandon played the card and three golden swords rained down from the sky pinning down Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon. "Now I summon Ancient Brain to the field in attack mode and activate Dark Spirit Art – Greed!" Brandon played the card and an odd looking orange fiend appeared on the field, it's brain was showing, it had purple wings, it was carrying a small staff and it was wearing a green cloak (3/1000/700) and it disappeared almost as soon as it arrived due to Dark Spirit Art's effect,

"Fortunately for you I don't have any spell cards to negate that card's effect." Marcus admitted and Brandon drew two cards.

"I'll end my turn for now!" Brandon announced and Marcus drew his card.

"I'll pass." Marcus said as the first of the swords disappeared, Brandon drew another card,

"Okay, I activate Soul Release to remove Caius, Don Zaloog, my second Wall Of Illusion, Ancient Brain and one of your Masked Dragons from play." Brandon played the card and retrieved the monsters from the graveyard before pocketing them, Marcus did likewise and Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack dropped to 8400.

"Like that'll help you." Marcus said with a scoff.

"It'll help me in two more turns, for now I set a monster in defence and end my turn." Brandon set the monster down and Marcus drew his card.

"_My deck's running a bit low, if I want to win this I had better end it as soon as possible."_ Marcus thought. "I activate Cards Of Consonance! In exchange for discarding a Dragon type Tuner monster with 1000 attack or less I can draw two cards." Marcus discarded the monster, increasing Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack to 8700 in the process, and drew his cards. "I'll end my turn." Marcus announced as the second sword disappeared and Brandon drew his card.

"_Damn it, I still haven't drawn Dark Armed Dragon."_ Brandon thought with a frown. _"If he draws another Dragon's Rage and I don't draw Dark Armed Dragon I'll be out of the tournament."_ Brandon thought before setting the drawn card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn."

"And begins mine!" Marcus said as he drew his card. _"All right, I've drawn Dragon's Rage! Now all I need to do is set this down and let Swords of Revealing Light wear off!" _Marcus thought before setting the card down. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Marcus said and Brandon drew his card as the last sword disappeared and Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon let out a mighty roar obviously unhappy at being unable to attack. "I activate Dragon's Rage! Now there's nothing that can save you from my dragon's wrath!"

"Nothing except this! I chain Dragon's Rage with Seven Tools of the Bandit!" Brandon activated his trap and, as his life-points dropped to 1600, the hologram for Dragon's Rage shattered. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced and Marcus drew his card.

"Sorry man but this duel is over!" Marcus said playing the card he drew. "I activate Nobleman Of Crossout to remove your facedown monster from play!" The armoured human charged towards the facedown monster and struck it with his sword.

"_So much for my last Wall Of Illusion."_ Brandon thought as he pocketed the monster.

"Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon, finish him off with INFERNO DARKFIRE!" The dragon let lose with it's fireball...

"I'm not out of it yet, I activate Enchanted Javelin which will take Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon's attack and add it to my life-points!" Brandon activated the trap and the javelin went through the fireball and the dragon before it fired a beam of light at Brandon sending his life-points sky-rocketing up to 10,300, then the attack hit sending Brandon flying and his life-points plummeting down to 1600.

"You okay man?" Marcus asked as Brandon got back up to his feet, he gathered up the cards in his hand and got back into position.

"Never better." Brandon said with a nod. "You done?" Brandon asked and Marcus nodded, Brandon drew his card and smiled. "I'm about to take out that dragon Marcus."

"Heh, good luck with that!" Marcus said confidently and Brandon held up his drawn card.

"Now that I have three Dark-Type monsters in my graveyard I can summon my strongest monster, Dark Armed Dragon!" Brandon played the card and the massive dragon appeared in the skies above the arena ready for battle (7/2800/1000).

"Nice try but your dragon falls a little short!" Marcus pointed out before he noticed Brandon retrieving one of the cards from his graveyard.

"Then you've forgotten about my dragon's special ability, it allows me to remove one Dark Type monster from my graveyard and destroy one monster on the field!" Marcus's eyes widened as he watched the mighty dragon's tail raise up and slam into Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon destroying it. "Dark Armed Dragon attack his life-points directly!" The dragon raised it's tail about and slammed it into Marcus.

M: 3100

B: 1600

"You okay man?" Brandon asked as Marcus got up, Marcus nodded and Brandon smiled. "I'll set a card facedown and end my turn but you could always surrender you know, I've taken everything you've thrown at me and beaten them all!"

"Not on your life!" Marcus said determinedly as he drew his card. "I activate my own Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands!" Marcus played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards, however both duellists could see that they're decks where running low so they would need to end it soon. "Brandon, you've seen me use several different methods of getting the Blue-White Dragon onto the field but now I'm going to show you another."

"Another?" Brandon echoed clearly confused.

"Yeah but first I activate Lightning Vortex to clear your side of the field!" Marcus played the card and Brandon shielded himself as lightning struck his dragon destroying him.

"Before you do anything else I activate my trap card Waboku to protect my life-points." Brandon activated the trap and Marcus frowned.

"Fine, I can wait a turn before finishing you off." Marcus shrugged. "Now I activate White Dragon Ritual, in order to activate this I have to send a Level 4 or higher monster from my hand to the graveyard so I send Alexandrite Dragon (4/2000/100) from my hand to the graveyard to summon Paladin Of White Dragon!" Marcus discarded the card and a knight riding atop a white dragon which seemed to resemble a young Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field, the knight's armour and cape was white and it was ready for battle (4/1900/1200).

"Marcus, all you brought out was a weaker ritual monster, I'm not exactly impressed." Brandon said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"You will be because his effect lets me tribute him to Special Summon my Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my hand or deck!" Marcus played the card and the dragon carrying the knight took flight into the sky and from the sky emerged the legendary dragon (8/3000/2500). "To be honest man you wasted your trap card."

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked.

"Well my intention was never to attack with Paladin and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that's summoned by it's effect can't attack the same turn it's summoned." Marcus explained. "The reason I used Lightning Vortex was to keep you from using Dark Armed Dragon's effect."

"Can't blame me for being cautious." Brandon shrugged his shoulders before looking up at the dragon. _"I may have something that can beat that thing and Marcus but it all depends on what card I draw." _Brandon thought. "My move?" Marcus nodded and Brandon went to draw a card. _"Come on Heart of the Cards, guide me!" _Brandon thought before drawing his card. "Sorry Marcus but this is over."

"Your surrendering?" Marcus asked and Brandon shook his head.

"Far from it, I activate Polmerization to fuse Dark Blade (4/1800/1500) and Pitch-Dark Dragon (3/900/600) to form the mighty Dark Blade The Dragon Knight!" Brandon played the card and the two monsters where sucked into the vortex, the monster that emerged was basically Dark Blade riding atop the dragon (6/2200/1500).

"You're kidding? That thing's much weaker than my dragon!" Marcus scoffed and Brandon shook his head.

"Far from it because I activate Megamorph, since my life-points are lower than yours my Dragon Knight's attack is doubled!" Brandon played the card and the knight doubled in size and strength all the way to 4400. "Dark Blade The Dragon Knight, attack Blue-Eyes White Dragon with Dark Sword Slash!" The dragon flew towards the other one and the knight decapitated the mighty dragon.

M: 1700

B: 1600

"No biggie, I'm still standing!" Marcus said confidently and Brandon shook his head.

"Not for long, I activate De-Fusion to split up Dark Blade and Pitch-Dark Dragon into their individual forms." Marcus's eyes widened as Dark Blade hopped off Pitch-Dark Dragon's back and landed on the field. "It's been a hell of a duel man but only one of us was going to win today." Brandon said sadly.

"Dude, I maybe out of the tournament but I'm just happy that it's you I lost too." Marcus said with a smile which was returned by Brandon.

"Dark Blade, finish it!" The warrior charged towards Marcus and slashed him with his swords.

M: 0000

B: 1600

Marcus slowly got to his feet as the crowd was silent, Marcus sighed as he looked down at his deck. "I gave you everything my deck had, even my Five-Headed Dragon but it still wasn't enough."

"Yeah, it was a hell of a ride though." Brandon said with a smile, before the two boys could say anything else though they where cut off by the cheers and applause from the crowd and fellow duellists alike, some where even calling for a rematch though that never happened. "Looks like we've left our mark on this tournament."

"That we did." Marcus said with a smile as the two boys hopped off the duel arena. "Hey Brandon, if you end up facing Otto in the next round, kick his ass for me okay?"

"You got it." Brandon nodded only to be caught off guard by a friendly pat on the back from Ray.

"That was a hell off a show guys...and a hell of a comeback for that matter." Ray said and Brandon smiled.

"Well I wouldn't of been satisfied if I won an easy duel." Brandon said honestly before turning to Miranda. "Your facing your sister next."

"So I noticed." Miranda said with a nod. "Don't worry about me kid, I didn't become as good as I am just by being good looking."

"I don't doubt that but Orichalcos duels can be brutal, just look at what happened after the second duel." Marcus chimed in with a frown. "Be careful out there."

"Thanks for the warning kid." Miranda said with a nod.

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next duel." Kaiba's voice rang out over the PA system once the noise died down, most of the spectators left to grab snacks or have bathroom breaks but the duellists stayed where they where.

"I'm starting to see why Brandon beat me in that match we had." Felix said coolly as he leaned against the wall. "I'll get him back in the next round though."

"You honestly think I give a fuck about your match?" Karen asked bluntly as she got up close to him and Felix scoffed. "All I care about is getting revenge on my sister."

"Does she know about..." Felix started but Karen put a finger on his lips.

"No, but I'll tell her during the match." Karen said plainly.

"Hey you two, get a room." One of the security guards yelled out too them and Karen glared at him.

"I'd love too but no matter what I try she won't spread her legs for me!" Felix shouted back only to be kneed in the balls by Karen who subsequently stormed off. "Women right?" Felix laughed even as he grunted in pain.

"You sure you going to be okay against your own sister?" Chloe asked Miranda who gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry about me kid, this isn't exactly my first time duelling her and I've beaten her in each of our previous encounters." Miranda said before looking down at her deck. "My Harpie Ladies hasn't failed me against her before and they aren't going to fail me today, yes even if she is an Orichalcos duellist."

"I'd take their advice if I where you Miranda." Axel chimed in with a frown. "My last match before the semi-finals was an Orichalcos duel."

"Relax, even with the Orichalcos I'll still beat her." Miranda said confidently. "Besides my deck doesn't just contain Harpie Ladies nowadays."

"You've modified it?" Eddie asked and she nodded. "In what way?"

"Wait and see." Miranda said plainly.

"Will Miranda and Karen Trayson please step onto the duel arena for the sixth match of the day." Kaiba's voice rang out over the PA system and Miranda grinned before stepping onto the podium, Karen quickly followed glaring at her sister the whole time.

"Karen, I..." Miranda started and Karen's eyes narrowed.

"Save it!" Karen snapped at her as she activated her Orichalcos Duel Disk. "This match is one I've been waiting for and I don't want to hear your excuses."

"Well Bob, there seems to be oh god damn it not again!" Bill started but stopped once he saw Karen's duel disk.

"May as well go with it Bill, it's going to be a long Semi-Finals." Bill said facepalming as the two women activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands.

"So, who's going first?" Miranda asked as she looked over her hand, Karen did likewise before glancing up at her older sister maintaining the death glare.

"You will." Karen said plainly and Miranda drew another card.

"Well then, allow me to start things off with something you lack, style." Miranda said plainly earning a collect "Ohhhhh" from duellists and spectators alike. "I summon Cyber Harpy Lady in attack mode!" Miranda played the card and the Harpy Lady appeared on the field wearing it's cyber shield. (4/1800/1300). "That's not all, I equip her with Rose Whip increasing her attack to 2100." Miranda played the card and a whip appeared in the Harpy's hands increasing her attack to 2100. "I set this facedown for later and end my turn, think you can top that sis?"

"Don't act all friendly you bitch, I know what your really like!" Karen snapped at her before drawing her card, she looked at it and frowned. _"Not the seal but this will do nicely."_ Karen thought before setting the card. "I set this facedown for later and a monster in defence mode, your move." Karen announced and Miranda drew her card.

"You may be familiar with this card sis, I activate Elegant Egotist! This spell card can only be activated if I have a Harpie Lady on my side of the field and according to Cyber Harpie Lady's effect she counts as Harpie Lady..." Miranda started.

"And as a result it'll allow you to Special Summon one Harpie Lady or Harpie Lady Sisters from your deck, let me guess your going with Harpie Lady Sisters?" Karen cut her off somehow holding back her smirk. _"Just as I hoped!"_

"You would be right." Miranda nodded before searching through her deck and playing the card, almost immediately the three Harpie Ladies appeared on the field ready for battle (6/1950/2100) at which point Karen started laughing.

"You idiot, that was what I was hoping for! I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Demise Of The Land!" Karen activated the card and Felix smirked instantly catching on.

"_Smart move babe!"_ Felix thought as Karen picked up her deck.

"This quick play spell card can only be activated if you special summon a monster and it lets me activate a Field Spell Card from my deck!" Karen said with an evil smirk and Miranda's eyes widened once it dawned on her.

"Sis, please for the love of god think about what your doing!" Miranda pleaded with her as she searched through her deck. "If you play that than either of us will end up in a coma!"

"I know, but I've had two long years to think about this!" Karen growled as she held up her card. "And I don't plan on losing, through the magic of Demise of the Land I activate The Seal Of The Orichalcos!"

"Oh great, not again!" One of the spectators yelled out before the seal encased both women, Miranda quickly shielded herself and when she looked up her eyes widened in horror when she saw the Orichalcos symbol on Karen's forehead and a look of manic glee on her face.

"You know it's funny, up until this point I haven't used the Seal at all in this point." Karen said with a grin. "Then again I was saving it for you."

"How thoughtful." Miranda muttered under her breath sarcastically, whilst that was going on her Harpies seemed to be looking around the seal with a look of confusion on their faces. "Cyber Harpy attack her defence monster." The harpy took flight and whipped at the monster which which was revealed to be a small green insect with two sets of arms and wings (4/1400/900) and despite it's attack increasing to 1900 due to the seal it was quickly destroyed. "Flying Kamakiri Number 1, why am I not surprised?"

"Maybe because you helped me make this deck? Just saying." Karen shrugged before searching through her deck and selecting a card. "Thanks to Kamakiri's effect I can search through my deck for a Wind Type Monster with 1500 or less attack points and since I don't like the idea of being attacked directly right now or suffering any damage for that matter I summon Whirlwind Prodigy in attack mode!" Karen played the card and a small boy with wild brown hair appeared on the field, he had a good tan and was wearing a black t-shirt and white pants (4/1500/1600) and his attack increased to 2000 as soon as the symbol appeared on his forehead. "Remind you of anyone Miranda?" Miranda blinked for a bit before her eyes widened.

"Jason..." Miranda's eyes narrowed. "How dare you bring him into this, he's been dead for years."

"Who are they talking about?" Chloe asked scratching her head.

"Miranda had two siblings, Karen and Jason, he was the youngest of the three." Alex explained before frowning. "He died whilst they where still in high school, overdosed on Karen's drug stash apparently."

"Why not? You don't seem to have a problem sharing it with people outside of the family?" Karen asked pointing to Alex before folding her arms. "Get used to it bitch, that's just the first of the painful memories I'll be bringing up."

"I can't believe I once thought she was hot!" Marcus said with a facepalm.

"This really isn't an appropriate time Marcus." Theresa scolded him before frowning. "If that's true than shouldn't she be in jail? It was her stash that he overdosed on so she should be guilty of manslaughter at the very least."

"If I had an answer for that I'd tell ya." Alex shrugged. "How'd you know so much about law anyway?"

"My mom's a cop." She answered simply. "I have a basic understanding of the law as a result." Theresa added.

"I end my turn." Miranda said with a frown and Karen drew her card.

"I know invoke Whirlwind Prodigy's effect meaning that I can use him as both tributes for a Level 7 or higher monster so I sacrifice him to summon Simorgh, Bird of Divinity in attack mode!" Whirlwind Prodigy vanished from the field and in his place stood a massive green bird with a crown on it's head (7/2700/1000) and it's attack went up to 3200 thanks to the Seal of the Orichalcos but none the less Miranda frowned when she saw the monster.

"Why summon that? It's effect will do you more harm than good once your turn ends." Miranda pointed out with a frown.

"Normally that would be true but as soon as I destroy Cyber Harpy that won't be a problem." Karen said before pointing to the bird. "Simorgh, attack Cyber Harpy with Wings of Divinity!" The bird took flight before divebombing at Cyber Harpy at a great speed, fast enough to cut the Harpy in half before she even knew what was happening.

M: 6900

K: 8000

"Why didn't she go after the Harpy Lady Sisters? She would've done more damage?" Lance asked scratching his head in confusion.

"More importantly, why didn't Miranda activate her trap?" Theresa asked equally as confused as Lance.

"I end my turn." Karen said as the bird took flight again and spread it's wings out striking both women.

M: 6400

K: 7500

"What just happened?" Lance asked confused.

"Simorgh's effect that's what." Karen answered him with a smirk. "Until the bird's destroyed we will each take a thousand points of damage during our end phases, however that amount is reduced by five hundred for each Spell and Trap on the field, we each have one so at the moment we'll each loose five hundred life-points during our end phases." Karen said before smirking evilly. "But since I have the lead you'll run out of life-points before I do."

"That's assuming your overgrown parrot will stay on the field that long." Miranda said defiantly as she drew her card, Karen laughed again.

"You ever considered giving up duelling for stand up comedy sis?" Karen asked rhetorically before frowning. "Please, we both know that that closest thing to my monster's power in that pathetic deck of yours is the only monster you have on the field!" Karen said with a scoff.

"What was the first thing I taught you about duel monsters? Oh that's right, strength isn't everything." Miranda shot back before playing the card she had drawn. "I activate the Spell Card Triangle Ecstasy Spark, this can only be activated if I have the Harpy Lady Sisters on the field and it increases the attack of any copies of that card to 2700 AND you can't activate any trap cards."

"That's supposed to scare me?" Karen said cockily even as the sisters' attack increased to 2700. "Even with the power boost they aren't a match for Simorgh!"

"Watch and learn sis, first I activate Card Destruction to discard the rest of my hand to the graveyard, not to mention yours, and draw a new hand." Karen frowned but said nothing as she sent her cards to the graveyard, Miranda did likewise and the two women drew new hands.

"How typical of you." Karen said with a smirk. "You where always so selfish that you discarded anyone once they outlived their usefulness to you, you did it to me, Jason, even your parents."

"Karen, shut up." Miranda growled as her eyes narrowed.

"Oh? Don't like the truth?" Karen spat to the side. "I don't know why your demonizing me..."

"Gee, I don't know maybe because your using the Orichalcos against your own flesh and blood!" Marcus shouted from the sidelines but was shut up by a death glare from Karen.

"As I was saying, I don't know why your demonizing me, at least I had the decency to attend mom and dad's funeral!" Karen spat at Miranda and her older sister growled.

"I was in London for last year's Battle City Tournament and you know it." Miranda said as her eyes narrowed. "I couldn't get the organisers to let me leave the city without forfeiting my place in the tournament otherwise I would've been there!"

"That true?" Theresa asked turning to Eddie.

"Yeah, me and the other duellists raised a big stink about it once we got word." Eddie said with a nod. "That rule wasn't included in this year's rulebook for that reason."

"As I was saying." Miranda said trying to keep her rage in check. "I activate my trap card Hysteric Party, in order to activate this I have to first discard a card from my hand but in exchange I can Special Summon as many Harpy Ladies as I can from the graveyard so I summon Harpy Lady Number 1, 2, 3 and last but not least my old friend Cyber Harpy!" The first card to return to the field was Cyber Harpy followed by individual versions of the Harpy Lady Sisters (4/1300/1400) each...only for Simorgh's attack to increase to 3500, Harpy Lady Sister's attack to increase to 3000, Cyber Harpy's attack to increase to 2100 and the individual Harpy's attacks to increase to 1600. "That's the effect of Harpy Lady Number 1 in action, as long as she's on the field all WIND monsters gain 300 attack points."

"Nice to see that your still as dumb as ever, or haven't you noticed that my Bird of Divinity IS a Wind monster?" Karen smirked but stopped smiling when she saw her sister play a card. "Err, what are you playing?"

"Oh, not much, just the Equip Spell Card Axe of Despair!" Karen's eyes widened as the Harpy Lady Sister's grabbed onto an Axe each increasing their attack to 4000.

"OH FUCK NO!" Karen yelled out once she realized how much damage she was about to receive.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with her on something but I'd probably yell the same thing if I where in her shoes!" Marcus said after thinking for a moment.

"Harpy Lady Sisters attack Bird of Divinity now!" The three harpies took flight and carved into the massive bird before finally finishing it off with the attack depicted on the cover of the Spell Card Triangle Ecstasy Spark. "Sorry sis but you've gone to far, Harpy Ladies attack her life-points directly!" The four remaining Harpies charged towards Karen one by one.

K: 100

M: 6400

"That ends my..." Miranda started but as Harpy Lady Sisters' attack dropped to 3250 she was cut off by an obviously irate Karen as she got up to her feet.

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!" Karen yelled at her as she clenched her fists. "I'll kill you...I'LL KILL YOU JUST LIKE I KILLED MOM AND DAD!" Karen blurted out...only for her eyes to widen once what she had said dawned on her.

"You...you what?" Miranda stammered once it dawned on her.

"I was planning on telling you a bit later." Karen said clutching her side in pain. "Did you honestly think I'd let them get away with throwing me, their own daughter, out on the streets? Whilst you where at that tournament I returned home and killed him." Karen said with an evil grin. "Slowly cut them up piece by piece whilst they where still conscious, I only wish that they hadn't bled out so quickly, they deserved to suffer for what they did to me."

"That...that's impossible, you...you told me and the cops you where in rehab at the time! You had documents to back it up!" Miranda said barely holding her tears back.

"Oh that little lie? The documents where forged by my friend over there." Karen said motioning to Felix. "Off course, now that the statute of limitations has run out..."

"It seems that your the dumb one, not Miranda." Theresa cut her off and Karen turned to her.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Karen demanded and Theresa frowned.

"Murder doesn't have a statute of limitations, and you just confessed to a year old double murder." Theresa explained and Karen's eyes widened. "It's gets better, your friend over there is just as guilty as you are because he helped you cover it up."

"Shit!" Karen cursed herself before smirking. "But as long as I'm a Battle City Semi-Finalist the law can't touch me so there!"

"Not for long!" Miranda snapped at Karen catching the younger woman off guard. "I was willing to forgive you for Jason's death, I was willing to forgive you for stealing from your own parents for years to feed you own addiction but now? I can't forgive you and I never will."

"Yeah, because I'll beat you into the ground!" Karen said as she drew her card. "I activate Pot of Greed which will allow me to draw two cards!" Karen drew the two cards and looked at them. "Well, well, now I can get some payback."

"How?" Miranda demanded angrily.

"By activating Lightning Vortex!" Miranda's eyes widened as Karen discarded the other card that she had drawn with Pot of Greed and lightning struck the five harpies (well, seven if you want to get technical) destroying them and Hysteric Party. "Oh it gets better, first I set two cards facedown and activate Emergency Provisions, sending both cards to the graveyard and giving me 2000 life-points." Karen set the cards and played the third one, the two facedown cards disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived increasing her life-points to 2100. "Sure, that move has left me with only one card in my hand but for now that's all I need, I summon Harpy's Brother in attack mode!" Karen played the card and a red and brown humanoid bird appeared on the field (4/1800/600) and it's attack increased to 2300 thanks to the seal. "Harpy's Brother attack the bitch's life-points directly!" The monster ran towards Miranda at impressive speed before slashing her with it's claws.

K: 2100

M: 4100

"That ends my turn." Karen said as her monster returned to her side of the field, Karen drew her card and frowned.

"I activate Card of Sanctity." Miranda played the card and both women drew until they had six cards in their hands, or in the case of Karen drew an entirely new hand, and examined them. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defence, your move." Miranda set the cards and Karen drew her card.

"Well, isn't this interesting?" Karen muttered to herself before playing the card. "I summon the tuner monster Junk Synchron in attack mode!" Karen played the card and the tuner monster appeared on the field (3/1300/500) and it's attack went up to 1800 thanks to the seal. "When he's normal summoned I can Special Summon a Level 2 or lower monster from my graveyard and I think I'll chose one of the monsters you made me discard with Card Destruction two turns ago, Harpy Girl!" Karen retrieved the monster and a young blonde harpy appeared on the field (2/500/500) and her attack increased to 1000 thanks to the seal. "But neither of these weaklings are sticking around, I tune Junk Synchron with Harpy Girl to Synchro Summon Vortex The Whirlwind!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Harpy Girl stood a huge hideous looking brown bird with a green face and green, human like body (5/2100/700) and it's attack increased to 2600 thanks to the seal. "Harpy's Brother attack her defence." Harpy's Brother charged towards the monster, revealed to be a yellow, green and blue bird (4/1600/1600) which was quickly destroyed. "Birdface? Like that will help you!"

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge if I where you." Miranda said as she picked up her deck and searched through it. "Thanks to Birdface's effect I add another copy of Harpy Lady Number 1 to my hand." Miranda announced before adding it.

"Like that'll help you, Vortex it's your turn!" The bird took flight and divebombed at Miranda knocking her off of her feet in the process.

K: 2100

M: 1500

"I activate my trap card Numinous Healer!" Miranda announced as she got up. "Now that I've taken damage this trap will restore a thousand of my life-points." Miranda added as her life-points increased to 2500.

"Big deal." Karen scoffed as her monster returned to her side of the field. "Even with the extra life-points my Vortex The Whirlwind still has more than enough strength to finish you off for good, I set a card facedown, now make your last pathetic move." Karen said and Miranda drew her card.

"Sorry Karen, but this duel's over!" Miranda said once she got a good look at the card she had drawn.

"Let me guess, your surrendering?" Karen asked and Miranda shook her head.

"No, it's over for you, I summon the Harpy Lady Number 1 that you helped me retrieve from my deck last turn!" Miranda played the card and the Harpy returned to the field (4/1300/1400) and thanks to her own ability her attack increased to 1600, however Harpy's Brother and Vortex The Whirlwind's attack strength also increased, to 2600 and 2900 respectively. "I also play another Elegant Egotist to special summon another Harpy Lady Sisters from my hand!" Miranda played the cards and the Harpy Sisters returned to the field (5/1950/2100) and their attack increased to 2250 thanks to the effect of Harpy Lady Number one.

"So? My monsters will knock them down easily." Karen scoffed. _"And even if by some miracle my monsters are destroyed my facedown Mirror Force will wipe the field clean, then on my next turn I'll use Monster Reborn to bring back Simorgh and have him finish the job."_ Karen thought.

"I activate Icarus attack!" Miranda activated her last trap and Karen's eyes widened. "I see you remember what this trap does, in exchange for sacrificing a Winged Beast monster I can destroy two cards on the field, so I sacrifice Harpy Lady Number 1 to destroy Harpy's Brother and Vortex The Whirlwind!" The Harpy took flight high in the sky before divebombing towards the monsters, as she descended she started burning up and once she made contact with the monsters there was a massive explosion wiping out all three monsters.

"So what? I still have my trap!" Karen scoffed, Miranda remained confident even as the Harpy Lady Sisters lost their power boost.

"Encase you haven't noticed I have one card left in my hand, a card that renders your trap card useless!" Miranda said holding up the card. "I activate a second Triangle Ecstasy Spark!"

"NO! NOT THAT!" Karen yelled once it dawned on her, Miranda played the card and the Harpy Lady Sisters attack increased to 2700. "Sis...please have mercy!"

"Oh, NOW you beg for mercy?" Miranda scoffed before sighing. "Karen, before I attack and finish you off there's something you have to know."

"What?" Karen demanded barely able to hide her panic at this point.

"What I said earlier in the tournament, about being willing to support you no matter what, I meant every word of it." Miranda said as tears started rolling down her eyes. "I'll still press charges for the murders of my parents, or should I say our parents, if you ever get out of the Seal of the Orichalcos but all the same I'll call in a favour and have one of the best lawyers I know represent you." Miranda said and Karen blinked clearly taken aback by this.

"But...but why? After...after everything I said, everything I've done..." Karen stammered. "You...you may as well wash your hands off of me."

"Sis, I don't care about that, your still family to me." Miranda said honestly and tears started forming in Karen's eyes.

"Sis...if I ever do get out and...and I get arrested and sent to jail for those murders...promise me you'll visit me in jail..." Karen asked in between sobs.

"You got it." Miranda said with a nod before pointing to the Harpy Lady Sisters. "Harpy Ladies, finish her off with Triangle Ecstasy Spark!" The three harpies charged up their attack before launching it at Karen striking her in the chest.

K: 0000

M: 2500

Karen slumped down against the seal wall knowing what was about to happen to her. "Sis..." Karen said as Miranda went to leave, her older sister turned around and Karen sighed. "I'm sorry, for everything."

"Apology accepted." Miranda smiled as the seal closed in around her younger sister, she turned away as Karen let out a blood curdling scream as the seal took her soul, Miranda walked over to Karen and retrieved her Soul Card before pocketing it.

"Err, the winner of the duel is Miranda Trayson!" Bill announced clearly uncomfortable at this point before paramedics rushed over to Karen's unconscious body so that she could get medical attention.

"Looks like I'm up next." Kimberly said glancing over at Luigi. "I hope you don't mind the fact that I'll be kicking you out of the tournament."

"Please, I intend to win the match and the tournament!" Luigi said with a scoff. "Still, may the best duellist win."

"Don't worry, I will." Kimberly responded.

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next match." Kaiba announced as Karen was carried away on a stretcher, Felix watched as Karen was carried away but before he could say anything his cell-phone went off.

"What is it?" Felix asked angrily once he answered the phone.

"It's Michael." Michael's voice rang out and Felix quickly calmed down. "You and Otto are the only operatives left in the organisation, do not fail."

"Don't worry, I'm facing that Lance Alvers kid in the last match of the day, should be a piece of cake!" Felix said confidently. "As for Otto, well that will depend on who he faces in the next round."

"Indeed." Michael said.

"Yo Michael, if we fail what will you do?" Felix asked, there was a few seconds of silence before an answer came.

"I will deliver an ultimatum to the Duel Academy students once the tournament is over." Michael eventually answered. "If they want their friends souls back they will meet me at the New York docks the very next day."

"Nice, lure them in with a sweet promise and steal their souls!" Felix said with a grin. "And if you fail...not saying you will..."

"Then the leader will take over for me." Michael said plainly before hanging up.


	30. Champs Time To Shine

"Will Kimberly Troy and Luigi Malverio please step onto the podium for the next match of the Semi-Finals." A voice rang out over the PA System and the two duellists stepped onto the duel arena ready for their match.

"How appropriate that I get to take out the very woman who, inadvertently mind you, helped me get reinstated in the tournament?" Luigi chuckled as he shuffled his deck, Kimberly smirked as she shuffled her own deck.

"As far as I'm concerned I'm not the one who's going to be knocked out." Kimberly said plainly as both duellists returned their decks to the deck slots and drew their opening hands. "So who's going first?"

"Ladies first." Luigi said after looking through his hand, Kimberly drew another card and grinned.

"Then I'll start things off with style, I start by discarding Archfiend General (4/2100/800) from my hand which allows me to add the field spell card Pandemonium to my hand." Kimberly discarded the card and searched through her deck before finding the spell card at the bottom of her deck, she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "In fact I'll go ahead and activate the Spell Card right now! Go Pandemonium!" Kimberly played the card and the scenery changed to the hellish arena. "Now I set a card facedown and summon Shadowknight Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the fiendish knight appeared on the field (4/2000/1600). "Try beating that!"

"You call THAT style?" Luigi scoffed as he drew his card. "Allow me to show you true style, I summon Cyber Gymnast in attack mode!" Luigi played the card and an athletic blonde woman wearing a white mask appeared on the field, she was also wearing a purple tanktop, black pants and boots (4/800/1800).

"You can't be serious?" Kimberly asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Oh I am quite serious, I activate the effect of Cyber Gymnast which lets me destroy one monster in attack mode on your side of the field in exchange for discarding a card from my hand." Luigi discarded the card from his hand and the woman charged towards the fiend...

"By targeting my fiend for an effect you've triggered his own effect!" Kimberly said as a giant six sided die appeared above the field. "See that dice? If it lands on a three your gymnast's effect is negated so go dice roll!" The die started rolling and both duellists watched intently as did the other duellists and spectators...but to Kimberly's dismay it landed on a four. "You have got to be kidding..." Kimberly muttered under her breath as Cyber Gymnast snapped Shadowknight's neck with a kick, she sent Shadowknight Archfiend to the graveyard before turning to Luigi.

"Seems fate wasn't on your side that time Kimberly, now Cyber Gymnast attack her life-points directly!" The gymnast wasn't on Luigi's side of the field for long before charging at Kimberly.

"You're going to have to try harder than that, I activate Negate Attack!" Kimberly's trap flipped up and the gymnast bounced off of a forcefield. "You done?"

"Well first I have to set a card facedown but yes, that will do for now." Luigi set the card down and Kimberly drew another card.

"I activate the Spell Card Allure Of Darkness, to activate it I have to remove one Dark Type Monster from my hand but in exchange for that I can draw two cards from my deck." Kimberly pocketed her monster and drew two cards from her deck, once she sent her spell card to the graveyard she took one look at her new cards and grinned. "Time I took out the Gymnast, I summon Lancer Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the lance wielding archfiend appeared on the field...

"Sorry but Lancer Archfiend will have to take a rain-check, I activate my trap card Forced Back!" Luigi activated the trap and too Kimberly's surprise Lancer Archfiend disappeared from the field. "This trap card allows me to negate the Normal or Flip Summon of a monster and return it to your hand." Kimberly frowned before reluctantly returning her fiend to her hand.

"That Luigi kid's no slouch." Alex commented before folding his arms. "Your friend's going to need to stay on her toes if she wants to win this."

"Don't forget that the match has only been going for a few turns." Lance reminded him before folding his arms. "Besides she beat the duellist that initially knocked him out of the tournament so she should have this in the bag."

"Fine, since I can't attack I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Kimberly set the second card that she had drawn with Allure Of Darkness down and Luigi drew his card.

"Fortunately for you I have no more monsters I can summon, doesn't mean I can't attack you with my current monster though!" Luigi said before pointing to Cyber Gymnast. "Cyber Gymnast attack her life-points directly!" The gymnast charged forward...only to be held in place by numerous chains that had shot out of the ground. "What the...?"

"Sorry Luigi but I activated a trap of my own, it's called Fiendish Chain!" Kimberly said with a smirk. "This trap lets me target one effect monster on the field, and as long as it's on the field that monster can't attack or use it's effect."

"Very clever." Luigi admitted begrudgingly before looking at his drawn card. "I'll end my turn for now." Luigi added and Kimberly drew her card.

"Now where was I last turn? Oh, that's right I was going to summon Lancer Archfiend to the field!" Kimberly played the card and lance wielding archfiend reappeared on the field (4/1600/1400). "Lancer Archfiend, attack Cyber Gymnast!" The fiend charged towards the woman, who was helpless to defend herself due to the chains, and destroyed her quickly, the chains shattered alongside the hologram for Fiendish Chain soon afterwards.

L: 7200

K: 8000

After Luigi and Kimberly sent their respective cards to graveyard Kimberly looked over her hand. "That will end my turn." Kimberly said plainly. _"If the rest of his monsters are as weak as that Gymnast than this should be a piece of cake." _Kimberly thought as Luigi drew his card.

"You may have defeated one of my cyber girls but there's more where that came from!" Luigi said...only to facefault when Lance and Marcus burst out laughing.

"Cyber what? Dude, do you even know how dirty that sounds?" Lance said in between fits of laughter as Luigi got up.

"I wouldn't be laughing if I where you." Brandon interrupted them. "Cyber Girls are...okay I see what you mean by how dirty that name sounds...tricky to use but in the hands of a skilled duellist they are quite lethal."

"Your friend is correct, now let me demonstrate this fact by summoning Cyber Tutu in attack mode!" Luigi, whilst ignoring the laughter, played the card and a pink haired woman in a red and white bodysuit appeared on the field, she was wearing a small blue skirt over it, a pair of high tech looking goggles and was ready for battle (3/1000/800).

"You can't be serious!" Kimberly said with a facepalm.

"Oh I'm quite serious, especially about Cyber Tutu's effect which allows her to attack directly if all your monsters are stronger than she is!" Luigi said with a grin and Lance and Marcus stopped laughing the moment they heard that, similarly Kimberly's eyes widened when she heard that. "Cyber Tutu attack her life-points directly!" Cyber Tutu leaped across the field like she was in the middle of a ballet recital, above a bewildered Lancer Archfiend, and kicked a similarly bewildered Kimberly mid twirl.

K: 7000

L: 7200

"That's not something you see every day." Lance said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Yes but I have a spell card that can ensure that we'll be seeing a lot more of it." Luigi said picking up a card in his hand. "I activate Heart of Clear Water and equip it to Cyber Tutu, now she can't be destroyed in battle or by a card effect that targets monsters."

"Wonderful." Kimberly muttered sarcastically as she looked over her hand. _"I could really use something like Eternal Rest right now, at least I can still deal damage." _Kimberly thought.

"That will end my turn." Luigi announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"I set this facedown for later, now Lancer Archfiend attack Cyber Tutu!" The archfiend charged towards the Ballerina and stabbed her in the chest with his lance, due to the effect of Heart of Clear Water she survived the attack but Luigi's life-points where a different story.

K: 7000

L: 6600

"That ends my turn." Kimberly announced and Luigi drew his card.

"_Hmm, not just yet." _ Luigi thought before adding the card to his hand. "Cyber Tutu, do your stuff!" The ballerina once again leaped over Lancer Archfiend before landing in front of Kimberly.

"Not this time, I activate my trap card Waboku!" Kimberly flipped the card up and ballerina's twirl/kick was blocked by the three priestesses, she leaped over Lancer Archfiend again before returning to Luigi's side of the field. "You done?" Kimberly asked, Luigi took a look at his hand before nodding and Kimberly drew her card. _"Hey, this trap can help me get rid of that annoying Cyber Tutu!" _Kimberly thought before setting the card. "I set a card facedown, now Lancer Archfiend attack Cyber Tutu!" The fiend charged towards the ballerina and stabbed her again, though she once again survived her master's life-points weren't looking so hot.

K: 7000

L: 6000

"That ends my turn." Kimberly announced and Luigi drew his card.

"I shall set a card facedown as well, now Cyber Tutu attack her life-points directly!" The ballerina leaped over Lancer Archfiend again and kicked Kimberly mid twirl before returning to her master's side of the field.

K: 6000

L: 6000

"Thanks, I was counting on that." Kimberly said with a smirk, Luigi blinked clearly confused by that.

"Let me get this straight, you wanted me to attack your life-points directly? I'll be happy to do so again next turn!" Luigi said with a grin.

"You would, if Cyber Tutu was going to remain on your side of the field." Kimberly said as she activated her trap. "I activate my trap card A Heartfelt Appeal!" The trap flipped up and Luigi blinked. "This trap can only be activated if I suffer damage as a result of a direct attack, as a result of this my trap card will allow me to take control of the monster with the highest defence until the end of my next turn."

"And since there's only one monster on my side of the field..." Luigi's eyes widened as Cyber Tutu once again leaped over to Kimberly's side of the field. "Good move, personally I would've chained it Emergency Provisions but I suppose you had to make do with what you had."

"Wait, is he giving advice to Kimberly?" Lance asked clearly confused.

"What can I say? I like having competitive duels!" Luigi shrugged his shoulders. "Just like how I've always loved dance in all it's forms."

"You gotta be kidding me...he chose his deck style because he likes to dance?" Lance asked before glancing at the other duellists and seeing that they where equally confused. "I mean, you don't see me running a Heavy Metal deck...mostly because there isn't a Heavy Metal archetype but still."

"Err, anyway, is it my move?" Kimberly asked and Luigi took one look at the rest of his hand before nodding, Kimberly drew her card and grinned. "Good because your not getting Cyber Tutu back the way you want her back, I sacrifice her and Lancer Archfiend to summon the monster I won in my last pre Semi-Finals duel, Zoa!" Kimberly played the card and, after tossing Cyber Tutu back at Luigi who caught it skilfully and sent it to the graveyard with Heart of Clear Water, the massive blue fiend appeared on the field in the place of Lancer Archfiend (7/2600/1900). "Zoa, attack his life-points directly!" The massive fiend charged towards Luigi.

"I don't think so, I activate my trap card Scrap Iron Scarecrow!" Luigi activated the trap and a metallic scarecrow blocked the fiend's path. "I was planning on using this in combination with Cyber Tutu but this will do just as nicely as this trap card allows me to negate one monster's attack."

"No problem, I'll just attack...again..." Kimberly started but stopped when she saw Scrap Iron Scarecrow's Hologram flip facedown. "Hey that should be going to the graveyard."

"Normally that would be true but this is why I prefer Scrap Iron Scarecrow to something like Negate Attack or Waboku, in addition to negating the attack Scrap Iron Scarecrow lets me set it facedown again after activation." Luigi explained and Kimberly frowned.

"That basically means that he can use that trap as many times as he can before Kimberly draws something like Mystical Space Typhoon." Brandon realized with a frown as Zoa returned to Kimberly's side of the field.

"I'll end my turn." Kimberly announced with a frown and Luigi drew his card.

"I shall activate the Spell Card Cards From The Sky, in exchange for removing one Light-Type Monster from my hand and not Special Summoning any monsters or conducting my Battle Phase this card will allow me to draw two cards." Luigi pocketed the monster and drew two cards. "Hmm, okay I set these two cards facedown and summon the dazzling Blade Skater in attack mode!" Luigi played the cards he drew and a bald headed woman in a full body costume appeared on the field, as her name suggested she had ice skates on her feet and blades attached to her arms (4/1400/1500).

"Okay, what's her effect?" Kimberly asked impatiently and Luigi blinked. "Your other two monsters had weak attack power but backed it up with a powerful effect so what's hers?"

"You are mistaken, Blade Skater is the only Normal Type monster in the Cyber Girl archetype." Luigi explained and Kimberly blinked.

"Let me guess, you wouldn't have put her in attack mode if it weren't for the effect of Scrap Iron Scarecrow?" Kimberly asked and Luigi remained silent. "I'll take that as a yes."

"_Not quite."_ Luigi thought glancing towards his facedown card. _"Off course I'm not one to reveal my strategies to my opponents until I start using them so she'll find out in due time."_ Luigi thought before turning to Kimberly. "That will end my turn." Luigi said and Kimberly drew her card. "And now to activate the trap card that'll secure my victory, I activate Rivalry of Warlords!"

"Rivalry of what?" Kimberly blinked and Luigi grinned.

"In order to activate this trap card we must send one monster from our side of the field to the graveyard and we each declare one type of monster, as long as this is on the field we can only control the monster types we declared and since all the Cyber Girls are Warriors I declare that to be my monster type." Luigi explained and Kimberly smirked.

"Fine then, since my deck only contains Fiends I'll declare that to be my monster type." Kimberly said before folding her arms. "I don't see how that helps you exactly."

"Oh you will, I activate my other Trap Card DNA Surgery!" Luigi flipped the card up and Kimberly's eyes widened. "I see that your familiar with it's effect, now each monster in our hands and on the field are Warriors."

"Which means that my life-points are yours for the taking until I destroy either of or both of those trap cards." Kimberly said with a frown. "Well, seeing as how I can't do anything I'll pass." Kimberly announced and Luigi drew his card.

"_Hmm, Luigi's combination could cripple my deck if we duel in the next round."_ Axel thought with a small smile. _"He may be the first person to hand me a defeat."_

"Hmm, since I'm feeling generous I will activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Luigi played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hand. "Now this is interesting."

"What is?" Kimberly asked curiously.

"Well, I get to bring out another Cyber Girl this time through the magic of Polmerization, fusing Etoile Cyber (4/1200/1600) with a second Blade Skate to summon the dazzling, the beautiful, the multi-talented, the world renowned..." Luigi started.

"GET ON WITH IT!" All the other duellists yelled simultaneously and Luigi facefaulted.

"Err, yes off course, to summon Cyber Blade in attack mode!" Luigi said once he got up and played the card, the two monsters where sucked into the vortex and from it emerged a blue skinned woman with long flowing blue hair and eyes that where concealed by a pair of red goggles, she was wearing a full purple and red bodysuit and was ready for battle (7/2100/800). "Off course there are stronger Level 7 monsters but her effects make up for that fact."

"And those effects are what exactly?" Kimberly asked and Luigi sweat-dropped.

"I can't tell you because it requires monsters on your side of the field." Luigi said and everyone else in the stadium face-faulted. "Yes, I probably should have planned that better."

"You think?" Lance shouted from the sidelines.

"Grr, Cyber Blader attack her life-points directly!" The woman charged towards Kimberly before kicking her in the stomach.

K: 3900

L: 6000

"_If it weren't for his combination I would've been able to summon Battle Fader (1/0/0) and end his battle phase."_ Kimberly thought with a frown. _"I'd better hope that my next draw gives me something useful otherwise I might be joining Marcus and Andreas in loser's column."_ Kimberly thought before turning her attention to Luigi. "My move yet?" Kimberly asked, Luigi looked at the rest of the cards in his hand and nodded indicating that his turn was over, Kimberly said nothing as she drew her card. "I set two cards facedown, that's all I can do."

"Indeed it is." Luigi agreed as he drew his card. "Cyber Blade attack her life-points again." The woman charged towards Kimberly...

"Sorry to disappoint you but I activate my trap card Sekeretsu Armour!" Kimberly flipped her trap card up and a piece of hideous looking armour attached to Cyber Blader...

"Fine, I'll counter Sekeretsu Armour with the Quick Play Spell Card De-Fusion to split Cyber Blader into her individual parts!" Luigi played the card and Cyber Blader disappeared from the field, in her place stood Blade Skater (4/1400/1500) and next to her stood a woman with long brown hair and ice blue skin, she was clad in a red leotard, one of her eyes was covered by a piece of cloth and had scarfs on her arms (4/1200/1600). "Cyber Blader, Etoile Cyber attack her life-points directly!" The two woman charged towards Kimberly and, to Kimberly's surprise, Etoile Cyber's attack increased to 1700.

"That's her effect I take it?" Kimberly asked and Luigi nodded.

"Yes, she gains 500 attack points when she attacks directly." Luigi explained just before his monsters attacked Kimberly.

K: 800

L: 6000

"That ends my turn." Luigi announced and Kimberly growled in frustration.

"_Damn it, I need to get rid of either of or all of his trap cards now!" _Kimberly thought as she got to her feet, she went to draw a card and closed her eyes. _"Heart of the Cards, help."_ Kimberly thought before drawing her card...and frowning. _"Damn it, I can't use Archfiend Soldier (4/1900/1500)...but maybe the trap I set last turn can help!" _Kimberly thought before activating the trap card. "I activate Jar of Greed, this lets me draw an extra card from my deck." Kimberly drew the card and looked at it. "Sorry to disappoint you but your combo's about to go up in smoke." Kimberly announced and Luigi raised an eyebrow. "Ironically using the same card I used to defeat the woman who originally beat you, the Spell Card Heavy Storm."

"NO! NOT THAT!" Luigi yelled out as a storm washed over the field, Luigi's three trap cards where the first to go followed by Pandemonium, Luigi and Kimberly sent their respective cards to the graveyard and Kimberly picked up another card.

"Now to take card of your monsters, I summon Archfiend Soldier in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the purple fiend appeared on the field (4/1900/1500). "Archfiend Soldier attack Etoile Cyber!" The solder charged towards the woman and decapitated her with a single blow.

K: 800

L: 5300

"Looks like I may win this match yet!" Kimberly said confidently and Luigi scoffed.

"Even with the loss of life-points I still have a massive lead!" Luigi said defiantly as he sent Etoile Cyber to the graveyard. "I'll win this match yet!"

"Considering the fact that your strongest monster is back in your extra deck I strongly doubt that possibility." Kimberly said with a scoff and Luigi shook his head.

"Who said anything about Cyber Blader being my strongest monster?" Luigi scoffed as he looked at a particular card in his hand. "End your turn and you'll see what I mean." Kimberly looked over her hand before setting a card facedown.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Kimberly announced and Luigi drew his card.

"Sad to say but this duel's about to come to a close, I offer Blade Skater as a tribute to summon my strongest monster Cyber Prima!" Luigi played the card and Blade Skater disappeared from the field, in her place stood a tall blonde woman with long flowing hair, like her previous counterparts she was wearing a full bodysuit though her's was grey in colour and had several gold hoops attached to it and to top the outfit off she was wearing a red visor (6/2300/1600). "Now normally when she is successfully tribute summoned Cyber Prima would destroy every faceup Spell Card but your Heavy Storm spell card took care of that for her, now Cyber Prima attack Archfiend Soldier!" The woman charged towards the fiend and killed it with a kick.

K: 400

L: 5300

"That ends my turn." Luigi announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"Not much I can do so I set a card in defence mode and end my turn." Kimberly announced and Luigi drew his card.

"Well, I guess it's time this duel came to a close, I summon Command Knight in attack mode!" Luigi played the card and a blonde woman with long hair appeared on the field, however unlike Luigi's other monsters she was clad in red armour and was wielding a sword (4/1200/1900) and to Kimberly's surprise Command Knight and Cyber Prima's attacks increased to 1600 and 2700 respectively. "That's Command Knight's effect, as long as she's on the field all warriors, such as herself, gain 400 attack points, not only that but as long as there's another monster card on my side of the field she can't be selected as an attack target, now Cyber Prima attack her defence monster!" The woman charged towards the monster, revealed to be Sangan (3/1000/600), which was quickly destroyed, Kimberly picked up her deck and searched through it thanks to Sangan's effect before adding a card to her hand. "Command Knight, finish it!" The knight drew her sword and charged towards Kimberly...only for Battle Fader (1/0/0) to appear on the field.

"I'm sure you remember Battle Fader's effect from Brandon's duel against Marcus." Kimberly asked and Luigi nodded as Command Knight returned to his side of the field. "Before you end your turn I activate my Trap Card Dark Spirit Art – Greed and offer Battle Fader as a tribute to activate it's effect!" Battle Fader vanished from the field and Kimberly drew two cards before pocketing Battle Fader due to it's side effect.

"Very well, I end my turn." Luigi announced and Kimberly drew another card.

"Sorry Luigi but you're monsters aren't sticking around." Kimberly announced as she played the card she drew. "I activate Lightning Vortex, by discarding one card from my hand I can destroy all faceup monsters you control!" Luigi's eyes widened as lightning struck Cyber Prima and Command Knight destroying both monsters, as the two duellists sent their respective cards to the graveyard Kimberly grinned. "Now I activate Monster Reborn to bring back the monster I discarded for Lightning Vortex's effect, Double Coston in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the two grey ghosts appeared on the field (4/1700/1650). "But they aren't sticking around, since they count as two tributes for any Dark Type monsters in my hand I offer them to summon my strongest monster Archfiend Empress in attack mode!" Kimberly swapped out the cards and the two ghosts vanished, in their place stood the mighty queen of the archfiends (8/2900/2100).

"Impressive monster but I'll still have enough life-points to spare once she attacks." Luigi said confidently but Kimberly shook her head.

"That's where your wrong, I activate my facedown card Megamorph which doubles my Empress's attack points as long as my life-points are lower than yours." Kimberly activated the card and Archfiend Empress doubled in size and strength, all the way up to 5800. "Sorry Luigi but the person who helped you get reinstated in the tournament is about to knock you out of the tournament, Archfiend Empress attack his life-points directly and end this!" The empress pointed her staff at Luigi and fired a beam of dark light at him striking him in the chest.

K: 400

L: 0000

"I don't believe it, even with my massive lead I still lost." Luigi said as he got up to his feet. "I can see how you defeated Madame Ruska, good luck in the rest of the tournament." Luigi said before hopping off of the platform, Kimberly hopped off the platform herself and rejoined her classmates.

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next match." Kaiba announced over the PA System, Zach grinned knowing that his match was next.

"So Zach, you think you can beat the champ?" Ray asked his friend as he watched Eddie go over his deck.

"I know I can, besides he's a Duel Academy Alumni, imagine the publicity North Academy will get if I beat him." Zach said confidently as he looked at his deck. "Besides I've been wanting a rematch with Chloe ever since she beat me the other day and if I have to beat the champ to do it then that's what I'll do."

"That's if you'll even beat me." Eddie chimed in with a confident smirk. "My deck hasn't failed me yet and I'm sure you'll be no different."

"We'll just have to wait and see then, won't we." Zach said glancing at Eddie, whilst that was going on Otto was watching the match with a critical eye.

"_Yet another reason for me to wonder how Kimberly got into Obelisk Blue in the first place."_ Otto thought with a smirk. _"That duellist's deck was pathetic and yet she barely beat him, no matter though, if we fight each other in the next round her soul will be easy pickings."_ Otto thought as he glanced towards the other students. _"Though now that I've eliminated my brother my new target is that Osiris Red Bitch, she had better prey that we don't meet in the next round."_

"Will Eddie Roberts and Zach Michaels please step onto the duel arena for the next match in the Semi-Finals?" The two duellists grinned before stepping onto the podium, they stood opposite each other and activated their duel disks before shuffling their decks.

"All right Champ, who's going first?" Zach asked, Eddie looked over his hand and smiled.

"I will." Eddie said as he drew his card. "I start by summoning Lord of Dragons to the field in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the dragon protecting Spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1200/1100). "Next I activate The Flute of Summoning Dragon, this spell card allows me to Special Summon up to two Dragon type monsters from my hand to the field, my monsters of choice are Different Dimension Dragon and Blizzard Dragon, both in attack mode!" Eddie played the cards and once Lord of Dragons blew into the flute the two dragons appeared on the field, the first was a blue and white dragon that had it's wings on it's front legs for some reason (4/1800/1000) and the other was a green dragon that appeared out of a portal (5/1200/1500). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Eddie set the card down and Zach drew his card.

"Not a bad opening move but let me show you mine, I start with the continuous spell card Dragon Mastery!" Zach played the card he had drawn and grinned. "Now as long as this is on the field my Dragunity monsters will gain 500 attack points for each Dragunity monster equipped to them, allow me to demonstrate by summoning Dragunity Militium to the field in attack mode!" Zach played the card and the green winged humanoid monster appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "Now through the magic of Dragon Mastery I equip him with Dragunity Partisan!" Zach played the card and Militium grabbed onto a small blue dragon increasing it's attack to 2200. "But I'd be doing my deck a disservice if I didn't use Militium's effect which lets me special summon one Dragunity Monster equipped to him!" As Zach played the card Dragunity's attack dropped back down to 1700 and the small blue dragon appeared on the field (2/1200/800).

"Is the fact that you've summoned two weaker monsters than Blizzard Dragon supposed to impress me?" Eddie asked folding his arms.

"Well maybe the fact that Partisan is a Tuner monster will impress you?" Zach asked and Eddy's eyes widened. "Now I tune Partisan with Militium to Synchro Summon Dragunity Knight – Vajrayana in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Millitium stood the dragon riding knight from his duel against Chloe (6/1900/1200). "Now that I've Synchro Summoned her I can use my knight's effect allowing me to take one Level 3 or lower Dragon Type Dragunity monster from my graveyard and equip it to her." Zach retrieved the monster from her graveyard and equipped it his knight increasing it's attack to 2400. "But where would be the fun in that? I send Partisan back to the graveyard to allow me to attack twice with her, so Dragunity Knight attack Lord of Dragons and Different Dimension Dragon!" The knight's attack dropped down to 1900 and it charged towards Lord of Dragons first...

"Your knight won't be attacking anyone, I activate my trap card Draining Shield to negate the attack and add Vajrayan's attack to my life-points!" The knight bounced off of a forcefield and was sent flying back.

E: 9900

Z: 8000

"Aren't you forgetting something? My knight can attack twice, attack Lord Of Dragons!" The knight charged towards Lord Of Dragons again...

"And she's triggered one of my traps again, I activate my trap card Call of the Earthbound!" Eddie flipped the card up and Zach blinked. "To put it simply this trap card lets me chose your attack target."

"Okay, let me guess your choosing Blizzard Dragon?" Zach asked and Eddie shook his head.

"No, your new target is Different Dimension Dragon!" Eddie explained and Zach's knight changed it's course impaling Different Dimension Dragon.

E: 9200

Z: 8000

"Why did he do that? He would've lost the same amount of life-points and a monster either way?" Chloe wondered as the monster disintegrated...only to blink in surprise when the portal opened up and Different Dimension Dragon returned to the field.

"Because my dragon can't be destroyed in battle with a monster with 1900 or less attack points." Eddie explained. "Not only that but he can't be destroyed by a Spell or Trap card that doesn't target it." Eddie added and Zach frowned.

"Fine, I set a card facedown and end my turn, not that you can do much since you emptied your hand on your first turn." Zach said confidently as Eddie drew his card.

"Not for long, I activate the Spell Card Mirage of Nightmare, this allows me to draw until I have four cards in my hand but if it's still on my side of the field by the time of my next Standby Phase I have to randomly discard four cards from my hand." Eddie played the card and drew until he had four cards in his hand, he looked at his new hand and grinned. "But that won't be a problem."

"Why do you say that?" Zach asked confused.

"Because I activate a Spell Card from my hand called Double Cyclone, this lets me select one Spell/Trap card I control and one Spell/Trap card you control and destroy them both, my choices are Mirage of Nightmare and your facedown card." Two cyclones appeared on the field, one destroyed Mirage of Nightmare and the other destroyed Zach's facedown card which was revealed to be Mirror Force.

"Drat, I would've had a clear shot at your life-points if it wasn't for that Spell Card." Zach cursed himself as he sent Mirror Force to the graveyard, Eddie did likewise with his two Spell Cards and looked at the remaining cards in his hand.

"Hey Zach, your not the only one who can Synchro Summon you know." Eddie said confidently and Zach gulped. "I summon the Tuner monster Arcane Apprentice in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and a young looking Spellcaster clad in purple and brown robes appeared on the field (2/1000/400). "Now I tune Arcane Apprentice with Lord of Dragons to Synchro Summon the mighty Explosive Magician in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Lord of Dragons stood a magician covered from head to toe in white and gold armour (6/2500/1800). "Explosive Magician attack Dragunity Knight Vajrayana now!" The magician put it's hands together and started forming a ball of energy, he launched it and the knight destroying it and reducing Zach's life-points to 7400. "Blizzard Dragon, Different Dimension Dragon attack his life-points directly!" The two dragons launched their attacks at Zach who winced as the attacks hit.

E: 9200

Z: 4400

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Eddie placed the card down and Zach drew his card. "I activate my trap card Conscription, now you have to show me the top card in your deck and if it's a monster that can be normal summoned it's special summoned to my side of the field." Zach frowned before picking the card up and grinning.

"Sorry but it's a Spell Card." Zach said showing it to be the Field Spell Card Dragon Ravine. "What happens now?"

"It goes to your hand." Eddie explained as he sent his trap card to the graveyard, Zach added his spell card to his hand and played it.

"Well then, I activate the Spell Card you helped me get namely the Field Spell Card Dragon Ravine!" Zach played the card and suddenly a massive chasm opened up between the two duellists. "Now I activate the field spell's effect, by discarding a card from my hand I can either add a Dragunity monster from my deck to my hand as long as it's a Level 4 or lower monster or I can send one dragon type monster from my deck to my graveyard, I chose the first effect." Zach discarded the card and searched through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck. "Next I activate the card I initially drew it's called Cards of Consonance, in exchange for discarding a Dragon type Tuner monster from my hand to the graveyard I can draw two cards." Zach discarded the card and drew two cards. "Now for some revenge on my part, I activate Lightning Vortex to clear your side of the field of monsters!" Zach played one of the cards he drew with Cards of Consonance and discarded the other, before Eddie could say anything lightning struck his three monsters, Blizzard Dragon and Exploder Magician where destroyed but Different Dimension Dragon was saved by it's effect.

"Nice try but did you forget about Different Dimension Dragon's effect already?" Eddie asked and Zach shook his head.

"No I didn't but the monster I retrieved from my deck with Dragon Ravine's effect will help me along the way, I summon Dragunity Dux in attack mode!" Zach played the card and the winged warrior appeared on the field (4/1500/1000). "Dragunity Dux attack Different Dimension Dragon!" The winged beast flew towards the dragon and punched him and even though the Dragon survived the attack thanks to it's effect Eddie's life-points took a hit.

E: 8900

Z: 4400

"I set a card facedown and that ends my turn." Zach announced and Eddie drew his card.

"Since I'm a nice guy I activate the Spell Card Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands." Eddie played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards in there hand, Eddie took one look at his hand and grinned. "Didn't think I'd get a chance to do another Synchro Summon so soon."

"Another one?" Zach echoed and Eddie nodded.

"Yeah, another one." Eddie said picking up one of his drawn cards. "I summon Dread Dragon in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and a small orange dragon wearing what appeared to be a purple wig done up in a bun appeared on the field (2/1100/400). "Now I tune my Level 2 Dread Dragon with my Level 5 Different Dimension Dragon to summon the mighty Exploder Dragonwing in attack mode!" The two dragons vanished and in the place of Dread Dragon stood a mighty, hideous looking purple dragon which was ready for battle (7/2400/1600). "Exploder Dragonwing attack Dragunity Dux now!" The dragon breathed fire at the humanoid...

"I activate my trap card Begone Knave!" Zach flipped the card up and grinned even as Dux was incinerated.

E: 8900

Z: 3500

"Looks like your trap didn't save your..." Eddie started but stopped when he saw Exploder Dragonwing disappear from the field. "What the?"

"Begone Knave is a very useful card in a pinch, any monster that inflicts Battle Damage whilst this card is on the field is immediately bounced back to the owner's hand or in this case his extra deck!" Zach explained with a grin. "And since you've already summoned so that I can attack your life-points directly next turn!"

"So you can." Eddie admitted before looking at his hand. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Eddie announced and Zach drew his card.

"All right, first I activate my own Double Cyclone which I use to destroy Begone Knave and your facedown card!" Zach played the card he had drawn and the two cyclones appeared on the field destroying Begone Knave alongside Eddie's facdown card.

"_So much for Widespread Ruin buying me some time."_ Eddie thought with a frown before sending his trap to the graveyard, Zach did likewise before picking up another card.

"Now I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Dragunity Dux!" Zach announced as the humanoid reappeared on the field. "And through the effect of Dragon Mastery I equip him with Dragunity Aklys!" Zach announced as the small red dragon appeared in Dux's hands increasing it's attack to 2000. "But neither of these guys are sticking around because my next monster can only be summoned by tributing a Dragunity monster equipped with another Dragunity monster equipped to it so bye-bye Dragunity Dux and Aklys hello Dragunity Arma Leyvaten!" The two dragons vanished and out of the chasm emerged the massive sword wielding dragon (8/2600/1200). "Now that I've special summoned him I can retrieve another Dragunity monster from my graveyard and equip him to my dragon so welcome back Aklys!" Zach retrieved the monster from the graveyard and the dragon appeared atop the much larger dragon's sword increasing it's attack to 3100. "And now for the best part, I have yet to normal summon a monster so I summon another Dragunity Miltium!" Zach played the card and the monster reappeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "Attack his life-points directly!" The two dragons charged towards the dragon and slashed him.

E: 3100

Z: 3500

"One more attack from my dragon and the champ will be out after one duel!" Zach said with a triumphant smirk. "I end my turn." Zach announced and Eddie drew his card.

"I set a card in defence, that ends my turn." Eddie announced and Zach drew his card.

"Miltium attack his defence!" The dragon like humanoid flew over the chasm and slashed the facedown monster which was revealed to be Troop Dragon (2/700/800) before it was destroyed. "Great, now you can special summon another copy of that monster from your deck."

"Exactly!" Eddie announced before searching through his deck, he found the monster he was looking for, set it, shuffled his deck and sent Troop Dragon to the graveyard.

"Leyvaten attack his facedown Troop Dragon!" The dragon took flight at it's master's command before divebombing at the monster cutting it in half, once again Eddie retrieved his deck, searched through it and set his last Troop Dragon before shuffling his deck and sending his second Troop Dragon to the graveyard. "I end my turn." Zach announced and Eddie drew his card.

"I activate Cards of Consonance, by discarding a Dragon Type Tuner monster with less than a thousand attack I can draw two cards." Eddie announced before drawing two cards after he discarded his card. "I set another monster facedown and end my turn." The facedown monster appeared on the field and Zach drew his card.

"Miltium attack his last Troop Dragon, Leyvaten attack his defence!" The two monsters charged towards the facedown monsters, Troop Dragon was the first to go followed by the facedown monster...only for another to appear in it's place. "What the?"

"The monster you attacked was Peten The Dark Clown (3/500/1200), when he's sent to the graveyard I can remove him from play and special summon another from my deck." Eddie explained.

"Fine, I'll get through to your life-points eventually." Zach said before looking at his hand. "I end my turn by setting a card facedown." Zach announced and Eddie drew his card.

"Okay, I flip summon Peten and summon the Tuner Monster Eccentric Boy in attack mode!" The monster that was on the field first, a masked jester in a colourful outfit and next to it stood a small blonde boy in a white and brown robe appeared on the field (3/800/300). "Now I tune Peten with Eccentric Boy to summon Tempest Magician in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Peten stood a blue haired woman in a blue and purple robe appeared on the field wielding a scythe (6/2200/1400).

"Please, my dragon's much stronger!" Zach said with a grin and Eddie smirked.

"Aren't you forgetting something? My magician can beat Miltium!" Eddie said before pointing to his monster. "Tempest Magician attack Dragunity Miltium!" The magician span her scythe around somehow causing a tornado which blew Miltium away.

E: 3100

Z: 3000

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Eddie announced as Tempest Magician caught her staff and Zach drew his card.

"Leyvaten attack Tempest Magician!" The dragon took flight again...

"Sorry but you've just defeated yourself, I activate Magic Cylinder to send your monster's attack right back at you!" Zach's eyes widened as the dragon entered one cylinder and came out the other slashing it's master.

E: 3100

Z: 0000

"And the champ is through to the next round!" Bill announced over the cheering crowd, Zach looked down at the ground clearly disappointed at his loss before the two duellists returned their card to their decks and deactivated their duel disks before hopping off the duel arena.

"That just leaves our duels Theresa." Lance commented before glancing over at Felix. "As much as I'd like to say I have it easy I don't because he's my opponent."

"Yeah, same here." Theresa said glancing over at Alex. "Whatever happens do us a favour and not lose your match, the last thing we need is two students with their souls sealed in the Orichalcos." Theresa added.

"Actually, I think I'll go check on Andreas, if I'm not back in time for your match I'll watch it from his hospital room." Lance said as he started to walk off. "By the way, what deck will you use?"

"And give away my strategy? Sorry, you'll have to wait and see." Theresa said plainly before smirking. "Don't worry, I'll still beat him." Theresa added as Lance walked off.


	31. Undead Machines and Fried Reptiles

It took Lance a few minutes but he was able to find the infirmary eventually, he looked inside via a window and saw Nicola sitting at Andreas's bedside, unfortunately the German teen was still unconscious, he hesitated before entering the room and Nicola looked up when she heard the door open.

"Hey, Nicola right?" Lance asked when she looked up, the younger teen nodded and Lance sighed. "No change huh?"

"No, he's been out cold since the match between him and his brother." Nicola answered, Lance took a seat next to her and saw that she had been crying quite a bit. "I've been watching the other matches on that." Nicola said pointing out a small TV in the corner which was showing the duel arena. "I'm not complaining about having some company but don't you have a match to prepare for?"

"That's not until after Theresa's match against Alex and knowing them that match won't be ending any time soon." Lance shrugged his shoulders before sitting down next to the bed. "Besides Theresa's match doesn't start for another..." Lance took a moment to check his watch. "Ten minutes give or take."

"Yeah, I guess your right." Nicola said before turning to Andreas's prone form. "Why would his own brother do this too him?"

"Otto's always been an arrogant prick." Lance shrugged his shoulders. "He didn't even give us a chance to introduce ourselves to him before deciding that we were beneath him, though that is technically true because I'm in Ra Yellow, Chloe's in Osiris Red and Otto's in Obelisk Blue."

"Yeah, but in all other you two beat him off easily...okay I really should have worded that better." The two teens looked up and saw a blushing Brandon by the door. "No changes as far as Andreas is concerned?"

"No changes." Lance said shaking his head. "Brandon, what do you think me and Theresa's chances are in our upcoming matches?"

"Honestly? I know Theresa's an excellent duellist but she won't even tell me her tactics for the upcoming match, she won't even tell me what deck she plans to use." Brandon said shaking his head. "As for you, your good but I could barely beat Felix in our match, I had to use a luck based card to do it."

"Shame I don't have any luck based cards in my deck." Lance said a frown.

"No but I know one of your cards that will do the trick." Brandon remembered. "Namely Inferno Tempest."

"Why would that help?" Lance asked confused.

"His two best monsters rely on reptile type monsters being in the graveyard to have any kind of power at all." Brandon explained. "Once you take those cards out of the equation they quite literally have no power."

"Just one problem, Inferno Tempest requires that I take 3000 points of damage or more in a single hit before it's effect can take, well, effect." Lance pointed out with a frown. "And that's if I even draw it on time."

"Hey guys, the match is about to start!" Nicola pointed out and the two teens looked up at the TV Screen, sure enough Theresa and Alex had just stepped onto the podium.

"Well, there's no way we can make it back in time without missing a majority of the action." Brandon said with a frown. "Mind if I join you guys?"

"Knock yourself out...no not literally." Lance shrugged and Brandon sat next to him, meanwhile back at the arena Theresa had chosen her deck and loaded it into the deck slot of her duel disk and Alex was shuffling his deck.

"Well Bob, this should be an interesting match." Bill commented as the two duellists shuffled their decks. "We all know Alex is no slouch but by all reports Theresa's the best duellist representing Duel Academy in this tournament."

"Not only that but she's been known for using a little over 20 decks so who knows what she'll bring to the table." Bob added, the two duellists finished shuffling their decks and drew their hands.

"Okay kid, I'm letting you go first." Alex said before looking over his hand. _"It's best that I get a rough idea of what her strategy, not to mention the deck that she's using, is anyway."_ Alex thought.

"Right." Theresa nodded before drawing her card, she looked over her hand and smiled. _"Not bad."_ Theresa thought. "I start by summoning Immortal Ruler in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a skeleton in elaborate blue, gold and red robes appeared on the field (4/1800/200). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." The two facedown cards appeared behind the monster and Alex drew his card.

"I set my own card facedown as well." Alex set the card he had drawn before picking up a card. "And I summon X Head Cannon in attack mode!" Alex played the card and the floating Machine with cannons on it's head appeared on the field (4/1800/1500).

"How is that supposed to help you? If you attack my ruler both monsters will be destroyed." Theresa asked before frowning. _"Unless he has the two union monsters that go with that monster in his hand that is."_ Theresa thought.

"You'll see soon enough, first I equip X- Head Cannon with Break Draw!" Alex played the card and X-Dragon Head started glowing, Theresa blinked in confusion once she realized that the machine's attack points hadn't budged. "Now I activate Frontline Base which allows me to Special Summon Y-Dragon Head to the field who I equip to X-Head Cannon!" Alex played the cards and a metallic red dragon appeared underneath X-Head Cannon which X-Head Cannon subsequently equipped it's self too increasing it's attack and defence to 2200 and 1900 respectively. "X-Dragon Head attack Immortal Ruler!" The machine charged up it's cannons before firing them at the zombie destroying it.

T: 7600

A: 8000

"But that's not all, since I destroyed your monster with a monster equipped with Break Draw I'm allowed to draw another card." Alex explained as he drew a card. "That ends my turn!" Alex announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I activate Card of Sanctity to refreash our hands." Theresa played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hands. _"This combination could work!" _Theresa thought. "First I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Y-Dragon Head!" Theresa played the card and a tornado destroyed the mechanical dragon, however X-Head Cannon was able to save it's self by detaching from it though it lost it's power boost. "Now I activate the Field Spell Card Zombie World!" Theresa played the card and the scenery changed to a dark wasteland with skeletons spread around.

"How does this help..." Alex started but trailed off when he saw that X-Head Cannon was starting to rust. "What the hell?"

"That's the effect of Zombie World, as long as it's on the field all monsters on the field and in the graveyard become Zombie Monsters." Theresa explained with a smirk, "Not only that but the only cards we're allowed to Tribute Summon are Zombie Type monsters."

"WHAT?" Alex yelled out as it dawned on him. "But that effectively renders my strongest monsters useless!"

"That's not all I'm doing." Theresa said holding up another card. "I activate Monster Reborn to bring back your Y-Dragon Head in defence mode!" Theresa played the card and the mechanical dragon appeared on her side of the field (4/1500/1600) and due to Zombie World's effect it started rusting over. "Now that I've special summoned a Zombie type monster from your graveyard to my side of the field I activate my Trap Card Trap Of The Imperial Tomb!" Theresa flipped up the card.

"And I chain it with my own trap card, Psychic Shockwave!" The card flipped up and he grinned. "This can only be activated if my opponent activates a trap, just like you have, and in exchange for discarding one Spell or Trap Card from my hand I can special summon one Level 6 or higher Machine type monster from my deck, and the card I'm using it on will render Trap of the Imperial Tomb useless!" Alex said before picking up his deck and searching through it. "I summon Jinzo from my deck to the field!" Alex played the card and the android appeared on the field (6/2400/1500) and almost as soon as it appeared Jinzo started rusting over due to Zombie World's effect but that didn't stop it from firing twin laser beams at Trap of The Imperial Tomb and Theresa's facedown card destroying them both.

"_So much for that combination."_ Theresa thought with a frown. _"I ended up helping him rather than clearing the way for my stronger monsters."_ Theresa thought. "I set a card in defence mode and end my turn."

"Ouch, whatever combo she had in mind just got crushed." Lance winced as the three teens watched the duel. "You know what that trap would've done Brandon?" Lance asked and Brandon shook his head.

"No, this is her first time using the Zombie deck, pretty much the only person who knows it's contents is Theresa herself." Brandon said with a frown, back at the arena Alex had just drawn his card and grinned.

"Well, well, I didn't think I'd get to use this card so soon after winning it." Alex chuckled before picking it up. "This next card is one I won during my last Pre Semi-Final duel and it's a stronger version of Jinzo."

"That thing has a stronger version?" Chloe gulped remembering the trouble she had against it in her test duel.

"That's what I just said, in order to summon it I gotta get rid of Jinzo first so bye bye Jinzo, hello Jinzo Lord!" Alex swapped out the cards and Jinzo disappeared, in it's place stood a much taller version of the android wearing a purple version of it's outfit and now possessing three eyes (8/2600/1600). "Here's the best part, that was a Special Summon so in other words I have another monster I can summon so..." Alex said picking up another card. "I summon Biofalcon in attack mode!" Alex played the card and the mechanical falcon appeared on the field (4/1700/1200) Theresa tensed up remembering the card from Otto's duel even as the card rusted over due to Zombie World's effect. "Jinzo Lord attack Y-Dragon Head, X-Head Dragon attack her facedown card!" Jinzo Lord charged up a massive fireball before firing it at Y-Dragon Head destroying it, Theresa tossed Y-Dragon Head back at Alex who sent it to his graveyard before the beams of light from X-Head Cannon's cannons struck her facedown card, revealed to be Pyramid Turtle (4/1200/1400), which was destroyed, Alex drew his card thanks to Break Draw's effect and Theresa grinned.

"Whilst I'm glad that those monsters where in defence mode by destroying it you triggered Pyramid Turtle's effect!" Theresa said with a smirk as she held up the card. "With it I can summon a Zombie Type monster with 2000 or less defence from my deck once it's destroyed in battle and unlike most deck searchers Pyramid Turtle doesn't care what Level the monster is." Theresa explained as she sent Pyramid Turtle to the graveyard and picked up her deck, she found the card she was looking for and grinned. "I chose to summon Giant Axe Mummy in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and an overweight mummy with part of it's chest (as in the internal organs) appeared on the field, as it's namesake suggested it was wielding an axe (5/1700/2000).

"You gotta be kidding me, people still use Level 5 monsters with 1700 attack points?" Alex asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"You haven't even seen his effect in action, with it I can flip him facedown in defence mode once per turn." Theresa explained as the mummy disappeared. _"Off course it has another effect but I won't get into that just yet."_ Theresa thought.

"Drat, it's defence is too tough for my falcon to crack." Alex cursed himself before folding his arms. "I end my turn." Alex announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the card and Alex drew his card.

"Jinzo-Lord attack Giant Axe Mummy now!" The android charged up it's attack before firing it at the mummy...

"I activate The Reliable Guardian!" Theresa announced as the mummy reappeared on the field, too Alex's surprise the mummy's defence shot up to 2700. "This spell card's effect is similar to Rush Recklessly only it increases a monster's defence by 700 rather than it's attack!" Theresa explained as Giant Axe Mummy withstood the attack.

T: 7600

A: 7900

"Not bad kid..." Alex started but stopped when he saw Jinzo – Lord topple over with Giant Axe Mummy's axe in it's chest. "What the hell?"

"That was Giant Axe Mummy's second effect in action, any monster that does battle with it which has a weaker attack power than Giant Axe Mummy's defence power is automatically destroyed." Theresa explained with a grin.

"Great, now you can activate traps again." Alex grunted in annoyance before sending Jinzo – Lord to the graveyard. "I end my turn." Alex said and Theresa drew her card.

"Okay, first I activate Zoma The Spirit, this is a trap monster which means I can bring this monster out." Theresa activated the card and a hideous black dragon appeared on the field (4/1800/200).

"Nice move but I don't see the point of it." Alex said and Theresa grinned.

"Just watch, I summon Plaguespredder Zombie in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and an overweight zombie in a purple cloak appeared on the field (2/400/200). "Now I tune Plaguespredder Zombie with Zoma The Spirit to Synchro Summon Revived King Ha-Des in attack mode!" The two zombies vanished and in the place of Zoma stood what looked like a zombie version of the fiend Dark Ruler Ha-Des appeared on the field (6/2450/0000). "Revived King attack Biofalcon!" The zombie reached forward with it's claws before ripping the falcon to shreds.

T: 7600

A: 7250

"That ends my turn." Theresa announced and Alex drew his card.

"Okay, first I activate my own Card of Sanctity." Alex announced and both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hands. "Heh, your not the only one who can Synchro Summon Theresa, I summon the Tuner Monster Changer Synchron in attack mode!" Alex played the card and a small robot appeared on the field, it was grey and orange and had red wings. "Now I tune Changer Synchron with X-Head Cannon to Synchro Summon the first of my deck's true power, Ally of Justice – Castanator in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of X-Head Cannon stood a mechanical spider with what looked like a human head with shoulder length blonde hair and sunglasses (5/2200/1200).

"Nice try but my Revived King's stronger." Theresa said confidently.

"Not whilst it's in defence mode!" Alex said and Theresa blinked before turning her attention to Revived King...and her eyes widened when she saw the monster in defence mode. "You see when Changer Synchron is used for a Synchro Summon I can change the battle position of one monster on your side of the field and as tempting as it is to use it on Giant Axe Mummy and deal some damage to your life-points I'd like to keep my new monster around!" Alex explained with a grin before pointing to Revived King. "Castanator attack Revived King Ha Des now!" The spider charged towards the king, which was powerless to stop the attack due to the lack of any defence power and was quickly destroyed. "I end my turn with a facedown card." Alex announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I activate the effect of Plaguespredder Zombie, as long as I return one card from my hand to the top of my deck I can special summon it back to the field." Theresa announced as the zombie returned to the field. _"Only thing is that when it's removed from the field I have to remove it from play, I'd better make this Synchro Summon worth it!" _Theresa thought before picking up a card. "Now I normal summon Skull Conductor in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a man in a Tuxedo appeared on the field, he had red hair, a matching moustache, was wearing a white sailors hat and was carrying a conductor's stick (4/2000/0000). "Now I tune Plaguespredder Zombie with Skull Conductor to Synchro Summon Doomkaiser Dragon in attack mode!" Theresa picked up the cards and, after pocketing Plaguespredder Zombie due to it's effect and sending Skull Conductor to the graveyard, played the card, in the place of Skull Conductor stood a massive dragon who's body was brown in colour and had skeleton like wings and head (6/2400/1500). "And when this guy's Syncro Summoned I can select one Zombie type monster in your graveyard and Special Summon it to my side of the field and thanks to Zombie World that's every card in your graveyard, however I only need one. Jinzo!" Alex said nothing as he tossed Jinzo to her, she played the card and the android appeared on the field (6/2400/1500). "Doomkaiser Dragon attack Castanator!" Theresa ordered and the dragon started to breathe fire, however before the attack could even be launched Castanator leaped across the field ripping the dragon to shreds, Jinzo soon vanished due to Doomkaiser Dragon's side effect. "What just happened?"

"That was Castanator's effect, you see any non Dark type monster it does battle with is destroyed at the beginning of the damage step without any battle damage being applied." Alex explained as Theresa tossed Jinzo back at him and he sent it to the graveyard. "Nice try but your going to have to try harder than that to beat me!"

"Fine, I end my turn." Theresa said clearly annoyed by the turn of events and Alex drew his card.

"All right, first I activate Card Destruction to force us both to discard our hands!" Theresa frowned but did so, both duellists drew new hands almost as soon as they discarded their new ones. "Next I activate the trap I set last turn Revival Gift, this lets me bring back one Tuner monster from my graveyard on two conditions, one is that that tuner's effect is negated, the other is that two Gift Fiend tokens get summoned to your side of the field." Alex activated the trap and two black fiends appeared on Theresa's side of the field (3/1500/1500) whilst on Alex's side of the field a small, gold, white red and black spider like machine appeared on the field (3/1000/1000). "Meet Ally of Justice Cycle Reader!"

"Whilst I appreciate the free monsters that move doesn't impress me." Theresa said plainly and Alex smirked.

"We'll see about that because I'm not done yet, I summon Ally Of Justice Unlimiter in attack mode!" Alex played the card and a small green and black machine appeared on the field (2/600/400). "Now the stage is set, I tune my Level 5 Costonator with my Level 3 Cycle Reader and Level 2 Unlimiter to summon the strongest Ally of Justice there is, I summon Ally of Justice Decisive Armour!" The three monsters vanished and in the place of Unlimiter stood a massive blue and gold machine that was tank like in appearance and had various cannons on it's body, including one for a mouth (10/3300/3300).

"Holy shit! How long has he been holding on to that thing!" Eddie yelled out in surprise when the monster revealed it's self.

"Normally this is the part where I go over my monster's effects but they only apply to light type monsters and I know for a fact that there isn't any light type Zombie monsters in existence." Alex said with a frown before pointing to Giant Axe Mummy. "Decisive Armour, take out that pain in the ass known as Giant Axe Mummy!" The tank fired up it's cannons before unleashing the full brunt of the blast annihilating the mummy.

"_At least my mummy was in defence mode...wait why didn't he target one of the fiends he gave me? They where summoned to the field in attack mode so he would've left a big hole in my life-points."_ Theresa thought the confusion evident on her face. _"Regardless I need to find a way to get rid of that thing and fast!" _Theresa thought.

"I end my turn." Alex said and Theresa drew her card.

"_Okay, reusing Plaguespredder Zombie is out of the question right now due to it's effect and it's pressence on the limited list."_ Theresa thought as she looked over her new hand, then her eyes lit up when she saw one of the cards in her hand. _"Seems I spoke to soon." _Theresa thought before playing it. "I summon Shutendoji in attack mode!"

"Shuten what?" Alex blinked as Theresa played the card and a blonde man in red armour appeared on the field (4/1500/800). "How will that help?"

"One of his effect will help, that's how you see once per turn I can chose to either banish two zombie type monsters from my graveyard in exchange for drawing a card or I can return one banished zombie type monster to the top of my deck." Theresa said before grinning. "And as I'm sure you remember Plaguespredder Zombie was removed from play due to his own effect." Theresa said before retrieving the card from her pocket and placing it atop her deck. "Now I activate the Spell Card I returned to the top of my deck in order to use Plaguespredder Zombie's effect last turn, Allure of Darkness!" Theresa activated the card and, after pocketing a Dark Type monster, she drew two cards.

"Nice try, but you've already used up your summon!" Alex said with a grin.

"I know, so I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced and Alex drew his card. "I activate my trap card Thunder of Ruler!"

"Great, now I can't attack!" Alex said with a frown before looking at his new card. "As a matter of fact I pass, there's nothing I can do." Alex announced and Theresa drew her card.

"Okay, first I activate Silent Doom to bring back one of the zombies you made me discard with Card Destruction. Skull Servant!" Theresa played the cards and a skeleton in a purple robe appeared on the field (1/300/200).

"People still use that thing?" Alex asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Don't be so quick to judge, now I summon Plaguespredder Zombie to the field in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the zombie returned to the field. "Now I tune Plauguespredder Zombie with Skull Servant and one of the Gift Fiends, since they are technically zombies thanks to Zombie World, to Synchro Summon Archfiend Zombie Skull in attack mode!" The three monsters vanished and in Plaguespredder's place stood a skinnier version of Summoned Skull (6/2500/1200). "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced and Alex drew his card.

"All that effort for a monster weaker than my tank? Please, Decisive Armour attack Archfiend Zombie Skull now!" The tank charged up it's attack.

"I activate my trap card Synchro Deflector!" Theresa flipped up the card and Alex blinked. "This trap can only be activated if a Synchro Monster I control is targeted for an attack, this lets me negate the attack and destroy one monster you control and I only see one!"

"NO!" Alex yelled out but it was too late as the tank self destructed before it could fire it's attack. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn!" Alex announced and Theresa drew her card.

"Archfiend Zombie Skull attack his life-points directly!" The zombie charged up it's attack.

"I don't think so, I activate my trap card Descending Lost Star!" Alex activated the trap and too Theresa's surprise Decisive Armour reappeared on the field in what looked like a defensive position, however it's level had plummeted to one and it's defence was at zero. "As you can see this trap card has allowed me to Special Summon my Decisive Armour back to the field, however it's lost all it's defence points and it can't change it's position."

"Not a problem for me then, Archfiend Zombie Skull resume your attack!" The zombie resumed charging up it's attack.

"My other trap says otherwise, I activate Synchro Barrier!" Alex activated the trap and to Theresa's surprise Decisive Armour disappeared from the field. "In order to activate it's effect I have to tribute one Synchro Monster I control but in exchange I don't take any battle damage!"

"Fine, I'll end my turn since there's no point in attacking." Theresa announced as Archfiend Zombie Skull called off it's attack and Alex drew his card.

"Okay, I start by activating Pot of Averice and I use it to return Y-Dragon Head, Changer Syncron, Biofalcon, Jinzo and Jinzo – Lord to my deck and draw two cards." Alex returned the monsters to his deck, shuffled it and drew two cards. "Now I summon Ally of Justice Cyclone Creator in attack mode!" Alex played the card and a red, bird like machine appeared on the field (3/1400/1200). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Alex set the two cards down and Theresa drew her card. "I activate my own Thunder of Ruler!"

"Great, I guess I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Theresa said begrudgingly before setting the card, Alex drew his card and activated his trap.

"I activate Synchro Material, this lets me target one monster you control and use it for a Synchro Summon, I chose Shutendoji." Theresa's eyes widened but she knew that she could do nothing but watch as her monster leaped over to Alex's side of the field. "Now all I need to do is summon another monster and I have just the thing, I activate Monster Reborn to bring back your Skull Servant!" Alex played the card and the robe clad skeleton appeared on his side of the field. "Now I tune Cyclone Creator with Shutendoji and Skull Servant to Synchro Summon Ally of Justice Field Martial in attack mode!" The three monsters vanished and, after Alex tossed Theresa's monsters back at her and she sent them to the graveyard, a large android appeared in the place of Cyclone Creator, it was silver in colour and had nasty looking claws (9/2900/2600). "Field Martial attack Gift Fiend Token now!" The android charged towards the fiend ripping it to pieces.

T: 6200

A: 7250

"_Maybe my Zombie deck wasn't my best choice to use against Alex."_ Theresa thought as she looked down at her deck. _"True I have more monsters where that came from but he's had a counter for everything I've thrown at him...then I guess it's time I threw something new at him!" _Theresa thought as an idea started forming in her head. "My move yet?" Theresa asked and Alex looked at his hand.

"One card facedown, now I end my turn." Alex set the second card he drew and Theresa drew her card. "Okay, first I use Plaguespredder Zombie's effect to special summon it to the field!" Theresa announced as she returned the card she had drawn to the top of her deck, retrieved the Tuner Monster and summoned it to the field, the zombie appeared on the field ready for battle.

"Like that little tyke will help you against my Field Martial!" Alex scoffed and Theresa grinned.

"That's the thing, my zombie won't be the one doing the battling, I tune Plaguespredder Zombie with Archfiend Zombie Skull to Synchro Summon Blood Mefist in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Archfiend Zombie Skull stood a smartly dressed man wearing a suit, top hat and a white facial mask, he was carrying a large cane and was ready for battle (8/2800/1300).

"You may as well have stuck with Archfiend Zombie Skull, that thing's still weaker than my monster!" Alex scoffed and Theresa grinned.

"Blood Mefist attack Ally of Justice Field Martial now!" Theresa announced ignoring the screams of what from duellists and spectators alike, Blood Mefist leaped into the air and as he prepared to come down on Field Martial Theresa activated her trap. "I activate Prideful Roar!"

"How is that supposed to help..." Alex started but stopped when, too his surprise, Theresa's life-points dropped to 6100 and Blood Mefist's attack increased to 3100.

"In order to activate this trap I have to wait until damage calculation and I have to be the one doing the attacking, with it all I need to do is pay life-points equal to the difference between the two monsters attacks and my monster gains that difference times 300." Theresa explained as Blood Mefist slammed it's cane into Field Martial's head, nothing happened for a few moments as Blood Mefist leaped away from the machine before it eventually started to short circuit before exploding.

T: 6100

A: 7050

"Huh, that might prove useful in my deck." Brandon said stroking his chin thoughtfully. "I'll give my dad a ring, see if it's my stash."

"That or you could save the staff money on long distance calls and ask Theresa if she has a spare copy." Lance pointed out and Brandon grinned sheepishly,

"That ends my turn." Theresa announced and Alex drew his card...only to wince as his life-points dropped to 6550. "That was Blood Mefist's effect, as long as it's on the field you'll lose 500 life-points during each of your standby phases."

"Well I guess it's a good thing that that monster won't be sticking around." Alex said picking up a card. "I summon Bri Synchron in attack mode!" Alex played the card and a small green, black and gold machine appeared on the field (4/1500/1100).

"Another tuner monster, not that it matters since you lack the means to get another card on the field." Theresa pointed out and Alex grinned.

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Alex said shaking his head. "There's more than one way to get a monster on the field but since your in Obelisk Blue you should know that." Alex said before picking up a card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy...my own facedown card!" Alex announced ignoring the collective gasp from the other duellists, he shielded himself as a tornado ripped through the hologram of his facedown card. "I have my reasons though, the facedown card was a Trap Card called Wonder Garage and to use it's effect I had to destroy it whilst it was facedown." Alex said holding up the card. "Here's the best part, when it's destroyed and sent to the graveyard Wonder Garage lets me Special Summon one Machine type monster from my hand as long as it's Level 4 or lower and that it's got Roid in it's name and I have just the one, through the use of Wonder Garage I Special Summon Carrieroid in attack mode!" Alex played the card and a small blue, yellow and brown ship appeared on the field, strangely enough it had large, cartoonish angry eyes on the front (4/1000/800). "Now I tune Carrieroid with Bri Synchron to Synchro Summon a new monster that will leave you in the dust, Ally of Justice Light Gaser!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Bri Synchron stood an odd looking machine that was yellow, black and red in colour, it had no lower body but seemed to be operating on some kind of hover system and had a yellow circle around it's waist (8/2400/1600).

"All that for a monster that can't hold a candle to mine..." Theresa started but did a double take when she saw his the monster's attack increase to 3000. "What the?" Theresa blurted out.

"That's Bri Synchron's effect, when it's used for a Synchro Summon the monster I summon it with immediately gains 600 attack points at the cost of it's effect." Alex said with a smirk. "Not that it matters, you see Light Gazer would usually gain 200 attack points for each Light Type monster in the graveyard."

"And I have no Light Type monsters in this deck, let alone my graveyard." Theresa interrupted with a frown. _"Another move countered, hopefully I can get him to run out of his Ally of Justice Synchro monsters before I run out of life-points."_ Theresa thought the frustration clear on her face.

"Light Gazer, shed some light on that Blood Mefist!" Alex commanded and the machine fired a beam of gold light at Blood Mefist destroying it.

T: 5900

A: 6050

"That ends my turn." Alex announced and Theresa drew her card, she looked at it before looking up at Light Gazer...only to blink in surprise when she saw that the monster had lost it's power boost. "I almost forgot, Bri Synchron's effect only works during the turn that it's Synchro Summoned."

"Well, I guess I should be thankful since that makes my job that much easier." Theresa said before looking at her card. "I activate Magical Stone Excavation, now by discarding the remaining cards in my hand to the graveyard I can select one spell card in my graveyard and return it to my hand." Theresa discarded her remaining cards and retrieved her other card. "And as for the card I'm retrieving, well I activate it now, it's Card Of Sanctity!" Theresa played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hands. _"Our decks are running a bit low, might want to hold off on draws outside of the draw phase."_ Theresa thought as she looked down at her deck before looking at her new hand. "Unfortunately I lack the means to bring back Plaguespredder Zombie since it was removed from play via it's own effect."

"I know that, I used that thing in the deck that I used during last year's Battle City Tournament." Alex interrupted. "What's your point?"

"My point is that one of the cards I just drew is a Tuner monster that can substitute for my zombie, something that's pretty handy since Plaguespredder's on the Limited List." Theresa said before picking up a card. "I summon Pain Painter to the field in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a zombie wearing overalls appeared on the field, it was carrying a paint stand and was covered in paint (2/400/200). "I'm not done though, sure that was my normal summon but there's another summon I can make thanks to this spell card, it's called Double Summon."

"I know what that does, it lets you Normal Summon another monster in exchange for the ability to use it again." Alex interrupted and Theresa grinned.

"Exactly and I know just the monster I'm going to summon, I summon Bone Mouse in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a small, rotting pink mouse appeared on the field (1/400/300). "Now I tune my final Gift Fiend Token with Bone Mouse and Pain Painter to Synchro Summon yet another Archfiend Zombie Skull!" The three monsters vanished and in the place of Gift Fiend Token stood the zombie from earlier in the duel (6/2500/1200).

"NO! That has enough power to wipe out my last Ally of Justice!" Alex yelled out and Theresa grinned.

"Archfiend Zombie Skull attack Light Gazer now!" The zombie reached forward with it's claws and ripped the machine to pieces.

T: 5900

A: 5950

"Looks like I'll win this match yet." Theresa said with a grin. "And since I wiped out the last of your Ally of Justice cards it'll be a matter of time before I join my friends in the next round."

"I'm guessing by that you mean that your turns over?" Alex asked and Theresa set a card facedown, nodded and Alex drew his card. "You may of taken out my Jinzo Lord and my Allies of Justice but as any duellist worth his/her salt knows it's foolish to rely on one monster to win duels, and your Card of Sanctity gave me the means to turn this duel around."

"Talk is cheap, and unless you have a monster that can back that up then I'm not impressed." Theresa countered back.

"Just watch, I activate the Power Bond spell card!" Alex played the card and Theresa's eyes widened. "I see you remember this card's effect from your classmate's duel but unlike him I don't intend to use it on something as powerful as Cyber End Dragon, mostly due to the fact that I don't have those cards in my possession but this card's just as good!" Alex said as he picked up two cards. "Now I fuse together the two Cyber Ogres (5/1900/1200) in my hand to fusion summon Cyber Ogre 2 in attack mode!" Alex played the cards and the two machine monsters where fused together, out of the vortex emerged a massive ape like machine (9/2600/1900) and his attack increased to 5200 due to Power Bond's effect. "I've got bad news for you kid, you see when Cyber Ogre 2 attacks a monster such as your Archfiend Zombie Skull half of it's victim's attack gets added to it's attack points!" Alex said before pointing to Cyber Ogre. "Attack Archfiend Zombie Skull!" The ogre charged towards Theresa's monster and it's attack rose to 6450 and ripped the zombie to shreds.

T: 3550

A: 5950

"I end my..." Alex yelled in pain as lightning struck him. "Crap, I forgot that Power Bond takes the original attack of the monster it summoned and takes it from my life-points." Alex said as his life-points dropped down to 3350. "Not that it matters, all it'll take is one direct attack from my Ogre and you'll be joining Marcus in the loser's circle."

"That's not going to happen." Theresa said defiantly as she drew her card. "I start by activating the trap I set last turn, Wicked Rebirth." Theresa flipped up the card and grinned even as her life-points dropped to 2750. "At the cost of 800 life-points this lets me revive one Synchro Monster from my graveyard to welcome back Archfiend Zombie Skull!" Theresa played the card and the zombie retuned to the field. "Unfortunately it can't attack but with what I have in store it doesn't need too."

"What are you talking about?" Alex demanded as Theresa played the card she drew.

"This is what I'm talking about, I activate the Spell Card Synchro Blast Wave." Theresa played the card and too Alex's surprise the zombie reached forward with it's claws and ripped the ogre to shreds. "This can only be activated if I have a Synchro Monster on my side of the field, with it I'm allowed to destroy one monster you control!" Theresa said as Alex sent his monster to the graveyard. "As for the issue regarding my monsters lack of ability to attack he won't be sticking around for much longer, I summon another Pain Painter in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the zombie reappeared on the field. "Now I tune Archfiend Zombie Skull with Pain Painter to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the two monsters vanished alongside Wicked Rebirth's hologram, in the place of Archfiend Zombie Skull stood a massive warrior in silver armour (8/2800/1000).

"I'm not worried, even if you attack my life-points I'll still have life-points to spare." Alex said defiantly and Theresa shook her head.

"You don't understand, this match is over." Theresa said picking up another card. "And it's all thanks to the Spell Card Megamorph which doubles Colossal Fighter's attack points as long as my life-points are lower than yours." Alex's eyes widened as Colossal Fighter doubled in size and strength all the way up to 5600. "Colossal Fighter, finish this duel now!" The warrior charged towards Alex and punched him in the face.

T: 2750

A: 0000

"What a match! Theresa enters the second round with her classmates!" Bill said over the cheering crowd, Alex forced himself to his feet as the holograms disappeared and both duellists deactivated their duel disks, Theresa went to hop off the arena.

"Hey kid." Alex called out to her and Theresa turned around as he approached her, a few seconds passed before Alex extended his hand out for a handshake. "That was a hell of a duel, good luck in the rest of the tournament." Theresa smiled before accepting the handshake.

"Thanks." Theresa said plainly before hopping off the duel arena. _"Hmm, Lance hasn't come back yet and his duel is up next, hopefully Brandon and Nicola can drag his ass back here."_ Theresa thought before returning her Zombie deck to her backpack. _"At least I'm through to the next round."_ Theresa thought.

"Attention duellists, because of how late it's getting we are foregoing the twenty minute recess for the last match of the day." Kaiba announced, Felix grinned as he approached the arena whilst backstage a clearly panicking Lance was rushing down the halls to get to the arena in time.

"DICK MOVE KAIBA! DICK MOVE!" Lance yelled as he approached the arena, he climbed onto the arena and took a moment to catch his breath. "I'm here, just a bit tired."

"So you made it." Felix said with a smirk. "You should have just forfeited the match unless you want to join Andreas in the Orichalcos."

"Please, the only one who'll be joining anyone in the Orichalcos is you and you'll be joining that murderous bitch Karen alongside every one of your associates that me and my friends have defeated in this tournament so far." Lance retorted with a grin.

"Don't make me laugh, Brandon could barely beat me in our match and he's in Obelisk Blue, you? Your an Ra Yellow." Felix scoffed and Lance's eyes narrowed.

"If your going to judge my duelling skills based on my dorm then your making a huge mistake, for starters Marcus is in Ra Yellow as well and you saw how well he did against Brandon." Lance said folding his arms, Felix frowned before activating his duel disk and Lance did likewise. "There's something that's been bugging me ever since our match was announced though." Lance added and Felix frowned.

"Let me guess, you want to know how I went from the regional champion of New Orleans to an Orichalcos duellist?" Felix asked and Lance nodded. "I'm afraid that's personal." Felix said before smirking. "But here's a deal for you, you get my life-points below 1000 life-points and I'll tell you everything."

"What if I beat you before then?" Lance asked.

"I'll hold off the Orichalcos long enough so that I can tell you." Felix said as both duellists drew their opening hands. "You won't get that far though."

"We'll see about that, now who's going first?" Lance asked as he looked over his opening hand. _"Not bad."_ Lance thought.

"I will." Felix said impatiently as he drew his card. "I set two cards facedown and summon Venom Snake in attack mode!" Felix played the cards and a brown, fanged rattlesnake appeared on the field (3/1200/800). "What do you say to that Lance?"

"I say that without the Orichalcos on the field your snakes are all bark and no bite." Lance said as he drew his card. "And to prove it I summon the mighty Laval Lancelord in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the warrior wielding the spear of fire appeared on the field (6/2100/200).

"Hey hold up, that requires a tribute first!" Felix protested and Lance grinned.

"If I had a dollar for every-time someone pointed that out about Lancelord, you see I can Normal Summon this monster without a tribute as long as I send it to the graveyard once I end my turn." Lance explained before picking up a card. "But in a few moments that won't matter, first I activate Card Destruction to force us both to discard our hands and draw new ones."

"_Hmm, I could negate that with Snake Deity's Command but by forcing my to discard monsters he's playing right into my hand." _Felix thought with a grin as he discarded his hand and drew a new one, Lance did likewise and picked up one of the cards he drew.

"I'm not done yet, I activate a Spell Card from my hand called Rekindling, this lets me Special Summon as many Fire type monsters with 200 defence points as possible from my graveyard, and it just so happens that I have one!" Lance said as he retrieved the card from his graveyard. "Namely the Tuner Monster Flamvell Baby!" Lance played the card and a small humanoid flame appeared on the field with an angry look on his face (1/800/200). "Now...lets see if I can figure out this Synchro Summoming shit..." Lance said causing everyone else to facefault.

"You set up a Synchro Summon and yet you don't know how to do one?" Felix asked the confusion evident on his face.

"Give me a break, this is my first attempt at it." Lance said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Okay, Lancelord's a Level 6 monster...Flamvell Baby's a Level 1 monster...so if I tune Baby with Lancelord I'll be able to summon a Level 7 monster!" Lance figured out earning a mock applause from Felix.

"You gonna do it?" Felix asked once he finished his mock applause.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Lance said pointing to his two monsters. "I tune Flamvell Baby with Laval Lancelord to Synchro Summon Laval Stannon in attack mode!" The two monsters vanished and Lance picked up a card from his extra deck, he played it and in the place of Lancelord stood a massive armoured man with blue skin and spikes on his armour (7/2700/1800). "Before I attack Stannon's effect takes place, when he's Synchro Summoned I have to discard a card from my hand to the graveyard." Lance explained before he picked up a card and sent it to the graveyard. "Laval Stannon attack Venom Snake!" The massive monster charged forward.

"You'll need to do better than that, I activate my trap card Ambush Fangs!" Felix activated his trap and to Lance's surprise Venom Snake leaped forward and bit Stannon on the neck, "This trap card can only be activated if one of my Venom Monsters is targeted for an attack, not only does it let me negate the attack but...well see for yourself!" Felix said and Lance blinked...only for his eyes to widen when he saw a large boil appear where Stannon was bitten. "The attacking monster gets a Venom Counter."

"Not a big deal, my monster's still a lot stronger than anything you have in your deck that doesn't require special summoning conditions." Lance said confidently before looking at the rest of his hand. "But to be on the safeside I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance set the two cards down and Felix drew his card.

"Heh, the card I just drew has sealed your fate." Felix said as he played the card. "I activate Terraforming, this spell card allows me to search through my deck for a Field Spell Card and add it to my hand and I have just the one in mind."

"Let me guess, the Seal of the Orichalcos?" Lance asked, Felix said nothing as he searched through his deck and found the spell card at the bottom.

"Why don't you have a look for yourself? I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Felix played the card and Lance shielded himself as the Seal enveloped both both duellists, the Seal's Symble appeared on his forehead alongside Venom Snake's head increasing it's attack to 1700.

"Should I be worried? Even with the Seal Venom Snake's attack doesn't come close to Stannon's." Lance pointed out and Felix grinned.

"Worry about that later, for now I switch Venom Snake to defence mode, set another monster in defence mode and a card facedown, your move." Felix set the cards after switching his snakes to defence mode and once the snake crouched down Lance drew his card.

"If that's the best you can do than this will be a piece of cake!" Lance said confidently as he looked at his newly drawn card. "For starters I remove Flamvell Baby from play in order to Special Summon Inferno in defence mode!" Lance played the card and, after he retrieved the tuner monster from his graveyard, the small flame with eyes and a mouth appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "But he's not sticking around, I offer Inferno as a tribute to summon Thestalous The Firestorm Monarch!" The flame extinguished and in it's place stood Thestalous who was ready for battle (6/2400/1000). "Here's where things get fun, for me at least, you see when I successfully tribute summon Thestalous to the field I can force you to discard one card from your hand and if it happens to be a monster it's level comes out of your life-points times a 100." Lance explained as Thestalous threw a fireball at one of the two cards in Felix's hand, Felix winced both from the fireball and at the card which he revealed to be Venom Serpant (4/1000/800) before discarding it.

F: 7600

L: 8000

"This is bad." Brandon said with a frown. "Lance may have the lead but by forcing Felix to get rid of his monsters he's basically playing right into his hand."

"Your going to have to explain that one to me." Alex said with a confused look on his face.

"When I duelled him I used similar tactics to Lance's though in my case my strategies where focussed more on deck destruction." Brandon explained. "That ended up back firing as he brought out his two best monsters, Venominion and Venomningagga, monsters that got their attack power from the number of Reptile type monsters in the graveyard and by then he had a lot."

"I get it, if Lance isn't careful he'll be facing some serious firepower." Eddie said with a nod. "Just one thing, for all we know Lance could wipe out Felix's life-points long before then."

"Not if he has more cards like Ambush Fangs." Brandon said only now catching on to the fact that Chloe was glaring at him. "Let me guess, be more supportive?"

"Yep." Chloe said with a simple nod.

"Err, Lance Lance he's our man if he can't do it no one can!" Brandon chanted laughing nervously as he did.

"Now for the fun part, Thestalous attack his facedown monster, Stannon attack Venom Snake again!" The two monsters launched their attacks at the two monsters, the facedown monster being Venom Cobra (4/100/2000) and both monsters where destroyed, Felix sent them to the graveyard managing to suppress his grin.

"_That's it keep destroying my monsters, soon as I get my heavy hitter on the field you will regret ever entering this tournament."_ Felix thought before looking up at Lance. "You done?" Felix asked, Lance took a look at the rest of his hand and nodded.

"I'm done." Lance said plainly and Felix drew his card.

"I start by activating the Spell Card known as Card of Sanctity, I hope I don't have to explain what this does too you." Felix said and Lance shook his head, both duellists drew until they had six cards in their hand and Felix sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "Say goodbye to your Synchro Monster Lance."

"Please, none of your monsters come close to his power!" Lance said confidently and Felix grinned.

"I never said anything about destroying it with a monster, I activate the Spell Card Special Hurricane!" Felix played the card and discarded a card from his hand. "All I need to do is discard one card from my hand and in exchange I can destroy any monsters that where Special Summoned, namely Stannon!" Lance's eyes widened as a hurricane swooped up his Synchro monster destroying it, Lance sent his monster to the graveyard and frowned.

"_I could really use Monster Reborn right now."_ Lance thought before looking up at Felix. "I have more monsters where that came from."

"I hope so, otherwise this won't be fun at all." Felix said with a cocky grin. "Now I summon Venom Cobra in attack mode and activate Venom Shot!" Felix played the card and after the silver and red snake appeared on the field (4/100/2000) Felix selected a card from his deck and sent it to his graveyard. "This spell card can only be activated if I have a Venom type monster on my side of the field, since I do I can now send one Reptile type monster from my deck to my graveyard and place two Venom Counters on one face up monster you control, normally I'd have a choice in this but since you only have one monster, well the choice is made for me." As Felix said that two boils appeared on Thestalous's neck.

"So what? Thestalous can easily pop those spots!" Lance said confidently before smirking. "Not to mention your weakass monster!"

"True, but it'll be me that destroys Venom Cobra and I'll do it with your own monster!" Felix said as he played a card, Lance blinked...only for his eyes to widen when he saw Creature Swap's hologram pop up. "I see you know this card's effect."

"Yeah I do, it basically swaps our monsters around." Lance said before his eyes narrowed. "Since I have no choice I chose Thestalous." Lance added as the two monsters disappeared only to reappear but on the opposite end of the field.

"Thestalous, attack your former master's Venom Cobra now!" Felix ordered and Thestalous threw a fireball at Venom Cobra destroying it, Lance said nothing before he activated one of his traps and tossed Venom Cobra back at Felix who sent it to his graveyard. "Well that's...wait why hasn't your life-points budged?"

"You can thank my trap card for that, Defence Draw can only be activated during the Damage Step and not only does it reduce the damage I take to zero but I am able to draw a new card." Lance explained as he drew a card.

"Not bad, however I now have one of your most powerful monsters in my control and I don't intend to give him up just yet." Felix said cockily as he folded his arms. "I end my turn, not that you can do much now."

"We'll see about that." Lance said as he drew his card. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defence mode, go ahead." Lance set his two newly drawn cards and Felix drew his card.

"Well, well, time I got rid of more Reptiles." Felix said as he played a card. "I activate a Spell Card called Snake Rain, all I need to do is discard a card from my hand and in exchange I can send four reptile type monsters from my deck to my graveyard." Felix selected the cards once he discarded a monster and sent them to the graveyard alongside his Spell Card.

"Fine by me, you'll deck yourself out if you keep that up." Lance said confidently and Felix frowned.

"Thestalous attack his defence monster now!" The monarch fired up a fireball before launching it at Lance's monster. "That takes care off...WHAT?" Felix yelled out as the smoke cleared revealling Obnoxious Celtic Guardian (4/1400/1200).

"Surprised? Don't be, my Celtic Guardian can't be destroyed in battle with a monster with 1900 or more attack points." Lance explained with a grin. "I didn't think I'd need to use this card given how weak your Venom monsters are but given the fact that you where kind enough to steal one of my favourite monsters I'll make do."

"Good move Lance!" Brandon called out from the sidelines and Lance grinned.

"Yes, as a time builder." Axel said with a frown. "However unless he used his Guardian as a Tribute or for another Synchro Summon he'll be in trouble." Axel said with a frown ignoring the glare from Chloe.

"Fine, I'll end my turn." Felix said with a frown and Lance drew his card.

"First I summon Darkfire Soldier Number 1 in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the topless muscular man who's lower half was covered in flames appeared on the field (4/1750/1100). "Next I activate a Spell Card from my hand called Natural Tune!"

"How does that help you?" Felix asked and Lance grinned.

"Simple, this Spell Card allows me to select one Level 4 or lower Normal Monster I control, in this case Darkfire Soldier." Lance explained as Darkfire Soldier started glowing. "Now as long as my monster's faceup on the field it's treated like a Tuner monster."

"That means you can bring out a Level 8 Synchro monster!" Felix realized as his eyes widened.

"That's right, so I tune Darkfire Soldier with Obnoxious Celtic Guardian to Synchro Summon Crimson Blader!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Darkfire Soldier stood a blue skinned man in red armour, a black skirt and wielding twin blades (8/2800/2600). "Now to bring Thestalous home, Crimson Blader attack Thestalous!" The warrior charged towards Thestalous before slashing him across the chest with one sword and decapitated him with the other.

F: 7200

L: 8000

Felix said nothing before tossing Thestalous back at Lance who sent it to his graveyard once he caught it. "The bad news just keeps coming for you Felix, when Crimson Blader destroys a monster you are unable to bring out any Level 5 or Higher monsters during the following turn."

"No big deal, most of my Venom monsters are Level 4 or bellow." Felix explained as Crimson Blader returned to Lance's side of the field. "You done yet?" Felix asked, Lance looked at the rest of his hand and nodded. "All right, I draw." Felix announced as he drew his card. "And I activate Pot of Greed which will allow me to draw two additional cards!" Felix played the card and drew the two cards. "Your Blader's done for!"

"I'd like to see you try to beat something this strong!" Lance said cockily and Felix grinned.

"Why don't you just watch? I activate a second Special Hurricane!" Lance's eyes widened as Felix discarded another monster and seconds later a tornado ripped through the field destroying Crimson Blader. "Unfortunately I just discarded my only monster so I must end my turn with a facedown card." Felix set the card down and Lance drew his card. "I activate my Trap Card Thunder Of Ruler!"

"Great, now I can't attack." Lance frowned before looking at his new card. "But I can do this, I activate my own Card of Sanctity which, as you know, lets us refresh our hands." Lance played the card and both duellists drew until they had 6 cards in their hands, Lance looked at two of the cards in his hand and grinned. _"Just the cards I was waiting for."_ Lance thought before picking them up. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defence mode, your move!" Lance announced and Felix drew his card.

"Your finished!" Felix said with a grin as he held up a card. "First I activate another Snake Rain!" Felix discarded a card and retrieved another four cards from his deck before sending all five to the graveyard. "Now I activate not one but two copies of the Spell Card Silent Doom which allows me to revive my two Venom Cobras in defence mode!" Felix played the cards and the two cobras appeared on the field. "But they aren't sticking around, I offer them both to summon my second strongest monster Venoninion The Kind of Poisonousness Snakes!" Felix played the card and the two snakes vanished, in the place off the one on the right stood the humanoid snake from his duel with Brandon (8/0/0). "This monster gains 500 attack points for each Venom type monster in my graveyard and I have a lot." Felix explained as his monster's attack sky-rocketed to 10, 000.

"That's...that's a technical glitch right? RIGHT?" Lance said laughing nervously.

"Nope." Felix said with a grin. "Venomininion attack his defence monster!" The snake charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be Solar Flare Dragon, which was quickly destroyed. "That ends my turn." Felix announced and Lance drew his card.

"I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Lance activated the card...

"Don't count on it, I activate my trap card Snake Deity's Command!" Felix activated the trap card and showed Lance a third Venom Cobra. "Now that I've showed you a Venom type monster in my hand your spell card is negated."

"Fine, I guess it's time for Plan B!" Lance said as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defence." Lance set the cards and motioned for Felix to take his turn, Felix drew his card and Lance activated a trap. "I activate An Unfortunate Report!"

"Okay, what the hell does that do?" Felix asked and Lance grinned.

"Simple, for this turn only you can conduct two Battle Phases!" Lance said causing everyone to do a double take.

"Is he insane!" Alex yelled out once it hit him. "He may as well surrender!"

"Unless he's doing what I think he's doing." Brandon said folding his arms. _"Lance, I hope for your sake that you know what your doing."_ Brandon thought.

"Well since your so eager to lose." Felix said before pointing to Venominion, "Venominion attack his defence!" The snake charged forward.

"I activate Enchanted Javelin to take Venominion's frankly ridicules attack points and add them to my own!" Lance activated the trap and a Javelin went straight through Venominion's chest before firing a beam of light at Lance, that didn't stop Venominion from crushing Lance's facedown Ultimate Baseball Kid.

F: 7200

L: 18000

"Not that it'll help you, thanks to your trap card I enter my second battle phase!" Felix said before pointing to his monster. "Venominion attack his life-points directly!"

"This is going to suck!" Lance muttered under his breath as the snake charged towards him, he squeezed Lance for a few seconds and a few seconds of Lance screaming in pain later the snake returned to Felix's side of the field.

F: 7200

L: 8000

Lance collapsed to his knees breathing heavily as he did, however after a few seconds he grinned. "You...you've fallen for my trap."

"Say what?" Felix blinked as Lance activated one of his cards.

"I activate Inferno Tempest!" Lance flipped the card up and grinned. "This Quick Play Spell Card can only be activated if I take 3000 points of damage or more, or in this case a lot more, once it's activated it forces us to remove every single monster card in our decks and our graveyards from play."

"WHAT?" Felix yelled out as it dawned on him, however he reluctantly removed the cards reducing his deck to four cards and Lance's deck to six cards, most importantly however the monster cards in both player's graveyards where removed from play. _"Damn, I should've waited before using Snake Deity's Command, now my king's lost all it's attack points and in a few turns I'll deck out."_ Felix thought with a frown as Venominion's attack plummeted to zero. "Fine, you wiped out my monster's attack and any hope I had of restoring his attack strength but at what cost? From where I stand you only have one card left in your deck."

"That one card is all I'll need, is it my turn yet?" Lance asked and Felix nodded, Lance drew his card and looked at it. "I activate my last trap card, Return from a Different Dimension!" Lance activated the trap and winced as his life-points dropped to 4000. "This trap card requires me to cut my life-points in half but as your about to see it's well worth it.

"Meaning?" Felix asked only for his eyes to widen as Thestalous and Crimson Blader returned to Lance's side of the field alongside a knight wielding a shield covered in flames (5/1900/1300) and two Solar Flare Dragons.

"Meaning that for one turn only I can bring back as many removed from play monsters as possible, you already know Thestalous, Crimson Blader and my two Solar Flare Dragons but let me introduce you too Flame Champion!" Lance explained as the five monsters got ready for battle. "Not only that but from where I stand I have more than enough attack power to wipe you out."

"So you do." Felix admitted with a small grin. "I knew this day would come, when I'd fall to the Orichalcos...do your worst."

"My pleasure, Thestalous take out that overgrown Praying Mantis, Crimson Blader, Flame Champion attack his life-points!" Lance commanded and the three monsters launched their attacks, Thestalous wiped out the kind whilst Blader's and Champion's attacks sent Felix to the ground.

F: 100

L: 4000

Felix got up and looked at Lance expectedly. "Are you going to finish me off or what?"

"Aren't you forgetting our deal?" Lance asked folding his arms, Felix blinked before his eyes widened.

"Ah yeah, I promised I'd spill my guts if my life-points dropped bellow a thousand." Felix remembered before sighing. "I'm a man of my word believe it or not, I'll tell you everything." Felix said before taking a deep breath. "It all started five years ago, in my native New Orleans I was on top of the duelling world, no one could beat me,"

"So how'd you get from that to an Orichalcos duellist?" Lance asked.

"It's simple, back then I was a gambling addict and I was in debt to a group of local gangsters." Felix added before frowning. "I never told anyone not even my younger sister Terri, she looked up to me like a father as our parents had died years ago, she was all I had as far as family went." Felix took a deep breath. "Unfortunately the gangsters found out about her."

"What happened?" Lance asked not liking where this was going.

"I was approached before a championship duel by one of the gangsters, he offered to scrap the debt in exchange for throwing the match." Felix's eyes narrowed. "I refused, call it duellist pride or whatever you like and after I won the match I was knocked out by the gangster, when I woke up I found myself in a strange apartment tied to a chair and surrounded by the gangsters and they gave me a choice, pay off the debt or else." Felix's frown deepened. "i didn't have the money for it and it was then that they brought out Terri...the bastards had sown her lips shut."

"They...they what?" Lance asked as his eyes widened.

"It gets worse, they asked me again and I refused, they threw her onto the bed and gang raped her but I still refused, this went on for days on end." Felix's eyes started to water at the memory. "After five days they let us go, either they finally figured out that I didn't have the money to pay them or they got tired, we returned home but Terri wasn't the same after that, she...she blamed me for what happened and quite frankly I don't blame her...I found her the next day, she had hung herself during the night."

"Jesus Christ..." Theresa muttered as her hand covered her mouth in shock.

"After her funeral I was approached by some guy in a cloak, he identified himself as Michael and he offered me a chance at revenge against those scumbags, how could I refuse?" Felix asked rhetorically before frowning. "Once I got what I needed I challenged them one by one to an Orichalcos duel and annihilated them all, not only that but after the duels I ripped up their soul cards destroying their souls in the process, ever since then I've served them faithfully."

"Who's they?" Lance asked and Felix shook his head.

"Not my place to say, there's more to it anyway." Felix added before glancing over at Chloe. "I keep a picture of Terri on me at all times, to remind me of where I went wrong." Felix added before digging through his jeans pocket and holding up the picture. "Look familiar?"

"She...she looks like Chloe!" Lance realized as his eyes widened. "The resemblance is uncanny!"

"WHAT? Let me see!" Chloe demanded and Felix turned the picture around, sure enough Felix's sister looked like an older version of Chloe with slightly shorter hair, other than that the resemblance was still there. "Holy..."

"I hate your father for what he put you through." Felix addressed Chloe before pocketing the picture and turning to Lance. "Satisfied?"

"Felix...this may sound weird but it a way I sympathize with you." Lance said with a small smile causing the other duellists to do a double take. "You saw my siblings duel earlier right?"

"What about them?" Felix asked and Lance smirked.

"For a while I was all they had, my mother was in rehab, my father had run off to god knows where and we where in social services, whilst our situation has changed for the better I'm still as protective towards them as I was back then." Lance explained before folding his arms.

"I see, you wouldn't know what you'd do if something like that happened to them?" Felix asked and Lance nodded. "Seems we're not so different."

"Only difference is that I'm not an Orichalcos duellist and nothing will change that." Lance pointed out before pointing at his monster. "Solar Flare Dragon, finish it!" The dragon breathed fire at Felix destroying his life-points.

L: 4000

F: 0000

"And that's the end of the first round!" Bill said as the crowd cheered, Felix collapsed to the ground but said nothing as the seal closed in around him, he didn't even scream as the seal took his soul and Lance hopped off the arena. "Stick around folks, we are about to announce the second round." The remaining duellists stopped in their tracks and turned to the screen, this time it showed pictures of the duellists with arrows between them.

"I'm up against Miranda." Chloe said before glancing over at the older female duellist.

"I look forward to it kid." Miranda said with a friendly smile.

"Great, I'm up against Axel." Ray frowned before turning to Axel. "Good luck, I'll be the one to break your streak."

"Your welcome to try." Axel said confidently.

"Looks like we're up against each other Theresa." Brandon said as he turned to his girlfriend, Theresa nodded and smirked.

"May the best duellist win." Theresa said with a smile.

"Good, I'm up against Otto." Kimberly smirked as she glared at his picture. "_Don't worry Andreas, I'll get revenge for you."_ Kimberly thought, meanwhile Lance was freaking out.

"Why do I have to be the one to face the champ?" Lance gulped before looking over at Eddie. "I'd say may the best man win but that's a moot point since I'll win!"

"We'll see about that." Eddie said confidently as the announcers appeared on screen.

"Be sure to join us tomorrow for more exciting duel action!" Bob said before the screen turned off, the crowd and the duellists started to leave not knowing that Kaiba was watching them.

"Good to see that the competition has stepped up this year." Kaiba muttered to himself, before he could continue a medic burst into the room. "This had better be important." Kaiba demanded.

"Sorry sir but we've detected an anomaly with one of the comatose patients." The medic said once he caught his breath. "Namely Karen Trayson."

"What kind of anomaly?" Kaiba said turning around, the medic handed over a report and he looked at it. "She's pregnant?"

"Yes, two months pregnant to be precise." The medic nodded. "There's no way she couldn't have known."

"She intentionally put her unborn baby in harm's way...as if I needed more reasons to detest her." Kaiba frowned before turning to one of the guards. "I want Miranda in my office before her match against Chloe tomorrow."

"But that's the first duel of the day." The guard pointed out.

"I know, wake her up at 6 in the morning if you have too." Kaiba said plainly and the guard nodded, the medic left alongside the guard and Kaiba frowned. _"What other secrets are these Orichalcos Duellists hiding from me?" _Kaiba thought.


	32. Experienced vs rookies

"ARGH, THIS IS POINTLESS!" Lance yelled out in frustration as as he looked over his deck, he was trying to prepare for his match against Eddie by coming up with new combos with new cards he had brought from a local card shop, he was sitting on the bed with his deck surrounding him. "Nothing I can think off is any good."

"Err Lance, some of us are trying to sleep." Brandon's voice rang out and he looked up, sure enough a tired looking Brandon was standing by the door.

"Sorry man, I'm trying to prepare for my match against Eddie." Lance said with a sigh. "None of the cards I brought earlier seem to be helping."

"Can I have a look?" Brandon asked.

"Be my guest." Lance shrugged his shoulders and Brandon sat down next to the bed. "I got some good fire cards but I can't seem to think of any effective combos."

"I know the feeling." Brandon said as he looked around the room. "You ever consider cleaning your room? Granted you might need a bulldozer but..."

"Ha, ha, very funny." Lance cut him off with a look of annoyance on his face. "Any ideas that relate to duelling?" Lance asked and Brandon turned his attention to the deck.

"Yeah, get some sleep." Brandon said after a few minutes. "Maybe sleeping on it will..." Brandon said before he noticed the time on Lance's alarm clock. "7:00am already?"

"Time flies when your racking your brain for combos." Lance shrugged. "Ah well, at least I have until the end of the day to come up with a combo."

"True enough." Brandon shrugged. "You ever consider adding more Synchro support cards?"

"Well I did pick some up alongside the fire cards." Lance said digging the cards out of his pocket. "Some good ones but some of them require specific cards like Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend, cards I don't have."

"Yeah and they are pretty damn rare." Brandon agreed before running a hand through his hair. "Well good luck with that, I need to prepare for my match against Theresa."

"That reminds me." Lance said as he started gathering up his deck. "Any idea what deck she'll use against you?"

"No, I don't." Brandon said shaking his head. "All she told me is that she intends to use a deck she hasn't used in the tournament yet."

"That narrows it down." Lance said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Whatever deck she does use it will give you a run for your money."

"As if Marcus didn't do that already." Brandon said before frowning. "But if anyone's got a tough duel ahead of them, well besides you and me, it's Chloe and Kimberly."

"Yeah, Chloe's facing a veteran duellist who kicked her own sister's ass and Kimberly's facing Otto." Lance said running a hand through his hair. "I'm sure I don't need to point out how difficult Kimberly's duel will be."

"Don't worry about me." The two boys looked up and saw Kimberly with a look of determination on her face. "Otto will pay for what he did to Andreas and by extension his cohorts will pay for what they've done over the past few weeks."

"Nathan included?" Lance asked and Kimberly frowned.

"That's a stupid question and you know it!" Kimberly snapped at him before shaking her head. "Sorry, that's still a touchy subject."

"No need to apologize." Lance said putting his hands up defensively. "You seen Chloe by the way?" Lance asked and Kimberly shook her head.

"Haven't seen her all morning, my guess is that she's doing some last minute preparation for her match against Miranda." Kimberly shrugged her shoulders.

"Actually I just finished doing some last minute preparation." Chloe chimed in making Kimberly jump. "You guys ready for your matches."

"You didn't even need to ask." Brandon said confidently. "Not sure if I'll be able to beat Theresa but that doesn't mean I won't try."

"Personally, if I where you I'd be more interested in whether or not Theresa lets you into her pants if you beat her tonight." Lance said causing Brandon to face-fault.

"You are so lucky that I don't have my duel disk right now." Brandon said as he got up. "Otherwise my monsters would be chasing you all over the city."

"Thanks but I don't want intimate details of your weird fetishes." Lance said nonchalantly causing Brandon to face-fault again.

"You always talk about your friend's sex lives?" Theresa chimed in as she approached them, she was in the middle of tying her hair up in a ponytail and had an amused look on her face, Lance laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Nah, just some light hearted teasing." Lance said as he started gathering up his deck, he put it into his deck slot before glancing at the clock. "What time does Chloe's match start?"

"Err, 10:00am, why?" Chloe asked after checking the time on her watch.

"Good, that leaves us an our to get to the duel dome." Lance said with a smile, Chloe gulped before heading back to her room and retrieving her duel disk and deck."You ready for whatever Miranda throws your way Chloe?"

"I was born ready." Chloe said confidently before frowning. "Doesn't mean it'll be an easy match though."

"All right students, I hope your ready for the second round." Jeff said walking up to the group. "Because we're about to leave."

"Where's Marcus?" Brandon asked.

"Oh he went down to get breakfast earlier, he'll be joining me and the other teachers in the stands." Martin explained as the other teachers joined him. "Shall we get going?"

"Lets." Lance said standing up, they followed the teachers to the car which drove off.

*meanwhile at the duel dome*

"What do you mean you where unable to find Otto Freshier?" Kaiba demanded from the small group of security guards, they gulped nervously.

"Sorry sir, we searched all over the duel dome for him." The security guard nearest Kaiba said apologetically.

"He couldn't have gotten far, not if he wanted to scout the competition for the next round." Another guard spoke up and Kaiba frowned.

"You are to resume your search for him immediately." Kaiba said with a frown. "If you have to apprehend him after his match against Kimberly Troy then do it." Kaiba added and the guards quickly left.

"Err, excuse me sir." Kaiba looked up and saw another guard by the door. "Miranda Trayson is here to see see you."

"Let her in, afterwards join the search for Otto." Kaiba said and Miranda entered the office, once the guard left Kaiba handed the medical report over to Miranda.

"This...this has to be a joke." Miranda stammered as she read the medical report.

"I wouldn't joke about something this serious." Kaiba said plainly as Miranda handed back the file, he took it and placed it on his desk. "The docs don't know if being trapped in the Orichalcos will affect the unborn child or who the father is."

"I can see that, I saw the notes mention that she's two months pregnant." Miranda said folding her arms. "So, you plan on telling the others?"

"No, this is a private matter for you and if you wish to tell them yourself I won't stop you." Kaiba said before his phone went off, he picked it up. "What is it?"

"Master Kaiba, the other Battle City Semi-Finalists have arrived." The guard on the other end said. "No sign of Otto Freshier though." He added, Kaiba said nothing before hanging up.

"Your opponent's arrived, I suggest you get down there before she gets too impatient." Kaiba sent bluntly, Miranda left the office and made her way to the duel arena where Chloe was waiting on the podium for her opponent.

"Welcome to the second round of the semi-finals ladies and gentlemen." Bill said as Miranda hopped onto the podium. "After a gruelling first round we are ready to begin with a match between Duel Academy's Chloe Richardson and Miranda Trayson, given the obvious experience difference between the two I'd have to give the edge to Miranda."

"True but Chloe has gotten this far in the tournament for a reason Bill." Bob pointed out as both duellists activated their duel disks. "As we saw in the last round we can't rule her out."

"All right kid, who's going first?" Miranda asked once she finished shuffling her deck and drew her hand, Chloe did likewise and looked over her hand.

"_Sweet, I drew Fairy Box on my first turn."_ Chloe thought as she eyed her trap card. _"This trap helped me defeat my dad in the last round so it should help me win this match!"_ Chloe thought before looking up. "I will." Chloe said before drawing her card. "I set two cards facedown and summon Marauding Captain in attack mode!" Chloe played the cards and the twin sword wielding captain appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "And I activate his effect, allowing me to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower monster from my hand, my monster of choice is Command Knight!" Chloe played the card and a female warrior with long blonde hair appeared on her side of the field, she was wearing red and gold armour and was ready for battle (4/1200/1900). "Since I have Marauding Captain on my side of the field you can't target any other Warrior type monsters on the field but that's not all." Chloe said as her two warriors attacks rose to 1600. "As long as Command Knight's on the field my warriors gain a powerboost of 400."

"_Good start, those warriors maybe weak but their effects make up for it."_ Theresa thought as she observed the duel. _"But Miranda has an experience edge over Chloe, she won't let a move like that stop her."_

"That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Miranda drew her card.

"If you think a move like that will stop me kid then your in trouble." Miranda said before playing the spell card she drew. "I activate the Field Spell Card Harpy's Hunting Ground!" Miranda played the card and the scenery changed to a baron wasteland. "This spell card has two effects, for starters all Winged Beast Monsters I control gain a powerboost of their own, namely by 200 points, as for it's other effect well allow me to demonstrate by summoning Harpy Lady Number 1 in attack mode!" Miranda played the card and the redheaded Harpy appeared on the field (4/1300/1400) and due to the effect of Harpy's Hunting Ground it's attack increased to 1500...and again to 1800. "I'm sure you remember Harpy Lady's effect from my last duel."

"Yeah, I remember it." Chloe said before smirking. _"Though once she attacks and I activate Fairy Box that won't..."_ Chloe thought but her train of thought was interrupted by the Harpy taking flight and destroying Fairy Box's hologram. "What just happened?"

"What just happened was Harpy's Hunting Ground's second effect, when Harpy Lady or Harpy Lady Sisters is Normal or Special Summoned I can destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field." Miranda explained and Chloe's eyes widened when it dawned on her.

"_No big deal, my Desperate Tag trap will prevent any battle damage and allow me to Special Summon my second Command Knight."_ Chloe thought as Miranda picked up another card.

"Encase your getting any ideas about your other trap being able to protect you, don't." Miranda said before playing a card. "I activate Elegant Egotist which allows me to Special Summon either Harpy Lady Sisters or Harpy Lady from my deck or hand, I chose to Special Summon the Harpy Lady Sisters in my hand and you know what that means!" Miranda played the card and the three Harpies appeared on the field (6/1950/2100) and due to the effects of Harpy Lady Number 1 and Harpy's Hunting Ground their attack increased to 2450, no sooner than they appeared that they took flight and destroyed Chloe's remaining facedown card.

"_Okay, this isn't going as well as I'd hoped!" _Chloe thought with a frown. _"First priority is definitely get rid of this field spell!" _Chloe thought as her two monsters braced themselves for the upcoming attacks.

"Harpy Lady Number 1 attack Marauding Captain, Harpy Lady Sisters attack Command Knight!" Miranda commanded and her Harpies took flight before ripping the two warriors to shreds with their claws.

C: 6950

M: 8000

"That ends my turn." Miranda announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Crap, I haven't drawn any cards that can destroy her field spell."_ Chloe thought before picking up the card she did draw, "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Chloe set the monster down and Miranda drew her card.

"_Another Harpy Lady, fortunately for Chloe I can't risk summoning her because Harpy's Hunting Ground's effect applies to all cards on the field, including it's self."_ Miranda thought before she added the card to her hand. "Harpy Lady attack her defence monster!" The harpy took flight before launching herself at the monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was torn to shreds by the harpy's claws.

"The monster you destroyed was Apprentice Magician, by destroying her you've allowed me to set another Apprentice Magician in her place!" Chloe announced as she sent her first copy to the graveyard and searched through her deck, she found the card that she was looking for and set the monster down.

"Fine, you set them up and I'll knock them down." Miranda said confidently before pointing at the Harpy Lady Sisters. "Harpy Lady Sisters attack her second Apprentice Magician!" The Harpies took flight before launching themselves at the second Apprentice Magician ripping her to shreds, once Chloe sent her second copy of the monster to the graveyard she searched through her deck before finding the card she was looking for and setting it. "I hope you don't plan on playing defensively the whole match Chloe because it's only a matter of time before I break through your defences."

"Miranda's right, Chloe's Apprentice Magicians have served her well so far but they can only protect her life-points for so long." Jeff said as he folded his arms, Marcus turned to him with a smile on his face.

"Jeff, you know as well as I do that Chloe's resilient, just look at the duel where she had to face her biological dad, if anyone can find a way out of this jam it's her." Marcus said before frowning. "Though I'll be the first to admit that I don't see it happening any-time soon."

"That's true Marcus but Miranda has an experience edge over her." Jeff agreed and the other teachers nodded in agreement. "At the moment I'd say her best bet is too either draw Silent Magician or a card that can destroy Miranda's field spell."

"Or find a way to force Miranda to destroy her own field spell." Maria chimed in causing the other teachers to look at confused. "Harpy's Hunting Ground's greatest strength is also it's greatest weakness, it's destroy Spell and Trap Cards effect also applies to Miranda's side of the field."

"That explains why she didn't bring out another monster." Jeff said stroking his chin. "Lets see if Chloe can figure it out for herself." Jeff added as Chloe drew her card.

"_Mirage of Nightmare? Don't know how...wait I could use Miranda's own card to my advantage with this combination!" _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Mirage of Nightmare, now during your next standby phase..."

"Kid, I know what that does and quite frankly it isn't going to work." Miranda cut her off and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"We'll see about that, for now I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn!" Chloe set the monster and Miranda drew her card, as she did Mirage of Nightmare's effect kicked in allowing Chloe to draw four cards.

"Don't get too attached to those new cards because by your next standby phase you'll have to discard them!" Miranda said confidently before pointing to Harpy Lady. "Harpy Lady attack the defence monster she just set!" Miranda commanded and Harpy Lady took flight again...

"Thanks, I was hoping you'd do that!" Chloe said with a smirk, Miranda blinked in confusion...only for her eyes to widen when she saw the monster was Familiar Knight (4/1200/1600) before it was destroyed by Harpy Lady. "Now we're forced to special summon one Level 4 or lower monster from our hands, my monster of choice is a new addition to my deck Power Breaker!" Chloe played the card and a muscular man wearing a orange mask appeared on the field, he had long flowing blonde hair, was wearing blue pants and black gloves (4/1900/0000)

"_Great, the only monster I have in my hand is the Harpy Lady I drew last turn and as much as I'd hate to risk giving the opponent an advantage by letting her keep those cards my only other option is destroying my field spell." _ Miranda thought before playing the card. "In that case I summon Harpy Lady Number 2 in attack mode and have her destroy Mirage of Nightmare!" Miranda played the card and the harpy with short red hair appeared on the field (4/1300/1400) and as her attack increased to 1800 via the effects of Harpy's Hunting Ground and Harpy Lady Number 1 she took flight before destroying Mirage of Nightmare. "So what if you forced me to destroy Mirage of Nightmare? Power Breaker's a giant bullseye for my Harpy Lady Sisters!" As Miranda said that the three sisters took flight before divebombing at Power Breaker ripping the monster to shreds with it's claws.

C: 6400

M: 8000

"Actually I was hoping you'd do that as well." Chloe said as she held up her monster. "Power Breaker has an effect of his own, when he's destroyed either by battle or a card effect and sent to the graveyard he takes one Spell or Trap card with him." As Chloe sent her monster to the graveyard it didn't take long for Miranda to realize what card she was targeting.

"WHAT?" Miranda yelled out as the field returned to normal and the 5 harpies attacks where reduced to 1600 and 2250 respectively, she quickly regained her composure however and pointed at the only Harpy Lady that hadn't attacked yet.. "Harpie Lady Number 2 attack her facedown monster." The newly summoned Harpy Lady took flight before ripping the facedown monster, Chloe's third and final Apprentice Magician, to shreds, Chloe wasted no time in searching through her deck and setting another monster facedown once she found the one that she was looking for. "I enter my second main phase and activate the effect of Harpie Queen (4/1900/1200) from my hand, with it I can discard her to the graveyard and add my second copy of Harpy's Hunting Ground to my hand." Miranda discarded the monster and searched through her deck, once she located the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "And speaking of Harpy's Hunting Ground I'm activating that field spell!" Miranda announced before playing the card, once again the scenery changed to the baron wasteland and the five harpies got their power boost back. "Nice try kid, I end my turn." Chloe groaned in frustration before drawing her card.

"_Great, I thought I saw the last of that damn field spell when I destroyed it."_ Chloe thought before looking at her newly drawn card. "I activate the continuous spell card Arcane Barrier, now each time a Spellcaster type monster on my side of the field is destroyed this card will gain a counter and by sending this card to the graveyard with one Spellcaster I control I can draw one card for each Spell Counter it has."

"Your assuming you'll even get that far kid." Miranda said with a grin. "Or have you forgotten about the second effect of Harpy's Hunting Ground?"

"If I where you I'd be more concerned about the Harpy Ladies already on the field, I flip summon Old Vindictive Magician!" Chloe flipped the card over and the old magician appeared on the field (2/450/600). "Now that I've flip summoned him his effect activates, namely the ability to destroy one monster on the field and I'm choosing Harpy Lady Number 1." Miranda's eyes widened in shock as the Magician cast a spell causing Harpy Lady's hologram to shatter, at the same time the remaining Harpy's attacks dropped to 1500 and 2150 respectively.

"That does it, come next turn that old guy's toast!" Miranda said and Chloe grinned.

"Your assuming that I'll leave my Magician on the field long enough for you too attack him, I offer Old Vindictive Magician as a tribute to summon Magical Marionette in attack mode!" The old magician vanished and in his place stood the red robed puppet master (5/2000/1000). "Marionette attack Harpy Lady Number 2." The puppet master launched it's strings at the Harpy strangling her.

C: 6400

M: 7500

"That ends my...oh crap." Chloe said once her mistake dawned on her.

"Let me guess, forgot about your own monster's effect right?" Miranda asked and Chloe nodded sheepishly. "Pity for you because I'm not going to let any mistakes go unpunished." Miranda said before she drew her card. _"Fortunately for her I didn't draw another Harpy Lady, what I did draw however will come in handy." _Miranda thought before setting the card. "I set a card facedown, now Harpy Lady Sisters attack Magical Marionette!" The three harpies took flight before tearing the puppet master to shreds with their claws.

C: 6250

M: 7500

"Since you destroyed my Spellcaster my Arcane Barrier gets it's first counter." Chloe pointed out and Miranda scoffed.

"Like I'll set you get very far with that thing." Miranda said dismissively. "I end my turn." Miranda announced and Chloe drew her card, when she saw it she barely suppressed the urge to grin broadly.

"You won't get a chance, because I'm about to activate a field spell of my own." Chloe said holding up the card. "Namely one of the cards I won in my first match."

"_Cards she won in her first match? What cards did she win in that match again?" _Miranda thought before realization hit her. "The Endymion cards!"

"Bingo!" Chloe said triumphantly before playing the card. "I activate the Field Spell Card Magical Citadel of Endymion!" Chloe played the card and the baron wasteland changed to a beautiful looking city with tall towers the reached the sky, Miranda sent her field spell to the graveyard with a frown on her face. "My field spell did more than destroy Harpy's Hunting Ground Miranda, because like Magical Marionette it gains spell counters every-time a Spell Card is played but that's not all, when a card with Spell Counters on it, like Arcane Barrier, is destroyed it's spell counters get added to the Citadel."

"_That's not all her field spell does." _Eddie thought as he observed the duel.

"For now though I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Chloe set the card and Miranda drew hers.

"Your in trouble kid, you see I wasn't kidding when I said that I had updated my deck yesterday." Miranda said as she held up a card. "First I activate Card Destruction which forces us to discard our hands." Miranda played the card and both women discarded their hands, once they drew new ones the Citadel gained it's first counter.

"Thanks for giving my Citadel it's first counter." Chloe said with a grin. "I don't see the point of it though."

"Watch and learn, since I discarded it from my hand I can special summon the tuner monster Mist Valley Baby Rock to the field in attack mode!" Miranda played the card and a small brown bird with a green, ox like head appeared on the field (2/400/500). "Next I offer my sisters as a tribute to summon Mist Valley Executer in attack mode!" The three harpies vanished and in their place stood a muscular man with black hair, yellow claws and black wings wearing a red and blue outfit (5/2100/1600) "Before I continue my next move my Executer's effect activates, allowing me to return all faceup spell and trap cards to the owner's hands, in other words Arcane Barrier and your Citadel are returning to your hand."

"Oh great!" Chloe exclaimed as Miranda's monster flapped it's wings sending both of her cards to her hand, as Miranda retrieved a card from her extra deck she chuckled.

"You know, I was originally going to save this next monster for when I reached the finals and face Eddie again." Miranda said with a grin. "But your tenacity has impressed me enough that I want to see how you fare against it, I tune Baby Rock with Mist Valley Executer to Synchro Summon my deck's strongest monster, Mist Valley Thunder Lord!" The two monsters vanished from the field and in Harpy Lady Sisters stood a huge humanoid muscular bird that was red and green in colour and had black wins (7/2600/2400). "Eddie, consider this a taste of things to come! Thunder Lord attack her facedown card!" The lord flapped it's wings at the monster, revealed to be Defended The Magical Knight (4/1600/2000) who was blown into the air, whilst it was in the air it was struck by lightning destroying it.

"Not bad..." Chloe said...right before she took a look at her new hand and her eyes widened. _"Shit, the only cards I can play are Arcane Barrier and Citadel!" _Chloe thought before gulping. "My move yet?" Chloe asked and Miranda nodded, she drew her card and her eyes widened. _"Shit, another Spell Card, at least with this I can get rid of her facedown card."_ Chloe thought. "I activate Magical Citadel of Endymion again!" Chloe played the card and the field changed back to the Citadel. "Now I activate two spell cards, Arcane Barrier and Mystical Space Typhoon and I'm using the latter to destroy your facedown card." Chloe played the cards and, after the Citadel gained two counters a tornado ripped through Miranda's facedown card destroying it.

"_So much for Mirror Wall."_ Miranda thought as she looked at her card. _"If she had attacked this trap would've cut her monster's attack points in half, sure I'd have to play 2000 life-points to keep it in play but it's still useful."_ Miranda thought.

"I...I have to end my turn at that." Chloe said with a gulp.

"This is going to be painful to watch." Lance said as his eyes widened.

"Even more so once Miranda activates Thunder Lord's effect." Axel commented as he folded his arms. "Let's just say that calling it a nasty effect is an understatement."

"I summon Mist Valley Thunderbird in attack mode!" Miranda played the card and a small yellow bird appeared on the field (3/1100/700). "Now I activate Thunder Lord's effect, by returning Thunderbird to my hand I can increase it's attack to 3100." The small bird vanished and Thunder Lord's attack increased to 3100. "It gets better, for me at least, when Thunderbird is returned to my hand by this effect I can Special Summon it back to the field, unfortunately it can't attack during the same turn." Miranda explained as the bird reappeared on the field. "Fortunately for you I can only use Thunder Lord's effect once per turn. Unfortunately for you it still packs a punch," Miranda said before pointing to her monster. "Thunder Lord attack her life-points directly!" The bird flapped it's wings at Chloe who braced herself, she was hit by the wind first followed quickly by the lightning.

C: 3150

M: 7500

"That ends my turn, try to put up a fight kid!" Miranda said confidently as Chloe drew her card.

"_I can't let her use Thunder Lord's effect again, my best bet in terms of doing that is destroying Thunderbird."_ Chloe thought before looking at her newly drawn card. _"Perfect." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands and give my Citadel a new Spell Counter." Chloe played the card and both duellists drew until they had six cards, as Chloe examined her new hand the Citadel gained a new counter. "Next I summon Crusader of Endymion in attack mode!" Chloe said before the armoured spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1900/1600). "Crusader attack Thunderbird!" The crusader charged forward and decapitated Thunderbird with a slash of it's sword.

C: 3150

M: 6700

"I set a card facedown and end my turn at that!" Chloe set the facedown card down and Miranda drew her card. "I activate Thunder of Ruler, now you have to skip your Battle Phase."

"Great." Miranda groaned before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Miranda announced and Chloe drew her card.

"Now I activate Crusader's ability as a Gemini Monster." Chloe announced as Crusader started glowing. "Basically it lets me add a Spell Counter to one card on the field, my choice is the Citadel it's self." As Chloe explained this the Citadel gained another counter Crusader's attack increased to 2500. "That's an added bonus, on the turn that I activate it's effect his attack gains a boost of 600 points."

"It's still not enough to beat my Thunder Lord." Miranda said confidently. "Not only that but since you have to give up a Normal Summon to activate a Gemini Monster's effect we're back to where we started two turns ago."

"I know that." Chloe said before picking up her newly drawn card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the card down and, as Crusader's attack returned to normal, Miranda drew a card.

"_Her Citadel now has four counters but she hasn't explained what they do." _Miranda thought with a frown. _"Still her Crusader has a big bullseye on it's chest and given the massive lead I have how could I not take advantage of it?"_ Miranda thought before looking at her newly drawn card. "You know what? Since I'm feeling generous I'll throw you a bone, I activate Pot of Greed which lets me draw two cards and adds a Spell Counter to your Citadel." Miranda played the card and, once the Citadel gained it's fifth counter, she looked at one of her new cards and grinned. "Your Citadel's done for, I activate my own Mystical Space Typhoon!" Miranda played the card and a tornado ripped through the Citadel...only for the Citadel to survive the assault. "What?" Miranda yelled out and Chloe grinned.

"Surprised? By removing a Spell Counter from the Citadel I can save it from destruction, not only that but your Spell Card also restores a that lost Spell Counter." Chloe explained as her Citadel regained it's counter. "Nice try though." She added, Miranda frowned as she sent her Spell to the graveyard.

"Fine, guess I'll settle for destroying Crusader!" Miranda announced and her monster blew Crusader into the air before striking it with lightning.

C: 2450

M: 6700

Chloe sent her monster to the graveyard and Arcane Barrier gained it's first counter. "That ends my turn." Miranda announced and Chloe drew her card.

"I activate my Trap Card Call of the Haunted to bring back one of my Apprentice Magicians!" Chloe activated the trap and the magician returned to the field. "Now I tribute Apprentice Magician and Arcane Barrier allowing me to draw one card." Chloe sent her cards to the graveyard and drew her card. "Oh yeah, and my Citadel gains it's sixth counter." Chloe added as the sixth counter appeared on the field. "Just what I needed in other words."

"Just what you needed?" Miranda echoed the confusion evident on her face.

"By removing all six off my counters from my field spell I can Special Summon my next monster directly from my hand." Chloe announced as the six counters vanished. "Come forth Endymion, The Master Magician in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a blight light enveloped the field, Miranda shielded her eyes as did the other duellists and spectators, once the light died down they looked up and Miranda's jaw dropped when she saw the monster, it was a tall man covered completely in black and gold armour wearing a purple robe (7/2700/1700).

"Crap, that thing's stronger than Thunder Lord!" Miranda cursed once it dawned on her.

"There's more though, when I summon my Magician this way I can add one Spell Card from my graveyard to my hand." Chloe explained as she retrieved the card and added it to her hand. "But that card won't stay in my hand for long, Endymion's other effect lets me destroy one card on the field in exchange for discarding a card from my hand!" Chloe discarded the card and Miranda's eyes widened as Endymion cast a spell at Thunder Lord, it was quickly engulfed in a black light and destroyed. "Now Endymion attack her life-points directly!" Endymion cast another spell striking Miranda in the chest.

C: 2450

M: 4000

"That ends my turn." Chloe announced before looking at her hand. _"All I need is Level Up and Silent Magician Level 4 and I'll be able to back Endymion up with my strongest monster, I just need to wait for her to make her move."_ Chloe thought as Miranda drew her card.

"_All she'll need is another Spell Card and a Level 4 monster with 1700 or more attack points to win the match, I'm not about to surrender though!" _Miranda thought before looking at her newly drawn card, she grinned before playing it. "I activate Swords of Revealing Light, sure it adds another counter to your Citadel but it also buys me some time!" Miranda announced as three golden swords rained down from the sky pinning down Endymion, at the same time the Citadel gained another counter. "That ends my turn." Miranda announced and Chloe drew her card.

"Not much I can do so I end my turn." Chloe announced and as the first sword disappeared Miranda drew her card.

"I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn." Miranda set the card down and Chloe drew her card.

"_One card down, one to go." _Chloe thought as she looked at her copy of Level Up. "I end my turn." Chloe announced and once the second sword disappeared Miranda drew her card.

"I set another monster in defence mode and end my turn." Miranda set the card down and Chloe drew her card.

"_Not what I was hoping for but still useful." _Chloe thought before playing the card she drew. "I activate Spell Power Grasp, this lets me add one Spell Counter to a card on my side of the field and add another copy of the card to my hand from my deck, I'm adding the Spell Counter too my Citadel." Chloe played the card and the Citadel gained two counters, one from Spell Power Grasp's effect and the other from the fact that Chloe activated a Spell Card, once Chloe sent the card to the graveyard she picked up her deck and searched through it finding a second copy of the spell card near the bottom of the deck and adding it to her hand, one quick deck shuffle later and Chloe turned to Miranda. "I can only activate one copy of that card per turn so I'll end my turn at that." Chloe explained and as the third and final Sword disappeared from the field Miranda drew her card.

"_Why didn't she just discard that card and use Endymion's effect? Is she waiting for a card?"_ Miranda thought before looking at her newly drawn card. "I pass." Miranda said plainly and Chloe drew her card.

"_YES! I drew the card I was waiting for!" _Chloe thought barely suppressing her grin at this point. "First I use Endymion's effect, discarding the Spell Power Grasp I added to my hand last turn and destroying your newly set facedown card!" Chloe discarded the card and Endymion cast a spell at the facedown card, revealed to be Harpy Lady Number 3 (4/1300/1400) quickly destroying it. "Now I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and one of her signature cards appeared on the field (4/1000/1000). "But she's not sticking around, I activate the spell card Level Up levelling her up to her strongest form and my strongest monster Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe played the cards and, not noticing that the Citadel had another counter, swapped out the monsters, Silent Magician Level 4 started glowing and growing until she reached her adult form (8/3500/1000). "Endymion attack her defence, Silent Magician attack her life-points directly!" The two magicians launched their attacks, Endymion destroying Miranda's copy of Harpy's Pet Baby Dragon (4/1200/600) and Silent Magician's attack striking Miranda in the chest.

C: 2450

M: 500

"That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Miranda drew her card...and too Chloe's surprise surrendered.

"You've already beaten my strongest monster kid." Miranda said as the holograms disappeared. "Besides the card I drew wouldn't really help now, would it?" Miranda asked as she held up her final copy of Harpy's Hunting Ground.

"Guess not." Chloe said with a shrug as she returned her cards to her deck and deactivated her duel disk, Miranda did likewise and both women hopped off the duel arena.

"There will be a twenty minute recess before the next match." Kaiba announced over the PA System and Axel smirked knowing that he was up next.

"Enjoy your undefeated streak whilst it lasts Axel." Ray said catching the German Champ's attention. "I'll break it faster than you can wave a white flag!"

"I'll say it once and I'll say it every-time someone says that to me until someone actually beats me, I'll believe it when it actually happens." Axel said dismissively, unbeknownst to them and the others, including Kaiba, Otto was watching the duel from a nearby balcony.

"_Richardson's deck has become to powerful, if I face her in either of the following rounds I'll have to take steps to ensure that I make to the Semi-Finals."_ Otto thought with a scowl on his face before turning his attention to Axel. _"After that I'll focus on beating either Theresa or Axel followed by Eddie, then I'll be the champ and the boss will have the strongest souls in the city."_

Whilst that was going on Chloe, whilst happy to be through to the next round, was nervous about the potential matchups. _"My last match against_ _Theresa was so one sided it wasn't even funny, Eddie's the champ and is far out of my league. Otto...well I want to face him in the next round because of what he did to Andreas. Brandon, Ray and Lance, as much as I like them, are unlikely to beat their opponents and Kimberly...as much as I want to be the one to beat Otto I don't want to lose a second friend to the Orichalcos." _Chloe thought before running a hand through her hair, she glanced over at Kimberly who didn't seem to notice that she was looking in her direction as she was looking over her deck.

"Something on your mind?" Chloe glanced over and saw Lance looking at her.

"It's nothing, just thinking about my potential matches in the next round." Chloe shrugged her shoulders. Lance frowned before glancing towards Theresa.

"You're worried about duelling Theresa again right?" Lance asked, Chloe bit her lip before nodding.

"Was it that obvious?" Chloe sighed before looking at her deck. "I'm a much better duellist than I was back then and my deck's improved a lot as well but I still don't think it'll be enough."

"Don't worry about it." Theresa said making Chloe jump. "Sorry, I overheard but anyway I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Thanks for the kind words." Chloe said sheepishly before glancing up at the screen which was showing a countdown timer to the match between Ray Edwards and Axel Loather. _"The match will be starting soon."_ Chloe thought before glancing over at the male duellists who seemed to realize that as well.

"Will Axel Loather and Ray Edwards please step onto the Duel Arena for the next match." Kaiba's voice rang out and the two duellists stepped onto the arena ready for their match.

"I said it once and I'll say it again." Ray said as the two duellists shuffled their decks.

"Let me guess, you will be the one to break my winning streak?" Axel interrupted him as he activated his duel disk, Ray did likewise seemingly unaffected by the interruption and both duellists drew their opening hands. "I've heard it so many times by now Raymond that's it's become a cliché as far as I'm concerned, anyway who shall go first?" Axel asked as he looked over his hand.

"Well for one thing that will stop being a cliché once I beat you, as for who's going first I will." Ray said as he drew another card. "I set two cards facedown and summon Archfiend Interceptor in attack mode!" Ray played the card and a grey, four armed fiend appeared on the field, strangely enough though it was clad in American Football gear (4/1400/1000). "That ends my turn."

"Why would he open with such a weak monster?" Chloe wondered outloud.

"Good question, good money's on the possibility of that card having an effect to make up for it's weak attack." Lance commented not noticing Kimberly nodding in agreement.

"_Your right Lance, let's see if Axel can figure it out though."_ Kimberly thought as Axel drew his first card.

"You may remember this card from my duel against Michael, I activate the Field Spell Card Coliseum – Cage of the Gladiator Beasts." Axel played the card and for the second duel in a row the field's scenery was changed, this time to the Coliseum from Axel's duel against Mike.

"_This thing's effect contributed to Mike's defeat."_ Ray thought as he looked around. _"I'm going to have to play this smart if I don't want to end up like him."_

"I can tell from the look on your face that you remember this card's effect, as such I won't bother to repeat it." Axel said before picking up another card. "Now lets get this show on the road, I summon Gladiator Beast Darius in attack mode!" Axel played the card and the humanoid horse appeared on the field (4/1700/300).

"Thanks for that, you've allowed me to activate my Hidden Soldiers trap card!" Ray activated the trap and grinned. "This can only be activated if you Normal or Flip summon a monster, now that that's been done I can Special Summon one Level 4 or lower Dark type monster from my hand." Ray explained before picking up a card. "My monster of choice is Newdoria!" Ray played the card and the small pink fiend appeared on the field (4/1200/800).

"_He's clearly hoping that I attack his weaker monster, however I remember it's effect from Brandon's duel against Marcus." _Axel thought before pointing at Darius. "Darius attack Archfiend Interceptor!" The humanoid horse charged forward...but as he drew a sword one of Archfiend Interceptor's arms reached forward and slammed into Axel's face. "What on Earth?"

"That's the effect of Archfiend Interceptor." Ray said as Darius decapitated the fiend. "As long as it's in attack mode you take 500 points of damage each time a monster declares an attack." Ray explained as Darius returned to Axel's side of the field.

R: 7700

A: 7500

"Well played but don't forget about the ability of my Gladiator Beasts!" Axel said as Darius disappeared from the field, he picked up his deck and started searching through it. "My monster of choice is Gladiator Beast Beastiari in attack mode!" Axel played the card and the winged green reptile in matching armour appeared on the field (4/1500/800) and as the Coliseum gained it's first counter the monster's attack increased to 1600 and it flew towards Ray's remaining facedown card destroying it.

"_So much for Scrubbed Raid."_ Ray thought before sending his trap to the graveyard.

"That shall end my turn." Axel said and Ray drew his card, he added it to his hand and picked up a card.

"I activate the Spell Card Allure of Darkness, now by removing one Dark Type monster from my hand I can use this card to draw an additional two cards from my hand." Ray pocketed the monster and drew two cards from his deck. _"Nothing in my hand can beat Beastiari but if I set a monster he'll just bring out another one, still it's better than a direct attack." _Ray thought. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defence mode, your move." Ray set the cards and Axel drew his card.

"I activate Gladiator Beast Respite, now by shuffling two of my Gladiator Beasts into my deck this Spell Card shall allow me to draw three cards." Axel shuffled the two cards into his deck and drew three cards...

"Don't get attached to them, I chain Respite with my trap card Null and Void!" Ray activated the trap and Axel frowned. "I see you recognise this card."

"Yes, I must now discard the three cards I just drew." Axel said before turning his cards around, the cards in question where another copy of his Coliseum Field Spell, the trap card Gladiator Lash and Gladiator Beast Sparticus (6/2200/1600) before discarding the three cards. "A minor annoyance at best however, Beastari attack his defence!" The winged reptile flew towards the monster...and everyone did double takes when they saw a giant tomato with an evil looking face (4/1400/1100) which was quickly destroyed.

"That was one of the few non fiend types in my deck, Mystic Tomato!" Ray said as he held up the card. "This is a deck searcher similar to Mother Grizzly and Shining Angel only it's effect applies to Dark Type monsters." Ray explained as he sent the monster to his graveyard and searched through it. "My card of choice is the Tuner monster Dark Tinker in attack mode!" Ray played the card and in the place off Mystic Tomato stood a large black spider with a skull design on it's back and swords being carried by it's pincers (2/1000/1300).

"That also works in my favour." Axel announced as the Colosseum gained another counter and Beastari's attack increased to 1700. "Simply put, the Colosseum's effect also applies to non Gladiator Beast monsters, I end my turn and you know what that means!" Axel said as Beastari disappeared from the field, he picked up his deck and searched through it, once he found the card he was looking for he played it. "Through the abilities of the Gladiator Beasts I summon the mighty Gladiator Beast Octavious in attack mode!" Axel played the card and a humanoid eagle in green armour appeared on the field (7/2500/1200) and as the Colosseum gained another counter it's attack increased to 2800. "Normally when this beast is summoned in such a way I would be able to destroy one face-down Spell or Trap card and destroy it, however since neither of us have any facedown cards I'll simply leave it at that."

"Yikes, I'm glad he didn't use that against me!" Mike said as he watched the duel, he and Sophie where watching the duel from the stands alongside their mother and step father, a short man with short red hair and blue eyes. "Though I still would've beaten it."

"Bro, you could barely beat Axel's weakest monsters." Sophie pointed out and Mike laughed nervously as he sweat-dropped.

"That thing's supposed to scare me?" Ray asked bluntly as he drew his card. "Perfect, first I offer Newdoria as a tribute to summon Air Eater in attack mode!" Ray swapped out the monsters and Newdoria disappeared from the field, in it's place stood an odd looking fiend that was green in colour and had four arms (6/2100/1600). "Now I tune my Level 2 Dark Tinker with my Level 6 Air Eater to Synchro Summon the mighty Blood Mefist in attack mode!" Ray played the card and the two monsters vanished, in the place of Air Eater stood the top hat wearing fiend from Theresa's duel with Alex (8/2800/1300).

"Not bad, now we're at a stalemate." Axel acknowledged.

"Don't get ahead of yourself because there's two more things for me to do before I end my turn, first I activate Dark Tinker's special ability from the graveyard, this allows me to look at the top card on my deck and decide if it remains at the top of my deck or goes to the bottom." Ray explained before picking up his card. "This will remain at the top of my deck." Ray announced as he returned the card to the top of his deck. "As for the other thing, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Ray set the card down and Axel drew his card...only to wince as a blast of dark light struck him. "Blood Mefist inflicts 300 points of damage to your life-points during your standby phase." Ray explained.

R: 7700

A: 7200

"No matter, for it seems our stalemate has ended already." Axel said as he played the card he drew. "I equip Octavious with the Equip Spell Card Gladiator Beast's Battle Gladius!" As Axel said with a large sword made of silver and gold appeared in Octavious's hands. "As the name suggests this Spell Card can only be equipped to a Gladiator Beast monster such as Octavious, with it the equipped monster gains a 300 attack point power boost!" As Axel explained this his monster's attack increased to 3100. "But why stop there? I also equip my Gladiator Beast with another spell card, Gladiator Beast's Battle Archfiend Shield!" Axel played the card and a large brown shield appeared in Octavious's right hand, strangely enough it had the design of a skeleton complete with a skull at the top. "Octavious attack Blood Mefist!" The beast charged towards the fiend...

"You'll have to try harder than that, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Gladius!" Ray activated the trap and a tornado ripped through the stadium destroying the sword and returning Octavious's attack to 2800. _"I was going to use this on the field spell but for all I know he might have another in his hand, either way both monsters will be destroyed."_ Ray thought as Axel sent his Spell Card to the graveyard and Mellfist pointed it's staff at Octavious, the staff fired a black beam of light at Octavious causing a large explosion. "Now both our monsters are destroyed but more importantly no more tagging out for..." Ray started but stopped when he saw that Octavious was still standing and Blood Mefist was gone.

"Did you ever wonder why I never explained Battle Archfiend Shield's effect? That's why, you see Battle Archfiend Shield has a very powerful ability for you see if the equipped monster would be destroyed in battle the shield would be destroyed in it's place." Axel explained and Ray frowned.

"_This is just like Mike's duel against him, no matter what I throw at him he has a counter for everything I've got."_ Ray thought before glancing at his deck. _"Luckily the card that Dark Tinker gave me a sneak peak at packs a punch, no matter what he has lined up next I'll be ready for it." _Ray thought.

"That shall end my turn and off course Octavious returns to my deck!" Axel said as the large winged reptile disappeared from the field.

"That monster was a powerhouse, you have to wonder just what Axel will follow it up with!" Bill said and Bob nodded in agreement.

"Through the magic of the Gladiator Beasts I summon Gladiator Beast Secutor in attack mode!" Axel played the card and in the place of Octavious stood a small green humanoid reptile in blue armour (4/400/300) and everyone else face-faulted at the site of the stats even as they where increased to 800 through the magic of the Colosseum. "I equip my monster with Mist Body, now it can't be destroyed in battle, that ends my turn."

"That's your big follow up? My weakest Fiends will eat it for breakfast!" Ray declared as he got up, he drew his card and grinned. "There's a reason why I left this card at the top of my deck last turn, to say that it packs a punch is understatement." Ray said as he played a card. "First I activate Monster Reborn to revive Blood Mefist!" Ray played the card and the top hat wearing fiend appeared on the field. "Now that I have a Level 8 Synchro monster on my side of the field I can bring out Creation Resonator!" Ray played the card and a grey fiend in purple, gold and orange robes appeared on the field, in had long flowing white hair and for some reason was carrying a tuning fork (3/800/600).

"All that just to bring out a weak fiend type monster? Please." Axel scoffed and Ray grinned.

"I'm not done yet, since those two summons where Special Summons I can normal summon Archfiend Soldier in attack mode!" Ray played the card and the purple fiend appeared on the field (4/1900/1600). "Now I tune Archfiend Soldier with Creation Resonator to summon my strongest monster, the mighty Dark Highlander!" The two monsters vanished and in the place of Archfiend Soldier stood a tall man in black and gold robes carrying a massive scythe (7/2800/2300). "Dark Highlander attack Secutor, Blood Mefist attack his life-points directly!" Dark Highlander threw it's scythe at Secutor nearly decapitating it but the spell card saved it, Mefist followed it up with a blast of dark energy from it's staff.

R: 7700

A: 2400

"I don't believe it Bob, we may be seeing the end of Axel's undefeated streak!" Bill said as Dark Highlander grabbed it's scythe.

"Don't count me out just yet, you see there is a reason I chose to summon Secutor, you see when it's summoned via the effect of another Gladiator Beast I can summon two more Gladiator Beasts from my deck as long as they aren't copies of Secutor at the end of the battle phase which I'm assuming is now." Axel said, once Ray nodded to confirm this he picked up his deck and searched through it, he finally found the cards he was looking for and played them. "My cards of choice are Gladiator Beast Laquari and Gladiator Beast Retriari!" Axel played the two cards and, as the Colosseum gained two more counters, the humanoid tiger appeared on the field (4/1800/400) alongside a muscular humanoid frog wearing little armour, though the armour it was wearing was black and gold, which was wielding a trident (3/1200/800).

"_I see what he's up too, he's trying to set up a Contact Fusion and bring Herraklinos out."_ Ray thought with a smirk as the two monsters attacks rose to 2300, 1000 and 1800 respectively due to the Colosseum's effect, however his smirk quickly turned into a frown when he looked at his hand. _"Unfortunately I don't have the means to prevent it." _Ray thought before looking up at Axel. "I end my turn." Ray announced and Axel drew his card wincing as another blast struck his life-points down to 2100

"It's time I brought out my strongest monster, I contact fusion Laquari, Secutor and Retriari to summon Gladiator Beast Herriklinos!" Axel played the card and the three monsters vanished, in the place of Laquari stood the massive centaur that won Axel his last two duels (8/3000/2800) and it's attack rose to 3600 due to the Coloseum's effect. "Herriklinos attack Dark Highlander!" The centaur charged towards the scythe wielder before splitting him in half with his axe.

A: 2100

R: 6900

"Axel may still be in this match Bob!" Bill said clearly excited.

"Don't count Ray out yet, he still has a lead of over 4000 points." Bob pointed out as Ray picked up his card to send to the graveyard, however when he did he realized that he had made a mistake.

"_Damn, I should have used Dark Highlander's effect when I had the chance." _Ray thought with a frown. _"With it I would have been able to destroy Mist Body, inflict some damage to his life-points and prevent Herriklinos's summoning!" _Ray thought before sending his card to the graveyard.

"Something wrong Raymond?" Axel asked noticing the frustration on his face.

"It's nothing, I just made a mistake during my last turn." Ray said shaking his head. "Is it my move?" Ray asked and Axel looked at the cards in his hand, he nodded and Ray drew his card. "Not much I can do so I switch Mefist to defence mode and set a monster in defence mode, you're move!" Ray announced as his remaining fiend crouched down and a facedown card appeared next to it, Axel drew his card and looked at it wincing as his life-points dropped to 1800.

"I activate the Spell Card Gladiator Beast Proving Ground, this allows me to add one Level 4 or lower Gladiator Beast monster from my deck to my hand." Axel played the card and picked up his deck, he searched through it before finding the card he was looking for and adding it to his hand, he sent his card to the graveyard before summoning the monster. "Now I summon the monster I just added to my hand, Gladiator Beast Tygerius come forth in attack mode!" Axel played the card and a blue humanoid cat appeared on the field, it had a long grey beard and was wearing grey armour (4/1800/800) and it's attack increased to 2300 thanks to the Colosseum's effect. "Herriklinos attack Blood Mefist, Tygerius attack his facedown card!" The two monsters charged forward and decapitated their opposition, in Tygerius's case it was Trance Archfiend (4/1500/1000), which was quickly destroyed along Mefist. "I end my turn which means it's time for another tag out." Axel said as Tygerius disappeared from the field. "Through the power of the Gladiator Beasts I summon Gladiator Beast Dimacari in attack mode!" Axel played the card and the blue humanoid bull appeared on the field (4/1600/1200) and as the Colosseum gained another counter Dimicari's and Herriklinos's attacks increased to 2300 and 3700 respectively, Ray drew his card with a frown.

"I have no monsters I can summon, this duel's over." Ray said with a frown. "You win." Ray said as he surrendered the duel, the holograms disappeared and the two duellists deactivated their due disks.

"And Axel joins Chloe Richardson in the next round but the question is who will join them?" Bill wondered out loud.

"We'll find out in twenty minutes Bill as the match between Theresa Daniels and Brandon Thomas is next!" Bob said as the two duellists hopped off the podium.

"We're up next Theresa." Brandon said turning to his girlfriend. "I promise I won't go easy on you just because we're in love."

"If you did then you'd get no sex until the tournament's over." Theresa said teasingly before frowning. "I hope so, I expect a good match from you."

"Same here." Brandon said as he glanced up towards the screen which was showing their pictures with an arrow pointing to them. _"Forcing young lovers to duel each other for a place in the next round, if I didn't know any better I'd say that Kaiba has a sick sense of humour."_ Brandon thought.


	33. Duel between lovers and a grudge match

Brandon looked over his deck for what felt like the hundredth time in preparation for the match against Theresa, he knew the match would be tough and even tougher given the fact that he had to face beat his girlfriend in order to advance in the tournament.

"_At the moment I'd rather face Eddie, hell even Otto." _Brandon thought as he looked over his deck. _"I've never been able to beat Theresa in a duel, hell the match we had whilst preparing for the tournament was the closest I got to beating her."_

"Hey Brandon, got a sec?" Brandon looked up and saw Chloe approaching him; he smiled and returned his deck to the duel disk slot.

"Sure, what's on your mind?" Brandon asked and Chloe gulped.

"I'm just a bit nervous going into the next round." Chloe admitted as she leaned against the wall, Axel was going over his deck and didn't notice that Chloe was looking in his direction. "Miranda was tough but the competition can only get tougher from here."

"Yeah, I don't blame you for that." Brandon admitted with a nod. "Not to mention the fact that this tournament has been pretty tough on you." Brandon added and Chloe winced.

"Yeah, do me a favor and don't remind me of that." Chloe asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Are you worried about your upcoming match?"

"Yeah, just a bit." Brandon admitted as he looked down at his deck. "Problem is that Theresa knows most of my deck like the back of her hand, there's little I can surprise her…" Brandon started before stopping; Chloe could have sworn she saw a lightbulb go up above his head and without another word Brandon reached into his jacket pocket, retrieved a pack and added the three cards in the pack to his deck.

"That's how you're preparing, by adding three cards to your deck?" Chloe asked skeptically and Brandon smirked.

"These three cards are all I need." Brandon reassured her before looking at the time on his watch. "The match will be starting soon so you'll see what I mean." Brandon added but regardless Chloe remained skeptical.

"Will Brandon Thomas and Theresa Daniels please step onto the podium for the third match off the day?" Kaiba's voice rang out and Brandon smiled before hopping onto the duel arena. Theresa quickly joined him once she made her deck choice.

"I had a feeling we'd have to face each other during the tournament Brandon." Theresa commented as the two duelists activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "I just didn't expect it to happen so soon."

"That makes two of us." Brandon admitted as he looked over his opening hand. _"This strategy will work better if I let Theresa go first, that and I can get an idea of what her deck is."_ Brandon thought before looking up at Theresa. "Well, since I'm a gentleman and all, ladies first." Brandon said and Theresa shrugged her shoulders before drawing her first card.

"Fine by me, I start by activating the Field Spell Card Sanctuary in the Sky!" Theresa played the card and the scenery changed to the palace in the clouds.

"_She's using her fairy deck; this is going to be tricky."_ Brandon thought with a frown as he looked over his hand. _"My best bet is to destroy the field spell once that happens her life-points will be mine for the taking."_

"As for my first monster I summon Dumnas Dark Witch in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the witch in red appeared on the field (4/1800/1050). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the cards and Brandon drew his card.

"I end my turn." Brandon said after a few minutes causing the other duelists to do double takes.

"You're ending your turn? But you haven't played a single card?" Theresa asked skeptically as she drew her card, Brandon merely shrugged his shoulders and Theresa looked at her newly drawn card. "Well now you're going to regret that decision, I activate the Continuous Spell Card Court of Justice!" Theresa played the card and picked up another. "As long as this Spell Card is on the field I can Special Summon one Level 1 Fairy type monster from my hand, my card of choice is the tuner monster Buten!" Theresa played the card and a small, pig like angel with blue eyes appeared on the field (1/200/300).

"_She's setting up a Synchro Summon, only problem is that the best she can do is a Level 5 Synchro Summon."_ Brandon thought before frowning. _"That is unless she plans on summoning another monster first."_

"And as for my normal summon, I summon Mystic Shine Ball in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a small glowing white ball appeared on the field (2/500/500). "Now I tune Buten with my other two monsters to Synchro Summon Ancient Sacred Wyvern in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the three monsters vanished, in the place of Dumnas Dark Witch stood a large silver dragon with red eyebrows and what looked like blonde hair (7/2100/2000).

"_Impressive monster but I need her to summon another monster for this to work."_ Brandon thought as he stared down the large dragon.

"Next I activate Monster Reborn which allows me to revive my Witch in attack mode!" Theresa played the cards and the witch reappeared on the field. "Sorry Brandon, you may of made the mistake of not summoning a monster on your first turn but you should know by now that I don't let mistakes go unpunished, Wyvern, Dark Witch, attack his life points directly!" The two monsters attacked in that order, Wyvern by breathing fire at Brandon…..

"Nice try but by discarding Kuriboh from my hand to the graveyard I can negate the damage from Wyvern's attack." Brandon explained as a wall of Kuriboh's blocked the attack.

"So? My Witch can make up for that fact!" Theresa said as her Dark Witch fired a beam of light at Brandon sending him to the ground.

T: 8000

B: 5200

As Brandon got up to his feet Theresa smirked. "There's more I'm afraid, when my lifepoints are higher than yours Wyvern gets the difference added to his attack points." Theresa explained as her dragon's attack shot up to 4900; however her smirk disappeared when she saw the smirk on Brandon's face. "What are you so happy about?"

"Oh, not much except for the fact that by attacking me directly you've fallen into my trap." Brandon said earning him confused looks from the other duelists. "You said earlier that you don't let mistakes go unpunished, the fact that I didn't summon a monster wasn't a mistake." Brandon said as he picked up a card. "I summon Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and a blue ogre with light brown hair and a matching beard carrying a large club and had blood red tear stains (4/0/0), when the card appeared the other duelists did double takes.

"Wait, what? It's still my turn!" Theresa protested and Brandon grinned.

"This is my Ogre's Special Ability at work, when I suffer two direct attacks to my life-points I can summon this bad boy from my hand." Brandon said with a grin. "Best part is that his attack and defense points become equal to the attack and defense points of the first monster that attacked, namely Ancient Sacred Wyvern." Brandon explained as the Ogre's attack shot up to 2100.

"That still doesn't explain why you're so happy, your Ogre's only strong enough to defeat my Witch and even if you do Sanctuary in the Sky will protect my life-points." Theresa pointed out and Brandon grinned.

"Just wait and see." Brandon said simply. "My turn yet?" Brandon asked and Theresa looked at the rest of her hand.

"Go ahead, I end my turn." Theresa announced and Brandon drew his card.

"I start by activating Allure of Darkness, this Spell Card requires me to remove one Dark Type monster from my hand but in exchange I can draw two cards from my deck." Brandon played the card and, after pocketing one of his monsters, he drew two cards, Brandon looked at the two cards and his eyes lit up when his eyes rested on one of the cards he had added to his deck, apparently Theresa noticed this and raised an eyebrow.

"Did you draw something good?" Theresa asked and her boyfriend looked up.

"You could say that." Brandon said as he added the card to his hand. "But I can't summon it just yet, so instead I set a card facedown and I'll have my Ogre attack your witch!" Brandon set the card and the ogre charged towards Dunmas Dark Witch before smashing her head in with his club. "Unfortunately your field spell protects you from the damage you would've received from the attack."

"I think you mean unfortunately for you." Theresa pointed out as she sent her Dark Witch back to the graveyard. "Even if you were able to do damage anyway it wouldn't have been strong enough to lower Wyvern's attack to a level where your Ogre could match its strength."

"I'm well aware of that." Brandon said before motioning for her to take her turn, Theresa drew her card and looked at it.

"_Shinato, unfortunately I don't have his Ritual Spell because otherwise I could win this duel." _Theresa thought before adding the card to her hand and pointing to her Wyvern. "Wyvern attack Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow now!" The dragon breathed fire at the ogre….

"Nice try but I activate my trap card Draining Shield!" Brandon activated the trap and the flames bounced off of the forcefield. "This trap protects my life-points and adds the attacking monsters attack points to my lifepoints!" Brandon added as his lifepoints shot up to 10,100 and Wyvern's attack returned to 2100. "You were saying about my Ogre's strength?"

"Not a problem, I activate my own Trap Card Aegis of Gaia!" Theresa activated her trap and too Brandon's surprise her life-points shot up to 11,000. "This trap card increases my lifepoints by 3000 points and gives my Wyvern a power boost of 800 by extension." Theresa explained as the dragon's attack increased to 2900. "Not as big a power boost as before but it'll do nicely." Theresa added.

"They're not making this duel easy on themselves." Jeff commented as Brandon sent his trap card to the graveyard. "Then again given the talent they possess I shouldn't be surprised."

"Even so Theresa's made a big mistake by activating that Trap Card." Hamden added as he folded his arms. "Sure it gave her life-points a large boost but if it leaves the field then Theresa will lose the same amount that she gained."

"Theresa knows what she's doing." Martin responded with a smile. "She isn't one of my best students for nothing."

"Same can be said for Brandon though, or didn't you notice how he beat three of my best Dragons in the last round?" Marcus pointed out as Brandon drew his card.

"Not what I was hoping for but this will help me none the less, I activate my Spell Card Nightmare's Steel Cage!" Brandon activated the card and a steel cage surrounded Wyvern and Theresa in general. "Now neither of us can attack for the next two turns."

"Fine, once your Spell Card wares of your life points will be mine for the taking." Theresa said defiantly as Brandon looked over his hand.

"That'll do it for me." Brandon announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I may not be able to attack but I can do this, I activate my Spell Card Cards from the Sky, now by removing one Light Type Fairy Monster from my hand I can draw two cards." Theresa activated the card and drew her two cards after pocketing the monster. "Only downside is that I can't Special Summon or conduct my Battle Phase but I wouldn't be able to do so anyway because of your Spell Card." Theresa added before looking at her new cards. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Theresa set the card down and Brandon drew his card.

"I'll start by giving my Ogre some back up in the form of Dark Crusader!" Brandon played the card and the skeleton knight appeared on the field (4/1600/200). "Next I activate Dark Crusader's effect; by discarding one Dark Type Monster from my hand I can give him a power boost of 400 points." Brandon discarded the card and Dark Crusader's attack increased to 2000. "To top this turn off I activate the Spell Card Creeping Darkness, to activate this card I have to banish two Dark Type Monsters from my graveyard but in exchange I can add one Level 4 or lower Dark Type monster from my deck to my hand." Brandon retrieved the two cards, pocketed them and searched through his deck, he found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand. "That ends my turn."

"_He's not setting up a situation where he can bring out Dark Armed Dragon? But that's his trump card." _Theresa thought as she drew her card.

"_Just need to draw the Trap Card I need and I'll have Theresa right where I want her."_ Brandon thought as his eyes darted towards the pocket where he was keeping his removed from play monsters.

"I pass for now but next turn your monsters will be at my dragon's mercy!" Theresa announced as the Steel Cage disappeared from the field and, once he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard, Brandon drew his card.

"Since I'm feeling generous I activate the Spell Card called Card of Sanctity." Brandon played the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands, Theresa only needed to draw one however as her previous usage of Cards from the Sky had left her with 5 cards in her hand, Brandon looked at his new cards and grinned. _"Perfect, third round here I come!" _Brandon thought before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and activate Mystical Space Typhoon which I use to destroy Sanctuary in the Sky!" Brandon played the cards and a tornado ripped through the palace destroying it. "I end my turn." Brandon announced and Theresa drew her card.

"Why didn't he shift his monsters to defense mode? Even with their power boosts they are no match for Theresa's Wyvern." Eddie wondered out loud.

"That's a good question." Axel agreed as he stroked his chin in thought. "Even still Brandon's proven to be a very capable duelist so whatever the reason is it must be a good one."

"Wyvern attack Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow!" Theresa commanded and her dragon breathed fire.

"Think again, I activate my Trap Card Escape from the Dark Dimension." Brandon activated the card and retrieved a card from his pocket. "This allows me to Special Summon one of my Removed from Play monsters and this card…well I guess you can thank Chloe for this move."

"What, I never gave you any cards?" Chloe asked confused.

"No but you gave me the idea to use these cards." Brandon added before playing the card. "I summon the mighty Yubel from my Removed from Play spot."

"He's summoning WHAT?" Eddie and Axel yelled simultaneously as the monster appeared on the field, it was a female demon with white and blue hair, grey skin and jet black wings, she was wearing a midriff exposing outfit and a red mask (10/0/0).

"Where the hell did he get that card? And more importantly does he have the other two cards?" Jeff said as his eyes widened.

"I don't know, but you have to admit his strategy for bringing out Yubel was pretty impressive." Hamden admitted as he folded his arms. "Whether or not Theresa can beat him now is anyone's guess." Hamden added.

"Why are you guys making a big deal about a monster with non-existent attack points?" Lance asked Eddie and Axel who turned to him.

"There are two reasons for that Lance; the first is its rarity." Eddie explained before turning his attention to the duel. "Yubel is one of three extremely powerful and rare cards, they are so rare that only six copies of each card is known to exist and copies of even a single card have been known to go for millions of dollars at auction."

"I'm guessing its power is the other reason?" Lance asked and Eddie nodded. "Well Brandon's dad is wealthy so maybe he owns the cards."

"That's a strong possibility." Eddie agreed, whilst that was going on Otto was watching the duel with great interest.

"Well, well, so Brandon has that card in his deck, if he has the other two cards then this will be a very interesting duel indeed, especially if Theresa manages to defeat him despite his obvious advantage." Otto commented as he watched the duel unfold.

"You think that's supposed to scare me? Wyvern I command you to continue your assault on his Ogre!" Theresa commanded as the dragon prepared to unleash its assault.

"This is where my other trap card comes in, Interdimensional Matter Transporter!" Brandon activated the trap and the Ogre disappeared from the field. "Until the end phase this trap card removes my ogre from play giving you a choice of attack targets."

"That's an easy choice to make, Wyvern attack Yubel!" Theresa commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the demon consuming it. "That was easy…" Theresa started only to yell out in pain as a blast of dark energy struck her in the chest. "What the hell was that?"

"Why don't you look at your lifepoint counter and find out?" Brandon asked and Theresa did so, her eyes widened when she saw the score.

T: 8100

B: 10,100

"What the….why did the damage come out of my life-points?" Theresa asked as she looked up…and her eyes widened even further when she saw that Yubel survived the blast.

"That was Yubel's special ability at work, for starters she can't be destroyed in battle and I take no damage from any battles involving her." Brandon explained as he folded his arms. "Best part is? The damage that would have come out of my life-points instead comes out of your life-points." Brandon explained with a smirk, as he said this Wyvern's attack dropped back down to 2100 due to Theresa losing her lead.

"In that case I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced as the facedown card and Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow appeared on the field as Brandon drew his card.

"_Okay, I have Yubel's second form but in order to summon it Yubel has to go." _ Brandon thought before adding the card to his hand and pointing at his ogre. "Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow, attack Ancient Sacred Wyvern, Dark Crusader attack her defense monster!" The two monsters charged towards Theresa's monsters…..

"I activate my trap card Negate Attack!" Theresa activated the trap and two attacks bounced off of an invisible forcefield. "Not only does this protect my monsters but it forces you to end your battle phase." Theresa added as the two monsters returned to Brandon's side of the field.

"Fine, since I'm in my second main phase I'll summon Sangan in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the small, three eyed fiend appeared on the field (3/1000/600). "Next I end my turn but before I do I have to tribute Sangan because Yubel would be destroyed otherwise!" As Brandon said that Sangan was consumed by a black light and Brandon sent it to the graveyard. "As we both know Sangan's effect now activates allowing me to search through my deck for a monster with 1500 or less attack points." Brandon added before picking up his deck, searching through it, and adding the monster he was looking for to his hand, once that was done Theresa drew her card.

"_Okay, that Yubel monster requires the presence of other monsters on his side of the field because otherwise it'll be destroyed." _Theresa thought as she looked at her newly drawn card. "Okay, I summon another tuner monster to the field namely Hanewata!" Theresa played the card and a small pink fluffball with wings appeared on the field (1/300/200). "My Wyvern's served me well but I think it's time he had a tune up." Theresa said as she picked up the two monsters and sent them to the graveyard. "So I tune my Level 7 Ancient Sacred Wyvern with my Level 1 Hanewata to Synchro Summon Avenging Knight Parshaff!" The two monsters vanished from the field and in the place of Ancient Sacred Wyvern stood Parshaff who was riding an invisible beast with white wings and carrying a sword (8/2600/2100).

"As if Wyvern wasn't bad enough, now I have to deal with something even stronger." Brandon muttered under his breath before folding his arms with a smirk on his face. "Doesn't matter, even if you try to attack Yubel again you'll get bitten back." Brandon added and Theresa grinned.

"Yubel's not the only card with Special Abilities Brandon." Theresa said as she folded her arms. "And Parshaff's ability lets it shift one monster into defense mode once per turn AND inflict piercing damage!" Theresa explained and Brandon's grin quickly disappeared once it dawned on him. "Parshaff, use your ability on Dark Crusader!" Theresa commanded and Parshaff pointed it's sword at Dark Crusader which quickly knelt down. "Now for the fun part, Parshaff attack and destroy Dark Crusader!" Theresa commanded and the invisible beast took flight before launching its self at Dark Crusader, one slash of Parshaff's sword later and Dark Crusader was destroyed.

T: 8100

B: 8600

"Only downside is that, unlike Parshaff's other forms, I can't draw cards when Avenging Knight inflicts damage." Theresa added as Brandon sent Dark Crusader to the graveyard. "Regardless it seems we are at a stalemate."

"Yeah, we both have powerful monsters on our side of the field that neither of us can destroy, but for completely different reasons." Brandon agreed with a nod. _"Except for my Ogre and at the moment he's only good as fodder for Yubel."_ Brandon thought.

"I end my turn." Theresa announced and Brandon drew his card without a second thought.

"I start by switching my Ogre to defense mode!" Brandon announced as the ogre crouched down whilst holding his club in a defensive manner. "Now I set a card facedown and summon Dark Scorpion – Maenea the Thorn in attack mode." Brandon played the card and the sole female member of the Dark Scorpions appeared on the field (3/1000/1800). "I end my turn by sacrificing Maenea to keep Yubel on the field." Brandon set the card down and once the Dark Scorpion was consumed by dark light Theresa drew her card.

"_Why did Brandon set his Ogre in defense mode? Due to his effect Parshaff will deal more damage to his life-points and there's no way I'm making the mistake of attacking Yubel again." _Theresa thought before looking at her card, adding it to her hand and pointing to Parshaff. "Avenging Knight, attack Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow." Theresa commanded and the knight took flight…

"I was hoping you'd take the bait!" Brandon said as he activated his trap. "I activate my Trap Card Shift, this forces you to target Yubel instead!" Theresa's eyes widened when she realized this and she could only watch as her knight changed course and slashed Yubel with his sword, Yubel survived the attack due to her effect and due to her other effect Theresa was blasted by a beam of dark light sending her to the ground.

T: 5300

B: 8600

"You okay Theresa?" Brandon asked as his girlfriend got up, the blast had knocked Theresa's ponytail lose letting her shoulder length hair flow down.

"Brandon, you should know by now that I am much tougher than I look." Theresa said as she got to her feet, once she gathered up her cards she picked up one of them. "And to be perfectly frank that Yubel monster's becoming a pain in the ass, not only that but I intend to get rid of it."

"Really, you intend to get rid of a monster that can't be destroyed in battle? I'd like to see you try!" Brandon said confidently.

"The key phrase there is "can't be destroyed in battle." and whilst that is Yubel's greatest strength that's also her greatest weakness," Theresa said as she turned the card around, Brandon's confidence quickly disappeared when he saw the card.

"Lightning Vortex?" Brandon gulped as his eyes widened, Theresa smirked as she played the card and once she discarded a card from her hand, lightning struck Brandon's fiends destroying them both.

"That's right; admittedly I was originally planning to use it to clear the field after destroying Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow but….." Theresa started but stopped when she saw Brandon's massive grin after he sent his monsters and his trap card to the graveyard. "Why are you so happy about me destroying your best monster?"

"Who said anything about it being my best monster?" Brandon asked as he picked up a card. "Yubel has three forms and I have all three of them in my deck, however in order to summon Yubel's second form Yubel had to be destroyed by an effect other than her own so thanks for that." Brandon said as he played the card, Theresa's eyes widened when she realized her mistake. "So I summon Yubel – Terror Incarnate in attack mode." Brandon announced as a green, twin headed dragon appeared on the field with large wings and a red crest around its neck (11/0/0).

"Holy…" Eddie muttered under his breath clearly impressed. "He's prepared well for this duel."

"That much is obvious." Axel agreed whilst Theresa frowned.

"I'm guessing Terror Incarnate shares some of Yubel's abilities?" Theresa asked and Brandon nodded.

"That's right, Terror Incarnate can't be destroyed in battle and any battle damage I'd suffer is instead transferred to you." Brandon said with a nod before grinning. "And as for Terror Incarnate's other effect, well why don't you end your turn and I'll show you?" Brandon asked and Theresa looked at the rest of her hand.

"All right, I'll end my turn." Theresa announced and Brandon drew his card, however Brandon took one look at his deck and frowned.

"_I was too reckless with drawing and retrieving cards from my deck, as a result it's running low."_ Brandon thought with a massive frown on his face. _"I'd better be careful for now." _Brandon thought before adding his newly drawn card to his hand. "I'll pass thus activating Terror Incarnate's ability which destroys every other monster on the field." Brandon explained and Theresa could only watch as Avenging Knight was consumed by flames from the dragon's mouths, once she sent the card to the graveyard Theresa drew her card.

"I start by activating my own Card of Sanctity." Theresa played the card and, whilst he was clearly unhappy at having to lower the number of cards in his deck even more, Brandon drew until he had six cards in his hands as did Theresa, Theresa looked at one of her drawn cards and grinned. "Since I drew it outside of my draw phase I can now special summon Watapon to the field!" Theresa played the card and the small pink fairy appeared on the field (1/300/200). "Next I play the Spell Card Double Summon which allows me to have an additional Normal Summon."

"Fine by me, that means more monsters for my fiend to roast." Brandon said confidently.

"Just wait until I summon them, first up is the Tuner Monster Trust Guardian!" Theresa played the card and a small fairy with purple hair and wings wearing a blue dress appeared on the field (3/0/800). "And last but not least Nova Summuner!" Theresa played the card and the strange orange fairy appeared on the field (4/1400/800). "Now I tune my three monsters together to Synchro Summon another Avenging Knight Parshaff!" Theresa played the card and the three monsters disappeared from the field, in the place of Nova Summoner stood Avenging Knight Parshath who didn't look pleased that he was destroyed (8/2800/2100).

"You did all that just to summon another Avenging Knight? I was hoping for a challenge." Brandon said clearly annoyed at this.

"Just watch, first I use Avenging Knight's effect to force Terror Incarnate into defense mode!" Theresa announced as Avenging Knight pointed it's sword at Terror Incarnate and the twin headed dragon crouched down. "Now all I need to do is play one last card, it's another Spell Card." Theresa announced as she turned the card around, Brandon's eyes widened when he saw it.

"Please tell me that's not Shield Crash?" Brandon gulped as Theresa played the card.

"I could but I'd be lying, this Spell Card lets me destroy one monster in defense mode on the field and I'm choosing Terror Incarnate!" Theresa played the card a gigantic hammer slammed down upon Terror Incarnate flattening it. "Now your lifepoints are mine for the taking!" Theresa said as Brandon sent the card to the graveyard.

"Or they would if not for Terror Incarnate's other effect." Brandon said as he picked up a card. "When he leaves the field for whatever reason I summon Yubel's third and final form to the field so come forth Yubel – The Ultimate Nightmare!" Brandon played the card and in Terror Incarnate's place stood a massive version of the Terror Incarnate with many more eyes than normal and a terrifying face in between the heads (12/0/0).

"Holy shit, he's actually using all three forms in the same duel." Eddie said with an impressed whistle. "As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think Theresa can win this."

"Let me guess, because the Ultimate Nightmare is Yubel's strongest form?" Lance asked and Eddie nodded.

"Well, that and the fact that it's so rare that anyone gets to play the three cards in question." Axel added causing Lance to turn his attention to him.

"Okay Brandon, what's that thing's effect?" Theresa asked once her surprise wore off, Brandon grinned as he prepared to explain it.

"Simple really, The Ultimate Nightmare shares Yubel's ability to not be destroyed in battle not to mention transferring the damage to you and has the added benefit of destroying any monster that attacks it." Brandon explained and Theresa frowned at the last part. "So feel free to attack Yubel, I won't mind."

"Yeah, nice try but I'm not that stupid." Theresa said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "It's your move." Theresa announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_Only two cards left in my deck, I'd better end this quickly." _Brandon thought before looking at his newly drawn card. "I activate the Spell Card Lightning Vortex!" Brandon played the card and Theresa's eyes widened as he discarded a card and lightning struck Avenging Knight destroying the monster, once Theresa sent the card to her graveyard Brandon picked up another card. "Obviously attacking with The Ultimate Nightmare would be pointless so instead I summon Dark Blade the Captain of the Evil World in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the warrior in black armor appeared on the field, however his armor now had gold in it and he was carrying a sword and shield (4/1800/1500)."Dark Blade, attack her lifepoints directly!" Brandon commanded and the monster charged forward before slashing Theresa with his sword.

T: 3500

B: 8600

"But why stop there?" Brandon asked as his girlfriend got up to her feet. "Your Aegis of Gaia trap gave you a three thousand lifepoints boost earlier in the duel but what happens when I destroy it? Let's find out, I activate Twister which lets me destroy Aegis of Gain in exchange for 500 lifepoints!" Brandon played the card and, as his lifepoints dropped to 8100, a tornado ripped through Aegis destroying it, however before she could send her trap to the graveyard Theresa grunted in pain as she was hit by a beam of light.

T: 500

B: 8100

"Sorry Theresa but you should know by now that I don't pull any punches." Brandon said as Theresa sent her trap to the graveyard. "That ends my turn but come next turn this duel will be over." Brandon said as Theresa drew her card.

"You'll have to wait a bit longer than that I'm afraid." Theresa said as she played a spell card. "I activate Swords of Revealing Light!"

"WHAT?" Brandon yelled out in surprise as his two monsters where pinned down by three golden swords.

"That's right, now you can't attack for another three turns." Theresa said before frowning. "But there won't be a third turn, I can see from here that you are down to your last two cards."

"Yeah, you're right." Brandon said clearly disappointed that the duel would end this way. "My turn yet?" Brandon asked and Theresa nodded, Brandon drew his card and added it to his hand, without another word he surrendered. "It's better than decking out." Brandon said as the holograms disappeared and, once the two duelists had returned their cards to their decks, they deactivated their duel disks.

"And Theresa Daniels joins Chloe Richardson and Axel Loather in the next round!" Bill yelled over the cheering audience, whilst the two duelists got off of the podium Otto chuckled from his hiding place.

"Looks like I'm up next, which means I can trap another Duel Academy weakling in the Seal." Otto commented to himself as he looked down at his deck. "Once I win my match against Kimberly and eliminate Chloe I'll set my sites on Theresa and from there my employer will have some of the strongest souls in this city…"

"Otto Freshier?" Otto stopped himself mid monologue and turned around, behind him where several security guards. "Master Kaiba wants a word with you."

"And I'm sure that he would like each and every one of his competitors to simultaneously go bankrupt as well." Otto said with a cocky smirk. "Give me one reason why I should grace Kaiba with my presence."

"I'd listen to them Otto, if you intend to still participate in the tournament that is." A soft spoken voice rang out and a teen pushed through the crowd of security guards, he had shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes and he was wearing a uniform that identified him as a second year Obelisk Blue student, Otto's eyes narrowed once he recognized him.

"Tyler, I thought you were ill." Otto said with a smirk, Tyler said nothing as he folded his arms.

"I was, but I'm better now." Tyler said as he narrowed his eyes. "Believe me Otto my father will do more than just disqualify you from this tournament if he felt like it."

"Would he now? I know he's on Duel Academy's Board of Directors but how much sway does he really have?" Otto scoffed and Tyler's eyes narrowed.

"Enough sway to see to it that you are expelled from Duel Academy and that this will be your first and last tournament." Tyler said plainly and Otto growled.

"You know what? I'll humor him." Otto said as he followed them to Kaiba's office, Kaiba's announcement of the twenty minute recess before the next match rang out over the PA System but Otto paid little attention to it, once they reached the office Tyler entered first followed by Otto, Kaiba was at his desk looking over some paperwork.

"It took some persuasion but Otto is here father." Tyler said plainly and Kaiba turned around greeting the two boys with a cold stare.

"Let me guess, you wanted to congratulate me on eliminating the weaklings of duel academy?" Otto asked arrogantly and Kaiba frowned.

"When you and your classmates were added to the tournament you were given the responsibility of representing some of the best students duel academy had to offer." Kaiba said as his eyes narrowed, Otto said nothing so Kaiba continued. "Your classmates have done an excellent job of doing just that, even the Osiris Red student has proven to be a capable duelist and has proven that just because she's in the worst duel at Duel Academy doesn't mean she can't duel with the best of them."

"She got to the Semi-Finals on luck alone." Otto scoffed as he folded his arms. "If anything that fact proves that she doesn't belong in this tournament."

"Don't kid yourself, despite her inexperience Richardson has represented Duel Academy extremely well, to the point where many people are calling her the underdog going into the next round." Tyler said with a frown as he stepped forward. "But you on the other hand, you disgrace duel academy just by having that card in your deck."

"What are you going to do? Disqualify me?" Otto scoffed as his eyes narrowed. "Like it or not I am the favorite to win this tournament….."

"Wrong again, Theresa Daniels is the favorite to win the tournament." Kaiba cut him off with a frown on his face. "The only thing that's keeping me from kicking you out of this tournament is a technicality, the Seal of the Orichalcos was never added to the Forbidden list because it was believed that myself and Yugi Muto destroyed the Seal years ago when the original organization that used it was destroyed along with it."

"Is there a point to this? I have a victory to prepare for." Otto said impatiently, he jumped a bit when Tyler patted him on the back.

"Relax; you have another ten minutes before your match against Kimberly Troy." Tyler said plainly ignoring the death glare from Otto.

"What Tyler says is true." Kaiba said sternly as he rested his hands on the armrest. "You can leave but rest assured there is a way to restore the Orichalchos victim's souls to their bodies and as soon as that happens you and your associates may as well start applying for jobs in Fast Food joints because your professional duelist careers will be over…..or in your case over before they started." Kaiba said coldly and Otto stormed out of the office, once he left Tyler turned to his father.

"So, when do you plan on telling the students about this way to retrieve the souls?" Tyler said and Kaiba stroked his chin.

"I will after the tournament." Kaiba said turning his back to his son. "At the moment they have the rest of the Semi-Finals to worry about, if I told them now that fact would distract them in their upcoming duels."

"Do you have any theories on how the Orichalcos was revived?" Tyler asked and Kaiba shook his head.

"I have a couple but they are just that, theories." Kaiba responded with a frown. "As soon as I get a definite answer you and the Duel Academy students will be the first to know."

"What about Andreas Freshier? The third round will be held in another location after all." Tyler asked and Kaiba turned to him.

"We'll transport him to a local medical facility; I'll leave instructions for my limo driver to transport his girlfriend to the hospital so that she can be there when he wakes up." Kaiba answered before his frown deepened. "How are you feeling after Otto's outburst before his match against his brother? I know you have a similar history to Chloe."

"I didn't greet him by punching him in the face if that's what you're asking." Tyler said with a frown. "As tempting as it was."

"I understand." Kaiba said before standing up. "So, you sure you're ready to return to Duel Academy?" Kaiba asked and Tyler nodded without hesitation.

"I would've gone back sooner but I wanted to watch the Tournament in person." Tyler said before turning his attention to the monitors that showed the arena floor. "And speaking of which, the next match is about to begin." Tyler added and Kaiba looked at the monitors, sure enough Kimberly was waiting on the duel podium for Otto's arrival.

"Where is that bastard?" Kimberly muttered under her breath as she tapped her foot impatiently against the floor of the podium, without a second thought she turned her attention to Bill and Bob's monitor. "HEY! CAN'T YOU RENTACOPS SAY SOMETHING THAT WILL GET HIM HERE QUICKER?" She yelled at them causing the two security guards to sweat-drop.

"Impatient, isn't she?" Eddie asked Axel who nodded.

"Not her fault, one of Otto's associates put her stepbrother, another Duel Academy student, in the hospital a couple of weeks prior to the tournament." Lance explained to them with a frown. "I'll give you two guesses how." Lance added and the two duelists frowned quickly getting the idea. "If anything she's just eager to take out her frustrations on Otto."

"I don't blame her one bit." Eddie said nodding in understanding. "Truth be told, I was hoping to face Otto in the second round after what he said about your friend and what he did to his own brother."

"Yeah, I agree with you there." Lance admitted before glancing over at Chloe. "But I think we both know who wants to face him the most." Lance added, whilst Kimberly waited impatiently Chloe was looking over her deck to pass the time.

"Hey Chloe, what's up?" Chloe glanced up and saw Theresa standing there, her hair was now back in the ponytail though it was kind of messy.

"Not much, just waiting for the next match to start." Chloe shrugged her shoulders before looking up at Theresa. "Actually…..I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize? Why do you want to apologize?" Theresa asked Chloe who sighed.

"I was talking with Brandon just before the match started; he got the idea to add the Yubel cards to his deck during it." Chloe explained. "I guess what I'm saying is I'm sorry for accidently almost costing you the match." Chloe added and Theresa smiled.

"Don't worry about it, a loss is a loss right?" Theresa said with a shrug. "Besides if I was to lose to anyone during the tournament I would've been happy if I had lost to Brandon." Theresa added before her mood turned sour. "Kimberly's opponent has arrived." Theresa said and Chloe quickly turned her head in the direction that Theresa was looking, sure enough Otto was entering the arena ignoring the boos from the crowd and the glares from the other duelists, including a particularly nasty one from Chloe.

"Took you long enough, scared of the beating I'll give you?" Kimberly growled as she activated her duel disk, Otto hopped onto the duel arena and activated his own duel disk.

"If anyone should be scared it's you." Otto said as the two Obelisk Blue students drew their opening hands, whilst the trash talk was going on Tyler was watching the proceedings with a critical eye.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I doubt Kimberly will be advancing to the next round." Tyler admitted as he folded his arms. "She's good but Otto's way out of her league."

"I guess we'll have to wait and see," Kaiba said with a frown, before Tyler could respond Kaiba's phone went off and he answered it. "What is it?"

"Sir, we've detected an anomaly with Otto Freshier's duel disk." One of the technicians responded.

"What kind of anomaly?" Kaiba asked impatiently, Tyler didn't pay much attention to this figuring it had to do with the fact that Otto was using a custom Duel Disk; however when he saw his father's expression go from calm to furious he knew something was wrong. "You mean to tell me that someone has disabled the safeties on Otto's duel disk and you can't prove who did it?"

"Whoever did it knows what they are doing; we initially thought the anomaly was because of the fact that Otto was using a custom duel disk." The technician responded and Kaiba growled.

"I don't want to hear excuses, in fact don't bother calling me until you can prove who did it!" Kaiba bellowed before hanging up.

"So what do we do now?" Tyler asked catching his father's attention. "It's too late to stop it, they've already drawn their opening hands."

"Even if we could stop it we don't have proper grounds to do so, unless he's dumb enough to confess to it we can't do anything." Kaiba said with a frown, whilst that was going on Kimberly had elected to go first and had drawn her first card.

"_Hmm, just to be on the safe side I'd better delay Otto's activation of the Seal for as long as possible, I don't want to end up like Andreas after all." _Kimberly thought before discarding one of her cards. "By discarding Archfiend General from my hand I am allowed to add the Field Spell Card Pandemonium to my hand." Kimberly announced as she discarded the card and added the field spell to her hand. "And whilst I'm at it I'm activating the Field Spell Card Pandemonium!"

"_This is pointless." _Otto thought as he glanced towards his copy of the Seal of the Orichalcos that was in his hand. _"As soon as my turn commences I'll show her a real field spell!" _Otto thought as the scenery changed to a hellish arena.

"That's not all; I set two cards facedown and summon Shadowkight Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the demonic knight appeared on the field (4/2000/1600). "That ends my turn." Kimberly announced glaring at Otto as he made his first draw.

"_Perfect, I have everything I need to make short work of her and her pathetic archfiends…"_ Otto thought though he didn't notice Kimberly activating a trap.

"I activate Lightforce Sword!" Kimberly announced catching Otto's attention; soon afterward a sword appeared above Otto aiming for the cards in his hand. "This trap allows me to remove from play one random card in your hand, don't worry, you'll get it back after four of your standby phases." Kimberly explained as the sword skewered the middle card and Otto's eyes widened when he realized what it was.

"NO! NOT THE SEAL!" Otto yelled obviously angry at this development, he growled as his eyes narrowed. "You'll pay for that you little bitch!"

"Err; once again we would like to apologize for the poor choice of words coming out of Otto Freshier's mouth." Bill said as the two announcers sweat-dropped.

"Don't you have a move to make? Or did your initial strategy revolve entirely around that Field Spell that you and your associates use?" Kimberly asked plainly and Otto growled.

"I don't need the Seal to defeat a weakling like you, since you have a monster on your side of the field and I don't I can Special Summon Cyber Dragon to the field!" Otto played the card and the mechanical dragon appeared on the field (5/2100/1600). "Cyber Dragon, slay that pathetic fiend!" The dragon opened its mouth and started charging up a laser…

"This "pathetic fiend" as you put it is staying around for a bit longer!" Kimberly announced as she activated her sole remaining trap card. "I activate my other trap card Negate Attack and it does exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak." Kimberly announced as the attack bounced off of a forcefield, Otto growled as Kimberly sent her trap card to the graveyard before picking up two cards.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Otto set the two cards and Kimberly drew her card.

"I start my turn by activating the Spell Card Allure of Darkness, as long as I can banish a dark type monster from my hand it'll let me draw two cards from my deck." Kimberly pocketed one of her monsters and drew two cards; she looked at them and grinned. "_Perfect, he'll be in for a surprise once Lightforce Swords wears off."_ Kimberly thought before setting the two cards. "I set two cards facedown and I sacrifice Shadowknight Archfiend to summon Skull Archfiend of Lightning!" Kimberly played the cards and Shadowknight Archfiend disappeared from the field, in its place stood the Summoned Skull lookalike (6/2500/1200).

"_Blast, that thing is stronger than Cyber Dragon!" _ Otto thought with a frown. _"Luckily my two trap cards can protect my lifepoints and then some!"_

"Skull Archfiend of Lightning, attack Cyber Dragon now! HELL'S LIGHTNING!" Kimberly commanded and the fiend charged up its attack.

"Your Archfiend will have to find a new target!" Otto announced as he activated his trap. "I activate the trap card Interdimensional Matter Transporter which allows me to remove my Cyber Dragon from play until my end phase!" Otto announced and just like he said Cyber Dragon disappeared into a portal which closed up as quickly as it opened.

"Fine, it has a new target and it's your lifepoints, continue your attack!" The Archfiend pointed it's claws at Otto….

"What do you take me for, an Osiris Red loser like Chloe?" Otto said cockily ignoring the fact that Chloe's glare at gotten nastier at that statement, Theresa did notice it though.

"Chlo, keep your temper in check." Theresa said trying, and succeeding at, to calm her down. "I know it's hard but wait until you face him."

"Thanks Theresa." Chloe said with a sigh before looking at her oddly. "You don't think Kimberly can win this?"

"As much as I hate to say it, yes I don't think she can win." Theresa said with a sigh. "She's good but Otto's out of her league."

"I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!" Kimberly yelled at Theresa who sweat-dropped. "I don't care what you or Theresa says; this attack is putting me in the lead!"

"That's where you're wrong, I activate Dimension Wall!" Otto activated the trap and too Kimberly's surprise the lightning bounced off of a forcefield, what surprised her even more was the fact that the lightning bounced back in her direction electrocuting her, she screamed in pain before collapsing to her knees.

K: 5500

O: 8000

"You were saying? Dimension Wall is quite a potent trap card, with it any battle damage I'd suffer instead comes out of your life-points!" Otto said with a smirk, Kimberly meanwhile was breathing heavily due to the backfired attack.

"That's….that's not my concern right now." Kimberly said as she grunted in pain. "That attack hurt, like someone turned off the safeties." Kimberly added as she glared at Otto, as Kimberly slowly rose to her feet her sentence was starting to dawn on the spectators and other duelists, Otto on the other hand put on a face of fake shock.

"Oh my, whoever could've done that?" Otto said showing fake concern, Kimberly would have rolled her eyes if not for the fact that she was in pain.

"Your full of shit, you know that?" Kimberly spat ignoring the gasps from the parents in the audience and Bill and Bob's failed attempts to apologize for the language. "Who else would have a reason, not to mention the knowhow, to disable the safeties? Besides no one buys your innocence routine after the stunt you pulled last round and your comment about Chloe." Kimberly added and Otto smirked.

"Nice theory, but where's your proof?" Otto asked arrogantly, Kimberly growled before sighing in resignation.

"I end my turn." Kimberly admitted, before Otto drew his card the portal opened back up and Cyber Dragon returned to the field, once that happened Otto drew his card.

"Kimberly has no proof Otto did that?" Chloe asked clearly annoyed by this.

"The only way Kimberly could get proof he did that is to check Otto's duel disk, something tells me that Otto isn't willing to let that happen." Theresa told her clearly as annoyed as the younger duelist at this development. "Otherwise, well what Kimberly just said is technically slander."

"So what, Otto can just beat the hell out of Kimberly with his monsters and get away with it?" Chloe asked clearly not liking this development.

"As much as I hate to say it, that's pretty much it." Theresa said with a sigh of annoyance, whilst that was going on Otto was glancing towards the hologram of the skewered Seal of the Orichalcos.

"_That's one standby phase down, three to go."_ Otto thought before looking at his drawn card. "I switch Cyber Dragon to defense mode and set another card in defense mode that shall end my turn." Otto set the card and Cyber Dragon crouched down as the facedown monster appeared next to it, Kimberly gritted her teeth before drawing her card.

"_My whole body hurts like hell; I guess this how Chloe felt during her first duel of the tournament."_ Kimberly thought before looking at her drawn card. _"This trap will help later." _Kimberly thought before setting the card. "I set a card facedown, now Skull Archfiend of Lightning, finish the job you started last turn and destroy Cyber Dragon with Hell's Lightning!" Kimberly commanded and the fiend charged up its attack before launching it at Cyber Dragon, the dragon let out a mechanical scream before shattering. "That ends my turn." Kimberly announced and Otto drew his card.

"_Two more to go, I can only keep up the defenses for so long and as soon as she draws another Archfiend my life-points will be hers for the taking."_ Otto thought with a frown before looking at his newly drawn card. "I shall set this card facedown for later that ends my turn." Otto set the card down and Kimberly drew her card.

"_That's likely a trap that'll cause any attacks I commit to bite me in the ass like Dimension Wall."_ Kimberly thought before looking at her newly drawn card. "I'll pass for now." Kimberly announced and Otto drew his card, he added it to his hand before glancing over at the hologram of the Seal skewered by the sword.

"Only one more turn before your fate is sealed Kimberly." Otto said mockingly before looking at his card. "I shall set a card facedown and end my turn." Otto set the card down and Kimberly wasted no time in drawing her card.

"_If all goes to plan he'll have to wait even longer." _Kimberly thought before glancing at her new card. "I summon Terrorking Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the king of the archfiends appeared on the field (4/2000/1500). "Skull Archfiend of Lightning, roast his defense monster with Hell's Lightning!" Kimberly commanded and the fiend charged up his attack before launching it at the defense monster…

"Not so fast, I activate my trap card Absolute End!" Otto activated the trap and too everyone's surprise the lightning changed course instead targeting Otto. "This trap can only be activated during my opponent's turn and with it I can force my opponent to attack me directly!" Otto explained before grimacing as the attack hit.

K: 5500

O: 5500

"That's fine by me because I'm having Terrorking attack your life-points!" Kimberly commanded and the Archfiend launched forward past Otto's facedown monster…

"Did you honestly think I'd let you gain access to my life-points without something in return?" Otto asked rhetorically before activating his remaining trap card. "I activate Confusion Chaff, this trap can only be activated if my opponent launches a second direct attack and it allows me to force Terrorking Archfiend to attack Skull Archfiend of Lightning!" Otto announced with a grin. "Oh and before you ask no it doesn't target any monsters so Terrorking's effect doesn't activate." Otto added as Terrorking was roasted by Skull Archfiend's lightning.

K: 5000

O: 5500

"There's an added bonus as well." Otto said as Kimberly sent her fiend to the graveyard. "During the turn that Confusion Chaff is activated other card effects can't be activated so the secondary effect of your pathetic little Field Spell doesn't activate."

"Just take your turn already." Kimberly growled and Otto drew his card bringing his total to three, then the hologram of the Skewered Orichalcos field spell disappeared and Otto quickly retrieved the Orichalcos from his pocket. "Just so I'm clear, you have four cards in your hand right?"

"Yes, what off it?" Otto demanded and Kimberly grinned before activating her trap.

"In that case I activate my Trap Card Penalty Game!" Kimberly activated the trap and Otto blinked. "This trap can only be activated if my opponent has four or more cards in his or her hand, it allows me to activate one of two effects, either you can't draw during your next draw phase or, and this is the effect I'm using, you can't activate any Spells or Traps this turn."

"WHAT?" Otto yelled as his three spell cards, The Seal, Power Bond and Break! Draw!, glowed, he tried reaching for the Orichalcos but was stopped by electricity. "Your stall tactics are starting to annoy me."

"Don't you have a move to do?" Kimberly asked and Otto growled.

"Well I was going to do away with this silly field spell but I guess I'll make do by setting another monster in defense mode." Otto set the monster down and the facedown monster appeared on the field. "Make your damn move already!" Otto scowled and Kimberly drew her card.

"I will, gladly." Kimberly said before looking at her drawn card, her small confident small quickly turned into a much larger grin. "The card I just drew will ensure that you won't play the seal in this duel."

"Oh, will it really?" Otto asked in a mocking tone. "You know as well as I do that the Seal can't be destroyed or negated."

"But it can still be sent to the graveyard." Kimberly said catching Otto's attention. "I activate the Spell Card I just drew, CARD DESTRUCTION!" Otto's eyes widened when he heard the card's name and they went even wider when he saw the hologram of the card on the field. "This spell card forces us both too….."

"Discard our entire hands and draw new ones from scratch; I've seen enough of the Osiris Red bitch's matches to know what that damn card does!" Otto snapped at Kimberly ignoring Theresa's attempts to calm down Chloe as he and Kimberly discarded their entire hands and drew new ones.

"Huh, she was actually able to prevent the activation of the Seal." Tyler commented with a stroke of her chin.

"And I think I know why." Kaiba chimed in with a small smirk. "She didn't let him activate the Seal so that the cops could interrogate him once she beats him."

"You mean if she beats him." Tyler corrected him. "Otto was an excellent duelist before he got his hands on the Seal of the Orichalcos, Kimberly and her step brother was the last Ra Yellow students to graduate to Obelisk Blue during last year's examination duels and there progress has been steady." Tyler said before his eyes darted to Theresa's attempts to calm down Chloe. "I'm concerned about the Osiris Red student."

"Richardson? Why are you concerned about her?" Kaiba asked turning to his son.

"You remember the aftermath of the students' last duel before the Semi-Finals, and we both know the results your background check on him turned up." Tyler said with a frown. "I'll set them up in one of the VIP rooms, that way we won't have an incident on our hands."

"Fine, it looks like Theresa's taking Chloe backstage anyway." Kaiba said motioning with his head towards the monitor which showed the two girls heading backstage, when Kaiba turned around Tyler was already heading out the door and whilst that was going on the two female duelists where making their way backstage.

"Theresa you sure this is necessary? We'll miss the match." Chloe protested and Theresa glanced at her.

"Aren't you forgetting the last time you lost your temper?" Theresa asked and Chloe stiffened up thinking back to seven on one duel against her biological dad, something Theresa noticed. "I know, I know it's a touchy subject but it's better than the alternative." Theresa added.

"I'll say." Tyler's voice rang out and the Obelisk Blue student stepped out of the shadows, the stairs to Kaiba's office was just ahead of the two girls which was why Tyler was able to get their so fast. "Long time no see Theresa, impressive showing in your match."

"Tyler?" Theresa blinked in surprise once she recognized him. "I thought you were ill?" Theresa asked and Tyler nodded.

"I was, I also happened to be in New York for the tournament." Tyler responded before his eyes narrowed. "I noticed your friend's temper flaring up."

"Oh right, Chloe this is Tyler Serites, he's the top student in Obelisk Blue and by extension the whole academy." Theresa introduced Chloe and Chloe gulped.

"Don't worry kid, I don't bite." Tyler said folding his arms with a chuckle.

"Err, sure, wait why where you coming from Kaiba's office if you're just an Obelisk Blue student?" Chloe asked clearly confused, Tyler frowned clearly anticipating the question.

"It's not something I like discussing in public for a number of reasons." Tyler said plainly before motioning for the two girls to follow him. "To give you the short version, I'm Seto Kaiba's adopted son; I just like using the surname I was born with."

"Yeah, right." Chloe said skeptically as the two girls followed him. "Next thing you tell me is that duel monster cards have spirits inside of them."

"Chloe, don't be rude." Theresa scolded her and Tyler turned to them.

"It's okay Theresa, it's not exactly the first time that my claim to fame has been met with skepticism, you were skeptical when I told you remember?" Tyler said with a smile and Theresa blushed a bit. "Besides Chloe, throughout this tournament you've faced off against duelists who used a field spell that trapped people's souls in another dimension and accepted it as fact, is going to the same school as the adopted son of a world famous duelist really that hard to swallow?"

"That's different though." Chloe pointed out with a frown. "For one thing I have firsthand experience of the effects of that damn field spell." Chloe added and Tyler paused.

"Fair point but still given everything you've experienced is the fact that Kaiba's my father really that hard to fathom?" Tyler asked before opening a door to a VIP room. "Here, you can watch the rest of the match in here." Tyler said and the two girls entered the room without hesitation, Chloe plopped down on the sofa whilst Theresa remained standing and Tyler turned on the TV, not much had changed since the two girls left the arena, the two duelists where looking over their new hands formulating new strategies.

"_Hmmm, I didn't draw any monsters." _Kimberly thought with a frown. "_But on the other hand these traps will help." _Kimberly thought before picking up three of her new cards. "I set three cards facedown, now Skull Archfiend attack the monster Otto set last turn with Hell's Lightning!" The fiend stretched out its arms and lightning shot from them, the monster was revealed to be a mechanical bird with four wings (4/1200/1600) which was quickly destroyed.

"Thank you for destroying Cyber Phoenix." Otto said as he sent his monster to the graveyard. "When it's destroyed as a result of battle and sent to the graveyard I am allowed to draw a single card from my deck." Otto explained as he drew a card.

"Draw all the cards you want, all it'll do is bring you one step closer to decking out." Kimberly taunted before motioning for Otto to take his turn, he drew his card without hesitation.

"I don't need Cyber End Dragon or the seal to defeat a pathetic weakling like you!" Otto sneered before looking at his newly drawn card. "First I activate Silent Doom which I use to revive one of the monsters you forced me to discard last turn, Robotic Knight!" Otto played the card and a mechanical knight in red and gold armor appeared on the field (4/1600/1800).

"That's hardly a knight in shining armor." Kimberly scoffed before grinning. "But then again neither is his handler."

"Joke all you want but let's see if you're still in a joking mood after I sacrifice Robotic Knight to summon Machine King in attack mode!" Otto swapped out the cards and Robotic Knight vanished, in its place stood the king of machines ready to do battle (6/2200/2000) and due to its own effect the King's attack rose to 2300.

"Even with the Orichalcos in your deck you're still using that old thing?" Kimberly scoffed before folding her arms. "Machine King's strong but he falls just short of Skull Archfiend's strength."

"That may be true but not for long, I flip summon my facedown monster Jinzo number 7!" Otto flipped the card up and a small, rusty android appeared on the field (2/500/400) and as soon as it appeared Machine King's attack rose to 2400. "Next I activate Machine Duplication; since my Jinzo is a pathetic weakling I can summon two more of them from my deck!" Otto activated the card and picked up his deck, one quick search later and two more androids appeared on Otto's side of the field increasing Machine King's attack to 2600. "But my three weaker monsters come with an extra benefit; they can attack directly even if the opponent has a monster on her side of the field." Otto explained and Kimberly frowned.

"_Good thing I drew those traps last turn."_ Kimberly thought as Otto pointed to his weaker monsters with a maniacal grin on his face.

"Go my Jinzos, attack her life points directly!" The three androids charged forward past Skull Archfiend of Lightning…

"Think again, I activate my trap card Waboku!" Kimberly activated the trap and three priestesses blocked the androids from getting any closer to Kimberly.

"Fine, I end my turn." Otto growled as his three androids returned to his side of the field, Kimberly drew her card and frowned.

"_Archfiend Empress, I can't summon her because Skull Archfiend of Lightning is my only monster on my side of the field….but maybe my trap cards can help." _Kimberly thought before playing a card. "I summon Sangan in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the small three eyed fiend appeared on the field (3/1000/600). "Now I activate another trap card, Dark Spirit Art Greed! By sacrificing Sangan this card will allow me to draw two cards." Kimberly activated the card and the fiend vanished, soon afterwards Kimberly drew two cards and sent Sangan and her trap to the graveyard.

"Let me guess, you're activating Sangan's effect next?" Otto asked and Kimberly said nothing before picking up her deck and searching through it, she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand.

"_Okay, I have a couple of more monsters including one that can help me if he tries bypassing Skull Archfiend again." _Kimberly thought before picking up a card. "I activate the Spell Card Dark World Dealings, now we can draw an extra card on the condition that we discard a card as well." Kimberly played the card and both duelists drew an extra card before discarding a card. _"As much as I hate helping Otto the card I just sent to the graveyard will be a bigger help to me in the graveyard than it will in my hand." _Kimberly thought with a frown. "That ends my turn." Kimberly announced and Otto drew his card.

"_Hmm, why didn't she attack? If she had destroyed one of my Jinzos she would've reduced Machine King's attack to 2500 and reduce the direct damage she would've taken."_ Otto thought with a frown. _"No matter, any mistake she makes will inevitably benefit me!" _Otto thought before adding his newly drawn card to his hand. "Go my Jinzos, finish what you started last turn!" The three androids charged towards Kimberly again…but like last time they were stopped in their tracks this time by Battle Fader (1/0/0).

"I have ways of stalling cards other than Spell Cards Otto." Kimberly said as the three androids returned to Otto's side of the field. "Unfortunately for you this little move has allowed me to set the stage for my strongest monster's arrival."

"_Archfiend Empress."_ Otto thought remembering the card from Kimberly's duel against Luigi in the last round. "I set a card facedown and call it a turn at that." Otto set the card down and Kimberly drew her card.

"Then the stage is set." Kimberly said as she picked up her two monster cards, she pocketed Battle Fader due to its effect and sent Skull Archfiend of Lightning to the graveyard. "I sacrifice Battle Fader and Skull Archfiend of Lightning to summon my strongest monster Archfiend Empress!" Kimberly played the card and in Skull Archfiend's place stood the mighty queen of the Archfiends (8/2900/2100) however as soon as the queen appeared Otto activated his trap.

"I activate Bottomless Trap Hole!" Otto activated the card and grinned. "This trap is an improved version of Trap Hole, for one thing it only works on monsters with 1500 or more attack points and removes them from play and I know for a fact that the empress doesn't share her minion's luck based effect!"

"She doesn't need to; I chain Bottomless Trap Hole with my own Trap Card Trap Stun!" Kimberly flipped the card up and too Otto's surprise the hole that had opened up beneath the empress had closed up. "Now that this has been activated the effects of the other trap cards on the field are negated for the rest of the turn." Kimberly explained and Otto growled before sending his card to the grave. "Now for the fun part, Archfiend Empress I command you to attack the jinzo on the far right!" The empress pointed her staff at the android in question and a beam of dark light erupted from it consuming the android and causing it to explode, Otto shield himself as his lifepoints took a large hit.

K: 5000

O: 3100

Once the smoke from the explosion cleared the android was gone and Machine King's attack had dropped to 2500, Otto was seething at this point. "All it will take me is two more attacks from my Empress and you'll be paying for what you did to your brother not to mention anyone else you hurt in this…" Kimberly started but was stopped when Otto's temper got the best of him.

"YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU PATHETIC WHORE!" Otto yelled at her as he drew his card, Kimberly clenched her first in anger ready to punch Otto out for the comment but thought better of it. "I activate Pot of Avarice, this spell card requires me to return five monster cards from my graveyard to my deck but in exchange I get to draw an additional two cards! Otto activated the card and returned Cyber Dragon, Cyber Phoenix, Biofalcon, Robotic Knight and the destroyed Jinzo 7 to his deck, once that was done he drew two cards from his deck, when Otto saw his two cards he grinned maniacally. "I may not be able to send you to the Orichalcos like my associate did to that pathetic brother of yours but I can still put you in the hospital." Otto said ignoring the death glare from Kimberly. "I offer my remaining Jinzos as tribute to summon Perfect Machine King in attack mode!" Otto played the card and the two androids vanished, in their place stood a shinier, more advanced version of Machine King that was silver and red in color (8/2700/1600). "As you may know Perfect Machine King gains 500 attack points for each Machine Type monster on the field, there are two which will bring his total to 3700." Otto explained as Perfect Machine King's attack skyrocketed to 3700 whilst its regular form's attack dropped to 2400.

"Big deal, even if you destroy my Empress my lifepoints will survive the hit!" Kimberly said confidently and Otto grinned.

"You'd think that, wouldn't you?" Otto asked as he activated the other card he drew. "But I'm afraid that my Limiter Removal Spell Card will have to disagree with you, you see for this turn only this spell card's effect shall double the attack strength of all machine type monsters on the field; I believe the results speak for themselves." Kimberly's eyes widened when she saw Perfect Machine King's and regular Machine King's attack raise to 7400 and 4800 respectively.

"_Not a problem, the monster I discarded for Dark World Dealing's effect was Necro Gardna (3/600/1300), all I'll need to do is remove him from play and I'll be able to negate Perfect Machine King's attack and since Limiter Removal's side effect destroys all Machine Type monsters on his side of the field at the end phase his life-points will be mine for the taking." _Kimberly thought as her eyes darted towards her graveyard.

"What's the matter? Do you believe that a card in the graveyard will save you from my wrath?" Otto asked catching Kimberly's attention. "Well I can't risk that happening so I activate another Spell Card called Soul Release to remove that one card in your graveyard, care to tell me what it is?" Otto played the card and Kimberly growled.

"Necro Gardna." Kimberly whispered as her hair overshadowed her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Otto said putting a hand to his ear. "Would you mind repeating that so that we can….."

"IT'S NECRO GARDNA DAMN IT!" Kimberly snapped at him before retrieving the card and pocketing it, Otto sent his spell to the graveyard and pointed at his monsters.

"Machine King, show that empress what real power is all about, Perfect Machine King send her to hell!" Otto commanded and the two machines launched their attacks, Machine King's rocket fists struck Archfiend Empress in the chest destroying her and bringing Kimberly's life-points down to 3100, Perfect Machine King's assault soon followed sending her flying off the podium and into the wall.

O: 3100

K: 0000

"Err; the winner of the match is Otto Freshier!" Bill announced as several other duelists rushed to Kimberly's aid, back in the VIP room Chloe had bolted from the room as soon as Perfect Machine King's attack hit and she had returned to the arena just as Otto was heading backstage, he spotted her glaring at him and grinned.

"You're next bitch." Otto said plainly before walking off, Chloe gritted her teeth as she clenched her fists.

"Let it go Chloe, take your frustrations out on him in the next round." Chloe turned around and saw her stepdad there, Tyler and Theresa weren't far behind. "I know your angry but assaulting him isn't the answer."

"It's…it's not right dad." Chloe said as tears started forming in her eyes. "First Andreas is trapped in the Orichalcos now Kimberly's seriously injured and he's getting away with it."

"He won't Chloe." Tyler reassured her as he stepped forward. "I and my father will make sure of it." Tyler added as paramedics ran over with a stretcher to attend to Kimberly. "Looks like Kimberly will be going to a local hospital rather than the medical ward."

"Her injuries must be serious if that's the case." Theresa said before getting an idea. "Mr. Richardson, would you mind driving me to the hospital? I want to be there when Kimberly wakes up."

"Off course Theresa, and please call me Scott." Scott nodded in understanding before turning to his daughter. "I take it you want to come as well?" Scott asked and Chloe nodded before following her dad.


	34. Last Second Round Match

It had been ten minutes since Kimberly's match against Otto and Theresa, Scott and Chloe were waiting in the hospital waiting room alongside Brandon, Marcus, Jeff, and Hamden who had taken the limo to the hospital, Lance was still at the arena since his match was the last match off the day and had asked them to call him if there was any updates on Kimberly, speaking of Kimberly she had been taken to her hospital bed several minutes ago and the nurse had promised to let them know when Kimberly had woken up, Tyler had elected to stay at the arena to help his dad with the tournament.

"Man, this is messed up!" Marcus said as he leaned against his chair, Chloe had calmed down since arriving at the hospital and was sitting next to Marcus. "First Andreas is trapped in the Orichalcos and now Kimberly's severely injured, all because of Otto."

"Don't worry about him; I'll get him in one of the later rounds." Theresa said determinedly but Chloe shook her head.

"No offense Theresa but I'd prefer to be the one who takes him down, or didn't you notice all the insults he hurled my way during the match?" Chloe pointed out with a frown "Not to mention the comments he made about me before his match with Andreas."

"Chloe you've come a long way since joining Duel Academy but even still Otto's way out of your league." Theresa pointed out with a frown. "And before you bring it up, it's obvious that Otto's modified his deck a lot since your duel against him on the boat."

"That's enough you two." Jeff said pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance clearly sensing an upcoming argument. "Yes I know you're angry, yes I understand why you're angry, especially you Chloe, but this is hardly the time to argue over who will get revenge for Andreas and Kimberly."

"If anything we should be thankful that Kimberly's card combos kept her soul out of the Orichalcos." Hamden added and the two girls sighed in resignation. "We don't even know how the next round will play out since there'll be five competitors left." Hamden added, before anyone could say anything else the nurse walked up to them, she was a leggy brunette with shoulder length hair and blue eyes.

"How is she?" Marcus asked almost immediately and the nurse consulted her notes.

"Well Kimberly suffered bruised ribs and third degree burns, both from the electrocution and the rockets exploding near her." The nurse explained before frowning. "Not to mention aggravating the injuries she suffered when she had that duel disk whacked against her head." The nurse said before noticing the worried looks on the student's faces. "Considering the beating she endured it could have been a lot worse, the doctor theorizes that Archfiend Empress absorbing the first blow prevented the injuries from being serious."

"May we see her?" Jeff asked and the nurse nodded before motioning for them to follow her, Hamden however walked in the opposite direction.

"I'm going to call Lance, let him know what happened." Hamden told Jeff before leaving the hospital and getting his cellphone out, whilst he did that the others followed the nurse to the hospital bed where Kimberly was laying.

"Hey guys." Kimberly greeted them weakly wincing as she sat up. "I thought I could bring Otto to justice by forcing him into a corner."

"Yeah, we all saw how well that went." Marcus said shaking his head. "We're just glad you're okay all things considered, well that and the fact that you were able to keep your soul out of the Orichalcos." Marcus added and Kimberly grinned.

"Come on, did you think I was going to let him take me down that easily?" Kimberly asked before frowning and turning to Theresa and Chloe. "I'm sure you two noticed that Otto had disabled the safeties prior to the duel, and before you point out the fact that that's technically slander who else has access to his duel disk? Not to mention the knowhow?"

"Yeah we noticed." Chloe said with a frown. "We almost ended up arguing over who would be the one to take down Otto."

"As long as someone takes that bastard down I don't give a shit." Kimberly said bluntly before turning to Chloe. "And I'm sorry for not doing something to stop the comments he made towards you during the duel." Kimberly added and Chloe sighed.

"Even if you tried I doubt you would've succeeded." Brandon said with a frown. "Otto's always been vocal with his disdain for students who aren't in Obelisk Blue."

"If that doesn't win the award for understatement of the century I don't know what will." Kimberly pointed out, "Look kid, Theresa, if either of you end up being Otto's next opponent then be careful. I doubt he'd be willing to turn the safeties back on for his next match." Kimberly added, soon afterwards Hamden entered the room with his laptop in his hands.

"Lance knows, though to be honest I doubt he'll be able to keep his cool during the match against Eddie." Hamden explained as he sat down next to Marcus. "The match is about to start which is why I brought this in," Hamden added before showing the others the screen once he plugged it in.

*meanwhile at the Kaiba dome*

"Thanks Hamden, send Kimberly my best wishes." Lance said before hanging up, things between the duelists had been tense since Kimberly was taken to the hospital and Lance was deeply regretting the fact that he had to stay behind due to his match. _"Kaiba could've delayed the match but NOOOO he has to stick his schedule no matter what…"_ Lance thought unaware that Eddie was approaching him from behind.

"Do you have any news on Kimberly?" Eddie asked making the younger duelist jump, he turned around and smiled.

"Well the good news is that she's woken up, bad news is that she's got bruised ribs and third degree burns, not to mention a bruised ego I'm sure." Lance responded before sighing. "So we're up next."

"I noticed." Eddie said with a nod. "Take my advice and try not to let what happened to Kimberly affects your performance in the duel, yes it's unfortunate what happened to her at the end of the duel but at the end of the day, short of leaping in front of the rockets, there's little you could've done to prevent it." Eddie advised him and Lance chuckled a bit.

"Eddie, you're talking to the guy whose plan for defeating his opponent in the last round involved taking ten thousand points of damage whilst the Orichalcos was active." Lance said with a sheepish grin. "There's no crazy stunt I won't pull…well except for suicidaly crazy stunts." Lance added and Eddie laughed.

"Yeah, I guess that's a fair point." Eddie said with a grin.

"Will Eddie Roberts and Lance Alvers please step onto the duel arena for the last match of the day please?" Kaiba's voice rang out and the two duelists wasted no time in getting onto the duel arena and activating their duel disks.

"I'll go first!" Lance announced as he drew his card, as he looked over his hand however a sound he heard from the audience surprised him, they were booing him. "What the hell? I didn't do anything to deserve being booed…recently…." Lance wondered out loud before noticing that Eddie was equally confused.

"I believe it's a little something called Guilt by Association." Axel chimed in with a frown. "They don't care if you're in a different dorm to Otto's; all they care about is that you go to the same school as Otto."

"That's the biggest amount of bullshit I've ever seen! Otto's last two opponents where Duel Academy students for fucks sake! Hell the champ's a former Duel Academy student!" Lance protested clearly annoyed by this.

"Yeah but they know me as a champ first, duel academy alumni second." Eddie said with a frown. "Look just let Kaiba handle the PR stuff, you make your move!"

"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Lance agreed as he looked over his hand. "Huh, haven't used this guy in a while…I summon Great Angus in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the blood red tusked beast appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/600). "And I'll back him up with two cards facedown that ends my turn." Lance set the two cards and Eddie drew his card.

"Not bad Lance, but let me show you how it's done!" Eddie said before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Vice Dragon in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and an ugly purple dragon appeared on the field (5/2000/2400).

"Wait, what? That thing's a Level 5 monster!" Lance protested but his surprise only grew when he saw the dragon's attack and defense plummet to 1000 and 1200 respectively. "That is unless it has an effect."

"You catch on fast." Eddie complemented him as his dragon roared at Lance. "As long as my opponent has a monster on his side of the field I can special summon Vice Dragon directly from my hand, however Vice Dragon's attack and defense points are cut in half as a side effect."

"So in short, he's something that Great Angus can take down with ease!" Lance said confidently and Eddie shook his head.

"Didn't you hear the Special Summon part? Hell you used a similar strategy in your last duel!" Eddie said as he picked up another card. "I offer Vice Dragon as a tribute to summon Strong Wind Dragon in attack mode!" Vice Dragon disappeared from the field and in its place stood another, much larger green and blue dragon landed on the field, it let out a roar at Great Angus powerful enough to cause strong winds (6/2400/1000).

"Yeash, what did that thing eat?" Lance asked as he waved his hand in front of his nose. "Seriously is there a reason you summoned a monster who's only slightly stronger than Vice Dragon's base…attack….." Lance started but stopped when he saw Strong Wind Dragon's Attack raise to 3400.

"Simple, when Strong Wind Dragon is tribute summoned whilst using a Dragon as a tribute half of that dragon's strength is added to his attack." Eddie explained with a grin. "He has two other effects but I'll get to them a bit later…."

"Before you get any ideas about attacking I activate my Trap Card Backfire!" Lance activated the card and grinned. "Now every time you destroy a fire type monster you'll lose 500 lifepoints, guess what the majority of my deck consists off?"

"Not a problem or haven't you noticed the large difference between our monsters?" Eddie asked before pointing to Strong Wind Dragon. "Strong Wind Dragon, attack Great Angus now!" Eddie commanded and the dragon took flight before flapping its wings, gale force winds blew forward sending Great Angus flying, at the same time Eddie winced as he was burnt by Lance's trap.

L: 6400

E: 7500

Lance quickly sent his monster to the graveyard and Eddie looked over his hand. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Eddie set the three cards down and Lance drew his card.

"_Okay nothing in my hand can beat that dragon of his but it's not like it can bypass a monster in defense mode right?" _Lance thought before picking up a monster. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Lance set the card down and Eddie drew his card.

"Strong Wind Dragon, attack his defense monster!" Eddie commanded and the dragon took flight again, Lance braced himself again as the gale force winds blew over the field, his facedown monster was revealed to be UFO Turtle (4/1400/1200) which was quickly blown away.

"Heh, the jokes on you because the monster you destroyed was UFO Turtle." Lance said as he picked up his deck. "Now I can search through my deck for a similar fire type monster and summon it to the field, so say hello to Solar Flare Dragon!" Lance played the card and a dragon made of fire appeared on the field (4/1500/1000).

"Sorry Lance but Solar Flare Dragon isn't sticking around." Eddie said as he activated one of his traps. "I activate my trap card Mirror of Oaths, this can only be activated when my opponent summons a monster from their deck as you just did, that monster is destroyed and I get to draw an extra card as an added bonus!" Eddie explained as Solar Flare Dragon was consumed by dark light, Eddie drew his card and grinned. "That wasn't the only effect my attack had." Eddie said once the burn from Backfire's effect wore off. "Just have a look at your lifepoints." Eddie added and Lance blinked before doing so.

L: 4200

E: 6500

"Don't tell that thing has a trampling effect!" Lance winced as it dawned on him, Lance's eyes widened when Eddie nodded to confirm this. "Great, you have a powerful monster on your side of the field and I can't defend myself regardless of my monster's position."

"That's basically it." Eddie agreed before looking over his hand. "That ends my turn." Eddie announced and Lance drew his card.

"_Great, he shut down my initial plan of creating a wall of Solar Flare Dragons." _Lance thought with a frown before looking at his card. "I rarely use this card due to its side effect but in this case it can only help me, I activate the Spell Card One Day of Peace." Lance played the card and Eddie raised an eyebrow. "This spell card lets us draw a card each; however as a side effect neither of us can suffer damage until the end of your next turn." Lance played the card and Eddie frown.

"_I could negate that with my Magic Drain Spell Card but you can never have enough cards, that and the side effect works against Backfire as well."_ Eddie thought before both duelists drew one card.

"Just what I was hoping for, I activate Lightning Vortex now by discarding one card from my hand I can destroy all face up monsters on your side of the field." Lance discarded another copy of Solar Flare Dragon and lightning prepared to strike Strong Wind Dragon….

"Okay, I'm going to have to intervene here." Eddie said as he activated his trap. "I activate Magic Drain, now unless you can discard another Spell Card from your hand Lightning Vortex's effect is negated." Eddie explained and Lance quickly looked over his hand before sending Lightning Vortex to the graveyard and the lightning disappeared.

"There's one more move I can make though, I summon Barrier Statue of the Inferno in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a small red statue appeared on the field (4/1000/1000). "Sure he may look weak but his effect is anything but weak, as long as he's on the field nothing but fire type monsters can be special summoned."

"_Well, so much for my plans for a Synchrony Summon next turn."_ Eddie thought as he glanced towards his copy of Delta Flyer (3/1500/800) and another copy of Vice Dragon.

"I think I'll call it a turn at that." Lance announced as he ignored the booing crowd to the best of his ability and Eddie drew his card.

"I activate Cards of Consonance, by sending a Dragon type tuner with 1000 or less attack points from my hand to the graveyard this will let me draw two cards." Eddie explained before he discarded a card and drew two cards. "I may not be able to deal any damage this time but I can still get rid of that card, Strong wing Dragon I command you to attack Barrier Statue of the Inferno!" The dragon took flight before unleashing gale force winds at the statue causing it to crumble to pieces, Lance's lifepoints weren't affected due to One Day of Peace's effect so he simply sent the monster to the grave. "That ends my turn!" Eddie announced and Lance drew his card.

"_Not another copy of One Day of Peace but this will buy me some time." _Lance thought before activating the card. "I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Lance played the card and Eddie shielded himself as the three golden swords rained down from the sky pinning down Strong Wind Dragon. "I'm sure I don't need to tell the Battle City Champion this but Swords of Revealing Light will buy me three more turns, in the meantime I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Lance set the monster and Eddie drew his card.

"_I'll use this once the swords wear off, or I destroy them."_ Eddie thought before adding the card to his hand. "I pass for now." Eddie announced as the first of the swords disappeared, and once that happened Lance drew his card.

"This is more like it; I offer my facedown monster as a tribute to summon Thestalos, The Firestorm Monarch in attack mode!" Lance swapped out the cards and the facedown monster vanished, in its place stood Thestalos who was ready for battle (6/2400/1000) and Eddie winced as his lifepoints where hit by Backfire's effect. "Off course attacking Strong Wind Dragon with Thestalos would be suicide so instead I activate Thestalos's effect, basically I chose a card in your hand at random and it goes to the graveyard, better yet if it's a monster than the equivalent of that monster's level times a hundred gets taken out of your life-points."

"Okay, that sounds simple enough." Eddie shrugged before holding out his hand, Lance thought for a minute before pointing at the card on the far right and Thestalos threw a fireball at it burning Eddie. "I'm guessing I chose well?"

"Yeah, it was another copy of Vice Dragon." Eddie informed him as his sent the monster to the graveyard.

L: 4200

E: 5000

"I'll call it a turn at that." Lance announced and Eddie drew his card.

"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news Lance but the card I just drew his going to destroy your swords." Eddie announced before playing the card. "I summon Breaker the Magic Warrior in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the sword wielding magician appeared on the field (4/1600/1000) and Breaker's attack increased to 1900 due to its effect. "Now I activate his effect which lets me….."

"Two things Eddie, Number 1 I've seen Chloe use that card more than enough times to know it's effect like the back of my hand." Lance said as he activated his long forgotten about trap. "Second I activate my trap card Divine Wrath, all I need to do is discard one card from my hand but in exchange I can negate the effect off and destroy Breaker!" Eddie's eyes widened as he watched his monster being consumed by a divine light as he leapt towards the Sword's hologram destroying it. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer before attacking."

"Well played." Eddie complemented him as both duelists sent their respective cards to the graveyard. "Well not much I can do otherwise so it's your move." Eddie announced as the second sword disappeared and Lance drew his card.

"Ah good, I was hoping I'd draw this card!" Lance said before summoning the card. "I summon Royal Firestorm Guard in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a strange red demon appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "This card has a pretty useful effect for Fire decks like mine, when he's normal summoned I can select four pyro type monsters in my graveyard and return them to my deck, once I shuffle it I can draw two cards." Lance explained as he selected the four cards, returned them to his deck and drew two cards after shuffling the deck.

"If you think that card can help you then by all means activate its effect." Eddie said before frowning. _"All though, if he draws another Lightning Vortex I'll be in trouble."_ Eddie thought as Lance looked over his two new cards.

"I set the two cards I just drew facedown and call it a turn." Lance set the two cards down and Eddie drew his card.

"_Well, I guess now's as good a time as any to activate this card." _Eddie thought before activating a card. "I activate Mind Trust, all I need to do is sacrifice one Level 2 or higher monster on my side of the field and in exchange I can return a tuner monster whose level is lower or equal to that monster's level from my graveyard to my hand."

"Wait what? You're offering Strong Wind Dragon?" Lance asked confused as Eddie played the card, Strong Wind Dragon vanished from the field, once that happened he took the monster his discarded for Cards of Consonance from his graveyard and added it to his hand.

"Don't get me wrong, Strong Wind Dragon packs a punch but I have better monsters in my extra deck." Eddie said simply before sending Mind Trust and Strong Wind Dragon to the graveyard and retrieving the tuner monster he sent to the graveyard for Cards of Consonance. _"It's not like I only have one copy of Strong Wind anyway." _Eddie thought before looking at the rest of his hand. "Next I discard one card from my hand in order to special summon The Tricky in attack mode!" Eddied discarded another copy of Mind Trust and played the card, in the place of Strong Wind Dragon stood a man in a grey bodysuit with large red question marks on his face and chest who was wearing a purple cloak (5/2000/1200).

"Talk about a serious downgrade." Lance said as he folded his arms. "My monarch could beat that thing easily." Lance said with a grin. "Off course you could be using it for a Synchro Summon in which case I would be…oh crap."

"You got it, but before I do anything else I activate my trap card DNA Surgery!" Eddie flipped his trap up and the three monsters on the field started glowing. "I'm sure you know how this works, all I need to do is declare one monster type and every monster on the field becomes that type and in this case the type I'm declaring is Dragon!" The three monsters stopped glowing only to have taken on dragon versions of them, the Trick's head question mark was now on the end of its snout but besides those two changes the monster didn't change much. "As for why I did that, simple the monster I'm about to Synchro Summon requires the non-tuner monster to be a dragon type."

"I'm in trouble aren't I?" Lance asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his forehead.

"You could say that, for my normal summon I summon the Tuner Monster Dragunity Phalanx!" Eddie played the card and a small black dragon appeared on the field (2/500/1100). "Now I tune Phalanx with The Tricky to Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the two monsters vanished, in The Tricky's place stood the mighty dragon from Eddie's last duel (7/2400/1600).

"Thanks for that, I activate Tuner Capture!" Lance activated his trap and grinned. "I saw you use Synchros in your last match so I figured this would be a good card to have, basically with this trap I can special summon a Tuner Monster that was used in Exploder Dragonwing's summon!" Lance explained and Eddie tossed him Phalanx, Lance wasted no time in summoning it and the monster appeared on the field.

"Nice move, obviously I can't attack for another turn for I call it a turn at that." Eddie announced and as the final sword disappeared Lance drew his card.

"All right it's time I made my comeback, I tune Phalanx with Royal Firestorm Guard to Synchro Summon the mighty Flamvell Uruquizes!" Lance played the card and the two monsters vanished, once Lance tossed Phalanx back at Eddie who winced as his lifepoints dropped to 4500 due to Backfire's effect monster appeared in Royal Firestorm Guard's place, it was a man in black armor with long blue hair in a ponytail who had flaming fists (6/2100/600) but once it was on the field it morphed into what could only be described as a dragon version of the monster.

"You put all that effort for a monster that can't hope to stand up to Dragonwing? Using Tuner Capture to set up a Synchro Summon was clever but if that's all you've got then this will be an easier match than I thought." Eddie said dismissively once he saw the monsters stats, Lance just grinned as he held up the card he had drawn.

"Aren't you curious about the card I just drew?" Lance asked and Eddie raised an eyebrow, Lance turned it around revealing it to be Block Attack and Eddie's eyes widened when he saw it. "This card is an oldie but a goodie, why? Well it's because of the fact that with it I can force a monster on your side of the field into defense mode!" Lance played the card and as much as Exploder Dragonwing struggled it eventually crouched down. "Best part is? When Uruquizas attacks a monster in defense mode the difference between his attack points and his victim's defense points comes out of your life-points." Lance added before pointing to his monster. "Uruquizas, attack Exploder Dragonwing now!" Lance commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Dragonwing…only for the fire to be beaten back by a beat from Exploder Dragonwing's wings that sent the monster flying out of the arena. "What the hell?"

"Heh, sorry but I never did get around to explaining Dragonwing's effect during my last duel, basically if it does battle with a monster who's attack points are equal to or lower than his that monster's immediately destroyed and his attack comes out of your lifepoints!" Lance's eyes widened as he heard that before he looked down at his life-points, as he did Eddie winced as he was burnt by Backfire's effect again.

L: 2100

E: 4000

"Best part is? You can't attack with Thestalos because that would be suicide on your part!" Eddie added with a grin as Lance sent his monster to the graveyard.

"Well I always wanted to go out with a bang." Lance said causing Eddie to look at him funny. "You know what else? I'll be using Uruquizas to do it!"

"Your making no sense, you know that right?" Eddie pointed out clearly confused by his declaration; Lance said nothing and quickly activated his remaining trap. "Descending Lost Star?"

"That's right, and a Synchro monster user like you should know what it does like the back of your hand." Lance said as he folded his arms.

"Yeah, it lets you Special Summon a Synchro Monster from your graveyard in defense mode but in return its effect is negated, its level is reduced to 1 and his defense points become zero!" Eddie said as Lance retrieved the card from his graveyard and played it, Uruquizas quickly returned to its previous position crouching alongside Thestalos and like Eddie said his stats where reduced significantly, Lance picked up another card and set it

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance announced and Eddie drew his card, he looked at it briefly before adding it to his hand and switching Exploder Dragonwing to attack mode.

"Well Lance, it's been fun but your time in the tournament has come to a close, Exploder Dragonwing I command you to end this duel by attacking Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch!" Eddie commanded and the dragon prepared its attack.

"Did you really think I'd go out that easily? I activate my trap card Barrier Wave!" Lance activated the trap and Uruquizas disappeared from the field and a wave of light washed over Eddie's side of the field forcing Dragonwing to crouch down again and Eddie winced as he was burnt by Backfire. "In order to activate this trap card I had to tribute a Synchro monster first so that's why I brought back Uruquizas, it has two effects number 1 it forces all your monsters, or in this case one monster, into defense mode and number 2 the defense points of that monster comes out of your lifepoints!"

"WAIT WHAT?" Eddie yelled out as it dawned on him, the wave of light came back this time striking Eddie in the chest.

L: 2100

E: 1900

"_Hmmm, maybe I should play it safe." _Eddie thought before picking up his newly drawn card and setting it down. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Eddie announced and Lance drew his card, when he saw it he couldn't help but grin.

"_Magic Cylinder, with this I can reflect his inevitable attack from Dragonwing and win the duel!" _Lance thought with a grin before setting the card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance announced and Eddie drew his card.

"Let's try this again!" Eddie said as he switched Exploder Dragonwing to attack mode, the dragon stood up and let out a mighty roar. "Exploder Dragonwing, finish this duel once and for all!" Eddie commanded and Dragonwing took a deep breath.

"Your right, Dragonwing is going to end the duel but not in the way you hoped, I activate my trap card Magic Cylinder!" Lance activated the card and the fire from Dragonwing's attack went into one of the jars that appeared.

"I don't believe it Bob; we may be seeing the end of an era!" Bill yelled as he watched the duel.

"Nice try but I had a feeling you'd try something like that!" Eddie said as he chained it with his own trap card. "I activate Trap Jammer, this can only be activated when my opponent activates a Trap Card during the battle phase and once that happens it negates and destroys the trap card!" Lance's eyes widened as the two cylinders vanished and the fire proceeded towards Thestalos, the Monarch/Dragon tried to respond with an attack of its own but was too slow and was quickly destroyed.

L: 0000

E: 1900

"LANCE LOST?" Mike yelled from the sidelines, he paid no attention to Sophie rubbing her ear in pain. "But…..but he's the best duelist ever! He's unbeatable he's….."

"He's a great duelist who met his match tonight." Lance's stepdad cut him off and Mike turned to him. "Don't worry about your brother Michael, his performance in the tournament will reflect on him well at Duel Academy and that's all that matters." He added and Mike sighed before sitting down, back on the duel podium Lance was gathering up his cards and returning them to his extra deck, or in the case of Uruquizes to the Extra Deck, when Eddie approached him.

"You gave me a hell of a fight there." Eddie complemented him and Lance looked up. "Keep it up and you may just beat me someday."

"Yeah, maybe I will someday." Lance muttered clearly disappointed by his loss, once he finished returning his cards to his deck he looked up and too his surprise saw Eddie offering him a handshake, Lance hesitated at first before accepting the handshake.

"What a show of sportsmanship between two great duelists after such a close match!" Bill said ignoring the fact that the crowd's booing was getting louder. "Regardless Eddie joins Chloe Richardson, Axel Loather, Otto Freshier and Theresa Daniels in the third round!" Bill added before the screen switched off, Eddie hopped off the duel arena first followed by Lance and Kaiba came out of his office.

"I'm sure many of you are wondering how the third round will be done as there isn't enough duelists for five matches." Kaiba started and all eyes turned to him. "The answer to that is simple, for starters the duel will be held at another, much larger location at the other end of the city, as for the duel it's self it will be a five person elimination battle royal, you are eliminated from this battle royal if your life-points hit zero, you run out of cards or you choose to surrender the duel but just because you lose this duel doesn't mean you're out of the tournament, quite the contrary as the order of elimination will decide the fourth round matches and the last duelist standing will go straight to the final round." Kaiba announced and the announcement caused some excited whisperings between the audience members who weren't boing Lance, as small an amount as it was. "The location of the duel, and by extension the rest of the tournament, will be announced on the news and e-mailed to the duelists who have advanced this far, to the rest of you, better luck next time." Kaiba said before turning around…..but stopped when he saw Eddie there.

"Tyler let me into your office." Eddie said sensing his impending question. "With your permission I would like to address the crowd."

"If you insist, by all means but in the meantime I'll have a word with Tyler about letting people into my office without my permission." Kaiba said before handing Eddie the mic and walking past him, the crowd cheered upon seeing the champ.

"Are you enjoying the Semi-Finals so far?" Eddie asked and the crowd cheered in response, he frowned before putting the mic to his lips. "Are you really? Then why are you boing Lance Alvers? Is it because he's a Duel Academy student like Otto Freshier?" Eddie asked and the crowd fell silent. "Just as I thought, he almost beat me in that duel, in fact if I hadn't drawn Trap Jammer then I would no longer be the champ and yet you boo him because he goes to the same school as Otto? Then you may as well boo me as well because I am a former Duel Academy student!" Eddie said before pausing, the audience seemed to be regretting their decision to boo Lance at this point and Eddie smiled. "Thanks for your time." Eddie said before heading into the office.

"_Did…..did he just defend me?" _Lance thought as he looked around the crowd. _"Not only that but it worked!" _Lance thought as Eddie approached him. "Hey, thanks for that." Lance said as he turned to him. "Not every day that someone does something so nice for me."

"Don't sweat it, so what's your plan now?" Eddie asked and Lance scratched his chin.

"I'm going down to the hospital so I can see how Kimberly's doing." Lance said after a few moments and Eddie nodded in understanding.

"Want me to drive you there?" Eddie asked and Lance nodded without hesitation, Eddie motioned for him to follow him and Lance did so.

*meanwhile at the hospital*

"Looks like your dorms the first to be eliminated Jeff." Hamden commented as he closed the laptop lid. "And you were going on and on about how me and Maria's dorm would be the first to be eliminated." He added and Jeff smirked.

"That was only because Chloe's the only Osiris Red student among the students competing." Jeff said before turning to Chloe and Theresa, Chloe was clearly worried about having to face four far more experienced duelists than her at the same time. "Are you girls going to be okay in this match?"

"I will be, Chloe I'm not so sure about." Theresa said as she folded her arms. "And then there's Otto, what if he decides to activate the Seal during the match?"

"Otto's not that stupid." Brandon pointed out with a frown. "If he activates the Seal then the other duelists will gang up on him leading to him being trapped in the Orichalcos."

"Not that it matters, I know who I'll be targeting anyway." Chloe spoke up and the other duelists turned their attention to her, it didn't take them long to figure out who she was talking about. "Don't try to change my mind Theresa, I want to be the one who takes out Otto and nothing you can say will change my mind."

"Trust me, when my daughter sets her mind on something nothing will stop her from doing it." Scott chimed in with a smile however he frowned as he got ready to say the next part. "Be careful Chloe, we both know how dangerous Otto is."

"I will, thanks dad." Chloe said with a nod before standing up. "I'm heading out for some fresh air." Chloe told the others before making her way out of the hospital; she glanced around once she was outside and leaned against the wall.

"_If I'm going to beat Otto then my deck will need to be at its best." _Chloe thought before getting her deck out of her duel disk. _"Didn't Theresa mention that her first duel was outside a card shop? Maybe she can show me where it is."_

"Chloe Richardson? Holy crap it's been a while!" Chloe's train of thought was interrupted by a male voice and she looked up, the source of the voice was a man in his early twenties, maybe late teens, with scruffy dirty blonde hair and blue eyes who was wearing a brown t-shirt, blue jeans and black boots, Chloe blinked before returning her deck to her duel disk.

"Sorry but do I know you?" Chloe asked and the youth face-faulted.

"Heh, guess it has been a while." The youth said as he got to his feet. "Jared Malloy, we used to live in the same orphanage way back when?" Jared asked trying to jog her memory, Chloe blinked before it came back to her.

"Ah yeah, I remember now." Chloe said with a small smile. "Weren't you the kid whose parents were serving life sentences?"

"Yeah that's me, good to see your doing well for yourself." Jared said with a friendly smile. "I was adopted shortly after you where, ironically by the sister of my parent's victims."

"Really? Did they take pity on you or something?" Chloe asked and Jared shrugged his shoulders.

"Wouldn't know, but it's good to see that one duelist from the orphanage is doing well in the tournament." Jared said as he held up his own duel disk. "I lost my first match, thought I could beat the undefeated."

"You mean Axel, right?" Chloe asked and Jared nodded. "You think that's bad? I have to face him as part of that Battle Royal tomorrow."

"Yeah but at least you won't be out of the tournament if you lose." Jared pointed out, the two former orphans heard the automatic doors that lead to the inside of the hospital open but didn't pay any attention thinking that it was a hospital employee going for a smoke or something. "So have you visited the orphanage since coming back to New York?" Jared asked and Chloe shook her head.

"No, I haven't really." Chloe sighed as she looked off to the side. "I haven't had the time what with the tournament and all; I do hope to visit it once the tournament's over though." Chloe added before turning to Jared. "How's the old place holding up?"

"Great, the place had been completely renovated from what I remember off it." Jared said with a small smile. "According to Mrs. Whitaker they had received a large donation a few months ago from a generous CEO and the money went towards improving the building, I think his name was Roman Thomas."

"_Thomas? Isn't that Brandon's surname?" _Chloe thought before noticing a familiar face behind Jared. "Oh hi Theresa, what's up?" Jared turned around and saw Theresa there.

"Just wondering what was taking you so long." Theresa shrugged before turning her attention to Jared. "Is he a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, we know each other from the orphanage." Chloe explained and Jared grinned before turning to Theresa.

"Name's Jared Malloy, Theresa was it?" Jared introduced himself and Theresa nodded. "I saw your Semi-Finals duels; you're a lot prettier in person." Jared complemented her.

"You know else I am? I'm the girlfriend of my last opponent." Theresa said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head and Jared put his hands up defensively.

"Hey relax, I was just complementing you." Jared said laughing nervously as he did however as he held his hands up he noticed the time on his watch. "I gotta go, my parents are waiting for me." Jared said before leaving the two girl's company, Theresa stepped aside to let him past. "Good luck in the rest of the tournament." Jared called after them as he disappeared around a corner.

"Surprised you remember someone from the orphanage." Theresa commented and Chloe shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Eh, I didn't recognize him at first but I did after he mentioned his name." Chloe said honestly before sighing. "Truth is though that I'm nervous about tomorrow's match."

"So am I believe it or not." Theresa admitted and Chloe looked at the older duelist strangely. "Not about my opponents mind you, I like a good challenge after all, but more to do with whom I might face in the fourth round."

"Yeah, Axel's definitely earned his title as Germany's National Champion and Eddie…..well I'm pretty sure I don't have to explain myself there." Chloe agreed before looking at her deck. "Theresa, didn't you mention that your first duel was outside a Card Shop?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Theresa asked and Chloe grinned sheepishly.

"Could you show me where it is when you have time? I want to update my deck for the following rounds." Chloe asked and Theresa nodded.

"Sure, I was thinking of doing the same thing for one of my decks anyway." Theresa admitted before motioning for her to follow her inside. "Come on, it is getting pretty cold out." Theresa said and Chloe followed her in, unbeknownst to them Jarred was watching the conversation from the corner he had disappeared behind.

"_Man, he's going to be pissed when he finds out I screwed up." _Jarred thought before turning around…..and nearly jumping out of his skin when he saw Otto there. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"Never mind that, do you have it?" Otto asked and Jarred shook his head.

"No, Theresa joined in the conversation before I could ask her if I could look over her deck." Jarred admitted and Otto growled before storming off. "Hey where's my payment man?" Otto stopped in his tracks and turned around.

"I offered to give you a rare card in exchange for getting me Richardson's deck, you failed in that task and you should be lucky that I'm letting you live!" Otto spat at him before storming off. _"Looks like I'll have to resort to drastic measures to get my hands on that Osiris Red Bitch's deck, oh well as the old saying goes if you want something done right do it yourself." _Otto thought before walking off.


	35. Battle Royal Madness

It was the day after Lance's duel with Eddie (not to mention the second round in general) and the duel academy students where waking up in their hotel room waiting for news on the location of the rest of the Semi-Finals, Tyler had told the teachers to expect an e-mail since the students hadn't included e-mail addresses in their application forms.

Chloe yawned as she straightened her hair in front of a mirror, she hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night due to her nervousness regarding the Battle Royal later on, Kimberly was still at the hospital and she was expected to be out of the hospital in time for the finals, the last time she checked Andreas had been moved their an hour after the conclusion of the duel between Eddie and Lance since they could look after him better than the medical ward at the Duel Dome could.

"Good morning Chloe." Theresa said as she left her room, her hair wasn't in a ponytail and Chloe assumed that she hadn't gotten around to it yet; regardless Chloe glanced over her shoulder and smiled.

"Morning, has there been any news from Hamden yet?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head in response.

"Is that considering that he's likely only just woken up?" Theresa asked and Chloe blushed realizing she had a point. "You ready for the match later?"

"As ready as the only rookie in the match can be." Chloe said with a sigh before setting down the hairbrush and turning to Theresa. "What about you?"

"I'm ready, I've chosen my deck for the duel and I'm ready for whatever they throw at me, you included." Theresa said before momentarily glancing towards what was Kimberly's room.

"Expecting her to come out of the room huh?" Chloe asked once she noticed the direction that Theresa was looking in, Theresa nodded sadly and Chloe smiled. "On the Brightside at least her soul's not trapped in the Orichalcos like Andreas."

"Yeah that's true." Theresa agreed before frowning. "Chloe I know what your dad said about how stubborn you can be but I'm asking just so I'm clear on the subject, are you certain you want to face Otto in the next round?" Theresa asked and Chloe frowned, part of her expected the question from the older duelist but still her mind was deadest on the idea.

"As certain as I'll ever be." Chloe said plainly and Theresa nodded.

"Well I can see that there's no way I'm changing your mind on the subject so just be careful if that match does happen okay?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded, before either of them could say anything else there was a knock at the door.

"Girls it's me, can I come in?" Hamden's voice rang out, Theresa answered by approaching the door and letting him in. "Kaiba just e-mailed me the location of the next few duels; we'll be heading over there after breakfast."

"Whereabouts is it? Is it another Kaiba dome?" Chloe asked and Hamden shook his head in response to her questions.

"You'll see when we get there, in the meantime we'll be going down for breakfast in five minutes, I'd say be ready by then but I can see that you've beaten me to it." Hamden said before leaving the room. Theresa started tying her hair up and turned to Chloe.

"If you want to wait for me outside knock yourself out." Theresa said as she grabbed her hairband. "My hair has a nasty tendency to be incredibly stubborn in morning so I'll be a few minutes."

"Sure, I'll wait outside." Chloe said before she headed out of the room, Lance had just come out of his room and she smiled. "Morning Lance, disappointed that you're not joining me and Theresa in the Battle Royal?" Chloe asked and Lance looked up.

"A bit, though I'm just glad that I don't have to face Axel or Theresa." Lance said earning himself a mock glare from Chloe. "You too, but I'd have an easier time beating you…..err no offense." Lance added quickly and Chloe smirked.

"No offense taken." Chloe answered before running a hand through her hair. "Though I am worried about whom I'll possibly face in the tournament."

"You'll do fine, just because you're a rookie and an Osiris Red student in a duel full of veterans and Obelisk Blue students doesn't mean you'll…..I'm not helping aren't I?" Lance asked ad a progressively bigger sweatdrop rolled down Chloe's head with each word.

"No, you're really not." Chloe said clearly annoyed at her friend's general lack of help. "I'm guessing you'll be joining Marcus and the teachers in the audience?"

"Yeah and so will Brandon, Kimberly would join us but…well you know." Lance trailed off and Chloe nodded quickly getting the idea. "Hamden plans on watching the duel from the hospital like you guys did with my duel yesterday." Lance added.

"Yeah, I figured Kimberly could use the company." Hamden added making Lance jump. "The others are waiting for you guys, where's Theresa?" Hamden asked just as Theresa emerged from her room with her hair tied up in a ponytail.

"Over here teach, and ready to duel." Theresa said holding up her duel disk proudly.

"Good to know, shall we get going?" Hamden asked before leading the three teens out of the duel academy student's little corner of the hotel.

*elsewhere*

Otto was already at the next location of the Semi-Finals and he had to give Kaiba credit, when he held tournaments he knew how to end them with a bang, how did he know this? The stadium was indeed much larger than the duel dome the first two rounds had been held in but it was also much more famous, namely the world famous Madison Square Garden which was making him wonder why he didn't just hold the Semi-Finals there.

"_Then again it IS Kaiba I'm talking about." _Otto thought as he strolled through the arena with his hands in his jacket pockets. _"He always has to flaunt his ego whenever Kaibacorp holds an event such as this and what better way to do it then to hold the first two rounds at one of his personal duel arenas?" _Otto thought as he glanced around.

"Hey, how the hell did you get in here?" Otto's train of thought was interrupted when the voice of a security guard rang out; he turned around and adjusted his glasses.

"Relax; I am one of the participants in the Battle City tournament." Otto said coolly whilst still wearing an arrogant smirk.

"I'll need to see your duelist number to confirm this." The guard responded and Otto reached into his pocket and produced his duel number. "Give me a moment to confirm with my supervisor please." The guard added before putting a hand to his earpiece. "Hey Steve it me, can you confirm the identity of a duelist for me and whether or not he's been eliminated?"

"What's his duelist number?" The guard on the other end asked.

"His duelist number is 7." The guard responded and after a few moments he got a response.

"Yeah, he's competing all right." The guard responded. "Otto Freshier, he's a Machine Deck user who's been flagged as a troublemaker due to issues arising from his last two duels."

"What kind of issues?" The guard asked, Otto didn't pay attention to the next part partly because he knew what the guard's supervisor would respond with, the other reason? He found the fact that he had been flagged as a troublemaker amusing to say the least.

"_So Kaiba thinks that using the Orichalcos on my weakling brother and turning the safeties on my duel disk off are reasons to flag me as a troublemaker?" _Otto thought with a chuckle as he saw the expression on the guard's face darken. _"Just wait until he sees what I have in store for that Osiris Red Bitch in the next round."_ Otto thought as the guard turned his attention to him.

"So you like hurting your opponents in duels eh Otto?" The guard asked with a frown, Otto scoffed and shrugged his shoulders.

"They were hardly opponents, merely weaklings!" Otto said with nothing but contempt in his voice, the guard's frown deepened when he heard that statement.

"Whatever kid, competing duelists get their own locker room and I've been instructed to take you there so if you'll follow me." The guard said before turning his back on the teen and Otto followed him somewhat reluctantly. _"Based on that statement alone I should be leading him to his own jail cell." _The guard thought but any further thought was interrupted by a voice on his Comm. Channel.

"Hey Ed, the Duel Academy students have arrived." One of the guards who were guarding the entrance commented. "I'm sending the females to their locker rooms and the others, teachers included, to their audience seats."

"Roger that." Ed responded before glancing over at Otto. "It seems your classmates have arrived."

"I heard." Otto said plainly as he followed Ed to the locker room. "_Excellent, once the Battle Royal is over and I ensure that I face the Osiris Red bitch my plan will be set into motion." _Otto thought with a grin.

*elsewhere*

"So you girls ready for your big match?" The guard asked as he led Theresa and Chloe to their locker room, when he didn't get an answer he glanced over his shoulder and saw Chloe looking around the stadium in awe and chuckled. "Is it first time in Madison Square Garden kid?"

"Yeah, I'm from New York but I've never been here before." Chloe said turning her attention to the guard. _"All though I'd rather keep the details of my life here to myself."_ Chloe thought before deciding to change the subject. "As for the match I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Chloe responded and the guard smiled at that.

"Yeah should be a great match." The guard agreed before turning to Theresa. "What about you?"

"What she said." Theresa said plainly mostly because her attention was focused elsewhere. _"I know Chloe's deadest on facing Otto but the others may gang up on her due to her inexperience, good thing my Kaiba deck will help protect her with the modifications I made." _Theresa thought before turning to the guard. "What time does the match start?" Theresa asked and the guard checked his watch.

"By my clock it'll start in five minutes." The guard responded before stopping in front of a pair of doors. "Theresa this is your room, Chloe your room is right next to it." The guard said as he pointed to the two doors, Theresa opened hers first and swiftly entered; Chloe went to open her door when she saw a familiar face further down the hallway.

"_Otto, great just great but at least his locker room's further down the hallway." _Chloe thought as she glared at the German student, Otto spotted her and returned the glare with a smirk followed by him making a slit throat motion with his thumb.

"_Just ignore him Chloe and go into the room, you can deal with him later."_ A much older feminine voice rang out and Chloe looked around but saw no one.

"Is there something wrong kid?" The guard asked and she turned her attention to him.

"It…..it's nothing I just thought I heard someone." Chloe shrugged and the guard looked at her oddly.

"Kid I've been standing beside you this whole time and I didn't hear anything." The guard pointed out and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"_Think Chloe think, preferably before he has you dragged off to a mental asylum!"_ Chloe thought before rubbing the back of her head nervously. "Must be my nerves heading into the match." Chloe said quickly before opening the door to her locker room and entering it, she closed the door behind her and sighed. _"Okay Ms.…Voice in my head….what was that about?"_

"_What was what about?" _The voice rang out again and Chloe messaged her forehead.

"_You know what I'm talking about! You made me seem crazy for a second there!"_ Chloe responded as she took a seat, the locker room was fairly small with lockers (as the name suggested) and to her surprise a desktop computer which was prepped up on a desk with what looked like an internet modem. _"Then again what do I know about tech? I know nothing besides using my duel disk." _Chloe thought.

"_Oh sorry about that, I was just giving you advice." _The voice rang out again and Chloe facepalmed.

"I'm taking advice from a voice in my head, maybe I am going insane." Chloe muttered under her breath with a moan.

"_You will understand in due time Chloe." _The voice rang out, before Chloe could respond there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Chloe shouted as she rested her arms on her legs. _"You're not going to make me look insane again are you?"_

"_No, I will not." _The voice rang out again as Theresa entered the room.

"Hey Chloe, are you ready for the match?" Theresa asked as she entered the room, Chloe looked up at the older student uncertainly.

"Err, yeah I think so." Chloe said rubbing the back of her head nervously. "Why? Have the others arrived?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded.

"Yeah, Axel and Eddie just showed up." Theresa said before raising an eyebrow. "You okay? You seem frustrated."

"It's nothing, just nerves." Chloe shrugged her shoulders. "Hell I'm so nervous I thought I heard some old lady telling me to ignore Otto."

"_I'm not that old!" _The voice rang out but Chloe ignored it.

"Yeah that is pretty nervous." Theresa agreed with a small smile; however the smile quickly disappeared when Theresa realized who Chloe was referring too. "I'm guessing by that you mean Otto's arrived."

"Yeah, I saw him just before I entered my room." Chloe answered with a frown. "Still I should be able to surprise him in our match."

"I'm sure you will." Theresa said just as there was a knock at the door, Theresa opened it and the guard stood there.

"Chloe, Theresa, it's time for the battle royal." The guard said and Chloe stood up and followed Theresa who in turn followed the guard, he led them to the arena where the audience where full of cheering fans and duelists previously eliminated from the tournament and Eddie and Axel where waiting for them at the duel arena, the two boys greeted them with respectful nods when they hopped onto the arena.

"That just leaves Otto." Eddie muttered under his breath as the four duelists took up positions at different corners at the arena, Chloe was standing at the bottom left hand corner, Theresa was standing opposite her at the bottom right hand corner and Eddie and Axel were standing opposite the girls at the top left hand and right hand corners respectively leaving Otto with his own spot facing the entranceway to the arena.

"Here he comes." Chloe said and the other duelists looked in the direction she was looking, sure enough Otto had just entered the arena and had quickly hopped on the duel podium taking up a spot, the five duelists started shuffling their decks ignoring the boos directed at Otto.

"If it's any consolation to my opponents I will not be using the Seal of the Orichalcos in this duel." Otto said as he shuffled his deck, the other duelists looked at him oddly and Otto frowned. "What? You don't believe me?"

"I can't imagine why." Chloe muttered under her breath.

"Here I'll show you." Otto said before reaching into his pocket and producing the infamous card. "The Seal will remain in my pocket until my next duel after the battle royal." Otto said and to illustrate his point he returned the seal to his pocket.

"Fine, you convinced us but that doesn't mean we trust you." Eddie said as he finished shuffling his deck, the other duelists followed suit and drew their hands. "That just leaves one thing and that's who's going first."

"I'll decide that!" Kaiba's voice rang out and the five duelists looked up seeing a blimp with a TV Screen on the side that had Kaiba's face on it. "Welcome duelists young and old to the stage that will play host to the last five matches of the Battle City Tournament, all five of you have come a long way to make it this far but only one will walk out the Battle City champion, as for who's going first you will go first in the numerical order of the numbers you were given at the beginning of the Semi-Finals!" Kaiba said before his face disappeared and was replaced with pictures of the five duelists and their numbers beneath them. "The order in the duel is as follows, Otto Freshier, Theresa Daniels, Axel Loather, the reigning champion Eddie Roberts and the underdog of the Semi-Finals Chloe Richardson!" Kaiba announced before his picture appeared again. "Remember duelists, this match is to determine who gets a free pass to the final round and the fourth round matches which will be held later today, with that said the rules for the match are as follows, the match will proceed in the order I just mentioned but no one can attack a player until all five duelists have gone first, other than that all standard rules apply." Kaiba said as the blimp began to leave. "I'll be watching from my office at Kaibacorp's New York Branch so I had better not see any mercy." Kaiba said and just like that the blimp left the airspace.

"He always has to steal the show doesn't he?" Brandon muttered under his breath as Otto drew his first card.

"Well, I certainly don't want to disappoint Kaiba; I set two cards facedown and summon Proto-Cyber Dragon in attack mode!" Otto played the cards and what could only be described as a smaller, low tech version of Cyber Dragon appeared on the field (3/1100/600) but to the other duelist's surprise the dragon's attack, defense and level increased to (5/2100/1600). "As you can see as long as Proto-Cyber Dragon is on the field its name is treated as Cyber Dragon, and that shall end my turn." Otto announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I set my own two cards facedown." Theresa announced as she set the cards she drew, once that was done she picked up the card that she had just drawn. "And I summon Blindly Loyal Goblin in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and her red goblin appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/1500) and when he saw the stats of the monster Otto scoffed.

"I expected better from you Theresa but alas your pathetic monster can't hope to stand up to mine!" Otto said with a grin, Theresa ignored him and motioned for Axel to take his turn, Axel responded to this by swiftly drawing his card.

"_As much as I hate to agree with Otto he is right." _Axel thought as his eyes darted towards Theresa's goblin. _"Theresa's monster is formidable but it won't stand a chance against his machine." _Otto thought before looking at his hand. "I activate the Spell Card Gladiator Beast's Respite; now by shuffling a single Gladiator Beast monster into my deck this Spell Card will allow me to draw three cards from my deck." Axel announced as he returned a monster to his deck, shuffled it and drew three cards. "I set three cards facedown and summon Gladiator Beast Andal in attack mode!" Axel played the cards and the one eyed humanoid bear appeared on the field (4/1900/1500). "It's your move Eddie."

"Right, here goes something!" Eddie announced as he drew his card, he frowned when he looked at his hand. _"All I have is a bunch of tuners and no regular monsters; this leaves me at a disadvantage." _Eddie thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate the Spell Card Cards of Consonance; so long as I discard one weak Dragon Type Tuner this Spell Card will allow me to draw two cards." Eddie discarded one of his monsters and drew two cards. _"This is more like it!"_ Eddie thought before playing the card. "Since you guys have monsters on your side of the field and I don't I can special summon Vice Dragon from my hand, however as a cost I gotta cut his attack and defense points in half." Eddie played the card and the ugly purple dragon from his last duel appeared on the field (5/1000/1200). "Don't get too attached to him though as for my normal summon I'm bringing out the tuner monster Dread Dragon in attack mode!"

"_He's not wasting time with his Synchros."_ Theresa thought as a small strange looking red dragon appeared on the field (2/1100/400).

"Now I tune Dread Dragon with Vice Dragon so I can Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing!" Eddie played the card and the two monsters vanished, in the place of Vice Dragon stood the mighty dragon from Eddie's previous duel (7/2400/1600).

"As if we're stupid enough to try to destroy that thing after seeing what it did to Lance's defenses?" Otto scoffed just as Theresa activated a card.

"We won't need to, I counter Exploder Dragonwing's summon with my trap card….." Theresa started but was stopped when Chloe made a move.

"Not so fast Theresa, since Eddie was kind enough to Special Summon his dragon I can Special Summon Extra Veiler in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a man in a matador costume appeared on her side of the field, he was carrying a sword and a red cape which, funnily enough, had the imprint of a bull's head on it (2/600/200).

"_What's she thinking? That monster's easily the weakest on the field." _Theresa thought before she activated her trap. "As I was saying I activate Compulsory Evacuation Device to bounce Exploder Dragonwing back to Eddie's Extra Deck!" Theresa activated her trap and just like she said Exploder Dragonwing was sent flying into the air and out of the stadium.

"_Damn, now all I have is my traps to defend me."_ Eddie thought with a frown. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Eddie set the two cards down and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, I should be all set should either of these guys play a card that deals damage to my lifepoints." _ Chloe thought as she looked over her hand and her new card.

"_Chloe, switch Extra Veiler to defense mode and set the trap you just drew." _Chloe nearly jumped out of her skin when the voice rang out again earning her odd looks from the older duelists.

"_You couldn't choose a better time to give me advice?" _Chloe responded mentally as she looked at the card in question. _"Who are you anyway?"_

"_That's not important right now." _The voice responded, she waited a few minutes but when no further advice came from her advisor she looked at her trap.

"_Hmm, maybe she has a point." _Chloe thought as her eyes rested on the trap card in question. _"I can't believe I'm actually considering taking the advice of a voice in my head."_

"SOMETIME TODAY PLEASE!" Chloe's train of thought was interrupted by Otto's impatient yell and she sweat-dropped.

"Sorry, just strategizing." Chloe said before switching the position of her monster. "I switch Extra Veilor to defense mode and I set a card facedown that ends my turn." Chloe announced as she set the card, the matador knelt down holding his sword defensively.

"_What does she know about strategy?"_ Otto thought with a scoff as he drew his card. _"I know what that card does and she obviously doesn't know its side effect." _Otto thought before looking at his drawn card. "Proto Cyber Dragon, wipe out that pathetic spellcaster!" The mechanical dragon powered up its laser and Chloe prepared to activate her previously set trap….

"I activate my Trap Card Regulation of Tribe!" Theresa activated her remaining trap to the surprise of both Otto and Chloe and chains sprung for ensnaring Proto-Cyber Dragon. "How it works is simple, I declare a monster type and as long as my trap remains on the field that type can't attack, as you can tell I'm choosing Machine!"

"_Drat, she just crippled my deck." _Otto thought with a growl, however before either duelist could say anything Axel activated one of his traps.

"My apologies Chloe but I chain Regulation of Tribe with my trap card Parry!" Axel activated the card and Andal charged towards the chains and cut them apart with his sword before disappearing from the field. "In exchange for returning Andal to my deck my trap card negates the activation of and destroys Regulation of Tribe."

"And that leaves me free to attack! Proto-Cyber Dragon I command you to wipe out her pathetic defenses!" Otto commanded and now that it was free from the chain the machine fired up its attack again…

"I was going to activate this sooner but now that Theresa's trap has lured you into activating your trap Axel I'm free to do so!" Chloe said as she activated her trap. "Go Chaos Burst!"

"You're activating WHAT?" Otto yelled as his eyes widened.

"That's right, all I need to do is tribute Extra Veilor and Proto-Cyber Dragon is history!" Chloe announced as Extra Veilor suddenly stood up and bum rushed Proto-Cyber Dragon, it leaped into the air and stabbed the machine in the neck, it let out what sounded like a mechanical howl of pain before swatting away Extra Veilor and vaporizing the Matador with its laser blast, the dragon collapsed soon after disintegrating before a shocked Otto's eyes. "Oh and there's more where that came from, once the attacking monster is destroyed Chaos Burst inflicts 1000 points of damage to your life-points!" Otto's eyes widened when he heard that as the Matador's sword reappeared on the field….

"I'm afraid not Chloe!" Eddie intervened by activating one of his facedown cards. "I activate Spell of Pain, normally this would only work if I was the target but since this is a multiperson match I can use it now and with it I can redirect the damage to you!" Chloe's eyes widened when the sword turned its attention back to Chloe, Chloe quickly glanced over her hand looking for a way to prevent it, she was unable too however and the sword grazed her shoulder.

C: 7000

O: 8000

A: 8000

T: 8000

E: 8000

"What the hell are you doing? Are you siding with Otto?" Chloe accused the two male duelists once she sent her trap to the graveyard.

"We are not siding with anyone." Axel said with a frown on his face. "In this duel its survival of the fittest and that means the weakest duelist is the first to go."

"And as much as I like you Chloe, the weakest duelist is you." Eddie added with a frown on his face before turning to Theresa. "No offense Theresa but you need to realize that and stop defending her."

"Not in this life-time." Theresa said defiantly before turning her attention to Otto. "Are you done?" Theresa asked and Otto, who was overjoyed at this revelation, looked over his hand.

"I set a monster in defense mode, now I am done." Otto said and Theresa drew her card. _"This is too perfect, with Axel and Eddie teaming up with me against Chloe that Osiris Red Bitch's life-points will be mine for the taking."_

"Okay, that was just fucking harsh!" Lance yelled obviously enraged at this revelation. "I know this duel is merely to determine the next round matches but seriously? Ganging up on Chloe?"

"I don't like it either Lance but at least Chloe has Theresa protecting her for the time being." Brandon said with a frown.

"I don't know guys, personally if I was in this match I'd focus on Chloe as well." Marcus said plainly….only to find himself on the receiving end of a painful headlock from Lance.

"Care to repeat that?" Lance growled as storm clouds started forming above his head.

"Hey…hey just hear me out okay!" Marcus pleaded with him and Lance reluctantly let go of the headlock. "Okay, we all know how fragile Chloe's self-esteem is, especially after the duel we had against her dad if you can call him that, but do you really think Theresa protecting her will help Chloe's self-esteem issues in any way?"

"I see where Marcus is coming from." Jeff said as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Chloe's definitely come a long way and her usage of that trap card was great even if it left her open to an attack, and you just know she'll be at Axel's mercy once his turn begins, but if Chloe has any sense she'll ask Theresa to stop babysitting her."

"Don't get me wrong, she made a good move." Marcus added before folding his arms. "But I think Eddie realizes it as well, his statement to Theresa wasn't about making the duel easier for him it was about what's best for Chloe."

"_Great, Chloe's move left her defenseless which wouldn't be a problem if her move hadn't backfired big time."_ Theresa thought before looking at her newly drawn card. _"Maybe this can help though." _Theresa thought before playing a spell card. "I activate the spell card Exchange; this lets me trade a card with one of my opponents."

"Well since you put it that way." Otto said holding out his hand. "If you must know my hand is quite excellent and can only help you." Otto said but Theresa shook her head.

"Not what I had in mind Otto, and to be blunt you're the last person on earth I'd want to trade cards with." Theresa said and Otto frowned before Axel started walking towards her. "I'm not trading with you either Axel." Theresa said and Axel nodded before walking back.

"Your loss, my hand is very good." Axel said with a shrug as he returned to his spot on the field, Eddie and Chloe looked over their hands and frowned.

"If you want to trade with me knock yourself out, all I've got is low level tuners." Eddie told her and Theresa shook her head. "Wait, you're trading with Chloe?"

"You got it." Theresa said as she walked towards Chloe, Chloe was equally as confused as Eddie was due to how bad her hand was.

"Why? My hand's not very good." Chloe asked confused before showing her hand to Theresa, it consisted off Defender The Magical Knight (4/1600/2000), Magical Marionette (5/2000/1000), Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) and Blade Knight (4/1600/1000).

"Just trust me on this okay?" Theresa said with a reassuring wink before showing Chloe her hand; it consisted off Axe Dragonite (4/2000/1200), the Spell Card Mirage of Nightmare and her newly drawn trap card which quickly caught Chloe's attention.

"_That trap card can help!" _Chloe thought before taking it, Theresa turned her hand around and looked over Chloe's hand before taking Blade Knight.

"Humph, a waste of a good spell card!" Otto scoffed as Theresa made her way back to her side of the field; since Chloe hadn't budged she remained still as she was looking over her new trap card.

"Why don't you look for yourself Otto? I summon the monster Chloe just gave me, Blade Knight, in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the blue armored knight appeared on the field (4/1600/1000). "But before I do anything else I activate Mirage of Nightmare, this spell card lets me draw four cards during Axel's standby phase in exchange for discarding the same amount during my next standby phase." Theresa played the card and the spell card's hologram appeared on the field. "Now Blade Knight, attack Otto's defense monster, Blindly Loyal Goblin attack Otto's life-points directly!" Theresa commanded and the two monsters charged towards Otto, Blade Knight slashed his facedown monster, however it was revealed to be Cyber Phoenix (4/1200/1600) which survived Blade Knight's assault. "Okay so much for that, Blindly Loyal Goblin I command you to attack Cyber Phoenix!" The goblin charged towards the mechanical bird and smashed its club against the bird's head destroying it.

"Whilst we're on the subject of drawing cards since Cyber Phoenix was destroyed I can draw a new card." Otto announced before drawing his card.

"Fine, I end my turn." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card, Mirage of Nightmare's effect activated and Theresa drew four cards without hesitation.

"_Not only did Chloe's move backfire but it left her defenseless, and since she has the least amount of life-points out of all of us it makes sense for me to target her."_ Axel thought before frowning. _"Except for two unknown elements, first that card Chloe got from Theresa, for all I know it could be something like Kuriboh." _Axel thought before turning his attention to Theresa. _"And then there's Theresa's new cards, god only knows what Mirage of Nightmare gave her."_ Axel thought before looking at his hand. "Rather than attack I'll play it safe, I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Axel set the card and once it appeared on the field Eddie drew his card.

"_Great, I drew another tuner." _Eddie thought with a frown. _"All though his effect might come in handy." _Eddie thought before playing the card. "I summon the Tuner Monster Magna Drago in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and a small red dragon appeared on the field (2/1400/800). "Magna Drago, attack Chloe's life-points directly!" The dragon breathed fire at Chloe who braced herself for the attack.

"Blade Knight, block Magna Drago's attack!" Theresa commanded and the knight leaped into the path of the flames, he protected himself from it with his shield before charging at the dragon and slashing it with his sword.

C: 7000

O: 8000

A: 8000

T: 8000

E: 7800

"_She's still protecting Chloe, and I'm still defenseless." _Eddie thought as Blade Knight returned to Theresa's side of the field and Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. _"She'll have to stop protecting her at some point; in the meantime I can use my traps to protect the rest of my life-points." _Eddie thought before looking at the rest of his hand. "It's your turn Chloe!" Eddie announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Mystical Space Typhoon, great I can use this to destroy one of Eddie's or Axel's traps."_ Chloe thought as she looked at her card.

"_I have a better idea."_ The voice rang out and Chloe frowned.

"_The last time I followed your advice it backfired!" _Chloe responded and the voice sighed.

"_Yes, I didn't take into account Eddie or Axel's facedown cards but listen to me." _The voice said sternly and Chloe did so begrudgingly. _"Use it on Theresa's Spell Card."_

"_Huh…hey she's right! Nightmare's side effect won't activate if it's no longer on the field." _Chloe thought before activating her card. "I activate the Spell Card Mystical Space Typhoon!" Chloe played the card and the other duelists braced themselves as a tornado washed over the field. "With this I can destroy one Spell or Trap card you guys control and my card of choice is….Theresa's Mirage of Nightmare Spell Card!" The boy's eyes widened when the tornado changed its course destroying the Spell Card.

"Thanks for that Chloe." Theresa thanked her with a thumbs up; Chloe returned the gesture before picking up a card.

"I'm not done yet, I set a card facedown and I summon Defender the Magical Knight in attack mode!" Chloe set the card she got from Theresa and the magical knight appeared on the field holding his shield out in front of him (4/1600/2000). "Defender, like his pal Break the Magical Warrior, has an effect that centers around the use of Spell Counters, however in this case it lets me protect one Spellcaster type monster from being destroyed in battle as long as it has a counter on him."

"_Hmmm, the card's effect might prove troublesome." _Axel thought with a frown.

"Defender, attack Otto's life-points directly!" Chloe demanded and Defender drew his sword before charging at Otto.

"Aren't you going to help me again?" Otto demanded from Axel and Eddie who shook their heads, Otto growled and turned around….just in time to see Defender's sword slashing him.

C: 7000

O: 6400

A: 8000

T: 8000

E: 7800

"Now I'm going to help you Otto!" Eddie said as he activated his trap. "I activate Begone, Knave!" Eddie activated the card and too Chloe's surprise Defender disappeared from the field. "Now that your monsters dealt damage to a player it goes back to your hand and we both know that Defender's effect doesn't protect him from that!"

"_You were saying about having a better idea?" _Chloe scolded the other voice mentally as she looked over the rest of her hand.

"_I may be a Duel Spirit but I'm not psychic!" _The voice responded and Chloe went to end her turn but stopped when she heard the last part.

"_You're a what?" _Chloe asked the other voice or Duel Spirit as she had called herself, and the spirit sighed.

"_I'll explain later." _The voice said before pausing. _"Just end your turn for now."_ The voice added and Chloe nodded.

"That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Otto drew his card angrily, he took one look at his drawn card and smirked.

"Well for starters since Theresa and Axel have monsters and I don't I can summon Cyber Dragon straight from my hand." Otto played the card and the proper version of Cyber Dragon appeared on the field with a mechanical roar (5/2100/1600). "Now I would attack the Osiris Red Bit…."

"Don't even THINK about calling her that." Theresa said as her eyes narrowed, Otto growled before sighing.

"Fine, as I was saying I would attack Chloe's life-points directly but Eddie's trap card would work against me, so instead I activate Cost Down, in exchange for discarding a card from my hand I can reduce the levels of all monsters in my hand by one." Otto played the card and after discarding Biofalcon he picked up a card. "Next I summon a second Cyber Dragon and activate the Spell Card Photon Generator Unit!" Otto played the cards, nearly emptying his hand in the process, and almost as quickly as the second Cyber Dragon appeared the two Cyber Dragons disappeared. "This spell card requires that I tribute two Cyber Dragons but in exchange I can special summon the mighty Cyber Laser Dragon!" Otto retrieved the card from his graveyard and played it, in the place of the first Cyber Dragon stood a massive machine best described as a two headed Cyber Dragon (7/2400/1800). "I end my turn but once you see the true power of my dragon you'll be begging for mercy!" Otto announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_I know what Otto's new monster can do and I know how dangerous it is." _Theresa thought as her eyes narrowed. _"I just hope the others realize this before it's too late!" _Theresa thought before picking up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and switch my monsters to defense mode that ends my turn." Theresa set the three cards and her two monsters knelt down and once that was done Axel drew his card.

"I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon Gladiator Beast Alexander in attack mode." Axel swapped the cards out and the facedown monster disappeared, in its place stood the humanoid muscular lion (6/2400/600).

"_Perfect, Axel may not realize it but by summoning Alexander he's fallen for my trap." _Otto thought as he eyed the Gladiator Beast. _"In all likelihood Axel will target either of Theresa's monsters and chose not to use the tagging out ability of his monsters thinking that it will be beast that he has a monster that can go toe to toe with my dragon, a mistake he'll regret on my next turn."_ Otto thought.

"Alexander, strike down Blindly Loyal Goblin this instant!" Axel commanded and the gladiator beast charged towards the goblin…

"I don't think so, I activate Shift." Theresa activated her card and Alexander stopped in his tracks. "This trap card lets me change your attack target to a monster of my choice, and I'm choosing Cyber Laser Dragon."

"NO!" Otto yelled but it was too late, Alexander changed his course and charged right towards Otto's machine, he decapitated one head with his sword and the remaining head blew a hole right through its chest, both monsters collapsed to the ground seconds later before disintegrating.

"Otto, we're both in Obelisk Blue or did you forget that Cyber Dragons are among the first cards Obelisk Blue Students are taught about?" Theresa pointed out with a frown. "That's why I set those cards down, I know of Cyber Laser Dragons ability to destroy monsters that are either stronger than or just as strong as he is." Theresa added as the three duelists sent their respective cards to the graveyard.

"I see, I guess I should thank you for helping me destroy such a dangerous card." Axel commented before pointing to his facedown card. "But I am far from done, I activate Call of the Haunted and I use it to revive the monster I sacrificed to summon Alexander, Gladiator Beast Laquari!" Axel retrieved the card and once he played it the humanoid tiger appeared on the field (4/1800/400).

"I'm not complaining or anything but why didn't you revive Alexander?" Chloe asked and Axel frowned despite anticipating the question.

"Alexander can only be special summoned by way of a certain Gladiator Beast, and unfortunately that goes for summoning him from the graveyard as well." Axel explained before pointing to Blindly Loyal Goblin. "Gladiator Beast Laquari, finish the job Gladiator Beast Alexander started and strike down Blindly Loyal Goblin now!" Axel commanded and the Gladiator Beast charged towards the goblin.

"_Time I made use of the card Theresa gave me."_ Chloe thought as she went to activate her trap card; however she was caught by surprise when the voice of the spirit rang out again.

"_Chloe, hold off on using that card." _ The spirit told her and Chloe hesitated, in fact she hesitated long enough for Laquari to decapitate Theresa's goblin with his sword.

"_Why the hell did you stop me? I could've saved Theresa's goblin!" _Chloe responded mentally not noticing that her hand was still near the activate trap button on her duel disk.

"_Trust me on this; besides Theresa has better monsters than that Goblin, she'll be fine." _The spirit reassured her, Chloe was about to respond when Theresa clearing her throat caught her attention, Chloe looked up and saw the other duelists looking at her.

"Were you going to activate your card Chloe?" Axel asked and Chloe shook her head trying to think of a possible reason for her hesitation that they would buy.

"Err, yeah I was but I forgot about my trap until Theresa's monster was destroyed." Chloe explained hoping that they brought it; Axel said nothing and retrieved one of his cards from his deck.

"Very well, I return Laquari to my deck and tag him out for Gladiator Beast Beastari!" Axel swapped out the cards and Laquari disappeared from the field, in its place stood the humanoid bird from his previous duels which was ready for battle (4/1500/800). "Now his effect activates, with it I can destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field and seeing as how it's become quite the nuisance already I use it to destroy Begone Knave!" Axel explained as the birdman took flight before charging at the hologram and destroying it.

"_I had a feeling my trap card wouldn't stay on the field for long."_ Eddie thought as he sent his trap to the graveyard. _"Still it served me well so I can't complain really."_

"_Okay, either your psychic or you just got really lucky." _Chloe commented to the duel spirit. _"And come to think of it, are you going to explain to me what exactly duel spirits are?"_

"_In time Chloe, as for your first comment well it was more to do with common sense, would Staunch Defender really help in this situation?" _The spirit asked and Chloe gulped realizing she had a point.

"_That's right, at the time the only monsters on the field were Theresa's goblin, my knight and Axel's Laquari." _Chloe thought with a frown.

"I shall end my turn at that." Axel announced and Eddie drew his card.

"_Perfect."_ Eddie thought before playing the card. "As much as I hate repeating myself I'm using Vice Dragon's effect to special summon him to the field at the cost of half his attack and defense points again." Eddie played the card and the ugly purple dragon reappeared on the field. "Next I summon Dragunity Phalanx in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the small dragon appeared on the field (2/1000/600). "Now I tune my two monsters together to Synchro Summon an old friend of ours, the mighty Exploder Dragonwing!" Eddie swapped out the cards and the two dragons vanished, in Vice Dragon's place stood the mighty dragon from earlier in the duel. "Now for the final piece of my puzzle, my trap card Final Attack Orders!" Eddie flipped the card up and too Theresa's surprise her Blade Knight was forced to his feet. "As long as this trap card is on the field all opposing monsters are forced into attack mode and their positions can't be changed."

"I see, combined with Exploder Dragonwing's special ability that makes for a very lethal combination." Axel commented inadvertently giving Chloe an idea.

"That it will, now Exploder Dragonwing I command you attack Chloe's life-points directly!" Eddie commanded and the dragon prepared to breathe fire at her…

"I activate Waboku and use it to protect Chloe's life points!" Theresa activated her trap and the three priestesses blocked the flames, they were incinerated by them but the flames never got anywhere near Chloe.

"Want to play it like that huh? Fine I end my turn." Eddie announced and Chloe quickly drew her card.

"_Okay, for this to work I'll have to pass my turn, I'll suffer some damage but in the end this move will help me." _Chloe thought before glancing towards Axel. _"I should probably wait until Axel's turn before activating it if I want to deal the most damage." _Chloe thought. "I pass for now." Chloe announced catching the other duelists off guard.

"_Why did she pass? She still has Defender last time I checked."_ Theresa thought as Otto drew his card.

"I activate Pot of Avarice; now by returning five monsters in my graveyard to my deck this Spell Card will allow me to draw two cards." Otto explained before retrieving two of his Cyber Dragons, Cyber Laser Dragon, Cyber Phoenix and Proto Cyber Dragon from his graveyard and returning them to his deck, once that was done he drew two cards. "Next I special summon Cyber Dragon by using his effect!" Otto announced and the mechanical dragon reappeared on the field. "Cyber Dragon, attack Chloe's life-points directly!" Otto commanded and the dragon fired its laser at Chloe who winced as the blast hit her on the chest.

C: 4900

O: 6400

T: 8000

A: 8000

E: 7800

"You okay Chloe?" Theresa asked as the younger duelist regained her footing, once she did she nodded meekly.

"I shall end my turn at that." Otto announced and Theresa drew her card.

"Not much I can do so I summon Axe Dragonite in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the black, axe wielding dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/1200). "I end my turn at that." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card.

"_It's now or never; as soon as Axel attacks I'll spring my trap." _Chloe thought as Axel looked over his hand.

"_Chloe, wait….." _The spirit's voice started but was cut off by Chloe mentally.

"_No, the last few times I listened to your advice it backfired majorly." _Chloe responded mentally as her eyes narrowed.

"I summon Gladiator Beast Darius in attack mode!" Axel played the card and the humanoid horse in red armor appeared on the field (4/1800/500). "Darius, attack Chloe's life-points directly!" Axel commanded and the horse charged towards Chloe…..

"That's just what I was hoping for!" Chloe said as she activated her trap. "I activate Staunch Defender, this trap card forces all monsters on the field to attack a target of my choice and my target is…." Chloe stretched out her arm and pointed towards Exploder Dragonwing…..

"But that means…." Otto trailed off as it dawned on him. "This is going to suck!" Otto muttered under his breath as Cyber Dragon fired its laser at Exploder Dragonwing, at the same time Darius changed course and charged at the massive dragon where he was quickly joined by Theresa's monsters and Beastiari.

"Exploder Dragonwing, COUNTERATTACK!" Eddie commanded and the massive dragon took flight and breathed fire at each of the monsters incinerating them all.

C: 4900

O: 4300

A: 4700

T: 4400

E: 7800

Otto, Theresa and Axel picked up their cards and sent them to the graveyard; Theresa marched up to Chloe and held her hand out. "Chloe, what the hell was that?" Theresa demanded once Chloe handed over Theresa's Staunch Defender trap card, Chloe winced momentarily glancing up at the scoreboard and seeing that Theresa had taken the most damage from the attack.

"I took that trap to protect my life-points; I didn't think you'd summon another monster." Chloe said meekly as Theresa handed her Blade Knight back to her.

"Your right, you didn't think." Theresa said sternly as she glared at the younger duelist. "All you could think about is getting revenge on Otto."

"That's…that's not…." Chloe trailed off, Theresa would've kept going but Chloe sounded like she was about to cry at this point, she simply stormed back to her spot before glancing over at Chloe.

"You know what? Forget it, and you can forget about any further protection from me!" Theresa said before turning to the others. "She's all yours." Theresa said plainly and Axel looked over the rest of his hand.

"I end my turn." Axel said plainly and Eddie drew his card.

"_There's no way Chloe's in any shape to duel after that, better put her out of her misery."_ Eddie thought before looking at his card. "I activate my own Pot of Avarice!" Eddie played the card and returned five monsters to his deck, shuffled it and drew two cards. "Now I play another Cards of Consonance!" Eddie discarded one of his tuners and drew another two cards. "Finally I summon Lord of Dragons and play the Spell Card Flute of Summoning Dragon which I use to Special Summon Luster Dragon number 1 and Rare Metal Dragon both in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the beautiful sapphire dragon appeared on the field (4/1900/1600) alongside the tanned Dragon magician (4/1200/1100) and the metallic dragon (4/2400/2000). "Go my dragons; attack Chloe's life points directly!" The three dragons breathed fire at Chloe who winced as the attacks hit her.

C: 0000

O: 4300

A: 4700

T: 4400

E: 7800

"And one of the participants in the first match of the next round has been decided!" Kaiba announced as the crowd cheered, Chloe walked off dejectedly, however the only ones in the audience who weren't cheering were the Duel Academy students and the teachers.

"I know I wanted Theresa to stop protecting Chloe but….." Marcus trailed off and Lance clenched his fists in anger.

"But not like that." Lance said with a growl. "Theresa gave Chloe that card; did she not anticipate her using it against her?"

"Probably not, though her choice to leave her field open was a good one." Martin added and Jeff frowned before standing up.

"I'm taking Chloe back to the hotel so that she can calm down without Theresa confronting her again, the fourth round matches aren't until this evening anyway." Jeff announced before leaving the area and heading backstage, whilst that happened Eddie pointed to Lord of Dragons.

"Since my original target's been eliminated I have a new target, Lord of Dragons attack Otto's life-points directly!" Eddie commanded and the magician cast a spell at Otto who winced as the attack connected with him.

O: 3100

A: 4700

T: 4400

E: 7800

"Before you ask, yes our team up ended when Chloe was eliminated." Eddie said and Otto growled. "I end my turn."

"You'll pay for that!" Otto said as he drew his card since Chloe was eliminated from the match. "I set a card facedown and end my turn, just try to attack me with what I have facedown!" Otto dared the other duelists and Theresa, who was still angry at Chloe, drew her card.

"_You shouldn't be so angry at Chloe Theresa." _A deep booming voice rang out from inside Theresa's head and Theresa sighed, it was her own duel spirit that was addressing her and she had suspected that Chloe had one who was making herself known to her just now. _"She was just trying to win the match."_

"_I know, but if Otto had activated the Orichalcos she would've injured us all in the process, her anger towards Otto was making her make reckless moves and I had to put her in her place even if it was harsh." _Theresa responded mentally before looking at her card, whilst she did she started to wonder about Chloe's behavior throughout the duel. _"You think Chloe has a duel spirit as well?"_

"_It certainly seems that way." _The voice responded before pausing. _"For now fulfill Chloe's wish by ensuring that Chloe faces Otto in her next match."_ The voice added and Theresa played her card.

"You won't get a chance Otto; I summon Chiron the Mage in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the centaur appeared on the field (4/1800/1000). "Now I use his effect, by discarding one Spell Card from my hand I can destroy your spell card!" Otto's eyes widened as the centaur pointed its staff at the facedown card, a pulse emanated from it destroying it.

"NO! NOT MY DIMENSION WALL!" Otto yelled out before glaring at Theresa, he reluctantly sent his trap to the grave and glared at her. "You'll pay for that."

"You should worry about your impending elimination, Chiron attack his life-points directly!" Theresa commanded and the beast charged towards Otto before slamming its staff against Otto's chest.

O: 1300

A: 4700

T: 4400

E: 7800

"Are you up for finishing the job Axel?" Theresa asked the other duelist who nodded before drawing his card.

"Off course, and I'll do it with Gladiator Beast Equeste!" Axel played the card and the armored centaur appeared on the field (4/1600/1400). "Equeste, finish off Otto now!" Axel commanded and the centaur charged towards Otto before slashing him with his sword.

O: 0000

A: 4700

T: 4400

E: 7800

"And just like that our first match is decided! Chloe Richardson will take on Otto Freshier in what is sure to be a heated grudge match." Kaiba announced over the cheering crowd as Otto strolled off to the backstage area.

"_That couldn't have worked out more perfectly if I tried!" _Otto thought with a smirk at he glanced towards the last card in his hand, another Cyber Dragon. _"Sure, I could have just surrendered but I have too much pride for that, besides I couldn't run the risk of either Theresa or Axel eliminating her before I had the chance." _ Otto thought before turning his attention back to the duel just in time to see Eddie draw his card. _"Now, let's see how long Theresa and Axel last against our esteemed champion hmm? He does have quite a lot of firepower on his side of the field." _Otto thought as he folded his arms, Eddie looked at the card before playing it.

"I activate Card of Sanctity which will allow us to refresh our hands." Eddie announced and the remaining three duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands. "Well guys, it's been a blast but it looks like I'm getting a free trip to the finals."

"Not likely." Theresa said shaking her head. "Our monsters may be the second and third weakest on the field but we have more than enough life-points to survive the onslaught!"

"Why don't you just watch? I start by activating Double Summon, with this I can normal summon twice in one round." Eddie played the card and a strange aura surrounded Eddie's side of the field.

"I know that, I use that card to make Synchro Summons easier." Theresa pointed out with a frown. "What are you getting at?"

"This, I activate my second Spell Card Lightning Vortex!" Theresa and Axel's eyes widened as lightning struck their two monsters destroying them both. "Now I offer Luster Dragon as a tribute to summon the mighty Kaiser Glider!" Luster Dragon disappeared from the field and in its place stood the golden dragon that was ready for battle (6/2400/2000).

"_He has enough firepower to finish one of us off but not both of us." _Axel thought as his eyes narrowed. _"What else is he going to summon?"_

"And as for my second summon I summon the tuner monster known as Arcane Apprentice!" Eddie plated the card and the magician in purple robes appeared on the field (2/1000/400). "I don't know about you but I think it's time I gave Lord of Dragons a tune up!" Eddie said as he removed both cards from the field, the two monsters leapt into the air and Arcane Apprentice's staff emitted a pulse that created two green rings which quickly surrounded Lord of Dragons. "I tune Lord of Dragons with Arcane Apprentice to Synchro Summon Explosive Magician in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and Lord of Dragons vanished in a bright light which caused Axel and Theresa to shield their eyes, when they looked up Arcane Apprentice and Lord of Dragons where long gone and in their place stood a magician in white and gold robes that looked similar to the robes traditionally worn by the Dark Magician, Theresa and Axel shared a look knowing that they would face each other (6/2500/1800).

"Well, looks like we're facing each other next." Theresa said as she turned to Axel. "Well, all I can say is may the best duelist win!"

"And I'll say the same to you." Axel said with a nod before the two duelists turned their attention back to Eddie just as he pointed to his monsters.

"Exploder Dragonwing, Rare Metal Dragon, finish off Axel!" Eddie commanded and the two dragons breathed fire at Axel who winced as the flames made contact. "Explosive Magician, Kaiser Glider, finish off Theresa now!" Eddie commanded and Explosive Magician cast a spell at Theresa whilst Kaiser Glider took flight, Glider hit Theresa first followed by Explosive Magician.

A: 0000

T: 0000

E: 7800

"And just like that the second match of the fourth round is decided and it's a clash of the dueling titans, Germany's National Champion Axel Loather takes on arguably the best duelist among the duel academy students Theresa Daniels!" Kaiba announced and the crowd cheered. "However to give the duelists time to prepare the matches will start at 5:00pm tonight!"

"Who are we? Chopped liver?" Lance muttered as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his, Marcus's and Brandon's heads.

"Well to be fair we were eliminated earlier in the tournament." Brandon said before sighing. "I think we'd better check up on Chloe, Theresa was pretty harsh to her."

"Good idea, we were heading back to the hotel anyway." Martin said before standing up and leading the others to outside the arena where Theresa was waiting for them, as soon as he saw her Lance stormed right up to her getting in her face

"Theresa, what the hell was that?" Lance demanded with a tone of voice that clearly caught the older student off guard.

"Excuse me?" Theresa demanded and Lance's eyes narrowed.

"You know what I'm talking about, how you acted towards Chloe just before she was eliminated was unacceptable." Lance said as his eyes narrowed. "What's the matter? Can't stand it when your opponent uses common sense against you? You had to have known that Chloe would use that trap at some point." Lance continued and Brandon quickly got in between them.

"Lance, that's enough." Brandon scolded him. "Look I'm wondering the exact same thing you are but arguing is not going to help." Brandon added sensing Lance's impending accusation, once that was done he turned to Theresa. "Well?"

"Look, I make no excuses for how I acted towards Chloe and I don't blame you for being pissed at me Lance." Theresa said as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "That said if Otto had activated the Orichalcos her little stunt would've hurt me, Axel and Otto."

"Then why didn't you say so instead of berating her to the point of tears?" Lance demanded and Theresa sighed.

"I don't know; I did have a feeling she'd go after my life-points at some point since she was my opponent and all but…" Theresa trailed off before sighing. "One of the first things you learn when you enter Obelisk Blue is too put your opponent's safety above potential victory, obviously she didn't know that and whilst there was no injuries this time there could've been especially since Otto disabled the safeties on his duel disk."

"Even so, I think you'd better apologize to Chloe the first chance you get." Marcus added with a frown on his face. "Shall we get going, preferably without any more arguments?"

"Yeah, lets." Theresa said with a sigh before they entered the limo and drove to the hotel.


	36. Settle the Score

Several hours had passed since the Battle Royal and Chloe sat on her bed hugging her legs, she was still upset over Theresa's words but she knew she had two more hours before her duel against Otto, whether or not she'd have calmed down by then she didn't know, her train of thought was interrupted by a knock at the door but she didn't get up to answer it.

"Chloe it's me, can we talk?" Theresa's voice rang out from the other side of her door, Chloe hesitated remembering how she acted towards her the last time they talked. "Chloe, I know how I acted towards you earlier was unacceptable but I had my reasons, can you at least hear me out?" Theresa asked and Chloe hesitated again.

"Come in." Chloe called out eventually and Theresa entered the room, Chloe sighed before lowering her legs. "If you were mad at me because of the whole Exploder Dragonwing incident then I'm sorry okay? I had to narrow the gap between our life-points somehow." Chloe said and Theresa shook her head.

"Chloe, I accept your apology but there's more to it than that." Theresa said as she sat down besides Chloe's bed. "Hell if anything I should apologize to you for going overboard with my berating of you but that's beside the point, Chloe be honest with me, during the duel did you ever consider the consequences of that move?"

"What do you mean by consequences?" Chloe asked and Theresa sighed.

"I thought not." Theresa sighed before she started thinking of the best way to describe it. "You remember Otto's duel against Kimberly?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Chloe asked…before it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Otto disabled the safeties on his duel disk sometime before the match between him and Kimberly." Chloe realized as her eyes widened, she lowered her head and sighed. "But there weren't any injuries this time…"

"But there could have been." Theresa sighed before extending her hand out. "So, are we friends now?" Theresa asked and Chloe hesitated before shaking it.

"Yeah, we're friends." Chloe sighed in resignation. "Why didn't you tell me this back at the arena rather than yell at me though?" Chloe asked and Theresa paused.

"I don't know, I guess the recklessness off your move was causing me to not be able to think straight." Theresa answered rubbing the back of her head nervously. "There's another reason I wanted to talk actually." Theresa said before standing up and closing the door to Chloe's room behind her. "You remember the match we had back at duel academy?"

"Yeah, how could I forget it?" Chloe asked rhetorically before running a hand through her hair. "What about it?"

"It's a bit complicated but I'll try to explain it as best as I can." Theresa said honestly before sitting down again. "You remember when I told my Armed Dragon to go easy on you?"

"Yeah, I do, well kind off." Chloe said sheepishly as she tried to think back to her duel against Theresa. "Yeah, that was back when I was still using my old deck." Chloe remembered and Theresa smiled happy that they were going somewhere with this. "Where are we going with this?"

"Well…your odd behavior didn't exactly go unnoticed during the match earlier, and before you try to come up with an excuse I think I know why." Theresa said earning herself an odd look from Chloe. "You mentioned hearing an older female voice earlier?"

"Yeah I did what about it?" Chloe asked clearing confused by the question.

"Okay, I know how crazy this is going to sound but…at any point did this voice identify herself as a duel spirit?" Theresa asked and Chloe looked at the older duelist like she had just grown a second head before remembering something.

"Yeah, she did." Chloe remembered before rubbing the back off her head nervously. "Are you going to explain to me what exactly a duel spirit is?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head.

"Even though I have more experience with my duel spirit it's not exactly my area of expertise." Theresa said honestly before glancing towards Chloe's deck. "Professor Hamden would be your best bet to ask, besides being the professor of strategy at Duel Academy he also has extensive knowledge of duel spirits, he helped me when my duel spirit made itself known to me way back when I was in Osiris Red."

"Yeah, I'll ask him whilst trying not to sound like a lunatic." Chloe said before pausing. "Wait, you were in Osiris Red?"

"What? You thought I started out in Obelisk Blue like Brandon?" Theresa laughed before shaking her head. "My mom's a cop, she could hardly afford to send me to duel academy let alone pay my way into Obelisk Blue, and I earned my place in Obelisk Blue the hard way." Theresa added before shaking her head. "We're getting off topic, do you have any idea what your duel spirit might be?" Theresa asked and Chloe shook her head.

"No, but based on what you said they are supposed to inhabit duel monsters cards right?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded, she took her deck out of her duel disk and started searching through it before she noticed that one of her cards was glowing, she picked it up and saw that it was Silent Magician Level 8. "Err, why is it glowing?"

"That's most likely because that's where your duel spirit resides." Theresa said before getting her duel disk out, her deck was still in the appropriate slot and she assumed that it was the same deck that she used in the Battle Royal. "Ever wonder why the Armed Dragon series is the only consistent cards throughout my decks?"

"I did yeah." Chloe said with a nod before realization hit her. "Armed Dragon Level 10's your duel spirit?"

"That is correct." The voice of Chloe's duel spirit rang out from the card making Chloe jump…..right out of her bed and onto the floor.

"Err, okay how long exactly has my deck had a duel spirit in it?" Chloe asked clearly confused by this as she rubbed her sore backside, Theresa stood up and extended a hand out to Chloe in order to help her up and Chloe quickly accepted, Theresa pulled her up and Chloe rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I guess that's one way to get me out of bed." Chloe joked getting a laugh out of Theresa. "Seriously how haven't I noticed that one of my cards is possessed by a duel spirit? And how did my life get to the point where that isn't an odd question to ask?"

"Honestly? It's hard to say, not even my spirit partner was able to tell me that when I asked him." Theresa said with a shrug. "Not even Hamden knows for sure." Theresa added, before Chloe could say anything else the door opened and Hamden stepped into the room.

"If I did know then my specialty would be duel spirits." Hamden said as he entered. "Sorry, I probably should've knocked." Hamden apologized and Chloe shook her head.

"Don't worry about it." Chloe told him before sitting down on the bed. "So is there any reason you entered?"

"Actually yes, there is." Hamden said with a smile. "Because your matches start at dinner time Martin thought it would be best if we had an early dinner, sound good?" Hamden asked and as if it had been waiting for its cue Chloe's stomach started to rumble.

"I guess it would suck to duel on an empty stomach." Chloe said sheepishly before glancing towards her duel disk. "Just two questions, where are we going and will we need our duel disks?"

"I found a restaurant on the way back from the hospital that looks nice enough and no Chloe, you won't need your duel disk." Hamden said with a frown. "After all we don't want to risk water being spilled on it thus having to leave us the task of finding you a replacement."

"But I still have my old one…..which is back at Duel Academy." Chloe winced as it dawned on her. "I knew I should've packed that just in case." Chloe said with a sigh of annoyance.

"Don't worry about it; it happens to the best of us." Hamden reassured her and waited as Chloe disconnected her duel disk and left it on the bed. "Err, Chloe are you sure you want to leave it on the bed? Wouldn't it be better if you put it someplace higher like that shelf?"

"I would if not for the fact that I'm 5ft 2 and the shelf was designed for someone much taller than me." Chloe pointed out and Hamden sweat-dropped.

"Fair point I suppose but just be sure to lock your room behind you before we go you know encase Otto tries anything." Hamden said and Chloe nodded before picking up her room key and pocketing it.

"_You sure you going to be okay on your own…err…Silent Magician?" _Chloe asked her duel spirit after she locked the door.

"_I'll be fine, besides what are the chances that Otto breaks into your room now that you've locked it?" _Silent Magician responded and Chloe gulped.

"_Hopefully the chances are very little." _Chloe responded as the three of them entered the elevator.

"The others are waiting downstairs, they figured it would be best for the two of you to talk out your differences and make out…" Hamden started but stopped once he realized what he said and blushed like a maniac. "Err, make up." Hamden corrected himself though the blush was still present.

"Yeah…..lets never talk about that mistake again." Theresa said as she blushed like a madwoman, Chloe, who was blushing quite profusely herself, quickly nodded before pushing the button for the ground floor and the elevator doors closed, little did they know that Otto was waiting nearby and had noticed the lack of duel disk on Chloe's arm, a fact that led into his plans perfectly.

"_Excellent, now it's time for the rest of my plans to come into fruition!" _Otto thought before making his way to the girl's room. _"Breaking in should be an easy task, much like my inevitable victory!" _Otto thought as he stopped outside the girl's room.

*an hour later*

"Oh man that was good!" Chloe muttered as she, Hamden and Theresa got out of the elevator, the three of them where thoroughly stuffed from their meal at the restaurant as was the others including, impressively enough given his eating habits, Marcus. "I don't think I'll be able to eat anything else for the rest of the day."

"Yeah, I agree there." Theresa agreed as she stepped out of the elevator. "Nice choice for a restaurant Hamden."

"I try my best." Hamden chuckled as they joined the others who were also stuffed, however Chloe didn't get a chance to chat with them before a familiar voice called out her name.

"Chloe, there you are!" Phillip Masters called out to them as he ran up, his girlfriend Francesca wasn't far behind. "We've been trying to reach you for the past hour or so."

"Sorry, I was in a restaurant and I had left my cellphone off." Chloe apologized before seeing the serious looks on their faces. "What happened?"

"Me and Francesca where going out for an early dinner when we heard a commotion coming from Duel Academy's little section of the hotel." Phillip explained before frowning. "I wanted to investigate so we did, we chased off the guy who was in your hotel room but…" Chloe's eyes widened when he mentioned her hotel room and she rushed past them. "CHLOE, WAIT! IT'S A CRIME SCENE!" Phillip yelled after her but either she didn't hear him or she was too concerned about her valuables to care, she was finally stopped by a much older cop.

"Hey there kiddo, you can't go in there." The cop blocked her path and resisted any further attempts by her to get in the crime scene.

"You don't understand; that's my room not a crime scene!" Chloe protested and the cop looked her over before realization hit him.

"Wait, your Chloe Richardson?" The cop asked and Chloe nodded. "Well kid I don't know what to tell ya, the good news is nothing was stolen; the bad news is that whoever did break in destroyed your deck."

"Did…did you say m…my deck?" Chloe stammered as realization hit her.

"Well, actually all but two of the cards were destroyed to be more precise." The cop said as he consulted his notebook. "The only two cards that weren't destroyed where Silent Magician Level 4 and Silent Magician Level 8, my guess is that your friends over there surprised him before he could finish the job." The cop added before handing over the cards. "We've already dusted them for prints and they came up empty, well besides your prints that is but given the fact that you're a duelist that was to be expected, you can have them back if you want." The cop said and Chloe took them without hesitation, at that point the others walked over equally as shocked at the turn of events as Chloe was. "Phillip was it? Did you get a good look at the assailant before he escaped?"

"Aye I did, it was Otto Freshier, she's facing him an hour." Phillip said with a frown. "Or she would be if she could reconstruct her deck in time." Phillip added and Theresa got an idea before turning to Martin.

"Martin, do you think you could persuade Kaiba to delay the matches?" Theresa asked and Martin frowned before getting his cellphone out.

"It's a longshot but Kaiba was once a duelist himself, I'm sure he'll understand. " Martin said before getting his cellphone out. "In the meantime we'll need a place for Chloe to stay whilst the police search your room."

"Wait, her dad was a battle city competitor until the first round." Francesca remembered and everyone turned to her. "Maybe he has a spare room she can sleep in."

"I'll give him a call, tell him what's happened." Jeff said as he got his cellphone out, in the meantime Martin paced back and forth waiting for a response from Kaiba.

*meanwhile at Kaibacorp's NY branch*

"The fourth round is bound to be the most exciting yet." Tyler commented as the two Kaibas watched a replay of the Battle Royal, the office was very big and spacious with a view that overlooked the city, the TV screen was in front of Kaiba's desk though they weren't sitting at it.

"Indeed." Kaiba agreed with a nod. "First there's that grudge match between Richardson and Freshier and then there's the match between Loather and Daniels, whoever comes out of those matches still standing will have proven themselves worthy competitors for Roberts' Battle City Crown." Kaiba added but was cut off by a call from his secretary.

"Mr. Kaiba, there's an urgent call from one of the duel academy professors on line one." The secretary said and Kaiba walked over to the phone and picked it up.

"Yes, what is it?" Kaiba asked, Tyler paid no attention and turned to the duel screen.

"_I hope Theresa and Chloe can sort out their differences in time for the next round." _Tyler thought as he folded his arms. _"I'd hate to see a friendship like theirs destroyed over what was a brilliant move in all respects." _Tyler thought as he watched the replay footage of Chloe's last move before she was eliminated from the Battle Royal.

"HE DID WHAT? " Kaiba yelled making Tyler jump, he turned around saw a sight he rarely saw from his adopted father, pure rage to the point that his hands where trembling. "You want me to delay that match? Fine, I'll delay it until 7:00 this evening but no later." Kaiba said catching Tyler by surprise, he angrily slammed the phone down and growled. "Freshier has crossed the line."

"What did he do?" Tyler asked not liking where this was going.

"He broke into Richardson's hotel room and destroyed her deck whilst she and the other Duel Academy students were enjoying an early dinner." Kaiba told him and Tyler frowned.

"There's no way that we can let Otto get away with this." Tyler said as he folded his arms. "If we do it'll be the Miranda Trayson incident from last year all over again." Tyler added and Kaiba's frown deepened remembering the bad press they got from that.

"We'll worry about that later, for now I need you to call the PR department and have them issue a statement to the press, tell them that the matches will be delayed due to attempted sabotage." Kaiba said as he picked up the phone. "In the meantime I'd better call Axel, let him know what happened." Kaiba added as he dialed the number for Axel's hotel room.

*back at the hotel*

"Understood Kaiba, we'll be in touch should anything else happen." Martin said before hanging up, he rubbed his ear in pain due to Kaiba yelling down the phone and turned to the others. "Kaiba was willing to delay the matches until 7:00pm tonight, no later."

"I can understand that, if he delayed until tomorrow he'd be getting refund demands from everyone and their mother." Lance agreed before he heard footsteps approaching, the students looked up and saw Chloe's step parents who were, quite understandably, concerned.

"We just got the news." Scott spoke up before turning to Chloe. "Chloe, are you okay?"

"I was out of my room when he broke in dad, I'm fine." Chloe said as she turned around, she was holding onto her two Silent Magician cards for dear life since they were the only remnants of her deck left.

"Good, you'll be staying in our hotel room until your room becomes available, don't worry we have a spare room so you won't be sleeping on the couch." Scott told her and Chloe breathed a sigh of relief.

"What about my match though? My duel disk is in some evidence locker somewhere and all I've got is two cards out of my deck." Chloe pointed out and Theresa turned to her.

"Chloe, do you have a card list for your deck?" Theresa asked and Chloe thought for a moment before digging into her jacket pocket and handing Theresa a piece of paper with her card list on it. "Huh, I don't remember seeing those cards when I helped you modify your deck before the Battle City Tournament." Theresa commented and Chloe rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"Err, yeah those are Synchro and Tuner monsters that I intended to add when we went to that card shop you mentioned earlier." Chloe said honestly before sighing. "It seems pointless now, with my deck in ruins and all."

"_Those cards will be easy enough to obtain, but some of the rarer cards like Endymion will take some effort." _Theresa thought before turning too Chloe. "You let us take care of this, for now just chill out in your parent's room." Chloe told them and Chloe nodded before following them.

"Fine but if I walk in on them making out you'll be sorry." Chloe said plainly and Theresa just smirked as she walked away with her parents.

"Err, Theresa what did you mean by "We'll take care of this"?" Brandon asked once Chloe was out of earshot.

"Well my initial plan was to buy her a replica deck plus the new cards." Theresa said before digging into her pocket and producing a purse, she opened it and revealed its contents revealing there to be five dollars in cash. "But…..well just look."

"That's barely enough for a single pack of cards, let alone an entire deck." Brandon realized and Theresa nodded. "Well I'm can't be much help there either, I've got about ten dollars of spending money left." Brandon said honestly before turning to Marcus.

"Don't look at me; all I have is a dollar!" Marcus said plainly. "Look as much as I want to help Chloe all we've got between us is 16 dollars, I'd raid Andreas's spending money but it wouldn't feel right you know." Marcus said and Theresa nodded in understanding.

"I don't blame you there Marcus." Theresa said before turning to Lance. "How much spending money do you have left Lance?" Theresa asked and Lance dug into his wallet and produced two ten dollar notes.

"I had thirty but I spent that on buying my new Synchro and tuner monsters." Lance said honestly and Theresa sighed.

"That will be enough to get her some of the more common cards like Gearfried but the rarer cards will be a problem." Theresa said before running a hand through her hair. "If you have any ideas I'm open to them." Theresa added and Phillip and Francesca searched through their pockets.

"Theresa." Theresa turned around and saw Axel approaching them with a frown on his face. "Kaiba told me what happened, I was initially apprehensive about the duel being delayed but once Kaiba explained I understood completely." Axel added before digging into his pocket and producing his wallet. "I have fifty dollars left over from my spending money that should help you replace Chloe's deck." Axel said before handing it over, Theresa looked at the German student surprised by this.

"Axel, are you sure? You'll have nothing left to spend." Theresa asked and Axel nodded.

"Don't worry; I have some money in my account as well." Axel said and Theresa hesitated. "Go ahead take it, Otto crossed a line that should never be crossed by any duelist." Axel insisted and Theresa took it.

"I'll pay you back after the tournament, it's only fair." Theresa insisted and Axel nodded in understanding, it was then that she saw another familiar face running up behind Axel. "Jared?" Axel turned around and saw the teen as he stopped to catch his breath.

"There's…there's something I need to tell Chloe." Jared said as he caught his breath, Theresa frowned and folded her arms.

"Chloe's staying at her parent's room until the police are done going after Chloe's room." Theresa said before realization hit her and she turned to the cop. "Err, my bedroom's next door to Chloe's and my stuff's in there, not to mention the fact that I have nowhere to sleep." Theresa said and the cop looked towards Chloe's room.

"Your room's the one on the right correct?" The cop asked and Theresa nodded. "Well there's no evidence that your room was broken into so how about I get the stuff you need?" The cop asked and Theresa nodded sighing and relief. "Okay, that would be your clothes, toiletries…" The cop trailed off and Theresa dug into her pocket and produced a list.

"And a duel disk and a backpack full of decks, that's everything I need from my room." Theresa added and the cop sent a female subordinate into the room, about twenty many minutes later she emerged with Theresa's things in hand and Theresa took them. "Thanks, I owe you one." Theresa thanked them before turning to Jared. "Now, what do you want to tell Chloe?"

"How badly will you kick my ass depending on the answer?" Jared asked and without missing a beat Theresa motioned to the cops behind them. "Good point, well you know how it's pretty much been established that Otto broke into Chloe's room and stole her…"

"Stole? I think you mean destroyed." Theresa interrupted him and Jared's eyes widened. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

"When I met Chloe outside the hospital it was no coincidence, Otto had offered me an extremely rare card if I stole Chloe's deck for him." Jared said honestly and the cop walked over.

"He attempted to hire you?" The cop asked and Jared nodded ignoring the glares from the others.

"Yeah, I would've done it too well but I got cold feet, Chloe and I lived in the same orphanage and…I just couldn't betray the trust of someone who knew how rough the child care system was from first-hand experience like I did," Jared said with a sigh. "I was desperate, my deck's shit and if I had some good cards in it I could be in Axel's place." Jared added and Axel shook his head.

"Jared, whilst it's true that your deck isn't very good your skills were." Axel pointed out before frowning. "But that doesn't excuse what you almost did, you know as well as I do that a duelist's deck is more important to them than any valuable." Axel added and Jared lowered his head in shame, he knew how right Axel was but that didn't make the words hit any further from home.

"I know, and believe me I regret ever considering that offer." Jared sighed before turning to Theresa. "If there's anything I can do to help Chloe just let me know."

"There is, you can help us rebuild her deck." Theresa said almost immediately and Jared reached into his pocket before producing his wallet, he emptied its contents, notes, loose change and all, into Theresa's outstretched palm and she counted it. "Good, this is more than enough to get the cards we'll need to reconstruct her deck, Brandon do you remember where that card shop is?"

"The one you dueled Hunter and Zane in front of?" Brandon asked and Theresa nodded. "Yeah, I suppose it won't take much to persuade the teachers to drive us there." Brandon added unaware that Jeff and Hamden where right behind him.

"Just say the word and we'll go, we'll leave Jared to the cops." Jeff said making Brandon jump, once he regained his composure Brandon turned to him and motioned for him to lead the way and the four teens where led outside. "Theresa, do you think you'll be able to replace Chloe's deck in time?" Jeff asked as they reached the car, she checked the time on her watch and nodded.

"We have more than enough time to buy the deck, get back, give deck to Chloe and get her to the arena in time." Theresa said before pausing. "Now that I put it that way it doesn't seem that we'll be able to do it in time." Theresa said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Well, we don't have time to lose." Jeff said as he held open the card door, the teens entered the car first followed by the two teachers and once the door was closed the car drove off.

*a couple of hours later*

"Great, there's nothing on TV." Chloe muttered under her breath as she channel surfed, she was lying down on the couch in her parent's spare room and was bored out of her mind; it was then that she got an idea and grabbed her copy of Silent Magician Level 8 which was on the coffee table in front of the sofa. _"Hey Silent Magician, are you there?"_

"_I'm always here Chloe."_ The duel spirit answered back and Chloe smiled. _"I suppose you're wondering how close Otto got to destroying the copies of Silent Magician Level 4 and me." _Silent Magician Level 8 inquired and Chloe nodded.

"_Well, it's not like I have anything else to do." _Chloe answered and Silent Magician Level 8 chuckled silently.

"_I suppose, when he entered the room I had a feeling he was up to no good so I tried casting a spell to protect the cards in your deck." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe frowned. _"He was too fast; I could only protect the Silent Magician cards."_

"_Well, thanks for at least protecting two of my cards."_ Chloe responded mentally with a sigh. _"I hope the other students can replace my deck soon, I want revenge on Otto so badly."_

"_I understand Chloe." _Silent Magician Level 8 responded, Chloe would've said something else but there was a knock at the door and Chloe sat up. "Door's open!" Chloe shouted to whoever was on the other end of the door, the door opened revealing her dad.

"How are you feeling Chloe?" Scott asked and Chloe sighed.

"I'm bored out of my mind to be honest." Chloe admitted before turning off the TV. "There's nothing good on TV, my deck's been destroyed and…did I mention the fact that I'm bored out of my mind?" Chloe asked and Scott laughed before sitting down on her bed.

"Just as long as you don't plan on letting that punk get away with it I'm not complaining." Scott said with a hint of anger in his voice, Chloe just smirked before crossing her legs.

"Dad, there's no way in hell I'm letting him get away with what he did to my deck." Chloe said before deciding to change the subject. "Come to think of it, since when did hotel rooms have spare rooms?" Chloe asked and Scott chuckled.

"Well technically it was a mix-up at the check in counter; they somehow thought that we had a small child with us." Scott said with a smirk. "And whilst we do have a daughter she isn't exactly small and won't be a child for much longer."

"Well I am small compared to the other duel academy students on the trip, but at least that explains why I have a tiny bed." Chloe pointed out before frowning. "Dad, I'm worried going into the match against Otto, you saw for yourself how ruthless he was against Andreas and Kimberly."

"I understand Chloe but you have to trust in your deck and your abilities as a duelist." Scott said with a nod of understanding, before either of them could say anything else there was a knock coming from outside the room all together, Scott stood up and went to answer it and once he left Chloe put her feet up again…..only to quickly put them down again when Theresa entered the room.

"Hi Chloe, are you enjoying yourself?" Theresa asked with an amused look on her face, Chloe just smirked before turning off her TV.

"I'm enjoying myself as much as I can." Chloe said honestly and Theresa dug into her pocket. "Were you able to rebuild my deck?"

"And then some." Theresa said handing over a new deck to her; Chloe grabbed it and looked over it. "We weren't able to get some of the cards you won in the tournament but we were able to get you the Synchro Monsters you requested." Theresa said and smiled when she saw Chloe's big grin.

"It's perfect, I can't thank you enough." Chloe said as she grabbed her two Silent Magician cards and added the cards to her deck. "You're not going to ask me to pay you back for those cards are you? Some of them are pretty expensive."

"Your thanks is payment enough, trust me." Theresa said before sweat-dropping. "Jesus Christ, that's easily the cheesiest sentence I've said in my entire life." Theresa said and the two girls shared a laugh. "Come on we'd better get you to the arena, you watch is starting soon." Theresa added and a look of panic washed over Chloe's face before she bolted to her feet. "Before I forget here, take this." Theresa said handing over an Osiris Red Duel Disk. "The teachers where able to have the school send over a replacement duel disk since your old one's in an evidence locker at NYPD."

"Perfect, I have everything I need to get revenge on Otto." Chloe smirked as she took the duel disk, she put the Synchro monsters in her extra deck and her regular monsters in her deck slot alongside the rest of the cards. "Theresa, any tips for dealing with Otto?" Chloe asked her and Theresa rubbed her chin in thought.

"Well he uses a lot of trap cards so watch out for those, and obviously watch out for cards like Machine King, Perfect Machine King and Cyber End Dragon." Theresa said and Chloe nodded before the two girls left the spare room.

*sometime later at the arena*

"_This is perfect!" _Otto thought with a smirk as he waited on the duel arena for Chloe to arrive, as far as he was concerned he was there on a technicality as there was no proof that he had committed the crimes he did. _"Even if I couldn't complete the job there's no way in hell that the Osiris Red Bitch was able to acquire the funds necessary to rebuild her deck….."_

"Sorry for the delay folks but Chloe Richardson has shown up and is ready to duel!" Bill announced and Otto's eyes widened with disbelief.

"WHAT! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!" Otto yelled out earning himself odd looks from the others, sure enough Chloe stepped onto the arena floor glaring at Otto whose eyes widened even further when he saw her new deck. "How…"

"What's the matter Otto? Upset that you didn't get a chance to destroy this deck as well?" Chloe asked as she stepped onto the duel podium, Otto just stood there with his mouth agape. "And before you ask, no it's not slander when you have two eye witness accounts of you ripping my old deck to pieces and testimony that you tried to hire an old friend of mine to destroy my deck!" Chloe said and she could've sworn that Otto's jaw was going to drop to the floor at any moment.

"HE DID WHAT?" Eddie yelled out from his spot in the audience obviously enraged by this, he wasn't alone as the crowd's boos directed towards Otto where even more intense than before.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!" Otto yelled out but it was no use, he clenched his fists in a rage and charged at Chloe ready to punch her…..

"You even think of doing that and I will have every single security guard in my employee take turns beating the shit out of you!" Kaiba's enraged voice rang out and the two teens looked up, sure enough the blimp with Kaiba's face was passing by overhead, the look of rage on Otto's face quickly turned into a look of panic. "Freshier, I warned you before your match against Kimberly Troy to watch yourself but it's obvious you didn't listen." Kaiba said with a growl. "Forget being disqualified from my tournament, I should have you arrested for breaking and entering and destruction of private property!" Kaiba said before pausing. "With that said, by order of the Battle City directors I hereby disqualify Otto Fresh…"

"Kaiba please let me handle it." Chloe called out to him and Kaiba looked at her funny. "For weeks I put up with his name calling just because I'm an Osiris Red Student but his actions during the semi-finals…they've made things personal for me."

"Very well, as you wish." Kaiba said with a nod and Otto smirked.

"You just made the biggest mistake of your life, you know that right?" Otto asked as he returned to his spot, Chloe just smirked in response.

"I'm not the one who's made a mistake here, it's you." Chloe said as the two duelists activated there duel disks. "Not just by breaking the law mind you, you see my friends…..the duel academy students who came with us on this trip….they used up their remaining spending money to rebuild my deck and whilst it's not a perfect recreation my any means my new deck's just as strong as my old one, maybe even stronger." Chloe said and Otto scoffed. "Don't believe me? Fine! I'll prove it in this duel right here, right now!" Chloe said as she activated drew her opening hand, Otto did likewise and the crowd cheered.

"The kid's fired up, not that I blame her." Alex commented as he watched the duel. "And if he did punch her I'd be beating the shit out of him before Kaiba's goons got the chance."

"You'd have to get in line." Miranda muttered under her breath as she watched the two duelists look over their hands. "You think Chloe's making the right choice here? She could've had a free trip to the Semi-Finals but instead she asked Kaiba to let the duel go ahead."

"We'd both do the same if we were in her shoes Miranda." Alex pointed out with a frown. "You heard that punk's comments, you heard what he did and you saw what he did to her classmates, can you honestly tell me with a straight face that you wouldn't want revenge?"

"Since you're so eager to test out your deck I'll let you go first." Otto announced and Chloe looked over her hand. _"Doesn't matter what see plays, as soon as my turn begins her Soul will be mine!" _Otto thought as he waited for Chloe to make her move.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Chloe said before picking up three of her cards. "I set two cards facedown and summon Gearfried the Iron Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played the cards and the knight clad in jet black armor appeared on the field (4/1800/1600). "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Otto didn't waste any time in drawing his card.

"Well then, I won't waste any more of our time!" Otto said as he picked up the card. "I activate The Seal of the Orichalcos!" Chloe braced herself as the two duelists where surrounded by the infamous field spell, almost as soon as the spell appeared the pentagram also appeared on Otto's forehead. "You have no idea how long I've waited to use this card against you!"

"It's begun." Brandon said as he folded his arms. "Hang in there Chloe; don't let that bastard's taunting get to you!" Brandon called out to her, he was subsequently responded with by several fans who agreed with him.

"I suppose I don't have to repeat Cyber Dragon's effect at this point." Otto played the card and cybernetic magician appeared on the field (5/2100/1600) and due to the Seal the dragon's attack increased to 2600. "Cyber Dragon, crush her pathetic knight and show her real power!" Otto commanded and the dragon charged up its laser….

"I'm afraid not, I activate my trap card Waboku!" Chloe activated the card and the laser blast was blocked by the three priestesses who were quickly vaporized by the blast.

"Fine, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Otto gritted his teeth and Chloe quickly activated her remaining trap card.

"Well in that case I activate my trap card Reinforce Truth!" Chloe activated the card and picked up her deck. "In exchange for conducting my battle phase, hence why I'm activating it now, this trap will let me search my deck for a Level 2 or lower Warrior type monster and Special Summon it to the field." Chloe explained as she picked up a card and played it. "My monster of choice is Torapart in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and, once she reshuffled her deck, an evil cackle echoed out, soon the monster made its presence felt and if not for the fact that Chloe mentioned it's type you would've thought it was a spellcaster, it was a little imp in jet black wizard's clothing but what was most striking about it was its pale skin (2/600/600) and Otto nearly died laughing at the site of the monster.

"That's your big play? I've seen Barbie dolls more intimidating than that!" Otto scoffed as Chloe drew her card. "What possible use could that weakling have?"

"Well there is the fact that it's a tuner monster." Chloe said and Otto's laughter died almost instantly when he heard that. "I did warn you that my deck is a lot stronger nowadays."

"Just make your damn move already." Otto growled and Chloe looked at her drawn card.

"I activate the Spell Card Reinforcement of the Army, this lets me search through my deck for a Level 4 or lower Warrior Type Monster and add it to my hand." Chloe played the card and picked up her deck, one quick search and she added the monster to her hand and after shuffling the deck again she retrieved her spell card. "Next I remove Reinforcement of the Army from play in order to Special Summon the monster I brought out with it, Spell Striker!" Chloe pocketed the monster and played the card; next to Gearfried a small, almost cartoonish, warrior appeared on the field wearing armor that seemed to resemble Viking armor (3/600/200).

"Am I supposed to be scared of that?" Otto mocked her and Chloe grinned.

"No, but you are supposed to be scared of the monster I'm about to summon!" Chloe announced as Torapart and Spell Striker leapt into the air, Torapart vanished and two green rings surrounded Spell Striker. "I tune Torapart and Spell Striker together to Synchro Summon Scarred Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a bright flash washed over the field, when the light cleared a new monster appeared in the place of Spell Striker and it was a man in what looked like futuristic silver samurai armor with one hand replaced by a sword (5/2100/1000) and Otto scoffed when he saw it.

"I knew you were a terrible duelist but you're bad at math as well?" Otto scoffed as he folded his arms. "That warrior cannot hope to combat Cyber Dragon!"

"I'd say don't get too cocky but then I remembered who I'm talking too." Chloe responded before picking up a card. "For starters Scarred Warrior can survive one attack per round and as long as he's on the field you can't attack any other Warrior Type monsters."

"Big deal, my Cyber Dragon is far too strong for him to beat!" Otto scoffed before realization hit him. "Wait a minute, all your summons so far has been Special Summons….."

"Well what do you know? There is a brain in there!" Chloe mocked him and Otto growled. "Unfortunately Spell Striker was the last monster in my hand but that doesn't mean I can't play a Spell Card, I equip Scarred Warrior with the Spell Card Fusion Sword Murasame Blade which gives him a power boost of 800 points!" Chloe played the card and a large sword appeared in Scarred Warrior's hand increasing his attack to 2800. "Oh and don't expect your trap card to be any help, you see when Torapart is used as part of a Synchro Summon and the monster that was summoned with him attacks you can't activate traps until the damage step."

"Yeah, that's the way Chloe!" Marcus shouted enthusiastically unintentionally yelling in Brandon and Lance's ears whilst he was at it. "Show that bully how real duel academy students do things!" Marcus added and Chloe just grinned before pointing at Scarred Warrior.

"Scarred Warrior, reduce Cyber Dragon to scrap now!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards Cyber Dragon before taking his head clean off with a swing of his sword reducing Otto's life points to 7800. "Gearfried, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the knight charged towards Otto….

"I wasn't going to activate this until your second attack anyway." Otto said as his trap flipped up. "I activate Confusion Chaff, this trap card, as you may remember from my duel against Kimberly, forces Gearfried to do battle with Scarred Warrior!" Chloe's eyes widened as she watched Gearfried change course and try to strike down Scarred Warrior, Scarred Warrior avoided the attack and cut down the knight with his sword.

O: 7800

C: 7000

"Yeah, and now I can't use any other card effects." Chloe grunted obviously unhappy with the result of that battle, she looked over the rest of her hand before motioning for Otto to take his turn and Otto drew his card. _"At least I still got Scarred Warrior to protect my life-points, better hope that he doesn't draw something like Eternal Rest." _Chloe thought as she waited for Otto to take his turn.

"_I got rid of one of her monsters but that Synchro monster's going to be a problem." _Otto thought before looking at his newly drawn card. _"Perfect."_ Otto thought before looking up at Scarred Warrior. "Just for reference what Attribute is Scarred Warrior?"

"He's an Earth Type, why do you ask?" Chloe asked and Otto grinned.

"Oh, no reason other than showing you that you are not the only one capable of a Synchro Summon." Otto said he held up a card. "I start by activating Hand Destruction, this spell card works by forcing us both to discard two cards of our choice from our hands but in exchange we can draw an additional two cards." Otto explained as he picked up two cards and discarded them, Chloe did likewise and both duelists drew two times.

"I don't like this; the only way Otto would even consider using a card like that is if it benefitted him in some way." Brandon said plainly and Lance nodded in agreement,

"Now I activate Monster Reborn to bring back one of the monsters I discarded with Hand Destruction, the Tuner Monster Black Salvo!" Otto played the card, retrieved the monster from his graveyard and played it; the monster in question was a large black bomb with a psychotic looking face on it (3/100/1100). "Now for my regular summon, I summon Ally Mind in attack mode!" Otto played the card and what looked like a meteorite covered in purple flames appeared on the field (2/400/300). "Go my machines; show the Osiris Red Bitch a REAL Synchro Summon!" Otto commanded and the two monsters leapt into the air, Black Salvo exploded and from the remains came two green rings which surrounded Ally Mind. "I tune Black Salvo with Ally Mind to summon the mighty Ally of Justice Catastor!" Otto announced as the blight flash enveloped the field, when the smoke cleared (from the explosion) and the light fades the spider like machine stood in Ally Mind's place (5/2200/1200) and almost immediately the monster's attack increased to 2700 thanks to the seal.

"_Crap, I remember that thing's effect from Theresa's duel against Alex!" _Chloe thought as her eyes widened. _"If it battles a non-Dark Type monster it won't matter how strong it is, it'll be toast and the damage would be reduced to zero."_ Chloe thought before picking up a card. "Whilst we're going down memory lane here's an old face you may remember from the Battle Royal, since you were kind enough to Special Summon Catastor I can Special Summon my own monster, go Extra Veilor!" Chloe played the card and the matador appeared on the field ready for battle (2/600/600).

"_Hmmm, she's obviously hoping to use Chaos Burst to get rid of Catastor like she did in the Battle Royal, but her lack of trap cards won't help there." _Otto thought as he pointed towards Catastor. "Catastor, attack Scarred Warrior this instant!" Otto commanded and the spider like machine crawled over to Scarred Warrior, the warrior tried to destroy the machine with his sword but it was no use and the machine tore it apart effortlessly.

"Great, as if I needed another reason to hate Spiders." Chloe muttered under her breath as she sent Scarred Warrior and Fusion Sword to the graveyard.

"Your hatred of Spiders should be the least of your worries." Otto scoffed as he looked over the rest of his hand. "I set a card facedown just in case and that will end my turn." Otto announced as he set the card and Chloe drew her card.

"_Chloe, I see the duel has been going well." _Silent Magician's voice rang out mentally and Chloe frowned.

"_You do realize that you're about four turns late right?" _Chloe asked as she looked over her hand. _"I don't have any tuner monsters to use with Vielor so I'm open to suggestions."_

"_Sorry, I was getting acquainted with your new deck." _Silent Magician responded before looking at Chloe's hand through Chloe's eyes. _"Set the trap down but leave Veilor in attack mode, then equip him with the spell card."_

"_What Spell Card?" _Chloe asked before looking at the card, she then looked at her trap card and grinned. "I set a card facedown and equip Extra Veilor with Scroll of Bewitchment which lets me change his type to a Dark Type that ends my turn." Chloe played the cards and she could've sworn she heard every other person in the stadium face palming, well besides Otto who was laughing his ass off.

"You have got to be kidding me? How on Earth did you get past the first round?" Otto scoffed as he drew his card. "Oh that's right, NOTHING BUT LUCK! And this is where your luck runs out, Catastor I command you to vaporize her pathetic monster!" Otto commanded and the spider charged towards the matador who, even with its changed attribute, didn't stand a chance.

"Your wrong Otto, I got through the first round because egotistical idiots like you forget to take trap cards into consideration!" Chloe said as her trap flipped up and Otto's arrogant smirk quickly disappeared when he saw it.

"YOU SET DIMENSION WALL?" Otto yelled out as what was about to happen dawned on him. "HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Otto commanded but it was too late as the giant spider was in the middle of dissecting Chloe's matador.

"_And there are my nightmares for the rest of the year." _Chloe thought with a massive sweat-drop rolling down her head, once the monster was destroyed Catastor it span around and struck it's master in the stomach with one of its pincers.

O: 6200

C: 7000

"You'll pay for that bitch!" Otto growled as he looked at his hand. "One card facedown, now stop wasting my time and make your move already!" Otto demanded as he set the card down and Chloe drew her card.

"Much as I hate to give you any kind of advantage this spell card will help me as well." Chloe said as she activated the card and Card of Sanctity's Hologram appeared on the field and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands, Chloe sent her Spell to the grave and looked over her new hand.

"_Perfect, she may not realize it but that move has given me two of the cards I need to summon Cyber End Dragon!" _Otto thought with a psychotic smile on his face, indeed his hand contained two of his Cyber Dragon cards among other cards. _"Returning my first Cyber Dragon to my hand will be a simple matter then it'll be a matter of time before I draw Power Bond, I the meantime Cantaster can keep her at bay with its high attack power and its effect."_ Otto thought. _"And even if she somehow manages to draw a dark type monster strong enough to defeat Cantaster my trap card will see to it that it never gets close to destroying him."_

"I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown that ends my turn." Chloe said as she set the two cards. "And before you ask my facedown monster's a Dark-Type so your monster's effect doesn't apply." Chloe added as Otto drew his card.

"Am I supposed to be worried about your facedown monster even if it is a Dark Type? Don't make me laugh, Cantaster I order you to rip that facedown monster to shreds!" Otto commanded and the mechanical spider charged towards the monster…

"That's just what I wanted you to do." Chloe interrupted him; Otto blinked in confusion….before his eyes widened at the revelation of the facedown monster being Old Vindictive Magician (2/450/600). "He may be destroyed by Cantestor but his effect ensures that he drags the monster down with him." Chloe explained as she did her best to ignore the dissection of her monster, Old Vindictive Magician was able to get off a blast of magical energy strong enough to destroy the monster before dying from his wounds.

"So what if you were able to destroy him? Cantestor was just one soldier in my mighty army of machines!" Otto said defiantly as he sent his Synchro Monster to the graveyard, Chloe did likewise with Old Vindictive Magician and Otto looked over the rest of his hand. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Otto announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Chloe, I don't trust his facedown card." _Silent Magician cautioned her.

"_I was just thinking that." _Chloe commented as she picked up her newly drawn spell card. _"Wait, can you read my mind?"_

"_Please, I may be a Duel Spirit but I'm not telepathic!" _Silent Magician responded and Chloe played her spell card without a second thought.

"I activate Arcane Barrier, now every time a Spellcaster type monster I control is destroyed this spell card gains a counter…" Chloe started but was cut off by Otto.

"And it can hold a maximum of four counters, not only that but as long as you tribute a Spellcaster type monster along with the Spell Card it's self you will be able to draw one card for each counter." Otto interrupted her before folding his arms. "What do you take me for, an amateur? I watched your match against Trayson and I know what that card does."

"Do you really want me to answer your question?" Chloe asked as she picked up another card. "Now I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field ready to do battle (4/1900/900). "Gemini Elf, attack his defense monster now!" Chloe commanded and the twin elves prepared to fire their spell…..

"And once again you have fallen into my trap, go Nightmare Wheel!" Otto activated the card and too Chloe's surprise a large horrific looking wheel ran over her elves. "Don't worry; they aren't going anywhere, just look!" Otto added and Chloe turned to the wheel, to her horror the two elves where strapped to the wheel and where in obvious agony. "Here's how my trap card works, as long as it remains on the field your elves cannot attack or change position but the best part is? During each of my standby phases you lose 500 life-points."

"That thing has to have a weakness." Marcus said with a wince and Lance nodded.

"Yeah, it does." Lance said as he watched the duel. "If Chloe's Elves leave the field for any reason Nightmare Wheel will go with them."

"Well we outfitted Chloe's new deck with a decent amount of tuner monsters so if she draws one that'll be her best bet." Brandon commented before frowning. "If she can draw one before that thing drains her life-points completely that is."

"That's not even the worst part, or have you forgotten that the damage players suffer is just as real as the players themselves in the Orichalcos?" Lance pointed out with a frown. "Until she can get rid of her elves Chloe's in for a lot of pain."

"I end my turn." Chloe said reluctantly and Otto drew his card, once he did Nightmare Wheel spun rapidly causing a surge of energy to wash over Chloe who grunted in pain.

C: 6500

O: 6200

"What's the matter? Don't you like my trap card?" Otto mocked her and Chloe gritted her teeth in pain. "Then you'll hate the other cards I have in store for you, in the meantime however I chose to pass my turn." Otto announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Damn, where's Mystical Space Typhoon when I need it?" _Chloe thought before playing the card she had drawn. "I activate Pot of Avarice; in exchange for returning five of my monsters in my graveyard to my deck this spell card will allow me to draw two more cards." Chloe announced before retrieving Torapart, Spell Striker, Scarred Warrior, Gearfried and Extra Veilor from her graveyard and returning them to her deck, or her extra deck in Scarred Warrior's case, and, once she shuffled the deck, she drew two cards.

"Draw all the cards you want, it won't help you!" Otto mocked her as she looked at her two new cards.

"Maybe not but this card will definitely help." Chloe said as she played the card. "I summon Magician's Valkyrie in attack mode!" Chloe announced as the female spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1600/1800). "And like it or not my new monster isn't effected by Nightmare Wheel, go Magician's Valkyrie and attack his defense!" Chloe commanded and the female magician pointed her staff at the defense monster, she let loose with a mighty ball of energy which collided with Otto's facedown monster. "Well, so much for that monster." Chloe said as Valkyrie looked up….only to see Cyber Phoenix (4/1200/1600), who's attack subsequently increased to 1700 thanks to the seal, once the smoke cleared.

"Whilst it's true that your Magician isn't affected by Nightmare Wheel there's more than one way to defend against your forces." Otto said with a grin.

"Fine, I end my turn." Chloe said before bracing herself for Nightmare Wheel's effect, Otto drew his card and as soon as he did the wheel span again unleashing the energy blast against Chloe, she almost lost her balance as a result but managed to keep it.

C: 6000

O: 6200

"That damn wheel is starting to get annoying!" Chloe grunted in pain and Otto chuckled when he heard her say that.

"Good, you know how I feel about you and Osiris Red Students in general!" Otto said with a grin before looking at his newly drawn card. "And speaking of pests I think now is as good a time as any to take out your new monster; I summon Blue Thunder T-45 in attack mode!" Otto played the card and the white plane with the blue windshield appeared on the field (4/1700/1000) and its attack increased to 2200 almost immediately thanks to the seal. "Blue Thunder, strike down Magician's Valkyrie!" Otto commanded and the plane took flight before bombarding the magician with bombs, Chloe shielded herself from the blast as her life-points took a hit.

C: 5400

O: 6200

"But wait, there's more!" Otto said with a grin as Blue Thunder returned to his side of the field and Arcane Barrier gained its first counter. "You see, when Blue Thunder destroys a monster I can summon a Thunder Option Token." Otto announced as a compartment on Blue Thunder opened up and from it emerged a smaller aircraft (4/1500/1500) and the token's attack increased to 2000 thanks to the seal. "As a downside however I can't use my Thunder Option token as a tribute."

"_But that won't stop him from using it in a Synchro Summon as soon as he draws another Tuner Monster." _Chloe thought as she waited for Otto to finish his move.

"And to top of my move I switch Cyber Phoenix to attack mode!" Otto announced as he switched Cyber Phoenix's position and the mechanical bird stood up. "Why? It's simple; as long as Cyber Phoenix is in attack mode I can negate the effects of spell or trap cards that target Machine type monsters." Otto explained with a grin. "It's your move." Otto announced and Chloe drew her card.

"Otto just made a big mistake." Brandon realized and the other students turned to him. "Cyber Phoenix's protection effect only works if the card in question targets one machine type monster."

"So if she plays something like Lightning Vortex Otto's entire strategy is toast!" Marcus realized with a grin. "Speaking of food does anyone know where a hotdog vender is?"

"Marcus, you've spent your spending money remember?" Brandon pointed out and Marcus groaned. "So for now just focus on giving Chloe the support she needs."

"I wouldn't get too comfy with those cards if I where you." Chloe said before looking at her drawn card and then towards the card she set earlier. _"It's a long shot but maybe my trap can help." _Chloe thought before activating her trap card. "I activate my trap card Command of the Sword."

"Command of the what, how exactly will that card help?" Otto demanded and Chloe grinned.

"Basically as long as this trap is on the field you have to reveal your draw during your draw phase and if it's a spell or trap card I can activate one of two effects, either I can force you to discard it or I can destroy one Spell or Trap on the field." Chloe explained with a grin before glancing over at the hologram Otto's Nightmare Wheel. "In other words as soon as you draw another Spell or Trap Card your Nightmare Wheel's toast."

"You're assuming that I'll draw a Spell or Trap card before your life-points hit zero." Otto mocked her with a grin. "A valiant effort but it places too much trust in luck rather than skill."

"Yeah, so what if it does?" Chloe asked as she picked up a card. "Oh and don't think your Cyber Phoenix con protect your monsters for long, I summon Blade Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the knight in blue armor appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1600/1000).

"If we weren't playing in the Seal than your pathetic knight would be able to beat my phoenix but as it stands your monster can't even hope to defeat my forces!" Otto taunted her and Chloe grinned.

"You jump to conclusions so much that I'm beginning to wonder if it's your main source of exercise!" Chloe taunted him as she picked up a card and Otto growled. "But don't take my word for it; I'll just let Rush Recklessly do the talking for me!" Chloe added as she played the card and the knight's attack increased to 2300. "Blade Knight, attack Cyber Phoenix!" Chloe commanded and the knight charged towards Cyber Phoenix before decapitating it with his sword.

C: 5400

O: 5500

"So what if you destroyed once monster? Not only do I have more but because you destroyed Cyber Phoenix I can draw a new card." Otto announced as he sent his monster to the graveyard and drew a card, when he saw it he grinned. "You should really have targeted either Blue Thunder or Thunder Option token you know?"

"Why? So you wouldn't have taken as much damage as you did?" Chloe asked and Otto smirked.

"Well there's that part obviously but there's also the fact that the card I just drew was a Spell Card." Otto taunted her and Chloe's eyes widened. "If you had let me draw this card normally you could've destroyed Nightmare Wheel and save yourself a world of hurt." Otto added and Chloe gritted her teeth before bracing herself for Nightmare Wheel.

"I end my turn." Chloe announced and Otto drew his card.

"Only someone like Otto would taunt his opponent over the fact that he happened to draw a Spell Card." Lance muttered under his breath as Otto revealed the identity of his card which, to Chloe's dismay, was a monster card and the wheel started spinning again blasting Chloe with its energy.

C: 4900

O: 5500

"And to keep up the torment I'll equip Blue Thunder with the Spell Card I drew last turn, go Break! Draw!" Otto activated the card and Blue Thunder started glowing. "As you may remember from Theresa's first Semi-Final duel this Spell Card lets me draw a card every time Blue Thunder destroys a monster."

"And I also remember the fact that Break Draw is destroyed at the end of the third turn after it's activated." Chloe pointed out and Otto frowned.

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, now Blue Thunder I command you to crush that pathetic knight!" Otto commanded and Blue Thunder took flight again before bombarding Blade Knight with its bombs.

C: 4300

O: 5500

"And as you know when Blue Thunder destroys a monster I can summon a Thunder Option Token!" Otto added as another small aircraft appeared on the field and its attack increased to 2000 thanks to the seal, Otto swiftly drew his card due to Break! Draw!'s effect. "Oh look, another Spell Card that you could've destroyed Nightmare Wheel with!"

"Just end your turn already!" Chloe snapped at Otto and Otto did so, Chloe drew her card and looked at it. _"Level Up, great all I need now is for him to draw a Spell or Trap card." _Chloe thought before adding the card to her hand and bracing herself. "I pass for now." Chloe announced and Otto drew his card, he wasted no time in identifying it as a monster and Chloe screamed in pain as Nightmare Wheel's energy blasted her.

C: 3800

O: 5500

"_I have more than enough firepower to finish the bitch off and put her out of my misery!" _Otto thought with a sadistic grin. _"However it's just too much fun to watch her squirm!" _Otto thought before adding the monster to his hand. "I end my turn." Otto announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Great, a dead draw." _Chloe thought with a frown as she looked at her copy off Gearfried the Iron Knight that she had returned to her deck earlier in the duel. "I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown!" Chloe set the monster she had drawn down and the facedown card's hologram appeared on the field. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Otto drew his card.

"WHAT, THIS CANNOT BE?" Otto yelled out upon seeing the card that he had drawn.

"Are you going to show me the card or not?" Chloe asked and Otto growled before revealing it to be the Trap Card Absolute End. "Well in that case I'll use Command of the Sword's effect to destroy Nightmare Wheel!" Chloe announced and the wheel shattered freeing the two elves, they looked a little worse for wear but relieved to be free of their imprisonment, that wasn't the only card to shatter however as Break Draw's time on the field was up.

"Don't forget that the monster's still in attack mode!" Otto said with a grin before pointing to Blue Thunder. "Blue Thunder, annihilate her Elves! " Otto commanded and the plane took flight before bombarding Chloe's elves with its bombs.

C: 3500

O: 5500

"And as you should know by now Blue Thunder's effect lets me summon another Thunder Option Token!" Otto announced as a third Thunder Option Token appeared on the field and arcane barrier got its second counter. "These tokens have more than enough attack power to wipe you out Richardson, Thunder Option number 1 attack her defense monster!" Otto commanded and the aircraft fired its laser at the monster, revealed to be Gearfried, which was quickly destroyed. "Thunder Option Tokens, KILL HER!" The two remaining aircraft took flight and flew towards Chloe….

"Sorry Otto but you're not the only duelist with Confusion Chaff!" Chloe activated her trap and Otto's eyes widened as one of the aircraft changed its course instead firing at the other Option Token, the other monster retaliated with its own firepower destroying them both.

"THAT DOES IT!" Otto growled as he clenched his fists in rage, he swiftly picked up one of his drawn Spell Cards and played it. "First, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy that nuisance of a trap card!" Otto played the card and a tornado washed over the field destroying Command of the Sword. "Next turn you're finished!" Otto announced as he discarded a card due to his hand being too big and Chloe drew her card.

"I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Old Vindictive Magician!" Chloe played the card she drew and after she retrieved the card the old mage reappeared on the field. "He's not sticking around though; by offering him alongside Arcane Barrier I can draw two cards from my deck." The two cards disappeared from the field and Chloe drew two cards from her deck. "Sorry Otto but your monsters won't be around long enough to damage my life points."

"Oh, they won't? And how do you expect to prevent that?" Otto asked in a mocking tone, Chloe turned one of her drawn cards around and Otto's eyes widened. "LIGHTNING VORTEX!"

"That's right!" Chloe said and, after she discarded a card, lightning struck Otto's two machines destroying them both. "And that's not all; I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and one of the key cards in her deck appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1000/1000).

"Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to let that little runt get strong enough to summon her stronger form?" Otto asked with a scoff ignoring the death glare Chloe was giving him due to the insult towards her monster. "No wonder you're in Osiris Red."

"Yeah, so what if I am in Osiris Red? Theresa told me she started out in Osiris Red and you don't give her shit for it!" Chloe pointed out before picking up another card. "You know what? You won't get a chance to stop me either because I activate Level Up which I use to Level up my Silent Magician to her strongest form and my strongest monster!" Chloe played the card and Otto's eyes widened as he saw the magician grow until she reached her strongest form (8/3500/1000).

"_Finally, I was wondering when I'd get a chance to show my stuff!" _Silent Magician commented, out loud, with a grin.

"Did Chloe's Silent Magician just talk or am I going crazy?" Lance asked Brandon and Marcus who were equally as confused.

"Well if you are going crazy then you must be sharing the same delusion with everyone else in the stadium." Brandon pointed out as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"I don't care if that Silent Magician can drink everyone in the arena under the table; Chloe's going to win this!" Marcus shouted gleefully…..before a massive sweat drop rolled down his head. "Wow, I did not expect to say that sentence out loud today."

"Silent Magician, it's time you got your revenge on Otto for nearly destroying you!" Chloe said and Silent Magician grinned before pointing her staff at Otto, she charged up an energy ball before firing it at Otto who screamed in pain as the attack hit.

C: 3500

O: 2000

Once the smoke cleared Otto stood there glaring at Chloe and her magician, Chloe was ecstatic and held up one of her fingers. "Just one more turn Otto and that's all I'll need to beat you!" Chloe said confidently. "Go ahead and take…"

"_Chloe, wait! Set the trap card you drew two turns ago." _Silent Magician interrupted her and Chloe looked at her hand.

"_You mean Spellbinding Circle? Okay, if you say so." _Chloe responded as she picked up the card. "On second thought I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the card down and Otto drew his card….and started laughing maniacally.

"Your doomed you Osiris Red Bitch! And I have just the card to ensure it!" Otto said gleefully before activating a card. "First I activate Monster Reincarnation, by discarding a card from my hand this Spell Card will allow me to return one monster in my graveyard to my hand and my card of choice is the Cyber Dragon that was destroyed at the beginning of the duel!" Otto discarded the card and retrieved the monster from his graveyard; once he added it to his hand he played another card. "Now to ensure your doom, I activate Power Bond!"

"NO! With that he can bring out Cyber End Dragon!" Lance yelled out and Chloe seemed to realize it as well, sure enough Otto sent the three Cyber Dragons to the graveyard and the three headed Cyber Dragon appeared on the field ready for battle (10/4000/2800) and almost immediately it's attack power shot up, first to 4500 due to the Seal's Power and then to 8500 due to Power Bond's power, with those two power boosts the dragon almost doubled in size it's heads nearly touching the ceiling.

"Sorry bitch, it's been fun but I have more souls to capture!" Otto chuckled evilly as he prepared his assault. "Be sure to say hello to my brother for me, Cyber End Dragon! Finish this charade now!" Otto commanded and the three dragon heads charged up their laser blasts.

"_There's gotta be something I can do!" _Chloe thought as she racked her brain for ideas. _"Even if I use Spellbinding Circle that won't ensure my…wait a minute, Alex used Power Bond during his duel with Theresa and it's side effect caused him a lot of damage, what was it again?" _Chloe thought before it dawned on her. _"Yeah, I remember now!" _Chloe thought before looking up at Cyber End Dragon. "Bring it on Otto!"

"Is she crazy!" Marcus yelled out as Cyber End Dragon prepared to launch its attack.

"Gladly, Cyber End Dragon I command you to open fire!" Otto commanded and the dragon's heads launched their attacks at Silent Magician….

"I knew you'd fall for that, GO SPELLBINDING CIRCLE!" Chloe activated her trap and Otto's eyes widened as a pentagram appeared in front of Silent Magician, it pushed the three attacks back ensnaring it's self around Cyber End Dragon's waist, struggle as it might Cyber End Dragon simply couldn't budge. "And we both know Power Bond's side effect, don't we Otto?"

"I'll take damage equal to Cyber End Dragon's attack as I end my turn!" Otto said with a look of shock on his face, which quickly turned to a look of rage. "I will not….I WILL NOT LOSE TO A LOWLY OSIRIS RED BITCH! DO YOU HEAR ME?" Otto yelled at him and Chloe just glared at him.

"You keep called me that, you want to know how much effect it has on me?" Chloe asked as her hair overshadowed her eyes, she then looked up with a glare that she had previously used on her own dad. "None, none whatsoever and you want to know why? I was called much worse things by my own father whilst I was growing up." Chloe spat to the side as she recounted this story. "You know what's worse? One of the last things he said to me before I defeated him in an Orichalcos Duel was that he considered me an accident that he never wanted me in the first place, and you know what? Despite everything that bastard's done and said to me, despite the nightmares I still have about his about his abuse I'm standing here as a Battle City Semi-Finalist rather than cooped up in some mental asylum."

"What's your point?" Otto demanded and Chloe clenched her fist.

"You want to know my point! I had to go through hell to get where I am today but you? You had everything handed to you on a silver platter, including your membership in Obelisk Blue and why? As a friend once said you're a stuck up asshole with too much money." Chloe said as her eyes narrowed. "But there's still one thing that puzzles me, despite all that you've been given in life you aligned yourself with a criminal group, broke into my hotel room, destroyed my original deck and let's not forget the fact that you put two Duel Academy students in the hospital, including your own brother, what I want to know is this, why did you do it?"

"Why, you want to know why?" Otto scoffed as he folded his arms. "You went on two long winded rants just to ask me a simple question?"

"I'm still waiting for an answer." Chloe said impatiently and Otto growled.

"Duel Academy is supposed to be reserved for the elite like myself, Theresa and Tyler BUT NO! They had to play nice and let people like you into the school!" Otto said as he pointed his finger at Chloe. "I first found out about the organization the day after your duel against Theresa, they offered me a place in the organization alongside a copy of the Seal as long as I told them which Duel Academy students would be competing at Battle City, they were so happy with my info that they gave me the card you see before you!" Otto said as he pointed towards Cyber End Dragon. "I joined the organization to purge Duel Academy of weaklings like you, Kimberly and my dear brother and I don't regret a single minute off it!"

"So basically you joined the organization because Duel Academy dared to be about more than the so-called elites honing their skills, it dared to be about rookies like me learning the game?" Chloe taunted him and Otto growled. "What's the matter? Don't enjoy being taunted back?"

"I end my turn." Otto said and as he did one of the Cyber End Dragon's heads turned on its master and blasted him with an energy blast.

C: 2500

O: 0000

"And the winner of the match is Chloe Richardson!" Bill announced over the cheering crowd, Chloe waited for the seal to close in around an unconscious Otto before returning her cards to her deck and deactivating her duel disk, she hopped off the podium and was greeted by a proud looking Theresa.

"Nice work Chloe." Theresa complemented her and Chloe smiled. "It must've felt good to get that stuff off your chest."

"More than you know." Chloe said with a sigh as she looked at her copy of Silent Magician Level 8. "Thanks again Theresa."

"No problem." Theresa said before frowning. "I'm up against Axel next, and that's bound to be a hell of a challenge."

"And I get to face the winner of that match." Chloe said as she watched the paramedics carry Otto away on a stretcher. "Theresa, if we end up facing each other again….don't go easy on me and let the best duelist win."

"You have my word." Theresa said with a nod of understanding before Chloe headed to her locker room. _"That's if I beat Axel." _Theresa thought.


	37. Clash of the Titans

Whilst the Semi-Finals where going on and unbeknownst to the remaining Battle City Semi-Finalists, or anyone else in the city for that matter, Michael and the leader of the organization was watching the Semi-Finals of Battle City via a Widescreen TV in the bosses' office, the leader turned off the TV when Cyber End Dragon's blast hit Otto with a scowl on his face.

"It seems we are all that's left of this organization." Michael commented with a frown. "Should I take my remaining men and storm Madison Square Garden?"

"No, it's too risky." The leader said dismissively as he took a sip of his wine. "After that stunt Otto pulled the police will be on high alert for anyone who has duel disks similar to his, my suggestion? Lure them here."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Michael asked and the leader grinned.

"Otto should still have Andreas's soul card on him, sneak into the hospital, steal it and when they come to claim it, let's face it they're bound to do that, call the boy on this number and tell them to meet you at the dockyards." The leader responded before handing over a piece of paper with the number on it, he quickly memorized it and turned to leave.

"I will have my men track their movements in civilian gear." Michael said as he left the room. "That way there's less chance of them arousing suspicion." Michael added before leaving the office.

*meanwhile at the arena*

"Excuse me, coming through, sorry!" Chloe said repeatedly as she made her way to were the other Duel Academy students were sitting and ignoring the odd looks that her rant towards the end of her duel with Otto had earned her; she eventually made her way over to them and sat next to Lance.

"Was your locker room to comfy for you?" Lance asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Nah, too boring more like it." Chloe responded as she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Besides I want to see who I'm going to face in the next round up close and personal."

"Yeah, I guess that's fair enough." Lance admitted with a shrug as he checked his watch. "Only five minutes to go before Theresa's match with the undefeated Axel Loather."

"You mean formerly undefeated." Marcus pointed out as he folded his arms. "Or did you forget that Eddie won the Battle Royal?"

"You haven't been watching the news, have you Marcus?" Brandon asked and Marcus shook his head. "Axel made a statement to the press in between the Battle Royal and Chloe's match; he basically said that the Battle Royal was a formality and not a true match."

"He'd say anything to keep his streak alive in the eyes of the fans." Marcus scoffed as he shook his head. "I'd love to see him try to spin how Theresa beating him didn't count."

"Marcus, first of all Axel helped me rebuild my deck so can't you be a little easier on him?" Chloe asked and Marcus rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Second you'd probably say the same thing in his shoes."

"No, I wouldn't actually." Marcus said as he folded his arms. "My dad hammered into my head the saying "big egos lead to bigger disappointments" growing up, kind of a family motto I guess, what I'm getting at is that if I had an undefeated streak and it was broken I wouldn't spread bullshit about it, though you are right about the first part." Marcus explained.

"Yeah but you're not the National Champion of your home country." Brandon pointed out with a frown. "Axel was likely being told what to say by his agent, whether or not he actually believes it is anyone's guess."

"And I'd tell my agent to take those words and shove them up his ass." Marcus said plainly and the other students, to the mention the teachers, face palmed. "What? What did I say?"

"Err; we would like to apologize for the choice words from former Battle City Semi-Finalist Marcus Reynolds." A news reporter said nervously and Marcus's eyes widened when he realized that he said that on air, without a second thought the cameraman pointed the camera to Chloe. "Ms. Richardson, any further comment regarding your speech to your opponent?"

"Okay that's enough." Lance said as he placed his hand in front of the camera and pushed it away. "Ms. Richardson declines a comment at this time so please fuck off." Lance added and the other teens face palmed.

"_Suddenly I'm glad he's eliminated from the tournament." _Jeff thought with a frown before spotting the two duelists in the next match approaching the arena. "You want something to focus on? Focus on the match that's about to start and not my students!"

"Err; yes that's a great idea." The reporter agreed before running off, Chloe let out a sigh of relief and grinned at Lance.

"Thanks for that, I've always been camera-shy." Chloe thanked him and Lance grinned in response, whilst that was going on Theresa and Axel was shuffling their decks ready for the next match.

"I'd say that I'll be the one to break your streak Axel." Theresa started as she finished shuffling her deck and loaded it into the deck compartment. "But I noticed that duelists tend to jinx themselves by saying that just before they face you so I won't say it."

"Indeed, even though you have already said it." Axel pointed out and Theresa kept her cool as he loaded his deck into his slot after shuffling them. "However this deck will take me to the final round and eventually the championship so don't be surprised when I beat you." Axel added as the two duelists drew their opening hands. "In any case I will allow you to make the opening move." Axel announced and Theresa drew her first card. _"Better I find out what deck she's using and formulate a strategy around it."_ Axel thought as Theresa looked over her opening hand.

"In that case I set two cards facedown and summon Axe Dragonite in attack mode!" Theresa played the cards and the purple, axe wielding dragon appeared on the field growling fiercely at Axel (4/2000/1200). "I end my turn at that." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card.

"So either Theresa's reusing her Kaiba deck from the Battle Royal or she's using her Dragon deck." Brandon mused to himself as he watched Axel consider his move. "Either way Axel's in for a hell of a fight if he wants to keep his undefeated streak alive."

"Well, I think it's time I took us to the home of the Gladiator Beasts!" Axel announced as the field spell slot on his duel disk opened up and he put the spell card in it. "I activate Coliseum – Cage of the Gladiator Beasts!" Axel announced as the scenery changed to the coliseum featured in Axel's previous duels.

"Do you ever get tired of being predictable?" Theresa asked and Axel chuckled in response before picking up a card.

"Not when my move is effective." Axel said as he played a card. "But for the sake of variety I activate the Spell Card Field Barrier!" Axel played the card and green dome covered the coliseum in its entirety. "This spell card allows me to protect my field spell from destruction as long as it remains on the field, however as a downside I can only have one copy of Field Barrier on the field at any given time but I have a way around that limitation." Axel said and Theresa raised an eyebrow.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Theresa asked clearly confused, Axel chuckled before playing a third spell card.

"Why with this Spell Card, Magic Reflector Unit!" Axel played the card and a large machine that looked like a cross between a cannon and a spider appeared on the field. "This spell card allows me to add a Spell Counter to Field Barrier and as long as that Spell Counter is on Field Barrier it cannot be destroyed." Axel explained as he sent Magic Reflector Unit to the graveyard.

"In short, Field Barrier and Coliseum – Cage of the Gladiator Beasts are here to stay until I can get rid of that spell counter." Theresa said and Axel nodded to confirm it. _"I knew Axel wouldn't go easy on me but the way he's protecting his field spell you'd have thought that he was dueling Eddie for the championship." _Theresa thought as Axel picked up a fourth and fifth card and set them down.

"I set a card facedown and a monster in defense mode that shall end my turn." Axel announced as he set the two cards and Theresa drew her card.

"_I don't like this, maybe he wants me to attack with Dragonite so that he can attack it when its effect forces it into defense mode."_ Theresa thought before looking at her hand. _"Unfortunately Axe Dragonite is the only monster I got so I may as well see what he has in store for me." _Theresa thought before pointing at Axel's defense monster. "Axe Dragonite, attack his defense now!" Theresa commanded and the dragon took flight before diving at the monster, what the monster was revealed to be puzzled Theresa as, rather than a Gladiator Beast like she was expecting, it was a small monkey (2/700/300) which was cut in half effortlessly by Axe Dragonite.

"My thanks Theresa, my destroying Test Ape you have allowed me to activate his effect." Axel announced as he picked up his deck. "This allows me to search through my deck for and Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Gladiator Beast monster from my deck, my card of choice is Gladiator Beast Andal!" Axel played the card and in Test Ape's place stood the one eyed bear from Axel's previous duels (4/1900/1500).

"And as a result of that Coliseum gets its first counter." Theresa added as Andal's attack increased to 2000, Axe Dragonite returned to Theresa's side of the field and knelt down quickly. "That was Axe Dragonite's effect, if it launches an attack it is forced into defense mode during the damage step."

"I am well aware of that." Axel said with a nod. "And before you ask me why I didn't summon one of the effect monsters with Test Ape's effect it's simple, it wouldn't have counted as tagging out."

"And you wouldn't be able to use that Beast's effect as a result." Theresa realized and Axel nodded. _"He probably has something stronger in his hand though, likely something that requires a tribute." _Theresa thought before looking at her hand. "I end my turn." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card.

"I activate Gladiator Beast's Respite, this allows me…" Axel started but Theresa interrupted him with her trap card.

"I know what it does by now Axel and you're not getting a chance to use it, I chain Respite with Dark Bribe!" Theresa activated her trap and grinned. "This allows me to negate the effect of a Spell or Trap card but in exchange you can draw one card."

"Valliant effort but not enough, I chain Dark Bribe with me own Counter Trap Card Parry!" Axel activated his trap and Theresa frowned as he returned the last monster in his hand to his deck. "By returning one Gladiator Beast in my hand I can negate the activation of Dark Bribe and destroy it." Axel explained as Andal charged towards the trap card's hologram and shattered it with a fist. "Now I can activate Respite…..oh…..it seems I used up the card I was going to use for Respite on Parry."

"And with no cards in your hand your spell's basically useless." Theresa added and Axel frowned before sending his trap and spell card to the graveyard.

"Doesn't mean I can't strike down your dragon, go Gladiator Beast Andal!" Axel commanded and the gladiator beast charged towards the dragon before taking its head off with a punch.

"Lucky for you my dragon was in defense mode, otherwise we'd both be out of a monster." Theresa pointed out and Axel nodded in acknowledgement.

"Indeed." Axel agreed as he instinctively went to look at his hand…..only to be reminded that he had unintentionally emptied it. "I end my turn." Axel announced and Theresa drew her card.

"Okay, since I'm feeling generous I'll activate my Card of Sanctity Spell card to allow us to draw until we have six cards in our hand." Theresa explained as she activated the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands, or in the case of Axel drew an entirely new hand due to previously emptying the hand, Theresa looked over her new cards and grinned. "Next I set another card facedown and I activate Heavy Storm!" Theresa activated the cards a storm brewed over the arena, due to the effect of Magic Reflector Unit however only the spider like cannon and Theresa's two facedown cards were destroyed.

"A wasted effort, all you ended up doing is destroying your own cards!" Axel pointed out once the storm passed, however once that happened two new monsters appeared on the field which strongly resembled Egyptian Statues. "That is unless that was your intention."

"You got it, the two cards I set where both copies of Statue of the Wicked and when that trap card is destroyed I am allowed to special summon a pair of wicked tokens (4/1000/1000)." Theresa explained before grinning. "Of course getting rid of Field Barrier's Spell Counter is an added benefit to the move." Theresa added and Axel raised an eyebrow.

"_Hmmm, she used Synchro monsters in her previous duels so it's a good bet that she'll use one of those tokens in a Synchro Summon, either that or she'll use them to tribute summon a Level 8 monster." _Axel thought with a frown before looking at his new hand. _"Fortunately her spell card benefited me as well, she just doesn't realize it."_

"I'm not done yet, as a follow up move I summon the Tuner monster Sword Master in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the topless male swordsman appeared on the field (3/1200/0). "As Eddie would say, I think it's time I gave one of my statues a tune up!" Theresa announced as Sword Master and one of the wicked tokens leapt into the air, Sword Master made a circle motion with his sword which turned into three green rings that quickly surrounded the token. "I tune Sword Master with one of my wicked tokens to Synchro Summon Lightning Warrior!" Theresa played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, once the flash faded the monster appeared on the field, it was a warrior in futuristic looking silver armor with blonde hair whose face was completely concealed (7/2400/1200).

"A Level 7 Synchro Monster with only 2400 attack points?" Axel asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Either he has an effect or you just wasted a powerful spell card."

"Oh believe me, he does." Theresa said with a grin. "Those six cards I just gave you? You're going to wish I never activated that Spell Card because when Lightning Warrior destroys a monster and sends it to the graveyard you lose three hundred life-points for each card in your hand, I count six so that's 1800 points of damage on top of the damage you'll suffer from my upcoming attack." Theresa explained and Axel's eyes widened as it dawned on him, she wasted no time in pointing too Lightning Warrior. "Lightning Warrior, attack Adal now!" The warrior charged towards the bear and punched it in the stomach, electricity passed from the two creatures and the bear was quickly electrocuted as was Axel but not to the same degree as the bear.

T: 8000

A: 5800

"You okay Axel?" Theresa asked as Lightning Warrior returned to her side of the field, the German teen winced still feeling the effects from both the attack and Lightning Warrior's effect, however once the pain passed he grinned broadly.

"Never better, in fact I believe you may be the one to break my streak." Axel explained in a tone of voice that thoroughly confused Theresa.

"Either I'm misinterpreting what you're saying or you actually want me to beat you." Theresa asked and Axel nodded. "But why do you want that? You're the undefeated champion of your home country."

"That's just it, back home in Berlin no one would give me this much of a challenge." Axel explained and Theresa raised an eyebrow. "My parents are quite wealthy, how else do you think that a teenager could get his hands on cards like the Gladiator Beasts? However when I started my dueling career two years ago my parents bribed my opponents offering them a sizable deposit in their bank accounts if they would throw the match and they always did."

"So let me get this straight, you won the title because your parents bribed your opponents?" Theresa asked and Axel shook his head.

"Not quite, I found out about it shortly after I won my first regional tournament as one of my opponents came clean to me after the duel, I confronted my parents as I wanted to earn my victories rather than buy them and after some convincing they agreed to stop the bribes." Axel explained before frowning. "However my opponents continued throwing matches left right and center, in fact the only person who didn't throw his match was, ironically enough, Otto Freshier back when the Freshier twins still lived in Berlin, my parents insisted that they had nothing to do with it so I did a bit of digging and found that that the majority of my opponents from the National Championships onward had parents who worked for my father's company and had thrown the matches out of fear that my father would dock the pay of their fathers, I assured them that that wouldn't happen but they never brought it."

"So no matter what you tried no one would give you a decent challenge?" Theresa asked and Axel nodded. "That must've been tough, especially since there is no way to better yourself if you win all the time."

"That is precisely why I chose to participate in this tournament, out of the hope that someone would defeat me and break my undefeated streak." Axel said with a frown. "And I don't mean any offense to my previous opponents by saying this but you are the only one that's come close to beating me."

"Well, in that case I'll be proud to be the one to break the streak." Theresa said as she picked up and set a card. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card without a second thought.

"What do you think guys? Do you buy Axel's story?" Chloe asked and the other students rubbed their chins in thought.

"Well he's not lying about his parents; my dad's company is business partners with their company." Brandon explained with a frown. "I doubt they'd dock the wages of any of their employees without good reason though, my dad's careful about who he enters a business relationship with."

"It's still a valid concern on their part though; let's face it the state of the ecomany is far from great." Marcus pointed out with a thoughtful look on his face. "If I was in his shoes I'd be looking for a decent challenge and someone to defeat me as well."

"Just because I want my streak to end doesn't mean I won't fight to keep it, I activate another Gladiator Beast's Respite!" Axel played the card and after returning one of his drawn monsters to his deck and shuffling it he drew three cards. "Now I set three cards facedown and activate Emergency Provisions, sending two of the cards I just set to the graveyard so that I may increase my life-points by 2000." Axel played the cards and two of the set cards disappeared as quickly as they arrived on the field increasing Axel's life-points to 7800.

"Not a problem, my Lightning Warrior will bring your life-points back down again." Theresa said confidently and Axel grinned before picked up another card and turning it around, Theresa's eyes widened when she saw it. "Lightning Vortex?"

"Indeed, primitive yes but it certainly gets the job done, especially when you have a hand as large as I do." Axel nodded before playing the card and after he discarded one of his cards lightning struck Lightning Warrior and the remaining Wicked Token destroying them both. "How ironic, a monster with lightning in its name got destroyed by Lightning Vortex." Axel chuckled as Theresa sent Lightning Warrior to the graveyard. "Now onto more serious matters, I summon Gladiator Beast Darius in attack mode!" Axel played the card and the horse like Gladiator Beast appeared on the field (4/1700/300) and its attack increased to 1800 thanks to Axel's field spell. "Darius, avenge your fallen brother by attacking her life-points directly!" Axel commanded and the horse galloped towards Theresa and struck her in the chest with his head.

T: 6200

A: 7800

Axel waited for Theresa to get to her feet before continuing with his move, once Theresa was on her feet Axel picked up Gladiator Beast Darius and the monster disappeared from the field. "And thus the cycle begins; I tag out Darius to Special Summon the beast I returned to my deck for Parry's effect two turns ago, Gladiator Beast Bestari!" Axel searched through his deck once he sent Darius back to his deck and played the card, the winged Gladiator Beast appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1500/800) and as the Coliseum got another counter the beast's attack increased to 1700. "I'm sure you're well acquainted with this card's effect by now!" Axel commented as the beast flew towards the facedown card Theresa set last turn and destroyed it with its sword.

"_So much for Deck Devastation Virus, if I had been able to bring back Axe Dragonite this trap could've done some serious damage."_ Theresa thought with a frown as she sent the trap card to her graveyard.

"Now, just to be on the safe side I activate the Spell Card Terraforming, this will allow me to search through my deck for a Field Spell Card of my choice and I chose another Coliseum." Axel picked up his deck and searched through it, he found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand. "That shall end my turn." Axel announced once he reshuffled his deck and Theresa drew her card.

"Well in that case I'll play it safe." Theresa said as she set the monster she had drawn. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card, he looked at the card and added it to his hand.

"Suit yourself, Bestari I command you to attack her facedown monster!" Axel commanded and the winger beast flew towards the monster, which much to Axel's confusion was a robot bunny rabbit (2/800/400) which was quickly destroyed. "What on Earth was that?"

"That was Mecca Bunny; don't let its cute appearance fool you because his effects are quite lethal." Theresa explained as she held up the monster. "For starters I can target one card on the field and its owner takes 500 points of damage, my target is Field Barrier." Theresa explained and Axel winced as his life-points dropped to 7300. "Next when Mecca Bunny is destroyed by battle and sent to the graveyard I can special summon another copy of the monster face down in defense mode, in other words I get to use his effect again!" Theresa explained as the monster appeared face down on her side of the field.

"Don't forget the fact that since you Special Summoned a monster from your deck my Coliseum gets another counter." Axel pointed out as Bestari's attack increased to 1800, he then picked up Bestari and returned it to his deck and the beast disappeared from the field. "And whilst we're on the subject I tag out Bestari in order to summon Gladiator Beast Equeste in attack mode!" Axel played the card and in Bestari's place stood an armored centaur armed with a sword and a shield (4/1600/1200) and as the Coliseum got another counter the centaur's attack increased to 2100, once that was done Axel shuffled his deck and retrieved a card from his graveyard. "When Equeste is summoned by the effect of another Gladiator Beast I can take one Gladiator Beast in my graveyard and return it to my hand." Axel explained as he returned Andal to his hand. "I set a card facedown and that ends my turn." Axel announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_Okay, setting Mecca Bunny was definitely not one of my brightest ideas." _Theresa thought with a frown as she added her card to her hand. _"Still, it's given me some decent tribute fodder." _Theresa thought before flip summoning Mecca Bunny. "Mecca Bunny's first effect activates when it's flip summoned, this time I'm targeting your facedown card." Theresa explained and Axel winced as his life-points dropped to 6300. "And before you ask, no I don't intend to leave Mecca Bunny on the field because I'm sacrificing him in order to summon Prime Material Dragon in attack mode!" Theresa swapped out the cards and Mecca Bunny disappeared from the field, in its place an orange dragon with four wings appeared on the field (6/2400/2000).

"Impressive monster but your dragon is only slightly stronger than Equeste." Axel pointed out with a smirk. "Unless that thing has an effect I'm not impressed."

"Actually it has two effects, for starters any effect that would decrease your life-points instead increases it by the same amount, second if you activate any Spell or Trap Cards that would destroy Prime Material or any other monsters on my side of the field all I have to do is discard a card from my hand and that card's effect is negated and the card is destroyed." Theresa explained with a grin. "So don't think your facedown card can protect you, go Prime Material Dragon!" Theresa commanded and the dragon took flight before dive-bombing at Axel…

"I'm afraid you're wrong about my facedown card Theresa!" Axel cut her off as he activated his facedown card. "I activate my Quick-Play Spell Card Indomitable Gladiator Beast! How it works is simple, all I have to do is target Equeste and he gains 500 attack points until your end phase!" Axel explained as Equeste's attack increased to 2600, the centaur charged towards Prime Material Dragon and decapitated it with his sword.

T: 6000

A: 6800

"Let me guess, you're about to summon another monster from your deck?" Theresa asked and Axel nodded before returning Equeste to his deck and searching through it.

"Naturally, and the monster I chose is Gladiator Beast Sanmite in attack mode!" Axel played the card and a new Gladiator Beast appeared on the field, this one was a silver humanoid Sabre Tooth Tiger wearing jet black armor and carrying a sword and shield (3/1600/1200) and as the Coliseum gained another counter the monster's attack points increased to 2200. "I would tell you the effect his gains from being tagged out but it unfortunately won't come into play yet." Axel explained and Theresa frowned.

"_I don't like the sound of that, the last time he said something along those lines his monster had the ability to attack twice." _Theresa thought as she thought back to Axel's first Semi-Final duel against Mike, she quickly picked up a card and set it. "I set one card facedown and that will end my turn." Theresa announced and Axel drew a card. "I activate Thunder of Ruler, now for this turn only you can't conduct your Battle Phase." Theresa explained as her trap card flipped up, Axel frowned at this piece of news and picked up a card.

"Well in that case I'll bring back Gladiator Beast Andal to the field and end my turn." Axel announced as the humanoid bear reappeared on the field, almost as soon as he did Andal's attack increased to 2500 due to Axel's field spell and Theresa drew her card.

"I'm beginning to worry about Axel's field spell guys." Chloe admitted as she watched the duel. "Does that thing even have a limitation in terms of how many counters it can hold?"

"No, it doesn't." Hamden told her and Chloe turned to him. "That's part of what makes Axel's deck as lethal as it is, his Gladiator Beasts have the potential to have unlimited attack power and there's little Theresa can do about it."

"Don't worry about Theresa, she'll find a way out of this mess I just know it." Brandon reassured her and Chloe smiled.

"Yeah, so what if Axel's monsters have access to potentially unlimited power, so what if Axel has more pro-league experience than all of us combined, so what if Axel has the lead…" Lance said only to get punched in the back of the head by Brandon.

"Lance, Chloe's right you do suck at being motivational." Brandon said as storm clouds formed over his head, whilst that was being on Theresa was getting ready to play a spell.

"I activate Pot of Avarice, in exchange for returning five monsters that are currently in my graveyard to my deck this Spell Card will allow me to draw twice." Theresa played the card and retrieved Axe Dragonite, Sword Master, Lightning Warrior and her two Mecha Bunnies before returning them to her deck, or in the case of Lightning Warrior her extra deck, once that and the reshuffling of her deck was done she drew twice and sent Pot of Avarice to the graveyard. "You're coliseum's about to come crashing down."

"A bold claim, but how do you plan to back it up?" Axel asked and Theresa grinned.

"With this, I summon Chiron the Mage in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the armored centaur appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/1000) and when Axel saw the card he frowned before folding his arms.

"Nice try but you can only use Chiron's effect once per turn and due to Field Barrier's effect you can only use it on one card." Axel pointed out as Theresa discarded a card from her hand.

"Just wait and see, like you said I can only use Chiron's effect of Field Barrier so I'll do just that!" Theresa said and Chiron threw the arm carrying the staff up, a pulse emanated from it shattering the barrier surrounding the coliseum. "Now the stage is set for my next card, go Mystical Space Typhoon!" Theresa played the card and a tornado washed over the field, whilst Axel shielded himself he found time to discard one of the cards in his hand and Theresa grinned. "Your field spell is destroyed and your monsters' strength goes with…." Theresa started but her eyes widened when she saw that the storm had subsided and the coliseum was still standing.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? MYSTICAL SPACE TYPHOON SHOULD'VE DESTROYED COLISEUM!" Marcus shouted from the sidelines and Axel chuckled.

"Remember when I activated Terraforming's effect a couple of turns ago?" Axel asked and Theresa nodded. "When I said just in case I wasn't referring to the possibility of the Field Spell being destroyed, you see as long as I can discard another copy of Coliseum from my hand I can protect my field spell from destruction." Axel explained and Theresa frowned before picking up one of the cards she drew.

"I set one card facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the card and Axel drew his card. _"At least I know one of the field spell's weaknesses, eventually he'll have to draw his third Coliseum and when he does I'll find a way to destroy the copy on the field thus forcing him to discard it…if I last that long."_ Theresa thought as Axel played a card.

"I start my turn by activating my own Card of Sanctity!" Axel played the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands. "Now Sanmite, attack Chiron the Mage!" Axel commanded and the beast warrior charged towards Chiron before cutting him in half with his sword and bringing Theresa's life-points down to 5600, once Theresa sent her monster to the graveyard Axel pointed to Andal. "Andal, attack her life-points directly!" Axel commanded and the bear charged towards Theresa who activated her trap just before the attack hit. "Well, it seems the tides have turned in….wait a minute, why hasn't your life-points decreased?"

"You can thank my Defense Draw trap card for that." Theresa said as she pointed to her activated trap. "This trap card reduces any damage I would've taken just now to zero and in addition to that I get to draw an additional card." Theresa explained before drawing another card bringing her hand total to seven, Axel frowned as Theresa sent her trap card to the graveyard.

"Smart move, by saving your trap card for when you'd suffer the most damage you kept our life-points close." Axel said as he picked up Sanmite and returned the monster to his deck. "However by letting me destroy Chiron you've allowed me to tag out Sanmite, his replacement monster is the mighty Gladiator Beast Darius!" Axel played the card and the horse like Gladiator Beast reappeared on the field and as soon as it appeared on the field the Coliseum gained another counter causing Axel's monster's attack points to rise to 2400 and 2600 respectively. "But I am not done with my special summons from my deck, you see when Darius is Special Summoned in this manner I can Special Summon another Gladiator Beast from the deck, however I cannot use that Gladiator Beast's effect and as soon as Darius leaves the field that monster is gone as well." Axel explained and Theresa frowned.

"Why do I get the feeling I know what you're going to summon?" Theresa asked as Axel searched through his deck, he found the card he was looking for and played it.

"Probably because you've seen me use similar tactics in two duels already, my monster of choice is Gladiator Beast Laquari!" Axel played the card and the tiger like Gladiator Beast appeared on the field (4/1800/400) and as the coliseum gained another counter the three beasts' attack increased to 2500, 2700 and 2700 respectively. "Now to summon my best monster, I contact fusion Laquari, Andal and Darius in order to summon Gladiator Beast Heriklinos!" Axel played the card and the three beasts disappeared as Axel had returned them to his deck, in the place of Andal stood Axel's strongest monster in all its glory (8/3000/2800) and thanks to the Coliseum's effect the beast's attack increased to 3800.

"Oh crap." Theresa muttered under her breath as she looked up at the monster. _"What's worse is the fact that he has six new cards to discard if I try to destroy it with a spell or trap card and not many of the effect monsters in my Kaiba deck destroy monsters." _Theresa thought as she somehow maintained her poker face.

"I end my turn at that." Axel announced and Theresa drew her card without a second thought.

"Well, she's doomed, looks like Chloe's facing Axel in the next round." Marcus said plainly only to; once again, find himself on the receiving end of a painful headlock this time however it was courtesy of Brandon.

"Would you care to rephrase that?" Brandon asked as Marcus struggled to get out of the headlock.

"Brandon I agree with him, are you going to put me in a headlock?" Chloe asked and Brandon hesitated before letting go off the headlock. "As much as I hate to admit it in his previous duels, the ones we've seen anyway, whenever he summons Heriklinos that opponent's days are numbered."

"No offense to his previous opponents but Axel was out of their league." Brandon pointed out as he sat back down. "No matter what Mike or Ray tried Axel had a counter for everything; Theresa on the other hand has had a pretty even match against Axel so far."

"Yeah, so far being the operative phrase." Marcus pointed out with a frown. "Okay, we know Heriklinos's effect will negate the activation off and destroy any spells or traps Theresa tries to play, that much is obvious, but does that apply to effect monsters?"

"No, it doesn't." Jeff answered with a thoughtful look on his face. "Brandon, you know Theresa's decks almost as well as she does so does she have any effect monsters in this deck that could help in this situation?" Jeff asked and Brandon shrugged.

"I never got a good luck at her Kaiba deck, as strong as it is it's also a constant work in progress." Brandon answered with a frown. "For example cards like the Mecha Bunnies and Prime Material Dragon where absent from previous versions of this deck so the only way to get a definitive answer from her is to ask her herself."

"And somehow I doubt that she would be willing to reveal any potential strategy she has in mind whilst Axel is in earshot." Chloe added and the other students nodded in agreement. "We'd better just hope that she can somehow defeat Axel."

"_This move is risky to say the least." _Theresa thought as she looked over her new cards. _"But what other option do I have?" _Theresa thought before playing one of the cards. "I activate Lightning Vortex, now by discarding a card from my hand this Spell Card will do away with Heriklinos."

"I'm afraid not, I discard one card from my hand to negate Lightning Vortex's effect." Axel discarded the card and lightning struck Heriklinos, however the mighty monster survived the attack with a mighty roar, apparently unfazed by this Theresa played another Spell Card and Dark Hole's Hologram appeared on the field. "Sorry but I can activate Heriklinos's effect as many times as I want, provided I have cards to spare of course." Axel said as he discarded a card and Heriklinos slammed it's sword into the ground and shattered Dark Hole's hologram before the black hole could open up.

"_Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for." _Theresa thought as she picked up another card and played it, much to Axel's, not to mention the whole stadium's, confusion the three golden swords of Swords of Reveling Light pinned down Heriklinos and Axel just as quickly discarded another card, with one swipe of his sword Heriklinos destroyed the three swords.

"What's Theresa up too? Is she trying to win by Repetitive Strain Injury?" Marcus asked as Theresa played another Spell, this time Scapegoat, and Axel discarded yet another card from his hand and the four sheep tokens where destroyed.

"I think I get it." Chloe commented as she rubbed her chin. "Emphasis on think but maybe Theresa's trying to force Axel to discard his entire hand?"

"Discard his hand in one turn? She'd need a hand full of Spell Cards to pull that off." Lance pointed out before realizing something. "Except for the fact that Defense Draw's effect gave her an extra card on top of her regular draw."

"_Okay, this is getting ridicules." _Axel thought as he discarded his last card to destroy Theresa's attempts to use Monster Reincarnation. "If that was some elaborate prank to test my discard speed then congratulations, you've succeeded. " Axel said before giving his sore wrist a shake, Theresa just grinned before folding her arms.

"Please, if I was pranking you you'd know." Theresa said before pointing to Axel's nonexistent hand. "See anything missing?" Theresa asked and Axel looked, it didn't take him long to figure out what she had done.

"I see, those Spell Cards where a diversion to get rid of my hand thus leaving me unable to use Hereklinos's effect." Axel said once it dawned on him. "Certainly one of the more…..unique maneuvers I've seen since I've started dueling."

"I'm not done yet though!" Theresa said as she picked up the last card in her hand. "I activate Pot of Greed which allows me to draw two cards." Theresa played the card, drew twice and sent her spell to the grave; she took one look at her new cards and set them both down. "Two cards facedown and that will end my turn." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card…..and frowned the moment he saw it.

"_Blast, off all the times for me to draw my third Coliseum." _Axel th_ought _as he looked at his newly drawn Spell Card. _"I'll need this to save Coliseum if one of the cards she set was something like Dust Tornado but I'll also need this card if one of her facedown cards is a particularly lethal trap." _Axel thought before adding it to his hand. "Heriklinos, attack her life-points directly!" Axel commanded and the mighty beast charged towards Theresa….

"I'm afraid not, I activate my Trap Card Magic Cylinder which will send the attack right back at you." Theresa activated her trap and Heriklinos somehow fit in one of the cylinders, he soon came charging out of the other and slammed into Axel.

T: 6000

A: 3000

"That's weird, why didn't he activate Heriklinos's effect?" Chloe asked as she watched the duel clearly confused by this, the others shared her confusion before realization hit Brandon.

"Off course, the card he just drew must be another Coliseum." Brandon realized with a grin. "As much as he wants to protect his life-points I'm willing to wager that Axel doesn't want to lose his Field Spell, and the source of his beasts' power, just as much."

"Makes sense, besides he had more than enough life-points to survive the hit so it made sense in that context." Marcus added before noticing something. "And, call me crazy, but I think Theresa just figured that out herself."

"You're crazy." Chloe and Brandon said simultaneously causing Marcus to face fault, whilst he argued the fact that it was a figure of speech Theresa was waiting for Axel to finish his move.

"I shall end my turn at that." Axel announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I summon Mystic Piper in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a man in a red jester's outfit appeared on the field carrying, as his name suggested, a pipe (1/0/0). "Don't let his weak attack fool you because his effect makes up for it, basically I can tribute this monster to draw and reveal one card, better yet if it's a Level 1 monster I get to draw again."

"It sounds fairly risky to me, especially since the move will leave you defenseless." Axel pointed out and Theresa frowned realizing he had a point.

"_I guess it's better than nothing." _Theresa thought before pointing to her monster. "Mystic Piper, use your magic to allow me to draw an additional card!" Theresa commanded and the piper played a few notes on his pipe before vanishing, Theresa drew her card and grinned. "Looks like the gamble paid off, the card I drew is the tuner monster Effect Veiler!" Theresa showed the card (1/0/0) and drew again, however it was her turn to be disappointed in a draw as what she drew was a trap card. "I set one card facedown and it's over to you Axel." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card.

"_Great, I drew another tough choice." _Axel thought as he looked at his copy off Gladiator Beast Sanmite that he had returned to his deck two turns ago. _"Still, I can benefit from its presence on the field and once I tag it out the Coliseum will get another counter boosting the power of my beasts." _Axel thought before summoning the monster. "Return to the field, Gladiator Beast Sanmite!" Axel played the card and the silver humanoid tiger returned to the field, and as soon as it did its attack power got a large boost from the Coliseum. "Go now my monsters, attack her life-points directly!" Axel commanded and the two beasts charged towards Theresa…..

"Sorry but Sanmite's attack won't make contact, I activate Sekeretsu Armor and use it to destroy Sanmite!" Theresa activated the card and the hideous armor attached itself to the weaker gladiator beast before self-destructing and taking it with it, with no obstacles in its way Heriklinos continued its charge and Theresa winced as the attack hit.

T: 2200

A: 3000

"Why didn't you use the trap on Heriklinos? The damage would've been much lower?" Axel asked and Theresa grinned as she got to her feet.

"Honestly? I like seeing how my ace monster holds up against the ace monster of other duelists and thanks to your attack I can do just that!" Theresa said as she activated her trap. "I activate my trap card Damage Condenser, this trap requires me to discard one card to activate it but in exchange I can Special Summon a monster from my deck as long as its attack is equal to or less than the damage I took, my monster of choice as Armed Dragon Level 3!" Theresa played the card after searching through her deck for it, once she played it the small orange dragon in armor appeared on the field (3/1200/900).

"Cute, but hardly a match for Heriklinos, let's not forget the fact that since you summoned him from the deck my field spell gets another counter." Axel pointed out as Heriklinos's attack increased to 3900. "I end my turn but I sincerely hope you can do better than that." Axel announced and Theresa drew her card, she added it to her hand before sending Armed Dragon Level 3 to the graveyard.

"Since Armed Dragon was present on the field during the standby phase after it's summoning I can bring out one of his older forms, Armed Dragon Level 5." Theresa played the card and Armed Dragon Level 3 vanished, in its place stood its older form ready for battle (5/2400/1000) but since it was summoned from the deck Heriklinos's attack increased to 4000.

"Nice try, but I am well aware of that monster's effect." Axel pointed out with a grin. "In order to level up the monster you must have it attack and destroy a monster on my side of the field, and as we can both see the only monster on my side of the field is Heriklinos." Axel added and Theresa looked at her drawn card before frowning.

"_I added this spell card to help Chloe during the Battle Royal, guess I forgot to take it out since I didn't end up using it." _Theresa thought with a frown before sighing. _"I guess it's now or never." _Theresa thought before playing the card.

"You're seriously playing Cup of Ace?" Axel asked as Theresa dug around her jeans pocket and produced a single coin. "That's one of the riskiest cards in the game."

"True but if it works this move could turn the tide of the duel in my favor, how it works is simple." Theresa said before tossing the coin. "If that coin lands on heads I get to draw twice, if it lands on tails you get to draw twice." Theresa explained as the coin landed on her outstretched palm, she placed it on her duel disk hand before looking at it. "Looks like luck's on my side, I get to draw twice." Theresa drew two cards and sent her Spell to the grave, once she had a good look at her new cards she grinned. "You know what I said earlier about breaking your streak?"

"Yes, you said you wouldn't tell me that because you believed it jinxed my opponents, why do you ask?" Axel asked and Theresa grinned.

"Why? I asked because I'm about to make history." Theresa said before playing her drawn card. "I activate Level Up and I use it to level up Level 5 to his Level 7 form!" Theresa played the card and after searching through her deck she found the card she was looking for and played it, as she said the dragon grew until it reached its Level 7 form (7/2800/1000) but, like before, Heraklinos's attack increased to 4100.

"If you intend to keep powering up my ace monster I certainly won't stop you." Axel grinned and Theresa frowned.

"Then maybe this will help, I activate One Day of Peace, now in exchange for neither of us taking any damage until the end of your next turn we get to draw another card." Theresa, seemingly not noticing the fact that her deck was running low, played the card and both duelists drew once. "I'm about to take Heraklinos down."

"Please, the only monster in your deck that can do that is Armed Dragon Level…you've drawn Armed Dragon Level 10 haven't you?" Axel asked and Theresa nodded before sending Level 7 to the graveyard, the dragon glowed and grew until it reached its gigantic final form, it roared mightily scaring several spectators in the process (10/3000/2000).

"And now I activate his effect, in exchange for discarding a card from my hand I can reduce Heraklinos to ash and I happen to know that his effect doesn't apply to effect monsters. "Theresa discarded the card and the dragon breathed fire at Heraklinos, the monster screamed in pain before being incinerated leaving the whole stadium in shock.

"I don't believe it; Theresa's done what many other duelists have dreamed off in taking down Axel's most powerful monster!" Bill announced as he and Bob's jaws dropped.

"Unfortunately due to One Day of Peace I can't take advantage of it." Theresa said as Axel sent Heraklinos to the graveyard. "So I end my turn." Theresa announced and Axel drew his card….and his usual cool persona dropped in an instant.

"_Trojan Gladiator Beast, I can't use this." _Axel thought before sighing. "It's finally over, after months of being undefeated I have been beaten." Axel admitted before frowning. "However I chose not to surrender, instead I merely pass my turn." Axel said honestly and Theresa drew her card, she didn't bother to look at it and merely pointed at Armed Dragon Level 10, the mighty dragon breathed fire at Axel who winced as the attack hit.

T: 2200

A: 0000

If the stadium wasn't in shock before they were now, Axel Loather, a duelist who many people had pegged to win the tournament, was out of the tournament and a virtual unknown was through in his place, not even the announcers could bring themselves to announce it as both duelists reshuffled their decks after returning the cards to them and approached each other, Theresa waited a couple of seconds before offering a handshake. "Thanks for the great duel Axel." Theresa thanked him and Axel didn't waste any time in accepting it.

"I'll say the same to you, and wish you good luck in the next round. "Axel said as he started to walk off. "Chloe is sure to give you a fight you won't forget." Theresa hesitated before looking in the direction of the duel academy students and seeing a nervous looking Chloe.

"_Here's hoping our next duel will be a lot more competitive than our last duel." _Theresa thought as she eyed Chloe, Chloe gulped as she thought back to the same duel.

"_What am I getting myself into?" _Chloe thought as she looked at Theresa. _"No matter what happens though I will give it my all!" _Chloe thought as a small smile crept onto her lips.


	38. David vs Golliath

The duel academy students where back in their hotel rooms, or in the case of Chloe and Theresa staying in different rooms until the police where done with Chloe's hotel room, and had pretty much travelled straight back to the hotel in order to avoid the press, this was on the request of the two girls as they didn't want any distractions going into their big match tomorrow.

"_Come on, there's gotta be something I can do with this deck!" _Chloe thought as she sat in front of a coffee table in the main room of her parent's hotel room, her deck was laid out in front of her as she was trying to think of any improvements she could make to her deck but was having no luck whatsoever. _"Any help would be nice Silent Magician!" _Chloe asked her duel spirit who sighed.

"_I'm just as stumped as you are Chloe." _The magician answered and Chloe sighed, before she could say anything else her step-dad sat next to her.

"Any luck Chloe?" Scott asked and Chloe shook her head. "That's not good; you're good but Theresa's a very good duelist in her own right." Scott added and Chloe sighed.

"Dad, that's not exactly helping you know." Chloe pointed out with a frown before sighing. "Unless I can think of something I doubt that I'll be able to defeat Theresa tomorrow." Chloe added before Scott got an idea.

"Hold that thought." Scott said before standing up and walking away, Chloe turned her attention back to her deck almost missing the fact that her mother had come over offering her something to drink, until she looked up that is.

"Thanks mom." Chloe thanked her before taking the drink; she took a sip before putting it on one of the few spaces on the coffee table not occupied by her cards in an attempt to avoid spilling any of the drink on the cards. "I know dueling's not exactly your specialty but you have any ideas mom?" She asked her and her mom looked at the cards, after a few moments she shook her head.

"You're father's the best one to ask about that Chloe." Her mother said honestly as Chloe took a sip of her drink. "Are you sure these modifications will even be necessary? Theresa is your classmate after all."

"Mom, the last time I dueled Theresa the life-point difference was over 6000 life-points in her favor so yeah, I think it's necessary." Chloe said honestly and her mother smiled reassuringly. "Hell I'm just glad that I was able to make it as far as I did in this tournament."

"I know you are dear and me and your father are very proud of you for making it this far." Her mother said and Chloe smiled as she heard that.

"Sorry for the wait Chloe." Scott said as he walked over to her, he handed her a pair of duel monsters packs and she took them. "I brought some card packs with me from the card shop just in case, they contain additional Spellcaster and Warrior cards alongside support cards, consider it an early birthday gift." Scott said and Chloe opened the packs, she looked over the cards and grinned before gathering up her cards.

"Thanks dad, they will be perfect for my duel against Theresa tomorrow." Chloe said as she added the new cards to her deck and put them into her duel disk slot. "Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to defeat Theresa with this." Chloe added, whilst that was going on Theresa was sitting in Brandon's room trying to decide what deck to use against her.

"Any luck Theresa?" Brandon asked as he sat on the edge of his bed, it was a large bed which was why Theresa had opted to sleep in the same room as him, off course the fact that Brandon was her boyfriend helped.

"No luck so far." Theresa answered as she added Cup of Ace and One Day of Peace to the side deck for the Kaiba deck. "Chloe's seen my Kaiba deck in action three times and dueled against it once so that's out of the question, my Zombie and Dinosaur decks are still prototypes and I'd prefer to test them in a duel where the only think at stake is a player's ego." Theresa added as she looked over her deck. "Chloe's improved a lot and I get the feeling that in order to beat her I'll need to use a deck that she hasn't seen in action."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down." Brandon pointed out as he walked over to his girlfriend and put his arm around his waist. "Maybe sleeping on it will help…"

"If you're trying to get in my pants than sorry, I need to focus on my match with Chloe tomorrow." Theresa said and Brandon frowned clearly disappointed. "Don't worry; I'll make it up to you after the tournaments over." Theresa added and Brandon grinned, Theresa yawned before picking her deck. "On the other hand, sleep does sound good." Theresa added as she started to get changed into her night clothes.

*the next day*

Chloe waited outside Brandon's room for Theresa to come out of the room, it was fairly early in the morning, in fact she had to sneak out of her parent's room to avoid waking them up, but she was eager for the duel to begin despite her early worries.

"So you catch the game last night?" Chloe looked up and saw the cop from yesterday chatting with a much younger policeman who she assumed was his partner.

"Nah, I was on security detail at the Battle City Semi-Finals, at least I didn't have to pay to watch the duels up close and personal." The younger cop answered honestly and the older one smiled, it was then that the cops spotted Chloe. "Morning kid, you're up early aren't ya?"

"I couldn't get much sleep; my upcoming duel has me excited." Chloe said honestly before looking over at what was once her hotel room. "Any idea when I and Theresa will be able to go back in there?"

"Yeah, you should be able to use it again by the end of the tournament by our estimate." The older cop answered and Chloe frowned knowing that most of her stuff was in there. "Don't worry; we haven't touched too many of your things." The cop added before holding up the police tape for his partner who ducked under it, the older cop soon followed and they went about their business.

"Chloe, what are you doing up this early?" Theresa asked as she emerged from Brandon's room, she was clearly still sleepy and was in the middle of tying her hair up in a ponytail; Chloe smiled when she saw her friend and held up her duel disk. "You're that eager to duel huh?" Theresa asked once it dawned on her and Chloe nodded. "Well you may as well relax; our match isn't for another two hours yet."

"I know, but I was faced with the option of this or doing nothing in my parent's room for a couple of hours." Chloe said honestly as she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "And I did my preparations for our match yesterday so that's out of the question." Chloe commented just as Theresa finished tying her hair up in a ponytail.

"That makes two of us." Theresa said as she held up her duel disk which had one of her decks loaded into the deck slot. "Honestly I'm surprised you're this eager to duel me after what happened the last time we dueled." Theresa commented and Chloe shuddered as she remembered it.

"I'm passed that Theresa, besides I've made some additions to my deck that should help me." Chloe commented and Theresa raised an eyebrow at this. "I'm not telling you what they either, don't want to give away any strategies I might have planned."

"I wouldn't expect you too." Theresa commented before glancing at her own deck. "And just like you won't tell me what additions you've made to your deck I won't tell you what deck I'll be using later on." Theresa added and Chloe smiled.

"Whatever deck you're using I'll be ready for it." Chloe said confidently just as the door behind Theresa opened and Brandon emerged from his room. "Good morning Brandon." Chloe greeted him.

"Morning Chloe, you're up early aren't you?" Brandon greeted her before noticing Theresa nearby, Brandon quickly figured it out and grinned. "You're that eager to duel Theresa, aren't you?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Chloe shrugged just as the other boys emerged from their rooms quickly followed by the teachers. "So I'm guessing we're stopping for breakfast before we go to the arena?"

"That and we're picking up Kimberly from the hospital; she was discharged an hour ago." Hamden added before grinning. "She wanted me to tell you Chloe that she's disappointed that she wasn't there to see Otto's defeat in person, same goes for Nicola."

"I'm sure Andreas would be saying the same thing if he could." Lance added with a frown. "In any case this duel should be a great one, even if most people I talked too last night were betting on Theresa to win." Lance added and Chloe face-faulted at the last part. "What? They only said that because Theresa defeated Axel in last night's duel."

"That's still not helping." Theresa pointed out with a frown and Lance laughed nervously. "Are we waiting for anyone or can we go straight to breakfast?" Theresa asked as she turned to the teachers.

"We can go straight to breakfast." Jeff said before motioning for the students to follow the teachers, they did so and soon found themselves downstairs.

*elsewhere in the city*

Whilst Kimberly was waiting outside the hospital so that she could be picked up by the others someone else was patrolling the hallway, namely Michael who had ditched hi cloak for a doctor's uniform but still kept his face hidden via a surgical mask, pretty much the only thing you could see was his short black hair and brown piercing eyes.

As he walked down the halls he momentarily glanced into the private rooms, including the one belonging to Andreas Freshier, he could see the Autistic girl that Presario had taken advantage off prior to his duel with Marcus was sitting by his bedside clearly desperately hoping that he would wake up, shaking his head Michael continued down the hallway until he reached Otto's room and opened it, the German student lay there peacefully with his duel disk and deck by his side and his clothing hung over the back of a nearby chair.

"_I should eliminate him for that stunt he pulled before his match with Richardson." _Michael thought as he reached into Otto's jacket pocket and found two soul cards, both belonging to the Freshier twins, he returned the one containing Otto's soul and pocketed the other. _"However the leader still thinks he can be useful." _Michael thought before he left the room and the hospital, the hospital staff would later find the doctor's uniform in a waste disposal bin and no sign of Michael.

*sometime later at the arena*

Chloe gulped as she looked out towards the arena, the crowd seemed even bigger than it did in the previous rounds and she knew that she had a tough duel ahead of her not that had stopped her in the past off course.

"You ready Chloe?" Theresa asked making the younger duelist jump; she turned around and nodded with a smile on her face. "Let's go then!"

"Yeah, lets." Chloe agreed before following Theresa out to the arena, the crowd cheered upon seeing the two girls walking out knowing that the second to last match of the tournament was about to begin and the two girls started shuffling their decks.

"Well Bill, what are your thoughts going into this match?" Bob asked as the two girls continued to shuffle their decks.

"Well Bob, neither of these two had an easy time in the last round, hell Chloe had her original deck nearly destroyed before her match by her opponent." Bill commented as the two girls drew their opening hands. "But both girls have earned their places today and it's a shame that only one of them will go through to the next round."

"You said it Bill." Bob agreed before the announcers turned their attention back to the action.

"Okay Chloe, since I'm feeling generous I'm letting you go first." Theresa said as she looked over her opening hand and Chloe drew her card. _"Let's see just how much she's learnt since our last match."_ Theresa thought as Chloe looked over her opening hand.

"I start by activating Reinforcement of the Army; with this I can add one Warrior type monster from my deck to my hand." Chloe announced as she played the card and picked up her deck, she searched through it and once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and sent her Spell Card to the graveyard before she added the card to her hand. "Now I summon the Tuner Monster Torapart in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and with an evil cackle the spellcaster like warrior appeared on the field (2/600/600).

"A Tuner monster's no good without another monster in the field Chloe, you should know that." Theresa pointed out with a frown.

"I know, and I'm not done yet." Chloe said as she picked up a card. "Since I have a Tuner type monster on my side of the field I can Special Summon Boost Warrior in defense mode!" Chloe played the card and a warrior in odd purple armor appeared on the field, he had long red hair and a nice tan (1/300/200). "Sure, he doesn't look like much but his effect makes up for it, you see as long as Boost Warrior's on the field all Warriors I control gain three hundred attack points." Chloe explained as Boost Warrior and Torapart's attack points rose to 600 and 900 respectively.

"Yeah, I'm still not impressed." Theresa said plainly as she looked at the two monsters. _"At the moment all she can do as far as bringing out a Synchro Monster is a Level 3 Synchro Summon and I helped her get her Synchro Monsters, most of them have higher levels than that, not to mention the fact that, to my knowledge, there's no such thing as a Level 3 Synchro Monster." _Theresa thought as Chloe picked up two more cards.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the two cards and Theresa drew her first card. _"Here's hoping my bluff works." _Chloe thought as Theresa looked over her hand.

"Does she really think Theresa will fall for that?" Brandon asked as he and the others watched the duel, Kimberly was now sitting in the same seat where Chloe sat during Axel's duel against Theresa yesterday evening. "She tried that during her first duel with Theresa."

"Yeah, except instead of one reasonably strong monster she has two really weak monsters." Lance pointed out with a frown.

"Sorry Chloe but I didn't fall for this in our first duel and I'm not falling for it now!" Theresa said as she plated the card. "I summon Chiron the Mage in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the centaur appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/1000). "Now I activate Chiron's effect, by discarding a Spell Card from my hand I can destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field, so I discard a card from my hand." Theresa discarded the card and Chiron's staff started charging up. "And I destroy your facedown card on the right!" Chiron pointed his staff at the facedown card and a pulse emanated from it causing the trap card's hologram to shatter. _"Fortunately for her that spell card I discarded was the only Spell Card in my hand but I doubt her other facedown card is anything special." _Theresa thought before pointing to Boost Warrior. "Chiron attack Boost Warrior now!" Theresa commanded and the mage charged towards Boost Warrior….

"Perfect, you fell for my bluff." Chloe interrupted her and Theresa did a double take when she heard that. "I activate my trap card Waboku which protects my life-points and my monsters!" Chloe activated the card and Theresa's jaw dropped when the three priestesses blocked Chiron's charge, Chiron returned to Theresa's side of the field and Theresa blinked.

"But….that other trap card…" Theresa trailed off and Chloe retrieved the card before holding it up revealing it to be Numerous Healer.

"That was a bluff, under the hope that you would destroy it somehow." Chloe explained as she returned her trap to her graveyard and sent Waboku to the graveyard with it, Theresa's surprise wore off and she looked at the rest of her hand.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the card and Chloe drew her card.

"And I start my turn by removing Reinforcement of the Army from play so I can Special Summon Spell Striker in attack mode!" Chloe played the card after pocketing her spell card and the small warrior from her last duel appeared on the field (3/600/200) and its attack increased to 900 thanks to Boost Warrior's effect. "All right, it's time I gave Boost Warrior and Spell Striker a tune up!" Chloe announced as her three monsters leapt into the air, Torapart vanished and three rings surrounded Boost Warrior and Spell Striker. "I tune Torapart with Boost Warrior and Spell Striker to Synchro Summon Gravity Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded Theresa looked up and saw Chloe's new monster, it seemed to be a humanoid dog in sky blue armor, razor sharp claws and long, anime style hair (6/2100/1000).

"Wait a minute, that thing wasn't among the Synchro Monsters we added to Chloe's deck yesterday." Lance realized and the others soon realized it as well.

"It seems Chloe made some last minute additions to her deck to help her prepare for her match against Theresa." Jeff commented as he folded his arms. "As for Gravity Warrior, it's a decent enough Synchro Monster with a pretty good effect but there's definitely better Synchro Monsters out there." Jeff added and Martin nodded in agreement.

"Before I attack I need to explain a couple of things." Chloe said as Gravity Warrior got ready for battle. "First off since I Synchro Summoned it with Torapart you won't be able to activate any trap cards until after the damage step, second thing is Gravity Warrior's effect, on the turn that it's Synchro Summoned it gets 300 attack points for each monster you control, I count one so Gravity Warrior's attack goes up to 2400." Chloe explained as the monsters attack increased to 2400. "It has another effect but it won't come into play yet, Gravity Warrior attack Chiron the Mage!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards the mage before killing him with a powerful blow.

T: 7400

C: 8000

Gravity Warrior returned to Chloe's side of the field once the attack was done and its attack dropped back down to 2100, Chloe looked over her hand and grinned. _"No traps but it's not like I'll need one with a monster this strong and with Torapart's effect backing him up." _Chloe thought before looking up at Theresa. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_Okay, she's got a strong monster on her side of the field I'll give her that much." _Theresa thought as she looked over her hand. _"However she's getting overconfident WAY to early especially since she doesn't know what I've got in store for her."_ Theresa thought before activating her trap. "I start by activating Call of the Haunted and I use it to bring back Chiron the Mage from my graveyard." Theresa said as she retrieved and played the card and just like she said Chiron the Mage returned to the field.

"Big deal, my monster will cream it easily." Chloe said defiantly and Theresa shook her head.

"Chloe, you off all people should know that strength isn't everything." Theresa pointed out as she picked up another card. "And that you're not the only one with access to Synchro monsters for that matter, for my Normal Summon I summon I bring out the Tuner Monster Dark Resonator in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a small, odd looking fiend appeared on the field, its face was obscured by a grey helmet, in fact the only thing Chloe could see of its face was red eyes and a sadistic grin and it had several yellowish lumps on its back, to top it all off it was wearing red and purple robes and was carrying a tuning fork in each hand (3/1300/800). "Now it's time I showed you how a Synchro Summons's done." Theresa said and Dark Resonator grinned before placing its two forks together, the two monsters vanished in a bright flash and Theresa played a card from her extra deck. "I tune Dark Resonator with Chiron the Mage to Synchro Summon Lightning Warrior!"

"Oh crap!" Chloe muttered under her breath as she remembered the card's effect from Theresa's last duel, sure enough the blonde warrior appeared on the field ready for battle (7/2400/1200).

"I'm guessing by that you remember his effect from my last duel?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded, Theresa said nothing before pointing to Gravity Warrior. "Lightning Warrior, attack Gravity Warrior now!" Theresa commanded and Chloe braced herself as the monster charged towards hers and punched it in the stomach, lightning flowed into Gravity Warrior destroying at and Chloe winced as she was hit by some of the lightning.

T: 7400

C: 7100

"You okay Chloe?" Theresa called out to her, the younger duelist nodded and Theresa folded her arms. "You got too overconfident and it cost you, I hope you don't make the same mistake a second time." Theresa said bluntly and Chloe winced.

"_Then again, as much as I hate to admit it, she's got a point." _Chloe thought with a sigh before looking over her hand. _"Here's hoping I draw something decent next turn."_ Chloe thought before looking up at Theresa. "My turn yet?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded before Chloe drew her card. "I activate a Spell Card called Trade-In; in exchange for discarding a Level 8 monster from my hand this card will allow me to draw two cards." Chloe explained and, once she discarded Gilford the Lightning from her hand (8/2800/1400) she drew two cards. _"Drat, I was hoping to draw Monster Reborn with this and bring back Gilford, at least with this spell card I can prevent Theresa from using Monster Reborn on him." _Chloe thought before playing one of the cards she played. "I activate The Warrior Returning Alive, with it I can return the monster I discarded for Trade-In's effect to my hand." Chloe retrieved Gilford from her graveyard and returned the monster to her hand.

"_Based on the look on her face Warrior Returning Alive was not the card that she was hoping to draw with that Spell Card's effect." _Theresa thought as Chloe looked over the rest of her hand. _"At least my last move has brought her confidence back down to Earth."_ Theresa thought as Chloe played a card.

"I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Chloe played the card and Theresa shielded herself as three golden swords rained down from the sky pinning down Lightning Warrior. "I'm sure you remember its effect by now." Chloe added before setting a monster facedown. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn at that, your move!" Chloe announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_She's still relying on her old tricks even with the new deck, only thing missing was her summoning Silent Magician Level 4." _Theresa thought before a small smile crept upon her lips. _"Then again Lightning Warrior probably left her without many options." _Theresa thought before looking at her new card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced and once the facedown card appeared on the field and the first Sword disappeared Chloe drew a new card.

"_Still not the card I was hoping for, at least this way I can get enough monsters on my side of the field to summon Gilford and use his effect." _Chloe thought before setting her newly drawn monster. "That'll do it for me." Chloe announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I summon Sangan in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the small three eyed fiend appeared on the field (3/1000/600). "Now I activate the trap I set last turn, Dark Spirit Art Greed, in exchange for sacrificing Sangan this trap will allow me to draw two cards, that is unless you can negate it by revealing a Spell Card in your hand."

"I can't since I don't have any spells." Chloe said plainly and Sangan vanished from the field, Theresa then proceeded to draw two cards and then added an additional card to her hand via Sangan's effect.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the two cards she had drawn facedown and, once the second sword faded from the field, Chloe drew a new card.

"_Okay, there's a good chance that those facedown cards are cards that could hurt me once I get Gilford out next turn, better hope that I draw Heavy Storm before then." _Chloe thought before setting yet another monster. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_Hmmm, she didn't tribute her monsters to bring out that Level 8 monster she got a couple of turns back." _Theresa thought as she looked at her new card. _"Whatever it is I'm ready for it." _Theresa thought before adding her card to her hand. "I end my turn and the duration of Swords of Revealing Light." Theresa announced and as the final sword disappeared from the field and Chloe sent her spell to the graveyard Chloe drew her card.

"Good, because I sacrifice all three of my facedown monsters to summon Gilford the Lightning in attack mode!" Chloe sent the three monsters to the graveyard and played the card, sure enough the mighty warrior wielding a massive sword appeared on the field ready for battle (8/2800/1000). "Now I activate Gilford's effect, since I summoned him in this manner I can destroy all monsters on your side of the field, off course there's only one but that'll do nicely." Chloe explained as the warrior charged towards Lightning Warrior and cut him in half with his sword, Theresa sent her Synchro Monster to the graveyard and frowned.

"_That thing's going to be a handful, even with my traps." _Theresa thought as Chloe played the card she drew the turn before.

"Now I activate Pot of Avarice." Chloe announced before retrieving Torapart, Spell Striker, Boost Warrior, Gravity Warrior and Magician's Valkyrie (which Theresa guessed was one of the monsters she just sacrificed) and returned them to her deck or the Extra Deck in Gravity Warrior's case and drew two cards from her deck. "Now Gilford, attack her life points directly!" Chloe commanded and Gilford charged towards Theresa….

"I activate my Trap Card Waboku!" Theresa flipped the card up and Gilford's charge was blocked by the three priestesses, the warrior reluctantly returned to Chloe's side of the field and she looked at the cards she had drawn with Pot of Avarice.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the card down and Theresa drew her card.

"_That monster's going to be trouble; unless I get lucky with a draw I won't be able to beat it." _Theresa thought before looking at her newly drawn card. "I set this in defense mode and that ends my turn." Theresa announced as the facedown monster appeared on the field and Chloe drew her card without hesitation.

"Gilford, attack her defense!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards the monster, revealed to be Blindly Loyal Goblin (4/1800/1500) which was quickly destroyed, once Theresa sent her monster to the graveyard Chloe looked at her new card. _"I'll save this for later." _Chloe decided before adding the card to her hand. "I end my turn at that." Chloe announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I activate Pot of Avarice." Theresa played the card and after returning Chiron the Mage, Dark Resonator, Lightning Warrior, Sangan and Blindly Loyal Goblin to her deck, or extra deck in Lightning Warrior's case, she drew two cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode and that will end my turn." Theresa announced as she set the three cards down and Chloe drew her card.

"_This is too easy; she'll have to run out of traps at some point and once that she does her life-points will be mine for the taking." _Chloe thought before looking at the card she had drawn, she added it to her hand and pointed at Gilford. "Gilford, strike down her face down monster!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards the facedown monster…..

"I'm afraid not Chloe." Theresa interrupted her as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Magic Cylinder which sends the attack right back at you!" Theresa announced as Gilford went in one of the jars.

"I know better than to fall for that trick Theresa." Chloe said as her own trap card flipped up. "I chain Magic Cylinder with my own trap card Seven Tools of the Bandit, now by paying a thousand life-points I can negate Magic Cylinder's activation and destroy it." Chloe announced as her life-points dropped to 6100…

"You're not the only one who can chain traps Chloe." Theresa interrupted her as her second facedown card flipped up. "Case in point Trap Jammer, since you activated your trap during the battle phase this trap negates and destroys it free of charge." Theresa announced as the hologram of Chloe's trap card shattered and Gilford emerged out of the other jar, once slash from Gilford's sword later and Chloe's life-points took a large hit.

C: 3300

T: 7400

"Man, this is their first duel all over again!" Lance said with a face palm as Chloe got to her feet. "Even with the improvements she's made to her deck Chloe's way out of Theresa's league."

"I'm just impressed that she remembered to set Seven Tools for once." Marcus commented with a shrug ignoring the glare from Lance.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced once she gathered up her cards and Theresa drew a card.

"_Finally something I can use!" _Theresa thought before removing her facedown monster from her duel disk. "I sacrifice my facedown monster in order to summon Prime Material Dragon in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and in the facedown monster's place stood the orange dragon from Theresa's duel against Axel (6/2400/2000).

"Nice try but my warrior's stronger." Chloe said defiantly and Theresa smirked as she held up the card she had just drawn.

"I noticed, so I set a card facedown and end my turn at that." Theresa set the card down and Chloe drew her card, however Chloe frowned as she looked towards Theresa's newly set facedown card.

"Theresa, how dumb do you think I am?" Chloe asked bluntly earning her a confused look from Theresa. "If you think I'm going to risk lowering my life points even further than I've already had then you couldn't be more wrong." Chloe said just before setting the card she had just drawn facedown. "That's all I'm doing for this turn." Chloe set the card down and Theresa drew her card once her surprise wore off.

"_She's actually dueling with her brain instead of jumping into battle, not that it'll help much against my next move." _ Theresa thought before setting another card facedown and a monster in defense mode. "That ends my turn."

"All right, I draw." Chloe said as she drew her card. "Gilford, attack her defense!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards the facedown monster….

"I activate Staunch Defender; with it I can force your warrior to target Prime Material Dragon." Theresa flipped her card up and the warrior changed the direction he was running in to Prime Material. "Now I activate my other trap card, Photon Rising Stream, since my trap card has forced you to target my dragon Prime Material Dragon will now get Gilford's attack added to his attack points. " Theresa said as she activated her trap and Prime Material Dragon's attack points sky rocketed to 5200. "And here I thought you were going to play it smart." Theresa said with a smirk…which disappeared when she saw the grin on Chloe's face.

"Who said I wasn't? I activate my own trap card Dimension Wall." Chloe activated her trap and Theresa's eyes widened. "And that means that the life points I would've lost come out of your life-points instead!" Chloe added as her warrior attempted to cut the dragon in half only for his sword to break upon contact with the dragon's scales and for him to be incinerated, the flames would've continued onto Chloe but they were reflected back at Theresa by an invisible wall.

C: 3300

T: 5000

"Holy crap, Chloe just outsmarted Theresa." Marcus muttered as his eyes widened, Brandon smiled and patted Marcus on the back.

"If she keeps this up then Chloe will be the one to face Eddie in the next round!" Brandon said with a smile….only to wince as he remembered something. "Only now Theresa will be less likely to have sex with me because it was my idea to include Dimension Wall in Chloe's new deck." Brandon muttered as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head, whilst that was going on Theresa was still recovering from Chloe's counterattack, not to mention the shock that the move brought her.

"Nice move Chloe, shame that the same move has left you defenseless." Theresa complemented her and Chloe smiled.

"Not exactly, I haven't made my normal summon yet so…" Chloe picked up a card in her hand and set it facedown alongside another. "I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown that ends my turn." Chloe set the two cards down and Theresa drew her card. _"That move may have narrowed the gap between me and Theresa's life-points but there's still a large gap between my life-points and hers, I'd better play it safe for the time being."_ Chloe thought with a frown as she waited for Theresa to make her move.

"I'm not going to attack, not yet anyway." Theresa said as she played a Spell Card. "Before I attack I activate the Spell Card Bait Doll, with this I can force you to flip up your facedown card, if it's a trap and the timing for its effect is incorrect it's destroyed."

"And if it's a spell card?" Chloe asked trying to hide her nervousness. _"Damn, that card will destroy Magician's Circle." _Chloe thought with a frown.

"If it's a spell than it'll return to its original position." Theresa explained and Chloe reluctantly flipped up her trap. "Hmmm, Magician's Circle huh? Good card, pity it's about to be destroyed." Theresa said as the hologram for Chloe's trap shattered. "Bait Doll has another effect; after I use it I can return it to my deck and shuffle my deck." Theresa added as she returned her Spell Card to the deck and shuffled it.

"So in short you could draw it again and destroy another one of my Trap Cards." Chloe said with a frown on her face. _"I don't care how much experience Theresa has over me, I'll find some way to beat her." _Chloe thought.

"That's basically it." Theresa said before pointing to her dragon. "Prime Material Dragon, attack her defense monster now!" Theresa commanded and the dragon took flight before breathing fire at the facedown card, it was revealed to be one of her Apprentice Magicians (2/400/800) which was quickly incinerated. "I'm guessing you're going to use Apprentice Magician's effect?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded before picking up her deck, it didn't take her long to locate another one of her Apprentice Magicians and she set it facedown before shuffling her deck. "I'll call it a turn at that Chloe." Theresa announced and Chloe drew her card…..and barely suppressed her grin when she saw it.

"All right Theresa, you saw one of my new monsters earlier in the form of Gravity Warrior but now? You're about to meet another." Chloe said as she played a card. "I summon Rose, Warrior of Revenge in attack mode and flip summon Apprentice Magician!" Chloe played the card and a young female warrior appeared alongside the newly flipped Magician, the warrior had long red hair, blue eyes and was wearing green armor and a white scarf (4/1600/1800).

"How is that monster, hell that tactic, going to help you?" Theresa asked clearly confused by this, Chloe grinned and held up her duel disk.

"Simple really, Rose Warrior of Revenge is a Tuner Monster!" Chloe announced causing Theresa to do a double take. "Yeah, I was just as surprised as you are when I saw this card."

"There's a Level 4 Tuner? Are they even legal?" Marcus asked.

"They are but they're also rarer than their weaker counterparts." Hamden answered before folding his arms. "Where did she get these new cards anyway?"

"Her dad runs a gameshop, maybe he brought some packs over to be prepared for anything?" Lance suggested and Hamden nodded in agreement,

"Now it's time for the fun part, namely giving Apprentice Magician a tune up!" Chloe said as the two female monsters leapt into the air, Rose Warrior vanished and four rings quickly surrounded Apprentice Magician. "I tune Rose Warrior of Revenge with Apprentice Magician to Synchro Summon Gaia Knight, The Force of Earth in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and in Rose Warrior's place stood a familiar looking monster that looked similar to the monster Gaia the Fierce Knight (7/2300/2100) used in Yugi Moto's Duelist Kingdom deck, however upon closer inspection the knight was actually a cyborg attached to the horse (6/2600/800).

"Not bad Chloe, pity he doesn't have an effect to back him up." Theresa pointed out and Chloe just grinned.

"I'll worry about that stuff later, Gaia Knight the Force of Earth, slay Prime Material Dragon!" Chloe commanded and with a mechanical sounding whinny the horse charged towards Prime Material Dragon, the knight pulled back one of his lances and drove it into Prime Material Dragon's heart quickly destroying the dragon.

C: 3300

T: 4800

"_Okay, I have my copy of Silent Magician Level 4 in my hand, all I need to do is draw Level 8 and Level Up and I'll be one step closer to the finals." _Chloe thought with a grin before motioning for Theresa to take her turn, Theresa nodded and drew her card.

"_Her decks packing a few surprises nowadays, she must've modified it knowing that I helped build it so that she could still surprise me." _Theresa thought before looking at Chloe's Synchro monster with a frown. _"Hey new monster packs a punch, that much is obvious, but its lack of effect is its biggest weakness."_ Theresa thought before looking at her drawn card. "I activate Card of Sanctity!" Theresa played the card and both girls drew until they had six cards in their hands, when Chloe saw two of the cards she drew her grin grew.

"_YES! I DREW THE CARDS I NEED!" _Chloe thought barely suppressing the urge to do a victory dance. _"Battle City Finals, here I come!"_

"_Looks like she got a good card, even after all this time she still has trouble maintaining a poker face." _Theresa thought with a small smile before looking at her new cards and picking up two of them. "I set a card in defense mode and a card facedown and that ends my turn." Theresa set the two cards down and Chloe drew her card….and her grin grew. _"I don't like that grin on her face." _Theresa thought with a frown…which deepened when Chloe played the card and Shield Crash's hologram appeared on the field. "Oh crap!" Theresa managed to utter before her facedown monster, her Blindly Loyal Goblin from earlier, shattered.

"It's about to get a lot worse for you Theresa!" Chloe said as she played a card. "I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in Attack Mode!" Chloe announced as one of her key cards appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1000/1000). "But that's not all, I activate Level Up!"

"Wait, what? Is Chloe going to beat Theresa?" Marcus yelled out in shock as Chloe's magician grew into her adult form ready for battle (8/3500/1000).

"If that actually happens I'll eat my deck whole." Brandon responded with a frown as he looked towards Theresa's facedown card. _"Sorry Chloe but as much as I want both of you to walk out the winner Theresa's facedown card will save her." _Brandon thought as Chloe pointed to her knight.

"Gaia Knight, attack her life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the horse let out a mechanical whinny as it charged towards Theresa, the Knight struck Theresa in the chest with its lance brining her life-points down to 2300. "Silent Magician, FINISH IT!" Chloe commanded and the magician happily obliged before pointing her staff at Theresa.

"Pinch me, I must be dreaming." Lance muttered only to be playfully pinched in the arm by Kimberly. "First Chloe does that, now you?" Lance asked as Silent Magician fired a beam of light at Theresa….

"Sorry Chloe, but your time in the tournament is over!" Theresa said as she activated her trap, Chloe's eyes widened when she saw another copy of Dimension Wall.

"I lost….." Chloe muttered sadly as the blast bounced off of an invisible wall and right back at Chloe, she winced as her life-points took the hit sending her onto her backside.

C: 0000

T: 2300

"That's all folks, the finals have been set!" Bill announced to the cheering crowd. "The reigning champ Eddie takes on the best of the Duel Academy Students Theresa Daniels!" Bill added as the holograms disappeared, Chloe was still sitting down clearly disappointed by her loss, Theresa smiled before walking over to her and kneeling down in front of her.

"Are you okay Chloe?" Theresa asked and the younger duelist looked up, like the end of their last duel Chloe was crying but this time it was tears of disappointment rather than sadness.

"Yeah…..I just got something in my eye." Chloe said as she wiped away one of her tears. "I was so close."

"Yeah, if you had drawn something like Mystical Space Typhoon you would've won." Theresa added but cringed when she realized that that statement wasn't helping, in fact the statement was causing more tears to roll down her cheeks. "Hey cheer up, you'll beat me someday, you just got unlucky today." Theresa reassured her and Chloe smiled as she heard that.

"Thanks Theresa, just do me a favor and bring the title to duel academy with ya." Chloe requested half-jokingly and Theresa smirked.

"Even if I have to steal it I will." She joked before standing up and extending her hand out to Chloe in order to help her up, Chloe accepted the hand and Theresa pulled her up.

"Sorry to break up the touching moment ladies." Eddie said as he walked up to the podium. "But our match is next."

"What, the match is starting already?" Theresa asked once she let go of Chloe's hand, Eddie nodded.

"Well, not right now anyway, the twenty minute recess from the previous rounds is still in effect." Eddie explained and Theresa nodded. "Good effort Chloe, you just came up short."

"Yeah, I know." Chloe said before hopping off the arena and started making her way backstage.

"One of my students almost beat an Obelisk Blue, I'm so proud!" Maria said proudly and Martin nodded in agreement.

"If that's not enough evidence to start considering her for Ra Yellow I don't know what is." Jeff said as he stroked his chin.

"Let's not get to ahead of ourselves, the promotion exams aren't until next month." Martin pointed out with a frown. "Still, she's a strong candidate." Martin added, before anyone could say anything else something that surprised even the teachers happened, the crowd started chanting Chloe's name even louder than they were after Chloe's inexperience was revealed.

"That's definitely not what I was expecting." Chloe muttered as she heard the chants, by now she was backstage unaware that her dad was behind her.

"You're surprised that they are cheering you after that performance?" Scott asked making his daughter jump a bit. "Even though you lost you should be proud of yourself Chloe, I thought you had the match won."

"Thanks dad." Chloe thanked him with a sheepish smile as she wiped the last of her tears away. "I'm just glad I made it this far, I would've been SO camera shy during the finals."

"You would've done fine." Scott reassured her and Chloe smiled. "So, what will you do now?"

"I'll be sitting with the other duel academy students, I can't really go to my locker room since I'm no longer in the tournament anyway, not that I used it much." Chloe decided before frowning. "Dad, there's been something I've been meaning to do since I got here but due to the tournament I never got the opportunity."

"Sure, whatever it is I'll help you do it." Scott said and Chloe smiled.

"Thanks, it's just that…..I want to visit my mom's gravesite." Chloe said and Scott frowned, Chloe didn't attend her mother's funeral due to being in hospital r at the time, that combined with her brief time in Child Protection and moving to Domino City meant that she had never been to her mother's grave.

"Are you sure Chloe?" Scott asked and Chloe nodded assertively.

"I'm sure dad." Chloe said and Scott thought for a moment before nodding.

"All right, I'll drive you to her gravesite after the final match." Scott said and Chloe smiled broadly before hugging him in response.

"Thanks dad." Chloe said as she let go off the hug. "So we'll meet each other outside after the match?" Chloe asked and Scott nodded, Chloe checked the time on her watch and realized that the duel would be starting soon. "I'd better go grab a seat, see ya." Chloe said before rushing off, Scott smiled before heading off in the opposite direction.


	39. Final Battle

It took Chloe a few minutes, mostly due to lingering embarrassment from the crowd chanting her name, but she had made her way to where the Duel Academy students were sitting though she waited until the other members of the audience left their seats to grab snacks or merchandise, she sat down next to Kimberly who patted her on the back.

"Nice job out there kid." Kimberly said and Chloe smiled meekly. "If it weren't for Theresa's trap you would've been competing against Eddie in Theresa's place."

"Don't remind me." Chloe muttered under her breath as she pulled the hood of her jacket up until it hid her face. "If any autograph seekers ask, tell them I'm at the bathroom or something." Chloe requested only for Kimberly to pull her hood back down.

"What? Don't you want to face your fans?" Kimberly asked as Chloe pulled the hood back up just as quickly as Kimberly had pulled it down.

"Do I really have to answer that? I'm no celebrity, I'm just a duelist." Chloe protested as the crowd started pouring in. "Speaking of which, shouldn't the match between Eddie and Theresa be starting soon?"

"Yeah, it should start in a couple of minutes by my watch." Brandon answered after he checked his watch. "And honestly Chloe, like it or not, you're a Battle City Semi-Finalist not to mention the fact that you defeated Otto AKA easily the most hated duelist in the Semi-Finals, just give being a celebrity a try."

"Yeah…no, I'll leave that to the Pro-League Duelists." Chloe said as a sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Don't try to change my mind; you'll have as much luck as the Unhappy Maiden would have against all three Egyptian God Cards."

"You are aware that most people were saying the same thing about you going into your match with Theresa right?" Lance asked and Chloe shook her head. "Just give it a try, who knows maybe you'll enjoy it?"

"I doubt it." Chloe sighed before noticing a pair of familiar faces. "Hey the match is about to start!" Chloe pointed out and the other teens turned around just in time for them to see Theresa and Eddie hopping onto the duel podium, the crowd cheered but there cheers grew when Kaiba's blimp appeared above the arena complete with his face on it.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, duelists of all ages welcome to the final match of the Battle City tournament!" Kaiba announced and the crowd cheered. "Over a thousand duelists from all over the globe have participated including duelists from the extremely prestigious Duel Academy but that number has been narrowed down, first to twenty, then to ten, then to five, then to three and finally to these two duelists, the challenger Theresa Daniels and the champion Eddie Roberts!" As Kaiba said this the two duelists' names the picture on the screen turned to the two duelists. "Only one question remains, who will walk out with the title in hand? Will the reigning champion Eddie Roberts retain the title? Or will the dueling prodigy from Duel Academy Theresa Daniels take the title back to school with her? Let's find out so let the duel begin!" Kaiba closed off his speech and the blimp left the airspace, the two duelists took it as their cue and activated their duel disks before shuffling their decks and drawing their opening hands.

"Sorry to say this Theresa, but you'll be returning to Duel Academy with nothing but the knowledge that you lost to the champ!" Eddie gloated as he looked over his opening hand. "In fact I'm so confident of that fact that I will beat you in this duel that I'm going to let you go first." Eddie said and Theresa simply drew her card. _"This way I can get a grasp of what deck she's using in this duel and plan for my first move accordingly." _Eddie thought as he looked over his hand,

"Well in that case I start with the Spell Card called Cards from the Sky!" Theresa played the card and pocketed one of her monsters, once she did that she drew an additional two cards from her deck. "Off course as a side effect I can't Special Summon or conduct my battle phase until your turn's ended but since this is my first turn that's hardly a concern." Theresa added before looking at her new cards. "I set two cards facedown and summon Dunames Dark Witch in attack mode!" Theresa played the cards and the red headed fairy in red appeared on the field (4/1800/1050).

"She's using her fairy deck." Brandon realized as Theresa made her move. "This will make for an interesting duel."

"That ends my turn." Theresa announced and Eddie drew his card without hesitation.

"Much as I hate being a copycat I'll play my own draw card, go Cards of Consonance!" Eddie played the card and picked up one of the cards in his hand. "This card works by forcing me to discard one Dragon Type tuner from my hand with one thousand or less attack points, now that I've done that I can draw two cards from my deck." Eddie explained as he drew two cards. "Oh and there's one other thing." Eddie said as he retrieved the discarded card from his graveyard and showed it to Theresa. "Does it look familiar?" Eddie asked and Theresa's eyes widened.

"Is that White Stone of Legend (1/300/200)? But the only reason you'd even have that card is…" Theresa trailed off as it dawned on her. "You have the Blue-Eyes White Dragons in your deck."

"Three of them actually, one of the fringe benefits of winning this tournament." Eddie commented as he picked up his deck and searched through it. "As a general rule of thumb however I only use the Blue-Eyes White Dragons on Special Occasions, same goes for White Stone and it's other support monsters, and I think you'll agree that there's nothing more special for me than the championship match." Eddie added as he found the famous dragon and added it to his hand. "Before you ask, no it's not one of the dragons that Kaiba used throughout his career, like Francesca Burns I got this card as a prize for a tournament."

"Let me guess, last year's Battle City Tournament?" Theresa asked and Eddie nodded. "So that thing's one of the released cards in the upcoming booster pack, am I supposed to be scared of that thing? All it is at the end of the day is a Normal Monster with 3000 attack points made famous by Seto Kaiba."

"Effect or no effect it still packs a hell of a punch!" Eddie countered as he picked up one of the cards he drew. "Don't worry, you won't have to worry about him JUST yet, instead you can worry about Luster Dragon Number 1 in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the beautiful sapphire dragon appeared on the dragon with a roar (4/1900/1600). "Luster Dragon, roast her witch!" Eddie commanded and the dragon prepared its attack.

"Not going to happen, I activate my trap card Waboku which protects my witch and my life-points!" Theresa activated the trap and the three priestesses blocked the flames, whilst they were incinerated Theresa's witch and her life-points where saved from that fate.

"Fine, you may have saved your witch from destruction but she's still weaker than my dragon!" Eddie pointed out as Theresa sent her trap to the Graveyard; Eddie looked over the rest of his hand before picking up the other card he drew with Cards of Consonance alongside another card. "I set two cards facedown and call it a turn at that." Eddie set the two cards down and Theresa drew her card.

"Good, because the card I just drew will protect my life-points as long as I have a fairy type monster on my side of the field!" Theresa announced and Eddie's eyes narrowed as she played the card. "I activate the Field Spell Card Sanctuary in the Sky!" Theresa played the card and the scenery changed to the magnificent palace in the clouds. "As long as this is on the field any damage I take from a battle involving fairies is reduced to zero but why stop there when I can activate the field spell's continuous counterpart?"

"Sanctuary in the Sky has a counterpart?" Eddie asked as he raised an eyebrow. "If your mission was the pique my curiosity than you can consider that mission successful."

"Well in that case I won't keep you waiting any longer." Theresa said as she activated another Spell Card. "I activate the Fountain in the Sky!" Theresa played the card and out of a portion of clouds emerged a huge, beautiful fountain. "And believe me, it does more than just look pretty, you see when a Light Type monster is destroyed by battle I can remove that card from play and add that monster's attack to my life-points."

"So, if I destroyed your Witch for example you'd gain 1800 life-points after removing it from play?" Eddie asked and Theresa nodded.

"Well apart from the fact that, for all intents and purposes, my Dark Witch won't be staying around." Theresa added as she picked up a card. "And to prove my point I summon the Tuner Monster Herald of Orange Light!" Theresa played the card and a small orange being appeared on the field, it had two, bird like wings, chicken legs and its face was covered by a facial mask (2/300/500). "Now I activate the Spell Card One for one, in exchange for sending a monster card from my hand to my deck I can special summon a Level 1 monster from my deck so I discard this monster…" Theresa picked up one of the last cards in her hand and sent it to the grave. "And special summon Kuribon in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a monster that resembled Kuriboh appeared on the field, however this monster was slightly different in the fact that it had a tail with a large red bow on the end (1/300/200).

"Gee, how cute." Eddie muttered under his breath as he stared at the monster. "You have enough monsters for a Level 7 Synchro, are you going to do it?"

"As if you needed to ask, Herald it's time to give Dunames Dark Witch and Kuribon a tune up!" Theresa commanded and the three fairies leapt into the air simultaneously, Herald of Orange Light disappeared and three green rings surrounded Dunames Dark Witch and Kuribon. "I tune my Level 2 Herald of Orange Light with my Level 1 Kuribon and my Level 4 Dunames Dark Witch to Synchro Summon Ancient Sacred Wyvern in attack mode!" Theresa announced as a blight flash enveloped the field, once it faded the two duelists looked up and saw the dragon from Theresa's duel with Brandon appeared in Dunames Dark Witch's place (7/2100/2000).

"I remember that thing's effect, as soon as I lose any amount of Life-Points he'll get that damage added to his attack points!" Eddie remembered as his eyes narrowed.

"And that means that as soon as I attack my monster will be a bigger pain for you, Wyvern, attack Luster Dragon now!" Theresa commanded and the dragon opened its mouth ready to breathe fire at the much smaller dragon….

"You're not the only one who can play a trap Theresa." Eddie interrupted her as his trap card activated. "I activate my trap card Dimension Wall and since you used it to beat Chloe twenty minutes ago I doubt I'll need to explain it to you." Eddie said as the dragon's fire consumed Luster Dragon but some of the flames reflected back at Theresa.

E: 8000

T: 7800

"And now Wyvern's side effect kicks in, since your life-points are lower than mine your monster loses 200 attack points!" Eddie added and Theresa frowned as Wyvern's attack dropped to 1900. "Granted he's still pretty strong but he's a lot more manageable now."

"Don't get your hopes up." Theresa said before looking at the sole remaining card in her hand. "I'll end my turn for now." Theresa announced and Eddie drew his card.

"You may remember this card from your match against Alex, I activate my Trap Card Revival Gift and I use it to bring back White Stone of Legend!" Eddie activated the card and the white egg appeared on Eddie's side of the field, as it did two shadowy fields (3/1500/1500) appeared on Theresa's side of the field. "Now I activate my Spell Card Double Summon which lets me summon two more monsters during this turn, so I summon Hunter Dragon and One-Eyed Shield Dragon!" Eddie played the cards and two dragons appeared on the field, first up was a small black and red dragon appeared on the field (3/1700/100) and an even smaller green dragon with a bird like face (3/700/1300).

"_Crap, knowing him he's about to bring out Exploder Dragonwing!" _Theresa thought with a frown as Eddie pointed to his three dragons.

"White Stone of Legend, it's time to give your fellow dragons a tune up!" Eddie commanded and the egg leapt into the air, the two dragons followed it into the air and the egg broke up surrounding the two dragons with a green ring. "I tune White Stone of Legend, One-Eyed Shield Dragon and Hunter Dragon together so I can Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing!" Eddie announced as a bright flash washed over the field, when the flash faded the mighty dragon from Eddie's previous duels appeared on the field (7/2400/1600).

"_This is bad, that thing did a number on my life-points in the Battle Royal._" Theresa thought before looking at her three monsters. _"Even worse, his Revival Gift trap gave him a total of three targets to choose from."_

"Let's not forget White Stone's Special Effect!" Eddie added as he picked up his deck again and searched through it. "Exploder Dragonwing, attack the Gift Token on the right!" Eddie commanded and the dragon prepared its attack….

"Sorry but I came prepared, I activate Half or Nothing!" Theresa activated the card and Exploder Dragonwing hesitated. "Now you get two choices, end your battle phase or continue the attack with Exploder's attack points cut in half."

"That's an easy choice to make; I chose to end my Battle Phase and my turn." Eddie announced as Exploder Dragonwing stopped its attack and Theresa drew her card once she sent her trap to the graveyard.

"_Okay, my trap brought me some time but as it stands there's no way I can beat Exploder Dragonwing unless I draw another tuner then tune it with Wyvern to bring out Avenging Knight." _Theresa thought with a frown before looking at her drawn card. _"But this might help." _Theresa thought before playing the card. "I'm taking a page out of Chloe's playbook but what the hell? I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Theresa played the card and Eddie shielded himself as three golden swords rained down from the sky pinning Exploder Dragonwing down. "This buys me another three turns to think of a way to deal with that Exploder Dragonwing."

"You're assuming I won't draw Breaker the Magic Warrior, Mystical Space Typhoon or Heavy Storm on my next draw." Eddie pointed out and Theresa frowned upon realizing that he was right.

"Well I'll just hope that my luck holds out in the meantime." Theresa said before motioning for Eddie to take his turn, Eddie drew a card and looked at It, Theresa took a deep breath knowing that if it was one of the cards Eddie mentioned he would be free to attack one of her tokens and that Sanctuary in the Sky wouldn't protect her life-points since they were fiends.

"Seems your lucks holding out, I'll pass for now." Eddie announced and Theresa breathed a sigh of relief as the first sword disappeared, once it did she drew her card.

"Man, I've never seen Theresa so nervous." Marcus commented as he folded his arms, Brandon nodded in agreement as Theresa looked over her hand.

"That dragon's power level is very high; on top of having a really good attack point stat its effect means it can steamroll over anything Theresa uses against it that's weaker than he is." Brandon pointed out and Lance frowned.

"Yeah, that's something I learned the hard way." Lance commented and Brandon laughed nervously. "Well it's weakness is obvious, summon something stronger than it and it's toast, unfortunately Wyvern's Theresa's best bet at that and his side effect is kicking his ass."

"That's probably why she played her fountain card; with it she can increase her life-points and Wyvern's attack points." Hamden theorized as he stroked his chin, whilst that was going on Theresa was considering her move.

"As pointless as it is I'm switching my three monsters to defense mode." Theresa announced as Wyvern and the two tokens crouched down, she set the card she drew facedown and motioned for Eddie to take his turn, seeing his cue Eddie drew his card.

"_I'll save this encase she somehow gets past Dragonwing." _Eddie thought before adding the card to his hand. "I'll call it a turn for now." Eddie announced and, after letting out another sigh of relief as the second sword disappeared, Theresa drew her card.

"Okay, since I don't have any intentions of attacking any time soon I activate a second copy of Cards from the Sky!" Theresa played the card and after pocketing one of her monsters she drew two cards, she took one look at them and set both cards facedown. "That ends my turn." Theresa announced and Eddie drew his card. "I activate Solemn Wishes, now each time I draw I'll gain five hundred life-points." Theresa activated her trap and grinned. "And that also means that my Wyvern will gain five hundred attack points each time I draw."

"That's assuming I don't wipe out one of your Gift Fiend Tokens first." Eddie pointed out before looking at his newly drawn card. "Unfortunately that won't be happening for another turn so I set a card facedown and end my turn, oh yeah that reminds me, your Swords' time is up!" Eddie added and once the final sword disappeared from the field Theresa sent her spell to the graveyard and drew her card at the same time causing her life points to increase to 8300 and causing Wyvern's attack to increase to 2200.

"_Okay, Wyvern's stronger thanks to my trap but he still isn't powerful enough to defeat Exploder Dragonwing." _Theresa thought before looking at her drawn card, "I activate Card of Sanctity to refresh our hands, increase my life-points and give Wyvern enough power to take Exploder Dragonwing down!" Theresa played the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands and once that was done Theresa's life points increased to 8800 causing Wyvern's attack to increase to 3000, as the attack rose Theresa switched her Synchro Monster to attack mode and the mighty dragon stood up. "Ancient Sacred Wyvern, attack Exploder Dragonwing!" Theresa commanded and the massive dragon prepared its attack….

"I don't usually like using this card but in this case I'll make an exception!" Eddie announced as his facedown card flipped up. "I activate my Trap Card Overworked, it's a pretty situational card but in the right circumstances it can work to your advantage and its effect is simple, when it's activated I can destroy any monsters on the field whose attack points are higher than its base attack, in other words bye-bye Ancient Sacred Wyvern!" Eddie explained as Ancient Scared Wyvern self-destructed. "Nice try but you won't get rid of Exploder Dragonwing that easily." Eddie added as he sent Overworked to the graveyard and Theresa sent Wyvern to the graveyard.

"There are still some moves I can make." Theresa said as she picked up two cards. "I set a monster in defense and a card facedown, it's your move!" Theresa announced and Eddie drew his card.

"Remind me to thank you for making this move possible, first I discard a card from my hand to Special Summon The Tricky in attack mode!" Eddie played the card after discarding a card from his hand and the mysterious Spellcaster appeared on the field (5/2000/1200). "Now for my Normal Summon I'm bringing out the tuner monster Effect Veiler in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and a woman with long green hair in ridiculously long pigtails appeared on the field, she was dressed in a grey and red jumpsuit and seemed intimidated by Theresa's tokens (1/0/0).

"And I thought my hair was long." Chloe muttered under her breath as she watched the duel, Eddie retrieved a card from his extra deck as he prepared his next move.

"I think it's time I gave Exploder Dragonwing some back up, Effect Veiler, do me a favor and give The Tricky a tune up!" Eddie commanded and the two spellcasters leapt into the air, Effect Veiler vanished and a gold ring surrounded The Tricky. "I tune Effect Veiler and The Tricky together to Synchro Summon Explosive Magician!" Eddie played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded the magician that Eddie used to win the Battle Royal stood in The Tricky's place (6/2500/1800) and Theresa frowned as she thought back to the Battle Royal's closing moments.

"Yeah, I remember him." Theresa muttered under her breath as the monster appeared on the field. "You never did explain what his effect is."

"Worry about that later." Eddie said as he set two cards facedown and played another. "And worry about what I'm going to do now, first I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy Solemn Wishes!" Eddie played the card and Theresa braced herself as a tornado ripped through the field before destroying her trap. "And worry about your tokens now, Exploder Dragonwing, Explosive Magician, destroy her tokens!" Eddie commanded and the two Synchro Monsters launched their attacks at the tokens, the first token was blown out of the arena by a blast from Exploder Dragonwing's wings and the second one was destroyed by a spell from Explosive Magician, since it was in defense mode Theresa didn't suffer any damage from the first attack but the one from Dragonwing was a completely different story due to the dragon's effect.

T: 7300

E: 8000

"Chloe, do you know Explosive Magician's effect? I seem to remember Brandon mentioning that it was one of the added Synchro Monsters." Kimberly asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Have you forgotten the fact that I'm new to Synchro Monsters? I may have that card in my deck but I never got a good look at it." Chloe admitted as she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "But now Theresa has two times the trouble to deal with."

"She'll find a way out of this, believe me." Brandon reassured her as Eddie motioned for Theresa to draw her card and Theresa drew her card.

"You're going to regret not attacking my facedown monster." Theresa said earning herself a confused look from Eddie, he shook his head though and activated his trap.

"Maybe I will, maybe not but here's something for you to worry about on my next turn, my Trap Card Pitch Black Power Stone!" Eddie activated the card and the black stone appeared on the field, it soon glowed with three white lights. "It's effect…"

"I know what it does, basically it gains three Spell Counters after activation and as soon as all three of them are gone the trap card goes with it." Theresa interrupted him with a smile. "Chloe used it against me in my first duel against her."

"I see as for why I'm using it well you'll find out on my next turn." Eddie said with a nod before motioning for Theresa to continue her move.

"As I was saying you are going to regret not attacking my monster and here's why!" Theresa said as she flipped up the monster and Warrior of Zera appeared on the field (4/1600/1600). "Now I sacrifice my Warrior so I can special summon Archlord Zerato in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the Warrior turned towards the heavenly palace and walked towards it, seconds later it disappeared and in its place stood the mighty fairy (8/2800/2300).

"I know what thing does and quite frankly I'm not letting you use its effect." Eddie said as he discarded a card from his hand. "The card I just discarded? It's another Effect Veiler, why did I discard it? On top of being a tuner monster her ability is very useful, you see during my opponent's Main Phase I can discard her from my hand and target one card on my opponent's side of the field, since you only have one monster my choice should be obvious."

"And you did that why?" Theresa asked and Eddie grinned.

"Simple, now that I've targeted Zerato using Veiler's effect his own effect is negated for the rest of your turn." Eddie explained and Theresa's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah but that won't stop me from attacking, Zerato I command you to attack Exploder Dragonwing!" Theresa commanded and the fairy spread out his arms, a large bright beam flew towards Exploder Dragonwing destroying it.

E: 7600

T: 7300

"If I had known that it was that easy to defeat your best monster I would've done it in the Battle Royal!" Theresa said confidently but her confidence soon turned to confusion when she saw the grin on Eddie's face. "You're oddly happy about losing your best monster."

"Exploder Dragonwing may be strong Theresa but he isn't my best monster, in fact I'm holding my best monsters in my hand as we speak." Eddie said and Theresa's eyes narrowed as she remembered the two cards he had added to his hand earlier.

"_His Blue-Eyes White Dragons, I almost forgot about them because of Dragonwing." _ Theresa thought before glancing at Eddie's facedown. _"Since he didn't activate that thing when I attacked Dragonwing I'm guessing it has another purpose, maybe its Magician's Circle or something similar." _Theresa thought before looking at her hand. "I'll set this facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced as she set the card and Eddie drew his card.

"I activate Pot of Avarice!" Eddie played the card and returned White Stone of Legend, his two Effect Veilers, Exploder Dragonwing and The Tricky to his deck, or extra deck in Exploder's case, before shuffling the deck and drawing two cards. "Now I activate Exploder Magician's effect." Eddie announced as two of the lights on Pitch Black Power Stone disappeared. "By removing two Spell Counters on my side of the field from any card I want Exploder Magician allows me to destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field and quite frankly I'm getting pretty sick of your field spell." Theresa's eyes widened as Explosive Magician cast a spell causing the palace to crumble; unbeknownst to them Chloe's eyes widened as well as she realized something.

"I…I could've won." Chloe realized as it dawn on her. "I could've beat Theresa and I'd be facing Eddie in her place….."

"Yeah if not for Theresa's Dimension Wall." Marcus agreed and Chloe shook her head. "Wait, that wasn't what you meant?"

"No, you remember when I mentioned that Explosive Magician's in my Extra Deck?" Chloe asked and the other students nodded. "If I had used Rose Warrior of Revenge and Apprentice Magician to Synchro Summon Explosive Magician instead of Gaia I could've used the same strategy Eddie just used and won the duel." Chloe said with a face palm. "How could I be so dumb?"

"Chloe it was a simple mistake, besides you said it yourself that you hadn't had a good chance to read up on Explosive Magician's effect." Brandon reassured her but Chloe remained unconvinced. "Then again you could've read up on its effect whilst you summoned it so that probably doesn't help matters." Brandon added only to get head locked by Lance.

"She really doesn't need to be reminded of her dumb mistake Brandon…..and that didn't help either come to think of it." Lance realized as he let go of Brandon's head. "Ah well, you'll know better the next time you duel her." Lance said and Chloe smiled meekly.

"And since I no longer have a need for Pitch Black Power Stone I'm transferring its last counter to Explosive Magician." Eddie announced as the final light on the stone, not to mention the stone itself, disappeared and the light reappeared on Explosive Magician's armor. "All that leaves is your Fountain in the Sky Spell Card but that's easy enough to take care off without destroying it, I activate my face down card Imperial Iron Wall!" Eddie activated the card and much to Theresa's surprise the arena was surrounded by an Iron Wall, just small enough so that the crowd could still see the action but large enough to prevent escape. "Its effect is simple, as long as this trap card remains on the field neither of us can remove any cards from play."

"In other words it renders my Spell Card useless." Theresa commented and Eddie nodded to confirm it, without missing a beat Theresa activated the card she set last turn. "In the case I chain Imperial Iron Wall with Emergency Provisions, by sending Fountain in the Sky to the graveyard this Spell Card will allow me to replenish my life-points by a total of one thousand." Theresa explained as the fountain disappeared from the field and her life-points increased to 8300.

"Good thinking, all you need to worry about now is Archlord Zerato." Eddie complemented her and Theresa grinned.

"Considering he's stronger than Explosive Magician I don't think I'll have to worry about him too much." Theresa pointed out and Eddie grinned.

"Not for long, first I summon Magician's Valkyrie in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the brunette spell caster appeared on the field (4/1600/1800). "Now I activate a Spell Card called Magician's Unite, how this Spell Card works is simple you see first it requires that I have two Spellcasters on my side of the field in attack mode, now that I've fulfilled that requirement all I need to do is target Explosive Magician and his attack increases to 3000." Eddie announced as his two magicians started glowing and Explosive Magician's attack increased to 3000. "However as a side effect of this card Magician's Valkyrie can't attack for the rest of the turn but that doesn't concern me, Explosive Magician I command you to attack Archlord Zerato now!" Eddie commanded and the magician cast a Spell at the fairy, the fairy screamed in pain before shattering.

E: 7600

T: 8100

"Like I said Magicians Unite's side effect means that Valkyrie can't follow up the attack so I end my turn." Eddie announced and Theresa drew her card.

"You seem to have forgotten the fact that Valkyria's effect means I can't target any other Spellcasters on the field for an attack." Theresa pointed out as she played a card. "And since she only has an above average attack she's a perfect target for my next monster, I summon Dark Valkyria in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a woman appeared on the field, however unlike Theresa's other monsters this one was dressed in black and had black wings, her skin was purple and she had blonde hair (4/1800/1050).

"A Gemini monster, am I supposed to be impressed? You won't be able to use her effect for another turn and by then she'll already be destroyed." Eddie pointed out and Theresa frowned before looking at her facedown card.

"_If this works than Dark Valkyria will be the least of his worries." _Theresa thought before pointing to her monster. "Valkyria, attack Magician's Valkyrie!" Theresa commanded and the female angel took flight before raising her hand, a ball of dark energy appeared in her hands which she launched at Magician's Valkyrie destroying her.

E: 7400

T: 8100

"That ends my turn." Theresa announced and Eddie drew his card, without missing a beat Theresa activated her trap card and the hologram flipped up revealing it to be Thunder of Ruler. "Looks like I'll be using Valkyria's effect after all." Theresa said as she sent her trap to the graveyard, Eddie frowned at this but shook his head.

"Well in that case I'll do one thing, namely activate my own Card of Sanctity!" Eddie played the drawn card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands. "Actually make that three things, first I'll use my own Emergency Provisions on Imperial Iron Wall since I don't need it anymore." Eddie played the card and the trap card vanished as his life-points increased to 8400. "Now I'm throwing down a couple of facedowns and ending my turn."

"Who says "Throwing down a facedown" nowadays?" Marcus wondered as he scratched his head, Theresa meanwhile drew her card and pointed at Dark Valkyria.

"Now I activate Dark Valkyria's Gemini mode and effect, for starters I can add a Spell Counter to her and in exchange she gains 300 attack points." Theresa said and Dark Valkyria glowed as her attack points rose to 2100. "However in exchange for removing that Spell Counter from Valkyria I can destroy one monster on the field!" Theresa said and once Valkyria's attack dropped back down to 1800 she took to the air again…

"I chain Dark Valkyria's effect with my trap card Interdimensional Matter Transport!" Eddie interrupted the effect and Explosive Magician vanished from the field, seconds later the dark ball of energy from Dark Valkyria impacted the ground beneath Explosive Magician's previous spot. "Sure, my life-points will take damage but I'll get Explosive Magician back at the end of the turn!" Eddie said and as Dark Valkyria returned to her spot and Theresa frowned.

"Like you said though, I can still attack." Theresa said as she pointed towards Valkyria. "Dark Valkyria, attack his life-points directly!" Theresa commanded and the fairy took flight again…

"And this is where my other facedown card comes in, GO DIMENSION WALL!" Eddie activated the card and the ball of energy from Dark Valkyria bounced off an invisible forcefield and collided with Theresa who grunted in pain as the attack hit.

E: 8400

T: 6300

"Are you done?" Eddie asked and Theresa looked at the rest of her hand as Dark Valkyria landed in front of her, she set a three cards facedown and motioned for Eddie to take his turn, Eddie nodded and drew his card as Explosive Magician returned to the field. "Explosive Magician, attack Dark Valkyria now!" Eddie commanded and the magician prepared his spell…..

"Sorry but no, I counter your attack with Negate Attack!" One of Theresa's facedown cards flipped up as she interrupted him and the spell was blocked by a forcefield. "Nice try though."

"Thanks, well since there's nothing else I can do I'll end my turn." Eddie announced as Theresa sent her trap to the graveyard, once Theresa did so she drew her card.

"I play the Equip Spell Scroll of Bewitchment; this allows me to change Dark Valkyria's attribute to a Light Type." Theresa announced and Eddie raised an eyebrow at that move. "I'll call it a turn at that." Theresa announced and Eddie drew his card.

"Explosive Magician, attack Dark Valkyria!" Eddie commanded and Theresa grinned before discarding a card from her hand, Eddie didn't notice and Explosive Magician launched his attack.

"You're going to regret that." Theresa said and Eddie blinked in confusion just before the transparent image of a golden haired fairy flew into Dark Valkyria, the fairy glowed briefly and, much to Eddie's shock, her attack skyrocketed to 4300, before he could do anything however Dark Valkyria evaded the attack by flying high in the sky, she quickly followed it up with a ball of dark energy that effortlessly destroyed Explosive Magician.

E: 6600

T: 6300

"What the hell just happened, where the hell did those extra attack points come from?" Eddie demanded and Theresa grinned.

"You know that card I discarded just before the attack hit? It's a monster called Honest (4/1100/1900) and his effect can only be activated when a Light Type monster I control engages in battle, by discarding him from my hand I can add the opponent's monster's attack points to the attack points of the opponent's monster." Theresa explained before folding her arms. "That's why I played Scroll of Bewitchment last turn, you see under normal circumstances Dark Valkyria is a Dark Type monster and if it weren't for my spell she wouldn't have been eligible for Honest's effect." Theresa added and Eddie's eyes narrowed.

"I'll give you credit, that was a smart move." Eddie complemented her before sending Explosive Magician to the graveyard and quickly setting the monster he had drawn. "That's all for me." Eddie announced and Theresa drew her card.

"Well, at least she's gotten rid of Explosive Magician and narrowed the gap between her's and Eddie's life-points." Marcus commented and Brandon nodded in agreement.

"Yeah but we all know that Eddie's got nastier monsters waiting in the wings." Brandon pointed out with a frown. "At least she doesn't have to worry about Exploder Dragonwing anymore." Brandon added.

"I sacrifice Dark Valkyria so I can summon something stronger, namely Airknight Parshaff in attack mode!" Theresa swapped out the cards and Dark Valkyria disappeared from the field, in her place stood the mighty angel from her previous duels with this deck (5/1900/1400). "But why stop there?"

"Yeah, why should you stop there, oh wait, maybe you should because you've used up your Normal Summon for this turn?" Eddie pointed out and Theresa grinned.

"True but what I've got in mind is a Special Summon, you see my next monster requires that I tribute Airknight Parshaff in order to summon him so bye-bye Parshaff." Theresa played the card and Airknight Parshaff vanished from the field, in his place stood a much taller, blue version of him with two huge wings and he was wielding wielding a sword and shield. "Hello Neo-Parshaff, the Sky Paladin (7/2300/2000)."

"Let me guess, he shares regular Parshaff's abilities?" Eddie asked and Theresa nodded. "He seems to be a lot of work just for a slightly stronger version of your previous monster."

"Well he does have another effect but that requires the presence of Sanctuary in the Sky on the field." Theresa explained and Eddie nodded in understanding. "Basically if I had Sanctuary in the Sky on the field you could think of him as a stronger version of Ancient Sacred Wyvern." Theresa added before pointing at Parshaff. "Parshaff, attack his defense!" Theresa commanded and the fairy charged towards the facedown monster and slashed it down the middle, the monster was revealed to be Troop Dragon (2/700/800) which was quickly destroyed.

E: 5100

T: 6300

"That move may have put you in the lead Theresa but now I can use Troop Dragon's effect." Eddie said as he picked up his deck and searched through it, he found the card he was looking for and played it, as soon as he played it another Troop Dragon appeared on the field in defense mode.

"Fine by me, you set them up and I'll knock them down just as quickly." Theresa pointed out with a grin before looking at the rest of her hand. "However before I end my turn I'll use Parshaff's ability that allows me to draw a new card now that I've inflicted damage using him." Theresa added as she drew a card from her deck. "You're turn." Theresa informed him and Eddie drew his card,

"I summon the Tuner Monster Delta Flyer in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the dinosaur like dragon appeared on the field ready for battle (3/1500/800). "Now I use his effect to increase Troop Dragon's Level by 1." Eddie added and just like he said Troop Dragon's level went up to 3. "Now I think it's time I gave Troop Dragon a tune up!" Eddie announced and the two dragons took flight, Delta Flyer vanished and three light green rings surrounded Troop Dragon. "I tune Delta Flyer with Troop Dragon to Synchro Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and in Delta Flyer's place stood a new dragon, this one however was ice blue and actually seemed to be made of ice (6/2300/1400).

"Nice try but if that thing attacks Parshaff they'll both be destroyed." Theresa pointed out with a grin and Eddie shook his head.

"Not my concern, you see Brionac has a very useful effect." Eddie said before discarding a card from his hand. "Basically all I need to do is discard one card from my hand and I can force Parshaff to return to your hand." Eddie announced and Theresa's eyes widened as Brionac's wings flapped at Parshaff causing an icy wind to fly towards him, Parshaff slowly froze over before shattering. "Best part is? I can discard any number of cards from my hand and send the same number of cards from your side of the field to your hand."

"How is that card even legal? That's one of the most broken effects I've seen." Theresa protested and Eddie frowned.

"Well if it's any consolation Brionac's on the limited list though several of my past opponents have been campaigning for its status to be upgraded to Forbidden." Eddie added before picking up another card. "Mostly because of combos like this, I activate the Spell Card De-Synchro!" Eddie played the card and Brionac disappeared, soon afterwards Delta Flyer and Troop Dragon returned to the field. "Its effect is pretty much the same as De-Fusion only it only works on Synchro Monsters."

"In that case why not wait a turn before activating it? You could've sacrificed them to bring out one of your Blue-Eyes White Dragons that way?" Theresa asked and Eddie grinned.

"Why? Because there's more than one way to bring out a Level 8 monster, I activate the Spell Card Dragonic Tactics!" Eddie played the card and Delta Flyer and Troop Dragon disappeared from the field. "In exchange for sacrificing two dragon type monsters I control I can special summon one Level 8 Dragon type monster from my deck, I think you can guess which one I'm going with." Eddie said and Theresa's eyes widened as it dawned on her.

"You're summoning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon." Theresa realized and Eddie nodded before picking up his deck and searching through it, he found the card he was looking for and once he played it the mighty dragon appeared on the field with a roar (8/3000/2500).

"Huh, maybe I should look into getting that card." Marcus said as he rubbed his chin in thought; however it wasn't long before he was also rubbing his head in pain courtesy of a punch from Brandon.

"This is hardly the time to be thinking of ways to improve your deck Marcus." Brandon said as Marcus groaned.

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack her life-points directly with White Lightning!" Eddie commanded and the dragon opened its mouth to prepare its attack, the attack hit and Theresa groaned.

E: 5100

T: 3300

"All I'll need is one more turn and I'll retain the championship." Eddie said confidently before setting a card facedown and motioning for her to take her turn, Theresa drew her card and played it as soon as she was able too.

"I activate Pot of Avarice!" Theresa said before retrieving Airknight Parshaff, Dark Valkyria, Herald of Orange Light, Dunames Dark Witch and Ancient Sacred Wyvern and returned them to her deck, or extra deck in Wyvern's case, before drawing two cards and sending Avarice to the graveyard, her eyes widened when she saw the cards she had drawn with Avarice's effect.

"You draw something good?" Eddie asked when he saw the look on Theresa's face, Theresa looked up and nodded.

"No, I drew the card that will win me the duel and the tournament!" Theresa said before playing the card. _"This is for you Andreas."_ Theresa thought as the hologram of the card flipped up. "I activate the Ritual Spell Card Shinato's Ark."

"Oh crap!" Eddie shouted as he realized what was about to happen, the giant ark appeared on the field alongside Neo Parshaff and a second Honest, the two monsters where absorbed into the ark which started to break apart revealing the mighty fairy in all his glory (8/3300/3000). "You've had Shinato, King of a Higher Plane in your fairy deck all this time?

"That's right, but I haven't had a chance to use it since I got it earlier in the tournament." Theresa said as she looked up at her monster proudly. "But that's not all I'm doing." Theresa said as she played one of the last cards in her hand. "I activate Block Attack to force Blue-Eyes White Dragon into defense mode!" Theresa played the card and the mighty dragon reluctantly knelt down in front of the fairy.

"But that means that Blue-Eyes White Dragon's attack will come out of my life-points as soon as Shinato attacks!" Eddie realized as his eyes widened.

"That's right." Theresa said before pointing at Shinato. "Shinato, attack Blue-Eyes White Dragon now!" Theresa commanded and the fairy put his hands together, a large ball of white light formed in between his hands which he launched at Blue-Eyes White Dragon, the dragon roared in pain before it was vaporized.

E: 2100

T: 3300

"It's down to wire Bob; Theresa has a monster on her side of the field that can wipe out either of their life-points depending on what happens next!" Bill said over the cheering crowd and Bob nodded in agreement.

"This has been a very exciting duel so far Bill, no matter who wins they'd definitely would have earned it!" Bob added as Theresa motioned for Eddie to take his turn, he responded to this by drawing his card quickly.

"I'll set two cards facedown." Eddie set the card down and the facedown card appeared on the field. "That ends my turn."

"And that also ends the duel, and your reign as champion!" Theresa said as she drew a card. "Shinato, end the duel and win me the championship now!" Theresa commanded and the mighty fairy prepared its attack….

"My title isn't going anywhere; I activate my trap card Magic Cylinder!" Eddie activated the trap and the two cylinders appeared on the field…..

"Yeah, sorry but you're wrong, I chain Magic Cylinder with my Trap Card Dark Bribe!" Theresa activated the trap and grinned. "This negates and destroys Magic Cylinder whilst allowing you to draw an extra card in exchange, not that it matters…."

"You're right, it's doesn't matter!" Eddie interrupted her as he activated his other trap. "I chain Dark Bribe with Trap Jammer, since I activated this during your battle phase Dark Bribe's effect is negated and the trap is destroyed." Eddie said and Theresa's eyes widened as Dark Bribe's hologram shattered and the energy ball from Shinato entered one of the jars. "Theresa, for what's its worth, thanks for the great match."

"I'm saying the same to you." Theresa said with a somewhat disappointed nod as the blast came out of the other jar and hit her in the chest.

E: 2100

T: 0000

"There you have it folks, the Battle City Championship has been retained by Eddie Roberts!" Bill announced and the crowd went wild, Theresa gathered up her cards and returned them to her deck as did Eddie, as soon as he was done with that Eddie approached Theresa before offering her a handshake.

"Like I said, thanks for the great match." Eddie said as he extended his hand out, Theresa hesitated before accepting the handshake. "Why didn't you use your other facedown card though?" Eddie asked upon seeing that the card was still in her duel disk, she retrieved the card and held it up revealing it to be Magic Jammer.

"That wouldn't really help me, would it?" Theresa pointed out before returning the card to her deck, Eddie nodded in agreement before hopping off the stage and offering to help her down, Theresa responded by simply hopping off the stage.

"Man, we won't be going home with any titles." Marcus said with a groan, Brandon sighed in resignation as he leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah, we got a tough break." Brandon agreed as he folded his arms, he turned to Martin who was rubbing his chin. "So are we going straight back to Duel Academy?"

"No, we'll be heading back Monday morning; we figured we may as well give you kids a chance to relax." Jeff answered for Martin before smiling. "But guys, seriously if I where you I wouldn't worry about the lack of titles you guys have won, you all did a fantastic job of representing Duel Academy and you should be proud of that fact."

"Yeah, I guess." Brandon said before realization hit him. "Besides we can use the extra two days in New York to wrap up one more lose end."

"Finishing off the guys who revived the Orichalcos?" Lance asked and Brandon nodded. "Man, all they've got left is the creepy guy in a robe, this will be a piece of cake."

"Or he's easily the best duelist off the lot." Brandon pointed out with a frown. "Let's not worry about it just yet; we still have to locate their hideout."

"At the very least we should retrieve Andreas's soul card from Otto, not like he'll need it." Lance added and the other duelists nodded in agreement.

"We'll pick it up on the way back to the hotel." Jeff said and the other teachers nodded in confirmation, unbeknownst to them one of Michael's minions, disguised as a security guard, was listening in and reporting it to Michael.

"Yes sir, they should be making their move soon." The minion said as he walked down the halls. "Do you want me to follow them?"

"No, one of my other minions will do that." Michael said sternly. "As for you, return to base, we'll need all the men we can get for the next part of the plan." Michael added before hanging up.


	40. Eliminating the Threat Part 1

It had been an hour since the climatic match of the Battle City tournament and things in the city of New York where starting to cool down, most of the competing duelists where already on their way home with a few exceptions, namely the Duel Academy students, the comatose duelists and the champion himself Eddie Roberts.

As for the students they were back at the hotel collecting their bearings, the police where done with Chloe's room, much to her relief, which meant that the three girls now had their room back, Lance had elected to go to the hospital on his own to collect Andreas's soul card after it was decided that the students should go back to the hotel in order to rest after the tournament.

"_It's definitely been a hell of a tournament." _Chloe thought as she sat down on the bed, her duel disk sat on the bedside table as did her deck, well her deck save for one card that is, her Silent Magician Level 8 which she was holding in her hand. _"Who knows? Maybe if I had summoned Explosive Magician instead of Gaia Knight the Force of Earth I would've dueled Eddie instead of Theresa….though I doubt I would've done as well as she did." _Chloe thought but her train of thought was interrupted by a knock at her door.

"Hey Chloe, what's up?" Theresa asked as she entered the room, Chloe smiled pocketed her monster card.

"Not much, just going over our last match in my mind." Chloe shrugged as Theresa took a seat next to her bed. "Not to mention kicking myself for summoning the wrong monster."

"Yeah, Brandon told me after my match with Eddie." Theresa said with a sigh. "Chloe, don't beat yourself up over it, we all make mistakes."

"Yeah but this one cost me a spot in the finals." Chloe pointed out and Theresa frowned. "At least I got one of the secondary awards." Chloe said as she glanced towards a small trophy next to her duel disk, before the students left they announced a seven secondary awards that they gave out to the competing duelists, Marcus won Best Strategy for his match against Brandon, Best Duelist was a tie between Theresa and Axel so they got a trophy each, Match of the Tournament went to the match between Eddie Roberts and Theresa Daniels and Chloe won Shock of the Tournament for making it as far as she did despite having limited experience.

"Don't remind Lance though, he's still disappointed that he didn't win anything." Theresa said with a grin and Chloe smiled.

"Speaking of Lance, is he back from the hospital yet?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head in response.

"Nah, he shouldn't be back for another couple of minutes at the most." Theresa said shaking her head. "Before you ask, Hamden's trying to find out where the bastards who revived the Orichalcos are hiding out as we speak."

"Good, I'll be glad to have that behind me." Chloe said with a shudder as she thought back to her first duel in the tournament. "After everything that we've been through in this tournament I'll take another shot at one of Jeff's obstacle courses over being in another Orichalcos duel."

"I'm sure that I can you out there Chloe." Jeff said as he entered the room, the Osiris Red student nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard his voice and Jeff grinned. "Sorry to barge in like this Chloe but your dad's waiting outside for you, said something about taking you somewhere." Jeff said and Chloe nodded before grabbing her duel disk.

"Thanks Jeff, I should be back by dinner time at the very least." Chloe said as she returned her monster card to her deck.

"Where are you going then?" Theresa asked and Chloe hesitated.

"It's….it's personal." Chloe said after a few minutes as she made her way towards the door. "If the others ask tell them that I went out to look for new cards at a Card Shop or something along those lines."

"You do realize the first line won't work right? Most card shops I know are completely sold out due to the tournament." Jeff pointed out and Chloe sighed.

"If I tell you guys….will you at least promise to not tell the others?" Chloe said after a few minutes of trying to think of something to tell them, they nodded and Chloe sighed again. "I'm going to visit my mom's gravesite for the first time, I couldn't do it when I originally lived in New York due to legal matters regarding where I was going to live at the time." Chloe explained and the two older duelists nodded in understanding.

"If you're sure about that we'll think of something to tell the others." Theresa reassured her and Chloe smiled before leaving the room. "Has there been any news from Lance Jeff?"

"None yet, I'm starting to get worried he shouldn't be taking this long." Jeff sighed and Theresa nodded in agreement. "Well if you excuse me I'm going to check on the others, see how their handling the disappointment of your loss after all your hard work."

"Yeah…thanks a lot for rubbing it in Jeff." Theresa said clearly annoyed by this, Jeff simply smiled and left and Theresa glanced around Chloe's room. _"Looks like she's started packing already, after this crazy tournament I can hardly blame her." _Theresa thought before noticing something she hadn't noticed before, an old picture, presumably around ten years old, was among Chloe's soon to be packed belongings and she picked it up out of curiosity, in the picture was what looked like Chloe when she was seven wearing a cute little dress. _"Huh, I guess Chloe wasn't always the tomboy we know and love." _ Theresa thought before her eyes darted towards the older person in the picture, a woman who looked to be in her late twenties/early thirties who bore a striking resemblance to Chloe only with shorter hair who was wearing a jogging suit. _"That woman…..is she Chloe's mother?" _Theresa thought as she looked at the picture, they seemed to be very happy together which made Theresa sigh sadly. _"This must've been taken during one of the few times they were able to get away from that bastard who calls himself her dad, hell it looks like it was taken in the same Mall we dueled him in." _Theresa thought before returning the picture to its previous place and leaving the room. _"Maybe I'll ask her about it."_ Theresa thought as she left the room.

*elsewhere in the city*

There was a reason Lance was taking as long as he was to get Andreas's soul card, the fact that he simply couldn't find it despite searching for it everywhere.

"Doc, are you absolute sure that no one may have taken it by accident?" Lance asked the much older and very annoyed doctor as he looked under Otto's bed, Nicola and one of the doctors where watching him mostly to make sure he didn't accidently disconnect anything.

"I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it again Mr. Alvers, yes I am sure that none of the staff at this hospital have taken it by accident." The doctor answered as the teen stood up carefully avoiding the wires as he did. "Like I said we catalogued two Duel Monster cards separate from his deck when he first arrived here, I have no idea where the other might have gone."

"_Man, if Chloe had just retrieved the card during the aftermath off her duel against him I wouldn't be in this mess." _Lance thought before shaking his head. _"No, I can't hold her responsible for this, after her little rant her emotions where running high." _Lance thought as he ran a hand through his hair. "In that case I'm stumped."

"It has to be here somewhere." Nicola protested and Lance sighed.

"Believe me, I've looked everywhere I could without interfering with the medical equipment." Lance said with a sigh of resignation, it was then that he got an idea. "Hey doc, at any point during the Battle City finals was there any odd people seen around the hospital?"

"Now that you mention it yes, I do remember seeing a fellow I didn't recognize; he was tall, had dark hair and was in a surgeon's uniform right down to the mask which was odd since surgeons don't usually walk around the wards." The doctor said after he thought for a moment, it took a moment for the implications to set in and as soon as it did the doctor's eyes widened. "Are you suggesting a thief broke into the hospital just to steal one Duel Monster's card?"

"After everything that's happened in this damn tournament I'm willing to believe that Santa Claus not only exists but lives with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, let alone that someone would go to all this trouble just to steal a duel monsters card." Lance said with a shrug just as he heard his ringtone, Bye-Bye Beautiful by Nightwish, go off. "Err; yeah I'm going to leave the hospital so I can answer that." Lance said as furious blush flushed over his face, before the doctor could say anything Lance legged it for the entrance and as soon as he was out the door he answered it. _"Whoever's calling has the patience of a turtle!" _Lance thought as he waited for an answer. _"I could've sworn I turned this damn thing off." _Lance thought.

"Hello Mr. Alvers, I was wondering when you'd show up to collect your friend's soul card." An unknown voice that sent shivers down Lance's spine said and Lance's eyes narrowed.

"Who are you? And what have you done with that card?" Lance demanded and the voice on the other end chuckled.

"You're hardly in a position to be making demands Lance." The voice said threateningly and Lance's eyes narrowed. "You want your friend's soul freed alongside all the other victims of my organization? Meet with your friends back at the hotel, tell them to come by the docks at the earliest convenience and go to a ship docked at Pier 17, Andreas's soul depends on it!" The voice said before hanging up.

"Hello? HELLO!" Lance yelled into the phone but no answer came, he checked caller ID and frowned. _"He used a Disposable Cell Phone, just fucking great!" _Lance thought before calling Martin. "Martin, it's me and I need to be picked up from the hospital."

"Were you able to find the card?" Martin asked and Lance shook his head.

"No, look I'll explain when I get back, besides it's a long story and I may just end up sounding crazy reciting it out loud and in public." Lance responded and Martin paused.

"All right, I'll have the driver pick you up." Martin said with a sigh and Lance grinned. "Where are you at the moment?"

"Outside the ER wing at the hospital, I'm standing opposite a parked ambulance." Lance answered and Martin hung up, Lance pocketed the cell and sighed. _"God, this is going to take a lot of explaining on my part!"_ Lance thought before the automatic doors opened and Nicola stepped out.

"Who was that?" Nicola asked and Lance shrugged.

"No clue, but he claimed to have a way to free the imprisoned souls from the Orichalcos so I'm going back to the hotel to meet with the others and figure out what to do about it." Lance explained as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I think it's a safe bet that the caller is the same guy who stole Andreas's soul card."

"You think he's telling the truth?" Nicola asked and Lance frowned.

"Honestly I don't know, for all I know it could be a last ditch effort by those bastards to capture our souls." Lance said with a shrug and Nicola's eyes narrowed.

"Lance, I want to come with you guys and get revenge for Andreas." Nicola said assertively and Lance frowned.

"Nic, don't get me wrong you're a talented duelist but so is Chloe and she more experience than you, no offense but I don't see how you could help us here." Lance said honestly and Nicola folded her arms with a pout. "Here's an idea, when we beat them maybe you can call us to confirm whether or not Andreas has woken up?" Lance suggested and Nicola thought for a moment before nodding.

"Yeah, I can do that." Nicola said as she went inside the hospital. "Just promise me one thing Lance." Nicola said as she glanced over her shoulder. "That no one else gets hurt by those bastards." Nicola asked and Lance nodded without hesitation.

"I'll try." Lance said as he watched Nicola enter the hospital, he heard a car pull up and turned around in time to see Jeff stepping out of the car. "Hey Jeff, I bet your wondering what I have to tell you huh?"

"Yeah, you could say that." Jeff said as he held the door open for the teen, Lance got in without hesitation and Jeff quickly followed him. "I'm guessing you'll tell me and the others when we arrive at the hotel?" Jeff asked as he and Lance put their seatbelts on.

"Yeah, that way I can save myself the trouble of repeating myself." Lance said as he folded his arms, the driver started driving away from the hospital and Lance looked out the window as he waited. "Can't believe I'm saying this but after all the crazy shit that's happened in this tournament I'll take a month's worth of homework over another duel." Lance said getting a laugh out of Jeff.

"We'll discuss that when we get back to the hotel." Jeff told him as the car drove off. "We'll have to wait for Chloe to return first though; she had something that she wanted to do before we go back to Duel Academy."

*elsewhere in the city*

After a brief stop by a florist's to buy some flowers to put on her mother's gave Chloe and her stepdad arrived at the cemetery where Chloe's mother was buried, even as she entered the cemetery Chloe had butterflies in her stomach as she was incredibly nervous going into this.

After passing a few gravestones the two of them stopped at the bottom of the hill, Scott turned to his daughter and pointed towards one at the very top of the hill. "That's where she's buried?" Chloe asked and Scott nodded, Chloe gulped as she started climbing up the hill. "Dad, you mind waiting for me down here? I…I'd like some privacy." Chloe requested as she started to get choked up.

"Sure, just call me when you're ready to leave." Scott told her as he sat down on a nearby bench, Chloe nodded and made her way up the hill before kneeling in front of the gravestone and she dusted off the gravestone, she saw her mother's name and the surname that Chloe hadn't used in ten years, Sarah Graham.

"Hi mom, I know it's been a while since I last saw you." Chloe said sadly as she put the flowers on the grave. "I've grown a lot, both biologically and as a person, since I last saw you and I managed to kick some ass in the Battle City tournament." Chloe added with a smile; however she was quickly overcome by emotion as tears started streaming down her eyes and she fell to her hands and knees. "I….I miss you…..I miss you much!" She stammered as she wiped away a tear from her cheek, it took her a few moments but she finally stood up and dried her eyes on the sleeves of her jacket. "I…I guess I'll see you around." Chloe sighed before making her way down the hill, she walked up to the bench her dad was sitting on and sat next to him. "Dad…..thanks for bringing me here."

"It was my pleasure Chloe." Scott reassured her and Chloe smiled. "Tell me when you want to go back to the hotel and I'll take you back, I'll understand if you want to have a few minutes to calm down." Scott said just as his cellphone went off; he answered it almost immediately after checking the caller ID. "Jeff? Is there something wrong?" Scott asked catching Chloe's attention, she watched her stepdad for a few minutes as he listened to what he had to say. "I understand, I'll bring Chloe back to the hotel as soon as possible," Scott said before hanging up.

"Is there something wrong dad?" Chloe asked as the last of her tears dried up, Scott turned to her with a look of seriousness on his face.

"I'll explain on the way back to the hotel, if you're up for going back now." Scott told her and Chloe stood up.

"Let's go." Chloe said simply before following her stepdad back to the car.

*sometime later at the hotel*

"Yeah, that's basically it." Lance said as he folded his arms, he had just finished telling the other students and the teachers what had happened at the hospital and, as he had expected, he had been met with skeptical looks. "After everything that's happened recently is it that hard to believe that something like that happened?"

"It's not that Lance, it just seems too good to be true." Theresa said with an annoyed sigh and Lance frowned. "And like I said Disposable Cells can't be traced even if we had the technology to do so, for all we know it's an elaborate trap."

"I don't know about you guys but I think we should go anyway." Chloe chimed in and the others turned to her. "You know, for Andreas's sake."

"What if our souls get trapped Chloe, did you even think about that?" Theresa pointed out and Chloe stiffened up at her tone of voice. "Look I want to find a way to free Andreas and any other victims of the Orichalcos as much as you guys but we need to think about this!" Theresa added and Kimberly frowned as she turned to Theresa.

"I'm siding with Chloe Theresa." Kimberly said plainly. "Don't get me wrong, I hear you about the risks involved in doing this but those guys have been a pain in our asses throughout the tournament, hell they captured my brother's soul before the tournament even began, I'll be happy to have those bastards out of my life."

"Sorry Theresa but I'm siding with Chloe as well." Brandon said and Theresa turned to him looking at him like he had just grown an extra head. "Don't forget I still have the Yubel cards in my deck, their effects will give us an edge."

"Is anyone going to side with me?" Theresa asked and the others shook their heads, Theresa sighed in resignation and stood up. "Since I've been outvoted we'll go to this ship in an hour, in the meantime I want everyone training extra hard, do I make myself clear?" Theresa asked and the others nodded without hesitation. "And remember guys, this may be our only chance to bring back Andreas so when we get there be ready for anything."

"We will be, count on it." Chloe said assertively and the others nodded in agreement. "So, where will we meet for training?"

"Outside the hotel, we'll be reusing the rules we came up with during our training sessions for Battle City." Theresa said after thinking for a few moments, she stood up and left the room after saying that and the others followed her.

*elsewhere in the city*

"So, the fools should be here soon." Michael said as he entered the boss's office on board the ship. "I assure you that my minions are ready for anything."

"Have you given them the Orichalcos cards as I requested?" The boss asked and Michael nodded. "Good, just remember that I am to deal with Lance Alvers personally, understood?" The boss asked and Michael frowned under his hood.

"Yes, off course." Michael said without hesitation. "And if my minions fail I'll get my deck ready, you can never be too careful." Michael said before leaving the room.

"_And if he fails, god forbid, I had better prepare myself." _The leader thought before reaching into a desk draw and retrieving a deck. _"I may have founded the organization but that doesn't make me a weakling, I am by far the best duelist in it and those foolish children will soon see that fact first hand!" _The leader thought before standing up and leaving the room.

*an hour later*

"Pier 16…..and here's pier 17!" The foreman said as he led the students to the pier, the students had arrived twenty minutes ago and had asked the foreman to take them to Pier 17, he only accepted because he had been following the Battle City Tournament religiously and had recognized the students, he appeared confused however as he saw the ship. "That ship shouldn't be there."

"It doesn't have a docking permit?" Theresa asked and the foreman shook his head.

"No, it's been over a year since the last docking permit was given out." The foreman said before frowning. "I'd better call the cops; god knows what illegal activities are going on in there!" The foreman said before walking back to his office, the teens shared a look before looking towards the ship in question.

"So…should we go in?" Lance asked as he rubbed the back of his head nervously; however his eyes narrowed as a familiar figure, well familiar to him and Chloe that is, approached them.

"What's the matter Lance? Don't you recognize me?" The youth that was approaching them asked, he was tall with a shaved head, piercings all over his face and brown eyes, he was wearing a red jacket with a black muscle shirt underneath, blue jeans and black boots but what caught the other Duel Academy student's attention was the Orichalcos Duel Disk on his arm.

"You know him Lance?" Brandon asked and Lance frowned.

"You remember that story I told you guys about that gang leader I beat the shit out off?" Lance asked and Brandon, Theresa and Marcus nodded whilst Chloe shivered at the memory and Kimberly stared at Lance like he had just declared war on himself. "You're looking at that gang leader."

"You mean former gang leader!" The gang leader said with a scowl. "After that incident no one in my old gang would take me seriously so I quit whilst I was ahead, I was approached by my new boss and well the rest is history!"

"Then why didn't we encounter you during the tournament?" Theresa asked and the former gang leader frowned.

"I was eliminated before I had the chance, thought I'd test my deck out against the German National Champion, in fact every duel you'll have from now on will be against someone who was either eliminated early from the tournament or withdrew for other reasons." The former gang leader said before smirking. "Here's the deal kiddies, see that ship? My boss and his second in command are held up in there but to get there you have to defeat me and the rest of the cronies first."

"And what's to stop us from telling you to fuck off and storm the ship?" Lance asked the youth smirked.

"Two things, first is quite simple." The youth said before opening the right side of his jacket open and revealing a holstered gun, he closed the jacket and smirked. "We are all armed and the guns are fully loaded and if that somehow doesn't scare you then this will, my boss is watching the proceedings on those cameras." The youth said before pointing to a pair of security cameras. "If you even think about doing that then he will rip up your friend's soul card."

"He wouldn't dare!" Chloe scowled and the youth smirked.

"Always knew you had a mouth on you babe!" He smirked evilly. "You can thank your daddy for that bit of information!" He added and Chloe clenched her fists in anger at the mention of him.

"All right, that's enough you gigantic piece of shit!" Lance growled as he activated his duel disk. "As tempting as it is for me to reintroduce my fist to your already ugly face I don't like getting shot for some reason so I'll duel…."

"No, I will." Chloe said as she brushed passed the others, Lance looked at her with a look of surprise on his face and she turned to him. "His grudge is against both of us; after all it was him thinking that it would be okay to grope me in public that started the whole mess in the first place."

"Hey, not my fault you have a habit of dressing like a hooker." The youth shrugged and Chloe grit her teeth in anger.

"You know what? That misogynistic asshole is all yours." Lance said as he took a step back and deactivated his duel disk. "But just as long as I get to take out the next guy."

"You have a deal." Chloe said as she activated her duel disk, the youth smirked before activating his duel disk and both duelists drew their opening hands.

"I doubt you care but the name's Ramon, and I'm going to do what my associates couldn't." Ramon said as he looked over his hand. "Defeat you in a duel!"

"We'll see about that." Chloe scoffed as she looked over her hand. "So who's going first?" Chloe asked and Ramon smirked.

"Well I'd say ladies first but I figured out long ago that you aint no lady!" Ramon said as he drew his opening card. "And to open things up I summon Giant Orc in attack mode!" Ramon played the card and a giant muscular grey ogre appeared on the field wielding a bone like club (4/2200/0000) and Chloe smirked when she saw the monster.

"I've heard of dogs looking like their owners but duel monsters as well?" Chloe mocked him and Ramon growled.

"Laugh all you want bitch!" Ramon said angrily as he picked up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Ramon set the two cards and Chloe drew her first card. "Encase you're getting any ideas about setting a monster don't, I activate my trap card Final Attack Orders!"

"That won't stop me from setting monsters." Chloe quickly pointed out and Ramon grinned before activating one of his other cards.

"No but this will, I activate Light of Intervention!" Ramon activated the card and grinned. "As long as these cards are on the field your moves are pretty limited."

"Well in that case I set two cards facedown and summon the Tuner Monster Torapart in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the strange, magician like warrior appeared on the field (2/600/600) and Ramon scoffed when he saw that.

"You summoned a tuner monster on your first turn? It seems that you're dumb as well!" Ramon mocked her and Chloe's eyes narrowed.

"This is coming from the guy who didn't even make it to the Semi-Finals, if you knew how to read you'd know that that's a little thing called irony." Chloe mocked him and Ramon growled. "Besides I'm far from done, since I have a Tuner on my side of the field I can Special Summon Boost Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the futuristic red haired warrior appeared on the field (1/300/300). "Normally I would only be able to Special Summon him in defense mode but you're little combo prevents that, but on the plus side however my Warrior gives 300 attack points to every other warrior on my side of the field and I have two." Chloe added as Boost Warrior and Torapart's attack points rose to 600 and 900 respectively.

"Who cares? They are no match for my orc!" Ramon scoffed and Chloe grinned before picking up two of her other cards.

"Funny, I seem to remember you saying the same thing about Lance prior to your asskicking, well with a few words changed at least." Chloe countered and Ramon growled. "I set two cards of my own facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the two cards and Ramon drew a card.

"That's the same move she did in our match." Theresa whispered to Brandon who nodded in agreement. "Think Ramon will fall for the same bluff?"

"Well he obviously isn't the sharpest knife in the draw." Brandon whispered back as he folded his arms. "And he can't risk something like Heavy Storm because that would destroy his trap cards as well leaving his Giant Orc vulnerable as soon as he attacked."

"Well we'd better hope that he doesn't have anything to prevent her from using traps." Marcus added before noticing the smirk on Ramon's face. "Oh great, knowing our luck he's just drawn the Seal!"

"No but I may as well have drawn it!" Ramon said before playing his drawn card. "I activate my Spell Card Terra Forming, now I can take one Field Spell from my deck and add it to my hand!" Ramon played the card and Chloe's eyes widened as she realized what he was up too, he added the card to his hand and as soon as he reshuffled his deck he played the field spell. "I activate The Seal of the Orichalcos!" Ramon played the card and the infamous seal quickly surrounded the two duelists, Ramon chuckled evilly as the pentagram appeared on his forehead as well as Giant Orc's forehead increasing his attack to 2700 at the same time. "Don't worry; I'll make this quick and painless! Giant Orc, attack Torapart now!" Ramon ordered and the Orc charged towards the tuner monster…

"Not going to happen, I activate my Trap Card Waboku which protects my monsters and my life-points!" Chloe activated the trap and the three priestesses blocked the path of the orc, they were subsequently smashed to pieces with one swing of Giant Orc's club before the monster returned to Ramon's side of the field. "I know that thing's side effect as well; if he attacks he is forced into defense mode after Damage Calculation." Chloe added before her eyes narrowed. "But your Final Attack Orders trap card prevents that."

"Naturally, it seems you're not a dumb slut after all." Ramon mocked her as his Orc tried to kneel down but was forced back to his feet, Chloe growled at that comment as she sent her trap card to the graveyard.

"Are you done yet?" Chloe asked impatiently and Ramon nodded, she quickly drew her card and looked at it. "First I activate Reinforcement of the Army; this lets me add one Warrior Type monster from my deck to my hand!" Chloe played the card and picked up her deck, one quick search later and she found the card she was looking for, added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "Now I sacrifice Torapart so I can summon Salvage Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe swapped out the cards and Torapart vanished from the field, in its place stood a large muscular purple ogre wearing a metal backpack with chains dangling off of it, chains which he was holding in his hand, an orange jacket with a blue jumper underneath, green pants and black boots (5/1900/1600) and even as his attack increased to 2200 thanks to Boost Warrior's effect Ramon burst out laughing.

"Are you serious? You sacrificed the only decent monster on your side of the field for a Level 5 monster with 1900 attack points?" Ramon scoffed….but his laughter soon died down when he saw Torapart emerge from the backpack, power boost from Boost Warrior and all. "What the hell did you just do?"

"Use Salvage Warrior's effect, that's what!" Chloe grinned as she folded her arms. "When I successfully tribute summon him I can special summon a tuner type monster from my hand or graveyard and since the only monster in my hand is a non-tuner monster I had to make do with this!"

"Okay, that was pretty clever." Theresa admitted as she watched the duel. "Now she can use those three monsters to Synchro Summon a Level 8 Synchro monster easily."

"I'm not done yet Theresa!" Chloe added as she retrieved her spell from her graveyard, pocketed it and picked up a card. "For my next trick I'm removing Reinforcement of the Army from play so I can Special Summon Spell Striker in attack mode!" Chloe announced as the small warrior in Viking armor appeared on the field (3/600/600) and his attack increased to 900 thanks to Boost Warrior's effect. "I have bad news for you Ramon, when Spell Striker's summoned in this manner he can bypass your monster and attack you directly!"

"Hey wait a minute…" Ramon began to protest as Chloe pointed at Spell Striker.

"Spell Striker, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the small warrior leaped straight over Giant Orc, no small feat given the size difference, and slashed him with his sword.

R: 7100

C: 8000

Ramon grunted as he got to his feet, however once he was on his feet he grinned. "You should've tuned your other three monsters together first ya dumb broad! Everyone knows you can't do a Synchro Summon during your battle phase!"

"With my trap card I can!" Chloe countered as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Urgent Tuning; this lets me perform a Synchro Summon during either of our Battle Phases but don't take my word for it, please allow Torapart to demonstrate with help from Salvage and Boost Warrior!" Chloe said as the three monsters leapt into the air, Torapart vanished and two golden rings surrounded Salvage Warrior and Boost Warrior. "I tune Torapart with Salvage Warrior and Boost Warrior so I can Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter in attack mode!" Chloe announced as a bright flash enveloped the field, once the flash faded Ramon looked up and his eyes widened as he looked at the mighty warrior in front of him (8/2800/1000). "Oh and it gets better, for me at least, this big guy gains a hundred attack points for each Warrior type monster in either of our graveyards, like the three monsters I just used to Synchro Summon him!" Chloe added as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 3100. "Oh and one more thing, Torapart's effect will prevent you from using your trap card to prevent Colossal Fighter's attack since I used him in a Synchro Summon."

"Err; is it too late to apologize if I offended you in any way?" Ramon gulped as he looked at Chloe's Synchro Monster.

"In a word, yes, Colossal Fighter I command you to attack Giant Orc now!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards the orc, it tried to defend its self but it was no use as the monster was quickly pummeled.

R: 6700

C: 8000

"It feels so good to be the dominating one for once!" Chloe said with a grin…but quickly blushed upon realizing how wrong that sounded before turning her head to the other students. "Not a word to anyone at Duel Academy about what I just said, okay?" Chloe asked and the others quickly nodded whilst Marcus and Lance tried to suppress their laughter, Chloe shook her head before regaining her composure and setting the last card in her hand. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Ramon drew his card.

"I activate Monster Reincarnation so I can return Giant Orc to my hand!" Ramon played the card and, after discarding a Spell Card, he returned the monster to his hand. "Now I activate the card I just drew, Allure of Darkness, this lets me draw two cards as long as I banish one Dark Type monster from my hand and thanks to Monster Reincarnation I have just that!" Ramon pocketed Giant Orc and drew two cards from his deck; he looked at them briefly before activating his facedown card. "Next I activate Emergency Provisions, in exchange for sending Final Attack Orders and Light of Intervention to my graveyard this card will add 2000 life-points to my score!" Ramon said as he sent his traps to the graveyard, once he did his life-points increased to 8700.

"It seems like he predicted that his monster wouldn't be on the field for long, even with the Orichalcos backing him up." Theresa commented and Brandon nodded in agreement. "Let's just hope that Chloe doesn't repeat the mistakes of our match by getting overconfident too early."

"Wouldn't be the first time that's happened, just look at what happened during her match against Otto." Brandon pointed out with a frown. "Let's face it; Chloe's overconfidence has been her downfall in the past."

"You know I can hear you, right?" Chloe asked and the two Obelisk Blue students winced.

"And I still have a move to complete!" Ramon said before picking up the cards he just drawn. "I set this card facedown and a monster in defense mode, it's your move." Ramon played the cards and Chloe drew her card.

"_Not that I'm complaining but why didn't he target Spell Striker? If he had then I would've lost a lot of life-points…..but by doing so he would've strengthened Colossal Fighter even more!" _Chloe thought as realization hit her. _"Well, better not take any chances." _Chloe thought before switching Spell Striker to defense mode and pointing at Ramon's defense monster. "Colossal Fighter, attack his defense!" Chloe commanded and the massive fighter let out a mighty roar before charging at Ramon's facedown monster, the former gang leader smirked however as his monster was revealed to be Dark Resonator (3/1300/800) and to no one's surprise it's attack rose to 1800 thanks to the seal, however to Chloe's surprise Dark Resonator survived the attack.

"Surprised? Don't be, on top of being a Tuner Monster Dark Resonator can survive one attack per round." Ramon explained and Chloe frowned at that piece of information.

"Which will leave you open to do a Synchro of your own on your next turn." Chloe said with a frown and Ramon smirked at that.

"You catch on fast, pity you never took me up on my offer when we first met." Ramon said with a cocky smirk and Chloe scoffed.

"Did you just say offer? Is that what you call being an annoying pest and trying to grope a girl at every opportunity you got just because she may have dressed appropriately for a hot day?" Chloe accused him and Ramon growled when he heard that. "Even if I did take up on your so called offer it wouldn't have done you much good unless your goal was to become a registered sex offender, I was 16 at the time and I happen to know that your 21."

"So I like them young, who cares?" Ramon scoffed before noticing the angry looks he was getting from the other duel academy students. "How about we just forget I said anything and move on?"

"It's too late for that scumbag!" A familiar voice, to the duel academy students at least, rang out and Alex stepped out of his hiding spot. "To answer your questions, I've been here since before the match started and heard every word from that piece of shit's mouth."

"I swear you old folks never mind your own business." Ramon said as he rolled his eyes, he turned his attention to Chloe and scowled. "I'm still waiting for you to end your turn sweet-cheeks." Ramon said the Chloe growled in annoyance before looking over her hand, she set a card facedown and motioned for him to take his turn.

"I end my turn but call me that again and I'll shove your duel disk right up your ass!" Chloe growled and Ramon drew his card.

"Is it even possible to do that?" Marcus asked as he scratched his head in confusion, Brandon quickly intervened as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"No one answer him, I have no intention of losing my lunch!" Brandon said quickly and Marcus gulped before quickly shutting up.

"Okay, but here's something I don't get." Alex said as he folded his arms. "I thought that punk Otto was the last of the Orichalcos duelists."

"Honestly we've never been too sure about they're numbers either." Theresa answered with a frown. "On the first day of dueling we were challenged by and we defeated seven Orichalcos Duelists, including two of them in a tag team match, but the day afterwards more of them cropped up."

"And on the second day we eliminated five of them, however two duelists from the first day managed to escape." Brandon informed him with a frown. "And I don't think Chloe will appreciate being reminded of the fifth duel."

"No, I won't." Chloe said almost immediately as she waited for Ramon to make his move, he looked at his drawn card and played it.

"I activate the Spell Card called Card of Sanctity, sure it helps you as well but it has its own benefits for yours truly as well!" Ramon played the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands, Ramon sent his spell to the graveyard and looked over his new hand. "Yeah, this should do nicely; first I sacrifice Dark Resonator so I can summon something a bit more useful for my upcoming move, the mighty Metal Guardian in attack mode,"

"Metal Guardian, are you serious!" Every other duelist present questioned him as Dark Resonator disappeared from the field, in its place stood a large metallic being that seemed to be more at home defending rather than attacking (5/1150/2150) and it's attack increased to 1650 as the symbol of the Seal appeared on its forehead.

"Who in their right minds has a card like that nowadays?" Brandon questioned once the move dawned on him. "Summoning it defense mode I could understand due to its high defense power but in attack mode! Why not summon Dark King of the Abyss whilst you're at it?"

"Watch and learn rich boy! First I activate the trap I set last turn Revival Gift; this brings back Dark Resonator as long as I give you two Revival Gift tokens!" Ramon activated the card and the fiend reappeared on the field as did two shadowy figures alongside Spell Striker and Colossal Fighter.

"Great, now you can do a Level 8 Synchro Summon of your own!" Chloe said clearly annoyed by this; however her annoyance quickly turned to confusion when Ramon shook his head.

"Actually no, what I instead have in mind is a Level 7 Synchro Summon." Ramon said as he picked up a card in his hand. "First I equip Metal Guardian with the Spell Card Demotion; now that he's equipped with it this will reduce his Level to 3!" Ramon played the card and like he said Metal Guardian's level was reduced by two.

"It seems you can't count Ramon." Chloe mocked him with a smirk. "As it stands you can only bring out a Level 6 Synchro with that combo."

"Actually I can count, which is why I activate this next Spell Card!" Ramon played the card and Chloe's eyes narrowed when she saw it. "One for One requires me to send a monster from my hand to the graveyard but in exchange I can Special Summon one Level 1 monster from my deck, in other words exactly what I need to make my Synchro Summon possible!" Ramon explained as he picked up his deck and searched through it, he found the card he was looking for, played it and shuffled his deck before returning it to his slot, the monster appeared soon afterwards revealing it to be Battle Fader (1/0/0) and Ramon didn't seem to care that the fiend's attack increased to five hundred thanks to the Seal. "Normally I use this card to save myself from a direct attack but it works just as well in this scenario!" Ramon said before pointing at his three monsters, Dark Resonator put its tuning forks together and the three monsters vanished. "I tune Dark Resonator with Metal Guardian and Battle Fader to Synchro Summon Chaos King Archfiend!" Ramon played the card and Kimberly's eyes widened as a blight flash enveloped the field, once it faded Chloe looked up and saw that a new monster now stood in Metal Guardian's place, it was a blue gaunt fiend who's arms where covered in armor, it red hair, flaming wings and a yellow mask the latter of which was covering its face (7/2600/2600) and it's attack increased to 3100 thanks to the Seal.

"Something wrong Kimberly?" Brandon asked upon seeing the look on her face, Kimberly's eyes narrowed as she nodded.

"Yeah, I use that monster myself; hell if I had another turn to spare in my match with Otto I would've spent it trying to summon that thing." Kimberly admitted as she watched the duel. "As strong as Colossal Fighter is it's no match for Chaos King Archfiend."

"I can hear you Kimberly!" Chloe pointed out with a frown. "And to be quite frank I don't know what you're talking about, if he attacks Colossal Fighter with Chaos King then both monsters will be destroyed and if he does that then he just wasted a Synchro Summon." Chloe pointed out and Ramon grinned.

"Well, if you're that confident about it then let's test your theory by having Chaos King Archfiend attack Colossal Fighter!" Ramon commanded and before Chloe could protest the fiend disappeared from the field only to reappear behind Colossal Fighter, however before the warrior could retaliate Chaos King's eyes glowed and to Chloe's shock it's attack and defense points where swapped around and before she could utter a word of protest Chaos King slashed Colossal Fighter down the middle with its claws.

R: 8700

C: 5900

"What the hell just happened, that should've been a tie?" Chloe protested as she got ready to use Colossal Fighter's other effect.

"That was Chaos King's effect, basically when I declare an attack with him the opponent's monsters get their attack and defense points switched around." Ramon said with a cocky smirk. "You'd know that if you paid attention to your friend over there."

"Yeah, well Colossal Fighter has another effect." Chloe said as she retrieved the cards in her graveyard. "Since you destroyed him in battle I can Special Summon one Warrior type monster from my grave, and guess what monster type Colossal Fighter just so happens to be?" Chloe asked rhetorically as she went to pick up Colossal Fighter.

"_Chloe wait! Summon the Tuner monster you used to bring out Colossal Fighter instead." _Silent Magician's voice rang out in her head and Chloe hesitated.

"_Why? Colossal Fighter's much stronger…" _Chloe thought before realization hit her. _"Off course, why didn't I think of that?"_

"Are you bringing back Colossal Fighter or not?" Ramon said impatiently and Chloe glared at her opponent before picking up Torapart.

"No, I'm not; instead I'm summoning Torapart back to the field." Chloe said as she played the card and the mysterious warrior reappeared on the field.

"That's gotta be the dumbest move I've seen!" Ramon scoffed as Chloe returned her other cards to the graveyard. "Even if you do another Synchro Summon all you'll be able to do is a Level 5 Synchro and nothing more!"

"I don't know about that, your last move definitely qualifies. "Chloe countered and Ramon blinked….before his eyes widened as it dawned on him.

"My Revival Gift Tokens, how the fuck did I forget about that?" Ramon wondered as it dawned on him, however he set a card facedown before motioning for Chloe to take her turn and she smirked as she smirked as she drew her card.

"Good question, but I'm not going to let you get away with that mistake!" Chloe said before pointing to Torapart. "Are you up for doing another tune up Torapart?" Chloe asked and in response Torapart, Spell Striker and one of the Revival Gift Tokens leapt into the air, Torapart vanished and the two green rings quickly surrounded Spell Striker and the Token. "I tune Torapart, Spell Striker and the Revival Gift Token that you were kind enough to give me in order to Synchro Summon an old friend of ours!" Chloe said just as a blight flash enveloped the field.

"What do you mean by old friend?" Ramon demanded but his impatience quickly turned to fear as a second Colossal Fighter appeared on the field, and with an additional warrior in her graveyard its attack increased to 3200.

"Why did she bother with all that if she just intended to bring back Colossal Fighter?" Marcus asked as he scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"If she had then her monster would lose to protection offered to it by Torapart, that and with Spell Striker in the graveyard her monster's now strong enough to take out that Archfiend." Kimberly pointed out and Marcus nodded in understanding. _"Why is that girl in Osiris Red again? If she isn't considered for promotion to Ra Yellow next month I'll eat my Archfiend Empress!"_ Kimberly thought as Chloe pointed to Chaos King Archfiend.

"Colossal Fighter, attack Chaos King Archfiend now!" Chloe commanded and the fighter charged towards the fiend…

"Yeah, sorry but no, that aint happening!" Ramon said as he activated his facedown card. "Before you ask, well, whilst Torapart prevents the activation of traps and not quick play spells but don't take my word for it, please allow my Shrink to do the demonstrating for you!" Ramon said as his card flipped up and before Chloe's widened eyes Colossal Fighter shrank in size, and attack power, all the way down to 1600, until it was half as big as it once was, the miniature Colossal Fighter was quickly torn to shreds by Chaos King Archfiend.

R: 8700

C: 4400

"_Great, if I use Colossal Fighter's effect to bring back Torapart again I won't be able to do another Synchro, and if I bring back Colossal Fighter he'll lose Torapart's protection." _Chloe thought as she looked over the contents of her graveyard, she picked up one of the cards and played it. "I'm using Colossal Fighter's effect to bring back Salvage Warrior in defense mode." Chloe announced and the purple warrior returned to the field in a crouching position, she returned her monsters to the graveyard and looked over her hand before picking up four cards, she set three of them facedown and a monster in defense mode. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Ramon drew his card….and smirked evilly when he saw it.

"Defense, mefense, the card I just drew will render defending pointless!" Ramon said before playing the card. "I equip Chaos King Archfiend with the Spell Card Big Bang Shot! Not only does this Spell increase Chaos King's attack by 400 but it gives Chaos King the ability to inflict piercing damage." Ramon said before his evil grin grew wider as he activated his trap. "Oh and it's getting worse for you bitch! I activate Meteor Flare; all I need to do is toss two cards…" Ramon said as he discarded two cards from his hand. "And…..well see for yourself!" Ramon said before pointing to the sky about the field, Chloe looked up and her eyes widened in horror as a large meteor came crashing towards her. "In the real game this trap inflicts 2000 points of damage to my opponent but in the Orichalcos it's going to squash you flatter than a bug on a highway!"

"_Don't worry Chloe, I'll protect you!" _Silent Magician's voice rang out and before Chloe could respond she was surrounded by a magical dome, the meteor impacted against the dome and self-destructed however the dome saved Chloe's life, however the impact shattered the dome and sent her flying before she hit the wall of the Orichalcos.

R: 8700

C: 2400

"What….what the fuck just happened?" Ramon stammered as he stared at Chloe is disbelief. "Your friends should be scraping your remains off of the ground by now!"

"I'm not that easy to kill dumbass." Chloe said as she got up, she felt pain in her rib area and she felt up her ribs to see if any of them had been broken but was relieved to see that that wasn't the case. _"Silent Magician, remind me to buy you a beer for that, once I'm old enough to do so that is."_

"_I'm a duel spirit, I don't drink alcohol nor do I have a need for food or drink." _Silent Magician responded before pausing. _"Not that I don't appreciate the thought though."_

"And guess what Ramon? You can now add attempted murder to your list of charges." Theresa pointed out and Ramon growled.

"You'll never take me alive!" Ramon scoffed before pointing to Chaos King Archfiend. "Chaos King Archfiend, attack Salvage Warrior now!" Ramon commanded the massive fiend and it disappeared briefly before reappearing behind Salvage Warrior, the warrior turned around just in time to see Chaos King's claws slashing him to pieces.

R: 8700

C: 500

"You may have dealt damage to me with that attack." Chloe said as she activated two of her facedown cards. "But my two cards will soften the blow, first up Numinous Healer which restores my life-points by one thousand since I just took damage, next up is Emergency Provisions, since you used it earlier I'm pretty sure you don't need reminding." Chloe said as her life-points increased to 2500.

"So fucking what? Even with the extra life-points the difference between our life-points is immense!" Ramon scoffed as he folded his arms. "You may as well surrender…"

"Are you seriously suggesting that I surrender? Because if you are suggesting that then hell no!" Chloe interrupted him as she glared at him. "First off I won't surrender as long as I have life-points left, second even if I didn't have that no surrender police there's no way in hell I'd surrender in an Orichalcos Duel and especially not to you!"

"Suit yourself; it's only a matter of time before I defeat you anyway." Ramon growled as he looked over his hand." I end my turn." Ramon announced and Chloe drew her card. "Oh yeah, one more thing, Meteor Flare has another effect." Ramon said and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "If it's in my graveyard during my next draw phase I can add it to my hand rather than drawing a card." Ramon said before he looked over at the remaining Gift Token. "Your little combo may save you from Chaos King's next attack but Meteor Flare will finish the job."

"_Chloe, I won't be able to save you if that happens." _Silent Magician's voice rang out and Chloe's eyes widened. _"My Protection Spell taxed my abilities."_

"You should've sent the other facedown card to the graveyard as well Chloe." Ramon grinned and Chloe frowned before looking at her drawn card.

"I activate my own Card of Sanctity!" Chloe activated the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands, Chloe looked at her new cards and then towards her facedown card. "It's over Ramon."

"Why? Have you come to your senses and surrendered the match?" Ramon scoffed and Chloe shook her head.

"No I haven't, far from it actually." Chloe said as she played the card she drew last. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Big Bang Shot!" Ramon's eyes widened as a tornado ripped through the field before shattering Big Bang Shot's hologram; too Chloe's surprise however Chaos King Archfiend was sucked into a portal which closed as soon as it arrived.

"That's Big Bang Shot's side effect, if it's removed from the field in any matter the equipped monster is removed from play." Ramon explained as he pocketed the Synchro Monster. "But who cares if you destroyed my monster? All you've got left to attack me with is that wimpy Gift Token I gave you when I Synchro Summoned Chaos King and I have plenty of life points to spare."

"Not after my next move." Chloe said as her facedown card flipped up. "First I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back an old friend of ours, the first Colossal Fighter I summoned!" Chloe played the card and the mighty warrior returned to the field (8/2800/1000) and his attack increased to 3300 thanks to the amount of warriors in Chloe's graveyard. "Now I activate Double Summon, this lets me conduct two normal summons in the same turn as long as I don't mind only activating one and here's Summon Number 1, Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and one of her ace monsters appeared on the field (4/1000/1000). "Now I activate another Spell Card, go Level Up!" Chloe played the card and Ramon's eyes widened as the magician glow and grew into her adult, not to mention pissed off, form (8/3500/1000).

"And let it be known that I don't appreciate you trying to take advantage of my underage master or trying to kill her!" Silent Magician said bluntly and Ramon blinked in confusion. "Chloe, are you hurt from his Meteor Flare?" Silent Magician asked and Chloe shook her head.

"My sides hurt but I think it's just from me hitting the Orichalcos Wall." Chloe said and the magician nodded before turning her attention to Ramon.

"Yeah…the fact that her magician can talk still confuses the hell out of me!" Alex said as he scratched his head in confusion.

"Trust me, it's a long story." Theresa told him and Alex nodded deciding to not ask about it.

"Who cares? You still don't have enough firepower to defeat me!" Ramon shouted at Chloe and Chloe grinned before picking up another card.

"Bad news Ramon, I still have a Normal Summon left thanks to Double Summon." Chloe said as she played a card. "I sacrifice the Revival Gift Token you gave me so I can summon Magical Marionette in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the shadowy figure vanished, in its place stood the red robed puppet master ready for battle (5/2000/1500). "Do the math Ramon, you're finished!"

"That….that's a combined total of 8800 attack points!" Ramon said as his eyes widened. "Please, have mercy."

"Sorry but any mercy I would've shown you went out the window when you tried to kill me!" Chloe said before pointing to her three monsters. "Finish him off!" Chloe commanded and the three monsters launched their attacks, Magical Marionette was first striking him with the magical puppet strings and bringing his life-points down to 6700, Colossal Fighter was next as he slammed Ramon against the Orichalcos Wall bringing him down to 3400, Ramon looked up just in time to see Silent Magician cast a Spell at him finishing the job."

R: 0000

C: 2500

Ramon didn't make a sound following that not even as the Orichalcos sealed his soul, concerned Chloe walked over to his unmoving form and checked for a pulse. "He's alive; he'll be out for a while though." Chloe said as she stood up.

"What happened to no mercy?" Marcus asked and Chloe frowned.

"Do you really want me to go down for murder?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head.

"Chloe, he attempted to kill you first." Theresa explained as she walked up to her. "As far as my mom's concerned that would've been self-defense."

"And I'm right." Theresa blinked before turning around, indeed her mother was standing there, the resemblance was pretty much uncanny though Theresa's mother's hair was slightly lighter in color and cut short, she was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and Theresa smiled when she saw her.

"Mom, not that I'm unhappy to see you but I thought you couldn't make it?" Theresa asked and her mother smiled.

"I had some vacation time and my daughter was competing in her first tournament, you couldn't keep me out of this city if you tried." She smiled before turning to Brandon. "I hope your treating my daughter well Brandon."

"I have been Mrs. Daniels." Brandon said with a smile and she smiled back.

"Brandon, how many times must I remind you that I prefer being called Sarah?" Theresa's mom reminded him and Brandon blushed a bit.

"Sorry, force of habit." Brandon admitted before Sarah made her way over to her daughter.

"You're not disappointed that I lost, aren't you?" Theresa asked sheepishly catching Chloe by surprise; Sarah smiled reassuring and put a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"Theresa, I'm just proud you made it as far as you did, if you had won I would've been overjoyed." Sarah said and Theresa smiled at that, she removed her hand from her daughter's shoulder and turned to Chloe who made an effort to hide her surprise. "You're Chloe, right? Theresa's told me a lot about you."

"Yeah, that's me." Chloe said with a smile. "Though I have to admit that out of the two of us it's usually me that's the sheepish one."

"Yeah, Theresa mentioned that." Sarah said before glancing over at Theresa who was blushing at that moment. "She's always been shy when out in public with me, no idea why, anyway I watched your duel against that guy from the start, nice one turn kill."

"Yeah, like I was going to let him use that trap again." Chloe said honestly before glancing over at the ship. "So, what will we do now?"

"Well I'm dueling next like you promised." Lance said stepping forward. "Sarah, I know you're a cop and all but this could get dangerous….."

"I hear you kid but don't worry, I'll let you guys handle it." Sarah said before rubbing the back of her head nervously. "I'd join in this little raid but I left my duel disk back home, but I can do the next best thing."

"And that is?" Chloe asked and Sarah smiled.

"I have some friends in the local police force, left over from when I worked here prior to giving birth to Theresa, I'll give them a call and have them round up the rest of the cronies as Ramon called them once you're in the ship." Sarah said plainly as she started walking back to where she came from. "I'll be waiting out here in the meantime and Theresa…" Sarah paused as her daughter looked up at her. "Be careful out there." Sarah said and Theresa nodded before leading the others away.

*meanwhile on the ship*

As Ramon said earlier the leader of the Orichalcos organization was watching the duel over the cameras as was Michael, the leader however was fuming over Ramon's attempted murder. "The fool broke the oath! I made it clear to all recruits that no murder attempts where to be committed during an Orichalcos Duel but he did so anyway."

"Do you want me to rip up his soul card?" Michael asked and the leader paused before shaking his head.

"No, let his fate serve as a warning to those who might try the same thing." The leader said as he took a sip of wine. "Is the next duelist ready?"

"Yes, he is." Michael said as he turned to the screens showing the footage from the cameras. "And Mr. Alvers will regret ever coming here!"


	41. Eliminating the Threat Part 2

The six duel academy students made their way down the pier each of them looking towards their destination, the ship where the leader of the Orichalcos duelists was hiding out, the boys where walking ahead of the girls since Lance wanted to duel next.

Chloe and Theresa were walking side by side towards the back of the group; Chloe was pretty shaken up due to the events of her last duel whilst Theresa was getting over her surprise at seeing her mom. "So, your mom never told you she was in the city?" Chloe asked Theresa and the older duelist turned to her.

"If she had then I probably would've spent the last two nights of the tournament in her hotel room rather than Brandon's." Theresa said honestly and Chloe nodded in understanding. "Though I admit, my shyness around her may have had something to do with it, she hates embarrassing me in public."

"Sounds like my mom….my biological mom that is." Chloe said sadly and Theresa winced, Chloe shook her head deciding to try to change the subject. "Actually there's something that's been bugging me ever since we met your mom."

"Oh?" Theresa asked raising an eyebrow,

"Your mom said that you told her a lot about me, does she know about….." Chloe trailed off and Theresa sighed.

"She does but I didn't tell her, I told her about you the day after you told me and Brandon about your dad, she told me that she was one of the cops that responded to the 911 call about screams of pain coming from your apartment." Theresa said and Chloe shuddered as she remembered the memory.

"Yeah, I remember." Chloe said as she glanced towards her scarred arm. "That was when my dad….." Chloe trailed off and Theresa nodded realizing what she was talking about. "It's a small world huh? What next was Marcus's dad one of my social workers or something?"

"That would be a hell of a coincidence." Theresa agreed before sighing. "Chloe, I don't want to sound like I'm nagging you or anything but are you sure you're okay after Ramon's murder attempt? That collision with the wall did look pretty nasty, not to mention the fact that he tried to kill you in the first place." Theresa pointed out and Chloe winced.

"The only area that hurts is my rib area and I've already felt around there, none of my ribs feel broken." Chloe said and Theresa frowned.

"You should have it looked at anyway, just to be on the safe side." Theresa told her and Chloe smirked a little.

"Theresa, you are aware of how much that sounded like nagging, right?" Chloe asked and Theresa smiled a bit, before she could respond however the two girls realized that the group had come to a stop and looked up. "Why aren't we moving?" Chloe asked and almost in answer to her question a loud maniacal laughter rang out.

"Does that answer your question?" Brandon asked as he turned to the two girls, they brushed past the boys with Kimberly following them from behind until they reached the front of the group, however they could see no source of the laughter.

"That's creepy." Lance muttered and Chloe nodded in agreement. "Okay Mr. Funny Bone, why don't you show your face already?"

"Mr. Funny Bone, was that the best you could come up with?" Chloe asked and Lance sweat-dropped whilst laughing nervously.

"Not all my jokes are inherently funny." Lance admitted.

"I thought none of his jokes where funny." Marcus muttered but quickly shut up when Lance shot him a glare.

"Actually I have to agree with the chubby one." A harsh sounding voice rang out and the chuckling figure emerged, he was tall and gaunt with red, spiky hair, a scar down the right side of his face and blue eyes, he was clad in a red tranchcoat with a red t-shirt underneath, blue jeans and black boots but what caught the student's attention was the Orichalcos disk on his arm. "Greetings duelists, I am your second challenger."

"Am I supposed to be scared off you? If you're anything like Ramon than this will be a piece of cake." Lance said as he activated his duel disk; however Jeff stopped him as his eyes narrowed.

"Drew Michaels, what are you doing with these bastards?" Jeff demanded and the man scoffed.

"You call THEM bastards when Duel Academy did THIS to me!" Drew demanded as he pointed to his scar, he grinned broadly when he saw Theresa. "Ah if it isn't my one true love Theresa, still as beautiful as ever I see."

"You dated this psycho?" Chloe, Lance, Marcus and Brandon asked her and Theresa frowned.

"Yeah, we were dating before his accident." Theresa said before sighing. "We met when I graduated to Ra Yellow, he was a new student at the time and some assholes from Obelisk Blue where picking on him, I intervened and we bonded pretty quickly."

"Some might say it was love at first sight." Drew continued as he folded his arms. "Personally I've never believed in that sappy bullshit but it wasn't long before we started dating, and then the accident happened."

"Kaibacorp was presenting prototype Duel Runners to the academy; think a motorbike specifically designed for dueling on the go." Theresa continued ignoring the odd looks she was getting from the younger students. "Yeah I think it's pretty stupid as well, after the presentation Drew somehow talked me into taking it for a joyride."

"What can I say? I've always been a motorbike enthusiast." Drew shrugged his shoulders at the comment. "Besides they said that the Academy would be the first ones to get the finished versions so I figured why the hell not?" Drew added and Jeff frowned.

"That may be true but the prototypes were never intended for public use." Jeff pointed out with a frown. "The students that tested them reported that the steering was difficult at best and impossible to control at worst, however there was a storm at sea that night so Kaibacorp couldn't take them back to the mainland until the following morning."

"And as Drew found out, he got the one that was impossible to control." Theresa added with a frown. "He ended up crashing face first into a tree, if he didn't have his helmet on he would've been killed."

"There are days where I wish I was killed." Drew said with a frown. "Believe it or not I was very handsome back then but the accident robbed me off that AND my position at Duel Academy WHILST SHE GOT OFF SCOTT FREE!" Drew said as he pointed to Theresa.

"Okay, can somebody elaborate on that?" Lance asked as he, Marcus and Chloe scratched their heads in confusion.

"It didn't take long for the teachers to find out, not because of the crash but because a visibly terrified Theresa stormed into Martin's classroom saying that there had been an accident, once she calmed down she explained the whole thing." Jeff explained with a frown as he remembered that day. "Drew was rushed to the infirmary as soon as he was discovered; thankfully neither duel runner was damaged in the crash because that would've made it worse."

"And then came the time for punishment." Martin added with a frown. "The two students had not only broken Duel Academy's rules but several laws as well, as hard as it may be to believe there was a time when I considered expelling someone who is now one of my best students, after chatting with both students it was decided that Theresa would be let off unpunished as she was challenged and not the other way around, Drew on the other hand was expelled."

"We also decided not to press charges." Jeff added and Drew scowled at that. "We figured he had suffered enough and we didn't want to put him through the system so to speak, and then the lawsuit came." Jeff added with a frown.

"Drew's family claimed that Duel Academy hadn't properly secured the runners and if they had then the accident wouldn't have happened." Martin added earning him a confused look from Chloe.

"But that makes no sense, there's no way you could've prepared for it because of the storm." Chloe pointed out and Martin nodded in agreement.

"And that was exactly why the judge practically laughed the lawsuit out of court." Martin added before turning to Theresa. "On the other hand that incident did scare Theresa straight and she became one of the best students at the academy."

"The stern talking too I got from my mom helped matters." Theresa added sheepishly before frowning. "That still doesn't explain why you're with these bastards Drew."

"I was approached two weeks ago, they promised me vengeance against Duel Academy for what their negligence did to me!" Drew said as he spat to the side, he activated his Duel Disk and pointed to Theresa. "And I'm starting with you!"

"Yeah, sorry but you'll have to go through me first!" Lance said as he stepped forward, however Theresa blocked him with her hand.

"Lance, I know you want a shot at these bastards but this is personal." Theresa said as she activated her own duel disk. "There's just one thing I want to know before we start Drew, why didn't we encounter you during the tournament?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, I was eliminated by the National Champ of Italy, my mighty fiends crushed by glorified ballerina dancers." Drew said as he spat to the side. "But now is the time that I will redeem myself!"

"What is it with you and dating fiend users?" Lance whispered to Theresa who sweat-dropped as she heard the question.

"This is really not the time Lance!" Theresa said bluntly before stepping forward and taking off her backpack, she started searching through it to decide on a deck and Drew scoffed.

"Choosing your deck huh? How many decks do you have now? 100? 200?" Drew asked and Theresa frowned before picking up a deck and loading it into the slot.

"22, but I'll only need only to defeat you!" Theresa said as the two duelists drew their opening hands, the students and the teachers backed off knowing how the Orichalcos Duels worked and Theresa frowned. "If you're still the gentlemen I remember from back then, ladies first!" Theresa said and Drew shook his head.

"Hell no, I want to go first!" Drew before drawing his card quicker than Theresa could protest, Drew looked at the cards in his hand and the newly drawn card before frowning. _"No sign of the Orichalcos, I had better draw it before this duel ends!" _Drew thought before playing the drawn card. "I start by summoning the mighty Fabled Dyf in attack mode!" Drew played the card and a green skinned demon appeared on the field, however the monster was oddly angelic in appeared with long silver hair and green wings (3/1400/1700).

"Fabled? That's a new one on me." Lance commented as he scratched his head in confusion, Jeff frowned as he scratched his chin.

"It's a recently released Archetype, similar to the Dark World monsters in a lot of ways." Jeff commented and Lance turned to him. "Theresa's in for a fight, that's all I'm saying."

"Please, that monster's pretty weak!" Lance said with a grin and Jeff shook his head.

"You'll regret underestimating my monster punk!" Drew said before picking up a card. "In the meantime I set a card facedown and end my turn at that." Drew set the card and Theresa drew her card whilst eyeing Drew's monster suspiciously.

"I start by activating the Spell Card Reinforcement of the Army, this lets me take a Warrior type monster from my deck and add it to my hand." Theresa played the card and picked up her deck, she searched through the deck before finding the card she needed, adding it to her hand and shuffling her deck before returning the deck to her slot.

"You're warrior deck? Is this an insult?" Drew scoffed as she sent her spell to the graveyard. "Whilst it's true that that thing is almost as old as your fairy deck we both know that it's your weakest deck."

"I know, and considering you were only at Duel Academy for barely two weeks before getting yourself expelled I shouldn't have to use my stronger decks to defeat you." Theresa pointed out and Drew growled.

"Why's he making such a big deal about her using her Warrior deck?" Marcus asked Brandon who frowned in response.

"Like Drew said it's one of her oldest decks, it's also the one that's had the least amount of modification since she created it." Brandon answered as he watched the duel. "Initially it was just a Warrior Toolbox deck and aside from minor changes it remained that way, at least until I2 started releasing Synchro and Tuner monsters, then it became a deck focused on controlling the field until she could get enough monsters on the field for a Synchro Summon, hell most of the Synchro Monsters we added to Chloe's deck where cards Theresa used in her Warrior deck, since she's created her other decks however this deck has been neglected, the only time she brings it out is for matches where she feels that victory won't require a lot of strategy."

"Now I remove Reinforcement from play so I can Special Summon Spell Striker in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the small Viking appeared on the field (3/600/600) and Drew laughed out loud at the monster.

"You can't be serious; I've seen Barbie Dolls more intimidating than that thing!" Drew scoffed and Theresa grinned.

"I'm not done Drew, for my next move I summon Trident Warrior in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a muscular human in green armor with a matching helmet and cape who was wielding a trident as its name suggested (4/1800/1200). "Under normal circumstances his effect would now activate allowing me to Special Summon a Level 3 monster from my hand, unfortunately Spell Striker was the only Level 3 monster in my hand."

"Well I guess I'd better start my own strategy!" Drew said as his facedown card flipped up revealing a rather unsettling image of a man about to chop off another man's hand as he reached for a treasure chest. "Left Arm Offering, now in exchange for tossing my entire hand this trap will allow me to add one Spell Card from my deck to my hand." Drew discarded the rest of his hand and searched through his deck, he found the card he was looking for and added it to his deck.

"Isn't that card on the Forbidden List?" Chloe asked and Drew frowned.

"It is, this infamous Trap Card was originally used by Marik in the original Battle City but after that I2 realized how broken it is they banned it's use from all major tournaments." Drew explained as he sent his trap to the graveyard. "Why is it broken? Because it's the kind of Trap that's ideal for any deck that requires monsters in the graveyard, need a way to summon Dark Armed Dragon? Boom Left Arm Offering; need Exodia Pieces in your graveyard for Exodia Necross? Boom Left Arm Offering, you get the idea." Drew said before smirking, "Off course since this tournament is operating under the Traditional Format the Forbidden List was never a concern for me, and in my case it helps my Fabled deck immensely!"

"What do you mean?" Theresa asked but to her surprise Dyf's eyes glowed briefly before the monster disappeared from the field. "Where did your monster go?"

"To my graveyard, you see when a Fabied Monster is discarded from my hand I can tribute Dyf in order to Special Summon it from my graveyard." Drew explained as he swapped out the cards and played it. "Out with the old and in with Fabled Dianaira in attack mode!" Drew announced as a much larger monster appeared on the field, this one closely resembled the Minotaur from Greek Mythology but had a purple, muscular body and helmeted head, it was wearing blue, black and gold pants and gloves and was ready for battle (8/2800/100). "Not only is he powerful but his effect is equally as powerful, once per turn I can change the effect of the first Spell Card you play to "Your opponent discards one card from his hand." Drew explained with a grin and Theresa frowned at this.

"Yeah, pity you didn't have him around to prevent me from using Reinforcement of the Army, otherwise you would've been able to prevent this." Theresa said as she pointed to Spell Striker. "Since I summoned Spell Striker by removing a Spell Card from play he can bypass your overgrown bull and attack you directly!"

"Hey wait a minute….." Drew trailed off as Theresa pointed to her monster.

"Spell Striker, attack his life-points directly!" Theresa commanded and the small Viking charged towards Drew, it slid right between Dianiara's legs before leaping up and slashing Drew across the chest.

T: 8000

D: 7400

Spell Striker quickly returned to Theresa's side of the field avoiding Dianiara's attempts to make a grab for him, once he returned to Theresa's side of the field Theresa picked up two of her cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced as she set the two cards and Drew frowned before drawing his card.

"Well I won't keep you in suspense about the card I retrieved from my deck via Left Arm Offering last turn." Drew said as he played the card. "I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Drew played the card and Theresa braced herself as the seal completely surrounded the two duelists, soon afterwards the Seal appeared on the foreheads of Drew and his monster increasing his monster's attack to 3300 at the same time. "If it's any consolation I won't be as foolish as Ramon was to try to murder you in the middle of the duel."

"That's probably the first smart decision you've made in years." Theresa retorted and Drew growled as he heard that, he picked up his newly drawn card and played it.

"I set a card facedown, now Dianara I command you to attack Spell Striker now!" Drew commanded the massive fiend who charged at the much smaller warrior, Spell Striker was pounded into dust by the fiend's fist; however Theresa took no damage from the battle.

"Confused? Spell Striker has a third ability which allows me to not take any damage from a battle involving him." Theresa explained as her trap card flipped up revealing a wrestling ring where one wrestler was reaching out for a tag to a wrestler that looked like WWE Wrestler Rey Mysterio. "Not only that but by attacking one of my warriors you've triggered my Desperate Tag trap card, since you destroyed a Warrior on my side of the field I can special summon…."

"Yeah, yeah I know what it does," Drew interrupted her with a smirk. "Do you honestly think that Hunter was the only one scouting your duel against that steroid abusing idiot? That trap will allow you to Special Summon another Warrior from your hand and since it's continuous you can use it for as long as you like." Drew added and Theresa frowned before picking up a card.

"Okay Mr. Know It All, let's see how you like Command Knight in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the blonde woman appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1200/1900) and her attack increased to 1600 thanks to her own effect as did Trident Warrior's, though in his case his attack increased to 2200. "But I'm not done yet, I activate my other Trap Card Limit Reverse, this lets me special summon a monster with 1000 or less attack points from my graveyard, and since I only have one Warrior in my graveyard, let alone a weak one, it should be pretty obvious who's coming back." Theresa said as Spell Striker returned to field.

"Yeah, so what, I know that thing's side effect." Drew said cockily as he folded his arms. "You even try to shift that midget to defense mode and it'll be destroyed alongside Limit Reverse," Drew said before looking at the card he drawn. "But just to be on the safe side I'll set this facedown and call it a turn." Drew set the card facedown and Theresa drew her card.

"_Perfect, I have what I need to take out that overgrown cow!" _Theresa thought before playing the card she drew. "I summon the Tuner Monster Attack Gainer in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the small boy in red armor appeared on the field (1/0/0). "You claim to have been present for my first match in the tournament, even if it was unofficial, let's see how good your memory really is, Attack Gainer it's time to give Spell Striker and Trident Warrior a tune up!" Theresa commanded and the three warriors leapt into the air, Attack Gainer vanished and three golden rings surrounded Spell Striker and Trident Warrior. "I tune Attack Gainer with Spell Striker and Trident Warrior so I Synchro Summon a monster that's bound to give you a Colossal fight, Colossal Fighter in attack mode!"

"Was that bad pun really necessary Theresa?" Lance shouted from the sidelines and Theresa turned to her friend with a smirk as the blight flash enveloped the field.

"The king of bad puns is calling one of my puns bad, I don't know if I should be honored or sad." Theresa joked as her mighty warrior crash landed on the field (8/2800/1000). "Back to business, on top of getting a bonus from Command Knight Colossal Fighter gains a hundred attack points for each warriors in our graveyards, obviously you don't have any but I have three so that means my fighter gains a total of 700 attack points!" Theresa explained as the fighter's attack increase to 3500. "On top of that Attack Gainer's effect now activates reducing your monster's attack by a thousand." Theresa explained as the fiend roared in pain as his attack points dropped to 2300.

"I knew that!" Drew retorted with a frown.

"Then you'll know what's coming up next, Colossal Fighter I command you to attack that overgrown bull now!" Theresa commanded and the fighter charged towards the bull….

"I knew I'd need this, I activate the trap card Half or Nothing." Drew activated his trap and grinned. "I saw you use this in the Battle City Finals so you should know what it does." Drew said as he waited for an answer.

"Fine, I chose to end the Battle Phase." Theresa said as Colossal Fighter returned to her side of the field, she picked up one of the cards in her hand and set it. "And that ends my turn." Theresa announced and Drew grinned before drawing his card.

"Ah perfect." Drew muttered before playing the card. "I activate Card of Demise, this lets me draw until I have five cards in my hand but in exchange I have to send all cards in my hand to the graveyard after five turns." Drew explained before drawing five cards.

"But since your deck revolves around discarding cards it fits in perfectly." Theresa said with a frown. _"I thought Kaiba had the only copy of that card in his deck, where did Drew get his hands on it?"_ Theresa thought as she waited for Drew to continue his move.

"Dianara, attack Command Knight!" Drew commanded and the fiend charged towards Command Knight with an intimidating roar….

"I don't think so!" Theresa said as her trap card flipped up. "I activate my trap card Waboku which protects…"

"You're monsters and you're life-points from my monster." Drew interrupted her as Dianara returned to his side of the field after smashing the three priestesses to pieces. "Just make your move already!" Drew said angrily and Theresa drew her card.

"Then it's time I picked up where I left off last turn." Theresa said as she pointed to Colossal Fighter. "Colossal Fighter, finish the job and destroy Dianara!" Theresa commanded and the warrior charged towards Drew's fiend…

"I think not, by discarding Honest (4/1100/1900) from my hand your fighter's attack points will get added to Dianara's attack points!" Drew discarded the card and too Theresa's surprise the fiend's attack points jumped to 5800, before she could protest however Colossal Fighter was smashed to pieces by the fiend's mighty fist.

T: 5700

D: 7400

"You mean to tell me that I2 actually released a set of Light Type Fiend Monsters?" Theresa asked as she prepared to use Colossal Fighter's effect.

"Yep, that's what separates the Fabled series from every other Fiend archetype in the game." Drew said with a cocky grin. "I seem to remember you being the religious type so to use a comparison from the bible think of them as fallen angels." Drew added and Theresa frowned as she heard that, she picked up Colossal Fighter and placed it back on the disk, seconds later the warrior returned to the field with both its power boosts in effect. "Don't tell me, Colossal Fighter's effect?" Drew asked and Theresa nodded. "He may have his power boost but until the end of the turn so does Dianara."

"And that's why I'm ending my turn with a facedown card." Theresa set the card and Drew grinned before drawing his card.

"What's the matter Theresa? Not as invincible as you think you are?" Drew taunted her with a grin. "Let me guess, your loss to Eddie has dealt a serious blow to your over inflated ego?"

"It would've if I had an ego to be bruised." Theresa retorted and Drew scoffed.

"Don't play dumb with me; back when we were dating you thought you could take on Pro League duelists with both hands tied behind your back, all because you graduated from Osiris Red to Ra Yellow in record time." Drew pointed out and Theresa smirked.

"If you're trying to throw off my game by bringing up the past then don't, besides it won't work." Theresa responded with a smirk. "I started dating you when I was 16; I've grown a lot since then."

"Yeah, I can see that." Drew said and Theresa growled when she realized what he was talking about.

"I wasn't talking about my breasts Andrew." Theresa snapped at him as her eyes narrowed. "What I meant was that I'm not the same person I was back then."

"Yeah right, next thing you'll tell me is that the sky is red and Santa Clause is real!" Drew scoffed and Theresa's eyes narrowed. "I saw the way you acted towards the brat that beat Otto and Ramon during the Battle Royal, she used your own trap against you and you chewed her out for it!"

"Okay, first off that had nothing to do with ego." Theresa asserted as her eyes narrowed. "Second, I have a duel to win so let's stop bringing up the past and focus on the present!" Theresa added as she waited for Drew to make his move, Drew grumbled some choice words under his breath before finally drawing his card.

"_Ah perfect, I drew another Honest." _Drew thought with a grin as he looked at the card. "Dianara, attack Colossal Fighter!" The mighty fiend let out a roar before charging at the warrior. "And now I activate my second Honest's effect…"

"Yeah I thought that might be the case, which is why I'm activating my trap card Chivalry!" Theresa's trap flipped up and Drew blinked. "Ironically you could use a lesson in this but I digress, my trap can only be activated when you activate an effect monster's effect during the Battle Phase, not only does it negate the effect but it also destroys it!" Theresa explained and Drew's eyes widened before he sent Honest to the graveyard, Dianara's attack didn't budge one inch and Colossal Fighter decapitated the fiend with a punch.

T: 5700

D: 7200

"Well, so much for your best monster." Theresa said confidently but her confidence soon disappeared when she saw the cocky smirk on Drew's face. "That wasn't your best monster?"

"Not even close." Drew answered as he picked up a card. "In the meantime however I may as well set up some defenses, with that in mind I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown, you're move!"

"_This is not good, if that overgrown piece of steak wasn't his best monster than what is his best monster?"_ Theresa thought as she drew her card. _"He still has four more turns before Card of Demise's side effect kicks in, until then I'd better keep him on his toes." _Theresa thought before looking at the card that she had just drawn. "Command Knight, attack his defense!" Theresa commanded and the blonde warrior charged towards the facedown monster; however her eyes widened when a grey jar with a grinning face inside it appeared on the field (2/700/600) just long enough to be split in two by Command Knight's sword. "Morphing Jar, why am I not surprised you have a monster like that in your deck?"

"Sometimes the predictable moves are the best." Drew shrugged before sending the cards in his hand to his graveyard; Theresa did likewise and both duelists drew five cards. "Sure it's risky what with Colossal Fighter's effect and all but it plays to my advantage."

"Really, you think it was worth it? Your monster just forced me to discard two warriors and you know what that means." Theresa said as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 3700.

"True, but just look at these beauties that I'm summoning in defense mode!" Drew said as two monsters appeared on the field, the first monster was a small, three headed red dog (2/1000/400) and the second monster was a small, humanoid elephant (3/1600/1000). "Meet The Fabled Cerburrel and The Fabled Ganasha, what do they have in common? I can summon both monsters when they are discarded to my graveyard and that's not even the best part, Cerburrel just so happens to be a Tuner Monster."

"You're an idiot you know that? There's no way I'm letting you keep those things on the field long enough for a Synchro Summon and even with the boost from the Orichalcos those things are still pretty damn weak!" Theresa said with a face palm as the seal appeared on the two monsters heads increasing their attack points to 1500 and 2100 respectively….however Theresa was caught by surprise when Ganasha's attack increased even further to 2300.

"That's the other part of Ganasha's effect, when he's Special Summoned by his effect his attack increases to 2300, only downside is that he's removed from play as soon as he leaves the field." Drew explained and Theresa nodded.

"Doesn't matter as far as I'm concerned, Colossal Fighter, put that puppy to sleep!" Theresa commanded and the warrior charged towards the monster….

"Don't count on it, I activate Negate Attack to…well negate your attack!" Drew activated his trap and the fighter's fist bounced off of a force field.

"Fine, I'll settle for ending my turn." Theresa announced and Drew grinned before drawing his card. _"At the moment the best he can do is a Level 5 Synchro, and whilst there's a lot of Level 5 Synchros none of them come close to Colossal Fighter's power, the only way I'd be in trouble is if he decided to Synchro Summon Ally of Justice Castaster."_

"Good because I only need one last piece of the puzzle, and thanks to Morphing Jar I have just that!" Drew said as he discarded a card from his hand. "By discarding a card from my hand I can Special Summon The Tricky in attack mode!" Drew played the card and the mysterious spellcaster appeared on the field (5/2000/1200) and as soon as it appeared on the field the seal appeared on its forehead increasing its attack to 2500. "Before I forget however, the monster I discarded was Dandylion (3/300/300) and when he's sent to the graveyard I can special summon two Fluff Tokens!" Drew explained as two grey spores appeared on the field with cute looking faces (1/0/0) "Now the stage is set for me to use all three of my stronger monsters in a Synchro Summon!"

"Wait a minute, you're going to do a Level 10 Synchro Summon?" Theresa yelled out in shock as the three monsters leapt into the air.

"Why yes I am, off course those things are next to impossible to pull off since most Tuners are at least Level 3 or bellow but your attack last turn made it possible!" Drew explained as Cerburrel disappeared and two green rings surrounded The Tricky and Ganasha. "I tune The Fabled Cerburrel with The Fabled Ganasha and The Tricky to Synchro Summon my mightiest creature, come forth FABLED LEVIATHAN!" Drew yelled out as a bright flash enveloped the field, Theresa shielded her eyes from the flash and when it faded she looked up, in the place of The Tricky stood a purple skinned demon with long red hair and blood red wings, it was clad in gold armor and had a red mask around its eyes (10/3000/2000) and as the Seal appeared on its forehead the monster's attack increased to 3500. "Remember what I said earlier about this Archetype being closely related to fallen angels? This is the closest relative to the fallen angels and he's about to go to town on your defenses!"

"Nice try Drew but even with the Seal Colossal Fighter's a lot stronger." Theresa taunted him and Drew grinned.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Drew asked before pointing to Command Knight. "You're knight's served you well but her low attack points and effect means she may as well have a bullseye painted on her chest."

"I'm not worried; even if you attack Command Knight Desperate Tag will save my life-points and let me summon another Warrior." Theresa said defiantly and Drew grinned.

"Believe me, I'm well aware of that problem and I'm about to fix it." Drew said as he played a card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy Desperate Tag!" Drew played the card and a storm washed over the field, Theresa shielded herself as Desperate Tag's hologram shattered and once the storm died down she glared at Drew whilst she sent her trap to the graveyard. "Now for the fun part, Fabled Leviathan why don't you show Command Knight why you are so feared and, well, attack her now!" Drew commanded and the fiend pulled a jet black sword from seemingly out of nowhere, it charged at Command Knight and cut her in half with one swipe.

T: 3600

D: 7200

"And with Command Knight gone Colossal Fighter loses any additional attack strength it had." Drew said with a smirk as Colossal Fighter's attack dropped to 3300…only to rise to 3400. "Ah yes, I forgot that Command Knight's a Warrior as well."

"And even if you destroy him I'll bring him back with his Special Ability." Theresa added with a smirk. "Good luck getting to my life-points with this monster on my side of the field."

"I'll worry about that later." Drew said before looking at the rest of his hand. "You're move." Drew announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_He obviously discarded Dandylion hoping that I'd target them for an attack, leaving one of my monsters open to an attack from his Leviathan." _Theresa thought with a frown as she glanced up at the massive fiend, the two tokens certainly stood out when stood next to the fiend but that wasn't her concern and without a second thought she picked up two cards in her hand. "I set a card facedown, a monster in defense mode and I switch Colossal Fighter to defense mode that ends my turn." Theresa set the two cards and once Colossal Fighter crouched down Drew proceeded to draw his card.

"You are hoping that whatever your facedown card is will power up Colossal Fighter once it's in the graveyard? Too bad, the card I just drew will put that Fighter out of commission!" Drew said with a grin as he played the card. "I activate Dark Core."

"Crap, that card will remove Colossal Fighter from play!" Theresa realized as her eyes widened, Drew discarded a card for the cost and a dark portal opened up below the warrior, struggle as he might the warrior was sucked into the portal and once he was sucked in completely the portal closed. "You'll pay for that!" Theresa growled as she pocketed Colossal Fighter.

"Please, Colossal Fighter was the only monster you have whose attack strength rivals Fabled Leviathan." Drew scoffed before grinning. "Who knows? Maybe if you were using you're fairy deck instead you could bring out that fairy that almost won you the championship, but even if you did my Fabled Leviathan would still outclass it, and speaking of which, Fabled Leviathan attack her defense monster now!" Drew commanded and the fiend drew his sword again before charging at the facedown monster, the tuner monster Sword Master (3/1200/0) briefly appeared on the field before being cut in half by Leviathan's sword. "I shall end my turn at that, but honestly I was expecting a better challenge, maybe you're friend with the bad hairdo would've made for a better challenge."

"Buddy, you're the last person on Earth who should be giving out fashion advice!" Lance yelled out from the sidelines as Theresa drew her card.

"And to add to what Lance just said I'm not out of this match yet!" Theresa said as she looked at her drawn card. "I activate The Warrior Returning Alive, this lets me retrieve a Warrior type monster from my graveyard and return it to my hand." Theresa activated the card and after retrieving Sword Master from her graveyard she added it to her hand. "Now I activate another spell card, namely Rendering Tuning and this lets me special summon Sword Master back to the field." Theresa played the card and as soon as it was played the tuner monster returned to the field ready for battle.

"That was a wasted effort." Drew scoffed as Theresa sent her trap to the graveyard. "Leviathan tore through that monster's pathetic defense points once and he'll gladly do it again!"

"Who said anything about him being played in defense mode?" Theresa asked earning herself a look of confusion from Drew. "I special summoned Sword Master in attack mode."

"Well, if you're that eager to lose than you should've just surrendered!" Drew scoffed as he stared down the weak tuner. "What could you possibly do with that monster?"

"Well for one thing he can inflict damage to your life-points even when attacking a defense monster and I seem to remember the fact that Dandylion Special summons his tokens in defense!" Theresa pointed out and Drew's eyes widened. "But first things first, I'm special summoning another monster from my graveyard, Quilbolt Hedgehog!" Theresa retrieved the monster from her graveyard and played it, soon afterwards a small orange hedgehog appeared on the field; however what was strange about the creature was the fact that it had various nuts and bolts in place of its quills (2/800/600).

"That wins the award for most oddly cute monster in the game." Lance muttered under his breath as the monster appeared on the field.

"Wait a minute, that's a Machine Monster." Drew realized as the small hedgehog crouched down to indicate that it had been special summoned in defense mode. "What's it doing in your Warrior deck?"

"Here's the thing Drew, at no point during the duel did I say that I was using my Warrior Deck, you just assumed that because I used Reinforcement of the Army earlier." Theresa pointed out and Drew stared at her in confusion. "You want to know the truth? This is one of my prototype decks, one of three centered entirely around Synchro Monsters, you just happen to be facing the one that has a lot of warriors in it."

"I don't know if I should be less or more insulted." Drew said as he spat to the side. "You don't consider me worthy of one of your main decks?"

"Well considering you was barely in Ra Yellow for two weeks before being expelled, yes, that is exactly the case." Theresa said with a frown and Drew growled. "Back to business though, in case you haven't noticed I've yet to do a Normal Summon but my next move will change that." Theresa said before playing a card. "I summon Enraged Battle Ox in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the angry Minotaur appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Battle Ox, Sword Master, attack his fluff tokens!" Theresa commanded and the two monsters charged towards the tokens, the tokens never stood a chance and where cut clean through.

T: 3600

D: 4300

"That does it!" Drew growled as his life-points plummeted. "On my next turn Leviathan will finish you off."

"Oh, will he really? How do you expect to do that when I still have over three thousand life-points left to spare?" Theresa asked with a smirk and Drew said nothing as he looked at his hand.

"_That's easy, first I'll activate Lightning Vortex to clear the field, then I'll activate Delinquent Duo to get rid of the rest of her hand and lower my life-points to the point where I can use Megamorph to finish her off!" _Drew thought but stopped when he saw her trap flip up. "You're using Urgent Tuning?"

"That's right, and as you should know by now this trap lets me do a Synchro Summon during my Battle Phase, so Sword Master, go ahead and give Enraged Battle Ox and Quilbolt Hedgehog a Tune Up!" Theresa said as Sword Master, Enraged Battle Ox and Quilbolt Hedgehog leapt into the air. "Do the math Drew, I'm about to do a Level 9 Synchro Summon, and the Synchro Summon that will end this duel, I tune Sword Master, Enraged Battle Ox and Quilbolt Hedgehog together so I can Synchro Summon Mist Wurm in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a massive monster appeared in Enraged Battle Ox's place, as the name suggested it was a worm but it was a massive grey one that looked ready for battle (9/2500/1300).

"Nice try but you're monster falls a bit short at defeating Leviathan!" Drew said cockily, however his cockiness soon disappeared when the worm leapt towards Leviathan and swallowed it whole. "What on Earth just happened?"

"Mist Wurm's effect, that's what! You see when this big guy is Synchro Summoned I can return up to three cards on your side of the field to your hand, or in this case Extra Deck!" Theresa explained and Drew's eyes widened.

"_No, Leviathan's effect activates from the graveyard, I'm defenseless!" _Drew thought as he returned Leviathan to the extra deck.

"Mist Wurm, attack his life-points directly!" Theresa commanded and the massive worm leapt towards Drew and slammed its body into him.

T: 3600

D: 1800

"I'm still in this!" Drew said defiantly and Theresa shook her head before picking up a card.

"Unless you have a method of bringing back Leviathan your days are numbered." Theresa said sternly before looking at the rest of her hand. "I'll end my turn." Theresa said and Drew nervously drew his card.

"I set a monster in defense mode, that's it for me." Drew said as he set the card and Theresa drew her card. _"Even if I used Lightning Vortex on that thing I have no way to bring back Leviathan and none of my current monsters have the ability to do much damage on their own, at least my set Morphing Jar 2 will force her to return that thing to her extra deck."_ Drew thought as he waited for Theresa to make her move.

"Sorry Drew but it's over." Theresa said as she played a card. "I activate Shield Crash which destroys your last line of defense!" Theresa played the card and Drew's eyes widened as the facedown monster shattered. "Mist Wurm, finish him!" Theresa commanded and once again the massive worm leapt towards Drew and slammed his body into him.

T: 3600

D: 0000

Theresa turned her head as the seal closed in around Drew's unconscious body and stole his soul; once Mist Wurm's hologram disappeared she deactivated her duel disk and returned to her friends. "I knew he took his expulsion hard but I never thought he'd take it that hard."

"People react to bad news in different ways Theresa; maybe if we had just suspended him instead none of this would've happened." Jeff agreed but Martin shook his head.

"Suspension for not only breaking the school's rules but the law as well? What kind of message would that have sent to the other students?" Martin said sternly as he glanced towards Drew's unconscious form. "The path he took after his expulsion is regrettable to say the least but the board of directors made the right decision." Martin added and Theresa frowned.

"Who knows? Maybe if I was expelled as well I would've joined the organization with him?" Theresa said with a shudder. "I'm just glad that whole incident was enough to scare me straight, for now let's focus on finding the next duelist." Theresa added and the others nodded in agreement before walking towards the ship.

*meanwhile*

"Another duelist has failed." Michael said as he watched the closing moments of the duel. "Too bad, Drew was one of my strongest minions."

"Yes, but he was far too confident." The leader commented with a frown. "He used to date Ms. Daniels; he should've known that she would find a way out of the mess."

"True enough, I should've intervened and insisted that Lance duel him instead." Michael said before looking at a camera that showed the next duelist. "Mr. Reynolds' opponent is ready; let's see how he handles this."


	42. Eliminating the Threat Part 3

Whilst the cops where busy rounding up Drew and Ramon's unconscious bodies the students where making their way to the ship, pier 17 was a fairly large pier which was why they were taking so long to reach the ship, Theresa was leading the group this time around with Marcus walking behind her and Brandon walking by her side holding her hand, the others were trailing behind them wondering when the next duelist was going to show his/her face.

"Man, watching you and Chloe duel those assholes have really wetted my appetite for dueling." Marcus commented as he glanced towards his duel disk, Theresa turned to him and smiled.

"Marcus, it doesn't take a lot for something to wet your appetite so that's not saying much." Theresa commented and Marcus grinned at that. "That said I don't blame you one bit, Ramon and Drew didn't exactly make it easy for us."

"I still can't get over the fact that you used to date the asshole." Brandon pointed out and Theresa blushed slightly.

"I…was a different person back then, a total troublemaker." Theresa admitted with a sigh. "I guess you can blame the bullshit that duelists in Osiris Red and Ra Yellow endure from most of the Obelisk Blue students for that, I thought that if I stood up for myself they'd leave me alone."

"That didn't end well I take it?" Marcus asked and Theresa nodded.

"To say the very least, my method of dealing with those assholes was to duel them, if I won, which I did most of the time, then they'd leave me and the other students in Osiris Red, and Ra Yellow when I moved up to that dorm, alone." Theresa said before frowning. "It worked for a while, I kept myself out of trouble and stood up for the other students, however the Obelisk Blue students must've gotten wise to my tactics and decided to use them against me, the next time I defended another student from bullies they're leader would only accept on the condition that I dueled them at midnight."

"That's past curfew." Brandon realized and Theresa nodded. "You must've suspected that something was up."

"Part of me did but I could see no alternative so I accepted." Theresa said before frowning. "I beat him but the next day I got called into Maria's office and was told that an Obelisk Blue student had reported to Martin that I had violated curfew, conveniently leaving out the fact that another Obelisk Blue Student also violated curfew. I argued my innocence but it was no use, even though she sided with me the Board of Directors were willing to believe the Obelisk Blue student's word over mine, that incident earned me a week worth of detention, a report in my file and left me disillusioned with the teachers, to the point where I became a notorious troublemaker."

"I'm guessing the whole incident with Drew scarred you straight?" Marcus asked and Theresa nodded obviously ashamed off the fact. "I don't blame ya to be honest Theresa, if an Obelisk Blue student pulled a stunt like that with me and the teachers disregarded my story just because of my dorm I'd be pissed as well." Marcus added but any response Theresa had was cut off by an unfamiliar female voice.

"So, you've finally arrived." A young woman who looked to be in her late teens said as she stepped forward, she was good looking with shoulder length raven hair and brown eyes and she was clad in a black stomach exposing tank top, denim shorts and black boots, however what caught Marcus's attention was the Orichalcos duel disk on her arm. "It's been too long Marcus."

"Marie? What the hell are you doing with these bastards?" Marcus asked and Marie scowled at that.

"Are you really that surprised that I joined up with them Marcus?" Marie asked with a frown as she glared at Marcus. "Your dad didn't exactly give me much of a choice after he gave up on me."

"He didn't give you much of a choice? If you didn't keep getting in trouble with the cops then he wouldn't have given up on you!" Marcus pointed out and Marie scowled at this. Sensing the other's confusion Marcus sighed. "I'm sure you guys want to know what her beef is with me." Marcus said as he turned to them, the others nodded and Marcus groaned. "Okay, I've mentioned before that my dad's a social worker, one of his main duties is overseeing an orphanage like the ones that Chloe and Kimberly lived in."

"And what do you know? I was unfortunate enough to end up as an orphan under his care." Marie said with a scowl as she folded her arms. "I did everything that was asked off me at that damn place but that was never enough for that bastard."

"Hey, don't you talk about my dad like that!" Marcus snapped at her before activating his duel disk. "Like I said; if you had stayed out of trouble than my dad wouldn't have given up on you but if you aint going to listen to reason then I'm going to have to beat some sense into you!" Marcus added and Marie grinned before activating her own duel disk.

"I was hoping you'd say that." Marie said with an evil gleam in her eyes as both duelists drew until they had five cards in their hands. "You may have beaten me back when I lived it the Orphanage but I'm a much better duelist than I was back then and I have the Seal of the Orichalcos backing me up." Marie added and Marcus frowned. "Let me guess, you're wondering why I never encountered you during the tournament? Blame my damn pride, I thought my dragon deck would be enough to knock the champ out of the tournament but I was wrong."

"You're still using your dragon deck?" Marcus asked clearly offended by this. "Joining up with those bastards on the ship wasn't enough? Now you have the sheer audacity to use the deck that helped me kick start my love for dragons?"

"I knew that would strike a chord with you." Marie said with a grin. "Just a fair warning though, my deck is nothing like you remember it, that weak ass deck that centered entirely on beating my opponent down with dragons? I threw it in the trash long ago."

"_Great, so what deck IS she using? All I know is that she still uses dragons." _Marcus thought before looking at his hand. "I like to think of myself as a gentleman so ladies first." Marcus said and Marie grinned before drawing her first card.

"That's fine by me." Marie said before looking at her hand. _"No sign of the Orichalcos yet, fortunately I have a way of bringing it to my hand."_ Marie thought before picking up a card. "I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown, it's your move." Marie set the monster down and Marcus frowned before drawing his card.

"_Playing defensive on her first turn? Her deck's definitely changed." _Marcus thought before looking at his hand. "I start with the Spell Card Cards of Consonance; as long as I discard a weak Dragon Type tuner from my hand this Spell Card will allow me to draw two cards." Marcus played the card and after discarding the card he drew two cards. "But that's not all, the card I discarded was White Stone of Legend (1/300/250) and I can use its effect to add my Blue-Eyes White Dragon to my hand." Marcus added before picking up his deck and searching through it, he found the dragon at the bottom of the deck and added it to his hand.

"So, you finally got the Blue-Eyes White Dragon huh?" Marie asked and Marcus nodded, she grinned before folding her arms. "That piece of junk's worthless, especially compared to the card I have in my deck." Marie added and Marcus's eyes narrowed.

"_She has a dragon better than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon? She's gotta be bluffing, the only cards that come to mind are Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon and Five Headed Dragon and those things are incredibly rare, not to mention hard to summon." _Marcus thought before looking at his hand again. "Okay, I set two cards facedown and summon Alexandrite Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the beautiful dragon seemingly made of crystal appeared on the field (4/2000/100). "And unlike most Level 4 monsters with 2000 or more attack points this thing doesn't have any crippling side effects, Alexandrite Dragon go get her defense monster!" Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Marie's facedown monster, however what the monster was surprised Marcus is it ended up being a small grey owl (2/300/500) which was quickly incinerated by Alexandrite Dragon's flames.

"You fool, that's what I was hoping for!" Marie said as she held up the monster card. "You just destroyed An Owl of Luck, and with its flip effect I can search through my deck for a Field Spell and add it to the top of my deck!" Marie explained and Marcus's eyes widened as he realized what she was up too, without another word Marie searched through the deck before finding the card and placing it on top of her deck.

"Well, in that case I won't keep you; I set a card facedown and end my turn." Marcus said despite knowing what was going to happen next, Marie drew her card without hesitation and played it as soon as she drew the card.

"Then neither will I, I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Marie played the card and Marcus braced himself as the seal enveloped both duelists, soon afterwards the Seal's symbol appeared on Marie's forehead and she grinned evilly. "Now the real fun begins!"

"I have to respectively disagree with your idea of fun." Marcus said bluntly and Marie chuckled before playing a card.

"Do you really? Well I respectively ask that you tell that to someone who gives a shit about your opinion!" Marie snapped at him before her monster appeared on the field. "In the meantime say hello to the monster that's going to melt down your dragon, Debris Dragon!" Marie announced and the monster that appeared was a small grey dragon with black, bat like wings and red armor (4/1000/2000) and as the seal appeared on the dragon's forehead its attack increased to 1500.

"Nice try but that little guy doesn't stand a chance against my monster." Marcus said cockily and Marie grinned as she retrieved An Owl of Luck from her graveyard.

"Who said he's going to be doing the attacking? First I activate his effect, well technically he has several effects but this is one of them, when he's Normal Summoned to the field I can Special Summon one monster with 500 attack points or less from my graveyard." Marie played the card the grey owl reappeared on the field with a hoot, Marie didn't seem to care that its attack increased to 800 due to the Seal however. "Only downside is that my Owl's effect is negated as a side effect but since he's a flip effect monster that doesn't really matter does it?"

"I still don't see how that helps you." Marcus said as he glanced towards Debris Dragon with a wary eye.

"You're about to see why, Debris Dragon is a tuner monster!" Marie said with an evil grin and Marcus's eyes widened as the statement dawned on him, Marie sighed however. "But he comes with a couple of restrictions, the Synchro Monster in question has to be a Dragon Type and the non-tuner monster can't be a Level 4 monster."

"Yeah but I'm guessing your using his effect to get around that problem." Marcus pointed out and Marie just grinned. _"Okay, at the moment she has enough for a Level 7 Synchro Summon, question is besides Exploder Dragonwing….oh crap!" _Marcus thought as realization dawned on him. "Don't tell me you're bringing out Exploder Dragonwing!"

"No she isn't Marcus, the non-tuner needs to be a dragon remember?" Theresa called out from the sidelines and Marcus grinned as he thought back to the Semi-Finals duels.

"Your friend's only half right; Exploder Dragonwing does require the non-tuner monster to be a Dragon type monster." Marie said as her facedown card flipped up. "And that's why I set my trap card last turn; I activate D. Tribe, being a Dragon user you should know how this works."

"Yeah, all monsters on your side of the field are treated as Dragons until the end of your turn." Marcus confirmed with a frown as An Owl of Luck transformed into a weird, dragon/owl hybrid._ "This is bad, Theresa could barely beat this dragon when she dueled Eddie, what chance do I have?" _

"Now let's get this show on the road, Debris Dragon it's time you gave An Owl of Luck a tune up!" Marie commanded and the two dragons took flight, Debris Dragon disappeared and four green rings surrounded An Owl of Luck. "I tune Debris Dragon with An Owl of Luck to Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing!" Marie played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded the dragon that had plagued the Semi-Finalists during the Semi-Finalists appeared on the field in all its glory (7/2400/1600) and as the Seal appeared on its forehead the dragon's attack increased to 2900.

"Great, that thing's bad enough on its own but with the Seal backing it up it's practically invincible." Lance winced as he saw the dragon's stats increase.

"Chloe's right, you do suck at being motivational!" Marcus shouted at him and Lance sweat-dropped whilst laughing nervously.

"Now I enter my battle phase and….." Marie started but was stopped by a load roar that made Exploder Dragonwing cower in fear. "What the….." Marie trailed off before turning to Marcus and seeing that he had activated a trap. "Threatening Roar, I should've guessed."

"That's right, and now that I've activated this trap your dragon can't attack this turn." Marcus said proudly, Marie frowned before setting a card facedown and motioning for Marcus to take his turn, Marcus wasted little time in drawing his card and he looked at it.

"Not that it makes much difference but I shift Alexandrite Dragon into defense mode!" Marcus switched the position of the monster and the shiny dragon crouched down. "I also set a monster in defense mode and end my turn at that." Another monster, this time facedown, appeared next to Alexandrite Dragon and Marie drew her card.

"Is that all you have? Well that's too bad because my dragon's about to rip through your defenses!" Marie said with a grin before pointing to Alexandrite Dragon. "Exploder Dragonwing, attack Alexandrite Dragon!" Marie commanded and the dragon took flight and flapped its wings at Alexandrite, the dragon grunted in pain before its hologram shattered. "But that's not all, or have you forgotten about Exploder Dragonwing's effect?" Maries asked and all Marcus could do for an answer was wince in pain as his life-points took a hit.

M (f): 8000

M (m): 6000

"Is that the best you got?" Marcus taunted Marie as Exploder Dragonwing landed on the ground, Marie frowned before motioning for him to take his turn and Marcus drew a card.

"_Okay, this is more like it!" _Marcus thought before playing his drawn Spell Card. "I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Marcus announced and Marie shielded herself as three golden swords rained down on top of Exploder Dragon pinning him down. "Now your dragon can't attack for another three turns."

"Yeah, fat lot of good that will do you!" Marie scoffed and Marcus frowned. "Is that all? I don't have all day."

"Yeah, that's all." Marcus confirmed and Marie drew her card.

"_Damn, I was hoping for Mystical Space Typhoon, still this monster will come in handy once his swords wear off." _Marie thought before summoning the card. "I summon another dragon to the field, Lancer Dragonute!" Marie announced as a green dragon appeared on the field wielding a spear (4/1500/1800) and his attack increased to 2000 thanks to the seal. "I know he doesn't look like much, even with the Seal in play, but his effect makes up for it, basically he can inflict piercing damage as soon as he's able to attack which should be in a couple of more turns."

"I'm guessing that by that you mean you're ending your turn?" Marcus asked and Marie nodded, once the first sword disappeared Marcus drew his card. "I set this monster in defense mode and that ends my turn." Marcus set the monster facedown and Marie drew her card.

"_Damn, I still haven't drawn Mystical Space Typhoon." _Marie thought as she looked over her hand. "I'll pass for now." Marie said and once the second sword disappeared Marcus quickly drew his card; he added it to his hand and sent his two facedown monsters to the graveyard.

"I sacrifice my two monsters in order to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" The two facedown monsters, briefly revealed to be Troop Dragon (2/700/800) and The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave (4/1300/2000) disappeared from the field and in the second monster's place stood the mighty dragon ready for battle (8/3000/2500). "And like it or not Marie, even with its power boost, Exploder Dragonwing's about to get blown away by my Dragon's White Lightning!" Marcus said with a grin as the legendary dragon opened its mouth and let loose with its famous attack disintegrating the Synchro Monster in seconds.

M (f): 7900

M (m): 6000

"And just to be on the safe side I'm setting these two cards facedown and ending my turn." Marcus set the two cards down and Marie drew her card without hesitation…and grinned when she saw it.

"Remember what I said earlier about having a monster in my deck that makes Blue-Eyes White Dragon look like Petit Dragon?" Marie asked as she picked up Lancer Dragonute and pocketed it. "Well I just drew it, but in order to summon it I have to remove one Dragon Type Monster from play so bye-bye Lancer Dragonute…" Marie said as the green dragon disappeared from the field. "And hello Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon!"

"You're summoning Red-Eyes what?" Marcus shouted in surprise as a new dragon appeared on the field, it bore a resemblance to the famous Red-Eyes Black Dragon but was more metallic with a silver gleam and its red eyes had a demonic quality to them (10/2800/2400) and its attack increased to 3300 thanks to the seal.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Marie asked rhetorically before grinning. "But it gets worse, for you anyway, you see Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon has a very powerful effect as I can Special Summon one Dragon Type monster from my hand or graveyard, and since this thing was the only dragon in my hand, well, guess whose back?" Marie asked as she retrieved Exploder Dragonwing from the graveyard and summoned it; sure enough the mighty dragon reappeared on the field with a mighty roar and its power boost intact. "However since your Spell renders me unable to attack I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Marie set the card facedown and as soon as the final sword disappeared Marcus drew his card. "But be warned Marcus, come next turn you're dragon's history!"

"We'll see about that!" Marcus said before looking at his drawn card. _"Decoy Dragon, this little guy will come in handy if my trap fails." _Marcus thought before adding the card to his hand. "Blue-Eyes, attack Exploder Dragonwing with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon prepared to once again disintegrate the Synchro Monster with its famous attack.

"I don't think so!" Marie cut him off as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Synchro Deflector; this can only be activated if my opponent selects a Synchro Monster I control as an attack target, not only does it negate the attack but it destroys the attacking monster in the process!" Marie explained and Marcus's eyes widened as the dragon roared in pain before its hologram shattered. "You can still do a normal summon so I suggest you do so quickly." Marie added and Marcus growled.

"Fine, I will." Marcus said as he played a card, seconds later Decoy Dragon appeared on the field ready for battle (2/300/200). "That ends my turn." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card.

"You really think I'm that stupid? I'm a dragon user as well Marcus; I know what that little runt does!" Marie scoffed as she looked at her drawn card. "I choose to pass." Marie said and Marcus drew his card without hesitation.

"Well, can't blame me for trying." Marcus shrugged as he started planning his next move. "I summon Lord of Dragons to the field in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the tanned dragon protector appeared on the field (4/1200/1100). "Now I activate the Spell Card Flute of Summoning Dragon which, as you know, lets me special summon two more dragons from my hand so give a warm welcome to Rare Metal Dragon and Luster Dragon!" Marcus played the cards and the two dragons appeared on the field, the first was a metallic dragon with a horn (4/2400/1200) and the other was a beautiful sapphire dragon (4/1900/1600).

"Is that all you've got? I can beat those things in my sleep!" Marie scoffed and Marcus grinned.

"Who said I'm done?" Marcus asked as he played the last card in his hand. "I activate Natural Tune and with it Luster Dragon becomes a Tuner Monster!" Marcus said and Marie's eyes widened at that. "Luster Dragon, do me a favor and give your fellow dragons a tune up!" Marcus commanded and Luster Dragon took flight, Decoy Dragon followed quickly as did Rare Metal Dragon. "I tune my three monsters together to Synchro Summon Trident Dragion!" Marcus played the card and a new dragon appeared in the place of Rare Metal Dragon, this one was a massive three headed dragon that was red in color and very intimidating (10/3000/2800). "Now I activate his effect, I destroy my facedown card and my dragon gains an extra attack this turn." Marcus explained as the facedown card's hologram shattered.

"How will that help you? Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon is still stronger!" Marie protested….only for her eyes to widen when a gold coffin appeared behind Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and opened up, the dragon roared just before it was sucked into the coffin which subsequently shut tightly before shattering. "Your facedown card was Dark Coffin?"

"You got that right, and since I could only use one of its effects after I destroyed it Dark Coffin was the obvious choice." Marcus added with a grin before pointing at Trident Dragion. "Trident Dragion, attack Exploder Dragonwing!" Marcus commanded and the three dragon heads breathed fire at Exploder Dragonwing incinerating it. "Are you ready for another go Trident Dragion?" Marcus asked and in response the three heads breathed fire at Marie…

"Not this time, I activate Dimension Wall, the attack will still go through but you take the damage instead!" Marie activated her trap and the flames hit an invisible force field, some of the flames bounced back at Marcus and he screamed in pain.

M (f): 7800

M (m): 3000

"You're going to have to better than that to keep me down." Marcus said defiantly as he got to his feet, he had some minor burns from the attack but was otherwise fine. "Besides I've still got Lord of Dragons on my side of the field and he can still attack!" Marcus said confidently and the spell caster casted a spell at Marie which struck her in the chest bringing her life-points down to 6600. "That ends my turn." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card.

"As much as I hate to give my opponents any kind of advantage this will work in my favor as well." Marie said as she played the spell card she drew revealing it to be Card of Sanctity, both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands and Marie looked at her new cards. "This won't help much but at the very least it'll keep the damage to a minimum; I activate the Spell Card Dark Door!" Marie played the card and Marcus frowned. "Now we can only attack with one monster per round."

"_And since it doesn't target monsters Lord of Dragons won't protect Trident from it." _Marcus thought with a frown as she set another card in defense mode and motioned for him to take his turn; Marcus drew his card and looked at it. "Well since I can only attack once I may as well make the most of it, Trident Dragion I command you to attack her defense!" Marcus commanded the dragon and the three dragon heads breathed fire at the facedown monster, revealed to be Red-Eyes Wyvern (4/1800/1600) which was quickly incinerated. "Now I set a card facedown and call it a turn at that." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card.

"I chose to end my turn but as I haven't attacked or summoned this turn Wyvern's effect activates from the graveyard." Marie said as she retrieved her dragon from the graveyard and pocketed it. "On the condition that I don't Normal Summon or set a monster during my turn I can remove Wyvern from play to bring back an old friend!" Marie said and without another word she retrieved Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon from the graveyard and played it, soon afterwards the metallic dragon returned to the field with its power boost to boot.

"Oh great, I thought that thing was gone for good!" Marcus moaned as he drew a card. "I shift Lord of Dragons to defense mode and set a card facedown." Marcus announced as the tanned spellcaster knelt down and a facedown card appeared behind him. "That ends my turn." Marcus announced and Marie drew her card without hesitation.

"You know I COULD bring back Exploder Dragonwing and use its effect to wreak havoc of your life-points." Marie said before playing the card that she had just drawn. "But why do that when I can do the same with Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon? I equip my dragon with the spell card Big Bang Shot, this gives him an extra four hundred attack points and a trampling effect!" Marcus's eyes widened as Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon glowed as its attack increased to 3700. "Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, roast Lord of Dragons NOW!" Marie commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the tanned spellcaster incinerating it.

M (f): 7800

M (m): 1400

"Make your last move Marcus!" Marie demanded and Marcus drew his card without hesitation, he played it revealing it to be another Cards of Consonance and once he discarded a Tuner Type Dragon monster he drew two cards.

"This duel's over Marie." Marcus said as he looked at the two cards he had just drawn. "I win!" Marcus added earning himself a confused look from Marie. "First I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Big Bang Shot!" Marie's eyes widened in horror as a tornado ripped through the field destroying Big Bang Shot's hologram, as soon as it did Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon was sucked into a portal and Marie reluctantly pocketed her best monster. "I'm not done; I equip Trident Dragon with not one but two Megamorphs tripping his attack power!" Marcus played the cards and just like he said Trident Dragon's attack power skyrocketed to 9000. "If you've got anything you want to say now's the time."

"Why should I bother? It's the end of the line for me." Marie demanded and Marcus frowned. "Fine, there is something I wanted to say anyway, those crimes I committed? They weren't my fault."

"Weren't your fault? The CCTV Cameras caught you and only you on tape!" Marcus pointed out and Marie sighed.

"That wasn't what I meant, I never met my parents, they died in a car accident when I was still a baby and as a result they never got a chance to teach me right from wrong and those hacks at the orphanage weren't exactly helping in that regard." Marie said angrily as she glared at Marcus. "So yeah, I'm blaming your old man for the crimes I committed, don't like it? Well that's too bad because it's the truth!" Marie shouted at Marcus who somehow kept his cool.

"That's not true Marie." Marcus blinked before looking over his shoulder, Marie's eyes narrowed however when she saw Marcus's dad, he was tall and shared Marcus's hair and eye color…..and that's about it, he was well built with semi-long hair and brown eyes who was wearing a business suit.

"What are you doing here?" The two competing duelists asked simultaneously, though in Marcus's case it was because he was surprised to see his dad and in Marie's case it was out of anger towards Marcus's dad.

"I was in the city to watch my son compete in his first duel." Marcus's dad said before motioning to Marcus. "You did well son."

"Heh thanks Dad." Marcus said as he blushed from the complement, Marie on the other hand fumed at the site of Marcus's dad.

"You have a lot of nerve showing your face after all this time." Marie scowled as she glared at the older man. "It's not enough that your negligence ruined my life but you had to show up just as your son was about to trap my soul in the Orichalcos to rub it in to boot?" Marie accused him and Marcus's dad's eyes narrowed at her accusation.

"First off I've been watching this duel since it began, Theresa's mother gave me a call and let me know what was going on." Marcus's dad said with a frown. "That said, you have no one to blame but yourself for your crimes Marie, there were several other orphans under my care that came from similar circumstances to yours and you know what? They turned out okay, in fact from what I've heard one of them is making a name for himself as an actor in Hollywood." Marcus's dad added and Marie growled.

"THAT COULD'VE BEEN ME!" Marie shouted at him and Marcus's dad stood firm. "If you hadn't given up on me I wouldn't be in this mess."

"Marie I never gave up on you." Marcus's dad said and Marie blinked in confusion clearly taken aback by his statement. "I never gave up on any of the children in my care, however the moment you started committing crimes was the moment that any prospective parents lost interest in adopting you, I tried to change their minds but they were deadest on either adopting another kid or trying it the natural way so to speak." Marcus's dad said and Marie's eyes widened as it dawned on her.

"You…you're lying, you must be!" Marie stammered as she fell to her knees, Marcus turned to his dad as if to say "should I finish her?" and Marcus's s dad shook his head.

"No need, look." Marcus's dad said before pointing at Marie, Marcus turned around and saw that Marie had surrendered the duel and that the seal was closing in around her.

"Marcus…Jack…..I'm sorry." Marie said tearfully just before the Seal took her soul away, once Marcus was sure that it was safe to do so Marcus deactivated his duel disk before turning to his dad.

"Dad, I'm not unhappy about seeing you or anything but, why didn't you say something sooner?" Marcus asked after a few minutes. "Doing so probably would've saved me a headache or two."

"I wanted too but throughout the duel I was at a loss for what to say." Jack said as he turned to Marie's unconscious body. "That girl has a lot of issues; hopefully she'll get the help she needs when she's freed from the Orichalcos."

"Speaking of which, let's move." Brandon said as he stepped forward. "We've defeated three of them so far and whoever's left is bound to be a lot tougher."

"You kids go ahead, I'll let the cops know that there's another Orichalcos duelist to apprehend." Jack said as he leaned against a crate. "If you need any help let me know, I may be old but I know a few tricks as far as dueling's concerned."

"We will Dad, I promise." Marcus said as he and the other students walked off.

*meanwhile on the ship*

"Another duelist falls." Michael grunted as he watched the proceedings on the monitor. "I'm beginning to see why they were eliminated so early." Michael added and the leader frowned as he took a sip of his drink.

"Come now Michael, did you honestly think I'd recruit these people if they weren't talented duelists?" The leader asked as he took a sip of his drink. "Besides, if the next duelist fails then they will have to deal with you, no one has emerged from a duel against you with their soul intact, let alone victorious."

"I am well aware of both of those facts." Michael said bluntly as he looked towards his duel disk. "And they have their own problems in the form of the next duelist; he has quite the grudge against Brandon's father."

"Whether or not it will translate into a victory for him or another situation like the one with Marie is another question all together." The leader said plainly as the two men looked towards Michael's next minion and the student's next obstacle.


	43. Eliminating the Threat Part 4

"_Things have been pretty crazy since the tournament began." _Brandon thought as he walked with the other students, the ship was getting closer which meant that he and the others where one step closer to defeating the Orichalcos duelists and putting this nightmare behind them. _"Okay, the last two duels have been between my friends, not to mention my girlfriend, and someone with a grudge against them, Kimberly's grudge is obvious but what about me?" _Brandon thought as he looked towards the ship.

"Can I have a penny for your thoughts?" Theresa asked him catching Brandon's attention; he smiled before turning to her.

"I'm just thinking about the last three duels." Brandon shrugged as they neared the ship. "Everyone who's dueled so far has gone up against someone with a grudge against them; in fact the only ones who haven't dueled are I, Kimberly and Lance."

"And you're wondering who you'll be up against?" Theresa asked and her boyfriend nodded. "Why would anyone hold a grudge against you? You're the sweetest guy I know."

"I used to ask myself the same question about you before your duel against Drew." Brandon pointed out and Theresa blushed.

"Err, yeah good point." Theresa admitted as she rubbed the back of her head nervously, before Brandon could say anything else the party stopped in their tracks.

"Let me guess, our next opponent has arrived?" Brandon asked and almost as an answer to Brandon's question a familiar voice, to him anyway, rang out.

"Your ever the perceptive one, eh Brandon?" The figure said as he stepped forward, he was significantly older than the other duelists they had faced so far, easily in his early 50s, with grey balding hair and blue eyes; he was wearing a grey business suit and had an Orichalcos duel disk on his arm.

"Lector Goldsmith, I knew you were power hungry but I never thought you'd go this far." Brandon said as he folded his arms, Lector chuckled.

"My boy, when it comes to power there's no such thing as going to far." Lector said with a confident smirk. "Besides after everything I've done for your father over the years I earned my little bonus." Lector added and Brandon frowned.

"Bonus, is that what they're calling embezzlement these days?" Brandon asked and Lector scowled. "Face it Lector, my father caught you stealing millions from his company and when your attempt at blackmail failed you tried to kill him." Brandon added and Lector smirked.

"Brandon, you know as well as I do that the attempted murder charge was dismissed after my lawyer had the gun suppressed." Lector said cockily and Brandon growled. "As the company's lawyer I knew enough about law to cover my tracks."

"But you didn't know enough about accounting to cover your tracks in that department, which ended up being your downfall." Brandon said before his eyes lowered towards Lector's duel disk. "But that just leaves three questions unanswered, how did you end up with these maniacs, since when could you duel and most importantly if you were in the tournament why didn't we encounter you?"

"In no particular order, dueling has always been a hobby of mine Brandon but after my release from white collar prison I started taking it seriously." Lector said before frowning. "As for the tournament, I lost to some brat from North Academy who was using Dragunity monsters; you see my deck revolves around milling my own deck for card effects and I was stupid enough to not ensure that the Orichalcos was in my hand."

"_He dueled a North Academy student who uses Dragunity monsters huh? It sounds like he dueled Zach either before or after his duel with Chloe." _Brandon thought as he activated his duel disk.

"_Milling his own deck for card effects? That can only mean one thing." _Jeff thought as Lector activated his duel disk. "Careful Brandon, if he's using the archetype I think he's using then you're in trouble." Jeff called out to him.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful." Brandon called out to him before turning to Lector. "You never answered my third question."

"I suppose I didn't." Lector realized before smirking evilly. "I have always been a business man at heart Brandon and I know a good deal when I hear it and my current employer offered me an excellent deal, I get revenge on my former employer by taking out his spoilt brat of a son." Lector added and Brandon frowned as both duelists drew their opening hands.

"I knew it; you're just as greedy as ever." Brandon frowned as he looked over his opening hand. "Who's going first?"

"I am." Lector said as he drew his first card. "Excellent, I shall begin this transaction by activating a Spell Card called Solar Recharge, in order to activate this Spell Card I must discard one monster which belongs to the Lightsworm Archetype and send the top two cards from my deck to the graveyard, in return for this I can draw two cards." Lector played the card and discarded a monster, once that was done he drew twice and picked up the top two cards in his deck before sending them to the graveyard, before Brandon could say anything else Lector retrieved a card from his graveyard. "Ah excellent, one of the cards I sent from my deck to my graveyard is a monster known as Wulf, Lightsworn Beast."

"Your point is?" Brandon asked impatiently as Lector retrieved the monster from his graveyard.

"My point is Wulf is a monster that can only be summoned if and only if it is sent from my deck to the graveyard so come forth my beast!" Lector played the card and a humanoid white tiger appeared on the field, it was dressed rather strangely as it was clad in a white kilt with a gold belt around it's waist, a gold necklace and had various tattoos, to top it off the beast had razor sharp claws and was wielding an axe (4/2100/300). "Now, as for my normal summon, I summon Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner in attack mode!" Lector played the card and a young woman with short green hair appeared on the field, she was wearing a white toga and had a pink glow around her hands (3/1000/1000). "Lumina has a very useful special ability, once per turn I can discard one card from my hand to Special Summon one Level 4 or lower Lightsworm monster from my graveyard, I believe another Lightsworm Beast will do the job nicely." Lector retrieved the card from his graveyard after discarding the card and played it, just like he said a second copy of Wulf appeared on the field ready for battle.

"Let me guess, that was the card you discarded for Solar Recharge?" Brandon asked and Lector nodded.

"Off course, this transaction would not be complete without this next card." Lector said as he held up a card in his hand, the Field Spell slot in his duel disk opened up and Brandon frowned knowing what was coming up. "I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Lector announced as he grinned evilly and Brandon braced himself as the infamous field spell enveloped both duelists; the seal's symbol appeared on Lector's forehead as well as the foreheads of his three monsters increasing their attack power by 500. "I set a card facedown and that shall end my turn for now, however as a consequence of having Lumina on my side of the field I must send the top three cards in my deck to the graveyard." Lector announced and once he sent the three cards to the graveyard Brandon drew his card.

"If all his cards rely on destroying his own deck then Brandon will have this match in the bag." Lance said with a grin as Brandon looked over his hand. "He won't even have to do much, that old guy will deck himself out before long."

"I don't think so Lance." Jeff commented with a frown. "True decking out is always a problem with Lightsworn decks but a smart user of this archetype usually has one of two things, the maximum number of cards he/she is allowed to have in their deck or the Trap Card Blasting the Ruins."

"I activate Allure of Darkness; in exchange for removing one Dark Type monster in my hand from play this Spell Card will allow me to draw two cards." Brandon played the card and after he pocketed a monster he drew twice. _"I can't beat his beasts but I can take that summoner out of commission."_ Brandon thought as he played the two cards he just drew. "I set a card facedown and I summon Dark Crusader in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the skeleton knight appeared on the field (4/1600/200). "I now activate my Crusader's effect, in exchange for discarding another Dark Type monster from my hand he gains another 400 attack points." Brandon announced as he discarded the card and Dark Crusader's attack increased to 2000.

"_Drat, I thought he was still using the Dark Scorpions." _Lector thought with a frown as his eyes narrowed. _"I knew I should've paid close attention to the Semi-Finals once I learned that Brandon was one of the competing duelists."_ Lector thought before grinning. "So, are you going to attack or not?"

"Funny you should ask, Dark Crusader I command you to attack Lumina!" Brandon commanded and the skeleton charged towards the monster…

"I counter your attack with my Trap Card Lightsworn Barrier!" Lector activated the trap and Lumina started casting a spell, before Brandon knew it Dark Crusader's charge was blocked by an invisible barrier. "This trap can only be activated if two conditions are met; a face up Lightsworm monster is targeted for an attack and if I send the top two cards from my deck to the graveyard, however in exchange this trap lets me negate the attack." Lector said as Dark Crusader returned to Brandon's side of the field and Lector sent two more cards from his deck to the graveyard. "Your deck may not be the one I remember from back when I worked for your father Brandon." Lector said as he sent the three cards, his trap and the two cards from his deck, to the graveyard. "But you are still as predictable as ever."

"Anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?" Brandon asked as he looked over the rest of his hand. "That ends my turn." Brandon announced and Lector drew a card.

"Very well, I start my turn by activating the Spell Card Charge of the Light Brigade." Lector played the spell and picked up three cards off of the top of his deck. "By sending these three cards to the graveyard this Spell allows me to add one Level 4 or lower Lightsworn monster from my deck to my hand." Lector sent the three cards to the graveyard and picked up his deck which Brandon could see was larger than decks usually where.

"_He probably made it the maximum size to get around the decking out problem that people who use Lightsworms face," _Brandon thought as Lector selected a card and added it to his hand, Lector sent the Spell to the graveyard and played the newly retrieved monster.

"I now summon the monster I retrieved from my deck, Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior!" Lector played the card and a male warrior with spiked up blue hair; he was muscular and was wearing stomach exposing white and gold armor, he drew a spear as he prepared for battle (4/1850/1300) and his attack power increased to 2350 thanks to the seal. "Garoth has a very powerful ability but it won't come into play until the end of my turn, in the meantime Wulf I command you to attack Dark Crusader, the rest of you attack his life-points directly!" Lector commanded and the four monsters charged towards Brandon. Dark Crusader's hologram shattered as the first Wulf cut him in half with his claws whilst the others struck him with their weapons or in Lumina's case her Spell.

L: 8000

B: 950

Brandon gritted his teeth in pain as he forced himself to his feet, he wasn't bleeding as far as he could tell but he was definitely in pain, Lector laughed when he saw this. "If I had known that defeating you would be this easy I would've challenged you during the tournament, but alas I chose to end my turn and thus activate the side effect of Lumina." Lector said as he picked up four cards and looked at them.

"What are you doing? You can't look at cards your milling." Brandon protested and Lector frowned.

"In order to use Garoth's effect I must, whenever I send cards from my deck to the graveyard via the effect of a Lightsworm monster other than Garoth I can send an additional two cards to the graveyard and draw a card for each Lightsworm monster that's sent to the graveyard this way." Lector explained with a grin. "As it happens both of the cards I'm about to send to the graveyard with Lumina's effect are Lightsworm monsters." Lector added before sending the four cards to the graveyard and drawing twice, Brandon grimaced before drawing his card.

"I summon Sangan in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the familiar three eyed fiend appeared on the field (3/1000/600). "Now I activate my facedown card Dark Spirit Art – Greed, all I need to do is sacrifice Sangan and in return I can draw two cards." Brandon announced as Sangan was consumed by a dark light, Brandon quickly drew two additional cards before picking up his deck.

"Sangan's effect I assume?" Lector asked, Brandon didn't answer as he was busy searching through his deck for the monster in question, once he found it he added it to his hand and sent Dark Spirit Art – Greed to the graveyard.

"I end my turn at that." Brandon announced and Lector chuckled as he drew his card.

"Then it's come to an end, Lumina I give you the honor of finishing him off!" Lector announced and the sorceress started casting her spell again…

"You won't get rid of me that easily Lector!" Brandon shouted as he played the card he retrieved with Sangan and Battle Fader (1/0/0) appeared on the field, Lumina reluctantly stopped casting her spell and Lector frowned.

"So you brought yourself a little time, not that it'll help you much." Lector scoffed as he picked up four cards from his deck. "No monsters this time so I simply send these cards to the graveyard and end my turn." Lector announced as he sent the cards to the graveyard and Brandon drew his card without hesitation.

"Actually Battle Fader here has helped me a lot and I'm about to show you why!" Brandon said as he picked up Battle Fader and pocketed it due to its effect. "I sacrifice Battle Fader to summon Caius, The Shadow Monarch!" Battle Fader vanished from the field and in its place stood Caius who was ready for battle (6/2400/1000). "And when my monarch is successfully tribute summoned I can remove one monster on your side of the field from play." Brandon announced as he went to point to one of the Wulfs but hesitated. _"His beasts may be stronger than my Monarch but with Garoth on the field he has a one in two chance of drawing new cards at the end of his turn, better not risk it," _Brandon thought before pointing to Garoth, the warrior screamed as it was consumed by dark light before vanishing. "If Garoth was a Dark Type monster you'd take a thousand points of damage, but I know for a fact that all Lightsworms are Light Types but it's not like that matters, Caius unleash your mighty power upon Lumina now!" Brandon commanded and the fiend launched a ball of dark energy at the sorceress, she screamed before being consumed by it.

L: 7100

B: 950

"A valiant effort but it'll be all for naught once my turn begins." Lector scoffed as he pocketed Garoth and sent Lumina to the graveyard. "Caius is strong but my beasts are far stronger, all it will take is one direct attack by either of my beasts and you'll be finished." Lector added and Brandon frowned before picking up the cards he drew with Dark Spirit Art - Greed the previous turn.

"I set these two cards facedown and end my turn at that." Brandon set the two cards and Lector drew his card.

"I may not have the manpower that I once had." Lector said as he added his drawn card to his hand. "But my two beasts are more than enough to finish the job, Wulf attack….." Lector started but his order was cut off by a very loud roar, the two beasts cowered in fear and Lector turned to Brandon in time to see that he had activated one of his traps. "I see; one of your facedown cards was Threatening Roar."

"That's right, and now that I've activated it neither of your overgrown kittens can attack this turn." Brandon confirmed as he sent his trap to the graveyard, Lector frowned before setting his set card and motioning for Brandon to take his turn. _"Okay, I have the three Dark Type Monsters I need to summon Dark Armed Dragon; it's just a question of drawing it." _Brandon thought as he drew his card. _"Damn, not the card I needed but it'll help….."_

"I activate my trap card Light Spiral!" Lector activated the trap and too Brandon's surprise two beams of light shot up from the ground, one was going straight whilst the other was going around it. "This continuous Trap Card is quite lethal, you see every time I mill my deck via the effect of a Lightsworn monster from now on the top card in your deck will be removed from play."

"Am I seriously supposed to believe that thing's legal?" Brandon protested as he folded his arms, Lector smirked as he heard that.

"Like it or not young man this Trap Card is perfectly legal." Lector said and Brandon growled.

"Fine, I'll settle for activating the Spell Card I just drew." Brandon said as he played the card. "Go Nightmare's Steel Cage!" Brandon announced and to Lector's shock a steel cage completely surrounded his two beasts. "For the next two turns that cage will prevent either of us from attacking."

"Stalling for time are we? Fine by me, if I can't deplete your life points I'll deplete your deck instead!" Lector growled and Brandon smirked.

"Like you depleted money from my father's company?" Brandon taunted him and Lector growled. "I end my turn at that." Brandon announced and Lector drew his card.

"Then let the milling of BOTH our decks begin!" Lector said as he slapped his drawn card onto the duel disk. "I summon Shire, Lightsworn Spirit in attack mode!" Lector played the card and a young blonde girl in a white dress appeared on the field carrying a small staff (3/400/1400) and her attack increased to 900 thanks to the seal.

"Why would you summon something that weak?" Brandon asked and Lector grinned, he soon saw why however as Shire's attack points skyrocketed to 3000. "That thing has an effect doesn't it?" Brandon asked and Lector nodded.

"Indeed, Shire gains 300 attack points for each Lightsworn with a different name in my graveyard." Lector explained with an evil grin. "I counted and there are seven such monsters in my graveyard giving her an extra 2100 attack points."

"Pity you can't attack." Brandon pointed out and Lector frowned.

"Indeed, and that is why I'm ending my turn." Lector said before picking up two cards. "Off course Shire comes with the price that most Lightsworn monsters require so I send these two cards to my graveyard, fortunately for you neither of them are monsters." Lector said as he sent the two cards to the graveyard and a beam of light emitted from Light Spiral striking the top card on Brandon's deck, he looked at the card and blinked.

"_Sword of Dark Rites, I got this prior to Battle City but I never got a chance to use it, shame I could've used it to take out one of his beasts."_ Brandon thought before pocketing the card and drawing the next card. _"Regardless though those two beasts, whilst very powerful, are no longer the main threat on his side of the field, I need to get rid of that Spirit and fast." _Brandon thought before looking at the card he had drawn. _"Damn, still no sign of Dark Armed Dragon." _Brandon thought before setting the card facedown. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced and Lector drew his card.

"Ah perfect, this is a card that I added especially for you Brandon." Lector said as he played a card. "I activate Prohibition."

"Oh crap, that lets you prevent me from using a card's effect!" Brandon realized as the Spell Card flipped up,

"Yes and the card name I'm declaring is Dark Armed Dragon." Lector announced and Brandon's eyes narrowed. "Now as long as this Spell Card is in play you are forbidden to use that monster."

"I have other strong cards in my deck, hell you're staring at one right now!" Brandon pointed out as he pointed to Caius.

"Yes but Dark Armed Dragon was the only hope you had of crushing my defenses." Lector pointed out before picking up two cards. "I pass which means that your spell card has expired, I can now send two different Lightsworn monsters to my graveyard AND Light Pillar's effect kicks in." Lector announced and as the cage faded away he sent his monsters to the graveyard and once Shire's attack increased to 3600 a beam of light struck the top card on Brandon's deck, he picked it up and looked at it.

"Thanks Lector that would've been a dead draw." Brandon said and Lector blinked in confusion, Brandon turned the card around and Lector's eyes widened.

"Dark Armed Dragon, if I hadn't drawn Prohibition when I did…" Lector said before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter; Light Pillar would have still forced you to remove that monster from play!" Lector pointed out and Brandon answered by making his draw once he sent his spell to the graveyard and pocketed Dark Armed Dragon.

"Not much I can do so I set a monster in defense, switch Caius to defense mode and set a card facedown." Brandon made the moves and the two facedown cards appeared on the field just before Caius crouched down. "That ends my turn." Brandon announced and Lector drew his card. "I activate Thunder of Ruler."

"Stalling again? You'll run out of ways to stall for time eventually." Lector said dismissively as he looked at the card in his hand. "I activate another Solar Recharge." Lector played the card and discarded a card from his hand, once he did he drew twice and sent another two cards from his deck to the graveyard, neither of the cards where monsters however so Shire didn't benefit from them being in the graveyard, however Lector was more interested in one of his drawn cards. "This will make the duel very interesting from now on."

"What do you mean?" Brandon asked and Lector grinned.

"The card I just drew is another Continuous Spell Card and a rather situational one at that." Lector said as he played the card. "I activate Convulsion of Nature!" Lector announced and before anyone could say anything a fierce storm washed over the field, however with the Seal in play the storm became very real.

"What have you done?" Brandon demanded as he shielded himself. "Don't you realize that you're threatening people's lives with this card?"

"Off course I do." Lector said as he shielded himself, he was clearly surprised by the turn of events but at the same time didn't seem to care one bit. "Certainly makes things more interesting wouldn't you say?" Lector asked and Brandon gave him a look of disgust before he turned to the others quickly.

"Get to shelter!" Brandon shouted at them and the others didn't hesitate to do so.

"You heard the man, let's go!" Jeff said before leading the others away, Brandon turned to Lector and growled.

*meanwhile on the ship*

"I warned that fool not to use that card." The leader grumbled as he and Michael struggled to keep their balance, the various objects around the office fell from their shelves including the leader's wine bottles and the glass that he was drinking from.

"I don't understand, cards like Heavy Storm and Mystical Space Typhoon have been played in the seal but no effects this disastrous have occurred." Michael said as he leaned on a filing cabinet for support. "I thought you tested the various effects certain cards would have on the seal?"

"Yes, I rigorously tested them." The leader confirm with a nod. "Obviously I couldn't test cards such as the Egyptian God Cards and the Sacred Beasts but most of the cards I tested had the standard effect off the battle damage becoming real but certain cards like Convulsion of Nature and Meteor Flare had disastrous effects, I wouldn't worry however, the storm originally caused by this card only lasted for a minute." The leader said and just as he did the storm subsided, the Leader put a hand to his earpiece and contacted maintenance. "I need a damage report now!"

"Well we aren't sinking, that's a good thing." The man on the other end answered. "No serious damage appears to have been caused by the storm, though I'll bet the local news will report on this."

"No doubt, and have someone go into the city and buy me as many wine bottles as he can afford, I will reimburse him tenfold!" The leader said before hanging up. "Michael, I want Lector's soul destroyed regardless off the outcome."

"Off course sir, it shall be done." Michael said before leaving the office, the leader massaged his temples in annoyance as he turned to the TV screen.

"_Those souls had better be worth the trouble I've been through to get them."_ The leader thought as he watched the duel.

*back at the duel*

"Well, that was unexpected." Lector commented off handedly as he adjusted his tie, Brandon's hair was even messier than usual as a result of the storm but he was otherwise fine as was the other students. "As for the Spell Card's effect it's very simple, every single card in our deck will now be flipped upside down for the remainder of the duel." Lector added and Brandon frowned before turning the remaining cards in his deck upside down, Lector did likewise and ten minutes later the task was complete.

"I don't get it." Chloe said as she scratched her head in confusion. "Why play that card?"

"His card's effects, that's why." Jeff said once he regained his composure. "He will now know in advance if Shire will get additional attack points from her effect and with that combined with Light Pillar he'll now know just how badly his trap card's effect has cost Brandon." Jeff said as he sat down on the pillar.

"Not that it matters, I have another card I've been waiting to play." Lector said as he played the card. "I activate Big Bang Shot and equip it to Shire." Brandon's eyes widened as Lector equipped Shire with the card increasing her attack to 4000. "I can tell by the look on your face that you're familiar with this card so I won't remind of its effect."

"Yeah I am." Brandon confirmed as his eyes narrowed. "But why even bother playing Convulsion of Nature if you're planning on finishing me off?"

"Why not, I've always viewed other people as expendable anyway." Lector shrugged and Brandon's eyes narrowed.

"You're insane." Brandon accused him and Lector chuckled.

"There's a difference between being insane and being a realist Brandon." Lector said plainly with an evil grin. "Oh sure, it's perfectly okay to be optimistic when you're in high school, or in your case Duel Academy, after all you have the rest of your life ahead of you." Lector said before spitting to the side. "It's only once you graduate that you realize that real life isn't what you hoped it would be, I learned long ago that the world is full of cutthroat businessman….like your father."

"That's a lie and you know it." Brandon pointed out and Lector grinned.

"Is it now? Please I worked for the man for years before I was arrested for embezzlement; I've seen his tactics for myself." Lector said as Shire got ready for battle. "For example, did you know that your father was fired from his previous employers for the same reasons he fired me."

"Actually I do, he told me once I was old enough to understand." Brandon said as he folded his arms. "He confessed to embezzlement but since they didn't have enough to convict him they quietly fired him instead, he's learned from his mistakes." Brandon pointed out and Lector growled upon realizing that his attempted mind games had failed.

"That may be true but that's not the only crime he committed." Lector said before turning his attention to Chloe. "Did your father ever tell you that he used to pay for the legal fees of any of his most loyal employees if they ever got into legal trouble?"

"What does that have to do with Chloe?" Brandon demanded once he realized who he was looking at, Lector smirked as he folded his arms.

"He stopped doing that around ten years ago, when word got out that he was paying for the legal fees of an employee accused off, among other things, abusing his wife and seven year old daughter and the murder of his wife." Lector said with a smirk. "In fact, your friend over there looks a lot like his daughter, only grown up and with a duel disk; I believe his name was Robert Graham?" Lector asked and Brandon's eyes widened when it dawned on him.

"My dad paid for Robert's lawyer." Brandon said and he quickly turned to Chloe who was clearly upset by this revelation. "Chloe, if you want we'll talk after the match."

"Yeah, sounds good." Chloe said meekly and Brandon turned his attention back to Lector.

"Your assuming you'll live long enough for that to happen, Shire I command you to finish him off by attacking Caius!" Lector commanded and the fairy pointed her staff at Caius…

"That's what I was hoping for!" Brandon interrupted as he activated his trap. "GO MIRROR FORCE!" Brandon shouted out and Lector's eyes widened as Shire's attack bounced off a force field sending it back to Lector's three monsters, the three monsters screamed in pain before shattering.

"Very well, if you wish to be that stubborn than so will I!" Lector said as he activated another Spell Card. "I activate Emergency Provisions, in exchange for sending Light Spiral and Prohibition to the Graveyard this Spell Card will increase my life-points by 2000!" Lector announced as the two spirals disappeared alongside Prohibition's hologram. "I shall end my turn by setting a monster in defense mode." Lector announced as he set the monster and Brandon drew his card.

L: 9100

B: 950

"You made a big mistake by getting rid of Prohibition Lector." Brandon announced as he held up his drawn card. "It could've saved you from what's coming up next."

"What are you talking about? Dark Armed Dragon is on the Limited List and I've removed your only copy from play!" Lector demanded and Brandon grinned.

"True but it won't remain in my pocket for long." Brandon said as he played his drawn card. "I activate Burial from a Different Dimension, this lets me takes up to three monsters that are removed from play and add them to my graveyard and as you may remember I have three, Battle Fader due to its effect and my two dragons due to Light Spiral's effect." Brandon explained as he moved the three monsters to his graveyard.

"So you have it back, am I supposed to be impressed?" Lector asked with a grin. "We both know that Dark Armed Dragon can't be summoned from the graveyard."

"My next spell card fixes that problem for me." Brandon said as he played the card, Pot of Avarice's hologram flipped up and Lector's eyes widened.

"Pot of Avarice, that spell card lets you return five monsters currently in your graveyard to your deck and draw two cards!" Lector realized as Brandon retrieved Dark Crusader, the monster he discarded for Crusader's effect, Sangan, Battle Fader and most importantly Dark Armed Dragon, returned them to his deck, shuffled it and drew twice. "Impressive move, not only do you have Dark Armed Dragon back but you already have one monster in your graveyard to assist in its summon."

"I'll worry about getting the other cards into my graveyard later, for now you may remember this monster!" Brandon played the card and Dark Crusader returned to the field ready for another shot at Lector. "Unfortunately I don't have any monsters to discard for his effect but I can still attack, Dark Crusader I command you to attack his facedown monster!" Brandon commanded and the knight charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be Morphing Jar (2/700/600) which Dark Crusader quickly destroyed, Brandon frowned before discarding the remaining cards in his hand and drawing five new ones as did Lector. _"Damn, the Spell I drew with Avarice could've helped." _Brandon thought before pointing to Caius. "Caius, attack his life-points directly!" Brandon commanded and the fiend launched a ball of dark energy at Lector striking him in the chest.

L: 6700

B: 950

"That ends my turn." Brandon announced and Lector drew his card.

"Two can play at that game Brandon." Lector said as he played a card, the hologram for Pot of Avarice reappeared on the field, this time on Lector's side of the field, Lector retrieved both Wulfs, Garoth, Lumina and Shire from his graveyard and drew two cards from his deck…and he started laughing evilly when he saw one of the cards he had drawn.

"I don't like the sound of that." Chloe gulped as she heard Lector's evil laughter.

"So you shouldn't my dear, I have just drawn my best monster!" Lector said with an evil grin.

"Wait, Shire wasn't your best monster?" Marcus asked clearly confused by this revelation, Lector scoffed as he held up the card in question.

"Off course not, I hold the true power of my deck in my hands." Lector responded as his grin grew wider. "A monster that requires it's user to have four or more Lightsworn monsters with different names in the graveyard before I can summon it and I have more than enough to do just that!" Lector said as he played the card. "Come forth Judgment Dragon!" Lector called out and a looming shadow appeared above the dueling field, the monster that landed on the field was indeed a dragon and a much bigger one than any of Marcus's dragons, it was gold in color and very intimidating to look at (8/3000/2600) and the dragon's attack increased to 3500 thanks to the seal.

"Holy shit, that thing's as strong as Chloe's Silent Magician!" Lance shouted out as his eyes widened, Lector chuckled evilly as he pointed to his dragon.

"You think its strong now? I haven't even activated its effect!" Lector announced as his life-points dropped to 5700. "At the cost of one thousand life-points Judgment Dragon can destroy every other card on the field!" Brandon's eyes widened as the dragon let out a mighty roar before flapping its wings, his three monsters shielded themselves from the gust as did Brandon but whilst Brandon was able to keep his footing as monsters weren't as Caius, Dark Crusader, Convulsion of Nature and his facedown monster was blown away, Brandon quickly sent the three monsters and his trap to the graveyard once the two duelists returned their decks to the proper position and he stared down at the dragon. "The time has come Brandon; Judgment Dragon will now cast his judgment upon you!" Lector declared as the mighty dragon prepared its attack….

"I don't think so!" Brandon interrupted as he played a card, Battle Fader appeared on the field and Judgment Dragon closed its mouth. "Battle Fader here was one of the monsters I retrieved from my graveyard."

"But…..but you said that Dark Crusader was the only monster in your hand!" Lector stammered and Brandon shook his head.

"That was before you forced me to discard my initial hand with Morphing Jar." Brandon pointed out and Lector's eyes widened. "If you hadn't set that monster you could've won the match, but now? I have everything I need to beat you."

"How do you expect to do that? My life-points are far higher than yours!" Lector challenged him and Brandon grinned.

"End your turn and find out." Brandon said plainly and Lector looked at his remaining cards before looking up at Judgment Dragon.

"_No use in using Judgment Dragon's effect again, even if he draws Dark Armed Dragon he has too many monsters in his graveyard to summon it!" _Lector thought before picking up four cards from the top of his deck. "Like most of my other monsters the effect of Judgment Dragon requires me to mill my own deck at the end of my turn, in this case I must send four cards to the graveyard." Lector explained as he sent the monsters to the graveyard. "Do your worst boy!"

"Challenge accepted!" Brandon said as he drew his card. "And I start by activating the Spell Card called Card of Sanctity!" Brandon played the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands. "Perfect, first I sacrifice Battle Fader to summon Beast of Talwar!" Brandon played the card and Battle Fader vanished, in its place stood the twin sword wielding fiend (6/2400/2150), Brandon pocketed Battle Fader due to its effect and picked up another card. "Now I activate Dark Eruption, this Spell Card lets me add one Dark Type monster with 1500 or less attack points to my hand!" Brandon played the card and retrieved the monster he set earlier, Don Zaaloog (4/1400/1500), from his graveyard; he added the monster to his hand and grinned. "But that's not the important part, isn't it Lector?"

"You now have enough monsters to bring out Dark Armed Dragon!" Lector realized as his eyes widened, Brandon nodded before playing the card and his strongest monster appeared above the field (7/2800/1000). "Nice try but your dragon isn't good enough and even if you destroy Judgment Dragon with its effect I have enough life-points to survive the round." Lector said before looking at his hand. _"And with Shire back in my hand all I'll need to do is destroy that fiend and win!" _

"That's where you're wrong!" Brandon said as he held up his last card. "I have one more card I can play and I added it specifically to deal with Light Type users like you, it's called Leeching the Light!" Brandon played the card and Judgment Dragon started glowing.

"What on earth is going on?" Lector demanded as he looked up in confusion at his monster.

"Leeching the Light lets me target one Light Type Monster on your side of the field." Brandon explained with a grin. "With this Spell Card I can add the targeted monster's attack points to every monster on my side of the field!" Brandon added and Lector's eyes widened in horror as Beast of Talwar and Dark Armed Dragon's attack points skyrocketed to 5900 and 6300 respectively. "And now for the icing on the cake, I remove Dark Crusader from play to activate the effect of Dark Armed Dragon!" Lector's eyes widened as the Dragon's mighty tail slammed down on Judgment Dragon crushing him.

"Wait, have mercy!" Lector pleaded as he stared down the two monsters, Brandon frowned as he folded his arms.

"My dad always said you were a coward I never believed him as I thought he wouldn't hire cowards but now I see that fact clear as day!" Brandon said before pointing to his two monsters. "Finish him!" Brandon commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks, Beast of Talwar slashed Lector across the chest with its swords and Dark Armed Dragon slammed its tail into him.

L: 0000

B: 950

"Brandon wins, Fatality!" Marcus shouted from the sidelines only to get odd looks from the other students, Lector was still alive but knew what was going to happen soon.

"You haven't seen the last of me Brandon!" Lector growled as he struggled to get to his feet.

"No, he has." A cold voice rang out from behind Lector and his eyes widened, Lector slowly turned around and saw Michael there. "Your stunt with Convulsion of Nature was not only reckless but endangered the entire operation; the leader has ordered your execution."

"Wait, please let me explain!" Lector pleaded with Michael as the seal closed in around him, the next sound to come out of his mouth was a blood curdling scream as his soul was taken by the Orichalcos; Brandon breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down on the pier.

"Thank god that's over." Brandon breathed a sigh of relief before looking up at Michael, he retrieved Lector's soul card and tore it up without hesitation and went to leave.

"You….." Kimberly growled as she pushed past the other students, Michael turned his attention to her as she glared at him. "You're the one who stole Nathan's soul!"

"So the one that got away did join the tournament." Michael said with a frown under his hood. "I have no time for this…" Michael said as he turned to leave…however he didn't get far before the hologram of Mist Archfiend (6/2400/0) blocked his path and he turned to Kimberly seeing that she had indeed activated her duel disk. "You don't want to challenge me little girl, you saw what I did to your friend."

"That's my step brother you're talking about!" Kimberly growled as she returned Mist Archfiend to her deck. "And your damn right I want to challenge you!" Kimberly added and Michael stood their silently for a few minutes before putting a hand to his earpiece.

"Move Lector's body someplace else, I have…unfinished business to attend too." Michael commanded before turning to Kimberly. "Very well, I'm going to do what I should've done back at Duel Academy." Michael said as he activated his duel disk. "Let us begin."


	44. Eliminating the Threat Part 5

By the time the workers working for Michael's boss had cleared Lector's body Michael and Kimberly where in the middle of shuffling their decks having already activated their duel disks, the whole time Kimberly didn't take her eyes off of Michael as she glared daggers at the hooded duelist, the other students were worried however as they had seen this man regarded with fear by his cohorts.

"Does anyone know what kind of deck this guy runs?" Lance asked as he scratched his head in confusion, the other students shook their heads.

"No, the majority of the students were either in class or, in your case, training for the tournament." Jeff answered him with a frown. "The only witness to the duel that we know off is Kimberly."

"I asked around my dorm after Nathan was taken to the infirmary to see if anyone had witnessed the duel." Martin added as the two duelists drew their opening hands. "However none of the students who were in their rooms at the time witnessed the duel, the only time they realized what was going on was when they heard Nathan's scream." Martin added and Lance frowned.

"Gee, how fucking convenient for him." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "Did this guy compete in the tournament? You'd think we'd hear of a cloaked weirdo walking around stealing people's souls."

"No, I didn't" Michael answered as he turned his attention to Lance. "My boss withdrew me from the tournament at the last minute."

"Why? Is it because you suck at dueling?" Lance asked and Michael shook his head.

"No, my boss didn't want to risk losing the second best duelist in the organization." Michael said simply as he looked over his hand. "If you don't believe me ask Kimberly, she witnessed the duel and can attest for my skills."

"All I can attest too is that you use a broken deck with an even more broken field spell." Kimberly snapped at him and Michael frowned. "I'm going first." Kimberly added before drawing her first card. _"Good, I have what I need to block his strongest monsters, but I'd better play it safe and hold on to it until he tries to summon one of those monsters."_ Kimberly thought as she decided on an opening move.

"Guys, I'm worried about her." Chloe admitted as she rubbed her arm nervously. "She was let out of the hospital recently so how do we know if she's in any condition to duel."

"Appreciate the thought kid but don't worry, I can look after myself." Kimberly reassured her before picking up the card she drew. "I start with Allure of Darkness, in exchange for banishing one Dark Type monster in my hand…"

"That card will allow you to draw two cards." Michael interrupted her before pointing at the security cameras. "I have watched each and every one of your duels in this tournament little girl, there's nothing you can surprise me with." Michael added and Kimberly frowned before pocketing a monster, drawing two cards and sending her Spell to the grave.

"_That's what he thinks." _Kimberly thought before picking the top card in her deck. "The card I removed from play is Cyber Ouroboros (2/100/600), when that monster is removed from play I can draw another card as long as I send a card from my hand to the graveyard." Kimberly drew the card and discarded one of her cards, once that was done she picked up three cards, two of which she had just drawn. "I set two cards facedown and summon Archfiend Soldier in attack mode!" Kimberly played the cards and the purple fiend appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1900/1600). "And I end my turn at that." Kimberly announced and Michael drew his card.

"_What's this? I haven't drawn any of my best monsters!" _Michael thought as he looked over his opening hand, Kimberly couldn't see it because of his hood but he was frowning at the moment. _"No matter, I'll make do." _Michael thought before playing a card. "I summon Beast King Barborus in attack mode!" Michael played the card and a strange being appeared on the field, it had the upper body of a muscular man but the lower body of a Panther and the head of a lion; it was wielding a shield and a spear (8/3000/1200).

"Am I going crazy or did he just summon a Level 8 monster without a single sacrifice?" Lance asked clearly confused by this.

"My Beast King allows for that to happen via his effect, however as a consequence his attack drops to 1900." Michael explained as his beast warrior's attack dropped. "I set a card facedown and end my turn, attack if you dare!" Michael taunted her and Kimberly drew her card.

"Don't tempt me." Kimberly said plainly before looking at her new card. _"He didn't use that monster during his match with Nathan; then again it was a short match so maybe he didn't get a chance to draw that thing." _Kimberly thought before playing the card. "I summon Terrorking Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the king of the archfiends appeared on the field (4/2000/1500).

"That just means you'll lose 800 life-points per turn." Michael scoffed and Kimberly grinned.

"I know, but so will you!" Kimberly said as one of her trap cards flipped up. "I activate Battle Scarred and I target Terrorking with its effect, now we both have to pay 800 life-points per turn." Kimberly announced and Michael just stared at her. "You ever remove that hood by the way?"

"Yes but only in private." Michael said bluntly. "Tell you what, you somehow get my life-points below one thousand and I will remove the hood."

"Well, let's get started then, Terrorking attack Barboros!" Kimberly commanded and the fiend reached forward with its claws before tearing the Beast Warrior in half.

"You fool, that's what I wanted you to do!" Michael said barely noticing that his life-points dropped to 7900 as he activated his trap. "I activate Option Hunter; this trap card can only be activated if one of my monsters is destroyed in battle, as a direct result of this that monster's original attack points are added to my life-points."

"Wait, wasn't Barboros's original attack 3000?" Lance asked and the others nodded grimly as Michael's life-points shot up to 10,900. "Oh man, Kimberly's own trap has put her at a disadvantage!"

"Don't worry Lance; my remaining monster can still attack!" Kimberly announced as Archfiend Soldier charged towards Michael…

"Not if I summon Battle Fader to intercept the attack!" Michael played the card and the small, clock like fiend appeared in Archfiend Soldier's path (1/0/0), the Soldier stopped in its tracks and returned to Kimberly's side of the field. "I warned you not to challenge me little girl, you should've headed my warning when you still had the chance."

"I'm not giving up yet." Kimberly growled before looking at her hand. "One card facedown and that ends my turn." Kimberly set the card and Michael drew his card.

"I activate the Spell Card Pot of Duality." Michael played the card and picked up the next three cards in his deck. "All I have to do is show you these three cards and chose one of them to go to my hand, the rest are shuffled into my deck." Michael turned the cards around and Kimberly's eyes narrowed, she definitely recognized the third card, it was the Seal of the Orichalcos, but the other two cards where a complete mystery, Michael added the two mystery cards to his deck, shuffled it and added the Seal to his hand. "I suppose you know what's coming up next so I won't keep you in suspense; I activate The Seal of the Orichalcos." Michael played the card and Kimberly shielded herself as the infamous field spell surrounded the two duelists, as his hood concealed his forehead Kimberly couldn't see the Seal on it but she could tell it was there as his eyes where glowing red.

"Man, this is bad." Chloe winced and Kimberly turned her attention to her briefly.

"You think this is bad? I have to deal with this thing." Kimberly pointed out before turning back to Michael in time to see that Battle Fader's attack increased to 500 thanks to the seal. _"If he's half the duelist he thinks he is he'll get rid of Battle Fader as soon as possible." _Kimberly thought as she waited for Michael to continue his move.

"Now onto the business at hand, I have no further use for Battle Fader so I sacrifice him in order to summon Darkflare Dragon." Michael pocketed Battle Fader due to its effect and the fiend vanished, in its place stood a large jetblack dragon with red scales down its stomach (5/2400/1200) and its attack increased to 2900 thanks to the seal. "Darkflare Dragon, attack Archfiend Soldier!" Michael commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the fiend incinerating it.

K: 7000

M: 10,900

"In case you have any desire to bring back your soldier with either Archfiend's Roar or Monster Reborn than forget it." Michael said as he pointed at Darkflare Dragon. "My dragon has a very special ability, all I need to do is send two dragon type monsters from my hand and my graveyard, in exchange for this I can banish one card from either of our graveyards, I choose your graveyard." Michael said coldly and Kimberly reluctantly retrieved Archfiend Soldier from the graveyard. "I shall end my turn at that."

"So what is this guy's strategy anyway?" Lance asked as he scratched his head in confusion. "None of his cards so far have had any common themes between them." Lance added as Kimberly drew her card, she winced as Battle Scarred took effect bringing her life-points down to 6200 and Michael's life-points down to 10,100.

"He could be using a chaos deck; Darkflare Dragon has an additional ability that's very similar to most Chaos monsters." Jeff said before shaking his head, "But why would a Chaos Duelist use cards like Option Hunter or Beast King Barboros?"

"I was planning on using this on something weaker." Kimberly said as her trap card flipped up. "But since Battle Scarred can do nothing but hurt me at the moment I'm activating Dark Spirit Art – Greed." Kimberly announced as Terrorking Archfiend vanished alongside Battle Scarred's hologram, she drew twice and looked at the two cards she had drawn.

"Draw all the cards you like, I still have the advantage." Michael scoffed as he waited for Kimberly to make her move.

"Not for long, I activate the Spell Card I just drew, Lightning Vortex!" Kimberly played the card and Michael's eyes widened as, after Kimberly discarded one of the cards in her hand, lightning struck his dragon destroying it. "Now to narrow down the difference between our life-points a bit, I summon Shadowknight Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the second card she drew and the knight of the archfiends appeared on the field (4/2000/1600). "Now Shadowknight Archfiend, narrow down the gap between our life-points!" Kimberly commanded and the knight charged towards the robed figure before slashing him across the chest.

K: 6200

M: 9100

"Fortunately for me the battle damage I would've taken from Shadowknight Archfiend's attack is cut in half by its own effect." Michael said with a grunt as he got up. "You're going to have to try better than that pathetic excuse for an Archfiend."

"Oh believe me, I will try better," Kimberly sneered as she looked at the rest of her hand. "I end my turn but fair warning; don't call my Archfiends pathetic when you haven't even seen the best that my deck has to offer." Kimberly said as Michael drew his card, _"Even if some of those monsters have yet to show up in my hand." _Kimberly thought.

"Please, I've seen the best your deck has to offer and frankly I'm not impressed." Michael said as he drew his card. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Michael announced and Kimberly drew her card ignoring the pain from Shadowknight's effect as it brought her life-points down to 5300.

"Finally, I drew an Archfiend that won't cost me life-points!" Kimberly sighed in relief before playing the card. "And this Archfiend spells nothing but bad news for you; I summon Mad Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and a new Archfiend appeared on the field, this fiend's skin was bone white, had wild red hair and most strikingly off all, had a hole in its chest that exposed a skull and had teeth around the edges (4/1800/0).

"That monster may be terrifying to look at but its attack score is pathetic and its defense score is non-existent." Michael said dismissively as he folded his arms. "How will that abomination help you exactly?"

"How will it help? Easy, Mad Archfiend has the ability to inflict piercing damage!" Kimberly announced and Michael's eyes widened when he heard that. "Mad Archfiend, attack his defense!" Kimberly commanded and the fiend charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be a small grey pot with a smiling face in it (2/700/600) which was quickly shattered by Mad Archfiend's claws.

K: 5200

M: 7900

"Morphing Jar? Your deck makes no sense, you know that right?" Lance called out from the sidelines as both duelists discarded their hands and drew new ones.

"Lance, do me a favor and don't give him ideas." Kimberly shouted back before turning to Michael. "Shadowknight, you know what to do!" Kimberly commanded and the knight charged towards Michael…..but the slash was blocked by the sudden appearance of a second Battle Fader. "I should've known you wouldn't be that easy to beat." Kimberly growled as Shadowknight Archfiend returned to her side of the field. "I end my turn." Kimberly announced and Michael drew his card.

"Very well, I start by activating Pot of Avarice." Michael played the card before retrieving Beast King Barbarous, Darkblaze Dragon, the two dragons Michael discarded for Darkblaze's effect and Morphing Jar, returning them to his deck and drawing two cards. "Excellent, first I bring back an old friend of ours!" Michael played the card and Beast King Barbarous appeared on the field with its attack point reduction intact, even as the Seal increased its power to 2400.

"Well, at least it's not at full power." Lance said with a nervous chuckle as Michael picked up another card.

"If you believe that then you are sadly mistaken." Michael said as he played the card. "I equip my Beast King with the Spell Card Axe of Fools, this Spell Card increases my Beast King's attack by 1000 points but in exchange his effects are negated." Michael said with a grin as an axe with a foolish looking face appeared in Beast King's hands its attack skyrocketed to 3500.

"Lance, what did I tell you about giving my opponent ideas?" Kimberly called out to him and Lance laughed nervously.

"It doesn't matter, now Barboros attack Mad Archfiend this instant!" Michael commanded and Barboros charged towards Mad Archfiend, however the fiend crouched down before the attack hit and was decapitated. "What on Earth…"

"That's Mad Archfiend's second effect, when he's attacked he shifts to defense mode immediately." Kimberly said with a smirk. "In other words you would have been better off attacking Shadowknight Archfiend." Kimberly added and Michael scowled.

"Very well, I end my turn." Michael said and Kimberly drew her card wincing as Shadowknight's effect drained her life-points even more, down to 4300.

"Good, just the card I was looking for." Kimberly said as she played the card. "I summon Terrorking Archfiend in attack mode!" Kimberly played the card and the king of the Archfiends reappeared on the field (4/2000/1500).

"That monster will just drain your life-points quicker!" Michael scoffed as Kimberly played another card.

"I'm not done, I activate Checkmate!" Kimberly played the card and Shadowknight Archfiend disappeared from the field, "Now that I've sacrificed Shadowknight my Terrorking can bypass your overgrown pussycat and attack your life-points directly!"

"Err, Kimberly, I don't think that's a pussycat." Chloe called out and Kimberly facepalmed.

"Not the point kid." Kimberly called back before turning her attention to Michael. "Terrorking, attack his life-points directly!" Kimberly commanded and the archfiend charged towards Michael, Barboros tried striking it with his axe but Terrorking avoided the strike and slashed Michael across the chest.

K: 4300

M: 5900

"Your life-points are running low Michael, I suggest you do something fast." The leader said into Michael's earpiece.

"It matters not, she may have just cost me life-points but I still have the field advantage!" Michael answered back as he got to his feet.

"Who are you talking too?" Kimberly asked and Michael frowned.

"I was talking too my employer." Michael said as he pointed towards the ship. "If I somehow lose this duel then he's all that stands between you and freeing your friend." Michael added and Kimberly grinned as she heard that. _"All though that is unlikely to happen anytime soon, my Beast King is the best monster on the field." _Michael thought before looking over his hand.

"Well I guess I'll have to beat you in the next few turns." Kimberly said confidently before looking at her hand. "I end my turn." Kimberly announced and Michael drew his card only to wince as his own life-points dropped to 5400.

"Axe of Fools has a third effect not unlike the effect of your Archfiends; as long as it's on the field I shall lose 500 life-points during each of my standby phases." Michael explained before pointing at Barboros, "Go my Beast King, strike down her Terrorking now and show her true royalty!" Michael commanded and the Beast-Warrior charged towards the Archfiend…but was blocked by the ghostly image of Necro Gardna (3/600/1300). "I never destroyed that monster!"

"You didn't need too; remember when I removed Cyber Ouroboros from play at the beginning of the duel? The card I discarded for his effect was Necro Gardna." Kimberly answered as Beast King Barboros returned to Michael's side of the field, Kimberly pocketed Necro Gardna and the ghostly image of the monster faded from the field.

"Fine, I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Michael growled and Kimberly drew her card whilst ignoring the pain from Terrorking's effect bringing her life-points down to 3400.

"Perfect, I equip Beast King with the Spell Card Falling Down!" Kimberly played the card and Beast King glowed.

"You fool, that hasn't lowered my Beast King's attack one bit!" Michael taunted her with a smirk…which quickly faded when Beast King walked over to Kimberly's side of the field. "Explain yourself!"

"Gladly, Falling Down can only be equipped to a monster if I have an Archfiend on my side of the field, in this case Terrorking, otherwise it's destroyed." Kimberly explained with a grin. "In exchange for that and taking 800 life-points during each of your standby phases I get to control Beast King!" Kimberly explained and Michael's eyes widened. "Beast King, Terrorking, attack his life-points directly!" Kimberly commanded and the two kings charged towards Michael, Terrorking struck first bringing Michael's life-points down to 3400, but as Beast King went to deliver the finishing blow…

"I'm not out of this yet! I activate my trap card Confusion Chaff which redirects Beast King's attack towards Terrorking!" Michael activated the trap and Beast King changed course skewering Terrorking through the chest with its spear.

K: 1900

M: 3400

"In your quest to eliminate me you have ensured your own demise!" Michael said confidently as Beast King returned to his side of the field. "With no Archfiends on your side of the field your Spell Card is destroyed thus returning the Beast King to its rightful owner, on my next turn your soul is mine."

"I still have a move to make asshole!" Kimberly snapped at him as she looked over her hand. _"This had better work; I refuse to have my soul trapped like Nathan's!" _Kimberly thought as she picked up and set a card. "That ends my turn."

"I can't watch." Marcus said as he turned away from the duel, Chloe clenched her fists in anger as she glared daggers at Michael.

"_Chloe, relax, Kimberly will be fine." _Silent Magician reassured her mentally and Chloe let out a sigh.

"_It's kind of hard to do that with the current situation!" _Chloe responded as Michael drew his card, _"But you haven't been wrong before so I'll take your word for it."_

"Your time in this duel has come to an end!" Michael said as he ignored the pain from his Spell Card bringing his life-points down to 2900. "Beast King, finish the foolish girl off!" Michael commanded and the king charged towards Kimberly before stabbing her in the stomach and pinning her against the Orichalcos Wall, Michael laughed evilly as Kimberly coughed up blood….but stopped when he saw that her life-points hadn't moved an inch. "What on Earth….." Michael demanded before looking at Kimberly's side of the field. "You set Defense Draw!"

"That's right." Kimberly said as she drew a card. "This trap keeps my life-points safe for another round and lets me draw a card; only downside is that I still take the hit." Kimberly added and Beast King dropped her, Kimberly slumped down and Beast King returned to Michael's side of the field.

"Oh man, this is bad!" Marcus winced as he saw Kimberly cough up blood again. "Argh, I've had enough of this! Let me duel in her place!" Marcus shouted as he activated his duel disk.

"I can't even if I wanted too." Michael said simply as he turned to Kimberly. "The only way this duel ends is if either of us is defeated, I never said anything about her life-points hitting zero."

"You mean she could pass out and the Orichalcos will take her soul?" Lance shouted out and Michael nodded. "That's sadistic!"

"That's the nature of the Orichalcos; it cares not for the method of defeat so long as one duelist knows defeat!" Michael shouted back at him and Lance grit his teeth in anger.

"_Silent Magician, can you use your magic to help her?" _Chloe asked mentally as the spectral form of Silent Magician Level 8 appeared alongside her.

"_I'm afraid not, my power is being blocked by the Orichalcos." _Silent Magician answered back with a sigh of annoyance. _"All though it looks like she won't need my help."_ Silent Magician added as, too everyone's surprise Kimberly forced herself to her feet.

"Impossible, you took the full brunt of my Beast King's power!" Michael shouted out in surprise as Kimberly glared daggers at him. "How…how are you still moving? ANSWER ME!" Michael demanded and Kimberly smirked.

"I won't give up, not as long as I have life-points left!" Kimberly said as she clenched her fists. "And it's my turn!" Kimberly shouted as she drew her card. "Perfect. I don't get to use this card often but now is as good a time as any; I activate the Spell Card "The Beginning of the End!" Kimberly played the card and the Spell Card's hologram appeared on the field,

"An appropriate metaphor for what's going to happen next turn but I fail to see the point." Michael commented with a grin. "What exactly does it do?"

"This Spell Card can only be activated if I have seven or more Dark Type monsters in my graveyard. In exchange for banishing five of those cards I can draw three cards from my deck." Kimberly explained as she retrieved the monsters, pocketed them and drew three cards.

"Hold on, I only destroyed four cards, one of which was a wind type monster!" Michael shouted and Kimberly grinned.

"True but you helped me get more cards in my graveyard with Morphing Jar earlier in the duel." Kimberly explained as she looked at her three new cards. "And I have just the card to eliminate Beast King Barboros for good!"

"How on Earth do you plan to do that with no monsters on your side of the field?" Michael demanded as she played another card.

"I plan to do that with this Spell Card, Dark Core!" Kimberly played the card Michael's eyes widened when he heard that. "In exchange for tossing one card from my hand I can remove one monster on your side of the field from play!" Kimberly discarded the card and Beast King was sucked into a black hole, Michael growled as he pocketed Beast King and sent his Spell to the graveyard. "Now to even the playing field, I summon Archfiend Soldier!" Kimberly played the card and the purple fiend appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1900/1600). "Archfiend, attack his Battle Fader!" Kimberly commanded and the purple fiend charged towards Michael's fiend before slashing it in two with its sword. "That ends my turn."

"Very well, it's my move." Michael announced as he drew his card, however he frowned when he saw it. _"This trap card is useless, I can't use this yet." _Michael thought before adding the card to his hand. "I pass." Michael announced and Kimberly wasted no time in drawing her card.

"Archfiend Soldier, attack his life-points directly!" Kimberly commanded as she added the monster she drew to her hand, the soldier charged towards Michael before slashing him across the chest with his sword.

K: 1900

M: 500

Michael slowly got to his feet as he glared at Kimberly. "It's been so long since anyone has lasted this long against me, let alone brought my life-points down by this much." Michael said as he got up. "I agreed at the beginning of the duel to remove my hood if you brought my life-points down below one thousand, I am a man of my word." Michael added as he stood up straight, with one hand he grabbed his hood and slowly removed it…and Kimberly gasped in horror at what she saw.

"Your…..you're….." Kimberly stammered clearly at a loss for words.

"Hideous? Am I repulsive? I've heard it all before." Michael said as his eyes narrowed, his face was hideously scarred to the point where Kimberly couldn't tell what parts of his face weren't scarred. "It wasn't always like this, twenty years ago I had it all, looks, charm, a happy family, a successful career as a pro league duelist, I had it all, only for it to be stolen from me in one horrible night."

"What happened?" Kimberly asked as her Archfiend returned to the field. _"I think the better question is; why do I care? This guy took Nathan from me."_

"It started off innocently enough, I had come home from a tournament in Los Angeles, I won off course, and by the time I returned home it was late at night." Michael said as his eyes narrowed. "Whilst I slept I was alerted by my wife to the smell of smoke, my house had been set alight but that wasn't what scarred me, no, we escaped the house but I realized that my youngest daughter was still inside, the fireman told me that it was too late for her but I didn't listen, instead I did what any loving father would and ran into the house trying to save her." Tears ran down the normally stoic Michael's eyes as he recounted the story. "She was still in her room, I could hear her terrified sobs from miles away, and I opened the door to her room but was hit by blowback." Michael said as he pointed to his face. "This was the result."

"Holy….." Lance muttered as it dawned on him. "Did they ever find out what the cause was?"

"Indeed, a serial arsonist with a criminal record a mile long had set the fire; he thought the house was empty. He was wrong." Michael said as he clenched his fists in anger. "He turned himself in the next day, he claimed that he had no idea that my family was inside the house at the time and had felt incredible guilt upon hearing that my daughter had died in the fire, I would've been killed as well but they were able to get me to a hospital in time."

"So he got everything he deserved right?" Marcus asked and Michael shook his head.

"Despite all the overwhelming evidence against him, ranging from his fingerprints on the gas canister he used to start the fire to eye witness accounts that put him in the area at the time of the fire, his lawyer was able to secure a plea bargain, he should've served a life sentence for his crime but his lawyer ensured that he would only serve a sentence of 25 to Life, I was enraged." Michael said as he clenched his fists. "I was never the same after that day, I pleaded with the DA'S office to take back the plea bargain but my pleas fell on deaf ears, my obsession with the case ended up costing me my wife and my remaining child, my son, and it almost cost me my life."

"I may hate him for, well, being with the psycho on the ship, but I don't like where this is going." Lance muttered under his breath as he listened.

"My plan was simple, I would jump off a bridge into oncoming traffic and at the same time I wouldn't give the local police force time to arrive." Michael said as he sighed. "That was when he arrived, I thought he was an innocent bystander trying to do the right thing in preventing my suicide, I was about to jump when he offered me a chance at revenge, at power, as strong as my thirst for suicide was my thirst for revenge was far stronger."

"But the arsonist was in jail wasn't he?" Kimberly asked wincing from the pain that had accumulated over the course of the duel.

"Indeed he was; the leader had him broken out of jail just so I could eliminate him, I took my time with him, and I made sure he felt the pain that I felt." Michael said before lowering his eyes. "But that wasn't enough for me, the arsonist may have carried out the act but it was his lawyer that started me down the path to where I am today, he was easy enough to find, all I needed to do was wait for him in the parking garage of his law firm and I made him an offer he couldn't refuse, duel me for his soul or his family….." Michael remained silent before slowly making a cut throat motion with his thumb.

"You threatened an innocent man's…" Theresa started as she trembled with anger but was cut off by Michael.

"HE WAS NOT INNOCENT!" Michael yelled at her with rage previously unseen. "After I won I ordered the deaths of his family, made him listen to the gunfire and anguished screams as the Orichalcos took his soul away." Michael added earning a collective gasp from the other duelists. "It was the least he deserved for ruining my life!"

"Dad…what are you saying?" A familiar voice rang out from behind the students and they turned around, Tyler was standing there with a look of shock on his face. "Or should I ask, what are you doing still alive."

"You still believe the lies your mother fed you?" Michael scoffed as he folded his arms. "After the…..incident with the lawyer my wife finally had enough, she left with my sole remaining son who was only a baby at the time."

"She told me you died in that fire alongside my sister." Tyler said as his eyes narrowed. "But if I had known that you were in the city I would've tracked you down."

"Ah yes, your mother could never handle the truth behind my actions, couldn't she?" Michael asked as his eyes narrowed. "So instead of living with the truth she killed herself didn't she?"

"Don't you dare bring her into this!" Tyler snapped at him. "My mother was a great woman, and ten times the person you'll ever be!"

"ENOUGH!" Michael yelled as he pulled his hood up. "I have a duel to win, if you still wish to deal with me after I crush this pathetic girl then so be it!"

"In case you haven't noticed it's still my move!" Kimberly said as she picked up the third card she drew with Beginning of the End's effect. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Kimberly set the card and Michael, despite his shaking hands as a result of retelling his story, drew his card.

"I activate the magic of Card of Sanctity." Michael said plainly as he drew until he had six cards in his hand, Kimberly did likewise and Michael grinned evilly as he saw the card in question. "It was very appropriate that you activated a card called Beginning of the End during your last turn because it is the beginning of the end for you!" Michael said as he picked up a card. "I summon Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

"What did he say?" Lance and Marcus shouted out simultaneously but Kimberly smirked.

"I think not, you used that card against Nathan and it led to his defeat." Kimberly said as she activated the trap that she had set at the beginning of the duel. "But since you need to remove the original Blue-Eyes White Dragon from play to summon it I counter your card with Imperial Iron Wall!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Michael shouted as it dawned on him. "I was wondering why you hadn't used that trap, no wonder you were so eager to duel me." Michael added and Kimberly smirked. "Very well, I shall pass my turn." Michael announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"That still doesn't answer our question." Lance pointed out as he scratched his head in confusion. "What exactly are Malefic monsters anyway?"

"They are extremely rare and powerful cards, even rarer than the Yubel series." Tyler answered him as his eyes narrowed, "In a way they are similar to the Dark Counterparts but have summoning restrictions that make Dark Armed Dragon look like an average Level 4 monster by comparison." Tyler added with a sigh. "I don't know where and how my father got his hands on those cards; according to my mother he ran a Warrior deck back when he was a Pro Duelist that was lost in the fire that killed my sister." Tyler added the sadness clear in his voice as he remembered that.

"Actually, now that you mention it, something's been bugging me since you turned up." Chloe said as she turned her attention to Tyler.

"Why am I here right?" Tyler asked and Chloe nodded. "Alex spread word of your assault on the Orichalcos Duelists base of operations, it eventually reached my step father's office and he asked me to see if you needed any help." Tyler added and Chloe nodded before turning her attention back to the duel just as Kimberly gingerly drew her card. "She seems to be injured."

"Yeah, she was coughing up blood earlier." Chloe nodded with a frown. "How she's still standing, let alone dueling, is beyond me." Chloe added.

"Archfiend Soldier, finish him off!" Kimberly commanded the purple fiend charged towards the cloaked man again…only to be stopped by a third Battle Fader.

"Did you honestly think that I would be beaten THAT easily!" Michael demanded as he folded his arms. "End your turn girl, I don't have all day."

"Fine, I end my turn." Kimberly said as she discarded a card due to hand size limit, Michael said nothing before drawing his card…..but the silence was broken by his evil laughter. "Now what do you have up your sleeve?"

"The key to your defeat but first I activate the Spell Card Share the Pain!" Michael played the card and Battle Fader vanished from the field. "This card may be old but it still has its uses, not unlike me if you think about it, basically I tribute one monster on my side of the field and you must do the same." Michael explained and Kimberly frowned before sending her fiend to the graveyard. "Now to secure your demise once and for all, I summon the Tuner Monster Malefic Parallel Gear!" Michael played the card and a small green and black machine made out of gears appeared on the field (2/0/0) and its attack increased to 500 thanks to the seal.

"_This is bad; he never used that card against Nathan!" _Kimberly thought as she desperately tried to keep her cool. "I can't believe you were ever a Pro Duelist, even a rookie knows that the only way to do a Synchro Summon is to have more than one monster on your side of the field!" Kimberly taunted him, however Tyler's eyes narrowed.

"_No, don't tell me he's summoning THAT monster!" _Tyler pleaded mentally as he watched his biological farther grin evilly.

"That is the case with most tuner monsters." Michael said as he picked up a card from his hand. "However Parallel Gear is a unique exception to the rule as the Synchro Material Monster must be a card in my hand with the name "Malefic" in the name."

"You can't be serious?" Lance yelled out in surprise and Michael smirked.

"Just watch, I tune Malefic Parallel Gear….." Michael said as the small machine took flight. "…with Malefic Blue-Eyes White Dragon to Synchro Summon the mighty Malefic Paradox Dragon!" Michael said as the ghostly image of the famous dragon appeared behind Malefic Parallel Gear, the two monsters vanished into 10 shining stars as the bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded Kimberly looked up and saw a black and silver dragon that was terrifying to look at (10/4000/4000) and it's attack increased to 4500. "My new monster has several effects but there's only one you should worry about, if a certain field spell isn't in play it's automatically destroyed."

"Let me guess, that Field Spell just happens to be the Seal of the Orichalcos?" Kimberly asked…only to do a double take as the massive dragon's hologram shattered. "Or maybe it's not the field spell in question, I'm confused." Kimberly admitted as she scratched her head in confusion, the other students were equally as confused as she was but it was Lance that spoke up.

"Why would he waste his summon on a monster that he knew was going to be destroyed?" Lance asked clearly confused by this.

"Why would I waste that powerful monster? The answer is simple, because now that a Malefic monster has been destroyed I can summon another, much more powerful monster in its place." Michael said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 250. "Sure, it costs me half of my life-points but with this much power it's worth it! You see, on the condition that a Malefic monster I control is destroyed by either a card effect or battle AND that I cut my life-points in half I can Special Summon the strongest monster in my deck to the field, come forth Malefic Truth Dragon!" Michael played the card and a massive orange dragon appeared on the field with a mighty roar (12/5000/5000) and its attack increased to 5500 thanks to the Seal's power.

"5500 attack points….." Lance gulped as he saw the stats. "Not…not to worry….maybe it has the same weakness as that other dragon."

"That's where you're wrong." Michael said plainly as the dragon roared again. "Malefic Truth Dragon has a similar weakness to that off Malefic Paradox Dragon but with one exception, whilst Malefic Paradox Dragon requires one specific Field Spell to be on the field Malefic Paradox Dragon has no such limitation, as long as there's a Field Spell on the field this monster remains on the field."

"And the Seal of the Orichalcos just happens to be a Field Spell." Kimberly said as her eyes narrowed. "Any other effects I should worry about?"

"Why yes there is, I can only have one face up Malefic monster on my side of the field at a time and if it attacks a face-up attack position monster all monsters on your side of the field are destroyed." Michael said before smirking. "But that doesn't matter, why? It's simple, because this dragon is about to deliver the finishing blow to you, GO MALEFIC TRUTH DRAGON!" Michael commanded and the dragon let loose with a mighty burst of energy.

"I don't think so, I activate my trap card Dimension Wall, I still take the hit but you take all the damage!" Kimberly activated her trap and Michael's eyes widened as the burst of energy collided with an invisible wall, the wall wavered almost as if it was going to give way but the energy was successfully bounced back to Michael and he took the full brunt of the blast.

K: 1900

M: 0000

Kimberly collapsed to her knees from a combination of pain and exhaustion but was glad that she had been able to avenge her brother; Michael was leaning against the Orichalcos wall in a sitting position as the holograms disappeared and the seal closed in on him. "DAD!" Tyler yelled out as he ran up to him.

"Tyler, it is too late for me." Michael said as he held up his copy of the Seal of the Orichalcos which he had retrieved from the Field Spell Slot. "I have been using this card for over twenty years; I have trapped many innocents within this Spell Card's cursed power in that time." Michael said as he sighed sadly.

"What….what are you saying?" Tyler demanded and Michael removed his hood one last time.

"Tyler….my son, I have one final request." Michael said as he dropped the Spell Card. "That Spell Card will have my soul trapped within it once my soul is taken from me, you must destroy it, and doing so will destroy my soul."

"You…you can't be serious?" Tyler asked as his tears welled up in his eyes. "You're basically asking me to kill you."

"Please, listen to me, my soul is far to corrupted from all the years I've used this Spell Card, I could never get into heaven, nor could I ever see my wife or daughter again, not with all the sins I committed." Michael pleaded and Tyler remained silent for a few minutes.

"All right, I'll do it." Tyler sighed and Michael smiled as his soul was taken by the Orichalcos, whilst the teachers called for an ambulance Chloe and Brandon approached him.

"Are you going to be okay?" Chloe asked and Tyler turned to her.

"My father, who I thought was dead for years, just asked me to put him out of his misery, what do you think?" Tyler snapped at her and Chloe was clearly taken aback by this. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for." Tyler sighed as he picked up Michael's soul card. "I appreciate the concern Chloe but I want a few minutes to myself." Tyler requested and Chloe bit her lip before following Brandon to the ship, once the other students had left Tyler said a silent prayer. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen." As Tyler said the last line of the prayer he tore up the card just as the paramedics arrived to take Kimberly to the hospital. "This man needs medical assistance as well." Tyler called out to them and the one of the paramedics went back to the ambulance to call for another ambulance. _"It's not that they'd believe me if I told them the truth." _Tyler thought with a sigh before standing up. _"I'd better have a talk with my stepfather when I get back, I'm sure he'd understand." _Tyler thought before leaving.

*meanwhile*

Whilst Tyler fulfilled his father's final request the other students where making their way through the ship trying to find the leader's office.

"Man, I wish Tyler had given us time to ask Michael where the leader was held up." Lance complained as they explored the ship. "This place is like a maze!"

"Given the circumstances I don't blame him." Theresa admitted as they looked around. "But your right Lance, we've been searching for what feels like twenty minutes with no luck."

"Looking for someone?" The leader's voice rang out over the PA system and they looked around trying to find the source. "Congratulations duelists, you have passed the gauntlet." The leader added and Lance growled.

"Show yourself you coward!" Lance shouted and the Leader chuckled.

"I will, certainly but there are three tests that you must pass first." The leader said earning a collective groan from the students. "Test number 1: your opponent has 2000 life-points whilst you have 200, on his side of the field are the monsters "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" (12/4500/3800) and "King Dragun (7/2400/1100) and the trap card Dragon's Rage is active, on the other hand your side of the field is empty but you have Swordstalker (6/2000/1600) and Ancient Rules in your hand, you have just drawn Dark Hole, what do you do in order to win in this turn."

"That's easy!" Marcus said with a grin. "First I use Dark Hole to clear the field then I use Ancient Rules to Special Summon Swordstalker, one direct attack later and the match is mine!" Marcus added and there was a brief silence.

"Congratulations, you have passed the first test." The leader said begrudgingly as Marcus grinned broadly. "But the tests only get harder from here, now for test number 2: your opponent has all his life-points in tact but only one card left in his deck, you have fifty life-points left and Bistro Butcher (4/1800/1000) on your side of the field, what do you do to win in this….."

"Attack directly thus triggering Bistro Butcher's effect forcing the opponent to draw two cards thus decking him out," Theresa interrupted barely suppressing the urge to roll her eyes at this point. "Are you even trying? I could've solved both those puzzles in my sleep."

"I can top that; I could've solved both those puzzles with severe brain damage!" Lance chimed in before frowning. "I won't ask again, show yourself!"

"Lance, I hate to be a know-it-all but technically that was a demand." Chloe pointed out and Lance sweat-dropped.

"Very well Mr. Alvers." The leader said as the door just ahead of them opened up and the leader stepped out. "I must congratulate all off you for making it this far, I honestly believed that Michael was unbeatable."

"Who are you? And why have you revived the Orichalcos?" Lance demanded and the leader chuckled under his breath.

"Why? This world is full of weaklings, we are supposedly at the top of the food chain but we do nothing to prove it." The leader said as he spat to the side. "Under my leadership only the strong will survive but this was only the beginning, I don't have nearly enough souls to complete my task."

"So you had your thugs enter the tournament to gather more souls." Lance said as his eyes narrowed. "But we can see how well that went can't we? After all, in the matches prior to the Semi-Finals we, a bunch of kids not to mention Duel Academy students, where able to eliminate the majority of your employees which led to your little plan backfiring."

"Please Mr. Alvers, don't insult my intelligence." The leader scoffed as he turned to them. "Those men and women you faced in the tournament where nothing more than hired thugs looking for a big payday, I offered them that and more." The leader chuckled as he placed his hands behind his back. "In short, each one of them was ultimately expendable, I got a soul regardless of who won the duels but the seven of you were ultimately my targets."

"Why go after us? We're just students, hell I'm in Osiris Red!" Chloe protested and the leader chuckled.

"You underestimate yourself Ms. Richardson, true you belong to the worst dorm in Duel Academy but let's look at your achievements, you almost beat a far more experienced and talented duelist in Ms. Daniels in the second to last match of the tournament, you outwitted one of the best strategists in Duel Academy despite his constant taunting." The Leader said with a smirk. "And then there's your…less than pleasant childhood…"

"Don't you dare bring that up you bastard!" Chloe snapped at him and the leader kept his cool. "If it weren't for you and your twisted view of how the world works I never would've met my biological dad again and I would've been a lot happier knowing that that bastard got everything he deserved for what he put me through."

"But he ultimately did, isn't that right?" The leader said with a chuckle. "After all, he may have escaped justice for your mother's murder and the horrific abuse he put you through but you were able to get your revenge ten years after the fact." The leader said and Chloe was practically trembling with anger at this point.

"That's enough, is making her relive the trauma she went through really a part of your plan?" Theresa demanded as Brandon and Marcus tried to calm Chloe down. "You know what? You may preach all this survival of the fittest nonsense but the fact remains that you ordered your thugs to terrorize a city, as far as I'm concerned your nothing more than a criminal."

"Theresa's right." Lance agreed with her. "And you still didn't answer my first question you lunatic!" Lance pointed out.

"Very well, though I'm surprised you didn't recognize me sooner Lance." The leader said as he stared straight into his eyes. "I am after all your father!"


	45. Eliminating the Threat Part 6

"Wha….WHAT, THIS CAN'T BE RIGHT! My dad may have been a lying abandoning scumbag but he was never a lunatic" Lance stammered as his mind processed the information, not only was his long lost father standing in front of him but he was the leader of the organization that had been antagonizing the students throughout the tournament.

"Well, now that you mention it I do see the resemblance." Marcus commented as he scratched his head in thought…only to get punched in the back of the head by Lance.

"Good to see that you are being as helpful as ever Marcus!" Lance said sarcastically as Marcus groaned. "Though that also explains how you got my cell phone number I guess."

"Come now my boy, are you really that surprised?" Lance's father said with a shit eating grin. "To the rest of you, you may know me as Philip Alvers, the one who fathered this pathetic excuse for a son." Philip said as he looked at Lance with contempt, Lance merely glared at him. "Your mother was a weakling, if I was to succeed in my plan I had to distance myself from her."

"What did you say?" Lance demanded as his anger slowly rose up, without a second thought he activated his duel disk. "That does it you son of a bitch, you, me, outside and bring your duel disk whilst you're at it!"

"I'd love too but you have an advantage over me." Philip said as he outstretched his arms revealing, to the surprise of everyone else, a complete lack of duel disks on either arm. "I have a deck but I lack a duel disk." Philip said before resting his arms by his side. "But if you truly wish to challenge me than follow me, if you dare."

"I don't like this." Brandon whispered to Theresa as the students followed Phillip. "Who knows what kind of dirty tricks he has in store for Lance."

"I'm sure Lance can handle himself." Theresa said before pausing. "But, if he does fail, I'll step in and duel in his place, at least then I'll have a good idea of what deck his dad uses." Theresa added as she looked towards her duel disk.

"Lance won't fail." Chloe said determinedly as she turned to the older students. "Remember his duel with that Russian creep that used Exodia? You insult his family to his face and you're in for a world of hurt from him."

"I know Chloe, it's just that we don't know what deck he's using or even what his strategy is." Brandon commented as he folded his arms. "The only thing we DO know for sure is that he has the Seal of the Orichalcos in his deck."

"Yeah…and personally I'd rather not lose any more friends to that damn card." Chloe thought as she remembered Andreas's duel with Otto during the Semi-Finals.

"I couldn't agree more Chloe." Theresa agreed before glaring at Philip. "But one way or another we'll make that bastard pay and free our friends, making sure his hired thugs get brought to justice as soon as they wake up is an added bonus off course." Theresa said before seeing Chloe tense up, she winced once she remembered that Chloe's biological dad was in the Orichalcos as a result of the student's (plus Axel) last Battle City duel. "Hey relax, once he's out of the Orchalcos the cops will throw his ass in jail for the crimes he committed as part of this organization and for what he did to you and your mother."

"Thanks Theresa." Chloe said with a small smile that showed that she was happy for the reassurance.

"You are comforting your friend with the wrong thing my dear." Phillip said as he turned his attention to the two girls earning himself a confused look from everyone else. "For all the evil deeds he did leading up to his employment I ordered Robert Graham's soul destroyed, you will never see him again."

"And we're supposed to take your word for it?" Brandon asked as he folded he folded his arms; Phillip chuckled as they reached a door at the end of the seemingly endless hallway.

"I can understand your suspicion." Phillip reassured her as he opened the door taking him and the students to the front of the ship. "I guess I'll just have to prove myself, in the meantime we have arrived."

"Arrived? Where exactly have we arrived?" Marcus asked as he scratched his head. "Unless this is the part where you make us walk the plank…" Marcus started only to get punched in the back of the head by everyone else.

"Please, don't give him ideas!" Lance spoke up as Marcus groaned. "I'm waiting."

"Yes off course." Phillip said before reaching into his pocket and producing a switch. "I'd stand back if I where you." Phillip said as he pressed the button and alarms started blaring over the ship. "Things are about to get…..interesting."

"What did you just do?" Marcus demanded as he got back to his feet, the floor behind Phillip opened up in a way similar to a double automatic door and the mechanical whirring sound of a lift could be heard bellow it. "Can anyone get close enough to see what that is?"

"I'd love too but I suddenly remembered that I'm deathly afraid of falling down dark holes!" Chloe laughed nervously and Marcus sweat-dropped, however any further questions where cut off by their astonishment at the site before them. "Is that…"

"Is that a Duel Arena?" Everyone asked simultaneously as the outdated piece of tech that hadn't been seen or used since the Duelist Kingdom Tournament many years ago made its self-known to them, however the Duel Arena was far more advanced than anything used in Duelist Kingdom and you didn't need to be tech savvy to be able to tell that, the podiums where slightly larger and the field closely resembled a traditional duel matt, once the Duel Field was in full view the alarms stopped blaring and Phillip smirked.

"Impressive isn't it?" Phillip asked as he looked over the duel field. "You see I have always been a bit old fashioned and whilst Duel Disks may be technologically superior to this it still has its charm."

"Kaibacorp stopped making those things years ago, how did you get your hands on one?" Brandon asked as he looked over the field.

"I had it custom built to fit my needs." Phillip answered as he grinned. "Before today it was used by my employees for training in the tournament but now that I'm the only employee left this will be its final duel." Phillip said before folding his arms. "Now before we enter this arena I believe you want to put a wager on this match."

"That's right!" Lance said as he glanced at the Duel Field suspiciously. _"I don't like this, if it's custom built than he could have all kinds of nasty surprises waiting for me once I reach the top of that podium." _Lance thought before continuing. "I win you let everyone who's trapped in the Orichalcos go, you win…I'm not even going to finish that because I know I will win!"

"Well if you're so sure of yourself…" Phillip said as he stepped onto the podium. "Then by all means join me in the last duel of your life!" Phillip added and Lance wasted no time in hopping onto his podium, the two podiums lifted up simultaneously and the two duelists placed their decks onto the deck place. "I know you're not familiar with the technology so I'll throw you a bone, you can still use your duel disk if you plug it into the USB Slot."

"Gee, how kind of you." Lance said sarcastically as he retrieved the cable from the duel disk and plugged it in, the duel disk activated almost immediately and Lance grinned as he looked at his opening hand. "This will be a piece of cake."

"Well, if you're that confident than why don't you go first?" Phillip offered and Lance wasted little time in drawing another card. "Oh yes, there's one other thing." Phillip pressed a button on his side of the podium and too Lance's surprise two shackles emerged from a hidden panel at the bottom of the podium and attached themselves to Lance's legs. "They will only come off once the duel's over, regardless of the result."

"Okay but I don't see the point of it." Lance said before looking at his drawn card. "All right pops get ready to feel the burn because I summon Fire Princess in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a blonde woman in a red dress appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1300/1500) however what caught everyone by surprise was how realistic the hologram looked, it wasn't as if the holograms produced by duel disks where bad or anything but the quality of this hologram was much better. "What the hell? The technology in duel fields was never this good."

"That's true, for the versions used in Duelist Kingdom at least." Phillip said as he folded his arms. "When I said that this Duel Field is custom built I meant it in every possible sense of the word." Phillip added and Lance frowned.

"I'd ask how you got the technology for this in the first place but to be frank I don't give a shit." Lance said bluntly before picking up and setting two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance announced and Phillip drew his card, as soon as he did however Lance activated one of his traps. "I activate Solemn Wishes."

"I see your still using that classic burn tactic." Phillip chuckled before adding his drawn card to his hand. "As long as Solemn Wishes remains on the field you'll gain 500 life-points each time you draw and as long as Fire Princess is on the field I'll lose 500 life-points each time you gain life-points." Phillip said before grinning. "A good tactic….if we were competing in the original Battle City tournament."

"Excuse me?" Lance demanded as he heard the insult, Phillip merely chuckled as he held up a card in his hand.

"Don't take my word for it young man, merely observe." Phillip instructed him and Lance growled.

"Sorry but last time I heard that was from my teachers and they aren't nearly as ugly as you." Lance said….only to sweat-drop when he heard the teachers clear their throats. "I just netted myself a year's worth of detention, didn't I?"

"That's the least of your worries; I summon Card Trooper in attack mode!" Phillip played the card and the small, red tank like machine appeared on the field (3/400/400). "I am well aware that you were present for the match between Edward and Theresa so I trust you remember what this monster's effect is?"

"Yeah, I do, basically you declare a number between one and three and send the same number of cards to the graveyard from the top of your deck as the number you declared, in return Card Trooper's attack increases by 500 for each card." Lance nodded and Phillip held up three fingers to show that that was the number of cards he was sending from the deck to the graveyard and did so.

"Curses, I'll need to rethink my strategy." Phillip cursed under his breath and Lance raised an eyebrow, he simply held up the third discarded card revealing it to be the Seal of the Orichalcos, despite Lance's initial surprise he grinned broadly.

"Perfect, all I need to do is draw one of my copies of Soul Release and I won't have to worry about that card." Lance said with a grin and Phillip frowned.

"Don't fool yourself; you and I both know that there are several ways to retrieve cards from the Removed from Play slot." Philip scolded him before pointing to Fire Princess. "Card Trooper, attack Fire Princess now!" Phillip commanded and the machine charged towards the princess.

"Think again, I activate my trap card Draining Shield!" Lance activated the trap and grinned. "Your attack is negated and Card Trooper's attack points get added to my life-points!" Lance said confidently as Card Trooper's charge was blocked by an invisible force field, Lance's life-points increased to 9900 and Fire Princess prepared her spell.

"Maybe but your princess won't be using her effect just yet." Phillip said as he played a card from his hand. "I chain Fire Princess's effect with the Quick Play Spell Card Forbidden Chalice, this increases her attack points by 400." Phillip explained as a small green chalice appeared in front of Fire Princess, she stopped casting her spell for a moment in order to drink from it, she casted the chalice aside as her attack points increased to 1700.

"Maybe, but that doesn't do a thing to prevent her effect!" Lance said cockily…..but the cockiness disappeared when Fire Princess clutched her sides in pain as she tried to cast her spell again.

"Weren't you listening? Forbidden Chalice has a second effect, the targeted monster loses his/her effects until the end of the turn." Philip explained as he sent his card to the graveyard, Lance frowned knowing that he could do nothing to stop it. "As for Solemn Wishes, the card I'm about to Special Summon will take care of that for me." Phillip played the card and too Lance's surprise Solemn Wish's hologram had a holographic tongue wrapped around it before it was pulled into the mouth of a strange grinning fiend which swallowed it whole (4/1900/1600).

"What the hell is that?" Lance demanded as he stared down the strange fiend which grinned at him hungrily.

"This is Trap Eater, as the name suggests he can only be Special Summoned by destroying one face-up Trap Card my opponent controls, in this case Solemn Wishes." Phillip explained before picking up the remaining three cards in his hand. "I set these three cards facedown and end my turn." Phillip announced and once Card Trooper's attack dropped down to 400 Lance drew his card.

"You may have destroyed Solemn Wishes but there's more than one way to gain life-points!" Lance said defiantly as he played the card he drew. "I activate Poison of the Old Man, this Spell Card may be old but it has its uses because with it I can either take away 800 life-points from your score or add 1200 life-points to my score, I think I'll go with the add life-points option!" Lance said as an old man in a brown robe who was carrying two jars, both of which contained potions, appeared on the field, one potion was a light purple color and the other was a sickly green color.

"You might want to rethink your choice; I chain Poison of the Old Man with my Trap Card Bad Reaction to Simochi!" Phillip activated the trap and Lance's eyes widened when he heard that name. "Now as long as this trap is on the field….."

"I'll lose life-points when I would otherwise gain them." Lance interrupted as the old man threw the jar with the purple potion in it at Lance, he grimaced as his life-points dropped to 8700….only to scream in pain as an electrical surge surged through his body and whilst it stopped before any permanent damage could be caused the pain was obvious.

"Lance, are you okay?" Marcus called out from the sidelines and Lance glared at him.

"Ah it's nothing; I just got an Electric Shock that's all!" Lance snapped at him before turning his attention to Phillip. "I knew something was up the moment you mentioned that this arena is custom built!" Lance growled and Phillip laughed evilly.

"Do you like it? It's a little feature I included when I built this thing! How it works is simple, each time we take damage we get an electric shock and the more damage that's dealt the stronger the shock is." Phillip asked and Lance growled. "Now don't be so judgmental young man, this is how I determined who would join my organization, and anyone who survived was welcomed into the organization with open arms!" Phillip said as he stretched his arms out to illustrate the point. "Anyone who didn't survive, well, they are still listed as missing persons but they will never be found as they are at the bottom of the ocean somewhere." Phillip said sadistically and Lance growled as he sent his Spell to the graveyard.

"_Great, he just rendered Fire Princess's effect useless and I have nothing in my hand that I can use to get rid of her." _Lance thought before setting a monster and switching Fire Princess to defense mode. "I end my turn at that." Lance announced as Fire Princess knelt down and the facedown card appeared next to her. _"Card Trooper may be back to its original attack strength but I don't trust his remaining trap cards." _Lance thought as Phillip drew his card and activated one of his other traps.

"Now to complete my combination, I activate my Dark Cure Trap Card!" Phillip announced and Lance's eyes narrowed. "How it works is simple, each time you summon a monster from now on you'll gain life-points equal to half that monster's attack strength."

"But with Bad Reaction on the field I'll instead lose life-points equal to half a monster's attack strength." Lance grumbled under his breath. _"I'm really wishing I had my copy of Heavy Storm right now!" _Lance thought as Phillip activated his last trap. "Give and Take, what's that?"

"Give and Take is a very useful trap card; in exchange for Special Summoning one monster from my graveyard to your side of the field I can increase Card Trooper's level by one." Phillip explained as he picked up one of the cards he sent to the graveyard with Card Trooper's effect and placed it on a panel, the panel flipped over and the card reappeared on Lance's podium, Lance groaned when he saw the monster in question.

"Well, since I have no choice in the matter, I summon Vorse Raider in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the halberd wielding Beast Warrior appeared on the field crouching down (4/1900/1200) and as Lance's life points dropped to 7550 Lance grimaced in pain as another shock went through his body. "Why don't you turn off that Electric Shock bullshit and face me like a man?"

"Why? It's because I'm testing your strength young man." Phillip answered earning himself a confused look from Lance as Card Trooper's level increased by one. "Too see if you are strong enough to rule by my side in the new order that I will soon create!"

"Yeah, sorry but I'd sooner have sex with a blender set to puree." Lance said plainly as he glared at his dad.

"That's fine; I have already judged you to be even weaker than your mother." Phillip said plainly and Lance growled. "Now I activate the Spell Card I just drew, it's called Scroll of Bewitchment!" Phillip played the card and Card Trooper glowed briefly. "With this Spell Card I can change the attribute of the monster it's equipped too to any attribute I wish, as you can see I am using it on my Card Trooper and I am changing it to a Dark Type monster."

"Okay but I don't see the point of increasing its level and changing its attribute." Lance pointed out…..before it hit him like a ton of bricks. "Trap Eater's a Tuner Monster, isn't he?"

"Exactly right, now Trap Eater, I command you to give Card Trooper a tune up!" Phillip commanded and the two monsters leapt into the air, Trap Eater dissolved into four green glowing rings that quickly surrounded Card Trooper. "I tune Trap Eater with Card Trooper to Synchro Summon the dreaded Dark End Dragon!" Phillip announced as a bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded Lance looked up and saw a massive jet back dragon that was scary to look at (8/2600/2100).

"You did all that to summon that thing? I've seen stronger Level 8 monsters than that!" Lance said once he regained his composure, Phillip chuckled as he sent his three cards to the graveyard.

"Whilst it's true that Dark End Dragon is hardly the strongest Level 8 monster around he has an effect that more than makes up for it!" Phillip said as the dragon's attack dropped to 2100. "By reducing my dragon's attack strength by five hundred points I can send one monster you control to the graveyard, my card of choice is Fire Princess!" Phillip announced and the dragon breathed fire at the princess incinerating her.

"Yeah, well, that dragon's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness, all I'll need to do is draw something stronger than him and he's toast!" Lance said confidently and Phillip chuckled.

"We'll see about that, now Dark End Dragon I command you to attack his facedown monster!" Phillip commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the monster, revealed to be Morphing Jar (2/700/600) which was quickly destroyed and Phillip gladly refreshed his hand whilst Lance discarded his current hand and drew a new one from scratch. "You have no idea how much you just helped me boy, I enter my second main phase and equip my dragon with the power of Silver Wing!"

"I get the feeling that I'm not going to like its effect." Lance grumbled as the dragon started glowing.

"You certainly won't, you see any Level 8 Dragon Type Synchro Monster equipped with this card can survive up to two attempts on its life." Phillip explained before looking over the rest of his hand and picking up a card. "I shall set a card facedown and call it a turn at that." Phillip announced as the facedown card appeared on the field and Lance drew his card.

"You can take Vorse Raider back because I'm sacrificing him." Lance said as Vorse Raider disappeared from the field, Lance put the card on the transfer panel and it quickly transferred to Phillip's podium where Phillip sent it to the graveyard. "So I can summon Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch!" Lance played the card and in Vorse Raider's place stood the mighty monarch of fire (6/2400/1000).

"I am well aware of the Monarch's effect." Phillip said as his two trap cards glowed. "But since you summoned a monster my combination kicks in!" Phillip announced as Lance winced as his life-points dropped to 6350…..and subsequently screamed in pain as the electricity surged through him.

"Yeah, yeah, just hold out your hand already so I can use Thestalos's effect!" Lance snapped at him once the pain subsided a bit, Phillip complied and Lance pointed to the card on the far right, Thestalos threw a fireball at the card and Phillip didn't even flinch.

"Fortunately for me the card you chose wasn't a Monster card." Phillip said before turning the card around revealing it to be a Trap Card called Assault Spirits which was sent to the graveyard.

"Maybe but Thestalos can still attack Dark End Dragon!" Lance announced and the Monarch threw a fireball at the dragon, the Dragon survived the attack but Phillip's life-points took a hit.

L: 6350

P: 7700

Lance waited patiently for the electricity to shock Phillip but too his surprise nothing happened. "What the….."

"Did you honestly think I'd be dumb enough to leave that function on for my side of the field?" Phillip interrupted him with a smirk. "This whole time I was at no risk of being shocked."

"You lying son of a bitch!" Lance snapped at him before picking up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Lance announced and Phillip drew his card.

"Ah, perfect, I activate a Spell Card called Upstart Goblin and chain it with my Trap Card Spell Reclamation!" Phillip played the card he drew and drew another card. "I gain an extra card but in exchange you gain one thousand life-points!" Phillip said as Lance screamed in pain from the electricity as his life-points dropped to 5350. "Or you would if not for Bad Reaction to Simochi."

"Just make your move already!" Lance snapped at him and Phillip grinned.

"Now onto Spell Reclamation's effect, to activate it I must first discard one card from my hand." Phillip said as he tossed a card from his hand. "And in exchange I can return Upstart Goblin to my hand!" Phillip said as he placed his Spell Card back in his hand and sent his trap to the grave. "You know what? I think I'll activate it again!" Phillip played the card and drew another card, Lance screamed in pain again as his life-points dropped to 4350 and Phillip sent his Spell to the graveyard. "Are you ready to give up yet?"

"Not by a long shot, and to prevent you from using Dark End's effect again I activate…" Lance went to activate his trap but Phillip shook his head.

"I don't intend to use my monster's effect this turn; instead I activate the Spell Card Recycle." Phillip played the card and picked up his graveyard. "This lets me take one Spell Card from my graveyard and place it at the bottom of my deck, all at the mere cost of 500 life-points!" Phillip said wincing as his life-points dropped to 7200, he took the card he was looking for and added it to the bottom of his deck. "Now I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Phillip set the cards he drew facedown and a monster. "That ends my turn." Phillip announced and Lance drew his card.

"_Five bucks says the card he returned to his deck is the Seal of the Orichalcos."_ Lance thought as he looked it his card. _"If I summon any of these monsters I'll take quite a hit from his combo and even though one of the cards I set last turn will reflect the damage too him I don't know what those facedown cards are, I'd better play it safe by leaving the attacking to Thestalos." _Lance thought before pointing at Dark End Dragon. "Thestalos, attack….."

"I'll choose what you attack with my trap card Shift!" Phillip interrupted him as his trap flipped up. "And your target is my facedown monster!" Phillip added and Thestalos through the fireball at the facedown monster, revealed to be Familiar Knight (3/1200/1400) which was incinerated by the attack. "And now Familiar Knight's effect activates…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know what it does; it means that we can Special Summon one Level 4 monster from our hands." Lance interrupted him and Phillip smirked before playing a card, moments later Luster Dragon Number 2 appeared on the field (4/1900/1600). _"I can't risk him getting a free shot at my life-points next turn, and thanks to that damn combo I've lose nearly half of my life-points already, well, now is as good a time as any to put my combo into action." _Lance thought as he played a card. "Using the effect of Familiar Knight I summon Element Valkyrie in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a red haired woman in a skin tight set off armor appeared on the field wielding a staff (4/1500/1000). "She may not be a Fire Type monster but as long as there is a Fire Type monster fighting alongside her she gains 500 attack points." Lance explained as Valkyrie's attack increased to 2000.

"Maybe so but you've triggered two effects, first my combination." Phillip said pointing to his two trap cards, the two traps started glowing….

"And I chain those traps with a facedown card of my own, go Spell of Pain!" Lance flipped the card over and Phillip's eyes widened.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Phillip yelled as a beam of light emitted from the two cards and struck him in the chest bringing his life-points down to 6200. "And I'll chain Spell of Pain with my own Quick Play Spell Card Demise of the Land!"

"Oh crap, that means you can activate a Field Spell from your deck!" Lance shouted as it dawned on him, Phillip smirked evilly as he retrieved the card from the bottom of his deck and played it, soon enough the Seal completely surrounded the duel field and the pentagram appeared on the heads of Phillip and his dragons increasing their attack power to 2400 and 2600 respectively.

"Indeed it does," Phillip chuckled evilly before looking directly at Element Valkyrie. "Your Valkyrie may be strong but she is no match for either of my monsters, do you still wish to attack?" Phillip asked and Lance looked at his monster before turning his attention back to Phillip.

"Actually, yes I still plan on attacking Luster Dragon with Element Valkyrie!" Lance announced and the Valkyrie twirled her staff around above her head before pointing it at Luster Dragon.

"If you're that eager to lose your soul then so be it, Luster Dragon, counterattack!" Phillip commanded and the Sapphire Dragon prepared to launch its attack…

"Guess again, I activate my facedown card Rush Recklessly!" Lance's facedown card flipped up and Phillip's eyes widened as Valkyrie's attack increased to 2700, Valkyrie was able to launch her attack first incinerating the dragon.

L: 4350

P: 5900

"Nice playing Lance, keep that up and you'll win this in no time!" Brandon shouted from the sidelines and Lance grinned before giving his friend the thumbs up, however Phillip's evil laughter caught the attention of both boys and Lance turned his attention to him.

"What are you so happy about? You just lost a monster and some life-points!" Lance pointed out and Phillip continued his laughter.

"Truth is Luster Dragon's destruction was a part of my plan all along." Phillip said as he picked up a card from his hand. "Why? Because my strongest monster can only be summoned if a Normal Type monster such as Luster Dragon is destroyed!" Phillip played the card and a portal opened up on the Seal's floor, Lance did a double take when he heard the name.

"What the hell are you summoning that gets its own summon in the Orichalcos?" Lance wondered out loud as he waited for the monster to come out of the portal, the monster that emerged was massive in size and looked like a twisted porcelain doll, it was green in color and had a bright ring around its waist (10/?/0). "Actually I think a better question is this; what the hell is that?"

"That is Orichalcos Shunoros, my most powerful monster!" Phillip said proudly as the Orichalcos symbol appeared on the…..thing's…head. "It gains 1000 attack points for each monster on your side of the field and I count two monsters so….." Phillip said as the monster's attack increased to 2500, it gained two thousand attack points from its own effect and an extra 500 from the Seal.

"This looks bad!" Chloe gulped as she watched the duel; unbeknownst to everyone else Silent Magician's Spectral Form appeared next to Chloe with a frown on her face.

"_You don't know the half of it Chloe." _Silent Magician informed her and Chloe turned to her Duel Spirit. _"That isn't Orichalcos Shunoros."_

"_You've lost me." _Chloe responded with a look of confusion on her face, Silent Magician turned to her with a look of concern on her face.

"_Okay, you know that Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba originally destroyed the Orichalcos correct?" _Silent Magician asked and Chloe nodded. _"Orichalcos Shunoros was used in that duel but its effects were vastly different."_

"_Different? How exactly was its effect different from this version of Shunoros?"_ Chloe asked and Silent Magician said nothing before she started to vanish. _"Wait, where are you going?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician sighed.

"_Sorry Chloe but I need some time to mull over this." _Silent Magician said as she started to fade from Chloe's eyesight. _"I won't be able to help you for about a week so in the meantime you'll have to duel without my guidance." _Silent Magician added and Chloe bit her lip before turning her attention back to the duel now even more worried than before.

"_Hang in there Lance, please!" _Chloe thought desperately as Lance looked over his hand.

"_Theresa, Theresa, we need to talk!" _Armed Dragon's voice rang out from within Theresa's head and she blinked in surprise.

"_Can't it wait? I'm watching a duel?" _Theresa asked and Armed Dragon sighed.

"_That's just it, something is very wrong here." _Armed Dragon's voice responded and Theresa turned her attention to him. _"I can sense that Silent Magician feels the same way, I need to consult with her, I'm sorry but I won't be able to give you advice for a few days."_

"_I understand." _Theresa responded before turning her attention to the duel. _"Wonder if Chloe knows any more than I do?"_

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance grumbled and Phillip chuckled evilly before drawing his card. _"I hope my plan works." _Lance thought as he waited for Phillip to make his move.

"_This is the perfect strategy! First I'll use Dark End Dragon's effect to send his Monarch to the graveyard and once that's done I'll destroy Valkyrie and put a dent in his life-points." _Phillip thought before pointing at Thestalos."Dark End Dragon, use your effect to rid the field of Thestalos this instant!" Phillip commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the monarch…

"I'm afraid your dragon's done for, I chain his effect with my Trap Card Silver Spirit Redirection!" Lance activated the trap and Phillip blinked. "Not only does this negate the effect of a monster that targets a monster such as Thestalos but it also removes the monster from play." Lance explained and Phillip's eyes widened once it dawned on him.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Phillip demanded as Thestalos threw a fireball at Dark End Dragon, the dragon roared in pain before vanishing from the field and Phillip reluctantly pocketed the monster before sending Silver Wing to the graveyard. "It doesn't matter! Shunoros is still strong enough to rid the field of Valkyrie and Thestalos! Shunoros attack now!" Phillip commanded clearly enraged by this turn of events and Shunoros prepared to launch its ring at the woman.

"Nuh uh pops, or did you forget about my trap card?" Lance asked as it flipped up, "GO MIRROR FORCE!"

"WHAT? NO!" Phillip yelled as the ring bounced off of a force field, it cut Orichalcos Shunoros in half and the resulting explosion was felt all over the ship. "My best monster…gone just like that….." Phillip clenched his fists in anger as he glared at his son. "I am not done! And to prove it I….." Phillip went to set down the card he drew…..only to find that his hand was frozen. "What's going on, why can't I move my hand?"

"You have misused my power for the last time Phillip." A demonic voice rang out and Phillip's eyes widened. "You have outlived your usefulness; your own selfish desires have conflicted with my own."

"What are you talking about? I gathered up dozens of souls just by having my men participate in the tournament!" Phillip demanded and the Demonic voice chuckled.

"You gathered up the souls of weaklings, souls that I will personally free once the duel is over." The demonic voice responded and Phillip took a step back in shock.

"You can't! I've dedicated years of my life to gathering up those souls!" Philip yelled and the demonic voice chuckled.

"Goodbye Phillip." The voice said simply and Phillip found that, too his horror, he still couldn't move his hand.

"Take your turn already!" Phillip snapped at Lance and he drew a card. _"It doesn't matter what he summons, my combination will still take effect!"_

"I activate the Spell Card called Reinforcement of the Army; this lets me add one Warrior Type Monster from my deck to my hand!" Lance said as he picked up his deck, searched through it, and added the monster to his hand before shuffling his deck. "And to be quite frank I'm pretty fucking sick of that combo of yours so I activate the Spell Card I just drew, go Heavy Storm!" Phillip's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field destroying his two traps.

"My perfect Burn Combo…gone in an instant!" Phillip stammered as he used his unfrozen hand to send the traps to the grave.

"Now to end this duel, I summon Ultimate Baseball Kid!" Lance played the card and the young boy in the red baseball uniform appeared on the field (3/500/1000). "Remember this dad? You brought me this card for my seventh birthday, before you decided to abandon my family!" Lance spat to the side as he glared at Phillip. "And as you may remember my kid gains 1000 attack points for each Fire Type monster on the field, there are two, the kid himself and Thestalos, giving him a grand total of 2500 attack points!" Lance explained as Ultimate Baseball Kid's attack increased to 2500.

"NO! NO!" Phillip shouted knowing what was going to happen next.

"This is for the pain you caused me and my siblings, Valkyrie attack his life-points!" Lance commanded and the woman pointed her staff at Phillip before it emitted heat bringing his life-points down to 3900. "This is for your actions leading my mom to rehab and me and my siblings to almost spending the rest of our lives in the foster care system! Thestalos, get him!" Lance commanded and Thestalos threw a fireball at Phillip that struck him in the chest bringing his life-points down to 1500.

"Please, I beg you!" Phillip pleaded and Lance's eyes narrowed.

"This…this is for almost killing me." Lance said bluntly and Phillip and the others did double takes. "You may not realize it but all the stuff I just mentioned? I turned to drugs to escape them!" Lance snapped at him and the others gasped in surprise before they turned to Chloe.

"Chloe did you….." Theresa trailed off and Chloe shook her head.

"I'm just as surprised as you are." Chloe admitted as they watched the final moments of the duel.

"I wouldn't worry about that." Lance said as he turned to his friends. "I stopped using drugs years ago, after I nearly died from an overdose." Lance added before he turned to Ultimate Baseball Kid. "I don't know who you are, because you're no father of mine! Ultimate Baseball Kid, finish him off now!" Lance commanded and the kid launched a baseball at Phillip striking him in the chest.

L: 4350

P: 0000

The holograms disappeared as the seal started to close in on Phillip, as it did the shackles around Lance's legs broke off and the podium lowered Lance to ground level allowing Lance to get off of the podium as soon as he could. "Lance, about what….." Brandon started but Lance cut him off.

"That stuff's behind me okay." Lance said plainly as he sat on the podium. "I don't want to talk about it and I'd appreciate it if you kept your mouth shut about it when we get back to Duel Academy."

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with us." Brandon reassured him and Lance grinned. "So how are you feeling after that?"

"Like I need a fucking drink despite the fact that I'm underage," Lance grumbled as he got to his feet, once he was up a blood curdling scream came from Phillip's podium before the seal disappeared. "At least that's over."

"For now that is, yes." Brandon agreed before walking over to the podium…and his eyes widened. "Err, guys, he's gone."

"Well duh, his soul was taken by the Orichalcos!" Chloe pointed out as she put a hand on her hip, Brandon shook his head before turning to them.

"No, I mean, his whole body's gone!" Brandon responded and the other students exchanged confused looks before approaching the podium, sure enough the only thing that remained of Phillip where his cards, minus the Seal of the Orichalcos.

"This is weird." Theresa commented as she scratched her head. "You think that voice we heard has something to do with it?"

"Maybe, but how do we know whether or not that voice actually released the souls that Phillip captured?" Lance wondered out loud.

*meanwhile at the hospital*

"Andreas, please just wake up!" Nicola pleaded with Andreas's unconscious form, she was keeling besides his bed practically praying for him to get better, and with her was her dad and Andreas's parents.

"You have to be strong for him Nic, you know that." Her father reassured her and she smiled at the reassurance, whilst her back was turned Andreas's body glowed briefly as his soul returned to his body and he slowly opened his eyes with a groan that caught everyone's attention.

"Is…is the tournament over?" Andreas wondered out loud before looking around and seeing the astonished, and in Nicola's case overjoyed, looks on the other's faces. "Mom, dad, you…..you came to see me compete?" Andreas asked the surprise evident in his voice.

"Off course, we wouldn't miss our son's first tournament for the world." Andreas's father reassured him and he smiled before sighing.

"I'm sorry for letting you down; I thought I could beat Otto!" Andreas sighed and his father put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Son, the fact that you made it as far as you did is enough for us, we couldn't be more proud of you." His father said with a genuine smile and Andreas returned it. "As for Otto, after all he's done he's no son of mine." His father added and Andreas looked at him oddly. "I think we'd better explain the events following his duel."

"Yeah, I agree." Andreas agreed…..only to be pulled into a tight hug by Nicola. "Nicola, I'm sorry if I scared you back there."

"Me scared? Since when have I been scared?" Nicola asked half joking y and the others laughed at that, whilst that was going on the Orichalcos duelists where waking up.

"What the….." Damien muttered as he realized that he was handcuffed to the bed. "Oh great, can this get any worse."

"Yar quit your blubbering landlubber!" Captain Leviathan called out to him from the bed opposite him and Damien groaned.

"Oh brilliant, why did I have to go and open my big mouth, what next, am I about to be arrested?" Damien muttered…only to grimace when he saw the cop in front of him. "Forget I said anything, I want a bloody lawyer!"

"Miranda, you came." Karen greeted her sister as she woke up; she frowned when she saw the handcuffs. "I should've seen this coming."

"Karen, why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?" Miranda asked honestly and Karen looked at her with surprise. "Your pregnancy was discovered after your trip to the Orichalcos."

"Why? It's because the father of my baby is a lecherous pig who'll be joining me in prison!" Karen said as she pointed to Felix who was waking up. "Some mother I'll be, I'll be in prison in a matter of months and she'll be in foster care when I give birth."

"You know her gender?" Miranda asked and Karen nodded.

"Yeah, it was confirmed during one of my pregnancy tests." Karen grumbled. "Not that it matters but I'm considering naming her after mom."

"She won't go into foster care; I'll talk to the judge and see if he's willing to put her into my care once she's birthed." Miranda said earning her a surprised look from Karen. "It's the least I can do for my sister and my niece."

"Thanks Miranda." Karen said with a sincere smile.

*meanwhile at Duel Academy*

Every day various students came by to check on Nathan's condition and every day they got the same answer, no change, some of the older students were starting to doubt that he would ever wake up but it didn't stop most of them from visiting.

The school nurse was looking over her notes when the door opened and two first year Obelisk Blue Students entered, both where male and one had short brown hair and blue eyes whilst the other had neck length black hair, brown eyes and a pair of glasses on his face, they were Daniel Troy and Chase Donavan, friends of Tyler's who were among the most civil Obelisk Blue students at the Academy.

"Sorry boys, no change." The nurse, an old pudgy woman with short grey hair and blue eyes, said with a sigh as she looked up at the two. "Unless you two hurt yourselves I suggest you leave."

"Sorry doc but this thing's been bugging us ever since it happened." Daniel sighed as he leaned against the wall. "And we're not the only ones."

"I know and I completely understand." The nurse started not noticing Nathan's body glow briefly whilst her back was turned, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Nathan groan. "Hey guys, what did I miss?" Nathan greeted the two students whose jaws practically hit the floor once it dawned on them.

*back at New York*

The students, by the time Nathan had woken up, where on their way back to the hospital to pick up Andreas, Nicola and Kimberly, after that they'd head to the hotel with the teachers to wash up and after that they'd go to a local bar to chill out with Alex and Miranda as they felt that they had earned it after everything that had happened.

The car pulled up at the hospital where they saw Andreas standing there with his parents, after several dozen double takes they got out of the car and greeted him happily. "Man, it's so great to see you!" Marcus greeted him with a broad

"And I can say same to you my friends." Andreas said happily before frowning. "Nicola told me what happened after my soul was taken, sorry to hear that we didn't win."

"Yeah but I didn't exactly go down without a fight." Theresa said happily as they led him to the car. "Just wait until we tell you how we got your soul back."

"I can't wait to hear it." Andreas said before hopping in the car with Kimberly and Nicola.


	46. Rest now our heros

"Oh come on!" Chloe moaned as the pool ball failed to connect with another ball for what felt like the hundredth time, following Lance's victory over Phillip an hour ago the students, not to mention the teachers and the student's parents minus Brandon's father, where chilling out at a local bar getting some well-deserved rest, all except Chloe that is who was trying, and failing, to learn how to play pool from Alex, nearly all his balls where pocketed whilst Chloe had yet to hit a single ball much to her annoyance.

"Well kid, your showing a little improvement." Alex said as he patted Chloe on the back reassuringly. "That time the ball nearly hit the other one!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Chloe sighed as she chalked up her pool cue; the game was so one-sided that some of the patrons were rooting for Chloe out of sympathy. "But If I do end up losing this game I'm sticking to Duel Monsters."

"I think that would be a good idea." Lance agreed as he took a sip of his drink, he was sitting opposite Jeff and Hamden who were enjoying their drinks as well, whilst trying to be supportive of Chloe; Chloe gave Lance a mock death glare before turning her attention back to Alex as he went to take his turn. "Jeff, are you sure we have to go back tomorrow? I've gotten so used to New York already."

"Sorry Lance but we only booked the hotel rooms for a week." Jeff shrugged his shoulders as they watched Chloe and Alex play pool just as Alex missed a ball for the first time in the game, much to Chloe's joy.

"You'll stick to dueling huh? How's this for a deal then, if you can pocket at least one ball on your next turn, any ball on the pool table, we'll duel outside." Alex offered and Chloe grinned broadly at that suggestion.

"Now you're speaking my language." Chloe commented glad that she had brought her duel disk with her, something she planned to make a habit out of following Otto's break-in during the Semi-Finals, she leaned forward aiming for the ball closest to a pocket from her position, and she hit the white ball which knocked the other ball into the pocket. "YES! Finally, now I'm on the right track!" Chloe grinned…but her grin disappeared when she saw Alex facepalm. "What?"

"Kid, the ball you just pocketed is the Eight Ball, when you pocket all your other balls you pocket that for the win." Alex explained and Chloe looked at him with a look of confusion on her face. "But if you do that before hand, it's basically the same as surrendering in duel monsters." Alex explained and it took two seconds for Chloe to react, one for it to sink in and the other for her to face-fault.

"The…..one…ball…I…manage …hit and it costs me the game?" Chloe groaned in frustration as she got to her feet. "Forget it; I'm ready to duel when you are."

"Right, let me just get my deck." Alex said as he walked towards the table where he was sitting and was keeping his duel disk, whilst that was going on Andreas and Marcus approached the pool table in order to set up a game between the two of them, whilst Alex's back was turned Chloe gulped.

"_Theresa barely beat him in her Semi-Final Duel against him, how am I supposed to win this?" _Chloe thought before looking down at her deck. _"Here's hoping Silent Magician can stop…whatever it is that she's doing and assist me."_ Chloe thought before looking up in time to see Alex strapping on his duel disk.

"If you guys are going to duel take it outside." The Bartender told them as he cleaned a glass. "After everything that's happened in the Battle City tournament I'd rather not take chances." He added and Chloe was about the correct him by saying that the Orichalcos was defeated but thought better off it.

"_I guess we did forget to take into account how the Orichalcos duels looked to someone who wasn't aware of their existence." _Chloe thought before following Alex outside. _"To him it must've looked like duelists passing out after an intense duel." _Chloe thought as she waited for Alex to take up his position down the street, with traffic having returned to normal following the tournament they couldn't do duels across the street like they did during the tournament out of risk of causing a major traffic accident. "So who's going first?" Chloe asked as they activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands.

"I am." Alex said as he drew his card. _"She's only seen a handful of my Ally of Justice monsters, if she's thinks that she's seen the worse of them than she's dead wrong." _Alex thought before looking at the card that he had drawn, by this time a rather large crowd had gathered obviously attracted by the prospect of a match between two Battle City Semi-Finalists who never got a chance to fight in the tournament. "I start things off by summoning Mechanicalchaser to the field in attack mode!" Alex played the card and the spherical multi-limbed machine appeared on the field (4/1850/800). "And I end my turn by setting two cards facedown, your move." Alex announced and Chloe drew her card. "I activate my Trap Card DNA Transplant!"

"DNA Transplant, what does that do?" Chloe asked and Alex grinned.

"In a way it works like DNA Surgery but whilst that card changes the types of all monsters on the field as long as it's on the field this card changes the attributes of monsters instead." Alex explained and Chloe raised an eyebrow. "And before you ask my attribute of choice is Light."

"That sounds pretty situational." Chloe commented before adding her newly drawn card to her hand, she looked over her hand and frowned, it wasn't as bad as her initial hand in her first Semi-Final duel but it wasn't exactly her strongest hand to date. _"Great, I only have one monster that can beat his machine and that's Silent Magician Level 8 so I'd better play it safe."_ Chloe thought before picking up three of her cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense that ends my turn." Chloe announced and Alex drew his card.

"Fine by me, I start by activating Pot of Greed which allows me to….." Alex played the card but to his surprise the life-point counter flashed red for a second before showing the "No-Entry" sign, any duelist worth their sault knew that that meant that an illegal card had been played. "What the…I thought the traditional rule set was still in play."

"Yes, for the duration of the tournament." Tyler said as he pushed through the crowd. "After the finals ended the Advanced Rules where put back in place."

"And you're just telling us that now?" Chloe asked clearly annoyed by this.

"I suggested to my step-father that he'd send an e-mail to all competing duelists explaining that, he decided against it because he figured that the duelists would be able to figure it out themselves." Tyler said shaking his head.

"So what do we do now?" Alex asked as he looked at his now useless Spell Card.

"Well since the violation was caused by a misunderstanding I'll see if I can get my father to have the technicians let it slide." Tyler said with a shrug. "Beyond that I have no clue, for now send the Spell to the graveyard and continue as normal."

"All right, just make sure your old man sends that e-mail okay?" Alex asked and Tyler nodded.

"Err, Tyler there's one other thing." Chloe said as she turned to him. "Were the cops able to find anything on the boat?" Chloe asked and Tyler shook his head.

"Too early to tell but they can't find a trace of Phillip." Tyler said as he shook his head. "They can't even find his fingerprints on any of his cards or that duel field."

"That's weird." Chloe commented and Alex nodded in agreement. "What about Phillip's thugs, the ones whose souls weren't destroyed I mean?"

"They are in police custody, and in a few months they'll be put on trial for the crimes they committed, needless to say their careers as professional duelists are over." Tyler told her and she smiled at that. "You'll be pleased to know that Otto won't return to Duel Academy."

"You got that right." Chloe agreed with a nod before pausing. "You'll keep me and the others posted about Phillip right?"

"Yes, I'll be returning to Duel Academy tomorrow so it'll be easy for me to inform you." Tyler told her as he took a seat on a nearby bench, Alex took it as a signal to continue and he looked over his hand, he waited for the warning sign on the life-point counter to vanish before pointing to his machine.

"Mechanicalchaser, attack her defense!" Alex commanded and the machine charged towards Chloe's defense monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was quickly destroyed. "Let me guess, your using her effect?"

"You got that right." Chloe confirmed before picking up her deck, searching through it and setting the monster she was looking for facedown on the field. _"And with Rose, Warrior of Revenge in my hand I can use my set Apprentice Magician with her to Synchro Summon Explosive Magician."_ Chloe thought before shuffling her deck.

"I know what you're up too." Alex said catching Chloe by surprise. "I saw your last Battle City match kid; your plan is to follow that up by summoning that Level 4 Tuner isn't it?"

"So what if I am." Chloe said as she quickly tried to hide her surprise. "There's nothing you can do to stop me."

"That's where you're wrong; I enter my second main phase and summon Ally of Justice Quarantine!" Alex played the card and a small, blue bug like machine appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "He may not look like much but his effect is deadly, as long as he's on the field you can't Special Summon Light Type Monsters!" Chloe's eyes widened as her eyes immediately fell upon Silent Magician Level 8.

"_Silent Magician's a Light-Type monster; as long as that thing's on the field she's useless!" _Chloe realized with a gulp. _"I'd better hope I draw something like Gearfried or Gemini Elf soon."_ Chloe thought before looking up at Alex.

"I'll end my turn at that." Alex announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Worse yet, my initial plan to Synchro Summon Explosive Magician is out the window, which means I can't….."_ Chloe thought before looking at her facedown cards and her drawn card. _"Wait a sec, yeah this could work!" _Chloe thought as a massive grin crept onto her face.

"_What is she planning?" _Tyler wondered with a raised eyebrow.

"You were right about my plan a few moments ago." Chloe confirmed and Alex grinned as he heard that. "But there are still other moves I can make; first I summon Rose, Warrior of Revenge in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the red haired female warrior appeared on the field (4/1600/600). "And I flip summon the Apprentice Magician I set last turn!" Chloe flipped the card over and the blonde magician appeared on the field.

"_What the…she's repeating her move from her match with Theresa move for move!" _Alex realized as he started to sweat. _"I guess she's figured out that DNA Transplant's effect only applies to cards on the field!"_

"Now I tune my two monsters together….." Chloe started as the two female monsters leapt into the air, Rose Warrior of Revenge dissolved into four glowing rings that quickly surrounded Apprentice Magician. "So that I can Synchro Summon this monster, Gaia Knight the Force of Earth!" Chloe played the card and the mechanical knight appeared on the field ready for battle (6/2600/800).

"Still relying on the old tactics I see Chloe." Theresa commented as she and Brandon stepped out of the bar, Chloe realized that they were there to watch the duel and grinned.

"Just watch Theresa!" Chloe said confidently before pointing to Quarantine. "Gaia Knight, attack Ally of Justice Quarantine!" Chloe commanded and the knight charged towards the much smaller machine and impaled its electronics.

A: 7100

C: 8000

"Now I enter my second main phase and activate De-Synchro, this Spell Card works like De-Fusion but instead of splitting up a Fusion Monster into its Fusion Material Monsters it splits a Synchro monster into the monsters used in its Synchro Summon!" Chloe played the card and Gaia Knight vanished from the field and in its place stood Rose Warrior of Revenge, Apprentice Magician appeared next to her and Chloe examined her hand. "That's it for me." Chloe announced and Alex drew his card.

"Huh? Why didn't she use her monsters to synchro summon another monster?" Brandon wondered as he scratched his head in confusion. "Sure she wouldn't have been able to attack but she would've had the strongest monster on the field."

"Maybe that's her plan." Theresa offered as an explanation but she was clearly as confused as her boyfriend. _"Whatever her plan is I'm willing to bet that one of her traps has something to do with it."_ Theresa thought as Alex added his newly drawn card to his hand.

"_I could attack Apprentice Magician but that would leave her with an opportunity to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter on her next turn if she draws another Level 4 Monster, too risky, that Tuner's gotta go!" _Alex thought before pointing to Rose Warrior. "Mechanicalchaser, attack Rose Warrior of Revenge!" Alex commanded and the machine charged towards the slightly weaker warrior….

"I activate my Trap Card Urgent Tuning, which allows me to do a Synchro Summon during your Battle Phase!" Chloe interrupted as her two monsters prepared to leap into the air again…

"Heh, I was hoping you'd do that!" Alex said as his remaining trap card flipped up, Chloe's eyes widened when she saw it as she recognized the card from Alex's duel with Theresa.

"Oh crap, not Psychic Shockwave!" Chloe gulped as the trap card revealed itself.

"That's right kid, all I need to do to activate its effect is send one Spell or Trap Card from my hand to my graveyard and in return I can Special Summon one Level 6 Dark-Type Machine monster from my deck." Alex said as he picked up his deck once he discarded the card he had drawn to his grave and searched through it. "Off course, you saw my duel against my classmate so you know what I'm going to summon with this card's effect!"

"Jinzo…." Chloe gulped as Alex played the card and the massive machine monster appeared on the field (6/2400/1500), Chloe shielded herself as Urgent Tuning and her facedown card's holograms where destroyed by Jinzo's laser beams. "I could've gone a life-time without facing that thing again and I would've been happy."

"Why? You had a bad experience facing this guy before?" Alex asked and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, that thing almost cost me my spot at Duel Academy." Chloe remembered as she glared at the massive machine. _"At least DNA Transplant's effect is also negated."_ Chloe thought as she braced herself for the Machine's upcoming assault, Alex pointed to his two monsters with a grin.

"Jinzo, attack Apprentice Magician, Mechanicalchaser, attack Rose Warrior of Revenge!" Alex commanded and the two machines launched their attacks, Jinzo disintegrated Apprentice Magician with his energy ball and Mechanicalchaser impaled Rose Warrior with his spear.

A: 7100

C: 5750

Chloe reluctantly sent her monsters to the graveyard before picking up her deck in order to use Apprentice Magician's effect again. _"Okay, when Theresa faced Alex in the Semi-Finals she defeated that thing's stronger form using an effect monster; if all goes to plan I should be able to pull off a similar move with Old Vindictive Magician."_ Chloe thought before she picked up the card she was looking for and set it down on the field.

"I end my turn at that." Alex announced and Chloe drew her card. _"Come on kid, I know you can put up a better fight than this."_

"_Okay, my first plan went straight out the window as soon as that thing was summoned." _Chloe thought as she looked up at the machine which easily towered over her, an easy task to do since she was the shortest student on the trip but still. _"That doesn't mean I don't have other tricks up my sleeve though, and the Spell Card I just drew may just help me add them to my hand."_ Chloe thought before playing the Spell Card. "I activate a Spell Card called Trade In."

"I know what that does, in exchange for discarding a Level 8 monster that will let you draw two cards." Alex interrupted her and Chloe said nothing as she discarded her Silent Magician and drew twice.

"_Transmigration Prophecy, this card could help me return Silent Magician to my deck." _ Chloe thought before looking up at Jinzo. _"Just one problem, it's a trap and as soon as I set it Jinzo will render it useless!"_

"Are you going to make a move or what?" An impatient passerby called out to her and Chloe gulped…..before her eyes rested on the other card she drew.

"As a matter of fact I am." Chloe said as she added one card to her hand and picked up two. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense, that's all for me!" Chloe announced and Alex drew his card, she waited for the Standby Phase to pass before discarding the other card she had drawn. "I'm activating Effect Veiler's effect."

"Say what?" Alex said clearly caught by surprise.

"Effect Veiler has her uses beyond being a Tuner Monster, you see by discarding her from my hand during my opponent's main phase I can target one effect monster my opponent controls and negate its effect for the rest of the turn." Chloe explained before grinning broadly. "And there's only one effect monster on your side of the field….."

"You're targeting my Jinzo!" Alex realized as his machine let out a mechanical groan. "Fine, but I don't understand the point of that."

"The point was this; since Jinzo can no longer negate traps I'm free to activate Transmigration Prophecy!" Chloe activated her trap and Alex blinked. "With it I can shuffle two cards in my graveyard back into my deck so….." Chloe retrieved her copies of Silent Magician Level 8 and Rose Warrior of Revenge, returned them to her deck and shuffled it.

"Okay, I admit, that was a clever move." Alex admitted before grinning. "But Effect Veiler doesn't prevent Jinzo from attacking, Jinzo vaporize her defense!" Alex commanded and Jinzo fired its energy ball at Chloe's defense monster, revealed to be The Unhappy Maiden (1/0/100) which was quickly vaporized. "It's your turn Mechanicalchaser!" Alex commanded but the machine remained still. "Err, hello? Just attack already!"

"Yell all you want, Mechanicalchaser won't listen." Chloe said as she held up her monster. "The monster you destroyed was Unhappy Maiden, when she's destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard the Battle Phase ends immediately." Chloe explained before sending her monster to the graveyard. _"Man, am I glad Theresa decided to return that monster to my deck."_ Chloe thought as Alex looked over his hand.

"I'll end my turn at that." Alex admitted and Chloe drew her card.

"_That move did more than buy me a little time."_ Chloe thought as her eyes rested on her drawn card. _"If all goes to plan this should help me clear the field."_ Chloe thought before playing the card. "This card may be old but it still has its uses, I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Chloe played the card and three golden swords rained down upon Alex's machine's pinning them down.

"Great, now I can't attack for another three turns." Alex grunted as he stared at Chloe. "Anything else you want to do kid?"

"Actually yeah, I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and one of her two signature magicians appeared on the field (4/1000/1000).

"_Even after all the modifications we've made to her deck she still relies on her old tactics." _Theresa thought as she shook her head. _"Hopefully they work out for her."_

"Let me guess, your planning on increasing your magician's strength to the point where she can beat Jinzo?" Alex asked and Chloe didn't answer. "Well to bad, or have you forgotten that I have Jinzo Lord in my deck?"

"I haven't forgotten." Chloe said as her eyes narrowed. "In fact I plan on doing everything I can to make sure that you don't get a chance to summon him, in the meantime I end my turn." Chloe added and Alex drew his card, as he did Silent Magician got her first counter increasing her attack strength to 1500.

"_Break Draw, this card is useless with Swords of Revealing Light on the field and even if that wasn't the case any draws I make will just increase her magician's strength."_ Alex thought before adding the card to his hand. "I end my turn for now." Alex announced and Chloe drew her card once the first sword faded from the field.

"_One counter down, four to go, hopefully Silent Magician will be strong enough to beat Jinzo before he draws Jinzo Lord."_ Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"This could help." _Chloe thought before playing it. "I activate Reinforcement of the Army, with it I can add a Level 4 or lower Warrior type monster to my hand." Chloe announced before picking up and searching through her deck. _"Come on, come on! I know I saw it here somewhere!"_

"I'm waiting kid!" Alex said as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, just give me a minute!" Chloe responded as she searched through her deck. _"Finally, just my luck that it ends up at the bottom of my deck!" _Chloe thought with a grin before adding it to her hand, shuffling her deck and sending her Spell Card to the graveyard. "Now I summon Shield Warrior in attack mode!"

"Tell me she's not." Theresa said with a facepalm as a small warrior in brown armor appeared on the field, he was carrying a large shield and a spear (3/800/1600).

"She is apparently." Brandon sighed as it dawned on him. _"I know that monster has more use in the graveyard than it does on the field but is kamikazeing it against Alex's monsters really the answer?"_

"Are you serious?" Alex laughed as Shield Warrior got ready for battle. "That little guy couldn't put a dent in either of my machine's armors!"

"Shield Warrior, attack Mechanicalchaser!" Chloe commanded to the surprise of everyone else, Shield Warrior charged towards Mechanicalchaser but was impaled on the machine's spear before he could get close.

C: 4700

A: 7100

"Well, that was a waste of a perfectly good Spell Card." Alex commented dryly as Chloe sent her warrior to the graveyard. "Don't come crying to me when you lose because of moves like that kid!"

"_You'll eat your words sooner or later."_ Chloe thought before looking over the rest of her hand. "I end my turn for now." Chloe announced and Alex drew his card, once Silent Magician's attack increased to 2000 he grinned.

"Sorry kid but not even the Swords can buy you enough time to strengthen your Magician enough to beat my next monster!" Alex said as Jinzo disappeared from the field. "I sacrifice Jinzo….."

"Oh no, not that card!" Chloe gulped as she thought back to Theresa's duel against Alex.

"Yes, that card! Come forth Jinzo Lord!" Alex played the card and in the Android's place stood the much larger, three eyed version of the android appeared in the original Jinzo's place (8/2600/1600). "You think he was bad before? I didn't even get a chance to use his effect."

"That thing has an effect?" Chloe and Theresa asked simultaneously.

"Yeah, on top of requiring Jinzo to be sacrificed first in order to summon it and all of the original Jinzo's abilities he has a pretty lethal effect, all I need to do is destroy all face-up trap cards on the field…" Alex explained as the long forgotten about DNA Transplant's hologram shattered. "And you get hit with 300 points of damage for each trap destroyed." Alex added and Chloe shielded herself as three laser beams from Jinzo Lord's eyes struck her in the chest.

A: 7100

C: 4400

Chloe just about maintained her balance as he eyes leveled at Jinzo Lord. _"It's okay Chloe, just relax, no monsters unbeatable, hell Theresa managed to beat it early on in her match against Alex." _Chloe thought though it was more self-reassurance than anything else. _"Though that'll be easier said than done….."_ Chloe's train of thought was interrupted when she heard murmurs from the crowd, murmurs that she didn't want to hear right now, basically questioning how she got as far as she did in the Semi-Finals.

"I end my turn." Alex announced as the second sword disappeared and Chloe shakily drew her card. _"Crap, what they're saying is getting to her!" _Alex thought.

"_Great, just what I need, a dead draw!" _Chloe thought as she looked at her copy of Fairy Box, a useful card in most situations like this but rendered useless by Jinzo Lord, she reluctantly added it to her hand and focused her attention on Mechanicalchaser. _"At least I can weaken his forces a bit." _Chloe thought before pointing at Mechanicalchaser. "Silent Magician, attack Mechanicalchaser!" Chloe commanded and the young magician pointed her staff at the machine, a beam emitted from the staff which the machine exploded on contact with.

C: 4400

A: 6950

"_Well, that's one machine to the scrap heap and one to go." _Chloe thought as Alex sent his monster to the graveyard. _"Hopefully my plan works out."_ Chloe thought before motioning for Alex to take his turn, Alex nodded and drew his card as Silent Magician's attack power increased to 2500.

"Hey guys, what did we miss?" Marcus asked as he and Andreas stepped out of the bar presumably to watch the duel.

"Chloe's losing; the difference between their life-points is a little over 2000 points." Theresa explained with a frown. "Worse part is; it's partially her fault."

"You're going to have to explain that to me." Andreas said as he scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Basically we included a card in her deck that's more useful in the graveyard than it is anywhere else." Theresa explained and Andreas nodded. "But rather than discard it via a card effect or something she attacked a much stronger monster and put a dent in her own life-points."

"I can hear you Theresa." Chloe said plainly and the older duelist gulped. "As for his lead, I've got it covered, trust me on that."

"We'll see about that." Alex said before looking at his card. "I pass for now but come next turn your Magician's toast!" Alex exclaimed as the final sword disappeared and Chloe drew her card.

"_Perfect, with this I'll be able to narrow the gap between our life-points considerably." _Chloe thought before setting her drawn card facedown. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Alex drew his card at the same time increasing Silent Magician's attack power to 3000. _"At least my Magician's strong enough to destroy the Lord now." _Chloe thought.

"I activate the Spell Card I drew last turn, Limiter Removal!" Chloe's eyes widened when she heard the card's name and Jinzo Lord's size doubled to the point where it towered over the bar, at the same time his attack increased to 5200. "What's that? You'll survive this turn? No, you won't, wanna know why? Because I activate Polmerization to fuse together Robotic Knight and Darkfire Soldier Number 1 to fusion summon Blaze Fenix, the Burning Bombardment Bird in attack mode!" Alex played the card and the two monsters fused together.

"Oh boy, this is bad." Brandon gulped as the monster emerged from the portal, it seemed to be part phoenix park machine, it was massive in size and it let out a load squawk (8/2800/2300).

"He's pretty impressive huh? Just wait until you hear his effect!" Alex grinned as the bird squawked. "Once per turn this bird here can inflict 300 points of damage for each card on the field!" Chloe shielded herself as the bird took flight and impacted against her body.

C: 2600

A: 6950

"You okay kid?" Alex asked and Chloe nodded, the bird returned to Alex's side of the field and he played one last card. "Unfortunately Fenix can't attack during the same turn that he uses his effect, but what that doesn't apply to my other monsters so come on out Ally of Justice Quarantine!" Alex played the card and the small bug like machine reappeared on the field.

"_That's right, attack; you're in for a nasty surprise when you do!" _Chloe thought as Silent Magician prepared herself.

"Jinzo Lord, attack Silent Magician Level 4!" Alex commanded and the android launched its attack causing a large explosion. "Guess it's over kid, nice dueling ya….." Alex trailed off because when the smoke cleared Silent Magician was still standing. "WHAT THE…..."

"Remember this little guy?" Chloe asked before reaching into her pocket and retrieving Shield Warrior. "There's a reason I had him attack Mechanicalchaser, you see once per turn I can remove him from the graveyard to ensure that one of my monsters survives being destroyed in battle for one turn only!" Chloe explained and Alex's eyes widened.

"And as soon as my turn ends my Machines will self-destruct!" Alex realized to his horror before looking at Chloe's life-point counter. "Looks like you still took the damage from Jinzo Lord's attack though." Alex commented with a grin.

C: 400

A: 6950

"I can live with that." Chloe shrugged and Alex reluctantly ended his turn, as he did Jinzo Lord and Quarantine exploded and Alex shielded himself. "Wait, why is Fenix still on the field?"

"He's a pyro type monster, had to have some insurance in case Limiter Removal failed." Alex explained with a grin and Chloe nodded in understanding before drawing her card.

"Sorry Alex, but it's time I made my comeback!" Chloe grinned before playing the card. "And I'm going to do it with Level Up!"

"Oh crap!" Alex gulped as Silent Magician Level 4 grew into her adult form for the first time since Chloe's duel against Ramon (8/3500/1000).

"Silent Magician, shoot down his bird!" Chloe commanded and the magician gave her staff a twirl before pointing it at the bird, a beam of white light emerged from the staff striking the bird through the chest destroying it and bringing Alex's life-points down to 6250.

"Not bad but I'll still….oh you have got to be kidding me!" Alex grumbled as Chloe's Enlightenment trap card flipped up and Alex braced himself, the beam of light stuck Alex in the chest sending the big man to the ground.

C: 400

A: 2750

"_One more direct attack and she'll win the duel! Better hope I draw something good!" _Alex thought as he got to his feet and grabbed the last card in his hand.

"I end my turn at that." Chloe announced and Alex drew his card.

"I set this card facedown and that ends my turn." Alex announced and as soon as the facedown card appeared on the field Chloe drew her card.

"Then it's time to end this!" Chloe announced as Silent Magician prepared another attack. "Silent Magician, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the magician pointed her staff at Alex before firing the beam of light at him…..

"Not today kid! I counter your attack with Dimension Wall!" Chloe's eyes widened as the beam hit an invisible wall before bouncing back at Chloe and striking her in the chest.

C: 0000

A: 2750

Knowing that the duel was over the passersby went on their way, as soon as the holograms disappeared both duelists deactivated their duel disks and Chloe helped herself to her feet. "Nice duel kid, if it weren't for Dimension Wall I would've lost that." Alex said as he approached her

"Yeah, I know." Chloe said clearly disappointed by her loss, Alex frowned and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I know your disappointed in the loss but don't let it get to you all right? We fought a good duel and you definitely duel a lot better than you play pool." Alex said with a grin which Chloe returned. "Heck if you ever graduate Duel Academy I'll be waiting for a rematch." Alex added as he removed his arm from her shoulder.

"I'll hold you to that; I don't care how long it takes me to graduate." Chloe grinned before she returned to the bar, the other students followed her in followed by Alex who ordered another drink, Brandon and Marcus set up another game of pool between the two of them and Chloe sat down at the table where she was sitting before, opposite Theresa and her mom.

"Err, Chloe, if you don't mind me asking, why did you send Shield Warrior to the graveyard the way you did?" Theresa asked and Chloe blushed a bit.

"I don't know; make things more dramatic I guess." Chloe shrugged and Theresa grinned at that. "Plus it kept me in the duel long enough to use my best card so I'm not complaining."

"True enough I guess." Theresa admitted before turning her attention to the pool game between Brandon and Marcus, Brandon was going to be the one to split the balls it seemed as Marcus was watching on with his pool cue in hand. "So, it's back to school tomorrow." Theresa commented absentmindedly and Chloe smiled.

"Yeah well, on the bright side it may be a bit easier to bear since Otto has as much chance of returning to the Academy as Disco being relevant again." Chloe shrugged and Theresa nodded in agreement, after a few minutes the two girls finished their drinks and Theresa went to the bar to order two more, it was all on Alex's tab so it was all good as far as he was concerned.

"So, how are you finding Duel Academy so far Chloe?" Theresa's mom asked breaking the silence; Chloe turned to the older woman and shrugged.

"Besides me occasionally getting into trouble it's been great." Chloe admitted with a small smile as she rested her scared arm on the arm rest of the chair. "Your daughter's helped me a lot."

"Yeah, she tends to do that with students outside of Obelisk Blue." Sarah responded with a smile, Chloe's own smile disappeared as she remembered what Theresa told her after her duel with Ramon.

"Theresa told me you where one of the cops who responded to the call….." Chloe said and Sarah nodded knowing what she talking about almost immediately.

"Yeah, that's not exactly a case I've ever gotten over." Sarah admitted as she took a sip from her drink. "I wanted to kick that bastard's ass so badly; fortunately my partner at the time was on hand to save me from a police brutality case." Sarah said shaking her head. "I was so pissed off when he got off scot free hell I almost turned in my badge."

"What stopped you?" Chloe asked and Sarah took another sip.

"It was simple really, your stepdad winning the custody battle." Sarah said honestly as she sat her glass down. "As corny as it might sound that helped me see that there's something resembling justice in the world." Sarah added.

"You're right, that does sound corny." Chloe grinned getting a laugh out of the older woman; however the older woman's demeanor changed as she remembered the next part.

"That said I couldn't stand to be in the same city as him so I asked to be transferred to another city, I didn't care if it took me to another state or another country, it ended up taking me to Ohio and I lived there since then." Sarah said as she finished her drink. "Though to be honest, and don't take this the wrong way Chloe, but given all that's happened to you I wasn't expecting you to be as well-adjusted as you are."

"Don't worry about it, my stepdad had to work hard to turn me into the person I am today." Chloe sighed as she looked down at her deck. "Not saying that it was easy though."

"I bet it wasn't." Sarah agreed as she finished her drink. "So, any idea what you'll do when you get back to Duel Academy."

"Try to resume the life of an ordinary Osiris Red Student." Chloe shrugged as Theresa walked over with their drinks. "All though that will be a lot easier said than done since I almost beat Theresa and defeated another Obelisk Blue Student."

"I think you'll manage." Theresa said good naturedly as she sat down. "Just don't get overwhelmed by the autograph seekers and you should be all right." Theresa added and Chloe smirked.

*meanwhile at Kaibacorp*

"_Another year, another tournament done and the board of directors are already planning next year's location."_ Kaiba thought as he looked over a selection of host cities for next year's Battle City tournament which ranged from Las Vegas to Tokyo, Japan. _"The experiment with the students was a success; maybe we can do the same next year."_ Kaiba thought just as the door opened. "I thought I told me secretary that I didn't want to be….." Kaiba started but trailed off when he saw just who his visitor was. "Yugi, I heard you were in town."

Indeed it was Yugi and even though the soul of the Pharaoh was long gone he had grown to closely resemble him, he was still wearing his Battle City outfit even after all this time. "What can I say? A tournament like this was too good to miss." Yugi commented before frowning. "That wasn't all that attracted me to New York Kaiba."

"You mean the Orichalcos?" Kaiba asked and his old rival nodded. "The local police force has gone over that ship over a dozen times, the only fingerprints they can find either belongs to the students who were there to save their friends or the thugs already in custody."

"And no trace of their leader." Yugi added knowing where this was going. "Wherever he is he's long gone, and we need to be prepared if and when he does return."

"I'll be monitoring the students' process closely, in particular the Richardson girl and Lance Alvers." Kaiba said before looking at the list of possible cities again. "In the meantime they are returning to Duel Academy tomorrow alongside my son, I'll instruct the teachers to push their skills to the limit in preparation for the possibility of Phillip Alvers returning."

"Harsh, but it may be necessary." Yugi agreed before he turned to leave. "Let's hope that they are well prepared in case that does happen, see you around Kaiba." Yugi said before leaving Kaiba's office.


	47. Back to Duel Academy

It had been two days since the student's had eliminated the Orichalcos threat and things where back to normal for the group, after spending the night at a hotel due to a layover they were on the Duel Academy ship which was moments away from docking at the academy.

Chloe and Lance where standing at the front of the ship waiting for it to dock, since they were going back to school they were now wearing their school uniforms though Chloe was wearing the tanktop she wore during the Semi-Finals and beyond under her blazer which, as usual, was open, the majority of their stuff was already packed up and would be waiting for them when they returned to their respective dorms.

"Kind of weird isn't it? I mean I never thought I'd be so glad to see this place again." Lance commented with a grin which Chloe returned.

"Honestly Lance, I'll take a test from Martin over what we went through in the tournament any day of the week." Chloe said with a sheepish grin. "Just don't tell him I said that." Chloe requested and Lance would've complied if not for the fact that he noticed who was behind them.

"Err, too late." Lance said pointing behind her, Chloe gulped before turning around and seeing Martin there alongside Theresa.

"Oh, err, hi Martin." Chloe gulped with a smile whilst trying her best to hide her embarrassment. "You, err, didn't hear any of that, right?"

"I did Chloe, and don't worry, you'll get a test soon enough." Martin said with a face that was hard for the students to decipher before walking off; Theresa joined the two students and looked towards the academy.

"He…..he was kidding, right Theresa?" Chloe gulped knowing exactly how difficult Martin's tests were from experience.

"Wish I could tell you that Chloe but I can't." Theresa shrugged and Chloe groaned. "That man can be hard to read most of the time, even for the students he looks after." She added.

"Oh great, well if nothing else I'll be able to use the skills I picked up during the tournament." Chloe shrugged her shoulders before leaning forward on the balcony, Duel Academy Island was getting nearer and if Chloe had to guess she'd say that they'd be on the island within the hour. _"And hopefully I can get to the Osiris Red girls' dorm without bumping into autograph seekers."_

"Morning guys…..and girls, or whatever time it is." Tyler said with a yawn as he approached them and the three students turned around. "I was just getting used to the American time zone as well."

"Eh don't sweat it; at least we don't have to worry about the Orichalcos for now." Lance shrugged and the others nodded in agreement. "Has there been any news from your dad about the ship?"

"No, nor has there been any about Phillip." Tyler answered with an annoyed grunt. "Sorry but getting asked that constantly is pretty annoying."

"Speak for yourself; those bastards didn't come after you." Lance pointed out and Tyler frowned before nodding.

"Touché, anyway it looks like we'll be docking soon." Tyler admitted as he looked towards the shore…..and saw a site that caught him and the other students off guard. "Is that a welcoming party?"

"Yeah, and no offense Tyler but they seem more interested in welcoming us back." Theresa responded and Tyler smirked at that.

"Fine by me, I just want to get to my room as soon as possible." Tyler admitted as he looked out towards the dock where a small selection of students from the three dorms where gathered.

"Oh god, I just know the other Osiris Red students are going to be asking me for an autograph." Chloe groaned when she saw how many students from her dorm where on the dock.

"And that's a problem, how? You did almost beat Theresa at the tournament." Lance pointed out and Chloe groaned in response.

"That's just it, like Tyler I just want to get to my dorm room as quickly as possible without any hassle." Chloe sighed as she stood up straight. "At least I'll have an easier time doing that than Tyler, what with my dorm being closest to the dock."

"Err, yeah, with that many students on the pier? You'd be better of swimming to the island." Lance pointed out ignoring the mock glare from Chloe. "What? It's true."

"You just want to see me in wet clothing don't you?" Chloe teased him and Lance blushed.

"Err, maybe." Lance said with a nervous laugh, before Chloe could respond the ship docked and the students started swarming the ship. "Okay, I see your point, any ideas for sneaking of the ship before they corner us?"

"Well unless you have a gun you can fire into the air we're kind of out of luck." Chloe gulped before pointing behind them, the students where quickly approaching and Lance gulped. "Well so much for getting off this ship quickly."

"We could always try swimming." Chloe gulped as the students neared.

"Okay, back off, give the guys some room!" A familiar female voice, to Chloe's ears anyway, emerged from the crowd and a female Osiris Red student emerged from the crowd with Maria not far behind, she had shoulder length black hair with blue streaks in it, a nose piercing and blue eyes, her uniform identified her as a First Year student.

"Oh yeah and why should we listen to you?" A male Obelisk Blue student that Chloe couldn't see asked her. "All you are is an Osiris Red reject with a bad hairdo."

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that Martin asked me for help." The student answered back and the students gulped before backing off, smiling she turned to the students. "Sorry about those guys, most of the students who didn't go on the trip were a little over eager to meet ya."

"Just a little over eager?" Lance echoed and the Osiris Red student sweat-dropped. "We appreciate the help anyway, but why did Martin ask you?"

"Why? Don't think I'm good enough just because I'm in Osiris Red?" The student asked as she folded her arms.

"Chelsea relax, he's the Ra Yellow student I told you about." Chloe said stepping forward, the student, now known as Chelsea grinned.

"Is that right? Well any friend of Chloe's is a friend of mine." Chelsea said before turning to the other student. "Name's Chelsea Cunningham, I'm Chloe's roommate in Osiris Red, and may I add that you guys kicked ass in the tournament."

"Yeah, we noticed Chelsea." Theresa grinned as she approached the younger student. "And thanks for the help; I think it would've been dinner time by the time we got to our dorms."

"No prob, I wanted to chat with Chloe anyway." Chelsea grinned before sighing. "Kind of disappointed that I couldn't come with you guys though, I was going to ask Martin to let me on the trip but my parents pulled me out of school after Nathan was hospitalized."

"Eh don't worry about it." Lance said with a grin. "You probably wouldn't have made it that far anyway."

"Err, Lance, you're going to regret saying that." Chloe said with a gulp as she started tugging on her blazer nervously.

"What's the worst that can…." Lance started only to be grabbed by the collar by a pissed off Chelsea.

"Are you insulting my dueling skills little man?" Chelsea demanded and Lance started sweating bullets, despite being much smaller than he was she had a hell of a death glare.

"Err, no." Lance gulped as he quickly shook his head quickly. "I've….I've just never seen your skills in action that's all." Lance added and Chelsea calmed down a bit before letting go.

"Fine, I'll show you my skills myself." Chelsea said as she activated her duel disk. "You, me, right here, I'll show you who would've been eliminated early!"

"Err, just one problem." Lance gulped as he held up his arm where he usually kept his duel disk to show that it was empty. "My duel disk, along with the rest of my stuff was taken to my dorm by speedboat earlier." Lance explained and Chelsea frowned before deactivating her duel disk.

"Fine, we'll take a rain check." Chelsea said before grinning. "Meet me in ten minutes outside the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm, sound fair?"

"Yeah, sounds fair." Lance agreed and Chelsea simply walked off, once she was out of earshot Lance turned to Chloe. "Why didn't you warn me you had a psycho for a roommate?"

"You never asked." Chloe said before frowning. "And she's not a psycho, Chelsea may have a temper that would make much larger men tremble in their boots but she's a good person once you get past that."

"I'll take your word for it." Lance said as he straightened his collar. "You're her roommate so you must have some idea what kind of deck she runs." Lance asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Sorry but I've never watched her duel before now, we were going to have a friendly duel before Nathan's soul was trapped but like she said, Chelsea's parents pulled her out of school for a few weeks after Nathan's soul was trapped." Chloe explained and Lance groaned in frustration. "What I do know is that she's good, she's helped me come up with a few strategies every now and again when I needed them."

"I take it they helped you then?" Lance asked and Chloe nodded. "Well better not waste any time then, I'm off to Ra Yellow to get my duel disk." Lance said before turning around…and bumping into Marcus. "Marcus, how can someone your size be so quiet on your feet."

"I've had plenty of practice, well that and the fact that there was a large crowd just on the ship." Marcus explained with a grin. "And before you ask I haven't dueled Chelsea either, I have heard of her temper though, there's a rumor floating around that it got her kicked out of three schools before she came here."

"Yeah, I just experienced her temper first hand." Lance said before brushing past Marcus and leaving the ship, whilst the boys and Theresa made their way to their respective dorms Chloe headed straight to her room and entered.

"Chelsea, are you in here?" Chloe called out as she looked around; just as the teachers had promised her luggage was waiting for her besides the bunk bed and Chloe's duel disk and deck where on one of the coffee tables.

"Up here Chloe." Chelsea called out from the top bunk, Chloe grinned before closing the door behind her and sitting on the bottom bunk. "And boy was it satisfying to see Otto get his ass kicked!"

"It was just as satisfying to be the ass kicker, believe me." Chloe grinned as she started unpacking. "Sorry about Lance, he has a habit of running his mouth."

"Don't sweat it; I shouldn't have gotten as mad as I did." Chelsea responded before hopping off the top bunk and to the floor. "So how was the tournament?"

"Great in some places, rough in others." Chloe sighed as she started hanging up her clothes. "You know the comments Otto made before his match with Andreas?"

"Yeah, I remember all right." Chelsea frowned as she leaned against the ladder to the top bunk. "I wanted to kick his ass so badly for saying that, so did some of his old friends." Chelsea added earning her a surprised look from Chloe. "Yeah, I was as surprised as you are but apparently even assholes have standards, the others just laughed, don't worry, me and the other girls gave them a piece of our minds."

"That's good to know." Chloe grinned before sighing. "Chelsea, what I'm about to tell you…..please tell you won't tell anyone else?"

"My lips are sealed Chloe, just like when I found out about…you know." Chelsea trailed off and Chloe nodded, Chelsea had learnt of Chloe's abuse shortly after Theresa and Brandon did as she saw Chloe's scar whilst she was getting changed for gym class.

"I….I bumped into my biological dad whilst I was in New York." Chloe said simply and Chelsea's eyes widened. "He was aligned with the Orichalcos duelists."

"Shit…." Chelsea trailed off as she sat next to her friend. "At….at least that bastard's gone right? How'd he break out anyway?" Chelsea asked and Chloe sighed.

"That's the thing, he was never in jail for killing my mom in the first place, or the abuse he inflicted on me." Chloe explained and Chelsea looked at her puzzled. "His conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeals; my stepdad lied about it for the past ten years."

"Oh….oh god….." Chelsea trailed off as it dawned on her. "Chloe, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, I was able to put it behind me and forgive my dad." Chloe sighed and Chelsea smiled at that. "Are you having any second thoughts about Dueling Lance?"

"Are you kidding? I can't wait to see the look on his face when I mop the floor with his deck." Chelsea grinned as she held up her duel disk. "It's not like I don't expect a good challenge though, the guy did hold his own against the champ." Chelsea added and Chloe nodded in agreement. "Oh that reminds me!" Chelsea said before standing up and heading to the top bunk.

"You forget about your duel already?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head as she felt around her bed.

"Nah, it's just that after we learned that Otto destroyed your old deck, including the rare cards you won, me and the girls pooled together our cash and…..well…." Chelsea handed over two cards and Chloe took them. "We brought you these." Chelsea said and Chloe's eyes widened in surprise when she saw them.

"Endymion the Master Magician and Magical Citadel of Endymion…." Chloe trailed off when she saw the two cards, they were among the cards that Theresa and the others were unable to buy following Otto's break-in. "Chelsea you shouldn't have!" Chloe said clearly overjoyed by this.

"Don't worry about it, what are friends for right?" Chelsea asked as she hopped off the ladder and pulled down her top which had rolled up and exposed the lower half of her stomach due to her stretching so much. "Oh and speaking of friends….." Chelsea trailed off when she saw the time, Chloe looked up and grinned. "This should be fun." Chelsea said and Chloe nodded in agreement, the two girls left their room and headed out to the balcony intending to exit through there, sure enough they saw Lance standing there tapping his foot impatiently and he wasn't alone, Theresa, Marcus and Andreas where standing there. "Sorry Lance, I got sidetracked."

"No problem." Lance said as she climbed down the stairs and walked up to him before stopping at the halfway point. "Err, sorry if I offended you back there, can we at least have a friendly match?"

"Depends on what you mean by "friendly match"." Chelsea answered as the two duelists activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "Because as anyone who's had the pleasure of facing my deck can tell you, I'm extremely competitive."

"I never would've guessed." Lance muttered under his breath as he looked over his hand. "Since I'm feeling generous I'll let you go first." Lance told Chelsea who grinned broadly before drawing her card. _"At least this way I'll see what kind of deck she runs."_ Lance thought as he waited for Chelsea to make her move, whilst he did Chloe climbed down the stairs and sat on the grass.

"Good, I'll begin with the Field Spell Card Wattcastle!" Chelsea played the card and the scenery changed to that of a toy castle with lightning coming out of it.

"Well, at least it's not the Orichalcos." Lance commented with a sweat-drop. "Okay, what the hell does this castle do?"

"I'll get to that in a minute, for now I summon this little guy in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and a red and blue cobra appeared on the field with lightning sticking out of it (4/1000/500).

"What the….." Lance trailed off as his eyes rested of the monster.

"This is Wattcobra; trust me he's a lot stronger than he looks." Chelsea commented before picking up another card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the card down and Lance shook off his confusion long enough to draw a card.

"Okay, I've only seen one monster from this deck and to be blunt it's one of the weirdest deck's I've seen." Lance muttered under his breath before looking at the card he had drawn. "So here's something to deal with it, I summon Darkfire Soldier number 1 in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the topless man with his lower half covered in fire appeared on the field (4/1700/1150).

"You know I have a hard time believing anyone uses that old card nowadays, let alone a Ra Yellow student." Chelsea taunted him and Lance growled. _"That's right, attack; you'll be in for a nasty surprise when you do!"_

"I'll show you, Darkfire Soldier, put that snake on the Barbie!" Lance commanded and the soldier launched its self towards Chelsea's snake. "Deep Fried Cobra, hold the….." Lance started but stopped on account of his jaw dropping when Darkfire Soldier's attack points dropped to 700, the cobra leapt towards Darkfire Soldier and bit him in the neck destroying him.

L: 7700

C: 8000

"What the hell just happened, how did my monster lose attack points?" Lance demanded before it hit him and he looked towards the castle. "This is Wattcastle's effect isn't it?"

"You got it, any time an opponent's monster attacks a Watt monster whilst this Field Spell's on the field that monster loses a thousand attack points during Damage Calculation." Chelsea explained with a grin. "You see, the main weakness of my Watt monsters is the fact that most of them have low or non-existent attack points, this field spell and the effects of the Watt monsters themselves make up for it."

"This is going to be tricky in other words." Lance muttered as he picked up a card. "Well I'll match your weak monster with a weak monster of my own; I remove Darkfire Soldier from play to Special Summon Inferno in defense mode." Lance pocketed the monster and the small flame with a threatening face appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance announced and Chelsea drew her card. "Good luck getting past Inferno, his defense is way too tough for Wattcobra to crack so if you want too…."

"Wattcobra shut him up by attacking his life-points directly!" Chelsea interrupted and the cobra leapt towards Lance.

"Excuse me, what?" Lance demanded only to be bitten by the snake.

L: 6700

C: 8000

"Yeah, that's another thing I forgot to mention." Chelsea said with a grin as her cobra returned to her side of the field. "Like I said the Watt monsters make up for their low attack points by having some cool effects, in Wattcobra's case he has two, he can attack your life-points directly and when he inflicts damage in that matter I can add another Watt monster from my deck to my hand." Chelsea explained before picking up her deck, searching through it and adding a monster to her hand.

"Okay, now your deck's been upgraded to pain in the ass!" Lance grunted and Chelsea said nothing before picking up the card she drew.

"I get that a lot, anyway I think now's a good time to activate my trap card Wattcannon!" Chelsea said as she activated the trap; soon afterwards what could only be described as a lightning colored cannon that appeared to be straight out of a cartoon appeared alongside her. "But you don't have to worry about that just yet, but to keep you guessing I'm setting a monster in defense and another card facedown, your move." Chelsea announced and Lance drew his card.

"If it's anything like your other cards I won't like its effect." Lance muttered before looking at his card. "This is more like it; I sacrifice Inferno to summon my old buddy Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch!" Lance played the card and the flame disappeared from the field, in its place stood the mighty monarch of fire (6/2400/1000).

"Before you ask, yes I know his effect." Chelsea said before holding out her hand. "Chose carefully Lance, who knows what's in there."

"I know what I'm doing." Lance said before making his choice. "Say goodbye to the card on the far right." Thestalos threw his fireball at the card and Chelsea winced.

"Good choice, that monster was a Level 6." Chelsea complemented him before sending it to the graveyard.

L: 6700

C: 7400

"I thought you said most Watt Monsters where weak?" Lance asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"I said most, not all; this archetype has some strong normal type monsters in it." Chelsea explained before folding her hands. "So, are you going to attack?"

"You didn't need to ask, Thestalos, attack Wattcobra." Lance commanded and, once its attack dropped to 1400, Thestalos launched a fireball at the monster incinerating it.

C: 7200

L: 6400

"All right, Lance is starting to make some headway!" Marcus said as he pumped his fists, Andreas however remained concerned.

"Then why is it that Chelsea doesn't seem to be worried?" Andreas asked as Chelsea calmly sent her monster to the graveyard. "She had every opportunity to protect it with her facedown card but didn't."

"Your right, that is strange." Marcus commented as he scratched his head. "I mean, Wattcobra has a pretty neat effect, why let it be destroyed?"

"_They'll find out soon enough, just got to get a good amount of monsters on the field for this to work." _Chelsea thought before turning her attention to Lance. "My turn yet?" Chelsea asked and Lance looked over his hand.

"Well I'll think I'll activate my own trap, Backfire!" Lance activated the trap and grinned. "Any time you destroy a Fire-Type monster from now on you take 500 points of damage."

"Meh, I can live with that." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders and Lance raised an eyebrow.

"_What is she planning?" _Lance thought before motioning for her to take her turn, Chelsea drew her card and grinned.

"Just what I was hoping for, no pun intended, first I activate my Wattkeeper trap card!" Chelsea activated the trap and Wattcobra returned to the field. "This lets me Special Summon a low level Watt monster from my graveyard, in exchange though it's destroyed during the end phase." Chelsea said before grinning. "Oh yeah, and now Wattcannon's effect activates." Chelsea added and before Lance could say anything the cannon launched a ball of electricity at him.

C: 7200

L: 5800

"Basically any time a Low Level Thunder Type Monster is Special or Normal summoned this thing inflicts 600 points of damage to your life-points making it ideal for a Watt deck." Chelsea explained with a grin before flip summoning her facedown card. "Next I flip summon Wattfox in attack mode!" Chelsea flipped the card over and a small yellow fox appeared on the field (2/800/100).

"Okay, that's strangely cute but what's his effect exactly?" Lance asked and Chelsea grinned.

"You don't have to worry about that since Wattfox's effect kicks in after he's destroyed by battle or a card effect." Chelsea said as her grin grew larger. "What you do have to worry about is the fact that Wattfox is a Tuner Monster."

"WHAT? OH GREAT!" Lance yelled out as the two thunder monsters leapt into the air.

"That's right, and now I tune Wattcobra with Wattfox in order to Synchro Summon Wattchimera!" Chelsea announced as Wattfox dissolved into two green rings that surrounded Wattcobra, a bright flash enveloped the field, when the flash faded a monster that resembled the Chimera from Greek Mythology appeared on the field, however it was more mechanical in nature and it growled at Lance (6/1400/2100).

"A Synchro Monster with 1400 attack points, that's not exactly a site you see every day." Lance commented dryly. "And if it's anything like your other monsters then he's stronger than he lets on."

"You got that right, but first I have a spell card to play." Chelsea played the card and a Continuous Spell Card appeared on the field. "Wattcine, how this works is simple, when a Thunder Type monster like Wattchimera inflicts Battle Damage to my opponent I'll gain life-points equal to the damage inflicted and guess what? Wattchimera can attack your life-points directly."

"Off course it can." Lance grumbled under his breath.

"Wattchimera, attack his life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and Wattchimera charged towards Lance…..

"Go Defense Draw!" Lance activated his trap and the Chimera's claws connected with his chest, Lance winced but no damage was taken and he drew a card. "I take no damage and get to draw a card as an added bonus."

"Okay, that was a nice save, I'll give you that." Chelsea admitted as Wattchimera returned to her side of the field. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the card down and Lance drew another card.

"_Okay, as much as I want to be rid of that Wattchimera before it does any serious damage Wattcastle will basically mean that any attacks I commit against her monster will be a tie, either I get rid of her field spell or I power up Thestalos somehow." _Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Or how about Option three, a combination of both my previous options!" _Lance thought before playing the card. "You're not the only one with a Tuner Monster."

"Yeah, I'm well aware of that." Chelsea said nonchalantly before it dawned on her. "Oh crap, what do you have in mind?"

"This, I summon the Tuner Monster Flamvell Baby!" Lance played the card and a small fire in the shape of a baby complete with a face appeared on the field (1/800/200). "Flamvell Baby, give my monarch a tune up!" Lance commanded and the two monsters leapt into the air, Flamvell Baby dissolved into a single green ring that surrounded Thestalos. "I tune my two monsters together to Synchro Summon Laval Stennon!" Lance announced as a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded the massive warrior from Lance's duel against Felix appeared on the field (7/2700/1800).

"Not bad, but I've seen better monsters in a starter deck." Chelsea said nonchalantly and Lance growled when he heard that.

"Yeah, well, before I attack I have to send a card from my hand to the graveyard due to Stennon's effect." Lance explained before picking up and discarding a card. "But that's not all; you see I also happen to have another copy of Flamvell Baby in my hand thanks to Defense Draw."

"And you're telling me the contents of your hand, why?" Chelsea asked and Lance grinned.

"I'm telling you that because by discarding Flamvell Baby from my hand I can increase Stennon's attack points by 400!" Lance explained as Stennon's attack points increased to 3100.

"_Okay, this is going to hurt a lot more than I originally planned." _Chelsea thought with a gulp as she glanced towards her facedown card. _"At least Wattcine will help soften the blow a bit."_

"Go Stennon; take out that overgrown pussycat now!" Lance commanded and Stennon charged towards Wattchimera…

"Not this round!" Chelsea interrupted as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Double Passé which means I take the hit for Chimera…"

"And Chimera gets to take a bite out of my life-points in exchange." Lance finished for her earning himself a confused look. "I have a copy of that card myself." Lance explained and Chelsea would've nodded in understanding if not for Stennon's attack sending her to the ground, she sat up and pointed to her Synchro monster.

"Wattchimera, show him your counter attack!" Chelsea commanded and the chimera leapt over Stennon as the massive monster was returning to Lance's side of the field and took a bite out of him. "And thanks to Wattcine, I get some of the life-points I just lost back!" Chelsea added as her spell card glowed.

C: 4100

L: 5800

"You okay Chelsea?" Lance asked as she got to her feet, Chelsea just grinned as she heard that.

"I appreciate the concern but trust me; I'm a lot tougher than I look." Chelsea responded as she gathered up her cards. "But that's not all my combo did, you see when Wattchimera successfully damages your life-points his effect kicks in forcing you to send one card in your hand to the top of your deck." Chelsea explained and Lance frowned before picking up a card in his hand and placing it on the top of his deck.

"That effect's going to be troublesome for Lance." Andreas commented as Lance looked at the rest of his hand. "On its own that's a pretty good effect but combined with Wattchimera's ability to bypass Lance's monsters….."

"And that's not even taking into account her other cards." Marcus commented with a frown. "I just hope that Lance can destroy one, if not all of her cards, I mean Wattchimera would've been destroyed a couple of turns ago by Thestalos if not for her field spell."

"Yeah and that's making me wonder." Theresa chimed in with a frown. "That combo's too good for an Osiris Red student and I'm usually the one to jump to their defense, I'd sooner expect that combo from a Ra Yellow student at most."

"_Oh if only she knew."_ Chelsea thought with a sigh before looking at Lance. "Is it my move yet?" Chelsea asked and Lance looked at the only card in his hand.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance shrugged and Chelsea drew her card. "Before you get any ideas I activate Thunder of Ruler."

"And that prevents me from conducting my Battle Phase, that's fine by me because I have other ways of dealing damage." Chelsea commented as she looked at her drawn card. "Like this little guy, I summon Wattdragonfly in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and a red and green dragonfly with a yellow and black striped tail appeared on the field (2/900/200). "I'll get to his effect in a minute but first Wattcannon will do its stuff!" Chelsea said as the cannon fired another electrical charge at Lance.

C: 4100

L: 5200

"_Normally I'd kamikaze Wattdragonfly against Lance's monster by now but his Trap prevents that." _Chelsea thought before looking at Lance. "Since I can't attack I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Chelsea announced and Lance drew his card. _"On the plus side that's pretty much guaranteed to be a dead draw since I forced him to return that card to the top of his deck with Wattchimera's effect."_

"Let me guess, you think the card I just drew is a dead draw right?" Lance asked and Chelsea blinked in surprise. "Well I hate to tell you this Chelsea but your wrong."

"What are you talking about? You didn't play that card last turn!" Chelsea protested and Lance grinned before turning it around. "Is that Royal Firestorm Guards?"

"That's right, and I'm summoning this bad boy in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the red demon from his duel against Eddie appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "Now I couldn't summon him last turn for two reasons, I didn't have enough Pyro monsters in my graveyard to use his effect and I had already used up my Normal Summon on Flamvell Baby." Lance explained before grinning. "But now that I have enough Pyro type monsters I can use his effect, in exchange for returning four of those cards to my deck I can draw two new cards."

"Yeah, I know, the whole school saw your duel against Eddie." Chelsea responded as Lance returned the four monsters to his deck, shuffled it and drew twice. "Not that it matters, you used up your normal summon this turn just to bring him out."

"Not a problem, I activate the Spell Card Monster Reborn." Lance played the card and Chelsea looked at him confused.

"Why would you play that? Any monsters you had in your graveyard are back in….." Chelsea started before it dawned on her. "You want to summon something from my graveyard!"

"That's right, and I seem to remember you sending a Level 6 monster to the graveyard because of Thestalos's effect!" Lance responded and Chelsea frowned before retrieving the card and tossing it at Lance who caught it skillfully. "Ohh, good card, I summon Watttaildragon!" Lance played the card and a large blue and yellow dragon appeared on the field (6/2500/1000).

"Well, if this isn't a good time to activate my trap I don't know what is!" Chelsea said as her trap card flipped up and a loud roar was heard causing Lance's monsters to cower in fear. "Threatening Roar, an old card but it goes well with this deck." Chelsea explained with a sigh of relief. _"Especially since I would've probably lost the duel if I didn't activate it, at least my trap brought me some time."_ Chelsea thought.

"Nice save, I'll end my turn at that." Lance announced and Chelsea drew her card. _"She may have brought herself a little time with her trap but I'll get to her life-points eventually!" _Lance thought as he waited for Chelsea to make her move.

"Well, well, I was wondering when I was going to take this card for a test drive." Chelsea said with a grin before playing the card. "I activate a Spell Card called Pride of the Weak."

"Pride of the Weak, I've never heard of that card." Lance said with a raised eyebrow, Chelsea grinned before pointing to Stennon

"Allow me to demonstrate its effect then, Wattdragonfly, attack Stennon!" Chelsea commanded to the surprise of everyone else and the dragonfly flew towards the much larger dragon. "Why? Two reasons, Wattdragonfly is one of the Watt monsters that can't attack my opponents life-points directly, the other reason? So that I can discard Honest from my hand and use its effect!"

"Oh crap!" Lance gulped as Chelsea discarded her card and Wattdragonfly's attack skyrocketed to 3600, Watttaildragon tried swatting away the dragonfly but it was no use and the monster was destroyed. "Yeah but don't forget about Backfire." Lance pointed out as his life-points dropped down to 4300 and Chelsea's life-points dropped to 3600 on to rise again to 4500 thanks to Wattcine's effect.

"I know that but now that a Level 2 monster has destroyed something on your side of the field Pride of the Weak's effect activates, since I discarded the last card in my hand for Honest's effect I can now draw two cards." Chelsea explained before drawing two cards. "And speaking of attacks, Wattchimera bypass his monsters and attack directly!" Chelsea commanded and the mythological creature bypassed Lance's remaining monsters and slashed him across the chest.

C: 4500

L: 2900

"And since Wattchimera just damaged your life-points the other card you drew with Royal Firestorm Guard's effect goes back to your hand." Chelsea added with a grin as Lance complied with the effect and Wattcine's effect kicked in bringing Chelsea's life-points up to 5900.

"_I really wish I had my copy of Bad Reaction to Simochi right now, that'll blow her combo right out of the water." _Lance thought before looking up at Chelsea. "Is there anything else?"

"Nah, I'm done for now!" Chelsea shrugged and Lance drew his card.

"Okay, I didn't play this last turn because it would've helped you, but since I'm behind on life-points and your card relies on your hand being nonexistent I'll make an exception!" Lance played the card and Card of Sanctity's hologram appeared on the field, Chelsea frowned but drew until she had six cards in her hand and Lance did likewise. "Sorry Chelsea, but I'm putting a stop to your combo."

"Are you really? And how do you expect to do that?" Chelsea asked and Lance grinned before playing the card, all color drained from Chelsea's face when she saw it. "You drew Heavy Storm?"

"That's right, so say goodbye to all the cards you have back there!" Lance said with a grin as a storm washed over the field, Chelsea's three cards where the first to go followed quickly by her Castle and Lance's Backfire trap. "I know what you're thinking; at least your monsters will protect you, right?" Lance asked with a sly grin.

"Okay, first off unless you're psychic there's no way you can read my mind." Chelsea pointed out as she sent her cards to the graveyard. "Second, unless you also happened to….your next card's Lightning Vortex isn't it?"

"Right again, go Lightning Vortex!" Lance played the card and, after discarding a card from his hand, lightning struck Chelsea's two monsters destroying them both.

"Heh, sorry Lance but the joke's on you because when Wattdragonfly is destroyed by battle or a card effect I can Special Summon another Watt monster in his place!" Chelsea interrupted as she sent her monsters to the graveyard, once that was done she searched through her deck and she quickly found the card she was looking for before she played it. "So say hello to Wattlemur in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and a small, yellow and black lemur with a long tail appeared on the field (2/800/100). "He may not look like much but when he's destroyed in battle or by a card effect and sent to the grave his effect kicks in meaning that you won't be able to attack on your next turn."

"I can live with that." Lance shrugged as he looked over his hand; he picked up a Spell Card and played it. "Next up is the Spell Card Double Summon which lets me have not one but two summons this turn, so first I sacrifice Royal Firestorm Guards to bring back Thestalos!" Lance played the card and the demon disappeared from the field, in its place stood the monarch of fire (6/2400/1000). "You know the drill by now."

"Yeah, I do." Chelsea nodded before holding out her hand, Thestalos threw a fireball at one of the cards and Chelsea breathed a sigh of relief. "Sorry Lance but this time you targeted my second copy off Wattcannon." Chelsea explained before sending the Trap to the graveyard. "And your second Normal Summon is?"

"This guy, I summon Element Dragon!" Lance played the card and a small red dragon appeared on the field (4/1500/1000). "All right guys, get her!" Lance commanded and the three monsters attacked, Element Dragon incinerated her monster whilst the two stronger monsters attacked her directly sending her to the ground.

C: 300

L: 2900

"You okay Chelsea?" Lance asked as she got to her feet, she gathered up her cards before grinning at Lance.

"Like I said, I'm tougher than I look!" Chelsea said plainly before looking around to make sure that she hadn't forgotten any cards, once she confirmed that she had all her cards she turned to Lance. "Besides you can't conduct your next battle phase so I have some time to figure out a way out of this mess." Chelsea added and Lance grinned.

"I like to see you try, for now I end my turn." Lance announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Okay, my combo may be out the window but I'm not out of this yet, as long as I play it safe I shouldn't have any problems."_ Chelsea thought before looking at the card she had drawn, she grinned and wasted no time in playing it. "I activate my own Double Summon, and I use my summons to bring out Wattberyx and another Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the cards and the two monsters appeared on the field, first the cobra from earlier in the duel appeared on the field alongside a small orange fish (3/300/0).

"And why should I worry about them?" Lance asked and Chelsea grinned.

"You shouldn't, you see Wattchimera isn't the only Synchro monster in the Watt archetype, there's one more and since Wattberyx is a tuner…..well you do the math!" Lance's eyes widened as the two monsters leapt into the air. "I tune my monsters together to Synchro Summon Watthyrdra!" Chelsea played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded an electric blue, multi-headed serpent like monster appeared on the field (7/1500/1500).

"Wait; don't tell me, he makes up for his low attack points by being able to attack my life-points directly?" Lance asked and Chelsea nodded. "Well, at least I'll survive this round."

"That's where you're wrong Lance; I equip Watthydra with the Spell Card Wattcube!" Chelsea played the card and grinned. "This gives my guy 100 extra attack points for each Thunder type monster in my grave and since Watt's an archetype of Thunder monsters that's all of them, there's five in my graveyard at the moment bringing my total up to 2000!" Chelsea said proudly as her monster's attack points increased to 2000.

"Sorry but I'll still have 900 life-points by the end of my turn." Lance said cockily and Chelsea grinned. "Unless you have something else in mind I'll survive this round….." Lance trailed off as he remembered something. "That's right, because of Wattlemur I won't be able to attack next round."

"That's right, but you won't be around long enough for that, I play the Spell Card Hidden Armory, this lets me search my deck for an Equip Spell and add it to my hand like so!" Chelsea played the card and searched through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand, however it wasn't in her hand for long as she played it immediately afterwards. "And what do you know? It's another Wattcube." Chelsea played the card and her monster's attack increased to 2500.

"Sorry, but that's still not enough, unless you have another Hidden Armory I'm still surviving this turn." Lance pointed out and Chelsea grinned.

"I don't need another Hidden Armory Lance, Wattcube has another effect." Chelsea said as she sent her second copy of the equip spell to the graveyard. "By sending Wattcube to the graveyard I can increase Watthydra's attack points by one thousand!" Lance's eyes widened as the dragon's attack increased to 3000. "Watthydra, bypass his monsters and finish it!" Chelsea commanded and the serpent reared back its heads before letting lose with several electrical charges each one hitting Lance, the last one sending him to the ground.

C: 300

L: 0000

"Nice duel Lance, better luck next time." Chelsea complemented him and Lance got to his feet, the holograms disappeared and the two duelists deactivated their duel disks, once they did that Lance approached her and offered a handshake. "Good to know there's still some gentlemen left." Chelsea commented before accepting the handshake.

"Yeah well, I know when I'm beat." Lance shrugged his shoulders as he let go off the handshake. "And heck, if you're not doing anything later maybe we can hang out….." Lance started and Chelsea blinked before it hit her.

"Are you asking me out?" Chelsea asked and Chloe winced knowing where this was going.

"Do you want me to tell him Chelsea or can you handle it?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Chloe, its fine, I can handle it." Chelsea told her and Chloe nodded in understanding.

"Tell him what?" Theresa asked raising an eyebrow at the younger duelist.

"Sorry Lance, but you're not my type…." Chelsea trailed off and Lance blinked in surprise. "I guess what I'm saying is that, well, when it comes to dating I stick to my own locker room." Chelsea said and it took Lance and the others a second to figure it out.

"You're gay?" Lance asked and Chelsea nodded. "Well, err, this is just plain awkward, how many other people know?"

"Chloe knows for one, I tried hitting on her when she moved into my room." Chelsea explained and Chloe blushed a bit. "Besides her, most of the girls in Osiris Red know about it and my parents know as well, they were the first people I told when I decided to come out a couple of years ago." Chelsea added before wincing. "You don't have a problem with that, do you Theresa? I know your religious and all….."

"Relax, I may be a Christian but I don't have a problem when it comes to gay people." Theresa reassured her as she approached the younger student. "There's just one thing that's been bugging me, and no offense to Chloe or the other girls here, but your deck and skills are surprisingly good for an Osiris Red Student."

"Oh, that." Chelsea said as she frowned. "They originally considered me good enough for Ra Yellow but I got stuck here because I let my temper get the better of me during my test duel, I snapped at my proctor after he countered several of my moves and despite winning using the same combo I used against Lance a few moments ago they stuck me here." Chelsea sighed as she looked down at her deck. "That's why I wanted to join you guys in New York; I was hoping to impress the teachers enough so that they'd consider me for the graduation duels next month."

"With how well you would've done right?" Theresa asked and Chelsea nodded. "I could put in a good word for you with Martin in you want, he considers me one of his best students so he's bound to listen."

"You'd do that?" Chelsea asked genuinely surprised by this, Theresa shrugged her shoulders.

"Sure, just gotta watch that temper of yours." Theresa added and Chelsea grinned, before anyone could say anything else Theresa spotted Jeff approaching them. "Hey Jeff, what's up?"

"Martin's called an assembly over at the main building, we looked for you guys at your dorms but when you weren't there…." Jeff explained and Chelsea grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, I challenged Lance to a duel and I guess they got curious." Chelsea explained and Jeff nodded in understanding before motioning for the students to follow him which they did.


	48. Will of Steel

"So, you guys have any idea what this assembly's about?" Lance asked as the students entered the main building of the Duel Academy for the first time in a week, Theresa merely shrugged her shoulders as she walked behind him.

"I'm afraid I'm just as clueless as you are." Theresa said honestly as she looked around, Chelsea wasn't far behind her as she was walking alongside Chloe whilst Marcus and Andreas where walking behind them.

"Hey guys." Brandon greeted them as he approached them. "I see you're just as confused as I am." Brandon commented and Theresa nodded. "Yeah I'm getting mixed messages from the teachers, they told me and Kimberly about the assembly but when we got here we were told to wait for Martin, twenty minutes ago."

"That's weird, we weren't told that." Lance said as he scratched his head. "I'm guessing Kimberly's gone off in search for Martin?"

"You got it." Brandon nodded to confirm his suspicion. "Haven't heard back from her though, oh hi Chelsea, didn't see you there." Brandon said when he saw Chelsea.

"Hey, how was the tournament?" Chelsea asked and Brandon frowned.

"Rough but fun…..first one to make a dirty joke about that gets kicked in the nuts." Brandon said blushing as he realized what he had just said.

"And if a female says it?" Chloe asked and Brandon paused.

"I'll get back to you on that." Brandon said eventually before turning to Chelsea. "Pity you weren't invited to the tournament, you could've done well with your deck."

"Thanks, though Lance here knows that first hand." Chelsea said and Lance blinked.

"Wait, you fought her before?" Lance asked and Brandon nodded. "Oh for fuck's sake, I went into my match with her with no idea what I was getting myself into!"

"So….how did it go?" Brandon asked and Lance frowned.

"She beat me despite having 300 life-points to my 2900 life-points!" Lance growled and Chelsea patted him on the back reassuringly.

"Look on the Brightside; at least you didn't lose despite me only having 50 life-points left unlike the proctor. I faced." Chelsea reassured him and Lance gave her a funny look. "Yes, I'm serious about that."

"Ah there you are." Martin said as he approached the teens with Kimberly in tow. "Sorry for the wait, I just had to make some adjustments to my presentation for the assembly."

"No worries, so where's this assembly anyway?" Chloe asked and Martin motioned for them to follow him.

"Those of you who competed in Battle City follow me, sorry Ms. Cunningham but you'll have to join the other students in the audience." Martin told them and Chelsea nodded before walking in the opposite direction that they were going, the other students meanwhile made their way to where Martin was heading. "I heard you had an exhilarating duel with Ms. Cunningham Lance."

"I'll say; she gave me a run for my money." Lance said as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Even if her deck is one of the weirdest I've seen."

"Yes, her deck is certainly unique." Martin said after a few minutes of thinking, they eventually reached a door and stooped, Martin said nothing as he opened it. "Go through the door and take a seat, I'll explain in a moment." Martin told the students who exchanged uneasy looks before doing so…..and quickly realizing that they were the focus of the assembly.

"Okay, how about we go back through the door." Chloe gulped before turning around…..only to see Martin locking it. "Why did I have to open my big mouth?" Chloe sighed before sitting next to Lance, Theresa and Brandon sat next to each other whilst Kimberly, Marcus and Andreas sat beside each other.

"Thank you for coming, I am glad that you are here to join me in welcoming back the students who participated in the Battle City Tournament." Martin said after he stepped up to the podium, the crowd cheered and the students smiled at that. "Now I know most of you are wondering why Otto "Heinz" Freshier isn't among the students….." Martin started and the students on stage looked visibly uncomfortable at the mention of his name, Chloe especially. "I regret to inform you that because Otto has broken several Duel Academy rules AND the law for that matter that he has formerly been expelled and is currently awaiting trial alongside the other Orichalcos duelists."

"_Thank god for that."_ Chloe thought before taking a quick survey of the students she could see in the crowd, the Osiris Red Students and Ra Yellow students seemed to share her opinion on the matter whilst the Obelisk Blue Students seemed to be divided on the matter; she looked at the students on stage and saw that they had noticed this as well.

"Now, how the tournament affected these students and they're grades will be addressed at a later date." Martin continued as he looked out towards the students. "Now onto what events the Academy has lined up for the future, we are aware that students who didn't participate where disappointed that they couldn't come, especially the Osiris Red Students, and whilst nothing can be done to rectify this I have discussed this issue with the school board and we have reached a compromise of sorts."

"_Compromise?" _Nearly every other student, including the ones on stage, wondered.

"And so I am happy to announce that in two weeks' time the school will be holding a School Wide Tag Team Tournament." Martin said as the previously unseen projector projected the tournament brackets onto the wall behind him. "Now obviously there are a lot of students at the academy which will make choosing your partners difficult, so we have decided to take that decision out of your hands by choosing your partners at random." Martin added and the announcement caused quite a stir among the students. "The choices won't just be limited to what dorms you are in, a Ra Yellow Student may end up teaming with an Obelisk Blue or an Osiris Red student for example."

"_So, I could end up teaming with Theresa?" _Chloe wondered as she glanced towards the older student who was clearly curious about the possibilities, she could hear some disgruntled murmurs coming from the Obelisk Blue section and frowned. _"Guess they don't like the idea."_

"Also in one month's time we will be accepting applicants again, students already enrolled may attend if they wish but it isn't obligatory and won't affect your grade, after that we have the graduation duels which will also be held in a month's time, again who the students will be facing will be at random and not limited to the dorms they are in, obviously students in Obelisk Blue who aren't about to graduate from the academy won't be taking part." Martin added and there were some murmurs again. "As for who will be selected, that will be discussed in private with the students in question, any questions?" The crowd was silent for a few moments and Martin nodded. "Excellent, that's all for today, but before we disperse please give a big round of applause for the students who did such an excellent job in representing Duel Academy at the Battle City tournament!"

"Hey wait a minute…." Lance started but any further words where drowned out by the loud clapping, even the Obelisk Blue Students who had voiced displeasure at teaming up with Osiris Red or Ra Yellow students where applauding them, the applause lasted for a couple of minutes before the assembly officially ended and the students in the audience left first before Martin unlocked the door and let the other students leave. "So, out of one tournament and into another, at least we won't leave the island this time."

"I'm more concerned about who I'll be teaming up with." Andreas commented as he adjusted his glasses. "Not to mention the fact that he didn't mention how they are going to announce who's teaming up with whom."

"Honestly? I'm more curious than concerned." Theresa commented off handily as they walked down the hallway. "This tournament could produce some interesting combinations."

"Doesn't matter who I team up with, I'll win for sure." A nearby Obelisk Blue student muttered just loud enough for the other students to hear, he was tall and muscular with neck length blonde hair and blue eyes, he saw the students looking at him and his eyes narrowed. "You have a problem?"

"I have a problem with a guy running his mouth about how he'll win before the tournament has even begun." Lance said as he folded his arms.

"Is that a fact?" The student said as he looked Lance over. "You may have done well at Battle City Alvers but trust me, if I had been participating you wouldn't have made it past Round 1."

"Oh yeah well if your just a hotshot duelist than why weren't you selected?" Lance challenged him and the student scowled. "Or maybe your just jealous that a damn crook posing as an Obelisk Blue student did a piss poor job or representing Duel Academy whilst you were stuck here….."

"Don't give me that bullshit! Everyone knows Otto was framed!" The student snapped at him and Lance's eyes narrowed. "Hell I'll go as far as to say that the Osiris Red Bitch who beat him made the story of her abuse up just for sympathy."

"What did you just say?" Chloe demanded as she shoved Lance aside and glared at the student. "You really think I'd make something like that up?"

"Well, well, guess the little bitch has a backbone!" The student scoffed as he looked down at Chloe. "And as for your question, yeah I do, don't like it? Go cry to your miserable failure of a stepdad!" The student added and Theresa quickly tried to intervene when she heard that part, she wasn't quick enough and the student got a nasty slap right across the face from Chloe. "You dare lay a hand on me you little bitch!" The student demanded but before he could continue several students including Theresa, Brandon and Chelsea got between them. "Let me at that bitch!"

"What is going on here?" A voice that made both Chloe and the student freeze in their tracks rang out; the two students nervously looked up and saw Martin standing there.

"Thank god you arrived." The student said as he rubbed his cheek. "She…"

"She defended herself when Cameron here made several uncalled for and very personal comments about her family." Theresa quickly interrupted and the other students nodded in agreement. "And quite frankly I'm disappointed that I couldn't intervene in time and prevent this from escalating the way it did." Theresa said looking between the two students as she did making it clear that she wasn't happy with either of them.

"Very well, Richardson, Matthews, back to your dorms immediately, Richardson your dorm headmistress will have a chat with you about this, understood?" Martin said sternly and Chloe nodded before the two students stormed off, once the crowd dispersed Theresa ran after Chloe and caught her on the way to the west side of the island where she was sitting by a lake.

"Let me guess, here to berate me for standing up for myself?" Chloe asked as she saw Theresa's reflection in the water. "I saw the way you looked at me so you may as well get it over with." Chloe added and Theresa looked at Chloe, she could clearly see that Cameron's comments had cut deeply as she was upset.

"Look Chloe, I understand why you got mad at him, believe me I wanted to punch him myself." Theresa sighed as she offered her a tissue; Chloe took it and used it to wipe away the tears coming out of her eyes. "But resorting to violence? I thought you knew better."

"I do, but I just lost control." Chloe sighed as she looked at her reflection. "Who was that guy anyway? You seemed to know him."

"Cameron Matthews, he's a Grade A asshole who thinks that Osiris Red and Ra Yellow shouldn't be dorms at the academy." Theresa explained with a frown. "His dad paid his way into Obelisk Blue so he didn't earn his place like I did, and like you're currently doing." Theresa said and Chloe scoffed.

"Me an Obelisk Blue student, Theresa I'll be lucky if they let me even look at that dorm after what happened back there." Chloe sighed as she looked at her reflection again; she wiped away a couple of more tears before continuing. "What's the point anyway? No matter what dorm I'm in everyone will remember me as the Osiris Red whose mistake cost got her eliminated from Battle City and eliminated any chance to win the Battle City Championship, not to mention who slapped the taste out of Cameron Matthews's mouth."

"Chloe, you don't know that for sure." Theresa reassured her with a friendly pat on the back. "Besides it's like I said back in New York, we all make mistakes, you just have to learn from them."

"I know." Chloe sighed as she rested her scarred arm on her right leg. "I heard the same damn phrase every time I screwed up when my dad was teaching me how to play." Chloe added before looking at her duel disk. "But the mistakes keep piling up and I'm not learning a damn thing from them." Chloe added clearly getting frustrated at this point.

"Chloe, you and I both know that's not true." Theresa sighed sadly. "I know how frustrating it is to be a rookie at this game, hell nearly everyone who lives here can attest to that, but you're improving each day." Theresa said before noticing someone approaching them. "Chelsea? I'm guessing you're here to check on Chloe?"

"Yeah, but if it's any consolation I pretty much yelled the assholes ear off before the teachers dragged me away, I may get told off by Maria for it but it'll be damn worth it." Chelsea commented before sitting down next to her. "That and I would've done a lot more than slap him if I were in your shoes." Chelsea added and Chloe frowned.

"Chelsea, that asshole was at least a foot higher than me and a lot bigger, how the hell could I have done any damage besides damage done to his ego?" Chloe asked before pausing. "All though I will say that he definitely needs to be taken down a peg."

"He only needs to be taken down only one peg? Maybe ten pegs." Chelsea said with a cheeky grin on her face. "Besides I never said anything about punching him, I don't care how big a guy is because one swift kick to the balls usually leaves them in a fetal position." Chelsea added and the two girls grinned at that…..until they heard someone clearing their throat. "Don't tell me, Maria's right behind me, she heard everything I just and she's angry?"

"No, she's waiting for you at the Osiris Red Girl's dorm." Hamden's voice rang out and Chelsea gulped before turning around. "She just asked me to look for you."

"Err, I would like to add that any references I made to kicking Cameron in the nuts were totally in jest and I didn't mean a single word of it." Chelsea said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head, Chloe face palmed behind her roommate's back.

"Right…Chelsea, Chloe, you know where Maria's office is and if I were you two I wouldn't keep her waiting." Hamden said plainly and the two girls gulped before standing up and making their way to the girl's dorm.

"Nice cover-up by the way." Chloe whispered to her friend sarcastically and Chelsea laughed nervously. "Well, since I can't deal with that asshole with my fists, as tempting as it is, I'll make do with teaching him a lesson on the duel field."

"You're kidding right? Have you seen Cameron duel?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head. "His deck's feared throughout the school, you heard of the Steelswarm monsters?"

"What now?" Chloe asked and Chelsea sighed.

"Steelswarm, they're an Archetype of fiend monsters that focus on gaining abilities through Tribute Summons, think the Monarchs but more tied to one Type of Monster, no one has been able to beat his deck." Chelsea explained before pausing. "I know I can't stop you from issuing this challenge but at the very least let me help you prepare your deck."

"That'll be great, thanks Chelsea." Chloe said as the two girls reached the girls dorm. "Well, time to face the music." Chloe sighed in annoyance.

"Well, look on the Brightside, the worst they can do short of expulsion is call our parents in and I doubt they'd call them in for something like this." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders and Chloe nodded in agreement, "Just be glad we're not in Obelisk Blue, the earful we would've gotten from Martin would've left us begging him to call our parents."

"Yeah, good point." Chloe nodded in agreement as the two girls entered the dorm, they made their way to Maria's office and Chloe hesitated before knocking.

"Come in!" Maria's voice rang out from the other side of the door and Chloe opened the door. "Ah good, you made it." Maria said with a disappointed frown.

"You want to see us one at a time or should we come in together?" Chloe asked and Maria thought for a moment.

"I'll see you at the same time; the two incidents are linked after all." Maria told them and Chloe and Chelsea entered the room before sitting next to each other. "Chloe, I'll start with you." Maria said sternly and Chloe gulped nervously. "I'm not saying that I don't sympathize with your plight, Cameron's comments were out of line and you had every right to be angry about it."

"Then why does it feel that I'm being punished for standing up for myself?" Chloe asked as her eyes narrowed. "I put up with enough of that BS before the tournament started, I wasn't about to let him get away with it."

"I understand both your frustration and your reasoning." Maria reassured her before sighing. "That said resorting to violence is absolutely out of the question; did you know that we are considering you two for graduation to Ra Yellow?"

"Wait, what?" The two girls asked simultaneously and Maria nodded.

"Yes, and I've been championing that decision myself, in your case Chloe it's for the vast improvement you've made in such a short amount of time." Maria told her and Chloe blushed a bit. "However this….incident, justified or not, may hinder your chances, students in Ra Yellow and especially Obelisk Blue are expected to be upstanding students, we do get the occasional bad apple but they're usually scared straight by the time they reach Obelisk Blue."

"So, let me get this straight, because Chloe stood up against a loudmouth bully she may not be moved up?" Chelsea asked and Maria nodded. "With all due respect, that's bullshit."

"Those are the rules Ms. Cunningham and you are expected to follow them to the latter." Maria said sternly and Chelsea backed down. "Whilst we're on the subject Ms. Cunningham, I understand that you wanted to stand up for your friend and roommate but you almost came to blows with him yourself." Maria said and Chelsea clenched her fists.

"He called me a derogatory term for homosexuals that I won't repeat because it infuriates me so much!" Chelsea said angrily and Chloe looked at her roommate with a look of surprise on her face. "I'm not going to take that bullshit lying down."

"I understand and I understand that you came out of the closet originally because you were just hoping for acceptance from your fellow students." Maria nodded in understanding and Chelsea cast her eyes downward. "Fortunately like Chloe's incident there were several witnesses to your confrontation who heard Cameron use that…..disgraceful term….and he will be punished for it." Maria said before handing the two girls several sheets of paper each. "This is your punishment; you are to write a several page essay each on why what you did was wrong, you cannot assist each other in doing so." Maria told them but saw that the two girls were about to protest it. "Justified reasons or not you two did break Duel Academy's rules and I cannot let that go unpunished, if it's any comfort to you there is no deadline for this and Cameron Matthews will be receiving a more severe punishment." Maria informed them and the two girls exchanged looks before nodding in understanding.

"We understand Maria." Chelsea sighed as she looked up at them. "We'll get these done as soon as we can so that they don't interfere with that Tag Team Tournament."

"That's the spirit." Maria said encouragingly before looking over her paperwork. "Now is there anything else you want?"

"Actually yeah, there is." Chloe told her and Maria looked up at her. "I'd like a duel request form please." Chloe requested and Maria reached into her desk draws.

"Do you want one for Osiris Red, Ra Yellow or Obelisk Blue?" Maria asked and Chloe nodded her head when she mentioned Obelisk Blue, Maria quickly caught on and her eyes narrowed. "Chloe, are you planning on challenging Cameron?"

"Yes, I am." Chloe nodded and Maria sighed.

"Chloe, I know you like a challenge and I know why you want to challenge him but I must advise against this." Maria said and Chloe folded her arms, Maria sighed in resignation before signing the form to indicate that she had approved the request. "But I cannot force you to change your mind about this; I just hope that you know what you are getting into." Maria said as she handed over the form, Chloe took it and the two girls left the office, they said nothing as they headed back to their room, they reached the room and once they entered Chelsea went to her usual hang out place, the top bunk.

"Chelsea, why didn't you tell me that Cameron said those things?" Chloe asked and Chelsea stopped halfway up the ladder.

"Chloe, I didn't want to worry you or Theresa all right?" Chelsea said as she hopped off the ladder. "Besides, it was hardly the first time that someone threw that hateful bullshit my way."

"Yeah but how many times did the person throwing it almost end up fighting you?" Chloe asked and Chelsea hesitated. "I don't mean to intrude; I'm just concerned that's all."

"It's okay Chloe, I hear you, and I showed the same concern when I saw your scar for the first time so I guess it's only fair." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders after a few minutes. "Look, you know my temper and you know that I'm not afraid to get physical with people who piss me off."

"Err, yeah, I think that's right up there with Lance's love of Thrash Metal as far as "Duel Academy's Worst Kept Secrets" go." Chloe joked and Chelsea grinned sheepishly.

"Good point." Chelsea admitted before sighing. "However when it comes to…words like Cameron used…..I've always used restraint when dealing with guys like that, yeah I realize how hard that might be to believe, I'm not saying it was easy but it kept me out of trouble, but Cameron? Not only did he call me….that word…..but he told me to stick to making porn vids on the internet."

"Did he really say that?" Chloe asked with a look of surprise on her face, Chelsea had told her numerous times that the depiction of lesbians in porn was a bit of a berserk button for her and whilst she had admitted numerous that she shouldn't expect anything less from porn it was still an annoyance for her. "I'm guessing his comments towards me didn't exactly help matters?"

"That's the understatement of the century." Chelsea groaned before looking at the sheets of paper given to her by Maria. "So, do you want to fill this out first or your duel request form?"

"The request form, it'll take me a lot less time and get it out of the way so that I can focus on this." Chloe said as she sat down at a coffee table, before they could even begin work on it however there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Chelsea told her and Chloe started filling out the request form, Chelsea opened the door and saw Brandon standing there. "Hi Brandon, what's up?"

"Just checking up on you girls after what happened earlier." Brandon shrugged as Chelsea let him in. "Sorry for what Cameron said, I really should've tried to shut him up before he went too far."

"Don't worry Brandon; we got off lightly all things considered." Chloe told him as she filled out the request form. "Any news on what punishment he's getting?"

"None yet, problem is Martin's usually pretty hush-hush about this stuff." Brandon shrugged his shoulders before looking at what Chloe was doing. "You're challenging Cameron?"

"After what he said to me and Chelsea back there I want to teach him a lesson." Chloe said as she finished filling out the form. "And since I've already tried doing that with violence I'm going for the next best thing."

"At least you won't get in trouble for that." Chelsea chimed in but Brandon frowned. "Let me guess, you don't like the idea of Chloe challenging Cameron."

"No it's not that, hell if you ask me Cameron's a guy who needs a serious blow to his ego, it's just that I doubt school security will let either of you anywhere near Cameron after what happened." Brandon pointed out and Chloe facepalmed.

"And I need to deliver this to him in person to make it official." Chloe realized with a sigh. "Damn it, I didn't think of that."

"Don't worry about it, your only human." Brandon reassured her and she smiled at his reassurance, Brandon rubbed his chin in thought before getting an idea. "Let me take that to him."

"And challenge him on Chloe's behalf, good idea." Chelsea said with a grin….which quickly disappeared. "How do we even know if he'll accept the challenge or if the teachers will accept it as official though?"

"Let me worry about that, if need be I'll argue the case to Martin or even Chancellor Wilkins." Brandon said with a sheepish grin. "Hell I'd go one step further and argue with Kaiba himself about it."

"Now I'm beginning to see what Theresa sees in you." Chelsea said with a good natured grin.

"Err, thanks I think." Brandon said as Chloe handed him the form. "I'll get back to you on whether or not Cameron's accepted, oh that reminds me, and they've released the brackets for the tag team tournament."

"Oh yeah, when?" Chelsea asked confused and Brandon blinked before it dawned on him.

"Almost forgot, Osiris Red doesn't have a computer in each dorm room." Brandon said as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Maria's still arguing for that I take it?"

"We can practically hear her yelling down the phone to Wilkins from up here." Chloe said sheepishly. "The thing is that she's stated repeatedly that she won't settle for low end machines, for her it's top of the line or nothing."

"I can't really blame her there, students in Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue get top of the line PCs in their rooms and well, this school has been trying to promote equality between the three dorms, and it's gotten to the point where my dad has offered to pay for them out of his own pocket." Brandon agreed before shaking his head. "Chelsea, you have a laptop don't you?"

"Yeah, it's on the top bunk, give me a sec." Chelsea said before climbing up the ladder to her bunk and retrieving the laptop, she put it on the coffee table opposite Chloe and plugged it in. "Okay, just got to wait for it to boot up." Chelsea added.

"It shouldn't take too long." Brandon commented and Chelsea nodded. "Well I'll leave you girls too it and I look forward to facing you at the tournament." Brandon said before leaving the room.

"Chelsea, you mind reading out who I'm teaming with? I want to get started on the Essay." Chloe requested.

"Sure." Chelsea responded as she waited for the laptop to boot up, once she signed in to her profile she accessed the Academy's website through Firefox and blinked in surprise. "Chloe, you don't exactly have to go far to find your partner."

"They're in Osiris Red as well?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Okay, who is it?"

"Me." Chelsea told her causing Chloe to drop her pen in surprise.

"Really, are you serious?" Chloe asked before walking over to Chelsea's laptop to see for herself. "Great, our decks have nothing in common."

"Hey, it's cool, we'll think of something." Chelsea told her before looking at their opponents. "Donny Cramer and Drake Derringer never heard of them."

"Same here, Donny was good enough to get into Ra Yellow so I think it's safe to say he's got some talent, Drake's on Osiris Red so who knows about him." Chloe shrugged as she looked at the info on the team. "Wait, Brandon and Theresa are teaming up?"

"Random my ass, if this isn't rigged in Obelisk Blue's favor I'll eat my laptop whole!" Chelsea said angrily. "Well, good to see my girlfriend's in it."

"Yeah I guess. "Chloe said….before it dawned on her. "Since when did you have a girlfriend?" Chloe asked curiously and Chelsea blushed.

"Oh right, I must've forgotten to mention that." Chelsea said as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I started dating another Osiris Red student whilst you guys where in New York, girl called Beth McKenzie."

"She's the one teaming with Tommy Marlow from Ra Yellow correct?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Well I'm happy for you in that case; maybe you should introduce me to her."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Chelsea agreed before looking back to the list. "You'd like her, she's a good person." Chelsea added before turning her attention back to the list. "Well, the other Battle City participants are in the tournament as well, Marcus is teaming up with Tyler, if that's not an odd couple I don't know what is, Andreas is teaming up with that Obelisk Blue student who gave you a bit of trouble when you first moved here."

"Ugh, don't remind me of that asshole." Chloe groaned with a facepalm. "On one hand I want to face him so that I can give him a piece of my mind, on the other hand I'd be eliminating Andreas from the tournament at the same time."

"Yeah, that's a tough choice." Chelsea agreed. "Besides him, Kimberly's teaming with her brother, which should be an interesting tag team; Cameron's teaming with his girlfriend….."

"That asshole has a girlfriend?" Chloe interrupted and Chelsea sighed.

"Trust me, she makes him look civil." Chelsea told her and Chloe sighed. "Lance is teaming with Evan and that Rajin kid from Ra Yellow's teaming up with Thomas Newborn from Obelisk Blue."

"I never heard of him." Chloe shrugged as did Chelsea.

"Same here, he apparently joined at the same time we did." Chelsea said before looking over the list. "That's everyone I recognize, not sure about the rest though."

"Hate to be the ones to take on Theresa and Brandon." Chloe said with a sheepish grin and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Speaking of Brandon, I wonder if he's had any luck with Cameron."

*meanwhile*

Brandon had some school work to do before he gave Cameron the Duel Request form but he was done now, things where pretty tense around the boy's dorm but he didn't take notice of that.

"_Honestly I'm siding with the girls considering that he started it." _Brandon thought with a frown before grabbing the Duel Request form, after proof reading it he left the room and walked down the hall in search for him, as he walked past a door he heard it open and assumed that it was one of the other male students, he was wrong.

"Looking for someone?" A female voice rang out and Brandon groaned before turning around, the woman was an Obelisk Blue student with elbow length red hair and blue eyes who was wearing a more revealing version of the Obelisk Blue girl's uniform.

"Jessica, It's a displeasure to see you as always." Brandon sighed as he looked at the woman; she was Cameron's girlfriend who had earned her nickname "The Ice Queen of Obelisk Blue" about ten times over. "I'm looking for your boyfriend."

"Any reason I should tell you where he is? I know your friends with that Osiris Red Bitch." Jessica said as she folded her arms.

"Yes, she's the bitch despite the fact that it was your boyfriend that provoked her and called her roommate a derogatory term for homosexuals." Brandon said sarcastically as his eyes narrowed. "There's few things that I don't have patience for Jessica and blatant favoritism isn't one of them, besides that this is the boy's dorm and whilst the fact that you often sneak in here for sex with Cameron isn't exactly a secret among the students I don't think Martin will like the fact that you are clearly here for that fact or the fact that you sleep around behind Cameron's back." Brandon added and Jessica's eyes narrowed.

"How did you know that?" Jessica demanded and Brandon smirked.

"Please, the only person who doesn't know that is Cameron himself." Brandon said plainly and Jessica growled.

"Fine, you can see him, just don't tell him." Jessica sighed before storming off, Brandon sighed before knocking on the door that Jessica had emerged from, he may not have liked Cameron but he and the other male students agreed that he deserved better than Jessica, moments later the door opened and Cameron saw him.

"I heard you arguing with my girlfriend, anything I should know about Brandon?" Cameron asked and Brandon shook his head. "Good, now why do you want to see me?"

"I think you'll be interested in this." Brandon said before handing over Chloe's request form, Cameron took one look at it and smirked.

"What? Are you now the errand boy for Osiris Red Students?" Cameron asked and Brandon's eyes narrowed.

"We both know why Chloe can't deliver it in person." Brandon told him and Cameron nodded.

"Yeah, because of the whole incident back there." Cameron nodded before pausing. "You know what? I could use a good laugh." Cameron said before signing that he had accepted the duel. "Tell her that I agree to her terms as well."

"So if she wins you'll apologize to her and Chelsea?" Brandon asked and Cameron nodded reluctantly.

"In the unlikely event that she does beat me, yes, yes I will." Cameron said dismissively before handing back the request form. "Tell her that I'll duel her at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field in ten minutes."

"I will, try to be civil for once." Brandon said before walking off. _"Here's hoping Chloe can control her temper in the meantime."_ Brandon thought.

"So, the rumors are true." Tyler asked as he approached Brandon. "Chloe wants to duel Cameron."

"Yeah, and given what happened between them I don't blame her." Brandon commented before frowning. "He's accepted but I'm worried about whether or not she can handle the Steelswarm monsters."

"Yes, they are a very tricky archetype to combat." Tyler agreed before turning to Brandon. "Where is Chloe at the moment?"

"She's in her dorm room with her roommate Chelsea." Brandon answered and Tyler nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"If she's going to challenge Cameron her deck will need to be at its best, I think I might be able to help with that." Tyler told him as the two boys left the dorm and headed towards the Osiris Red Girl's dorm. "Chloe's a good duelist but challenging Cameron? She may be biting off more than she can chew."

"What was that?" Theresa asked as she approached them. "Is Chloe seriously considering challenging Cameron?"

"Seriously considered, filled out request form and I'm about to tell her that it'll take place at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field." Brandon corrected her and Theresa sighed. "What? We both know that that idiot needs a blow to his ego."

"I know but Tyler may be right about her biting off more than she can chew." Theresa said before shaking her head. "I'm not going to try to persuade her otherwise, since at this point that would be like asking most of Obelisk Blue NOT to be absolute pricks to students in Osiris Red and Ra Yellow, but I will be waiting for her at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field."

"See you there." Brandon told her before the two boys made their way to the Osiris Red Girl's dorm where Chloe and Chelsea where waiting for him. "He accepted, just be ready for a challenge."

"I am; Chelsea helped me with my deck after we did that essay for Maria." Chloe told him before she turned to Tyler. "So what brings him here?"

"What? Aren't you glad to see me?" Tyler asked with a mock look of hurt. "Seriously though, I heard about the challenge and I wanted to see if I could help." Tyler told her and she smiled at that. "Though it seems Chelsea has beaten me too it."

"Err, yeah sorry about that." Chelsea said sheepishly before frowning. "Wait, if you know then does Theresa?"

"Yeah, she knows, she's not happy about it but knows that there's no changing your mind on it." Brandon told her before turning around. "The match is at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field, even if you do remember where it is we'll take you two there anyway."

"Yeah, because otherwise they wouldn't let us in, I still don't understand that rule and I'll probably never will." Chelsea finished for him before they followed the boys to the center of the island. "Any news on what punishment they'll have for Cameron?"

"None yet but I doubt they'll let him off lightly." Tyler said as he turned to them. "The school has a zero tolerance policy towards insults that are homophobic or racist in nature." Tyler added before pausing. "Chloe, if it's not too much trouble, could I look through your deck? Don't worry; I won't use any info I learn about it should our teams faceoff in the tournament."

"Actually I've been meaning to ask about that." Chelsea said as she folded her arms. "Brandon, do you have any idea why they teamed you up with Theresa?"

"Not really, I just assumed that it was a random pairing but then you get teams like Kimberly and her brother or Cameron and his girlfriend." Brandon told her and she sighed. "If it's any consolation neither me nor Theresa had any say in who got teamed up with whom, if we did we would've asked to be teamed up with someone else in the interest of fairness."

"Well, if you say so." Chloe said shaking her head before retrieving her deck and handing it to Tyler; he looked through it with a raised eyebrow but didn't say anything.

"Your deck's good, maybe it has a few too many cards but it's otherwise better than your typical Osiris Red Deck, err no offense." Tyler said upon seeing the looks he was getting from the girls, he handed Chloe her deck back before searching through his pockets "This trap might help you against Cameron." Tyler said before retrieving the card and handing it to her.

"Surprised I didn't think of that." Chelsea commented when she saw the card. "I have a copy in my side-deck, if I had thought about it I would've leant it to her for the duel."

"I'm not worried." Chloe shrugged as she added the trap to her deck. "If it helps me put that idiot in his place I'm not complaining."

"Now that I would like to see happen." Brandon commented as they entered the main building, Chloe did her best to ignore the looks she was getting for security due to the incident earlier but since they didn't give her too much trouble she just ignored them, they arrived at the duel field and where stopped by security. "The two girls are with us, someone's expecting the shorter of the two in there."

"Let me guess, Cameron right?" The guard said upon recognizing Chloe, Chloe nodded and the guard stepped aside. "Okay but two of the teachers will be watching the duel, if they feel that there's going to be another…incident…they'll put a call into the technician's office and call off the duel, understood?" The guard asked and Chloe nodded without hesitation. "All right kid, your opponent's waiting for you." The guard said before stepping aside and letting the students past.

"We'll be in the audience, try to keep your cool Chloe." Brandon advised her and Chloe nodded determinedly as they climbed the steps and found themselves in the duel field, Cameron was waiting on the podium and Jessica was sitting in the audience.

"You're here, good, I get to put an Osiris Red Reject in her place!" Cameron said as he activated his duel disk, as Chloe stepped onto the podium she glanced at the audience and saw Jeff and Hamden sitting there quietly. "I didn't ask for their presence but they insisted."

"Yeah, the guard mentioned it." Chloe nodded as she activated her duel disk. "I'm guessing the redhead's your girlfriend?"

"That redhead's one of the best students in Obelisk Blue and yes, she is my girlfriend." Cameron said through gritted teeth as they drew their opening hands. "I'd appreciate it if you treated her with respect."

"Me treat someone who apparently makes you look civil with respect? The day that happens is the day Chaos Emperor Dragon is taken off the banned list." Chloe said simply. "That and the fact that she dresses like a stripper posing as a student…."

"You watch your mouth you little bitch!" Jessica snapped at Chloe who smirked.

"Okay, keep it clean you three or we'll call off the duel before it's even begun." Jeff interrupted as his eyes narrowed. "You two are in enough trouble already, don't make things worse for yourselves." Jeff added and Chloe grit her teeth in frustration.

"I thought the teachers knew the whole story?" Chelsea wondered as she, Brandon and Tyler took their seats in the audience. "All though I do agree with Chloe about Jessica's outfit." She added.

"Hamden, Maria and Martin know, the most Jeff and the heads of the Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue Girl's dorms know is that there was a fight." Theresa corrected her and Chelsea frowned. "It looks like Hamden's telling Jeff anyway." Theresa observed as she saw Hamden whispering to Jeff.

"All right, I'll go first." Cameron announced as he drew his card. "I set a card facedown and summon Steelswarm Caller in attack mode!" Cameron played the card and a gaunt black fiend appeared on the field, it had large orange wings and four sets of eyes (4/1700/000). "Good luck getting past him rookie, you're going to need it!"

"I'll show you who's a rookie." Chloe growled as she drew her card. _"That monster has pretty decent attack strength but its defense is nonexistent." _Chloe thought before looking at her newly drawn card. _"He's obviously hoping that his trap will protect him, luckily for me Breaker the Magical Warrior will deal with that."_

"Are you going to make a move or what?" Cameron demanded breaking Chloe's concentration.

"Just watch, I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card she had drawn and the armored spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1600/1000).

"I know Breaker's effect and I know that Breaker's effect kicks in after he's summoned." Cameron said plainly as Breaker's attack points increased to 1900. "But the question now is; do you destroy Caller or my facedown card?" Cameron asked and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "Don't take too long, I know all Osiris Red Students are dimwitted, especially that roommate of yours, tell me do you realize your rooming with a dy….?"

"YOU FINISH THAT SENTENCE AND I'LL HELP CHLOE BASH YOUR BRAINS IN!" Chelsea shouted from the sidelines as several students tried to calm her down.

"She won't need to." Jeff said plainly. "Cameron, any further references to that word and I'll see to it that you're demoted to Osiris Red!" Jeff said sternly and Cameron growled.

"Ugh, fine!" Cameron grunted I frustration as he waited for Chloe to make a move.

"Thanks for that Jeff." Chloe thanked him but her emotions where still running high due to numerous factors. "Breaker, attack his fiend!" Chloe commanded and the mage charged towards the fiend before splitting it down the middle.

C (m): 7800

C (f): 8000

"By destroying my fiend you have activated my trap card Time Machine!" Cameron activated the trap and a large, odd looking black machine appeared on the field. "It can only be activated if my opponent destroys one of my monsters and sends it to the graveyard and as the name implies it goes back in time to before it was destroyed and brings the monster back!" The machine opened up and true to Cameron's word Steelswarm Caller reappeared on the field.

"Fine, I set two cards facedown and end my turn at that." Chloe announced and Cameron drew his card. _"No sign of the trap that Tyler gave me but hopefully I'll draw it soon." _Chloe thought.

"I start by activating Allure of Darkness, I'd explain its effect to you but I'm sure you know it like the back of your hand after seeing Brandon use it so much!" Cameron said before banishing one of the monsters in his hand and drawing two cards. "And now to show you the true power of my Steelswarms! I sacrifice Caller to summon Steelswarm Mantis!" Cameron played the card and the fiend disappeared from the field, in its place stood a much larger fiend though this one bore a closer resemblance to a praying mantis (5/2200/0). "But there's more where that came from, now that I've used a Steelswarn monster in a tribute summon not one but two effects activate."

"What effects?" Chloe demanded and Cameron grinned.

"First the effect of my Mantis, by paying one thousand life-points….." Cameron said as his life-points dropped to 6800. "I can target one Steelswarn monster in my graveyard and Special Summon it to the field, so welcome back Steelswarn Caller!" Cameron played the card and the weaker bug like fiend appeared on the field. "Next the effect of Steelswarm Caller, since I used him in a tribute summon for a Steelswarm monster I can Special Summon another from my deck so…." Cameron picked up his deck and searched through for it for a few minutes, he found the card he was looking for and played it. "I Special Summon Steelswarm Gatekeeper!" Cameron played the card and a small black, dog like fiend appeared on the field (4/1500/1500).

"_Great, he's swarmed the field and my trap's only good for one attack." _Chloe thought before pausing. _"No pun intended obviously."_

"Now for the fun part, Steelwarm Mantis attack Breaker the Magical Warrior!" Cameron commanded and the mentis flew towards Breaker before impaling it with its pincers bringing Chloe's life-points down to 7700. "Gatekeeper, Caller, put the Osiris Red Bitch in her place!" Cameron commanded and the two bug like fiends charged towards Chloe, Caller was first to strike…..

"Since I just took damage I activate my Numinous Healer Trap Card, which softens the blow a bit!" Chloe activated her trap and once her life-points dropped to 6000 they went up again to 7000, Gatekeeper didn't let that stop him however as he rammed his body into Chloe's.

C (m): 6800

C (f): 5500

"_That was a smart move that kept their scores relatively close." _Jeff thought as Chloe forced herself to her feet. _"Wonder what her other facedown card is though."_

"Who cares? He's still mopping the floor with you!" Jessica taunted from the sidelines and Chloe glared at her. "Maybe you should go cry to mommy, oh that's right, you don't have one!" Jessica added and Chloe clenched her fists.

"Jessica, I'm only going to say this once." Chloe said as she glared at the older student. "Shut the fuck up!"

"How dare you! That's my girlfriend….." Cameron started but was stopped when the teachers glanced at him. "Don't tell me you're siding with that cu…."

"Finish that sentence and I'll force-feed you your duel disk." Chloe warned him and Cameron quickly shut up.

"Furthermore, if Jessica makes any comments like that again she'll be kicked out of the duel field." Jeff added as he glared towards the redhead student. "Richardson, that's your first warning, any more outbursts and…."

"Yeah, yeah, the duel will be called off." Chloe finished for him and Jeff nodded, frowning she turned to Cameron. "Is it my move yet?" Chloe asked and Cameron shook his head.

"Not quite, I set a card facedown, now it's your move." Cameron said as he set the card down before he nodded at Chloe, she maintained her glare at the students before drawing her card.

"Are they really siding with that prick?"Chelsea demanded and Tyler shook his head.

"Their siding with no one, Chloe may have had every right to be mad at Jessica for that comment but she's also in the wrong much like they are." Tyler said with a frown. "They're bullies plain and simple; they are making those comments to get a reaction out of her."

"And it's getting to her." Theresa pointed out with a frown. "I just hope that either Chloe can keep her cool and potentially win this or the teachers will have the step in, and as much as I hate to say it, things seem to be heading in that direction."

"Before you make any moves I'll activate my trap card." Cameron announced as his trap card flipped up. "Infestation Wave, this trap card requires me to return a Steelwarm monster I tribute summoned to my hand but in exchange I can destroy one card you control!" Cameron explained as Mantis took flight towards the facedown card…

"Well in that case I may as well use it, go Reinforce Truth!" Chloe activated her trap card and it flipped up. "In exchange for the ability to conduct my Battle Phase this turn this lets me Special Summon a weak Warrior Type monster from my deck, such as Dopelwarrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a human soldier in an army uniform appeared on the field wielding an Assault Rifle (2/800/800).

"Hah, you may as well have left soldier boy on the sidelines!" Jessica scoffed when she saw the card. "What good will that do you against Cameron's fiends? None, that's what, you may as well give up now!""

"Do you always jump to conclusions or are you worried about what little clothing your wearing coming off in the process?" Chloe asked and Jessica growled. "Besides there's still one other summon I can make!"

"Oh, I'm so scared!" Cameron scoffed as he looked at her monster. "The only way that thing can be of any use is if you were using him in a…..Synchro…..Summon….oh crap!"

"Good to see there's still some brain cells left." Chloe grinned before picking up two cards. "As a follow up I set a card facedown and summon Rose, Warrior of Revenge!" Chloe played the cards and the redheaded warrior appeared on the field (4/1600/600).

"Big deal, even if you could attack my monsters only one of them is strong enough to defeat one of my monsters!" Cameron scoffed as he glared at the two monsters.

"Well, so much for you having brain cells." Chloe said as she rolled her eyes. "Here's a hint genius, Rose Warrior of Revenge is a Tuner Monster and I'm using her with Doppelwarrior!" Chloe announced as the two warriors leapt into the air, Rose Warrior of Revenge faded into four green rings which quickly surrounded Doppelwarrior. "Say hello to Gravity Warrior!" Chloe said proudly as the warrior with weird anime like hair landed on the field (6/2100/1000).

"Ha! To think I was worried for a second there!" Cameron scoffed with a grin that was shared with Jessica…..but both grins quickly faded when Gravity Warrior's attack increased to 2700.

"You should be worried; after all it's your strategy that's giving him his power." Chloe told him and Cameron blinked. "Gravity Warrior gains 300 attack points for each warrior on your side of the field, but that's not all." Chloe said as Doppelwarrior reappeared on the field. "When Doppelwarrior's used in a Synchro Summon his effect activates allowing me to Special Summon a Dopel Token (1/800/800) in his place."

"Am I supposed to be impressed? Your token's just another target for my fiends as soon as your turn ends, and since you can't attack because of your own trap card you have no choice but to end your turn." Cameron informed her as he folded his arms. "How you beat Otto with blatantly amateur moves like this I'll never know."

"Maybe that duel was rigged, just like how he was framed." Jessica suggested and Chloe glared at her. "What's the matter? Did I touch a nerve?" Jessica asked whilst making it clear that she couldn't care less.

"If you can shut your slut of a girlfriend up I'll show you!" Chloe snapped at them ignoring the glares that comment got before picking up another card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Cameron drew his card.

"She's going through her strikes quickly." Jeff whispered to Hamden who nodded. "If this keeps up we'll have to intervene."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Hamden whispered back as Cameron looked at his new card.

"You saw one of my stronger Steelswarms last turn, now allow me to introduce another!" Cameron said as he pointed to his two fiends. "I sacrifice….."

"I don't think so! Go Mask of Restrict!" Chloe activated the trap and the smug looks on Jessica and Cameron's faces disappeared in an instant. "This means you can't do any tribute summons at all."

"What…..WHAT DID YOU SAY? Do you have any idea what you've just done?" Cameron demanded as he looked at his now useless monster.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe I just rendered your whole strategy useless with a fairly old card?" Chloe said with a confident.

"HA-HA! YEAH THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Chelsea yelled triumphantly ignoring the death glares from Cameron and Jessica.

"Don't celebrate too soon reject! As soon as he draws Mystical Space Typhoon her little counterstrategy goes down the drain!" Jessica snapped at her but Chelsea ignored her.

"_That's if I draw it before she brings out that blasted Magician of hers!" _ Cameron thought before looking at his hand. _"Damn it, my hand has nothing but high level Steelswarm monsters; at least I can take out that token!" _Cameron thought before pointing too Doppel Token. "Steelswarm Caller, get her monster now!" Cameron commanded and the bug like fiend flew towards Chloe's monster…..

"I don't think so; I activate Shift and use it to force both of your monsters to target my Warrior!" Chloe announced and Cameron's eyes widened as the two fiends charged towards Gravity Warrior, Caller was the first to go and despite the fact that Gravity Warrior's attack points dropped to 2400 with Caller's destruction it was still more than strong enough to defeat Gatekeeper.

C (m): 4900

C (f): 5500

"That….that has to be cheating right?" Jessica stammered as Gravity Warrior's attack dropped to its base attack strength. "There's no way that cu….."

"That's enough, security drag Jessica Stevens back to her dorm room." Jeff interrupted her and before she could utter another word two security guards dragged her from her seat and out of the arena, Jessica yelled obscenities at the teachers and the students until she was no longer in earshot.

"You can't do that!" Cameron protested as he glared at him.

"Like it or not, I just did." Jeff said as he folded his arms. "She was disrupting the duel and antagonizing your opponent, frankly I should've done it much sooner." Jeff added leaving Cameron gob smacked. "I think you have bigger problems though, like your first defeat!" Jeff added and Cameron's eyes widened.

"_He's right; unless I do something soon she'll use her monsters to destroy me and my reputation!" _Cameron thought before an idea crept into his head. _"It's a longshot but it may just work."_ Cameron thought before sighing. "I have nothing I can do, take your turn already!"

"Oh yeah, this is too rich! Cameron's about to taste his first defeat and it's at the hands of Chloe!" Chelsea grinned broadly as Chloe drew her card.

"I don't know, as much as I'd like to see his ego deflated Cameron's not an idiot." Brandon said with a frown. "He has something up his sleeve."

"I activate Trade In; by discarding a Level 8 monster this Spell Card will allow me to draw two cards." Chloe discarded her monster and drew two cards almost immediately. "Now I activate Level Modulation, how it works is simple, in exchange for her effects and ability to attack for the rest of the turn and you drawing two cards I can bring back the monster I discarded for Trade-In."

"A Level 8 Level Monster…..oh crap!" Cameron muttered as he drew two cards. _"At least one of these monsters will help."_ Cameron thought as Silent Magician Level 8 appeared on the field (8/3500/1000).

"As satisfying as it'll be to have Gravity Warrior attack you I'd rather finish you off in one hit." Chloe told him as she glanced towards her magician. "So I pass for now!" Chloe added and Cameron drew his card.

"_Damn, another high level Steelswarm."_ Cameron cursed himself before looking at the magician. "I'm not out of this yet, since I have no monsters whilst you do I'm allowed to special summon Steelswarm Cell from my hand in defense mode!" Cameron played the card and a small black, beetle like fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0).

"You're going to regret that." Chloe told him and Cameron blinked in surprise…until he yelped in surprise as Steelswarm Cell stood up in attack mode. "That's Gravity Warrior's other effect, once per turn I can force a monster on your side of the field into attack mode AND force them to attack my Warrior."

"Wa…..wait…." Cameron stammered as the beetle flew towards Gravity Warrior only to be effortlessly swatted away.

C (m): 2500

C (f): 5500

"Oh god I wish I had a camera!" Chelsea grinned as she looked at the look on Cameron's face. "I haven't seen a face that priceless since that Ra Yellow student tried to hit on me when I first moved here."

"You did let him down gently right?" Tyler asked with a look of amusement on his face.

"Off course I did." Chelsea told him with a massive grin on her face. "Take your turn Chloe; you have this in the bag!" Chelsea shouted and Chloe grinned before drawing her card.

"_Okay, here goes." _Cameron thought as he looked at her directly. "Yeah, attack me, show yourself to be a disgrace you probably are to that whore of a mother of yours, or you would if she wasn't dead." Cameron snapped at him causing several simultaneous jaw drops when the other students, staff and even the security guys heard that, that is unlike Chloe who just glared at him.

"What…..did…..you….say?" Chloe demanded as the anger in her voice rose steadily with each word, Cameron grinned broadly as she heard that.

"What's the matter? Can't handle the truth?" Cameron grinned and Chloe clenched her fists in anger.

"I'll show you!" Chloe snapped at him before noticing something on her duel disk, a button that turned off the safeties and made the damage real. _"I can't let him get away with what he just said, it's not like anyone will notice."_ Chloe thought before pressing the button.

"Err, sir, you told us to be on the lookout for suspicious activities during the duel?" A technician asked Jeff through an earpiece.

"Yes, is it Cameron?" Jeff asked as he cast a concerned look towards Chloe.

"Err, no, it's his opponent." The technician said and Jeff and Hamden blinked in surprise. "She turned off the safeties on her duel disk, if those attacks hit then she'll hospitalize Cameron."

"Call of the duel now, we'll deal with the rest." Jeff said before hanging up. _"Chloe, what are you thinking?"_

"Silent Magician, finish it….." Chloe demanded but the attack didn't happen, Silent Magician merely looked at Chloe disappointedly as the hologram off her other two monsters disappeared from the field followed swiftly by Silent Magician. "What….what….what just happened?"

"You know full well Chloe." Jeff said as he stood up. "The technicians detected a duelist turning off the safeties on her duel disk, that someone was you." Jeff said before shaking his head. "The duel's over, it has been declared a draw in accordance with Duel Academy rules."

"I…..I'm not hearing this right?" Chelsea stammered as it dawned on her and the other students present. "She wouldn't do that!"

"After those comments she was clearly not thinking straight." Tyler said as he shook his head, Chloe cast her eyes downward as it dawned on her; she quietly deactivated her duel disk and ran off in tears. "Chelsea, you're her roommate, you'd better go after her before word spreads."

"I'm way ahead of you." Chelsea said before running off after Chloe.

"Well, I'm glad you saw justice." Cameron said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "Now if you excuse me I'm heading back to my dorm…."

"You're in trouble as well Cameron." Hamden said as he turned to him. "If you hadn't said those comments Chloe wouldn't have done that, needless to say expect a visit from Martin." Hamden said and Cameron's eyes widened before storming off. "Jeff, what should we do about Chloe? I doubt she entered the duel intending to do that."

"We'll discuss that later, in private." Jeff told him before turning to the dispersing duelists. "It'll likely affect her candidacy for being promoted however, and we'll definitely have to call her parents." Jeff said before sighing. _"Scott's not going to like this."_


	49. Aftermath and Consequences

Chelsea took a moment to catch her breath as she neared the Osiris Red Girls Dorm, she had lost Chloe after she had left the main building twenty minutes ago and had been searching all over the island, well everywhere she could, the volcano and the abandoned dorm where off limits and she doubted that Chloe would go anywhere near them.

"_Seriously, who looks at an island with an active fucking volcano on it and decides "yeah, this is a perfect place to build an academy that holds up to 60 students" that's a lawsuit waiting to happen?" _Chelsea thought as she took several deep breaths. _"Man, I need to exercise more often!" _Chelsea thought before looking up at her room which was on the second floor. _"Okay, I'll stop for a rest on the top bunk and once I catch my breath I'll start searching off the beaten track, I found her near that lake earlier so I'll start there."_ Chelsea thought before sighing. _"Chloe, I want to side with you but this? I wouldn't turn off my duel disk's safeties against my worst enemy."_ Chelsea thought before walking up the balcony and too the room the two girls shared, she tried opening it but it was locked. _"Huh? We left it unlocked because the front door is locked, why is it lo…..oh…."_ Chelsea realized before reaching into her blazer pocket, producing her key and unlocking it, she opened it slowly unsure of what she'd find on the other side.

"Who….whose there….." Chloe's voice rang out and Chelsea hesitated, it was clear that she was crying as a result of what happened.

"Chloe, it's me, don't worry I'm alone." Chelsea called out as she opened the door fully, she saw Chloe sitting on the bottom bunk in a fetal position, her duel disk was by the bed and her deck was sprawled out in front of her, truth be told Chelsea was ready to yell at her at first because of what happened, but then she remembered why she acted that way, Chelsea bit her lip before sitting next to her. "Chloe, I'm sorry I should've kicked his ass for what he said."

"It's…..Chelsea, it's okay…." Chloe responded as she wiped away the tears, Chelsea sighed as she looked at her friend, technically they were the same age but Chloe was younger by a couple of months so Chelsea saw herself as an older sister type figure, the fact that Chelsea had a good couple of inches on Chloe definitely helped matters. "I…..I probably screwed up our chances at the tournament."

"Chloe, its fine, worse that can happen is that they give your stepparents a call…..okay that's probably not helping." Chelsea realized as she ran a hand through her hair. "Has anyone come by? Well, besides me that is?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Some girls who saw me crying came by but I ignored them when they knocked on the door." Chloe said honestly as she looked towards her deck. "I…..I didn't know how to explain it to anyone who wasn't at the Duel Field."

"Chloe, you know Maria's going to be pissed about this right?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "As much as I'd like to buy you some time when she does come there's only so much bullshit I can spew before she threatens me with detention." Chelsea added and Chloe nodded in understanding. "You'll get another shot at that loudmouth, don't forget you still have Mask of…..Chloe where's Mask of Restrict?"

"Side deck, I moved it there because most of my Non-Synchro monsters require tributes." Chloe sighed before looking at the floor. "Chelsea, I honestly have no idea what happened back there, I lost control and was so focused on getting payback that I didn't think anyone would notice me turning off the safeties."

"You do realize that the chances of Maria accepting that are about the same as Kaiba admitting that Yugi is a better duelist right?" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe sighed.

"Yeah, I do but that's the only answer I can give." Chloe said as she moved her arms to her sides and swung her legs over. "If I had a better explanation then believe me I'd give it but as it stands? That's all I've got."

"The guilt's been eating up on you huh?" Chelsea asked as she gathered up Chloe's cards for her, Chloe looked up briefly and Chelsea could see that her eyes were red from all the crying. "I'll take that as a yes." Chelsea responded but before either of them could say anything there was a loud knock at the door.

"Chloe, I know you're in there!" A voice that neither girl was expecting rang out.

"Kimberly?" The two girls asked simultaneously, she sounded furious and Chelsea winced as she looked at her roommate.

"Stay put, I'll handle it." Chelsea told her and Chloe nodded before she watched her roommate answer the door, Chelsea opened the door and saw Kimberly, Lance, Marcus and Andreas standing there and they were far from happy. "Err, hi guys."

"Where's Chloe Chelsea?" Kimberly asked and Chelsea gulped.

"She's not in here, in fact I was about to go searching for her!" Chelsea lied and the four students didn't budge. "What?"

"Chelsea, several other students saw her run to her room, heard her lock both doors and confirmed that she hasn't emerged from her room since." Marcus said as he folded his arms, Chelsea tried to think of a cover but sighed. "We get that your trying to help her, we do, but what she did back there….."

"That wasn't her fault, hell you guys weren't at the duel field and your already casting judgment?" Chelsea asked as her eyes narrowed.

"We just want her side of the story, that's it." Lance sighed and Chelsea turned to him. "Most of the Obelisk Blue students are making it sound like she did it on purpose."

"Well, I can tell you first hand that what they're claiming is bullshit." Chelsea said bluntly before sighing. "Look before I make too much of an ass of myself tell me what you know."

"You mean about the incident?" Kimberly asked and Chelsea nodded. "All we heard is that Chloe turned off the safeties on her duel disk."

"And like Lance said we know there's got to be more to the story hence why we're here and not listening to the angry rants of a redhead in a stripper's version of the Obelisk Blue Girl's Uniform." Marcus added and Chelsea sighed.

"Yeah, that would be Jessica "out to screw every male in the school" Stevens, I'm not surprised that she's one of the words spreading that bullshit and to be blunt I'd take whatever she says about the incident with a grain of salt." Chelsea said as her eyes narrowed. "Chloe was dueling her boyfriend, had the little bastard beat….."

"Chelsea, no offense but I'd rather hear it from Chloe herself." Lance interrupted and Chelsea sighed. "Look we saw her stepdad enter Maria's office on our way up and trust me, he wasn't happy, either deal with us or him."

"Lance, you do realize that he'll probably be on his way up soon right? Either way she'll be dealing with him." Andreas pointed out and Lance sweat-dropped upon realizing that Andreas had a point, Chelsea sighed in resignation and let them past.

"Look, I only tried to stall you because Chloe's been taking what happened hard." Chelsea told them as they walked past. "I thought I'd be able to calm her down alone but I haven't had much success."

"Yeah I understand." Marcus nodded as he entered the room; Chloe looked at the floor as Kimberly approached her. "Chloe, what happened back there?"

"Its…..it's a long story." Chloe stammered as she glanced to the side, Kimberly frowned and sat down on a chair facing the bunk bed.

"You call turning off the safeties on your duel disk despite seeing me be hospitalized by Otto when he did the same thing at Battle City a long story?" Kimberly said as she looked at the younger duelist. "You had better have a good explanation….."

"He…..he insulted my mom." Chloe interrupted her and Kimberly stopped dead in her tracks. "My biological mom, I got so mad that I just wanted to make him pay."

"That son of a bitch, he couldn't handle losing so he resorted to that tactic?" Lance demanded and Chloe nodded. "Any idea what's being done about it?"

"Last I heard Cameron's in even bigger trouble because of it." Andreas chimed in and everyone turned to him. "I didn't know the details but I heard that Cameron was in big trouble from the guy I'm teaming up with at the tournament."

"I hope so; if I weren't so concerned for her I'd be introducing my fist to his face." Chelsea added as she glanced towards the door. "You mentioned her dad's here, what should we do when he arrives?"

"We'll think of something." Kimberly told her before glancing at Chloe. "I'm still mad that you even considered turning off the safeties but at the very least I can understand why you did it in the first place, if I bump into Cameron or his whore of a girlfriend I'll read them the riot act on your behalf." Kimberly sighed before looking at the time on her watch. "I have to get going; Nathan wants to plan for the tournament." Kimberly said before standing up and leaving the room. "If you get any bullshit from Obelisk Blue students give me a call, I'll get Martin on their asses just like that."

"We will do." Chloe nodded and Kimberly left, she turned to the other students and cast her eyes downward. "So….what's the worst punishment I can expect from this?" Chloe asked with a sigh.

"I don't know; this is the first time something like this has happened during my time at Duel Academy." Marcus shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Chloe. "Closest I got before this was during Kimberly's duel with Otto back in New York."

"Yeah but that didn't happen on School Property and the technicians weren't on hand to disable the Duel Disks before anyone got hurt." Lance pointed out with a frown. "Look Chloe, if Maria decides to join us just tell her what you told us, it may cause her to lighten up a bit."

"Yeah, may." Chelsea echoed with a sigh. "I'm heading downstairs to get a drink, you guys want anything?" Chelsea asked and the three boys shook their heads as did Chloe, Chelsea exited the room….and froze in her tracks. "Err, guys, we have a problem."

"Define problem." Lance said and she turned to him.

"Would you consider Maria, Chloe's stepdad AND Martin heading our way a problem?" Chelsea asked and the collective faces in the room went from calm to "Oh Shit" in a matter of seconds. "Err; I'm open to suggestions for how we get Chloe out of this mess."

"If we had any suggestions we'd give them." Andreas responded before sighing. "How close are they?"

"They just came around the corner; they'll be here in a few moments." Chelsea gulped before turning to the others. "I could try to stall them but…."

"Don't." Chloe said catching the other students by surprise. "Guys, I appreciate you looking out for me but I still broke one of the Academy's rules, I have to face the music at some point."

"Chloe, its Martin we're talking about here, he's such a stickler for the rules that he makes my grandma look carefree!" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded. "You still want to do it?" Chelsea asked and Chloe gulped before nodding. "Better you than me I guess."

"Chelsea, is your roommate in there?" Martin asked and Chelsea turned to the teacher before standing aside. "Boys, we need to talk with her in private, we'll call you in when we're done, same goes for you Chelsea." Martin told them and the students didn't need to be told twice, they left the room but stayed close by. "Chloe, we have a lot to talk about."

"I know." Chloe said as she looked up at the three adults. "Did Jeff and Hamden tell you what happened?" Chloe asked and Maria and Martin nodded. "What did they say?"

"That you lost control of your anger following a disgusting comment made by Cameron about your dead mother." Martin responded and Chloe cast her eyes downward. "And that you turned off the safeties on your duel disk as a result."

"Yeah, and I'm not proud of that fact." Chloe sighed as she looked up towards the three of them. "But I couldn't let him get away with what he said."

"Yes but was that really the way to go?" Scott asked and Chloe quickly shook her head.

"I filled out that request form in the first place to teach him a lesson, not hurt him." Chloe sighed as she glanced at her stepdad. "But after what he said…I just couldn't stand there and let him get away with it."

"He won't, he is being strictly punished for everything he said to you before and during the duel, same goes for your roommate." Martin reassured her before sighing. "Unfortunately you will also be punished for your actions."

"I understand." Chloe nodded as she rested her arms on her legs. "I'm ready for whatever it is you have in mind."

"Very well, I, Scott and Maria had a long discussion about it and we came to a compromise." Martin told her and she turned to him. "You'll get detention for the rest of the year."

"WHAT? HE STARTED IT NOT…!" Lance yelled out from the hallway but was quickly shut up by the other students.

"Under normal circumstances you'd get suspended by the school." Maria chimed in and Chloe turned to her. "In the most extreme circumstances you'd get expelled but there are two factors we're taking into account for this punishment."

"And they are?" Chloe asked and Maria looked at her in the eyes.

"_She's obviously feeling guilty over what happened." _Maria thought before leaning forward. "They are as follows; the fact that no one was hurt and the circumstances leading up to it."

"I understand." Chloe nodded and the two teachers left the room, Scott looked at his stepdaughter clearly disappointed. "Dad, I…."

"Chloe, just don't let something like this happen again, okay?" Scott asked and Chloe nodded. "You did extremely well in Battle City; I'd hate to see it go to waste because of one bully."

"I know." Chloe sighed as she glanced to the side. "I just wish I could go back and try to change what happened, if I hadn't turned off the safeties I would've won, not to mention the fact that I wouldn't be in trouble."

"We all make mistakes Chloe and you know as well as I do that you can't change the past." Scott told her and Chloe nodded.

"Err, can I come in?" Chelsea asked as she appeared in the doorway.

"Sure, your Chelsea right?" Scott asked and she nodded. "I heard a lot about you from Chloe."

"Yeah, she told me about you as well." Chelsea said before sighing. "Mr. Richardson, I was present at the duel, I should've intervened when things turned nasty."

"It's fine Chelsea and please, I prefer to be called Scott, Mr. Richardson makes me feel old." Scott told her and Chelsea grinned at that. "Well, I'd better get going, Chloe, try to stay out of trouble okay?" Scott said and Chloe nodded meekly before her stepdad left.

"How did it go?" Chelsea asked and it didn't take long for Chloe to realize what she meant by that.

"It went fine, considering the alternative I can live with detention until the end of the year." Chloe told her as she lay back on her bed. "Where are the others?"

"They went back to their dorms, they said they wanted to prepare for the tournament but I think it has less to do with that and more to do with not wanting to incur Martin's wrath after Lance's outburst." Chelsea admitted before shrugging. "Not that I blame them."

"True enough." Chloe admitted as she picked up her newly assembled deck, she looked through it before eventually coming upon Silent Magician Level 8 and she sighed as she thought back to the end of the duel against Cameron. "How could I be so stupid? I should've known that the guys in the tech department would catch on to what I was doing." Chloe said with her tone of voice being a mixture of anger and frustration, Chelsea bit her lip before going over to her laptop which was still on the coffee table.

"Honestly Chloe? I would've done the same thing in your shoes, consequences be damned." Chelsea admitted as she opened up the laptop lid. "I may have had my arguments with my folks but at the end of the day their still family and I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them."

"Chelsea, I get what you're saying but, no offense, our situations growing up where different." Chloe pointed out with a sigh.

"Yeah, I know, I'm just saying that, dead mother or not, most duelists wouldn't think twice about trying to hurt someone who insulted their moms in that manner." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe said nothing in response. "All the same, if I where you I'd try to avoid Obelisk Blue as much as possible, besides the guys your friends with at least, I'm pretty sure most of the students there will take Cameron's side just because of what dorm your in."

"That's easier said than done considering that the boy's dorm is right next door to the Main Building." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea shook her head. "But I'll try; if nothing else I have the support of some of the top students there in Brandon, Theresa and Tyler."

"Yeah, most of the students there respect them enough to back down if they realize that they are protecting an Osiris Red or Ra Yellow student." Chelsea agreed before checking her e-mail. "Ugh, one of these days I'm switching from the Academy's e-mail servers to G-Mail or something."

"More spam in your inbox?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded.

"Yeah, unless they suddenly invented Viagra for women or I suddenly have a penis…god I'm glad no one else was around to hear me say that." Chelsea said as she blushed furiously, she quickly moved both e-mails to the spam folder and deleted them. "I swear they should have their tech team dedicate more time to fixing the problems with their servers and less time to making sure that the duels go smoothly."

"Chelsea, if they did that Cameron would be in hospital and I'd be in even bigger trouble." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea winced.

"I didn't mean completely, just so that the ones who actually use the Academy's servers wouldn't gave to spend most of their time pulling out their hair in frustration." Chelsea responded with a grin. "Trust me; if you used the servers then your hair length would go from elbow length to a military style haircut in a matter of days."

"It's that bad huh?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Yeah I think I'll restrict my interactions with technology to my Duel Disk and Cellphone if it's all the same to you."

"Don't blame you one bit." Chelsea responded and Chloe grinned, before either of them could say anything there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it."

"If it's anyone from Obelisk Blue I'm not here." Chloe said to her and Chelsea grinned before getting up and walking to the door, Chelsea opened the door and saw two male students, one from Osiris Red and another from Ra Yellow, the Ra Yellow student had long brown hair in a ponytail and blue eyes whilst the Osiris Red had short black hair and blue eyes.

"May I help you?" Chelsea asked and the Osiris Red student rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Err, yeah we're looking for Chelsea Cunningham and Chloe Richardson's room." The student told her and Chelsea blinked.

"You're looking at it." Chelsea told him and the two students blushed. "Why are you asking?"

"Right, right, I'm Donny Cramer, he's Drake Derringer." The Ra Yellow student introduced the two of them and Chelsea raised an eyebrow, Chloe sat up once she recognized their names.

"Right, let me guess you're here to try to get a sneak peek at our decks or sabotage them?" Chelsea asked and the two students blinked in surprise. "We know you're our first round opponents in the tag tournament and if you are planning that…."

"We're not, honestly." Drake said and Donny nodded in agreement. "We're just here to wish you luck in the match that's all."

"You didn't put much thought into this did you?" Chelsea asked and the two teens blinked. "Do I have to spell it out for you? You are two male teenagers who entered one of the girl's dorms in search for me and Chloe, at best you look like a pair of perverts out to sniff our panties or jerk off to us getting dressed, do I even need to say what you guys look like at worst?"

"Yeah, you do have a point there." Donny realized as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. Drake however scowled.

"We came here to wish you luck in the match and this is how you repay us? Forget it, I'm out of here." Drake snapped at her before storming off, Chelsea watched him leave with a look of confusion on her face.

"Sorry about that, I don't know where that came from." Donny said honestly and Chelsea sighed.

"Forget it; you'd better go after him." Chelsea told him and Donny nodded in agreement before running off, Chelsea turned around and saw Chloe looking at her accusingly. "What did I say?"

"Oh, I don't know, you were just rude to our first round opponents who were just trying to be nice." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea sighed.

"Chloe, I'm open enough about my lesbian status that most of the school knows off it, do you have any idea how many times I've reported perverts lurking in the bushes hoping that they get to watch me make out with another girl?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head. "Way to fucking often, pardon the pun, that's why I didn't reveal it to Lance and the others until after my duel with him."

"I know but I can think of at least ten better ways of telling them to leave without accusing them of being perverts." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea frowned. "At the very least apologize to them before the tournament."

"Your right, I should." Chelsea admitted before sitting down at her laptop. "Besides, they should be glad they didn't try that at the other girl dorms, the Ra Yellow headmistress would've had their heads displayed on a pike."

"I don't even want to know if you are kidding or not." Chloe sighed as she picked up her duel disk. "Great, the technicians haven't reactivated it yet." Chloe muttered as she looked to the duel disk.

"Give it an hour, if it's not reactivated by then ask Maria to give the technicians office a call." Chelsea told her as she typed away at her laptop. "Why? Are you in the mood for a duel?"

"Not right now, no." Chloe told her as she strapped on her duel disk. "But what if I get a duel request that I'll have to delay because of this?"

"Yeah, I see your point." Chelsea admitted before turning back to her laptop, when she saw what was on the screen she grinned. "Bingo!"

"What are you looking at?" Chloe asked and Chelsea turned to her.

"I managed to find some info on our opponents." Chelsea said and Chloe stood up and walked over to the laptop.

"Okay, Drake uses a Warrior deck that focuses on getting Synchro Monsters on the field as quickly as possible." Chloe read off the screen as she leaned in for a closer look. "Donny on the other hand uses a dragon deck like Marcus, other than that there isn't much info about it."

"Yeah, apparently Donny hasn't been doing much dueling since he came to the Academy." Chelsea commented with a shrug of her shoulders. "And here I thought we were a mismatched team, their decks have nothing in common."

"Yeah, there's only one monster I can think off the top of my head that fits in both decks and that's Buster Blader (8/2600/2100) and he only fits in Drake's deck by virtue of being a warrior." Chloe agreed before sighing. "Hell at least there's potential for synergy between their decks but ours?"

"We'll think of something, there's no way in hell we're being eliminated in the first round." Chelsea reassured her before frowning. "All though I can probably think off at least ten students in Osiris Red alone whose decks would've been better suited for either of our decks."

"Yeah but like you said we'll think of something, not like we can appeal who we're teaming up with." Chloe added before pausing. "Wait, can we do…."

"We can't, the e-mail said that all team decisions are final and can't be appealed." Chelsea responded and Chloe frowned. "It's as if the teachers anticipated someone trying to get out of a team with someone he/she didn't like."

"Ten bucks says it was in anticipation of guys in Obelisk Blue complaining about teaming with someone from Osiris Red." Chloe added and Chelsea grinned at that. "Sad part is I'm probably right about that."

"That wouldn't surprise me in the least." Chelsea agreed before shaking her head. "Let's not worry about that right now, how about we try brainstorming ideas instead?"

"Good idea." Chloe agreed as she rubbed her chin in thought. _"All though knowing our luck the other teams are way ahead of us." _Chloe thought as Chelsea retrieved her side deck from her blazer pocket.

*meanwhile*

Whilst Chloe and Chelsea where trying to come up with ideas for how to make their decks work the students who didn't even know who they were teaming with personally where trying to find their partners, as a result there were a lot of confused students from Obelisk Blue and Osiris Red hanging around Ra Yellow.

"Sorry dude, I'm not the guy you're looking for, his rooms on the floor above mine." Lance told the Osiris Red student who had stopped by his room. "For one thing the guy I'm teaming with is in Obelisk Blue."

"Wait, really? Man that must really suck." The student said with a good natured smile and Lance smiled.

"Not really, I was lucky enough to be paired with one of ten Obelisk Blue Students who aren't absolute pricks." Lance told him and the student laughed at that before walking off. "Man, if only I had a dollar for each guy who stopped by my dorm room ever since the teams where announced." Lance muttered under his breath as he glanced towards Marcus who was telling the same thing to a female Osiris Red student, as soon as she left in search for her partner he turned to Marcus. "We should put a sign on our doors that says "We're teaming with Obelisk Blues, look elsewhere.", at least then we'd avoid this confusion."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Marcus agreed with a grin. "Chloe got off easy though, her teammate's also her roommate."

"If you can call being teamed with someone who's deck is completely different from yours getting off easy." Lance agreed. "Then again I'm being teamed with a Spellcaster user so I can't really talk about that." Lance added before he noticed Evan looking around confused. "Speak of the devil, Evan, I'm over here." Lance called out to the Englishman who looked up and grinned.

"Thank god, I've been searching through this place for the past twenty minutes." Evan said as he approached Lance. "It's been so long since I lived in this dorm that I've forgotten the place's layout." Evan admitted and Lance grinned. "So how was Battle City?"

"Well getting eliminated by the champ wasn't fun; neither was dealing with the Seal of the Orichalcos." Lance admitted with a frown. "Other than that it was a blast."

"Indeed." Evan agreed before frowning. "I heard what happened at the Obelisk Blue Duel field between Chloe and Cameron, honestly I'd rather stay here and avoid the propaganda from Cameron, Jessica and their cronies."

"You're not the only Obelisk Blue student to say that to their partner upon arrival, I doubt you'll be the last." Lance responded before frowning. "Damien, it's just my luck that you're teaming with my neighbor." Lance grumbled upon seeing the scarred Obelisk Blue student.

"Yeah well, get used to it and for the record I may not like Chloe but I wanted to punch that idiot in the face after I heard why she turned off the safeties from Kimberly." Damien responded before knocking on Andreas's door.

"Sorry, teaming with an Obelisk Blue student, please look else….." Andreas started before he opened the door and saw Damien. "Damien Tarnow I'm assuming?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing you've been getting a lot of visits from confused Osiris Red students?" Damien asked and Andreas nodded before letting him in.

"At least Kimberly's been spreading the truth." Marcus shrugged as he looked around for Tyler but all he saw was Osiris Red and Obelisk Blue Students either meeting up with their partners for the tournament or being directed towards another dorm room. "You know; if the teachers had just included what rooms the duelists stayed in that would've saved us a lot of headaches."

"Maybe, maybe not Marcus, but at least they announced the partners ahead of time." Tyler said as he approached the Ra Yellow student. "It must be pretty intimidating for you, teaming up with Seto Kaiba's stepson and all."

"Are you kidding? Your dad's Blue-Eyes White Dragons where the reason I got into this game in the first place." Marcus said with a grin and Tyler chuckled. "Come to think of it I've never seen you duel."

"Most people are too intimidated by me to even think of challenging me, either because of my father or the fact that I'm considered the best duelist in the school." Tyler shrugged his shoulders in response. "Don't know if you heard but they gave Chloe her punishment."

"Not only did we hear but we were there for it." Lance said with a frown. "Still can't believe there punishing her for something Cameron started."

"Like it or not she did break the rules, there would've been outrage among the students if she had gone unpunished." Tyler pointed out with a frown. "I don't like it either, you met my father during Battle City so you know what my home situation was like and hers makes mine seem pleasant by comparison, but rules are rules and if it's any compensation Cameron and Jessica are receiving their punishments for heckling Chloe and Chelsea as we speak."

"Heckling my ass, they were blatantly trying to get her in trouble." Chelsea said as she approached them. "But at least they're getting punished."

"Hey Chelsea, I thought you were teaming up with Chloe?" Lance asked and the Osiris Red Student blinked in confusion.

"Oh, that's not why I'm here." Chelsea said as she shook her head. "I and Chloe's first round opponents dropped by unannounced earlier to wish us luck in the match and I pretty pointed out how much it made them look like perverts, the guy from Osiris Red didn't take it well and I'm trying to find him so I can apologize." Chelsea explained.

"I'm guessing you've already tried the boy's dorm?" Marcus asked and Chelsea nodded. "You guys are facing Donny Cramer and Drake Dillinger right? I haven't seen them."

"I don't even know those guys, sorry." Lance apologized and Chelsea sighed in annoyance. "Try asking around, I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction."

"Thanks, I will." Chelsea answered but before she could say anything a male voice cleared his throat, she turned her head and saw Donny standing there.

"Looking for someone?" Donny asked and Chelsea turned around.

"Err, yeah, I'm looking for Drake, I want to apologize for what I said earlier." Chelsea told him as she looked around. "Have you seen him?"

"Not since I left the Osiris Red Girls Dorm…..god I'm glad no one else from that dorm was around to hear that." Donny said as soon as he heard what he had said. "You were right about what you said, even if your wording could've been a bit better."

"Yeah, Chloe called me out of that after you left." Chelsea admitted as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Look if you see Drake tell him…"

"Ah there you are." A familiar voice rang out from behind Chelsea; she turned around and saw Drake standing there with his duel disk strapped to his hand. "Your roommate told me you were looking for me, something about an apology."

"Yeah, I admit, the way I behaved before was uncalled for." Chelsea admitted as she turned her body around to face him. "But I get the feeling that you want more than that."

"That's right, I want to see how good a duelist you are for myself and there's one way to find out for sure." Drake said with a nod as he strapped on his duel disk. "So what do you say to a friendly duel outside? Might help us both prepare for the tournament." Drake suggested and Chelsea grinned when she heard the challenge.

"I say you've got yourself a match, just don't come crying to me when you lose." Chelsea responded and Drake grinned at that.

"Trust me; if anyone's losing it's you!" Drake told her before leaving the dorm; Chelsea looked through her deck briefly before putting it back in her deck slot and looking through her side deck.

"Looking for something that'll help you against him?" Evan asked and Chelsea grinned.

"You could say that." Chelsea responded as she searched through her side deck. _"Come on, I know you're in here somewhere!" _Chelsea thought as she searched through her side deck. _"Finally, now I just have to decide what to swap it out for." _Chelsea thought before swapping out one of her cards for the card in question. "Well boys, if you excuse me I have some ass to kick." Chelsea said before leaving the dorm, it didn't take her long to locate Drake as he was waiting for her near the lake that separated the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm and the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm. "I hope for your sakes that you don't plan on winning this match."

"Please, I've seen your deck in action before so I know what to expect." Drake said as the two duelists activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "If you think that I'm going to let any of your monsters take a bite out of my life-points your wrong."

"If only I had a dollar for each time I've heard that sentence come out of an opponent's mouth." Chelsea muttered under her breath before looking at her opening hand. _"Not bad, but I've definitely had better opening hands."_ Chelsea thought before looking up at Drake. "Who's going first?" Chelsea asked as she waited for Drake to look over his hand.

"I was raised to be a gentlemen so ladies first." Drake announced and Chelsea said nothing before drawing her card.

"_Okay, this will definitely help."_ Chelsea thought before noticing that a small crowd had gathered around the duel mostly comprised of students from Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue but she did notice some students from her dorm. "I start by activating the Spell Card Terra Forming; with this I can add a Field Spell Card from my deck to my hand."

"And knowing your deck there's a strong possibility of it being Wattcastle." Drake commented dryly and Chelsea said nothing as she retrieved the Field Spell from her deck and added it to her hand.

"We'll see just how correct your prediction is, for now I set three cards facedown and summon Wattgirafe in attack mode!" Chelsea played the cards and a giraffe with spikes going down its neck appeared on the field, it surged with electricity as it got ready for battle (4/1200/100). "And I end my turn by activating the Field Spell I added to my hand with Terra Forming, Wattcastle!" Chelsea played the card and the scenery changed to the cartoonish castle from her duel with Lance.

"That's the best you can do? No wonder you're in Osiris Red." A familiar voice rang out and the two students cringed when they heard it.

"There's only one student in the school with a voice that annoying." Drake grimaced and Chelsea nodded in agreement before they turned their heads.

"Jessica Stevens, I see you decided to take a break from screwing every male Obelisk Blue Student." Chelsea grumbled upon seeing the red haired student who subsequently glared at Chelsea for her remark. "What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be spreading blatant lies about my roommate?"

"I should ask you two rejects the same thing, last I checked your dorms where on the other side of the island." Jessica scoffed as she glared at Chelsea. "And at least I'm good looking enough that guys want to screw me you dy….."

"Finish that sentence and I'll throw you into the lake, duel disk and all." Chelsea interrupted her and Jessica grits her teeth before reluctantly shutting up. "As I was about to say, it's your move Drake."

"Right, if we can ignore the annoying redhead." Drake agreed as he ignored the glare from Jessica, he drew his card and looked over his hand. "I activate Reinforcement of the Army; this lets me add a Warrior type monster from my deck to my hand." Drake played the card and picked up his deck, after searching through it for a few minutes he found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand before shuffling his deck and sending the Spell Card to the graveyard.

"_Okay, nothing out of the ordinary for a Warrior deck so far."_ Chelsea thought as she watched him make his move. _"Then again it's his first move so I have no idea what he has in store."_ Chelsea thought as Drake looked over his hand.

"Here's something I put in my deck to counter yours." Drake said as he picked up a card, Chelsea blinked as Drake played it. "It's called Power Filter; this Continuous Spell Card prevents either of us from Special Summoning any monsters with an attack power of one thousand or less." Drake explained and Chelsea's eyes widened when it dawned on her.

"_At least my two Synchro Monsters are a lot stronger than that."_ Chelsea thought with a frown as she glanced towards her facedown cards. "Well in that case I'll chain Power Filter with my own Continuous Card, Wattcannon!" Chelsea activated the trap and the cartoonish cannon appeared alongside her.

"Another staple of your deck, you ever consider changing it up?" Drake asked and Chelsea grinned as she heard that.

"Why fix what isn't broken?" Chelsea pointed out and Drake nodded.

"Good point, though I'm sure there are a few students here who would agree with that statement." Drake agreed as he glanced towards the snickering Obelisk Blue Students. "Now I set a card facedown and a monster in defense, your move." Drake announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_If he thinks defending will help him he's wrong, Wattgiraffe's one of the Watt Monsters that can attack directly even if the opponent has a monster on the field."_ Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Pride of the Weak, Wattgiraffe's too strong for this to work with him and he's the only monster I have at the moment, I'll save this for later."_ Chelsea thought before adding the spell card to her hand. "Wattgiraffe, bypass his defense and attack directly!" Chelsea commanded and the giraffe charged towards Drake…

"I don't think so; I activate Waboku to protect my life-points!" Drake announced as the three priestesses appeared in Wattgirafe's path, the giraffe reluctantly returned to Chelsea's side of the field and he grinned. "Anything else you want to do?"

"No, I'm good." Chelsea shrugged and Drake drew his card. _"If he's prepared for my deck as well as I think he has then he probably has more ways to counter my direct attacks."_ Chelsea thought with a frown as she waited for him to make her move, the two students did their best to ignore a deliberately loud yawn from Jessica as Drake picked up a card.

"_Great, I'd be able to use this to set up a Synchro Summon if not for Power Filter."_ Drake thought frustratingly as he added the card to his hand. "I set another monster in defense mode….." Drake set the monster and once it appeared on the field he played another card. "And I summon Backup Warrior!" Drake played the card and before Chelsea could utter a word of protest a third monster appeared alongside Drake's two defense monsters, it was a soldier in an army uniform carrying a ridiculous amount of weapons (5/2100/0).

"Wait, what? You've already summoned this turn!" Chelsea protested and several other students nodded in agreement. "Hell you summoned that guy seconds after you're first summon."

"Yeah I noticed but this is Backup Warrior's effect at work." Drake explained with a grin and Chelsea's eyes narrowed. "Basically there's only one way to summon him and that's if I have two monsters in defense mode on the field, only downside is that I can't do a Synchro Summon during the same turn I summon him." Drake explained and Chelsea frowned. _"It's pointless to attack; her field spell will just cut Backup Warrior's attack points." _Drake thought before setting a card and motioning to her to take her turn, Chelsea wasted no time in drawing her card and looked at it.

"_Okay, that guy's going to be a problem, hell the only reason he didn't attack was because of my field spell." _Chelsea thought as she glanced towards the much stronger warrior. _"Nothing in my deck, not even Watthydra, can defeat that, but then again my deck's never been about destroying monsters anyway."_ Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card and then towards one of her traps, this was going to be a risky move. "I summon Wattdragonfly!" Chelsea played the card and the small dragonfly appeared on the field (2/900/100) and Chelsea growled in annoyance when she heard Jessica laugh at the site of the monster.

"Why the hell would you summon that pathetic thing in attack mode!" Jessica scoffed as she clenched her sides.

"_I can't believe I'm thinking this but I've found something more annoying than Jessica's voice, her laughter!" _Chelsea thought before activating her card. "Ignoring the annoying bitch in blue I have my reasons for summoning this little guy, for starters since I summoned a weak thunder type monster Wattcannon will now take off 600 of Drake's life-points." Chelsea explained and Drake grimaced as the cannon fired an electrical charge at him bringing his life-points down to 7400. "You want to know my other reason for summoning a weak monster? That will depend on what I draw next, I activate my trap card called Card of Sacrifice."

"Card of Sacrifice, I've never heard of that card." Drake said as he scratched his head in confusion "What does that card do?" Drake wondered.

"Well if you were good enough to get in Obelisk Blue you'd know that." Jessica said with a scoff ignoring the glares from the two duelists. "What it does is…."

"Thanks but I can explain the effect of my own card!" Chelsea interrupted her and Jessica quickly shut up. "As she was saying, first I have to draw an additional two cards." Chelsea explained as she drew two cards. "Now if the combined attack of my two monsters on the field was less than the attack of the weakest monster on your side of the field, namely Backup Warrior, I wouldn't be able to do any additional summons or change my monsters battle positions."

"And that's not a problem for you in other words." Drake finished for her and Chelsea nodded.

"You got it." Chelsea confirmed before looking at her two drawn cards once she sent her trap to the grave. _"Perfect, I drew the trap I added to my deck for this duel."_ Chelsea thought before picking up two cards. "I set a card facedown and I activate Pride of the Weak!"

"Another staple of your deck, nice try but unless you're planning on targeting either of my facedown monsters with Wattdragonfly that card's pretty much useless." Drake scoffed before noticing something. _"That card's useless anyway; she still has one card remaining."_ Drake thought as he waited for Chelsea to make her move.

"Wattdragonfly, attack Backup Warrior!" Chelsea commanded and, whilst ignoring the laughter from Jessica who obviously thought it was a bad move, the dragonfly charged towards Backup Warrior…

"You want to destroy your own monster? That's fine by me, Backup Warrior, counterattack!" Drake commanded and the soldier launched several missiles at the dragonfly. "Looks like your dragonfly's toast…..wait why are you smiling?" Drake asked when he saw Chelsea's massive grin.

"Simple, my dragonfly is going to destroy Backup Warrior." Chelsea said ignoring the laughter from the Obelisk Blue students. "And by discarding Honest (4/1100/1900) I can give my dragonfly the boost he needs to do just that!" Chelsea added pretty much causing the older student's laughter to stop and Drake's eyes to widen as Wattdragonfly's attack increased to 3000, the dragonfly evaded the missiles with surprising agility and wacked Backup Warrior with its tail.

C: 8000

D: 6100

"That…..was actually a good move." One of the Obelisk Blue students commented as Drake sent his monster to the graveyard and Chelsea drew two cards thanks to the effect of Pride of the Weak.

"Don't swell her ego too much." Jessica scoffed and Chelsea nearly did so herself when she heard Jessica talking about ego as if she didn't have one. "I could've done that move in my sleep."

"Is that with or without several cocks up your ass?" Chelsea called out to her and Jessica growled in response.

"You're lucky that there are no teachers here your Osiris Red Dy…." Jessica started but was stopped when a familiar voice cleared her throat from behind. "Please tell me that's not Theresa."

"It is, and I seem to recall that being confined to your dorm room outside of lesson time being among your punishments for what you and your boyfriend put Chloe through." Theresa said bluntly and the other female student gulped before turning around. "Do you have any idea how easy it would be for me to reach Martin by phone right now?" Theresa added and that was all Jessica needed to persuade her to run off to her dorm. "Sorry about that, some security guards where posted outside her dorm room but they were busy pointing students from other dorms in the direction of where to find their partners."

"Don't worry; it's fine, besides her laugh was getting on my nerves." Chelsea said in response before sweat-dropping. "You're not going to tell Martin what I just said to Jessica right?"

"Nah, besides I needed that laugh." Theresa said honestly and Chelsea grinned at that.

"Anyway as I was saying, Wattgiraffe attack his life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and once again the giraffe charged towards Drake…..

"Once again you'll have to try harder; I activate my trap card Attack Invulnerability!" Drake activated the trap and grimaced as the attack hit. "With this I can activate one of two effects, either one monster I target can survive an attack this turn or I reduce any Battle Damage I take to zero, as you can see I'm going with the option that reduces battle damage."

"I'll get to your life-points eventually." Chelsea said defiantly as she looked over her two new cards. "But for now I'll end my turn." Chelsea announced and Drake drew his card.

"This is better, first I activate Emergency Provisions which I use to send Power Filter to the graveyard and give my life-points a boost." Drake played the card and Power Filter's Hologram disappeared from the field, once it did Drake's life-points increased to 7500.

"_That spell must've been doing him more harm than good if he is that quick to get rid of it."_ Chelsea thought as Drake sent his two Spell Cards to the graveyard. _"At least I'll be able to use Wattdragonfly's effect now."_ Chelsea thought as she watched Drake make his next move.

"Why did I get rid of that card? So I can play this, the Spell Card One for One!" Drake played the card and picked up a card in his hand before sending it to the graveyard. "To activate it I first have to discard one monster in my hand but in exchange I can special summon a Level 1 monster from my deck so…" Drake picked up his deck and searched through it, he found the card he was looking for and played it after shuffling his deck. "I use it to Special Summon the Tuner Monster Attack Gainer!" Drake played the card and the armored boy appeared on the field (1/0/0). "Now I flip summon my other two monsters, Necro Guardna and Doppelwarrior!" Drake flipped the two monsters up and the two monsters appeared on the field, the first one was the warrior from Chloe's duel against Cameron (2/800/800) and the other was the fiendish warrior used on numerous occasions by Kimberly (3/600/1300).

"It seems like you have a nice little Synchro Summon set up." Chelsea said before grinning broadly. "Too bad you won't be able to do any Synchro Summons."

"I'd like to see you try and stop me!" Drake challenged her before pointing to his three Warriors. "I tune Attack Gainer with Doppelwarrior and Necro Guardna….."

"I activate my Trap Card Discord!" Chelsea interrupted him and Drake's eyes widened when he heard that trap's name. "In a way this trap works like Swords of Revealing Light but rather than prevent attacks for three turns it instead prevents Synchro Summons for three turns."

"Fine, I'll end my turn." Drake grumbled and Chelsea drew her card.

"_All right, I drew one of my own Tuner Monsters, now all I need to do is summon him and….."_ Chelsea thought right before it dawned on her. _"Crap, Discord works on both players! Man I should've thought of that!" _ Chelsea thought before adding the card to her hand. _"It doesn't matter, Drake still has three weak monsters on the field and whilst my two monsters aren't exactly the strongest around I can still take them out."_ Chelsea thought before she pointed at Necro Guardna. "Wattgiraffe, attack Necro Guardna!" Chelsea commanded and the giraffe charged towards the warrior before crushing its head beneath its hooves bringing Drake's life-points down to 6900. "Wattdragonfly, attack his tuner monster!" Chelsea commanded and the dragonfly flew towards Attack Gainer.

"Sorry but Attack Gainer's here to stay!" Drake interrupted as he pocketed Necro Guardna and the ghostly image of Necro Guardna blocked Wattdragonfly's path. "By removing Necro Guardna from play once he's in the graveyard I can negate the attack of one monster." Drake explained and Chelsea frowned as her monster returned to her side of the field.

"_Well so much for preventing him from doing a Synchro Summon once Discord wears off." _Chelsea thought frustratingly before looking at the two cards she had drawn with Pride of the Weak the previous turn. _"Neither of these cards can help me right now, better pass."_ Chelsea thought before looking up at Drake. "I end my turn." Chelsea announced and Drake drew his card.

"_I can't do much right now, until Discord's effect wears off Attack Gainer's pretty much useless." _Drake thought before setting a card and switching his two remaining monsters to defense mode. "That ends my turn." Drake announced as his two warriors knelt down and Chelsea drew her card. "Go Thunder of Ruler!"

"Well, so much for attacking this turn." Chelsea muttered under her breath before looking at her drawn card. "But I can do this; I activate the Continuous Spell Card Wattcine!" Chelsea played the card and the spell card's hologram appeared on the field. "Now whenever one of my Thunder type monsters deals damage to you the same amount of damage is added to my life-points."

"You seem to be forgetting one crucial fact, you can't attack this turn and I have plenty of ways to protect my life-points." Drake pointed out and Chelsea frowned.

"I didn't forget that and as for your ways of protecting your life-points, well it's like I said, I'll get through to your life-points eventually." Chelsea pointed out before looking over her hand. "I'll end my turn at that." Chelsea announced and Drake drew his card. _"One turn left before Discord wears off, here's hoping I can take out Attack Gainer by then." _Chelsea thought.

"You may have prevented me from doing a Synchro Summon but with the card I just drew I can ensure that Attack Gainer will remain on the field long enough for me to set up another one!" Drake bragged earning himself a confused look from Chelsea. "I equip Attack Gainer with the Spell Card Mist Body!"

"Oh crap." Chelsea muttered as Attack Gainer became shrouded in mist. "As long as that thing's on the field Attack Gainer can't be destroyed."

"You got it, off course the drawback is that damage calculation is still applied but with Attack Gainer in defense mode that's hardly an issue." Drake added with a grin. "I end my turn at that." Drake announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_I can't destroy Attack Gainer but I can prevent him from using Doppelwarrior in the Synchro Summon on his turn, only downside is that I have too many cards in my hand to use Pride of the Weak's effect." _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. "I set a card facedown, now Wattdragonfly attack Doppelwarrior!" Chelsea commanded and the dragonfly flew towards the warrior before destroying it. "Your turn Wattgiraffe, bypass his monster and attack his life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the giraffe charged towards Drake…

"Sorry but by discarding Swift Scarecrow (1/0/0) from my hand I can negate the direct attack and end your battle phase." Drake discarded the card and a scarecrow popped out of the ground in front of Wattgiraffe blocking its attack, Chelsea yet out a scream of frustration as her monster returned to her side of the field. "Nice try though." Drake added as Chelsea ran a hand down her face.

"_Calm down Chelse, you'll get to his life-points eventually; his deck can't be made up entirely off stall cards."_ Chelsea thought though her frustration was getting evident. "I end my turn." Chelsea said through gritted teeth and Drake drew his card once Discord's hologram shattered and Chelsea sent her trap to the graveyard.

"_Heh, looks like my Anti-Watt Strategy is working." _Drake thought as he observed how frustrated Chelsea was getting. _"Soon as I draw that trap card I'll be all set."_ Drake thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Card of Sanctity, off course your hand's full so it'll only benefit me." Drake said with a grin as he drew his six cards.

"Yeah, I noticed." Chelsea growled as she waited for him to draw his cards. _"Knowing my luck so far he has more stall cards in his hand AND a monster that he can use with Attack Gainer in a Synchro Summon."_ Chelsea thought with a frown on her face. _"Damn it, this is my test duel all over again! No matter what I do he has a counter for it and that fact's pissing me off."_ Chelsea realized as her eyes narrowed.

"I set a card facedown and I activate Monster Reborn." Drake played the cards and Backup Warrior returned to the field. "Don't get too attached to him though, because I'm picking up where I left off three turns ago!" Drake announced as his two warriors leapt into the air, Attack Gainer dissolved into a single green ring which surrounded Backup Warrior. "And I do so by tuning Attack Gainer and Backup Warrior together so I can Synchro Summon Scarred Warrior!" Drake announced and the futuristic samurai appeared in Backup Warrior's place (6/2100/1000).

"Too think I was worried for a minute." Chelsea said with a grin whilst trying to hide her frustration. "But thanks to my field spell you'll only be able to take out one of my monsters." Chelsea pointed out as her grin grew wider. _"As soon as he does I'll use Wattdragonfly's effect to Special Summon one of my Tuner Monsters, once my turn begins I'll tune it with Wattgiraffe to bring out one of my Synchro Monsters." _Chelsea thought as Drake picked up a card.

"I'm not done yet; first I activate the Spell Card Battle Waltz, to activate it I first have to target a Synchro Monster on my side of the field, namely Scarred Warrior, now that I have I can Special Summon a Waltz Token with the same stats as Scarred Warrior." Drake explained as a copy of Scarred Warrior appeared next to him. "And don't forget about Attack Gainer's effect."

"What effect?" Chelsea asked before it dawned on her, the fact that Wattgiraffe's attack dropped to 200 helped.

"That effect, when Attack Gainer's used in a Synchro Summon one of your monsters loses a thousand attack points." Drake explained with a grin. "Don't worry though, during the turn that Battle Waltz is used neither of us take any damage from an attack, doesn't mean I can devastate your forces though!" Drake added just before his warriors charged towards Chelsea's monsters, despite the fact that they lost a thousand attack points due to the effect of Wattcastle they were still too much for the two Watt monsters that were quickly destroyed.

"I may not take any damage from that fight but by destroying Wattdragonfly you've activated its effect which allows me to Special Summon another Watt monster from my deck." Chelsea explained before she picked up her deck and searched through it, she found the card she was looking for and played it. "You know what? I think Wattcobra will do just nicely!" Chelsea announced as the blue and orange cobra appeared on the field (4/1000/500)

"Pity he's too strong for your Cannon's effect." Drake pointed out and Chelsea frowned.

"I know that, hell it's my own card so I should know how it's damn effect works!" Chelsea snapped at him as her eyes narrowed. _"Damn it, I was almost in Ra Yellow for fuck's sake! Why the fuck am I having so much trouble beating a guy who happens to be Osiris Red student?" _Chelsea thoughtbefore looking up at Drake. "Is it my move yet?"

"It is but I want to ask you something first." Drake said and Chelsea blinked in confusion. "Why are you getting so angry?" Drake asked and Chelsea blinked before answering.

"Why? Maybe because my temper got me demoted from Ra Yellow to Osiris Red and this match is pretty much history repeating itself?" Chelsea answered as her eyes narrowed. "My test proctor pretty much countered every move I threw at him, I snapped at him out of frustration and they decided that that was grounds enough to stick me in Osiris Red when I did eventually win." Chelsea added and Drake said nothing. "Why do you care anyway?"

"I have a couple of reasons, the first being that I was taught to respect my opponents and show concern for them when they are getting upset as you clearly are." Drake explained and Chelsea's eyes narrowed. "You want to know my other reason? It's because you aren't the only one who was stuck in Osiris Red despite showing enough promise to be considered for Ra Yellow."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Chelsea asked after it set in.

"I was in the same vote as you, I did well enough in my test duel that they wanted me in Ra Yellow, however like you I was stuck in Osiris Red because I let my temper get the best of me, needless to say that wasn't one of my finer moments and I'm sure you can say the same for when you snapped at your proctor." Drake added and Chelsea's eyes narrowed though his confession had helped her calm down a bit.

"Yeah, I get it, you screwed up and I screwed up and as a result we're both in Osiris Red, what's your point?" Chelsea asked impatiently and Drake frowned,

"You know what? I'll tell you after the match, make your move Chelsea." Drake told her and Chelsea frowned before drawing her card.

"_Was he trying to calm me down with that "We're Not So Different" bullshit?" _Chelsea thought as she drew her card. _"Well as much as I hate to admit it it's working, I just have to hope whatever I draw in the coming turns helps me win this."_ Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. "Well, since I can't use Pride of the Weak anymore I'll activate my own Emergency Provisions sending it to the graveyard so that I can restore a thousand of my life-points." Chelsea announced before sending her spell card to the graveyard and her life-points increased to 9000. _"With those two monsters on the field I'll need all the life-points I can get."_ Chelsea thought before her eyes rested on the tuner monster she drew earlier. _"I couldn't use this earlier because of my Discord Trap Card but now? I can't think of a better time to use it!" _Chelsea thought before playing the card. "You think you're the only one who can do a Synchro Summon? You're wrong; I summon the tuner monster Wattbetta!" Chelsea played the card and a goldfish discharging electricity appeared on the field (2/100/0). "I know, I know, he doesn't look like much, but he makes up for it with the ability to attack you directly and so can my Cobra!"

"That didn't work the first dozen times, what makes you think it'll work now?" Drake asked and Chelsea grinned.

"What can I say? I'm persistent." Chelsea responded before pointing to her two monsters. "But before I forget Wattcannon's effect now activates!" Chelsea added as the cannon fired at Drake bringing his life-points down to 5500. "Wattbetta, Wattcobra, attack his life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the two monsters charged towards Drake…..

"Sorry but my trap card is about to render the majority of your deck useless! I activate Spirit Force!" Drake activated his trap and Chelsea's eyes widened when she heard that name. "Basically this means that….."

"As long as you have monsters on your side of the field I can't damage your life-points." Chelsea growled as she activated her trap. "But in that case I'll save face by activating my trap card Urgent Tuning which means I can do a Synchro Summon right now!" Chelsea said as her two monsters changed direction and leaped into the air, Wattbetta dissolved into two green rings that quickly surrounded Wattcobra and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded it revealed Wattchimera crouching down in defense mode (6/1400/1200).

"Smart move, with him in defense mode you won't have to worry about losing life-points." Drake complemented her but Chelsea wasn't listening due to being lost in her own thoughts.

"_Great, my initial plan was to use Wattbetta and Wattcobra to attack directly and deal some damage, after their effects would've resolved I would've activated Urgent Tuning and used it to bring out Wattchimera for even more damage." _Chelsea thought with a frown as she glanced towards Drake's trap card. _"But that damn trap card got in the way, damn it I can't lose this match! Not after telling Chloe that there was no way we were going out in the first round!" _Chelsea thought before sighing. "I end my turn!" Chelsea announced and Drake drew his card.

"_She's getting frustrated again, she keeps this up and it'll be an easy match for me and Donny when the tournament starts." _Drake thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate the Spell Card Cup of Ace."

"Did you say Cup of Ace? What the hell is that doing in a Warrior deck?" Chelsea asked clearly confused by this as was several other students.

"What can I say? Joey Wheeler was one of my inspirations for becoming a duelist." Drake admitted sheepishly as he dug around his pockets for a few minutes. "Err…..anyone have a quarter?" Drake asked sheepishly causing everyone else to face fault, Theresa got to her feet first and tossed Drake a coin which he caught. "Thanks, I'm sure you know the routine by now, if this coin comes up as heads I draw two cards….."

"Tails I draw two cards." Chelsea finished for him with a frown. _"Even with that in mind Cup of Ace is a rather odd choice for a Warrior Deck, hell I still remember the story Beth told me about how Martin failed her on a test because she included that card in an otherwise fine warrior deck." _Chelsea thoughtas Drake made the flip. "Tails, tails, tails!"

"Give me head, give me head, give me…err let's pretend I didn't say that and move on." Drake said as he realized what he was saying, to say that he was blushing furiously was an understatement as was several older students.

"Consider it done." Chelsea said with a facepalm as Drake caught the coin and placed it on the palm of his hand. "So who's drawing?" Chelsea asked as Drake looked at the coin.

"That would be me." Drake informed her as he revealed the result to be heads; he tossed the coin back at Theresa before drawing twice. "Well, well, looks like you'll get to meet another one of my Synchro Monsters."

"You're bringing out another one!" Chelsea echoed as she tried to keep her composure. _"Relax Chelsea, you can still do this."_

"That's right but first I activate the Spell Card De-Synchro, with this I can return Scarred Warrior to my extra deck and if the individual parts are still in my graveyard I can Special Summon them both!" Drake played the card and Scarred Warrior vanished, in its place stood Backup Warrior and alongside him stood Attack Gainer. "Now then, I tune Attack Gainer with my Waltz Token so I can Synchro Summon a new monster!" Drake announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Attack Gainer faded into a single green ring that surrounded the Waltz token and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded Chelsea looked up and blinked.

"What the hell is that?" Chelsea asked as the monster landed on the field, it was a tall warrior in futuristic looking gold armor carrying twin swords (7/2300/1800).

"That is Seven Swords Warrior, but I'm not done yet, first Attack Gainer reduces Wattchimera's attack by 1000 due to its effect. "Drake responded as Chelsea's monster's attack dropped to 400. "But there's more where that came from, I summon the Tuner Monster Torapart!" Drake played the card and the odd, spellcaster like warrior from Chloe's duels appeared on the field (2/600/600).

"Another Synchro Summon?" Chelsea yelled out once it hit her.

"That's right, and I'm using Backup Warrior with Torapart to make it happen!" Drake explained with a grin as his two warriors leapt into the air, Torapart faded into two green rings that quickly surrounded Backup Warrior and a bright flash quickly followed, when it faded a second copy of Seven Swords Warrior appeared on the field. "Pretty impressive move huh?"

"Yeah, except for one thing." Chelsea said as she folded her arms. "You only have enough monsters to destroy my one monster and damage my life-points, if your intention was to cause some major damage to my life-points you've failed."

"Who said I was done? I activate the Spell Card United We Stand which I equip to the Seven Swords Warrior I summoned first." Drake played the card and first Seven Swords Warrior glowed as its attack points increased to 3900. "But that's not all, because now that I've activated an Equip Spell and equipped it to my Seven Swords Warrior I can activate its effects, for starters every time it's equipped with a Spell Card you take 800 life-points of damage!" Drake explained and Chelsea grimaced as her life-points dropped to 8200.

"I still have plenty of life-points left!" Chelsea said defiantly as she glared at the two warriors. "Wait, you said effects?"

"Just noticed huh? Yes Seven Swords Warrior has a second effect, once per turn I can send one equip spell equipped to Seven Swords Warrior to the graveyard and in exchange for that I can destroy one card on the field, in short say goodbye to Wattchimera!" Drake explained as Seven Swords Warrior slammed its swords into the ground sending a sock wave towards Wattchimera splitting it in two. "Oh and guess what? Unlike most cards with similar effects Seven Swords Warrior doesn't lose its ability to attack during the turn that it uses its effects."

"Oh this is going to suck." Chelsea groaned as she braced herself for the attack.

"Go my warriors; attack her life-points directly!" Drake commanded and the two warriors charged towards Chelsea, Chelsea yelled out in pain as the four swords connected with her torso sending her to the ground.

D: 5500

C: 3600

"Are you okay Chelsea?" Drake asked and she got too her feet, by the time she was on her feet Drake's warriors where back on his side of the field.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Chelsea said through gritted teeth as she gathered up her cards. "Is it my move yet?" Chelsea asked and Drake nodded, she wasted no time in drawing her card.

"Yeah but as much as I hate to admit it things are looking rather bleak for you." Drake pointed out as he folded his arms. "You could always surrender….."

"Don't even think about finishing that sentence." Chelsea interrupted him as her eyes narrowed. "Besides I beat my proctor with only 50 life-points left, this is nothing!" Chelsea added before looking at her drawn card. "And I start my turn by activating the Spell Card Pot of Avarice!" Chelsea played the card and returned the five monsters in her graveyard to her deck or in Wattchimera's case the extra deck and drew two cards…and her eyes widened. "Oh crap."

"You didn't get anything good?" Drake asked and Chelsea said nothing.

"_No matter what I do this turn I'll lose, especially if he draws another equip spell." _Chelsea thought with a frown as she looked at her two cards. _"But there's no way in hell I'm surrendering, if I'm going down I'm going down swinging!" _Chelsea thought before playing her Spell Card. "I activate Heavy Storm!"

"What? But you have more Spells and Traps than me!" Drake pointed out but Chelsea didn't listen, a storm soon swooped over the field destroying Chelsea's Spells and Traps first before the castle crumbled to dust followed swiftly by Spirit Force.

"Maybe but with Spirit Force gone I can finally do some damage!" Chelsea said as she played the monster she had drawn and Wattgiraffe reappeared on the field (4/1200/100). "I hope you still remember this little guy's effect."

"Yeah, he can attack my life-points directly even if I have monsters on the field." Drake nodded as his eyes narrowed. "But that's not nearly enough to beat me…unless that's all you can do." Drake realized and Chelsea said nothing. "I get it; these past two moves don't have any purpose behind them beyond not going down without a fight."

"You got it." Chelsea confirmed before pointing to her monster. "Wattgiraffe, attack his life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the giraffe leapt over Drake's warriors and kicked him in the chest before returning to Chelsea's side of the field.

D: 4300

C: 3600

"Not that it matters but Wattgiraffe's effect kicks in after he damages my opponent's life-points my giraffe's effect kicks in." Chelsea added once her monster was back on her side of the field. "To make a long story short until I end my turn you won't be able to activate the effects of Spells, Traps or Monsters." Chelsea added before sighing. "And I'm ending my turn now." Chelsea added and Drake drew his card. _"If he draws another equip spell I'm finished, at least this way I can say that I didn't go down without a fight."_

"Sorry Chelsea but this is over." Drake said as he played the spell card he drew. "I activate the Spell Card Sword of Deep Seated and equip it to my Seven Swords Warrior, I'm sure you know what's coming next." Drake said as he sent the spell card to the graveyard, the warrior raised up his swords and carved Wattgiraffe in two. "It's not too late to surrender Chelsea."

"I'll surrender the same day that the majority of Obelisk Blue stop being pricks." Chelsea said only to sweat-drop when she heard several Obelisk Blue Students clearing their throats. "I said the majority! Not all of you!"

"Err, Chelsea, you might want to turn around." One of the Obelisk Blue students commented and Chelsea turned around just in time for the four sets of swords to make contact with her chest knocking her onto her backside.

D: 4300

C: 0000

"There should be a rule against declaring an attack when your opponent's back is turned!" Chelsea grumbled as she got to her feet, the crowd began to disperse once Chelsea was on her feet and she deactivated her duel disk as did Drake. "There's one thing I don't get though, your profile on Duel Academy's website said nothing about having cards that protected your life-points."

"True but to be honest I've been meaning to ask Hamden to get that thing updated." Drake admitted as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Still it was a good duel."

"Yeah, I guess." Chelsea admitted as she returned her cards to her deck. "Damn it, I told Chloe that we weren't going to be eliminated in the first round but I end up losing to one of our opponents?" Chelsea growled in frustration as she looked down at her deck. "Some partner I'll turn out to be."

"I don't know about that, you're a pretty damn good partner from where I stand." A feminine voice rang out and Chelsea turned around, the woman was a third Osiris Red Student who was tall for a girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes. Standing alongside her was Chloe who was clearly concerned "We saw the whole thing babe, you okay?"

"I'll be fine, my ego on the other hand I'm not too sure about." Chelsea admitted as she dusted herself off. "Beth it's like I said, I told Chloe that there was no way in hell that we were going to be eliminated in the first round and what do I do? I blow it in a match against one of our opponents."

"Yeah, because you got not one but two dead draws right when you needed them the least." Beth said as she shook her head. "Besides you'll get him back during the tournament."

"I hope so, no offense Chelsea but I was expecting more of a challenge." Drake said as he approached the two women.

"Maybe I would've given you more of a challenge if you hadn't loaded your deck with traps, spells and monsters that protect your life-points I would've given you a challenge." Chelsea grumbled under her breath before smirking. "But when my team takes on you and Donny the result will be different."

"We'll see about that." Drake answered as Theresa approached them. "I would've thought you'd be back at the girl's dorm by now Theresa." Drake said upon noticing her.

"Nah, besides my room's a few doors down from Jessica's and the least time I spend with her the better." Theresa told her and Chelsea grinned at that, she turned to the taller Osiris Red Student and blinked. "I don't think we've met."

"We haven't, the name's Beth McKenzie, I'm dating Chelsea at the moment." Beth told her before turning to Chelsea. "When she isn't getting her ass kicked in duels."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Chelsea grumbled under her breath before turning to Chloe. "Chloe, about what I said earlier….."

"Relax Chelsea; we'll think of something even if it means me adding Royal Decree to my deck." Chloe reassured her and Chelsea smiled at that. "Come on; let's head back to our dorm room."

"Good idea." Chelsea agreed before she and Beth followed the shorter girl to the west side of the island, Drake rubbed the back of his head nervously as Donny walked up to him.

"So what do you think?" Donny asked as he watched the three girls leave. "Do we have a chance against them?"

"Hard to say, Chelsea did put up a hell of a fight and by all reports Chloe held her own against Cameron before she turned off the safeties on her duel disk." Drake told him with a frown. "Don't we have Duel Theory with Chloe tomorrow morning?"

"You mean Martin's excuse to evaluate our dueling skills?" Donny asked with a playful smirk before shaking his head. "I'll see if I can get a match with her tomorrow, otherwise I'll watch whatever match Martin sticks her in closely, either way we'll get a clearer picture of our chances then."

"I hope so, this tournament maybe our tickets up to the dorms we were supposed to be in." Drake told him and Donny nodded in agreement before leaving.


	50. What the Future Holds

Chloe slowly opened her eyes and looked around, she was in a dark area that seemed to have no beginning or end and to say that it unnerved her was an understatement, she looked down at her clothing and realized that she was in her outfit from earlier minus her blazer, without a second thought she looked at her scarred arm and saw that the scar was not only there but plainly visible, she shuddered as the memory of how she got the scar came back to her before looking around for any signs of life.

"Err, hello, is anyone there?" Chloe called out but all she got for an answer was an echo, she got back to her feet and looked around. _"Where am I exactly?"_ Chloe thought as she glanced around, she did eventually hear voices but they were too distant for her to make any words out. "Who's…..who's there?" Chloe called out but all she got in response was more voices, however they were a lot closer now and a lot clearer…and Chloe was wishing she couldn't hear them right now.

"_You're worthless you hear me? You're worthless! First I'll kill you and that mistake of a daughter!"_

"_Robert, no!"_

Chloe dropped to her knees as she started sobbing as the memories came back to her, it was a memory that she was all too familiar with and a memory that had changed her life forever, the final moments of her mom's life; slowly tears started forming in her eyes as she relived the memory.

"_Chloe run!"_

"_Get back here you little bitch!"_

A gunshot rang out followed by another and Chloe flinched, when she had told Brandon and Theresa about her abuse after her first duel against Theresa Chloe had left one detail out, her dad had managed to get a shot off but it only grazed her shoulder. "Damn it! Why am I reliving this? Why am I reliving this memory?" Chloe called out to the darkness but there was no response, only more shouting….

"_Chloe, there you are."_ A voice that Chloe hadn't heard since she had gotten back from New York rang out and she looked up, Silent Magician Level 8 appeared next to her and offered her the safe end of her staff, Chloe grabbed it and Silent Magician used it to help her get back to her feet, once she was on her feet Silent Magician cast a spell and the voices faded before nothing could be heard from them. _"I'm sorry; I should've gotten here sooner."_

"It's…..don't worry, its fine, at least someone's here to help me forget." Chloe said as she dried away the last of her tears. "Where am I exactly?" Chloe asked as she wiped away a tear from her eye. "I thought you had been busy ever since Lance defeated Phillip?"

"_Chloe I'm sorry but I can only hold off the memories momentarily, they won't be gone forever." _Silent Magician sighed and Chloe shook her head.

"I should've known that would be too easy." Chloe sighed as she turned to Silent Magician. "So…..can we get back to my questions?"

"_Ah yes off course." _Silent Magician nodded before pausing for a moment. "_Indeed I have been busy, however recent events have forced my attention away from the activities of Phillip Alvers, such as the incident between you and that boy from Obelisk Blue." _Silent Magician said in a stern tone and Chloe cast her eyes downward.

"Great, first my friends tell me off, then my teachers, then my dad and now my duel spirit, you want to get the contents of my deck in on the action as well?" Chloe sighed as she looked up at the Duel Spirit. "That wasn't one of my prouder moments, I admit that." Chloe admitted as she rubbed her arm uneasily. "But…..but after what he said….."

"_I understand but you need to understand something if this partnership is going to work Chloe."_ Silent Magician said sternly as she turned to her mistress. _"You having me as your guide is a gift not a lot of duelists have, the most famous of them being former Duel Academy student Jaden Yuki."_

"Yeah, I know hell I'm still surprised that he pulled out of the Battle City Tournament." Chloe commented with a shrug remembering one of the major news stories related to the tournament, other than Duel Academy's involvement of course. "But what does that have to do with me? Are there others with Duel Spirits at the Academy? Well besides Theresa I know about hers."

"_I don't have an exact number, as you just mentioned Theresa has a powerful duel spirit in the form of Armed Dragon Level 10, I believe Brandon has several candidates for his duel spirit ranging from his Dark Scorpions to Dark Armed Dragon, however Armed Dragon Level 10 has been unable to narrow it down." _Silent Magician said as she turned to her mistress, _"I will be meeting with him on the island in a few days to discuss possible Duel Spirit candidates, don't bother attending yourself."_

"Why not, you're my duel spirit?" Chloe asked and Silent Magician shook her head.

"_Yes I am but your ability to communicate with Duel spirits, much like my power, is in its infant stages, you are only able to see one Duel Spirit and you're looking at her, besides that the meeting is at the Abandoned Dorm which, from what I understand, is strictly off limits to everyone at the Academy and you're in enough trouble as it is." _Silent Magician said before her eyes narrowed._ "Chloe, do you realize the damage you would've caused if my attack connected during your last duel?"_ Silent Magician asked with a stern tone to her voice and Chloe blinked.

"He would've been hospitalized and I'd be facing an assault charge, not to mention expulsion." Chloe sighed as she looked towards the ground. "But it would've been nothing too major right? Hell I'm still a minor so any charges that get brought against me will be forgotten about once I hit 18."

"_If it where only that simple, Chloe you should not underestimate the power of a duel spirit." _Silent Magician told her sternly. _"As a Duel Monster I am very powerful, there is no denying that, but my power as a duel spirit dwarfs even that, unfortunately that power is, as I've already stated, still in its infant stages, my experience with the Orichalcos had speed things along, in short my power is very unstable and the damage the blast would've caused would've been catastrophic."_ Silent Magician said before pausing. _"Besides that, isn't your birthday at the end of the month?"_

"Oh right, and I know from my dad's trial how long the trial process lasts." Chloe realized as she rubbed her arm nervously. "How….how much power are we talking about here?" Chloe stammered as it dawned on her, several possible scenarios where running through her mind and she didn't like any of them.

"_It is difficult to say, most Duel Spirits completely lack the ability to speak at all, as did I when I first made myself known to you." _ Silent Magician said as she cast a spell, footage of Chloe's first Battle City duel appeared specifically when she summoned Silent Magician Level 8 against Damien. _"It is a painful memory, I realize that….."_

"Trust me, the memory of my duel against my dad makes that look tame by comparison." Chloe said with a shudder and Silent Magician nodded in understanding before casting another spell which caused the memory to fade. "So if I'm guessing correctly, if I had attacked…."

"_There's no way of knowing for sure how much damage I would've caused."_ Silent Magician told her before shaking her head. "_At best, the blast would've severely injured him, at worst….."_

"I don't think I want to hear how that sentence ends." Chloe interrupted her and Silent Magician nodded in understanding. "There's something that I've been wondering about actually, you said you first made yourself known to me during my duel against Damien, how long have you been inside me…wow, I'm so glad no boys are around to hear me say that." Chloe said as she blushed furiously.

"_It's difficult to say, my card form came out about ten years ago but I have existed far longer than that." _Silent Magician told her and Chloe nodded. _"At most I'd say I've been a part of you since you were seven, it wasn't until you got your deck for your 16__th__ birthday that I became….aware of my purpose."_

"Well, thanks anyway, I guess." Chloe said uneasily before she remembered something. "Come to think of it, you never answered my question, where are we?"

"_That is difficult to answer, you'll understand soon enough."_ Silent Magician told her before casting another spell, a bright flash enveloped Chloe as she shielded her eyes…..

*in the real world*

Chloe awoke with a start as she sat up in the bottom bunk of the bunk bed she shared with Chelsea; she let out a yawn as she tried to figure out what had just happened.

"_Was that a dream?" _Chloe thought as she scratched her head, she looked down at her body and saw that she was no longer in her clothes from earlier, instead she was in the nightgown that she had worn to bed the night before, normally she'd wear bra and panties underneath it because of Chelsea but she went over to Beth's room last night for a study/make out session which was easy to do because Beth didn't have any roommates, before she could question this any further she heard someone typing at a laptop and looked around before seeing Chelsea at her laptop. "Good morning." Chloe greeted her roommate who turned around.

"Good morning sleepyhead." Chelsea greeted her with a friendly smile. "Yeash, I never thought you'd wake up."

"Ha, ha, very funny, what do you have for an encore?" Chloe asked jokingly before swinging her legs over and standing up. "You mind giving me some privacy whilst I get dressed?"

"Yeah, sure, I still have to do some homework anyway." Chelsea told she and Chloe blinked as she removed her nightgown and started getting dressed.

"Did you say homework? Err; Chelsea what time is it exactly?" Chloe gulped as she put her bra and panties on, Chelsea's first class off the day was always just before Chloe's so the fact that she saw her when she woke up concerned her, Chelsea looked at the computer clock and turned to her making sure not to let her eyes wonder up and down her roommate's half naked body in the process.

"It's 11:30am, why?" Chelsea asked and Chloe's eyes widened as she ran over to the timetable on the wall, not exactly easy given the fact that she was in the process of putting on her jeans.

"Oh I don't know, maybe because I'm late for my first class back AND it's with Martin!" Chloe gulped as she hurriedly put on her clothes, she put on her naval exposing tank top last before putting on her blazer.

"It's okay, don't panic, it's not like they've noticed….." Chelsea tried to reassure her but was cut off by a PA announcement.

"The following students are late for class, Chloe Richardson and Daniel Troy that is all." The voice over the PA said and Chloe's eyes widened before she grabbed her duel disk, strapped it on and bolted out the door, she ran nonstop not even bothering to say hi to anyone she knew before eventually stopping to catch her breath just outside the main building.

"_Oh man I'm screwed! First there's the incident yesterday and now this!" _Chloe thought as she took several deep breaths.

"Err, morning Chloe." A bemused Theresa said as she caught up too her. "I'm guessing you heard the PA announcement?"

"Yeah, what's worse is the fact that I'm late because I slept in!" Chloe said as she caught her breath. "No, wait, what's truly worse is the fact that I'm late for class with Martin!"

"Okay, that is pretty bad." Theresa admitted before checking her watch. "You have Duel Theory right?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded. "How late are you?"

"When I woke up I was ten minutes late, not sure how much time has elapsed since then since I ran from the girl's dorm to….well here." Chloe said as she started climbing the stairs. "Man, first I deactivate the safeties on my duel disk and now this; at least it's been reactivated."

"Don't worry about it, just tell him you slept in and you didn't mean too, at worse he'll give you a tough opponent." Theresa reassured her as the two girls reached the top of the stairs and entered the main building. "Okay, duel theory's down the hall here, and don't worry Cameron and Jessica don't have this class until the late afternoon."

"That's a relief." Chloe said a smile as they approached the classroom. "Theresa, don't you have class to attend too?"

"It's no big deal, my class is with Hamden." Theresa said as she opened the door, the classroom was basically a large duel field with some seats set aside for defeated or victorious duelists, Chloe hesitated before she entered the room and saw that the duels in progress being supervised by Martin and the proctors. "Martin, Chloe Richardson's here." Theresa called out to him and Chloe gulped as he turned around.

"Do you have an explanation for being late?" Martin asked her.

"I slept in sir, I didn't intend to." Chloe sighed and Martin nodded.

"Very well Richardson but try to behave, you are in enough hot water as it is." Martin told her and Chloe nodded. "Take a seat, I'll find you an opponent momentarily, Theresa thank you for bringing her here." Martin told her and Chloe followed his instructions without hesitation and sat down next to a disappointed looking female Osiris Red Student with shoulder length black hair and green eyes, the student sighed and Chloe turned to her.

"Is there something wrong?" Chloe whispered to the student who turned to her.

"It's nothing, just disappointed in how badly I did in my last duel." The student sighed as she looked up towards an Obelisk Blue student; he was tall with short spiky black hair and blue eyes. "That guy over there, Thomas Newborn? He was my opponent, and well you know how Martin places restrictions on the participant's decks right?"

"Yeah, I know, first time I took this class he forced me to duel without the use of Spell Cards, made getting my best monster on the field a pain in the ass." Chloe answered and the student shook her head.

"At least you could use monsters but me? He made me face an X-Saber duelist using only Spell and Trap Cards whilst his only restriction was dueling with 4000 life-points against my full score; I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did." The student sighed in annoyance as she shook her head. "I know Martin said that this is supposed to test our skills but how is this supposed to be anything resembling fair?"

"I don't know, and we both know how strict Martin is." Chloe said and the girl nodded in agreement, whilst the two girls talked Thomas had defeated his opponent and was gathering up his cards.

"Martin, I thought this was supposed to test my abilities as a duelist." Thomas scoffed as he looked across the field to his opponent, a male Osiris Red Student with messy blonde hair and green eyes who was gathering up his cards whilst glaring daggers at Thomas. "But these Osiris Red Rejects aren't worth my time or effort."

"You would be foolish to underestimate them Thomas." Martin told him as he folded his arms. "I suppose you want to fight a third opponent?"

"Yes, off course." Thomas said as he turned to Martin. "In fact I understand that an Osiris Red Student showed up late for class with a flimsy excuse at best, if you would allow me I would like to put her in her place." Thomas said making sure that Chloe heard every word; she frowned before standing up and walking over to Thomas.

"You don't get to choose your opponents Thomas, you know….." Martin said but was cut off when he saw Chloe approaching. "You want to fight him Richardson?"

"That's right; I won't let him badmouth the other Osiris Red Students as much as he has been." Chloe said as she glared at Thomas who chuckled.

"I heard from Cameron that you had backbone Richardson but challenging me after I thoroughly trashed two of your dorm mates?" Thomas scoffed but when she didn't budge his eyes narrowed. "Well, I can see that the foolish girl isn't backing down, I agree to her terms if you will authorize it Martin." Thomas said as he locked eyes with Chloe.

"Very well, just remember that the usual restrictions will be placed on this duel." Martin said and the two students nodded, he thought for a few moments before he called one of the proctors over, who just happened to be Chloe's test opponent, who he gave instructions too, the proctor nodded before approaching Chloe.

"Richardson, I require you to hand over your Silent Magician Cards and any support cards you have for the Lv. Archetype." The proctor told her and Chloe turned to him with a look of surprise on her face. "That is the restriction that is being placed on you, you cannot use your best monsters and any support for them, if this takes you below the 40 card minimum we will supply you with cards that fit your deck strategy."

"Fine, I am getting them back right?" Chloe asked as she retrieved the cards, five in total, and handed them over, the proctor nodded and she did a quick card count to make sure that she still had enough cards. "That has left me with only 35 cards though." Chloe added and Martin called another proctor over, he gave the proctor instructions and he ran off.

"He will be back momentarily with your replacement cards." Martin informed her and Chloe nodded. "If you find the cards to your liking then you can hold onto them after, any requests before I decide on Thomas's restriction?"

"Actually yeah, if I can't use my best monsters then a similar restriction should be placed on his deck." Chloe said after thinking for a few moments, Thomas scoffed as he heard that.

"You can't honestly take the judgment of the same Osiris Red Reject who disabled the safeties on her duel disk into consideration…." Thomas started but Martin cut him off.

"Actually I will, despite her inexperience Richardson's proven to be an exceptional student, you need only look at her Battle City performance for proof of that." Martin interrupted him as his eyes narrowed. "Even without that in mind I do feel that the restrictions I've placed on you have been far too lenient, I will grant her request."

"You can't be serious!" Thomas said as his eyes widened, Martin looked at him sternly and Thomas sighed in resignation. "Fine, what do you have in mind?"

"Well, since the X-Saber archetype relies on Special Summoning monsters I will limit the number of times you can Special Summon monsters to your side of the field, however in the interest of fairness I will apply this to Richardson's deck as well." Martin announced and Thomas growled before nodding reluctantly. "Richardson, do you agree to that?" Martin asked and Chloe nodded as she activated her duel disk, the second proctor ran over and showed her an assortment of Warriors and Spellcasters as well as appropriate support cards.

"These will do nicely, thanks." Chloe thanked the proctor and he handed her the cards, she added them to her deck before turning to Thomas.

"_Why am I worried anyway? She uses that blasted magician so much that she practically relies on it for each of her victories." _ Thomas thought as he glared at Chloe. "So, Martin how many Special Summons are we limited too?"

"I'd say twenty each will suffice." Martin said and the two students nodded in agreement though Thomas did so hesitantly. "Besides the restrictions I've placed on both of you standard rules apply as do Duel Academy's rules for conduct during a duel, do you understand?" Martin asked and the two duelists nodded before Thomas activated their duel disks.

"Hey, be careful out there, that guy's ruthless." The male Osiris Red Student warned Chloe who glanced over her shoulder before nodding.

"Thanks but I've faced my fair share of ruthless guys." Chloe thanked him and the student sat next to the girl Chloe chatted with just as the two duelists drew their opening hands. "So, who's going first?" Chloe asked as she looked over her hand.

"Being the only student in this duel worth a damn I will go first!" Thomas insisted before quickly drawing his card. "I set a monster in defense mode and one card facedown now then, why don't we see how a reject like you can handle that!" Thomas set the two cards and Chloe scowled at his insult before drawing her first card.

"_Silent Magician not being in my deck will be a big problem, especially since this is my first time facing an X-Saber deck." _Chloe thought as she looked over her hand, she had heard of the X-Sabers before via news on the pro league but this was her first time seeing them in action. "I start with the continuous Spell Card Arcane Barrier."

"Now every time I destroy one of your monsters that card will get a counter and as long as you tribute a monster alongside it you'll draw one card for each counter." Thomas said with a cocky smirk. "Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"Maybe this will impress you; I summon Defender the Magical Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the knight in blue and gold armor appeared on the field (4/1600/2000). "Defender, attack his defense monster!" Chloe commanded and the knight charged towards the monster, revealed to be a short man in blue and gold armor that was wearing matching goggles and was carrying a large sword (2/100/0). "Hah, I thought I was in for a challenge, that guy's toast!"

"Look again." Thomas said plainly and Chloe looked up and too her shock saw the much weaker warrior blocking Defender's sword with his own. "Meet X-Saber Pashuul, he may not look like much but in exchange for me paying one thousand life-points during my standby phase this monster can't be destroyed in battle."

"Wouldn't something like Spirit Reaper (3/300/200) work better? It basically has the same effect without draining your life-points?" Chloe asked and Thomas smirked.

"As soon as you end your turn you'll see for yourself." Thomas told her and Chloe frowned.

"Fine, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Thomas drew his card wincing as his life-points dropped to 7000.

"I start my turn with a Spell Card that you should be familiar with, it's called Card Destruction." Thomas played the Spell Card and Chloe frowned before sending her hand to the graveyard and drawing the same amount of cards from her deck, Thomas did likewise and looked over it before activating his trap. "Now I activate my Trap Card Gottom's Emergency Call!"

"Oh crap." The female Osiris Red Student winced as she saw the trap flip up. "He used the same combo on us."

"Yeah but that was much later in the game." The male student reminded her. "It's still anyone's game this early in the duel."

"With this Trap Card I can Special Summon two X-Sabers from either of our Graveyard, oh and don't bother pointing out that you don't have any in your deck because an Osiris Red Reject like you isn't even worthy of looking at these powerful monsters!" Thomas said with a smirk before playing the two cards. "I use my trap card to Special Summon the following, XX-Saber Darksoul and XX-Saber Ragigura!" Thomas announced as two monsters appeared on the field, one was an armored figure in a red robe carrying a scythe (3/100/100) and the other was a robed reptilian monster (1/200/1000). "But that's not all, when Ragigura is Normal or Special Summoned I can add another X-Saber monster to my hand from my deck like so!" Thomas picked up his deck and searched through it, he found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand.

"You just wasted two of your Special Summons on two weak monsters; I hope it was worth it." Chloe pointed out as Thomas sent his trap to the graveyard.

"Maybe but I haven't done my Normal Summon yet!" Thomas said with a grin as he played a card. "To amend this I normal summon a third monster, XX-Saber Emersblade!" Thomas played the card and just like he said a third monster appeared on the field, this one was more insect like than the others but like the others it was wearing armor (3/1300/800).

"This is bad, Chloe has no idea what's in store for her." The male student said through gritted teeth as he glared towards Thomas.

"Chloe, Parshuul's a tuner monster, that's why he's swarming the field!" The female student yelled out to her and Chloe's eyes widened as it dawned on her.

"Would you be quiet?" Thomas shouted at her before glaring at Chloe. "But yes, what she says is correct." Thomas admitted as his four monsters leapt into the air. "I tune Parshuul, Darksoul, Ragigura and Emersblade together so that I can Synchro Summon the mighty XX-Saber Gottoms!" Thomas announced and Parshuul dissolved into two glowing green rings that surrounded the three monsters, a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded the four weaker monsters where gone and replaced with a humungous man in armor that covered every inch of his body, he was wearing a long flowing cape and was carrying a massive sword (9/3100/2600).

"Oh boy, that's yet another victory for me." Lance sighed as he gathered up his cards, he had just finished dueling another Ra Yellow student where his restriction was that he could only have a hand consisting of two cards at all times, his response was, off course, to use those two cards the best he could. "Nice duel man, hey teach you mind if I take five?" Lance asked as he turned towards Martin…..just in time to see Thomas's new monster. "Oh boy, that looks like trouble."

"Feel free Lance, everyone else is occupied anyway." Martin told him and Lance sat next to the two Osiris Red Students…..which was the point where he realized just who was facing Thomas.

"Okay, number 1 when did Chloe arrive and number 2 where did she get the idea to challenge someone with that thing in his deck?" Lance asked the two students who turned to him.

"She arrived about five minutes ago, said she slept in." The male student said before sighing. "It's our fault, that asshole had kicked our asses in two back to back duels and was badmouthing Osiris Red whilst he was at it." The male student explained as he turned to Lance. "He challenged her and despite Martin pointing out that you can't pick your opponents Chloe accepted anyway."

"Well it shouldn't be too bad; I mean Chloe does have Silent Magician Level 8 in her deck!" Lance said as he rested his hands behind his head, the two students sweat-dropped as they heard that.

"Err; yeah that's the other thing." The female student told him and he turned to her. "Martin placed two restrictions on her deck, she can't Special Summon more than twenty times and she can't use her Silent Magician cards."

"What? Oh for fuck's sake, at least tell me that the asshole has something similar working against him!" Lance asked them and the male student folded his arms.

"Well the Special Summon limit applies to both players and he just used three of them." The male student told him as he watched the duel.

"Gottoms, attack that pathetic knight now!" Thomas commanded and the warrior raised his sword high into the air and brought it down upon Defender causing quite a bit of smoke to kick up from the impact.

"My knight may not be as strong as Gottoms but he's called Defender for a reason!" Chloe said as the smoke cleared revealing that Defender had survived the impact. "When I summoned him last turn my knight got a counter and as long as he gives up that counter he can survive an attack."

"Maybe but your life-points still take a hit." Thomas pointed out as Chloe's life-points dropped to 6500.

"Well I guess it's a good time for me to activate my Numinous Healer Trap Card." Chloe activated the trap and Thomas's eyes narrowed as her life-points increased to 7500. "You won't take me down that easily."

"Without your best monster you may as well give up!" Thomas countered before picking up two of his drawn cards. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Thomas set the two cards down and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, as much as I hate to admit it things aren't looking good."_ Chloe thought as she looked up at Gottoms. _"Without Silent Magician in my deck the only monster I can think off that could possible beat Gottoms is Colossal Fighter, problem is I don't have any tuners in my hand at the moment." _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"But this can help!" _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Swords of Revealing Light!"

"Oh please, you're still using that old relic?" Thomas mocked her as three golden swords rained down on Gottoms pinning him down. "No matter, there's more than one way to damage your life-points."

"Maybe but for now I shift Defender to defense mode and set another monster in defense mode." Chloe set the card and her knight knelt down holding its shield out in front of him. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Thomas drew his card.

"You think that'll be enough?" The female student asked the male student who shook his head.

"Who knows? I get the idea behind Chloe's move, she's hoping that Swords of Revealing Light will buy her enough time to get a decent defense force on the field or maybe even enough cards for a Synchro Summon, but the problem with that idea is that the X-Sabers specialize in swarming the field." The student said shaking his head. "For now it's a waiting game."

"Look, Chloe's been in tough spots before, just look at the majority of her Battle City Matches, but she's come out of worse spots before." Lance reassured them and Thomas scoffed as he heard that.

"Beat an Obelisk Blue Student without your precious Silent Magician cards? You may as well start searching for El Dorado whilst you're at it." Thomas responded as he drew his card. "Especially not with the Field Spell I just drew."

"What Field Spell?" Chloe asked and Thomas grinned.

"I'll show you, I activate the Field Spell Card Saber Vault!" Thomas played the card and the scenery changed to a large vault with a glowing sword at the end. "This Field Spell Card increases the attack points of each X-Saber monster on the field by 100 points times its level, now I know you're a lowly Osiris Red Reject but I do hope that you….."

"Your monster's attack is now 4000." Chloe interrupted him and sure enough X-Saber Gottoms's attack rose to 4000. _"Great, now things have gone from bad to worse, even if I had Silent Magician in my deck she still wouldn't be enough to beat Gottoms!"_

"Fortunately for you this Field Spell does have its drawbacks." Thomas continued as Gottoms's defense points dropped to 1500. "As you can see Gottoms defense points drop by the same amount."

"You call that a drawback?" Chloe asked impatiently and Thomas smirked.

"Well for anyone else it would be, but I'm not done activating cards just yet, I activate my trap card At One with the Sword!" Thomas's trap flipped up and the sword previously in Gottoms' hand disappeared from his hands, he turned to the sword within the vault and pulled it from the podium it was on. "This trap card can only be activated if I have a face-up X-Saber monster on my side of the field, since I do it gains 800 attack points."

"Great, as if that thing wasn't strong enough!" Chloe gulped as X-Saber Gottoms's attack increased to 4800.

"It gets worse I'm afraid, I may not be able to attack but X-Saber Gottoms has a very lethal effect, but to activate it I need another X-Saber on the field so first I activate my other trap card, another Gottoms Emergency Call and I use it to bring back Parshuul and Darksoul!" Thomas played the cards and the two weak X-Sabers appeared on the field, Parshuul's attack increased to 300 and Darksoul's attack increased to 400 thanks to the vault. "I'm not done summoning monsters however, since I have two or more X-Saber monsters on my side of the field I can special summon a new monster, X-Saber Faultroll!" Thomas played the card and a man covered from head to toe in red, futuristic armor appeared on the field carrying a large sword (6/2400/1800) and as his attack increased to 3000 thanks to the vault's effect Chloe frowned.

"Don't tell me, you're planning another Synchro Summon?" Chloe asked as her eyes darted between Faultroll and Parshuul. _"With those two monsters alone he has enough monsters for a Level 8 Synchro Summon; if his plan was to bring out another Gottoms then he would've brought back Rggigura instead of Darksoul."_ Chloe thought but to her surprise Thomas shook his head.

"Actually no, I require Parshuul for another purpose entirely but I'll get to that soon." Thomas said as he looked over his hand. "You see Gottoms is powerful in more ways than one, his effect states that I can tribute one X-Saber monster to force you to discard one random card from your hand so I tribute Darksoul and Faultroll….."

"Wait, you can use that thing's effect more than once?" Lance yelled out from the sidelines and Thomas smirked. "How is that card even legal?"

"It is, deal with it!" Thomas shouted back before his two monsters vanished and Chloe frowned before discarding Blade Knight and Gearfried the Iron Knight. "That ends my turn, oh and don't get any ideas about Parshuul, I summoned him in defense mode." Thomas added and once the first sword faded from the field Chloe frowned before drawing her card.

"_Hey it's one of the cards the proctor gave me earlier, I hope it helps!" _Chloe thought before setting the card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Thomas drew his card seemingly not taking any notice of the fact that his life-points dropped to 6000 due to the presence of Parshuul on his side of the field.

"You know what? I'll throw you a bone; I activate a Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot." Thomas played the card and smirked. "Now we both draw three cards from our decks." Thomas added and Chloe complied as she drew three cards and Thomas did likewise, when he saw two of the cards Thomas grinned evilly. "Now it's time to show you why I brought back Pashuul, I equip Pashuul with the Spell Card Pestilence, this can only be equipped to a Warrior, Beast Warrior or Spellcaster type monster, that monster's attack becomes zero and I lose an additional 500 life-points on top of Pashuul's effect."

"So let me get this straight, your solution to a card that forces you to pay life-points during your standby phases is to equip it with a Spell that causes you to lose more life-points?" Lance asked as Pashuul slumped over. "That has got to be one of the dumbest moves I've ever seen and I was present for Kimberly's duel against Luigi Malverio at Battle City."

"Don't compare my masterful strategy to that joke of a champion." Thomas growled as he picked up another card. "Besides that I misspoke earlier, I won't be the one taking the damage, Chloe will be!"

"Come again?" Chloe asked clearly confused by the statement, however the moment she saw the card's hologram. "Oh please tell me that's not Creature Swap?"

"That's right and I'll be taking Defender thank you very much!" Thomas responded and Chloe reluctantly tossed her monster at Thomas who did likewise with his monster, soon afterwards the two monsters' holographic representations switched places. "Now not even your swords can protect you from damage, off course you could reduce the damage by shifting Pashuul to defense mode but what good would that do you? Even without Pestilence equipped to it that monsters attack points are pathetic, much like your dorm."

"Yeah, keep saying that, just remember that a girl from Osiris Red defeated Otto at Battle City and almost beat Theresa." Chloe countered and Thomas growled at that. "Anything else you want to do?"

"Actually yes, you can take Defender back because I sacrifice him so that I can summon XX-Saber Gardestrike!" Thomas tossed the card back at Chloe who reluctantly sent it to the graveyard and Thomas played the third card he drew, in Defender's place stood a beast of a man that closely resembled a tiger (6/2100/1400) and Thomas didn't seem to care about the fact that its attack strength increased to 2700 thanks to the vault. "And now I sacrifice Gardestrike to use Gottoms' effect, let's see if I can make you discard a card I helped you draw hmmm?" Thomas announced as Gardestrike disappeared from the field and Chloe reluctantly discarded Rose, Warrior of Revenge. "I shall end my turn at that." Thomas announced and Chloe drew her card once the second sword faded, she winced as her life-points dropped to 6000.

"_This is nuts! Even with the Swords in play he can still force me to get rid of monsters and damage my life=points." _Chloe thought before looking at Pashuul. _"That thing's a tuner monster and if I can get enough monsters on the field I can bring out Colossal Fighter with him, not an easy task thanks to this combo of his." _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card.

"Yawn, are you going to make a move sometime today?" Thomas asked impatiently and Chloe glared at him.

"As a matter of fact I am; I activate my own Card Destruction!" Chloe played the card and Thomas scowled before discarding his hand and drawing a new one, Chloe followed suit and looked at her new cards. _"Damn, I still don't have enough cards to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter, better play it safe for the time being."_ Chloe thought before she picked up a card. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Chloe announced and Thomas drew his card. _"The two facedown monsters I have are level four monsters, that wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that I need to get rid of Pashuul and the best solution for that is to use Thomas's own Tuner against him, even if I didn't neither of my facedown cards are tuners."_ Chloe thought as she waited for Thomas to make his move.

"Fortunately for you your usage of Card Destruction left me with no X-Sabers in my hand." Thomas told her and Chloe said nothing in response. "Unfortunately for you that same move has allowed me to add this Spell Card to my hand and use this combo, first I activate my own Swords of Revealing Light, you may be using this card as a stall tactic but I'm using its lesser known effect to force your facedown cards to flip over!" Thomas played the card and Chloe shielded herself as three golden swords rained down on her side of the field revealing her facedown monsters to be Command Knight (4/1200/1600) and Field Commander Rhaltz (4/1600/1200). "Even more warriors hmmm? They're good cards, I'll give you that much but they are no match for the power of my next Spell Card, go Saber Slash!" Thomas played the card and Gottoms raised his sword high in the air. "Now I can destroy one face up monster for each X-Saber I control, normally I use this to clear the field and ensure my victory but your pesky little spell card has prevented me from doing that so instead I use it to destroy Command Knight!" Gottoms slammed his sword onto the ground sending a shockwave towards the female warrior, Command Knight was split in two by the blast and her hologram shattered. "I end my turn but know this, on my next turn you'll feel the full wrath of my mighty warrior!" Thomas announced and once the third and final sword vanished Chloe drew her card wincing as her life-points dropped to 4500.

"_I could use my two monsters to bring out Explosive Magician. Problem is he won't be strong enough to defeat Gottoms." _Chloe thought as she looked at her new card. _"God I wish Martin hadn't forced me to take out Silent Magician….."_

"_Chloe, sorry I took so long, had a bit of connection problems." _Silent Magician said as she appeared next to her. _"It seems you're in a bit of trouble."_

"_You just noticed? Martin forced me to take out the Silent Magician cards and the LV. Support cards to see if I can win without them, it hasn't exactly been easy thanks to in no small part to Gottoms." _Chloe responded as she looked over her hand. _"My plan is to bring out Colossal Fighter and take advantage of the high number of Warrior monsters in our graveyards; the main problem is getting enough monsters on the field."_

"_Indeed, you the Spell Card you just drew to discard Gilford the Lightning that should help you."_ Silent Magician advised her before vanishing and she looked at the Spell Card.

"I don't have all day you know!" Thomas yelled at her and Chloe glared at him.

"Fine, I activate the Spell Card Trade In; by discarding my Level 8 Gilford the Lightning from my graveyard this Spell will allow me to draw two cards." Chloe discarded the monster and drew twice without hesitation.

"_She could've wiped out Gottoms with that card during her last turn, why did she hold on to it?"_ Thomas thought as she examined her hand. _"No matter, it was her foolish mistake and I will make her pay for it."_ Thomas thought as Chloe picked up her two new cards.

"I set a card facedown and summon Marauding Captain in attack mode!" Chloe played the cards and the captain appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "Since he was the only warrior in my hand I'll end my turn at that." Chloe announced and as the first sword disappeared Thomas drew his card.

"A wasted effort, you would've been better off placing him in defense mode!" Thomas taunted her before looking at his card. "Unless you're hoping that Marauding Captain will protect your weaker monsters from destruction with his effect, well I'm sorry to say that that won't happen, I activate the Spell Card Forbidden Chalice!"

"_Crap, Phillip used that against Lance."_ Chloe remembered as Marauding Captain glowed briefly as his attack increased to 1700. "Don't bother explaining that thing's effect, I know what it does."

"Very well, I won't, Gottoms attack Field Commander Rhaltz this instant!" Thomas commanded and the warrior raised his sword up…

"I activate my trap card, For Our Dreams." Chloe activated the trap and Marauding Captain disappeared from the field. "To activate it I have to tribute a Warrior Type Monster like Marauding Captain but in exchange for that I can ensure that Field Commander Rhaltz won't be destroyed in battle." Chloe explained as Rhaltz raised its sword up blocking the attack.

"Fine, you brought yourself a little time but stalling is the last thing you need to do with Pashuul on your side of the field." Thomas pointed out and Chloe said nothing. "I'll end my turn at that." Thomas announced and Chloe drew her card, she winced as her life-points took a hit bringing them down to 3000. "The difference between our scores is so massive you may as well surrender reject!" Thomas taunted her and Chloe growled.

"Not as long as I have life-points left." Chloe said as her trap flipped up. "I activate Reckless Greed, in exchange for skipping my next two draw phases I can draw two cards from my deck." Chloe announced before drawing twice. _"Perfect, this is just what I was hoping for." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I summon Apprentice Magician in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the young blonde magician appeared on the field (2/400/800). "And I use her effect to add a Spell Counter to Arcane Barrier!" Chloe announced as the magician pointed her staff towards the long forgotten about Spell Card and cast a spell which caused the hologram to glow. "And now that Arcane Barrier finally has a counter I tribute Apprentice Magician and Arcane Barrier so that I can draw another card from my deck." The two cards vanished from the field and Chloe drew again.

"At this rate she'll deck herself out." The female student gulped and Lance turned to her.

"Knowing Chloe she'll have this asshole beat long before then." Lance reassured her and Thomas scoffed at that.

"An Osiris Red Reject beating me? You may as well ask Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny to play at your birthday party." Thomas said with an arrogant smirk before turning to Chloe…and his smirk disappeared when he saw the grin on her face. "What are you so happy about?"

"Oh, not much, just the fact that the card I just drew is about to blow your combo out of the water." Chloe said as she played the card, Thomas blinked…and his eyes widened when he saw the card in question.

"NO! NOT HEAVY STORM!" Thomas yelled out as a storm washed over the field, Saber Vault was the first to be destroyed followed by At One With The Sword, Pestilence and Thomas's copy of Swords of Revealing Light, as soon as Pestilence's hologram shattered Pashuul stood up straight with his attack power back to normal, at the same time Gottoms' attack dropped down to its original figure. "Yeah, so what if you destroyed Saber Vault and my other cards? Even without it neither of your two monsters can match the strength of my best monster!"

"Strength isn't everything and you seem to be forgetting something about Pashuul." Chloe pointed out and Thomas blinked. "Here's a hint, he's the reason you were able to bring out Gottoms in the first place!"

"You're planning a Synchro Summon? Don't make me laugh; the day that a Level 6 Synchro Monster is strong enough to defeat my ultimate warrior is the day that Osiris Red is worth a damn!" Thomas countered and Chloe grinned.

"Oh, I'm planning on using these two in a Synchro Summon all right, but they aren't the only monsters I'm planning on using in it!" Chloe said and Thomas blinked. "Yeah, I know I've already used up my Normal Summon for this turn but that wasn't what I had in mind, first I set a card facedown." Chloe set the card and its hologram appeared on the field. "Don't get too attached to it, I'm sending this trap to the graveyard so I can Special Summon Card Breaker in attack mode!" A huge plastic fist smashed through the card and in front of the card appeared a tall man in barbarian garb (2/100/900). "Do the math Thomas; I have enough monsters for a Level 8 Synchro Summon!"

"Why should I worry? No Level 8 monster can beat my best monster!" Thomas scoffed as the three monsters leapt into the air.

"You should be worried; I tune X-Saber Pashuul, Card Breaker and Field Commander Rhaltz to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter!" Chloe retrieved the card from the extra deck and played it, a bright flash enveloped the field and when it faded Colossal Fighter stood tall and proud (8/2800/1000).

"Hah! I know that monster gains a hundred attack points for each warrior in your graveyard but if you think that that's still enough to beat me you're clutching at straws!" Thomas taunted Chloe and Martin shook his head.

"It seems that you need to study even harder Thomas." Martin said simply and Thomas blinked in confusion. "Colossal Fighter earns its attack points from BOTH graveyards." Martin explained and Thomas's eyes widened as Colossal Fighter's attack strength increased to 4500.

"No matter, I have more than enough life-points to survive this attack!" Thomas said with a massive smirk on his face.

"Aren't you wondering about the other card I drew with Reckless Greed?" Chloe asked and Thomas blinked in confusion. "It's a card that the proctor gave me before the start of the duel, it's also a card that will lead me to victory and it's called Megamorph!" Thomas's jaw dropped when he heard the card's name and Colossal Fighter doubled in size and attack strength, all the way up to 9000."Consider this a much needed blow to your ego from everyone in Osiris Red! Colossal Fighter, attack Gottoms now!" Chloe commanded and Colossal Fighter who reared its fist back and smashed it into Gottoms chest, the hologram shattered and Thomas was sent flying by the force of the attack.

C: 3000

T: 100

Colossal Fighter returned to Chloe's side of the field and the side effect of Megamorph kicked in cutting its attack in half, however Chloe knew it was still more than enough to defeat him. "I end my turn but you may as well give up; Colossal Fighter's even stronger than before now that Gottoms is in the graveyard." Chloe said as her monster's attack strength increased to 4600.

"You're suggesting that I surrender to an Osiris Red? Don't insult me!" Thomas growled before drawing his card. "No, this can't be! I haven't got a single monster I can summon!"

"You still don't want to surrender?" Chloe offered and Thomas growled.

"Make your move already reject!" Thomas growled at her and Chloe didn't bother to draw a card due to Reckless Greed's effect and the fact that she knew the duel was over.

"Call me a reject all you want! It doesn't matter because this reject's about to kick your ass! Colossal Fighter, finish it!" Chloe commanded and the massive fighter charged towards Thomas before knocking him down.

C: 3000

T: 0000

"No, no, no, NO!" Thomas yelled as he got back to his feet. "She must've cheated! There's no way in hell that an Obelisk Blue elite like me can be beaten by an Osiris Red Reject like her!" Thomas added and Chloe glared at him.

"She beat you fair and square Thomas, deal with it!" A familiar voice rang out from behind Thomas and his eyes widened before he looked up and saw Tyler standing over him. "And quite frankly I was getting of the disrespect you were showing her and the others in her dorm throughout the class, if she hadn't accepted your challenge then I would've gladly fought you in her place, keep that in mind next time you badmouth Osiris Red in my presence, understood?" Tyler asked Thomas stormed off. "Nice moves Chloe; it's good to see him taken down a peg." He complemented her and Chloe grinned.

"Thanks Tyler." Chloe said with a nod only to nearly jump out of her skin when Lance patted her on the back in a friendly way.

"You may have been late Chloe but I'll be damned if it wasn't fun watching that asshole get his ass kicked." Lance said with a grin and Chloe nodded in agreement.

"You passed that test with flying colors Richardson, as promised here's your best cards back." Martin added before handing over the Silent Magicians and Lv. Support cards which she returned to her deck without hesitation. "By my watch the class is almost over, Richardson you have to stay behind afterwards as part of your punishment for the incident yesterday." Martin said and Chloe cast her eyes downward.

"I know sir but thanks for the reminder." Chloe thanked him with a sigh before turning to look at the clock which was just above the door. _"Five minutes left and still two duels going on, they'll be in a hurry to finish their duels in time." _Chloe thought as she glanced towards two duels, one between Rajin and a female Osiris Red Student and the other between two male Ra Yellow students. _"I wonder what Rajin's thinking knowing that that asshole is his tag partner for the tournament?"_ Chloe thought as she thought back to the list of tag teams.

"Hey err, Chloe?" Chloe looked up and saw the two students who had previously dueled Thomas, it was the female student who had spoken up. "Thanks for defeating that asshole."

"No problem, I wasn't about to let him get away with badmouthing our dorm like that." Chloe said with a smirk before turning to the two students. "Come to think of it I don't think I ever caught your names."

"I'm Rachel Travis, he's Kyle Winston, and we're teaming up in the tournament." The female student introduced herself and the male student. "And that wouldn't be a problem if not for the fact that our decks have no synergy whatsoever."

"Believe me, I know the feeling, I'm teaming up with my roommate who uses a Watt Deck." Chloe responded before shaking her head. "Well I'm sure you'll do fine….."

"We're up against Brandon and Theresa in the first round." Kyle interrupted her and Chloe and Lance winced simultaneously.

"Well…..I'm sure you'll do fine anyway." Chloe said as she laughed nervously, unbeknownst to her someone else was watching the duel, namely one of her first round opponents Donny Cramer who had been watching the duel from the seating area.

"_Looks like me and Drake will have a tough test ahead of us, especially if we want to make it past round 1." _Drake thought as he folded his arms. _"Thomas, as gigantic an asshole as he is, is no pushover but Chloe just beat him in one move, better be on the lookout for Colossal Fighter when I face her team at the tournament."_ Donny thought just before the bell rang and everyone except Chloe left the room.

*much later at the abandoned dorm*

The abandoned dorm wasn't long for this world, Kaibacorp had plans to tear it down and build a new building in its place which was one of the reasons it was off limits but that was as much as the teachers and students at the academy knew, well there was one other reason, the students who inhabited the dorm went missing years ago.

Numerous stories surrounded the dorm and what happened to the students who inhabited it, Kaibacorp's official stance on it was that it was a tragic but mysterious event that not even the sole student who came back from wherever the other students went, Pro Duelist Atticus Rhoades, knew what happened to the students, for that reason the parents of the missing students had filed a lawsuit against Kaibacorp to suspend the demolition until an investigation could be conducted, no one at the Academy thought that the lawsuit had any chances of succeeded for numerous reasons from the lawyer representing the parents having a bad track record in winning cases to the extreme likelihood of a Settlement between the two parties.

But tonight it was the home to a meeting, a meeting between Duel spirits.

Armed Dragon Level 10 paced impatiently in the chamber beneath the Abandoned Dorm, due to his size compared to the size of the chamber he was forced to walk on all fours and even then he had trouble fitting in. _"Where is that woman? I know her protégé is inexperienced in terms of dueling and duel spirits but this is ridiculous!" _The dragon thought as he paced around.

"Still as impatient as ever I see." Silent Magician commented as she entered the room, due to the experiments by Professor Banner years ago the dorm had a strong enough magical presence that both Duel Spirits could take physical form. "My apologies, Chloe has to honor the terms of her punishment by Duel Academy officials and I couldn't leave until she went to bed."

"Yes, her punishment." The dragon said with a growl and Silent Magician's eyes narrowed. "An unfitting punishment for what she almost did and what you should've warned her against at the earliest opportunity."

"The situation with Phillip Alvers took priority; we both know that." Silent Magician answered as she folded her arms. "We still don't have any idea how much damage his revival of the Orichalcos has done."

"I am well aware of that, which is why we can't have protégés turning off the safeties in their duel disks whilst their Duel Spirit is on the field." Armed Dragon asserted as his eyes narrowed. "Does she know what damage she would've caused?"

"She knows; I visited her in a dream about her childhood, managed to hold the painful memories at bay long enough to tell her." Silent Magician told him with a frown. "I think I scarred her straight but if she does try that again I'll intervene, but I find that very unlikely, I know you were there alongside Theresa and I know you heard those comments that drove her to doing it."

"Yes, I did hear them, if he had dared to insult my family in the same way they'd never find the body." Armed Dragon said with a growl. "But the misguidance of your protégé isn't why we're holding this meeting, Don?"

"Humph, it's about time." A gruff voice rang out and the Duel Spirit representing Don Zaaloog stepped out from behind Armed Dragon. "Do you have any idea how cramped it was back there? I'll tell ya sweet cheeks, it aint fun being squashed by a giant dragon."

"First off all I thought Brandon's Duel Spirit was still up for debate?" Silent Magician asked as her eyes narrowed. "Second, call me sweet cheeks again and I'll cast a spell that would make that experience seem pleasant on you, understood?" Silent Magician asked and Zaaloog gulped before nodding.

"Yeah, yeah, for a Duel Monster with Silent in her name you do talk a lot." Don Zaaloog scoffed before shaking his head. "I made myself known to the kid and the big guy here earlier today, he, err, found out at the same time I made myself known."

"He's Theresa's duel spirit, how is that…" Silent Magician trailed off as it dawned on her. "You made yourself known whilst Brandon and Theresa where…"

"Whilst they were having sex, yes." Don Zaaloog said shaking his head. "I didn't mean to cockblock the kid but we all know that we Duel Spirits don't get a choice as to when we reveal ourselves to our protégés and hearing a strange voice in his head pretty much killed the mood, sad part is I was trying to give him pointers."

"Don't worry, I intervened." Armed Dragon quickly added before shaking his head. "And my apologies for keeping you in the dark, I would've told you sooner but I had…..matters to attend too regarding the list of new protégés."

"There are others? How many exactly?" Silent Magician asked as she tried to keep her surprise a secret.

"We can confirm that most of the Battle City Duelists who attend the academy have Duel Spirits guiding them, your protégé included obviously." Armed Dragon confirmed as he waved his hand and several pictures showed up showing Chloe, Lance, Marcus, Andreas, Chelsea and Tyler.

"Been practicing your magic I see." Silent Magician said off handedly, all Duel Spirits could perform magic to a degree but Spellcasters where the most powerful magic users. "So, these duelists have Duel Spirits selected for them?"

"Indeed, however we need to test their strength in this chamber to see if they can handle the pressure." Armed Dragon confirmed as he looked over the duelists. "Don, your protégé will be tested separately, we will be testing these five duelists at the same time….."

"And that will task this place's magical energies to the limit." Don Zaaloog said with a nod. "When will the testing take place?"

"Tonight, at midnight, Silent Magician I trust you have a Spell in place?" Armed Dragon asked and Silent Magician nodded. "Be ready."

*later on*

"Man I can't get any sleep." Chloe complained as she sat up in her bed, it was midnight and well past curfew but neither her nor Chelsea, who was at her laptop, could get any sleep, in fact they were still fully clothed and wearing their Duel Disks. "I thought the servers automatically shut down after curfew?"

"Yeah but tech savvy students like me know a few workarounds." Chelsea answered with a grin. "As for not getting any sleep well you did have that lye in earlier and well, it was about 3:00am when me and Beth finished our study session."

"And by that you mean finished making out." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea laughed nervously, the couples on campus used "late night study session" as code to let their roommates know that they intended to have sex, best part was that the guards where none the wiser. "You don't need to use that code with me Chelsea."

"I know but you never know who's listening in." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe grinned at that, before either student could say anything their duel disks started glowing a gold color. "What the…..." Chelsea started but never finished as both girls where yanked from their sitting positions and where pulled out the dorm and out to the street. "What the hell's going on? Where are our duel disks taking us! Why is that not a weird sentence?" Chelsea asked as the two girls made their way, unwillingly, to the north side of the island.

"You're asking me? I'm more concerned about how the hell we're going to explain this to the guards if they catch us!" Chloe pointed out as they were dragged to the north side of the island. "It looks like we're heading to the North Side."

"Oh great, so we could be being dragged to a dorm slated for demolition because some students disappeared years ago or we could be dragged to that fucking volcano, somehow neither destination seems preferable!" Chelsea said annoyingly as they approached the abandoned dorm, the building had fallen into disarray since Jaden Yuki's time at the academy and it had several no entry signs darted around the perimeter of the building, their duel disks stopped glowing and dragging the two girls and they stopped to catch my breath. "Oww, my arm hurts."

"Yeah, being dragged by your duel disks to the north side of the island will do that." Chloe said once she caught her breath. "Great, we're breaking curfew and we're probably breaking at least ten duel academy rules just by being here! At least it can't get any worse."

"SOMEBODY STOP THIS CRAZY THING!" A familiar male voice rang out and the two girls turned around to see Lance, Marcus and Andreas approaching them in pretty much the same way that they approached the building, it was Marcus that had spoken up. "Chloe, Chelsea, you girls where dragged here by your duel disks as well?" Marcus asked once the duel disks stopped dragging the three boys.

"Yeah, our arms are still sore because of it." Chelsea said as her eyes darted between the three boys. "I'm guessing you're as clueless as we are?"

"Well let's see, we were all dragged here from our dorms by our duel disks despite it being past curfew and we're in an area that's off limits, why yes we are confused." Andreas said as he looked around, "At least things can't get any more confusing."

"Ah good, my spell worked." Silent Magician said as she appeared in front of the students. "I suppose you're wondering why I asked you here."

"You call casting a spell that dragged us from our dorms to the Abandoned Dorm asking?" Chelsea asked plainly and Silent Magician said nothing. "Wait, you're a duel monster why are you talking too us?"

"It's difficult to say." Silent Magician said before she prepared another spell.

"You love using that phrase don't you?" Chloe asked and Silent Magician sweat-dropped as the doors opened.

"I'll explain once we're inside." Silent Magician said plainly and the students didn't budge. "Either you come willingly or I'll use the spell I used to bring you here." Silent Magician said plainly and the students winced before following her in to the dorm and down to the chamber. "Armed Dragon, they have arrived."

"Excellent." The dragon said and the five duelists did double takes when they saw him. "What's the matter? Never seen a duel spirit before?"

"What's going on? And more importantly how are we talking to two duel monsters?" Lance asked and the others nodded in agreement.

"We are duel spirits, beings that Maximillion Pegasus uses, abet unintentionally, for the likeness of every duel monster card, most of us live in the Duel Monster Spirit World but some of us, like myself and Armed Dragon, are tasked with guiding young duelists who we see too have potential." Silent Magician explained with a proud smile. "Chloe is my protégé and Armed Dragon Level 10 mentors Theresa."

"So wait, we all have duel monster spirit guides?" Chelsea asked as she scratched her head in confusion.

"Honestly, she lost me at Duel Monster Spirit World." Marcus commented and Silent Magician cleared her throat.

"We will explain more as time passes." Silent Magician said as she led them into the chamber. "We have brought you all here to test you and prepare all off you."

"Prepare us for what?" Lance asked and Silent Magician turned to him.

"We don't know how much damage your father's revival of the Orichalcos caused." Silent Magician informed him and Lance tensed up.

"Wait, your dad was behind that?" Chelsea asked and Lance gulped.

"It's a long story." Lance told her and Chelsea frowned. "How exactly do you intend to test us anyway? Are we going to duel you two?"

"Oh heavens no, we'd beat you in two turns….err no offense." Armed Dragon responded and Silent Magician casted a spell. "Fortunately the Spirit World has handpicked opponents for you." Armed Dragon added as a portal opened up. "No, you can't go through there, you skills aren't advanced enough for that, not even my protégé's skills are advanced enough."

"So they'll come through that portal?" Marcus asked and Armed Dragon nodded, soon enough a figure stepped through the portal before it revealed itself to be a woman with long blue hair wearing a green and black robe.

"That's Magical Exemplar (4/1700/1400)." Chloe realized as she stepped forward. "I guess that means I'm up first." Chloe said but Silent Magician shook her head.

"You are incorrect; Magical Exemplar isn't your opponent." Silent Magician told her and Chloe stepped back.

"I can speak for myself." Magical Exemplar said as she held up her arm and a green duel disk appeared. "As she was about to say, my opponent isn't Chloe, its Marcus." Exemplar said and Marcus grinned broadly.

"Sweet, I haven't dueled once since we got back." Marcus said as he activated his duel disk, Exemplar did likewise and Marcus frowned. _"It's a safe bet that she's a Spellcaster user, thing is I don't have any cards that can deal with that type of monster."_ Marcus thought before they drew their opening hands.

*meanwhile outside the dorm*

"Brandon, first you wake us up past curfew and now you drag us to the Abandoned Dorm?" Theresa asked as she and Tyler followed him. "Are you sure you saw Chloe and Chelsea come this way?"

"I'm sure, it also helps that I keep my window open at night to help me sleep thus allowing me to hear their voices." Brandon told his girlfriend before blushing. "And I'm sorry about earlier…."

"Brandon, you apologized about fifty times already, it was beyond your control." Theresa told him and Brandon laughed nervously. "I just wish I came up with a better cover story than premature ejaculation!"

"Believe me, you're not the only one." Brandon said plainly as he tried to hide his embarrassment. "Wait, the doors shouldn't be open."

"This is weird; Chloe and Chelsea are troublemakers but breaking and entering? They'd never resort to something like that." Tyler said as he shook his head, he put a hand to the side of his mouth and called out. "Okay girls, you can come out now, maybe we can get you back to the dorms before 1:00am huh?" Tyler called out but frowned when he got no response, Theresa did likewise as she looked around.

"Girls, would you rather deal with us or security? We won't report you we just don't want you to get hurt." Theresa added but shook her head as she got no response. "They probably can't hear us, which means they are in the chambers beneath the dorm."

"Oh great, the place where the students disappeared, isn't that lovely?" Brandon sighed before looking around. "We'd better go in after them." Brandon added and the two students nodded in agreement before entering the dorm, they went down to the chambers and heard them talking. "Aha! Okay girls, jokes…over…." Brandon trailed off when he saw the scene in front of him.

"Either this is one weird joke or something weird is going on." Tyler said before approaching the students and clearing his throat. "Okay, who wants to be the one who gets to explain to us why they thought holding….whatever's going in here in the abandoned dorm?" Tyler asked and the students winced before turning around.

"Err, ask the duel monsters." Chloe said and Tyler looked at her oddly. "No seriously, ask them."

"Wait, Chloe, is that your Duel Spirit?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded. "Okay Silent Magician, tell me what's going on."

"These five duelists are being selected for being the protégés for Duel Spirits, you may watch if you wish." Silent Magician told her and Tyler blinked.

"So Duel Spirits are real." Tyler said as he and the other two Obelisk Blue students stepped down the steps. "I thought they were a myth all this time."

"I assure you, we are very real." Silent Magician said as she turned to Tyler. "You have also been selected but you will be tested another time, as will you Brandon."

"That's nice…I guess." Brandon said as he scratched his head. "What do you think guys? Should we stay?"

"We'll stay, besides this way we can watch some duels and ensure they get back to their dorms safely." Tyler said as he sat down on the ground, Theresa nodded in agreement and Marcus grinned.

"I hope your ready Exemplar because I'm about to kick your ass back to the spirit world." Marcus told her as he looked over his hand.


	51. Spirited Away Part 1

"So who's going first exactly?" Marcus asked as he looked over his hand, his opening hand was good but he definitely had better hands before, he looked up and tried to read Magical Exemplar's facial expression but she had one hell of a poker face.

"I will, and for the purposes of convenience you may call me Emra." Magical Exemplar said simply before drawing her card. "I activate a Spell Card called Arcane Barrier, now every time a Spellcaster type monster I control is destroyed in battle this gets a counter…..

"And if you tribute the Spell Card alongside a Spellcaster type monster you can draw one card for each counter." Marcus finished for her with a frown. "I've seen that card in action a few times so I know what it does."

"So you do." Emra acknowledged before picking up two other cards. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defense mode; it's your move Marcus." Emra set the two cards down and Marcus drew his card, _"I almost forgot, Silent Magician's protégé is a Spellcaster and Warrior user, it makes sense for her to have something like Arcane Barrier in her deck and since she and Marcus where at the Battle City Tournament he's bound to have seen a few of her cards in action." _Emra thought as she waited for Marcus to make his move.

"I start by activating the Spell Card called Cards of Consonance, to activate it I have to discard a weak Dragon Type Tuner from my hand but once I do I'm allowed to draw two cards." Marcus played the card and discarded a card from his hand before drawing twice. "But that's not all, you see the monster I just discarded was White Stone of Legend (1/300/250) and when that monster is sent to the graveyard in any way I can add the Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my deck to my hand." Marcus added before picking up his deck and searching through it, he found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand.

"Ah yes, you've used that combo a few times since you won the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in Battle City." Emra acknowledged before activating her facedown card. "Too bad my Mask of Restrict Trap Card renders summoning it the conventional way impossible."

"What? You've gotta be kidding me?" Marcus shouted out and Emra remained silent. _"This is just great, most of my best monsters require tribute summons." _Marcus thought before picking up three cards. "Fine, if I can't summon him yet I'll do this instead! I set too cards facedown and summon Red-Eyes Wyvern in attack mode!" Marcus played the cards and the young version of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared on the field (4/1800/1600). "Red-Eyes Wyvern, toast her facedown monster!" Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the face-down card; however Marcus and Chloe's eyes widened when they saw the monster in question.

"That's Old Vindictive Magician (2/450/600)!" The two duelists yelled simultaneously as the old mage appeared on the field, the magician was able to cast a spell at Red-Eyes Wyvern before he was incinerated the destroyed the dragon.

"Indeed it is." Emra said as she and Marcus sent their respective monsters to the graveyard. "Don't forget that since you destroyed my spellcaster my Barrier gains a counter." Emra said as her spell glowed briefly. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm done." Marcus announced and Emra drew her card. _"This is bad; Emra's Old Vindictive Magician has left me defenseless!" _Marcus thought as Emra looked at her new card.

"I set a monster in defense mode and that will end my turn." Emra announced and Marcus blinked before drawing his card.

"Why didn't she attack? She had a perfect opportunity to do some major damage?" Chloe wondered and Tyler rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Maybe she's waiting until she can draw something with a bit more firepower." Tyler offered as an explanation. "Besides that I have no clue."

"_Yeah, I'm just as confused as they are." _Marcus thought as he looked at his newly drawn card. _"I mean, why waste an opportunity to attack my life-points? Not that I'm complaining off course!" _Marcus thought before playing the card he drew. "I summon Alexandrite Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the crystalline dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/100). "Alexandrite Dragon, attack her defense." Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the facedown monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was incinerated. "I know what Apprentice Magician does so get it over with."

"As you wish but first my Barrier gains a new counter." Emra said as the spell card's hologram glowed again, she picked up her deck, searched through it and found the card she was looking for before setting it down on the field.

"I'll end my turn at that. "Marcus announced and Emra drew her card.

"I flip the Apprentice Magician I special summoned last turn into attack mode!" Emra announced as the young blonde magician appeared on the field. "And I use her effect to add another counter to Arcane Barrier." Emra announced as the magician pointed her staff towards the Spell Card's hologram and a beam of light stuck it. "Finally I activate Book of Moon to flip Apprentice Magician back into defense mode and end my turn." Emra played the card and Apprentice Magician disappeared from the field almost as quickly as she arrived, once Emra sent her spell to the graveyard Marcus drew his card.

"Do you think they've caught on to her strategy yet?" Silent Magician whispered to Armed Dragon who shook his head.

"Her strategy is one of the hardest to decipher that I've seen." Armed Dragon admitted as Marcus looked at his card. "If Marcus can figure it out on his own then he'll certainly be worthy of having a Duel Spirit Partner."

"_Okay, I won't be able to damage her life-points yet but I can take out the last of her Apprentice Magicians." _Marcus thought before playing a card. "Check this out; I summon Spear Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the blue and orange long nosed dragon appeared on the field. "I'm sure I don't need to tell you this but Spear Dragon can inflict piercing damage, Spear Dragon attack her defense!" Marcus commanded and the dragon flew towards Apprentice Magician and skewered her through the chest as soon as she was flipped back up.

E: 6900

M: 8000

"Very well but Arcane Barrier gains its fourth and final counter and Spear Dragon's other effect forces it into defense mode." Emra pointed out as her spell card glowed and she searched through her deck again, she found the card she was looking for and set it facedown, at the same time Spear Dragon crouched down into defense mode and Marcus pointed to his other dragon.

"Yeah well that won't stop me from using Alexandrite Dragon to attack your defense!" Marcus announced and the dragon breathed fire at the monster, revealed to be her third and final Apprentice Magician, which was quickly incinerated. "Too bad Arcane Barrier already has all its counters!"

"True but I have more than enough to continue." Emra shrugged before picking up her deck again, searching through it and setting a monster in defense. "If you are done I would like to proceed with my move."

"Yeah, I'm done." Marcus announced and Emra drew her card. _"What's her strategy exactly? All she's done so far is thin her deck and play defensively but why?"_ Marcus thought as his eyes narrowed.

"I flip my facedown monster into attack position; it's another Old Vindictive Magician!" Marcus's eyes widened when he heard that and the old mage reappeared on the field, he cast a spell at Spear Dragon which destroyed it. "Before you get any ideas about attacking my monster I shall sacrifice him for Arcane Barrier's effect!" Emra announced as the old mage and the spell card disappeared from the field, once they were gone Emra drew four cards from her deck. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode and that will end my turn." Emra announced and Marcus drew his card.

"Why didn't she use Vindictive Magician's effect to destroy the stronger dragon, attack Spear Dragon and then sacrifice it for Arcane Barrier's effect?" Chelsea wondered out loud and Theresa nodded in agreement with her.

"Yeah, that would've made more sense, as it stands Marcus can easily bring out another monster." Theresa responded as Marcus looked at his hand.

"I activate my facedown cards, Reckless Greed and Appropriate!" Emra announced as the two cards flipped up.

"Okay I know what Reckless Greed does; it allows you to draw two cards from your deck in exchange for skipping your next two draw phases." Marcus said and Emra nodded in acknowledgement. "But the other card's a new one on me."

"How Appropriate works is simple, it's a continuous trap card and as long as it's on the field every time you draw a card outside of your draw phase I can draw the same amount of cards." Emra explained and Marcus's eyes narrowed.

"_I've seen that card in action before; it's often used by Exodia duelists in combination with….." _Tyler thought before it dawned on him. _"Off course, that's her strategy, let's see if Marcus can figure it out though." _Tyler thought as Marcus played his card.

"Well in that case I'll avoid using any other copies of Cards of Consonance; in the meantime I summon Blizzard Dragon!" Marcus played the card and a blue and white dragon appeared on the field (4/1800/1000). "Blizzard Dragon, attack her defense!" Marcus commanded and the dragon let loose with a breath of ice, however the ice ended up bouncing back to Marcus who grimaced. "What the…." Marcus trailed off before he saw the card was Royal Magical Library (4/0/2000). "Should've known you would have a card like that."

"Yes, for the deck I use this is a valuable card." Emra acknowledged as Marcus's life-points dropped to 7800.

"_For the deck she uses? What's she talking….off course! Why didn't I think of that sooner?" _Marcus thought before looking at Emra. "You have Exodia in your deck don't you?" Marcus asked and Emra was clearly taken aback by this. "It makes sense, all the deck thinning, all the drawing; you've been doing it to make drawing the five pieces easier."

"Congratulations, in the past my opponents haven't been able to figure out my strategy until it was too late." Emra congratulated him before smirking. "Unfortunately for you I have two of the Exodia pieces in my hand as we speak."

"I'm not worried; I'll beat you before you can draw the final Exodia piece!" Marcus said confidently and Emra's smirk grew wider.

"Maybe that would've been possible if you could summon your best dragon." Emra said dismissively before pointing to Mask of Restrict. "But as it stands? There's only one Level 4 Dragon Type monster that's strong enough to defeat my library and that's Rare Metal Dragon (4/2400/1200) and that monster cannot be Special Summoned, you may as well face it Marcus, it's hopeless, you can't beat me!"

"_As much as I hate to admit it she's right! I've only got one Synchro Monster and that's Trident Dragion, unfortunately I don't have any Tuner Monsters in my hand." _Marcus thought before turning to Emra. "I end my turn." Marcus announced and Emra looked at the cards she drew with Reckless Greed.

"_Hmm, no sign of the third Exodia piece but this will help me a bit." _Emra thought before playing the Spell Card. "I activate the spell card Spell Power Grasp, not only does this add a counter to my Library by virtue of being a spell card but it also allows me to add another counter too it and add another copy of that card from my deck to my hand." Emra announced as two of the orbs on Royal Magical Library glowed and Emra searched through her deck before finding the card she was looking for and adding it to her hand. "However this Spell Card comes with a price as I can only activate one copy of it per turn so I end my turn at that." Emra announced once she shuffled her deck and Marcus drew his card.

"Well, he was able to figure out her strategy." Chelsea commented as she folded her arms. "Question is; does Marcus have any cards that can force his opponent to discard their hands?"

"I didn't see any when I met with him to discuss strategy for the upcoming Tournament." Tyler told her and Chelsea frowned at that. "He could've gotten some since then but if not then Marcus had better end this quickly."

"That's easier said than done with Mask of Restrict on the field." Theresa pointed out with a frown. "Unless he can draw something that destroys Spells and Traps he's in trouble."

"A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon would be his best bet if he can get something strong enough on the field and we all know that there's more than one way to get a strong enough Dragon on the field." Brandon commented as he folded his arms. "Whether or not he can draw one of those methods is another story entirely."

"You guys know I can hear you right?" Marcus asked with an annoyed tone and the four teens sweat-dropped. "Don't sweat it, I've got this."

"Your friends are right to doubt you Marcus." Emra said simply and Marcus remained silent. "Have I ever told you that no one, duel spirit or human, has been able to beat my deck?"

"Well, I guess there's a first time for everything." Marcus said before looking at his hand. _"But whether or not I can draw something that can beat her before she draws the last Exodia piece is another question entirely." _Marcus thought as he looked over his hand.

"_Don't give up Marcus, you can still win this!" _A new voice, seemingly from out of nowhere, rang out and Marcus blinked before looking around the chamber.

"Err, did you guys hear something?" Marcus asked the other students who shook their heads.

"_They can't hear me Marcus but hear me out, I am your duel spirit guide and I have just gathered enough energy to start communicating with you." _The voice added and Marcus blinked in surprise. _"I can help you win this but you must trust me."_

"_Err, okay, I'm open to ideas." _Marcus responded before looking over his hand. _"You're up to speed right?"_

"_I've been watching the duel since the beginning so yes I am up to speed." _The duel spirit answered before pausing. _"I cannot reveal my true form just yet however."_

"_Got it, so any ideas?" _Marcus asked mentally.

"It seems that the first of the new Duel Spirit Guides have made themselves known." Armed Dragon whispered to Silent Magician who nodded.

"Indeed, it's just a matter of time before he summons it." Silent Magician agreed as she watched the duel.

"_Play it safe for now, your facedown cards should help you." _The Duel Spirit answered and Marcus blinked before looking at the facedown cards.

"_Oh yeah, I almost forgot about them." _Marcus remembered as he looked towards the cards. _"I don't know how much good they'll be right now, but I'll play it safe." _Marcus thought before picking up a card. "I set this in defense mode and switch Spear Dragon back to attack mode." Marcus announced as the long nosed dragon stood up after the facedown monster appeared on the field, Emra didn't bother trying to draw a card as the side effect of Reckless Greed was still in effect.

"I activate Reload which lets me return my current hand to my deck and draw a new one." Emra played the card and returned her hand to her deck, shuffled it, and started drawing a new one.

"Why would she do that? She had two of the Exodia pieces already?" Chelsea wondered and Tyler frowned. "If she wanted another counter on her library wouldn't that Spell Power Grasp she used last turn work better?"

"Why else? She's hoping to draw the other Exodia pieces." Tyler pointed out and Chelsea frowned once it dawned on her. "As for Spell Power Grasp its effect requires that there be a card that can take another Spell Counter on the field, Royal Magical Library can only take three."

"Right and it would've gained a counter thanks to Spell Power Grasp being activated." Chelsea realized as Emra drew her new hand.

"Be thankful, my new hand lacks any Exodia pieces." Emra said as the three orbs on her library stopped glowing. "So I give up my three Spell Counters so that I can draw again." Emra announced as she drew a new card. "I end my turn by playing a Spell Card called setting a card in defense mode." Emra set the monster down and Marcus drew his card "I activate the effect of Effect Veilor (1/0/0) from my hand, by discarding her I can render Spear Dragon's effect useless for the rest of the turn."

"Great, that's just great." Marcus muttered under his breath before looking at his Spear Dragon. _"What do you think? Should I risk it? It's not like my dragon will be forced to go into defense after I attack." _Marcus asked his Duel Spirit Guide who said nothing for a few moments.

"_Maybe but set the card you just drew first, just to be safe." _The spirit guide instructed him and Marcus looked at the card.

"_Huh? I can't remember this trap to my deck….."_ Marcus thought before it hit him. _"Duh, Tyler gave it to me yesterday, said it might come in handy in the tournament!" _Marcus remembered before setting it down. "I set one card facedown, now Spear Dragon, attack her defense!" Marcus commanded and the dragon took flight before flying towards the facedown monster, however what emerged looked nothing like a Spellcaster like Marcus was expecting, instead it was a hideous orange fiend with eyes all over its upper body including one giant eye on its forehead and eye for a mouth which was wearing green cargo pants (4/1200/1000).

"How the hell does that thing eat or breathe?" Chloe wondered out loud as Spear Dragon speared the fiend through the chest destroying it.

"Honestly I stopped trying to figure out the logistics of certain duel monsters when I2 released cards like that." Brandon admitted as Emra sent her monster to the graveyard, once he recognized the monster however Brandon's eyes narrowed. "But that's not the problem, the problem is that that monster's bad news in an Exodia deck."

"Your friend's right, the monster you destroyed may not be a Spellcaster like my other monsters but when Big Eye is flipped face up onto the field I can view the next five cards in my deck and arrange them in any order I wish." Emra said as she picked up the five cards from her deck.

"You're kidding me? You mean to tell me that you can now dictate when you're going to draw the cards you need?" Marcus blurted out and Emra nodded.

"I can for the next five terms but yes." Emra corrected him before looking at her next five cards, she placed the bottom card first followed by the top card and then the others, Spear Dragon returned to Marcus's side of the field and remained standing. "I end my turn." Marcus announced and for the first time in two turns Emra drew her card.

"_DO IT NOW MARCUS!" _The Spirit Guide yelled at him making Marcus jump. _"Sorry didn't mean to startle you."_

"_I was going to do that anyway." _Marcus responded before activating his trap card. "I hope for your sakes that that card you placed on top of your deck isn't an Exodia piece because I activate my Trap Card Conscription."

"NO! NOT THAT!" Emra shouted for the first time in the duel and Marcus grinned as did Tyler when he saw the look on Emra's face.

"_Well, well, it seems giving him my trap paid off earlier than I expected." _Tyler thought as Emra reluctantly revealed the top card to be Exodia the Forbidden One (3/1000/1000).

"Ha, ha, I knew it! I knew it had to be an Exodia Piece!" Marcus said with a massive grin as Emra cast a spell on her card that caused it to disappear from her hand and reappear in his. "Okay, that was pretty cool." Marcus admitted before playing the card and the head of the forbidden one appeared on his side of the field.

"Maybe so but I have ways of getting it back to my hand." Emra said calmly before playing the card she had just drawn. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Emra set the card down and Marcus drew his card. _"If he somehow gets rid of Mask of Restrict and uses my Exodia piece as a tribute for his Dragon my newly set trap card will return it to my hand."_ Emra thought before looking at her deck. _"And with my four other Exodia Pieces waiting for me this will be a snap."_ Emra thought before turning her attention to Marcus.

"_Trade-In, didn't Chloe use this in combination with her best monster?"_ Marcus thought as he thought back to the rumors surrounding Chloe's duel with Cameron yesterday. _"That's right, she discarded it using Trade-In and then used Level Modulation to bring it back, and maybe I can do something similar." _Marcus thought before playing the card, "I activate Trade-In, and in exchange for discarding my Level 8 Blue-Eyes White Dragon this will let me draw two cards."

"And thanks to Appropriate I can do the same thing!" Emra pointed out as her trap card glowed and the two duelists drew twice once Marcus discarded his card. "I hope it was worth it."

"Oh it was!" Marcus said with a grin before playing a card. "You may have prevented me from Tribute Summoning my dragon but Mask of Restrict says nothing about Special Summoning!"

"What off it?" Emra demanded before it dawned on her. "Oh no, you have a way to bring it back don't you?"

"That's right, I activate my Trap Card Dragon's Rebirth, in exchange for banishing my Blizzard Dragon I can Special Summon a Dragon Type monster from my hand or graveyard and I chose to bring back this little guy from the graveyard!" Marcus played the card and after pocketing Blizzard Dragon the dragon vanished, in its place stood the mighty dragon ready for battle (8/3000/2500).

"Wait, if he had a way to bring it out all this time then why wait until it was in his graveyard?" Chelsea wondered as she scratched her head in confusion.

"If he has what I think he has in his hand then we'll know for sure." Brandon responded as Marcus played a card.

"Brandon's got it right because my next two cards are gonna blow you away, go Burst Stream of Destruction!" Marcus played the card and the dragon opened its mighty mouth and started charging up its famous attack.

"That's not its attack name!" Emra pointed out and Marcus grinned.

"In certain dueling circles it is but that's not important, why? Because it's the name of a Spell Card I just played!" Marcus said with a grin. "A Spell Card that's gonna wipe out every monster card on your side of the field!"

"WHAT? NO!" Emra yelled out before shielding herself from the blast, Royal Magical Library had just enough time to get a new Spell Counter before crumbling to dust. "That Spell Card must have a weakness!"

"It does, my Dragon can't attack the same turn I use this card but I'm making the most of it!" Marcus said as he played another card. "Thanks to my Spell Card A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon!" Emra's eyes widened when she heard the card name and the dragon took flight, it flapped its wings once and Emra shielded herself as Mask of Restrict, Appropriate and her facedown card, revealed to be the Backup Soldier trap card, shattered alongside Marcus's facedown card.

"That card came at the cost of your own facedown card!" Emra growled and Marcus grinned as he held it up. "You set Dark Coffin!"

"That's right, normally you'd get a choice of discarding a card from your hand at random or destroying a monster on your side of the field but since you don't have any cards on your side of the field…" Marcus trailed off as a ghostly hand grabbed one of the cards she had drawn and dragged it to the graveyard, her eyes widened when she realized what had been discarded.

"No! Not another Exodia piece!" Emra gasped as it dawned on her; however she quickly regained her composure and grinned. "I hope you realize that there's more than one way to add a monster or two to my hand."

"Yeah, I know." Marcus said before holding up the two remaining cards on his field. "But maybe you should be concerned with this! I sacrifice Spear Dragon and Exodia the Forbidden One to bring back the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the two monsters vanished, in Spear Dragon's place stood the mighty dragon ready for battle.

"_Blast, I haven't drawn Pot of Avarice yet!" _Emra thought as she sent her monster to the graveyard before grinning. "You seem to be forgetting something Marcus; you can't attack because of the effect of your own Spell Card!"

"I noticed so I end my turn at that." Marcus admitted and Emra drew her card.

"She seems mighty calm for someone who's staring down the Blue-Eyes White Dragon." Chelsea commented and Tyler turned to her.

"It's because she's right, all she needs to draw is something like Pot of Avarice and the two Exodia pieces are back in her hand." Tyler pointed out and Chelsea frowned at that. "And we still don't know what will happen when the duel's over."

"Or if we'll get caught by nosey security guards before then." Chloe said with a gulp and Tyler shook his head.

"Err; yeah let's try not to think about that." Tyler said as Emra passed her turn and Marcus drew his card.

"_This is risky, I may end up giving her what she needs to bring out Exodia and leave me with nothing!" _Marcus thought as he eyed the Spell Card suspiciously. _"Ah too hell with it, what do I have to lose!" _ Marcus thought before playing the Spell Card which was revealed to be Card of Sanctity.

"You do realize that using that against an Exodia duelist is just asking for trouble right?" Emra pointed out as the two duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands, when Marcus saw what he had drawn he grinned broadly.

"It doesn't matter now! Because I have all the firepower I need to win this duel!" Marcus said with a broad grin as he looked over his hand. _"Now what to play first…"_

"_Play Lord of Dragons, trust me!" _The Duel Spirit Guide instructed him and Marcus blinked.

"_Well if you insist." _Marcus grumbled before playing the card. "And it starts by me summoning Lord of Dragons!" Marcus played the card and Silent Magician and Armed Dragon shared a look as the tanned dragon spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1200/1100).

"Ah excellent, it's about time I was summoned!" The monster exclaimed earning himself a confused look from Marcus.

"Well, well, it seems that Lord of Dragons is you Spirit Guide Marcus." Emra commented and Marcus grinned as it dawned on him. "But it matters not, I have more than enough life-points to survive this turn and you have already used up your normal summon."

"It's like I said earlier Emra, there's more than one way to summon a monster!" Marcus said as he played another Spell Card. "Like this! As long as Lord of Dragons remains on my side of the field I can activate the Flute of Summoning Dragon!" Marcus played the card and Lord of Dragons grinned before grabbing the dragon shaped flute and playing it. "I use this to Special Summon Rare Metal Dragon (4/2400/1200) and Luster Dragon number 1 (4/1900/1600) both in attack mode!" Marcus played the cards and the two dragons appeared on the field, Rare Metal Dragon appeared next too Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Luster Dragon appeared next too Lord of Dragons. "Face it Emra, it's over, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Rare Metal Dragon and Luster Dragon, attack her life-points with…err…Rare Metal Luster White Lightning!" Marcus commanded ignoring the fact that the other duelists had face-faulted at his statement. "What?" Marcus asked as the three attacks made their mark.

M: 7800

E: 0000

"All right I won!" Marcus said as he leaped into the air with a grin, Emra nodded gracefully as they deactivated their duel disks.

"Indeed you did, and you have won a great gift, the undying loyalty of a Duel Spirit, use it well." Emra said before stepping through the portal back to the Spirit World.

"Rare Metal Luster White Lightning, was that the best you could come up with?" Chelsea teased him and Marcus grinned sheepishly. "Well, I guess we know what happens when we win a duel, question is who's next?"

"We will find out momentarily Ms. Cunningham." Armed Dragon told her as another figure stepped through the portal, this time it was an orange fiend with shoulder length blonde hair, pointy ears and green eyes who was wearing a hideously purple suit.

"And I thought the suit my dad wore to his wedding was loud." Chloe muttered under her breath as the fiend took a bow as tipped his hat to the students.

"Yes it is I, the one, the only Greter, the Witty Phantom (4/1400/1300)!" The fiend, now known as Greter, greeted the students. "Your friend may have succeeded against Emra but I ensure you that her skills are no match for mine." Witty Phantom said with a grin as he put his hat back on…..and subsequently face-faulted when the students started laughing.

"Witty Phantom, seriously Witty Phantom? Good grief I don't think anyone used that card when it was new!" Chelsea laughed as she rubbed her eye. "How tough can he be anyway?"

"Kids these days don't respect the classics." Greter muttered under his breath as he got to his feet and held up his arm and a black duel disk appeared on it. "You'll find out shortly my dear as you, Chelsea Cunningham, has been selected as my opponent."

"Oh really, your my opponent? Oh god this is priceless!" Chelsea laughed as she stepped forward. "Don't go to the bathroom or anything guys! This match might be over by the time you get back!"

"Wait a minute; I thought this was supposed to be a tag team match between Chelsea and Chloe and two duel spirits?" Silent Magician protested and Witty Phantom sweat-dropped.

"Err, funny story actually! No one wanted to team up with me." Witty Phantom sighed in annoyance as Silent Magician growled. "Don't worry, they were willing to compromise, the two Osiris Red students will now be competing separately."

"This was supposed to build up their confidence as a tag team!" Silent Magician protested and Witty Phantom sighed.

"Do I look like a Spellcaster? I don't have the ability to change people's minds let alone Duel Spirits!" Witty Phantom protested before sighing and turning to Chelsea. "So it's like I said, Ms. Cunningham here will face me alone, Chloe has been moved to the last spot."

"We would appreciate being told in advance." Armed Dragon roared and Witty Phantom gulped.

"_Poor guy, I'm starting to feel sorry for him! Wow, I did not expect to feel sorry for a duel monster today."_ Chelsea thought before activating her duel disk. "You know what? It's fine! I can take this guy on my own!"

"Well, if you insist Chelsea." Silent Magician said and Armed Dragon nodded in approval.

"Oh thank you! Do you have any idea how hard it is for a Level 4 Duel Spirit to stand up to a Level 8 and a Level 10 Duel Spirit? It must've been like when you came out of the closet in front of your parents!" Witty Phantom thanked Chelsea grinned…..before sweat-dropping.

"Wait, how did you know that exactly?" Chelsea protested and Witty Phantom gulped.

"We may have told your opponents personal information about their opponents." Silent Magician said nervously and Chelsea glared at her. "We probably should've left certain details out."

"You think?" Chelsea snapped at her before sighing. "Fine, let's get this over with."

"Wait, she's gay?" Tyler whispered to Brandon who gulped.

"Trust me; I was just as surprised as you are." Brandon responded as the two duelists drew their opening hands.

*meanwhile at the Ra Yellow Boys Dorm*

"Ugh, the sooner the night staff for this dorm, Obelisk Blue Boy's, Obelisk Blue Girl's and Osiris Red Girl's dorms come off sick the better." Jeff groaned as he took another sip of his coffee, the third one he's had tonight, the students weren't the only ones to fall ill prior to Battle City as the night staff had also fallen ill. Unfortunately for Jeff they were taking longer to get better. "I may be 35 but I'm already getting too old for this!" Jeff sighed just before there was a knock at the door. "Door's open, if it's a student that's lost his key be in and out of my office in five minutes!" Jeff called out and the door opened revealing a security guard.

"Sir, I know you're tired but we've got a situation." The guard said before handing over security camera footage. "About an hour ago Lance Alvers, Andreas Freshier and Marcus Reynolds didn't answer their nightly dorm check, a half hour later we retrieved security footage of them breaking curfew."

"Looks like their heading towards the North Side of the Island." Jeff commented with a frown. "See if you can locate them before they get hurt and if you can send them straight to their dorm rooms, quite frankly I'm too tired to put up with them right….." Jeff started but was cut off by two video calls, one from the Osiris Red Girl's dorm and the other from the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm. _"Martin doesn't call unless it's an emergency." _Jeff thought before dismissing the guard and answering the call. "I hope I'm not interrupting your beauty sleeps."

"Jeffery this is no time for jokes." Maria said with a concerned tone in her voice. "About an hour ago Chloe Richardson and her roommate Chelsea Cunningham failed to answer their dorm checks; Chelsea's laptop was still on so we thought she had snuck off to her girlfriend's dorm….."

"And instead you retrieved security footage of the two girls running towards the North Side of the island with their duel disks in front of them?" Jeff asked and Maria nodded. "I can say the same for Lance Alvers, Andreas Freshier and Marcus Reynolds except I don't think any of them have girlfriends, if they did I'd be the first to hear about it from Sarah." Jeff added referring to the head of the Ra Yellow Girls Dorm.

"This is where things get weird…weirder even." Martin added with a frown. "Three of my top students, Brandon Thomas, Theresa Daniels and Tyler Kaiba, did the same thing only I suspect that they heard the previously mentioned students and went to investigate."

"That is weird." Jeff agreed as he finished his coffee. "Martin, I'm coming over to the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm, we can continue this discussion there."

"I'll meet you there Jeffery." Maria agreed before hanging up.

"Good, I'll start brewing extra pots of coffee." Martin agreed before hanging up, Jeff sighed as he stepped out of his office and instructed the guard to take over for the rest of the night.

"_What are the students doing over there?" _Jeff thought as he walked down the hall.


	52. Spirited Away Part 2

"_You have got to be kidding me! This is going to be a piece of cake!" _Chelsea thought as she looked over her hand. _"I mean, Witty Phantom? I know guys who run Normal Monster Decks that won't include that guy in them!" _Chelsea thought before looking up at Greter. "So who's going first?"

"I am." Greter said before drawing his card. "I start with a Spell Card called Allure of Darkness, as long as I banish a Dark Type Monster from my hand afterwards this Spell will let me draw two cards from my deck." Greter played the card and after he banished one of his cards he drew twice.

"_Yeah, no doubt about it, if this guy's not a Fiend Type user I'll eat my Duel Disk." _Chelsea thought as Greter looked at his new cards.

"_Perfect, if she still uses those Watt Monsters this will be over quickly!" _Greter thought before playing the cards. "I set two cards facedown and set a card in defense mode, you're move Chelsea." Greter set the three cards and Chelsea frowned before drawing her card.

"_He's playing defensive like Emra did against Marcus, but why?" _Chelsea thought before looking up in time to see Greter activate his facedown card.

"I activate Book of Trayou, this forces my newly set monster into face up attack position, so allow me to introduce Nuvia the Wicked!" Greter flipped the card up and the other duelists did a double take when a hideous, green snake like fiend with a purple woman's head appeared on the field (4/2000/800). "Quite the looker isn't she?"

"You're kidding right? That's a face only a blind mother could love!" Chelsea pointed out and Greter chuckled. "Besides that why the hell would you summon that? It's one of the most useless fiend type monsters in the game!"

"_Why indeed Ms. Cunningham, if that remaining facedown card is what I think it is she's in trouble." _Armed Dragon thought as he observed the duel.

"Yes, Nuvia isn't the most popular fiend type is she?" Greter asked and Chelsea remained silent. "If I had normal summoned her she would've been destroyed instantly, not only that but she loses 200 attack points for each monster you control."

"Then why did you summon it in the first place?" Brandon asked and Greter smirked as he activated his other trap.

"So I can activate one of the most dreaded cards to ever be put towards a Watt Deck, go Deck Devastation Virus!" Greter activated the card and Chelsea's eyes widened as the fiend shattered and a virus spread to three of the cards in her hand. "Oh dear, it seems three of your cards are low attack point monsters!"

"I don't get it!" Chloe wondered and Brandon turned to her.

"You've heard of Crush Card Virus right?" Brandon asked and Chloe nodded. "Deck Devastation Virus works like that card but it works the other way around, it requires a Dark Type Monster with 2000 or more attack points like Nuvia to be tributed but once that card is tributed any monster cards with less than 1500 attack points that are in her hand or she draws over the next three turns are automatically destroyed."

"But…..but that's most of Chelsea's deck!" Chloe realized as it dawned on her. "How'd he get that in his hand anyway? Did he top deck?"

"Hey I don't cheat!" Greter yelled at Chloe who frowned at him.

"It could be dumb luck on his part but yes, and I'm beginning to think that Deck Devastation Virus being used on Chelsea and Mask of Restrict being used on Marcus is not a coincidence." Tyler agreed with a frown. "Those two cards are practically designed to work against their decks and if you think about it what reason would Emra have to keep Mask of Restrict in her deck when she uses an Exodia deck?"

"Control of the field maybe but I agree that this can't be a coincidence." Theresa said with a nod as Chelsea sent her three monsters to the graveyard. "Well, so much for Chelsea having an easy time in this duel."

"You're telling me!" Chelsea called out to her before looking over her hand. _"Okay, it's cool, I got this! I just got to bide enough time for Deck Devastation Virus to wear off and I'll be in the driver's seat, sucks though, the three cards I could've summoned where some of my best cards!" _Chelsea thought before picking up the remainder of her hand. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Chelsea sighed in annoyance as Greter drew his card.

"Hmmph, not what I was hoping for but this will do nicely!" Greter grunted before playing the card. "I summon Tardy Orc in attack mode!"

"Is this supposed to be a joke about me being late earlier?" Chloe wondered out loud as the new monster appeared on the field, it appeared to be a younger version of the monster Giant Orc (4/2200/0000) that was wearing a pink backpack, green and brown cargo pants and appeared to be crying (4/2200/0000).

"Chloe, I'm honestly more concerned about how much damage that thing will do to my life-points!" Chelsea responded before turning back to the ogre.

"Well then I have good news! Tardy Orc, as its name may imply, can't attack on the same turn that it's Normal Summoned, in fact the only reason I summoned this thing is because it's the best monster I have available at the moment." Greter explained earning a confused look from Chelsea. "What? You don't believe me? Tardy Orc attack her life-points!" Greter commanded and the ogre looked at its master confused seconds before a giant dunce hat appeared on its head. "You see?"

"Yeah, I get it." Chelsea grunted as she stared at the ogre. _"At least I'm getting a rough idea of what his deck's all about, it seems to focus on Fiend Type monsters with strong attack points and crappy effects like Nuvia last turn and Tardy Orc now." _ Chelsea thought as she turned to her hand. _"That wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for that damn Trap Card!"_

"I shall end my turn at that but tell me my dear, what hope could you possibly have with most of your deck crippled?" Greter asked and Chelsea said nothing in response before drawing her card, she winced when she saw it. "Oh don't tell me, a low level Thunder Type monster with low attack points that just so happens to belong to the Watt Archetype?"

"You ever get tired of being an obnoxious know it all?" Chelsea snapped at him before revealing the monster to be Wattgiraffe (4/1200/100) which she reluctantly sent to the graveyard. "Since I have no other moves I can make at this time I end my turn." Chelsea sighed and Greter drew his card.

"_Excellent, the final piece to my Anti-Watt Strategy is in my hands!" _Greter thought with a broad grin as he looked at the card. _"My Deck Devastation Virus may have crippled her deck for three turns but this? As long as it's on the field it'll cripple her deck and benefit mine!" _Greter thought before setting the card. "I set one card facedown, now Tardy Orc I command you to attack her life-points directly!" Greter commanded and the Orc charged towards Chelsea…..

"I activate Waboku to protect my life-points!" Chelsea announced as her trap flipped up and the three priestesses blocked the charge of the orc. "You may have crippled most of my deck but Deck Devastation Virus doesn't work on Spells and Traps!"

"_She's far cleverer than I gave her credit for." _Greter thought as the Orc returned to his side of the field. _"Deck Devastation Virus has one turn left; if I want to win this I must activate my trap card as soon as possible!" _Greter thought before motioning to Chelsea to take her turn, she drew her card and breathed a sigh of relief.

"_I never thought I'd be so relieved to NOT draw a monster."_ Chelsea thought before playing the card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea announced and Greter drew his card. _"At least I only have to put up with that damn Virus for another turn."_ Chelsea thought.

"_She has to run out of Spells and Traps eventually, and when she does she'll run out of life-points soon afterwards." _Greter thought before looking at his drawn card. "Before I summon my next monster allow me to reveal the other half of my Anti-Watt strategy, a trap card that will cripple your deck far worse than my Deck Devastation Virus."

"What can be worse than Deck Devastation Virus?" Chelsea wondered out loud before it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Oh don't tell me your facedown card is….."

"That's right, go Skill Drain!" Greter activated the trap and winced as his life-points dropped to 7000. "It may cost me a thousand life-points but you know what? It is a thousand life-points well spent! As long as this is on the field monster effects cannot be activated!" Greter said with a smirk and Chelsea glared at him. _"Well okay, there is one other piece of my puzzle but she doesn't need to know that JUST yet!" _Greter thought before pointing to his orc. "Tardy Orc, attack her life-points!" Greter commanded and the orc charged towards Chelsea before slamming into her chest.

C: 5800

G: 7000

"I shall end my turn at that." Greter announced as Chelsea got back to her feet and drew a card.

"_As if things weren't bad enough when he had that damn Virus active but now? I can't use any effects!" _Chelsea thought before looking at her hand, which consisted off her only non-synchro monster to have over 1500 attack points, namely Watttaildragon but she had no way of bringing it out…_"SHIT! Why didn't I activate the trap I set before ending my turn! Ugh I'm so stupid!" _Chelsea thought frustratingly.

"_You're not stupid my child, you just made a mistake."_ A regal voice rang out from inside Chelsea's head and she blinked before looking around for the source.

"_Where did that voice come from? Not even Brandon's voice is that snotty and he's a rich kid!" _Chelsea thought before it hit her. _"Wait, are you my Duel Spirit?"_

"_Indeed I am." _The voice responded and Chelsea blinked. _"I won't be able to reveal my true form for now but as I was saying; if you want to make up for that mistake do it now."_

"_You got it!" _Chelsea responded before she activated her trap. "I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Wattgiraffe!" Chelsea activated her trap and the electric yellow giraffe appeared on the field (4/1200/100).

"Hah! If you could do that why didn't you bring him back to protect your life-points during your turn?" Greter taunted her with a grin. "I'm beginning to see why you and Chloe over there are the only Osiris Red Students among us!"

"Okay, first off I was meant to be in Ra Yellow but I got stuck in Osiris Red due to attitude problems!" Chelsea snapped at him before grinning. "There's a second reason why I activated that trap anyway, you may have rendered my Watt monsters useless but there's one Watt Monster that doesn't have any effects and has a high attack power of 2500.

"_High attack power, what does her…? Oh, that." _Greter grimaced as it dawned on him. "You have Wattaildragon in your hand don't you?"

"You got it! And I'm sacrificing Wattgiraffe to bring him out!" Chelsea played the card and Wattgiraffe vanished from the field, in its place stood the mighty blue dragon that Lance used against her (6/2500/1000).

"Oh great, you know it is times like these that I curse the day that I2 banned Crush Card Virus." Greter gulped as he stared down the dragon. _"No matter, I have ways of keeping that overgrown lizard at bay!" _Greter thought as he waited for Chelsea to continue her move. "It's not like it matters anyway! I'll have more than enough life-points by the time this duel's over." Greter added but was caught off guard when Chelsea started laughing. "Dare I ask, what's so funny?"

"Because I save my next card for when I have Wattaildragon on the field, that's why!" Chelsea told him as her facedown card flipped up. "Wattkey here lets me attack your life-points directly even with a Watt monster that normally lacks that effect!"

"Hey wait a minute…." Greter trailed off as it dawned on him.

"Wattaildragon, I think it's time we made him pay for crippling my deck, attacking my life-points and making me stay up late, don't you?" Chelsea asked her dragon with a grin who responded by launching a ball of electricity at the fiend who screamed in pain.

C: 5800

G: 4500

"Very clever but I'll get past that dragon eventually!" Greter grunted as he got back to his feet. "And once I do what are you left with? Nothing, I'd have beaten your best monster and rendered the rest of your deck useless! Unless you have something that can destroy Skill Drain this match is mine!"

"_I do have something that can do that, problem is drawing it!" _Chelsea thought as she glanced towards her deck. "I end my turn." Chelsea announced and Greter drew his card.

"Fortunately for you I have no way to get rid of your dragon, otherwise I'd be back in the driver's seat." Greter grunted before shifting Tardy Orc to defense mode and the orc sat down quietly almost as if it was in class and a facedown card appeared behind it. "Now that I have shifted my monster to defense mode I shall end my turn with a facedown card." Greter informed her and Chelsea drew her card.

"_So…..err, are you Wattaildragon?" _Chelsea asked the voice who groaned in response.

"_If I was I would've announced that the moment it appeared on the field."_ The voice responded before pausing. _"Besides Wattaildragon is not a monster you want as a duel spirit guide."_

"_Why? It's a strong monster and….."_ Chelsea trailed off but was cut off by the voice.

"_And feral, incredibly difficult to control and has a nasty habit of injuring or even killing its protégés." _The voice interrupted her and Chelsea grimaced. _"Don't worry, the Duel Monster card it's self is perfectly safe to use but did you ever wonder why the Spell Card Ancient Rules is mentioned in its flavor text?"_

"_That actually makes a strange kind of sense."_ Chelsea admitted before looking at the trap card. _"Great, a dead draw."_ Chelsea thought before adding the card to her hand.

"_Maybe but that card may come in handy later, hold onto it for now." _The voice instructed her and Chelsea nodded.

"_Yeah, it's one of my favorite cards to use, pity it's useless when your only monster is already on the field." _Chelsea pointed out to the spirit before pointing to Tardy Orc. "Wattaildragon, it's time to put Tardy Orc in detention!" Chelsea announced as her dragon charged up its ball of electricity…

"Since Tardy Orc is practically useless in Defense mode I activate Dark Spirit Art – Greed, which allows me to sacrifice my orc and draw two cards from my deck!" Greter activated the trap and Tardy Orc vanished from the field in a puff of smoke, seconds later Greter drew two cards from his deck.

"Fine by me, that just means you'll lose another 2500 life-points!" Chelsea said with a grin as the dragon prepared to launch its attack…..

"Did you ever wonder why I never summoned that second monster?" Greter asked as he played the card and Battle Fader (1/0/0) appeared on the field, the dragon stopped its attack immediately and Chelsea frowned. "Are you done?"

"Actually I want to ask you something." Chelsea said and Greter raised an eyebrow. "You called Tardy Orc practically useless in defense mode."

"So I did, I was only stating a simple fact." Greter shrugged his shoulders and Chelsea frowned. "Why do you care so much about my monster?"

"I don't, I'm merely wondering why a duelist would call his own monster useless when any duelist worth his salt knows that there's no such thing as a useless monster." Chelsea pointed out and Greter scoffed when he heard that. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing much, it's just your hypocrisy." Greter pointed out and Chelsea was clearly taken aback by this. "Didn't you call my Duel Monsters equivalent useless?"

"That's different; despite his crappy effect Tardy Orc has a ridiculously high attack power for a Level 4 monster." Chelsea pointed out and Greter growled. "But you on the other hand, where do I even start? You're only a slightly better Fiend version of the original Celtic Guardian (4/1400/1200) but at least that monster has a retrained version…."

"Ah yes, Obnoxious Celtic Guardian." Greter scoffed as he spat to the side. "A card that's only good for stalling, tribute or even Synchro Summons but I suppose that's an improvement over Witty Phantom who I2 never even bothered to release a retrained version of!" Greter said angrily as he spat to the side. "Speaking of Synchro Summons when the first Synchro Monsters where released a few months ago I was over the moon! I thought that people may start using me with cards like Natural Tune or Urgent Tuning but did that happen? No! Not even duelists who use throwback decks use me in them, hell they use Baron of the Fiend Sword in my place for crying out loud! I may be a fairly standard monster but at least I have a decent defense!"

"_Err, Silent Magician, does this guy always go on long winded rants?" _Chloe asked mentally and Silent Magician sighed in annoyance.

"_His status in Duel Monsters has always been a sensitive area for him." _Silent Magician responded with a chuckle. _"Chelsea isn't the first to call him out on his hypocrisy and I doubt she'll be the last."_

"_Somehow I'm not surprised about that, I'm guessing he uses monsters like Tardy Orc and Nuvia to compensate for that?"_ Chloe asked and Silent Magician nodded.

"_That's basically it, besides you don't need to communicate with me that way I'm in the same room as you."_ Silent Magician pointed out and Chloe blushed.

"Sorry, force of habit, I'm still getting used to you have a physical form." Chloe said sheepishly and Silent Magician smirked at that.

"_She thinks she's having trouble? I'm still getting used to the concept of Duel Spirits!" _Chelsea thought as she overheard what Chloe said, she shook her head and motioned for Greter to take his turn, Greter said nothing as he drew his card. _"Maybe he's right, I mean if it weren't for their effects the Watt monsters would be called useless as well."_

"_I suppose you mean the weaker Watt Monsters?" _The voice asked and Chelsea nodded. _"Don't worry about not being used to me just yet; it typically takes a few days to a week for a new protégé to adjust to this change."_

"_That's comforting I guess." _Chelsea responded uneasily. _"Has anyone…not been able to adjust?" _Chelsea asked after pausing to consider how to word her question.

"_Only a handful, they currently reside in a mental institution." _The voice responded and Chelsea grimaced at that idea. _"Those where our earliest protégés however, back then we didn't feel the need to identify ourselves as Duel Spirits but after the fifth institutionalized protégé it was made mandatory to identify ourselves as Duel Spirits to new protégés, if it's any consolation we first gained this ability a little over 30 years ago."_

"_Right, so any crazy protégé is either dead or old enough to be one of my grandparents, got it." _Chelsea nodded as she waited for Greter to make a move. _"I'm guessing tests like these didn't start until after that?"_

"_Indeed, there will be other tests but we will inform you of when they happen." _The voice responded and Chelsea turned her attention back to Greter.

"Inquisitive, isn't she?" Armed Dragon whispered to Silent Magician who nodded, the higher level Duel Spirits had the limited ability to read minds but it was limited to communications between Duel Spirits and their protégés.

"If anything it's a good sign, shows that she's curious about her new role." Silent Magician responded as she watched the duel. "I only hope the others share her curiosity."

"And I'm hoping that she uses her Duel Spirit Partner responsibly!" Armed Dragon growled and Silent Magician's eyes narrowed.

"How many times must I point out the circumstances surrounding that incident?" Silent Magician asked impatiently and Greter rolled his eyes.

"Good grief, they're like an old married couple!" Greter commented before looking at his newly drawn card.

"Err, should you really be saying that with them in earshot?" Chelsea asked noticing the glares from Silent Magician and Armed Dragon that Greter had earned.

"An excellent point, now then, back to my move!" Greter admitted before looking at his drawn card. "Perfect, now that Battle Fader's served its purpose I sacrifice him so I can summon a new monster! However I shall set this monster in defense mode!" Greter played the card and Battle Fader vanished, once Greter pocketed Battle Fader due to its effect a facedown monster appeared in its place. "I shall end my turn."

"_A Monster that requires a sacrifice yet he summoned it in defense mode? Yeah good money's on that monster having a high defense stat," _Chelsea thought as she drew her card. _"Question is should I risk it?"_

"_Wish I could tell you but this is my first time seeing Greter's deck, let alone fighting it." _The Spirit told her and Chelsea let out an annoyed sigh.

"_Thanks anyway." _Chelsea told him before looking at her newly drawn card. _"Wait, Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri? Why did I add this to my deck exactly? I don't have any cards that remove monsters from play?" _Chelsea thought as she stared at the card.

"_Set it anyway, just to be safe." _The Spirit instructed her and Chelsea frowned.

"_Hey! No backseat dueling!" _Chelsea snapped at her duel spirit before shaking her head. _"I've come this far on my own and I'm not going to stop now!"_

"_Do you want to win this match?" _The Spirit asked her and Chelsea hesitated. _"It's true that you have considerable dueling talent but we both know that your defensive personality is what landed you in Osiris Red."_

"_I know." _Chelsea sighed before setting the card. _"I hope you know what you're doing!"_

"_I have years of dueling experience, of course I do!" _The Spirit reassured her but Chelsea remained unconvinced. _"Now end your turn….."_

"_Fuck that!" _Chelsea interrupted him before pointing to her dragon. "Watttaildragon, toast his defense monster!" Chelsea commanded and Greter grinned broadly as the dragon launched its attack.

"_Chelsea, wait! Call off your attack!" _The Spirit called out but knew it was far too late, to Chelsea's surprise a large golden wall appeared above the card's hologram and blocked the attack before it rebounded at Chelsea.

C; 5300

G: 4500

"Was that Labyrinth Wall (5/0/3000)? Seriously, who uses that nowadays?" Chelsea asked as she got to her feet, Greter chuckled as he folded his arms.

"I do, that's who!" Greter said as he looked towards Labyrinth Wall. "Whilst it's true that I2 rendered the effect it had during the Duelist Kingdom Tournament unofficial shortly before the start of the Battle City Tournament it still has its uses as an impenetrable wall for my defenses, face it its hopeless! Skill Drain renders the majority of your monsters absolutely useless by virtue of its effect and I can't think of a single Watt Monster with the strength to penetrate my wall, better luck next time!"

"_Guess I should've listened huh?" _Chelsea commented to her spirit who shook his head. _"I mean, how was I supposed to know the monster he set has the defense power equivalent to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon?"_

"_You weren't but Chelsea, for this partnership to work we need to cooperate." _ The Spirit told her and Chelsea lowered her head in shame. _"Don't fret; the first duel with a Duel Spirit Partner is always rocky for the protégé."_

"_That's comforting to know." _ Chelsea thought with a sigh before looking at her dragon. "That's all for me." Chelsea announced and Greter drew his card.

"Well then, I start by activating Card of Sanctity." Greter activated the card and Chelsea, relieved to finally have some cards in her hand, drew until she had six cards in her hand and Greter did likewise, when they saw the contents of their hands both duelists grinned broadly.

"_Hey Duel Spirit, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" _Chelsea asked the duel spirit as she looked over her hand.

"_Indeed, let's see if we survive the turn though." _The Spirit responded and Chelsea turned to Greter.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn at that." Greter set the two cards and Chelsea drew her card.

"I'll do likewise; I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the two cards and Greter grinned broadly before drawing his card. _"I don't like the look on his face."_

"_Indeed, he's planning something." _The Duel Spirit agreed with her as Greter activated his trap.

"Well it's been fun but it's time to bring this duel to a close!" Greter said as the trap card flipped up. "And it starts with this! My trap card D2 Shield! For the remainder of my wall's time on the field this trap card shall double the defense of my Labyrinth Wall all the way up to 6000!" Greter announced as Labyrinth Wall's Defense skyrocketed to 6000.

"Why even bother? It's not like I was going to attack that thing anyway." Chelsea pointed out and Greter grinned before, to the shock of everyone, shifting Labyrinth Wall to attack mode.

"Oh you'll see why soon enough my dear, as you can see I have shifted my wall into attack mode." Greter said though the wall didn't make any movements, due to being a wall and all. "Why you ask? It's simple, I have two more cards to play, first up is the Spell Card Shield and Sword."

"Oh boy, this is trouble." Chelsea winced as the Wall's attack stat skyrocketed to 6000 whilst his defense stat plummeted to zero. "How is that thing going to attack me anyway? It's a wall!"

"Honestly I don't know this is my first time trying this combo." Greter admitted and the other duelists and duel spirits face faulted. "Besides there's one final piece of the puzzle and it's the Spell Card Dark Core! By discarding one card from my hand I can remove Watttaildragon from play!" Greter played the card and Chelsea's eyes widened.

"_I hope my plan works!" _Chelsea thought as she glanced towards her traps, she bit her lip before bracing herself. _"This is gonna hurt!"_

"Labyrinth Wall, attack her life-points directly!" Greter commanded and they got the answer to the question of how a wall attacks, by collapsing on the attackee, confident that the victory was at hand Greter turned to the portal. "Well my dear it's been fun but I must return to the Spirit World, I have a hot dinner date with Dumnass Dark Witch that I don't want to miss! Don't cry though, you'll get another chance at bonding with your duel spirit, just not to…"

"Hey asshole, you may want to check the scores again!" Chelsea called out to him as she slowly got to her feet, Greter turned around ready to chastise her but to his shock saw that the holograms where still active and that Chelsea was staring at him with a cocky smirk on her face.

"What….but the attack had more than enough attack power to finish you off?" Greter protested before looking at the scores.

G: 4500

C: 3300

"What's going on here? I thought I had this match won!" Greter protested before finally paying attention to Chelsea's side of the field. "Why off course! Only Nutrient Z could save you from an attack like that!"

"You got it! Since I just took a lot more than 2000 life-points Nutrient Z here adds 4000 life-points to my score before damage calculation." Chelsea explained with a grin. "It seems the big bad duel spirit couldn't finish off a messily Osiris Red Student." Chelsea mocked him and Greter growled at that.

"Don't you dare mock me you petulant child! Do you have any idea…..who….I…it has just dawned on me that Labyrinth Wall will lose all its attack points as soon as I end my turn." Greter realized as his eyes widened. "Oh shit."

"Honestly I'd be yelling a lot more swear words than that in his shoes." Lance whispered to Brandon who nodded in agreement.

"I have too much pride to surrender; besides the bond won't be complete until you bring out the monster your duel spirit represents." Greter admitted before sighing. "I end my turn, do your worst." Greter said and once Labyrinth Wall's attack plummeted back to zero Chelsea drew his card. _"Or so she thinks, the other facedown card I set last turn is a little thing called Zero Gravity and with this trap card I can shift the attack positions of all monsters on the field, Labyrinth Wall will be back in the position it belongs in and with a nigh impenetrable defense that only an Egyptian God Card could hope to crack and I'm sure whatever she summons next will have a low defense so my victory is assured!"_

"_I pretty much save this for emergencies due to its side effect." _Chelsea thought as she looked at her card. _"On the other hand I'd definitely call this an emergency." _Chelsea thought before playing the card. "I activate Into the Void, since I have three or more cards in my hand this will let me draw another one as long as I toss them at the end of the turn."

"A big risk in other words." Greter commented as Chelsea drew her card. "I hope for your sake that it was worth the risk."

"Oh it was!" Chelsea said before playing another Spell. "I activate Spellbook Inside the Pot which lets me draw three more cards!" Chelsea played the card and drew until she once again had six cards in her hand.

"If you want to deck yourself so be it, I won't stop you." Greter mocked her and Chelsea paid no attention to him.

"_Chelsea knows a good time to bring out Wattchimera." _The Spirit told her and Chelsea blinked before looking over her hand.

"_Pretty specific request but I'll go with it, but first I have an old friend to bring back." _Chelsea answered before playing her drawn card. "I activate Monster Reborn and I use it to bring back one of the monsters you made me toss at the beginning of the duel, Wattdragonfly!" Chelsea played the card and the small electric dragonfly appeared on the field (3/900/100).

"_Perfect, that monster's defense points are practically non-existent!" _Greter thought but did a double take when he saw Chelsea activate a trap. "Err, what are you doing?"

"Activating a trap I drew earlier, go Judgment of Thunder!" Chelsea activated the trap and lightning started striking Greter's side of the field.

"What…..what's going on?" Greter stammered as the lightning got closer to his cards; eventually it struck Skill Drain destroying it. "What did you just do?"

"What? Did you really think I wouldn't pack a few precautions into my deck in case my opponent has something like Skill Drain?" Chelsea asked as she placed a hand on her hip. "Judgment of Thunder doesn't really get used much because it supports the Thunder type."

"And they have been under supported for years." Greter nodded as his eyes narrowed. "What exactly does it do?"

"What it does it simple, it can only be activated if I summon a Thunder type monster like Wattdragonfly, when I do I can destroy one card of my choice on my opponent's side of the field." Chelsea explained and Greter's eyes widened.

"_No! That means that her monsters are free to use their effects!" _Greter thought before smirking. _"No matter, she only has one trap card left and I doubt that it's another Judgment of Thunder, all I'll need to do after I use Zero Gravity is draw another Shield and Sword and something like Lightning Vortex! Nutrient Z may have saved her the first time but lightning never strikes twice!"_

"Next I activate my last trap card, Light Spiritual Art – Hijiri!" Chelsea activated the trap and Wattdragonfly vanished. "Now you CAN negate this but only if you have a trap card in your hand that you're willing to show me.

"_Blast! I only have one Trap Card left and that's on the field." _Greter thought before sighing. "You may continue."

"Good, to activate its effect I have to say goodbye to Wattdragonfly first so…." Chelsea said as Wattdragonfly vanished from the field. "And in exchange for that I can special summon a Light-Type monster that was removed from play."

"Wait….oh no, he's back isn't he?" Greter gulped and his suspicions where soon confirmed when Wattaildragon returned to the field. "So we're back to where we started."

"Not quite, I still have five more cards to play." Chelsea said as she activated her spell card. "And I'm starting with Mystical Space Typhoon."

"No! No! No! No! No! NO!" Greter yelled out as a storm washed over the field, a tornado struck Greter's facedown Zero Gravity which was quickly destroyed. "No matter, even after you destroy my wall I'll have life-points left."

"Do you always jump to conclusions? Next up is the Spell Card Double Summon which allows me to summon two additional monsters so say hello too Wattcobra and the Tuner Monster Wattfox!" Chelsea played the cards and the two weak monsters appeared on the field (4/1000/500) and (2/800/100). "Wattfox, let's bring this duel to a close by giving Wattcobra a tune up!" Chelsea commanded and the two monsters leapt into the air, was the bright flash faded Wattchimera appeared on the field with a growl (6/1400/1600).

"At last, I can use my true form!" Wattchimera said before turning to Chelsea and, to her surprise, bowing respectfully. "I am ready to serve my lady."

"Wait, Wattchimera's my Duel Spirit Partner?" Chelsea asked and the monster nodded. "Good, you were always my favorite monster anyway."

"Well done! You have successfully bonded with your Spirit Partner." Greter congratulated her before smirking. "It matters not though, by the end of this I'll have more than enough life-points left to continue."

"That's where you're wrong, in case you haven't noticed I said I've got five cards to play and I've only played four, unless you count Wattchimera as the fifth one but you get the idea." Chelsea said before playing the card. "But with this Spell Card I'll win the Duel, go Wattcube."

"Oh no, that increases a monster's attack points by the number of Thunder type monsters in your graveyard times a hundred!" Greter gulped as Wattchimera's attack increased to 2000. "Well then, it seems my foolish attempt at a one turn kill has instead resulted in my defeat, congratulations you've earned it."

"_At least he's being a good sport about it." _Chelsea thought before pointing to her monsters. "Wattaildragon, it's time you finished what you started a few turns back, break down that wall!" Chelsea commanded and the dragon fired an electrical charge at the wall, it crumbled soon afterwards and Greter's life-points dropped to 2000. "Wattchimera, finish it!" Chelsea commanded and the monster nodded almost as if to say "gladly" before leaping at Greter and slashing him with his claws.

G: 0000

C: 3300

Chelsea took a deep breath as the holograms faded and the two duelists deactivated their duel disks, the long duel had taken quite a bit out of them but Chelsea was just glad to have ended the match with a win. "That was close."

"Indeed." Greter agreed before turning towards the portal. "Use your gift wisely Chelsea. You'd be foolish to underestimate the sheer power us Duel Spirits have." Greter warned her before stepping back through the portal; Chelsea took a moment to consider his words before returning to the others.

"Exactly zero life-points; it's been a while since I've seen a duel end that way." Tyler commented with a grin. "Nice going Chelsea, you earned that."

"Thanks, coming from the top student in the school that means a lot." Chelsea said with a grin before turning her attention back to the portal. "So, who's up next?"

"Well we know it won't be Chloe since she was bumped up to last." Lance commented as he scratched his head. "And you and Marcus have already dueled so that narrows it down a bit."

"Narrows it down to two duelists you mean." Chloe pointed out as another figure stepped through the portal, this time the figure that emerged was a brown haired man in silver armor and a red cape that was carrying a large shield. "Okay…this is a new one."

"I am the Duel Spirit known as Distant Sea Knight (4/1400/1200)." The figure introduced himself as his shield disappeared and a silver Duel Disk appeared in its place. "If you prefer you may call me Retor."

"Okay Retor." Lance said as he folded his arms. "Who gets to be the lucky one who gets to face you?"

"It's funny you should ask that Lance, you have been selected as my opponent." Retor said and Lance grinned before stepping forward.

"Good, watching Marcus and Chelsea duel has wetted my appetite for dueling!" Lance said as the two of them activated their duel disks.

"Distant Sea Knight, I thought he looked familiar." Tyler said as he scratched his chin. "His duel monster's counterpart hasn't been released over here yet, it's being released in an upcoming booster pack."

"That explains why we've never heard of it." Chloe said with a nod. "Does it support any archetypes?"

"No, it's a Support Card for the WATER Attribute." Tyler told her with a frown. "It's a safe bet that his deck focuses on Water Monsters."

"Whatever, I've faced WATER duelists before and this will be a piece of cake!" Lance said confidently as the two duelists activated their duel disks.

*meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm*

Jeff, Maria and Martin sat in the office waiting for the arrival of the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm headmistress, they had been there for an hour and she hadn't turned up yet.

"I still can't wrap my head around why the students would go there at all, let alone past curfew." Jeff sighed as he took a sip of his coffee. "We told them why the area's off limits and not even the students who go to the off the beaten path areas of the island for sex will go there."

"I can't understand it myself Jeffery, especially when you consider who the duelists are." Martin agreed as he took a sip. "Theresa, Brandon and Tyler are all excellent students who will make excellent pro duelists once they graduate, Lance, Marcus and Andreas are three of Ra Yellows best students and the girls? Chelsea and Chloe may be troublemakers but they are pretty much ready for Ra Yellow as far as dueling's concerned."

"If you ask me Chelsea has been ready for graduation for some time now but that's beside the point." Maria added as she took a sip. "Chloe has been improving every day since she got here and Chelsea's always had the raw talent, it's just her attitude that needs work."

"Yeah, not every day that you see a 5ft 6, 120ibs girl intimidate men almost twice her size but that's just her fierce temper at work." Jeff agreed with a chuckle. "When security does find them how should we deal with them?"

"That will depend on the circumstances off course." Martin added before the door opened and a woman in an Obelisk Blue uniform stepped in, she had shoulder length black hair and blue eyes that seemed to have a perpetual scowl on her face.

"I got your message Martin." The woman said sternly as she sat down on a chair. "Are you sure your cameras saw Theresa breaking curfew?"

"If I wasn't sure I wouldn't have called you Tracy." Martin greeted the Obelisk Blue Headmistress with a nod. "But she wasn't alone."

"Andreas Freshier, Marcus Reynolds and Lance Alvers from Ra Yellow where also spotted breaking curfew all at around the same time, as where Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham of Osiris Red and Brandon Thomas and Tyler Kaiba of Obelisk Blue, at this time we don't know why they've broken curfew." Jeff added and Tracy turned to him. "What we do know is that they were heading towards the North Side of the island."

"You realize that Kaiba will have our heads if his kid gets hurt right?" Tracy asked and the other teachers nodded. "Do you have any idea where they were going exactly?"

"None yet, security is searching for them however." Martin told her and Tracy nodded, before anyone could say anything else the door opened and a guard stepped in.

"Sir, we've found them." The guard said simply and the teachers turned to him. "This is where things get complicated however."

"Complicated?" Jeff asked before it dawned on him. "Oh no, don't tell me….."

"We retrieved security camera footage of the students entering the Abandoned Dorm." The guard told them and the teachers expressions darkened. "This is far more than a simple violation of curfew."

"We'll deal with them in the morning; none of them have classes tomorrow morning anyway." Martin decided and the other teachers nodded. "If they show up to their dorms send in the Disciplinary Action Squad."

"I will do sir." The guard nodded before leaving.

"The D.A.S., I realize that they've broken a major rule but is sending in that goon squad really necessary?" Tracy asked and Martin frowned.

"I realize that your fond of the students in question Tracy, I seem to remember you being the only one to vote Chloe for Ra Yellow back when she won her test duel." Martin said with a sigh as he turned to them. "That said we can't show leniency when they've broken a rule like this, what does it say to the other students if we do?"

"As much as I hate to admit it, he's right." Jeff agreed with a sigh. "When they're caught the students will be facing possible expulsion at worse, and that's if no one gets hurt."

"I realize that." Tracy said with a sigh. "We should at the very least give them a chance to explain why they were there, the Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue students are excellent students in their own rights, the Osiris Red Girls, if you ask me anyway, should've been in Ra Yellow to begin with attitude and inexperience aside." Trace added before pausing. "That said I hope we don't have to expel them, if we do their pro league careers will be over before they even start."

"I agree Tracy, and it's never been easy to expel good students who made a simple mistake." Martin agreed before turning towards the window. "But if it does cone to that we will expel them."


	53. Spirited Away Part 3

Lance and Retor wasted no time in drawing their opening hands, whilst the students were unaware of just what the teachers where discussing just to the south of their location it could be argued that they were better off not knowing for now.

"_Okay, this isn't my best opening hand, not by a longshot actually." _Lance thought as he glanced over his hand, he looked up at Retor and smirked. _"According to Tyler that guy's duel monster representative is a support for Water Monsters, if that's the case it's yet another case of an opponent of mine trying to fight fire with Water."_ Lance thought with a cocky smirk as he folded his arms. "You know what? I'm feeling generous so I'll let you go first."

"Very well, as you wish Lance." Retor said before drawing his card. "Now prepare yourself for the full fury of the sea as I play a Spell Card of the Field variety called….."

"Let me guess, A Legendary Ocean?" Lance asked and the duel spirit blinked. "Look my brother uses Water Type monsters, one of my opponents in Battle City used Water Type Monsters, why hide it?"

"Hmmm, I suppose that is a fair point, you are correct Lance, I activate the Magic off A Legendary Ocean!" Retor played the card and a tidal wave appeared behind him. "You may want to brace yourself."

"You think?" Lance asked before he and the others braced themselves, soon afterwards the duelists found themselves underwater in what looked like the Lost City of Atlantis. "Whoa…wait, how are we breathing?"

"It's a hologram Lance." Silent Magician said with a facepalm and Lance sweat-dropped.

"I knew that." Lance laughed nervously as he folded his arms. "I know this card's abilities Retor, all Water Type monsters gain 200 attack points, and it's treated as Umi and all Water Type monsters in your hand and on the field loses a level."

"I had a feeling you would." Retor said before picking up three cards. "I shall set three cards facedown and end my turn." Retor announced and Lance blinked before drawing his card.

"He didn't summon a monster?" Chelsea blinked as she looked at the Duel Spirit. "Why? What's stopping him? Any Level 6 or Level 5 monsters he has would be much easier to summon."

"That's a good question; it's possible that he simply didn't have any monsters in his hand." Tyler shrugged his shoulders as he turned to her. _"Unless he's using a strategy similar to Emra's, a specific Attribute or monster type tied to a strategy that involves winning in ways other than draining life-points."_

"_Chelsea's not the only confused one here." _Lance thought as he looked at his hand. _"He has a great summoning tool for Water Type Monsters, why play it and not follow it up with a monster? Well whatever his reasons are I'm about to make him pay!" _Lance thought before playing a card. "I summon Great Angus in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a blood red tusked beast appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/600). "Great Angus, make him regret not summoning anything on his first turn!" Lance commanded and the beast charged towards Retor.

"I shall activate my trap! The dreaded Tornado Wall!" Retor played the card and a wall of water spouts blocked the path of Great Angus. "As long as A Legendary Ocean remains on the field this trap card shall protect my life-points."

"Classic Water Duelist Strategy, how did I not see this coming?" Lance wondered before playing two cards. "I set these cards facedown for later and call it a turn at that." Lance announced and Retor drew his card.

*elsewhere on the island*

Whilst Lance and Retor where locked in combat and the teachers where discussing what to do with the students once morning arrived one other person had noticed that something was amiss, and that person, despite being the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm Headmaster, had no interest in letting the other teachers know what was going on.

Professor Thomas Hamden tugged at his jacket as he made his way to the abandoned dorm armed with only a flashlight, officially he was the professor of strategy at the academy but unofficially he helped duelists who were in the midst of discovering their Duel Spirit Partners, because he had one himself.

"_Look Shinato, are you certain about this?" _Hamden asked his Duel Spirit, Shinato, King of a Higher Plane (8/3300/3000) as the transparent image of the fairy monster appeared next to it. _"We both know Chloe and Theresa have Duel Spirits but Tyler, Brandon, Chelsea, Lance, Marcus and Andreas? Let's not even discuss where these tests are taking place."_

"_My information is correct Hamden; I may have listened in on a meeting between Chloe and Theresa's duel spirits earlier." _Shinato responded in a deep booming voice. _"Each of those duelists have the guidance of a Duel Spirit behind them, in fact I believe that Chelsea and Marcus's Duel Spirits have already revealed themselves."_

"_What, already? I would've thought the Spirit World would send tougher opponents in that case." _Hamden commented as they neared the dorm, Hamden hid himself against a tree narrowly avoiding the gaze of a security camera. _"One advantage of being a staff member, you know where the cameras are hidden." _Hamden thought before making a run for the door once he was sure that the cameras couldn't see him. _"All right Shinato where….." _Hamden asked but was surprised when the fairy monster took physical form. "I forgot how strong the magical presence in this place is."

"Yes but it seems to be unusually high tonight." The Duel Spirit observed as he glanced around, they spotted the secret door that led to the chambers where the duelists where. "Hmmm, I'm assuming that door shouldn't be open."

"No it shouldn't, truth is most students here don't know this place exists." Hamden said as he approached the door. "Doesn't look like it was forced open either?"

"Ms. Richardson's Duel Spirit is a Spellcaster, is she not?" Shinato asked and Hamden nodded.

"Yeah, Silent Magician Level 8, it is a powerful card if you know how to use it." Hamden nodded as they entered the room. "I'm willing to bet she used a spell to get that door open."

"It seems likely yes." Shinato nodded as he followed his master. "These students will need your help in the coming events however."

"_If the other teaches haven't caught them already." _Hamden thought grimly as he turned off and pocketed his flashlight, he eventually reached the chamber where Lance was dueling Retor. "Well, this is…..interesting."

"Hi Hamden." Chloe greeted him before turning around, seconds later it dawned on the students and they all turned around with looks of panic of their faces and saw Hamden there. "Okay, I realize how bad this looks….."

"Chloe, you don't need to make excuses." Hamden interrupted her and Chloe blinked. "I know exactly what's going on here."

"You do?" Marcus asked as Shinato stepped into the room. "Wait, you have a Duel Spirit?"

"It's a long story." Hamden said as he turned to the duel field. "Don't worry, I have no interest in reporting any of you but it is likely that you were all spotted by the security cameras."

"So in short, we're screwed." Chelsea gulped as she turned to the teacher. "So…..err…how long have you had a duel spirit exactly?"

"I've had it since I attended Duel Academy as a student all those years ago." Hamden told her as he turned to her. "I'll go into detail in the morning; I understand that both you and Marcus have dueled so far."

"Yeah, I was supposed to have a tag team duel Chloe but no one wanted to team with the guy they got so I ended up going solo." Chelsea told him with a proud smirk. "It was close but I was able to beat my opponent."

"Yeah same here but my duel was close for a different reason." Marcus commented as he turned to him. "My opponent was an Exodia duelist but I was able to outsmart her."

"Sounds like you both had tough times in your duels." Hamden commented before turning his attention to Lance's duel, whilst they had been talking Retor had set a monster in defense mode and ended his turn and Lance was considering his next move.

"_Okay, distraction caused by Hamden aside I got a good idea of how to deal with this guy."_ Lance thought as he looked over his hand. _"Tornado Wall only protects him from Battle Damage but if I use a few of my burn strategies this should be a piece of cake!" _Lance thought as he looked at his drawn card. "For starters I flip my facedown card, Bad Reaction to Simochi, as long as this trap card remains on the field any time you're life-points would increase they would get decreased instead."

"And I'm supposed to worry about that?" Retor asked as he folded his arms. "I don't have a single card with the ability to increase my life-points."

"Maybe you don't but I do!" Lance said as he played a card. "I activate Upstart Goblin, with this I draw a single card and you'd normally gain a thousand life-points, but with Bad Reaction to Simochi on the field…..well…" Lance drew his card and Retor grimaced as his life-points dropped to 7000.

"_Smart move, using Burn Strategies to bypass his trap card will surely lead us to victory!" _A new voice rang out and Lance nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Err, Lance are you okay?" Chloe asked as she, the other students and Hamden sweat-dropped.

"You guys didn't hear that?" Lance asked and the others just looked at him funny. _"Hey wait a minute, something similar happened to Marcus and Chelsea during their duels, hey are you my Duel Spirit by any chance?"_

"_Indeed I am and I apologize for startling you." _The Duel Spirit responded and Lance just shrugged his shoulders as he looked over his hand. _"Though you weren't as startled as Brandon was when his Duel Spirit revealed himself to him when he was having sexual intercourse with Theresa….oops…" _The Duel Spirit realized his mistake the moment Lance started laughing his ass off.

"Okay, either Lance has lost his mind; he's thought of a really funny joke or all of the above." Chelsea said as she watched her friend's laughing fit. "So…what's so funny Lance?"

"Oh not much, just that my Duel Spirit just told me how Brandon's Duel Spirit revealed himself too him!" Lance said and the others looked at him with a look of confusion on their faces, everyone except Brandon and Theresa that is who were trying desperately to hide their embarrassment.

"Okay I get the feeling I'm going to regret asking this but…what's funny about that exactly?" Chelsea asked and Lance grinned.

"Lance, think carefully about how you're going to word your next sentence; otherwise I'll have my Duel Spirit repeatedly step on your genitals for hours on end." Theresa warned him and the males in the room grimaced.

"Oh come on, it can't be that…..he revealed himself whilst you two where having sex, didn't he?" Chelsea asked and the two Obelisk Blue Students nodded. "Lance you are so immature…" Chelsea started but stopped when she saw Marcus and Andreas joining in Lance's laughter. "And people wonder why I'm a lesbian." Chelsea muttered as she shook her head.

"Can we please get back on topic, or to be more specific the duel?" Brandon asked as he tried to hide his embarrassment, Lance stopped laughing after a few minutes and looked at his drawn card.

"You got it lover boy!" Lance said ignoring Brandon's groan. _"Okay so I'll attack Retor's defense monster with Great Angus and, regardless of the result, I'll then use my facedown card to deal some major damage."_ Lance thought as he looked over his hand.

"_I don't know Lance, what if he has a trap played the stop such a move?" _The Duel Spirit asked him and Lance blinked.

"_That's true, has hasn't played either of his two facedown traps yet." _Lance thought before shaking his head. _"If he had something to prevent me from using moves like that why didn't he activate it and prevent Upstart Goblin's secondary effect from biting him on the ass?" _Lance asked before pointing to his monster. "Great Angus, Tornado Wall may prevent you from dealing damage to him but it never said anything about protecting his monsters did it? ATTACK HIS MONSTER!" Lance commanded and the beast leaped towards the facedown monster, however what the monster was revealed to be confused everyone, it was a small blue eagle that was quickly impaled on Great Angus's tusks. "Hah! Looks like I was right that thing's not a threat!"

"Then why is he smiling?" Chelsea asked and Lance looked up, indeed Retor had a big grin on his face.

"Why? It's simple my child, the monster you destroyed was Blizzed, Defender of the Ice Barrier (1/300/500), his stats may be nothing special but his effect makes up for it, when it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard it allows me to draw a card from my deck." Retor explained before drawing his card.

"_Did he say Ice Barrier? So that's the deck he's using." _Tyler thought as Retor added the card he drew to his hand. _"Lance had better be careful; this is a very dangerous archetype."_ Tyler thought.

"But why stop at one?" Retor asked as his trap card flipped up. "I activate my Trap Card Broken Blocker, this can only be activated if I monster I control who's defense is higher than its attack is destroyed in battle, it allows me to summon two more in its place." Retor announced as the two birds appeared in front of him. "I'd invite you to continue your assault but it seems you only have one monster on your field."

"We'll see how long that lasts!" Lance said as he flipped up his trap. "Especially since I can now enter the second phase of my plan, I activate the magic of Spiritual Fire Art – Kurenai; this trap requires that I give up Great Angus so my beast goes bye-bye!" Lance said as Great Angus was consumed by flame. "Why would I get rid of the one card that was protecting my life-points? Because in exchange for that Kurenai deals damage equal too my monsters attack points, that's 1800 points of damage that not even Tornado Wall can save you from!" Retor's eyes widened as the fire quickly surrounded him, he let out a yelp of pain as his life-points dropped to 5200. "Hah! This is too easy!"

"_I agree and I don't like it one bit." _The Duel Spirit responded and Lance grinned.

"_You worry too much!" _Lance said dismissively before retrieving Great Angus from the graveyard. "To end my turn I remove Great Angus from play so that I can summon Inferno in defense mode!" Lance played the card and after he pocketed Great Angus the small flame with the demonic face appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "Go ahead and take your turn Retor!" Lance told him and Retor drew his card. _"Okay, as long as I draw more of my Burn Cards like Poison of the Old Man and Rain of Mercy…well technically Rain of Mercy is a Heal Card but with Simochi on the field it's a burn card for him….."_

"_It's like I said Lance, this is too easy." _The Duel Spirit interrupted him and Lance frowned. _"Think back to your friend's duels, they had a much tougher time against their opponents."_

"_Huh, now that you mention it they did!" _Lance realized before grinning. _"But in those duels Marcus and Chelsea's opponents where able to implement their strategies on their first turn, all he's done so far is play a field spell, use Tornado Wall with said field spell and summoned a bunch of birds."_

"The young one is getting cocky." Armed Dragon commented to Silent Magician who scoffed.

"Getting cocky? Lance is a talented duelist but his ego has always been a bit of a problem." Silent Magician said as she observed the duel. "Lance may have Inferno protecting his life-points at the moment but as soon as Retor brings out his stronger monsters Lance will be in trouble."

"You know I can hear you right?" Lance asked and Silent Magician sweat-dropped.

"Moving on, I activate the Spell Card Moray of Greed! Since you have undoubtedly seen this card in action before I'm sure I don't need to explain its effects." Retor played the card before picking up two of the cards in his hand, returning them to his deck and drawing three times. "Ah perfect, now young master Alvers prepare to meet the monster that will lead to your defeat and no before you ask it's neither of the Ocean Dragon Lords, it's something much more lethal."

"It's not?" Lance asked raising an eyebrow. _"What could be deadlier than the Ocean Dragon Lords? Those cards are practically built to work with A Legendary Ocean?"_

"Under normal conditions my next monster would require two sacrifices, however thanks to the presence of A Legendary Ocean I only need to sacrifice one monster so I sacrifice one of my defenders….." Retor announced as the bird vanished from the field. "So I can summon Superancient Deapsea King Coelacanth in attack mode!"

"Wow, it's like the folks working at I2 went out of their way to create a monster with a mouthful for a name." Chelsea muttered under her breath as a massive fish swam into view, it had an angry look on its face and was very intimidating (7/2800/2200) and thanks to the presence of A Legendary Ocean it's level dropped to 5 and it's attack power increased to 3000.

"Oh you think my mighty fish is scary now? Just wait until you see its effects in action!" Retor said with a grin as he discarded a card. "Once per turn and as long as I can discard one card I Special Summon as many Level 4 or lower Fish Type monsters from my deck."

"You're kidding?" Lance asked as his eyes widened.

"I am not, so please allow me to introduce the following three monsters, Royal Swamp Eel, 7 Colored Fish and Golden Flying Fish!" Retor played the cards and three fish swam into view, one was a silver fish with a single gold scale (4/1700/1000), another was a multicolored eel with what looked like a crown on its head (4/1700/1200) and the last of the bunch was a fish with rainbow colored scales (4/1800/800) and as the three fish gained their boosts from a Legendary Ocean Lance frowned.

"_Great, he has two monsters with more than enough attack power to destroy Inferno." _Lance thought before looking up at the Deapsea King. _"And then there's the fish with the ridiculously long name, Retor said that I haven't seen its effects in action, as in plural, if that thing has more than one effect I need to be careful!" _Lance thought before looking up at Retor.

"I suppose you're expecting me to go on the offensive, aren't you?" Retor asked and Lance blinked. "Well I'm not, well not yet anyway, first I activate Heavy Storm to clear the field."

"What did he say?" The other duelists yelled out simultaneously as a tsunami washed over the field, A Legendary Ocean was the first to go followed by Tornado Wall, Retor's remaining facedown card and Bad Reaction to Simochi, the monsters on Retor's side of the field lost their power boosts but Retor didn't seem to worried.

"Are you surprised? The Legendary Ocean/Tornado Wall combo was never intended to play a large role in my forthcoming plans, no instead I have a much grander plan in mind, first I activate the effect of Golden Flying Fish, so long as I tribute another fish type monster I can destroy one card on the field and I use it to extinguish that flame!" 7 Colored Fish disappeared from the field and the fish leapt towards Inferno putting the flame out with a slam. "Why would I waste such a strong monster as 7 Colored Fish? Simple, it would be a bigger waste to get rid of the Deapsea King for its effect, as for the other reason…..well this is where Royal Swamp Eel comes in." Retor said before grinning broadly. "Or should I say, the Tuner Monster Royal Swamp Eel."

"Oh crap!" Lance gulped once he did the math in his head. "You use that tuner monster with Golden Flying Eel and Blizzed and you'll have enough for a Level 9 Synchro Summon!"

"I'm afraid not Lance." Retor shook his head and Lance blinked. "Being a Level 4 Tuner Royal Swamp Eel comes with…restrictions, if it's used in a Synchro Summon the other monsters must be Fish Type Monsters as well, Blizzed is, unfortunately an Aqua type monster." Retor explained as the two fish leapt into the air, Royal Swamp Eel dissolved into four green rings which quickly surrounded Golden Flying Fish. "But still I have enough monsters for a Level 8 Synchro Summon so I tune Royal Swamp Eel with Golden Flying Fish in order to Synchro Summon the dreaded Red Dragon Archfiend!"

"Say what?" Every other duelist yelled out in unison (even Silent Magician and Armed Dragon seemed surprised by what he was summoning) as a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a huge monster appeared in the place of Royal Swamp Eel, it was a red and black dragon with three horns on its head that looked quite intimidating (8/3000/2000).

"I suppose you're wondering how I got my hands on a Synchro monster as rare as Red Dragon Archfiend." Retor said as he folded his arms. "After all it's one of the two rarest Synchro Monsters available alongside its counterpart Stardust Dragon (8/2500/2000) so I'll tell you this much, in the Duel Spirit World Rare cards are much easier to come by."

"Even so Retor Red Dragon Archfiend is a very expensive card even in the Duel Spirit World." Silent Magician pointed out with a frown. "Even I can't afford it!"

"Money is no object if you know the right people." Retor said with a shrug before smirking. "But if I where you I'd be more concerned for Lance, he's about to take 5700 points of damage, Deepsea King, Red Dragon Archfiend, attack!" Retor commanded and the two massive monsters launched their attacks at Lance in that order.

L: 2300

R: 5200

"I end my turn but doing so activates one of Archfiend's effects, to put it simply any monster that hasn't attacked during my turn is automatically destroyed regardless of position." Retor explained as Bizzed was consumed by flames. "Don't bother trying to defend either, when Red Dragon Archfiend attacks a defense position monster on your side of the field it wipes them all out leaving my Deepsea King free to finish you off." Retor explained as Lance drew his card.

"We'll see about that, I activate a Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot, with this we can both draw three cards!" Lance explained as the two duelists drew three times. "I have just what I need to turn things around!"

"Oh? What is that exactly?" Retor asked as Lance played one of his drawn cards, Retor's eyes widened when he saw it. "Lightning Vortex?"

"Yep, and I bet you're kicking yourself for destroying A Legendary Ocean and Tornado Wall last turn." Lance said with a grin as he discarded a card and lightning struck Retor's two monsters destroying them both. "As a follow up I remove the monster I discarded to play Lightning Vortex from play so I can Special Summon Spirit of Flames!" Lance removed Darkfire Soldier Number 1 (4/1700/1100) from the graveyard and pocketed the monster soon afterwards a hulking demon whose lower half was covered in flamed appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Don't get too attached to him though, because I only need him on the field for my next move!"

"And that is what exactly?" Retor asked and Lance grinned before playing a card.

"Let me put it this way, you're not the only one with Tuner monsters in his deck." Lance said simply before playing the card. "In fact I'm about to summon one, come on out Neo Flamvell Origin!" Lance played the card and a small flame with a blue face appeared on the field (2/500/200). "Now let's see if my hunch about who my Duel Spirit Partner is exactly is correct!" Lance said as Neo Flamvell Origin and Spirit of Flames took to the sky, the flame expanded into two rings that surrounded Spirit of Flames. "I tune Flamvell Origin with Spirit of Flames to Synchro Summon Flamvell Uruquizas!" Lance played the card and a blight flash enveloped the field, when it faded the armored man with the flaming fists appeared on the field (4/2100/400).

"_Lance, I am not Uruquizas." _The Duel Spirit told him and Lance sighed. _"Good move though."_

"_Thanks." _Lance thanked him before smirking. "Uruquizas, attack!" Lance commanded and the armored man charged towards Retor and struck him in the stomach.

L: 2300

R: 3100

"Oh and it gets better, when Uruquizas deals damage to your life-points his own attack points increase!" Lance said with a grin as his monster's attack increased to 2400. "I end my turn for now." Lance announced and Retor drew his card.

"I set a monster in defense mode and three cards facedown that ends my turn." Retor set the four cards, his newly drawn card and the cards he drew with Spellbook inside the Pot, and Lance drew his card. _"As soon as he tries to attack my Sekeretsu Armor will block the attack and destroy the attacking monster, then on my next turn I'll use Call of the Haunted to bring back my Deepsea King and I'll use Dust Tornado to get rid of any traps he sets, I don't need Archfiend to finish him off!"_

"All right, I start with Card of Sanctity!" Lance played the card and both duelists drew until they had six cards in their hands. "Sorry Retor but I have what I need to win this match in my hand!"

"Is that a fact?" Retor asked and Lance nodded.

"And it starts with another Spell Card, my own Heavy Storm!" Lance played the card and Retor's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field destroying his three facedown cards. "Next I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Neo Flamvell Origin!" Lance played the card and the small flame reappeared on the field.

"So your plan is another Synchro Summon?" Retor asked and Lance shook his head.

"No, I've got a better idea; I sacrifice Flamvell Origin to summon Thestalos, The Firestorm Monarch to the field in attack mode!" Lance played the card and Origin vanished from the field, in its place stood the mighty monarch of fire ready for action (6/2400/1000).

"Ah excellent, now that my true form is revealed I can help you win Lance!" The monarch said as he turned to his master who grinned.

"Thestalos is my Duel Spirit? This is so awesome!" Lance said with a broad grin. "So, you want to explain your effect or should I?"

"No need, I know its effect." Retor said as he held up his hand, a fireball spawned in Thestalos's hand and he flung it at the card on the far right. "Good choice, it was another copy of Royal Swamp Eel." Retor winced as his life-points dropped to 2700 and he discarded the monster. "I still have a monster protecting me on the field!"

"That won't help much; Uruquizas here can inflict piercing damage!" Lance explained as his warrior charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be Barrier Statue of the Torrent (4/1000/1000) which was quickly destroyed by Uruquizas bringing Retor's life-points down to 2300 and increasing Uruquizas's attack points to 2700. "All right Thestalos, it's time to continue my streak against Water Type Decks, finish him!" Lance commanded and Thestalos flung another fireball at Retor striking him in the chest.

L: 2300

R: 0000

"Well done Lance." Retor said as he got up, the holograms disappeared from the field and both duelists deactivated their duel disks. "Not only have you snatched victory from the jaws of defeat but you have established your bond with your Duel Spirit, use him well." Retor added before stepping back through the portal.

"I have to say Lance that was a hell of a comeback." Chelsea said with a good natured grin which Lance returned. "Not nearly as good as mine but still." Chelsea added and Lance face-faulted.

"Now, now, you two play fair." Tyler said with a chuckle before turning to Andreas. "You're up next, if I'm not mistaken this will be your first match since you were freed from the Orichalcos."

"You are correct but I wouldn't worry about me if I where you." Andreas reassured him as he activated his Duel Disk. "Orichalcos or no Orichalcos I'm still a damn good duelist, and I'm ready for whoever they send through to face me."

"Glad to hear it." Tyler said with a nod as a figure stepped through the portal, the figure that stepped through was a muscular but attractive woman with long blonde hair who was wearing a grey fur bikini. "Well, it seems you're facing Amazoness Paladin (4/1700/300)."

"The name Tryna is fine young man." Amazoness Paladin said as her sword turned into a jungle themed duel disk which had a deck in it already, she strapped to her arm without a wasted motion. "But yes, I am facing Andreas Freshier."

"That would be me." Andreas said as stepped forward. "Be warned, I don't go easy on my opponents regardless of their gender."

"Good, I appreciate a good fight." Tryna said with a smile as she drew her cards. "Be ready young man."


	54. Spirited Away Part 4

Andreas drew his card and looked over his hand, his deck hadn't changed much since his duel against Otto in the Battle City Semi-Finals but he had a few surprises in store for Tryna.

"_Amazoness Paladin, anyone who's seen Theresa duel knows that that monster's a Support Card for the Amazoness Archetype so it's a good bet that that's what her deck's based around." _ Andreas thought as he thought back to Nicola's duel against Theresa back in Battle City. _"Theresa's an excellent duelist and she knows how to use the Amazoness cards effectively, Tryna on the other hand…who knows how good she is." _Andreas thought before turning to Tryna. "I'll let you go first."

"My, my, aren't we a gentlemen." Tryna said plainly before drawing an additional card. "I start by activating Reinforcement of the Army; this allows me to add one Level 4 or lower Warrior Type monster to my hand from my deck." Tryna played the card and picked up her deck, she searched through it before adding the card she was looking for to her hand and shuffling her deck. "Now I summon the first of my Amazoness Army, Amazoness Swords Woman!" Tryna played the card and a redheaded female warrior in a blue fur bikini appeared on the field wielding a sword (4/1500/1600). "And I set this card facedown for later, take your turn if you dare." Tryna set the card and Andreas drew his card.

"_This isn't exactly my best hand but I've had far worse." _Andreas thought as he looked over his cards. "Come forth Enraged Battle Ox!" Andreas played the card and the angry Minotaur appeared on the field with a snarl (4/1700/1000). "I am well aware of the fact that Swords Woman's effect means the damage from this battle will come out of my life-points, however since the difference is a mere 200 points of damage I can live with it, Enraged Battle Ox, AXE SLAM ATTACK!" Andreas commanded his monster and the ox let out an angry growl before charging at Swords Woman…

"Or so you think, I counter your attack with my Trap Card Half Counter!" Tryna activated her trap and the two monsters on the field started glowing.

"What on Earth….." Andreas wondered before his eyes widened as Swords Woman's attack increased to 2250. "Where did she get that power boost?"

"From your own monster, until the end of the turn Half Counter takes half of an attacking monster's attack points and adds them to the target's attack points." Tryna explained with a grin before pointing to Swords Woman. "Amazoness Swords Woman counterattack!" Tryna commanded and the woman let out a battle cry before charging at the Minotaur, the Minotaur tried to decapitate her with his axe but Swords Woman ducked underneath the blade in time before running through the minotaur with her sword, nothing happened for a few moments before Enraged Battle Ox dropped his axe and fell to the ground it's hologram shattering seconds later. "I thought you had talent but all I've seen so far is a fool that rushes into battle."

"We'll see about that." Andreas growled as his life-points dropped to 7450. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced once Swords Woman returned to Tryna's side of the field.

"Why would she use Half Counter on Amazoness Swords Woman? The battle damage would've come out of Andreas's life-points anyway." Chelsea wondered and Brandon stroked his chin.

"Maybe it's because she knows that Enraged Battle Ox, despite having a very good effect, isn't one of Andreas's best monsters." Brandon offered with a shrug as Tryna drew her card.

"And that she was hoping to use Swords Woman's effect on a stronger monster?" Chelsea asked and Brandon nodded.

"It seems your friends are smarter than you are Andreas." Tryna commented before looking at her drawn card. "Which is bad news for you because I am about to take you to the home of the Amazons."

"_The home of the Amazons, if that card in her hand's what I think it is then that can only mean one thing." _Andreas realized as she played the card.

"I activate Amazoness Village!" Tryna played the card and the scenery changed to a Tribal Village in a jungle. "This has two effects, first it grants all Amazoness Monsters an additional 200 attack points….." Tryna explained as Swords Woman's attack increased to 1700. "The other effect is simple; when you destroy one Amazon another will take her place."

"I knew that, and I also know that you can only activate that card's effect once per turn." Andreas pointed out with a grin.

"You may know that but that knowledge won't save you from my Swords Woman's attack!" Tryna pointed out as her Swords Woman let out another battle cry before charging at Andreas…

"No but this will, I activate my trap card Battle Instinct!" Andreas activated his trap and picked up a card. "This trap card can only be activated if you declare a direct attack and I lack the means to defend myself otherwise, now that those conditions are met I can Special Summon one Level 4 or lower Beast Type monster from my hand such as Berserk Gorilla!" Andreas played the card and the orange gorilla appeared on the field with an angry howl (4/2000/1000).

"Very clever, Swords Woman, hold off your attack for now!" Tryna commanded and Swords Woman returned to Tryna's side of the field. _"I could've attacked but I don't trust his other trap card, for all I know it could be something that would've negated Swords Woman's attack." _Tryna thought before looking over the rest of her hand. "I end my turn for now." Tryna announced and Andreas drew his card. "I know your monster must attack if he's able too so you may as well get it over with."

"Not just yet, I have a Spell Card I want to play first." Andreas said before playing the Spell Card in question. "It's called Block Attack and with it….."

"You can force my Swords Woman into defense mode." Tryna interrupted as her Swords Woman knelt down. "I suppose you're going to attack now?"

"That's why, go Berserk Gorilla!" Andreas commanded and the gorilla charged towards the Swords Woman. "Now I activate my trap card Defenders Intersect, with this I can force your Swords Woman back into attack mode!"

"Then you just wasted your Spell Card." Tryna said as the Swords Woman stood up, the gorilla punched Swords Woman in the stomach, Tryna waited a few moments for Swords Woman to throw her sword at Andreas but it never happened and her hologram shattered. "What? Why didn't my Swords Woman's effect take affect? Your life-points should have depleted!"

"Normally it would have but that's the other effect of Defenders Intersect, any monsters it forces into defense mode lose their effects!" Andreas announced and Tryna's eyes widened as her life-points dropped to 7700

"It seems I understated your abilities." Tryna admitted before picking up her deck. "However thanks to the effect of Amazoness Village I can now summon another Amazoness monster in her place, you like beasts so much? Then allow me to introduce a beast of my own! Come forth Amazoness Tiger!" Tryna played the card once she found it and a red tiger with a gold collar appeared on the field (4/1100/1500). "My tiger has two effects; she gains 400 attack points for each Amazoness monster I control on top of the bonus she gets from being in my Village." Tryna explained as Amazoness Tiger's attack points shot up to 1700. "The other effect comes from being the loyal pet and protector of the Amazons, as long as she's on the field she's the only Amazoness monster you can target." Tryna added once she finished shuffling her deck.

"Very well, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced and Tryna drew her card. _"I knew this wasn't going to be easy just from watching the others duel but at least I have field control for the moment." _Andreas thought before looking at Berserk Gorilla _"As strong as my gorilla is I'll need to sacrifice or use it in a Synchro Summon soon, its effect will be too much of a liability if Tryna summons something stronger."_

"_Agreed Andreas but fret not for we can win this match." _A voice rang out and Andreas blinked before grinning slightly.

"_My Duel Spirit I assume?" _Andreas asked as Tryna looked over her hand.

"_Yes but I cannot reveal my true form to you until you summon me." _ The Duel Spirit responded and Andreas nodded. _"Be warned, my power has been significantly weakened due to your imprisonment in the Orichalcos."_

"_Yeah, I had a feeling that would be the case." _Andreas thought with a frown before turning to Tryna who was still considering her next move.

"I activate a Spell Card that isn't available in your world yet, it's called Gift from the Hunt Goddess." Tryna played the card and its hologram appeared on the field, it was a Continuous Spell Card depicting Amazon Queen approaching the Temple of Artemis whilst a crowd of Amazons watched on anxiously. ""This requires two things: that I have Amazoness Village in play, and that I have a monster with Amazoness in its name on my side of the field now that both conditions are met I can draw an extra card during my standby phase and when a monster is slain by an Amazoness I can draw two cards."

"Okay two things, Number 1: how come she has a card that's not even out in our world for another three months and Number 2: that's gotta be broken!" Lance protested and the other students nodded in agreement.

"Not quite Lance." Silent Magician said as she folded her arms. "Part of the advantages of being a Spirit Word resident is that we get cards months before the Real World; I've never understood how that works either."

"And as I was about to say there is a side effect." Tryna added as she folded her arms. "If all of the Amazons on my side of the field fall in battle or by a card effect Gift from the Hunt Goddess will be destroyed as well." Tryna explained and the students nodded. "There's also the fact that if I use both drawing effects in the same turn I have to skip the next draw phase as well as during the standby phase."

"Okay that doesn't seem too bad now that you've explained it a bit better." Theresa admitted with a frown. "But you'll still draw from a successful attack."

"Exactly, and that's exactly what I'm about to do right now." Tryna nodded before playing her drawn card. "First I equip my Tiger with another Spell Card called Beast Fangs; being a Beast Type user yourself I trust you know how this works."

"Indeed, it increases the equipped monster's attack points by 300 points." Andreas nodded with a frown as Amazoness Tiger's attack points rose to 2000. "Sadly for you your Tiger is only strong enough to match my Gorilla hit for hit, any battle that takes place will result in a draw taking Gift from the Hunt Goddess with it."

"Oh ye of little faith, I haven't even summoned a monster yet." Tryna said as she held up a card. "Allow me to correct that by summoning Amazoness Fighter to the field!" Tryna played the card and another woman appeared on the field, she had long brown hair in a ponytail and brown eyes and was wearing a blue fur bikini (4/1500/1300).

"Wow, she kind of looks like you Theresa, and you would look good in that…..." Marcus commented only to get punched in the back of the head by the female Obelisk Blue Student.

"Marcus, get your mind out of the gutter now." Theresa warned him and Marcus groaned.

"_Marcus, you really should watch what you say around females." _Lord of Dragons warned him as Marcus got up. _"Especially females with cards as powerful as Armed Dragon Level 10 as their Duel Spirit."_

"_Yeah, yeah, I heard the same thing all the time from my dad, well besides the Duel Spirit part for obvious reasons." _Marcus responded and Lord of Dragons chuckled. _"Come to think of it the Duel Spirits we've faced so far have all had names other than their Duel Monster ones, do you have one?"_

"_Ortar, but I prefer Lord of Dragons personally." _Lord of Dragons answered and Marcus shrugged.

"Now let's get down to business." Tryna said as her tiger's attack points increased to 2400. "Amazoness Tiger, attack Berserk Gorilla!" Tryna commanded and the tiger let out a growl before leaping at Berserk Gorilla and ripping its throat out bringing Andreas's life-points down to 7050. "And now that my tiger's destroyed a monster Gift from the Hunt Goddess's effect activates." Tryna said as Gift from the Hunt Goddess's hologram glowed and she drew twice. _"Excellent, this will make for an excellent combo with Gift but first things first…."_ Tryna thought before adding the cards to her hand and pointing to Amazoness Fighter. "Amazoness Fighter, attack his life-points directly!" Tryna commanded and the fighter charged towards Andreas…

"I activate Defense Draw!" Andreas played the card and grimaced as he was punched in the stomach by Amazoness Fighter. "This reduces the damage from Amazoness Fighter's attack to zero and allows me to draw a new card." Andreas said before drawing a card.

"Very well, I enter my second main phase and activate a companion card to Gift of the Hunt Goddess." Tryna said before playing a card and the card's hologram appeared depicting an amazon walking around Amazoness Village whilst carrying a newborn baby in her arms whilst the transparent image of a beautiful woman's face watched from the sky with a smile on her face. "Blessings from the Hunt Goddess, this has the requirements of Gift but also requires the presence of Gift of the Hunt Goddess on the field, as long as it's on the field when a monster of mine successfully slays one of your monsters in battle the battle damage gets added to my life-points."

"There's got to be some kind of drawback to this combo." Chelsea protested and Tryna nodded.

"Indeed there is, if Gift is destroyed for any reason whilst the two cards are on the field I must remove all copies of both cards on the field and in my deck from play." Tryna explained with a frown before setting the other card she drew with Gift. "But I wouldn't worry about that just yet, take your turn Andreas." Tryna added and Andreas drew his card.

"_Okay, that's a pretty powerful combo." _Andreas thought before looking over his hand. _"Perfect, I have what I need to put that kitten to sleep!" _Andreas thought before playing a card. "I summon Ape Fighter in attack mode!"

"Humph, another ape, do you plan on summoning a petting zoo next?" Tryna asked mockingly as the ape in cargo pants appeared on the field (4/1900/1200).

"Laugh all you want but this monster's about to put a dent in your strategy." Andreas said and Tryna scoffed.

"Did you forget Amazoness Tiger's other effect so soon? As long as she's on the field you can't attack another Amazoness." Tryna pointed out before noticing the grin on his face. "What are you planning?"

"This, I activate a Quick Play Spell Card called Forbidden Chalice!" Andreas played the card and a small golden cup appeared in front of Amazoness Tiger which she lowered her head into so that she could drink from it.

"Thank you but my tiger didn't need feeding." Tryna said before noticing two things, Amazoness Tiger seemed to be in pain and that she had lost all her gained attack points besides the bonus from Beast Fangs and an additional 400 points that is. "What have you done?"

"Forbidden Chalice is somewhat of a Double Edged Sword." Andreas said as Tryna looked at her monster concerned. "It increases the attack of the targeted monster by 400 points but in exchange its effects are negated until I end my turn but by then your Tiger will be destroyed." Andreas explained before playing another card. "But first I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and use it to destroy Beast Fangs!" Andreas played the card he had just drawn the a tornado washed over the field before shattering Beast Fangs and reducing Tiger's attack points to 1500.

"Err, why didn't he destroy either of her Hunt Goddess cards?" Chelsea wondered as she scratched her head in confusion.

"He probably has something else planned for them." Tyler assumed as Andreas grinned before he pointed at Amazoness Tiger.

"Ape Fighter, attack her tiger!" Andreas commanded and the ape charged towards the weakened monster…..

"Fortunately I anticipated this." Tryna said before activating her card, it was another new card this time depicting Marauding Captain getting in the way of an attack on Troop Dragon that was being launched by a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Fight as One, this trap card requires the presence of two level four or lower monsters on my side of the field and when the weakest monster is targeted for an attack the strongest monster will take the hit instead, unfortunately it comes with a price, the surviving monster can't attack during my next turn."

"And thanks to Fighter's effect the battle damage will be reduced to zero." Andreas realized with a frown as Ape Fighter changed its course towards Amazoness Fighter, Ape Fighter punched her through the stomach destroying her. "There's one good thing I can take away from that however, when Ape Fighter destroys a monster in battle his attack points increase by 300." Andreas explained as his monster's attack points rose to 2200.

"That maybe so but by destroying one Amazon you've triggered the effect of my village allowing me to summon Amazoness Blow Piper!" Tryna played the card and another Amazoness appeared in Amazoness Fighter's place, she was tanned like that others with long purple hair and brown eyes, she was wearing a green fur bikini top and a loincloth around her waist and, as the name implied, she had a blow pipe in her hand (3/800/1500) and her attack increased to 1000 thanks to the presence of the village.

"_This village is getting on my nerves." _Andreas thought before picking up the card he had drawn with Defense Draw. "I set a card facedown and end my turn at that." Andreas announced and Tryna drew her card once the effects of Forbidden Chalice wore off.

"First I move into the standby phase triggering the first effect of Gift of the Hunt Goddess." Tryna announced before drawing an extra card. "But my standby phase isn't done yet because now the effect of my Blow Piper activates." Tryna announced as her weaker monster put a dart in the pipe before firing it at Ape Fighter reducing its attack points by 500. "As you can see my Blowpiper specializes in in poison darts that slowly kill the opposition, in short during each standby phase she will drain one monster you control of 500 attack points leaving Ape Fighter in a perfect position to be done away with."

"Maybe but due to the effect of your own trap Amazoness Tiger can't attack until your next turn." Andreas pointed out and Tryna chuckled.

"Who said that I would be attacking with my Tiger? I think it's time I summoned my duel monsters counterpart!" Tryna said before playing the second card she drew. "I summon Amazoness Paladin!" Tryna played the card and the mirror image of Tryna appeared on the field (4/1700/300).

"Whoa, I'm seeing double!" Marcus blinked and the other students facepalmed.

"My Paladin gains 100 attack points for each Amazoness Monster on my side of the field as well as the bonus she gets from being in my village." Tryna explained as her monster's attack points increased to 2100. "Do the math Andreas, you are in for a world of pain, Paladin attack Ape Fighter!" Tryna commanded and her counterpart charged towards Ape Fighter before slicing the monster in two. "Don't forget, thanks to the effects of Gift and Blessing I get to draw two more cards and get 400 life-points added to my score." Tryna added before drawing twice before her life-points rose to 8100 whilst Andreas's life-points dropped to 6650.

"Aren't you forgetting something? You used both drawing effects in the same turn, you have to skip your next draw phase and you won't be able to use Gift's second drawing effect." Andreas pointed out before bracing himself for a direct attack from blowpiper.

"Off course I didn't! It is my own card after all!" Tryna insisted before looking over her cards. "I switch Amazoness Blowpiper to defense mode and set the two cards I just drew facedown." Tryna announced as her weakest monster knelt down in defense mode and her two set cards appeared on the field. "I end my turn at that."

"Huh? Why didn't she follow that up with a direct attack? Sure it's only a thousand points of damage but battle damage is still battle damage!" Chelsea wondered and Tyler stroked his chin.

"She probably figured that Amazoness Blowpiper would serve her better in defense mode." Tyler reasoned as he turned to Chelsea. "Amazoness Blowpiper isn't exactly the strongest card in the game after all."

"Aren't you forgetting that the girl you're talking too uses Watt Monsters?" Chelsea protested with a scowl and Tyler shook his head.

"That's different, your Watt Monsters make up for their low attack with powerful effects, all Blowpiper has is her effect to weaken monsters." Tyler pointed out and Chelsea frowned. "On one hand with all the cards she's been drawing she'll deck herself out if she's not careful."

"Yeah but that's if she doesn't wipe out Andreas first." Lance chimed in earning an annoyed glare from Andreas as he drew his card. "What? I'm just saying!"

"Yes, your just saying that whilst I'm well within earshot!" Andreas pointed out with a scowl before looking at his drawn card and the cards in his hand. _"This could help quite a bit." _Andreas thought before playing the card. "I activate One Day of Peace, not only does this allow us both to draw a card but any battle damage inflicted by either of us becomes zero until my next turn."

"Humph, that was very clever." Tryna admitted before she and Andreas made additional draws. "However Gift of the Hunt Goddess does not require battle damage to be inflicted to activate it's second drawing effect, any way you look at it I'll draw a number of three cards by the time your turn begins." Tryna added and Andreas smirked. "Do you have a reason for being so happy?"

"Why yes, it's the fact that making you draw so many cards will eventually cause you to deck out." Andreas responded and Tryna looked at her deck before realizing there were only seventeen cards left in it. "Your combo may be powerful but what good will it do you when you run out of cards to draw?" Andreas asked as he adjusted his glasses and Tryna smirked.

"You think you have my strategy all figured out? Think again." Tryna said as she looked at her newly drawn card. "Gift and Blessing are only two components of my deck strategy; you haven't seen it in full."

"Then allow me to eliminate one such component, I activate Tribute to the Doomed." Andreas played the card and discarded a card from his hand. "I toss one card and in exchange I can destroy Amazoness Paladin!" Andreas announced as bandages shot towards Paladin…

"You'll have to try harder than that to destroy my counterpart!" Tryna interrupted before activating one of her traps. "I counter with Dramatic Rescue, since you've targeted Amazoness Paladin with a Spell Card this allows me to return her to my hand and summon another Amazoness in her place!" Tryna's trap flipped up and Amazoness Paladin vanished before the bandages could wrap around her. "As for her replacement, I summon Amazoness Chain Master!" Tryna played the card and in her counterpart's place stood a woman with silver hair that was long and wild who was wearing a blue pokadotted fur bikini and was holding a chain as her name implied (4/1500/1300) and her attack increased to 1700 thanks to the village.

"And as soon as you summon Paladin on your next turn she'll be even stronger than before." Andreas said with a frown as he sent his cards to the graveyard. _"Worse yet her Tiger will be able to attack again on her next turn." _Andreas thought as he glanced towards the ferocious beast and then towards his facedown card. _"I set that as a bluff two turns ago, should I risk it?"_

"_I'd say it's worth the risk at the moment." _The duel spirit advised him and Andreas nodded.

"I'm not done yet, I activate my facedown card Pride of the Pack!" Andreas activated his trap and another new card flipped up this time depicting a pack of lions charging through the African wilderness. "This trap card requires that I have at least four beast or beast-warrior type monsters in my graveyard and I get to draw one card for each monster of those types in my graveyard, however if I draw another copy of any of the cards in my graveyard then I end my turn and I must skip my next turn."

"That's gotta be one of the stupidest risks I've seen since I joined this academy!" Chelsea said with a facepalm as Andreas started drawing his cards. "When did he get that card anyway? Wasn't it just released in a booster pack?"

"It wasn't during Battle City, I would've noticed if he had brought a new card." Marcus told her with a look of confusion on his face. "Maybe his partner in the Tag Team Tournament got it for him."

"Yeah but like I said, it's a stupid risk! Just look at what Tryna has on her side of the field!" Chelsea protested as Andreas drew five cards, four from the monsters already destroyed and one from the card he discarded for Tribute to the Doomed, and looked over them.

"Your concerns may be valid but you have nothing to worry about Chelsea." Andreas said as he turned to her. "I drew two monsters, two Traps and a Spell Card with that card; none of them are cards present in my graveyard."

"Well that's a relief." Chelsea sighed as Andreas sent his trap to the graveyard.

"But I'm not done yet! I set three cards facedown and summon Des Kangaroo in attack mode!" Andreas played the cards and a green kangaroo in a purple jacket appeared on the field, it was wearing boxing gloves and it made a few jabs (4/1500/1700). "I know what you're thinking, this monster doesn't look like much, but his effect makes up for that fact!"

"What effect?" Tryna demanded and Andreas smirked.

"If the attack of a monster that attacks this card is lower than the defense of this card the attacking monster is destroyed. "Andreas explained and Tryna scoffed.

"You fool! None of my monsters fit the criteria for his effect besides Blowpiper and I'd be suicidal to even consider attacking with her!" Tryna said with a smirk and Andreas maintained his poker face. "Nice try but not good enough!"

"I shall end my turn at that." Andreas said simply and Tryna skipped her draw phase due to Gift's side effect.

"First I use Blowpiper's effect to drain 500 attack points from Des Kangaroo!" Tryna announced as her weakest monster fired her blowpipe at the Kangaroo bringing his attack points down to 1000. _"Those facedown cards must be bluffs! There's no way they could be of any help to him now!" _Tryna thought with a grin before playing the card. "Remember Amazoness Paladin? She's back and stronger than ever before!" Tryna played the card and her counterpart returned to the field and her attack rose to 2200 due to the presence of Chain Master on the field.

"That's just what I was hoping for! I activate Chain Destruction!" Andreas announced and Tryna's eyes widened as a chain went through her counterpart's chest and into her deck. "Admittedly this one of the more situational cards in the game but it's served me well now! This can only be activated if you summon a monster with 2000 attack points or less and every other copy of that card in your deck is sent to the graveyard." Andreas said with a smirk.

"And since Paladin has a base attack of 1700 she was a perfect candidate for that trap!" Tryna realized as her eyes widened. "Very clever but aren't you forgetting something? I still have a Paladin on the field!" Tryna pointed out and Andreas grinned.

"I'm not worried; in fact hit me with your best shot!" Andreas taunted her and Tryna scoffed.

"My best shot? If you're that eager to lose you should've surrendered." Tryna said with a smirk before switching Blowpiper to attack mode and pointing to her tiger. "And with Amazoness Tiger's attack at 2900 thanks to the village and the number of Amazoness monsters on my side of the field your defeat will come swiftly." Tryna said before pausing. _"Question is who to attack with? Amazoness Chain Master can easily take out that joke of a monster clearing the path for my stronger monsters, Amazoness Tiger can cause the most damage from his attack…..but I can't let Paladin's sisters go unavenged!" _Tryna decided before pointing to her counterpart. "Amazoness Paladin, avenge your sisters and attack Des Kangaroo!" Tryna commanded and her counterpart let out a fierce battle cry before charging at the Kangaroo.

"Thank you! I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Reliable Guardian!" Tryna's eyes widened when she heard that as Des Kangaroo's defense increased to 2400. "This is a counterpart card to Rush Recklessly but where Rush Recklessly increases the attack of a monster by 700 points Reliable Guardian does the same thing for his defense!"

"And with Des Kangaroo's effect…." Tryna's eyes widened as she turned to her Paladin. "Halt your attack! It's a trap!" Tryna called out but it was too late, Des Kangaroo ducked under Paladin's blade and uppercutted her causing her hologram to shatter. "You'll pay for that! I use the effect of my village to special summon another Amazoness Swords Woman from my deck!" Tryna announced as the redheaded swords woman returned to the field. "Your defense may be too tough for her to crack but not my tiger's! Amazoness Tiger, teach him a lesson he won't soon forget!" Tryna commanded and her tiger leapt towards Kangaroo…

"Did you forget about my remaining facedown card this early?" Andreas asked and Tryna blinked…but her eyes widened when she saw the trap. "Go Mirror Force!"

"NO! NO! ANYTHING BUT THAT TRAP!" Tryna yelled out as her tiger's attack was reflected back at her remaining monsters destroying them all. "I must say, you have been a worthy opponent Andreas."

"And I can say the same for you." Andreas admitted as he sent his three cards to the graveyard and Tryna did likewise with her monsters.

"Why didn't he use that card on Paladin?" Chloe wondered as Theresa stroked her chin.

"Amazoness Village's second effect can only be used once per turn, by making her waste it on Swords Woman he ensured that she could not use its effect again." Theresa realized with a nod.

"_My facedown card is useless! It's Amazoness Archers; it was a backup plan on the off chance that he somehow destroyed Amazoness Tiger." _Tryna thought before playing a card. "I activate Emergency Provisions and I use it to send my remaining facedown card to the graveyard to add a thousand life-points to my score." Tryna played the card and her facedown card vanished as her life-points increased to 9400. "I end my turn." Tryna announced and Andreas nodded before drawing his card.

"I activate Card of Sanctity!" Andreas played the card and drew until he had six cards in his hand, Tryna didn't draw any however as her hand was full. "Sorry to say Tryna but I'm about to destroy your combo."

"How do you intend to do that?" Tryna asked and Andreas turned one of his drawn cards around, Tryna's eyes widened when she saw it. "Heavy Storm? NO!"

"Yes." Andreas said simply before playing the card, a storm washed over the field destroying Amazoness Village, Gift of the Hunt Goddess and Blessings From The Hunt Goddess in that order. "And don't forget Blessing's side effect."

"I didn't forget." Tryna said angrily before retrieving the other copies of her two Spell Cards and sticking all three copies in her top. "Now onto…" Tryna said before noticing the looks she was getting. "What? Do you see a pocket in this outfit? I have to improvise sometimes!"

"God I'd love to be those cards right now…." Marcus muttered only to get punched in the back of the head by Theresa, Chloe and Chelsea. "That was totally worth it!"

"Thank you, you three would make fine Amazons." Tryna said before turning to Andreas. "Do you have another move to make?"

"I don't know if I should take that as a complement or not." Chloe whispered to the other girls who nodded in agreement.

"Yes I do." Andreas said as he played a card. "I activate Polymerization, fusing Big Koala in my hand and Des Kangaroo on my field in order to fusion summon my best monster, the Master of Oz!" Andreas played the card and the two monsters fused together and out of the portal emerged the massive koala (9/4200/3700).

"Finally, my true form is revealed." The Master of Oz bellowed revealing himself to be Andreas's spirit guide. "Are you ready to end this master?"

"Indeed I am." Andreas said with a smirk before pointing to his monster. "Master of Oz, attack her life-points directly!" Andreas commanded and the massive monster launched its fist at Tryna bringing her life-points down to 5200.

"All that move did was allow you to have a small lead." Tryna said as she dusted herself off. "I'll still have more than enough life-points to continue."

"That's wear your wrong, I activate a Quick Play Spell Card De-Fusion!" Andreas played the card and turned to his duel spirit. "Sorry, has to be done."

"I understand." Master of Oz said with a nod before splitting up into its individual components, Des Kangaroo appeared on the field first with its attack sore intact and it was quickly followed by a massive koala carrying a tree (7/2700/2000).

"Next I activate another quick play spell card, Rush Recklessly! And I use it on Big Koala!" Andreas played the card and Big Koala's attack rose to 3400. "Now my beasts, attack her life-points directly!" Andreas commanded and Des Kangaroo struck first punching Tryna in the face, when she looked up from the punch she saw Big Koala's tree collide with her bringing her life-points down to 300.

"It doesn't matter!" Tryna said as she got to her feet. "I may only have 300 life-points left but I still have life-points left!"

"Sorry but this duel is over because I have one last card to play." Andreas said before activating another card from his hand. "A Quick Play Spell Card called Super Polymerization, I must discard the last card in my hand to use it but it allows me to fusion summon Master of Oz once more!" Andreas played the card and the two monsters fused together to form Andreas's best monster. "Master of Oz, are you ready to end this?"

"Yes I am!" Master of Oz said with a nod before pulling his fist back and punching Tryna again bringing her life-points down to zero.

"I have fallen in battle." Tryna admitted as she got up and deactivated her duel disk as did Andreas. "I must admit, it's been so long since that has happened that I have forgotten what the stinging pain of defeat feels like."

"Facing defeat is never easy; it doesn't matter if you're a human or a Duel Spirit." Andreas said with a nod as Tryna turned towards the portal.

"You have gained the loyalty of an extremely powerful duel spirit; don't let it go to waste Andreas." Tryna said before stepping through the portal, Andreas sighed in relief as he turned to the others.

"Master of Oz huh? Not too shabby." Chelsea said with a grin which Andreas returned. "But I think my Duel Spirits better."

"You would say that." Andreas said with a chuckle as he turned to her. "But only because your duel spirit's a Synchro Monster with the ability to attack directly."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Chelsea challenged him and Andreas smirked.

"Just a simple fact, if you hadn't destroyed Skill Drain when you did your duel would've ended a lot differently." Andreas said and Chelsea growled.

"Break it up you two! This isn't a contest over whose duel spirit is superior." Chloe said getting in between them. "Especially since mine's the best one!" Chloe added and the two duelists face-faulted.

"You're one to talk!" Chelsea protested before grinning. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, you're up next!" Chelsea added and Chloe blinked.

"But why am I being tested? My duel spirit's already been established." Chloe asked before pointing to Silent Magician.

"You will see momentarily Chloe." Silent Magician told her as a figure stepped through the portal, the monster was almost instantly recognizable as Celtic Guardian (4/1400/1200).

"Which one of you is Chloe Richardson?" Celtic Guardian asked and Chloe stepped forward without hesitation. "Good evening milady, I am Reynkor, the Retrained Celtic Guardian."

"Retrained? Don't you mean Obnoxious?" Lance asked and Reynkor face faulted. "What? What did I say?"

"Do you have any idea how humiliating that name is too me?" Reynkor asked as he got up, his sword turned into a Duel Disk that matched the colors of his outfit and he strapped it on. "It matters not; I am here to help this young lady reach her potential and nothing more."

"I'm sure you won't mind losing somewhere along the way." Chloe said as she activated her duel disk. _"What will happen if I summon Silent Magician though? Unlike the other Duel Spirits she's in the same room as me."_ Chloe thought as she glanced towards her Duel Spirit.

*meanwhile at the tech services department*

The tech staff at Duel Academy where sum of the best money could buy, Kaiba saw to that personally, but where often overworked due to the Academy's sheer size, in fact many of the technicians where lobbying to Kaiba to build them another office outside of the main building to alleviate the workload and make it easier for students with tech problems to get them fixed, tonight however they were busy trying to figure out why the students were at the abandoned dorm, to make matters worse Martin, Jeff, Maria and Tracy where watching over them.

"It's been four hours since we caught them on the security tapes." Jeff said as he took a sip off his coffee. "What on Earth are they doing down there?"

"Whatever it is we'll find out soon enough." The lead technician said as he typed away at his computer.

"Sir, you may want to look at this, same goes for the teachers!" Another technician called out and the five of them went over to his console. "I've been checking the duel logs, there have been four duels in a row in the past four hours, and all of the ID Tags match the duelists that have been caught on the cameras."

"So that's what they're doing." Tracy said as she bent over for a closer look. "You can't identify their opponents?"

"I tried but the opponents aren't registered on our systems or Kaibacorp's for that matter and since there are no cameras in the Abandoned Dorm I can't get footage of the duels either." The technician responded as he typed away at his console. "Another duel just started, can't identify who the opponent is but the ID Tag matches Chloe Richardson's duel disk."

"Can you shut it off?" Martin asked and the technician shook his head.

"Tried that during Chelsea Cunningham's duel, something is blocking the signal and I'm not sure what it is." The technician responded before motioning to the other technicians. "They are trying to disrupt the signal but they are having no luck."

"What could possibly be blocking the shutoff signal? It's supposed to be foolproof." Martin wondered as he stroked his chin. "Unless….."

"You're not suggesting that they somehow got into a Shadow Duel are you?" Jeff asked with a shudder. "Those things are the reason that dorm's off limits."

"Well if they were forced into it we can go a bit lighter on the punishment." Martin said with a deep, concerned frown. "That's if they won, we both know the duel logs don't record the winners of the match, just the participants." Martin added and the other teacher's expressions turned grim at that prospect.


	55. Spirited Away Part 5

Chloe and Reynkor wasted no time in drawing their opening hands, Chloe was starting to feel tired from being up so late but she couldn't turn back now, especially if it helped satisfy her curiosity about Duel Spirits in general.

"_Okay, don't panic Chloe, you beat Thomas earlier, you can beat Reynkor or whatever he likes to call himself." _Chloe thought before looking up at Reynkor. "So who's going first?"

"I'm a gentlemen so ladies first." Reynkor said as he looked over his hand. _"She's a Warrior and a Spellcaster user; let's see how she handles MY warriors."_

"Well if you say so." Chloe shrugged before drawing her first card. _"Not bad but I've definitely had better hands than this." _Chloe thought as she looked over her hand. "I set two cards facedown and summon Field Commander Rahz in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a male warrior appeared on the field, he had short brown hair, brown eyes, was wearing silver armor and was carrying a large sword (4/1600/1200). "I know he doesn't look like much…"

"Spare me the details; I use Field Commander Rahz in my deck." Reynkor interrupted her and Chloe frowned. "When he is Normal or Special Summoned you can add one Level 4 or lower Warrior type monster to the top of your deck."

"_Well that narrows down what deck he uses." _Chloe thought before picking up her deck and searching through it, she found the card she was looking for and placed it on her deck. "I end my turn." Chloe announced and Reynkor drew his card. _"This will be a snap! The card I added to the top of my deck is the tuner monster Rose, Warrior of Revenge, on my next turn after using my traps to protect my monster I'll summon her and tune them both together to bring out Colossal Fighter." _Chloe thought with a grin as she waited for Reynkor to make his move. _"If he's using a Warrior Deck like I think he is then like in my duel against Thomas earlier my Fighter will benefit from both graveyards!"_

"Milady, I have a piece of advice for you if you're willing to listen." Reynkor said as he looked at his newly drawn card. "Making it obvious that you have traps set to protect a weak monster is never a good idea."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asked not noticing the fact that Theresa and Brandon where facepalming.

"She's made that mistake again." Brandon whispered to Theresa who shook her head.

"I guess old habits die hard." Theresa shrugged in response as she watched Reynkor make his move.

"Humph, I heard you were a rookie, I wasn't expecting this much of a rookie however." Reynkor commented and Chloe's eyes narrowed.

"This rookie came in third at this year's Battle City Tournament!" Chloe snapped at him as Reynkor stared at her. "You want to talk about mistakes? You're making a big one by underestimating me!"

"Prove it." Reynkor said plainly and Chloe blinked. "We couldn't view the Battle City Tournament in the Spirit World; prove your prowess as a Duelist in this duel!"

"Fine, I will." Chloe said with a confident smirk. "Weren't you about to make a move?"

"Yes, I was." Reynkor said as he looked over his hand. "You should be familiar with this Spell Card; I start by activating Reinforcement of the Army which allows me to add one Level 4 or lower Warrior Type monster from my deck to my hand." Reynkor played the card and picked up his deck, he searched through it for a few minutes before finding the card he was looking for and adding it to his hand. "Next I summon Red Night Swordsman in attack mode!"

"What, not another new card!" The students yelled out simultaneously as the warrior appeared on the field, as the name implied his armor was red and covered his entire body; he drew a menacing looking sword and pointed it at Rahz (4/1900/1200).

"Yes, Red Night Swordsman is a card that won't be out until next year in your world but in my world he is readily available." Reynkor said with a grin before pointing to Red Night Swordsman. "Oh and don't bother trying to activate your traps in response to my Swordsman's upcoming attack, so long as I cut the damage he inflicts in battle by half no traps can be activated when he attacks."

"_Great, the one time I could really use Effect Veilor and I don't have her in my hand!" _Chloe thought frustratingly as she glared at the monster.

"Go Red Night Swordsman, attack Field Commander Rahz!" Reynkor commanded and the swordsman charged towards Rahz before cutting him in half bringing Chloe's life-points down to 7850. "Now is there anything else you want to do my dear?"

"Actually yeah, does Red Night Swordsman's effect last for the rest of the turn or only during the battle phase?" Chloe asked and Reynkor blinked.

"Only during the Battle Phase, why do you ask?" Reynkor asked and Chloe grinned before activating one of her traps.

"That's good, because now that you're in your Second Main Phase I can activate this, my Trap Card Reinforce Truth!" Chloe activated the trap and picked up her deck. "This lets me Special Summon a low level warrior type monster as long as I skip the Battle Phase."

"But since you activated that trap during my turn that side effect is not an issue." Reynkor realized as she searched through her deck. "Not bad."

"I'm just getting started; I use Reinforce Truth's effect to Special Summon the Tuner Monster Torapart!" Chloe played the card and the strange spellcaster like warrior appeared on the field (2/600/600).

"Very well, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Reynkor set the two cards and once Chloe shuffled her deck she drew her card.

"_Okay, my initial plan went down the drain but at least my backup plan allowed me to get a Tuner Monster on the field." _Chloe thought as she looked at her newly drawn card. _"And I have a great way to set up a Synchro Summon." _Chloe thought before playing a card. "First I activate The Warrior Returning Alive which lets me add a Warrior Type Monster from my graveyard to my hand, since there's only one warrior in there you get no prizes for guessing which one I'm bringing back."

"Yes, you're bringing back your Field Commander." Reynkor said with a nod as she retrieved the card from her graveyard. "I suppose you intend to set up a Synchro Summon?"

"Am I that predictable? Don't answer that." Chloe said as she glanced towards the other students who started whistling innocently. "Anyway, welcome back Field Commander Rahz!" Chloe played the card and the field commander returned to the field.

"Don't forget about Field Commander's effect, last I checked it wasn't optional." Reynkor reminded her and Chloe quickly picked up her deck before looking through it.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Chloe said with a hint of annoyance in her voice before looking at her options. _"Rose. Warrior of Revenge was my last choice but she won't help me now, but this guy will!" _Chloe decided before placing the card on top of her deck. "Now I tune Torapart and Field Commander Rahz together!" Chloe announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Torapart dissolved into two green rings that quickly surrounded Field Commander. "So I Synchro Summon Gaia Knight, The Force of Earth!" Chloe played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it fades the mechanical knight and horse appeared on the field (6/2600/800). "Unlike most Synchro Monsters my knight here lacks any effects but Torapart helps with that, when he's used in a Synchro Summon the monster that's summoned is protected from traps when he's attacking."

"Yes I know that." Reynkor said as his trap flipped up. "Unfortunately that effect will be of no benefit to you, I activate my Trap Card Tuner's Scheme!"

"Tuner's what?" Chloe yelled out only to watch in shock as Gaia Knight the Force of Earth went over to Reynkor's side of the field. "Give him back!"

"Sorry but I can't, Tuner's Scheme can only be activated when my opponent Synchro Summons a monster as you have just done, it allows me to take control of that Synchro Monster as long as this card is on the field." Reynkor explained and Chloe's eyes widened. "Sorry to disappoint you my dear but not only is Red Night Swordsman here to stay but I have taken control of one of your more powerful monsters, and as you just explained Gaia Knight is immune to the effects of trap cards when he attacks."

"So in short unless I can destroy that card I may have just done myself in." Chloe responded before looking over her cards. "I end my turn." Chloe sighed and Reynkor drew his card.

"Then let's not waste any time, Gaia Knight, Red Night Swordsman, attack her life-points directly!" Reynkor commanded and Chloe braced herself for the attacks, Gaia struck first hitting her in the chest with his lance and Re Night Swordsman struck next sending her to the ground and her life-points all the way down to 3350. "You know, surrender is always an option."

"Not a chance! I activate my trap card Shock Draw!" Chloe activated the trap as she got up to her feet and checked her life-point score. "Since I just took damage this trap will let me draw one card for each thousand life-points lost." Chloe added before pausing.

"That would be four cards you are drawing Ms. Richardson." Reynkor said impatiently and Chloe shook her head.

"That's not why I'm taking my time." Chloe answered as her eyes narrowed. "You didn't activate Red Night Swordsman's effect when you attacked with him."

"So I didn't, that effect is optional young lady." Reynkor pointed out and Chloe frowned as she drew four cards including the card she added to the top of her deck with Field Commander Rahz.

"_That'll be something to remember for the next time he attacks." _Chloe thought before looking over her new cards. _"And that's if I don't get wiped out by my own monster first!"_

"_Don't worry Chloe, you won't." _Silent Magician reassured her and Chloe blinked. _"What? Didn't think I'd assist you because I'm in the same room as you?"_

"_Yeah, something like that." _Chloe confirmed as she looked over her cards. "Is it my move yet?" Chloe asked and Reynkor nodded, Chloe quickly drew her card bringing her total to seven. "Not much I can do so I set a monster in defense and activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Chloe played the cards and Reynkor shielded himself as the three swords rained down on his monsters pinning them down. "Now you can't attack for another three turns, and since I'm ending my turn that starts now." Chloe announced and Reynkor nodded before drawing his card.

"It seems I can't do anything either so I pass my turn." Reynkor shrugged and Chloe drew her card without a second thought once the first sword faded.

"_Trade-In, do I have any compatible cards?" _Chloe thought before looking over her cards, she frowned when she realized which card in her hand was the only compatible one.

"_That didn't stop you against Cameron." _Silent Magician reminded her and Chloe frowned.

"_That was different though, I already had Level Modulation in my hand for that combo." _Chloe responded as she looked at her cards. _"But as it stands…."_

"_What do you have to lose?" _Silent Magician asked her and Chloe paused before quickly looking at her life-point counter.

"_Not much, just the match." _Chloe responded before sighing in resignation. _"I hope you're right Silent Magician." _Chloe added before playing the card. "I activate Trade-In; as long as I discard a Level 8 monster from my hand first this Spell will let me draw two cards." Chloe quickly discarded Silent Magician Level 8 and made two draws.

"_Are you sure about this?" _Armed Dragon, who had been listening in, asked Silent Magician who nodded.

"_I am sure, if it weren't for Cameron's comments this combo would've won Chloe her duel against him." _Silent Magician reassured him but Armed Dragon wasn't convinced.

"_Your protégé said it herself; she had the other half of the combo readily available." _Armed Dragon reminded her and Silent Magician frowned.

"_We'll see." _Silent Magician said plainly as Chloe looked over her cards.

"_This trap could be useful." _Chloe thought before setting the card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Reynkor drew his card.

"Very well, you have met Red Night Swordsman; now let me introduce his sister." Reynkor said before playing the card. "Gold Day Swordswoman, come forth!" Reynkor played the card and a female warrior appeared on the field, like Red Night Swordsman he was covered head to toe in armor but hers was more formfitting than her male counterpart's and, as the name implied, was gold in color, like her brother she drew a menacing looking sword and pointed it at Chloe (4/1500/1200).

"She seems to lack the punch of her brother." Chloe pointed out once she saw the monster's stats and Reynkor nodded in agreement.

"That is true, however her effect more than makes up for it." Reynkor agreed as Gold Day Swordswoman's sword glowed. "As long as she's on the field all Spell Cards must be set first and activated on the very next turn, in addition she gains five hundred attack points each time a Spell Card is activated."

"Is this the part where you tell me the catch?" Chloe asked and Reynkor nodded.

"Yes, in exchange for her abilities she cannot attack directly and will be destroyed if she's the only monster on my side of the field, in fact she can only be summoned if there's two other Warrior Type Monsters on my side of the field and one of them is her brother." Reynkor explained and Chloe nodded once it dawned on her. "I shall end my turn." Reynkor announced and Chloe drew her card once the second sword disappeared.

"Red Night, Gold Day, is these monsters part of an upcoming Archetype of Warrior Type Monsters?" Chelsea wondered and Tyler stroked his chin.

"If they are I've never heard of them." Tyler shook his head as he turned to her. "Then again the Spirit World is a year ahead of us when it comes to Duel Monsters releases so who knows."

"Well if they are we know two common threads between them, time and colors, besides that we don't know anything." Theresa added with a thoughtful look on her face. "Actually, make that three common threads, strong effects with heavy prices to pay."

"Let's hope Chloe can find some way around this." Brandon added as Chloe looked over her hand.

"_You're not the only one Brandon." _Chloe thought as she overheard her friends chatting, Chloe shook her head before looking at her drawn card. "I summon Magicians Valkyrie!" Chloe played the card and the attractive brunette Spell Caster appeared on the field (4/1600/1800). "She may not be strong enough to defeat Red Night Swordsman but Gold Day Swordswoman is a different story altogether! Magician's Valkyrie, attack his monster!" Chloe commanded and the magician charged up her scepter to aim at Gold Day Swordswoman…

"I think not, I activate my Trap Card Night and Day!" Reynkor activated the trap and it flipped up revealing the two warriors standing side by side ready to face off against an army of Duel Monsters. "This trap can only be activated if I have Red Night Swordsman and Gold Day Swordswoman on the field at the same time and if one of them is targeted for an attack, the attack is negated and the attacking monster is destroyed." Reynkor explained as Red Night Swordswoman leapt in the path of the blast and blocked it with his sword; he then leapt at Magician's Valkyrie and decapitated her with a single sword swipe.

"No wonder you didn't activate that sooner, those two monsters are designed to work together if you play certain cards aren't they?" Chloe asked as she sent her Magician's Valkyrie to the graveyard.

"Indeed they do, they look out for each other like a brother and sister should." Reynkor said with a nod as he sent his trap to the graveyard. "And that's just one example."

"_If Night and Day's just one example I'd hate to see the others." _Chloe thought before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Chloe announced and Reynkor drew his card.

"_I'll hold onto this for later." _Reynkor thought before adding the card to his hand. "I pass and as we both know that means that Swords of Revealing Light has expired." Reynkor announced and once the last sword disappeared from the field Chloe drew her card.

"_I drew Level Modulation! Perfect! I can bring out Silent Magician Level….oh crap, I forgot about Gold Day Swordswoman's effect." _Chloe realized before looking at one of the cards he drew with Shock Draw. _"But if I can make this work he's in for a world of hurt." _Chloe thought before picking up five cards. "I set five cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the five cards and Reynkor drew his card.

"Then it's time for this duel to come to a close, Gold Day Swordswoman take out her defense!" Reynkor commanded and the swordswoman charged towards the facedown card, revealed to be Shield Warrior (3/800/1600) which was quickly destroyed. "Before you ask I am not using Red Night Swordsman's effect, I don't see much point really." Reynkor added before pointing to Gaia Knight. "Gaia Knight, attack your former mistress!" Reynkor commanded and the knight charged towards Chloe and struck her in the chest bringing her life-points down to 750. "Red Night Swordsman, finish her!" Reynkor commanded and he charged towards Chloe.

"Heh, you know you should've used Red Night Swordsman's effect when you had the chance." Chloe said with a grin and Reynkor blinked. "Why's that you ask? Well, because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to activate Confusion Chaff!" Reynkor's eyes widened as Red Night Swordsman stropped in his tracks and turned towards Gaia Knight, the horse dodged the sword swipe and Red Night Swordsman was impaled by Gaia's lance bringing Reynkor's life-points down to 7300.

"Very impressive but by forcing me to destroy my own card you've allowed me to activate this Quick Play Spell Card called Darkest before Dawn!" Reynkor played the card and it showed a scene that struck a chord with Chloe due to her recent visit to her mom's gravesite in New York, it depicted a steep hill at night where Red Night Swordsman was kneeling in front of a gravestone with Gold Day Swordswoman's name on it. "Despite what the image may imply this card can work for either of my two warriors, when one falls in battle I can ignore Gold Day Swordswoman's effect and activate this straight away, in exchange for ending my turn immediately I can bring back the destroyed monster." Reynkor explained as Red Night Swordsman reappeared on the field and Gold Day Swordswoman's attack increased to 2000, Chloe wasted no time in drawing her card once she was given the okay.

"Good because I activate another facedown card, Level Modulation and I chain it with Emergency Provisions to give my life-points a boost!" Chloe played the card and Reynkor blinked as her life-points increased to 1750.

"I know what it does but I never destroyed a Level Monster." Reynkor said as he drew twice and Gold Day Swordswoman's attack increased to 3000.

"You didn't but I discarded one for Trade-In a few turns back!" Chloe said and Reynkor's eyes widened when it dawned on him.

"That's my cue." Silent Magician said as she disappeared and reappeared on Chloe's side of the field. "I'm assuming your plan is to use your other card?"

"You got it, but due to Level Modulation I can't attack yet, I set this facedown and end my turn." Chloe realized before setting the card motioning to Reynkor to take his turn, Reynkor, though clearly nervous, nodded before drawing his card.

"I switch my monsters to defense mode and end my turn." Reynkor said and Chloe activated her card.

"But not before I activate a card Chelsea suggested for me." Chloe said as she looked at her roommate with a grin which Chelsea returned. "Go Labyrinth of Nightmare!"

"No! That automatically switches the card positions of each monster at the end phase!" Reynkor said as his monsters stood up again and Silent Magician stood up.

"And it's my move!" Chloe said as she drew her card, she added it to her hand before her facedown card flipped up. "I activate Diffusion Wave Motion!"

"Okay, when the hell did she get that card? It's one of the rarest in the game!" Theresa wondered out loud as Silent Magician charged up her staff.

"Yeah, yeah, details, details." Chloe said dismissively with a massive grin. "In exchange for giving up the thousand life-points I just gained….." Chloe said as her life-points dropped back down to 750. "My Magician can attack each monster on your side of the field."

"Aren't you forgetting something? Because you activated a Spell Card Gold Day Swordswoman's attack is the same as hers!" Reynkor protested as his swordswoman's attack increased to 3500.

"It doesn't matter, because I have one last card to play, the Spell Card Megamorph which doubles my magician's power!" Chloe activated the card and Silent Magician started glowing. "Huh, I was expecting you to double in size."

"What, in this small chamber?" Silent Magician pointed out and Chloe sweat-dropped as her monster's attack skyrocketed to 7000. "Let's end this Chloe!"

"To think I doubted you!" Chloe said with a sheepish grin before pointing to her magician. "Attack his monsters!" Chloe commanded and the magician charged up a mighty blast before unleashing it wiping out the three monsters and Reynkor's life-points in one hit. "That was way to close." Chloe breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yes but you more than proved you earned the third place in the Battle City Tournament by coming back from behind like that." Reynkor said with a nod before bowing to Silent Magician who Chloe had just noticed hadn't disappeared with the other holograms. "It's been an honor serving you milady." Reynkor added before stepping through the portal, Silent Magician nodded before closing the portal behind him.

"Congratulations Marcus, Chelsea, Andreas and Lance, you all have your Duel Spirit partners guiding you through the tough times ahead, use them wisely, Brandon, Tyler, your skills will be tested at a later date." Silent Magician said before turning to Chloe. "As for you Chloe that test was to strengthen out bond, would you say it was a success."

"Yeah, I guess it was." Chloe said sheepishly before yawning. "But all this dueling has made me tired….." Chloe trailed off before it hit her. "How long have we been up?"

"About four hours." Armed Dragon answered and the student's eyes widened. "Silent Magician, do you have a spell that can get them back to their dorms?"

"Yes." Silent Magician said before noticing the looks she was getting. "I can only use this spell if I'm in the same room as the people I'm casting it on, if there was another way I would've used it." Silent Magician reassured them and the students and Hamden nodded before she started casting the spell.

*meanwhile outside the abandoned dorm*

It was fortunate for the students that they didn't have to leave on foot as the Abandoned Dorm was surrounded by the Disciplinary Action Squad and Martin, Maria, Tracy and Jeff where standing by.

"This is your last warning, either you come out now or we're coming in!" The leader of the D.A.S. shouted through a megaphone and waited a few moments. "They're not coming out."

"Go in but be careful, we suspect that a series of Shadow Duels have just taken place in there." Martin told him and the leader nodded before leading a squad down to the abandoned dorm.

"If they were caught up in a Shadow Duel let's hope that none of them where hurt." Jeff added with a sigh as the squad came back up.

"Sir, there was no trace of the students down there." The leader told him and Martin blinked. "I'm having my men check the other entrances but if we can't find them…"

"Check their dorms in the morning, if you do find them bring them to my office immediately." Martin told him and the leader nodded before running off. "Jeff, Maria, Tracy, I expect you to be in my office in the morning, if you have a class find someone to fill in for you." Martin told the other teachers who nodded before heading to their respective dorms.

*meanwhile at the Osiris Red Girl's dorm*

In the blink of an eye Chelsea and Chloe where back in their dorm rooms in the same positions they were in before the whole mess started, Chloe blinked and looked around.

"Was that a dream?" Chloe asked as she looked around, Chelsea took one look at the computer clock and shook her head.

"That was no dream, its 4:00am." Chelsea told her roommate before yawning. "And it's a perfect time to get some sleep if you ask me." Chelsea added before climbing the ladder to the top bunk, Chloe blinked in confusion.

"You're not even getting changed?" Chloe called out to her and she shook her head.

"I'm too tired for that." Chelsea said sheepishly before climbing onto the top bunk, Chloe let out a yawn and Chelsea grinned. "From the sound of it you desperately need some shut eye as well."

"Yeah, I do." Chloe said before removing her blazer. "At least we don't have class in the morning." Chloe added and Chelsea grinned.

"True enough." Chelsea agreed before taking off her blazer and hanging it over the side of the top bunk. "Good night."

"Good night." Chloe echoed before dozing off, the other students who were at the dorm where doing the same thing unaware of what awaited them in the morning.


	56. Big Trouble in Little Duel Academy

Despite staying up late Chloe and Chelsea did get a relatively peaceful sleep, which was off course helped by the fact that they didn't have classes that morning.

Chelsea was already up having gotten changed out of the clothes she had slept in and was waiting for her laptop too boot up, she heard a tired yawn from behind her and turned around in time to see Chloe waking up. "Morning Chloe, I took the liberty of laying some fresh clothes out for you."

"Thanks." Chloe thanked her roommate despite being half asleep; she got changed out of her dirty clothes and into the clean ones whilst Chelsea tried to log in.

"What the hell?" Chelsea yelled out and Chloe blinked before putting on one of the few tops she had that didn't show of her stomach.

"What's up?" Chloe asked before walking over.

"This thing won't let me log in, I've tried every password combo I have and it won't work!" Chelsea groaned and Chloe bent over.

"Let me try." Chloe offered and Chelsea nodded as if to say "be my guest" before Chloe typed in her username and password only to get the same message Chelsea got. "What's going on?"

"You don't have any other passwords?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"I don't use the network much, remember?" Chloe pointed out and Chelsea nodded once she realized she was right. "What does the error message say anyway?" Chloe asked and Chelsea looked at the screen.

"This ID and password has been suspended until further notice." Chelsea read it aloud and turned to her roommate. "That's the same error message I got, thing is I've never gotten it before today and I doubt it's got something to do with the hardware."

"You tried hacking?" Chloe suggested and Chelsea shook her head.

"Nah, I'm above that shit." Chelsea said as she folded her arms. "Besides if we're in trouble…oh crap, you don't think they caught us on the tapes last night do you?!" Chelsea asked as her eyes widened, before Chloe could answer there was a knock at both doors.

"Disciplinary Action Squad, open up!" A voice rang out and the two girls' eyes widened.

"Err; does that answer your question?" Chloe asked with a gulp and Chelsea nodded. "They've got both exits covered!"

"We may as well face the music then, I'll answer the guys on this side you answer the guys on the balcony." Chelsea told her and Chloe nodded before the two girls answered the doors. "Hi guys, what I can do for….."

"Chelsea Cunningham, Chloe Richardson, we need you to come with us now." The squad leader interrupted her and Chelsea blinked. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way ladies; trust me you won't like that hard way."

"We'll come along quietly." Chelsea sighed and Chloe nodded in agreement, the two girls followed the squad members to the main building and gulped when they realized just where they were going. "That's…"

"That's Martin's office." Chloe realized as her eyes widened, the squad members pushed them along and they followed them to the office, the squad leader opened the door and let them in…and they quickly realized that they weren't alone as the other students who were at the Abandoned Dorm where there as well but the teachers weren't. "You got a visit from the D.A.S. too huh?"

"Yeah, and I think we all know why." Brandon said with a nod as he glanced around. "This is bad guys, they don't normally send in the D.A.S. unless a major rule's been broken."

"We know, and I don't like it." Marcus grunted as he folded his arms. "You know what happens to students who get the D.A.S. sent after them? The majority of the time they're expelled."

"And if that happens our careers as duelists will be dead in the water." Tyler added with a scowl. "That's not the thing that concerns me most believe it or not, no, what has me concerned is how we're going to explain last night's events."

"We'll think of something." Lance added with a frown. "There's only one teacher who'd believe the Duel Spirit story and that's Hamden, last I checked he has a class every morning."

"Yeah that's not exactly helping." Andreas commented as he shook his head, before anyone could say anything the five teachers entered the room and took a seat. _"This is not going to be pleasant, at all." _Andreas thought with a frown, Martin said nothing at first before handing out the security camera footage from last night.

"Care to explain why the eight of you were seen outside your dorms past curfew and outside the Abandoned Dorm?" Martin asked and the students looked at the pictures.

"_Silent Magician's not in any of the pictures from the Abandoned Dorm." _Chloe thought as she looked at the pictures. _"The security cameras must lack the ability to see Duel Spirits for some reason." _Chloe thought before turning to the teachers. "Err….."

"It was a stupid joke." Chelsea said with a sigh as she looked at the teachers. "After Chloe came back to our dorm room from Duel Theory yesterday we started talking about life at the Academy and we somehow ended up talking about the Abandoned Dorm, long story short we decided to check it out." Chelsea added earning herself odd looks from the teachers.

"You decided to check out a dorm where several students went missing years ago? A dorm I might add that has fallen into disarray and is slated for demolition?" Jeff asked with a frown and Chelsea gulped before nodding. "That doesn't explain how the others ended up there."

"I can answer that." Lance chimed in and the teachers turned to him. "During gym class me, Andreas and Marcus overheard the girls talking about it, we realized how stupid the idea was and we went to talk them out of it." Lance added and Tyler took it as his cue to continue.

"As for me, Brandon and Theresa we were having a late night study session in Brandon's room when we overheard the other students talking about it." Tyler said and the other two Obelisk Blue Students nodded.

"Once we realized where they were going we went after them in an attempt to make sure that they didn't get hurt." Theresa added and the teachers turned their attention to her.

"And at what point did the Shadow Duels start?" Martin asked and the students blinked in confusion. "The technicians detected that Chelsea, Marcus, Andreas, Lance and Chloe where dueling whilst the seven of you were down there, usually at that point the technicians would shut off your duel disks remotely but something was blocking it."

"We're not sure." Chelsea said as she turned to the teachers. "One minute we were arguing over how stupid the idea was the next we were fighting for our lives in Shadow Duels, once we won we ran off back to our dorms."

"You were forced into these duels?" Tracy asked and the five students nodded. "And what about the Obelisk Blue Students? They were down there and yet they didn't duel."

"We were able to escape the attention of whatever had forced them into the Shadow Duels." Brandon responded with a sigh. "We stayed behind to give them our support."

"It was a stupid idea that almost ended up costing us big time." Chelsea added with a frown. "And that's definitely the last time we'd ever consider doing something like that."

"That's good, because this may be your final few days at the Academy." Martin said sternly and the students blinked. "You violated curfew, broke into an off limits area of the island, to be frank you should be thankful that we talked Chancellor Wilkins into not pressing charges." Martin added and the students' eyes widened when it hit them. "Instead you are all facing possible expulsion."

"However because of the circumstances we will be giving all of you a second chance." Jeff added as he turned to them. "In five days the seven of you will duel in the official duel field, if you win then you can stay at the Academy and your records will be wiped, lose and you may as well start looking for another school." Jeff added and the students' eyes widened, however the one who was taken it the hardest was Chelsea.

"But….." Chelsea trailed off before sighing. "I agree to your terms."

"What she said." Chloe added and the other students nodded.

"Very well, your access to the Duel Academy network will be reinstated in a few hours and you can use the card shop to help you prepare." Martin said with a nod before frowning. "However I should warn you, these duels won't be easy."

"We understand." Lance said with a nod as did the other students. "Can we go?"

"Yes but your parents will be called; we'll let you know when they arrive." Martin added and the students left the room and headed straight back to their dorms, Chelsea entered the dorm room first and Chloe followed her in only to hesitate when she heard Chelsea sobbing.

"Chelsea, are…are you okay?" Chloe asked as she turned to her roommate, Chelsea turned to her roommate and Chloe closed the door behind her.

"I….I just have something in my eye." Chelsea said as she looked at her roommate. "That's not going to work on you is it?"

"No, it's not; I used that line more than enough times to know that it never works." Chloe shook her head as Chelsea sat down on the bottom bunk, Chloe sat next to her and sighed. "Chelsea, you listened to me when I told you about my childhood and my encounter with my biological dad, it's time I returned the favor."

"You won't tell anyone else?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Okay, you know how I was kicked out of three other schools before coming to Duel Academy right?"

"Yeah, you told me." Chloe nodded and Chelsea sighed.

"Before I even took the written test my parents warned me that this was my last chance, either I'd behave myself here or they'd enroll me in Military School." Chelsea sighed as she turned to her roommate. "I…..I can't go through that, I just can't!" Chelsea said in between sobs and

"You won't, we'll just have to train extra hard to make sure that we won't be expelled." Chloe reassured her and Chelsea grinned before wiping away the tears. "Besides it's not our fault we ended up there in the first place."

"Yeah, it's Silent Magician's fault….." Chelsea trailed off before getting an idea. "Is there a way for all of us to chat with the Duel Spirits?"

"I don't know and to be honest I never tried." Chloe sighed as she searched through her deck and produced her copy of Silent Magician Level 8. "If we do try that we're going to have to try it somewhere out of the way so that no one thinks we're crazy."

"Bit too late for that." Chelsea joked before there was a knock at the door. "Okay, somehow I doubt that our parents got here that quickly!"

"Yeah, the Academy Ship may be fast but it isn't that fast." Chloe agreed before standing up and answering the door, she saw Beth at the door with a frown on her face. "Good morning Beth, here for Chelsea?"

"I'm here for both of you actually." Beth said as she folded her arms. "It didn't take long for word to spread about what you and the boys from Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue, not to mention Theresa, were up too last night." Beth added and the two girls winced. "Look, I'm not here to yell at either of you even if it was a stupid decision that landed the two of you and the students from Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue in this mess to begin with, what I am here to do is help you prepare for the duel because I don't want either of you to get expelled."

"Thanks, I get the feeling that we're going to need all the help we need." Chloe said before stepping aside to let Beth in, Chelsea glanced up at her girlfriend and sighed. "She's been taking the possibility of being expelled pretty hard."

"I don't blame her." Beth said sympathetically before sitting down next to Chelsea. "Don't worry babe, as long as I'm here they'll have a hell of a fight on their hands if they want to kick you out."

"Thanks Beth, like Chloe said we'll need all the help we can get." Chelsea said before realizing something. "Chloe didn't Martin say that our ID Tags have been reinstated?"

"Yeah but it won't be for a few more hours." Chloe reminded her before pausing. "Then again Maria was there, maybe she sped things along for us." Chloe remembered before Chelsea went over to the laptop and trying one of her passwords, she grinned when she saw that she had access.

"Perfect, now why did you want to check that?" Chelsea asked as she turned to her roommate, Chloe returned the grin before pausing.

"Maybe the others have sent out e-mails regarding what could happen." Chloe suggested and Chelsea checked her e-mails.

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Chelsea agreed before looking through her e-mails. "Okay, Spam, Spam, Spam, here we go, e-mail from Tyler with the others under CC." Chelsea opened up the e-mail after deleting the Spam e-mails. "He wants to meet with us."

"And by that he means the two of us and the other students?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded whilst Beth walked over in order to read it herself. "Where's the meeting place?"

"His room at the boy's dorm, he's added that Cameron, Jessica and Thomas have classes until later on this evening so with any luck we won't bump into them." Chelsea added as she finished reading the e-mail. "And that he wants us to bring our Duel Disks."

"He probably has the same idea I do." Beth said as she read the e-mail. "Send him an e-mail back saying that I want to come as well, if I'm going to help you girls I may as well help out all of you."

"Good idea." Chelsea said as she started typing the e-mail to Tyler. "Crap, I just realized something, Lance and Andreas's partners for the tournament are going to be pissed at them for this."

"Yeah, no kidding, at least my tag partner's also in trouble." Chloe said good naturedly and Chelsea shook her head before sending the e-mail, turning off her laptop and standing up. "Let's go."

*meanwhile at the Ra Yellow boys dorm*

"LANCE I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!" Evan yelled out over the sounds of Exodus that Lance had been blaring ever since he came back to the dorm, Evan wasn't as angry as Chelsea had assumed but he was still upset. "LANCE, I'M NOT MAD I JUST WANT TO TALK!"

"Fine, fine, I'm coming out." Lance grumbled before turning off the music and opening the door. "Do I get a prize for guessing why you're here?"

"Lance, what were you thinking? Jeopardizing your place at Duel Academy and our team for your girlfriend and her roommate?" Evan asked and Lance face-faulted. "Was it something I said?"

"First off, I don't care what the tabloids say, nothing happened between me and Chloe in Battle City." Lance grumbled as he got up. "Second I just wanted to make sure my friends didn't get hurt, nothing more."

"Okay, fine, I'll take your word for it." Evan sighed as he glanced around. "But you risked expulsion at best and being arrested at worse and let's not go into the rumor that you, Chelsea, Andreas and Marcus got into shadow duels."

"_Wait, rumors? I guess the teachers left the part where Chelsea lied about the Shadow Duels out." _Lance thought as he folded his arms. "Honestly Evan I don't have any idea what happened when we arrived at the Abandoned Dorm but trust me, I have no intention of getting expelled." Lance added before wincing when he saw a familiar person approaching. "Oh great, this is exactly what I don't need."

"What? Your mother's behind me?" Evan asked but his question was answered by Lance's mother clearing her throat. "Ah, I'll leave you too it." Evan said before walking off. "Oh and I almost forgot, Tyler wants to meet you in his room at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm, he asked me to tell you when you didn't respond to his e-mail."

"Thanks for the memo, when you head back tell him that I'll be running late due to mom yelling my ear off." Lance told him and Evan nodded before running off. "Err, hi mom." Lance gulped as he turned to his mother. "Look I know I fucked up big time so just get it out of your system."

"Lance, I realize you're in big trouble." His mom sighed as she looked at her son. "But no matter what happens I'll be supportive of you every step of the way."

"You will?!" Lance asked before shaking his head. "Off course you will, considering how hard you fought to get me, Mike and Sophie back from Social Services I shouldn't be surprised."

"And don't you forget it." His mom added sternly. "Now didn't you have a meeting to attend too?"

"Right, I'll go deliver the news to Andreas and Marcus before I make my way over." Lance said with a nod before going over to his friend's rooms.

*meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm*

Tyler hit the send button and watched as his reply to Chelsea's e-mail about Beth helping them made its way to her inbox, he had agreed to it as he too realized that they would need all the help they could get in the coming days.

"_I can only think of one problem and that's how to explain it to Beth if we accidently let what really happened last night slip." _Tyler thought as he rested his hands behind his head. _"They should be here in a few minutes so I should have some time to think things over."_ Tyler thought but any ideas about having time to be alone with his thoughts were shattered when he got a Skype call. _"Who would call me on Skype this early?" _Tyler thought before looking. _"Father, off course, I should've known." _Tyler thought before answering it, it was rare that the elder Kaiba found the time to call him due to how busy he was but apparently the news of his son's possible expulsion had put any other plans on hold, sure enough the elder Kaiba appeared on screen. "Hello father."

"Let's cut to the chase Tyler." The elder Kaiba said bluntly and Tyler nodded. "Word has reached me and the other parents about your little stunt last night."

"I expected as much." Tyler sighed as he looked at his dad. "I have called the other students over so that we can discuss our options and prepare for the duels, I certainly have no intention of being expelled and I'm confident that I can speak for the other students who were there last night."

"That's a smart plan; however you know I can make the punishments go away with my connections." The elder Kaiba offered and Tyler frowned.

"Father we discussed this when I enrolled, I don't want any special favors just because I'm the stepson of a famous duelist who just so happened to found the Academy." Tyler said and the elder Kaiba remained silent. "I guess what I'm saying is, thanks but no thanks."

"Remember, the offer still stands if you change your mind." The elder Kaiba responded and Tyler remained silent. "At the very least allow me to send over some cards from your personal stash, even if it is to help your friends." Kaiba added and Tyler stroked his chin.

"All right, expect an e-mail within the hour containing the cards I want." Tyler told him and his father nodded, before they could say anything else there was a knock at the door. "I'll have to cut this short father, that's probably one of the students I called over."

"I understand." Kaiba said with a nod before cutting the call short, the door opened and Brandon and Theresa stepped in followed by the three Osiris Red Students. "Glad you could make it, any signs of Lance, Marcus and Andreas?"

"I sent Lance a text a few minutes back, apparently they are being delayed by Damien having a go at Andreas because of this whole mess." Chloe answered as she sat down on the bed. "Oh and word's reached our parents."

"I know that, I was just talking to my father on Skype." Tyler said with a nod. "I'm guessing you girls where fortunate enough to not bump into your parents on the way over?"

"Either that or they're not on the island yet." Chelsea responded as she sat down next to Chloe. "One thing's for sure, I'm not looking forward to when my parents do arrive."

"I can sympathize with that." Tyler said just as Andreas, Lance and Marcus entered the room. "Chloe told us about the text you sent her Lance."

"Good, saves me the trouble of explaining why we're late." Lance said with a nod before noticing Beth. "You volunteered to help as well?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Beth said with a nod. "Wait, as well?"

"Kimberly sent me a text saying that she and Nathan want to help and are on their way over, I think it's a safe bet that they want to pay us back for helping them get Nathan's soul back." Lance responded before sitting down on the sofa next to Tyler's mini fridge. "Mind if I help myself Tyler?"

"Make yourself at home." Tyler told him and Lance started rummaging through the mini fridge. "It's good that we have some additional help, we're going to need all the help we can get if we want to stay at the Academy." Tyler added before turning around. "I'm not going to lie to you; it doesn't look good, only a handful of students have managed to win their expulsion duels."

"Yeah, I gathered as much." Chelsea said with a nod. "So will we be facing other students or the teachers or even the test proctors?"

"Hard to say, sometimes it's one of the three options you just listed, other times they bring in pro duelists to make sure they have earned the right to still call themselves Duel Academy Students." Brandon commented with a frown. "I wouldn't worry about the last option though, the problem with that is finding pro duelists who have the time, aren't otherwise preoccupied or can be brought in cheaply and even then they usually save that option encase a major rule has been broken."

"Yeah those are good points, except for one thing, as far as major tournaments go the Pro Leagues have been quiet since Battle City ended." Tyler responded with a frown. "Are options are as follows, we train as hard as we can in between lessons and make sure that our decks are as powerful as they can be or we do nothing and increase the likelihood of expulsion."

"No doubt about it, we'll be training hard." Chloe said and the others nodded in agreement. "I don't know about the rest of you but I've come too far as a duelist to be kicked out now."

"Those are my sentiments exactly." Tyler said before turning to his computer. "Before you arrived I was looking up cards that would complement your decks, I have to say that the most trouble I've had is with Chelsea's deck as Thunder Type support cards aren't easy to get and Theresa's decks since she has over twenty."

"Don't worry about it, right now I'm open to any help I can get." Chelsea said with a nod. "So can those cards be ordered online or do we have to get them at the shop?"

"I can order them online and have them here by tomorrow, don't worry about paying me back just use them to ensure that you'll stay here." Tyler told them and the students nodded. "Now as for the duels, do you want to wait for Kimberly and Nathan to arrive before we get started or start without them?"

"I think we'd be better off waiting for them." Chloe chimed in with a nod. "Besides we have other issues to address, don't we?" Chloe pointed out making it clear to the other students who were at the abandoned dorm that she meant the duel spirits.

"We'll address that once we have some privacy." Tyler responded before noticing the confused look on Beth's face. "Trust me, it's a long story."

"I'll take your word for it." Beth said with a nod before there was a knock at the door; Chloe stood up and answered the door to find a pair of familiar faces, both Obelisk Blue Students.

"Oh hi Kimberly, Nathan, Lance mentioned that you were coming around." Chloe greeted the step siblings.

"Good, that means we can cut to the chase." Kimberly said as Chloe stepped aside to let the siblings in, they entered the room and Kimberly glanced around the room before her eyes rested on Chelsea and Chloe. "I've heard of some stupid ideas in my time here at Duel Academy but deciding to check out the Abandoned Dorm as a joke?"

"Yeah, we get it; we were stupid to even consider doing it." Chelsea said defensively as she glared at the taller woman. "Besides I thought you two where here to help us prepare for the duels, not rub our stupid idea in our faces."

"We are; we're just having a bit of trouble believing that you'd do something that stupid in the first place." Kimberly responded and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"Okay that's enough." Nathan said as he got in between the two women. "As ill-advised as their little adventure was arguing will get us nowhere fast, not that but I'm willing to bet they've gotten an earful from the teachers about it earlier this morning and that they don't want another earful about it, so for the purposes of preparation please drop it."

"You're right." Kimberly said as the tensions between the two women simmered down a bit. "In fact I probably should've worded that better."

"You think?" Chelsea asked bluntly and Kimberly's eyes narrowed.

"Don't mind Chelsea, she's been on edge ever since the meeting this morning." Chloe quickly chimed in and Kimberly turned to her. "Besides, all this arguing is distracting us from our intended goal."

"She has a point." Nathan agreed before turning to the others. "Has anyone else volunteered to help train you guys or are we alone?"

"No-one's volunteered besides my girlfriend." Chelsea said before motioning to Beth. "I don't know if Lance and Andreas's partners will chime in, from what I've heard they were pretty pissed off at their partners, Damien especially."

"If they do decide to chime in they'll be welcome to do so, we're going to need all the help we can get and they can't stay mad at them forever." Tyler added with a frown before getting an idea. "Chloe, those Osiris Red Students you helped out during Duel Theory yesterday, didn't they give you their cell phone numbers once you got out of detention?"

"Yeah they did, I don't know how they'll help but I'll see if they are available." Chloe said before getting her mobile out.

"You'd be better off texting them, last time I saw them was when they were entering Gym Class so they'll have their cell phones off." Kimberly told her and Chloe nodded.

"Thanks for the warning." Chloe said with a nod before texting the both of them. "How long ago did Gym Class start?"

"About an hour ago give or take." Nathan shrugged his shoulders. "They should be out of gym class in a half hour by my watch."

"No sense waiting for them to respond in other words." Tyler said before standing up. "The duel fields are currently being used in a lesson so they are a no go for now; I suggest we train in the north side of the island."

"Are you crazy? We don't want to get into more trouble!" Marcus pointed out and Tyler put his hands up as if to say "hear me out".

"No, we don't, however the security guards will be too busy patrolling the halls of the main building to notice us going there and I know a way there that has no cameras." Tyler responded and the others nodded. "Besides since the area's off limits it's a perfect place to duel without attracting any attention."

"Yeah but that's as long as we avoid the volcano and the abandoned dorm." Kimberly added as she and her brother went to leave. "We'll head over there in order to find a clearing and we'll text you when we find a dueling site."

"I want to come as well." Beth said standing up. "I might be able to help."

"Good, see you guys there." Kimberly said with a nod before the three students left, once they left Tyler turned to the others.

"Okay, now that we have some privacy." Tyler said as he sat back down. "I want to try something."

"Okay, what?" Chloe asked.

"Chloe, can you see if you can summon your duel spirit? We need to ask her about what really happened last night." Tyler asked and Chloe blinked. "She seemed to be the one in charge of the whole thing alongside Theresa's Armed Dragon Duel Spirit, I'd ask Theresa to summon her Duel Spirit but there's hardly enough room in here for a 10ft tall dragon." Tyler added and Chloe nodded before standing up and walking to the center of the room.

"Okay but stand back, I don't want to accidentally hurt anyone whilst activating my duel disk in an enclosed space." Chloe added before waiting for the others to give her some room, once they did she turned on her duel disk and searched through her deck. She found her signature card and placed it on the Duel Disk slot, seconds later Silent Magician Level 8 appeared before them.

"Chloe, why have you summoned me when we're not in the middle of a Duel?" Silent Magician asked before looking around and seeing the angry faces of the students. "Actually I can think of a couple of better questions…"

"We're asking the questions here." Tyler interrupted her as he walked up to the Duel Spirit. "For starters you can answer this, why didn't you tell us that the Duels that happened last night where Shadow Duels?"

"I beg your pardon?!" The duel spirit asked clearly offended by what she was being accused off. "You think I'd put my protégé and her friends in mortal danger?!"

"That's what the evidence is pointing towards." Brandon added and the duel spirit turned to him. "The technicians picked up the Duel Activity whilst we were down there, they tried to put a stop to it with the shutoff signal but something was blocking the signal and they came to the conclusion that that something was a Shadow Duel." Brandon added and Silent Magician's eyes widened once it dawned on her.

"Oh no, students, please understand that you have it all wrong." Silent Magician said as she realized what she had caused. "The Spirit World has laws not unlike the laws of your world, there's only one crime with a more severe punishment than murder in that world and that's causing a Shadow Duel."

"So there's a law against it, that doesn't prove your innocence, people break laws all the time." Chelsea pointed out and Silent Magician shook her head.

"Do you know how long it's been since a Duel Spirit last caused a Shadow Duel?" Silent Magician asked and the students shook their heads. "200 years, that's how severe the punishment is and it's even worse if that spirit has a Spirit Partner like I do."

"That doesn't explain why they couldn't send the shutoff signal to our duel disks." Brandon pointed out and the magician shook her head.

"I had anticipated that Duel Academy officials would try to interfere." Silent Magician said with a frown. "I didn't have much time so I cast a magical barrier around the abandoned dorm that would block the signals for the duration of the duels, it was easy enough to cast and wouldn't take me very long at all, and I simply couldn't risk any interference."

"I think next time you plan something like that you should do your spells in advance." Theresa pointed out and Silent Magician nodded.

"That's an excellent point." Silent Magician conceded before turning to the others. "Is that everything you need to ask me?"

"Not quite, we believe you don't get me wrong." Tyler nodded and he and the others calmed down. "But because of your stunt last night we are all facing possible expulsion, did you consider that possibility?"

"I see but believe me it was never my intention to get any of you in trouble." Silent Magician told them as she looked directly at them. "I intended to cast another spell that would disable the security cameras outside the Abandoned Dorm and the main building for the duration of the duels, however as I mentioned before time constraints got in the way and I was forced to use the barrier as a backup plan."

"I don't understand." Theresa said clearly confused.

"You remember how Chloe and Chelsea where originally set to team up against their opponents?" Silent Magician asked and the students nodded. "Greter was all too happy to volunteer for the job but no one wanted to team with him." Silent Magician added with a frown. "By the time Reynkor volunteered it was too late, I had no time to prepare the spell and the Spellcasters in the spirit world refused to allow me more time."

"And he ended up pulling out of the team at the last minute anyway." Chloe added with a frown. "I'm starting to see why you were so pissed off at that news."

"Indeed and I apologize deeply for all that's happened, you have my word that myself and the other duel spirits will be assisting you in your expulsion duels and any duels that you take part in to prepare yourself for the duels." Silent Magician said with a sad and regretful nod, before anyone could anything else Chloe's ringtone rang out and she grabbed her cellphone with her free hand, she saw that it was a text and she read it.

"It's Kimberly; they've found a spot where we can duel in privacy." Chloe said before turning to her Duel Spirit. "Thanks for the info but we have preparations to do."

"I won't keep you any longer." Silent Magician said with a nod before vanishing, Chloe turned off her duel disk and turned to the others.

"If the technicians ask why a Duel Disk was activated in my room tell them that you've been having technical problems and I volunteered to look at it." Tyler instructed her and Chloe nodded. "My step-father made sure that I knew my way around Duel Disks and technology in general by my sixteenth birthday, the officials know this so it won't be too hard for them to except."

"Right, for now let's go." Chloe said with a nod before she and the others made their way to the north side of the island this time being careful to avoid the cameras since Tyler knew where they were and was only caught on the cameras last night because it was too dark for him to see the cameras. "I'm going to send Kimberly a text so that she can give us a direction to head in."

"Good idea." Tyler nodded with approval as he waited for her to text the Obelisk Blue student, the North Side of the island was, besides the dorm and the volcano, entirely forested with a few clearings here and there, Duel Academy had intended to clear the forest to make way for additional buildings starting with the abandoned dorm but the disappearances put a stop to that, whether or not they would start up again once the dorm was finally demolished was anyone's guess but at the moment the students only came here for two things, either to duel with privacy or for sex when the areas of the beaten track weren't an option for whatever reason. _"Since most of the students are in class right now I doubt we'll bump into any horny couples." _Tyler thought just as Chloe got a response.

"They're waiting for us in a clearing to the northwest of here." Chloe told them and the students nodded. "They haven't started without us so we won't be missing much if we take our time getting there."

"Yeah, besides any lessons we have later on today." Theresa pointed out and Chloe laughed nervously as the two girls followed the guys to the clearing.

"Oh right, didn't think about that." Chloe admitted as she looked around. "So Theresa, besides the volcano and the dorm why is the North Side off limits?"

"No one knows for sure except the staff and they aren't exactly talkative about it." Theresa answered with a shrug. "The volcano hasn't erupted in years and there's nothing inherently dangerous about the dorm once you get past the shadow games and even then there hasn't been one of those down there in years."

"So in other words, it's a mystery." Chloe shrugged as she followed the taller woman. "There has to be some theories though."

"Yeah, there are, nothing conclusive but what can I say? The students here have active imaginations." Theresa shrugged as they neared the clearing. "There's a legend going around that, at night, duel spirits like to patrol the northern boarders and any duelist lucky enough to meet a friendly one and defeat it in a Duel gets a friend and partner for the rest of their life but as we've seen with our duel spirits that's nonsense."

"Yeah, and I don't think I want to hear the part of the legend that says what happens when they meet an unfriendly one." Chloe said with a gulp as they entered the clearing, Beth and Kimberly where chatting whilst Nathan was going through his deck. "I'm guessing you were able to avoid the cameras as well?"

"Once you know where to look it's like stealing candy from a baby." Nathan shrugged his shoulders as he greeted the students. "We've decided how we're going to decide who duels who. Kimberly said you guys used a similar method when training for the Battle City Tournament."

"Oh, you mean drawing cards and whoever draws the strongest and weakest cards will face off." Brandon realized and Nathan nodded. "No offense to Chelsea but is it really fair to do that when her deck is practically full of low level monsters?"

"We discussed that and we came up with a solution for it." Kimberly chimed in and the others turned to her. "I checked the schedule and our first match of the day is in an hour or so, so for now this'll be the only duel."

"That works for me." Chelsea shrugged before the present duelists drew there cards, Chelsea drew Wattcobra (1000), Chloe drew Salvage Warrior (1900), Marcus drew Red-Eyes Wyvern (1800), Brandon drew Dark Crusader (1600), Theresa drew Axe Dragonite (2000). _"Please don't put me against Theresa; please don't put me against Theresa…"_ Chelsea thought with a nervous gulp knowing that it was highly unlikely that she'd win this match, Tyler drew a monster that she didn't recognize but it had 1300 attack points ruling him out, Kimberly drew Mad Archfiend (1800) and Beth drew Lava Golem (3000). _"Thank god! I'd take a match with my girlfriend over one with Theresa any day of the week." _Chelsea thought before the duelists returned their monsters to their decks.

"So it's settled, Chelsea will take on Beth!" Tyler said as the other students gave the girls some room, Chelsea grinned before activating her duel disk as did Beth.

"Beth, just because we're lovers doesn't mean I'm going easy on ya, just a fair warning." Chelsea said with a grin as she drew her opening hand; Beth returned the grin as she drew her opening hand.

"I wouldn't want you too." Beth said as she looked over her hand. "You know what? You go first Chelsea."

"All right, I will!" Chelsea said with a grin before drawing her card. _"This hand's not half bad, but knowing Beth using Wattcine will be a waste of time." _Chelsea thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and summon Wattgiraffe in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and the electrically charged giraffe appeared on the field (4/1200/100). "That ends my turn." Chelsea announced and Beth drew her card.

"I see your still relying on your old standbys." Beth commented as she looked over her opening hand. "Unfortunately for you I know all about Wattgiraffe's abilities."

"Knowing's one thing, being able to do anything about it is another matter entirely." Chelsea pointed out and Beth shrugged.

"True enough." Beth agreed before picking up three cards. "Then let's see how you handle this, I set two cards facedown and summon my ace monster, Nurse Reficule, The Fallen One!" Beth played the cards and a woman with long blue hair appeared on the field, she was covered head to toe in bandages, was wearing a small purple dress and had two sets of wings (4/1400/600).

"That's your ace monster?" Lance asked with a look of confusion on his face. "Either she has an effect to make up for her low attack…."

"She does and I'm about to demonstrate it with this Spell Card." Beth interrupted him as she played a card. "It's called Rain of Mercy, normally this would give us both an extra one thousand life-points but with Reficule on the field Chelsea takes a thousand points of damage instead." Beth explained as rain rained down on them, Beth sighed as her life-points increased to 9000 whilst Chelsea winced as her life-points dropped to 7000. "Refreshing isn't it?"

"Yeah, for you maybe it's refreshing." Chelsea retorted with an annoyed grunt as Beth sent her spell to the graveyard. "Let me guess, you're following it up with an attack?"

"Well yeah, can't have you retaliating with that giraffe of yours." Beth shrugged before pointing to her monster. "Take her monster down!" Beth commanded and the woman took flight…

"Sorry but no dice!" Chelsea interrupted her as her trap flipped up. "I activate Waboku; this protects my monster and my life-points!" Chelsea announced as the three priestesses blocked the path of the nurse who reluctantly returned to her side of the field.

"Fine, I'll end my turn at that." Beth said once she gave her two remaining cards a once over, Chelsea said nothing before drawing her card.

"So that monster's basically a monster version of Bad Reaction to Simochi?" Lance theorized and Tyler nodded.

"It seems that way, only problem is her below average attack points." Tyler nodded with a frown. "But since most of Chelsea's monsters specialize in attacking directly I don't see that being a problem."

"Before you do anything I activate this trap card, Paths of Destiny!" Beth's trap card flipped up and Chelsea added her drawn card to her hand before retrieving a coin from her pocket. "I see you remember its effect from our last duel." Beth commented as she retrieved a coin off her own.

"Yeah, basically we both toss a coin, if it lands on heads the person who flips it gets heads then she'd gain 2000 life-points, tails and we'd lose 2000 life-points." Chelsea said with a frown. "But with Nurse Reficule on the field I'll lose life-points regardless."

"Good, since I'm feeling generous I'll let you flip first." Beth commented and Chelsea shrugged before flipping her coin, it landed on heads and Chelsea grimaced as her life-points dropped to 5000. "Right then, it's my turn." Beth said before flipping her coin, Beth grimaced once it landed and Chelsea grinned when she saw Beth's life-points drop to 7000.

"Let me guess, it landed on tails?" Chelsea asked and Beth winced before nodding. "Whilst we're on the subject of traps I'll activate my own, go Wattcannon!" Chelsea activated her trap and the cartoonish looking cannon appeared on the field.

"That thing's going to be a pain." Beth said with a frown as Chelsea looked over her hand, Beth sent her trap to the graveyard. "But I can live with it."

"Live with this! I summon Wattcobra in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and the electrified snake appeared on the field (4/1000/500). "My cobra may be too strong for Wattcanon's effect to kick in but with two monsters with the ability to attack directly that's not an issue!" Chelsea added and the two monsters charged towards Beth going straight past Nurse Reficule and attacking Beth bringing her life-points down to 4800. "Now, do you remember my monsters' effects?"

"I do, when Wattgiraffe successfully attacks my life-points I can't use any effects until you end your turn, when Wattcobra successfully attacks my life-points you get to add a Watt Monster to your hand." Beth said with a nod as Chelsea searched through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand before shuffling the deck.

"Well in that case I'll end my turn at that." Chelsea announced and Beth drew her card. _"Her monster may be the strongest on the field but what she doesn't know is that I have Honest in my hand." _Chelsea thought before glancing down at the card. _"Doesn't matter what monster she attacks, her ace monster will be toast."_

"_I wouldn't get too cocky if I where you Chelsea." _Wattchimera's voice rang out and Chelsea frowned. _"I know this isn't your first duel against her."_

"_Yeah I know." _Chelsea responded as she looked over her hand. _"And I also know that she uses an Anti-Cure deck, Nurse Reficule may be her ace monster but it's hardly her strongest…and besides I'm still kind of pissed that our little meeting last night may result in my expulsion."_

"_Yes I am aware of that, my sincerest apologies. "_ Wattchimera responded and she frowned. _"You have my support for when your turn comes up in a few days."_

"_That's good to know." _Chelsea thought before looking up at Beth who was still looking over her hand. "What's the matter? Can't decide on your next move?"

"Yeah, something along those lines, I start by activating my Spell Card Upstart Goblin." Beth played the card and drew once. "Normally you'd gain a thousand life-points right now…"

"But not with Nurse Reficule on the field." Chelsea interrupted as her life-points dropped to 4000. "If that's all you've got then I'm disappointed, I was expecting a better challenge."

"Actually that's not all I've got." Beth said with a grin as she tossed the card she drew with Upstart Goblin at Chelsea. "Look familiar?" Beth asked and Chelsea looked at it once she caught it.

"Oh great, you drew Lava Golem? Oh this is going to suck!" Chelsea sighed before sending her two monsters to the graveyard; the two monsters vanished and in their place stood the might golem made of lava (8/3000/2500) and almost immediately the cage dropped down around Chelsea. "Normally I wouldn't complain about having a monster this strong on my side of the field but I know all about this thing's effect."

"True but it's like you said earlier, knowing's one thing, doing something about it is a different matter entirely!" Beth pointed out before switching Nurse Reficule to defense mode. "I shift my nurse into defense mode and I equip her with the Mist Body Spell Card!" The nurse knelt down and became shrouded in mist.

"I know what Mist Body does as well." Chelsea said with an annoyed scowl as she glared at the two monsters. _"This is bad, as long as Lava Golem's on the field I'll lose a thousand life-points during my turn and as long as Mist Body's equipped to Nurse Reficule she can't be destroyed and any healing cards she plays in the next few turns will instead damage my life-points."_ Chelsea thought with a frown. _"If I don't do something soon she'll be able to beat me without a single attack!"_

"_It seems her temper's starting to flare up again." _Beth thought as her eyes narrowed. _"She was never much of a graceful loser to begin with but with everything that's happening in a few days she's even more on edge than usual." _Beth thought before looking at her hand. "I'll end my turn at that." Beth announced and Chelsea drew her card wincing as Lava Golem's effect brought her life-points down to 3000.

"_All right, I have to think of something….." _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. _"HUH? Lightning Recharge!? I've been after this card for months but the card shop never has it in stock….."_

"_You like it? Having a duel spirit partner does have its advantages." _Wattchimera asked and Chelsea blinked before grinning.

"_Like it? If this works I'll be in the driver's seat!" _Chelsea thought before playing the card. "I activate a Spell Card called Lightning Recharge!" Chelsea played the card and the card's hologram appeared on the field depicting Wattcrobra and Wattchimera standing side by side as lightning flowed through them. "This spell card can only be activated if I have two Thunder Type monsters with less than 1500 attack points in my graveyard, in exchange for removing them from play I can draw two cards." Chelsea announced before pocketing Wattcobra and Wattgiraffe and drawing twice.

"Finally got your hands on that card huh? Well I hope for your sake that what you just drew was worth the trouble you must've gone through to get it." Beth commented and Chelsea just grinned as she looked at her cards.

"You have no idea." Chelsea said with a grin before playing a card. "You can take Lava Golem back because I'm sacrificing him to bring out Wattaildragon!" Chelsea picked up and tossed the card back at her girlfriend who sent it to her graveyard as soon as she caught it; once she did the massive golem vanished from the field and in its place stood the mighty dragon (6/2500/1000).

"So you were able to get rid of my Golem before he could completely drain your life-points." Beth said with a grin. "Too bad you can't destroy my nurse."

"Your right, I can't." Beth said before playing the second card she drew. "But with this combo you're going to wish I could, I equip Wattaildragon with Big Bang Shot!" Beth's eyes widened when she heard the card's name and Wattaildragon's attack increased to 2900. "Not only does it give my dragon a boost BUT it allows him to inflict piercing damage, Wattaildragon, show her when I mean!" Chelsea commanded and the dragon charged up its electrical charge.

"Big deal, I'll still survive with plenty of life-points to spare." Beth shrugged her shoulders and Chelsea's grin grew wider.

"You'll survive but you won't have plenty of life-points!" Chelsea responded before picking up her copy of Honest and turning it around. "Because by discarding this little guy from my hand I can add the attack points of Nurse Reficule to my dragon's attack points!" Beth's eyes widened as Wattaildragon's attack shot up to 4300 just before it launched its attack at Nurse Reficule, she survived thanks to Mist Body but the attack connected with Beth as well bringing her life-points down to 2100.

"Nicely done, another attack like that and the duel will be yours." Beth complemented her as she got to her feet. "But you seem to forget one thing, it's my turn next and for all you know I could draw a card that will win me the duel."

"Please, I can only think of one duelist with that kind of luck and that's the King of Games himself Yugi Motoh!" Chelsea scoffed as her dragon's attack dropped down to 2900. "I end my turn; enjoy your last turn of this duel"

"We'll see about that." Beth answered before drawing her card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn!" Beth set the card down and Chelsea drew her card.

"_This is perfect! I'm one attack away from winning this duel!" _Chelsea thought before looking at her dragon proudly. "Well Beth it's been fun but it's time for this duel to come to a close…"

"I couldn't agree more! I activate my trap card Gift Card!" Beth activated the trap and Chelsea's jaw practically hit the floor. "Normally this would give you three thousand life-points….."

"Yeah, yeah I know!" Chelsea interrupted before bracing herself for the card's effect, Nurse Reficule cast one last spell at Chelsea knocking her on her backside and sending her life-points down to zero. "Damn it, I almost had you!" Chelsea growled with annoyance as she punched the ground in frustration.

"Yeah, if I hadn't drawn Gift Card you would've won." Beth nodded in agreement as she deactivated her duel disk. "Don't beat yourself up babe, you pull another combo like that at your expulsion duel and you'll stay at the school for sure."

"Yeah, thanks for the words of encouragement." Chelsea grumbled as she got to her feet and deactivated her duel disk, they heard clapping behind them and turned around thinking it was the other students, instead it was Hamden.

"That was nicely done ladies." Hamden complemented them and the students panicked once it hit them. "Relax, I have no interest in reporting you, besides considering you're nowhere near the Abandoned Dorm and the volcano I doubt they'd bother punishing you."

"So why are you here then?" Tyler asked and Hamden frowned.

"I need to speak to the students facing expulsion in my office at the Osiris Red Boy's dorm, don't worry, I won't take up too much of your time." Hamden told them and the students exchanged uneasy looks. "This meeting may help you a lot in your upcoming expulsion duels; I suggest that you follow me." Hamden added and the students exchanged uneasy looks again before following him.


	57. Bugs vs Beasts

The trip to the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm was uneventful besides the odd looks that the students were getting from the other students who had heard the story that Chelsea had made up to avoid telling them the truth, they eventually made their way to Hamden's office and he sat down behind the desk.

"Please shut the door behind you, we will be discussing what really happened last night." Hamden instructed them and Theresa didn't hesitate to close the door. "I suppose you know that word has spread about the little white lie Chelsea told Martin and the others to avoid accusations of being crazy?"

"If we didn't know then we certainly would've guessed based on the looks we've been getting." Tyler answered and Hamden nodded. "It doesn't feel right lying to the teachers like that but it's not like they'd believe the truth."

"I understand." Hamden said plainly before motioning for the students to take a seat. "This isn't the first time something like this has happened at Duel Academy and it isn't the first time that a student has gotten in trouble for it." Hamden told them before his eyes narrowed. "But it is the first time that this many students have gotten in trouble for it."

"You'd have to ask my Duel Spirit about that." Chloe shrugged as Hamden turned to her. "She probably knows the most about it out of the Duel Spirits that awakened last night."

"And we'd ask Armed Dragon but I don't think he'd fit in here." Theresa added and he looked at her.

"All right, I'm going to be straight with you guys, this doesn't look good for any of you." Hamden commented and the students looked around uneasily. "So far only a handful of students have won their expulsion duels and even then they had a hell of a fight on their hands, if that duel you had just now was to prepare for the duels then that's a step in the right direction but it's not enough."

"We would've done more training but our first classes of the day start in an hour." Tyler said after checking his watch. "And that wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't the only one among us who's taking Duel Theory today." Tyler added and Hamden stroked his chin in thought.

"I have a solution that'll benefit you not only in your upcoming duels but in the long run as well." Hamden said after a few minutes. "I was planning on doing this anyway."

"Doing what exactly?" Chelsea asked and Hamden cleared his throat.

"If you would let me finish I'd tell you." Hamden said plainly and Chelsea blushed. "The road ahead of you will be difficult regardless of whether or not you win the expulsion duels, having Spirit Partners will help significantly but even then there will be an adjustment period whilst you get used to it." Hamden said before turning to Theresa. "In fact Theresa here is still in the adjustment period."

"Wait, really?" Lance asked as he turned to the Obelisk Blue Student who shrugged.

"It takes a while, when Armed Dragon first made himself known to me I'd thought I'd be used to him by the time I reached Obelisk Blue." Theresa said honestly as the other students turned to her. "Besides that we still don't know who Tyler's Duel Spirit is."

"She has a point." Tyler agreed as he leaned against the wall. "I have two decks so it could be any one of my monsters."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Hamden informed them and the students nodded. "Back to my original point, I have spoken to your parents, and the less said about the difficulty I had getting through to Brandon and Tyler's fathers the better, and they agree to it."

"They agree to what exactly?" Chelsea asked and the others turned to her. "Right, let him finish, sorry."

"Apology accepted." Hamden said with a reassuring nod. "They agreed to let me tutor the eight of you outside of class."

"But what if we're expelled?" Marcus pointed out and Hamden frowned.

"That is a problem, I admit that." Hamden nodded as he leaned forward. "But I am confident in the fact that you will all win and get away with it but the expulsion duels aren't the only reason I'm doing this." Hamden added and the students blinked. "I have been a teacher at the academy for ten years now, age wise I am the youngest teacher here with Maria being the oldest and in that time I have seen many students acquire Duel Spirit Partners, like I said before you aren't the first and you definitely won't be the last, two years into my tenure here I got my own Duel Spirit Guide."

"You mean Shinato." Theresa said with a nod and Hamden nodded in return. "Why are you telling us this anyway?"

"Ever since Shinato made his presence known to me, which was unfortunately in the middle of a lecture but that's neither here or there, I have made a point to personally tutor duelists who I know to have Duel Spirit partners; however you cannot tell the other teachers about this." Hamden explained and the students blinked.

"Oh right, the board of directors made a rule that said that personally tutoring students was not allowed after Jaden Yuki graduated." Theresa remembered and Hamden nodded. "I've never understood that rule myself."

"I have appealed against it many times as a rule like that can only hinder the students' progress, especially below average students, but so far my attempts have failed." Hamden admitted before shaking his head. "Their official word on it us that a duelist learns best on their own but we'd need only look at Chloe for proof of how bogus that claim is."

"I don't understand." Chloe admitted as she scratched the back of her head in confusion.

"By your own admission you are a rookie with a little under three months of experience, tell me Chloe, do you think you'd be as good as you are presently if your step-dad hadn't taught you the basics?" Hamden asked and Chloe thought about it.

"I guess not." Chloe admitted and Hamden nodded. "So what do we do now? We know that our parents are on the island."

"That was actually why I was initially looking for you." Hamden admitted as he folded his arms. "They went to your dorm rooms expecting to find you lot but they couldn't find you even after checking Chelsea's girlfriend's dorm room, since the other teachers where teaching at the time and the security was busy elsewhere on the island so they asked me for help, since I had planned to approach you regardless it was perfect."

"And where are our parents now?" Marcus asked.

"I know Chloe and Chelsea's parents are waiting outside their dorm room, the others I'm not too sure about." Hamden told them and the two girls winced knowing what that would mean for them, Hamden checked his watch and turned to them. "I won't keep you any longer as your next class is in a half hour and since your next class is with me I'd suggest meeting me on the North Side of the island rather than in class, even if they catch you they won't punish you because there's a teacher present."

"And we'll resume training from there?" Tyler asked and Hamden nodded. "There is only one problem with that, what about the other students your teaching? We're hardly the only students who take your class?"

"This was actually something I've arranged in advance, as you know as part of my class I sometimes take students to one of the Duel Fields to see how much they've learned under my tutorage, however since the other teachers are using the Duel Fields presently I've given the students a choice, either they meet me at the North Side of the island or they skip the class. I had nothing special planned for it so the suggestion made sense." Hamden explained and the students nodded. "You are all dismissed but I wouldn't worry about the expulsion duels if I was you, you are all talented duelists in your own right and if anyone can win those duels it's you." Hamden added and the students left the office before heading to their own dorms. _"I hope I am right."_

"For once I'm not looking forward to getting back to my dorm room." Chelsea grumbled to Chloe as the two girls left the boy's dorm. "My folks are pretty strict so I am not looking forward to the earful they'll give me when we get there."

"I gathered that from what you told me earlier." Chloe nodded as the two girls separated from the group and headed towards the Osiris Red Girl's dorm. "Look if you feel like talking again after our parents are through with us I'm all ears."

"Thanks Chloe that may help a lot." Chelsea thanked her roommate as they neared the dorm; once again they got some odd looks from the other female students who had learned of the lie that Chelsea had told the teachers but they blew it off and went straight to the dorm room. Too their surprise they saw that they were the only ones in the hallway. "Huh, guess our folks went off to search for us…."

"Ah, there you are." Chloe's stepdad's voice rang out and Chloe gulped.

"You just had to jinx it, didn't you?" Chloe whispered too her roommate before turning around and seeing her stepdad standing there. "Hi Dad," Chloe sighed as she looked at her father. "I know why you're here so let's get this over with." Chloe added and her dad motioned for her to follow her to somewhere a bit more private and she did so without any hesitation.

"Well…..at least my folks haven't shown up yet." Chelsea gulped as Chloe and her stepdad walked off. She rubbed the back of her head nervously but her eyes widened when she heard a familiar voice clear his throat and she turned around before seeing her dad standing there with a frown on his face, he had short black hair and blue eyes and was wearing an outfit that identified him as a construction worker. _"I really need to keep my mouth shut at times like these."_ Chelsea thought with a gulp. "Hi dad, I'm guessing I don't get any prizes for guessing why you're here?"

"No you don't young lady." Her dad said with a disappointed look on his face. "You know what I and your mother told you before you took the written test."

"Yeah, either behave myself or get sent off to military school." Chelsea nodded with a frown. "They've given me a second chance though."

"I know, Professor Hamden told me and the other parents." Her dad said with a nod before shaking his head. "I thought we brought you up better than this Chelsea."

"I know I fucked up dad but I have no intention of being kicked out any time soon." Chelsea said confidently as she turned to her dad. "Look, dad, this whole incident…..it was just a big mistake on my part and not one I will be repeating." Chelsea said with a sigh as she looked at her dad nervously knowing how strict he was, she sighed in relief as his expression lightened up a bit.

"I'm glad to hear it." Her dad said with a nod and Chelsea grinned at that. "I'm heading home but I will be present on Friday for the expulsion duel, let's hope that Hamden's tutorage in enough to keep you at the school." Her dad said before walking off, Chelsea sighed as she leaned against the wall and seconds later Chloe joined her. "So how did it go with your stepdad?"

"For one thing it made the conversation we had after my Duel with Cameron look pleasant." Chloe sighed in annoyance. "I'm just glad to get that over with."

"I can't help but agree there." Chelsea nodded in agreement before checking her watch. "We have fifteen minutes to go before our class with Hamden; I think we'd better get a move on." Chelsea said and Chloe nodded in agreement before the two girls started making their way out of the dorm.

"Chloe, wait up!" The two girls blinked before turning around and seeing two Osiris Red students approaching them, Chloe quickly recognized the students as Rachel Travis and Kyle Winston who she had helped out yesterday against Thomas Newborn. "Sorry, we only just got your texts." Rachel apologized once she caught her breath.

"Don't worry about it." Chloe reassured them with a nod. "I'm guessing you guys want to help me prepare for my expulsion duel right?"

"Yeah, it's the least we can do." Kyle nodded once he caught his breath. "Look we don't care what you guys did at the Abandoned Dorm last night, you helped us so we may as well help you."

"Good to know." Chelsea said with a nod. "I'm guessing you've got Hamden's class next as well?"

"Yeah, we were going to skip it until we remembered that you guys had it as well." Kyle nodded as the four Osiris Red Students started walking together. "I've been asking around as well to see if I can get anyone else to help out, some of my pals are too busy right now to help and I'm waiting for news from the others."

"I can say the same thing." Rachel added as they headed towards the north side of the island. "I think the problem is most of the students are worried about any repercussions they'll receive if word got out that they are helping students who could potentially be expelled in a couple of days."

"They wouldn't really get in trouble for that, right?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shrugged.

"Considering who runs the Obelisk Blue dorms can you blame them?" Chloe pointed out as they neared the area where Hamden told them to meet him. "Did Hamden ever specify where he was going to meet us?"

"If he did I can't remember." Chelsea shrugged as they neared the clearing where Chelsea had dueled Beth an hour ago, thankfully for them Hamden was waiting for them alongside the other students who were at the dorm last night. "Sorry for the wait, the chat we had with our parents regarding the whole situation took a bit longer than we were expecting."

"You're here, that's what matters." Hamden shrugged before greeting Kyle and Rachel. "It seems that most of the students taking my class have decided to skip it, that's a good thing because now we can focus more on you guys."

"Good, so how are we going to decide who duels who?" Tyler asked and Hamden turned to him. "I myself am quite eager to duel; I haven't dueled once since I returned from New York."

"We'll decide that now." Hamden said before drawing ten cards from his deck. "Here's how it works, I have ten monsters in my hand and whoever draws the two strongest monsters gets to duel, any questions?"

"No, I'm good." Chloe shrugged before she and the others picked out the cards, Chloe, Chelsea, Brandon, Theresa, Tyler, Kyle, Lance and Marcus frowned when they saw that they hadn't drawn any strong monsters whilst Andreas and Rachel exchanged knowing looks.

"That settles it, Andreas is dueling Rachel." Hamden said before taking the cards back and shuffling his deck and once that was done the two duelists got into position, activated their duel disks, shuffled their decks and drew their opening hands. "All that's left is to decide who's going first."

"If Andreas doesn't mind I'd like to go first." Rachel volunteered and Hamden turned to Andreas who shrugged as he looked over his hand, Rachel grinned before drawing another card. "Truth is I was hoping to duel you at some point Andreas."

"You were hoping to duel me? Is there any particular reason for that?" Andreas asked as he raised an eyebrow. "I mean I know I'm good looking and all….."

"It's not that." Rachel interrupted whilst blushing furiously. "Besides I thought you met a girl whilst you were in New York?" Rachel asked and Andreas face-faulted. "Yeah, I thought so, anyway the reason I wanted to duel you is because like me you're a nature duelist." Rachel explained as Andreas got back up to his feet, she waited for him to gather up his cards before playing a card. "However whilst you are more of a Beast and Beast-Warrior type user I'm more of an insect type user, as I'm about to demonstrate with my opening move."

"A girl who isn't afraid of bugs, I never thought I'd see the day." Lance whispered to Marcus…only to subsequently gulp at the death glares he had earned from the present females. "Hey girls, can't you take a joke?" Lance asked whilst laughing nervously.

"Anyway…..I set three cards facedown and summon Anti-Aircraft Flower!" Rachel played the cards and a small yellow flower with what looked like a gun sticking out of its center appeared on the field (2/0/1600).

"That thing has Zero Attack Points? You would've been better of setting that card first." Andreas scoffed and Rachel frowned. "Besides I thought you used Insects, that's clearly a Plant Type Monster."

"That may be true but its effect supports insects all the same." Rachel said before looking over her hand. "That's all for now." Rachel announced and Andreas drew his card. _"Now, let's see if he takes the bait or not." _Rachel thought as Andreas looked over his hand.

"Sorry to disappoint you but that monster wouldn't have helped you even if you did set it!" Andreas said before playing the card he had drawn. "I summon Enraged Battle Ox in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the angry Minotaur appeared on the field (4/1700/1000).

"Well I guess now's a good a time as any to activate this, I activate the Quick Play Spell Card Scapegoat!" Rachel activated the card and four small sheep appeared on the field, one red, one yellow, one blue and one pink, appeared on the field (1/0/0). "These four little guys will protect my life-points."

"Or they would if not for my Battle Ox's trampling effect, and since it also applies to my other beasts this will be over quickly." Andreas pointed out before pointing to his Ox. "Enraged Battle Ox, attack Anti-Aircraft Flower!" Andreas commanded and the Minotaur let out an angry growl before charging towards the flower…..

"Just what I was hoping for, I activate Maximum Defense!" Rachel activated the card and a new card flipped up, its image depicting Marauding Captain, Field Commander Rhaltz, Command Knight, Blade Knight and Familiar Knight preventing a group of unarmed civilians from entering a castle. "Here's how it works, as long as each of my Monster Card Zones are occupied you can't attack, however should any of my monsters leave the field at any time the card's destroyed and I have to skip my next Battle Phase." Rachel explained and Enraged Battle Ox backed off.

"_Not bad, though I must say that the Scapegoat tokens wouldn't exactly be my first choice for that card's effect." _Andreas thought before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Before you do that I'll activate my remaining Trap Card DNA Surgery!" Rachel flipped the card up and the six monsters on the field started glowing. "As for what Type I'm going for…..well I said that Anti-Aircraft Flower is a support monster for Insects so you do the math." Rachel added as the six monsters transformed into insect versions, Anti-Aircraft Flower was now a small insect with a gun on its back, the four tokens now resembled insect monsters and Enraged Battle Ox now resembled an insect/Minotaur hybrid.

"And there are my nightmares for the rest of my life." Lance said with a gulp once he saw what Enraged Battle Ox had turned into; Rachel ignored him before drawing her card.

"For my first move I activate Magic Planter!" Rachel activated the card and Maximum Defense shattered. "As long as I destroy a Continuous Trap first this spell will allow me to draw two cards."

"But that will leave you defenseless." Andreas pointed out as she drew twice.

"Well duh, I didn't intend to keep that card on the field." Rachel added before pointing to Anti-Aircraft Flower. "Now onto my flower's effect…..and yes I realize that it now closely resembles an insect." Rachel said before shaking her head. "To activate it I'm sacrificing all of my tokens."

"First you destroy your trap now you destroy your monsters?" Andreas asked with a raised eyebrow as the tokens vanished.

"Not a problem, that was only a temporary solution anyway." Rachel said before grinning. "Basically Anti-Aircraft Flower will now launch those tokens at you and you'll lose 800 life-points for each one."

"Wait, what?! That's 3200 points of damage!" Andreas realized as his eyes widened and Rachel's grin grew broader.

"That's the fun part." Rachel said before the insect fired the tokens at Andreas hitting him in the chest, each token self-destructed on impact bringing Andreas's life-points down to 4800. "Now as you've already said I can't attack but with this next Spell Card neither can you, I activate Insect Barrier!" Rachel played the card and a yellow shield encased her side of the field. "As long as this is on the field you can't attack with any insects."

"And thanks to DNA Surgery that's all of my monsters!" Andreas realized with a frown. _"Even years after Weevil Underwood retired from Dueling that card's still popular despite Weevil's underhanded tactics." _Andreas thought before noticing that Rachel had switched Anti-Aircraft Flower to defense mode and the insect was crouching down.

"It's better to be safe than sorry." Rachel shrugged before looking over her hand. "That'll do for now." Rachel announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_I'll admit, her strategy is sound, as long as she has that flower on the field she can damage my life-points and as long as Insect Barrier and DNA Surgery are on the field she can protect her monster." _Andreas thought before looking at his hand.

"That's all for me." Rachel shrugged and Andreas drew his card. _"If he thinks Anti-Aircraft Flower is the only part of my strategy he has another thing coming."_ Rachel thought as her eyes rested on the second card she had drawn with Magic Planter, she looked up at Andreas and quickly noticed the disappointed look on his face. "Let me guess, dead draw?"

"You could say that." Andreas said with a nod as he glanced at his card. _"Did I really just draw Berserk Gorilla!? Of all the times to draw this monster I had to draw him when she's using a stall and burn strategy?!" _Andreas thought as he glanced at the monster. "I shall pass for now." Andreas announced and Rachel drew her card.

"Suit yourself." Rachel shrugged before looking at her card, she grinned before playing it. "Now it's time for you to meet one of my true insects, Pinch Hopper!" Rachel played the card and a large green insect with wings appeared on the field (4/1200/1000).

"Oh great, Pinch Hopper, don't bother explaining that thing's effect!" Andreas grumbled as it dawned on him. "Once you tribute it for Anti-Aircraft Flower's effect you'll be able to special summon another insect from your hand."

"True, but you're thinking too small!" Rachel said with a grin as she played her card. "I activate Multiplication of Ants; first I sacrifice Pinch Hopper…" Rachel said as Pinch Hopper disappeared from the field. "And in exchange I can special summon two Army Ant Tokens!" Rachel announced as a pair of small insects appeared on the field (4/500/1200). "Now before I tribute these little guys for my flower's effect I use Pinch Hopper's effect to Special Summon Insect Queen!"

"I knew it!" Andreas said with a frown as the infamous gigantic insect appeared on the field with a roar (6/2200/2400). "For all his underhanded tactics Weevil Underwood knew his Insect Queen was strong and helped popularize it among insect duelists."

"Yeah but she does have her drawbacks." Rachel said as she glanced up at the gigantic insect. "First the good news, for me anyway, my queen makes up for her low attack for a Level 7 monster with her effect which allows her to gain 200 attack points for each insect on the field and unfortunately for you your Battle Ox counts!" Rachel added as her queen's attack increased to 3000. "But before I attack I'm giving up my two tokens to use Anti-Aircraft Flower's effect one last time."

"What does she mean by one last time?" Chloe wondered as the two ants where loaded onto the gun and fired at Andreas bringing his life-points down to 3200 and the queen's attack points down to 2600.

"Err, trust me Chloe, you don't want to know." Tyler gulped as he glanced at the monster.

"Too bad, she's going to find out anyway." Rachel said before pointing to Anti-Aircraft Flower. "Unfortunately I have to sacrifice an Insect Type monster each time I want to attack with my queen so Anti-Aircraft Flower has to go!" Rachel added and what happened next disturbed everyone present, the Insect Queen swallowed Anti-Aircraft Flower whole before charging at Battle Ox, Andreas looked away in disgust as his monster was swallowed whole bringing his life-points down to 2700.

"I may be losing by a significant margin but thanks to that attack I can activate Animal Trail!" Andreas announced as the trap card flipped up. "Now that you've destroyed one of my monsters this trap lets me add a Beast Type monster from my deck to my hand." Andreas quickly searched through his deck before finding the card he was looking for and adding it too his hand.

"Well if you think that can help you then by all means." Rachel shrugged before looking over her hand. "I end my turn which triggers my insect queen's third and final effect." Rachel added as the queen squatted down a bit.

"Err, I really don't like where this is going." Lance gulped as the students watched as the queen laid an egg (1/100/100). "Phew, for a moment I thought Kaibacorp had taken its holographic technology way to far."

"Crack jokes all you want Lance." Rachel said as she turned to him. "But that Insect Monster Token will keep my Insect Queen's attack high and since she'll give birth to one each round her attack will keep increasing." Rachel said as she grinned broadly. "And with my Insect Barrier and DNA Surgery cards in play I don't have to bother worrying about the tokens being sitting ducks."

"Maybe so but your outdated strategies won't last forever." Andreas interrupted and Rachel's eyes narrowed.

"Just take your turn already." Rachel said with a growl and Andreas drew his card without hesitation.

"It seems Andreas hit a soft spot just now." Theresa observed and Kyle shook his head.

"It's because those outdated strategies are pretty much the only ones her family can afford, heck they had to get a loan in order for her to attend the school." Kyle explained with a frown. "Heck the only reason she has that Maximum Defense card is because I gave it to her since it fits her deck better than mine."

"_Well, that certainly makes sense, she's far from the only duelist I've encountered who uses outdated cards because their family can't afford the newer cards."_ Andreas thought before looking at his drawn card. _"That was what I assumed Chloe's situation was when I saw her test duel, until she brought out her best monster that is."_ Andreas thought before playing two cards. "I set a card facedown and a monster in defense mode that ends my turn." Andreas announced and Rachel drew her card.

"You know what? I'm feeling generous so I'll play a Spell Card called Heaven's Lost Property!" Rachel played the card and Andreas raised an eyebrow. "Long story short this Spell Card will allow us to draw three cards so long as we discard two." Rachel explained and Andreas grinned before doing so.

"That's good because now I can activate my other trap card, Disgraceful Charity!" Andreas activated the trap and grinned. "You can thank my partner in the tag tournament for this handy little trap card, to put it simply we can both return the cards we just discarded to our hands."

"Fine by me that trap card helps me as much as it helps you." Rachel shrugged before retrieving the two cards she had discarded to the graveyard and adding them to her hand, Andreas did likewise and the two duelists looked over their hands. "I summon Cockroach Knight!" Rachel played the card and an overgrown green cockroach appeared on the field wielding a shield and a sword (3/800/900). "I have bad news for you Andreas, Cockroach Knight…."

"Cockroach Knight returns to the top of your deck when it's sent to the graveyard." Andreas interrupted and Rachel blinked. "Come now, you're hardly the first insect duelist to use this combo."

"Yeah, I guess that's true enough." Rachel admitted before pointing to her queen. "Insect Queen, feast upon Cockroach Knight and then his defense monster!" Rachel commanded and the queen swallowed the knight whole before she charged towards the monster; however the queen's attack was deflected by a barrier. "Huh?" Rachel asked before looking over her opponent's field. "You didn't activate a trap! What just happened?"

"Simple, my defense monster was Barrier Rat." Andreas said as the monster was revealed, a large grey rat with extra hard fur (3/0/0) and as soon as it appeared the monster transformed into a more insect like form. "Sure his attack is non-existent but with the ability to survive one attack per round he more than makes up for it."

"_Damn, I should've attacked with Cockroach Knight first." _Rachel thought with a frown before returning Cockroach Knight to her deck. "Since I didn't destroy your monster this turn my Queen doesn't get to give birth to another egg." Rachel explained with a frown whilst the others sighed in relief. "For now I end my turn." Rachel announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_Perfect, with this combo I should be able to put Cockroach Knight out of commission." _Andreas thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense that ends my turn." Andreas announced and Rachel drew her card. "I know what that card is so you may as well get it over with."

"I couldn't agree more." Rachel agreed before playing the card, sure enough Cockroach Knight returned to the field. "I'm not making the same mistake I made last turn, Cockroach Knight get his Barrier Rat!" Rachel commanded and the knight charged towards the rat, sure enough the Barrier came up again knocking Cockroach Knight back to Rachel's side of the field. "Insect Queen, gobble up Cockroach Knight and attack Barrier Rat!" Rachel commanded and the students turned away as Cockroach Knight was swallowed whole…..

"Thank you; you have triggered my trap card Earth Protector!" Andreas activated his trap once Rachel returned Cockroach Knight to her deck and a new card revealed itself revealing The Rock Spirit and Gigantus charging into battle against Terrorking Archfiend, Shadowknight Archfiend and Skull Archfiend of Lightning whilst a group of civilians fled, Rachel took in the image on the card for a few seconds before noticing that Barrier Rat was glowing. "Unlike most of my cards this is an Earth Attribute support card as the name suggests, it can only be activated when an Earth attribute monster is targeted for an attack by a monster with 2000 or more attack points, I get to choose the target for the attack on the condition that any cards that would be sent to the graveyard are removed from play instead until the end of my next turn."

"Seems pretty situational, besides since Cockroach Knight was already sent to my graveyard by Insect Queen's effect it's too late for it to affect him." Rachel said with a grin. "Anyway what card is my new target?"

"The facedown monster I sent last turn." Andreas explained and Rachel wasted no time in targeting the monster, the Insect Queen charged towards it…however she would immediately regret her decision once she saw the monster. "No! Not Needle Worm (2750/500), anything but that monster!"

"Too late, you've already declared the attack." Andreas said with a grin and Rachel could only watch as the pink spiked worm fired some of its spikes at the top five cards of her deck. "Normally they'd go to the graveyard but Earth Protector's effect in play they'll be removed from play instead, including your Cockroach Knight!" Andreas added as Needle Worm was swallowed whole and the two duelists, in Rachel's case reluctantly, pocketed their cards. "It seems that if you want to use your Queen's effect again you're going to have to tribute her own eggs."

"Like that's going to happen." Rachel said before shaking her head. "Besides Cockroach Knight may be gone for good but he's hardly the only monster I can sacrifice for my Queen's effect." Rachel said before picking up two cards. "But just in case you're thinking of trying anything I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"And since your Queen destroyed Needle Worm she lays another egg." Andreas added as the queen laid a second Insect Token and Andreas shook his head before drawing his card. "Well I'm sorry to say Rachel but your strategy's going out the window."

"Oh is that a fact? How exactly is that going to happen?" Rachel asked nonchalantly and Andreas played his card, her eyes widened when she saw it. "Is that Heavy Storm? No!"

"Sorry but it is." Andreas said with a grin as a storm washed over the field, Rachel shielded herself before quickly activating one of her cards.

"Fine, since they'll be destroyed anyway I may as well benefit from it, go Emergency Provisions!" Rachel tried to activate the Spell but it didn't work. "Huh?"

"Earth Protector's effect is still in play, remember? And since Emergency Provisions' effect clearly states that it has to go to the graveyard…" Andreas explained and Rachel's eyes widened as it dawned on her, one by one her four Spell and Trap cards shattered followed by Andreas's own facedown card, soon Insect Barrier's hologram shattered followed by Barrier Rat returning to its original form.

"Fine, I was planning on Emergency Provisioning those two cards at some point anyway." Rachel admitted as she pocketed her four cards and Andreas did likewise. "No Level 4 or lower Beast Monster can match my Insect Queen's power anyway."

"I don't need too; you left your tokens in attack mode for starters, incidentally the same mistake Weevil Underwood made in his Battle City duel against Joey Wheeler." Andreas pointed out and Rachel frowned as she realized he had a point. "Also I wasn't entirely truthful when I was describing Barrier Rat's effect earlier."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked impatiently and Andreas grinned. _"I can only think of one other monster that shares that monster's effect and that's Dark Resonator…wait a minute…." _Rachel thought as it dawned on her. "Barrier Rat's a Beast Type counterpart to Dark Resonator isn't it? Yeah, it must be, right down to being a Tuner Monster."

"Close, yes Barrier Rat is a Tuner but it requires that the Synchro Material Monster be a Level 4 or lower Beast Type Monster." Andreas explained before playing a card. "I believe Berserk Gorilla fits the bill quite nicely." Andreas played the card and the angry orange gorilla appeared on the field (4/2000/1000).

"_That explains why he was so intent to keep it." _Rachel thought with a frown as she glared at the two cards. _"As long as my copy of DNA Surgery was in play all he could do was defend with it." _Rachel thought before frowning. "So what's the plan? Are you going to summon that broken Ape King card you used on Rajin?"

"For your information I got rid of that thing shortly before I departed from the island for Battle City." Andreas informed her as his two monsters leapt into the air. "As for what I am going to summon well just watch as I tune Barrier Rat with Berserk Gorilla!" Andreas added as Barrier Rat dissolved into three glowing stars that surrounded Berserk Gorilla. "So that I may Synchro Summon this mighty beast, come forth Voltic Bicorn!" Andreas played the card and the sound of a horse galloping could be heard, eventually the monster revealed itself to be a jet black horse with a blue mane and lightning like markings (7/2500/2000).

"Nice try Andreas but with two Insect Tokens on the field your horse is no match for my Insect Queen." Rachel pointed out with a smirk.

"Don't be so hasty, Barrier Rat has another effect." Andreas said as he held up the card. "If he is used in the Synchro Summon of a Level 7 monster I can draw one card for each Synchro Material monster used in the Synchro Summon, if there's any monsters among the drawn cards I have to toss them however." Andreas explained before drawing twice. "I set two cards facedown, now then, Voltic Bicorn attack Insect Queen."

"What?" Rachel asked pretty much echoing what everyone else was thinking and the horse let out a whinny before charging at the queen. "Are you crazy or do you want to lose?"

"None of the above, I activate the Quick Play Spell Forbidden Chalice and I use it on Voltic Bicorn!" Andreas played the card and Rachel's eyes widened as Bicorn's attack increased to 2900. "Sure my Bicorn gets stripped off his abilities in return but those abilities only activate when he's destroyed in battle anyway." Andreas added as the horse slammed into the massive insect sending an electric shock through her, the queen screamed before her hologram shattered bringing Rachel's life-points down to 7700. "It's about time I did some damage in this duel."

"Yeah but you still have a long way to go." Rachel pointed out with a frown. "Is that everything?" Rachel asked and Andreas looked over his hand.

"Yes, that will do for now." Andreas announced and Rachel drew her card. _"All right, I've taken her monster out of commission and with Earth Protector's effect still in play she had no choice but to remove Insect Queen from play, right now I can only think of two Insects with the power to defeat Voltic Bicorn, Great Moth and Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, but those cards are so impractical that she would be stupid to try to summon them."_

"I start by activating Spellbook inside the Pot which allows us both to draw three cards." Rachel played the card and both duelists drew three cards, she looked at all three of her new cards and grinned before sending her Spell to the graveyard. "You may have destroyed my Queen Andreas but she's far from the only member of the insect royal family." Rachel said before playing a card. "I sacrifice one of my Insect Tokens so that I can summon Insect Princess in attack mode!" Rachel played the card and one of the eggs vanished, in its place stood a beautiful, scantly clad, insect like woman who was green in color and had butterfly type wings attached to her head (6/1900/1200).

"A Level 6 monster with 1900 attack points?" Andreas asked with a raised eyebrow. "Either she has a powerful effect or you just wasted a tribute summon."

"Oh she does, in fact I tend to prefer her to Insect Queen anyway, and for one thing she doesn't require a tribute in order to attack." Rachel explained with a proud grin. "For starters any insect type monsters that you would have on your side of the field are forced into attack mode."

"In other words, if you had drawn her a few turns back instead of Cockroach Knight you would've won." Andreas realized and Rachel shrugged.

"Yeah but at the same time it's rare that I get to draw her anyway." Rachel explained before grinning. "But there's more, each time my princess destroys a monster as a result of battle she gains 500 attack points."

"Nice try but Voltic Bicorn is the only monster on my side of the field and with DNA Surgery gone he's still a beast type monster." Andreas said with a smirk. "And even if it was in play there's no way that Insect Princess can defeat him in either mode!"

"I'm not done Andreas." Rachel said before playing a card. "For starters I activate Monster Reborn and bring back Enraged Battle Ox from your graveyard!" Rachel played the card and Andreas tossed the monster at her, she played it and the angry Minotaur appeared on the field. "Finally I activate Gift of the Martyr."

"Oh great, that thing will allow you to tribute a monster and add its attack to another monster on the field." Andreas grumbled as Enraged Battle Ox vanished and Insect Princess glowed as her attack points shot up to 3600.

"You got it." Rachel said before tossing Enraged Battle Ox back at Andreas who subsequently returned it to his graveyard. "Insect Princes, attack Voltic Bicorn!" Rachel commanded and the princess spread out her arms, seconds later a massive swarm of insects engulfed Voltic Bicorn and once it was gone so was Bicorn.

"That's certainly one of the darkest death animations I've seen in Duel Monsters." Andreas said as his life-points dropped to 1600. "But by attacking and destroying Voltic Bicorn you've triggered his effect forcing us both to send the top seven cards in our decks to the graveyard." Andreas explained before picking up the top seven cards and sending them to the graveyard. "But that's not all; by destroying my monster you've allowed me to trigger my trap card, Miracle's Wake!" Andreas's trap card flipped up and too Rachel's surprise Voltic Bicorn returned to the field. "Surprised? Don't be, Miracle's Wake lets me target one monster that's been destroyed in battle this turn and special summon it."

"So what are you planning? Make me deck out by destroying your monster over and over?" Rachel asked and Andreas shook his head.

"You'll see, is it my move?" Andreas asked and Rachel looked over her hand before nodding as her Insect Princess's attack dropped to 2400 and Andreas drew his card without hesitation. _"I don't have what I need but if my luck holds out I can win this on this turn." _Andreas thought before activating his trap. "I activate Pride of the Pack, since I have at least four Beast and Beast-Warrior Type Monsters in my graveyard, I get to draw one card for each monster but if any of the cards I draw are a second copy of a card in my graveyard I must end my turn and skip my next turn."

"Fine by me, you'll just deck out faster that way." Rachel said confidently as Andreas counted the number of monsters in his graveyard. "So, how many are there?"

"Ten." Andreas said simply and Rachel did a double check.

"Ten draws? You realize how high the possibility of drawing another copy of a card is right!?" Rachel asked and Andreas nodded before returning the cards to his graveyard and drawing ten cards completely draining his deck. "Hah, as soon as I end my turn all I'll need to do is pass my turn and I'll win the duel!"

"There won't be another turn for you Rachel, because it's over." Andreas said simply before playing a card. "And I'm using most of my new cards to do it! First I activate Lightning Vortex to clear the field!" Rachel's eyes widened as he discarded another card and lightning struck Rachel's two monsters destroying them both. "Next I activate Polymerization which I use to fuse Des Kangaroo and Big Koala to summon my best monster, Master of Oz!" Andreas played the card and the two monsters fused together, out of the portal emerged the massive green koala (9/4200/3700).

"Those guys are powerful but not enough to finish me!" Rachel said confidently as she tugged at her blazer nervously.

"They will be, next I activate Ancient Rules which allows me to Special Summon a second Big Koala from my hand!" Andreas played the cards and a huge koala appeared on the field (7/2700/2000). "Do the math, I've won." Andreas said plainly and Rachel sighed.

"You have, but I don't care if the attack point total comes up to 9400 points of damage, I have way to much pride to surrender." Rachel said and Andreas nodded as she braced herself for the huge amount of damage she was about to take.

"Master of Oz, Voltic Bicorn, Big Koala, finish it now." Andreas commanded and the three monsters charged towards Rachel attacking her one at a time sending her life-points down to zero and her onto her backside, Andreas approached her after deactivating his duel disk and offered her a hand to help her up. "That was a good duel, you almost had me there."

"Thanks, maybe we'll meet up again at the tournament…..if by some miracle my team beats Theresa's team." Rachel responded before accepting the hand and Andreas pulled her up.

"Good work you two, take five." Hamden instructed them and the two students walked onto the sidelines, the rest of the lesson went off without a hitch with some good duels scattered in between, however one duelist who wasn't satisfied was Chloe, her duel had been a short one that had to be called off because she had ran out of time.

"_How am I supposed to improve under these time constraints?" _Chloe thought with a frown as the duelists headed back to their dorms, she was walking side by side with Chelsea who was similarly dissatisfied as time had run out before she could duel. _"I need to duel someone outside of a lesson who can and will give me a challenge but whom?" _Chloe thought as the two girls descended down the hill, she heard Tyler chatting with Theresa and Brandon and looked up. _"Anyone of those guys would be perfect but I want to be prepared for anything and that means I have to challenge someone who I haven't seen in action…someone like Tyler." _Chloe thought as an idea formed in her head. "Chelsea, remind me to stop by Maria's office when we get back to our dorm."

"Sure, what do you have in mind?" Chelsea asked before noticing who she was looking at. "You're not….."

"I am." Chloe said with a nod as she turned to her roommate. "I'll explain why once we're back in the dorm room."

"Chloe I know you want to prepare for this Friday but this? Tyler's pretty much the only Obelisk Blue student that Osiris Red Students are afraid to face." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe grinned.

"Why's that? Is it because he's that good? That's just another reason for me to challenge him." Chloe responded with a grin before glancing over at Tyler who was unaware of the conversation they were having. _"Whether or not I'll win is another matter."_


	58. Psycho Psychics

The rest of the day went by without a hitch for the most part, most of the students had accepted that the lie that Chelsea had told the teachers was just a simple mistake on the girl's part, a stupid mistake that dragged six other students into trouble with them but a stupid mistake none the less.

What was a hassle for Chloe was persuading Maria to give her the duel request form for her duel with Tyler, getting her to hand it over wasn't a problem it was getting her to sign off on a duel between a rookie and the school's best student that was the problem, she eventually relented but by the time she did it was past curfew meaning Chloe had to wait until tomorrow so she elected to stay up to work on it.

"Chloe, come to bed already." Chelsea groaned as she looked at her tired roommate, it was getting really late and Chloe was at the coffee table working on her request form. "We have classes tomorrow remember?"

"I know but trying to plead my case to Maria in between my other lessons didn't exactly leave me with a lot of time to work on it." Chloe said with a tired yawn. "I have class first thing tomorrow but as soon as I finish it I'll get the request form to Tyler."

"Assuming he'll even accept in the first place." Chelsea said before shaking her head. "How far along are you until you finish it?"

"I'm pretty much done; I only need him to sign it." Chloe said with a shrug and Chelsea looked at her oddly. "As for what I've been doing the past ten minutes, well I've been proofreading it."

"Right, most of the Obelisk Blues are sticklers for grammar." Chelsea nodded before yawning. "If you've been proofreading that thing for ten minutes and have found no errors than come to bed, I don't think the teachers will appreciate you attending class whilst half asleep."

"Yeah, I guess your right." Chloe admitted before setting the request form aside and turning off the lamp. "As long as I can avoid Cameron, Thomas and Jessica when I go to the dorm tomorrow I'm not complaining." Chloe said before climbing into bed.

"I hear that, good night." Chelsea called out to her roommate who said nothing in return; she glanced down and saw that she was already fast asleep. _"Good, maybe now I can get some sleep myself!" _Chelsea thought before leaning back on her bed.

*the next day*

Fortunately for her, Cameron, Jessica and Thomas where elsewhere on the island by the time Chloe reached the Obelisk Blue boy's dorm, she was getting odd looks for being the only Osiris Red Student around who wasn't teaming up with an Obelisk Blue Student but she didn't let it faze her, she had swapped out her non-stomach exposing top that she had worn yesterday in favor of a black version of the long sleeve top she had worn during most of the Battle City Tournament which she had worn because her first class off the day was gym and she wanted to avoid a repeat off her first time taking the class.

She had already tried Tyler's room but found out that he was elsewhere on the island from another Obelisk Blue Student who had volunteered to help her find him, she had reasoned that he was in class and decided to wait for him.

"Any luck?" Chloe turned around and saw the Obelisk Blue student, namely Daniel Troy, approaching her, Chloe shook her head.

"No, I thought he was in class so I thought I'd better wait for him but that was an hour ago." Chloe sighed in annoyance as she turned to the older student. "You have any ideas?"

"Yeah, I just heard that he's hanging out on the North Side of the Island, no idea why." Daniel told her and Chloe sighed in relief, he motioned for her to follow him and she did so. "So why do you want to see him anyway?" Daniel asked and she hesitated thinking that he'd try to talk her out of it like Maria did yesterday.

"Just to discuss the expulsion duels, that's all." Chloe told him and he shrugged as the two students went up the hill, that was partly the truth since the expulsion duels where part of the reason she was challenging Tyler, they eventually found Tyler who was in the middle of meditating. "Good morning Tyler." Chloe greeted him and he looked up.

"Morning Chloe, I heard you were hanging around my dorm but I assumed you were looking for Brandon." Tyler greeted her and Chloe grinned sheepishly, Tyler stood up and turned to the younger student. "What can I do for you?"

"Read this." Chloe said before handing over the Duel Request form that she had been working on, Tyler read over it and he looked at her with a look off surprise on his face.

"You intend to challenge me to a duel?" Tyler asked with a raised eyebrow, Daniel did a double take when he heard that.

"Wait, what?" Daniel said as he started sweating bullets. "Look Tyler, it was her idea, I didn't even know that was her intention."

"I see." Tyler said with a nod as he read over the request form. _"Her reason for the challenge makes sense, whether or not she's ready for it is another question entirely."_ Tyler thought as he looked over the request form. "Chloe, before I make my decision, are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"Positive." Chloe said determinedly ignoring the odd looks she was getting from Daniel, Tyler considered it for a few minutes before reaching into his pocket and grabbing a pen. _"What if he denies my request? What would I do then?"_ Chloe thought as he filled in the form.

"Tyler you can't honestly be considering this." Daniel told him and Chloe turned to him. "I mean, I like her as well but she's so out of her league going into this match it's not even funny."

"Daniel….." Tyler said sternly and Daniel shut up, satisfied Tyler turned to Chloe and handed back the Duel Request Form. "Your challenge is accepted Chloe." Tyler told her and she looked at the Duel Request Form too double check, sure enough Tyler had accepted the duel. "Be warned though, I won't be holding anything back and I expect the same from you."

"You got it, so where should we hold the duel?" Chloe asked and Tyler rubbed his chin, she knew that she would be in for a fight going into this duel but if she wanted to win the duel on Friday and stay at the school she needed the challenge.

"Meet me on the Osiris Red Duel Field." Tyler said and Chloe raised an eyebrow, she knew the Duel Fields where free right now but she was expecting him to name the Obelisk Blue Duel Field. "Do you have any objections?"

"No, I was just expecting you to name the Obelisk Blue Field, that's all." Chloe said honestly and Tyler shrugged.

"I don't mind either way, just figured you'd feel more comfortable on that duel field." Tyler answered and Chloe smiled.

"Yeah, the thing is I've never been to that Duel Field, hell I did all my training for the Battle City Tournament at the Obelisk Blue Field." Chloe told him and Tyler nodded.

"Very well, Obelisk Blue Duel Field it is." Tyler said with a nod. "I'll meet you there, Daniel she won't be let in there without the presence of an Obelisk Blue student."

"Say no more, I'll make sure the guards let her in." Daniel said before leading Chloe away, once Chloe was out of earshot Tyler reached into his pockets and produced two decks.

"You can come out now, I know you're here." Tyler called out and Brandon and Theresa emerged from a nearby clearing, Brandon had lipstick on his neck which told Tyler all he needed to know about why the couple where in that clearing. "It seems Chloe's pulling out all the stops to prepare herself for her duel this Friday."

"Yeah and it's not that I blame her one bit but dueling you? She had enough time dueling me the two times that we've faced each other." Theresa said with a frown as she leaned against the tree. "What deck do you plan to use?"

"I'm unsure at the moment." Tyler said as he looked over both decks. "I watched her progress during Battle City and she hasn't faced either of the cards in these decks."

"You want my advice? Chloe clearly challenged you because she wants a dose of the unexpected that comes from challenging someone whose skills she's only heard off before now." Brandon chimed in and Tyler turned to him. "I say you put her against a type she's unlikely to have heard of before to maximize the effect."

"You're right." Tyler agreed before loading the deck into his duel disk and returning the other deck to his pocket. "Now if you excuse me I have a duel to win." Tyler said before walking off.

*meanwhile at the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm*

Chelsea had the same gym class as Chloe but unlike her she had returned to the dorm room to rest up, by the time Chloe returned Chelsea was surfing the Internet on her laptop.

"Hey Chloe, let me guess, he refused right?" Chelsea asked as she turned to her roommate, Chloe shook her head and Chelsea did a double take. "He actually accepted?!"

"Yeah and I'm here to grab my side deck." Chloe said as she went over to the draw where she usually kept it, Daniel was standing nearby and offered Chelsea a friendly wave. "Before you ask he's going to accompany me to the Duel Field because of that rule that's in place."

"And you made a quick detour here." Chelsea realized and Chloe nodded. "I want to come as well; it's not every day you get to see the best student here duel."

"I'm guessing you're not talking about me." Chloe asked half-jokingly and Chelsea just grinned. Chloe made the necessary adjustments to her deck before turning around. "I'm guessing this duel will gather a large crowd?"

"You don't know the half of it, shall we go?" Daniel asked and Chloe nodded before she and Chelsea followed Daniel out of the Girl's Dorm and too the Obelisk Blue Duel Field, the guards let the students in without question once they realized that the girls where with Daniel and they entered the duel field. "Sorry for the delay Tyler, Chloe wanted to stop by her dorm room to grab her side deck."

"That's fine, she's here now and that's all that matters." Tyler told him as Daniel and Chelsea grabbed seats in the audience and Chloe hopped onto the duel field, Chloe started shuffling her deck as did Tyler. "So Chloe, from what I hear you're quite the fan of sword and sorcery epics?"

"Yeah, I am, why do you ask?" Chloe asked as she shuffled her deck.

"Well I know that that fact is reflected in your deck." Tyler continued as he finished shuffling his deck as did Chloe. "Personally I've always been more of a Sci-Fi fan and like you I reflect that in my deck."

"So you run an Alien Deck?" Chloe asked as the two duelists drew their opening hands, Tyler shook his head before looking over his hand.

"You will see in a moment." Tyler told her and Chloe frowned at that, more students were starting to pour in once they realized who was dueling which both Chloe and Tyler quickly noticed. "So, do you have any objections to me going first?"

"Go for it." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as Tyler drew an extra card. _"I was going to ask if I could go first but what he said about his deck does make me wonder."_ Chloe thought as Tyler looked over his hand.

"Very well then, I begin by setting two cards facedown." Tyler set the two cards down and the holograms appeared on the field. "And I summon the Psychic monster known as Psychic Commander."

"Did you say Psychic?!" Chloe asked as the monster appeared on the field, it was a small man in an army uniform that was riding in the cockpit of a small aircraft with a large cannon (3/1400/800).

"Surprised? That's good, because this is just the beginning." Tyler told her before looking over his hand. "That ends my turn." Tyler told her and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, that's definitely not what I was expecting." _Chloe thought as she glanced over her hand. _"That little guy likely makes up for his low attack power with a powerful effect; I'd better be ready for anything." _Chloe thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense that ends my turn."

"Playing defensively hmm? That's a smart precaution." Tyler complemented her before drawing his card. "I play a Spell Card called Akhashic Record; it allows me to draw two cards but if any of them are in play both cards is removed from play."

"And that shouldn't be a problem since you only have one monster in play." Chloe realized and Tyler nodded before drawing twice.

"And as you just pointed out my cards are safe for now." Tyler said before sending the Spell Card to the graveyard. "Your facedown monster on the other hand isn't, I play the Spell Card Stop Defense to force it into attack mode!" Chloe's eyes widened as the monster was flipped up revealing it to be Familiar Knight (3/1200/1400). "Not bad, if I had attacked it I wouldn't have been able to destroy it but now?" Tyler asked rhetorically before pointing to Familiar Knight. "Psychic Commander, attack her monster now!" Tyler commanded and Psychic Commander's cannon charged up…..

"It's been a while since I used this but screw it! I counter your attack with the Trap Card Reinforcements which increases my Knight's attack by five hundred points!" Chloe activated the trap and Familiar Knight glowed as his attack increased to 1700 and the knight charged towards Psychic Commander. "Looks like all you've done is damage your own life-points."

"That's what you think; I activate Psychic Commander's effect!" Tyler said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 7500. "By paying up to 500 life-points I can reduce my Commander's target monster's attack points by the same amount." Chloe's eyes widened as Familiar Knight's attack dropped back down to 1200, the Knight leapt into the air only to be shot down by Commander's cannon bringing Chloe's life-points down to 7700.

"I'm not out of this yet! Since you destroyed Familiar Knight his effect activates allowing us both to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower monster from our hands!" Chloe said before picking up a card. "And I choose Blade Knight!" Chloe played the card and the blue armored knight appeared on the field (4/1600/1000). "I may have too many cards in my hand for his effect to work but he still packs a punch."

"Indeed it does, as for my card of choice I shall summon another Psychic, come forth Telekinetic Shocker!" Tyler played the card and another monster appeared on the field, this one resembled the Comic Book Character Mysterio in that his head was covered with a glass dome, he was wearing a red and black outfit with gold stripes (4/1700/700). "I suppose your expecting me to attack, aren't you?"

"In a word, yeah I am." Chloe admitted as more spectators poured in to watch the duel.

"Well you're wrong, I have a better idea in mind, and I will show you it now by activating my Trap Card!" Tyler's trap card flipped up and Chloe's eyes widened when she saw it.

"That's Urgent Tuning!" Chloe realized as the two monsters leapt into the air. Psychic Commander dissolved into three rings that quickly surrounded Telekinetic Shocker.

"Indeed it is and I shall now tune Psychic Commander with Telekinetic Shocker so that I may Synchro Summon Psychic Lifetrancer in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a woman stood in the place of Telekinetic Shocker, she green skin, long black hair and was wearing a blue dress, what caught Chloe's attention the most however was her right arm, it was black and mechanical in nature (7/2400/2000). "Psychic Lifetrancer, attack her monster!" Tyler commanded and the woman vanished, Blade Knight looked around confused before the woman reappeared behind him and snapped his neck with her mechanical arm bringing Chloe's life-points down to 6900. "Regretting your challenge yet?"

"No I'm not because your attack has allowed me to activate my Trap Card Rope of Life!" Chloe activated the trap and tossed her remaining cards. "By tossing my hand this trap card will let me special summon Blade Knight with an attack boost of 800 points!" Chloe added before Blade Knight returned to the field with its attack at 2400.

"Very clever, with no cards in your hand your monster will gain an additional boost of 400 points." Tyler complemented as Blade Knight's attack increased even further to 2800. "I enter my Second Main Phase and activate Lifetrancer's effect; by removing Psychic Commander from play I can increase my life-points by 1200 points." Tyler pocketed the tuner monster after retrieving it from his graveyard and his life-points increased to 8700. "That ends my turn." Tyler announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, I think I get the idea of these Psychic Monsters, they are all about life-point manipulation." _Chloe thought before looking at her sole card in her hand. _"Need to play it safe, if he draws a card that forces us to draw several cards at once the best Blade Knight can do is match Lifetrancer hit for hit." _Chloe thought before setting the card down. "I set this card facedown, now Blade Knight, attack Psychic Lifetrancer!" Chloe commanded and the knight charged towards the woman.

"I activate my facedown card Emergency Teleport, with this I can special summon one Level 3 or lower Psychic Type monster from my hand or deck as long as I don't mind it being removed from play during the end-phase, my monster of choice is Krebons!" Tyler played the card and a short man in what looked like a demented jester's outfit appeared on the field wearing a visor (2/1200/400).

"_Better tread carefully, if that card's anything like Psychic Commander than its effect will make up for its low attack." _Chloe thought before pointing too Lifetrancer. "I'm not falling for that twice, Blade Knight, continue your attack!" Chloe commanded and the knight continued his charge towards Lifetrancer.

"I activate Krebons's effect; by paying 800 life-points I can negate Blade Knight's effect!" Tyler interrupted her as his life-points dropped to 7900 the psychic monster projected a force field which Blade Knight's sword bounced off of.

"Fine, I end my turn." Chloe said with an annoyed grunt and once Krebons disappeared from the field Tyler drew his card.

"_Well, she's holding her own at least." _Chelsea thought as she watched the duel, she knew a bit more about Psychic Monsters than Chloe did but that could be chalked up to the fact that one of her first opponents in Duel Academy was another student who used Psychic Monsters. _"What Chloe doesn't realize that Psychic Lifetrancer, whilst strong, isn't the strongest Psychic Synchro around and if Tyler does summon it, she's in _trouble_."_

"Is this seat taken?" A feminine voice rang out and she looked up and saw a female Obelisk Blue student who had short black hair and blue eyes.

"Nah, if you want to sit there knock yourself out." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders and the student sat next to her. "I may like Chloe but I'm surprised she's doing as well as she is."

"Yeah, same here, even fellow Obelisk Blue Students dread having to face him." The student agreed with a nod. "You're Chelsea Cunningham right?"

"That's me; Chloe over there is my partner in the upcoming tag tournament, provided we don't get expelled first." Chelsea explained before motioning to Chloe. "I'm guessing the site of Tyler actually dueling was what brought you here?"

"That and I wanted to see how long the Osiris Red student would last…..err, no offense." The student responded and Chelsea gave her a reassuring grin.

"None taken, though to be honest it's like I said I don't exactly see this duel ending well for her either." Chelsea told her as the two students watched the duel.

"For my next move I remove Telekinetic Shocker from play so that I can activate the effect of Psychic Lifetrancer." Tyler retrieved the card from his graveyard, pocketed it and grinned as his life-points increased to 9100. "Now I play a Spell Card called Spellbook Inside the Pot."

"Oh no, that will rob Blade Knight of his bonus!" Chelsea gulped but sighed in relief when she saw Chloe activate her trap.

"You're going to have to try harder than that; I chain Spellbook inside the Pot with my trap card Magic Drain." Chloe activated the trap and Tyler smirked.

"Very clever, unless I can discard a Spell Card from my hand that Trap will negate Spellbook inside the Pot's effect." Tyler complemented her before picking up a card and turning it around revealing it to be a second Emergency Teleport. "Unfortunately for you I have the means to do just that." Tyler added and Chloe frowned as her trap card shattered and both duelists drew three cards, once Chloe was done drawing Blade Knight's attack dropped down to 2400.

"_Well, at least the most damage he can do is kamikaze Lifetrancer against Blade Knight; luckily I have a card in my graveyard that will keep Blade Knight safe."_ Chloe thought as she looked over her three new cards.

"Okay Chloe, you have met one of my Psychic Synchros, I think it's time for you to meet another." Tyler said before playing a card. "First I summon Genetic Woman in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and a woman appeared on the field, she seemed to be a miss mash of various different animals with the body of a human, the ears of a cheetah and a giant demonic looking claw for a hand, she had what looked like a gun attached to her hand (4/1700/1200). "Now I activate her effect, by paying a thousand life-points I can return one Psychic Type Monster that I have removed from play to my hand." Tyler explained as his life-points dropped at 8100 and Genetic Woman's eyes glowed briefly before Tyler retrieved the card from his pocket. "Now I shall summon that card with my third Emergency Teleport!" Tyler played the cards and to Chloe's surprise Krebons returned to the field.

"Why summon him and not Psychic Commander?" Chloe asked before it hit her. "Oh no, don't tell me Krebons is a tuner as well?"

"That's right." Tyler nodded as Krebons and Genetic Woman leapt into the air, Krebons dissolved into two growing rings that quickly surrounded Genetic Woman. "I tune Krebons with Genetic Woman so that I can Synchro Summon the mighty Psychic Nightmare!" Tyler played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded Chloe looked up and saw a purple dragon like monster with wild green hair and tusks (6/2400/1800). "Now I activate Psychic Nightmare's effect, hold out your hand please."

"Okay…." Chloe said clearly unsure about this, she held out her hand with the cards facing her. "Okay, now what?"

"I have to guess the type of one random card in your hand and if I guess correctly Psychic Nightmare's attack increases by 1000." Tyler explained before thinking for a few minutes. "I'll say that the card in the middle is a Trap Card." Tyler guessed and Chloe frowned.

"It seems you're just as psychic as your monsters." Chloe grumbled before reshuffling her hand as Psychic Nightmare's attack increased to 3400. "Is that boost permanent?"

"No, it will last until your next end phase." Tyler explained before pointing at Blade Night. "Psychic Nightmare, attack Blade Knight now!" Tyler commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the monster bringing Chloe's life-points down to 5900. "Psychic Lifetrancer, attack her life…what on Earth?!" Tyler's command was cut short when he realized that Blade Knight had survived the attack. "How did he survive that?"

"Remember when I tossed my entire hand for Rope of Life's effect?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded. "One of the cards I discarded was Shield Warrior (3/800/1600) and by removing him from play during Damage Calculation I ensured my knight's survival."

"Very well, since any battle involving Blade Knight and Psychic Lifetrancer will just end in a draw I'll end my turn at that." Tyler announced and Chloe breathed a sigh of relief before drawing her card.

"That was a close one." Chelsea said with a sigh of relief before noticing that some Obelisk Blue students where begrudgingly handing over money to other students. "What's their problem?"

"Oh that? As soon they heard that Tyler was going to be facing an Osiris Red Student in a duel some students started taking bets on how long she would last against him, I'm guessing those guys bet on three turns." The student explained and Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"That's just typical of the Obelisk Blue Students…..err, no offense." Chelsea said and the student smirked at that.

"Don't worry about it; I put up with the pricks in my dorm all the time." The student told her as the two girls watched the duel.

"_Great, as if one Psychic Synchro wasn't enough, now I have two to deal with." _Chloe thought as she glared at the two Synchro Monsters. _"What's even worse is the fact that Psychic Nightmare's Synchro Summon left Tyler with two more monsters to remove from play for Psychic Lifetrancer's effect next turn." _Chloe thought before looking at her new hand. _"Tyler's Spell Card may have taken away Blade Knight's bonus but it still helped me." _Chloe thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown, one monster in defense mode and I switch Blade Knight to defense mode." Chloe played the cards and once the facedown monsters appeared on the field Blade Knight crouched down in defense mode. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Tyler drew his card after Psychic Nightmare's attack dropped down to 2400.

"_That's odd, by playing those three cards she left Blade Knight in a perfect position to take out Psychic Lifetrancer, why didn't she attack?" _Tyler thought before looking over his hand. "I start by removing Krebons from play to give my life-points a boost." Tyler announced before retrieving the tuner monster from his graveyard and pocketing it, once he did Tyler's life-points shot up to 9300.

"In that case I activate my trap Hope for Escape!" Chloe activated her trap and grinned. "Since there's a large gap between our life-points all I need to do is pay an extra one thousand life-points and I can draw one card for every 2000 life-point bonus between our scores." Chloe's life-points dropped to 4900 but she didn't seem to mind as she drew six times.

"_All right, now her moves are making no sense whatsoever, not only did she take Blade Knight's attack back down to 2400 but if it weren't for her monster's I'd be able to finish her off!" _Tyler thought with a frown. "Next I activated the effect of Psychic Nightmare and I'm guessing that the card on the far right is a Spell Card!" Tyler announced and Chloe shook her head.

"Sorry Tyler but it's a monster, your monster's attack stays the same." Chloe told him and Tyler frowned at that.

"Fine, I activate Card of Variation, I draw twice but unless I toss a card during my end phase this will cost me 3000 life-points." Tyler played the card and drew twice. _"Another tuner, with this I can bring out my ace monster at the cost of Psychic Nightmare, but I only save that card for special occasions." _Tyler thought before adding the card to his hand. "Now I activate Soul Release to remove Stop Defense, Arkashic Record, Card of Variation and my two Emergency Teleports from play."

"Okay, why would you do that?" Chloe asked as Tyler pocketed his five Spell Cards.

"You'll see why soon, now Psychic Nightmare will finish the job he started last turn." Tyler announced but his command was cut off by a load screeching noise. "What the…ah yes, Command Silencer."

"Your dad used this a few times so I'm sure you know how it works." Chloe said before drawing one card.

"_She obviously has a plan in mind, but what?" _Tyler thought before looking at his hand. "I will end my turn and I chose not to discard a card to prevent Card of Variation's side effect." Tyler announced as he winced as his life-points dropped to 6300.

"Right, because you can easily gain back your life-points thanks to Lifetrancer." Chloe nodded before drawing her card. "Okay, Tyler before I continue I want to ask you something."

"Ask away." Tyler told her and Chloe nodded.

"I get the Sci-Fi connection with your cards so far but what I don't get is this." Chloe said and Tyler raised an eyebrow. "Going into this duel I was expecting you to use a deck based on your stepdad's but this archetype wasn't even around when he still dueled."

"Chloe, do you have any idea how much I hear that?" Tyler asked and Chloe blinked before shaking her head. "Almost every time I duel, whether it's with this deck or my other one and I have a very simple answer for you." Tyler said before clearing his throat. "I saw your duel with your step-dad in Battle City, he uses an Ancient Gear deck whilst yours, as I've previously mentioned, is closely tied to sword and sorcery epics, and I also know that it was your dad that got you into dueling."

"Yeah, that's right." Chloe nodded though clearly confused. "Where are you going with this?"

"Did he ever tell you why he gave you a deck like that and not one closely based on his own?" Tyler asked and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, he said that no duelist should copy the dueling style of another no matter how successful the other duelist is." Chloe said as she looked over her hand. "Why do you…..oh."

"You're starting to get the picture?" Tyler asked and Chloe nodded. "Like you my stepfather got me into dueling and whilst your initial deck was filled with some pretty basic cards besides the two Silent Magician cards my first deck is pretty much the same one you dueling today, the main difference is that my step-father did offer me a copy of his old deck, Blue-Eyes White Dragons and all, but I declined as I wanted to forge my own destiny rather than live off my step-father's, does that answer your question?"

"Yeah, it does." Chloe nodded before a frown crossed her face. "There's one thing I don't get though, some of the cards in his deck must've tempted you."

"They did, so I asked if I could take some of his cards, not counting his famous dragons, and use them to help build my deck and those cards are still in there to this day." Tyler said as he held up his deck. "I haven't drawn any of them yet but when I do you'll know."

"That's comforting to know." Chloe said with a nervous gulp before looking over her new cards. _"This had better work." _Chloe thought before picking up three cards.

"Before you continue I have to correct you on something." Tyler interrupted her and Chloe blinked. "You referred to my Psychic Monsters as an Archetype, you're not the first person to make that mistake and until they are more widely available you won't be the last."

"They're not? Then what are they exactly?" Chloe asked before it hit her. "Wait, I2 created a whole new type of monster?"

"That's exactly it." Tyler said with a nod. "Granted the way they act around each-other is closer to an Archetype but my point still stands." Tyler added before frowning. "Now, I believe you were about to move before I interrupted you?"

"Yeah I was." Chloe nodded before looking at her three cards. "As I was about to say I set two cards facedown and I summon the Tuner Monster Sword Master!" Chloe played the cards and the topless swordsman appeared on the field (3/1200/0000).

"So, you plan on doing a Level 7 Synchro Summon using Blade Knight?" Tyler asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually no, there's a reason I protected my facedown monster last turn." Chloe said before flipping the card up. "I flip summon Life Gardna." Chloe flipped the card up and a ninja in black uniform wearing a long red cape appeared on the field (1/0/0). "Do the math; I have enough monsters for a Level 8 Synchro Summon."

"And I've seen enough of your duels to know that you've only got one Level 8 Synchro Monster in your extra deck." Tyler realized with a frown as the three monsters leapt into the air. "You're about to summon Colossal Fighter!"

"You got it, and I'm tuning my three monsters together to do it!" Chloe said as Sword Master dissolved into three growing rings that surrounded her two warriors and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded Colossal Fighter stood there ready for battle (8/2800/2000). "And as you know Colossal Fighter gains 100 attack points for each Warrior in my graveyard, that's four from the warriors I've already played and two from the two warriors I discarded for Rope of Life's effect alongside Shield Warrior, that's a total of six hundred extra attack points!" Chloe explained as her warrior's attack increased to 3400. "But there's more, since I used Life Gardna in a Synchro Summon my life-points gain a much needed boost!" Chloe added as her life-points increased to 5700.

"Suddenly I'm regretting not discarding for Card of Variation's side effect." Tyler said as he glared at the card.

"Too bad because I'm not going to give you a chance to replenish your lost life-points, Colossal Fighter attack Psychic Lifetrancer!" Chloe commanded and the fighter charged towards the woman before punching her in the stomach bringing his life-points down to 5300. "That ends my turn."Chloe announced and Tyler drew his card once Chloe tossed a card due to the hand size limit, Tyler could tell it was another warrior as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 3500.

"Holy fucking shit! The Osiris Red Reject's actually winning?!" Chelsea heard one of the Obelisk Blue Student and she growled.

"That "Osiris Red Reject" is my roommate, friend and partner in the upcoming Tag Team Tournament." Chelsea growled as she glared at the student who started sweating bullets as soon as he realized who he had pissed off. "And I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't compensate for your tiny dick by calling her that!" Chelsea warned him and the student gulped before quickly changing seats. "God I hate that nickname."

"I heard your temper was vicious but damn, he'll be feeling that burn for weeks." The student laughed as Chelsea started to calm down.

"Yeah well, it was my temper that got me stuck in Osiris Red in the first place so I do try to keep it in check, pricks like that guy does piss me off though." Chelsea told her and the student nodded in understanding, whilst that was going on Tyler was considering his next move.

"_Even with Psychic Nightmare's effect it's still too weak to take down her fighter, if I want to win this I'll need to bring out the big guns." _Tyler thought before playing a card. "I start by playing Trade-In; since you use this card yourself I'm sure I don't need to explain its effect to you." Tyler played the card and discarded a monster from his hand before drawing twice. "Next I activate Spell Reproduction; I toss two Spell Cards in my hand and retrieve a Spell Card from my graveyard." Tyler played the card and turned the cards around to confirm that they were Spell Cards, namely Chaos Greed and Tuner's mind.

"_That's why he played Soul Release earlier; with the spells in his grave he couldn't use that to draw more cards." _Chloe realized as he tossed the two cards and retrieved another from his grave. "So what did you retrieve?"

"The Emergency Teleport I discarded for Magic Drain's effect earlier." Tyler told her before playing the Spell in question. "I use it to Special Summon another Tuner Monster, Esper Girl!" Tyler played the card and a young girl in brown armor appeared on the field, she had blonde hair in pigtails, and was carrying a staff (2/500/500).

"So you're doing a Level 8 Synchro Summon?" Chloe asked and Tyler shook his head.

"No, to be honest I rarely use this monster unless my opponents have earned it, the fact that you've managed to hold your own against me makes you more than qualified." Tyler said before playing another card. "I summon a third monster, Doctor Cranium!" Tyler played the card and a short purple man in a doctor's uniform appeared on the field with a large dome on his head (1/100/100).

"So what's he a doctor off exactly?" Chloe asked and Tyler blinked before scratching his head.

"You know, that is a good point now that you mention it." Tyler admitted before shaking his head. "It doesn't matter because I'm tuning all three of my monsters together to Synchro Summon a monster that can only be summoned by using three Psychic Type monsters."

"_It actually acquires three monsters to Synchro Summon it?! Whatever it is it's bound to be powerful." _Chloe thought as the three monsters leapt into the air, Esper Girl dissolved into two growing rings which surrounded Psychic Nightmare and Doctor Cranium and a bright flash enveloped the field, when Chloe looked up her eyes widened at what she saw. "What the…."

The monster in question resembled a dragon; it was silver in color and had very sharp looking claws, not only that but it towered over the duel field (9/3300/3000). "Chloe, meet my best monster, Overmind Archfiend, no one, not even the test proctor I faced in order to join Duel Academy, has faced him until now so you can consider yourself honored.

"Yeah well, Colossal Fighter's still stronger." Chloe said with a nervous gulp as she glared at the massive Synchro Monster.

"Chloe, you should know by now that sometimes strength alone isn't everything." Tyler said before retrieving Esper Girl from his graveyard. "First I activate the effect of Overmind Archfiend, once per turn I can banish one Psychic type monster in my graveyard, why would I do that? I'll reveal it a bit later but if I where you I'd be more concerned about your monster."

"I'm almost afraid to ask but why should I be worried?" Chloe asked with a gulp as Tyler played a Spell Card.

"Because I'm not going to give you a chance to use Colossal Fighter's self-revival effect, I activate Dark Core!" Chloe's eyes widened when she heard the card's name and once Tyler discarded the last card in his hand a dark portal opened up beneath Colossal Fighter, she reluctantly pocketed her Synchro Monster and braced herself for the attack. "Overmind Archfiend, attack her life-points directly!" Tyler commanded and the massive monster took flight before breathing fire at Chloe bringing her life-points down to 2400.

"I activate my trap card Numinous Healer, since I just took damage this trap card will restore a thousand life-points!" Chloe activated the card and breathed a sigh of relief as her life-points increased to 3400. "I'm still in this Tyler, barely but I'm not going to be beaten that easily."

"Unless you're able to bring out Silent Magician Level 8 I doubt you'll be in this for long." Tyler told her before folding his arms. "It's your move." Tyler told her and Chloe drew her card.

"Okay, I start by activating Heaven's Lost Property, we both draw three cards but in exchange we have to discard both." Chloe played the card and both duelists drew thrice before discarding two cards. _"Thank you Rachel for the idea to put this in my deck." _Chloe thought as she sent her spell card to the graveyard. "Now I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight!" Chloe played the card and the knight made famous by Joey Wheeler appeared on the field (4/1800/1600).

"That's your big play? I was expecting more." Tyler said clearly disappointed but Chloe shook her head.

"Not exactly, I activate my trap card Level Soul!" Chloe played the card and Gearfried vanished. "First this trap card requires me to tribute one monster on my side of the field and then I have to remove one Level Monster from my graveyard." Chloe retrieved the card and held it up revealing it to be Silent Magician Level 4.

"I assume you discarded that for Heaven's Lost Property?" Tyler asked and Chloe nodded before pocketing the card. "There must be a point to this." Tyler added and Chloe nodded before picking up her deck.

"There is, because in exchange for that Level Soul lets me Special Summon the monster mentioned in the text of the removed monster whilst ignoring the summoning conditions!" Chloe said before playing the card and sure enough Silent Magician Level 8 appeared on the field (8/3500/1000). "It looks like we have a clash of our best monsters."

"Indeed, and only one will come out victorious." Tyler agreed as he braced himself for the attack from Chloe's magician.

"Silent Magician, attack Overmind Archfiend!" Chloe commanded and the magician nodded before charging up her staff, it fired a beam of light that engulfed Overmind Archfiend and Tyler's side of the field bringing his life-points down to 5200. "Well, that's that….." Chloe trailed off only to blink in surprise when she saw that Esper Girl had returned to the field. "Huh? How the hell did she return? You didn't set any traps!"

"I didn't need too; remember when I said I'd explain why I removed Esper Girl from play using Overmind Archfiend's effect? This is why, when Overmind Archfiend is sent from the field to the graveyard I can Special Summon as many cards that were removed from play by this effect." Tyler said with a frown. "Ideally I would've liked to have banished more monsters using its effect but sometimes you have to take what can get and since I summoned Esper Girl this way her effect activates." Tyler explained before holding up the top card off his deck. "I take the top card of my deck and banish it facedown, as for the rest; I'll get to that later." Tyler added and Chloe frowned.

"In that case I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the card down and Tyler drew his card.

"_Damn, I was hoping to do another Synchro Summon but I don't have the necessary monsters." _Tyler thought with a frown. "I switch Esper Girl to defense mode and end my turn." Tyler announced and once Esper Girl crouched down Chloe drew her card.

"Is it me or does she have Tyler on the ropes?" Chelsea wondered as she watched the duel, she couldn't help but grin as it hit her. "Oh yeah, I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when Tyler loses!" Chelsea said with a broad grin before motioning to the concerned Obelisk Blue Students.

"I wouldn't count him out yet, Tyler didn't become the top student at the school for nothing." The student told her and Chelsea frowned.

"Yeah, I know, but you gotta admit, the looks on their faces will be priceless." Chelsea pointed out and the student grinned.

"Yeah, I admit that will be fun to see." The student agreed as they watched the duel.

"Hey come to think of it, I never caught your name." Chelsea realized as she turned to the older girl, she frowned once she realized that the Osiris Red Student was right.

"Silent Magician, attack Esper Girl"! Chloe commanded and the magician charged up her staff before firing it at the tuner monster destroying her.

"Now that Esper Girl has been sent to the graveyard her effect activates." Tyler said before retrieving the card he banished last turn from his pocket. "The card I banished with her effect goes directly to my hand." Tyler explained before adding it to his hand. "Now if that's…oh no."

"Oh yes, since my Silent Magician destroyed a monster just now my Enlightenment trap card will allow her to attack again!" Chloe announced and Silent Magician charged up her staff before firing it at Tyler bringing his life-points down to 1700. "One more attack from my Magician and this duel will be over."

"_Yes but if my trap card works it'll end in my favor." _Tyler thought before turning to Chloe. "May I take my turn?" Tyler asked and Chloe nodded, Tyler wasted no time in drawing his card and he looked at it. _"Ugh, if I had drawn this last turn I could've done another Synchro Summon." _Tyler thought with a frown before picking it up alongside the card he had added to his hand with Esper Girl's effect. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode and that will end my turn." Tyler set the two cards and once they appeared on the field Chloe drew her card.

"I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900). "Gemini Elf, attack his defense monster!" Chloe commanded and the elves fired twin blasts of magic at the monster, revealed to be another Genetic Woman, who was vaporized in moments. "Silent Magician, it's time to end this!" Chloe commanded and the magician charged up her staff…..

"Your right, the duel is ending…in my favor!" Tyler interrupted as his trap card flipped up. "I activate Dimension Wall, the attack goes through but you take the damage!" Chloe's eyes widened when it dawned on her and the blast hit an invisible wall before reflecting back at Chloe who was knocked on her backside as her life-points dropped to 0.

"Damn, she lost." Chelsea grumbled as Tyler helped Chloe to her feet after the two duelists turned off their duel disks. "I thought she was going to win for sure."

"The smart thing to do would've been to set a trap of her own in case he did draw something like Dimension Prison." The student said before standing up. "I'm going over to see them, you coming?"

"Sure." Chelsea nodded before standing up, the crowd had started to disperse during Chloe's last turn presumably to get to Class but the students who stayed behind seemed impressed by Chloe's performance in the duel some wondering if she had been considered for promotion to Ra Yellow. _"If her performance just now doesn't solidify her spot in Ra Yellow should she win on Friday I'll eat my laptop." _Chelsea thought as she followed the older student.

"Chloe, despite coming up on the losing end you did fantastically." Tyler reassured her as Chloe was clearly disappointed by her loss. "You perform that well on Friday and you'll have no problem winning your expulsion duel."

"Thanks Tyler, doesn't change the fact that l lost though." Chloe said with a sigh as she sat down on the duel platform, she saw Chelsea and the Obelisk Blue Student approaching and grinned. "Hey Chelsea, how did I do?"

"Better than I could have, that's for sure." Chelsea said with a sheepish grin before looking around. "I'm a bit disappointed that the other students who were at the abandoned dorm last night weren't present though."

"I checked up on that before Chloe challenged me, they all have classes until this evening, it's unlikely that we'll see them unless we have a class with them." Tyler informed her and Chelsea nodded. "I see you decided to watch the duel Miranda."

"And miss the chance to see my step-brother duel?" The student asked and Chloe blinked in surprise. "You didn't tell her?"

"She never asked, Chloe it's a long story but this is my sister Miranda and yes, she's Seto Kaiba's biological daughter." Tyler introduced her and Chloe grinned. "I've been trying to get her to help but she's been too busy."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that." Miranda said sheepishly as she approached them. "I'm ready to help you guys should you need it."

"Good, we'll need all the help we can get." Chelsea said before grinning as an idea popped into her head. "Say Miranda, you wouldn't happen to have a class coming up soon would you?"

"Hold on, I'll check my schedule." Miranda said before getting her schedule out. "No, I don't, I'm guessing you want to duel me?"

"That's right." Chelsea said with a grin which Miranda returned. "I didn't get a chance to duel during Hamden's class yesterday so I need to make sure my skills are sharp."

"Well if they're not then I'll happily sharpen them for you," Miranda said with a nod as Tyler and Chloe got clear of the duel field to give them room to duel. "Just be warned Chelsea, my brother may be the best duelist in Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm but I'm the best duelist in Obelisk Blue Girl's."

"Yeah, well I'm going to show you why I was originally considered to be good enough for Ra Yellow." Chelsea responded as the two girls activated their duel disks. _"Whether or not my skills will help me against her is another matter." _Chelsea thought as she stared at Miranda.


	59. Weak vs the Strong

"So, what deck does your sister run anyway?" Chloe asked as she sat down in the audience next too Tyler, Chelsea and Miranda where in the middle off shuffling their decks.

"Well, remember when you asked me why my deck wasn't closer to my fathers?" Tyler asked and Chloe nodded. "My sister's deck on the other hand is closer to my father's but she's modernized it a bit, you'll see once they start dueling."

"Modernize? You mean like what Theresa did when she made her Kaiba deck?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded.

"Yes, Miranda gave Theresa her blessing to go ahead and make that deck but Miranda's deck has cards that only she could get her hands on thanks to our father." Tyler told her and Chloe blinked before it dawned on her.

"Wait, does that mean she was the Blue-Eyes White Dragons, Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon?" Chloe asked because it was a well-known fact that the last duel of Yugi and Kaiba's professional carriers before they retired featured that card.

"I'm not at liberty to say." Tyler shrugged his shoulders as Miranda and Chelsea drew their opening hands. "But if she does than Chelsea's in trouble."

"Okay, Miranda, if you don't mind I'd like to go first." Chelsea said after looking over her hand, Miranda looked over her hand, shrugged and Chelsea drew a card. _"Better be careful, if her deck's anything like her dad's than my Watt monsters will be in trouble."_ Chelsea thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense that ends my turn." Chelsea announced and once the three set cards appeared on the field Miranda drew her card.

"_Playing defensively on the first turn? From what I've heard that's pretty out of character for her." _Miranda thought as she looked over her hand. _"Then again she's probably anticipated me using an upgraded version of dad's deck." _Miranda thought before picking up the card she drew. "I activate a Spell Card called Shard of Greed."

"I've heard of that card." Chelsea said with a frown as the spell card appeared on the field. "Hell it was in the original build of my deck until I found out about Pride of the Weak."

"Then you know of its effect." Miranda said and Chelsea nodded. "We'll worry about that later, for now I summon Enraged Battle Ox,"

"Oh crap." Chelsea gulped as the angry Minotaur appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Just my luck that the first monster you summon of the game is a monster that inflicts piercing damage."

"And based on your reaction I'd say your defense monster has a low defense?" Miranda asked and Chelsea nodded reluctantly. "Enraged Battle Ox, Axe Slam Attack!" Miranda commanded and the Minotaur let out an angry growl before charging at the facedown monster, revealed to be Wattdragonfly (2/900/100) which he cut in half with his axe bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 6400.

"You may have knocked my life-points down a peg or two but in the process you activated Wattdragonfly's effect!" Chelsea said before picking up her deck. "With it I can search my deck for another Watt Monster and summon it too the field!" Chelsea played the card and a small blue bird with a red face appeared on the field (4/1000/800). "Wattphesant here will do just nicely."

"You realize you could've brought out Wattaildragon with that effect right?" Miranda asked and Chelsea blinked. "It's not like there's any restrictions on what cards you can summon with Wattdragonfly's effect."

"Maybe but there's a reason I brought this gal out." Chelsea said with a grin and Miranda frowned.

"If you say so, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Miranda set the card down and Chelsea activated one of her traps.

"Before I do anything else I activate Shock Draw, since I just took over one thousand points of damage this turn I can draw one card." Chelsea announced before drawing her card, once her draw phase started she drew another. "Oh Miranda, fun little fact about Wattphesant, she's one of the Watt Monsters that can bypass your monster and attack directly."

"Wait, what?" Miranda yelled out once it hit her, Chelsea grinned before playing a card.

"But first I'll bring out the little guy I drew with Shock Draw, Wattfox!" Chelsea played the card and the electric fox appeared on the field (2/800/100). "Now Wattphesant, attack her life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the pheasant flew over Enraged Battle Ox before pecking at Miranda bringing her life-points down to 7000. "And since I just attacked directly Wattphesant's effect activates removing Enraged Battle Ox from play for the rest of the turn."

"Oh crap." Miranda gulped as Enraged Battle Ox disappeared from the field, Chelsea pointed at her and Wattfox head-butted Miranda bringing her life-points down to 6200. "I know Wattfox is a tuner monster Chelsea, you should've done a Synchro Summon first."

"Actually this is where my other trap comes in, Urgent Tuning!" Chelsea activated the trap and her two monsters leapt into the air. "I tune Wattfox with Wattphesant to Synchro Summon Wattchimera!" Chelsea played the card and the electric mythical beast appeared on the field (6/1400/1000). "It's your turn Wattchimera!" Chelsea commanded and the beast leapt towards Miranda…..

"Okay, that's enough of that; I activate my trap card Negate Attack!" Miranda activated the trap and Wattchimera bounced off of a force-field. "Before you ask I didn't activate it sooner because I thought you'd only be attacking with Wattphesant."

"And that you could handle the damage?" Chelsea asked and Miranda nodded. "Fine then, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the card and once Enraged Battle Ox returned to the field Miranda drew a card.

"Since I drew a card during my draw phase Shard of Greed gets its first Greed Counter." Miranda said as her spell card's hologram glowed. "Next I play Foolish Burial which lets me send one card from my deck to my graveyard." Miranda played the card before picking up her deck, searching through it and sending the card she was looking for to the grave.

"_It's a safe bet that that's a monster she can bring back somehow." _Chelsea thought as Miranda pointed at Enraged Battle Ox.

"Now to make sure you don't get any ideas regarding Wattchimera, Enraged Battle Ox, attack!" Miranda commanded and the Minotaur charged towards Wattchimera…..

"I activate Synchro Strike!" Chelsea played the card and too Miranda's surprise Wattchimera's attack increased to 2400. "This trap gives Wattchimera 500 attack points for each monster used to summon him until the end phase!" Chelsea explained as Wattchimera dodged underneath Enraged Battle Ox's axe before ripping his throat out bringing Miranda's life-points down to 5500. "Too think I was worried going into this match."

"Don't get too cocky, encase you haven't noticed I haven't summoned yet." Miranda said before picking up two cards in her hand. "I set a monster in defense and two cards facedown, go ahead and take your turn Chelsea." Miranda announced and Chelsea drew her card once Wattchimera's attack dropped back to 1400.

"_Lightning Recharge, this could help." _Chelsea thought before playing another card. "First I activate Monster Reincarnation to return Wattdragonfly to my hand." Chelsea announced before discarding a Spell Card and retrieving the monster from her grave. "Now I activate my Lightning Recharge Spell Card, since I have two thunder type monsters with less than 1500 attack points in my graveyard I can remove both cards from play and in exchange I can draw twice." Chelsea pocketed the two cards before drawing twice. _"Pride of the Weak, unfortunately the only card in my hand that fits the bill is Wattdragonfly." _Chelsea thought before playing it. "First I activated Pride of the Weak."

"Pity you have too many cards in your hand for it to work." Miranda pointed out and Chelsea frowned.

"True but this is just so I don't forget about it once I do have a non-existent hand." Chelsea nodded before playing a card. "For now I summon the monster I recovered with Monster Reincarnation, welcome back Wattdragonfly!" Chelsea played the card and the dragonfly returned to the field (2/900/100).

"You're probably wondering what card to attack with, let me make that decision easy for you." Beth said as her trap flipped up depicting the infamous Ojama Trio charging into battle against a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Weak Strike forces you to attack my facedown monster with the weakest card on your side of the field on the condition that that card has less than a thousand attack points and if it's destroyed by the subsequent battle any battle damage is nullified."

"_Great, knowing my luck that facedown card's something with a high defense." _Chelsea thought before pointing to Wattdragonfly. "Well, it's your funeral, Wattdragonfly attack her defense!" Chelsea commanded and the dragonfly flew towards the facedown card; however her eyes widened when she saw the card. "Please tell me that's not Giant Germ (2/1000/100)!?" Chelsea yelled out as the monster's hologram shattered, Miranda didn't answer the question as the fact that Chelsea's life-points had dropped to 6900 answered it for her. "I'm guessing you have two more of those things on the way?"

"You got it." Miranda nodded as the two more Giant Germs appeared on the field both in attack mode. "So, you plan on attacking again?"

"Yeah but I'm not dumb enough to attack those things." Chelsea said before pointing at Miranda. "Wattchimera, bypass her monsters and attack directly!" Chelsea commanded and the beast leapt towards Miranda…

"Not this time Chelsea, I activate Attack Guidance Armor!" Miranda's trap flipped up and the strange armor attached itself to the germ. "In the past this would only work if you targeted another monster but thanks to I2's ruling that said it could be used to prevent direct attacks….."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Chelsea grumbled as Wattchimera ripped the germ to shreds bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 6400 and Miranda's down to 5100. "I still have the lead though."

"Yeah, you do, but for how long?" Miranda asked and Chelsea frowned.

"I'll keep it long enough to win this duel! I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the card down and Miranda drew her card.

"Man this bites!" Tyler and Chloe blinked before looking up and seeing a visibly frustrated Marcus sitting down in the seat across from them. "First I'm facing possible expulsion and now this!"

"Something wrong Marcus?" Chloe asked and Marcus turned to her.

"You remember how I summoned Five Headed Dragon with Future Fusion back in Battle City?" Marcus asked and the two duelists nodded. "Well I was planning on doing the same thing in my expulsion duel but that strategy's now gone out the window."

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked and Marcus sighed.

"They just released the upcoming forbidden list for the next format right? Well Maria gave me and the other students a sneak peek at it, Future Fusion's banned!" Marcus said as he held up his Spell Card. "What's worse is that the list will go into effect the day before the expulsion duels."

"That's too bad, though if you ask me that card should've been banned when the last Forbidden List was made official due to Chaos Dragons." Tyler added and Marcus glared at him. "I realize that isn't exactly helping but I'm just stating my opinion."

"If you say so but now I need a new tactic!" Marcus groaned before pocketing the card. "So, err, how did the duel between you two go?"

"You heard huh?" Chloe asked and Marcus nodded. "I almost won but he used a trap to reflect Silent Magician's attack."

"Forgot to set Seven Tools of the Bandit again?" Marcus asked and Chloe rolled her eyes at the comment. "So who's the girl Chelsea's dueling?"

"That's my step-sister Miranda." Tyler told him and Marcus blinked. "So far Chelsea's winning but I wouldn't count Miranda out yet,"

"Since I've drawn again my Shard gains a new counter." Miranda said as her Spell Card glowed again. "But my shard won't stay around for much longer, by sacrificing when it has two or more counters I can draw two cards." Miranda said as her Spell Card's hologram shattered and she drew twice, she took one look at one of her drawn cards and grinned. "Well, well, it seems my luck's paying off early."

"What do you mean? You drew a good card?" Chelsea asked as her eyes narrowed. _"Well, whatever it is I can tell that I won't like it based on the look on her face alone." _Chelsea thought as she watched her opponent make her move.

"Well actually I made two good draws." Miranda said before playing a card. "And it starts with this Spell Card, Soul Exchange!"

"Did you say Soul Exchange?! Oh crap, now you can sacrifice one of your monsters for a high level monster!" Chelsea gulped as it dawned on her.

"That's right, so I sacrifice my remaining Giant Germ and Wattchimera to summon…well I think this guy needs no introduction….." Miranda played the card and both monsters vanished from the field, in the place of her Giant Germ stood the famous Blue-Eyes White Dragon (8/3000/2500).

"Oh great, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and something tells me that that's not a reprint." Chelsea gulped as she took a step back.

"That's right; I have the originals in my deck courtesy of my dad." Miranda said with a nod before frowning. "Unfortunately I can't attack due to Soul Exchange's side effect so you can consider yourself lucky for now." Miranda added and Chelsea sighed in relief. "I end my turn." Miranda announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Oh great, off all the times to NOT have Honest in my hand, with it I could've taken down that glorified beat stick." _Chelsea thought before switching Wattdragonfly to defense mode and setting a card facedown. "That's all I can do for now." Chelsea sighed and Miranda drew her card.

"I play another one of my father's favorites, Card of Demise, with this I can draw until I have five cards in my hand but in exchange I have to toss my entire hand in five turns." Miranda played the card and drew until she had five cards in her hand. _"All right, I have my other Blue-Eyes White Dragons here in my hand, just gotta draw something like Polymerization and the duel's mine!" _Miranda thought before pointing to Wattdragonfly. "Blue-Eyes, exterminate Wattdragonfly with White Lightning!" Miranda commanded and the dragon launched its famous attack at the much weaker monster destroying it.

"I activate Wattdragonfly's effect again." Chelsea said before picking up and searching through her deck. "This time I'll use it to summon Wattaildragon in defense mode!" Chelsea played the card and her sole dragon appeared on the field crouching down (6/2500/1000).

"Fine, I'll get past your defenses eventually." Miranda shrugged before picking up a card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Miranda set the card down and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Great, I have my strongest monster on the field and yet it still isn't strong enough to beat that thing!" _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Hello…" _Chelsea thought with a grin before adding it to her hand. "First I switch my Dragon to attack mode!" Chelsea announced and Miranda raised an eyebrow as the monster stood up

"You know there's easier ways to surrender than attacking my dragon with weaker ones right?" Miranda asked and Chelsea grinned.

"Funny, but your dragon's not my target." Chelsea said before playing a card. "It's you!"

"Huh?" Miranda blinked before her eyes widened when she recognized the Spell Card. "Wattkey? Oh crap, that'll let you attack directly with your dragon!"

"You got it!" Chelsea said before pointing at her monster. "Wattaildragon, attack her life-points!" Chelsea commanded and the dragon launched its attack…..

"I set this encase you drew one of your Watt Monsters that can attack directly but this'll do nicely." Miranda said before activating her trap. "Defense Draw here reduces the damage I would've taken to zero and lets me draw a card." Miranda drew her card and Chelsea growled.

"Great, I just wasted one of my best Spell Cards." Chelsea grumbled before sending the Spell to the grave. "I end my turn." Chelsea announced and Miranda drew her card. "Five turns before Card of Demise's side effect kicks in by the way."

"I know." Miranda said with a nod before looking at her cards. _"Not what I was hoping for but it'll help." _Miranda thought before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown, now Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack Wattaildragon with White Lightning!" Miranda commanded and the dragon launched its attack at Wattaildragon incinerating it and bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 5900. "That'll end my turn." Miranda announced and Chelsea drew her card. "I wouldn't get any ideas about your defenses helping you, I activate Dragon's Rage."

"Crap, that card means your overgrown lizard can now inflict piercing damage." Chelsea said with a frown before looking at her drawn card. "_But this trap could help me." _Chelsea thought before setting it. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"Suit yourself." Miranda shrugged before drawing her card. "Before you say anything, yes I know I have four turns left before I have to toss my hand for Card of Demise's effect." Miranda added before looking at her card. _"I'll save this for later." _Miranda decided before adding the card to her hand and pointing to Chelsea's facedown card. "Blue-Eyes, you know what to do." Miranda commanded and the dragon launched its famous attack at the monster, revealed to be Wattcobra (4/1000/500) which was disintegrated by the blast bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 3400.

"You may have destroyed Wattcobra, and I good chunk of my life-points, but by doing so you've let me activate his effect!" Chelsea said before picking up her deck. "With it I can add a Watt monster from my deck to my hand." Chelsea explained before adding a card to her hand.

"Maybe but how long can you hold out before my dragon destroys the rest of your life-points?" Miranda asked before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Miranda announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"I activate the effect of Thunder Seahorse (4/1600/1200) from my hand, by sending this card to the graveyard I can add two Level 4 Light Attribute Thunder Type monsters with 1600 or less attack points too my hand." Chelsea announced before discarding the card, picking up her deck and searching through it, she found the cards she was looking for and added them to her hand._ "This had better work." _Chelsea thought before activating her trap. "I activate Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri!"

"I should've known you would have a card like that." Miranda said before shaking her head. "I have no traps in my hand so go ahead."

"Gladly, I'm using my trap to Special Summon Wattfox from my Banished area." Chelsea retrieved the monster from her pocket and the tuner monster returned to the field. "Now I activate my other trap card Judgment of Thunder."

"Oh crap." Miranda gulped as lightning struck the famous dragon destroying it.

"You think that's bad? Things are about to get worse for ya, I summon a monster I retrieved from my deck with Thunder Seahorse, Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the card and the electric cobra reappeared on the field (4/1000/500).

"So, you're planning on bringing Wattchimera out again? Please, I beat him once and I'll do it again." Miranda scoffed and Chelsea's grin widened.

"Not exactly, I have another card I want to play." Chelsea said before playing a card. "Synchro Boost, it increases my Cobra's attack points by 500 and its level by one, in short I'm going for a Level 7 Synchro Summon."

"Oh boy, we know what that means." Marcus gulped as Chelsea's two monsters leapt into the air, Wattfox dissolved into two green glowing rings that quickly surrounded Wattfox, once the flash faded Watthydra appeared on the field in Wattcobra's place (7/1500/1500).

"It's time I evened the score a bit, Watthydra attack her life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the Hydra charged towards Miranda before biting her taking her life-points down to 3600.

"You may have damaged my life-points but by doing so you've activated my Damage Gate Trap Card." Miranda activated the trap retrieved a card from her graveyard. "With this trap I can Special Summon a monster from my graveyard with an attack equal to or less than the damage I just took so welcome back Giant Germ!" Miranda played the card and one of her germs reappeared on the field.

"Yeah, well that's not all my attack did." Chelsea told her before picking up her deck. "When Watthydra successfully attacks your life-points I can select one card in my deck and remove it from play, why would I do that? That's simple, because in two turns I'll be able to add that card to my hand." Chelsea found the card she was looking for and pocketed it to her hand without hesitation. "I end my turn." Chelsea added and Miranda drew her card.

"_Better be careful, that card could be something that protects her monster." _Miranda thought before looking at the card she drew. "And yes, I know I only have three turns left before I have to discard my hand." Miranda added before looking at the card she drew. "I activate my Magic Planter Spell Card, in exchange for destroying Dragon's Rage I get to draw two cards." Miranda played the card and Dragon's Rage shattered before she drew twice. "I set a card in defense mode; switch my germ to defense mode and a card facedown." Miranda set the two cards and the holograms appeared on the field. "That ends my turn." Miranda announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"If you think playing defensively will help you then you're wrong, like most of my Watt Monsters Watthydra can bypass your defenses and attack directly!" Chelsea announced and the hydra charged towards Miranda…

"Not this time Chelsea, I activate my trap card Defense of the Royals." Miranda's trap flipped up revealing a large castle which several duel monsters where trying to attack. "This is a pretty situational card so listen up, it can only be activated if I have three Level 8 or higher monsters with the same name and any number of them must be in my hand and my graveyard at the same time, as long as those conditions are met you can't attack directly."

"Do I at least get to change my target?" Chelsea asked and Miranda nodded. "Fine, Watthydra attack her defense monster!" Chelsea commanded and the hydra changed course taking a bite out of the facedown monster, revealed to be Peten the Dark Clown (3/500/1200) which was quickly destroyed.

"I activate the effect of Peten the Dark Clown." Miranda said before pocketing the monster. "You see, by removing him from play I can special summon another from my deck." Miranda pocketed the monster before searching through her deck and playing the card she was looking for, sure enough another copy of the clown appeared on the field in defense mode.

"_Great, knowing my luck she's going to sacrifice both of them to bring out another Blue-Eyes White Dragon." _ Chelsea thought having figured out for herself that Miranda had another copy of the card in her hand thanks to Miranda's Defense of the Royals trap. "I end my turn." Chelsea announced begrudgingly and Miranda drew her card. "Two more turns to go."

"I can count you know." Miranda pointed out before looking at her drawn card. _"Perfect, I have the third piece of my puzzle in my hand." _Miranda thought before setting the card down. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Miranda announced and Chelsea blinked before drawing her card. "Let me guess, you were expecting me to use my monsters as tributes for my second dragon?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Chelsea nodded before reaching into her pocket. "Since it's been two turns since I used Watthydra's effect the card I banished for its effect goes to my hand." Chelsea retrieved the card she was looking for and added it to her hand. "Watthydra, attack Peten again!" Chelsea commanded and the hydra charged towards the spellcaster before biting him in two.

"I activate Peten's effect one last time." Miranda removed the second spellcaster from play before searching through her deck and summoning the third in defense mode.

"You'll run out of ways to defend yourself eventually." Chelsea said confidently before picking up the card she retrieved from her pocket and set it facedown. "I end my turn by setting one card facedown, and not to sound like a broken record but in one more turn…"

"I'll have to toss my entire hand, yes I know." Miranda interrupted her as she drew her card. _"This will help."_ Miranda thought before playing the card she drew. "I activate a Spell Card called Burial from a Different Dimension which I use to send the two Dark Clowns I removed from play back to my graveyard." Miranda played the card and returned the two monsters to her graveyard. "Now I play Pot of Avarice!" Miranda played the card and retrieved Enraged Battle Ox, the two Giant Germs and the two Dark Clowns from her graveyard before she returned the cards to her deck, shuffled it and drew twice.

"Great, now you can maintain your defenses with both of your monsters." Chelsea grunted in annoyance as Miranda looked over her cards.

"_If all goes to plan that will be the least of her worries." _Miranda thought before looking at her newly drawn cards. "I set these cards facedown just in case and end my turn at that." Miranda set the two cards down and Chelsea drew her card.

"_She didn't sacrifice her monsters again but why? That was her last chance since her hand will go to the graveyard next turn." _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Wattgiraffe, as long as she has that damn trap card on the field he's pretty much useless." _Chelsea thought before adding the card to her hand. "Watthydra, attack her Dark Clown!" Chelsea commanded and the hydra charged towards the clown before biting it in two.

"You should know the drill by now." Miranda said before pocketing the card and special summoning another copy of the Dark Clown in defense mode. "Judging by the look on your face that's all you can do."

"Pretty much yeah, I end my turn." Chelsea announced and Miranda drew her card. "And you know what that means."

"Yeah, I have to toss my entire hand due to Card of Demise's side effect." Miranda discarded her hand and folded her arms. "And since I technically don't have a hand Defense of the Royals goes to the graveyard." Miranda added as her trap card shattered, Chelsea grinned briefly before noticing the grin on her opponent's face. "But what if I told you that tossing my hand for Card of Demise's side effect was my plan all along?"

"Say what?" Chelsea asked the confusion evident on her facial features.

"I'll let my facedown card explain for me, I activate Dragon's Mirror." Miranda activated the card and retrieved three of her cards from the graveyard. "This Spell Card lets me fusion summon a Dragon Type Monster using cards in my hand or my graveyard, I'd tell you what it is but I'll let you see for yourself." Miranda said before turning the three cards around and all color drained from Chelsea's face when she saw them.

"The Blue-Eyes White Dragons….." Chelsea trailed off as it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Oh no, don't tell me you're going to summon THAT monster, are you?!"

"Well, that depends; do you know any other Fusion Monsters that require these three legendary dragons to summon him? Didn't think so, I fuse my three dragons together to fusion summon The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" Miranda played the card and with a mighty roar the massive three headed version of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field (12/4500/3800). "Sorry Chelsea, you've dueled well but this duel's over, first I switch Peten the Dark Clown and Giant Germ to attack mode!" Miranda switched the cards and Peten stood up whilst Giant Germ made a slight movement. "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, slay Watthydra with Neutron Blast!" Miranda commanded and the dragon charged up its attack…

"Sorry but I'm about to win this, not you! I activate Magic Arm Shield to drag your Dark Clown into the path of the blast!" Miranda's eyes widened as Peten was pulled into the blast, the two girls sheltered themselves from the blast that vaporized the Dark Clown. "Well thanks for the duel; I'd say it was a blast but….."

"But that would not only be a bad pun but inaccurate as well." Miranda interrupted her and Chelsea blinked before looking at her score and seeing that Miranda had 600 life-points left.

"How the fuck did you survive that?! You only had 3600 life-points left." Chelsea demanded before noticing that Miranda had activated a facedown card. "Emergency Provisions, should've guessed."

"That's right; since I just sent my other facedown card to the graveyard this Spell gave me just enough life-points to survive this round." Miranda said before frowning. "Off course, as a result of this you can now use Watthydra to finish me off."

"And believe me; I intend to do just that." Chelsea said with a grin as it hit her. "My turn yet?" Chelsea asked and Miranda nodded, Chelsea drew her card, looked at it briefly before pointing to her hydra. "Watthydra, bring this duel to a close!" Chelsea commanded and the hydra charged towards Miranda…..only to hit a forcefield. "What now? You didn't set any traps and even if you did….."

"Technically I did." Miranda said before holding up the card she sent to the graveyard with Emergency Provisions which had the image of a decomposed hand shooting up from a grave, holding a hand full of duel monster cards. "The card I sent to the graveyard with Emergency Provisions is a special one called Defense from Beyond, it's special because it's a Trap Card that can only be activated by removing it from my graveyard but only if it was set facedown first, by removing it from play I can force you to end your battle phase."

"Damn it, that means you can finish me off next turn." Chelsea grunted in annoyance before looking at her hand. "I have to end my turn." Chelsea grumbled as Miranda drew her card; however both girls knew it was merely a formality.

"_Megamorph, with this I can finish her off in one hit from my Dragon." _Miranda thought before shaking her head. _"No, I've already got her beat, no point in going for the overkill." _Miranda thought before she added the card to her hand and switching Peten to attack mode. "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, it's time you finished what you started last turn, attack Watthydra with Neutron Blast!" Miranda commanded and the dragon launched its attack at Chelsea bringing her life-points down to 400. "Peten, finish her off with Bloodlust Slash!" Miranda commanded and the clown vanished.

"Where did that clown g…..AGH!" Chelsea yelled out in pain as Dark Clown slashed her across the chest bringing her life-points down to 0. "Great, that's two matches I've lost in a low." Chelsea grumbled as she gathered up her cards.

"Yeah but if it weren't for my quick thinking you would've beaten me." Miranda said as she approached the younger duelist, Chelsea noticed that she was still holding the sole card in her hand and her eyes widened when she saw the card in question.

"Megamorph…..most Obelisk Blue students I know would've played that for the added humiliation." Chelsea commented and Miranda frowned.

"I'm not most Obelisk Blue Students Chelsea, neither is my brother for that matter." Miranda told her before gathering up her cards and returning them to her deck and Chelsea did likewise. "Still you perform like that on Friday and you'll have no problems winning your expulsion duel."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Chelsea said with a small smile before noticing that Tyler, Chloe and Marcus where approaching them. "Seems I can't get any luck recently huh?"

"Considering you almost beat her I wouldn't say that." Tyler said as he stepped onto the podium before helping up Chloe and Marcus. "If it's any consolation you did better than most duelists in your dorm have done in the past."

"Tyler, I don't think that's helping." Chloe chimed in and the student sweat-dropped once he realized that she was right.

"Hey, Miranda was it?" Marcus asked and she turned to him. "You have any ideas on where I can get my hands on a copy of that Dragon's Mirror card….."

"You got his by that damn banned list as well huh?" Miranda asked and Marcus nodded. "Damn Chaos Dragons, all I was doing was using Future Fusion to make summoning my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon easier but they had to go and ruin it, if you ask me it should've been Eclipse Wyvern instead." Miranda muttered under her breath before reaching into her pocket. "I don't have a spare copy on me but I know the card shop got a recent shipment of those cards among others."

"Thanks for the info." Marcus said with a nod before leaving the Duel Field to head over to the card shop, Miranda shook her head and turned to her brother.

"I know she challenged you to prepare herself for her expulsion duel but do you think your duel with Chloe was enough to prepare you?" Miranda asked and Tyler nodded.

"I certainly like to think so." Tyler nodded before noticing a familiar face approaching. "Don't look now but we've got company." Tyler told them and the three students turned around and saw Tracy approaching them. "I thought you had a class to teach?"

"I did, it finished in the middle of the duel between Chloe and Tyler." Tracy corrected him before frowning. "Miranda, you mind giving us some privacy? Need to talk to these guys about what's happening on Friday."

"Sure, my class is starting soon anyway." Miranda said after checking her schedule, she left the arena and once she did Tracy turned to Chelsea.

"Who did you think you where fooling with that story you spun yesterday Chelsea?" Tracy asked and the student blinked. "Checking out the Abandoned Dorm for the hell of it? You're not exactly a model student but you're not stupid."

"It's the truth!" Chelsea asserted and Tracy's eyes narrowed.

"Is it really? Because I asked around the students and night time staff after yesterday's little meeting and as it turns out some students reported hearing the two of you and the guys from Ra Yellow screaming, that's not exactly something I'd expect from a pair of students sneaking off to an Abandoned Dorm as a joke or trying to save their friends." Tracy pointed out the students winced as did Marcus who had just come back from the card shop with a copy of Dragon's Mirror in his deck. "Look I don't want you guys to get expelled but your story has more holes in it than Swiss cheese!"

"Well if you want to be nick-picky that's too da….." Chelsea started but was stopped by Tyler who gave her a stern look, she quickly shut up.

"We'll tell you the truth but not here, we'd prefer to do it somewhere a bit quieter." Tyler responded as his eyes narrowed. "Besides that this will give Andreas, Lance, Brandon and Theresa a chance to join in the discussion."

"Good point, meet me in my office at the Obelisk Blue Girl's dorm in an hour, that should give you enough time to tell the others since Andreas and Lance should be out of class by now." Tracy said before leaving the duel field, once she left Chelsea turned to Tyler.

"Why'd you interrupt me?" Chelsea asked bluntly and Tyler turned to her.

"Because it was clear to me that she saw right through the story you came up with, arguing about it would've made things worse." Tyler told her and Chelsea's eyes narrowed. "You may not like it but at the moment it seems that we only have two supporters on the staff, Hamden and Tracy."

"That's assuming she'll even believe the truth!" Chelsea pointed out with an annoyed scowl. "You want to make yourself sound crazy in front of the top ranked female teacher? Be my guest, I'll miss out on this meeting thank you very….."

"You'll do no such thing." Tyler interrupted sternly and Chelsea turned to him. "Tracy may seem even stricter than Martin but she has our best interest at heart, besides that she's one of the best duelists among the teachers, we'll only benefit from whatever guidance she offers us."

"Ugh, fine, but if we get shipped off to some mental asylum don't say I didn't tell you so!" Chelsea snapped at him before storming off. "I'm off to my dorm room, I need some time to cool off anyway." Chelsea added before walking off.

"I'm going after her." Chloe said as she hopped off the podium. "Who knows? Maybe I can help her calm down." Chloe added before leaving.

"Her temper may scare me but I'm in the same vote as Chelsea." Marcus said as he folded his arms. "No offense but I don't see this ending well for any off us."

"We'll think of something." Tyler told him before the two students left. _"I hope so anyway." _Tyler thought as they left the duel field.


	60. When Duel Monsters Attack

"Ugh, I can't believe this bullshit!" Chelsea yelled out as she plopped down on the top bunk of the bed, she had gotten there a few minutes ago but was still angry at the situation back at the duel field, she lay back on the bed and rested her hands behind her head. "I made up that story as I went along with the others help, what did she expect, a fucking perfect cover story?!"

"You know, talking to yourself is a sign of mental illness." Chloe's voice rang out and Chelsea looked up to see her roommate at the door. "Chelsea, you'd better calm down before the meeting with Tracy, do you really want to get in more trouble?"

"Not in the mood Chloe." Chelsea sighed in annoyance as she looked at her roommate. "Besides I'm facing possible expulsion no thanks to your damn duel spirit, at this point I don't think it's possible to get in anymore trouble."

"Knowing the teachers they'll find a way." Chloe said before shaking her head. "Look I don't mean to nag you, I'm just….."

"Concerned? I can look after myself." Chelsea asserted and Chloe frowned.

"Fine, don't come crying to me when your parents ship you off to military academy." Chloe said sternly and Chelsea's expression darkened.

"What the fuck did you just say?!" Chelsea demanded and Chloe turned to her.

"I'm just being honest with you Chelsea, you may have a second chance this time but what if you face possible expulsion for a second time and they're not so willing to give you a second chance?" Chloe pointed out and Chelsea went to say something but stopped herself short before sighing.

"God damn it, as much as I hate to admit it, you're right." Chelsea grunted as she stared at her roommate. "I'm sorry for snapping at you as well, I'm just under a lot of stress."

"We all are." Chloe pointed out as she sat down on the chair facing the coffee table. "But getting angry about it won't help at all."

"It's not my fault she had to be nick-picky." Chelsea grunted before hopping off the bunk and going over to her laptop. "I need to be prepared for Miranda if we face her in the tournament."

"We don't even know who she's teaming up with." Chloe pointed out as Chelsea started up her laptop. "How do you plan on preparing for her anyway? There's only one thunder monster I can think off who's attack points come close to her dragons and that's Twin Headed Thunder Dragon."

"Yeah and that thing doesn't exactly fit in with a Watt deck." Chelsea said with a grin before remembering something. "Oh yeah, almost forgot, whilst you were at the boy's dorm a couple of packages arrived for you, I signed for them in your place since I didn't know how long you'd be." Chelsea told her before grabbing the packages and handing them over.

"Thanks but I only remember ordering one thing, namely a new Sword and Sorcery novel." Chloe thanked her before opening the packages, the first one was indeed the book that she had ordered, and namely the Sword and Sorcery Anthology by Robert E. Howard, but the other thing confused her. "Someone sent me Duel Monster Cards?"

"Who's it from?" Chelsea asked and Chloe checked the return address.

"It's from my step-dad's card shop; I guess he's trying to help me win my expulsion duel." Chloe said before opening up the pack and looking through them. "Nice, these will help my deck a lot!"

"I hope so." Chelsea said with a nod as she signed into her laptop. "Here's one thing I don't get, if Tracy suspected that we weren't being entirely truthful, yes I realize how big an understatement that is, then why didn't she say anything at the meeting?"

"Good question." Chloe agreed as she added her new cards to her deck. "Maybe she had class to teach and didn't want to be held up any longer?"

"Maybe, I'll ask her when we get to her office." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders as she clicked on the icon for the Firefox application. "Okay…shouldn't be too hard to find the online store….." Chelsea said before something else caught her eye, an e-mail more specifically. "Looks like I've got mail."

"Who's it from?" Chloe asked as she started reading her book,

"Eh, just the usual, Beth's asking if I'm going over to her dorm tonight, annual school newsletter and an e-mail from Tracy…..okay that's definitely not the usual e-mail I get." Chelsea admitted before checking her e-mail. "Tracy wants to see us, guess the hour she gave us just flew by." Chelsea said before closing the laptop lid. "Let's go."

"Sure, just let me put a bookmark in this book." Chloe said before grabbing a nearby sheet of paper and putting it on the page that she was reading, once that was done she left the dorm room with Chelsea.

*elsewhere on the island*

Whilst the students facing expulsion where making their way to the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm two students were preparing for the tag team tournament on the North Side of the island.

The duelists where an Obelisk Blue Student called Jason York and an Osiris Red Student called Nicky Tryon, despite their differences they had gotten along well as Jason was one of the few Obelisk Blue Students who helped out the Osiris Red Students regularly.

The duel field looked like this, Jason, a tall lanky student with short black hair, a matching goatee and blue eyes, had two facedown monsters and a facedown card on the field whilst Nicky, a short girl with long red hair and blue eyes, had Rare Metal Dragon (4/2400/1200) on her side of the field and one face-up card, namely Call of the Haunted which was how she had summoned the dragon, her deck was running low as Jason ran an Empty Jar deck, Jason had 1300 life-points left and Nicky had 2000 life-points left.

"Okay Nicky, first I flip my facedown monster into attack mode!" Jason announced as the facedown monster flipped up, Nicky groaned when she saw that it was Morphing Jar (2/700/600) but reluctantly tossed the four cards in her hand before drawing four times, Jason did likewise and flipped his facedown card up. "Now I activate Assault on FGD."

"Oh come on!" Nicky groaned as Morphing Jar shattered and she reluctantly discarded the top two cards from her deck leaving her with one single card left in her deck.

"Sorry Nicky but next turn the duel's mine!" Jason said before setting the card he had just drawn down. "I end my turn with this face-down card.

"Right, it's my move." Nicky said before drawing her card, she grinned when she saw it. "What luck! The last card in my deck is the one I was hoping to draw."

"You don't mean…" Jason trailed off as she picked up her copy of Rare Metal Dragon.

"Yep, I sacrifice Rare Metal Dragon to summon Strong Wind Dragon!" Nicky played the card and the metallic dragon disappeared from the field, in its place stood the mighty green dragon from Eddie's duel with Lance (6/2400/1000) and its attack shot up to 3600 thanks to its effect. "I know that facedown card is Spear Creatin but that won't help you now due to Strong Wind's trampling effect, attack!" Nicky commanded and the dragon beat its wings, it was indeed the monster she had mentioned (2/500/500) as Jason had set it down with Morphing Jar Number 2, the monster's hologram shattered…

"Well if this isn't a good time for me to activate my face-down card I don't know what is! Go Blasting The Ruins! Since I have over thirty cards in my graveyard this Trap will deal three thousand points of damage to you!" Nicky's eyes widened as the blast hit her, the two duelist's life-points hit zero at the same time ending the match in a draw and both duelists deactivated their duel disks. "Good effort Nicky, you're definitely getting better."

"Yeah thanks, we still need to think of a way to make our decks gel though." Nicky said begrudgingly as she gathered up her cards.

"Err, Nicky, you turned off your duel disk right?!" Jason asked and Nicky blinked before looking up, the hologram of Strong Wind Dragon was still on the field…..or was it?

"Yeah, I did!" Nicky called out as she looked at her duel disk. "Don't tell me this thing's malfunctioning again….." Nicky never finished as she was hit in the ribs by Strong Wind Dragon's tail sending her flying eventually landing near a tree.

"NICKY!" Jason called out to her before running up to her. "You okay? Say something!"

"That…..that's no hologram!" Nicky said weakly and Jason turned to Strong Wind Dragon…..

*elsewhere on the island*

Whilst that was going on the students facing expulsion had just come out of the meeting and where meeting in the center of the island as they had class soon, they had told Tracy the truth and she had dismissed them so that she could contemplate on it.

"I'm still not happy about it." Lance said as he walked with the other students. "Now she probably thinks we're crazy!"

"I'd say it could be worse but I can't really think of a scenario that could be worse than that." Chloe told them as she walked towards the main building…..

"HELP ME! A DUEL MONSTER'S COME TO LIFE AND IS ATTACKING ME!" The students blinked before seeing Jason run past them with a look of panic on his face.

"….What did he say?!" The students asked simultaneously as they looked at Jason strangely, before they could continue they heard a loud roar coming from overhead and they looked up, Strong Wind Dragon was directly above them growling menacingly, it took them a few moments for it to sink in before they started to panic.

"Great! I still have nightmares about facing that thing in Battle City!" Lance yelled out with a gulp as he and the others stared down the dragon, soon enough the students started to panic before making a break for their dorms.

"Okay, can someone explain why every single student is late for cla….." Martin demanded as he and the other teachers came out of the main building, he only stopped short when he saw the dragon. "What on Earth is going on?"

"We need to get as far away from that thing as possible!" Chelsea yelled out as they ran towards the east side of the island.

"Gee, thanks Sherlock, what's your next brilliant deduction?" Lance asked her sarcastically as they ran off…

"_Chloe, wait!" _Silent Magician's voice rang out and Chloe paused. _"Summon me to face that dragon!"_

"_Are you crazy!?" _Chloe responded as the dragon touched down in front of her.

"_Trust me!" _Silent Magician responded and Chloe activated her duel disk without a second thought, it was at that point that her friends noticed what she was up too.

"Chloe, what the hell are you doing?! RUN!" Chelsea yelled out to her and Chloe gave her roommate a reassuring look.

"We need to leave, now! Chloe can catch up later!" Tyler said before grabbing Chelsea by the hand and trying to drag her off with the others, they barely made it five feet however before Chelsea broke free of Tyler's grip

"Fuck this! I'm not leaving her to face that thing alone! I'm getting her out of there!" Chelsea yelled out before turning around the running towards Chloe, however she didn't get far however before Strong Wind Dragon sent her, alongside several other students flying with a beat of its wings before knocking down several other students with its tail, Chloe was able to stand her ground however and quickly searched through her deck.

"_You had better know what you're doing Silent Magician!" _Chloe thought before playing the card, seconds later Silent Magician Level 8 appeared in front of her.

"Does she really think a hologram's going to work?" Chelsea yelled out as she got to her feet.

"Duel Spirit, I know you're angry and confused." Silent Magician called out to the dragon causing several people to do a double take. "Please, allow me to return you to your home before you hurt anyone else." Silent Magician pleaded and the dragon charged towards her, Silent Magician charged up her staff before firing a beam of light at the dragon that consumed it, seconds later Silent Magician herself vanished and Chloe deactivated her duel disk.

"Holy shit, what just happened?" Chelsea wondered as she ran up to her roommate, Chloe was about to say something before Chelsea winced in pain. "Argh, that smarts!" Chelsea groaned as the students started to calm down, Jason soon returned and started panting for breath.

"Jason, what happened?" Theresa asked the student who looked up at her.

"I'm…..I'm not sure, one minute I was having a friendly match with my partner in the upcoming Tag Team Tournament, the next, I'm running for my life from a monster she summoned." Jason said as he caught his breath. "Nicky…she was injured in the process; she's over on the North Side of the island."

"We'll send a medical team to fetch her." Martin said as he approached the student, medics where starting to pour out of the building to tend to the students that were injured. "York, Richardson, meet me in my office." Martin called out to them and the students nodded before he turned to the rest of the students. "Because of the incident the rest of today's classes are cancelled, I think you've all had a bit too much excitement today." Martin said and the crowd normally would've been happy at that news, but they were still shaken by what had just happened.

*a few minutes later*

"That's what happened." Jason told Martin as he and Chloe stood in his office, Jeff was with Martin and both teachers where equally concerned, the injured students where now in the infirmary and they were waiting on news about them.

"I see, and you have no idea what caused it?" Martin asked and Jason shook his head. "We're going to need something for the press release; it won't take long for news of this to reach the mainland." Martin pointed out and Jason thought for a few minutes.

"My guess is that Nicky's duel disk malfunctioned, she was complaining about that shortly before her dragon attacked her." Jason shrugged and Martin stroked his chin.

"Yes, that does make sense." Martin said before turning to Chloe. "Now onto you Chloe, if it weren't for your intervention then more students would be in the infirmary."

"I know but I honestly don't know why I did it." Chloe said as the teachers turned to her. "I just knew I had to do something."

"Chloe, you realize you could've been killed right?" Jeff pointed out and Chloe gulped before nodding. "Still, if it weren't for you a lot more students would be in the infirmary so I can't chastise you for that."

"Just don't make a habit of it Chloe." Martin added and Chloe nodded. "You may be an Osiris Red Student but you're still under our care, as you can imagine we don't want the students under our care to be injured or worse."

"I understand." Chloe sighed before nodding. "Can I go? My roommate was among the ones injured and I want to see how she's doing."

"Yes, you are free to go." Martin said with a nod and Chloe left the office and walked down to the infirmary with her hands in her jeans pockets.

"Let me guess, Silent Magician told you to stay behind and let her do her thing?" Theresa asked as she approached her, Chloe nodded as she turned to her. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened."

"You and me both, maybe we should ask our duel spirits what happened." Chloe suggested and Theresa nodded in agreement. "You weren't injured where you?"

"No, I managed to avoid injury." Theresa told her and Chloe sighed in relief. "I should be asking you the same thing really."

"Yeah, I guess you should, don't worry Theresa, I managed to get away injury free as well, though the teachers did warn me about pulling stunts like that." Chloe responded and Theresa smiled. "I can't blame them but at the same time it felt good to help out, you know?"

"I hear you." Theresa said with a nod as they approached the infirmary. "I'm guessing you want to check on Chelsea?"

"Yeah, she probably wouldn't be injured if I hadn't stood my ground, that and she's my roommate and my friend." Chloe nodded as she opened the door, the infirmary was full of groaning students who were still feeling the after effects of what happened but they did let out a small cheer when they saw Chloe.

"Chloe, I'm over here." Chelsea called out to her and the two girls approached her, the top that Chelsea was wearing under her blazer was rolled up revealing her bandaged ribs. "Good news is we somehow got off with minor injuries and the nurse wants us to take some time off dueling for a few days."

"That's a relief." Theresa breathed a sigh of relief. "What's the bad news?"

"The nurse also said I should be healthy enough to duel by Friday meaning I still get to do my expulsion duel." Chelsea sighed in annoyance before turning to her roommate. "But on the other hand if it weren't for you things would be a lot worse."

"What can I say? I just acted on instinct." Chloe shrugged before looking around, the other students weren't paying attention and the nurse was tending to Nicky so she leant in and whispered in Chelsea's ear. "If I can be honest though, Silent Magician told me to stay."

"I figured as much." Chelsea said with a nod as Chloe leant back. "Tell your duel spirit that the whole school owes her one."

"I will do." Chloe said with a grin before the nurse walked over.

"How are you feeling Chelsea?" The nurse asked and Chelsea groaned.

"Besides my ribs hurting like hell I'm fine." Chelsea said honestly with a grin. "How long before I can get out of here doc? The boredom's killing me."

"You should be free to leave within the hour." The nurse said after checking her notes and Chelsea sighed in relief, the nurse walked off to check on the other patients and Chelsea frowned.

"So…..we don't have any idea how that happened?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head. "Great, did that Obelisk Blue Student say anything?"

"He thinks that it was a malfunctioning Duel Disk that caused it." Chloe explained and Chelsea frowned before sitting up.

"But that makes no sense; you know how tech savvy I am right?" Chelsea asked and the girls nodded. "I've had quite a few Duel Disks malfunction on me but it was never to the extent we saw earlier, there's something more to it."

"I agree and that's why we plan on asking our duel spirits about it." Chloe told her and Chelsea grinned at that. "Oh god, I just realized that my parents are going to be pissed."

"No kidding." Chelsea said with a nod. "You may have saved us but that was a pretty stupid move if you think about it…..and so was my decision to go after you….." Chelsea groaned as she leaned back. "Ah well, it can't get any worse."

*meanwhile in Domino City*

The card shop that Chloe's step-dad ran was a small one but it was quite popular, in fact before she joined Duel Academy Chloe had been helping out at the shop.

It also served as their home and as the shop was closed for the night Scott was watching TV in the front room, lying down in front of him was the family dogs, a Male Black Labrador called Rex and a female Burmese Mountain Dog called Nala who Chloe had named after watching The Lion King for the first time, Rex was two years old whilst Nala was three years old and Scott was in the middle of watching a televised tournament from England.

"_Okay, after this duel I'll take the dogs for a walk, it's the last duel of the tournament anyway." _Scott decided as he looked at the dogs, Rex was lying on his side with his eyes facing the TV whilst Nala was sitting nearby without a care in the world.

"We interrupt this program with a breaking news bulletin." The duel was interrupted by a news broadcast and Scott frowned as he had been enjoying the duel. "Disaster strikes at Duel Academy as a malfunctioning Duel Disk led to a Duel Monster known as Strong Wind Dragon attacking several students, fortunately no-one was seriously injured as a young Osiris Red Student by the name of Chloe Richardson put a stop to the dragon's rampage with her monster, we'll have more on this news story as it develops." The news report ended and cut back to the duel but any interest Scott had in the duel immediately went out the window; the two dogs had apparently heard the name of their mistress as their ears pricked up.

"_Chloe, what were you thinking?" _Scott thought as he turned to see his wife standing by the doorway with the same worried expression on her face.

*back at duel academy*

"No Mister Kaiba, we have no idea how Nicky's duel disk malfunctioned." Martin said on the video phone in his office, shortly after Chloe and Jason left for the infirmary he had gotten a call from Kaiba and to say that he wasn't in the best of moods would be an understatement.

"Mr. Wise, do you know how damaging this news is to my company's reputation?" Kaiba asked on the other end and Martin sighed.

"I understand Mr. Kaiba and rest assured, our technicians will be working night and day to find out what exactly happened." Martin reassured him and Kaiba paused to consider his answer.

"They'll have some help; my own technicians began investigating the incident as soon as word reached my office." Kaiba responded and Martin nodded. "Tell me, where my children injured?"

"No, they managed to get away without any injuries." Martin told him and Kaiba paused. "If it weren't for Ms. Richardson the injured toll would be a lot higher."

"Yes, her name was mentioned in the report." Kaiba said with a nod. "Does this change the fact that she's among the students facing expulsion?"

"Unfortunately no, what she did today was brave, I do not doubt that for a second but she did break a major rule, if she does win her expulsion duel this Friday then she'll be let off the hook." Martin responded with a sigh.

"I understand, be sure to give the girl my thanks." Kaiba said before hanging up, Martin was about to relax when he saw numerous unanswered calls, all from parents of the students here. _"That does it, before the end of the week I'm hiring a secretary." _Martin decided before noticing that Chloe's parents were among the ones that called alongside Chelsea's parents. _"I'll make them a priority for now." _Martin decided before placing a hand on the button for the PA system. "Will Chelsea Cunningham and Chloe Richardson please report to my office?"

*elsewhere*

"Oh great, now Martin wants to see us." Chelsea groaned as she and Chloe walked down the hall, she had been discharged a few minutes ago and the two girls had decided to head back to their dorm for the rest of the day so that Chelsea could rest up, that is until the message was heard. "Why does he want to see us anyway? We haven't done anything wrong…for once."

"Maybe we should head over there, just in case." Chloe suggested and Chelsea hesitated. "Oh come on, what's the worst that can happen?"

"Yeah, that's already happened." Chelsea said with a grin as she patted her injured ribs, Chelsea followed her roommate back to Martin's office and Chloe knocked on the door.

"Come in." Martin's voiced called from the other side and the two girls exchanged nervous looks before Chloe opened the door; she went in first before holding the door open for Chelsea who entered. "Good to see that you're up and about Ms. Cunningham."

"Please teach; it takes more than that to keep me down for long." Chelsea said with a confident grin. "So err, why did you want to see us anyway?"

"It actually has something to do with the incident." Martin said and the two girls blinked. "Your parents called whilst the two of you were in the infirmary, they want to speak with you." Martin explained and the two girls gulped nervously. "I'll give you a choice; you call them on your cellphones or on the video phone."

"Our cells are charging back at our dorm room." Chelsea told him and Martin nodded before pressing the dial button. "I guess I'd better get it over with, Chloe you mind if I call my parents first?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded, Martin stepped aside to let her call her parents. _"This is going to suck!" _Chelsea thought as the picture of her dad was shown on the other end. "Hi dad, I'm guessing you've heard?"

"We have Chelsea." Her dad said with a nod and Chelsea gulped. "Chelsea, what were you thinking? You could've gotten yourself killed back there."

"I know dad, I just wanted to get Chloe out of harm's way, that's all." Chelsea sighed as she glanced towards her bandaged ribs. "I think you can see the results of that."

"Yes, I can." Her dad sighed before pausing. "How are you feeling?"

"The doc gave me some painkillers before I was let go." Chelsea told him as she held up a small bottle of pills. "I've got to take them twice a day and I already took some before leaving the infirmary."

"That's good." Her dad said with a nod before sighing. "Just don't try anything like that again Chelsea, you gave us quite a scare when it was revealed that you were among the injured."

"I won't dad, I promise." Chelsea promised before her mom came into view, she was the splitting image of Chelsea but didn't have Chelsea's streaks or piercing, she and her husband chatted briefly off the phone before her dad turned to his daughter.

"Your mother wants a word as well." Her dad told her and Chelsea gulped before her dad passed the phone to her mom.

"Hi mom," Chelsea sighed as she bit her lip. "I'm guessing you want to tell me off for being a dumbass as well?" Chelsea sighed and her mom shook her head.

"Honey, what you did was reckless but you're not dumb." Her mom reassured her and Chelsea smiled at that. "Just please, don't put yourself at any unnecessary risks again, your our only daughter and we don't want to see you get hurt."

"I won't, thanks mom." Chelsea sighed before glancing at Chloe. "I gotta go; I think Chloe's parents are getting a bit anxious."

"Off course dear, don't forget to call." Chelsea's mom said before hanging up, Chelsea sighed in relief before standing up.

"That was a lot less painful then I was expecting." Chelsea said as she stepped aside to let Chloe use the phone. "Then again I doubt any earful I would've gotten from them would've been as painful as my ribs are at the moment."

"Maybe they decided to go a bit easy on you because of your injury." Chloe suggested and Chelsea merely shrugged as her roommate hit the redial button so that it would take her through to her parents. "Man, I'm not looking forward to this."

"Well, look at it this way girls it's better to get it out of the way rather than put it off." Martin reassured them and Chloe smiled at that before her dad answered the phone.

"Dad, I….." Chloe hesitated before shaking her head with a sigh. "I can tell you want to yell at me for putting myself at risk like that so get it over with, please."

"Chloe, what were you thinking? You could've been killed!" Her dad started and Chloe bit her lip. "How you managed to escape without injury is beyond me."

"I'm currently wondering that myself." Chloe said before shaking her head. "I realize I could've been killed dad but if I could go back and do it again the only change I'd make is standing up to that thing sooner."

"I understand Chloe but please understand this, your mother and I love you very much and we don't want to see you get injured or worse." Scott responded and Chloe gulped before nodding. "For now try to focus on your match this Friday and don't let what happened today distract you."

"I will dad, oh and thanks for the cards by the way." Chloe said and Scott smiled at that. "With any luck they should help me win and stay at this school."

"I'm glad you like them." Scott said with a nod. "Use them well, some of those cards weren't easy to find." Scott added before there was the sound of a dog barking in the background.

"Was that Rex or Nala?" Chloe asked with a blink and Scott looked out towards the garden.

"It was Rex; I think he's having a barking match with the other neighborhood dogs." Scott said before turning back to her. "I understand your roommate was injured as well."

"Yeah, thankfully she managed to get away with bruised ribs and nothing else." Chloe said as she glanced towards her roommate. "She tried to get me away from the dragon but got injured in the process."

"Well, tell her that we appreciate her trying to help." Scott responded and Chelsea walked up.

"I'm in the same room as her Scott, and I was happy to help, or at least try." Chelsea said sheepishly and Scott nodded. "Some of the other injured students are a bit worse off than me but thankfully no one was seriously injured."

"That's a relief." Scott said with a nod. "Look Chloe, I have to go, the dogs are in need off a walk, just remember if you need to talk my phone numbers on your cell phone."

"Okay, by dad." Chloe said before her dad hung up, she stood up and turned to Martin. "Can we go?"

"Yes, you can." Martin told them and two girls left the office, they left the main building and looked around seeing that, unlike earlier the area outside the main building, including the Obelisk Blue Boy's dorm, was almost completely deserted and the few students who were there where visibly shaken up, it didn't take Chloe long to figure out why.

"It looks like that incident has everyone shaken up." Chloe commented as the two girls walked side by side, Chelsea noticed it too and shook her head.

"Given what happened earlier are you really surprised?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head. "Let's change the subject, I'd rather not think about my injury right now."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Chloe said with a nod as the two girls neared the pathway that would take them to the east side of the island. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Don't know really…." Chelsea said with a shrug as they stopped for a rest, Chelsea winced as she felt her ribs aching. "Note to self, shrugging with bruised ribs is not a good idea." Chelsea said with a wince.

"Ah, there you are." The two girls blinked before glancing over their shoulders and seeing Tyler approaching them. "I tried your dorm room but you weren't there."

"Sorry, Martin wanted to see us." Chelsea apologized as the two girls turned around. "What's up?"

"Meet me and the others on the North Side of the island in five minutes." Tyler said plainly before walking off. "And bring your duel disks."

"Err, Tyler, the doc advised against duel disk assisted duels for a few days." Chelsea pointed out and Tyler turned to her.

"I never said anything about dueling." Tyler said plainly before walking off, the two girls exchanged uneasy looks before following him.

"So why are we following him if he doesn't intend to get any dueling done?" Chloe asked once Tyler was out of view and earshot; he was quite a bit taller than either of the two girls and had been able to walk quicker than they had.

"Who knows? I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened earlier." Chelsea said simply, she would've shrugged but she had learned her lesson from earlier. "Maybe it actually has something to do with that."

"Your guess is as good as mine." Chloe said with a simple shrug as the two girls entered the north side being careful to avoid the security cameras; they quickly located Tyler who was waiting for them with the others. "Okay Tyler, what's this about?"

"I'm not the one who you should be asking that." Tyler said simply and the two girls blinked in confusion. "More specifically we need to ask your Duel Spirit that."

"I thought it might have something to do with that." Chloe admitted as she activated her duel disk. "Will Theresa's duel spirit be joining in?"

"He will, but we decided to let you summon yours first." Theresa said with a nod and Chloe wasted no time in searching through her deck, she found the card that she was looking for and played it before waiting several seconds, that was all it took for Silent Magician to appear before them.

"Unlike the last time that this happened, I anticipated this." Silent Magician said as soon as she appeared. "My apologies to those who were injured earlier, my only regret is not contacting my protégé earlier."

"Well to be fair I was wondering whether or not my Duel Spirit Partner had lost her mind." Chloe said nonchalantly and Silent Magician cleared her throat.

"Please Chloe, this is serious." Silent Magician scolded her and Chloe gulped. "Theresa, could you summon your duel spirit?"

"I'm on it." Theresa said with a nod before searching through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and played it, seconds later Armed Dragon Level 10 appeared with a roar.

"Okay, how about we start from the top?" Chelsea asked and Silent Magician nodded. "Okay then, tell us this, what the hell happened back there?!"

"Remember when I said that we had no idea how much damage Phillip Alvers's revival of the Orichalcos caused?" Silent Magician asked and the students nodded. "This was one of the things we were afraid off, when the Orichalcos originally resurfaced there was reports of Duel Monster sightings all over the world, real duel monsters, not holograms."

"I know, my father told me after Nathan Troy got his Soul sealed." Tyler said with a nod. "According to him it was a PR Nightmare for him and his company."

"Yes indeed, now originally the return of the Orichalcos coincided with the release of the Legendary Dragons, powerful beasts used to combat the Orichalcos." Silent Magician continued before pausing. "As you are well aware none of that happened."

"We have several theories." Armed Dragon continued as the duelists turned to him. "My leading theory is that we caught the Orichalcos early enough so that the Spirit world, where the Legendary Dragons reside, didn't notice until after the fact."

"Okay, I get that." Chelsea said with a nod. "But what does that have to do with what happened earlier?" Chelsea asked and the two duel spirits turned to her.

"It has everything to do with it my dear." Armed Dragon said plainly and Chelsea gulped. "We knew this would happen eventually, the barrier between the Spirit World and your world was compromised by the revival of the Orichalcos."

"Wait, you knew that this was going to happen?!" Marcus asked and the two spirits nodded. "Why didn't you tell us? We could've prepared."

"If only it where that simple Marcus." Silent Magician answered with a frown. "But the truth is we had no way of telling when or where this was going to happen or if it would affect you in any way."

"You said when or where…does that mean it'll be happening all over the world?" Andreas asked and the two spirits nodded grimly. "My god, we have to warn the duelists we met in Battle City!"

"And tell them what? That Duel Monsters are going to come to life and attack them?" Theresa pointed out and Silent Magician shook her head.

"Not exactly, there are two methods of sending the spirits back to the Spirit World, both of which depend on the spirit's nature." Silent Magician said with a frown. "First there's spirits like Strong Wind Dragon, feral beasts who can only be sent back home by the attack of another Duel Spirit." Silent Magician said before pausing. "The second method is to duel them."

"You mean like we did at the Abandoned Dorm?" Lance asked and Silent Magician nodded.

"Yes and no, those Duel Spirits crossed over on their own free will." Silent Magician corrected him and Lance nodded. "Even then there's only one way to defeat them and send them home, they must be finished off with a direct attack from the opponents strongest monster, these duel spirits will be actively seeking out strong duelists as a result."

"Students, be weary." Armed Dragon warned them as he turned to them. "Whenever these duel spirits appear you will be in grave danger, Ms. Cunningham can attest to how dangerous the first kind of Duel Spirit is." Armed Dragon said as he glanced towards Chelsea's injured ribs. "The second kind is even more dangerous if you can believe it, they will be angry and confused much like Strong Wind Dragon but with the presence of mind and ability to do something that will get them a duel, even if it means threatening innocent civilians."

"But in that case it'll be a matter of a strong duelist getting there before the police do." Theresa added and the two spirits nodded.

"Indeed Theresa, we will be there to support you should any of you find yourselves in a duel against one, but be careful, they will be extremely skilled duelists." Silent Magician said before turning to her protégé. "You may turn off your duel disk Chloe."

"You may do the same Theresa." Armed Dragon added and the two girls nodded before turning off their duel disks, seconds later the Spirits disappeared.

"Well, that was something." Chelsea gulped as she tugged on her blazer nervously. "So what do we do now?"

"We head back to our dorms and look for any word on Duel Spirit sightings all over the world via the internet." Tyler told them and the students nodded. "Shoot me an e-mail when you get confirmation that it isn't just a malfunctioning Duel Disk." Tyler said before the students left the clearing. _"Let's hope that we don't get a repeat of what happened today in a major city." _Tyler thought.


	61. Champ's Plight

Whilst the students at Duel Academy where recovering from the attack by Strong Wind Dragon the other duelists who had competed in Battle City where still recovering from it blissfully unaware of what happened on the island, and in the case of the champ Eddie Roberts he rarely got any rest.

He had been in his home in Los Angeles ever since the Tournament ended occasionally making public appearances; he had donated most of his prize money from the tournament to charities dedicated to helping the homeless or inner city kids as his situation growing up wasn't exactly the best. At the moment however he was doing a public autograph session at a local school.

"Okay…..Charlotte was it?" Eddie asked as he signed a young girl's autograph, the girl nodded enthusiastically and he signed her duel disk, a smaller model than normal similar to the ones that Mike and Sophie wore. "Here you go, enjoy your day." Eddie said as he handed back the duel disk and the girl ran back happily, Eddie let out a sigh as he looked towards the remaining kids. _"Just a few more and I can chill out at my home for the rest of the day, I may like kids but these autograph sessions can get tedious, worst yet I can't challenge them to a duel because that would shatter there self-confidence." _Eddie thought before he made sure that his pen had plenty of ink left.

"Chin up Eddie, you'll be home soon." His agent, Jack, reassured him and Eddie smirked at that.

"I know, but still, I wish something exciting would happen." Eddie shrugged his shoulders as he signed a young boy's duel disk, as the boy walked away. _"Okay, only one autograph seeker to go and I can head back to my…what the?!" _Eddie's train of thought was interrupted when Charlotte's duel disk started glowing before it activated on its own and a card slipped out of her deck. _"Okay, something's wrong here, Kaibacorp's technology is good but it's not this good!" _Eddie thought as the card played itself and, before Charlotte's shocked and confused eyes, a beautiful woman with long purple hair that was tied up in a ponytail who was wearing a red a purple gui and was carrying a large sword. _"What the…..that's Beautiful Headhuntress (4/1600/800), I knew the kids here come from poor families but I didn't think it was this bad."_ Eddie thought as the woman collapsed to her hands and knees clearly exhausted, not knowing what else to do Eddie went up to her as she got to her feet. "Hey, are you….." Eddie started but was stopped when the Headhuntress pointed her sword at him.

"Stay back human unless you wish to challenge me." Headhuntress warned him in a cold voice and the others backed off, she glanced around her surroundings before turning to Eddie. "Tell me human, where am I?"

"You're in the city of Los Angeles, California." Eddie told her as his eyes narrowed. "And what do you mean by challenge you?" Eddie asked and the Headhuntress smirked as her sword turned into a Duel Disk that matched her outfit's colors. "You're looking for a duel?"

"Yes, I am." Headhuntress said as she strapped on her duel disk. "I require a strong opponent however and I doubt any of these children will provide me with a decent challenge." Headhuntress added as she glanced towards the terrified children.

"_She wants a challenge huh? Well, be careful what you wish for."_ Eddie thought with a frown as he turned to Jack. "Jack, my duel disk is in my car, do me a favor and go get it."

"Are you crazy Eddie? Do you have any idea what my bosses will do if they find out that you had an unofficial duel?!" Jack protested and Eddie's eyes narrowed. "Besides that this woman is clearly psychotic, are you really willing to put your life in danger."

"Jack, I wasn't asking." Eddie warned him and his agent gulped. "Let me put it this way, get my duel disk or I start looking for a new agent." Eddie added and that was all Jack needed to be persuaded into retrieving Eddie's duel disk, once he was out of site Eddie turned to Headhuntress. "You wanted a challenge? You got it."

"Very well but I fear this room may be a bit cramped for our duel." Headhuntress pointed out and Eddie nodded in agreement, the room that the school had allotted for the autograph session was tiny to the point where the desk that he was sitting behind for the duration of the autograph session had barely fit into the room.

"Well, I'm sure the school won't mind us borrowing the playground for this match." Eddie said as Jack returned with his Duel Disk and deck, Eddie took both, strapped on the Duel Disk and loaded his deck into the deck slot. "Follow me." Eddie instructed her before leading her away.

*elsewhere*

Unbeknownst to the students or Eddie someone was watching the events of the preceding three hours and that someone was in a high rise penthouse.

Sitting behind a desk in the spacious home was a tall man with slick black hair, a matching goatee and dark brown eyes who was wearing a black suit, he had two computer monitors in front of him, one was showing news coverage of the Duel Academy students being attacked by Strong Wind Dragon, the other was significantly less professional looking footage that showed Eddie and Headhuntress getting ready for their duel.

"_So, the Duel Spirits have made their move." _The man thought as he watched Strong Wind Dragon being taken down by Silent Magician. _"Good, that means that I can make my move, Phillip may have failed but I can pick up where he left off."_ The man thought as he reached into a desk draw and produced a deck of Duel Monster cards. _"I need to be careful about how I deal with the Duel Academy students however, the school is bound to be on high alert following the attack and I can't risk suffering Phillip's fate."_ The man thought before putting the deck away and placing a finger on his phone in order to contact his secretary. "Juliana, get Seto Kaiba on the line."

"Sir, he refused your previous takeover bids, what makes you think he'll accept now?" His secretary pointed out and the man frowned.

"Recent events may change his mind." The man said simply as he watched another news report on the Duel Academy attack.

"Yes, right away Mr. Santiago." The secretary replied before hanging up, the man, now known as Mr. Santiago, smirked evilly as he watched the footage.

"_It'll just be a matter of time now." _Mr. Santiago thought as he turned his attention to the footage that featured Eddie and Headhuntress preparing to duel.

*back at the school*

"So, will this do?" Eddie asked as he and Headhuntress entered the playground, it was a small one but it was still big enough for a Duel Disk assisted duel, Headhuntress nodded and the two of them took up spots on the playground.

"Yes, this'll do nicely." Headhuntress said with a nod as the two duelists activated their duel disks. "One thing before we draw our opening hands." Headhuntress said and Eddie stopped himself just as he was about to start drawing his hand. "I saw your duels in the Battle City Tournament so I know that you have three copies of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in it."

"Yeah, what are you getting at?" Eddie asked with a raised eyebrow and Headhuntress smirked.

"Good, then I have one request to make before we continue." Headhuntress said and Eddie blinked. "You will add the dragons and any support cards for them you possess to your deck; if you draw the cards at any point then you must summon at least one of them."

"So let me get this straight, you're actually requesting that I add three of the most powerful dragons in the game to my deck and any support I have for those cards?" Eddie asked whilst looking at the Duel Spirit like she had just started talking to her imaginary friend, Eddie shrugged before retrieving the cards and adding them to his deck. "Well, it's your funeral." Eddie shrugged before shuffling his deck.

"Good, in that case I'll go first!" Headhuntress said as she drew her first card, a small crowd mostly consisting of students from the school had surrounded the two duelists and Eddie was looking over his opening hand. "I set three cards facedown and a card in defense mode, it's your move." Headhuntress set the four cards down and Eddie drew his card.

"_She's definitely one weird lady, one minute she's referring to me like I'm an alien species the next she's requesting that I add my best cards to my deck." _Eddie thought before looking at his drawn card. "You want to face my best Dragons? Then get ready, I play the Cards of Consonance Spell Card." Eddie played the card and grinned. "Now by discarding one weak Dragon Type Tuner Monster from my hand I can draw two cards." Eddie explained before he discarded a card and drew twice. "But that's not all, the card I discarded was White Stone of Legend, since I just sent that card to the graveyard I can add one of my Blue-Eyes White Dragons to my hand."

"_Perfect, it's only a matter of time now." _Headhuntress thought as Eddie took the card he was looking for and added it to his hand.

"Now since you have a monster on your side of the field and I don't I can Special Summon Vice Dragon at the cost of half its attack and defense points!" Eddie played the card and the ugly purple dragon appeared on the field (5/1000/1200). "He's not staying around for long though, I sacrifice Vice Dragon so that I can summon Strong Wind Dragon!" Eddie played the card and Vice Dragon vanished from the field, in its place stood the mighty green dragon that had plagued Duel Academy several hours ago (6/2400/1000) and it's attack increased to 3400 due to its effect.

"I know full well what that dragon's effect is." Headhuntress said as she activated a card. "Pity you won't get a chance to use it, I activate Bottomless Trap Hole!"

"Oh crap!" Eddie muttered under his breath as a massive pit opened up underneath Strong Wind Dragon, he didn't have enough time to fly away before falling in and his subsequent attempts to escape failed before the pit closed up trapping him, Eddie reluctantly pocketed his dragon before picking up and setting the two cards he drew with Cards of Consonance. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Eddie announced and Headhuntress drew her card.

"I play a Spell Card called Shard of Greed!" Headhuntress played the card and smirked. "But you don't have to worry about the effect of this Spell just yet, instead you should worry about this, I flip summon my facedown monster, The Immortal Bushi!" Headhuntress flipped the card up and a balding man with long black hair appeared on the field, he was wearing Samurai armor and was wielding twin swords (3/1200/600). "Immortal Bushi, attack the so called Champion's life-points directly!" Headhuntress commanded and the samurai charged towards Eddie before slashing him across the chest with his swords bringing his life-points down to 6800. "I set two cards facedown." Headhuntress set the cards down and smirked. "That ends my turn."

"Not before I activate my Shock Draw Trap Card." Eddie activated the trap and drew a card. "Since I took just over a thousand points of damage this turn this trap will let me draw one card." Eddie said before sending his trap to the graveyard and drawing again. _"I had a feeling she'd use a Warrior Deck since her Duel Monster counterpart is a warrior, better be careful." _Eddie thought before playing the card he drew. "I play a Spell Card called Raiding the Dragon's Cave!" Eddie played the card and the image showed the Dark Scorpion Burglars running from a cave with handfuls of gold in their hands whilst the corpse of an unidentified Dragon lay nearby. "Since I have a Level 5 or higher dragon in my graveyard this spell will let me draw twice." Eddie explained before drawing two cards and sending the Spell to the graveyard.

"Draw all the cards you wish, it won't help." Headhuntress said plainly as Eddie looked at his two new cards.

"Maybe, maybe not," Eddie shrugged as he discarded a card from his hand. "But this on the other hand will help; I discard one card from my hand so I can Special Summon The Tricky in attack mode!" Eddie played the card and the mysterious spellcaster appeared on the field (5/2000/1200). "And I use my monster to attack Immortal Bushi!" Eddie announced and the magician charged towards the monster….. "But that's not all; I activate my Magician's Circle Trap Card."

"And I chain it with my Scrubbed Raid trap card!" Headhuntress played the card and Immortal Bushi vanished from the field. "This card….."

"I saw that card in action during Battle City; basically as long as you have a card that you can send to the graveyard you can end the Battle Phase immediately." Eddie interrupted her before picking up his deck. "You may have prevented my attack from going through but Magician's Circle's effect still activates allowing us both to Special Summon a Spellcaster Type monster from our decks with 2000 or less attack points, I chose Night's End Sorcerer!" Eddie played the card and a young boy in brown rags with short blonde hair appeared on the field (2/1300/400).

"I'm afraid that I don't have a single Spellcaster in my deck." Headhuntress admitted before Night's End Sorcerer started casting a spell and before she knew it Immortal Bushi and Bottomless Trap Hole where ejected from her graveyard slot. "What's going on?"

"Since I special summoned him I can activate his effect which allows me to remove up too two cards from play from your graveyard, so say goodbye to Bottomless Trap Hole and Immortal Bushi." Eddie explained and Headhuntress's eyes widened once it dawned on her.

"No!" Headhuntress yelled out before reluctantly pocketing her two cards, she glared daggers at Eddie who kept his calm.

"Sorry but I know all about Immortal Bushi's effect and how you would've been able to Special Summon it during your standby phase." Eddie said with a smirk. "It was a clever combo but I've seen it in action before, besides that you have bigger problems to worry about because Night's End Sorcerer is a Tuner Monster!" Eddie announced and the crowd cheered as his two spellcasters took to the air, Night's End Sorcerer dissolved into two glowing green rings that surrounded The Tricky and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a new magician appeared on the field, this one was wearing white robes with a matching hat and he had long silver hair (7/400/1800).

"You summoned a Level 7 monster with a mere 400 attack points?" Headhuntress said with a raised eyebrow. "Either you wasted a Synchro Summon or that thing has an effect."

"First off that thing is Arcanite Magician and yes he has an effect." Eddie corrected her with a smirk as Arcanite Magician's attack suddenly shot up to 2400. "When he's Synchro Summoned he gains two Spell Counters and for each counter he has he gains a thousand attack points, however since I've already attacked I'll end my turn." Eddie announced and Headhuntress drew her card.

"Since I just drew a card during my draw phase Shard of Greed gains a greed counter." Headhuntress explained as her Spell Card glowed. _"He may have prevented Immortal Bushi's effect once but I have more than one copy of that card in my deck." _Headhuntress thought before looking at her drawn card. "I play Reinforcement of the Army which allows me to add a Level 4 or lower Warrior Type Monster from my deck to my hand." Headhuntress played the card and picked up her deck.

"_Smart money says that she's retrieving another Immortal Bushi from her deck." _Eddie thought as she searched through the deck before finding the card she was looking for and adding it to her hand.

"I set a card in defense mode and end my turn." Headhuntress set the card down and Eddie nodded before drawing his card.

"I guess this is a good time to give my magician some back up, I summon Knight of a Thousand Swords!" Eddie played the card and a knight appeared on the field, he had several swords strapped to his back and had a red cape (4/1600/1000). "Yeah, I realize this guy's a Warrior but he's also a Dragon Support card."

"Is he really? I was under the impression that knights' slayed dragons not support them." Headhuntress said with a curious look on her face. "How does this knight support dragons exactly?"

"Simple, as long as there's a Level 5 or higher dragon in my graveyard this monster gains one of several effects depending on the level of the monster, the monster in question is Vice Dragon, a Level 5 monster, which means that my knight can inflict piercing damage!" Eddie explained as his knight drew one of its swords, the faded image of Vice Dragon appeared around the sword briefly before the sword started glowing. "Knight of a Thousand Swords, attack his defense monster with Thousand Sword Slash!" Eddie commanded and the knight charged towards the monster…

"I get rid of my remaining facedown card to protect my monster and my life-points with Scrubbed Raid!" Headhuntress interrupted as the facedown card vanished and Knight of a Thousand Swords stopped in his tracks. "Nice try though."

"You can't hide behind that trap forever." Eddie said determinedly before looking at his hand. "I'll end my turn at that." Eddie announced and Headhuntress drew her card.

"You know what? I couldn't agree more with you; first my Shard of Greed Spell Card gains another Greed Counter." Headhuntress said as her Spell Card glowed. "Now I play the Spell I just drew, Magic Planter! I destroy Scrubbed Raid and in return I can draw two cards." Headhuntress played the card and Scrubbed Raid shattered, once that was done she drew two cards. "Finally I destroy my Shard of Greed Spell Card so that I can draw an additional two cards." Headhuntress announced as her Spell Card shattered and she drew two additional cards.

"_She just drew five cards in the same turn, she's up too something." _Eddie thought as Headhuntress sent her three cards to the graveyard.

"_Hmmm, what card of his to get rid of first? As long as he has Vice Dragon in his graveyard his knight is an obvious risk but in the long run his Synchro Monster will be a problem." _Headhuntress thought as she glanced towards her five new cards. _"Or maybe….." _Headhuntress thought as an idea started to form in her head. "I set two cards facedown and a card in defense mode that ends my turn."

"Don't forget that you have to toss a card due to the hand size limit." Eddie pointed out and Headhuntress nodded before discarding the last card she drew, once that was done Eddie drew his card. _"At least I can attack now that Scrubbed Raid's gone from the field, well, here goes," _Eddie thought before pointing to Headhuntress's newly set facedown monster. "Knight of a Thousand Swords, get her facedown monster on the right!" Eddie commanded and the knight charged towards the facedown monster…

"You fell for it, hook, line and sinker." Headhuntress interrupted as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Mirror Force!" Eddie's eyes widened as the attack was reflected back to his two monsters destroying them both.

"Well, that was a bust." Eddie muttered under his breath before looking at his hand. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Eddie set the card he had drawn down and Headhuntress drew her card.

"Good, now the real fun can begin." Headhuntress chuckled before looking at her drawn card. _"I'll hold onto this for later." _Headhuntress decided before adding the card to her hand. "I flip summon my two facedown monsters, Command Knight and the Tuner Monster Rose Warrior of Revenge!" Headhuntress flipped the two cards up and the two female warriors appeared on the field, their attacks increased to 1600 and 2000 respectively but Headhuntress took no notice of the fact. "Now I summon Field Commander Rhaz in attack mode!" Headhuntress played the card and the brown haired commander appeared on the field (4/1600/1200) and once again Headhuntress didn't notice his attack point increase.

"_Not good, she's probably planning to tune Rose Warrior and Field Commander to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter." _Eddie thought with a frown as she picked up her deck.

"Before I continue I shall use my commander's effect to place a Level 4 or lower Warrior Type Monster on the top of my deck." Headhuntress explained before adding the card to the top of her deck. "Now to bring out my best monster and to do it I tune Rose Warrior with Field Commander Rhaz!" Headhuntress announced as her two warriors leapt into the air, Rose Warrior dissolved into four glowing green rings that surrounded Field Commander. "Come forth Colossal Fighter!" Headhuntress played the card and a bright flash, when it faded the mighty Synchro Monster appeared on the field (8/2800/1000).

"Okay, there's three warriors in our graveyards, two in yours and one in mine, so that fighter's attack points should be at 3100, not counting the bonus from Command Knight." Eddie said almost immediately.

"Close but not quite." Headhuntress replied and Eddie blinked before his eyes widened when he saw Colossal Fighter's attack increase to 3600 instead. "Remember the card I discarded due to the hand size limit last turn? That was another Warrior further powering up my almighty beast, now Colossal Fighter; attack his life-points directly!" Headhuntress commanded and the massive warrior charged towards Eddie before punching him in the gut bringing his life-points down to 3200.

"I activate my trap card, Level Rivalry." Eddie activated the trap which depicted the Blue-Eyes White Dragon facing off against Silent Magician Level 8. "Before you ask it has nothing to do with the LV. Archetype despite the fact that it has a LV. Monster in its artwork, here's the deal, since I just took damage from a direct attack I can discard a monster with the same level as the monster that attacked me and end the battle phase." Eddie discarded the Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Headhuntress frowned. _"But unless I draw a card that will help me turn the tide of battle next turn I'm done for." _Eddie thought with a frown.

"Very well, you've saved yourself this time." Headhuntress shrugged before looking at her hand. "That ends my turn but unless you get a lucky draw then this will be your last turn."

"Well, I guess I'd better hope that my luck holds out then!" Eddie said as he drew his card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot which lets us both draw three cards." Eddie activated the card and both duelists drew three times, he looked at his three cards and barely suppressed his grin. "First I activate Monster Reborn to bring back the monster I discarded for Level Rivalry."

"You don't mean…" Headhuntress trailed off as the Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field in all its glory (8/3000/2500). "Humph, clever, but I don't see how that'll help you, even if your dragon could beat my fighter Command Knight's effect means that it'll have to target her instead of my fighter, a move that will serve to only strengthen my fighter even if he loses the bonus from Command Knight." Headhuntress said confidently before looking at the card she had added to the top of her deck, another Command Knight. _"And as soon as I play my second copy of Command Knight we'll be right back where we started."_ Headhuntress thought with a grin.

"Who said I was leaving it at that? Encase you didn't notice I have two more cards to play." Eddie said before playing a card. "And I start with Burst Stream of Destruction; this Spell Card wipes out both of your monsters in exchange for my Dragon's ability to attack this turn." Headhuntress's eyes widened as the dragon launched its famous attack at her two warriors destroying them both. "And since Colossal Fighter can only revive himself if he is destroyed in battle he's not coming back any time soon."

"This is completely pointless, even after all that I still have a massive lead!" Headhuntress pointed out before realization hit her. "Wait, you said three cards….."

"Yeah I did and here comes Number 3, Alexandrite Dragon!" Eddie played the card and the beautiful dragon made of crystal appeared on the field (4/2000/100). "It's about time I made a dent in your life-points, Alexandrite Dragon, attack her life-points directly." Eddie commanded and the dragon opened its mouth before launched a fire attack at her bringing Headhuntress's life-points down to 6000.

"_That's good but not good enough, if I am to be sent home I need to take an attack from his Blue-Eyes." _Headhuntress thought before looking up at Eddie. "Is it my move yet?" Headhuntress asked and Eddie nodded, she wasted no time in drawing her card. _"The traps I drew via his Spellbook card are useless without a Synchro Monster on the field." _Headhuntress thought with a frown before picking up her second Command Knight. "I set this monster in defense mode and end my turn and due to the hand size limit I shall discard three cards from my hand." Headhuntress discarded the three cards and Eddie drew his card.

"Sorry but this duel is over!" Eddie said before playing the card he drew. "I activate Megamorph, since my life-points are lower than yours this will double the attack of my Blue-Eyes White Dragon." Headhuntress's eyes widened as the dragon doubled in size and strength raising its attack to 3000. "Alexandrite Dragon, attack her last line of defense, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, finish it with White Lightning!" Eddie commanded his two dragons and they launched their attacks, Alexandrite took out her last Command Knight easily and Headhuntress was consumed by the dragon's infamous attack.

"Yeah, Eddie rules!" Eddie heard the kids cheering him and he smiled as he turned to them after turning off his duel disk and returning the cards to his deck.

"I'm guessing you liked that little show, huh?" Eddie asked good naturedly and the students nodded enthusiastically.

"Err, Eddie, where did that crazy chick go?" Jack asked Eddie and he blinked before turning around to where Headhuntress was supposed to be, however all he saw was an empty spot with no indication that anyone was standing there to begin with.

"This day just keeps getting weirder." Eddie muttered under his breath as he scratched his head, the students and teachers where just as confused by Eddie's train of thought was interrupted by Charlotte tugging on his jersey.

"Err, Eddie, I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused." Charlotte said sheepishly and Eddie smiled reassuringly before kneeling down in front of her.

"Hey relax, I may not have any idea what just happened but that wasn't your fault." Eddie told her and Charlotte smiled, Eddie stood up and turned to Jack. "I don't know about you Jack but I'm ready to call it a day as far as public appearances go."

"For once I'm not arguing against that." Jack agreed before he and his client left the playground and headed to Eddie's car.

*meanwhile*

"So let me get this straight." Kaiba said as he talked to Mr. Santiago over the phone. "You look at an incident that left several Duel Academy students injured and has damaged my company's reputation and decide that it's a perfect time to make a takeover bid?" Kaiba asked clearly disgusted with what was being offered.

"Yes, I am, as you can see my….." Mr. Santiago started.

"I don't care how generous your offer is Victor, I've talked it over with the Board of Directors and the answer is still no." Kaiba said as he glared at him. "Let me put this in words you can understand, the day I sell my company to a snake like you is the day that I return my company to its routes as a military contractor." Kaiba said before hanging up on Victor, Victor slammed the phone down and looked at the monitor which was showing Eddie's duel just as it ended.

"Well, that was a bust." A female voice from the shadows off the office rang out and Victor frowned once he heard them.

"What do you want to do now Victor?" Another voice, definitely a male one, coming from the shadows spoke up; Victor messaged his temples before answering.

"Tell the other operatives to meet me in my office first thing Monday morning." Victor instructed the mysterious figures before contacting his secretary. "Juliana, bring me a shot of vodka, I need the drink."

"Yes, right away sir." Juliana answered before hanging up.

"_Even if Kaiba won't cooperate I have ways to make this work to my advantage." _Victor thought before changing the focus on the monitor to several Duel Academy profiles, namely of the students who were known to have Duel Spirit partners. _"And these students will play a big part in it, intentionally or not." _Victor thought before leaning back on his chair.

*meanwhile at Duel Academy*

"And she just vanished?" Theresa asked Eddie over Skype, it was getting late at Duel Academy and as a result the classes that would've taken place if not for the attack had ended, most of the students where either asleep or using their computers, Eddie had learned off the attack by Strong Wind Dragon via the Evening News and had decided to call Theresa and ask about it whilst explaining what had happened to him.

"Yeah, and once I heard about the attack by Strong Wind Dragon I thought it would be good to let you know." Eddie said with a nod and Theresa frowned. "You have any idea what's going on Theresa?"

"Yeah I do, but it's a long story and it's getting late over here." Theresa answered as she glanced towards the computer clock. "Call me in the morning and I'll explain in further detail, for now I'll say this, it's similar to when Chloe's copy of Silent Magician Level 8 talked during her duel with Otto during the Semi-Finals."

"Got it, do you have class in the morning?" Eddie asked and Theresa shook her head. "Good, I was asking because I wanted to make sure that we could talk at a time that suited us both."

"Gotcha, I should be free to chat at around 11:00am my time, not sure what time that'll translate to over in the states though." Theresa answered and Eddie thought for a moment.

"That's fine; I don't have any PR appearances tomorrow so I can pretty much talk all day tomorrow about it." Eddie answered and Theresa grinned at that. "Just don't call me during breakfast all right?"

"I'll try not to." Theresa said with a laugh.

"All right, I gotta go but two things Theresa." Eddie said as his expression darkened. "Give my regards to the injured students, I'm sure they'll need all the support they can get, and as for your expulsion duel, win it all right? I want a rematch with you once you hit the Pro-Leagues."

"Don't worry; I have no intention of being expelled." Theresa reassured him and Eddie smiled before hanging up, Theresa let out a sigh as she started getting changed into her night-gown. _"I know Silent Magician and Armed Dragon warned me and the others that this would happen but I didn't think it would happen so soon." _Theresa thought as she sat down on the bed. _"Here's hoping guys like Axel will be safe." _Theresa thought before she started getting undressed.


	62. Duel To Stay In School Part 1

The days in between the attack and the expulsion duels came and went, if you asked the students who were facing expulsion the day came way to quickly as they would've liked a couple of extra days to prepare for the duels but as much as they appealed to Martin to push the date forward he refused and now the day had arrived.

Chloe let out a yawn as she woke up before glancing around the room, Chelsea was at her laptop as always but Chloe couldn't tell what her roommate was up too. "Good morning Chelsea." Chloe greeted her with a yawn but Chelsea didn't answer. "Chelsea?"

"Oh sorry Chloe, I was miles away." Chelsea apologized once she heard her roommate's voice. "I was thinking about the duels later."

"Ah crap, I forgot they were today." Chloe groaned as she swung her legs over. "How are your ribs holding up?" Chloe asked and Chelsea smiled a bit.

"They feel a lot better, which is unfortunate because I can't use them as an excuse to delay the duels." Chelsea answered before turning to her roommate, it was at that moment that Chloe realized that her eyes where bloodshot.

"Didn't get any sleep huh?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "That's probably not going to help later on today." Chloe pointed out as she started getting changed into her uniform and Chelsea groaned.

"Please Chloe, I can handle myself." Chelsea said before turning to her laptop to give her roommate some privacy. "Besides the duels aren't until 1:00pm which is….oh shit!" Chelsea yelled out once she saw what time it was. "The duels are in Half an Hour's time!"

"Please tell me you're kidding?" Chloe pleaded as she hurriedly put her clothes on, Chelsea shook her head as Chloe put on her blazer over her stomach exposing top. "Oh great, we hardly have time to prepare! We'll get expelled for sure."

"You can relax, you're on last." Chelsea told her and Chloe sighed in relief. "But as for me? They scheduled my duel first, what's worse is that all they've told us about our opponents is that they are pro league duelists."

"They didn't give a name?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head. "Great, knowing out luck they probably flew in Axel Loather!"

"Ugh, don't remind me, back when I was going to talk to Martin about joining you guys in Battle City he was on the top of the list of duelists I was dreading facing." Chelsea answered with a nervous gulp and Chloe frowned. "I mean hell; Theresa had a hard enough time beating him in her Semi-Final match against him!"

"Yeah, that was part of the reason I was nervous about facing her after that match." Chloe said honestly as she put on her blazer. "Let's try not to think about that, it may be a good idea to get to the Duel Field early."

"Good idea, we don't want to be late for these duels." Chelsea gulped before closing her laptop lid and following Chloe out of the dorm room and too the center of the island. "Wait; do we even know where the main duel field is?"

"You're in luck, I know where it is." Theresa said as she approached the two girls, they turned to her and saw that she had a frown on her face. "I would've liked more time to prepare for these duels to be honest."

"I can't help but agree there." Chelsea agreed as she put her hands in her blazer pockets. "But at this way we can get it out of the way."

"True enough." Theresa agreed before frowning. "You girls have any idea who the Pro Duelists they've flown in are?"

"We were hoping you'd know that." Chloe answered and Theresa sighed. "As if the fact that they decided to fly in Pro Duelists wasn't bad enough, we don't even know who they are."

"Hey Chloe, over here." A voice Chloe nor Theresa hadn't heard since returning from New York rang out and they blinked before turning around and seeing a pair of Irish Duelists.

"Phillip, Francesca, what are you guys doing here?" Chloe greeted the couple as they approached them.

"We were flown in for the expulsion duels of several students." Francesca explained and Chloe gulped when she heard that. "Was it something I said?"

"Yeah, you're looking at three of the students facing expulsion." Chloe told them sheepishly and the two Irish Duelists looked at her funny. "It's a long story."

"I'll take your word for it." Phillip said with a frown. "We heard about the Duel Disk Malfunction the other day, you girls weren't hurt where you?"

"I was, got some bruised ribs for my troubles; I'm feeling well enough to duel though." Chelsea said as the two duelists turned to her. "Oh, I'm Chelsea; I'm Chloe's roommate in Osiris Red." Chelsea introduced herself.

"Chelsea? Oh you're the one who's up first." Francesca realized and Chelsea sweat-dropped at being reminded off that. "Well, we've gotta run, Martin's waiting for us, guys, we may be friends but we won't go easy on you when it's your turn to duel."

"And we'll say the same to you." Chloe said with a nod before the two Irish Duelists ran off, Chloe watched them go into the main building and sighed. "Things just went from bad to worse."

"Yeah, you and Lance had a hard time against them in Battle City and I think it's safe to assume that they've improved their decks since then." Theresa remembered before shaking her head. "Come on, we've got expulsion duels to win." Theresa said and the two girls nodded before following her into the Main Building, it didn't take them long to find the main Duel Arena or Andreas, Marcus, Tyler, Lance and Brandon as they were hanging around the entrance for duelists. "You guys were waiting for us?"

"Yeah, we didn't want to enter without you." Lance agreed before frowning. "Chloe, you realize that Phillip and Francesca are two of the Pro-Leagers here today right?"

"Yeah, we bumped into them outside the Main Building." Chloe said with a nod before sighing. "And it's a safe bet that they've improved their decks since our last duels against them."

"We'll worry about that later, let's go in." Tyler told them and the duelists nodded before entering the Duel Arena, the Duel Arena was much larger than the one set aside for Obelisk Blue Students and had an audience containing students and family members off the duelists, conspicuous in his absence were Brandon and Tyler's fathers but they assumed that they were too busy to attend, facing the duel arena where two lines of chairs that contained enough chairs for each duelist. "We'd better take a seat." Tyler told them and the students sat down soon afterwards.

"Good afternoon students, this is never an easy time for the school but these eight students are facing expulsion from the school and have been given a second chance." Martin's voice rang out over the PA system as spotlights shone on the eight students. "Due to the severity of their offence we have flown in eight pro league duelists to face them in one on one duels, if the students win they can stay at the school and their records will be wiped, should they lose then they'll be expelled."

"So, there's no pressure on us in other words." Lance muttered under his breath as he stared at the duel field. "That thing must be big enough for several one on one duels."

"It is, and if I'm not mistaken our duels may take place at the same time." Tyler answered and Lance frowned at that.

"Now to introduce the Pro League Duelists, first all the way from Spain he is the Spanish National Champion Ricardo Diego." Martin announced as the first duelist stepped forward, he was a handsome Spanish teenager with long black hair in a ponytail and black eyes who was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans and brown boots. "He will face Osiris Red's Chelsea Cunningham."

"Great, I get to face the Spanish National Champ!" Chelsea muttered sarcastically before stepping forward, both duelists stepped onto the duel field and activated their duel disks.

"Hmm, I wasn't expecting to face someone as pretty as you." Ricardo said as he shuffled his deck, Chelsea didn't let his attempt at flirting affect her as she shuffled her deck. "Regardless, I will show no mercy but who knows? Maybe you'll be forgiving enough to take me on a date when it's over."

"Sorry Romeo but I'm already taken." Chelsea informed him as they finished shuffling their decks and drew their opening hands; she glanced towards the audience and spotted Beth in the front row. "In fact she's watching the duel right over there."

"Ah I see…..wait, she?!" Ricardo did a double take when he spotted Chelsea's girlfriend, he blushed furiously upon realizing that he had attempted to flirt with a gay person. "My apologies let it be known that I respect your life choice."

"Apology accepted…..and no you can't have any sex tapes." Chelsea said and Ricardo face-faulted at the last statement, she heard laughter coming from where the other pro league duelists where sitting as well as some stifled chuckles coming from the audience.

"I wasn't going to ask; regardless I like a girl with a sense of humor." Ricardo said as he got up to his feet. "Such a shame that your defeat will lead you to being kicked out of this school." Ricardo added as he looked over his hand.

"Yeah, in your wildest dreams maybe you'll beat me." Chelsea said as she looked over her hand. "But I may be stuck in Osiris Red but I'm still one of the best duelists in the dorm….I realize that's not saying much but you'll see what I mean."

"Then by all means, take the first turn." Ricardo offered and Chelsea nodded before drawing her card. _"The teachers denied us access to their Duel Academy profiles so that we wouldn't get an unfair advantage in these duels, in that case they shouldn't have selected Phillip and Francesca since they dueled Lance and Chloe during Battle City." _Ricardo thought before shaking his head. _"It doesn't matter, as soon as she makes her move I'll know what I'm up against." _Ricardo thought as he waited for Chelsea to decide on her opening move.

"All right, I start with a Spell Card called Terra Forming; this allows me to add a Field Spell Card to my hand." Chelsea played the card before picking up her deck, searching through it and adding the card she was looking for too her hand, once that was done she shuffled her deck and sent her Spell Card to the graveyard. "You're probably wondering what card I added to my hand, well I won't keep you waiting." Chelsea said as her field spell card slot opened up. "I activate the Field Spell Card Wattcastle!" Chelsea announced as she played the card and the scenery changed to the cartoonish castle that was spewing electricity.

"Clever move, since most of Chelsea's monsters lack in attack strength but make up for it in strength this will give her the advantage." Tyler commented and Brandon nodded in agreement. "That said I have no idea what kind of deck Ricardo runs."

"Hmmm, a Watt Deck should be interesting to see how Ricardo handles this." Phillip commented once he recognized the field spell.

"How he'll handle it is by kicking Chelsea out of this school." One of the other pro duelists spoke with a Scottish Accent, he was a short teenager with short silver hair (obviously dyed) and blue eyes, responded to Phillip and the Irish Duelist turned to him. "Duel Academy's supposed to train the future of Duel Monsters, not waste our time by flying us in to duel unruly students."

"Erick, that's bullshit and you know it." Francesca countered him and Erick frowned. "First off every school's bound to have the occasional troublemaker and Duel Academy's no different, besides me and Phillip dueled Chloe and Lance back in Battle City and we know that they are good duelists, call me crazy but I think there's more to this."

"You're crazy." Erick said simply before turning his attention back to the duel.

"Now I summon Wattcobra in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and the electric snake appeared on the field (4/1000/500).

"So…..first you play a weird field spell and then you open up with a weak monster?" Ricardo asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Trust me, you're not the only one who's underestimated my monsters but believe me, this guy's tougher than he looks." Chelsea said before picking up two of the cards in her hand. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the two cards and Ricardo wasted no time in drawing his first card.

"I play the Spell Card Reinforcement of the Army which lets me add a Level 4 or lower Warrior Type Monster from my deck to my hand." Ricardo played the card before picking up his deck, searching through it and finding the card he was looking for, once he added the card to his hand he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard and shuffled his deck.

"So you're running a warrior deck huh? Meh, nothing I can't handle." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders and Ricardo grinned.

"You won't be so confident after my first move; I summon the monster I retrieved from my deck using Reinforcement of the Army." Ricardo said before playing the card. "Welcome to the field Heroic Challenger - Spartan!" Ricardo announced and the monster appeared on the field, as its name suggested it was a man in Spartan Armor wielding a shield and a sword (4/1600/1000).

"Heroic? Granted most of my knowledge about Spartans comes from that dumb 300 movie but Spartans weren't exactly heroic?" Chelsea pointed out and Ricardo shook his head.

"You misunderstand, Spartan here is a member of a newly released Archetype, and being the national champion of Spain I got him and his compatriots as a prize." Ricardo said before grinning. "You should be thankful that I'm not using the deck I won the championship with, otherwise the duel would be over in five turns."

"Is that a fact?" Chelsea asked bluntly before grinning. "Then again given your failed attempts to hit on me I think it's safe to assume you're used to finishing early around women." Chelsea said nonchalantly and Ricardo face-faulted as the students and even his fellow pro-duelists started laughing their asses off at Chelsea's comeback.

"I'll show you! Spartan, skewer that snake!" Ricardo commanded as he got to his feet and the Spartan let out a battle cry as he charged towards Wattcobra.

"Yeah, I don't think so; I protect my monster with the Waboku Trap Card!" Chelsea activated the trap and the three priestesses appeared on the field blocking the Spartan's path.

"Fine, I'll get your monster next turn! For now I set two cards facedown and…hey what happened to my Spartan's attack points?" Ricardo asked once he realized that Spartan's attack points had dropped to a mere 600.

"My field spell happened, basically any monster that battles a Watt monster loses one thousand attack points during Damage Calculation as long as my Spell's on the field." Chelsea explained before grinning. "Oh yeah, almost forgot, the loss in attack points is permanent."

"So I see no matter I have ways to get back attack points." Ricardo said nonchalantly before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and call it a turn."

"Tyler, have you heard of the Heroic Archetype?" Chloe asked Tyler who shook his head.

"Wish I could say I have but I haven't." Tyler answered with a frown. "I know a new booster pack was released recently but I was too busy preparing our decks for these duels to pay much attention to it."

"I have though, and he's not lying about having ways to get back attack points." Theresa answered and Chloe turned to her. "Heck I've been trying to make a new deck based around it, basically this will be an interesting mix of styles." Theresa added as Chelsea drew her card.

"_He has more huh? Well, I've got some tricks up my sleeve." _Chelsea thought before playing her drawn card. "I activate Wattcine; as long as this is on the field I'll be able to gain life-points whenever I inflict damage via a direct attack." Chelsea explained and Ricardo grinned.

"Unless you have another monster on the way you won't be damaging my life-points that way any time soon." Ricardo said with a grin…..which quickly disappeared once he saw Chelsea's grin. "You have another monster?"

"Don't need one, Wattcobra, attack his life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and before Ricardo could utter a word of protest Wattcobra leapt over his warrior and bit him in the arm bringing his life-points down to 7000 and raising Chelsea's life-points to 9000. "This is something you'll learn quickly about my monsters; most of them can attack your life-points directly, and as an added bonus when Wattcobra inflicts damage to your life-points I can add another Watt monster from my deck to my hand." Chelsea explained before picking up her deck and searching through it, she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand before shuffling her deck.

"Okay…..that I didn't expect." Ricardo grumbled as he got to his feet. "But let's see you handle this trap, I activate Heroic Strike Back!" Ricardo activated the trap, which depicted Heroic Challenger - Spartan getting ready for battle, and grinned. "This can only be activated if I control a Heroic monster and I take battle damage, first that damage gets added to Spartan's attack points." Ricardo explained as Spartan's attack increased to 1600. "And I get to draw a card, if it's a monster than you take the damage I just took only doubled." Ricardo said before drawing a card. "And it's not your lucky day!"

"Oh crap!" Chelsea yelled out as Ricardo turned the card around revealing it to be a monster she recognized from Chloe's Battle City Duels, namely Rose Warrior of Revenge, and Spartan charged towards her before striking her in the stomach with his spear bringing her life-points down to 7000. "There's gotta be a drawback to that card!"

"There is, for the next two turns any damage I inflict to you that involves Spartan gets cut in half." Ricardo explained as he sent his trap to the grave and Chelsea frowned.

"I can live with that, for now I end my turn." Chelsea shrugged and Ricardo drew his card. _"The monster he drew with his trap's effect is a Tuner Monster; if this guy's smart he'll use it and Spartan to bring out Colossal Fighter." _Chelsea thought as she waited for Ricardo to make his move, Ricardo on the other hand was looking at his drawn card with a frown on his face.

"Okay, I'm feeling generous so I activate a Spell Card called Heaven's Lost Property." Ricardo played the card and grinned. "What it does is….."

"I know what it does, it's basically Graceful Charity's effect applied to both players." Chelsea interrupted and Ricardo nodded before both duelists drew three cards.

"_Damn, I could've used this card last turn." _Ricardo thought before he and Chelsea picked up two of their drawn cards and sent them to the graveyard, they added the remaining card to their hands and Ricardo frowned. _"I could bring out Colossal Fighter but I do want to use my Heroics to their full advantage." _Ricardo thought before looking at Chelsea. "You've met one Heroic, now meet another, I summon Heroic Challenger – Double Lance!" Ricardo played the card and a knight in silver armor appeared on the field, as the name suggested he was wielding twin lances (4/1700/900).

"First you summon a Spartan, now a knight?" Chelsea asked with a raised eyebrow. "What next? Are you going to summon a Roman Legionnaire?"

"Unfortunately there isn't one in this Archetype though I wouldn't put it past I2 to make one." Ricardo answered with a shrug. "Anyway Double Lance here has an effect, when he's normal summoned I can Special Summon another from my hand or my graveyard on the condition that I don't use it to summon a Synchro or an XYZ monster." Ricardo explained before retrieving a card from his graveyard and playing it, sure enough a second copy of Double Lance appeared on the field.

"Let me guess, discarded it for Heaven's Lost Property?" Chelsea asked and Ricardo nodded to confirm her suspicions. _"Great, my facedown card's Judgment of Thunder, this is going to suck!"_

"Double Lance, attack Wattcobra!" Ricardo commanded and the knight charged towards Wattcobra before skewering it with his lances bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 6300. "Sure Double Lance loses some of his strength thanks to your Field Spell but that's nothing compared to what you're about to lose, Double Lance, Spartan, attack her life-points directly!" Ricardo commanded and Chelsea braced herself as the two warriors charged towards her before slamming their weapons into her stomach bringing her life-points down to 4000.

"Oh great, the first Expulsion Duel and Chelsea's already in trouble!" Marcus yelled out as Chelsea got to her feet. "At least it can't get any….."

"Err, guys, I think Chelsea's about to lose her temper." Chloe interrupted and the other students blinked before noticing the look of anger and frustration on Chelsea's face.

"Never mind, it just got worse!" Marcus said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his face.

"That will do for my turn." Ricardo said not noticing the look on Chelsea's face, she quickly drew her card and he grinned. "But you may as well give up at this point….."

"NOT A CHANCE IN HELL!" Chelsea interrupted him catching the Spanish Pro Duelist off guard, not to mention the other pro-duelists.

"Okay, where the hell did that come from?!" Philip yelled out as once he noticed the look on Chelsea's face. "I would chalk that up to the stress of the situation getting to her but even that's overreacting."

"Maybe she just has a short fuse and is a sore loser." Erick shrugged his shoulders once the surprise wore off.

"Okay, okay, I was just offering." Ricardo said as he put his hands up defensively. "No need to bite my head off!"

"_Chelsea, keep that temper in check!" _Wattchimera advised her and Chelsea growled.

"_Easy for you to say, you won't be sent to military school after losing this duel." _Chelsea responded before looking at her card. "I activate Monster Reborn and I use it to bring back a monster I discarded for Heaven's Lost Property last turn." Chelsea played the card and Wattaildragon appeared on the field with a roar (6/2500/1000). "Now to narrow the gap a bit, Wattaildragon attack the weaker Double Lance!" Chelsea commanded and the dragon roared before charging up his attack…..

"I activate Heroic Challenger – Spartan's effect, when a monster besides him is targeted for an attack that monster's original attack points get added to Spartan's attack points until the end-phase." Ricardo announced as Heroic Challenger – Spartan's body glowed as his attack points shot up to 3300.

"Like that'll help you, Wattaildragon, continue your attack!" Chelsea commanded and as the dragon charged its attack up Ricardo activated a trap. "Heroic Charge, I've never heard of that one."

"You're going to wish you hadn't, to activate this trap one Heroic Monster has to be targeted for an attack, since you just did that I can double Spartan's attack points for the rest of the turn." Ricardo explained as Spartan's attack increased to 6600. "Oh yeah, and he's your new target!" Chelsea's eyes widened as Wattaildragon changed its attack target to Spartan; Spartan dodged the ball of electricity and impaled Wattaildragon in the chest, however to Chelsea's surprise Wattaildragon survived. "As you can see the downside is that both monsters aren't destroyed as a result of battle, your life-points on the other hand…."

"I knew that!" Chelsea said with a growl as her life-points dropped to 900, she looked at her dragon before picking up the card she retrieved via Wattcobra's effect the previous turn. "I set this monster in defense mode and end my turn." Chelsea announced and once Spartan's attack returned to normal Ricardo drew his card.

"_Okay, this chick definitely has issues; I'd be able to understand if it was due to the stress of her situation but no amount of stress causes this much anger." _Ricardo thought before shaking his head. "Double Lance, attack her defense!" Ricardo commanded and the stronger of the two Double Lances charged towards Chelsea's facedown monster, revealed to be Wattdragonfly, which was skewered by his lance.

"Since you destroyed Wattdragonfly I can activate his effect allowing me to Special Summon another Watt monster from my deck." Chelsea explained before picking up her deck and searching through it, she found the card she was looking for and played it. "Say hello to Wattlemur!" Chelsea announced and the monster appeared on the field, it was a small yellow and blue monkey with a long tail (2/800/100).

"Okay, that's strangely cute but you would've been better off summoning another Wattaildragon…" Ricardo started but was interrupted by Chelsea.

"And my Judgment of Thunder trap card!" Chelsea announced and Ricardo's eyes widened as lightning struck Heroic Challenger – Spartan destroying it. "And since both of your Double Lances are weakened by Wattcastle and I still have Wattaildragon my life-points are safe."

"Okay, I admit, that was pretty clever." Erick said begrudgingly as Ricardo sent his monster to the graveyard. "All though it was probably dumb luck due to that temper of hers."

"In that case I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Ricardo set the card and Chelsea drew her card without any hesitation. "Okay, Chelsea, quick question before you do anything else?"

"What?" Chelsea asked almost immediately and Ricardo frowned.

"What's with your sudden change in attitude? I realize that this is a stressful time for you and your classmates but losing your temper won't help." Ricardo asked and Chelsea growled.

"That's none of your business!" Chelsea snapped at him before looking at her drawn card, Ricardo frowned as he realized that he wasn't going to get any straight answers.

"Suit yourself." Ricardo shrugged and Chelsea played a card.

"Good, now to continue my move." Chelsea said before playing another card. "I summon Wattpheseant in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and the electric colored pheasant appeared on the field (4/1000/800).

"I'm guessing he's tougher than he looks?" Ricardo asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head, Chelsea nodded with a grin.

"Yep, you see Wattpheseant is another monster that can attack directly!" Chelsea announced and the pheasant charged towards Ricardo before pecking at him bringing his life-points down to 6000 and bringing her life-points up to 1900 thanks to Wattcine. "And now Wattpheseant's effect activates, since he just inflicted damage via a direct attack one of your Double Lances gets removed from play until I end my turn." Chelsea explained and Ricardo's eyes widened as Double Lance disappeared from the field. "Wattlemur, take out the other Double Lance." Chelsea commanded and the monkey charged towards the monster…..

"Not this time, I activate my trap card Heroic Retribution Sword!" Ricardo activated the trap and Double Lance's…..lance was replaced by a large red and black sword.

"So? That didn't increase his attack points one bit!" Chelsea said as Wattlemur bit Double Lance in the neck destroying it.

"True but when the monster equipped with Heroic Retribution Sword is attacked we both take the battle damage!" Ricardo explained and both duelists winced as their life-points dropped to 5900 and 1800 respectively. "And there's more, the monster that attacked the monster that's equipped with this sword bites the big one as well!" Chelsea's eyes widened as the sword reappeared on the field and skewered Wattlemur destroying it.

"Fine but I still have my dragon to attack you with!" Chelsea announced as the dragon launched a ball of electricity at Ricardo bringing his life-points down to 3400, now that the scores where much closer Chelsea calmed down a bit. "I'll end my turn which means Double Lance returns to the field." Chelsea grunted as the second Double Lance returned to the field with its stats intact, Ricardo nodded before drawing his card.

"_I'd hate to do this but I can't have her replenish more life-points." _Ricardo thought before playing the card. "I activate Heavy Storm to clear the field!" Chelsea's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field destroying both of her Spell Cards. "Now I can attack without my monsters losing any attack points!" Ricardo said with a grin but Chelsea shook her head.

"That doesn't matter because you won't be able to attack." Chelsea said as she retrieved Wattlemur from the graveyard. "When he's destroyed by battle or a card effect you have to skip your next battle phase." Chelsea explained before returning the card to her graveyard.

"Fine, I can wait a turn before attacking." Ricardo shrugged before playing a card. "But I will do this; I summon the Tuner Monster Rose Warrior of Revenge!" Ricardo announced and red haired female warrior appeared on the field next to Double Lance (4/1600/600). "Unfortunately Double Lance can't be used as a Synchro Material Monster full stop…..unless I negate his effect!"

"Let me guess, Forbidden Chalice?" Chelsea asked and Ricardo nodded before playing the card, Double Lance glowed as his attack points increased to 2100 but winced as he felt his powers drain away.

"And thanks to Forbidden Chalice I'm in a perfect position to make my big play!" Ricardo said as Rose Warrior and Double Lance leapt into the air and Rose Warrior dissolved into four green glowing rings that surrounded Double Lance. "I tune my two monsters together so that I can Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter!" Ricardo played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded the mighty warrior stood in Double Lance's place (8/2800/1000) and its attack increased to 3200 thanks to his effect. "But as you said I can't attack so go ahead and take your turn." Ricardo told her and Chelsea quickly drew her card.

"_I don't care if he brings out Colossal Fighter or Obelisk the fucking Tormentor; I am NOT losing this match!" _Chelsea thought with a frown as she glared at the large monster in front of her. _"Not even Wattaildragon can beat that thing and as far as attack power goes he's the best I've got." _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. "I switch my remaining monsters to defense mode." Chelsea announced begrudgingly as her two monsters crouched down. "That'll end my turn." Chelsea added and Ricardo drew his card.

"I set one card facedown." Ricardo set the card he had just drawn down. "Now Colossal Fighter, attack Wattpheseant!" Ricardo commanded and the fighter charged towards the much smaller monster before squashing it with his first. "That ends my turn." Ricardo announced and Chelsea drew her card once she sent her monster to the graveyard. "I activate my Trap Card Heroic Gift."

"Oh great, now what do you have planned?!" Chelsea grumbled once she saw the trap card flip up, however she was caught by surprise when she saw her life-points shoot up to 8000. "What the…."

"This trap can only be activated if my opponent has less than 2000 life-points; your life-points become 8000." Ricardo explained and Chelsea blinked. "Don't worry, I haven't gone insane as I get a benefit as well, namely I can draw two cards." Ricardo added before drawing twice.

"I'm not complaining but that's one of the dumbest moves I've seen." Chelsea said before looking at her newly drawn card. "I mean hell; if not for Wattaildragon you could've beaten me last turn."

"I know, but it will make sense soon enough." Ricardo said feeling a bit relieved by the fact that her temper seemed to be subsiding. "So you ready to talk about why you got stressed."

"No, I'm not, at least not in public." Chelsea answered with a frown before looking at her drawn card again. "Not much I can do so I set this card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the card down and Ricardo drew his card.

"Now to reveal why I activated Heroic Gift, I activate Megamorph and equip it to Colossal Fighter!" Chelsea's eyes widened as the fighter doubled in size and attack power, all the way up to 6400. "Now I equip him with Big Bang Shot."

"Oh this is going to hurt." Chelsea gulped as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 6800.

"Colossal Fighter, attack Wattaildragon!" Ricardo commanded and the fighter pulled back its fist and slammed it into Wattaildragon destroying it and knocking Chelsea on her backside sending her life-points down to 2200.

"Off course due to Megamorph's side effect Colossal Fighter's attack points get cut in half but that's not an issue." Ricardo said as he played another card. "I play Emergency Provisions getting rid of Megamorph and gaining a thousand life-points." Ricardo announced as Colossal Fighter shrank back down to normal size and its attack decreased to 3600, at the same time Ricardo's life-points increased to 4400. "That ends my turn." Ricardo announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"She may as well give up at this point." Erick said out-loud and Chelsea glared at him. "There's no way she can summon something strong enough to beat Colossal Fighter."

"I thought it was obvious that my deck isn't about strength." Chelsea shouted back before playing a card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot which lets us both draw three cards." Chelsea played the card and Ricardo shrugged before drawing three cards, when she saw one of her cards her eyes lit up. "In fact I'm about to bring Colossal Fighter down!"

"Oh? And how do you plan to do that?" Ricardo asked as she played another spell card, his eyes widened when he saw it. "Oh crap, not Mystical Space Typhoon!"

"That's right and I'm targeting Big Bang Shot!" Chelsea announced as a tornado ripped through the field and destroyed the Spell Card, as soon as it was destroyed a portal opened up behind Colossal Fighter and sucked him in. "And we both know you can't summon him back from the removed from play slot."

"You may have destroyed Colossal Fighter but I still have 2000 more life-points than you." Ricardo pointed out and Chelsea grinned.

"Not a problem, first I activate my trap card Wattkeeper which lets me Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Watt Monster from my graveyard, so welcome back Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the card and Wattcobra returned to the field. "Off course Wattkeeper's side effect will destroy Wattcobra once I end my turn but it won't be staying around for that."

"It won't?" Ricardo echoed with a raised eyebrow, Chelsea grinned as she sent her trap to the graveyard once she did that she held up another card.

"Let me put it this way, you're not the only one who can Synchro Summon!" Chelsea said as she slapped a card down on her duel disk. "I summon the Tuner Monster Wattfox!" Chelsea played the card and the small electric fox appeared on the field (2/800/100). "You've met my strongest monster, now meet my favorite monster, Wattfox, it's time to tune up Wattcobra!" Chelsea commanded and the two monsters leapt into the air, Wattfox dissolved into two green glowing rings that surrounded Wattcobra. "Say hello to Wattchimera!" Chelsea played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded the mechanical version of the mythological beast appeared on the field (6/1400/1200).

"I think it's safe to assume that that monster is one of your monsters that can attack directly?" Ricardo asked and Chelsea nodded. "Even so, it's very weak for a Level 6 monster."

"True but the two other cards I drew with Spellbook will help with that." Chelsea said before playing the card. "I activate Wattcube and equip it to Wattchimera, with this my monster's attack is increased by 100 points for each Thunder Monster in my graveyard, there's six in there at the moment giving my monster a grand total of 2000 attack points!" Chelsea explained as her monster's attack increased to 2000. "Now I activate Hidden Armory which lets me search out another copy of Wattcube."

"So you're powering up your monster to 2600." Ricardo said as Chelsea retrieved the card, sent her spell to the graveyard, shuffled her deck and subsequently equipped it to Wattchimera increasing its attack to 2600, however to his surprise she sent her second Spell to the graveyard. "Why'd you do…?" Ricardo trailed off as Wattchimera's attack to 3000. "Is that another effect of Wattcube?"

"You got it, by sending it to the graveyard I can increase my monster's attack by one thousand points, show him Wattchimera!" Chelsea commanded and the mythological beast leapt at Ricardo and bit him in the shoulder bringing his life-points down to 1400. "Wattchimera has an additional effect as well; when he successfully attacks your life-points direct it sends a random card in your hand to the graveyard to the top of your deck." Chelsea added and electricity struck one of the cards Ricardo drew with Spellbook, Ricardo nodded before sending it to the top of his deck.

"Well, well, it seems Chelsea might win after all." One of the Pro-Duelists, a French Teenage Girl with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes who was wearing a blue halter top, blue jeans and white trainers, commented with an impressed smirk.

"Don't count Ricardo out yet Adrienne, he did win the Spanish Nationals for a reason." Erick said confidently as Ricardo drew his card.

"I activate The Warrior Returning Alive!" Ricardo played the card and retrieved a card from his graveyard before adding it to his hand and sending the Spell to the graveyard. "I set a monster in defense mode and two cards facedown." Ricardo said as the three cards appeared on the field. "That ends my turn." Ricardo announced and Chelsea drew her card. _"Once she tries to finish me off with Wattchimera I'll activate Mirror Force, if she somehow gets past that I'll use Magic Cylinder to finish her off and, unfortunately, end her tenure here." _Ricardo thought as Chelsea looked at her drawn card.

"Sorry but this duel's over, I activate my own Heavy Storm!" Chelsea activated the spell and Ricardo shielded himself as a storm washed over the field destroying both trap cards. "Sorry to disappoint you but as far as Duel Academy goes, I'm here to stay until I graduate, Wattchimera, finish it!" Chelsea commanded and the chimera leapt over the facedown monster and bit Ricardo bringing his life-points down to zero.

"The winner of the match is Osiris Red's Chelsea Cunningham, as a result she will remain in the school and her record will be wiped." Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd cheered, the holograms disappeared and whilst Chelsea was gathering up her cards the reality of what happened was just dawning on Ricardo.

"I lost…..the National Champion of Spain and I lost to a Student from the worst dorm in Duel Academy…." Ricardo muttered under his breath as he got to his feet, once Chelsea gathered up her cards Ricardo approached her with a frown on his face. "I didn't come to the academy expecting a loss…."

"Honestly I wasn't expecting to win either." Chelsea responded but was caught off guard when Ricardo's frown turned into a friendly smile and he offered her a handshake.

"You keep this up and you'll be a force to be reckoned with in the Pro-Leagues." Ricardo said and Chelsea smiled before accepting it. "Just gotta watch the temper."

"Believe me, I'm working on that." Chelsea sighed before letting go off the handshake and hopping off the duel field, whilst she rejoined her friends Ricardo returned to the Pro-Duelists. "Well, that's a weight off of my back."

"Tell me about it, I'll be glad to get my duel out of the way." Lance agreed with a nod. "Anyone know who's up next?"

"I think the only one who does know is Martin." Chloe answered and as if on cue Martin's voice was soon heard over the PA system.

"Our second duel of the afternoon is between Ra Yellow's Lance Alvers and the man who came in second in the Australian National Championships Mark Stevens." Martin announced and Lance grinned before standing up and hopping onto the podium, his opponent hopped onto the podium revealing him to be a tall teenager in his late teens with short red hair and blue eyes who was wearing something that looked more at home at an Archeological Dig.

"Let's cut to the chase mate." Mark said as the two duelists activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "Your lady friend may have beaten Ricardo but I won't go down as easily as he did."

"You call being in the lead for the majority of the match going down easy?" Lance asked with a look of confusion on his face. "Never mind, like Chelsea said as far as Duel Academy goes I'm here to stay until I graduate so let's duel!" Lance shouted as both duelists drew their opening hands.


	63. Duel To Stay In School Part 2

"What can I say Erick?" Ricardo asked as he sat down next to the other pro-duelists, since his duel against Chelsea had just ended he had resolved to watch the rest of the duels. "I underestimated her and it cost me the match."

"No fucking shit." Erick grunted as he folded his arms. "I'll give the girl credit, she has some talent but she'd be better off ditching that overgrown lizard for something else."

"Yeah, I know Wattaildragon doesn't exactly fit in with her other monsters." Ricardo agreed with a shrug. "Let's not dwell on the past and focus on this duel?" Ricardo offered and he and Erick turned their attention to the duel.

"If you don't mind Lance I'd like to go first." Mark offered and Lance shrugged as if to say "go for it", Mark nodded before drawing his card. "I start with a Spell Card called Heaven's Lost Property; since Ricardo used it in his duel I'm sure I don't need to remind you what it does." Mark played the card and both duelists drew three cards before discarding two.

"_Heh, he just made my opening move that much easier." _Lance thought as he looked over his hand.

"Now I summon Block Golem in attack mode!" Mark played the card and what could only be described as a golem made out of Lego Bricks appeared on the field (3/1000/1500).

"Man, I thought Chelsea's monsters looked cartoony but this?" Lance said as he scratched his head in confusion, he quickly regretted his choice of words when he heard Chelsea clear her throat. "No offense to a certain rock chick intended." Lance quickly added.

"That's much better." Chelsea called out to him and Lance laughed nervously.

"You're scared of a girl who's much smaller than you are?" Mark asked with a raised eyebrow and Lance sweat-dropped.

"You haven't felt the brunt of her temper." Lance pointed out and Mark nodded.

"Point taken, now let's get back to my move." Mark said before retrieving the two cards he discarded for Heaven's Lost Property. "I activate Block Golem's effect, by sacrificing it I can bring out two Level 4 or lower Rock Type Monsters in my graveyard besides Block Golem himself so….." Mark explained as his golem broke apart. "I Special summon my Level 3 Small Piece Golem and my Level 2 Rock Protector both in attack mode!" Mark played the cards and two monsters appeared on the field, the first one seemed to be a humanoid carved out of a tree trunk with a slot for its eyes (3/1100/0) and the other seemed to be a shield made out of solid rock (2/500/2000). "Only downside is that the monsters Special Summoned this way can't use their effects this turn but that isn't really a problem for me."

"What do you mean?" Lance asked with a curious look on his face.

"Well for one thing Small Piece Golem is a part of a series of Rock Monsters called the Piece Golems and his effect requires the one of the other pieces to be on the field." Mark explained before grinning. "Rock Protector's effect activates when it's sent to the graveyard for a Synchro Summon and wouldn't you know it? Rock Protector happens to be a Tuner Monster."

"You're kidding?" Lance asked with a gulp as Rock Protector and Small Piece Golem leapt into the air, Rock Protector dissolved into two green glowing rings that surrounded Small Piece Golem.

"Do I look like I'm kidding? I tune Rock Protector with Small Piece Golem to Synchro Summon Rock Giant Ruka!" Mark played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a monster that fit its name appeared on the field, it was a giant rock statue of a warrior that was wielding a shield and a sword (5/2200/1500).

"I2 actually released more Synchro Monsters?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow and Mark smirked.

"Well to be precise they released an archetype of Synchro Monsters." Mark corrected him with a smirk. "Ruka and his brothers can only be Synchro Summoned using two Earth monsters and since most Rock Monsters are Earth Monsters it made sense to build the rest of my deck around that." Mark explained and Lance frowned.

"Okay but what about Rock Protector's effect? You said that it could only be activated if it's used in a Synchro Summon?" Lance asked and Mark frowned.

"I'll explain that in due time." Mark said before picking up two cards. "Obviously I can't attack since it's my first turn so I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Mark set the two cards down and Lance drew his card. "I activate Rock Bombardment; by sending a Rock Type monster from my deck to the graveyard I can inflict 500 points of damage to your life-points." Mark explained before sending a monster in from his deck to the graveyard and Lance winced as a rock hit him in the chest bringing his life-points down to 7500.

"Yeah well, you're not the only one who can take advantage of the effect of Heaven's Lost Property." Lance retorted before retrieving the Great Angus he had discarded for Heaven's Lost Property. "I remove one Fire Type Monster from my graveyard to Special Summon Inferno in defense mode!" Lance pocketed the monster and the small flame with the demonic looking face appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "But this little guy's not sticking around; I sacrifice him to summon one of my favorite cards, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch!" Lance played the card and Inferno vanished from the field, in its place stood the mighty monarch of fire (6/2400/1000).

"I know what his effect is so let's get it over with." Mark said before holding out his hand. "Go ahead and take your pick."

"Gladly, I choose the card on the far left." Lance said and Mark winced as Thestalos's fireball hit him in the chest before sending the card to the graveyard.

"Good choice, the card you selected was a Level 4 monster." Mark complemented him as his life-points dropped to 7600.

"Now for the fun part, Thestalos, attack Rock Giant Ruka!" Lance commanded and the monarch fired up another fireball…..

"I don't think so mate." Mark interrupted as he retrieved Rock Protector from the graveyard and pocketed it, Thestalos launched its attack at Ruka but the attack bounced off of the ghostly image of Rock Protector which disappeared as soon as it appeared. "When Rock Protector's used in the Synchro Summon of a Rock Giant monster I can remove it from play and prevent the monsters I used it to summon from being destroyed in battle for one turn." Mark said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 7400. "But as you can see I still take battle damage."

"That's going to be annoying." Lance muttered under his breath before picking up three cards. "I set these cards facedown and call it a turn at that." Lance set the three cards down and Mark drew his card.

"Well so far so good, things seem to be pretty even." Chelsea commented as she folded her arms. "At least his Rock Giant can't beat Thestalos."

"You off all people should know that high attack power isn't everything Chelsea." Tyler told her and she turned to him. "There's a good chance that these Rock Giants have powerful effects which could be trouble for Lance."

"True but I don't think he'll have too much trouble, especially considering that Rock Monsters have almost as much Support as Thunder type monsters." Chelsea commented with a shrug and Tyler frowned. "You don't look convinced."

"Martin mentioned that he came in second in the Australian National Championships, it may be true that the reigning champ was beaten by Lance's brother during the Tournament's early stages but you can't say that he had an easy time against him." Tyler pointed out and Chelsea frowned.

"Tyler, I didn't attend Battle City remember? All I did as far as that tournament was concerned was watching the Semi-Finals on TV at my folk's house." Chelsea pointed out and Tyler sweat-dropped. "But I'll take your word for it."

"Trust me, he was a tough cookie." Chloe informed her and Chelsea frowned. "Don't get me wrong, I don't want anyone among us to lose our matches but it's clear that Martin wants us to fight to stay here as you found out against Ricardo."

"And Lance is finding that out for himself." Chelsea said with a nod as the two girls turned their attention to the duel.

"Lance isn't doing too badly." Phil commented and Francesca nodded.

"Whether or not he can win is anyone's guess." Francesca responded with a nod. "Still if he has Chelsea's determination, and we know he does thanks to your duel against him, we can be sure that he will either fight for the win or go down fighting."

"I activate Rock Giant Ruka's effect, by giving up his ability to attack this turn, not a problem considering that Thestalos is stronger, I can retrieve one Level 3 or lower Rock Type monster from my graveyard and another from my Removed from Play slot, shuffle them into my deck and draw two cards." Mark explained before retrieving Small Piece Golem and Rock Protector from his graveyard and his pocket, shuffled them into his deck and drew twice.

"So it's a slightly more powerful version of Pot of Avarice in short." Lance commented and Mark chuckled.

"If Pot of Avarice was a Synchro Monster but yes, the comparison is accurate." Mark shrugged before picking up the two cards he had drawn. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Mark set the two cards down and Lance drew his card.

"Okay, time to finish what I started last turn, Thestalos, attack…" Lance commanded but the command was cut off by a loud roar. "What the…"

"Threatening Roar says otherwise." Mark said simply before sending his trap to the graveyard. "And to prevent any speculation about my other trap card….." Mark activated the other trap revealing it to be another Rock Bombardment.

"Not again." Lance groaned as Mark sent another monster from his deck to the graveyard and Lance was pelted with rocks bringing his life-points down to 7000. "Keep that up Mark and you'll end up decking yourself out." Lance pointed out and Mark smirked.

"Well, I'll be sure to beat you before I deck out." Mark said confidentially and Lance frowned.

"_He's using Rock Bombardment for a reason other than draining my life-points; why else would he use two copies in a row?" _Lance thought with a frown before looking at his drawn card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance set the drawn card facedown and Mark frowned before drawing his card.

"_Maybe he's onto my strategy? Phil did say that he was a good duelist." _Mark thought with a frown before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Plaque of Greed." Mark played the card and the image showed a cave painting of the infamous Pot of Greed. "This can only be activated if I the only monsters in my graveyard are Rock Type Monsters, since I do I get to draw two cards." Mark explained before drawing twice and sending his Spell Card to the graveyard, he looked at the two cards he had drawn and smirked a bit. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode." Mark set the two cards and they appeared on the field. "That ends my turn."

"And that begins my turn." Lance said before drawing his card. _"He still hasn't shifted his Rock Giant to defense mode despite Thestalos being the stronger of the two monsters, but why?" _ Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Fire Princess!" Lance played the card and the blonde woman in the red dress appeared on the field (4/1300/1500). "Now I play Poison of the Old Man, with this I get two options, either you take 800 points of damage or I gain 1200 life-points."

"Let me guess, your choosing to replenish your life-points thus activating Fire Princess's effect?" Mark asked and Lance blinked. "Come on Lance, Fire Princess is a fairly old card and I'm pretty sure the only people who don't know her effect by now are new to the game."

"Good point." Lance admitted before his life-points rose to 8200 and Fire Princess cast a Spell at Mark bringing his life-points down to 6900. "And your about to lose some more life-points, Thestalos, attack his Rock Giant!" Lance commanded and the monarch fired up a fireball…

"Sorry but no, I activate my trap card Protecting the Ruins." Mark activated the trap which showed the ruins from the artwork for Blasting the Ruins only intact. "This trap can only be activated if you attack an Earth Type Synchro Monster on my side of the field, the attack gets negated and I get to draw a card in return." Mark said before drawing a card and sending his trap to the graveyard. "Downside is I have to skip my next Draw Phase."

"I have another monster I can attack with remember? Fire Princess, attack his defense monster!" Lance commanded and the princess cast a spell at the facedown monster…which got reflected back at her bringing Lance's life-points down to 7500. "Huh?" Lance asked but frowned when he saw that the monster was another Rock Protector. "Is that the same one you used to summon Ruka or do you have three in the wings?"

"The answer is all of the above." Mark answered and Lance frowned.

"In that case I end my turn with a facedown card." Lance set the card down and Mark didn't draw his card due to Protecting the Ruins' side effect. "Before you get any smart ideas I activate my trap card Backfire, now every time one of my fire type monsters bites the dust you get hit for 500 points of damage."

"I can deal with that." Mark shrugged before looking at the card he drew with Protecting the Ruins. "First I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Mark played the card and both he and Lance drew three cards. "All right Lance; you've met one Rock Giant, now it's time to meet another."

"That's not good." Lance gulped and Mark grinned.

"Not good for you maybe but me? This suits me just fine; first I summon Medium Piece Golem." Mark played the card and another golem appeared on the field, this one was more rock like in its appearance and looked quite menacing (4/1600/0). "Now I tune Rock Protector and Medium Piece Golem together!" Mark added as the two monsters leapt into the air, Rock Protector once again dissolved into the Synchro Ring which surrounded Medium Piece Golem. "So I can Synchro Summon Rock Giant Trimius!" Mark played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded another Rock Giant appeared in Medium Piece Golem's place, this time it was a rock statue of a female warrior that was wearing form fitting armor and wielding a large sword (6/2500/1500).

"Oh crap, that thing's stronger than Thestalos!" Chelsea gulped as she exchanged nervous looks with the other students.

"Trimius attack the Firestorm Monarch, Ruka, attack Fire Princess!" Mark commanded and the two statues suddenly sprung to life before charging towards the two surprised monsters, Trimius decapitated Thestalos with a single swipe and Ruka impaled Fire Princess with his shield bringing Lance's life-points down to 6300, Mark grimaced as Backfire's effect kicked in bringing his life-points down to 6400 but Mark didn't seem to mind. "That shall do it for my turn." Mark announced and Lance quickly drew his card.

"_Great, I could've used Solemn Wishes last turn in a combo with Fire Princess." _Lance thought with a frown before looking at the two giants. _"I could keep Backfire on the field but those two monsters are really powerful and I don't know if Trimius has an effect like Ruka does, I'll end up losing a lot more than Mark will in the long run." _Lance thought before playing his drawn card. "I activate Magic Planter; in exchange for destroying Backfire I can draw two cards." Lance played the card and Backfire's hologram shattered, once it was in his graveyard Lance drew twice. "This is just what the doctor ordered!"

"Oh, did you draw some good cards with that card?" Mark asked curiously and Lance grinned.

"You could say that, I activate Swords of Revealing Light!" Lance played the card and Mark shielded himself as the three golden swords rained down pinning his monsters. "Now I set three cards facedown and a monster in defense mode and that ends my turn." Lance set the cards down and Mark nodded before drawing his card.

"Since I obviously can't attack for another couple of turns I'll pass for now." Mark shrugged as he added his newly drawn card to his hand; Lance nodded before waiting for the first sword to disappear from the field, once it did he drew his card.

"I activate a Trap Card called Reckless Greed, I have to skip my next two draw phases but in exchange I can draw two cards." Lance activated the trap and drew two cards without hesitation. "I set a card in defense mode and two cards facedown, that'll do it for me." Lance set the cards and Mark drew his card.

"Sorry Lance but Swords won't be staying around for as long as you hoped, I activate Heavy Storm to clear the field!" Lance's eyes widened as one by one each Spell and Trap Card on the field was destroyed. "Now to attack…" Mark started but winced when he felt a burn. "Huh?"

"One of my facedown cards is a recent addition to my deck called Dormant Volcano." Lance said as he held up the card. "When it's destroyed and sent to the graveyard you take 300 points of damage, it has another effect but that won't come into play until my next Standby Phase." Lance explained as Mark's life-points dropped to 6600. "Well at least my life-points are safe?"

"Wrong, you see Trimius has an effect off her own." Mark said as he pointed to his warrior. "To activate it I have to give up her ability to attack next turn but in exchange for that both her and Ruka can inflict piercing damage."

"Would any of the women present mind if I yelled out a bunch of swear words?" Lance gulped as the two warriors got ready for battle.

"I'm sure they'd only mind if you used a certain C-Word but I'm not giving you the chance, Ruka, Trimius, attack his defense monsters!" Mark commanded and the two statues sprung to life again before charging the two facedown monsters, the one Ruka destroyed was Ultimate Baseball Kid bringing his life-points down to 6300, Trimius was the next to attack and cut Lance's facedown UFO Turtle in half bringing his life-points down to 4900.

"I activate UFO Turtle's effect allowing me to Special Summon Solar Flare Dragon from my deck!" Lance played the card and the dragon made of lava appeared on the field (4/1500/1000).

"Ah yes, I remember Phil mentioning that you beat him with that card during the Battle City tournament." Mark remembered before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Mark announced and Lance didn't draw due to Reckless Greed's side effect.

"Oh man, Lance's life-points just took a major hit!" Chelsea winced and Chloe turned to her. "Yeah, I know I made a comeback with a lower amount of life-points than that but does Lance have any monsters that beat Trimius?"

"He does but the last time he used them where during Battle City." Tyler told her with a frown. "Whether or not Lance can keep his monsters on the field long enough to summon them is another question entirely."

"Okay, now the second effect of Dormant Volcano activates." Lance said before picking up his deck. "During the first standby phase after its destruction we can both search our decks for Fire Type Monsters and add them to our hands, which I know you can't do because you're running an Earth Deck."

"Not a problem." Mark shrugged and Lance frowned before searching through his deck, he found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand.

"No but this guy will be a problem for you, I summon Royal Firestorm Guards!" Lance played the card and the strange demon appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "Now his effect activates, allowing me to return four Pyro Type monsters in my graveyard to my deck and draw two cards." Lance retrieved the four cards, shuffled them into his deck and drew twice. "Oh boy…"

"You got a pair of Dead Draws?" Mark asked and Lance shook his head.

"_Lava Golem, I thought I got rid of this thing?" _Lance thought before looking over at Chloe and then back to Mark's two monsters. _"Well I guess I don't have much of a choice at the mo, unfortunately I've already used up my normal summon for this turn." _Lance thought before setting the other card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn activating Solar Flare Dragon's effect in the process!" Lance set the card and Mark winced as his life-points dropped to 6100, shaking it off Mark drew his card. "Go Thunder of Ruler!"

"You want to play it that way? Fine, I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Mark announced and Lance skipped his draw phase due to Reckless Greed. _"Why did he hesitate? Thunder of Ruler is a good stall card!"_

"_Well, better get this over with." _Lance thought as he glanced at Lava Golem before grinning. "Hey Mark, I've got a gift for ya, catch!" Before Mark could voice his confusion Lance tossed Lava Golem at him and the Australian Duelist blinked before his eyes widened.

"Oh crap." Mark gulped before sighing. "Seeing as I have no choice I sacrifice my two Rock Giants to summon Lava Golem in attack mode!" Chloe's eyes widened once she heard the name and the two rock giants where consumed by lava, soon after woods the infamous monster made its appearance and it's cage dropped around Mark (8/3000/2500).

"Err, Chloe is something wrong?" Chelsea asked once she noticed how her roommate was acting after Lava Golem was summoned.

"We'll explain later Chelsea but she doesn't exactly have the best history with that card." Brandon told her and Chelsea frowned.

"And just in case you get any ideas about damaging my life-points I switch Royal Firestorm Guards and Solar Flare Dragon to defense mode and that ends my turn." Lance switched the two monsters to defense mode and Mark drew his card before he got burnt, first by Solar Flare Dragon's effect bringing his life-points down to 5600 and then by Lava Golem bringing his life-points down to 4600.

"This card may damage my life-points each turn but you know what? You gave me a 3000 attack beatstick and I'm going to use it! Lava Golem, attack Royal Firestorm Guards!" Mark commanded and the golem's lava poured out until it consumed Royal Firestorm Guards and disappeared. "Naturally I can't inflict damage so I….." Mark started before noticing his drawn card. _"Now there's an idea!" _Mark thought before setting it. "On second thought I set a card facedown and end my turn." Mark announced and Lance drew his card since Reckless Greed's effect had worn off.

"_All right, this is perfect! Just a few more turns and my combo will drain Mark's life-points and I won't have to worry about expulsion." _Lance thought before looking up…and noticing that Lava Golem's cage was now around him! "What the….." Lance yelled out before noticing that Mark had activated a trap. "Remove Brainwashing?"

"I usually use this in combination with one of my own cards but it applies here!" Mark said with a grin. "As long as this Continuous Trap's on the field all monsters return to their previous owners!"

"WHAT? BUT THAT MEANS…" Lance's eyes widened once it hit him. "Lava Golem's going to drain my life-points unless I do something about it!"

"Well if you destroy Remove Brainwashing then it'll return to my side of the field but judging from the look on your face I'd say you lack the means to do that." Mark explained as Lance started sweating bullets. "That or Lava Golem's heat is getting to you."

"I think it's a combo of both actually." Lance answered before setting a card. "Ah who cares? It's like you said, you've given me a beatstick and I'm going to use it!" Lance said before switching Solar Flare Dragon to attack mode. "Lava Golem attack is defense!" Lance commanded and the lava poured from the golem consuming the monster, revealed to be Morphing Jar (2/700/600) which was quickly destroyed. "With a deck full of Rock Monsters I'd be surprised if it lacked that card to be honest." Lance shrugged as the two duelists tossed their cards and drew until they had five cards.

"It has its uses besides giving us a fresh start Lance." Mark answered before looking at his drawn cards, his eyes lit up when he saw three of them. _"Good, I'll be able to bring out my best Rock Giant next turn." _Mark thought before looking at Lance. "I assume Solar Flare Dragon's about to attack."

"You got it! Get him Solar Flare Dragon!" Lance commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Mark….which was stopped by the transparent image of a scarecrow. "Oh great, now what did you do?"

"It's more along the lines of what you did mate, by attacking my life-points directly you've allowed me to activate the effect of Swift Scarecrow (1/0/0), by discarding it from my hand when you declare a direct attack I can end the Battle Phase immediately." Mark explained and Lance frowned at that.

"Fine, I end my turn but you still take damage Solar Flare Dragon's effect!" Lance pointed out as the dragon breathed fire at Mark bringing his life-points 4100.

"It's a measly 500 points of damage, I've had worse." Mark shrugged before drawing his card. "Besides with Lava Golem on your side of the field I can now bring out the big guns!"

"What do you mean the big guns? Are you bringing out another Synchro monster?" Lance asked and Mark nodded triumphantly.

"I'm not just bringing out any monster Lance; I'm bringing out the best Rock Giant in the Archetype which, unfortunately, will be the last Synchro Monster you'll see as a Duel Academy student!" Mark said before playing a card. "But first things first I have to set things up, since you have monsters and I don't I can Normal Summon Big Piece Golem without a sacrifice!" Mark played the card and the final member of the Piece Golems appeared on the field, it was more metallic looking than the others and had a visible face (5/2100/0).

"Wait a sec, you said Normal Summon? Hah, so much for your Synchro Summon!" Lance said confidently and Mark smirked.

"Phil said you liked jumping to conclusions, now I see what he meant!" Mark said before playing a card. "Next I remove Swift Scarecrow from play so I can Special Summon Rock Apparition!" Mark retrieved the card from his graveyard and pocketed it; the monster that appeared on the field seemed to be a small ghost made out of rocks (3/900/200).

"Is that supposed to be a Rock Monster or a Zombie?" Lance asked with a look of confusion on his face, Mark smirked at that.

"Technically it's a rock type monster but you're hardly the first person to ask that and I doubt you'll be the last." Mark told him before grinning. "Oh yeah and one more think, Rock Apparition is a Tuner Monster!"

"Wait, what's with you using the golems to set up Synchro Summons? Is that another requirement?" Lance asked as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"Nah, it's just a matter of convenience." Mark told him as Rock Apparition dissolved into the Synchro Ring that surrounded Big Piece Golem. "Anyway I tune Rock Apparition and Big Piece Golem together to Synchro Summon Rock Giant Titan!" Mark played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field.

"I'll never get used to that thing!" Lance shouted out as the flash faded, when Lance looked up he saw the biggest rock giant of the three, it was a large titan which, unlike the others, lacked weapons or armor but with fists that looked like they could crush a house it was apparent that it didn't need it them (8/?/?). "Great, a question mark monster, I'm guessing its effect has something to do with the graveyard?"

"That's right Lance, you see Rock Giant Titan gains five hundred attack points with each Rock Type Monster in my graveyard, there's a lot of them in there so I'll save you the trouble of figuring it out." Mark said as Titan's attack increased to 5500. "Oh yeah and like Rock Protector before it Rock Apparition's effect kicks in if he's used in the Synchro Summon of a Rock Giant."

"What effect?" Lance asked and Mark motioned for him to turn around, he did so and noticed that a large portal had opened up behind Lava Golem and before Lance could say anything Lava Golem was sucked in.

"It removes a monster from play on my opponent's side of the field that matches the Level of the monster that it was used to Summon, in this case my Level 8 Rock Giant Titan!" Mark added and Lance frowned before pocketing Lava Golem. "And the fun's just beginning, Rock Giant Titan, attack Solar Flare Dragon!" Mark commanded and the titan pulled back it's fist before slamming it into Solar Flare Dragon squashing it flatter than a pancake and sending Lance's life-points plummeting down to 400. "I end my turn but you may as well give up mate; no-one has been able to beat my titan, in fact the only reason I'm not the Australian National Champion is because the reigning champ didn't give me a chance to summon him!"

"And give up my spot here? Not a chance!" Lance said before drawing his card. "I activate my own Spellbook inside the Pot!" Lance played the card and both duelists drew three cards. _"This is risky but if it pays off I'll win!" _Lance thought before picking up two cards. "First I set two cards facedown." Lance set the card and quickly played another. "Now I activate Emergency Provisions, I send my facedown cards to the graveyard and in return I gain a thousand life-points for each."

"That's still not enough Lance." Mark pointed out as Lance's life-points increased to 2400.

"Who said I was done?" Lance asked before picking up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Lance set the three cards and Mark grinned before drawing his card.

"Then it looks like your being expelled, Titan, end this now!" Mark commanded and the massive monster pulled back its fist before slamming it into Lance. "It looks like we're even guys!" Mark shouted out to the other pro-duelists as he went to hop off the podium.

"Leaving so soon? The duel's not over yet!" Lance called out to him and Mark blinked before turning around, indeed Lance was getting too his feet and the holograms where still there, most importantly Lance's life-points had dropped to 1400 instead of zero.

"What? How the hell did you survive an attack that powerful?!" Mark yelled out before noticing that Lance had activated two of his cards. "I see, you kept yourself in the game with Nutrient Z which explains why you used Emergency Provisions and….." Mark trailed off when he saw the second card. "Is that Inferno Tempest?"

"It's a card I save for Special Occasions and I'd consider my Expulsion Duel to be appropriate, wouldn't you?" Lance asked with a grin. "Here's the deal, this Quick-Play Spell Card can only be activated if I take over 3000 points of damage from a direct attack, it removes all cards in both our graveyards and our decks from play!"

"But that means….." Mark trailed off as he saw Rock Titan's attack plummet to zero after both duelists had pocketed their cards. "You just did yourself in mate! I can see from here that you only have one card left in your deck because of that move."

"This one card is all I need!" Lance said determinedly and Mark frowned.

"If you say so, I end my turn at that." Mark announced and Lance drew his last card.

"Now it's time to end this, I activate Return from a Different Dimension!" Lance activated the card and Mark's eyes widened once it hit him. "It may cost me half of my life-points…" Lance trailed off as his life-points dropped to 700. "But in return I can special summon as many removed from play monsters as I can so welcome back Thestalos, Ultimate Baseball Kid, Solar Flare Dragon, UFO Turtle and Inferno!" As Lance called out their names the monsters appeared on the field one by one. "I could attack with the others but honestly Ultimate Baseball Kid's all I need to win."

"Right, because he gains a thousand attack points for every other Fire Type Monster on your side of the field." Mark said with a nod as Ultimate Baseball Kid's attack increased to 4500. "Congrats on the win Lance, you have earned it today."

"Thanks, now Ultimate Baseball Kid, end this duel and ensure my place at this school!" Lance commanded and the kid launched a baseball at Rock Giant Titan sending it toppling and sending Mark's life-points down to 0.

"The winner of the duel is Ra Yellow's Lance Alvers, as a result he won't be expelled and his record will be wiped." Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd cheered, Lance breathed a huge sigh of relief as he gathered up his cards and Mark was doing likewise, once he was done Mark approached Lance and offered him a handshake.

"That move took a lot of guts Alvers, I can appreciate that." Mark said as Lance accepted the handshake with a grin.

"No kidding, there's a reason I don't use it often." Lance admitted before hopping off the podium and joining his friends. "Two down, six to go, wonder whose dueling next?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Chloe shrugged before looking up at Lance. "Lance, about Lava Golem….."

"Sorry Chloe but I didn't have much choice; Reckless Greed's side effect was still in play so I couldn't rely on my next draw for an alternative." Lance said honestly and Chloe nodded in understanding. "If it helps I hesitated before playing it."

"Yeah, that does help." Chloe nodded and Lance sat down in the chair he was occupying prior to his duel.

"The next match will feature Obelisk Blue's Theresa Daniels taking on the Irish National Champion Philip Masters!" Martin announced and a collective gasp echoed throughout the audience, Theresa quickly grabbed her backpack and searched through it.

"You're up next, against Phil to boot." Tyler said as he turned to Theresa. "Are you going to be okay against him? I know you haven't dueled much since returning from Battle City?"

"I should be fine, as good as Philip is he never faced me in the tournament." Theresa told him before selecting and loading her deck into the deck slot, once that was done she hopped onto the Duel Field.

"Honestly I was hoping for another shot at Lance." Philip shrugged as they shuffled their decks. "But seeing as how you almost beat Eddie in the Finals I'd say you're going to be a good challenge Theresa."

"I'll do more than give you a challenge Phillip; I'll defeat you and defend my place here!" Theresa said as they drew their opening hands. "So let's duel!"


	64. Duel To Stay In School Part 3

"Now this should be fun." Erick chuckled as Mark rejoined the other Pro-Duelists. "The girl who came in second in Battle City going against a guy who didn't even make it to the first round of the Semi-Finals!"

"I wouldn't worry too much Erick." Francesca chimed in as she folded her arms. "It's true that neither of us did that well in the tournament but we've improved our decks since then, as good as Theresa is, she'll have a hell of a time beating Phil."

"You make it sound like you want her to win." Erick chuckled and Francesca frowned. "You guys may have your goodie-to-shoes reasons for being here today but me? I came here to make an example out of these duelists."

"Considering that two of the students facing expulsion managed to make major comebacks in their duels and win I wouldn't count on that working out for you." A thick Russian accent rang out and Erick turned to the Pro Duelist at the end of the bench, a mountain of a man with black hair in a military buzz cut and blue eyes who was wearing a red t-shirt, khaki pants and black boots. "Besides I seem to remember many people calling Theresa the best duelist among the Duel Academy students who competed in Battle City." The duelist added and Erick smirked.

"That's not saying much Dmitri." Erick shrugged his shoulders and the duelist, now known as Dmitri, frowned. "If anyone can get us a win in these duels it Phil anyway."

"Didn't you predict that Chelsea Cunningham wouldn't last five minutes against Ricardo?" Dmitri said simply and Erick frowned. "Sure, her temper didn't last five minutes but that's beside the point."

"Ugh, this pissing contest is giving me a headache." The French duelist groaned as she messaged her temples in annoyance. "Can we just focus on the damn match?"

"Well, whatever you say Adrienne." Erick shrugged his shoulders and the French Duelist, now known as Adrienne, sighed in annoyance before turning to the duel.

"_Well on one hand I know Phil runs a Warrior/Dragon deck from his duel with Lance back in Battle City." _Theresa thought as she looked over her hand. _"On the other hand I haven't had much time to watch the Pro-Leagues since returning to Duel Academy so I don't know if he's improved his deck or not." _Theresa thought before turning to Phillip. "So who's going first?"

"I'll let you have the first move Theresa." Phil shrugged as he looked over his hand. _"Besides this gives me an excuse to see what deck she's using." _Phil thought as Theresa drew her first card.

"Then I'll start things of simply." Theresa said as she picked up four cards. "I set three cards facedown and a card in defense mode, that's it for my turn."

"_Okay, maybe not." _Phil thought as the four set cards appeared on the field, Phil wasted no time in drawing his card and he looked at it. "I activate Cards of Consonance, I toss a weak Dragon Type Tuner and in return I draw two cards." Phil activated the card and after discarding a card he drew twice. "Now I summon Marauding Captain in attack mode!" Phil played the card and the brown haired warrior appeared on the field with his twin swords at the ready (3/1200/400).

"I'm guessing you plan on using his effect?" Theresa asked and Phil nodded before picking up and playing another card.

"That's right, and I use it to Special Summon Spear Dragon!" Phil played the card and the blue and orange dragon with the oversized, spear like nose appeared on the field (4/1900/0). "Sure, he doesn't get Marauding Captain's protection effect due to be being a Dragon and all but with the effect to inflict piercing damage I'd say that it's a good trade-off." Phil added before pointing at Theresa's facedown card. "Spear Dragon, attack her defense!" Phil commanded and the dragon took flight before dive-bombing at Theresa's facedown card, revealed to be Giant Germ (2/1000/100) which was quickly destroyed, Phil winced as his life-points dropped to 500 but grinned. "You just took a lot more damage…."

"Think again, I chain Giant Germ's second effect with my Defense Draw Trap Card!" Theresa flipped the card up and quickly drew a card. "I didn't think I'd use this trap so soon but regardless it reduces the damage I would've taken in this battle to zero and I get to draw a card." Theresa explained before picking up her deck and searching through it, she found the cards she was looking for and played them both, soon afterwards two more copies of Giant Germ appeared on Theresa's side of the field.

"Yeah I'm not going to do a follow up attack, besides I'd just end up taking more damage than you." Phil shrugged his shoulders before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn which means Spear Dragon shifts to defense mode." Phil set the two cards and once his dragon shifted to defense mode Theresa drew her card.

"So she's using her Kaiba deck?" Chloe wondered out loud and Brandon shook his head.

"Doubt it, for the past two days I've been helping her strengthen her fiend deck because she planned on using it." Brandon told Chloe and she turned to him. "I doubt she made any last minute decisions regarding what deck she's going to use."

"Wasn't that the deck she used when…..err, you know?" Chloe asked and it didn't take Brandon long to figure out what she meant and why she didn't go into detail.

"Nah that was her Dark Attribute deck, she pretty much only uses it when teaming up with me." Brandon told her and Chloe nodded. "Her fiend deck was something she started work on before Battle City; she finally found the time to finish it after the tournament ended."

"So, wait, let me get this straight, she's using a deck she's never used before in her expulsion duel?" Chelsea chimed in and Brandon nodded. "Isn't that a bit risky?"

"Just a bit but I wouldn't worry about that." Brandon reassured her and Chelsea frowned. "If it helps she did a few trial runs with Kimberly's help in the days leading up to…..well today, she told me she's confident that the deck's got all its kinks ironed out."

"And if she's wrong?" Chelsea asked and Brandon shook his head.

"Let's not think about that possibility." Brandon told her and Chelsea nodded. "Besides she's rarely wrong when it comes to these things."

"_Here's hoping that I am right about this." _Theresa thought as she overheard the conversation between Brandon, Chelsea and Chloe, she looked at her hand and frowned. _"Not exactly my best hand but maybe my trap can help there?" _Theresa thought before picking up the card she drew with Defense Draw. "I summon Sangan in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and the small three eyed, multi-limbed fiend appeared on the field (3/1000/600). "Now I activate my trap Dark Spirit Art – Greed, unless you have a Spell Card in your hand I can sacrifice Sangan to draw two more cards."

"Well you're in luck; I used up my only Spell Card during my turn." Phil told her and Theresa nodded before Sangan was consumed by a dark light, once Sangan was gone she drew twice.

"And now Sangan's effect activates, allowing me to add one monster with 1500 or less attack points to my hand." Theresa added once she sent her two cards to the graveyard, once she did that she searched through her deck before finding the card she was looking for and adding it to her hand. _"Okay, that's a bit better." _Theresa thought before setting a card and switching her germs to defense mode. "That ends my turn." Theresa announced and Phil drew his card.

"_Damn, if I had drawn this last turn I could've prevented her from using Dark Spirit Art's effect!" _Phil thought before looking at his opponent's side of the field. "I play a Spell Card called Magical Mallet, with this I can return any number of cards in my hand to my deck…." Phil picked up and returned four cards to his deck. "Shuffle it and draw the same number of cards." Phil explained before shuffling his deck and drawing four new cards.

"_Judging from the look on his face he didn't have that card in his hand last turn." _Theresa noticed as Phil watched over his new hand, _"But that Magical Mallet card has practically given him a fresh start, if he drew something like Final Attack Orders then taking out Spear Dragon will be a lot more difficult."_ Theresa thought as Phil played a card.

"I switch Spear Dragon back to attack mode!" Phil switched the card to attack mode and picked up four cards. "But before I attack I'll set these cards facedown for later." Phil set the card down and pointed to his Dragon. "Spear Dragon, attack the Giant Germ on the right!" Phil commanded and the dragon took flight before dive-bombing the germ skewering it, Theresa's life-points took the hit first reducing her life-points to 6200 and Giant Germ's effect activated bringing Phil's life-points down to 7000.

"I activate my Trap Card Damage Condenser, I discard one card from my hand but in return I can Special Summon one monster from my deck whose attack either matches or is less than the battle damage I just took!" Theresa activated the card and searched through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and played it. "My monster of choice is Newdoria in attack mode!" Theresa announced and the small, armored pink fiend with claws appeared on the field (4/1200/800).

"_So she's using a Fiend Swarm deck? Not what I was expecting." _Phil thought before turning to Marauding Captain. "Captain, take out her other Germ!" Phil commanded and the Captain charged towards the final germ before slicing it in half, Phil winced as his life-points dropped to 6500 but Phil didn't seem to notice. "I end my turn which means Spear Dragon goes back to defense mode." Phil announced as his dragon crouched down again, Theresa drew her card and looked at it.

"I set a card facedown, now Newdoria, attack Spear Dragon!" Theresa commanded and the small fiend leapt towards the much larger dragon…

"I activate my Trap Card Limit Reverse!" Phil activated the trap and Newdoria stopped in its tracks. "Remember the Dragon Type Tuner I discarded for Cards of Consonance? With this trap card I can bring him back, only downside is that he gets destroyed if I move him to defense mode but I can live with that, I summon my Level 1 Red Scar Dragon!" Phil played the card and a monster that fit its name perfectly appeared on the field, it was a small red dragon with a scar going down its face (1/300/200).

"I'd be more worried if you had summoned that thing during your main phase." Theresa said honestly before grinning. "And if you think that giving me a new, weaker target will distract me from destroying Spear Dragon you're surely mistaken, Newdoria continue your attack!" Theresa commanded and the fiend continued his charge….

"Hate to disappoint you but neither Red Scar nor Spear Dragon will be around for long, I activate Urgent Tuning!" Phil activated the trap and the two monsters leapt into the air. "Oh and by the way when Red Scar Dragon is used in the Synchro Summon of a Dragon Type monster I can increase its level by two."

"You're summoning a Level Seven Dragon Type Synchro Monster?" Theresa wondered as Red Scar Dragon dissolved into the Synchro Ring that surrounded Spear Dragon, all it took was one second before it hit her. "Oh no, don't tell me you're….."

"That's right; I'm tuning my two monsters together to Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing!" Phil played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded the dragon previously used by Eddie and Marie appeared on the field with a growl (7/2400/1600). "Now, do you still want to attack?" Phil asked and Theresa frowned.

"_If I attack Dragonwing then my life-points will take a big hit." _Theresa thought before grinning. _"But Marauding Captain on the other hand….." _Theresa thought before pointing at the captain. "Newdoria, attack Marauding Captain!" Theresa commanded and the fiend changed its course again targeting Marauding Captain…..

"I thought you would try that, I activate my trap card Fiendish Chain!" Phil activated the trap and Newdoria's charge was halted by being ensnared by several chains. "In a way this trap works like an upgraded version of Shadow Spell. You see it works by targeting one face-up Effect Monster on your side off the field, now as long as this is on the field Newdoria can't attack or use its effect."

"And that means that Exploder Dragonwing will be free to attack next turn." Theresa said with a frown as Newdoria was dragged back towards her by the chains. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Theresa set the card and Phil drew his card.

"He definitely has some new tricks up his sleeve." Lance commented as he folded his arms and Tyler turned to him. "I was expecting him to summon either Arcana Knight Joker or Scrap Dragon but Exploder Dragonwing? That's not something I was expecting."

"It's like Theresa said after we bumped into Phil and Francesca outside of the main building, it's a safe bet that they've improved their decks since then." Chloe chimed in and Lance nodded. "For all we know Phil got rid of his Poker Knight cards after Battle City."

"If he has than Theresa has lost one of her advantages over him." Tyler responded with a frown. "She knows that he used the Poker Knights in Battle City but now that he has brought out new monsters it's a whole new ballgame."

"Well, well, I get to take one of my new cards for a spin." Phil said out loud before playing a card. "First I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Phil played the card and both duelists drew three cards.

"_What did he mean by take a new card for a spin?" _Theresa thought as Phil played a Spell Card, when she saw it Theresa raised an eyebrow. "Is that Tribute Doll?"

"You got it, with this Spell Card I can use one monster as a tribute for a monster that would normally need two sacrifices so I tribute my Captain….." Phil said as Marauding Captain disappeared. "And know that I've done that I can summon the mighty Sword Hunter to the field!" Phil played the card and a tall muscular man appeared on the field, his upper body was covered in silver armor and he was wielding twin swords (7/2450/1700).

"That monster's pretty weak for a Level 7 Monster and this is coming from someone who uses Watts." Chelsea commented and Tyler turned to her.

"I wouldn't underestimate Sword Hunter, he may not be as strong as some of the other non Synchro Level 7s but his effect is very powerful." Tyler told her and Chelsea frowned.

"Only downside to using Tribute Doll is that the monster I summon with it can't attack the same turn he's summoned with it." Phil explained before grinning. "But Exploder Dragonwing on the other hand is free to attack Newdoria!" Phil commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the small fiend incinerating it alongside the chains bringing Theresa's life-points down to 5000. "And now that the monster I targeted with Fiendish Chain has been destroyed Fiendish Chain is destroyed as well." Phil explained as his Trap Card's hologram shattered.

"Newdoria may be gone but he's taking your dragon with him, I activate my Trap Card Michizure!" Theresa activated the trap and a gaping hole opened up beneath Exploder Dragonwing. "Since you destroyed one of my monsters I get to take one of yours with him."

"Or so you think, I activate Interdimensional Matter Transporter which removes Exploder Dragonwing from play until I end my turn," Phil activated the trap and Exploder Dragonwing vanished from the field before it could fall in the hole which quickly closed up. "I end my turn with a facedown card which means Exploder Dragonwing returns to the field." Phil announced and once Exploder Dragonwing was back on the field Theresa drew her card.

"_Okay, Phil will have to run out of trap cards at some point and once he does I should be able to take out Sword Hunter and Exploder Dragonwing." _Theresa thought before frowning. _"But if he equips Sword Hunter with Mage Power than I'll really be in trouble." _Theresa thought before playing her drawn card. "I play Allure of Darkness, I draw two times but unless I can remove a Dark Type Monster from play I'll have to discard my entire hand." Theresa played the card and drew twice, once she did that she pocketed a monster. "Now I activate my Trap Card Escape from the Dark Dimension which lets me summon the monster I just banished."

"Oh? And what monster would that be?" Phil asked as she retrieved the card from her blazer pocket and played it, it didn't take Phil long to recognize the monster once it appeared. "That's Dark Resonator!" (3/1300/800) Phil realized before frowning. "Either you plan on using his effect to buy you some time or you're setting up a Synchro Summon of your own."

"I'll let the rest of my move answer that for me; first I play the Spell Card Fires of Doomsday which lets me summon two Doomsday Tokens!" Theresa played the card and a pair of small black fiends appeared on the field (1/0/0). "Now I flip my facedown monster Opticlops into attack mode!" Theresa flipped the card up and a red, one eyed fiend appeared on the field (4/1800/1000). "And finally I activate my Level Returner Trap Card, with this trap card I can reduce the Level of one monster on my side of the field by two and I'm using it on Opticlops!" Theresa announced as the fiend groaned as its level dropped to two.

"Impressive set up for a Synchro Summon, question is will you be able to summon him?" Phil complemented her and Theresa frowned.

"_Is he bluffing or is that trap card something that could prevent my Synchro Summon?" _Theresa thought before shaking her head. "Nice bluff but I'm not falling for it, Dark Resonator, give the Doomsday Tokens and Opticlops a tune-up!" Theresa commanded and Dark Resonator struck its tuning fork as he and the three other monsters dissolved into the Synchro Rings, Theresa played the card and Chaos King Archfiend appeared on the field (7/2600/2600).

"Not bad, with his effect he could easily crush either of my monsters." Phil complemented her but Theresa was too busy casting a suspicious eye towards Phil's trap card to notice.

"_Well, if he was bluffing he's damn good at bluffing, why is he so calm if he knows Chaos King Archfiend's effect?" _Theresa thought with a frown before shaking her head. "You may know about Chaos King Archfiend's effect but I know about Sword Hunter's effect so I'm attacking him!" Theresa announced as the fiend disappeared….

"Nice try but I activate my Trap Card Shift forcing you to attack Exploder Dragonwing instead." Phil activated the trap and instead of reappearing behind Sword Hunter it reappeared behind Dragonwing, the dragon's attack and defense where switched around just before Chaos King snapped it's neck bringing Phil's life-points down to 6000, the fiend reappeared on Theresa's side of the field and she looked over her hand.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the card and Phil drew his card.

"I play a spell card called Raiding the Dragon's Cave; since I have a Level 5 or higher Dragon Type Monster in my graveyard I can draw two cards." Phil explained before drawing two more cards, he looked at the two of them and smirked. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Phil set the cards and Theresa drew her card.

"_Okay, if everything goes well I should be able to take out that monster before he can use his effect." _Theresa thought before pointing to her fiend. "Chaos King Archfiend….." Theresa never got a chance to finish her command as it was cut off by a deafening ringing. "What the…"

"That was my Command Silencer Quick Play Spell, it negates the attack, ends the Battle Phase and I get to draw a new card." Phil explained as he drew his card.

"Fine, since my Battle Phase ended prematurely I'll end my turn." Theresa announced and Phil nodded before drawing a card, he wasted no time in activating his other card.

"I activate Foolish Revival; with this Trap Card I can Special Summon a card from your graveyard to your side of the field." Phil activated the trap and to Theresa's surprise Opticlops reappeared on her side of the field in defense mode. "Now I equip Sword Hunter with Mage Power and Big Bang Shot!" Phil played the cards and Sword Hunter glowed as its attack skyrocketed to 3850. "Sword Hunter, attack Opticlops now!" Phil commanded and the swordsman charged towards the one-eyed fiend before cutting it into ribbons with his swords bringing Theresa's life-points down to 2850.

"And now your monster's effect activates." Theresa pointed out as Opticlop's head appeared on Sword Hunter's breast plate increasing its attack to 4550.

"That's its effect?" Chelsea said out loud and Tyler nodded.

"To put it simply whenever Sword Hunter destroys a monster in battle that monster becomes an Equip Spell Card and is equipped to Sword Hunter." Tyler explained and Chelsea nodded. "The boost is a mere 200 points but combined with Mage Power and Big Bang Shot…..well you can see the effects for yourself." Tyler added and Chelsea frowned.

"Yeah well, Chaos King Archfiend still has its effect, no matter how strong Sword Hunter gets its defense is only 1700 making it a sitting duck for Chaos King Archfiend." Chelsea pointed out and Tyler nodded in agreement.

"I end my turn and unfortunately it'll be a matter of time before I end your tenure here Theresa." Phil said nonchalantly and Theresa frowned. "I mean, as strong as Chaos King Archfiend is this combo means that Sword Hunter's attack will keep going up and that he can inflict piercing damage."

"Funny, I seem to remember Mark and Ricardo saying practically the same thing before they were defeated." Theresa retorted with a smirk before looking at her drawn card. "Unfortunately for you that's as strong as Sword Hunter's going to get."

"And what makes you say that?" Phil asked and Theresa grinned before playing a Spell Card.

"Here's a hint, Ricardo's Colossal Fighter was taken out in the same manner." Theresa said as her Spell Card's hologram flipped up revealing it to be Mystical Space Typhoon.

"Oh crap!" Phil gulped as a Tornado ripped through the field destroying Big Bang Shot, seconds later a portal opened up behind Sword Hunter sucking him in and destroying Mage Power in the process, Phil threw Opticlops at Theresa who returned the monster to her graveyard and Phil sent Mage Power to the graveyard before pocketing Sword Hunter.

"Now it's time I narrowed the score a bit, Chaos King Archfiend, attack his life-points directly!" Theresa commanded and the fiend fired reached forward with its claws before slashing him across the chest bringing Phil's life-points down to 3400. "That ends my turn." Theresa announced and Phil drew his card.

"_She beat Exploder Dragonwing and Sword Hunter." _Phil thought as he looked over his hand. _"I guess it's time I went back to one of my old favorites." _Phil thought before playing a card. "I activate Card Destruction!" Phil played the card and Theresa frowned before discarding her hand and drawing the same amount, Phil did likewise and looked over his new hand. _"Perfect, I can finish her off now!" _Phil thought before playing a card. "I play Double Summon with lets me summon two monsters this turn." Phil played the card before picking up a card. "And here's monster number one, Queen's Knight!"

"Oh crap, he's going to summon Arcana Knight Joker!" Lance realized as the blonde female warrior appeared on the field (4/1500/1600).

"And here's my second summon, King's Knight!" Phil played the card and alongside Queen's Knight King's Knight appeared on the field (4/1600/1400). "And since he was summoned whilst I have Queen's Knight on the field I can Special Summon Jack's Knight!" Phil played the card and the final member of the trio appeared on the field (5/1900/1000). "I think you'll remember this move from my duel with Lance, I activate Polymerization!"

"Here we go!" Lance gulped as the trio of monsters fused together to form Phil's strongest monster, it swung it sword downwards as it glared at the fiend (9/3800/3500).

"Now, let's get down to business, Arcana Knight, attack Chaos King Archfiend!" Phil commanded and the swordsman charged towards the fiend, its attack dropped to 3500 due to Chaos King's effect but it was still enough to defeat the fiend bringing Theresa's life-points down to 1950. "Now to bring the duel and unfortunately your tenure here to a close, I activate De-Fusion to split my warrior into its individual parts!" Phil played the card and Arcana Knight Joker vanished, in its place stood the three warriors that made up the mighty warrior. "Go my knights, end this duel!" Phil commanded and the three knights charged towards Theresa…..only to stop in their tracks. "What the….." Phil trailed off before noticing something. "That's Battle Fader!" Phil realized once he saw the small fiend (1/0/0).

"It's handy for stopping OTKs like the one you just attempted." Theresa said before grinning. "And unless you have another copy of Polymerization in your deck to make up for your now empty hand I don't think we'll be seeing your Joker again."

"True but my Joker beat your best monster and even if you get past my three warriors I have ways to bring them back from the graveyard to set it all up again." Phil pointed out before resting his hands by his side. "I end my turn at that." Phil announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I activate Deal with the Dark Ruler!" Theresa played the card which depicted Dark Ruler Ha-Des appearing before a poor family, the youngest of the family, a young girl, is lying on a bed and is clearly ill. "This can only be activated if I have a weak fiend type monster like Battle Fader on my side of the field, with it I can draw until I have five cards in my hand." Theresa explained before drawing her cards. "Like all deals of this nature though it comes with a price, if that monster's still on the field by the end of my turn he's destroyed and he takes half my life-points with it."

"And I thought Allure of Darkness was risky." Phil commented as Theresa sent her card to the graveyard, when he saw the grin on her face he frowned. "Chaos King Archfiend wasn't the strongest monster in your fiend deck, was it?"

"No, you just assumed that." Theresa pointed out before playing a card. "First things first, I activate Lightning Vortex!" Theresa activated the trap and Phil shielded himself as lightning struck his three warriors destroying them, Theresa sent the card she discarded for Lightning Vortex's effect to the graveyard alongside Lightning Vortex it's self before playing a card. "Now I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Dark Resonator!" Theresa played the card and Dark Resonator returned to the field.

"You're planning on a Level 4 Synchro Summon?" Phil asked as he scratched his head. "Are there any Level 4 Synchro Monsters?"

"Not to my knowledge but that doesn't matter because a Level 4 Synchro Summon wasn't what I had in mind." Theresa explained before playing a card. "For my normal summon I bring out Winged Minion in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a small blue fiend appeared on the field, it had a bald head and, as its name suggested, wings (2/700/700). "Dark Resonator, it's time you gave one final tune up!" Theresa commanded and once again Dark Resonator struck its tuning fork and the Synchro Ring surrounded Winged Minion, the two monsters faded into a blight flash of light and when it faded Phil had to do a double take when he saw the monster.

"What the…." Phil wondered out-loud as he saw the monster; it was a twin headed demon riding a motorbike that had wings (5/2200/1800), when Phil saw the monster's stats however he grinned. "It seems your strongest monster falls a bit short."

"This guy, otherwise known as Stygian Street Patrol, is my strongest monster due to his effect. "Theresa said before frowning. "Unfortunately I won't be able to use it because it requires me to destroy a monster on your side of the field first but there's other ways I can end this duel and secure my place here." Theresa added before playing a card which depicted several notable fiend monsters attacking a village. "I play Underworld Invasion, since I have two Fiend Type monsters on my side of the field I can special summon a third as long as it has less than a thousand attack points and it can't attack until my next turn, my monster of choice is Winged Minion!" Theresa explained as the monster returned to the field.

"Nice try but even with three monsters on your side of the field you don't have enough firepower to finish me off." Phil said confidently and Theresa smirked.

"I won't need these three monsters to defeat you Phil; I only need the one and his name's Stygian Sergeants." Theresa said confidently before playing another card. "Next I play Axe of Despair and I equip it to my Sergeants, I'm sure I don't need to explain what this card does to someone as experienced as you Phil."

"You'd be correct there." Phil nodded as the Sergeants' attack strength increased to 3200. "That's still not enough, you said yourself that Winged Minion can't attack due to Underworld Invasion's side effect." Phil pointed out and Theresa grinned.

"Then I guess this is a good time to inform you of my minion's effect." Theresa said as Winged Minion vanished from the field. "In exchange for sacrificing Winged Minion I can target one face-up Fiend Type monster like Stygian Sergeants and increase their attack points by seven hundred points as long as it remains on the field." Theresa explained as Stygian Sergeants attack increased to 3900. "Do the math Phil, this match is over."

"So it is." Phil said with a disappointed nod. "Go ahead; give me your best shot." Phil invited her and Theresa grinned before pointing to Stygian Sergeants.

"Gladly, Stygian Sergeants, finish the match and secure my spot at the school!" Theresa commanded and the fiend revved up his motorbike before charging at Phil and slashing him across the chest bringing his life-points down to zero.

"The winner of the match is Obelisk Blue's Theresa Daniels, as a result she won't be expelled and her record will be wiped!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered as the two duelists gathered up their cards, shuffled their decks and deactivated their duel disks, the other students who were facing possible expulsion breathed a sigh of relief knowing that they were one step closer to putting the day's events behind them.

"_Only five more matches to go and we won't have to worry about expulsion." _Theresa thought as she returned the Fiend Deck to her backpack, when she turned around she saw Phil approaching her ready to offer her a handshake. "Thanks for the match Phil; I only wish we could've dueled under more pleasant circumstances." Theresa said as she accepted the handshake.

"Aye, maybe once you hit the pro-leagues we'll have a rematch." Phil told her and Theresa grinned sheepishly.

"Great, now I have you and Eddie wanting a rematch with me!" Theresa said as she let go of the handshake. "Maybe next time I won't use our duel as an excuse for a test run off a deck." Theresa added and Phil looked at her oddly.

"That was a test run?!" Phil asked and Theresa nodded. "Well, I'd say that that was a successful test run from what I saw, anyway I think Martin's waiting for us to get off the duel field so that he can announce the next match."

"Good point." Theresa agreed before the two of them hopped off of the arena and rejoined their respective groups. "So does anyone know who's up next?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Brandon told her as she sat next to him, soon afterworlds Martin's voice was heard over the PA system.

"Our next match of the evening is between Obelisk Blue's Brandon Thomas and the woman who came in second in the Irish National Championships Francesca Burns." Martin announced and Brandon smirked as he got up.

"Well, that answers that question." Brandon said as he stepped onto the duel field, Francesca joined him on the podium and shared Brandon's grin.

"Like Phil I was hoping for another shot at Chloe." Francesca grinned as the two duelists activated their duel disks and started shuffling their decks. "But you'll do nicely and who knows? Maybe I'll show the boys behind me how it's done!"

"You may not be getting the match you were hoping for Francesca but just remember, the only reason Theresa beat me in Battle City was because she forced me to deck out." Brandon pointed out as they finished shuffling their decks and drew their opening hands. "And like my classmates I have no intention of leaving this school until I graduate so let's duel!" Brandon called out and Francesca grinned at that.


	65. Duel To Stay In School Part 4

"Can anyone of you do your damn jobs right?!" Erick yelled out as Phil returned to the Pro-Duelists bench, Phil's eyes narrowed as he sat down near the empty space that Francesca was occupying before she was called to the Duel Field.

"What the hell do you mean by our jobs? Erick, last time I checked we volunteered to come to Duel Academy today." Phil said as his frown deepened. "Or are you just upset that the students are actually fighting for their spots in Duel Academy and their future careers as pro-duelists?"

"If they can't handle the rules at Duel Academy then they have no place in the Pro-Leagues." Erick said simply ignoring the glares that comment earned him. "Don't like it? Too bad, now let's see if Francesca can get things right unlike you!" Erick added as he and the other pro-duelists turned their attention to the duel.

"Okay Brandon, if you don't mind I'd like to go first." Francesca said and Brandon shrugged as if to say "go for it" and Francesca drew her first card. _"Hmmm, this isn't a bad hand." _Francesca thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Blade Knight in attack mode!" Francesca played the cards and the knight in blue armor appeared on the field as did the two facedown cards (4/1600/1000). "That ends my turn." Francesca announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_Why did she summon that card later? With fewer cards in her hand her monster would've gotten a power boost." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "I'll match your Blade Knight with Dark Crusader in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the Red Haired Skeleton Knight appeared on the field (4/1600/400). "And I activate his effect, I toss one card from my hand and in exchange his attack points get a boost of 400 points." Brandon explained before tossing one card and Dark Crusader's attack increased to 2000. "Dark Crusader, attack Blade Knight!" Brandon commanded and the knight charged towards Blade Knight….

"Thought you'd try that, I activate my Relieve Monster trap card!" Francesca activated the trap and Blade Knight disappeared from the field just before Dark Crusader's sword could make contact with the knight. "This trap can only be activated if one of my monsters is targeted for an attack, the targeted monster goes back to my hand and I get to Special Summon another in its place."

"Is that a fact? Then summon away." Brandon told her and Francesca smirked before playing another card.

"You'll regret those words Brandon; I summon Rare Metal Dragon using Relieve Monster's effect!" Francesca played the card and the large metallic wingless dragon appeared on the field (4/2400/1200). "So, do you plan on continuing your attack?"

"And damage my own life-points? I don't think so." Brandon said with a scoff as Dark Crusader returned to his side of the field. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the two cards down and Francesca drew her card.

"I activate a Spell Card called Shard of Greed!" Francesca played the card and the first of shards of the infamous Spell Card Pot of Greed appeared before her. "We'll get to its effect in a bit but first, Rare Metal Dragon; send Dark Crusader back to the Dark Ages!" Francesca commanded and the dragon charged towards Dark Crusader…however its charge was stopped by the ghostly form of Necro Guardna (3/600/1300). "Let me guess, you discarded that card for Dark Crusader's effect?"

"You got it." Brandon nodded before pocketing the monster.

"Well in that case I'll call it a turn." Francesca told him and Brandon nodded before drawing his card. _"Okay, I know from his Battle City duels that Dark Crusader's effect is continuous, if he discards two more cards I'll be in trouble, especially if he's using Dark Crusader to summon Dark Armed Dragon." _Francesca thought as she waited for him to make his move.

"I activate a Spell Card called Allure of Darkness!" Brandon played the card and pocketed a monster in his hand before drawing twice. "Now I….."

"Now you'll discard the cards your just drew, I activate Null and Void!" Francesca activated the trap and Brandon's eyes widened before discarding the cards. "You were saying?"

"As I was about to say, I activate Dark Crusader's effect two more times." Brandon said as he discarded two monsters causing Dark Crusader's attack to jump to 2800. "As strong as your dragon is Francesca my Crusader's stronger, Dark Crusader, slay Rare Metal Dragon!" Brandon commanded and the crusader charged towards the dragon before cutting it in half reducing Francesca's life-points to 7600. "That ends my turn." Brandon announced and Francesca drew her card.

"All right, Brandon's drawn first blood!" Marcus said with a fist pump. "Should be easy going from here on out!"

"Aren't you forgetting something Marcus?" Chloe asked as she turned to him. "I managed to get an early lead in my duel against her back in Battle City but she was still able to give me a hell of a fight."

"She's got a point there." Lance agreed before shaking his head. "But, no offense Chloe, Brandon's a much better duelist than you are, if anyone can keep his lead it's him."

"No offense taken." Chloe said as they watched the duel proceed. "I hope you're right though, so far we've won all our matches and I don't know about you but I don't want to see any of us get expelled."

"I couldn't agree more Chloe." Theresa nodded in agreement as she gave them a reassuring look. "But I wouldn't worry about Brandon, Francesca may have improved her deck since your match against her but the same can be said for Brandon."

"He's not doing too badly." Adrienne commented ignoring the fact that Erick was getting progressively angrier. "Then again he's an Obelisk Blue Student so I shouldn't be too surprised."

"I don't care if he's in Obelisk Blue or in Osiris Red! Francesca's a pro-league duelist; she should be mopping the duel field with his deck!" Erick growled and Phil glared at him. "I told you it was a mistake to bring her with you."

"Considering the Duelist you beat to win the Scottish Nationals couldn't attend due to a family emergency she was the best one we could get on short notice." Phil retorted and Erick scowled at that. "She may have lost her copy of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon back in Battle City but she has some new toys up her sleeve."

"I'm going to go ahead and assume you don't mean the kind of toys she saves for when the two of you are alone in your bedroom." Erick retorted and Phil sweat-dropped at that comment.

"You're just jealous that most women you meet don't want to talk to you, let alone sleep with you Erick!" Francesca shouted at the Scottish duelist who did his best to hide his embarrassment, Erick went to shout a few choice words at Francesca but was quickly shut up by a death glare from Phil, Brandon noticed the argument and raised an eyebrow.

"Are there tensions between your fellow Pro-Duelists Francesca?" Brandon asked and Francesca quickly realized that he had heard the conversation.

"No, just between one Pro-Duelist with an over inflated ego who tries to compensate for his tiny penis by being a jackass and the rest of us." Francesca replied whilst ignoring the glares that comment had earned her from Erick and Brandon frowned. "Trust me, when it's his turn to duel you'll see what I mean when it's his turn to duel, anyway since I've just drawn my first card since activating Shard of Greed the Spell Card gains a Shard counter." Francesca explained as the shard glowed and transformed, this time it closely resembled the infamous Spell Card but was missing a few pieces. _"Better play it safe for now." _Francesca decided before picking up two cards. "I set one card in defense mode and a card facedown that ends my turn." Francesca announced and Brandon drew his card.

"I just knew there had to be a jackass in that bunch." Chelsea grumbled and the other duelists turned to her. "It's like some unwritten rule of dueling, whenever a group of duelists get together for whatever reason there has to be that one guy who's a jerkass to everyone else."

"She has a point, and this Erick guy seems to be the one jackass among them." Marcus agreed with a nod before frowning. "You've got your laptop right? Maybe you could you do some research on him?"

"I would but there are three problems with that, Number 1: do you have any idea how many duelists named Erick there are in the world?" Chelsea asked and Marcus shook his head. "Without a surname you may as well tell me to start searching for a million needles in a million haystacks." Chelsea pointed out and Marcus frowned. "The other problems are this, my laptop is back at my dorm room and even if they let me out of the duel field to get it the Wi-Fi signal in the main building is shit!"

"That's probably not the way I would've put it but she has a point there." Theresa admitted before turning her attention back to the duel.

"_Okay, so that Erick guy's being a jackass for apparently no good reason, here's hoping he's not as bad as Otto." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Good, I drew Dark Armed Dragon, problem is that her Null and Void trap left me with too many cards in my graveyard to summon it." _Brandon thought before adding his strongest monster to his hand and pointing to the facedown monster. "Dark Crusader, attack her defense monster!" Brandon commanded and the skeleton knight charged towards the facedown monster…

"Just what I was hoping for, I activate Dimensional Prison!" Brandon's eyes widened as the Crusader was sucked into a dark portal before it could even make it halfway across the field.

"_Great, the only monster in my hand is Dark Armed Dragon and I can't summon it!" _Brandon thought with an annoyed grunt before glancing at his two facedown cards. _"At least they will soften the blow a bit." _Brandon thought before he turned to Francesca. "I have no choice but to end my turn." Brandon conceded and Francesca grinned before drawing her card.

"Okay for starters my Shard of Greed gains another counter." Francesca explained as the partially constructed pot glowed as more parts where assembled, when it was finished it was the infamous Pot of Greed in full. "Now I sacrifice my Shard of Greed Spell Card so that I can draw two cards." Francesca added as the pot shattered and she drew two more cards. _"Good, I drew one of my new cards." _Francesca thought before playing it. "I activate Gold Sarcophagus." Francesca played the card and a golden box with the eye of Horus appeared on the field. "With this I can remove one card in my deck from play for two turns and during the second Standby Phase after it's activation I get to add it to my hand." Francesca explained before searching through her deck, she found the card she was looking for, pocketed it and sent the spell to the graveyard.

"_Well, whatever that card is it's bound to be trouble when she gets it back." _Brandon thought with a frown as he waited for her to continue her move. _"I'd better be prepared for anything she throws at me."_

"Now the real fun begins, you may remember this guy from a couple of turns ago." Francesca flipped up her facedown monster revealing it to be Blade Knight. "But he won't be attacking you alone, where would the fun in that be? I summon Blindly Loyal Goblin to the field in attack mode!" Francesca played the card and the bold, red goblin appeared on the field (4/1800/1500). "Blade Knight, Blindly Loyal Goblin, attack his life-points directly!" Francesca commanded and the two warriors charged towards Brandon before hitting him with their respective weapons bringing his life-points down to 4600. "That ends my turn."

"But not before I activate my Shock Draw trap card, since I just took over 2000 points of damage this Trap Card will let me draw two cards." Brandon activated the trap and quickly drew twice; he drew again as part of his draw phase once he sent his trap to the graveyard. _"I can't beat her Goblin; her Knight on the other hand may as well have a huge bull's eye on his chest." _Brandon thought before playing the card he had drawn. "I summon Maiden of Macabre!" Brandon played the card and the sinister geisha appeared on the field wielding her scythe (4/1700/0000). "Maiden, attack Blade Knight!" Brandon commanded and the geisha leapt high into the air before bringing her scythe down on Blade Knight splitting him in two and bringing Francesca's life-points down to 7500. "Sure, I have a long way to go before I'm able to narrow down the gap between our life-points but since she's just destroyed a monster in battle my Maiden's effect activates…"

"And her effect gives her a Spell Counter which gives her 200 extra attack points." Francesca added as Maiden's attack increased to 1900. "I saw you use that card during the Battle City Tournament so I know her effect."

"You may know her effect but that won't stop me from taking out your goblin next turn." Brandon added before picking up the two cards he drew with Shock Draw. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced and Francesca drew her card.

"I activate Arkhasic Record, this lets me draw twice but if any of the cards I draw with it have already been used then I have no choice but to remove them from play." Francesca played the card and quickly drew twice. "And fortunately for me neither of these cards has been used in this duel yet."

"And judging from the look on your face those cards are bad news for me." Brandon noticed and Francesca grinned before sending her goblin to the graveyard.

"You got that right; first I sacrifice my Goblin to bring out one of my big guns, Des Volstgalph!" Francesca played the card and Blindly Loyal Goblin vanished from the field, in its place stood a large brown and black dragon that roared menacingly at Brandon (6/2200/1700). "I'm guessing you remember this guy from my match against Chloe?"

"Yeah, it gains 200 attack points each time a spell card's played." Brandon said with a nod as he glared at the dragon. "And I'm guessing your about to play a Spell Card?"

"You'd be correct there, I activate Heavy Storm!" Brandon's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field…..

"In that case I'll chain it to one of my trap cards, go Reckless Greed!" Brandon activated the trap and quickly drew two cards before the two cards' holograms shattered.

"Well played but my dragon still gains 200 attack points!" Francesca pointed out as her dragon's attack increased to 2400. "Des Volstgalph, attack his Maiden!" Francesca commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Brandon's monster incinerating her and bringing Brandon's life-points down to 4100.

"That wasn't too bad." Brandon muttered only to wince as his life-points dropped to 3600. "What the…..."

"This is one effect I never got to use against Chloe, when Volstgalph destroys a monster in battle the owner takes 500 points of damage." Francesca explained and Brandon frowned. "I end my turn at that." Francesca announced and Brandon didn't draw a card due to Reckless Greed's effect.

"Man, this duel has been one step forward and two steps back for Brandon." Chelsea winced as she watched the duel. "As much as I'd hate to say it….."

"Don't say it, he'll pull through and win, I know it!" Theresa interrupted her and Chelsea turned to her. "I admit, things aren't looking great right now but Brandon's been in tougher situations before and has managed to win."

"I hope your right." Chelsea sighed as the two girls watched the duel.

"Reckless Greed's side effect may prevent me from drawing but there's ways around that." Brandon said before playing a card. "I activate The Beginning of the End; this Spell Card can only be activated if I have seven or more Dark Type monsters in my graveyard, as long as I remove five of them from play….." Brandon said before pocketing five off his cards. "I can draw three cards."

"Wait, I lost count, how many monster cards did you have in your graveyard?" Francesca asked and Brandon grinned.

"Eight cards." Brandon said before drawing his three cards. "But right now? I have three." Brandon added as Des Volstgalph's attack increased to 2400. "Your dragon may be stronger because I activated a Spell Card but my next card makes that a moot point."

"You don't mean….." Francesca trailed off as it hit her; Brandon played a card and smirked as Dark Armed Dragon appeared on the field above the arena (7/2800/1000). "That's not good!" Francesca gulped nervously as she stared down the monster.

"That's not good for you maybe, but for me? He works just fine!" Brandon said before retrieving Maiden of Macabre from his graveyard. "Now I activate my Dragon's effect, I remove one Dark Type Monster from play to destroy Des Volstalgaph!" Brandon pocketed the monster and Francesca shielded herself as Dark Armed Dragon slammed its tail into the much smaller dragon destroying it. "And off course, I get to attack to boot!"

"This is going to hurt!" Francesca groaned before bracing herself, the tail slammed into her bringing her life-points down to 4700. "Congrats, you've actually managed to reduce my life-points significantly but I'm still in the duel!"

"We'll see about that, for now I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the three cards down and Francesca drew her card.

"Good, I activate a Spell Card called Raiding the Dragon's Cave, since my boyfriend used it last duel I'm sure I don't need to remind you." Francesca played the card and quickly drew twice. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense." Francesca set the two cards and grinned as Brandon waited to begin his turn. "That ends my turn." Francesca announced and Brandon didn't draw due to Reckless Greed's side effect.

"I activate Dark Armed Dragon's effect…" Brandon started as he reached for his graveyard again…

"Not this time, go Imperial Iron Wall!" Francesca activated the trap and Brandon frowned. "As long as this trap's on the field you can't remove any cards from play."

"And with Dark Armed Dragon's effect that card may as well be Skill Drain without a cost." Brandon pointed out with a frown and Francesca grinned.

"That's the idea." Francesca said with a nod and Brandon's frown depended.

"_Out of all the traps that I drew last turn Dust Tornado wasn't among them." _Brandon thought before glancing up at his dragon. "My dragon may not be able to use its effect but it can attack, Dark Armed Dragon, attack her defense monster!" Brandon commanded and the dragon raised its tail and brought it down upon the facedown monster, however when he saw the monster in question he grimaced. "Giant Germ, just what I need!" Brandon grumbled before wincing as his life-points dropped to 3100 and two more Giant Germs appeared on Francesca's side of the field.

"And I have more tricks where that came from." Francesca added as she finished shuffling her deck, Brandon frowned before motioning for her to take her turn and she did so quickly. _"Hmmm, he didn't activate his traps, must be setting up a combo like the one Lance used during his duel against Mark." _Francesca thought before looking at her drawn card. "I set one card facedown and switch my germs to defense mode, go ahead and take your turn." Francesca set the card down and Brandon nodded before he drew his card.

"_Excellent, with this Spell I can take out her Iron Wall and use Dark Armed Dragon's effect again!" _Brandon thought before playing the card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Imperial Iron Wall!" Brandon announced as a storm washed over the field…..

"I don't think so, go Imperial Custom!" Francesca activated the Trap and to Brandon's surprise the storm died down before her trap card could be destroyed. "As long as this trap is on the field you can't destroy any continuous trap cards except Imperial Custom, however it has a drawback, namely I can only have one copy of the trap card in play."

"Well so much for that!" Brandon grumbled as he sent his Spell to the grave. "On the other hand though I still have a dragon that can attack even if it'll hurt me more than it'll hurt you, Dark Armed Dragon, attack the Giant Germ on the right!" Brandon commanded and the dragon raised its tail again before bringing it down upon the germ squashing it and bringing Brandon's life-points down to 2600. "That's all I can do this turn."

"And as long as my traps are on my side of the field that's all you can do!" Francesca said with a grin before drawing her card. "I play Pot of Avarice!" Francesca played the card and retrieved Rare Metal Dragon, Blade Knight, Blindly Loyal Goblin and her two Giant Germs before drawing two cards. "I set one card facedown and end my turn at that." Francesca set the card down and Brandon drew his card.

"_Great, she's going to be able to summon her germs back to the field and I'll be back at square one." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "I play a Spell Card called Lair of the Shadow Monarch!" Brandon played the card which depicted a dark castle seemingly straight out of an old horror movie with Caius the Shadow Monarch looming over it. "Despite what its name may imply it has nothing to do with Caius the Shadow Monarch but with its effect it may as well have everything to do with it, since I have a Level 6 or higher Dark-Type monster on my side of the field I can draw two cards, however I have to discard one card at the end of my turn otherwise I skip my next draw phase."

"That's pretty harsh." Francesca commented as Brandon drew twice, Brandon merely shrugged his shoulders before adding the cards to his hand.

"The same can be said for my dragon's summoning conditions but that's beside the point." Brandon pointed out before pointing to his dragon. "Speaking off which, Dark Armed Dragon, attack her germ now!" Brandon commanded and the dragon raised its tail…..

"I don't think so, go Sekeretsu Armor!" Brandon's eyes widened as the hideous armor attached itself to the dragon before exploding taking the dragon with it. "Seems your best monster isn't as mighty as you thought he was."

"Dark Armed Dragon may be my best monster but he's far from my only monster." Brandon pointed out before looking at his drawn cards. "I set two more cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the cards down and Francesca drew her card.

"_Five facedown cards? What is he planning?" _Francesca thought before looking at her drawn card. "I activate Magic Planter, by destroying Imperial Custom I get to draw two cards." Francesca announced as her trap card shattered and she drew twice._ "Perfect." _Francesca thought as she eyed one of the cards she had just drawn.

"_If the look on her face is any indication then I'm in trouble." _Brandon thought as Francesca played the card she had drawn.

"I summon Lord of Dragons!" Francesca played the card and the tanned protector of dragons appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1200/1000).

"I figured you'd have a copy of that, some of your best monsters are dragons." Brandon pointed out and Francesca grinned at that.

"Oh, did you really? Then maybe you'll see this Spell Card coming, I activate Flute of Summoning Dragon to bring out Rare Metal Dragon and Axe Dragonute!" Francesca played the cards and the two dragons appeared on the field ready for battle (4/2400/1200) and (4/2000/1200). "Sorry Brandon but your time at Duel Academy is over and I'm ending it with Rare Metal Dragon, attack his life-points directly!" Francesca commanded and the dragon charged towards Brandon…..

"I activate my trap card, go Enchanted Javelin! This trap adds Rare Metal Dragon's attack points to my life-points before damage calculation!" Brandon activated the trap and the javelin went straight through Rare Metal Dragon before bathing Brandon in a golden light increasing his life-points to 5000.

"A wasted effort, you should've saved that for Axe Dragonute's attack!" Francesca pointed out as Rare Metal Dragon made contact with Brandon's body bringing his life-points back down to 2600. "But all you've done is ensured that I get to attack with each of my monsters, Axe Dragonute, attack his life-points directly!" Brandon braced himself for the attack as the axe wielding dragon flew towards him and slashed him with his axe bringing his life-points down to 600.

"Or maybe I wanted you to attack my life-points twice." Brandon announced and Francesca blinked in confusion as he played a card. "Since you attacked my life-points twice in a row I can Special Summon Ogre of the Scarlett Sorrow in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the large blue club wielding ogre appeared on the field (4/0/0). "And here's the cherry on top, his attack and defense becomes equal to the attack of the first attack I took." Brandon added as his Ogre's attack and defense increased to 2400 and 1200 respectively.

"Okay, that was clever, I'll admit that." Francesca admitted as Axe Dragonute crouched down in defense mode. "I end my turn at that." Francesca announced and Brandon drew his card.

"That was too close for comfort." Chelsea sighed in relief and Theresa nodded in agreement. "At least he still has a fighting chance as long as that ogre's on the field."

"He still hasn't activated the other traps though." Tyler pointed out with a thoughtful look on his face. "Either he's setting up for a big finish or they're there to distract from his real strategy."

"I activate my trap cards, Next To Be Lost and Dark Spirit Art - Greed!" Brandon activated the traps and Francesca frowned. ""Next To Be Lost's effect lets me send another copy of Ogre to my graveyard, now I'm sure you know about Dark Spirit Art's effect and judging from the look on your face you can't negate the effect." Brandon commented and Francesca nodded before his Ogre shattered and he drew two cards.

"Why waste a good card like that?" Francesca asked and Brandon grinned.

"So I can activate my own Pot of Avarice!" Brandon played the card and retrieved the five monsters in his graveyard, returned them to his deck, shuffled it and drew twice again. "And you know what that means."

"You have Dark Armed Dragon back in your deck." Francesca said with a frown as Brandon looked over his hand. "That doesn't matter; you have no monsters in your graveyard to summon it with."

"Truth is I don't need it; ever wonder what my remaining facedown cards where?" Brandon asked and Francesca blinked before Brandon activated one of his traps. "You can thank Lance for this idea; I activate Return from a Different Dimension!" Brandon announced before wincing as his life-points dropped to 300. "I may have to cut my life-points in half but it's worth it because now I can special summon five of the cards I removed from play, my monsters of choice are Dark Crusader, Maiden of Macabre, Shadowpriestess of Ohm, Beast of Talwar and Don Zaaloog! "Brandon played the cards and his five monsters appeared on the field ready for battle.

"I'm guessing Don Zaaloog was the monster you removed from play for Allure of Darkness?" Francesca asked and Brandon nodded. "Nice try but you still can't win, your best monster can match mine point for point and the only monster you can destroy whilst causing me damage is Lord of Dragons, not only that but thanks to your trap card's side effect it'll be suicide to even consider attacking Giant Germ!" Francesca pointed out and Brandon grinned.

"I don't need to destroy them via attacks; in fact I don't need to destroy any of your monsters to win this duel because like Lance I only need one monster to win this duel." Brandon explained before pointing to Shadowpriestess of Ohm. "And I'm doing it with Shadowpriestess of Ohm's effect."

"That monster has an effect?" Francesca asked with a raised eyebrow.

"A very powerful one, by sacrificing one Dark Type monster on my side of the field I can inflict 800 points of damage to you! So I sacrifice my Beast, Maiden and Dark Crusader!" Brandon announced as the three monsters where transformed into dark orbs of light which Shadowpriestess of Ohm launched at Francesca bringing her life-points down to 2300.

"Nice try but you've only got enough monsters to use that effect two more times." Francesca pointed out and Brandon grinned before flipping his facedown card up. "Is that Fires of Doomsday?" Francesca asked as the two Doomsday tokens appeared on the field.

"That's right and I'm using the tokens and Don Zaaloog to finish you off and secure my place at Duel Academy!" Brandon announced as the three monsters turned into dark orbs of light which Shadowpriestess once again launched at Francesca striking her in the chest and bringing her life-points down to 0.

"The winner of the match is Obelisk Blue's Brandon Thomas, as a result he won't be expelled and his record will be wiped." Martin announced over the PA system and Brandon sighed in relief as he returned his cards to his deck, once that was done he deactivated his duel disk.

"_That was way to close; if I hadn't drawn Ogre of the Scarlet Sorrow when I did I would've lost the duel." _Brandon thought as he finished shuffling his deck, once he was done Francesca approached him and offered a handshake. "You had me on the ropes there Francesca but thanks for the great duel none the less." Brandon said as he accepted the handshake.

"Likewise, and I'll be looking for a rematch when you do hit the pro-leagues, same goes with Chloe." Francesca told him and Brandon nodded before hopping off the duel arena and sitting next to Theresa whilst Francesca sat next to Phil.

"Nice dueling out there man." Lance complemented him and Brandon grinned. "Only four more duels to go and we can put this behind us."

"At least I know that I'll be dueling soon enough." Marcus commented with a grin which quickly disappeared. "Come to think of it, am I the only one who finds it weird that none of our opponents so far have been that torn up about losing? Not counting Erick since he hasn't dueled yet."

"I noticed that as well, hell they seemed to regret having to beat us when it seemed that they were going to win." Chelsea realized with a confused look on her face. "I'd understand if it was just Philip and Francesca since you guys know them from Battle City but the others?"

"You're right, it is odd." Tyler agreed as his eyes narrowed, before any of them could comment any further Martin's voice rang out over the PA system.

"This next match will be contested between Ra Yellow's Marcus Reynolds and the Canadian National Champion Amanda Cotreau." Martin announced and Marcus grinned before standing up and walking over to the duel arena, once he stepped on it he saw that his opponent, a tall girl with elbow length red hair and blue eyes who was wearing a black, stomach exposing tanktop, blue jeans and tennis shoes, had beaten him to it.

"So you're Canadian huh? Does that mean your super polite?" Marcus asked once he hopped on the duel arena, Amanda rolled her eyes before activating her duel disk.

"If I had a dollar for each time I heard that." Amanda chuckled as the two duelists drew their opening hands. "Marcus, your friends may have beaten off the others but from here? Things only get harder for all off you." Amanda added as she looked over her hand…and quickly realized how wrong her sentence sounded. "That did not sound nearly as dirty in my head." Amanda admitted whilst she was blushing like a madwoman,

"I'm surprised you didn't catch on sooner." Marcus commented as he drew his opening hand. "Anyway, enough talk, let's duel!" Marcus called out to her and Amanda grinned at that.


	66. Duel To Stay In School Part 5

"Just as I thought, you're just as useless as your boyfriend!" Erick snapped at Francesca the moment she sat next to Phil, she didn't remain seated for long as she stormed over to the Scottish Duelist.

"What did you just say?!" Francesca demanded and Erick remained calm. "Erick, last I checked I came the closest out of anyone here to actually beating my opponent, if it weren't for his damn ogre I would've won the duel and he'd be filling out job applications."

"Actually Francesca, whilst you did close to actually beating your opponent your only the fourth pro duelist to have competed so far." Erick pointed out before turning to Amanda. "And as we both know Amanda is next up and she beat some tough competition to win the Canadian Nationals." Erick said before blushing at her slip up. "Yes, even if she drops more innuendo than a porno movie."

"Yeah well, don't count Marcus out yet." Francesca pointed out before sitting back down. "He was a Battle City Semi-Finalist."

"And he was one of two Duel Academy students who failed to make it past the first round of the Semi-Finals." Erick retorted with a scoff. "In fact he lost against your opponent if I remember correctly." Erick added and Francesca frowned.

"Yeah, he lost the match despite being in control for most off the match and summoning three of the most powerful dragons in the game." Francesca said as she rolled her eyes. "Marcus is a good duelist with some very powerful cards in his deck; you'd be stupid to underestimate him."

"Ladies first Marcus, that is unless you have any objections." Amanda told him and Marcus shrugged his shoulders, Amanda took that as her cue to draw and she did so. "I start with the Heaven's Lost Property Spell Card; since it's been used quite a few times since we got here I'm sure I don't need to remind you of this Spell's effect." Amanda explained as she played the card, both duelists drew three times and discarded twice.

"Yeah, well, guess what? You've just done me a big favor!" Marcus said before picking up his deck. "One of the cards I just discarded was White Stone of Legend which means I get to add one Blue-Eyes White Dragon from my deck to my hand!" Marcus explained before adding the famous monster to his hand.

"Humph, clever but I have ways to take advantage of that Spell Card as well." Amanda complemented him as she sent her Spell Card to the Graveyard. "I summon Vylon Ohm in attack mode!" Amanda played the card and a small gold and silver being appeared on the field (4/1500/200).

"_She's using Vylon? That's odd." _Tyler thought with a raised eyebrow as Amanda retrieved one of her discarded cards.

"And now his effect activates, with it I can banish one equip spell in my graveyard until my next standby phase at which point it returns to my hand." Amanda explained as she pocketed the Spell Card. "For now I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Frankly I'm surprised that thing has a gender." Marcus said as he sweat-dropped before drawing his card, he added it to his hand before retrieving a monster from his graveyard. "Since I have no monsters on my side of the field and only dragon type monsters in my graveyard I can Special Summon Totem Dragon from my graveyard!" Marcus played the card and a small green snake like dragon appeared on the field, it had what appeared to be tribal markings on its head and body (2/400/200).

"Cute, but I don't see the point." Amanda scoffed and Marcus grinned before picking up a card.

"Oh, there's a point all right, Totem Dragon has another effect, he can be used as two tributes in the summon of a dragon type monster!" Marcus explained and Amanda's eyes widened once it hit her. "So I sacrifice Totem Dragon so I can bring out this bad boy, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Marcus played the card and Totem Dragon vanished, in its place stood the massive dragon made famous by Seto Kaiba (8/3000/2500). "Totem Dragon comes with a downside however, if I Special Summon it using its effect I have to remove it from play." Marcus added before pocketing the monster.

"Well if there's not a better time to activate this I haven't heard of it! Go Threatening Roar!" Amanda activated the trap and the huge dragon cowered in fear as a loud roar echoed throughout the arena.

"Fine, I can wait!" Marcus grumbled before setting a card. "I'll end my turn with that facedown card." Marcus announced and Amanda drew her card. _"Why didn't she save that trap for something stronger? I mean, that monster has only one thing going for it and that's its effect!" _Marcus thought as his eyes narrowed. _"Sure, it protected her life-points but beyond that I don't see the point."_

"Since it's my standby phase I get back the banished Equip Spell." Amanda added before retrieving the Spell Card from her pocket and adding it to her hand. "Now I activate my Spell Card Morale Boost but I'll get to that effect in a minute, for now I equip Ohm with my Spell Card Mage Power giving him 800 attack points for each of my Spell and Trap Cards!" Amanda played the cards and Ohm glowed briefly as its attack increased to 3800. "And now Morale Boosts' effect activates, every time I play an Equip Spell I gain one thousand life-points." Amanda explained as her life-points increased to 9000.

"That's going to get annoying." Marcus grumbled as he got ready for Amanda's next move. _"Doesn't matter, soon as I draw something like Wingbeat of Giant Dragon her combo goes down the drain."_

"You think it's annoying now? Just wait until he destroys your best monster, Vylon Ohm, attack Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Amanda commanded and the small being flew towards the mighty dragon…

"I activate my Dragon's Durability Trap Card!" Marcus activated the trap and to Miranda's surprised Blue-Eyes White Dragon's attack points dropped to 1500. "This trap can only be activated if a Dragon Type Monster I control is targeted for an attack, the dragon's attack is cut in half but he'll survive the attack and any damage I'd take is reduced to 0." Marcus explained as the being fired a beam of pure white light at the dragon, the dragon groaned in pain but survived the attack.

"Clever but we'll see how long your dragon can hold against my Vylons." Amanda said before looking over her hand. "I'll end my turn for now." Amanda announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_I don't have anything that can beat her Vylon; hell my dragon is the only monster I have at the moment whose attack points come close." _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. "Sorry to bust your bubble Amanda but the Spell Card I just drew is gonna blow your whole combo sky high."

"I'd like to see you try!" Amanda said defiantly whilst trying to hide her nervousness. _"If he drew A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon then I'm really in trouble." _Amanda thought as Marcus played the Spell Card. "That's not A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon!"

"You're right, it's a different Spell called Dragon's Evil Eye, with it for each dragon I control I can destroy one Spell or Trap Card so say good-bye to Mage Power!" Marcus announced as his Dragon prepared to launch an attack…..

"I don't think so; I activate my Armory Protector Trap Card!" Amanda activated the trap which depicted a heavily guarded armory which housed weapons used by various Duel Monsters. "As long as this Continuous Trap is on the field you can't destroy any Equip Spells, only downside is that it won't work on cards that destroy more than one card." Amanda explained as the dragon launched its attack but it bounced off of an invisible force-field.

"Great, as long as that's on the field Ohm will only get stronger and I can't do anything about it." Marcus frowned as he sent his Spell to the graveyard. _"At least until I draw something like Heavy Storm or a Wingbeat of Giant Dragon." _Marcus thought before glancing up at Amanda. "I'll end my turn at that." Marcus announced and Amanda drew her card.

"Why stop at one Equip Spell? I activate Hidden Armory which lets me add one equip spell from my deck to my hand." Amanda announced before searching through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand before shuffling her deck and sending Hidden Armory to the graveyard.

"Great, that means that Ohm's only going to get stronger!" Marcus grumbled under his breath and Amanda grinned.

"You're right; he is going to get stronger, so strong that you can't even defend against him!" Amanda announced before playing a card. "I equip him with Big Bang Shot which gives him a 400 attack point boost and the ability to inflict piercing damage." Marcus's eyes widened as Ohm glowed a bright red color as its attack increased to 4200. "And don't forget about Morale Boost and Mage Power!" Amanda added as her life-points increased to 10,000 and Ohm's attack points increased to 5000. "Normally I'd have to worry about Big Bang Shot's side-effect doing Ohm in as Ricardo can attest to but with Armory Protector I don't have to worry about that."

"Speak for yourself." Marcus muttered under his breath as Amanda pointed at Ohm.

"Vylon Ohm, attack the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Amanda commanded and the small being fired a beam of pure light at the dragon which disintegrated it and brought Marcus's life-points down to 6000.

"I activate my Damage Condenser trap card!" Marcus said before discarding a card and quickly picking up his deck. "Since I just took 2000 points of damage I can Special Summon a monster from my deck with an equal amount of attack points to the damage I took, it may cost me a card in my hand but it's worth the price." Marcus explained before playing the card and Alexandrite Dragon (4/2000/100) appeared on the field crouching down using its wings as a shield.

"You should've summoned something with a better defense stat, once I attack that dragon next turn you'll lose over half your life-points." Amanda pointed out and Marcus frowned. "I end my turn at that." Amanda announced and Marcus drew his card.

"I don't know why they seem more interested in helping us but she has a point." Chelsea agreed begrudgingly. "If Ohm's attack goes through than his life-points will be in the crapper."

"I wouldn't count him out yet, look at the look on his face, it's like he wants her to attack Alexandrite Dragon." Tyler commented and Chelsea frowned. "It's true that if the attack goes through Marcus's life-points will be decimated I think he has a plan in mind."

"Finally, someone who knows what she's doing!" Erick commented earning glares from Ricardo, Francesca, Phil and Mark as he did. "Oh don't look at me like that! You know it's true!"

"You know what else is true? Oh, not much, just that I'll castrate you and shove your balls down your throat if you continue to insult our dueling skills!" Francesca warned him and Erick winced once he saw the look on her face.

"Ay yi, yi, remind me to not piss off your girlfriend." Ricardo whispered to Phil who nodded in agreement.

"All I can do is set one card facedown." Marcus sighed as he set the card down; Amanda smirked as she saw this. "That ends my turn." Marcus said and Amanda drew her card.

"_That facedown card has to be a bluff! There's no way that he drew something strong enough to hold off Ohm's attack points." _Amanda thought before looking at her drawn card, it wasn't one of her Spell or Trap Cards but another monster. _"If I had one more Equip Spell I could finish him off with an attack from Ohm and this monster but as it stands? Guess I'll have to make do." _Amanda thought before adding the card to her hand. "Vylon Ohm, attack Alexandrite Dragon!" Amanda commanded and the monster prepared its attack…

"Gotcha!" Marcus said with a grin and Amanda blinked as he triggered his trap card. "I activate Malevolent Catastrophe!"

"What? No!" Amanda yelled out but she knew it was too late, before Ohm could even launch its attack a dark portal opened up behind him destroying Morale Boost, Mage Power, Armory Protector and Big Bang Shot, the last destroyed Spell Card led to Ohm itself being sucked into the portal before it closed up. "I have to hand it to you Marcus that was a hell of a bluff."

"Yeah well, like my friends I won't let you take my spot at Duel Academy without a fight." Marcus answered back before grinning. "Anything else you want to do?"

"Actually yes, there is." Amanda nodded before picking up the monster she drew. "I set this monster in defense mode and end my turn." Amanda set the monster down and Marcus drew his card.

"And just like that the tide has turned." Tyler commented with a nod of approval. "But Marcus still has a long way to go."

"Yeah and one Vylon was tough enough, the others are bound to be even tougher." Chelsea agreed with a grin. "But like he said he won't give up his spot without a fight."

"She has more copies of that Armory Protector Card right?" Ricardo asked with a nervous gulp and Erick scoffed.

"She'd be stupid to not have more than one copy of that Trap Card." Erick shrugged his shoulders as he watched the duel. "But I'll give Marcus credit; I don't think I would've been able to see through that bluff myself."

"Wow, you actually said something nice for once, did Hell freeze over during my duel?" Francesca asked jokingly and Erick rolled his eyes.

"All right, it's time I caused some damage!" Marcus announced as he switched Alexandrite Dragon to attack mode before playing a card. "I summon Blizzard Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the icy dragon appeared on the field ready for battle (4/1800/1000). "Alexandrite Dragon, attack her defense monster!" Marcus commanded and the beautiful dragon launched its attack towards the monster, revealed to be Shining Angel (4/1400/800) which was quickly incinerated by the dragon's flames.

"I use Shining Angel's effect to special summon another from my deck!" Amanda announced before searching through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and played it, seconds later the monster appeared on the field.

"Fine then, even with that monster on the field I can still cause some damage, Blizzard Dragon, attack Shining Angel!" Marcus commanded and the dragon took flight and flew over the angel before letting lose an ice breath attack that completely froze Shining Angel, the monster shattered seconds later bringing Amanda's life-points down to 9600.

"I use Shining Angel's effect again, this time I'm summoning another Vylon monster, Vylon Cube!" Amanda played the card and the monster's name was very appropriate for it was a metallic cube like being with arms (3/800/800).

"_Heh, that thing will be easy pickings once she ends her turn but just in case…." _Marcus thought before pointing to Blizzard Dragon. "Blizzard Dragon may have already attacked but I can use his effect, once per turn I can target one card you control and as long as he's on the field that monster can't attack or change its battle position until the end of your turn, since you only have one monster I'm targeting Vylon Cube!" Marcus announced as the dragon launched its icy breath towards Vylon Cube, it wasn't fatal unlike its attack but it was enough to freeze the monster in place.

"That's fine by me because Vylon Cube won't be staying around for long." Amanda countered and Marcus blinked in confusion. "End your turn and you'll see what I mean." Amanda said simply and Marcus looked over his hand.

"All right, I'll end my turn." Marcus announced and Amanda drew her card. _"She's probably planning to use it in a Tribute Summon or something." _Marcus thought as he waited for Amanda to make her move.

"I activate a Spell Card called Spellbook Inside the Pot!" Amanda played the card and both players drew until they had three new cards in their hands. _"Perfect, I have everything I need to bring out my best monster." _Amanda thought before playing a card. "I activate DDR…..no, not Dance, Dance Revolution…Different Dimension Reincarnation, I toss one card…" Amanda tossed another monster she had drawn with her first Spell Card and retrieved her sole pocketed monster. "And in return Vylon Ohm returns to the field!" Amanda played the card and the strange being returned to the field. "Don't worry, his effect only activates if I Normal Summon it."

"So why bring it back?" Marcus asked and Amanda smirked.

"You'll see in a moment, next I equip Vylon Cube with another Spell Card called Synchro Boost, it gives him a boost of five hundred attack points and increases its level by one." Amanda played the card and Vylon Cube glowed as its attack increased to 1300 and its level increased to for. "And finally, since I have a Tuner Monster on my side of the field I can Special Summon Quilbolt Hedgehog from my graveyard!" Amanda played the card and the small orange hedgehog with nuts and bolts sticking out of its back appeared on the field (2/800/600).

"Wait, Tuner Monster?" Marcus questioned before it hit him. "Vylon Cube's a tuner monster, isn't he?" Marcus asked as his eyes widened.

"Yeah and unfortunately for you Blizzard Dragon can't prevent this move! I tune Vylon Cube, Vylon Ohm and Quilbolt Hedgehog together to bring out my best monster! A monster I may add requires three monsters to summon it!" The three monsters leapt into the air and Vylon Cube dissolved into four Synchro Rings that surrounded Vylon Ohm and Quilbolt Hedgehog, a bright flash enveloped the field and Amanda grinned as she played the card. "Vylon Omega!"

"That doesn't sound good!" Marcus yelled out as the flash faded from the field, in the place of Vylon Ohm was a massive gold and black being with equally big wings, even Marcus's monsters seemed intimidated by the site of the monster (10/3200/1900). "Okay, that guy's pretty impressive looking….." Marcus admitted when the monster let a loud howl, Blizzard Dragon groaned in pain before its hologram shattered. "What the….."

"That's Vylon Omega's effect in action, when he's Synchro Summoned any monsters that where Normal Summoned or set get destroyed." Amanda explained with a grin. "You should be thankful that you Special Summoned Alexandrite Dragon otherwise you'd be in for a world of hurt, well you still are but not nearly as painful." Amanda added before picking up her deck. "Speaking off effects, since I used it to Synchro Summon a Light Type Monster Vylon Cube's effect activates, allowing me to add an Equip Spell from my deck to my hand." Amanda added before adding the card she was looking for to her hand, once her deck was reshuffled she played it. "Why keep you in suspense about it though? I equip Vylon Omega with Vylon Segment!"

"That doesn't sound good." Marcus gulped as Vylon Omega glowed. "Well it's attack points didn't increase but I'm guessing that it has an effect that has nothing to do with attack points?"

"You'd be right there; Vylon Segment means the monster it's equipped with can't be targeted by the effects of monsters or Traps." Amanda explained and Marcus's eyes widened once it hit him. "And that's just a taste of my monster's power, Vylon Omega, attack Alexandrite Dragon!" Amanda commanded and the gold being flew towards Alexandrite Dragon before cutting it in half with its claws bringing Marcus's life-points down to 4800."I'll end my turn at that." Miranda shrugged and Marcus frowned before drawing his card.

"_Okay, her Spell Card did give me some cards that can hold off her weaker monsters." _Marcus thought with a frown before looking up at Vylon Omega. _"But the big guy on the other hand? He's going to be tricky." _Marcus thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Marcus announced as his three set cards appeared on the field. "And that ends my turn." Marcus announced and Amanda drew her card.

"I activate Monster Reborn and I use it to bring back one of the Shining Angels you destroyed two turns ago." Amanda played the card and the angel reappeared on the field in attack mode.

"_That's odd, why didn't she bring back my Blue-Eyes White Dragon? Monster Reborn does work on both Graveyards after all." _Marcus thought with a frown as she played another card.

"Next I summon Vylon Prism in attack mode!" Amanda played the card and another strange being appeared on the field, this one seemed to be a being made of silver, green and gold armor with arms attached to it (4/1500/1500).

"Anyone ever tell you that the majority of your cards are weird looking?" Marcus asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"All the time but that doesn't stop me from playing this archetype." Amanda responded before grinning. "But that should be the least of your worries because Vylon Prism is another Tuner Monster."

"That's why you didn't bring back my Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Marcus realized as Vylon Prism and Shining Angel leapt into the air, Vylon Prism dissolved into four synchro rings that surrounded Shining Angel.

"Well, that and the fact that I don't make a habit of using my opponent's monsters against them." Amanda responded before grinning. "Anyway, I tune Vylon Prism and Shining Angel together to Synchro Summon Vylon Epsilon!" Amanda played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded another strange being appeared on the field, it was white and gold and looked vaguely humanoid (8/2800/1200).

"I'm guessing that guy has an effect like Omega?" Marcus asked as he stared at the two strange Synchro Monsters in front of him.

"Yes and no, he does have an effect but it's entirely different to Omega's effect." Amanda told him with a confident smirk. "Basically any equip spells equipped to this big guy can't be targeted."

"So you have one monster that's immune to Trap and Monster effects and another who makes it so Equip Spells can't be targeted?" Marcus asked and Amanda nodded. "I knew that this wasn't going to be easy but I didn't think it would be this hard."

"THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!" An Obelisk Blue student in the audience yelled out and Marcus sweat-dropped as he heard him.

"I walked right into that one." Marcus muttered under his breath.

"Anyway….." Amanda trailed off as she tried to hide her embarrassment. "It's like you said earlier, you're not giving up without a fight and neither will I, next I activate Vylon Prism's effect, since it was sent from the field to the graveyard I can pay five hundred life-points….." Amanda trailed off as her life-points decreased to 9100. "I can equip him to one of my monsters, now normally I'd equip him to Vylon Omega for this combo but since Vylon Segment doesn't play favorites I'll make do by equipping him to Epsilon." Amanda explained as the ghostly figure of Vylon Prism flew into Vylon Epsilon. "I'll get to why in a minute, now Vylon Omega, attack his defense monster!" Amanda commanded and the being fired a beam of bright light at the monster, revealed to be Masked Dragon (3/1400/1100) which was quickly destroyed. "Masked Dragon should've guessed you'd have a copy of that in your deck."

"Yeah well, I'd be pretty stupid to run a Dragon Deck without this card." Marcus pointed out and Amanda nodded in agreement, Marcus searched through his deck before finding the card he was looking for and playing it. "I use his effect to summon a second Masked Dragon!" Marcus played the card and another copy of the dragon appeared on the field.

"Fine by me now Vylon Epsilon, attack his second Masked Dragon!" Amanda commanded and the second Synchro Monster fired another beam of light which quickly consumed the much smaller dragon destroying it and bringing Marcus's life-points down to 3400.

"I use my second Masked Dragon's effect to Special Summon my second Totem Dragon!" Marcus played the card and another copy of the strange green dragon appeared on the field. "Now if that's everything….." Marcus trailed off once he saw that Vylon Epsilon's attack points had increased by a thousand. "What gives?"

"Oh, that? That's Vylon Prism's effect in action, when the equipped monster attacks or is attacked the monster gains a thousand attack points during damage calculation only!" Amanda explained and Marcus's eyes widened once it hit him. "That ends my turn." Amanda announced and Marcus drew his card.

"So what's with these Vylon Monsters anyway?" Chelsea asked as she scratched her head in confusion. "They've got to be one of the strangest archetypes I've seen and this is coming from someone who runs a Watt deck!"

"They're a recently released Archetype like the Hero monsters Ricardo used, they're not exactly widely available and in fact the last time I checked they were only available in Canada and the US." Tyler commented with a frown. "She must've brought them recently since the Canadian Nationals where last month."

"And she's using them in this Duel; I'd hate to see the deck she used to win the tournament." Chelsea commented and Tyler nodded in agreement.

"_If I had only brought out Decoy Dragon instead I could've destroyed Vylon Epsilon using Decoy Dragon's effect but instead my life-points took a hit because of me worrying about Vylon Prism's effect." _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. _"A dead draw but maybe my trap cards can help." _Marcus thought as he activated his trap. "I activate my trap cards Reckless Greed, in exchange for skipping my next two draw phases I can draw two cards."

"That's a pretty big risk considering you have two powerhouses staring you down." Amanda pointed out before noticing something. "Wait, you said trap cards?"

"Yeah, I set these cards as bluffs last turn but right now I need all the help I can get." Marcus said as he drew four cards and sent his traps to the graveyard. "And the gamble's paid off, sorry Amanda but this duel is over!"

"Oh, is it really? You intend to win using the four cards you just drew? I'd like to see you try." Amanda said confidently and Marcus grinned.

"You got it; first I activate Monster Reincarnation to return a card to my hand from my graveyard at the cost of another card." Marcus played the card and after discarding a card he retrieved the monster from the graveyard. "As for the monster in question, well I'll let his intro do the talking." Marcus played the card and Totem Dragon vanished, in its place stood the mighty Blue-Eyes White Dragon ready for another round.

"Should I be worried? Your dragon's strong but Vylon Omega's stronger, nice try Marcus." Amanda said confidently and Marcus shook his head.

"You should be worried! Next I activate Dragon's Mirror, I remove Blizzard Dragon. Alexandrite Dragon, my two Masked Dragons and White Stone of Legend from play so I can Special Summon a real heavyweight!" Marcus played the card and a dark shadow came over the field, soon afterworlds the infamous Five Headed Dragon appeared on the field (12/5000/5000).

"Ah yeah, I remember watching you summon that thing during your Battle City match against Brandon." Amanda said with a nod whilst trying to hide how nervous she was. "I was wondering how you were going to summon that thing with Future Fusion being banned and all."

"Don't remind me, I was stressing for a few minutes after I learned about the banned list." Marcus responded before playing another card. "Now I activate Burst Stream of Destruction, this Spell Card may cost my Blue-Eyes White Dragon the ability to attack this turn but with the ability to wipe out both of your monsters I'd say that's a fair trade." Marcus announced as the dragon launched its famous attack at the two Synchro Monsters destroying them and the cards equipped to them.

"Heh, nice try Marcus but as it stands all you can really do is put a nasty dent in my life-points, I'll still survive." Amanda said confidently but Marcus shook his head.

"I have one last card to play and it's going to win the match for me." Marcus said as he held it up. "It's called Megamorph and it'll double Five-Headed Dragon's attack points all the way up to 10,000!" Amanda's eyes widened as the already massive dragon doubled in size and attack points as its attack points skyrocketed to 10,000.

"Well, it seems I've lost." Amanda admitted as she braced herself for the attack. "Go ahead and attack Marcus, you've earned your victory and your place at Duel Academy."

"Gladly, go Five-Headed Dragon, attack her life-points directly and win this duel!" Marcus commanded and the dragon's five heads powered up its attack before firing it at Amanda, the attack hit and Amanda stood her ground even as her life-points dropped all the way to 0.

"The winner of the match is Ra Yellow's Marcus Reynolds, as a result he won't be expelled and his record is wiped." Martin announced over the PA system and Marcus grinned as he gathered up his cards and shuffled them into his deck.

"_That was way to close for comfort, one direct attack from those monsters and I would've lost the most one sided match in Duel Monsters history!" _Marcus thought before looking up and seeing Amanda approaching him. "I'm guessing you want to shake my hand?" Marcus asked and Amanda smirked before offering a handshake.

"Well you did just make a hell of a comeback." Amanda commented and Marcus smirked before accepting the handshake. "Your friends had better watch themselves against the remaining duelists though, they won't go down without a fight." Amanda warned him and Marcus nodded.

"And neither will the remaining students." Marcus responded before hopping off the arena and rejoining the other duelists, Amanda did likewise and Marcus smirked. "Just three more duels to go and we can put this behind us." Marcus said as he sat next to Andreas.

"Indeed, at least it won't be too long now." Andreas agreed with a nod as he looked down at his deck. "Here's hoping I don't have to wait too much longer." Andreas added and as if on cue Martin's voice rang out over the PA system.

"The next duel will be between Ra Yellow's Andreas Freshier and the French National Champion Adrienne Beaumont." Martin announced over the PA System and Andreas smiled before hopping onto the duel arena, Adrienne followed soon afterworlds and the two duelists started shuffling their decks.

"I'm going to skip the pleasantries if that's okay with you Andreas." Adrienne said as they finished shuffling their decks and drew their opening hands. "Your friends may have been successful but this is where the success stops for you and your friends."

"We'll see about that." Andreas said simply as he looked over his hand. "For now though, let the duel begin!" Andreas announced and Adrienne smirked.


	67. Duel To Stay In School Part 6

"We're five duels down and we have another fucking failure!" Erick grunted under his breath as Amanda returned to the other duelists, Amanda's eyes narrowed when she heard that and she glared at him.

"Here's an idea jackass, actually duel against one of those kids before you chastise us for losing to them!" Amanda snapped at him and Francesca nodded in agreement. "Besides Andreas was another Battle City Semi-Finalist and yes, he did lose under unfortunate circumstances but if you ask me if he wasn't drawn against his brother he could've gone far."

"No one doubts Andreas's talent as a duelist." Dmitri agreed as he folded his arms. "But Adrienne's deck is something else; he's in for a fight."

"Since I'm a gentlemen Adrienne I'd like you to go first." Andreas offered but Adrienne took one look at her hand and shook her head.

"Actually I'll let you go first." Adrienne answered and Andreas raised an eyebrow before shrugging his shoulders and drawing his card.

"Suit yourself." Andreas said simply before looking at his hand. "Hmmm, not bad, I set two cards facedown and summon Gene-Warped Warwolf in attack mode!" Andreas played the cards and a large, muscular humanoid wolf appeared on the field with a howl (4/2000/100).

"Thank you." Adrienne said with a smirk and Andreas blinked as she played a card of her own and a small black bulb with arms and legs appeared on the field, it appeared to have flowers for hair and it got ready for battle (2/1000/700).

"What the…." Andreas trailed off as he stared at the strange monster. "First off are you trying to top the weirdness of Amanda's deck? And second it's still my turn."

"I'm well aware of that." Adrienne said with a smirk. "But I do suppose that an explanation is in order, the monster I just summoned is Naturia Cosmobeet, his effect states that when my opponent Normal Summons or sets a monster I can Special Summon him to the field."

"That explains why you turned down my offer to go first." Andreas realized with a frown. _"No matter, that monster's attack points are much lower than my monster's, taking it out should be an easy task." _Andreas thought before looking over his remaining cards. "I end my turn at that." Andreas announced and Adrienne drew her card.

"I play the Spell Card Terra Forming; with this I can add one Field Spell Card from my deck to my hand." Adrienne played the card before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "Well Andreas, you've met one of my Naturias, now allow me to take you to their homeland, I play the Field Spell Card Naturia Forrest!" Adrienne played the card and the scenery changed to a dense forest filled with strange plants.

"And I thought Chelsea's Wattcastle couldn't be topped in terms of weird Field Spells." Andreas commented ignoring the glare from Chelsea. "But what does this Field Spell do exactly?"

"Fret not Andreas, its effect is fairly simple, should I negate the effect of a card you control I can add a Level 3 or lower Naturia monster from my deck to my hand." Adrienne explained and Andreas frowned once it dawned on him.

"I see; that should be a nuisance." Andreas muttered under his breath and Adrienne grinned.

"You have no idea, I summon Naturia Spiderfang!" Adrienne played the card and a large, yellow spider with green spots appeared on the field, however it took one look at Gene-Warped Warwolf and cowered in fear (4/2100/400).

"A Level 4 monster that strong must have some kind of drawback." Andreas pointed out and Adrienne chuckled.

"This is coming from the guy with a Level 4 Normal Monster with 2000 attack points on his side of the field." Adrienne commented and Andreas frowned. "But yes, Spiderfang does have a drawback; it can only attack if you activate the effect of a Spell or Trap Card."

"Then why summon it? Unless…" Andreas trailed off as it hit him. "Naturia Cosmobeet is a Tuner Monster!"

"Exactly, and I'm tuning him and Spiderfang together!" Adrienne announced as her two monsters leapt into the air, Naturia Cosmobeet dissolved into two glowing green rings that quickly surrounded Naturia Spiderfang. "So I can summon one of my heavyweights, Naturia Barkion!" Adrienne played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded Andreas looked up and saw a long, sleek dragon with a Chinese dragon's head (6/2500/1800).

"Impressive but your dragon won't be staying around, I activate Bottomless Trap Hole to remove it from play!" Andreas activated the trap and a large pit opened up beneath Naturia Barkion, however rather than the expected result Adrienne instead pocketed the two monsters she used to summon it and the dragon flew over the pit long enough for it to close up again, now that it was safe to do so Naturia Barkion landed on the field. "What the….."

"There's a reason I chose to summon this monster Andreas, once per turn when you activate a trap I can remove two monsters in my graveyard from play to negate and destroy the trap card." Adrienne explained before grinning. "And that, in turn, activates the effect of my Field Spell!" Adrienne added before picking up and searching through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand.

"As much as I hate to admit it, that was a well-played move." Andreas complemented her as she finished reshuffling her deck.

"Did you think I became the French National Champion on looks alone? Don't answer that." Adrienne answered before pointing to her dragon. "Naturia Barkion, attack Gene-Warped Warwolf!" Adrienne commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the monster incinerating it and bringing Andreas's life-points down to 7500. "I believe that should sufficient for my turn." Adrienne announced and Andreas drew his card.

"She's not messing around, is she?" Chelsea commented with a frown as she and the others watched the duel. "Setting up a Synchro Summon so soon is one thing but doing it on her second turn?"

"That's the nature of the Naturias…no pun intended." Tyler commented and she turned to him. "It's an Archetype of Earth monsters with most of their effects relying on the opponent doing something like Cosmobeet and Spiderfang."

"And as long as that Field Spell's in play and as long as she has monsters in her graveyard she can keep replenishing her supplies of monsters and Andreas may as well be doing all the work for her." Theresa added with a frown. "If I where Andreas I'd be playing it safe for now."

"I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Andreas announced and Adrienne drew her card without hesitation.

"Hmmm, not very exciting, but this card should liven things up!" Adrienne said before playing a card. "I summon Naturia White Oak!" Adrienne announced and for a few seconds nothing happened, then one of the trees turned around revealing a light brown tree with numerous strange plants sticking out of its leaves (4/1800/1400). "Naturia Barkion, attack his defense monster!" Adrienne commanded and the monster breathed fire at the facedown card, revealed to be a small white wolf (3/1000/300) that was incinerated.

"Thank you, the monster you destroyed was Hyena." Andreas said as he held up the monster. "When it's sent to the graveyard by battle I can Special Summon two more in its place." Andreas explained as two more Hyenas appeared on the field.

"Fine, Naturia White Oak, attack the Hyena on the left!" Adrienne commanded and several vines shot out of the leaves and grabbed hold of the monster, the Hyena struggled for a few moments before shattering.

"In that case I activate my Animal Trial Trap Card; since Hyena was just destroyed I get to add another Beast Type monster from my deck to my hand." Andreas activated the trap and picked up his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand. "You're not the only one who can add cards from their deck to their hand."

"Obviously not, I'll end my turn with a facedown card for now." Adrienne announced and Andreas nodded before drawing his card.

"Excellent, sorry to say Adrienne but your Synchro Monster won't be around for much longer." Andreas said before activating his drawn Spell Card. "I activate Offerings to the Doomed and I use it to destroy Naturia Barkion at the cost of my next draw phase." Andreas announced as several bandages shot towards the Synchro Monster.

"I'm not willing to depart with my monster that easily Andreas, I activate my trap card Magic Jammer, I simply toss one card from my hand and your Spell Card is negated." Adrienne tossed the card and a purple mist blocked the bandages path. "And most importantly since I was just able to negate a card effect Naturia Forrest's own effect activates." Adrienne added before picking up her deck again and searching through it, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and reshuffled the deck.

"So…..how many times has she reshuffled her deck by this point?!" Chelsea whispered to Chloe who merely shrugged her shoulders.

"I lost count a couple of turns ago." Chloe answered honestly and Chelsea frowned.

"Like it or not it is a good strategy." Theresa chimed in with a frown. "As long as she has cards in her graveyard and Counter Traps like Magic Jammer she can keep adding monsters to her hand, the only downside is the high possibility of decking out but I can see from here that her deck's larger than normal."

"There's gotta be a hole in her strategy somewhere!" Chelsea protested and Theresa frowned as she started thinking.

"Well, if there is one then I'm confident that Andreas can find it." Tyler commented with a reassuring smile. "I watched his progress during Battle City, he may have lost early but he definitely earned his Semi-Final spot."

"Well, since my initial strategy is out the window I'll make do with setting a monster in defense mode and ending my turn at that." Andreas set the monster down and Adrienne nodded before drawing her card.

"Now this is more like it, Adrienne's playing her opponent like a fiddle." Erick said with a chuckle. "And as long as she can keep this combo going Andreas can kiss his spot at Duel Academy good-bye!"

"Erick, I swear to god you're getting more annoying by the second." Amanda grumbled under her breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

"I can say the same for you lot and your constant defense of the students." Erick said bluntly earning glares from the others.

"I set one monster in defense mode….." Adrienne announced as the facedown monster appeared on the field. "Now Naturia Barkion, attack the last Hyena!" Adrienne announced and the dragon breathed fire as the hyena incinerating it. "Naturia White Oak, attack his defense monster!" Adrienne commanded and once again the vines shout out of the leaves…..but this time they bounced off the monster. "What just happened?"

"You attacked my Super Nimble Mega Hamster!" Andreas announced as the small rodent appeared on the field (3/1100/1800). "And unfortunately for you….." Andreas started only to face-fault when he heard several students laughing hysterically; even Adrienne was trying not to laugh.

"…I2 actually named a monster that….." Chelsea said as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Anyone want to take bets on how high Pegasus was when he approved that name?"

"Well…Pegasus was always a bit of an eccentric….." Tyler said as he tried not to laugh himself. "Certainly explains how the Watt monsters got made."

"Did you suddenly forget your sitting next to a Watt Duelist with a short temper?" Chelsea asked and Tyler cleared his throat.

"As I was saying, since Super Nimble Mega Hamster was flipped up…..and now that I've said it out loud I have to question how high the staff at I2 where when they came up with it…." Andreas admitted before shaking his head. "I can activate its effect allowing me to Special Summon one Level 3 or lower Beast Monster from my deck in face-down defense position." Andreas set the monster down after searching for it and reshuffled his deck.

"_Damn, if I had switched the order of my attacks around then I could've left him with nothing but a single defense position monster to defend with." _Adrienne thought before looking at her drawn card. "I shall set this facedown and end my turn." Adrienne announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_That's likely another Counter Trap so she can add more cards to her hand." _Andreas thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Ah good, I get to use one of my new cards if all goes to plan." _Andreas thought before playing the card. "I activate Foolish Burial; with this Spell Card I can send one card from my deck to the graveyard." Andreas announced before picking up his deck and searching through it, once he found the card he was looking for he sent it to the graveyard. "That shall do it for my turn." Andreas announced and Adrienne frowned.

"That's it? All you did was lower number of cards in your deck a bit?" Adrienne asked and Andreas remained silent. "Suit yourself, don't come crying to me when you deck yourself out."

"This is coming from a woman who's spent most of the duel adding monsters from her deck to her hand?" Andreas pointed out and Adrienne frowned as she drew her card.

"Fair point, now back to business, Barkion, attack his Hamster!" Adrienne commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the monster destroying it.

"Thank you for that." Andreas said with a grin and Adrienne blinked, her confusion was heightened when Andreas's life-points dropped to 6500. "Since you destroyed a Beast Type monster in battle I can Special Summon the monster I sent to the graveyard with Foolish Burial, sure it costs me a thousand life-points but it is well worth it."

"Wait a minute; I know that effect….." Adrienne trailed off as her eyes widened. "Don't tell me you sent Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest to the graveyard!"

"That's exactly what I did!" Andreas announced as his monster appeared on the field, it was a massive green baboon, heavily armored and wielding a massive club (7/2600/1800).

"Well played, but you still have your facedown monster and I still have Naturia White Oak to attack it!" Adrienne announced as the monster sent its vines towards the facedown card. However it once again bounced off the monster. "Okay, now what?"

"The monster you attacked was Barrier Rat." Andreas explained as the monster flipped up (3/0/0). "You see, its attack may be non-existent but the ability to survive one attack per round makes up for it." Andreas explained and Adrienne frowned.

"In that case I'll call it a turn." Adrienne announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_Under normal circumstances I would attack White Oak; after all it's the weaker of her two face-up monsters." _Andreas thought before frowning. _"But if it has an effect like her other monsters then I could end up doing what she wants me to do, besides with her Synchro Monster's effect I'd only end up giving her more fuel to negate my trap cards." _Andreas thought before making a decision. "Green Baboon, attack Naturia Barkion!" Andreas commanded the baboon let out a howl before leaping into the air and slamming its club upon the dragon's head destroying it and bringing Adrienne's life-points down to 7900. "I shall end my turn with a facedown card."

"That's fine by me." Adrienne said as she drew her card. _"He may have beaten Barkion but he's far from my only heavyweight." _Adrienne thought before looking at her drawn card. "I set a monster in defense mode and flip up my facedown monster, Naturia Ragweed!" Adrienne flipped up the card and a weed sprouted up out of the ground, one of the buds stuck up however revealing a smiling face (3/1200/2000).

"That's unsettling." Andreas commented before noticing its stats. "Besides that you would've been better off leaving him in defense mode."

"That may be true but just look at the field! I have two monsters that are willing and able to attack Barrier Rat!" Amanda announced and Naturia Ragweed was the first to strike using its weeds to strangle Barrier Rat, whilst the monster survived the attack it didn't survive the subsequent attack from Naturia White Oak. "I believe that will be all for this turn." Adrienne announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_If her facedown card is something like Mirror Force then I'd be in trouble." _Andreas thought before frowning. _"But if it is Mirror Force than why didn't she activate it when I attacked her dragon with Green Baboon?" _Andreas thought before pointing at his Baboon. "Green Baboon, attack Naturia Ragweed!" Andreas commanded and the baboon leapt into the air…..

"I was hoping you'd do that, I activate Naturia Call!" Adrienne activated the trap revealing Swordstalker, Vorse Raider and Blade Knight charging into battle against Naturia Barkion and a set monster. "As long as this Trap's on the field you can't target any of my Naturias for Battle meaning your only choice is to attack my set monster."

"Fine, I'll do just that!" Andreas announced as the baboon changed its course and slammed its club into the set monster, however Andreas blinked when he saw it. "Morphing Jar (2/700/600)? That doesn't seem to fit in your deck."

"Under normal circumstances it doesn't." Adrienne agreed as both duelists discarded their hands and drew five new cards. "But when combined with Naturia Ragweed's effect it's very lethal, when you draw outside of your draw phase and Ragweed is on the field I can tribute Naturia Ragweed…" Adrienne explained as Ragweed vanished. "And in exchange I get to draw two cards." Adrienne added before drawing two additional cards.

"In that case I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Andreas announced with a frown and Adrienne drew her card.

"Great, she has eight new cards to play with!" Chelsea groaned as she shook her head. "As if she wasn't giving Andreas enough trouble already now she's pulled a move like that!"

"That may be true but that move also gave Andreas a hand full of new cards to play with." Theresa pointed out with a frown. "As long as she doesn't bring out any of the other Naturia Synchro Monsters Andreas should be safe."

"Yeah, I guess." Chelsea frowned before it hit her. "Wait, there's more Naturia Synchro Monsters?"

"Some of the Archetype's best monsters are Synchro Monsters." Tyler told her and Chelsea turned to him. "Naturia Barkion is just one of them."

"Yeash, I knew it wasn't going to be easy for us but they really went all out this time." Chelsea commented and Tyler nodded in agreement.

"Since I have no further use for Naturia Call I activate Magic Planter." Adrienne activated the Spell Card and her trap card shattered. "Now that I've destroyed the Spell Card I get to draw two more cards from my deck."

"Great, it's not like you haven't drawn enough cards already." Andreas grumbled under his breath and Adrienne smirked.

"Is there a rule that states I can only draw a certain number of cards outside of my draw phase? Yeah, didn't think so." Adrienne answered back as she drew two cards.

"Yes, unless you deck yourself out." Andreas pointed out and Adrienne frowned.

"Good point." Adrienne admitted before looking over her hand. "I summon Naturia Cherries in attack mode!" Adrienne played the card and a small red cherry with a face on it appeared on the field (1/300/200).

"That's unsettling." Andreas muttered under his breath as he eyed the monster in question. "But still very weak."

"Andreas, its strength isn't what I'm interested in." Adrienne said as her grin widened. "It's the fact that Naturia Cherries is a Tuner Monster."

"Oh no, this isn't good." Andreas gulped as Naturia Cherries and Naturia White Oak leapt into the air, Naturia Cherries dissolved into a single Synchro Ring that surrounded Naturia White Oak.

"You don't hear me complaining." Adrienne said confidently as she played a card. "I tune Naturia Cherries with Naturia White Oak to Synchro Summon Naturia Beast!" Adrienne played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a monster that resembled a green tiger appeared on the field wearing armor that looked like it came from a tree (5/2200/1700).

"To think I was worried for a moment there." Andreas commented with a smirk. "Sorry to burst your bubble Adrienne but my Baboon is stronger."

"I'm well aware of that." Adrienne said before playing another card. "I activate the Spell Card Dark Hole!"

"What? Why?" Andreas asked as the dark portal opened up above the field, however to Andreas's surprise Adrienne milled the top two cards from her deck to the graveyard and the portal closed up. "Naturia Beast has an effect similar to Naturia Barkion, doesn't it?"

"Yes, as long as I send the top two cards from my deck to the graveyard I can negate the activation of a Spell Card during either of our turns." Adrienne said before smirking. "But most importantly I can use Naturia Forrest's effect again." Adrienne announced before picking up her deck and searching through it, once she found the card she was looking for Adrienne added it to her hand and reshuffled her deck. "And now Andreas, prepare to meet my best monster."

"But you've already summoned a monster." Andreas pointed out and Adrienne smirked.

"Just watch, I activate a Spell Card called Miracle Synchro Fusion!" Adrienne announced before pocketing Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion. "With this I can remove the two Synchro Monsters that I've used in this duel from play to fusion summon the monster that won me the French National Championships." Adrienne announced as Naturia Barkion returned to the field only to be sucked into a portal alongside Naturia Beast. "Naturia Exterio!" Adrienne played the card and out of the portal emerged a large, dinosaur like beast made out of wood and leaves that was walking on four legs (10/2800/2400).

"That's impressive." Andreas commented and Adrienne smirked.

"You have no idea; next I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Naturia White Oak." Adrienne played the card and the tree like monster returned to the field. "Now Naturia Exterio, attack Green Baboon, Defender of the Forrest!" Adrienne commanded and the monster pounced on the baboon before mauling it to death bringing Andreas's life-points down to 6300. "Naturia White Oak, attack his life-points directly." Adrienne commanded and the tree fired its vines at Andreas…..

"I activate my trap card Battle Instinct, since you just declared a direct attack…." Andreas never got a chance to finish as Naturia Exterio pounced on the activated trap card and ripped it to shreds. "What the…."

"Naturia Exterio is not just a fusion monster with high attack points Andreas." Adrienne said as she held up two of her cards. "When a Spell or Trap Card is activated I can banish one monster in my graveyard and send the top card from my deck to the graveyard I can negate and destroy it which means my White Oak's attack goes through." Adrienne said with a grin as the vines made contact with Andreas bringing his life-points down to 4300. "And since I just negated another card effect Naturia Forrest's effect activates." Adrienne said before picking up her deck yet again and searching through it.

"Are your duels always this routine?" Andreas asked as she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand.

"Nah, I just got a few good draws, that's all." Adrienne answered before picking up four cards. "I set four cards facedown and end my turn, and yes, I realize that my hand's now over the hand size limit." Adrienne said and once she discarded a card Andreas drew his.

"Man, Andreas can't seem to catch a break in this duel." Chelsea commented and Tyler frowned. "She can't have that many cards left in her deck though."

"Maybe not but with those two powerhouses on her side of the field she'll likely defeat Andreas before she decks herself out, but that's only if he doesn't do something soon." Tyler answered with a frown. "Lance would probably use Inferno Tempest to get around that problem."

"Yeah but last I checked Andreas doesn't have that card." Lance pointed out with a frown. "Does he have anything like Imperial Iron Wall?"

"Possibly, if he does then all Adrienne will be left with is a glorified beatstick." Tyler answered before frowning. "Whether or not he can draw it is another matter."

"I activate the Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot; since this benefits you as much as it benefits me I doubt you'll be willing to negate it." Andreas played the card and Adrienne nodded before both duelists drew three cards.

"_Hmmm, I'm running a bit low on my deck; I'd better play it safe." _Adrienne noticed as Andreas sent his Spell to the graveyard.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Andres set the two cards down and Adrienne smirked before drawing her card.

"Finally given up huh? Don't feel too bad, most of my opponents back at the French Nationals gave up at this point as well." Adrienne reassured him before looking at her drawn card. _"Naturia Bamboo Shoot, with this I can render his traps useless…nah, they're likely bluffs and even if they're not bluffs I can just negate them with Exterio's effect." _ Adrienne thought before adding it to her hand. "Naturia Exterio, attack his life-points directly!" Adrienne commanded and the massive beast charged towards Andreas…..

"I activate my Mirror Force Trap Card!" Andreas activated the trap and he could've sworn he had heard Chelsea facepalming in the background when he activated it.

"Do you ever learn? I chain Mirror Force with Exterio's effect…." Adrienne started just as she retrieved a monster from her graveyard…..

"And I chain his effect with Imperial Iron Wall!" Adrienne's eyes widened as her monster's pounce was stopped mid-air. "With this you can't remove any cards from play which means you can't use Exterio's effect….."

"And that means my monsters are history!" Adrienne realized as Exterio's attack was rebounded by a force-field, Exterio was the first to go followed by Wild Oak. "Fine, since I can't do anything else I'll end my turn." Adrienne announced and Andreas drew his card. _"Or so he thinks, one of my facedown cards is the always reliable Call of the Haunted, when he attacks I'll use it to bring back my Exterio, his effects may be negated but he still has 2800 attack points!"_

"I activate Heaven's Lost Property." Andreas activated the Spell and both players drew three cards and discarded two.

"And I activate my Trap Card Disgraceful Charity, since we just discarded our cards we can get them back." Adrienne activated the trap and both plays retrieved their cards.

"If you're hoping that your remaining facedown cards can save you then you're wrong, I activate Heavy Storm to clear the field!" Adrienne's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field destroying her three remaining facedown cards, Naturia Forrest and Andreas's Imperial Iron Wall. "And now I'm in a position to win this."

"Oh? Last I checked I have almost all of my life-points whilst yours are at 4300, how do you intend to win this match?" Adrienne asked and Andreas grinned.

"Why don't I show you, first I activate Instant Fusion, at the cost of a thousand life-points…." Andreas said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 3300. "I can Special Summon one Fusion Monster from my extra deck."

"I have that card myself and I also know that it has to be a Level 5 or Lower Monster and the monster in question is destroyed during the end phase." Adrienne pointed out and Andreas grinned.

"That's not a problem; the monster I summon is Flower Wolf!" Andreas played the card and a black wolf with flowers around its neck appeared on the field (5/1800/1400).

"I'd criticize your choice but if you're planning what I think you're planning than Flower Wolf won't be around for much longer." Adrienne pointed out and Andreas nodded as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"You got that right; I summon the tuner monster Elephun in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and a small blue Elephant's head with wings appeared on the field (2/500/300).

"And you called my monsters weird?" Adrienne asked as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Well you said that that thing's a tuner monster so what are you bringing out?"

"I'll show you, Elephun, it's time to give Flower Wolf a tune up!" Andreas announced and the two monsters leapt into the air, Elephun dissolved into two Synchro Rings that surrounded Flower Wolf, once the flash faded Voltic Bicorn appeared on the field with a whinny (7/2500/2000). "Now I play Monster Reborn to bring back an old friend!"

"You don't mean….." Adrienne trailed off as Green Baboon Defender of the Forrest retuned to the field with a howl (7/2600/1800). "That's still not strong enough to defeat me Andreas!"

"Maybe not but I have one last card to summon and it's my best monster, I activate Polymerization to fuse Des Kangaroo and Big Koala together to fusion summon Master of Oz!" Andreas played the card and the two monsters fused together, when the monster appeared on the field Adrienne did a double take at the site of the massive green koala (9/4200/3700). "The combined total of these three monsters is 9300, more than enough to finish you off and win me this duel."

"So it is." Adrienne said with a respectful nod. "This is the first time someone's beaten me after I summoned Naturia Exterio, congratulations Andreas."

"Much appreciated, go my monsters end this duel now!" Andreas commanded and the three monsters charged towards Adrienne before hitting her with their respective attacks bringing her life-points down to zero.

"The winner of the match is Ra Yellow's Andreas Freshier, as a result he won't be expelled and his record is wiped." Martin announced and the crowd cheered, Andreas sighed in relief before gathering up his cards.

"_There's only two duelists left on both sides and that means that either Tyler or Chloe are up next." _Andreas thought as he gathered up his cards. _"And that also means that Erick fellow will be dueling soon, I would've liked to shut his big mouth but this duel was good enough." _Andreas thought with a frown, once he was finished gathering up his cards he looked up and saw Adrienne approaching him having gathered up her cards herself. "This is the part where we shake hands and congratulate each other on a great duel, is it not?" Andreas asked as the French duelist approached him.

"You'd be correct there." Adrienne said as they shook hands. "You know there's a companion card for Green Baboon right?"

"You mean Yellow Baboon, Archer of the Forest?" Andreas asked before digging the card out of his deck (7/2600/1800). "I have it as you can see but I never got a chance to summon it." Andreas added before returning the card to his deck. "Anyway we'd better get to our benches before Martin announces the next match." Andreas pointed out and Adrienne nodded in agreement before they hopped off the duel arena and joined their friends.

"_Only two more duels to go." _Chloe thought as she turned to Tyler. _"And if Chelsea's right then its Tyler's turn next."_

"The sooner we can get this shit over and done with the better." Chelsea said out loud catching Chloe's attention. "I don't know about you guys but the next time I want to meet a pro-league duelist is when I hit the pro-leagues."

"Now that's something I can agree on." Andreas agreed with a nod. "Well there are only two duelists left on both sides, Tyler and Chloe, and according to the schedule Tyler's up next."

"Yes and if my opponent thinks he's in for an easy time he's sadly mistaken." Tyler agreed with a nod just before Martin's voice rang out.

"The next duel will be contested between Tyler Kaiba and the Russian National Champion Dmitri Romanoff." Martin announced electing more shocked gasps from the duelists in the audience from when it was announced that Theresa was facing Phil, Tyler stood up and walked over to the duel field where Dmitri soon joined him.

"Man that guy's big." Chelsea gulped when she saw the size of him. "Bet Tyler's thankful that this isn't a straight up fight."

"He is a martial artist but I can't remember what fighting style he uses or what belt he's on." Theresa told her before nodding. "Even so I can't help but agree there."

"I must say Tyler; I am a big fan of your father's duels." Dmitri commented as he shuffled his deck, Tyler did likewise but the comment caught his attention. "But I am surprised that the son of Seto Kaiba would get caught up in this."

"It's a long story." Tyler told him as he finished shuffling his deck. "If you're expecting a carbon copy of my dad's deck then you're in for a surprise."

"I wasn't actually; any self-respecting duelist should construct they're own deck rather than imitate another's." Dmitri answered and Tyler nodded in agreement. "Now, what is it you Americans say? Get your game on?"

"Err, yeah, no-one's said that since Jaden Yuki graduated, not even Jaden himself." Tyler answered as a sweat-drop rolled down his head. "I prefer the phrases "let's duel" or "it's time to duel" personally."

"Well in that case it's time to duel!" Dmitri said as they drew their opening hands.


	68. Duel To Stay In School Part 7

"Can you idiots do anything right?!" Erick growled as Adrienne returned to them, naturally the comment earned him a death glare from Adrienne. "Adrienne, you were in control for the majority of the match, even after he summoned that over-grown monkey, and you still lost."

"Yeah, I lost, I get it, and I also get the fact that most of us here have lost our duels." Adrienne answered back as her eyes narrowed. "But let's look at the facts, if it weren't for his copy of Imperial Iron Wall he would've lost."

"If I'm not mistaken his twin brother was expelled for his antics during the Battle City Semi-Finals, as far as I'm concerned the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as far as those two are concerned." Erick answered and Phil's eyes narrowed.

"Erick, you're so full of shit it's not even funny." Phil said as his eyes narrowed. "Yes, his twin brother was expelled but you want to know what his "antics" where? He trapped Andreas's soul in the Orichalcos, had the nerve to make fun of another student's unfortunate situation growing up, who I won't be naming out of respect for her…."

"Save it, I saw the Semi-Finals and I know who it is and I know I'll be facing her after Dmitri's match." Erick cut him off with a frown. "If she thinks she can use her sob story to get me to surrender out of pity she's sadly mistaken."

"She hasn't used her "sob story" as you put it like that before and I doubt she'll start now." Phil told him and Erick frowned. "But since you're such a perfect duelist and all maybe you can show us how it's done when you face her." Phil added his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Sarcasm or not I'll gladly do just that!" Erick snapped at him before turning his attention to the duel.

"So, does anyone have any idea what deck that big guy runs?" Chelsea asked the others who merely shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine, the Russian Nationals where held during the early stages of the Battle City tournament and we didn't exactly have enough time to watch that tournament on TV." Brandon told her and Chelsea frowned. "But from what I heard the competition was tough, if he's the champion than Tyler's in trouble."

"Yeah well, we've all faced tough competition so far and we've managed to win, by the skin off our teeth mind you but we've still managed to win." Chloe pointed out and Brandon nodded in agreement. "If anyone can continue our winning streak it's Tyler."

"I'll go first if you don't mind." Tyler offered and Dmitri said nothing in response, instead he nodded and Tyler took that as his cue to go ahead before drawing his card. _"Not bad, I may want to play it safe for now until I know what deck he runs though." _Tyler thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Tyler set the three cards and turned to Dmitri as the three cards appeared on the field. "That ends my turn." Tyler announced and Dmitri nodded before drawing his card.

"Playing it safe are we? I'm afraid that that's all you can do against my deck." Dmitri commented before looking at his drawn card. "I start with the Spell Card called Gold Sarcophagus; I remove one card from my deck….." Dmitri looked through the deck and once he found the card he was looking for he pocketed it. "And in two turns I shall get it back."

"_It must be an important card if he wants it this early." _Tyler thought as he watched the massive Russian make his move.

"Now I set a monster in defense mode and two cards facedown." Dmitri set the two cards and they appeared on the field. "That shall do it for my turn."

"_He didn't go on the offensive? That's odd; didn't he say that all I could do against him was go on the defensive against his monsters?" _Tyler thought before looking at his newly drawn card. "Well I guess it's time I went on the offensive, I summon Psychic Snail in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and a strange snail like creature appeared on the field (4/1900/1200). "Next I flip summon my facedown monster, the dreaded Power Injector!" Tyler flipped the card up and a cyborg resembling Frankenstein's monster appeared on the field, it was wearing a blue jumpsuit and had strange, red cannons attached to his arms (4/1300/1400).

"I fail to see how such a weak monster could be dreaded." Dmitri commented and Tyler smirked.

"Just watch, I activate both of my monsters effects, first Psychic Snail allows a monster to attack twice in the same turn for the small cost of 800 life-points…" Tyler said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 6400. "So I pay 1600 life-points to allow both of my monsters to attack twice, next I pay 600 life-points to activate Power Injector's effect which increases the attack points of each face-up Psychic Monster I control by 500 points for the rest of the turn." Tyler said as his life-points dropped to 5800 and Power Injector and Psychic Snail's attack points increased to 2400 and 1800 respectively.

"Tyler just gave up a lot of life-points." Chloe gulped but Chelsea gave her a reassuring grin.

"Yeah but if this combo goes through then Dmitri will lose a lot more!" Chelsea said with a massive grin as they watched the duel.

"Psychic Snail, attack his defense monster now!" Tyler commanded and the monster slithered over to Dmitri's facedown monster…..only to be stopped by a large explosion. "What the….." Tyler said in between coughs.

"Don't worry, that wasn't a real explosion, you activated my Fake Explosion Trap Card." Dmitri announced as the face-down card flipped up. "And I'll chain it with Cyber Summon Blaster." Dmitri added as his second facedown card flipped up. "Fake Explosion can only be activated in response to an attack, now for the rest of the turn my monsters cannot be destroyed in battle but there's an added benefit on top of that."

"I get the feeling I won't like this benefit." Tyler commented and Dmitri smirked.

"You'd be right there, after Damage Calculation I am allowed to Special Summon a particular monster from my hand or graveyard, in this case I summon it from my hand." Dmitri played the card and a large green robot appeared on the field with propellers on its shoulders. "Say hello to Summon Reactor SK." (5/2000/1400).

"_He uses Reactor monsters? I know Pro-League tournaments often offer rare cards as prizes but those things aren't even out yet." _Tyler thought before wincing as his life-points dropped to 5500.

"Ah yes, I almost forgot about Cyber Summon Blaster, every time a Machine Type Monster is special summoned you take 300 points of damage." Dmitri added and Tyler grimaced.

"That may be true but by Special Summoning a monster you have allowed me to activate my Quick Play Spell Card Demise of the Land which lets me activate Brain Research Lab from my deck." Tyler activated the Spell Cards and the scenery changed to a weird looking lab, in the center of it was a large glass tube with a brain inside it. _"As it stands I can't risk paying life-points for my Psychic Monster's effects so this field spell will help with that."_

"This is quite an interesting field spell." Dmitri commented with a raised eyebrow as he glanced around. "But it hasn't raised the attacks off your monsters one point."

"True but this field spell is still invaluable to my Psychics and you'll soon see why." Tyler said before picking up a card. "One card facedown will end my turn." Tyler announced and once the attack points of Tyler's monsters returned to normal Dmitri drew his card.

"First I flip summon my facedown monster, Trap Reactor Y FI!" Dmitri flipped the card up and another robot appeared on the field. The robot's body resembled a deep sea diver's outfit and was green in color (4/800/1800).

"That monster would've been better off in defense mode!" Tyler pointed out and Dmitri grinned.

"Under normal circumstances that would be true." Dmitri admitted as he played a third monster. "But you'll see why I flipped him in a moment, next I Normal Summon Spell Reactor RE in attack mode!" Dmitri played the card and the final robot appeared on the field, this one didn't have a body unlike the others and had a dragon's head sticking out of it (3/1200/900). "And last but not least I activate the Spell Card Shield and Sword!"

"Oh no, that means that my life-points are yours for the taking!" Tyler realized as the five monsters on the field got their stats switched around.

"Off course, that's the point!" Dmitri answered before pointing to his three robots. "Trap Reactor, Summon Reactor and Spell Reactor, go on the attack!" Dmitri commanded and the three robots launched missiles at Tyler…

"I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Emergency Teleport, with this Spell Card I can Special summon one Level 3 or lower Psychic from my deck and I'm choosing Psychic Commander!" Tyler played the card and the small robot commander appeared on the field (3/1400/800).

"A poor choice, Krebons would've made more sense!" Dmitri pointed out before grinning. "But at the same time you activated Summon Reactor and Spell Reactor's effects, true Emergency Teleport will only be affected but since you just activated a Spell and Summoned a monster you get hit for 1600 points of damage!"

"I'm well aware of that." Tyler said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 3900. "And that is why I activate my other facedown card!"

"Is that Urgent Tuning!?" Dmitri realized as the card flipped up. "You realize that by activating that trap you triggered Trap Reactor's effect as well right?" Dmitri asked as another missile hit Tyler bringing his life-points down to 3100.

"Yes but with the monster I'm about to summon I'll be able to gain back those life-points and more!" Tyler announced as Psychic Commander and Psychic Snail leapt into the air, the Synchro Ring quickly surrounded Psychic Snail and once the bright flash faded Psychic Lifetrancer appeared on the field (7/2400/2000).

"Impressive move but you still take damage, from Summon Reactor's effect and Power Injector's destruction!" Dmitri pointed out and Tyler winced as his life-points dropped to 2300 from Summon Reactor's effect, soon afterworlds Power Injector was blown up by Trap Reactor's missiles bringing his life-points down to 1900. "I would be foolish to attack Lifetrancer so I end my turn." Dmitri announced and Tyler drew his card once the stats of Dmitri's monsters returned to normal.

"Man, Tyler's down to just under 2000 life-points and it's only his third turn!" Chelsea winced as she watched the duel. "What's up with these Reactor cards anyway? I've never heard of them before."

"They're not even supposed to be out yet, they'll be in that booster pack that has the reprints of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in it." Theresa answered with a frown. "My guess is that Dmitri won them at the Russian Nationals."

"That does make sense, from what I've heard Dmitri used a similar deck to mine to win the tournament." Brandon chimed in with a frown. "As you can see the Reactors specialize in field control whilst keeping the opponent's life-points low, Tyler will be able to recover some life-points with Lifetrancer but a smart duelist would have a few revival cards handy in a Reactor deck."

"Now this is more like it!" Erick said as he rested his hands behind his head. "I swear they should've just sent Dmitri to face these students, they would've been sent home packing hours ago!"

"You seem to forget two things Erick." Mark said as he turned to him. "Number 1, any good duelist knows that dueling several times in a row is not good for you, even for someone with Dmitri's stamina, Number 2, you'd be missing out on a big payday if they did do that!"

"Humph, I admit, you've got me there." Erick grumbled as he folded his arms.

"All right, first I remove Psychic Commander from play so that I can activate Psychic Lifetrancer's effect which gives my life-points a much needed boost." Tyler pocketed the turner monster and sighed as Lifetrancer's magic raised his life-points to 3100. "Now I summon Genetic Woman to the field in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and the woman with seemingly mismatched DNA appeared on the field (4/1700/1200).

"Fine by me, by doing that you just cost yourself some of the life-points you so desperately need." Dmitri pointed out and Tyler winced as his life-points dropped down to 2300.

"True but Summon Reactor won't be staying around, next I activate Genetic Woman's effect, normally this would require me to pay a thousand life-points but as long as Brain Research Lab is active I can place a counter on it instead." Tyler explained as one of the machines in the lab sprung to life. "And what a powerful effect it is, with it I can add one Removed from Play Psychic Monster to my hand."

"I see; that makes for a lethal combination with Psychic Lifetrancer's effect." Dmitri commented as Tyler retrieved Psychic Commander from the graveyard.

"Indeed it does." Tyler said as he shuffled his hand. "Now to attack….."

"_Tyler, are you there?" _A strange female voice rang out and Tyler blinked before glancing around.

"Is something wrong Tyler?" Dmitri asked as he raised an eyebrow at his confused opponent, Tyler turned to him and frowned.

"You didn't hear her?" Tyler asked earning a confused look from Dmitri. "Forget it; I thought I heard someone call my name."

"Well, if you say so." Dmitri shrugged his shoulders and Tyler frowned.

"_Are you my duel spirit? And if you are I can think of at least ten better times to establish contact with me." _Tyler responded to the voice who sighed.

"_Yes, I am your duel spirit and I apologize for the inconvenience, we have no control over when that happens."_ His duel spirit answered. _"Now I believe you were going to attack?"_

"_I was before you interrupted." _Tyler answered before pointing to his monsters. "Psychic Lifetrancer, Genetic Woman, attack Summon and Trap Reactor!" Tyler commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks, Psychic Lifetrancer's spell hit first causing Summon Reactor to blow up and the same thing happened to Trap Reactor when Genetic Woman fired an energy ball from her gun bringing Dmitri's life-points down to 6700.

"You may have damaged my life-points but you still have a long way to go Tyler." Dmitri told him and Tyler frowned.

"I'll end my turn with a facedown card for now." Tyler said simply and Dmitri drew his card. _"I'm guessing you're not either Genetic Woman or Psychic Lifetrancer."_

"_When you summon me you'll know." _The voice responded as Tyler waited for Dmitri to make his move.

"I activate the Spell Card Allure of Darkness; I banish one card from my hand….." Dmitri pocketed the card. "And I get to draw two more cards." Dmitri added as he drew two cards, he glanced over both of them and smirked. "If you think you've seen the last of my Reactors your wrong, but for now I shall shift Spell Reactor to defense mode and set a monster in defense mode." Dmitri made his move and the remaining robot crouched down whilst a facedown monster appeared next to it. "That shall end my turn." Dmitri announced and Tyler drew his card.

"_Perfect, with this three card combo I can bring out another one of my heavyweights." _Tyler thought before retrieving a monster from his graveyard. "To start things off I will remove Power Injector from play to activate Psychic Lifetrancer's effect." Tyler said before pocketing the monster and Lifetrancer casted a spell at him increasing his life-points to 3500. "Next I use Genetic Woman's effect to return Power Injector to my hand." Tyler added as another one of the machines sprung to life and he added the monster to his hand.

"So in other words you're doing a retread of your last move." Dmitri pointed out and Tyler smirked.

"If it isn't broke don't fix it." Tyler said simply before playing a card. "I summon Psychic Commander back to the field in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and the small robotic commander returned to the field. "And finally I equip Genetic Woman with Synchro Boost; this may cost me 800 life-points." Tyler said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 2700. "But with the ability to increase Genetic Woman's attack by 500 and her level by one it's well worth it." Tyler added as Genetic Woman's attack increased to 2200 and her Level increased to 5._"Hmmm, I could do the Synchro Summon first but I have no idea what the facedown monster is."_

"Are you going to make your next move before the end of the day?" Dmitri asked politely and Tyler frowned.

"As you wish, Psychic Commander, attack Spell Reactor!" Tyler commanded and the commander fired its cannon at the robot causing it to explode. "Psychic Lifetrancer, attack his facedown monster!" Tyler commanded and the psychic monster launched its attack at the monster, however Tyler was surprised when he saw a huge tomato with a sinister looking face on it (4/1400/1100) seconds before it was destroyed. "That was Mystic Tomato? Why do you have that card in your deck?"

"Why not include it comrade? The two weaker Reactors fit the requirements for its effect." Dmitri shrugged before picking up his deck and searching through it. "That said I am not stupid enough summon one of them straight away with Genetic Woman on the field so instead I summon another Mystic Tomato!" Dmitri played the card and another copy of the sinister looking tomato appeared on the field.

"Fine by me, he'll just share the first's fate!" Tyler said before pointing to Genetic Woman. "Genetic Woman, attack the second Mystic Tomato!" Tyler commanded and Genetic Woman fired its cannon at the sinister tomato destroying it and bringing Dmitri's life-points down to 5900.

"I use my second Mystic Tomato's effect to Special Summon my second Trap Reactor in defense mode!" Dmitri announced as he played the card and the robot reappeared on the field (4/800/1800). "And that triggers my Cyber Summon Blaster's effect!" Dmitri added as Tyler was struck in the chest with an energy beam bringing his life-points down to 2400.

"All right, let's see how Trap Reactor reacts to this! I tune Psychic Commander with Genetic Woman to bring out one of my best monsters!" Tyler announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Psychic Commander dissolved into three Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Genetic Woman, once the bright flash faded the two duelists looked up and Tyler smirked. "Please welcome to the field Thought Ruler Archfiend!"

"I would if I could see the monster!" Dmitri commented before looking up, the monster was a strange skeletal demon that had wings and was brown and green in color (8/2700/2300). "That's certainly a mighty beast."

"Just wait until you see its effect." Tyler told him with a smirk. "I end my turn at that." Tyler announced and Dmitri drew his card.

"_Ah, excellent, if all goes to plan then we'll be back to square one the moment he attacks with either of his Synchro Monsters!" _Dmitri thought before playing his drawn card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn at that." Dmitri announced and Tyler frowned before drawing his card.

"_Hmmm, this Spell could help if that facedown card's what I think it is." _Tyler thought before adding it to his hand. "First I remove Genetic Woman from play so that I can activate Lifetrancer's effect." Tyler pocketed the monster before sighing as his life-points increased to 3600. "Now I summon Power Injector back to the field in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and the strange cyborg returned to the field (4/1300/1400). "Now I activate Power Injector's effect giving my monsters a power boost!" Tyler announced as another piece of machinery sprung to life and Power Injector, Lifetrancer and Thought Ruler Archfiend's attacks increased to 1800, 2900 and 3200 respectively. "Psychic Lifetrancer, attack Trap Reactor!" Tyler commanded as the Synchro Monster prepared her attack…

"You fell for the same trap but it's like you said, if it isn't broke don't fix it!" Dmitri announced as his second copy of Fake Explosion flipped up and the spell was interrupted by a large explosion, once the smoke cleared Summon Reactor was back on the field and Cyber Summon Blaster had fired its beam at Tyler bringing his life-points down to 3300. "You'd think you would've learned by now!" Dmitri chuckled….before he noticed the grin on Tyler's face. "What are you so happy about?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that I anticipated this possibility!" Tyler said before picking up his drawn card. "I move into my second main phase and activate Mischief of the Time Goddess!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Dmitri yelled out as the three psychic monsters got ready for battle again, apparently his shock was shared by the students in the audience judging by the shocked gasps. "That's one of the rarest cards in Duel Monsters, how did a student, much less an Obelisk Blue Student, get his hands on it?"

"I've been wondering the same thing about how you got your hands on cards that haven't even been released yet." Tyler countered and Dmitri frowned.

"They were the prize for winning the Russian Nationals, now answer my question!" Dmitri demanded and Tyler smirked.

"What can I say? Being Seto Kaiba's stepson has its perks." Tyler said with a mere shrug of his shoulders. "With this Spell Card I can skip the rest of my turn and yours and go straight into my next Battle Phase, and since Fake Explosion's effect has technically worn off your monsters are sitting ducks."

"Yes but as a consequence your monsters lost the power boost they gained from Power Injector." Dmitri pointed out and Tyler frowned upon realizing that he was right.

"Then that's a sacrifice that I'm willing to make, Lifetrancer, attack Trap Reactor!" Tyler commanded and the Psychic monster launched her attack at the robot causing it to explode. "Your turn Thought Ruler, attack Summon Reactor!" Tyler commanded and the archfiend charged towards the larger of the two robots before cutting it in half bringing Dmitri's life-points down to 5200. "And since I've destroyed a monster in battle I can now activate Thought Ruler's effect which adds Summon Reactor's attack points to my life-points!" Tyler added as his life-points shot up to 5300. "Now Power Injector, solidify my lead and attack his life-points directly!" Tyler commanded and the small cyborg charged towards Dmitri before punching him in the stomach bringing his life-points down to 3900.

"YES! Tyler's turning this around!" Chelsea said with a fist pump and Chloe smirked as she nodded in agreement.

"I wouldn't celebrate too soon." Brandon told them and Chelsea and Chloe blinked as they turned to him. "There's a fourth Reactor Monster, the most powerful of them all, and if Dmitri can get it out then Tyler's in big trouble."

"Yeah, if being the operative word!" Chelsea said with a grin as she watched the duel. "Come on Brandon, lighten up! With those two Psychic Synchros on the field Tyler can destroy Dmitri's reactors long before he can summon the big bad of the lot; it's only a matter of time before he joins us here in the winner's circle!"

"First off I can't help but appreciate the irony of the girl who's infamous for her vicious temper telling me to lighten up." Brandon pointed out and Chelsea laughed nervously as a large sweatdrop rolled down her head. "Second, you off all people should know that the tide of a duel can turn in the blink of an eye, just look at your match against Ricardo."

"Good point." Chelsea admitted before grinning. "But ya gotta admit Brandon, it is looking good for Tyler right now."

"That's not what concerns me; it's how long Tyler can keep it up against Dmitri's deck strategy." Brandon said with a frown.

"I'll end my turn at that." Tyler announced and Dmitri drew his card. _"So…..you're not Thought Ruler or either of my other psychics, what are you exactly?" _Tyler asked his duel spirit who sighed in annoyance.

"_You'll find out when you summon me." _The duel spirit told him as Dmitri looked over his hand.

"I play the Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot." Dmitri played the card and both duelists drew three times, when Tyler saw one of his monsters that he had drawn he couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"_Hmmm, now there's an idea." _Tyler thought as he looked over his hand.

"Now I summon Black Salvo in attack mode!" Dmitri played the card and a small black bomb with a sinister looking face on it appeared on the field (3/100/1100).

"Wait, that's a tuner monster!" Tyler realized as his eyes lay on the monster.

"Correct but I'm not summoning him to be used in a Synchro Summon, first I activate his effect which lets me Special Summon one Level 4 or lower Dark Machine Type Monster from my graveyard, I believe Trap Reactor will do nicely." Dmitri said as the robot returned to the field. "Off course its effects are negated but the same can't be said for Cyber Summon Blaster." Dmitri said as the blaster fired its beam at Tyler bringing his life-points down to 5000.

"You still have a long way to go if you intend to retake your lead." Tyler pointed out and Dmitri grinned before playing a card, Tyler raised an eyebrow as the image showed an artillery strike against several soldiers. "Artillery Strike, what the….."

"I'm not surprised that you haven't heard of it, it's a card that will be released in a few months, it was another gift I received from winning the tournament." Dmitri said as he grinned. "It requires me to have at least two Machine Type Monsters on my side of the field and at least 2000 less life-points than you, as for what it does…" Dmitri said as his grin widened. "It destroys every card on your side of the field."

"Oh no….." Tyler trailed off as several missiles rained down on his side of the field, Lifetrancer and Thought Ruler Archfiend where the first to go followed by Power Injector and Brain Research Lab, seconds later Tyler screamed in pain as his life-points plummeted to 2000. "When Brain Research Lab is destroyed I take a thousand points of damage for each counter I put on it."

"I see, however Artillery Strike requires me to skip my Battle Phase if I use its effect so your life-points remain safe, for now." Dmitri said and Tyler sighed in relief. "Next I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Summon Reactor!" Dmitri played the card and Summon Reactor returned to the field, seconds later Cyber Summon Blaster's effect activated bringing Tyler's life-points down to 1700. "Now I'll take a page out of Amanda's book by activating DDR – Different Dimension Reincarnation and I use it to bring back the monster I banished for Allure of Darkness."

"Don't tell me, Spell Reactor?" Tyler asked and sure enough the second weakest of the robotic trio appeared on the field and once again Tyler's life-points where blasted by Cyber Summon Blaster bringing his life-points down to 1400. "So you have the three reactors back on the field, what do you plan to do? Chip away at what's left of my life-points?"

"Actually, no, that's not what I had in mind." Dmitri said as he gathered up his Reactors. "Summon Reactor has another effect, by sending him and the other two Reactors to the graveyard I can Special Summon my strongest monster!" Dmitri played the card and the three machines vanished and a huge shadow loomed over the field, Tyler looked up and his jaw dropped when he saw a massive machine seemingly out of a Transformers cartoon (8/3000/2500). "Tyler, please welcome the mighty Flying Fortress SKY FIRE!"

"Holy shit, that's huge!" Chelsea yelled out with an audible gulp. "I'm guessing that big guy's the strongest reactor monster like you said?" Chelsea asked as she turned to Brandon.

"Yes and it's by far the most deadly." Brandon said as he glared up at the card.

"Your friend is correct; Sky Fire is quite a force to be reckoned with." Dmitri said as he folded his arms. "Not only does its strength match that of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon but once per turn I can use either of these effects, first whenever you summon a monster it's automatically destroyed and you take 800 points of damage, and whenever you set a card you take the same amount of damage and the card is destroyed." Dmitri said before grinning. "Oh yes, he was a Special Summon so….."

"Not again." Tyler groaned as Cyber Summon Blaster fired its beam at Tyler bringing his life-points down to 1100. "Don't forget, due to the constraints of your spell card you have to wait before finishing me off."

"I know but they'll be time enough to end this duel and, unfortunately, your tenure here at Duel Academy next turn." Dmitri conceded before looking over his hand. "I shall end my turn for now." Dmitri announced and Tyler drew his card.

"_All right, it all comes down to this!" _Tyler thought before playing the card he drew. "I activate Arkhasic Record, I get to draw two more cards but if either of them has been played already they are both removed from play."

"That's a big risk for this late in the match." Dmitri pointed out as Tyler drew twice. "So, are you going to remove them play or not?"

"The answer is not!" Tyler told him before sending his Spell Card to the graveyard. "Now I summon Serene Psychic Witch in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and a young woman with long pink hair wearing matching armor appeared on the field (4/1400/1200).

"Hah, even if she was strong enough to defeat my monster she'll get destroyed by Skyfire's effect!" Dmitri pointed out as the massive machine fired a missile volley at Tyler's monster destroying her and bringing his life-points down to 300.

"That's what I was hoping for." Tyler told him and Dmitri blinked. "Serene Psychic Witch's effect activates after she's been destroyed, either by battle or by card effect, with it I can remove from play one Psychic Monster with 2000 or less attack points from my graveyard from play, during my next standby phase I'll get that card back."

"Hah, have you seen your score? You won't last that long Tyler!" Dmitri pointed out and Tyler nodded.

"Indeed I have, next I activate Supremacy Berry!" Tyler played the card and sighed as his life-points increased to 2300. "Since my life-points are lower than yours I can increase my life-points by 2000 points."

"That's still not enough!" Dmitri pointed out and Tyler smirked.

"On the surface it may not be enough." Tyler said before picking up three cards. "So I set three cards face down…" Tyler said before shielding himself as a missile hit the first card bringing his life-points down to 1500. "And end my turn." Tyler said and once he sent the first card to the graveyard Dmitri drew his card.

"Err; Tyler knows what he's doing, right?" Chelsea gulped as she watched the duel. "Because as it stands Dmitri can finish him off in one hit and I'd hate for one of us to be expelled after such a good run."

"I wouldn't worry about him Chelsea, if anyone can win this it's him." Theresa reassured her and Chelsea frowned as she turned to her. "I know it doesn't look good….."

"That's the biggest understatement of the day." Chelsea pointed out and Theresa shook her head.

"Okay, yes that's true, but Tyler's been in tough spots before, he'll pull through." Theresa added and Chelsea shook her head.

"It seems your friends are as blind to the truth as you are." Dmitri said before looking at his drawn card. _"Summon Reactor, I can sacrifice Black Salvo to summon it to bring this duel to a close…..no, Skyfire's power is more than enough." _Dmitri thought before adding it to his hand. "Flying Fortress SKY FIRE, attack his life-points directly and end this duel!" Dmitri commanded and the massive robot fired its missiles at Tyler…..

"I activate my trap card Dimension Wall!" Tyler announced and Dmitri's eyes widened as the missiles neared an invisible wall.

"NO! CEASE THE ATTACK!" Dmitri yelled out but knew it was too late, the missiles where rebounded back at Dmitri, the missiles made contact sending his life-points down to 2200. "You may have narrowed down the gap but I not only have the lead but I have the most powerful monster on the field."

"We'll see how long that lasts." Tyler told him as he sent his trap card to the graveyard. _"And if things go to plan it won't last long." _Tyler thought before turning to Dmitri.

"I'll end my turn." Dmitri announced and Tyler drew his card. "It's your standby phase which means the monster you removed from play will now be summoned."

"And you'll destroy it with Skyfire's effect right?" Tyler asked and Dmitri nodded. "Not today, I chain Serene Psychic Witch's effect with Forbidden Chalice!" Tyler activated the Spell and the massive robot doubled over as its attack increased to 3400. "In exchange for that power boost your monster loses its effects and that leaves me free to Special Summon Power Injector back to the field!" Tyler played the card and the small cyborg returned to the field (4/1300/1400).

"That's your big play? All it could damage is my Black Salvo!" Dmitri pointed out and Tyler grinned. "What do you have in mind?" Dmitri asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why don't I show you? I'm taking a page out of Adrienne's playbook with this move!" Tyler said before playing the card. "I activate Miracle Synchro Fusion and I use it to fuse Psychic Lifetrancer and Power Injector together so I can bring out a monster that I added to this deck recently!" Tyler played the card and the two monsters fused together, out of the portal stepped a monster similar in build to Thought Ruler Archfiend but it had a tail and was much bigger. "Say hello to Ultimate Axion Kicker!" Tyler announced as the monster growled (10/2900/1700).

"What is this? The duel when both duelists summon scary ass monsters?!" Chelsea gulped as she looked at the monster.

"Do I look like I'm worried? That monster's impressive but SKY FIRE is much stronger!" Dmitri said confidently and Tyler grinned.

"Who said anything about targeting SKY FIRE?" Tyler asked as he grinned. "In fact I don't need to destroy SKY FIRE to win the duel."

"What are you talking about?!" Dmitri demanded before it hit him. "Oh no, I left Black Salvo in attack mode!"

"And have practically surrendered to me." Tyler added before pointing to Ultimate Axion Kicker. "Ultimate Axion Kicker, end this duel by attacking Black Salvo!" Tyler commanded the massive monster reached forward with its claws before cutting the small bomb in half bringing Dmitri's life-points plummeting to zero.

"The winner of the match is Obelisk Blue's Tyler Kaiba, as a result he won't be expelled and his record will be wiped." Martin announced over the PA system and Tyler sighed in relief knowing that the ordeal would be over soon.

"_You never told who you were." _Tyler told his Duel Spirit.

"_I am Serene Psychic Witch, however I wasn't on the field long enough to announce my presence." _His Duel Spirit told him and Tyler nodded before noticing Dmitri looming over him with his arms folded.

"Congratulations, most of the students competing this afternoon have managed to avoid expulsion." Dmitri said before extending his hand out for a handshake. "I just hope the girl that's dueling Erick knows what she's getting into."

"She faced me in a duel to prepare for these duels; she's ready for anything he throws at her." Tyler told him before spotting Erick storming up to the duel arena. "Speak of the devil….."

"You're useless! All of you are useless!" Erick snapped at the other pro duelists who glared at him. "You had him beat Dmitri but you still didn't win!"

"Okay that's enough." Tyler said before walking up to Erick. "You have been badmouthing our opponents and my fellow students, why?"

"I accepted this job to kick out the useless students in this duel!" Erick snapped at him before hopping onto the duel field. "If I had my way I'd face all of you in a marathon match."

"So instead you'll have to make do with dueling me!" Chloe said as she stepped onto the duel field with her duel disk at the ready. "Like Tyler I'm getting sick of you running your mouth so why don't we see if you can back it up on the duel field!"

"Heh, I heard you had a backbone Richardson but challenging the guy who came in second in the Scottish National Championships? Either your incredibly stupid or incredibly brave, at the moment I'm leaning towards the former." Erick said as he activated his duel disk, Tyler and Dmitri quickly hopped off the duel field as Chloe activated her duel disk.

"I'll show you who's incredibly stupid!" Chloe snapped at him as she shuffled her deck. "Wait, that's not what I meant!"

"Sure it's not!" Erick chuckled as he drew his opening hand. "This'll be quick, who knows? Maybe I'll get home in time for dinner." Erick added and Chloe smirked.

"Do you always finish things quickly around women?" Chloe taunted him and Erick blushed.

"That's my joke Chloe!" Chelsea yelled and Chloe grinned sheepishly.

"Enough talk! Let's do this!" Erick snapped at her and Chloe grinned before she drew her opening her hand.


	69. Duel To Stay In School Part 8

"So…..does anyone know anything about this guy's deck?" Chelsea asked her fellow students who shook their heads.

"Unfortunately not and judging by his comments Erick's familiar with Chloe's duels during Battle City." Tyler answered with a frown. "The guy who beat him did compete in Battle City; he was one of the favorites to win but got eliminated by Kimberly."

"Yeah, I remember Kimberly mentioning that." Brandon said with a nod. "He apparently gave her a hell of a fight and if Erick's half as good as that guy then Chloe's in trouble."

"Yeah but there's no way in hell she's gonna lose!" Chelsea said confidentially as she rested her arms on her legs. "Not after the streak we've had."

"I hope your right." Marcus said with a gulp and Chelsea grinned at him reassuringly.

"When have I ever been wrong?" Chelsea asked only to sweat-drop when the students started counting on their fingers. "Ever heard of a rhetorical question?"

"About time we saw Erick put his money where his mouth is." Mark grunted as he folded his arms. "But does that girl know what's she's getting into?"

"Mark, Chloe eliminated me from the Battle City Tournament, she'll do fine." Francesca reassured him with a frown. "That said I'm having my doubts about how well she'll do against Erick."

"If she's half as good as the other duelists then she'll do just fine." Ricardo pointed out as they watched the duel. "And if she can win well we'll know that Erick will flip his lid."

"Yeah, as if he hasn't done that enough times already." Adrienne grunted as she folded her arms. "From a technical standpoint my money's on Erick to win, from a personal standpoint I want Chloe to kick his ass back to Scotland."

"Now that's something we can agree on Adrienne." Amanda agreed with a nod. "My only concern besides her getting expelled should she lose is Chloe's inexperience; didn't you say she was a rookie with two months experience Phil?"

"Aye but that rookie managed to make it to the top three of the Battle City Tournament; Erick would be an idiot to underestimate her." Phil said with a nod. "But the same can be said vice versa."

"I wouldn't worry if I where you." Dmitri said as he sat down on the bench. "If she has Tyler's drive and determination to win then she'll win this match no problem."

"I'd say ladies first but I've never believed in that bullshit." Erick said as he drew his card. "Besides based on your choice of clothes you're not much of a lady."

"Keep talking smart guy." Chloe growled as her eyes narrowed. "You'll just end up making your defeat that much more satisfying."

"Well, at least you admit that I'm smart." Erick chuckled before looking at his drawn card. "I start by activating this, Into the Void! Since I have three or more cards in my hand I can draw another card…"

"And you'll have to toss your entire hand at the end of your turn." Chloe interrupted him as he drew his card. "Chelsea has that card in her deck."

"Do I look like I care?" Erick asked before picking up three cards. "I set one monster in defense mode and three cards facedown." Erick set the three cards and picked up his remaining three cards. "I end my turn which means I have to discard the remaining cards in my hand." Erick announced and once he sent the three cards to the graveyard Chloe drew her card.

"No wonder that guy didn't win the Scottish Nationals, playing that card so early in the duel has got to be one of the stupidest moves I've seen in the three years that I've been playing this game!" Chelsea said with a grin.

"_That or it's a brilliant move, all depends on what deck he's using." _Tyler thought as Chloe looked over her opening hand.

"I summon Breaker, The Magical Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the armored spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1600/1000). "And since I normal summoned him he gets a Spell Counter and three hundred attack points." Chloe added as Breaker's attack points increased to 1900. "But by removing one Spell Counter I can destroy one Spell or Trap Card on the field, like the one on the right!" Chloe added as her spellcaster's attack dropped to 1600 and Breaker charged towards the facedown card…

"Nice try but I activate my Infernity Breaker Trap Card!" Erick activated the trap and Chloe blinked before her eyes widened as Breaker's hologram shattered into a million pieces. "This can only be activated if I have a non-existent hand, all I need to do is remove one Infernity monster in my graveyard from play and I can destroy one card my opponent controls, and since you literally only had one monster the choice was easy."

"So that's why you discarded your hand so quickly." Chloe realized as her eyes narrowed.

"That was just the beginning; you see the monster I removed from play is a little guy called Infernity Shaman." Erick said as he held up the monster (1/0/0). "Since I removed him from play whilst I have no cards in my hand I can force you to skip your next draw phase."

"You're kidding!?" Chloe yelled out as it hit her.

"Do I look like I'm kidding?" Erick asked as he pocketed the monster. "Don't worry, I can only use Infernity Shaman's effect once per duel but as you can see the effect is well worth it."

"Ugh, fine, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Erick drew his card, when she saw his grin however Chloe groaned. "Oh great, now what have you drawn?"

"I drew a monster known as Infernity Archfiend, if I draw him whilst I have no cards in my hand I can reveal him to Special Summon him." Erick played the card and the red-headed fiend appeared on the field with a chuckle (4/1800/1200). "But there's more, if I Special Summon him whilst there's no cards in my hand I can add another Infernity Monster to my hand." Erick added the card he was looking for to his hand after a quick search through his deck and grinned. "But I won't keep you in suspense for long, I summon Infernity Beetle!" Erick played the card and a huge black beetle appeared on the field (2/1200/0).

"Infernity Shaman, Infernity Archfiend, Infernity Beetle, give me a break, what's next Infernity Grasshopper?!" Chloe asked and Erick growled.

"I bet you think your funny don't you? Well I'll have the last laugh! I activate Infernity Beetle's effect, by sacrificing him whilst I have no cards in my hand I can special summon two more of them from my deck!" Erick announced as the first Infernity Beetle shattered and two more appeared in its place. "Next I flip summon Infernity Beast!" Erick flipped the card up and a large black beast appeared on the field with a growl (3/1600/1200).

"That overgrown Labrador doesn't scare me!" Chloe said determinedly.

"Chloe, how the hell did you link that monster that a fucking Labrador?!" Chelsea yelled out and Chloe sweat-dropped. "Hell it looks a lot more like an Alsatian!"

"This is Duel Monsters, not a dog show!" Erick growled impatiently as he pointed to Infernity Beast. "And my Infernity Beast will give you a reason to be worried, when he attacks whilst I have no cards in my hand you can't activate Spell or Trap Cards until after the damage step!"

"Oh crap!" Chloe gulped as it dawned on her.

"Infernity Beast, Infernity Archfiend, Infernity Beetles, attack her life-points directly!" Erick commanded and the four monsters charged towards Chloe who braced herself, she grunted as the attacks hit bringing her life-points down to 2200. "You see?! THAT'S HOW IT'S DONE YOU IDIOTS!" Erick yelled out to the other Pro-Duelists.

"Hey asshole, encase you didn't notice I'm still in the match!" Chloe snapped at him before activating one of her traps. "And since I just took damage my Numinous Healer trap card can help me gain some of them back!" Chloe announced as her life-points increased to 3200.

"You're going to need those Life-Points, for now I end my turn." Erick announced and Chloe went to draw her card. "Nuh-uh, you can't draw due to Infernity Shaman remember?"

"Oh right." Chloe grunted before activating her other trap. "Then I'll use this trap card to make up for it, Reckless Greed lets me draw twice in exchange for skipping my next draw phase." Chloe announced before drawing twice, when she saw what she had drawn she couldn't help but grin. "I hope for your sake that you weren't relying on having a non-existent hand."

"Actually I am, what's it too you?" Erick asked and Chloe grinned.

"Good, because my Spell Card's about to remove your advantage, I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Chloe played the card and Erick reluctantly drew three cards. "And whilst I'm at it why don't I destroy your three monsters?"

"You know, for an Osiris Red Student facing expulsion, you're pretty fucking cocky." Erick grunted and Chloe smirked.

"What can I say? I guess Lance has rubbed off on me." Chloe retorted…only to turn beet red when she realized what she had just said. "That's not what I meant!"

"Well, well, I guess the rumors about you two being a couple where true." Erick commented nonchalantly causing Chloe to blush even more.

"Do you think they'll let me out of here? I mean, I've won my duel and all!" Lance commented whilst trying to hide the fact that he was blushing as well.

"They probably won't." Chelsea commented whilst trying not to laugh at Chloe's slip-up. "Why are you blushing anyway? I thought you two shared an intimate moment during Battle City?"

"I'll explain that once we're out of here." Lance grunted in annoyance and Chelsea turned to him. "All you need to know is that we shared a passionate moment…..oh god damn it!"

"Oh so you WHERE together huh! I knew there was something between you two!" Chelsea said with a massive grin as Lance did his best to ignore her.

"Anyway…" Chloe said as she tried to hide her embarrassment. "I summon Silent Magician Level 4 in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the weaker or her two signature cards appeared on the field (4/1000/1000).

"So you plan on destroying all of my monsters with THAT!" Erick said as he burst out laughing. "Give me one reason to be afraid of that pipsqueak."

"She isn't who you should be worried about; in fact she won't be on the field for much longer." Chloe responded and Erick blinked as she played a card. "I activate Level Up!"

"Oh crap." Erick gulped as her magician smirked before glowing and growing into Chloe's strongest monster, Silent Magician Level 8 (8/3500/1000). "Big deal, your monster's strong but you'll only be able to destroy one monster on the field!"

"That's where you're wrong, because I can finish it right now, I activate Diffusion Wave Motion!" Chloe played the card and Erick's eyes widened as Chloe's life-points dropped to 2200, Silent Magician stuck her staff out and it emitted a pulse that destroyed all four of the monsters one by one…..

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Erick asked as the attack got ready to hit Infernity Beast, an attack that would cause 1900 points of damage and bring his life-points down to 0. "I activate Enchanted Javelin, your magician may be immune to my Spell Cards but traps are fair play and this one adds the old hag's attack points to my life-points!" Erick announced as a javelin went through Silent Magician's chest and bathed him in a white light as his life-points increased to 5200, the attack hit Infernity Beast destroying it and bringing Erick's life-points down to 3300. "Nice try but all you did was narrow the gap between our life-points….." Erick taunted her before noticing the death glare he was getting from Chloe. "Err….."

"You can insult my fellow students and your fellow pro-duelists….." Chloe growled as she glared at Erick. "BUT YOU DO NOT INSULT MY BEST MONSTER!"

"And I thought Chelsea had a nasty temper." Ricardo gulped as he tugged on his jacket. "What's the big deal anyway?"

"It kind of ties in to what I said earlier about her childhood." Phil said as he watched the duel. "Look I'm not going to go into much detail but we met her dad during Battle City, not the dad she faced in the finals….."

"Ah, yeah I remember that from watching the finals on TV." Ricardo said with a nod. "From what I could tell he was a nasty piece of work."

"That's putting it mildly." Francesca commented with a frown. "Let's just say that I and Phil are surprised that she's as well adjusted as she is considering all that happened to her growing up."

"Oh, you don't like me insulting your favorite monster do you? Too fucking bad lady, the Level Archetype is shit and so is your monster." Erick continued and Chloe growled before noticing the off switch for the safeties.

"_No! I'm not making that mistake again!" _Chloe decided before quickly moving her hand away from the switch. _"He's just insulting Silent Magician, Cameron insulted my mom and I won't let him get to me, besides if I do turn off the safeties then they'll likely expel me on the spot." _Chloe thought before noticing that Silent Magician was giving her an approving nod. _"You were listening in on my thoughts Silent Magician?"_

"_Sorry, it's a side effect of having a Duel Spirit Guide." _Silent Magician apologized before nodding. _"Besides that this shows that you're learning from your mistakes, besides I have thicker skin than that, I can handle his insults!"_

"Are you going to end your turn before we get as old as your monster?!" Erick snapped at her and Chloe growled before picking up the cards she had drawn with Reckless Greed.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the cards down quickly and Erick drew his card. _"Okay, his deck relies on him having no hand so it's a safe bet that he has more than one copy of Into the Void."_

"_Agreed, but as long as you can keep me on the field your life-points will be safe." _Silent Magician agreed as Erick looked over his hand.

"I activate a Continuous Spell Card called Infernity Launcher, with this I can send one Infernity monster from my hand to the graveyard per turn." Erick announced as he played the card. "In fact, I think I'll go ahead and use its effect right now." Erick said as he discarded a monster from his hand. "It has another effect but you don't need to worry about that until I have no cards in my hand…so I set two cards facedown and activate Infernity Launcher's second effect."

"That was as predictable as Lance's Inferno Tempest combo." Chloe commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Lance called out to her and Erick smirked.

"Having a bit of a lover's quarrel are we? Ah who cares? Like I was saying Infernity Launcher's second effect lets me send it to the graveyard to Special Summon two Infernity Monsters so long as I have no cards in my hand off course." Erick said as he sent his Spell to the graveyard. "So welcome back Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Beetle, both in defense mode!" Erick played the cards and the two monsters appeared before him crouching down. "And since Infernity Archfiend was Special Summoned I can add another Infernity Card to my hand." Erick announced before picking up his deck and searching through it, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand.

"_Great, I used up my only copy of Diffusion Wave Motion to early and now he's swarming the field again." _Chloe thought as she glared at Erick's two monsters.

"_Relax Chloe, as long as you have me on the field he can't get at your life-points." _Silent Magician reassured her and Chloe frowned.

"_I know, but I'm more concerned about effect damage, my life-points are low enough as it is." _Chloe answered and Silent Magician nodded in understanding.

"And last but not least I summon the monster I added to my hand via Infernity Archfiend's effect, Infernity Dwarf!" Erick played the card and a small demon in overalls and a straw hat appeared on the field wielding a large axe (2/800/500).

"I've seen some weird monster designs before but a fiend in a farmer's outfit?!" Chelsea commented as she scratched her head in confusion. "That's a new one."

"Is the walking fashion disaster over there always this talkative?" Erick asked Chloe and Chelsea growled at him. "You don't need to worry about my Dwarf's effect anyway, it basically gives my monsters a trampling effect as long as I don't have cards in my hand and…..well I'm pretty sure I don't need to point out the obvious at this point."

"So why summon him in the first place?" Chloe asked before it hit her. "Unless….."

"That's right! Infernity Beetle is a Tuner Monster and I'm tuning all three of my monsters together!" Erick announced as the three monsters leapt into the air, Infernity Beetle dissolved into two Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Infernity Archfiend and Infernity Dwarf and a bright flash enveloped the field. "So I can Synchro Summon Infernity Doom Dragon!" Erick played the card and once the bright flash faded a large ugly dragon with bat like wings appeared on the field (8/3000/2400).

"Hah, to think I was worried for a moment there!" Chloe said confidently as she looked at the card. "Your monster can't hold a candle to mine!"

"He doesn't need to." Erick said with a grin as he folded his arms. "As you can see I have no cards in my hand, and that lets me activate Infernity Doom Dragon's effect, with it I can destroy one monster on your side of the field and inflict damage equal to half of that monster's attack points." Erick said as his grin grew wider. "And I only see one monster on your side of the field."

"Oh shit!" Chloe gulped and Erick grinned.

"I hope you enjoy asking "Do you want fries with that" for the rest of your life bitch! Infernity Doom Dragon, roast her Magician!" Erick commanded and the dragon opened its mouth wide before breathing fire at Silent Magician, Silent Magician braced herself but was quickly incinerated by the flames bringing Chloe's life-points down to 450. "Fortunately for you my dragon can't attack the same turn he uses that effect." Erick added before grinning. _"And if she somehow brings back her magician and destroys Infernity Doom Dragon I have my facedown card Miracle's Wake which will bring back Infernity Doom Dragon and allow me to finish her off next turn."_

"_Chloe, we can still win this! Activate your trap now!" _Silent Magician instructed her and Chloe blinked before grinning.

"I activate my trap card Sacred Treasures from Beyond!" Chloe activated the trap which depicted the Dark Scorpion Burglars raiding an ancient Egyptian tomb whilst Cliff the Trap Remover dealt with the tomb's booby traps. "Since a Level 8 monster was just destroyed by a card effect I can draw three cards." Chloe explained before drawing three cards.

"Those three cards won't save you from my dragon!" Erick said confidently as he grinned. _"And even if she summons a monster I'll use my facedown card Just Deserts to deliver the final blow, the others may have failed to send these students packing but I'll more than make up for it during her turn." _Erick thought before looking up at Chloe. "I end my turn at that." Erick announced and Chloe didn't draw her card due to Reckless Greed's effect.

"_Okay Chloe, don't panic, my best monster may be gone but she's hardly my only monster." _Chloe thought before frowning. _"But on the other hand the only monster besides Silent Magician that can beat his Dragon is Colossal Fighter problem is I have no warriors in my graveyard and unless I equip him with an Equip Spell he'll just be a sitting duck for Infernity Doom Dragon's effect and he'll just take the rest of my life-points…." _Chloe thought before looking over her hand. _"Hold on a minute, if I can pull this off I may still be in this."_

"I don't have all day you know!" Erick said impatiently and Chloe glared at him.

"Fine but you'll regret rushing me; I activate my Spell Card Level Modulation!" Chloe played the card and Erick grinned. "And based on the look on your face you know what it does."

"I do, it lets you Special Summon a LV monster from your graveyard whilst ignoring its summoning conditions." Erick said as his grin widened. "But it comes with a price, your monster can't attack the same turn and I get to draw two cards." Erick said as he drew twice. "This may cost me my no-hand advantage but as soon as I get rid of these cards your monster will be roasted, by the way, don't bother telling me what card your about to summon, there's only one LV Monster in your graveyard worth a damn!" Erick added and Chloe growled before playing the card and Silent Magician Level 8 returned to the field.

"_I know what you're planning Chloe." _Silent Magician communicated telepathically. _"You'd better set up a back-up plan."_

"_Yeah, I'm way ahead of you." _Chloe nodded before picking up two cards. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn."

"That's a futile effort." Erick said as he drew his card. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode but more importantly I can now activate Infernity Doom Dragon's effect….."

"Don't get your hopes up." Chloe said as she discarded one of her cards. "That monster I just discarded? It's the Tuner Monster Effect Veilor but more importantly by discarding her from my hand I can prevent you from activating a monster's effect!"

"Fine, I don't need Infernity Doom Dragon's effect to defeat you! I activate Just Deserts!" Erick flipped the card up and Chloe's eyes widened. "This card may be old but then again show's your ace monster! With this I can inflict 500 points of effect damage to your life-points for each monster you control, that may only be one monster but it's still just enough to defeat you!"

"Sorry Erick but I'm not out of this yet, not by a longshot, I activate my Trap Card Power Guard!" Chloe activated the trap which depicted Silent Magician Level 8 using her staff to ward off spells. "This trap requires that I have a Level 8 or higher effect monster on my side of the field, for this turn only her effects get negated but in exchange any effect damage is reduced to zero rendering your trap useless." Chloe activated the trap and Silent Magician pointed her staff at the trap card before firing her attack at it destroying it.

"So you're brought yourself some time, why am I not surprised?" Erick grunted as he sent his trap to the graveyard glaring at the student the whole time. _"She's just as annoyingly persistent as her friends where against the others, no matter, what are the chances that she has more than one copy of Effect Veilor in her hand? Pretty fucking slim if you ask me! Besides, her Reckless Greed's side effect is still in play meaning that she can't draw for another turn! And even if her facedown cards can do something to protect what's left of her life-points she'll have to run out of them eventually." _Erick thought before frowning. "I end my turn." Erick announced and Chloe didn't draw her card due to Reckless Greed. "I activate Reckless Greed! I draw twice now but in exchange I have to skip my next two draw phases." Erick activated the trap and quickly drew twice.

"Great, that means that as soon as he gets rid of those two cards he'll be free to activate Infernity Doom Dragon's effect again." Chelsea gulped as she glared at Erick. "And unless she has another copy of Effect Veilor or something similar it'll be curtains for Chloe."

"Don't count her out yet Chelsea." Theresa told her and Chelsea frowned. "I've been watching her progress since she's joined duel academy, she's never given up as long as she's had life-points left and she's not starting now."

"Yeah, I know, but there are also his facedown cards to consider." Chelsea pointed out as Chloe looked over her hand. "She may be able to take down her dragon but who's to say that Erick hasn't set something like Miracle's Wake?"

"It's possible but knowing Chloe she'll find a way." Brandon pointed out as he folded his arms. "If I know her than she's thinking that she's come too far as a duelist to let it all go to waste like this."

"I hope your right Brandon, for all our sakes." Chelsea commented as she folded her arms. _"At least she's only got one turn left before she can draw again."_ Chelsea thought as she watched the duel.

"Your friends are right to be concerned Chloe." Erick commented with a smirk. "You're so out of your league in this match that it's not even funny."

"Don't let him get to you Chloe!" Amanda called out to her and Erick glared at her. "Just keep dueling and ignore his attempts to compensate for his tiny….."

"WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON?!" Erick yelled at her and Amanda glared at him. "I'm doing Duel Academy a favor by kicking out this reject!"

"She is on the side of the future of dueling and to be frank so are we." Dmitri said as he stood up. "Yes, she's made a few mistakes but who can honestly say that they have not made a mistake."

"Well, besides Erick but then again he's too much of an arrogant prick to admit it." Adrienne chimed in as she stood up. "Erick may have his own selfish desires in this duel but the rest of us? We only agreed to be flown in because we don't want these students' careers to be ended before they've even begun!"

"It seems your friends are turning against you Erick but then again I don't think they were your friends to be begin with based on the way you've treated them!" Chloe chimed in as she looked at her hand. "And that is too bad because with my Magician on the field you need all the help you can get! Silent Magician, attack Infernity Doom Dragon!" Chloe commanded and her magician pointed her staff at the dragon.

"Did you really think it would be that easy to defeat my best monster? That's where you're wrong because my trap's putting an end to the duel!" Erick announced as he discarded two cards just before Infernity Doom Dragon was destroyed bringing his life-points down to 2800. "I activate Infernity Reflector, this trap can only be activated if I discard two cards from my hand after an Infernity Monster's destroyed in battle, not only does my monster get revived "But you get hit with a thousand points of effect damage!" Erick said with a massive grin as he turned to the other pro-duelists. "I guess your little pep talk still wasn't enough!"

"Erick, if I were you and I thank god every day that I'm not, I'd take another look at her duel field!" Amanda told him and Erick blinked before turning around.

"WHAT? YOU ACTIVATED A TRAP!?" Erick yelled out in shock as he looked at the trap card in question.

"That's right, Trap Jammer here can only be activated during the Battle Phase and with this Trap I can negate the effect of a trap you activated! So in short you just wasted your Infernity Reflector Trap!" Chloe said with a grin as Infernity Reflector shattered.

"You persistent little bitch! Why won't you just lay down and accept defeat?!" Erick demanded as he glared at her.

"It's like Theresa said just now, I won't give up as long as I have life-points left!" Chloe replied as she glared at Erick. "I end my turn for now!" Chloe announced and Erick growled before proceeding to his Main Phase due to Reckless Greed.

"I'd say it looks like he's losing his cool but that would imply that he could keep his cool in the first place." Chelsea commented with a grin. "And ya, I realize how ironic that sounds coming from someone like me."

"If anything that's a good thing, if Erick lets his anger get out of hand than Chloe will have no problem in this duel from here on out." Theresa commented with a smirk. "On the other hand he still has his face downs in play, who knows what else he has in mind."

"Whatever it is she can handle it." Lance added as he folded his arms. "Come on, Infernity Doom Dragon was strong and had a very powerful effect but she was still able to beat it."

"Your friend seems to assume that Infernity Doom Dragon was my only powerhouse in my deck, well I've got bad news for him it's not!" Erick said as he activated his trap. "I activate Call of the Haunted and I use it to bring back one of the cards I discarded for Infernity Reflector's effect, come on out Infernity Destroyer!" Erick activated the trap and a large muscular fiend appeared on the field that was almost devil like in appearance (6/2300/1000). "Handsome devil isn't he? But you don't have to worry about his effect; whilst I do fulfill the requirements for it, namely having a non-existent hand it also requires me to destroy a monster on your side of the field."

"And my only monster is a little bit out of his league." Chloe commented before smirking. "I'd ask why you brought him out but knowing your deck you have a different strategy in mind."

"Good to know you learn quickly, I'd call you a smart girl but if you where I wouldn't have been flown in to kick your ass!" Erick said before flipping up his facedown monster. "Next I flip summon my facedown card, Plauguespreader Zombie!" Erick flipped the card up and a card that Chloe remembered from Theresa's duel with Alex appeared on the field, the small rotting zombie appeared on the field ready for battle (2/400/400).

"That's a tuner monster!" Chloe realized and Erick smirked.

"Yes, a tuner monster that's self-revival effect makes it a welcome addition to my deck!" Erick commented before his two monsters leapt into the air. "Now I tune together Infernity Destroyer and Plaugespreader Zombie to bring out Void Ogre Dragon!" Erick announced as Plauguespreader Zombie dissolved into two Synchro Rings that surrounded Infernity Destroyer, once the bright flash faded a huge dragon appeared on the field that was crimson in color (8/3000/3000). "Next I activate my trap card Synchro Striker Unit! With this I can increase the attack of my dragon by 1000 points!"

"No! That's enough to finish her off!" Chelsea said as her eyes widened as she watched Void Ogre Dragon's attack increase to 4000.

"Why yes it is, but why should we keep maintaining any pleasantries here and cut straight to the chase? She's been living on borrowed time ever since I used Infernity Doom Dragon's effect!" Erick said before pointing to his dragon.

"He was being pleasant in the first place?" Chelsea whispered to Tyler who shook his head.

"If I wanted any smart ass responses I would've asked for them! Now Void Ogre Dragon, finish the bitch off!" Erick commanded as the dragon prepared to launch its attack…..

"I don't think so, go Waboku! This trap will protect my Magician and my life-points!" Chloe activated the trap and the three priestesses appeared on the field….

"I wouldn't count on it; you see I included Void Ogre Dragon in this deck for a reason! You see as long as I have no cards in my hand I can negate the effect of and destroy a Spell or Trap that my opponent activates!" Erick announced and Chloe's eyes widened…..

"_Chloe, you must activate your trap! Activate it now!" _Silent Magician instructed her and Chloe blinked before grinning.

"I activate Greed of the Tyrant!" Chloe activated her trap which depicted the king from Imperial Custom being sold the Pot of Greed. "This trap can only be activated in response to a chain and if I have under a thousand life-points, with this we can both draw twice!"

"Weren't you listening? Void Ogre Dragon can activate its effect more than once!" Erick announced with a broad grin.

"Yes but Greed of the Tyrant can't be negated by the effect of a monster!" Adrienne chimed in and Erick's eyes widened. "So in short you have no choice but to draw which means your Dragon's effect is null and void!"

"And Waboku protects her life-points for another round!" Erick yelled out before reluctantly drawing twice, Chloe did likewise and Void Ogre Dragon stopped in its tracks. "I end my turn which activates Synchro Striker Unit side effect." Erick announced as Void Ogre Dragon's attack dropped to 3200. _"That move made me use up the last of my traps but the same can be said for her." _Erick thought as Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, that move forced him to use up the remaining trap cards on his side of the field but it also forced me to use up mine, if you have any ideas Silent Magician I'm listening." _Chloe asked her telepathically and Silent Magician smirked.

"_I believe the old saying goes, the best defense is a best defense!" _Silent Magician answered and Chloe smirked once she looked over the cards in her hand.

"_That's what I like to hear!" _Chloe responded before picking up a card. "I discard one card from my hand to Special Summon The Tricky to the field!" Chloe played the card and the mysterious Spellcaster appeared on the field (5/2000/1200). "Now I activate a Spell Card called Black Pendant which I use to increase The Tricky's attack points by 500 points!"

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Erick snorted as he looked at the two monsters with a smirk as The Tricky's attack increased to 2500. "You may have enough power to defeat me but do you have the guts?" Erick asked as he looked at his hand. _"And even if she does my Battle Fader will cancel her follow up attack and allow me to buy myself another turn."_

"I do but I'm not going to do it with both my monsters, in fact I'm intending to end this duel with one attack!" Chloe said as she held up a Spell Card. "And it ends with this Spell Card, Gift of the Martyr! Now by sending The Tricky to the Graveyard I can increase my Silent Magician's attack by his attack points!" Chloe played the card and the spellcaster became transparent before its spirit transferred into Silent Magician sending her attack points skyrocketing.

"6000 ATTACK POINTS?!" Erick yelled out as his eyes widened. "NO! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY SOME UNRULY OSIRIS RED STUDENT!" Erick said before wincing as his life-points to 2000 due to Black Pendant's second effect.

"News Flash Erick, you don't have a choice and with two cards in your hand you can't negate the activation of Gift of the Martyr!" Chloe told him before pointing to her magician. "Silent Magician let's make this a clean sweep, attack Void Ogre Dragon!" Chloe commanded and the magician pointed her staff at the dragon before firing a beam of light at it destroying the monster and bringing Erick's life-points down to 0.

"The winner of the match is Osiris Red's Chloe Richardson and as a result her record is wiped and she won't be expelled!" Martin announced over the cheering crowd; however seconds later Martin stepped out of his office and into the arena. "Congratulations to the eight students who competed tonight, it's rare that a student is able to not only survive the expulsion duels but win as well, let alone all eight of them, we also thank the pro-league duelists who were flown in for these duels." Martin answered and Erick stormed off in a huff, Chloe sighed in relief as she sat down on the arena.

"Thank god that's over." Chloe whispered to herself as she held up her Silent Magician_. "As far as I'm concerned I'm not leaving until I graduate and if my Silent Magician helps me along the way it'll be all the better." _Chloe thought before hearing footsteps approaching her, she looked up and saw the other students approaching her. "I don't know about you but I'm glad that's over."

"Tell me about it!" Chelsea agreed before glancing over at the audience, Beth was still in the seat that she was occupying during Chelsea's duel with Ricardo and was clearly relieved that all of the duelists from the school had won and that Donny and Drake where glad for them as well. "Judging from the audience's reactions I don't think any of the students wanted to see us lose either, even the Obelisk Blue Students."

"Don't sweat it, now that we've won this we have the tag tournament to look forward too!" Marcus commented…..before he and the other student's stomachs rumbled. "Looks like I'm not the only one who skipped breakfast to get here early."

"We should be able to get something to eat at our dorms." Tyler said as Chloe stood up. "Come on, I say we have a victory feast at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm." Tyler added and the students nodded in agreement before walking off.

*later on that day*

"Man, I'm still stuffed from that feast." Chelsea said as she and Chloe entered their dorm room, it had been a few hours since their duels against the pro duelists and they had assumed that the pro-duelists had left the island to go home. "We've been so busy preparing for those duels that we completely forgot about the tag tournament."

"Look at it this way; we can use what we learned in our duels to prepare for the matches in that tournament." Chloe responded and Chelsea grinned at that. "But it's like I said back at the Duel Field, I'm just glad that it's over and that we can now focus on more important things."

"If I had a drink I'd drink to that!" Chelsea said with a broad grin as she sat down at her laptop, before either girl could say anything else there was a knock at the door and Chloe answered it, she blinked in surprise when she saw who it was. "Who is it Chloe?"

"It's me Chelsea, can I come in?" Chelsea's dad's voice rang out and Chloe stepped aside to let him in. "Chloe, do you mind waiting outside? I want to talk to my daughter about what happened out there."

"Sure, call me if you need me." Chloe said with a nod before leaving the room, once she was out of the room she leaned against a wall and searched through her deck. _"That was way to close back there, if I hadn't drawn Silent Magician when I did then who knows if I had still won the match?" _Chloe thought as she looked at her copy of Silent Magician Level 8. _"But I did and I was able to win my match despite nearly loosing several times, maybe I should upgrade my deck on the off chance that I find myself in a situation like that again?"_

"Hey Chloe, that was some nice work out there." Another female student complemented her as she walked by Chloe breaking her train of thought in the process, Chloe grinned as she turned to the student.

"Thanks." Chloe responded and the student walked off. _"So…you have any ideas Silent Magician?" _Chloe asked her spirit partner.

"_I have a few yes but some of the cards won't be easy to obtain." _Silent Magician told her and Chloe sighed. _"Not only are they rare but they are very expensive."_

"_Better start saving up those pennies." _Chloe responded before hearing the door to her dorm room open and seeing Chelsea's dad step out.

"I understand you were frustrated Chelsea but you have to watch your temper, you already got in trouble once for losing your temper during a duel." Chelsea's dad said and Chloe could just make out the sounds of her roommate letting out an annoyed sigh. "But you and your friends performed excellently in your duels and that's what matters, I have to go now but I'll be in touch."

"Same here dad, tell mom I said hi." Chelsea responded and her dad nodded before walking off, Chloe entered her room and sat down on the bed. "Hey Chloe, what's up?"

"Thinking about improving my deck, just encase something like that happens again." Chloe answered as she looked down at her deck. "There's also the fact that the tournament's coming up quickly."

"Yeah, I hear ya; I'm looking up some cards that could help my deck right now." Chelsea commented before hearing her roommate sigh. "Is something bugging ya?"

"I overheard the tail end of your conversation with your dad, more specifically the part about your temper getting you in trouble in the past." Chloe responded and Chelsea winced. "If you don't want to talk about it I'd understand….."

"No it's okay; I guess you were bound to find out eventually." Chelsea shrugged as she turned to her roommate. "Well as you know my temper is pretty infamous among the students but before I came here I was a lot worse."

"Now that's a scary thought." Chloe gulped and Chelsea grinned.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Chelsea responded before sighing. "Part of the reason I got into the game in the first place was because my parents thought that it could help me with my anger issues, back then I was running a fairly generic Beatdown deck, it was good but not as good as my Watt Deck, which I guess was my dad's idea of a joke or something, anyway I entered a local tournament at my school to help build up my skills."

"So…..what happened?" Chloe asked and Chelsea sighed.

"My first round opponent was a guy who had been playing the game since Jaden Yuki was an Osiris Red Student, I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you that it was pretty one sided." Chelsea said before sighing. "I lost the match and my temper, when the guy went to shake my hand as a sign of Sportsmanship I instead broke his nose."

"Wait, seriously?!" Chloe asked whilst looking at her roommate like she had just declared that she had started a relationship with Dark Magician Girl.

"Yeah, seriously, it didn't exactly take long for the cops to be called either." Chelsea said before sighing. "The thing is the guy was a Pro-League duelist who was competing in the tournament as a favor to the school, he didn't want to press charges because he realized that it was a heat of the moment thing but his agent insisted." Chelsea said before groaning. "I ended up spending a year in juvie for assault and breaching the peace."

"Breaching the peace?" Chloe asked and Chelsea grinned sheepishly.

"I kept yelling every swear word in the dictionary over the cops' attempts to read me my Miranda Rights." Chelsea answered and Chloe sweat-dropped as she heard that. "Once I got out my folks sat me down and gave me a good talking too because of the incident and my temper, they made it clear that if I continued to lose my temper like that then my future wouldn't be very good, at the same time my dad realized that the Beatdown deck probably wasn't the best deck for someone with my temper so he took me to a local card shop so that I could buy my own deck."

"And that's how you got the Watts?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "You still have your Beatdown Deck?"

"Yeah, I keep it as a backup encase I don't have access to my Watts for one reason or another." Chelsea said with a nod before sighing. "Chloe, what I just told you, I'm not proud of any of it besides getting the Watts, promise me you won't tell anyone?"

"I promise." Chloe promised her and Chelsea grinned at that. "Besides we all make mistakes, right?"

"Yeah but that mistake ended up starting the tradition of me being kicked out of schools." Chelsea said with a sigh. "It was pretty much the same situation at the other schools, this one included, I was well liked by the faculty and students alike despite not being a model student but my temper always got the better of me and I ended up being kicked out of the school in question."

"Yeah, except you didn't get kicked out this time." Chloe told her and Chelsea grinned. "You'll just have to work on breaking the tradition here."

"Thanks for that Chloe, and believe me I am working on that." Chelsea responded before checking her e-mails. "So….have the pro-duelists left?"

"I heard Erick hopped straight on the Duel Academy ship the moment he reached the pier." Chloe answered as she rested her arms on her legs. "The others I'm not too sure about."

"It wouldn't surprise me if that jackass is still throwing a hissy fit over you beating him." Chelsea chimed in with a grin before there was a knock at the door. "Door's open!" Chelsea called out to whoever was on the other side and the door opened revealing Ricardo. "Ricardo? Wasn't expecting to see you so soon?"

"Yeah well, we're staying at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm until tomorrow anyway, well besides Erick who opted to leave early." Ricardo said as he stepped in. "Not that I'm complaining about that."

"Yeah, I agree there." Chloe agreed before frowning. "So why did you pop round anyway?"

"What? Is a ladies man not allowed to visit the dorm room of two lovely ladies?" Ricardo asked earning himself a pair of death glares. "Oh come on girls, I was kidding!"

"Yeah well if you did try hitting on us I can think of several people who'd object to that, starting with my dad who's not only still on the island but left the dorm a few minutes ago." Chelsea commented before shaking her head. "Ah forget it; you obviously came here for a reason."

"Yeah, we noticed during the duels that you and the others were getting suspicious of our ulterior motives so we decided to spill the beans to you guys whilst you were celebrating." Ricardo said before motioning with his head to the door. "So, since we also agreed that it would be easier to tell you guys as a group rather than separately, Tyler agreed to let us spill the beans so to speak in his room at Obelisk Blue."

"And you were sent to pick us up?" Chelsea asked and Ricardo nodded. _"Well, what have we got to lose? It's not like they'll expel us for not making the trip." _Chelsea thought before standing up. "Are you coming Chloe?"

"Yeah, I am." Chloe nodded before standing up. _"If anything this will at least give us answers as to why they seemed to feel bad about defeating us." _Chloe thought before the two girls followed Ricardo out of the dorm room.

*sometime later*

"Feel free to help yourselves to any drinks in my mini fridge." Tyler told the pro duelists as they entered the room, most of the pro duelists from earlier where here besides Ricardo and Erick as where the other students besides Chloe and Chelsea. _"The sooner Chloe arrives the sooner I can ask her Duel Spirit about my duel spirit partner."_

"_Don't you trust my word Tyler?" _Serene Psychic Witch asked him and he shook his head.

"_It's not that, it's just that I'm still trying to wrap my head around this situation and Chloe's duel spirit might be able to help me understand things a bit better." _Tyler responded before he heard a knock at the door, Amanda answered the door and stepped aside to let Chloe, Chelsea and Ricardo in. "Ah good, the party's all here, girls feel free to help yourselves to a drink."

"We will." Chelsea said as she and Chloe sat down. "But how about we focus on the reason we're here in the first place?"

"That is a good idea." Dmitri agreed with a nod as he took a sip of his drink. "As you probably know it's rare for Pro-Duelists like ourselves to be flown in for matches like these, and when we are flown in we typically agree on several things."

"Find out who our opponents are, then find out what we can about their decks and help them in any way we can." Mark chimed in earning confused looks from the students. "I suppose that last one does require some explanation, okay as you guys know if you're expelled from this school you can kiss your future careers as Pro-League duelists good-bye, no ifs, ands or buts about it."

"That is something that pro-duelists like us hate to see." Amanda continued as she sat down. "As you probably know the game of Duel Monsters practically thrives on good competition and there's a lot of untapped potential in schools like this one."

"Well except for Erick who seemed to have his own agenda in his duel with Chloe." Ricardo chimed in with a frown. "What we're basically saying is that we accept these duels to help our opponents grow as duelists and to help improve their attitudes, though I have to say that, besides Chelsea's outburst in my duel with her, that this group of duelists didn't need much help there."

"And it's like I said after our match, I'm working on that." Chelsea chimed in as she folded her arms. "Okay, I get why you guys agreed to be flown in in the first place, well besides Erick obviously, but here's something I don't get, why didn't you ask us first?"

"We would've done, in fact in the past we typically asked if the students wanted our help a day or two in advance." Adrienne responded with a frown. "But as it turns out Duel Academy's original plan was to put the teachers against you guys but since the Night Staff are still ill we were a last minute decision."

"Martin called me first as I had given him my phone number during the Battle City finals, after Otto had broken into Chloe's room he asked me to keep an eye out for any other attempts at sabotage and gave me his number." Phil chimed in with a frown. "From there I contacted Dmitri who contacted Mark who contacted Ricardo….."

"We get the idea." Chloe said as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "So wait, Francesca wasn't your first choice?"

"I was competing in a tournament down in Belfast at the time, I won off course." Francesca responded as she turned to Chloe. "Phil's initial choice was the guy Erick beat in the Semi-Finals of the Scottish Nationals but he couldn't come due to a family emergency so he chose me instead."

"We realize that this wasn't exactly an ideal situation, if you guys had known in advance then we wouldn't be having this conversation right now." Amanda added as she finished her drink. "But as you know that wasn't the case and we ended up catching you guys off guard with it instead."

"Well we're kind of mad that you didn't ask us first but at least you guys had a good reason for it." Marcus commented with a frown. "Here's an idea, give us your e-mail addresses so we can keep in touch."

"Good idea." Adrienne agreed before she and the other pro-duelists got their phones out and sent the e-mails to the students. "Well we're here for another day before we leave for home but we'll be in this dorm, if you guys feel like chatting then do us a favor and don't hesitate to pay us a visit." Adrienne answered and the students nodded.

"Speaking off, I think we covered all the stuff we wanted to going into this so we're heading back to our rooms." Phil commented and the other duelists nodded in agreement. "Still it was good to duel you guys and in the case of the Battle City participants it was good to see you again."

"We couldn't agree more." Theresa agreed before standing up. "In that case I think I'll head back to my dorm room as well, we may get weekends off at Duel Academy but there's a good chance that the teachers will be extra strict with us as well because of today's duels." Theresa added and the other students nodded in agreement before they left one by one.

"Actually Chloe, can I borrow you for a few minutes?" Tyler asked her catching Chloe's attention.

"Sure." Chloe said with a nod. "Chelsea, I'll catch up to you later." She called out to her roommate.

"Right, I got it, see you back at the dorm!" Chelsea responded before Chloe closed the door behind her and turned to Tyler.

"So, what's up Tyler?" Chloe asked and Tyler frowned.

"You remember how I got distracted during my duel with Dmitri?" Tyler asked and Chloe nodded. "My duel spirit revealed herself to me."

"You mean in the duel?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded. "Let me guess, you have some questions for Silent Magician?"

"You could say that, yes." Tyler nodded and Chloe activated her duel disk and slapped the card down, seconds later Silent Magician Level 8 appeared before them.

"Ah yes, Tyler, I was hoping to speak with you since your match against Dmitri." Silent Magician told him and Tyler frowned. "From what I understand your duel spirit partner revealed herself."

"Yes." Tyler said before digging through his deck and finding the monster in question. "She is the monster known as Serene Psychic Witch; she helped me win the duel."

"Yes, I saw your match." Silent Magician said with a nod. "I understand you have some questions for me regarding it."

"Yes I do, how about we start with the obvious one?" Tyler asked and Silent Magician nodded. "Now that I have my own Spirit Partner what happens now? Do I get tested like the others? Will it be at the Abandoned Dorm again?"

"Err, Tyler that was several questions." Chloe pointed out and Tyler frowned.

"They all related to the same subject." Tyler responded before turning to Silent Magician. "Well?"

"Those questions will be answered in due time Tyler, I have much to discus with Theresa's duel spirit on the matter." Silent Magician told him and Tyler nodded in understanding. "Do you have any other questions?"

"None at the moment, if I think of any I'll talk to Chloe." Tyler told the Duel Spirit and Silent Magician nodded before motioning for Chloe to turn off her duel disk, Chloe did so and the Duel Spirit disappeared. "I didn't get the answers I was hoping for but it's a start."

"Yeah, just remember to contact me if you think of anything else." Chloe said before going to leave, however before she reached for the doorknob she paused. "Actually, Tyler, can I ask you something?"

"Ask away." Tyler told her and Chloe nodded.

"What are your thoughts on what the Pro-League duelists told us?" Chloe asked and Tyler rubbed his chin in thought. "And I'm thinking about upgrading my deck encase something like what happened today happens again, could you help?" Chloe added and Tyler paused.

"For your first question, I'm conflicted, I get that they just wanted to help and that due to circumstances beyond their control they couldn't ask us first but I would've appreciated being asked first." Tyler said before smiling. "As for your second question I'll see what I can do, I have a card stash back home and I do remember seeing some cards in there that would complement your deck." Tyler said before turning to his laptop. "For now relax, we've all won our expulsion duels and we can focus on the tournament in two weeks' time, send me an e-mail with a list of cards you want and I'll see if I have them within my card stash."

"Will do Tyler; just keep in mind that the e-mail may end up being from Chelsea's account since I don't have a computer of my own." Chloe told him and Tyler nodded in understanding. "Well, I'm off, see you later."

"See you later." Tyler called out to her and Chloe closed the door behind her. _"To think, when I first saw that girl duel back at her test exam I just wrote her off as another rookie for Osiris Red and now look at her." _Tyler thought as he logged in to his computer. _"Still with the expulsion duels behind us the most we have to worry about is either another Duel Spirit attack or the Tag Tournament but I'll be ready for both."_ Tyler thought as he typed away at his desktop.


	70. Devil's Ritual

"So our targets are a bunch of teenagers?" Victor growled as he heard the man's questioning voice, it was Monday morning and the students at Duel Academy had been using the weekend to relax and have some friendly duels; however that wasn't Victor's concern, at the moment he was talking to his agents all over the world via Skype.

"These are not mere children." Victor said with a frown as he showed the agents the pictures. "Lance Alvers is the reason why you're working through me and not Phillip and I'm sure you don't need to be reminded of what happened to his agents."

"All right, you've made your point." A female agent said begrudgingly. "They are at Duel Academy at the moment correct?"

"Correct, but they do have a field trip to Domino City scheduled for the end of the month, all of the targets will be on that trip." Victor told them before turning to the female agent. "Why? What do you have planned?"

"I'm the closest agent to the island; I can get there by the mid-afternoon at the latest." The agent answered and Victor turned to her. "With your permission, I would like to target the students where they feel the safest."

"That is incredibly risky and you know it." One of the other agents told her. "Michael did that whilst he was running reconnaissance and all that did was alert the students to the revival of the Orichalcos."

"Please, Michael only did that in the first place so that he could avoid detection; if he hadn't then maybe Phillip would still be a part of this." The female agent scoffed and Victor frowned. "As good a duelist as he was I'm miles better and I'm better at subterfuge to boot."

"Subterfuge…..what the hell is that?!" Another voice spoke up and Victor turned to one of the agents who hadn't spoken up yet he sweat-dropped as he cleared his throat.

"It's a fancy word for espionage, as for you Cortez, you have my permission but if you fail I will deny any knowledge that you ever existed, let alone worked for me, do I make myself clear?" Victor asked and the female agent nodded. "You get your choice of target as far as your first opponent goes, choose wisely….."

"I will target Chelsea Cunningham; she seems to be the weak-link of the group." Cortez told him and Victor nodded. "How soon can I get the information on her?"

"I'm e-mailing it now." Victor told her as he attached Chelsea's Duel Academy profile to the e-mail. "Remember you are not to make yourself obvious and I will send in one of my personal bodyguards to oversee it."

"I know the routine by now Santiago but don't worry, by the end of the day you'll have the souls you need." Cortez told him before hanging up and Victor sent the e-mail.

"As for the rest of you, should she fail I'll need you to pick up the slack, remember failure won't be tolerated." Victor told them and the rest of the agents nodded before hanging up.

"How soon do you want me on the helicopter?" His female bodyguard asked and Victor turned to her.

"Within the next five minutes, I just need you to accompany Cortez, nothing more, nothing less, and leave your travel arrangements to me." Victor answered and the agent nodded before walking off. "As for you….." Victor said as he turned to the male bodyguard. "You have your orders."

"Yeah, I'm going on a recruiting spree." The male bodyguard grunted as he folded his arms. "I know the Battle City disaster left us with a limited number of agents but….."

"And that is exactly why you must do this." Victor interrupted him and the agent sighed before leaving. _"I will not repeat Phillip's mistakes; he may have had his own goal but me? I'm completely loyal to the cause."_

*later that day at Duel Academy*

"Ugh, did Maria have to make that meeting as long as she did?!" Chelsea moaned as she and her roommate entered their dorm room, Maria had requested to them that they come to her office as soon as their first lesson, gym class, was done, the two girls where in the Gym outfits though the only difference between there outfits was the fact that Chloe's had a long sleeved top that showed off her navel but covered up the scar on her arm. "Not only that but it was so pointless! She was just confirming what Theresa had suspected, that our behavior would be monitored closely from now on."

"Theresa may have suspected it but she was just making it official." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as she sat down on the bed. "By the way, did you send that e-mail to Tyler for me?"

"You mean the one about your new cards? Hold on, let me check." Chelsea said as she logged in to her laptop. "Yeah, it was sent, he hasn't replied yet though…." Chelsea said before noticing the sole new e-mail in her inbox. "Looks like I have mail from Beth."

"Let me guess, inviting you over to her dorm for a "late night study session"?" Chloe asked and Chelsea grinned knowing exactly what she meant.

"If she is it'd surprise me, we did have a celebratory make out session Friday night." Chelsea responded before checking her e-mail. "Okay, this is just plain weird."

"What's up?" Chloe asked as she walked over to the laptop. "She wants to meet in the forested area between the west side and the middle of the island for sex? What's weird about that?"

"Oh right, your still getting to know her." Chelsea remembered with a frown. "Chloe, Beth is a total clean freak, I often joke with her that the day that we, me and Beth that is, have sex outside of her dorm is the day Yata-Garasu is taken off the Forbidden List." Chelsea responded the confusion evident on her face. "This isn't just out of character for her, it's just plain wrong."

"Maybe you should go meet her anyway, I'm not exactly an expert on the subject but maybe she just wants to try something new." Chloe suggested and Chelsea frowned before she swapped her gym top with her regular one,

"Or maybe I can get some answers." Chelsea said as she put her blazer and duel disk on. "You should know the routine by now."

"Yeah, you don't know how long you'll be, if anyone asks you went to one of your classes early and I'll enjoy some time alone." Chloe said before pausing. "Oh and I won't touch the laptop."

"Right, and if you see any e-mails waiting for me let me know when I get back." Chelsea added before heading over to the door. "Look Chloe, I'm still having my doubts about this but if I call and tell you that something is wrong don't hesitate to come over."

"And it won't be an invitation for me to join in?" Chloe asked with a grin that made it clear that she was joking and Chelsea grinned.

"Please, if we did that then all the male Osiris Red Students would miss their classes because they stopped to watch." Chelsea responded before leaving the dorm room. _"Man, I walked right into that one." _ Chelsea thought with a laugh before heading over to the area. _"Okay, the e-mail said to meet her in a clearing just up ahead…." _Chelsea thought as she neared the clearing not noticing a robed figure in the treetops, she entered the clearing and looked around finding it deserted. "Okay, Beth, I'm here, what's up? And more importantly if you wanted to make out why didn't you just invite me over to….." Chelsea never finished as she nearly jumped out of her skin on account of an arrow narrowly missing her head and impacting a nearby tree. "What the hell is going on?"

"Ah good, my prey has arrived!" Cortez's voice rang out and Chelsea looked around for the source of the voice. "Welcome Chelsea Cunningham to the site of your demise!" Cortez added before leaping from a tree top, she was a tall tanned woman with long black hair and blue eyes, she was wearing an outfit that showed off her toned body which was blood red in color, and most importantly she was holding a bow and arrow in her hand.

"Who are you? And where's Beth?!" Chelsea demanded and Cortez smirked.

"Oh don't worry; your little girlfriend is safe for now!" Cortez said before stepping aside showing an unconscious Beth, she was bound and gagged and her clothes where ripped.

"You bitch! What the hell did you do to her?!" Chelsea demanded and Cortez smirked.

"I merely knocked her out and tied her up after I forced her to send you that e-mail." Cortez smirked and Chelsea growled. "As for the ripped clothing, well she thought that she could take me in a fight and the rips are a result of that." Cortez said before discarding her bow and arrow and pulling out a gun which she pointed at Beth's head. "And unless you want to start searching for a new girlfriend you won't alert security or anyone else on the island, do I make myself clear."

"You still haven't answered my question, who are you!?" Chelsea demanded as her eyes narrowed. "And more importantly what do you want with me and Beth?!" She added and Cortez smirked before holstering the gun.

"You may call me Karina Cortez, and it's not your weakling of a girlfriend that I want Chelsea…" Karina said before digging out a duel disk that sent a shiver down Chelsea's spine. "It's your soul that I want."

"_That duel disk…..it's the same kind that Otto used during the Battle City Semi-Finals!" _Chelsea realized as her eyes widened. "I…I thought….."

"You thought that your friends' futile efforts actually eliminated the Orichalcos? Don't make me laugh, there are more of us than you know off and we grow stronger every day!" Karina interrupted her and Chelsea's eyes narrowed; unbeknownst to them Victor's female bodyguard was watching from the tree tops and frowned.

"Karina, the boss said to NOT make it obvious that you work for him, remember?" The bodyguard reminded her and Karina frowned.

"I know what I'm doing; she won't be around long enough to tell the tale anyway." Karina told her before turning to Chelsea. "Here's the deal, we fight to the finish and if you win I'll let Beth go…" Karina said before her grin widened. "But when I win…well I'm sure you've seen what happens on TV."

"Yeah I have." Chelsea gritted her teeth before glancing at Beth's unconscious form. _"I don't like this, I could try to leave so I can get help but I don't want to leave Beth alone with this bitch!" _Chelsea thought before activating her duel disk. "I accept your challenge."

"Excellent." Karina said as she activated her duel disk, Chelsea glared at her before she activated her duel disk and both women drew their opening hands.

"_Perfect, I drew Wattcastle, with this I should be able to destroy the Orichalcos once she plays it and get my own Field Spell in play." _Chelsea thought before glancing at Karina. "You know what? You can go first."

"Very well, I draw!" Karina said before drawing a card. "And let's not waste any time here, I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!"

"Oh boy, this isn't going to be fun!" Chelsea grumbled as she braced herself, the infamous seal surrounded both duelists and the pentagram appeared on Karina's head as her eyes turned red, Chelsea turned her attention to Beth who was still unconscious. _"Hold on Beth, I'll save you…I hope." _Chelsea thought as she glared at Karina.

*meanwhile back at the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm*

Because of the fact that Chelsea hadn't called Chloe had assumed that she was correct in her assumption and was currently chilling out on the bottom bunk, her next class wasn't for an hour so she had some time to herself.

"_That's if Beth and Chelsea don't get caught." _Chloe thought as she rested her hands behind her head. _"Still, if she isn't back by the time my next class finishes I'll go looking for them."_

"_Chloe, I hate to interrupt your rest and relaxation but your roommate is in grave danger." _Silent Magician said abruptly and Chloe sat up.

"_What kind of grave danger?" _Chloe asked her duel spirit who sighed.

"_She is in an Orichalcos Duel." _Silent Magician told her and Chloe could've sworn she felt her heart skip a beat when she heard that sentence.

"_Oh please tell me you're kidding?!" _Chloe pleaded as she grabbed a duel disk and ran out of the room making sure to lock it behind her.

"_I wouldn't joke about something this serious Chloe." _Silent Magician answered as Chloe ran down the halls of the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm. _"Get there quickly, she will need all the help she can get."_

"_What about the others?" _Chloe asked as she exited the dorm.

"_The other duel spirit partners will let them know now please hurry!" _Silent Magician answered and Chloe didn't need to be told twice.

*meanwhile at the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm*

"Restart my life of self-destruction, to climb the wall of dark destruction…." Lance sung along to the Testament song "Over the Wall", unlike Chloe and Chelsea his first class, Duel Theory with Martin, wasn't until the midafternoon so he had some time to chill out and listen to music, even if some of his neighbors complained.

"_Lance, are you there?" _Thestalos's voice rang out catching Lance's attention; he turned down the music a bit so he could listen to what his Duel Spirit Partner had to say. _"Chelsea is in an Orichalcos Duel!"_

"_Huh, that's nice." _Lance responded as he leaned back on his bed.

*outside the dorm room*

"Okay, so we pick up Lance, Brandon, Theresa, Chloe and Tyler and run over to where Chelsea's Orichalcos Duel is being held." Marcus said as he chatted with Andreas, they had just received word of it themselves and had opted to meet with the others first. "If we can make our voices heard over his music that is….."

"SHE'S IN A WHAT?!" Lance's voice rang out and Marcus and Andreas sweat-dropped as the music stopped abruptly.

"Never mind, I think he knows." Andreas commented dryly as the door to Lance's room swung open and Lance ran out. "Good morning Lance, is it safe to assume you know how much trouble Chelsea is in?" Andreas asked and Lance frowned.

"What clued you in? What I just screamed maybe?" Lance commented dryly before shaking his head. "No time, we have to get over there and give her our support."

"That's what we were doing, we figured it would be best if we picked up the others first." Marcus told him before the three boys ran off.

"You ever consider calling them on the way over?" Lance asked and Marcus shook his head.

"That was my first choice but my cell ran out of juice whilst I was waiting for Theresa to pick up, it's charging at the mo but it may be too late by the time it is charged." Marcus told him and Lance frowned when he heard that. "I did try Andreas's cell but he told me that it was charging as well."

"And even if it was working we all know how bad the reception is in the dorms." Andreas added as they exited the dorm. "I thought we eliminated the Orichalcos."

"Yeah, I mean all the souls that got captured during Battle City where released after I dueled my dad." Lance said with a nod. "But apparently there's more than we originally thought."

"There you are!" A familiar voice rang out and the three of them looked up in time to see Theresa, Brandon and Tyler approaching them, it was Theresa who had spoken up. "I got your call Marcus but you hung up just as I was going to answer."

"Yeah sorry, you can thank my Cell's Battery life for that." Marcus told her and Theresa nodded. "You got the message about the Orichalcos Duel as well?"

"As much as I don't want to believe it, yeah we did." Marcus said with a grim nod. "At the moment we don't know how Chelsea got roped into it but what's important is that we give Chelsea the support she needs."

"Right, let's go!" Theresa said with a nod before they ran off towards the west side of the island. "I've already told Martin about it, he told me that he'll send security to the area at the earliest convenience but they are dealing with an incident between Rajin and Thomas."

"Gee, I wonder how that fight got started." Marcus muttered sarcastically as they made their way to the clearing.

*back at the duel*

"_It's one thing to see this thing in action on TV….." _Chelsea thought with a gulp as she surveyed her surroundings. _"It's an entirely different thing to actually experience it for yourself."_

"Now let's continue shall we?" Karina asked and Chelsea didn't answer her, instead opting to glare at her. "I'll take that as a yes, now I play another Spell Card, Preparation of Rites, with this I can add one Level 7 or Higher Ritual Monster from my deck to my hand alongside a Ritual Spell Card."

"People still play ritual monsters?" Chelsea asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head, Karina smirked as she added the two cards to her hand.

"I don't see why not, with the right cards a Ritual Monster can be just as deadly as the most powerful Synchro Monster." Karina answered as she looked at the cards she had added. "Next I activate Foolish Burial to send the monster known as Djinn, Cursenchanter of Rituals from my deck to my graveyard." Karina played the card and searched through her deck again, once she located the card she was looking for she sent it to the graveyard and shuffled her deck.

"_Okay, all she's done so far is search and thin her deck; this should be easier than I thought." _Chelsea thought before gulping. _"I hope."_

"CHELSEA!" A familiar voice rang out and both women looked up to see Chloe quickly approaching the clearing.

"Don't come any closer!" Karina warned her as she pointed her gun at Beth's head again. "Or else….."

"Give me a break; we both know that bullets can't penetrate the Orichalcos wall." Chloe said once she caught her breath and Karina reluctantly holstered her gun once she realized that Chloe was right. "Chelsea, what's going on?"

"Remember that E-Mail? It was a set-up by Karina here; she forced Beth to send it so that I would be lured into this duel." Chelsea explained as her eyes narrowed. "But now that you're here, any tips for dealing with this thing?"

"Yeah, the monsters and the damage are real and the Orichalcos can't be destroyed." Chloe answered and Chelsea's eyes widened. "You're worried about the damage? I thought you were tougher than that?"

"I am but it's not the damage I'm worried about." Chelsea answered as she turned back to Karina. _"Because of that effect I can't use Wattcastle and that means that my Watt Monsters are at a major disadvantage."_

"Well…..since your little friend over there spoiled my surprise." Karina grunted as her eyes narrowed. "I'll explain the other effects of this Field Spell….."

"Don't bother, I watched the Battle City Semi-Finals on TV." Chelsea interrupted her with a growl. "Chloe, can you see if you can get to Beth?"

"I wouldn't try that if I where you." Karina told her before Chloe could even take a step towards Beth. "Whilst it's true that Bullets can't get through the walls I can easily send one of my monsters out to maul the both of you."

"Can she do that?" Chelsea gulped as she turned to Chloe.

"I don't know and I'm in no hurry to find out." Chloe answered with a nervous gulp as she backed away from Beth.

"Smart girl, I'll be sure to savor the moment when I take your soul." Karina said snidely before playing a card.

"Sorry Chelsea." Chloe apologized but Chelsea shook her head.

"Don't sweat it; I wouldn't risk it if I were in your shoes either." Chelsea reassured her before turning her attention back to Karina, she didn't recognize the Spell she had played but she did recognize the symbol in the upper right corner. "That's a Ritual Spell!"

"That's right, Gamma Sword Oath requires that I tribute monsters who's levels equal 7 in order to summon this mighty beast." Karina said with a smirk and Chelsea grinned.

"Don't make me laugh, you only have two cards in your hand and one of them is obviously the Ritual Monster!" Chelsea scoffed and Karina grinned, Chelsea was about to ask why when she noticed that her graveyard was glowing.

"Remember the monster I sent to the graveyard with Foolish Burial? Djinn, Cursenchanter of Rituals has a very powerful effect, when I activate a Ritual Spell all I need to do is remove him from play and he can be used as one of the Ritual Material monsters." Karina explained before pocketing the monster. "So I use him and Djinn, Releaser of Rituals to Ritual Summon Gamma Sword!" Karina played the card and both monsters vanished into thin air as soon as they appeared on the field, the monster that appeared soon afterwards was a multi-armed fiend that had a sword in each arm and light blue armor (7/2550/2150) and its attack increased to 3050 thanks to the seal.

"_Okay, no need to panic Chelsea; you have the means to summon Wattchimera already and as soon as I can damage her life-points I'll be in the lead." _Chelsea thought with a grin. _"Besides she emptied her hand with that move so this should be a piece of cake."_

"I end my turn for now." Karina announced and Chelsea wasted little time in drawing her card.

"_Okay, this should be a piece of cake!" _Chelsea thought before picking up a Spell Card. "I activate Double Summon; with this Spell Card I can make two Normal Summons in the same turn so I summon Wattcobra and Wattbetta both in attack mode!" Chelsea played the cards and the electric colored snake (4/1000/500) and the small goldfish (2/100/0) appeared on the field.

"I summon a mighty monster and all you can summon is a snake and a fish?" Karina scoffed and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"I'd be worried if I were you, especially since Wattbetta is a tuner monster!" Chelsea announced before pointing to her two monsters. "Wattbetta, give Wattcobra a tune-up!" Chelsea commanded and the two monsters went to leap into the air…only to be stopped by a force field. "What the hell is going on here?"

"You didn't think it would be that easy would you?" Karina asked and Chelsea gulped nervously before nodding. "The two monsters I used in Gamma Sword's Ritual Summon give Gamma Sword two very lethal abilities, Cursenchanter means that you can't do a Synchro Summon as long as Gamma Sword is on the field whilst Releaser means that you can't even think about doing a Special Summon!"

"You've got to be kidding?!" Chelsea yelled out as her eyes widened. "There's no way that those two cards are legal!"

"Until they show up on the Forbidden List I'll continue to use them." Karina countered and Chelsea growled in annoyance. "For now all you can do is defend….."

"That's where your wrong, Wattcobra, attack her life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the snake leapt over Gamma Sword despite the much stronger monster's attempts to stop it and bit Karina on the arm bringing her life-points down to 7000. "You can consider that revenge for whatever you did to Beth! You see most of my Watt Monsters make up for their low attack with the ability to attack directly!"

"Don't make me laugh! Gamma Sword will be able to inflict a much higher amount of damage to your life-points on my next turn." Karina grunted once the surprise wore off, Chelsea grinned before picking up her deck.

"That's not all Wattcobra can do! When he successfully damages your life-points I can search my deck for another Watt Monster and add it to my hand." Chelsea added before searching through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and quickly added it to her hand before shuffling her deck.

"That was a lucky shot, savor it whilst you can." Karina growled as she glared at Chelsea.

"Lucky shot or not, I just drew first blood in this duel." Chelsea responded before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chelsea announced and Karina drew her card. _"Okay, she only has one card in her hand and unless it's a drawing card I doubt she'll be doing any more Ritual Summons."_

"There you are!" The three women looked up and saw Theresa, Brandon, Tyler, Marcus, Andreas and Lance approaching them; it was Theresa that had spoken up. "What's going on here exactly?"

"Chloe, get them up to speed, I have a duel to win." Chelsea told her and Chloe nodded before turning her attention to the other duelists.

"For someone on the verge of losing you're awfully confident." Karina said before playing a card. "I play a Spell Card called Ritual of the Ancients." Karina played the card which depicted several well-known Ritual Monsters gathered around a pentagram. "Since I have a Ritual Monster on my side of the field this Spell Card lets me draw three cards, if one of the cards I draw is a Ritual Monster than you take damage equal to its attack points."

"Okay, that's definitely broken!" Chelsea protested and Karina grinned as she drew two cards.

"I know but you know what? I don't give a shit if it's broken or not!" Karina answered before drawing three times. "And what do you know? I drew a ritual monster with 2400 attack point."

"Oh fuck!" Chelsea cursed out loud as a dark beam of light struck her in the chest sending her flying against the wall and bringing her life-points down to 5600. "What the hell? That actually hurt!" Chelsea said with a grimace as she forced herself to her feet.

"Didn't your friend explain this to you? The damage in the Orichalcos is real and so are the monsters." Karina said before grinning. "Now, about that Ritual Monster I just drew…"

"Oh please tell me you're not going to summon it?!" Chelsea gulped and Karina grinned before playing the card.

"Why don't you see for yourself? I activate the Ritual Spell Card Synthesis Spell; I remove Djinn Releaser of Rituals from my graveyard and send Silver Fang from my hand to the graveyard to Ritual Summon Lycanthrope!" Karina played the cards and the two monsters in question vanished, alongside Gamma Sword appeared a large and menacing werewolf (6/2400/1800) and its attack increased to 2900 thanks to the seal.

"Oh this is going to suck!" Chelsea moaned as she stared down the two monsters.

"You should be thankful that I don't have anything like Lightning Vortex in my hand, otherwise this duel would be over, Lycanthrope, attack Wattcobra, Gamma Sword, do me a favor and attack that pathetic Tuner Monster!" Karina commanded and the two monsters made their attacks, Wattbetta was cut in half by Gamma Sword's swords bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 2650, then Lycanthrope ripped Wattcobra in two bringing her life-points down to 750. "Well, at least that was the worst of it…" Chelsea never got a chance to finish as Lycanthrope charged at her slamming its body into Chelsea's which in turn slammed against the Orichalcos Wall bringing her life-points down to 550.

"Did it ever occur to you why any duelist in their right minds would use Silver Fang in this day and age? Lycanthrope has a very powerful effect, when it inflicts battle damage to the opponent they also take 200 points of damage for each Normal Monster in my graveyard." Karina explained with a grin as the weaker of her two Ritual Monsters returned to her side of the field, Chelsea forced herself to her feet only to scream in pain as she felt her ribs. "I thought you were tough, or is that what you tell everyone to hide how weak you are?"

"Chelsea, what's wrong?" Chloe called out to her clearly concerned for her roommate.

"I….I think that attack aggravated the injury I suffered last week!" Chelsea grimaced as she glared at Karina. "Call the medics if you want but I'm not giving up this fight!"

"With your life-points so low you may as well." Karina said with a scoff as she folded her arms. "I end my turn."

"Which allows me to activate Shock Draw! Since I just took 4000 points of damage this trap card will let me draw four cards!" Chelsea activated the trap and quickly drew her four cards before drawing a fifth due to her draw phase. _"Good, I can turn this around!"_

"How quickly can the medics get here Theresa?" Chloe asked Theresa who had called for the medics once she realized that Chelsea was hurt.

"They should be here soon; hopefully Chelsea can win by then." Theresa told her and Chloe nodded as she watched the duel.

"I activate Lightning Recharge, by banishing the two Thunder Type Monsters in my graveyard this card will allow me to draw two more times." Chelsea played the card and after pocketing Wattcobra and Wattbetta she drew twice. "Next I summon Wattpheasent in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and the electric blue pheasant appeared on the field (4/1000/800).

"How pathetic, that monster can't hope to stand up to my mighty monsters!" Karina scoffed before she noticed that Chelsea had activated a trap. "Is…..is that Judgment of Thunder?!"

"That's right and I'm using it to destroy Gamma Sword!" Chelsea announced as lightning struck Gamma Sword destroying it. "Oh and FYI, Wattpheasent has more in common with Wattcobra besides sharing the same attack points!"

"You don't mean…." Karina trailed off as her eyes widened.

"That's right; Wattpheasent can attack your life-points directly!" Chelsea announced as the pheasant flew over Lycanthrope even as the much bigger monster tried to claw at it and started pecking at Karina bringing her life-points down to 6000. "Oh, it gets better, when Wattpheasent attacks directly I can remove from play one monster on your side of the field, since I only see one that means that Lycanthrope is gone!" Chelsea announced as the werewolf vanished. "Only downside is that it returns as soon as I end my turn.

"That was a wasted effort; even after all that drawing all you did was damage my life-points and destroy one card!" Karina mocked her and Chelsea growled.

"I set two cards facedown." Chelsea played the three cards and picked up two knowing that she would have to discard them due to handsize limit. "That ends my turn." Chelsea announced and once she discarded the monsters Lycanthrope returned to the field and Karina drew her card. _"Here's hoping she takes the bait."_

"I equip Lycanthrope with Ritual Weapon, since Lycanthrope is a Level 6 Ritual Monster this card will add 1500 attack and defense points to his score!" Karina played the card and a sword appeared in Lycanthrope's hands bringing its attack points all the way up to 4400.

"No! That's too much!" Chloe protested and Karina grinned at her, whilst that was going on Theresa's phone went off and she answered it.

"Tell it to someone who cares! Lycanthrope, attack Wattpheasent and end this!" Karina commanded and the large werewolf charged towards the monster…

"Heh…..I can't believe that actually worked!" Chelsea said suddenly and Karina blinked. "By discarding Honest from my hand I can add Lycanthrope's attack points to Wattpheseant's attack points!" Chelsea discarded the card and Karina's eyes widened as Wattpheseant's attack points skyrocketed to 5400, she could only watch as Lycanthrope was speared through the heart by Wattpheasent destroying it and bringing her life-points down to 5000.

"You…..you tricked me!" Karina said as her eyes widened in horror.

"No, I just outsmarted you and that, apparently, isn't very hard to do!" Chelsea taunted her and Karina growled. "Oh it gets better, encase you haven't noticed your little move left you without a hand."

"Grr…..I end my turn!" Karina gritted her teeth and Chelsea drew her card.

"Who was it Theresa?" Chloe asked once she noticed that Theresa had hung up on whoever had called her.

"It was Martin, according to him he ordered the technicians to try to shut down the duel once he heard that she had aggravated her injury to avoid Chelsea getting any further injuries but the signal failed to go through." Theresa told her and Chloe frowned.

"I think we can guess what that is." Chloe commented as she glared at the seal and Theresa nodded in agreement.

"Well tell him I appreciate it but if he had done that then he'd have to deal with me being pissed off." Chelsea grunted as she looked over her hand. "Besides, it's time I made my comeback." Chelsea said confidently and Karina scoffed.

"And how do you plan to do that with only five hundred and fifty life-points left?" Karina mocked her and Chelsea grinned.

"I'll show you; first I activate my facedown card Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri and I use it to Special Summon Wattbetta from my Removed from Play slot." Chelsea retrieved the monster from her pocket and played it, the small goldfish appeared on the field without hesitation.

"_Curses, she knew that I would not have been able to negate that if I wanted to." _Karina thought with a growl as Chelsea's second trap flipped up.

"Next up is Call of the Haunted which I use to bring back Honest from my graveyard!" Chelsea activated the trap and a tall man in white robes with long brown hair appeared on the field, he had large wings that spread out when it appeared (4/1100/1900). "Now I activate Honest's effect which lets me return him to my hand!" Chelsea announced as the man disappeared and she returned the card to her hand. "And next I activate Magic Planter, I destroy my now useless Call of the Haunted and in exchange I draw two more cards." Chelsea played the spell and Call of the Haunted's hologram shattered, once that was done she drew twice.

"_That was smart, with Honest back in her hand she has the means to power up her monsters should Karina get another Ritual Monster out, and with Call of the Haunted gone she won't have to worry about her Spell/Trap card zones being filled up with useless cards." _Tyler thought with a smile as Chelsea played another card.

"And next….." Chelsea started but was cut off by Marcus.

"This has to be the longest move ever." Marcus commented and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"It'd called Strategy, look it up." Chelsea grunted before playing the card. "As I was saying I activate Solidarity, since I only have Thunder Type Monsters in my graveyard this spell gives my monsters an attack boost of 800 points!" Chelsea explained as Wattpheasent and Wattbetta's attacks increased to 1800 and 900 respectively. "Wattbetta, Wattpheasent, attack her life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the two monsters charged towards Karina, their attacks hit bringing her life-points down to 2300.

"It doesn't matter, I still have the lead!" Karina said arrogantly before her eyes widened as she saw Chelsea's last trap card flip up. "Is that Urgent Tuning? NO!"

"It is and I'm about to do what I should've done a few turns ago, Wattbetta, it's time to give Wattpheasent a tune up!" Chelsea commanded and the two monsters leapt into the air, Wattbetta dissolved into two Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Wattpheasent and once the flash faded Wattchimera appeared on the field (6/1400/1200) and its attack increased to 2200 thanks to Solidarity.

"Chelsea, I know you're hurt." Wattchimera said as he turned to her. "Are you sure you want to continue."

"I've lasted this long and I'm not going to stop now." Chelsea told him with a wince as she felt her ribs hurting again. "Wattchimera, attack her life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the mechanical mythological beat charged towards Karina before biting her on the arm bringing her life-points down to 100. "Normally Wattchimera's effect would activate but since you don't have a hand it won't." Chelsea added before setting a card. "I set this facedown and end my turn."

"_Perfect, I drew Dimension Wall, with this trap she'll take the damage from her attack and I'll win!" _Karina thought before setting the card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Karina set the card down and Chelsea grinned before activating her trap.

"I knew setting this would be a good idea! I activate Dust Tornado and I use it to blow away your facedown card!" Chelsea activated the trap and Karina's eyes widened as a tornado made its way to Karina's facedown card before destroying it. "Its effect also lets me set another card but I don't think that's necessary."

"Just go." Karina said through gritted teeth and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Sara, I've seen enough." _Victor's voice rang out through his bodyguard's earpiece and she frowned. _"It's clear to me that Karina's soul will be captured, I want you back on the ship by then, otherwise I'll leave you to the authorities."_

"Understood sir, I'm on my way." Sara answered before leaping from the tree top and making a run for it, however that didn't go unnoticed by Brandon or Chloe.

"Where are you going?" Brandon asked as he and Chloe chased after her. "What do you think Chloe? Think she's an accomplice?"

"I'm not sure but I've never seen her before." Chloe answered as she chased her, however Sara was able to lose them and they stopped to catch their breath. "Damn she's fast."

"Yeah, tell me about it…..but it looks like she left something behind on the ground there." Brandon pointed it out to Chloe and she bent over for a better look, it was a photo, at least ten years old, but the people in the photo caught her off guard.

"It's my parents…when they were younger I mean." Chloe realized before standing up, Brandon looked at the photo and did a double take. "Yeah, I was surprised to find out that my dad had hair at some point as well."

"It's not that I'm surprised about, who's the young girl in the picture with them?" Brandon asked and Chloe frowned, the young girl in the pic looked a lot like her but she was having her doubts.

"It can't be me, dad did have hair when he adopted me but the girl in the pic looks too young to be me when I was adopted." Chloe answered and Brandon nodded.

"Yeah, you were seven when they adopted you right? That girl looks to be around two or three based on that pic." Brandon agreed when they heard Karina's blood curdling scream. "Sounds like Chelsea won the duel."

"I don't think there was any doubt at that point." Chloe agreed before she and Brandon returned to the clearing, Karina was out cold and Chelsea had collapsed from the pain, Marcus and Andreas where busy untying Beth and fortunately for the two students the medics had just arrived and where loading Chelsea onto a gurney, Martin and Jeff where there as well and they approached Chloe and Brandon when they spotted them.

"I understand that she had an accomplice." Martin said and Chloe frowned. "And that you chased after her."

"Yeah, unfortunately we lost track off her." Chloe answered before showing them the pic. "But she did leave this behind."

"Is this a picture of your parents when they were younger?" Martin asked and Chloe nodded. "Is that you in the picture?"

"No, I was seven when they adopted me." Chloe answered and Jeff rubbed his chin in thought.

"This looks to be before I met them for the first time so I have no clue either." Jeff added and Chloe frowned at that. "Want my advice? Ask Scott about it, if anyone knows about this it's bound to be him."

"I will, thanks Jeff." Chloe thanked him before turning to Martin. "I'm guessing you want to see us in your office?"

"Correct, bring the photo with you as well." Martin told her and Chloe and the others nodded before walking off after Martin whilst Chelsea and Beth where taken to the infirmary.


	71. Recovery

"Ugh, my everything….." Chelsea moaned as she sat up in the infirmary, she quickly glanced around and saw that Beth was in the bed next to her and was already awake. "Hey Beth, what's up?" Chelsea said weakly and her girlfriend turned to her.

"Is that bitch still around?" Beth asked and Chelsea frowned remembering that she was unconscious for most of the duel.

"Nah, I defeated her in a duel, she…..she used the Seal of the Orichalcos." Chelsea sighed and Beth's eyes widened when she heard that. "The injury I suffered last week got reinjured during the match; I must've passed out after I won."

"I don't blame you, Chloe said those things take a toll on you," Beth answered and Chelsea raised an eyebrow. "Chloe, Andreas, Marcus, Lance, Theresa, Brandon and Tyler came in after the nurse told them I was awake, they filled me in on most of the details." Beth said before sighing. "Chelsea, I never meant to send that e-mail but she threatened to kill me if I didn't comply."

"It's okay, she told me herself and I don't blame you for it." Chelsea reassured her and Beth grinned at that. "So does that mean that Yata-Garasu's coming off the forbidden list?" Chelsea asked with a light hearted grin.

"You're such a smart ass, you know that right." Beth laughed as she tossed one of her pillows at her girlfriend, Chelsea grinned before handing it over.

"Would our nights alone be as fun if I wasn't?" Chelsea asked and Beth grinned at that. "So…..err, how are you holding up?"

"Nurse said I only suffered minor injuries from my attempt at fighting that bitch, trust me, she's as strong as she looks." Beth told her and Chelsea sighed in relief. "She said that I should be free to go soon."

"That's good." Chelsea said with a grin as the nurse walked over.

"You can't seem to stay out of my infirmary, can't you Chelsea?" The nurse asked and Chelsea grinned sheepishly at that. "Fortunately the damage your ribs sustained wasn't that bad which is likely what contributed to you lasting as long as you did, and please save me the "I'm tougher than I look" routine Chelsea, I know you're a tough girl you were in serious danger back there."

"Yeah, I know." Chelsea sighed in annoyance and the nurse smiled at that. "Beth said my friends visited her whilst I was out, are they still outside?"

"I'll check but I believe Chloe and Lance mentioned that they had to leave for their next class." The nurse said before walking off, however seconds later she heard an angry voice that Chelsea wasn't expecting.

"I WANT TO KNOW HOW MY DAUGHTER GOT LURRED INTO SUCH A DANGEROUS MATCH!" Chelsea heard her dad demand and winced, it wasn't often that her dad got mad but according to her mom she had inherited his temper.

"Please Mr. Cunningham; we are doing everything in our power to investigate what happened." Martin's voice rang out and Chelsea groaned.

"I just know this isn't going to end well." Chelsea muttered under her breath as she heard the two men arguing.

"You've felt his temper before?" Beth asked and Chelsea sighed.

"Every time I did something incredibly stupid like the time I punched that Pro-Duelist." Chelsea sighed and Beth winced remembering the story, they heard the nurse clear her throat in attempt to break the tension.

"Mr. Cunningham, your daughter is awake." The nurse said and Chelsea barely had any time to register what she said before her parents entered the room.

"Hey dad, what's…..." Chelsea started but was cut off by what her dad said next.

"Chelsea, I'm glad you're not hurt but your relationship with Beth has to end." Her dad interrupted her and Chelsea was at a loss for words. "If it weren't for her you wouldn't be here!"

"Fuck you!" Chelsea growled and her dad's eyes narrowed.

"What did you just say?!" Her dad demanded and Chelsea growled.

"You heard me; you think it's okay to blame my girlfriend because I got hurt? Why don't you blame the bitch that actually dueled me instead?" Chelsea continued as her temper flared. "You still think you can control my life….."

"Off course I can, you may be turning eighteen next year but you're still my daughter!" Her dad interrupted her and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"No, you can't! And like it or not I love Beth and I'm not breaking up with her because you need someone to blame!" Chelsea snapped at him and her dad growled.

"Eddy, Chelsea, that's enough!" Her mom said as she got in between them. "Eddy, I know your upset but our daughter's in a hospital bed, this is hardly the time to get angry at her!" Her mother continued and Eddy frowned.

"But Samantha…." Eddy started but Samantha gave him a stern look before turning to Chelsea.

"Chelsea, I know you love Beth but that language is unacceptable." Her mother scolded her and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"And I suppose him trying to control my life is?!" Chelsea demanded and Eddy stormed off not even bothering to say hello to Chloe or Lance as he walked past them. "Mom, do you always have to take his side?!" Chelsea sighed and her mom turned to her.

"I'm not taking anyone's side Chelsea; I didn't want the argument to escalate." Samantha told her daughter who sighed in relief. "And I definitely don't agree with him about Beth, he's just looking for someone to blame since the perpetrator is in a coma and will likely be behind bars by the time she wakes up." Samantha continued and Chelsea sighed in relief. "Just give him some time dear, he should calm down."

"Yeah, it's not like I'm going anywhere anytime soon." Chelsea sighed in annoyance as she glanced towards Beth who had been watching the exchange. "Don't worry Beth, there's no way in hell I'm letting him end our relationship."

"Had a feeling you wouldn't." Beth sighed in relief and Chelsea smirked at that.

"Look, girls, I'll try to reason with him but if there's one thing that Chelsea inherited from him alongside his temper it's his stubborn streak." Samantha said before standing up. "And even though I disagree with him about you and Beth I still expect an apology from you young lady."

"He should apologize first because if he wasn't spewing that bullshit then we wouldn't have had that argument." Chelsea protested and Samantha sighed in frustration before leaving the room. "Ugh, first I face possible expulsion and now this!" Chelsea screamed in frustration as she leaned back on her hospital bed. "What next?"

"Look, your mom said that she'd talk to your dad so it's not like that'll stick." Beth pointed out but Chelsea shook her head.

"Have you seen his stubborn streak? He makes me look like someone who's compliant with whatever it is that someone says!" Chelsea sighed in annoyance as she folded her arms. "And yeah I know that wasn't exactly a good example." Chelsea added earning a slight laugh from Beth.

"Err, is this a bad time?" Chloe asked as she walked up to them, Chelsea shook her head and invited her roommate to sit down.

"Nah, it was just a friendly argument with my dad." Chelsea reassured her and Chloe sat down, soon afterwards the other students who visited Beth had poured in.

"_She calls that friendly?!" _The students thought simultaneously as massive sweat-drops rolled down their heads.

"I'm guessing you heard my argument huh?" Chelsea asked and the students nodded.

"We could practically hear the screaming match down the hall." Theresa said and Chelsea grinned at that. "Chelsea, don't be too hard on your dad, he's just feeling a lot of stress due to your situation at the moment."

"Easy for you to say, you're not the ones whose lives he's trying to control." Chelsea grunted as she turned to Theresa. "I saw you chasing after someone before I defeated Karina Chloe, did you catch her?"

"No, she was a lot quicker than me or Brandon expected." Chloe sighed in annoyance. "But she did leave behind a clue." Chloe said before digging into her pocket and producing the picture which she showed to Chelsea.

"That looks like your folks when they were younger." Chelsea commented once she got a good look at the pic. "And the girl in it…..that's you right?"

"No, I was seven they adopted me, that girl has to be at least two or three years old in that pic." Chloe answered and Chelsea frowned.

"Yeah, I see what ya mean." Chelsea nodded in agreement before handing back the picture. "Sorry I can't be of much help there."

"Don't worry, it's fine, I'm planning on asking my dad about it as soon as I can." Chloe told her once she pocketed the picture.

"Chloe, can I see the pic?" Beth asked and Chloe passed it too her. "Well I've yet to meet your parents so I'll have to take your word for it there, besides that I have to agree with you about the girl's age in the pic." Beth commented before passing the picture back to Chloe. "Have you shown this to the teachers?"

"Yeah, I showed Jeff and Martin it when me and Brandon returned from the chase." Chloe nodded before sighing. "All that accomplished was Jeff suggesting that I ask my dad about it."

"Well to be fair it is a good idea." Chelsea commented with a shrug. "Speaking of Karina does anyone know where exactly she came from or how she got on the island?"

"I wish I knew but when I got back from Maria's class she was waiting for me in my dorm room." Beth chimed in with a frown. "I have no idea how she got in, I had my keys on me!"

"She didn't break in?" Andreas asked and Beth shook her head.

"I'm pretty sure I would've noticed if she had, if not me then the other girls in the dorm definitely would've noticed." Beth pointed out and Andreas nodded upon realizing she had a point. "Man, this is so messed up!"

"That's the understatement of the year." Chelsea said with a grin before shaking her head. "Security's investigating right? I mean they'd be stupid not too."

"Yeah, Martin told me that they were looking into it whilst you where you out cold." Beth said with a nod. "In the meantime I won't be able to use my dorm room."

"You could always stay in my room." Chelsea offered but Beth shook her head.

"I'd love too but we'd be sharing a room with Chloe and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate the sounds of her roommate making out with her girlfriend in the bunk above her." Beth commented and Chelsea frowned upon realizing he had a point. "And yes boys, we all know that you wouldn't mind that." Beth added upon noticing that Lance, Marcus and Andreas where about to say something.

"You're girlfriend's no fun, you know that right Chelsea?" Marcus asked jokingly and Chelsea grinned at that.

"I tell her that all the time." Chelsea answered with a grin before turning towards Beth. "You were saying babe?" Chelsea asked and Beth smiled at her.

"The other problem is the size of the top bunk, no offense Chelsea but that thing was designed for two people with one being on top of the other….that's not even remotely what I meant boys." Beth said upon realizing what she said and seeing the grins on the Ra Yellow students' faces. "Basically what I'm saying is that two girls being on the top bunk isn't exactly safe."

"I hear ya; it's not exactly the best solution." Chelsea realized with a sigh. "I'm sure Maria will think of something in the meantime anyway, there's bound to be some free rooms in the Osiris Red Dorm."

"Yeah, that's true, worst case scenario I guess would be me being stuck in the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm, I have some friends over there but a lesbian in a boys dorm? That's just asking for trouble." Beth agreed with a nod as the nurse came over to the two girls.

"Doc, how soon can we get out of here? I don't know about Beth but the boredom's killing me." Chelsea asked the nurse who checked her notes.

"Well you two should be free to go." The nurse said and the two girls sighed in relief before sitting up. "However Martin wants to get your statements about the Orichalcos Duel and he'd prefer it if you'd stay put first."

"Oh great!" Chelsea groaned in annoyance as she leaned back on the bed. "Didn't Chloe tell Martin what he needed to know anyway?"

"Yes but I'd prefer to hear it from the two parties involved with the Duel." Martin said as he entered the room. "Sorry students but I need some time alone with the two girls, I hope you understand."

"Sure." Lance said and the others nodded in agreement before leaving. "By the way teach, are we still on for Duel Theory today?"

"Yes, since the Orichalcos Duel was an isolated incident we saw no need to cancel the rest of today's classes." Martin said with a nod as the other students left, once they were gone he turned to Chelsea and Beth. "Girls, I'd understand if you are reluctant to relive today's events, believe me when I say that security is investigating how Karina and her associate got onto the island in the first place."

"I'm more interested in how she got her hands on that damn card to be honest." Chelsea said honestly and it didn't take Martin long to figure out what she meant. "I thought Lance took care of the last of the Orichalcos Duelists whilst you guys were still in New York City?"

"I was under the same impression Chelsea but evidently that wasn't the case." Martin agreed with a nod before getting out his pen and paper. "I'll make this as quick and painless as I can since I know that you are both eager to leave the infirmary, how about we start from the beginning Chelsea?"

"Right, after me and Chloe got back from Gym Class I intended to chill out on my laptop for a couple of hours." Chelsea started as she folded her arms. "Instead I got an E-Mail from Beth telling me that she wanted to meet me in the forested area of the island for sex." Chelsea started as she thought back to the e-mail.

"And that didn't strike you as odd?" Martin asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Just the opposite, Beth's so much of a clean freak that we often joke that the day we, me and Beth that is, have sex outside is the same day that Yata-Garasu gets taken off the forbidden list." Chelsea responded and Martin nodded as he jotted it down. "I decided to go anyway, I figured that either she wanted to try something new or I'd get some answers once I got there."

"You didn't think to show the e-mail to the teachers?" Martin asked and Chelsea looked at him funny.

"Would you?" Chelsea pointed out and Martin quickly nodded as he realized she had a point. "I mean, in hindsight maybe doing that would've saved me a trip to the infirmary but hindsight's 20/20 right?"

"True enough." Martin agreed with a nod. "From there you proceeded to duel Karina, did she use any cards that seemed broken to you?"

"You mean besides the obvious choice?" Chelsea asked and Martin nodded. "One comes to mind, a drawing card called Ritual of the Ancients, I had never heard of it before that duel but it allowed her to draw three cards, if any ritual monsters where among them I'd take their attack points as effect damage."

"Is that without a cost?" Beth asked and Chelsea nodded. "Good god, I thought Cyber Jar was broken but that? How is that card not on the forbidden list?"

"I don't know but I think there are a couple of explanations." Chelsea answered as she turned to Beth. "Namely the fact that it's a Ritual Support card and let's face it those cards aren't exactly surging in popularity right now." Chelsea said with a shrug. "The only other explanation is that it was a custom card and whoever Karina's boss is he/she or someone with the know-how hacked her disk so that it would accept it."

"Indeed, Kaiba wants me to call him as soon as I finish the report on the incident, I'll ask him if he's heard of that card before." Martin said with a nod before turning to Beth. "That just leaves you."

"Unfortunately I don't have as much to offer as my girlfriend does." Beth said with an annoyed sigh. "But what I can say is this, after I got back from my first class of the day I found Karina waiting for me in my dorm room. I don't know how she got in or where she came from but she quickly pulled a gun on me and forced me to send the e-mail Chelsea mentioned."

"You didn't think to send an e-mail to the teachers instead?" Martin asked and Beth shook her head.

"I had that idea at first but she watched me like a hawk." Beth sighed in annoyance. "Her eyes never left the screen, she had her gun pointed at the back of my head basically I couldn't have been more trapped." Beth added before sighing again. "Once I sent the e-mail I saw an opening, she had turned her back on me to call her associate I guess and I went for her gun. I don't know what I would've done if I had gotten the gun from her hands but all I could think about was protecting Chelsea."

"I appreciate it but I would've been able to handle myself." Chelsea said determinedly and Martin shook his head.

"That's not important Chelsea." Martin reminded her and Chelsea sighed. "Beth, you realize that you could've been killed, right? And what would you have done if you had killed Karina?"

"Yeah, I do, fortunately she only beat me up and knocked me out with a pistol whip." Beth responded with a shudder. "I don't know what I would've done if I had killed her but I guess I would've called security and waited for them outside." Beth added before sighing. "When I woke up I was in here and when I saw Chelsea next to me I panicked thinking she had lost to that bitch."

"Yes, the nurse had to call in your friends to help calm you down if I remember correctly." Martin said with a nod and Beth nodded. "That should be all girls, remember that Duel Academy has trained psychiatrists on its payroll and they are always willing to lend an ear to students facing any troubles and this duel is no exception."

"We'll keep that in mind, thanks." Chelsea thanked him before sitting up. "So can we go?"

"Yes, you can." Martin said with a nod and the two girls slowly got out of their beds. "You'll need your rest so consider the rest of the day off for the two of you."

"Thanks Martin." Chelsea thanked him before she left the room with Beth not far behind her, whilst that was going on Chloe was walking down the hallways glancing at the photo that she found during the duel between Karina and Chelsea.

"_I know Jeff told me to ask dad about it but what if he doesn't have the answers I need?" _Chloe thought as she walked down the hallways, she was so distracted that she didn't notice Kimberly ahead of her…..until she literally bumped into her sending the Osiris Red student to the ground. "Sorry Kimberly, I was miles away." Chloe apologized as the older student helped her up.

"Don't worry about it Chloe, you probably have a lot on your mind now that the Expulsion Duels have passed." Kimberly reassured her and Chloe smiled at that. "I heard Chelsea was in an Orichalcos Duel, how is she holding up?"

"She aggravated her injury from the Duel Monster attack last week, other than that she's fine." Chloe answered as she picked up the picture. "Beth was also involved but all she got was a nasty beating from the Orichalcos Duelist."

"That's a relief." Kimberly sighed in relief as she shuddered slightly. "I still remember the day that Nathan got his soul stolen, when I heard about the duel I was worried that another student got their soul stolen."

"I was there and it was close, if she hadn't drawn Wattpheasent when she had…." Chloe trailed off as she shuddered. "Don't tell her I said it but I thought she was going to lose at first."

"Don't worry, I won't." Kimberly reassured her and Chloe smiled at that. "So what are your plans now?"

"My next class isn't for another two hours; I'm hoping to use that time to get some answers." Chloe responded and Kimberly looked at her quizzically. "It's a long story."

"If you say so, I have to get to Duel Theory anyway." Kimberly said as she walked off. "Tell Chelsea I told her to get well soon and that I'll miss her protesting her limitations."

"I will." Chloe said with a nod before leaving the Main Building, she walked past the Obelisk Blue boys dorm with a quick pace when she saw Cameron, Jessica and Thomas talking in front of it hoping to avoid a confrontation with them. _"There's one thing I don't need and it's putting up with bullshit from them." _Chloe thought as she headed over to the West Side of the Island.

"Hey Chloe," Chelsea greeted her as she saw her roommate approaching her. "What's up?"

"Not much, just want to get some answers." Chloe answered as she glanced at the photo, Chelsea looked at the photo and nodded.

"If you want to use Skype to call your dad go ahead." Chelsea told her as the two girls made their way to the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm. "I was scheduled for Duel Theory today but Martin gave me the go ahead to skip due to my injury."

"I think that's the only time in Duel Academy history that Martin's done that for anyone." Chloe joked and Chelsea had to stifle her laughter at that. "Oh and Kimberly said get well soon and that she'll miss your protests."

"Yeah, she would bring that up." Chelsea said with a grin as she turned to her. "Martin always held his ground but that didn't stop me, especially if it was something stupid like "You can't attack, your opponent can"." Chelsea said with a frown.

"Oh come on! Martin's strict but he's not that strict!" Chloe answered and Chelsea shook her head. "Wait, what, he actually did that?!"

"Not only that but I'm convinced that he saved that rule exclusively for me." Chelsea said with a grin before sighing. "During the first day of your Battle City preparations I had to win a duel using only Wattcannon due to that restriction, which took me the rest of the class."

"No offense but that sounds like the most boring duel ever." Chloe responded and Chelsea laughed at that.

"Yeah well, when the substitute took over I actually preferred him to Martin." Chelsea said honestly as she folded her arms. "For one thing he was actually a lot more forgiving when it came to the restrictions he place on our decks."

"That's not saying much." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Okay, how about we change the subject before Martin overhears and decides to stick us in detention just for the hell of it?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "How are you and Beth holding up?"

"We're both a little shook up by what happened but we'll be fine." Chelsea answered as they neared the dorm. "As for dad, I don't know, I'd duel him but I can't for obvious reasons."

"He duels?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded.

"Used too, he gave up that career to raise a family but he still duels on occasion though, mostly at small tournaments that don't mean much in the grand scheme of things as far as the Pro-Leagues go, like that school tournament I told you about." Chelsea responded as she put her hands in her pockets.

"Come to think of it, why was that pro-league duelist competing?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, maybe the same reason the Pro-Duelists we faced on Friday agreed to be flown in." Chelsea answered with a mere shrug. "Anyway I got that idea because I noticed that he was wearing his old disk when we argued."

"Do you have any idea why?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shrugged. "What deck did he run?"

"Not sure, I've never seen it in action and neither has mom." Chelsea answered as she turned to her. "He was good enough to win a few tournaments before retiring."

"Well, we'll think of something." Chloe told her as they entered the girl's dorm and made their way up to their room. "So…..can I call my dad?"

"Go ahead, let me just load Skype." Chelsea answered as she sat down at her laptop, Chloe's dad had been added to Skype shortly after Chloe had moved in but she never got around to using it. "Okay, all you need to do is put this headset on." Chelsea told her before tossing the headset to Chloe. "I know you're not the most technically minded student here so I did most of the work for you."

"Thanks." Chloe thanks her before putting the headset on, Chelsea got out of the chair and let Chloe sat down before making herself comfy on the bed, and after a few minutes her dad's face appeared on the screen. "Hi dad,"

"Chloe, I was about to call you actually." Scott said with a smile and Chloe smiled at that. "How are things at school?"

"Their good, things have been quiet since the Expulsion Duels." Chloe answered before frowning. "Who am I kidding? There was another Orichalcos Duel here." Chloe admitted and Scott's eyes widened as he heard the words.

"What? Chloe are you hurt?!" Scott asked clearly concerned for his step-daughter.

"I wasn't involved dad." Chloe answered and Scott sighed in relief. "Unfortunately Beth and Chelsea were hurt, thankfully Chelsea managed to beat the duelist but not before aggravating her injury."

"Give them my regards." Scott told her and Chloe nodded in agreement. "Is there something else you wanted to call me about?"

"Yes actually, the Orichalcos Duelist had an accomplice who ran off before Chelsea won, I and Brandon gave chase but she got away." Chloe explained before digging into her pocket. "But not before leaving behind a clue and as much as I hate to say it, the clue involves you and mom."

"Are you sure?" Scott asked and Chloe nodded before holding up the picture to the webcam. "Err, honey, it works before if you hold it a bit further back." Scott commented with a sweat-drop and Chloe blushed before holding it further back.

"How's that dad?" Chloe asked before noticing the look of shock on her dad's face. "I'll take that to mean that you can see it clearly?"

"Unfortunately yes, I do." Scott sighed as he turned to her. "Chloe, before you came into our lives your mother and I would regularly babysit for a neighbor's young daughter, made sense at the time, as you know your mother has a medical condition to prevents her from having children of our own."

"Yeah, you told me last year." Chloe remembered a sad nod. "This girl, is she the same one in the picture?"

"Yes, she was." Scott responded sadly causing Chloe to do a double take.

"Was?" Chloe asked and Scott nodded

"About a year before we adopted you we were driving her home, her parents would normally pick her up but their car was being serviced at the time." Scott started before lowering his head. "We were hit by a drunk driver, your mother and I made it out okay as did the drunk driver but the girl…..she was missing from the crash site, the police searched high and low for her but after a week they gave up the search and pronounced her dead."

"Oh god….." Chloe trailed off as it dawned on her. "What happened to her parents?"

"They moved away after that, the driver had committed suicide in his cell whilst he was awaiting sentencing so they knew that they would never get justice for their daughter, last I heard they were living a comfortable life in Colorado." Scott answered and Chloe sighed. "I don't know how that accomplice got her hands on that picture, sorry."

"It's okay, if I find anything else out I'll give you a call." Chloe said and Scott nodded before hanging up, Chloe turned to Chelsea and sighed.

"Didn't get the answers you were hoping for?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Nah, I got answers but for once I doubt my dad's word." Chloe said honestly as she removed the headset. "To make a long story short, that girl in the pic I found? She's been dead for about eleven years."

"Wait, really?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, this is the part I doubt though, they often babysat the kid for her parents but one night she was killed in a collision with a drunk driver." Chloe said as she folded her arms. "The driver killed himself and the parents moved out of state, I can't be the only one who thinks that story is a bit convoluted."

"Now that you mention it, yeah, it is." Chelsea agreed before getting an idea. "Maybe I can find the news report on that accident on the net?"

"Good idea." Chloe nodded in agreement before standing up and letting Chelsea take over the laptop, Chloe sat down on the bed and Chelsea turned to her.

"Chloe, don't take this the wrong way but what if you're wrong about your dad's story?" Chelsea asked and Chloe sighed.

"Remember what I told you when I returned from Battle City?" Chloe asked and Chelsea blinked before remembering what she had said.

"You're talking about your biological dad right? What about that bastard?" Chelsea asked and Chloe frowned.

"Before I faced him I was pretty naïve, I freely admit that." Chloe answered as she folded her arms. "Now though? I'd like to think that I'm not as trusting as I was."

"Because you found out that your dad had been lying to you?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Makes sense, I can imagine how much that revelation rocked your world."

"It rocked my world all right, to the point where I briefly considered quitting the game." Chloe answered and Chelsea looked at her shocked. "Obviously it didn't stick but I was going through a rough patch at the time."

"Must've been if you had considered quitting duel monsters." Chelsea answered as she turned back to her laptop. "Speaking of dads, what should we do about mine?"

"Well the chat with my dad gave me some time to think." Chloe said as she looked at her duel disk. "I have an idea; he'll face your Watt Monsters in a duel."

"Err, Chloe, did you miss the fact that I can't duel for a few days because of my ribs?" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe shook her head.

"Whoever said you'd be fighting him?" Chloe asked and Chelsea blinked before it hit her.

"Oh, I get watcha saying now!" Chelsea said with a nod and Chloe grinned. "I'll send my mom a text to see if he's still on the island and if he's interested in a duel." Chelsea said before getting out her cell-phone and texting her mom.

*elsewhere on the island*

"Chelsea's roommate wants to duel me?" Eddy asked as he read the text, Samantha had caught up to him at the location of the duel between Karina and Chelsea earlier that day and had finished a shouting match just in time to get Chelsea's text. "What are those girls up too?" Eddy asked as he scratched his head.

"Maybe they think that a duel would be a good stress reliever." Samantha suggested and Eddy scratched his chin. "Come on Eddy, you did insist on bringing your duel disk and deck."

"Yeah, I did but only because I don't want to risk it being stolen." Eddy answered before sighing. "Ah, why the hell not, I'll duel her." Eddy decided and Samantha grinned as she sent a reply. "She seems to be a good duelist based on her performance in Battle City anyway."

"Well she is teaming up with our daughter, that's a good indication of her skills." Samantha said and Eddy face-palmed. "What?"

"Samantha, the teams for that tag tournament were chosen at random." Eddy pointed out and Samantha blushed once she realized her mistake. "Besides that Chloe uses a Warrior/Spellcaster deck, as we both know Chelsea uses Watt Monsters, if anything they'd be better off teaming up with someone else."

"Unfortunately dad all the teams have been selected and the partners aren't negotiable." Chelsea's voice rang out and her parents turned around in time to see Chelsea and Chloe standing there, only Chloe was wearing her duel disk and Eddy frowned when he saw his daughter. "I may not be able to duel but I can still watch." Chelsea pointed out before frowning. "Or is this about the argument?"

"Look, Chelsea, I only accepted your roommate's challenge so that I can see if my skills are up to snuff." Eddy said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have a tournament coming up next month after all."

"Will you really need it? Isn't it just another school tournament?" Chloe asked and Eddy frowned.

"Chelsea told ya huh? Tell ya what Chloe; I'll make ya a deal." Eddy started and Chloe blinked.

"_Guess we know where Chelsea got her verbal tics from." _Chloe thought as a sweat-drop rolled down the back of her head.

"You win I'll apologize to Chelsea and I'll explain why I need this duel to prepare." Eddy added and Chloe nodded. "I win, I don't know, maybe I'll give ya some tips or something."

"You didn't have much time to think this over did you?" Chloe asked as she sweat-dropped. "Never mind, I accept your challenge and your terms." Chloe said as they activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "I know it's polite to say ladies first and all but I'd like you to go first instead."

"Suit yourself." Eddy shrugged before drawing his first card. "I play a Spell Card, go Foolish Burial!" Eddy played the card and Chelsea winced. "Huh? It's just a card."

"It's also a card that my last opponent played." Chelsea answered and Eddy winced.

"Well, since you've seen it in action I won't bother explaining its effect to you." Eddie responded before picking up his deck and searching through it, he found the card he was looking for and sent it to his graveyard alongside his Spell Card. "Next I set three cards facedown and a card in defense mode." Eddy played the cards and looked up at Chloe. "And that ends my turn." Eddy announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_I hope my idea works." _Chloe thought before picking up her Spell Card. "I play the Field Spell Card Wattcastle!"

"Wait, what?!" Eddy yelled out as the scenery changed to the cartoonish looking castle. "That's one of my daughter's cards!"

"Surprised? Just you wait." Chloe said as she picked up three more cards. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Wattcobra!" Chloe played the cards and the small electric snake appeared on the field (4/1000/100). "Okay, Wattcobra, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the cobra leapt over Eddy's facedown monster.

"I activate my Staunch Defender Trap Card; with this I can force Wattcobra to target my facedown monster instead!" Eddie activated the trap and the snake changed course taking a bite out of the facedown Morphing Jar (2/700/600).

"Huh. I was expecting something stronger." Chloe commented as she and Eddy discarded their cards and drew five more.

"Yeah well, life's full of surprises." Eddy said simply as he looked over his hand. "Like you not using your Spellcaster/Warrior deck."

"I should've known you'd catch on to that quickly." Chloe sighed as she looked over her hand. "Do you want the long version or the short version?" Chloe asked and Eddy shrugged.

"Whatever suits ya." Eddy responded and Chloe nodded. "But with that said, in the interest of keeping this duel going, what do ya say to going with the short version?"

"That sounds good to me." Chloe nodded before pausing. "Look, you remember the argument you had with Chelsea?"

"Yeah, I remember it very clearly." Eddy commented with a grunt. "What's your point?"

"As much as I try to stay out of my roommate's personal life I felt I had to help out on this occasion." Chloe started with a sigh. "Like it or not, me and the rest of Chelsea's friends overheard the argument alongside several students who didn't even know her before today and as someone who hasn't exactly had the best childhood I hate to see family members fighting."

"_She calls this the short version?" _Chelsea and her family thought as sweat-drops rolled down their heads.

"After I called my dad on an unrelated matter I got the idea for this duel." Chloe continued whilst ignoring the looks she was getting. "I figured you facing off against your daughter's monsters would help you resolve the issues but since Chelsea can't duel with a duel disk due to her injury I suggested that I duel you using her cards."

"Heh, Chelsea said that ya had a habit of sticking up for your friends, didn't think it'd go this far though." Eddy commented with a chuckle before shaking his head. "That's all well and good Chloe but until ya can beat me it's all for nothing!"

"And believe me; I have every intention of winning this duel." Chloe said before looking over her hand. "I'll end my turn for now." Chloe announced and Eddy drew his card.

"_Okay, long-winded explanation for why she's using my cards instead of hers aside, she's not doing too badly with my deck." _Chelsea thought as she watched the duel. _"Hopefully the pointers I gave her before we left our dorm room will help her win." _Chelsea thought as Eddy looked over his hand.

"_I don't know if her idea will work but if their intention was to catch me off guard then mission accomplished." _Eddy thought as he looked over his hand. _"I won't let her get to me, she may be my daughter's friend but I'm a former pro-duelist, she on the other hand is just an Osiris Red Student who happened to do well in Battle City and she's not even using her usual deck." _Eddy thought before playing a card. "I summon Scrap Chimera!" Eddy played the card and a mechanical version of the mythological beast appeared on the field (4/1700/500).

"_Scrap monsters? That kinda puts his career choice as a construction worker in a new light." _Chelsea thought as she folded her arms.

"Now I activate my monster's effect, when he's normal summoned I can Special Summon a Scrap Tuner monster like Scrap Solder from my graveyard!" Eddy played the card and a strange one eyed robot appeared on the field (5/2100/700).

"That's a bit strong for a tuner monster, isn't it?" Chloe said with a nervous gulp as she glanced at the two monsters.

"If it helps than I'll have you know that Scrap Soldier can only be used in the Synchro Summon of another Scrap Monster." Eddy answered before pointing at the two monsters. "Now then, Scrap Chimera, Scrap Soldier, attack!" Eddy commanded and Scrap Chimera pounced on Wattcobra ripping it to shreds and brining Scrap Chimera's attack down to 700 before Scrap Soldier fired its laser weapon bringing her life-points down to 5200.

"Well, at least the worst of it is over…." Chloe gulped and Eddy shook his head before activating his facedown card. "Is that Urgent Tuning? Oh come on!"

"Sorry Chloe but this is something you'll learn the hard way in the pro-leagues, there are no friends, only enemies!" Eddy announced as his two mechanical monsters leapt into the air, Scrap Soldier dissolved into five glowing rings that quickly surrounded Scrap Chimera. "I tune Scrap Soldier with Scrap Chimera so that I can Synchro Summon Scrap Twin Dragon!" Eddy played the card and once the bright flash faded a massive twin headed mechanical dragon appeared on the field, in a way it resembled Cyber Twin Dragon but it was more rustic looking (9/3000/2200).

"If I can borrow a phrase from Chelsea for a moment, this is gonna suck!" Chloe gulped as she stared down the huge monster.

"I haven't even started yet! Scrap Twin Dragon, attack her life-points directly!" Eddy commanded and the dragon's twin heads opened their mouths before firing laser beams at Chloe bringing her life-points down to 2200. "Are you regretting not using your regular deck?"

"Not yet, I activate my trap card Numinous Healer, since I just took a lot of damage I can use this to regain some of my lost life-points!" Chloe activated the trap and glowed briefly as her life-points rose to 3200. "I may be using Chelsea's cards but I did make sure to include some of my own." Chloe added before sending her trap to the graveyard. _"And as soon as I summon another Watt Monster I'll use Judgment of Thunder to get rid of that thing!"_ Chloe thought before looking up at Eddy. "Are you done?"

"Not by a longshot, first I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy your remaining facedown card!" Eddy played the card and Chloe braced herself as a storm washed over the field destroying her facedown card. "But why stop there? I activate Dust Tornado to get rid of Wattcastle!" Eddy activated the trap and a storm washed over the castle destroying it and returning the scenery to normal. "I set one card facedown with Dust Tornado's effect and end my turn."

"_Man, Chloe's getting creamed out there." _Chelsea thought as she watched the duel. _"Maybe this was a bad idea, I may be injured but I have a lot more experience with the Watt Monsters than Chloe does." _Chelsea thought as Chloe drew her card.

"So…..Chloe's facing your dad?" Tyler commented as he approached the area where the two duelists where dueling. "How did this come about?"

"Remember my argument with him?" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded. "This duel is kinda an indirect result of it."

"I see." Tyler said with a nod. "Well she should be fine if she can bring out Silent Magician Level 8." Tyler said and Chelsea sweat-dropped at that. "This is a similar situation to her duel against Thomas Newborne a couple of weeks ago, isn't it?"

"Err, yeah, she's using my cards." Chelsea said and Tyler looked at her funny. "It was her idea."

"That doesn't explain much." Tyler pointed out and Chelsea shook her head. "From what I've seen Chloe hasn't been doing too well."

"Yeah well, I think it's because she's not used to using Watt Monsters." Chelsea answered as she glanced at Tyler. "Granted I don't know if I'd be able to do any better than she is and I've been using them since before I moved to duel academy." Chelsea added with a shrug as she watched the duel.

"_So, you're using Chelsea's deck?" _Silent Magician asked mentally as Chloe looked over her hand. _"You realize that you won't be able to use me since I'm in your regular deck." _Silent Magician added and Chloe smiled.

"_Don't worry about me I have a few tricks up my sleeve." _Chloe responded as she looked over her hand. _"I may not be using my regular deck but I've seen enough of Chelsea's duels to know her deck almost as well as mine."_

"_True enough, I hope you know what you're doing." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe picked up three of her cards.

"_I hope so as well." _Chloe thought with a gulp before setting two of the three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Chloe announced as the three cards appeared in front of her. "That ends my turn." Chloe added and Eddy drew his card.

"I summon Scrap Beast!" Eddy played the card and a mechanical wolf appeared on the field (4/1600/1300). "Now I activate Scrap Twin Dragon's effect and to do it I target Scrap Beast and your two facedown cards!" Eddy announced and to Chloe's surprise Scrap Beast was consumed by lasers from Scrap Twin Dragon's mouth. "I destroy the card on my side of the field and in exchange your two facedown cards return to your hand!" Eddy added and Chloe frowned before returning the two cards. "And since Scrap Beast was destroyed by a Scrap Monster's effect his effect activates."

"That sounds bad." Chloe gulped and Eddie grinned.

"For you it's bad, when Scrap Beast is destroyed by the effect of a Scrap Monster I can select one Scrap Monster in my graveyard except Scrap Beast and add it to my hand." Eddy announced before retrieving a card from his graveyard and adding it to his hand. "Scrap Twin Dragon, attack her defense monster!" Eddy commanded and the twin maws opened up before firing their lasers again, the monster was revealed to be Wattdragonfly (2/900/100) which was quickly destroyed. "I know what Wattdragonfly does so get on with it."

"Right, I use Wattdragonfly's effect to Special Summon Wattaildragon from my deck!" Chloe played the card and the electric blue dragon appeared on the field with a growl (6/2500/1000).

"I've always wondered why Chelsea has that card in her deck; it clashes with her running Solidarity so much that she may as well not have it in her deck." Eddy commented dryly as Chelsea rolled her eyes. "I end my turn." Eddy announced and once she shuffled her deck Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, I have one of Chelsea's powerhouses on my side of the field, just got to think of a way to use him effectively whilst that cheap knock-off of Cyber Twin Dragon is on the field." _Chloe thought before playing the card she had drawn. "I activate Lightning Recharge; by removing Wattcobra and Wattdragonfly from play this Spell Card will let me draw two cards." Chloe announced before pocketing the two monsters and drawing twice.

"How did Chelsea get her hands on that? I've been searching high and low for that card." Eddy asked and Chloe shrugged.

"She saved up, that's how." Chloe said simply before looking at her drawn cards. "I set two cards facedown." Chloe set the two cards and turned her attention to Eddy. "And I end my turn at that." Chloe announced and Eddy drew his card.

"What's the point? All dad will need to do is summon another Scrap Monster, use Scrap Twin Dragon's effect again and he'll be able to send Chloe's facedowns back to her hand." Chelsea pointed out and Tyler stroked his chin. "And for that matter, why leave Wattaildragon in attack mode?"

"That is unless she has a backup plan." Tyler commented as Eddy looked over his hand. "As for your second point, I'm not sure."

"I play the Spell Card Scrapyard, using this I can add one Scrap Tuner Monster from my deck to my hand." Eddy played the card and picked up his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand, shuffled his deck and sent his Spell to the graveyard. "Next I activate Cost Down and I use it to reduce the levels of the monsters in my hand by one, it may force me to toss a card to my graveyard but it's worth the price." Eddie announced as he sent a card to his graveyard.

"_Smart money's on that card being another Scrap Soldier which means he's planning to bring out another Scrap Chimera." _Chloe thought as Eddie sent his Spell to the graveyard. _"Which means he'll be able to summon another Scrap Twin Dragon, one was bad enough but two? I don't think I'll be able to handle that."_ Chloe thought with a nervous gulp.

"And since he's now a Level 4 monster I can summon Scrap Golem without having to tribute Scrap Twin Dragon!" Eddy played the card and a large, golem like robot appeared on the field (4/2100/400). "Normally I'd activate his effect by now but instead I think I'll use Scrap Twin Dragon's effect again….."

"Not this time! By discarding Effect Veilor from my hand I can negate Scrap Twin Dragon's effect." Chloe quickly discarded the monster and Scrap Twin Dragon doubled over in pain.

"Fine but since it's obvious that ya don't have another Effect Veilor in your hand, otherwise ya would've discarded it last turn, I'll use Scrap Golem's effect instead." Eddy announced as he retrieved a card from his graveyard. "Once per turn I can use Scrap Golem's effect to Special Summon a Scrap Tuner Monster from my graveyard, this time I'm bringing back Scrap Beast!" Eddie played the card and the mechanical wolf appeared on the field. "Scrap Twin Dragon, attack Wattaildragon now!" Eddy commanded and the massive dragon opened up its maws….

"And let you finish me off? I don't think so! I discard Honest from my hand to add Scrap Twin Dragon's attack to Wattaildragon's attack!" Eddy's eyes widened as Wattaildragon's attack skyrocketed to 5500, it effortlessly flew over the laser blast before firing an electrical charge at the dragon causing it to self-destruct and bringing Eddy's life-points down to 5500 in the process.

"Ya may have destroyed Scrap Twin Dragon but now his effect activates! With it I can take one Non-Synchro Scrap Monster in my graveyard and summon it to the field, I think I'll summon Scrap Goblin in defense mode!" Eddie played the card and a small ape life robot appeared on the field (3/0/500). "This little guy may not seem life much but he packs a powerful effect, he can survive one attack per round and on top of that he's a tuner monster as well!"

"_He has two tuner monsters? He's got to be planning something big!" _Chloe thought as she glanced over her hand.

"I'll end my turn with two facedown cards." Eddy played the cards and Chloe drew her card once they appeared on the field.

"_I can't let him use whatever strategy he has planned." _Chloe thought as she looked at her drawn card. _"Perfect!" _Chloe thought with a grin before playing the card. "I summon Wattphesaant!" Chloe played the card and the electric blue pheasant appeared on the field (4/1000/800). "And guess what? Wattpheasant….."

"I know that it can attack my life-points directly." Eddy interrupted her and Chloe blinked. "Please, I helped my daughter build that deck; I know it like I know my own deck!"

"Then why waste any more time? Wattphesant, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the pheasant took fight.

"And once again you've fallen for the same trick twice!" Eddy announced as he activated his trap, "I activate Staunch Defender which I use to force Wattpheseant and Wattaildragon to attack Scrap Goblin." Eddy announced as the pheasant changed its course.

"Big deal, I know that thing survive one attack per round!" Chloe said confidentially before seeing the look on Eddy's face. "Unless…"

"That's right, Scrap Goblin was a bluff! I activate my Trap Card Scrap Rage!" Eddy activated the trap and too Chloe's surprise Scrap Goblin's defense increased to 2500. "I may have to part ways with Scrap Goblin once the battle phase ends but since I'm giving it 2000 defense points, I'd say that's a fair trade!" Eddy added as the goblin effortlessly swatted away Wattpheseant bringing Chloe's life-points down to 1700, Wattaildragon launched a follow up attack but Scrap Goblin endured.

"Fine, I end my Battle Phase which means that Scrap Goblin is destroyed!" Chloe announced as the small robot shattered.

"And now that that's done I get to activate another card's effect, this time it's Scrap Searcher!" Eddy announced as he retrieved a card from his graveyard. "You see, when a Scrap Monster is destroyed and sent to the graveyard I can Special Summon this little guy from my graveyard!" Eddie played the card and a small green mechanical bird appeared on the field (1/100/300). "That's not all! Scrap Beast has another effect, when a face-up defense monster is attacked he kicks the bucket!"

"Okay, what is with your monsters destroying themselves?" Chloe asked as Scrap Beast exploded and Eddy grinned.

"That's the idea behind Scrap Monsters Chloe, they recycle themselves!" Eddy responded before retrieving a card from the graveyard and adding it to his hand.

"Man, I've lost count of the amount of times he's manipulated the graveyard." Chelsea commented sheepishly and Tyler grinned at that.

"It's an effective strategy regardless, and it's one that's keeping Chloe on her toes." Tyler responded as he watched the duel.

"I end my turn." Chloe announced and Eddy drew his card.

"I activate a Continuous Spell Card called Scrap Lube!" Eddy played the card and quickly noticed the embarrassed looks on the others faces. "Look I didn't name these cards all right? Anyways, this Spell lets me bring back Scrap Beast with its effects negated!" Eddy played the card and the mechanical wolf returned to the field.

"Don't tell me, you're bringing back Scrap Twin Dragon?" Chloe asked and Eddy grinned.

"Nah, I'm mixing things up! I tune Scrap Beast, Scrap Golem AND Scrap Searcher together!" Eddy announced and the students gasped as the three monsters leapt into the air.

"A Level 10 Synchro Summon?!" Chloe yelled out as Scrap Beast dissolved into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Scrap Golem and Scrap Searcher.

"That's right, not only that but this Synchro Monster actually requires me to use two Synchro Material Monsters!" Eddy announced as he played the card. "I tune Scrap Beast, Scrap Golem and Scrap Searcher together to Synchro Summon Atomic Scrap Dragon!" Eddy played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a monster similar to Scrap Twin Dragon appeared on the field, however this was much more high tech and growled menacingly (10/3200/2400).

"Crap, that thing can wipe out my life-points just by attacking Wattpheseant!" Chloe gulped as she stared down at the monster.

"Relax, I can't conduct my battle phase the same turn I activate Scrap Lube." Eddy reassured her and Chloe sighed in relief. "So defend whilst you can but there's no way you can stand up to the power of Atomic Scrap Dragon! I end my turn with a facedown card!" Eddy announced as he played the card and Chloe drew her card.

"_Wattcine, ugh, off all the times to get a dead draw!" _Chloe thought before adding the Spell Card to her hand. "I switch Wattaildragon and Wattpheseant to defense mode." Chloe announced as her two monsters crouched down. "And I end my turn at that." Chloe announced and Eddy drew his card.

"Well, Chloe it's been fun but the fun's about to end alongside this duel!" Eddy announced as he activated his facedown card. "I activate Give and Take and I use to special summon Scrap Searcher to your side of the field!" Eddy announced as Scrap Searcher appeared on Chloe's side of the field in defense mode. "And that means two things, Atomic Scrap Dragon's level increases to eleven and Scrap Searcher's effect activates."

"It has another effect?!" Chloe asked before her eyes widened as Wattaildragon and Wattpheseant exploded.

"Yeah and you've just seen it in action! When Scrap Searcher is Special Summoned all monsters that aren't Scrap Monsters get scrapped." Eddy explained before sweat dropping. "Yeah, I realize how bad that pun was."

"Yeah but there's one thing you didn't realize, you summoned Scrap Searcher to my field in defense mode!" Chloe pointed out with a grin. "And that means that I'm still in this!"

"Sorry but no, I have one more card to play!" Eddy said as he played the card. "It's Mind Control and I use it to take back Scrap Searcher!" Eddy played the card and Chloe's eyes widened as the monster teleported to Eddy's side of the field. "Atomic Scrap Dragon, finish her!" Eddie commanded and the dragon prepared its attack…

"Sorry but when I said I'm still in this I meant it! I activate Nutrient Z!" Chloe activated the card and sighed in relief as her life-points increased to 5700, then the attack hit bringing her life-points down to 2500.

"I was wondering why you didn't activate that sooner." Eddy commented before looking over his hand. "I end my turn which means Scrap Searcher returns to your side of the field!" Eddy announced as Scrap Searcher teleported back to Chloe's side of the field, once that was done Chloe drew her card.

"_I need to get rid of that monster if I'm going to win this match but that'll be easier said than done." _Chloe thought with a gulp before looking over her hand. _"My only facedown card left is Reckless Greed; it's a big risk especially if I get two dead draws in a row." _Chloe thought before looking at the dragon. _"But it's a risk I'll have to take!" _Chloe thought before activating her trap.

"Is that Reckless Greed? You must be desperate if you're willing to use that!" Eddy pointed out and Chloe ignored him as she drew two cards.

"I set one card facedown and I summon Wattgiraffe in attack mode!" Chloe plated the cards and the electric giraffe appeared on the field (4/1200/100). "Wattgiraffe, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the giraffe charged past Atomic Scrap Dragon and Scrap Searcher before slamming into Eddy bringing his life-points down to 4300.

"Making a last stand huh? Ya realize that all I need to do to win is summon another Scrap Monster." Eddy pointed out and Chloe grinned as her giraffe returned to her side of the field.

"Then why don't you take your turn and try?" Chloe challenged him and Eddy grinned before drawing his card.

"Ever heard of the phrase "famous last words"?" Eddy asked before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Scrap Shark!" Eddy played the card and a large mechanical shark appeared on the field (4/2100/0).

"A Level 4 monster with that many attack points has to have some kind of drawback." Chloe pointed out and Eddy grinned.

"Oh, he does, but it's not like it matters! Scrap Twin Dragon, nuke Wattgiraffe now!" Eddy commanded and the dragon opened up its maws.

"Just what I was hoping for, I activate my trap card Draining Shield!" Chloe activated the trap and sighed as the blast hit an invisible shield bringing her life-points up to 5700. "Not only has it saved my monster but it's put me in the lead, off course you could attack with Scrap Shark….." Chloe started but stopped when she saw Scrap Shark self-destruct.

"Didn't think I'd need to explain Scrap Shark's effect but evidentially I do." Eddy commented as he folded his arms. "If Scrap Shark is on the field and the effect of an effect monster or a Spell/Trap Card is activated he goes to the scrapyard." Eddy said before grinning. "But he comes with another effect, when Scrap Shark is destroyed by the effect of a Scrap Monster I can take another Scrap Monster from my deck and send it to the graveyard." Eddy added before picking up his deck and searching through it, he found the card he was looking for and sent it to the graveyard.

"So it's pretty much a monster version of Foolish Burial?" Chloe asked and Eddy nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much." Eddy confirmed with a nod. "I end my turn at that." Eddy announced and Chloe didn't draw a card due to Reckless Greed.

"_Okay, Reckless Greed may have prevented me from drawing a card but I can use the other cards at my disposal to make up for that." _Chloe thought before playing a card. "I play the Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"I'm not complaining about that, after all that card benefits me just as much as it benefits you." Eddy shrugged his shoulders before he and Chloe drew three cards.

"_If this works then I'll be able to take down his powerhouse." _Chloe thought before setting two of her drawn cards. "I set these cards facedown and I'll attack directly with Wattgiraffe." Chloe commanded and the giraffe charged towards Eddy again bringing his life-points down to 3100. "That ends my turn." Chloe announced and Eddy drew his card.

"Think she can win this Tyler?" Chelsea asked and Tyler shrugged.

"She's been in tough spots before and has adapted very well to your deck strategy." Tyler answered as he turned to Chelsea. "But as we have seen, your dad is no slouch."

"I summon Scrap Breaker!" Eddy played the card and a massive muscular robot appeared on the field and glared down at Chloe (6/2100/700). "Yeah, yeah, I know that a monster this strong would normally require a tribute but Scrap Breaker has a very powerful effect, if you control a monster I can special summon him, however to do so I have to say good-bye to Scrap Searcher!" Eddy added as Scrap Searcher shattered.

"So in other words you may as well have just tribute summoned him." Chloe pointed out and Eddy shrugged.

"That maybe but there's other ways around that little problem." Eddy answered before playing a card. "I activate Guts of Steel; with this Spell Card I can select three Scrap Monsters in my graveyard." Eddy said as he picked up the three cards, Scrap Goblin, Scrap Searcher and Scrap Beast. "Now you get to choose one, the lucky fella that gets selected gets summoned to either of our fields, the others? They are removed from play."

"That's a long way to go just to bring back a monster." Chloe pointed out as a sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Leave the smart-ass comments to my daughter, now choose!" Eddy responded as he held up the three cards.

"_Hmmm, normally I'd select either of his tuners since Scrap Breaker and Atomic Scrap Dragon are too powerful to tune with either of them." _Chloe thought before frowning. _"On the other hand I've seen this guy pull off Level 9 and Level 10 Synchro Summons so I'll play it safe." _Chloe decided before pointing to Scrap Searcher.

"Looks like this little guy's back for an encore performance!" Eddy announced as Scrap Searcher returned to his side of the field and he pocketed the other two monsters. "But not for long, I play the Spell Card Scrap Sheen!"

"I get the feeling I won't like that card's effect." Chloe commented and Eddy grinned as Scrap Searcher shattered again.

"You won't, mostly because this card means the end for you!" Eddy answered as he returned Scrap Searcher to the graveyard. "Now that I've destroyed Scrap Searcher again this Spell Card will give my surviving scrap monsters a new paint job…..and more importantly one thousand extra attack points!" Eddy explained as Atomic Scrap Dragon's and Scrap Breaker's attacks increased to 4200 and 3100 respectively. "Sorry Chloe, you've done well to last as long as you have but this duel is over, Atomic Scrap Dragon, finish the job you started last turn!" Eddy commanded and the massive dragon's maws opened up again…

"That's just what I was hoping for!" Chloe interrupted and Eddy blinked as Chloe flipped up her Trap Card. "I activate Mirror Force!"

"OH SHIT!" Eddy yelled out as the blast from Atomic Scrap Dragon's maws was reflected back at his two monsters destroying them both. "Fine but guess what? Atomic Scrap Dragon shares Scrap Twin Dragon's revival effect and I'm using it to bring back Scrap Goblin in defense mode!" Eddy played the card and the small ape like robot appeared on the field.

"I was counting on that actually!" Chloe said as she activated her second trap which depicted Summoner Monk getting a gift. "Summoner's Gift, this trap can only be activated if either of us Special Summons a monster, since you just did that I can draw three cards." Chloe said before drawing three cards.

"Oh yeah, well two can play at that game, I move to my second main phase and activate Scrapstorm!" Eddy played the card and Scrap Goblin shattered. "By destroying Scrap Goblin and sending another Scrap Monster from my deck to the graveyard this card will let me draw one more card!" Eddy explained before drawing again. "And most importantly this activates Scrap Searcher's effect?"

"How many times are you going to summon that damn monster?" Chloe asked as Scrap Searcher returned to the field in a crouching position.

"I'll summon him as many times as I need too!" Eddy responded before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn!" Eddy announced and Chloe didn't draw due to Reckless Greed. _"This is perfect, when she tries to attack directly again I'll use my Staunch Defender/Scrap Rage combo to cut her life-points down to size, and it'll be even better if she summons another direct attack Watt monster!"_

"I hope you weren't planning on using those facedown cards because they are about to go." Chloe said as she played one of her drawn cards. "I activate Heavy Storm!" Chloe announced and Eddy's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field destroying his two facedown cards.

"Great, that combo would've stopped you from using Wattgiraffe's effect again!" Eddy grunted as he sent his traps to the graveyard.

"Yeah but more importantly I summon Wattcobra to the field now that the coast is clear!" Chloe played the card and another copy of the electric snake appeared on the field. "Wattcobra, Wattgiraffe, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and her two monsters leapt over Scrap Searcher before hitting Eddy with their attacks bringing his life-points down to 900. "And now I use Wattcobra's effect to add another Watt monster from my deck to my hand!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know!" Eddy grunted as Chloe announced her move before searching through her deck, once she found the card that she was looking for she quickly added it to her hand.

"And that ends my turn." Chloe announced and Eddy drew his card.

"_Perfect, just what I was hoping for!" _Eddie thought before playing the card. "I summon Scrap Orthros but to summon this guy I have to destroy Scrap Searcher again!" Eddie played the card and Scrap Searcher shattered, in its place stood a large mechanical wolf that was black in color (4/1700/1100). "As for my normal summon, I think I'll use it to bring out Scrap Hunter!" Eddy played the card and a large, archaic looking robot with red concealed eyes appeared on the field (3/1600/400).

"Great, your monsters can destroy mine!" Chloe gulped and Eddy shook his head.

"I would stop there but this is to fun! You see Scrap Orthros is a Tuner Monster!" Eddie explained and Chloe's eyes widened as the two monsters leapt into the air. "And I'm tuning him with Scrap Hunter to bring out Scrap Archfiend!" Eddy played the card and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared in Scrap Orthros's place, it was a massive jet black machine that closely resembled Red Dragon Archfiend (7/2700/1800).

"Well…..at least it's not another dragon!" Chloe said with a nervous gulp and Eddy grinned.

"That's true and unlike Scrap Twin and Atomic Scrap Dragon Scrap Archfiend is a monster that doesn't have an effect." Eddy answered with a shrug before grinning. "But you know what? Considering it's a 2700 attack point beatstick that's about to wipe the floor with Wattcobra I'll make do!" Eddy announced as the machine charged towards Wattcobra…

"Sorry but you just cost yourself the duel! Go Dimension Wall!" Chloe activated the trap and Eddy's eyes widened as Scrap Archfiend turned around and punched him in the chest bringing his life-points down to 0, Eddy got back to his feet as the holograms disappeared. "It feels so good to not be on the receiving end of that for once." Chloe commented as she gathered up her cards and returned them to her deck.

"I bet it does!" Chelsea commented as she approached Chloe, she held out her hand and Chloe gave Chelsea her cards back. "Now I just need to duel with your deck and we'll definitely be prepared for the tournament." Chelsea added before remembering something. "Just one last thing….." Chelsea trailed off before searching through her deck and picking out the cards Chloe had added to it. "I think these belong to you." Chelsea added before handing the cards over.

"Thanks, I didn't think you'd want to keep them anyway." Chloe commented as she returned the cards to her deck which she subsequently returned to her deck slot. "Most of them don't exactly fit in with your deck."

"True but Reckless Greed might work well." Chelsea shrugged before noticing that her dad was approaching the two girls. "Chloe, you mind giving us some space?"

"Sure." Chloe nodded before stepping out of the way, Chelsea looked up at her dad before sighing.

"I think I have something to say to you." Chelsea sighed in resignation before turning to her dad. "Dad….."

"Chelsea, I started the argument, I may as well apologize first." Eddy conceded and Chelsea looked at her. "Chelsea, I'm sorry that I yelled at you, as for you and Beth, whilst I do think that the two of you shouldn't be together, it's not my place to say and besides it's obvious that you and Beth are happy together and I shouldn't let my feelings on your last duel get in the way out that." Eddy sighed as he placed his hands in his pockets. "It took me a while to come to terms with your lifestyle choice; I guess this will take me just as long."

"Apology accepted dad." Chelsea sighed before biting her bottom lip. "And I'm sorry for snapping at you and making the situation worse."

"Apology accepted." Eddy said with a nod and Chelsea grinned at that. "I suppose you're wondering what I meant by preparing huh?"

"Yeah, I was wondering that." Chelsea nodded and Eddy grinned.

"Well, with you having moved home and all I'm coming out of retirement." Eddy explained and Chelsea blinked. "At first I'll be doing some small tournaments whilst I finish up my days at the construction site but before long I'll be competing in tournaments like Battle City."

"That's great dad." Chelsea said before noticing how dark it was getting. "We should probably head back to our dorm room, it's getting pretty late."

"True, we're heading home as well." Eddy said and Samantha nodded in agreement. "Keep in touch Chelsea and try to stay safe."

"We will." Chelsea nodded in agreement before the students and her parents went their separate ways.


	72. House Rules

"Ah, you've returned." Victor said as he turned around to greet Sarah as she entered the room, the robed woman grunted as she glared at him. "Not in the best of moods I see?"

"I left behind a clue to my identity when I was fleeing the island, by the time I realized it I was on the helicopter back here." Sarah said and Victor's eyes narrowed. "I wouldn't worry; the clue was so vague that those idiots will never figure it out."

"I hope for your sake that you are correct." Victor responded as he turned to his desk. "Karina will be dealt with shortly, I sent another agent to turn off her life support."

"That's a little extreme isn't it?" Sarah asked and Victor shook his head.

"All the agents under Phillip's command, besides Presario, Robert and Michael for obvious reasons, have been trying to get plea bargains by testifying against Phillip even though no one knows where he is or even if he's alive." Victor answered with a frown. "If he ever does come back then he'll be arrested for so many crimes his head will spin."

"And you're hoping to avoid that." Sarah said as she leaned against the door. "What's our next step?"

"Jack is currently recruiting more agents, as far as the students go…" Victor said before typing away at his computer. "Duel Academy decided to treat a certain number of students by taking them to Domino City for a field trip in two weeks' time, it just so happens that the students we're targeting are among them."

"So we attack them in force?" Sarah asked and Victor shook his head.

"Too risky, they'll have backup in the form of the other students on the trip and that's not even taking into account the possibility that they'll simply call the cops on us." Victor answered before smirking evilly. "No, I have a far more cunning and effective strategy in mind and I have an agent in place to do just that."

"And that strategy is?" Sarah asked and Victor's smirk grew.

"Divide, and conquer." Victor said with a sinister chuckle and Sarah left the room having heard all she had needed to here.

*a week later on the duel academy ship*

It had been two weeks since Chelsea's Orichalcos duel and her rib injury where fully healed as where the injuries Beth had suffered at Karina's hands, security had been tightened up at the academy to prevent something like this from happening again but the students were having their doubts.

That wasn't all that had happened however, it was the week of the Tag Team Tournament and with it starting at the end of the week Duel Academy had decided to take the students on a field trip, the ship was docking at Domino pier and the students had been called to the front of the ship so that they could be debriefed.

"All right boys and girls, I know you are all eager to leave the ship and explore the city." Martin said as he tried to make his voice heard over the chatter between the students. "But in the interest of safety we must go through these rules, Number 1: Stay with your assigned groups."

"We haven't been assigned groups!" Lance quickly pointed out and Martin sweat-dropped.

"Yes Mr. Alvers, we're well aware of that, you will be assigned groups as soon as we're finished here." Martin responded as he cleared his throat. "Number 2: we are well aware that several couples are on this trip but if you sneak off to have sex and we catch you we will force the both of you to spend the rest of the trip on the boat in separate rooms, public displays of affection such as holding each other's hands or kissing are acceptable." Martin added earning several groans from the students in question. "Would you prefer that or being arrested for indecent exposure?"

"Much as I hate to admit it, he has a point there." Chelsea whispered to Beth who merely grinned at that.

"If anything that rule will just encourage the couples even more." Beth pointed out and Chelsea laughed at that. "Don't get any ideas Chelsea, just because I was forced to send you that e-mail doesn't mean we'll have sex in public." Beth quickly added and Chelsea, alongside several male students who were close enough to listen in, groaned at that, the male students quickly backed off once they got death glares from Chelsea.

"Rule Number 3: you are free to Duel, whether it is between yourselves or duelists you meet in the city, with that said please respect the rules of the game and remember that you are representing Duel Academy." Martin added and he quickly caught several students rolling their eyes at that one. "Yes, I realize that's a pretty obvious rule but it needed to be said regardless."

"What does he take us for, rookies?" Tyler muttered under his breath as he watched the speech.

"Rule Number 4 and most importantly off all, have fun." Martin said before noticing the looks that his last comment was getting him. "And before anyone asks, no I'm not sure if hell's frozen over or not."

"Did he really just say that?!" Chloe asked Chelsea who shrugged her shoulders in response.

"He did and I'm expecting the world to end any moment now." Chelsea answered with a grin and Chloe giggled at that.

"That it is all so I will allow the other teachers to take it from here." Martin said before turning to Jeff who was trying to hide his amusement at Martin's previous statement.

"All right, as I call out your names please step forward and stand next to me." Jeff told the students before looking at his clipboard which had a list of the students he was looking after. "Can the following students please step forward, Chloe Richardson, Chelsea Cunningham, Rachel Travis, Kyle Winston, Donny Cramer, Drake Derringer, Beth McKenzie, Lance Alvers and Tyler Kaiba." Jeff called out and the students stepped forward and stood next to him.

"You heard him students." Maria said as she looked over her clipboard. "Can the following students please step forward, Theresa Daniels, Andreas Freshier, Marcus Reynolds, Brandon Thomas, Evan Grant, Jason York, Nicky Tryon, Kimberly Troy, Nathan Troy and Damien Tarnow." Maria called out the names and like before the students whose names were called out stepped forward and stood next to Maria.

"And that leaves me and Martin with the rest of you." Hamden said as he set his clipboard aside and the remaining students joined them.

"Now before we leave we have two things to discuss." Martin said and the students groaned. "I know, I know but I'll try to make this quick, your assigned teachers are in charge of where you go and where you stop to eat on this trip, however if a student is say vegetarian and his/her group ends up eating at a McDonalds don't hesitate to ask if you can eat somewhere else." Martin added and the students nodded in agreement. "The second thing is simple, be back at the pier by no later than 7:00pm, if you are late you will get detention."

"Man that's harsh." Chelsea commented before sweat-dropping. "But then again this is Martin I'm talking about; he practically wrote the book on being a strict teacher."

"Yeah I know, and that's why I actually feel sorry for the students who they are looking after." Chloe whispered to Chelsea who turned to her. "For one thing, knowing how strict Martin is they'll be under constant watch, especially considering how many times Jessica has sex with men other than Cameron."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Chelsea agreed with a grin. "At least we didn't end up in the same group as Cameron, Jessica and Thomas, if we had I would've thrown them overboard before the moment they insulted me."

"And you'd probably be left on the ship." Tyler pointed out and Chelsea sweat-dropped as she turned to him. "But still with them in that group we should be able to relax, though to be honest I would've preferred to be in Marcus's group."

"So you could strategize with him right?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded. "Tyler relax, this is a field trip after all."

"Yes, a field trip that just happens to be on the eve of the Tag Team Tournament." Tyler pointed out and Chloe frowned when she realized that he had a point. "Well if anything we can use this time to prepare anyway."

"Yeah, that's true." Chloe said with a nod as they followed their group off the ship and onto the pier. "Here's hoping that we can avoid any more Orichalcos Duels."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Chelsea said with a shudder as she thought back to her duel against Karina. "I still have nightmares about it."

"Wait, Osiris Red's resident tough girl has nightmares?" Rachel asked as she overheard the conversation and Chelsea groaned.

"Shut up Rachel! I'm not in the mood and besides, you haven't been in one!" Chelsea groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

"And I don't intend to end up in one." Rachel answered and Chelsea rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you have any idea where Jeff's taking us?"

"Beats me, just as long as we can find some good duelists I'm not complaining." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders and Jeff nodded in agreement. "And as long as he takes us somewhere other than McDonalds I won't complain."

"You realize Martin was just using that as an example right?" Kyle pointed out and Chelsea shook her head.

"Don't care, I hated that shit as a kid and I hate it now." Chelsea responded as they reached one of the three busses that Duel Academy had rented for the trip.

"Okay, I know you are tired of being nagged at this point but there's one more thing I need to discuss." Jeff said as he turned to the students in question who groaned. "Don't worry; I'll make this as quick and painless as I can."

"So in other words this will be the exact opposite of one of Martin's lectures." Chelsea muttered under her breath getting a few giggles out of the students close enough to hear her.

"I'll be sure to repeat what you just said to Martin at the end of the day Chelsea." Jeff said bluntly and Chelsea laughed nervously as she sweat-dropped. "You all have your cell-phones on you, now if one of you for whatever reason gets separated from the group then you shouldn't hesitate to call either me or one of the other teachers, any questions?"

"Yeah, what if the area we're in has bad reception or our cell-phone dies on us?" Donny asked and Jeff frowned.

"If that happens there are a couple of options open to you, if there's a police officer nearby then approach them and tell them that you got separated from your group for Duel Academy's field trip." Jeff started before thinking for a moment. "Alternatively if you get separated because you were challenged to a duel you can always ask your opponent if you can borrow their cell-phone, last but not least, there are pay-phones dotted across the city and you were told to bring spending money, it may be a bit old fashioned but they should still work."

"You mean to tell me that someone uses those things for reasons other than the most obvious place for public sex?" Chelsea commented and Beth shrugged.

"Apparently they do." Beth responded with a shrug before they and the other students got on the bus, the couples in the group opted to sit next to each other whilst the others merely chose where they wanted to sit, the bus doors closed once Jeff was aboard and the bus drove off.

*meanwhile*

"Sir, the targets are on the move." A robed figure who was watching the action from a nearby rooftop said into an earpiece. "How should I proceed?"

"Get one of the students alone and isolated from the group, then challenge him/her to a duel under the guise of looking for a challenge." Victor answered and the robed figure nodded. "Also, the student should catch on the moment you reveal your Duel Disk to them, at that point just drop the pleasantries." Victor added and the robed figure nodded. "Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, who's going to be observing the duel?" The figure asked and waited for a few moments.

"Jack will be because Sarah's busy at the moment." Victor answered and the robed figure frowned.

"I thought he was busy recruiting." The figure asked and Victor sighed before he answered his question.

"He was but he's agreed to take time out of his busy schedule to watch this duel." Victor answered and the figure nodded. "Don't screw up or do I need to remind you what happened with Karina two weeks ago?"

"Nah, I got this." The figure said before hanging up. _"It's a bunch of students, how tough can they be?" _The figure thought before following the bus via the rooftops.

*sometime later*

Jeff's group had decided to stop at a card shop (not the one owned by Chloe's stepdad since that was across town from them) so that the students could do some last minute card shopping before the tournament, the group was currently walking together in a large crowd…or so they thought.

"_Great, the only Spellcaster and Warrior cards I could get aren't that good!" _Chloe thought with a frown as she looked at the cards she had brought from the card shop. _"Hopefully the next one we visit will have better cards, if not I can always have dad send me some."_

"_Err, Chloe?" _Silent Magician interrupted her train of thought and Chloe blinked as she heard her Duel Spirit's voice.

"_Oh hey Silent Magician, what's up?" _Chloe asked her Duel Spirit who sighed.

"_Weren't you with the other students on the field trip a few moments ago?" _Silent Magician asked and Chloe's eyes widened as she looked around for the students, however she couldn't see anyone from Duel Academy much less anyone she knew.

"_Great and I've never been in this part of the city before!" _Chloe thought with a nervous gulp before getting an idea. _"Duh, I'll just give Jeff a call!" _Chloe thought before digging out her cell-phone…..which was subsequently accidentally knocked out of her hands by another pedestrian. _"Oh come on!" _Chloe thought before quickly picking it back up. _"Oh great, this has to be the worst possible time for my cell-phone's battery to die out!"_

"_Ever consider getting a new one? That thing's battery life seems to die out a lot." _Silent Magician asked and Chloe frowned.

"_Do you have any idea how much these things cost?! I got this thing for my eleventh birthday and dad's already getting me a laptop for my birthday!" _Chloe answered with an annoyed frown.

"_Any payphones near you?" _Silent Magician asked and Chloe glanced around.

"_No, and there isn't any cops either." _Chloe answered with a sigh. _"I could try that card shop but they only had one phone in the whole shop and that was around the back."_

"_And I doubt retracing your steps will help you given the size of the crowd." _Silent Magician added and Chloe gulped. _"Actually I have an idea."_

"_Let's hear it!" _Chloe responded with a sigh of relief and Silent Magician nodded.

"_Look for a duelist, there's bound to be some in the area and you may get a duel out of it!" _Silent Magician suggested and Chloe grinned before she started searching for one, unfortunately for her all the duelists in the area where either dueling or was taking their duel disk's to be repaired and didn't know where the other students where, Chloe eventually found herself in an alleyway and she groaned in annoyance as she kicked away an empty soda can. _"How could this happen?!"_

"_Don't blame yourself, it was a large crowd." _Silent Magician answered as Chloe put her hands in her blazer's pockets. _"Chloe, up ahead, that young man has a deck." _Silent Magician said suddenly and Chloe looked up, the youth in question was shuffling his deck and had neck length black hair with bangs and blue eyes, he was wearing a red t-shirt blue jeans and black boots.

"_Thank god! We might actually get somewhere with him!" _Chloe thought before running up to the young man.

"Not often that a pretty girl comes running up to me." The duelist commented with a chuckle before noticing the look on Chloe's face. "You okay? You seem worried."

"I…..I…..give me a sec to catch my breath." Chloe said before taking a deep breath. "I'm on duel academy's field trip into the city but I got separated from my group."

"Ah yeah, I thought I recognized your blazer." The duelist commented before frowning. "I'm a former student myself, graduated last year from Obelisk Blue."

"Yeah, I'm, in Osiris Red myself." Chloe commented before sighing as they started walking side by side. "I honestly don't know how I got separated, one minute I was walking alongside my roommate whilst looking over the cards I had brought from a card shop, the next minute I was alone in a crowd with no one I knew in sight."

"Hey don't worry; I'll get you back to your group in no time." The duelist reassured Chloe and she grinned at that. "My name's Rob by the way."

"I'm Chloe." Chloe introduced herself and Rob nodded in response. "So you have any idea where my group is?" Chloe asked and Rob thought for a moment.

"Unfortunately I don't." Rob answered and Chloe lowered her eyes dejectedly. "But I know a guy who said he spotted some students from Duel Academy."

"You do?" Chloe asked as her hopes rose.

"Yeah, I had a duel with the guy about ten minutes ago and he mentioned spotting some Duel Academy students after he beat me." Rob explained and Chloe grinned at that. "So what deck do you run?"

"I run a hybrid deck of Spellcasters and Warriors." Chloe answered and Rob blinked before it hit him. "Let me guess, you recognize me from the Battle City Tournament."

"Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't recognize you sooner, I was rooting for you to win the whole thing." Rob said honestly and Chloe looked at him strangely. "What can I say? I like a good underdog story, that and the fact that I would've preferred it to Otto winning."

"What about Theresa?" Chloe asked and Rob grinned.

"She's a great duelist, don't get me wrong, but everyone else in my group of friends was expecting either her, Brandon, Kimberly or Otto to win." Rob shrugged before noticing someone. "There he is!" Rob said and Chloe looked up, standing at the end of the alleyway was a tall lanky man with wild black hair and blue eyes, he was wearing messy clothing and was smoking a cigarette, he looked up when he heard the footsteps approaching him.

"Looking to get your ass kicked again?" The man asked bluntly as he glanced towards the two duelists. "Wait, that girl was with the Duel Academy students, why is she here?"

"She got separated from her group Logan." Rob told him and Logan smirked. "Chloe this is Logan, he's the duelist I mentioned."

"So you're Chloe huh? I guess you want to get back to your friends as soon as possible." Logan commented dryly before tossing the cigarette aside and stomping it out.

"_Chloe, careful, I get the feeling this man is hiding something." _Silent Magician warned her and Chloe frowned.

"Why don't we make things interesting?" Logan asked as he stepped in front of the alleyway's exit. "We're both duelists and we obviously enjoy a good challenge, what do you say to a duel?"

"Honestly I'd prefer to get back to my group as soon as possible." Chloe said as she tried to push past Logan. "Otherwise I would've accepted the challenge."

"Do you even know where they are?" Logan asked and Chloe stopped in her tracks. "How about this, we duel and win or lose I'll let you use my cell-phone to give your teacher a call."

"Well, since I don't have much choice." Chloe sighed before turning to Logan. "But maybe we should duel somewhere with a bit more room."

"She has a point, our duel was incredibly cramped and who knows? Maybe her group will spot the duel in progress." Rob pointed out and Logan thought for a few moments before nodding.

"All right, you have yourself a deal." Logan answered before leading her out of the alleyway and into the street, the crowd gave way to allow the two duelists enough room for their duel and Chloe activated her duel disk. "Give me a moment." Logan said before digging into the bag he was wearing over his shoulder and producing a duel disk…..an Orichalcos Duel Disk. "What's the matter, you look like you've seen a ghost." Logan asked before grinning sadistically. "Oh, that's right; you've seen my duel disk in action before!"

"Where the hell did you get that?!" Chloe demanded and Logan smirked.

"Oh, you mean this old thing?" Logan asked and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "You honestly don't think I'm stupid enough to tell you that huh?"

"Rob, did he use that thing against you?" Chloe asked as she turned to him and Rob shook his head.

"No, he used a standard Duel Disk." Rob answered as his eyes narrowed. "Hell I don't even know if he was using his true deck against me."

"Guess what Rob? You're right!" Logan responded as he strapped on his duel disk and turned it on. "You know what else? The teachers and your fellow students won't realize you're missing until it's too late!"

"You're wrong; they'll be here before you know it!" Chloe snapped at him and Logan smirked.

"How can you be so sure?" Logan asked and Chloe bit her lip nervously. "Oh that's right, you can't!"

*elsewhere*

The students and Jeff where unaware that Chloe had been separated from the group and like Chloe that was because of the large crowd of people, eventually the group stopped at a small restaurant near the center of town for something to eat.

"Okay, quick headcount before we go in, Chelsea Cunningham?" Jeff called and Chelsea shot her arm up. "Beth McKenzie?" Jeff continued and Chelsea's girlfriend shot her arm up. "Rachel Travis?" Jeff asked and the young Osiris Red student followed suit. "Kyle Winston?" Jeff asked and Kyle rose his arm up. "Okay, only a few names left, Donny Cramer, Drake Derringer, Lance Alvers, Tyler Kaiba and Chloe Richardson?" Jeff called out the names and one by one the students raised their hands, all except Chloe off course. "Chloe, are you there?" Jeff asked and Chelsea looked around.

"Err, Jeff, I don't see her!" Chelsea called out to the teacher's eyes widened. "She must've gotten separated from the group after we left that card shop."

"That makes sense, what doesn't make sense is why hasn't she called?" Jeff asked and Lance thought for a few moments.

"I think I know why, whenever I and Chloe where together she'd always complain about how crappy her cell-phone's battery life was." Lance explained…..before blushing like a madman. "Any students, whose minds are in the gutter, please remove them before I use a crowbar to do it." Lance warned them and the other students started whistling innocently. "I don't remember seeing any pay-phones either."

"This is just great." Jeff grunted before digging his cell-phone out of his pocket. "I'm going to see if any of the other teachers have seen her."

"Don't her parents live in the city?" Donny asked and Jeff nodded.

"Yes, they do, however they live across the city from where we are so it's unlikely that Chloe went that far." Jeff answered as he waited for Maria to pick up. "There's no need to worry them anyway, Chloe's a smart girl and she'll be able to find her way back to us."

"I hope your right." Tyler said with a worried frown as he folded his arms.

"_Lance, Chloe is in grave danger." _Thestalos told him and Lance blinked. _"She's about to start an Orichalcos Duel."_

"_Oh for fuck's sake, not again!" _Lance thought before running off. "Jeff, I'm going to search for Chloe, if I find her I'll call you."

"Lance, wait…." Jeff called out to him only to realize that Tyler and Chelsea where running after him.

"Teach don't worry, we're just going after him to make sure that he doesn't get lost as well." Chelsea reassured him as she ran after Lance.

"Okay but once you find her call me!" Jeff called after them as they disappeared from site.

"I'm guessing you guys got the news as well?" Lance asked once they caught up to him, they nodded as they ran in the direction where they last left Chloe. "We don't even know where she is, how are supposed to find her?"

"I don't know, dumb luck?" Chelsea shrugged her shoulders causing the two teens to face-fault in response. "I don't see you guys coming up with any better ideas." Chelsea pointed out as she helped her male companions up.

"How about we just focus on trying to find Chloe?" Lance offered as they resumed their search…until they quite literally bumped into Rob. "Hey man, how about you watch were you're going!"

"Sorry, I was in a hurry." Rob apologized as he helped Lance up. "This is actually pretty convenient; I was looking for Duel Academy students."

"Okay…..why?" Chelsea asked and Rob cleared his throat.

"Well I had just finished a duel when a Duel Academy student ran up to me telling me she got separated from her group." Rob told them and the students blinked.

"This duel academy student wouldn't happen to be 5ft 2, around her age with Elbow Length Dark Brown Hair, Green Eyes and is wearing a red and white stomach exposing tanktop under her Osiris Red blazer, would she?" Tyler asked and Rob blinked a few minutes before nodding.

"Yeah, that's her, I'm guessing you guys are from her group, long story short she's in an Orichalcos Duel." Rob nodded…only to end up pinned up against the nearest wall by Chelsea.

"WHERE IS SHE YOU PIECE OF SHIT?!" Chelsea demanded and Rob started sweating bullets, the scene earned them a few odd looks from passersby who chose to mind their own business.

"I never thought I'd complain about a pretty girl pinning me against the wall." Rob commented and Chelsea growled as she tightened her grip on his shirt. "Oh come on, can't we talk about this over coffee or something?!"

"If you're asking her out don't bother, not only is she taken but she's been out of the closet for…about a year right?" Lance asked Chelsea who nodded in response. "Yeah, she's been out of the closet for about a year."

"Why is it always the pretty ones?" Rob groaned and Chelsea growled. "Look, I had nothing to do with it, I had just fought the guy in a duel and I thought that he'd be able to help her out, I didn't think this would happen."

"You had better be telling us the truth." Chelsea warned him as she let go. "How about we start over? I'm Chelsea, he's Lance and he's Tyler." Chelsea introduced herself and Rob nodded.

"Name's Rob, I'm a former Duel Academy student." Rob introduced himself as he straightened his shirt. "They aren't that far from here, if we hurry maybe we can get there before the duel starts."

"Guys wait up!" Their train of thought was interrupted when they heard several footsteps approaching them, they looked up and saw Theresa, Brandon, Andreas and Marcus approaching and it was Theresa that had spoken up. "You guys got the message as well."

"Yeah, and Rob here was about to take us to the duel location." Chelsea said as she turned to him. "Isn't that right?"

"Well I would've if you hadn't threatened me but yeah, I was." Rob answered before nodding to Theresa. "Good to see you again Theresa."

"Yeah, it's good to see you too." Theresa said before turning to Chelsea. "Okay, why exactly where you threatening my ex-boyfriend Chelsea?"

"Wait, he's your ex?" Lance asked as he scratched his head. "How many boyfriends have you had?"

"Three, Rob here was my first followed by Drew and finally Brandon." Theresa answered before shaking her head. "We dated briefly when I first moved to the school but since he was a Ra Yellow Student and I was in Osiris Red we agreed to end it on good terms due to how difficult it was to keep that relationship going."

"Makes me glad I'm dating a girl in my own dorm." Chelsea muttered before shaking her head. "As for your question, he said that he was looking for Duel Academy students due to Chloe's Orichalcos Duel, needless to say I lost control of my temper."

"For about the hundredth time this month." Marcus muttered under his breath only to get a death glare from Chelsea. "I'm shutting up now!"

"That's not important, what is important is that we get to the duel site and give Chloe the support she needs." Chelsea asserted and the other duelists nodded in agreement.

"Follow me." Rob instructed them before leading them away.

*back at the duel*

Whilst that had been going on Logan had opted to go first once he and Chloe had drawn their opening hands, unfortunately for Chloe she could tell from the look on his face that he either had the Seal of the Orichalcos in his hand or had a way of adding it to his hand.

"Why don't we play a bit of a guessing game to start things off? I activate Pot of Chance." Logan played the card which depicted the Game Show Host from Question handing over the Pot of Greed to a contestant. "Here's how it works, I take the top three cards in my deck and set them facedown and you have to guess the identity of one, if it's a monster it's Special Summoned to my field whilst ignoring the summoning conditions, if it's a Spell then I get to activate it, if it's a trap then I can activate it if it was a Spell Card, the other two cards get added to my hand."

"That's gotta have some kind of drawback, otherwise it's broken." Chloe protested and Logan grinned as he picked up the top three cards in his deck and set them down one by one.

"Tough shit, now choose!" Logan told her and Chloe grit her teeth.

"_Didn't Karina play a broken card during her duel with Chelsea two weeks ago? Maybe this guy's working for the same guy Karina did." _Chloe thought with a frown before pointing to the middle card. "That's the card I choose."

"Let's see whose luck has paid off!" Logan announced before turning the card around. "What do you know? It's a Spell Card and the worst possible spell card that you could've chosen!"

"You don't mean…." Chloe trailed off as her eyes widened.

"That's right! I activate The Seal of the Orichalcos!" Logan played the card and Chloe braced herself as the Seal surrounded both duelists sending any unfortunate onlookers who got too close to the duel flying, once the Seal completely surrounded them the Pentagram appeared on Logan's forehead and he grinned. "If you think I'll be as easy as those idiots you faced in New York then your sadly mistaken!"

"_Did he even see my Battle City duels?!" _Chloe thought with a frown as the passersby who were sent flying by the activation of the Orichalcos where helped up.

"Now let's continue the trend of luck cards, I activate Dangerous Machine Type 6!" Logan played the card and Chloe's eyes narrowed as the Spell Card that gave her so much trouble during her test duel appeared on the field.

"Don't bother explaining that thing's effect; this isn't my first time facing that thing!" Chloe told him and Logan smirked.

"Good to see you're smarter than you look." Logan said snidely before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"_No monsters? What's he up too?" _Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"Great, the one time I could really use something like Heavy Storm and I don't have it in my hand." _Chloe thought before adding her drawn card to her hand and picking up two cards. "I set a card facedown and I summon Gemini Elf!" Chloe played the cards and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900) and needless to say the elves didn't look thrilled to be in the Orichalcos again.

"People still use that outdated card?" Logan asked with a smirk and Chloe smirked.

"Yeah, but why not, it's a member of the 1900 club and is a Level 4 Monster, sure they lack any effects but if all else fails….." Chloe trailed off as the elves fired twin bursts of magic at Logan…..

"I activate my Trap Card, go Pythic Victory!" Logan activated the trap which depicted a field full of dead bodies. "The attack will go through but your monster will be destroyed and not only will you take the damage but I get to draw cards equal to its level."

"Okay, that's definitely broken!" Chloe protested as the attack rebounded towards her going straight through the two elves (destroying them in the process) and striking her in the chest bringing her life-points down to 6100, once that was done Logan drew his cards. "Why would I2 release cards like that, Pot of Chance and Ritual of the Ancients?!"

"I'd be stupid to even consider answering that. "Logan said snidely before grinning. "Well, well, looks like we have company." Logan commented and Chloe blinked before looking up and seeing the other students arriving with Rob.

"Man I'm glad to see you guys!" Chloe sighed in relief as she saw them, once Chelsea caught her breath she turned to her roommate. "I know your probably wondering how I got separated from the group in the first place…"

"Chloe, how about we focus on how you got separated from our group after the duel." Chelsea suggested to her and Chloe nodded. "It seems this guy's using Luck Cards."

"Yeah, and he's used two cards that are as broken as Ritual of the Ancients." Chloe responded and Chelsea frowned as she remembered the card from her duel with Karina.

"Didn't Kaiba say he had never heard of that card?" Theresa asked and Tyler nodded. "Anyone want to bet that he's never heard of the cards this guy has used?"

"I'd say that's a safe bet." Tyler agreed before digging into his pocket and producing his Cell-Phone. "I'm going to call Jeff to let him know that Chloe's been found."

"And that she's in an Orichalcos Duel?" Theresa asked and Tyler nodded before searching through his contacts.

"I end my turn." Chloe said and Logan grinned before drawing his card.

"That's all ya can do huh? This'll be a piece of cake!" Logan taunted her before looking at his drawn card. "And now, Dangerous Machine Type 6 activates!" Logan announced as the arrow in the center of the machine started spinning.

"_Come on, give me a four!" _Chloe thought as she waited for the machine to stop, however she frowned as it eventually it stopped on 3.

"Well, it must be my lucky day." Logan smirked as he drew his card. "And to make sure that my luck continues I activate the Continuous Spell Card Second Coin Toss, I'm sure I don't need to explain it since not only is the card old but its name pretty much describes its effect perfectly." Logan played the card and Chloe frowned.

"Your luck will run out eventually!" Chloe snapped at him but was unable to hide her unease. _"If he has more than one copy of that Pythic Victory card I'm in big trouble!"_

"I don't see it running out any time soon, especially with a Spell Card like Cup of Ace!" Logan played the card and dug around his pocket before producing a coin. "Don't worry, unlike that idiot that your boyfriend faced….."

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Chloe snapped at him and Logan smirked.

"That's not what the newspapers say." Logan smirked before showing both sides of the coin to confirm that it wasn't double headed. "I'm using a legit coin, but with Second Coin Toss it may as well be double headed!" Logan explained before tossing the coin into the air, it landed in the palm of his hand and he looked at it. "Tails but don't get your hopes up, I'm using Second Coin Toss's effect to toss again!" Logan said before tossing it into the air again, when it landed he looked at it and smirked. "And it's heads."

"Ugh, fine, just draw already!" Chloe snapped at him and Logan smirked before drawing twice and sending his Spell to the graveyard.

"Now the real fun begins! I summon Jirai Gumo in attack mode!" Logan played the card and a huge brown spider appeared on the field growling menacingly at Chloe (4/2200/100) and its attack increased to 2700 thanks to the seal. "Normally I'd be stupid to even consider running this card nowadays but with Second Coin Toss I can't lose."

"Yeah, except for the fact that you have already used up its effect." Chloe pointed out and Logan frowned when he realized that she was right. "So, you want to run the risk or not?"

"Do you think I'm stupid? Don't answer that." Logan responded before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"_Good, I drew a monster…." _Chloe thought before Logan activated his trap. "Is that Tour of Doom?"

"You got it, basically during your standby phase I toss a coin, heads, you can't summon any monsters except for Special Summons, tails and I get that restriction." Logan explained before grinning. "And that's where Second Coin Toss comes in!" Logan said as he tossed the coin into the air again, it landed on his palm and he smirked. "Tails but no matter, I'll just activate the effect of Second Coin Toss!" Logan said as he tossed the coin into the air, it landed on his palm and he smirked. "Guess what? You can't Normal or Flip Summon this turn." Logan said as he held up the coin to show that it had landed on heads.

"Fine but that thing doesn't stop me from setting this monster in defense mode!" Chloe set the monster down and frowned. "And that ends my turn." Chloe announced and Logan drew his card.

"Let's see if Lady Luck's still on my side, I activate Dangerous Machine Type Six again!" Logan announced as the wheel started spinning, however Chloe jumped for joy when it landed on one.

"Hah! That means you have to discard a card!" Chloe taunted him and Logan smirked. "Why are you smirking? Dangerous Machine is a dice roll card!"

"I know that, which is why I activate Dice Re-Roll!" Logan activated the trap and grinned. "The first dice roll is negated and I get another shot at it!" Logan announced as the wheel started spinning again, his grin grew wider when he saw it land on five. "Well, well, looks like your facedown monsters going bye-bye!" Logan taunted her as a beam of light struck the monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800), which was quickly destroyed. "Too bad, that little lady would have saved you from a world of hurt!"

"Or you think! Go Threatening Roar!" Chloe activated the trap and Jiri Gumo cowered as a loud roar echoed throughout the area.

"Fine, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Logan set the card down and Chloe drew her card. "And now Tour of Doom's effect activates!"

"Yean, yeah, I know." Chloe said impatiently as Logan tossed the coin up into the air, it landed on tails and Chloe frowned. "Let me guess, Second Coin Toss?"

"You got it!" Logan said with a grin as he tossed the coin into the air, when it landed he frowned. "Tails again, you got lucky."

"Good, I set one card facedown and a monster in defense." Chloe set the two cards and Logan activated his trap.

"Before you end your turn I activate my trap, Lucky Chance!" Logan announced as the trap revealed itself. "When an effect like Jirai Gumo's is activated this trap will let me draw one card if I call another coin toss right."

"Great, that means another combo for Second Coin Toss." Chloe grunted before sighing. "I end my turn." Chloe announced and Logan drew his card.

"And you know what the means!" Logan said with a grin as Dangerous Machine's wheel started spinning again, it eventually stopped on three. "Good, that means that I get an extra draw." Logan said before drawing a card. "Heh, why leave it at one Second Coin Toss?"

"You don't mean….." Chloe trailed off as Logan activated a second copy of his Spell Card.

"So, wait, Logan now gets three chances at getting a coin toss right?" Chelsea asked Tyler who nodded in response.

"Unfortunately yes, and that means that he has a very low chance of Jiri Gumo's side effect hurting him." Tyler responded as he folded his arms. "But he's made one mistake, namely his entire back row is occupied."

"He's right, once Chloe draws Heavy Storm or a similar card Logan's combo goes down the drain." Brandon said as he folded his arms.

"Actually I'm not so sure if that's a good thing." Chelsea admitted and the two boys turned to her. "All five of Logan's Spell and Trap Card zones are occupied, if he draws something like Mirror Force or another copy of Dice Re-Roll it'll be a dead draw."

"She's got a point; as long as Logan's Spell and Trap Card zones are occupied Chloe will be free to attack once she draws something stronger than Jiri Gumo." Theresa agreed before frowning. "But that doesn't take into account the possibility of her not drawing a strong enough monster before her life-points are depleted."

"Theresa, you are aware that I can hear you, right?" Chloe asked her and Theresa sweat-dropped whilst laughing nervously. "And Chelsea's right, with no more room for Spell and Trap Cards you'll be lucky to not get dead draws from now on!"

"Doesn't matter, I have everything I need to beat you and take your soul!" Logan responded with a grin before looking over his hand. "Obviously I can't Normal or Flip Summon any monsters due to Tour of Doom's effect but you know what? I have my giant spider here to make up for that! Jirai Gumo, attack her defense monster!" Logan commanded and as the spider charged towards Chloe's facedown monster Logan dug into his pocket and produced the coin again. "I call heads!" Logan announced before flipping the coin into the air.

"_Okay, if he calls that wrong then Jirai Gumo's effect will cut his life-points in half, if he calls it right then the attack will go through." _Chloe thought before frowning. _"But on the other hand as long as he has two copies of Second Coin Toss on the field he can flip a coin as much as he needs too." _Chloe thought as the coin landed on Logan's palm and Logan grinned. "Please tell me it was tails?"

"You'd like that wouldn't you? But no, it landed on heads which means Jirai's attack goes through and more importantly I get to draw a new card thanks to Lucky Chance!" Logan announced before drawing another card, the Spider charged across the field and at the facedown monster, revealed to be Familiar Knight (3/1200/1400) which was quickly destroyed. "Familiar Knight huh? I have to thank you for that because now we can both Special Summon monsters from our hands."

"Don't thank me too soon because I'm using Familiar Knight's effect to Special Summon Silent Magician Level 4 from my hand!" Chloe played the card and the weaker of her two ace monsters appeared on the field (4/1000/1000).

"I bet you think you're real clever don't ya? Well I'm not letting that little tyke get strong enough to Special Summon her mommy!" Logan said before picking up a card in his hand. "I use Familiar Knight's effect to Special Summon Gambler of Legend!" Logan played the card and a tall man appeared on the field, he was dressed like a cowboy complete with a hat and had short blonde hair (4/500/1400) and his attack increased to 1000 thanks to the seal.

"He doesn't look like much." Chloe said confidently as she folded her arms. "Once you draw a card my magician will be stronger than him!"

"She won't get the chance. I move to my Second Main Phase and I activate the effect of Gambler of Legend!" Logan announced before digging out the coin again. "I toss this coin three times and depending on the result certain effects will activate, if I get three tails my entire hand gets discarded, if I get one head then I have to destroy a card I control, two heads and I can force you to discard a card from your hand." Logan said before smirking. "But three heads…then all your monsters get destroyed."

"That's a big risk." Chloe pointed out and Logan smirked as he tossed the coin into the air.

"That's the point." Logan said as he caught the coin in his palm and looked at it. "Tails but no big deal, if I get two heads then I can still do damage to you!" Logan said confidently before flipping the coin again, once he caught it his eyes widened. "What the…..Tails again?!"

"Looks like you're between a rock and a hard place; if you get heads then one of your monsters goes bye-bye." Chloe pointed out with a smirk. "And if you get another tails…"

"I KNOW!" Logan snapped at her before flipping the coin up into the air, when it landed his eyes widened. "Tails…I activate Second Coin Toss!" Logan quickly announced before flipping the coin three times again….only to get the same result. "I activate my second copy of Second Coin Toss!" Logan announced as he flipped the coin into the air three times, however he once again got the same result. "You…..you can't be serious?!"

"Looks like your luck's finally ran out!" Chloe said with a smirk as Logan reluctantly discarded the rest of the cards in his hand. "And that means that once you draw a card Gambler of Legend is a sitting duck!"

"Just start your turn already!" Logan demanded and Chloe drew her card. _"It doesn't matter; Silent Magician Level 4 only gets power from my draws, if she thinks I'm letting her monster get strong enough to beat Jirai Gumo she's got another thing coming."_ Logan thought before getting his coin out. "Tour of Doom's effect activates!" Logan announced before tossing the coin, when it landed he smirked. "Heads, looks like your left with your puny magician."Logan taunted her and Chloe growled before looking at her drawn card.

"She's not puny! And I prove it with this!" Chloe said as she played her Spell Card. "I activate my Spell Card Spellbook Inside the Pot, we both draw three cards but more importantly my Silent Magician gets three Spell Counters!" Chloe played the card and both duelists drew their respective cards, at the same time Silent Magician's attack increased to 2500.

"_Shit, once I draw my card Silent Magician will be strong enough to take down Jirai Gumo!" _Logan thought as Chloe pointed to Gambler of Legend.

"Silent Magician, attack Gambler of Legend now!" Chloe commanded and the magician fired a beam of light from her staff at Gambler of Legend destroying him and bringing Logan's life-points down to 6500. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Logan quickly drew his card, once he did Silent Magician's attack increased to 3000.

"Dangerous Machine Type Six activates!" Logan announced as the wheel started spinning, however Logan's eyes widened when he saw the wheel stop on six. "No! That means….."

"That means that Dangerous Machine Type 6 is destroyed!" Chloe interrupted him as the machine started the short circuit before self-destructing. _"Good, now I don't have to worry about that thing destroying Silent Magician before I can bring out Level 8." _Chloe thought as she glanced up at Logan.

"You know what? That works fine for me! First I activate Magic Planter! I destroy Tour of Doom…" Logan announced as Tour of Doom shattered. "And I draw two cards." Logan announced before drawing twice.

"And my magician gets stronger!" Chloe pointed out as Silent Magician's attack increased to 3500.

"I can live with that! I activate Autominous Action Unit and I use it to take Gemini Elf from your graveyard." Logan announced and too Chloe's shock the twin elves appeared on Logan's side of the field complete with the power boost from the Seal. "It may cost me fifteen hundred life-points but you know what? It's well worth it!" Logan said as his life-points dropped to 5000.

"You'll excuse me for not seeing how it's worth it!" Chloe said with a frown before it hit her. "Unless…"

"That's right! I equip my Jirai Gumo with Megamorph!" Logan played the card and Jirai Gumo doubled in size and strength, all the way up to 5400. "Jirai Gumo, attack her monster now!" Logan commanded before digging into his pocket and pulling out the coin for Jirai Gumo's effect. "I call heads!" Logan called out before flipping the coin up; when it landed he smirked before drawing another card due to Lucky Chance's effect.

"Don't tell me, heads?" Chloe asked and Logan shook his head.

"Actually I got tails but that just means that you won't be getting your lead back anytime soon." Logan said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 2500.

"That's where you're wrong; I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Megamorph!" Chloe activated the Spell Card and Logan's eyes widened as a tornado ripped through the area destroying the Spell Card and returning Jirai Gumo's attack to 2700, Silent Magician fired a beam from her staff at the giant spider destroying it and bringing Logan's life-points down to 1700.

"I end my turn with a facedown card." Logan growled and Chloe drew her card.

"Good, because that means that I can bring out my best monster!" Chloe announced as Silent Magician started glowing and growing eventually evolving into her strongest form, Silent Magician Level 8 (8/3500/1000).

"I don't care how strong that bitch is! I'll still survive!" Logan said confidently and Chloe growled when she heard that.

"I'll show you! Silent Magician, attack Gemini Elves!" Chloe commanded and the Magician powered up her staff…..

"I can't believe you fell for that again! Go Pythic Victory!" Chloe's eyes widened when she heard the name of the card but it was too late to do anything about it, the beam went straight through Silent Magician Level 8 destroying her and striking Chloe in the chest bringing her life-points down to 2600. "And now I draw cards equal to Silent Magician's Level!"

"Wait, what?!" Chelsea yelled out as he drew a total of eight cards. "How did that card even get made? That makes Yata-Garasu look like Dian Keto the Cure Master for fucks sake!"

"Tell it to someone who cares! Besides, even if I draw a monster with 200 attack points next turn your through!" Logan said with a big smirk as he looked over his eight cards. "Are you done defeating yourself? Don't worry, your friends won't suffer."

"I set a card facedown." Chloe quickly set a card as she glared at Logan. "And end my turn." Chloe announced and Logan smirked before drawing his card.

"Hah, I don't even need to summon a monster! I equip my elves with Mage Power!" Logan played the card and Gemini Elf's attack rose to 4400.

"Shit! That's too much!" Chelsea winced and Rob gulped fearing her wrath should Chloe lose the match.

"There's no kill like overkill bitch!" Logan responded before pointing to the elves. "Gemini Elf, finish her off!" Logan commanded and the elves prepared their attack.

"Go Scapegoat!" Chloe activated the trap and the four sheep tokens appeared on the field.

"Fine, I target the Scapegoat token on the far right!" Logan announced as the elves redirected their attack towards the red token destroying it. "You saved yourself this time bitch! I end my turn!" Logan announced before discarding most of the cards he had drawn last turn, once he had Chloe drew her card.

"I activate Blasting Vein, with this I destroy my facedown card and in exchange I get two more cards." Chloe announced as one of her facedown cards shattered and she drew her cards. "This duel's over!"

"Finally came to your senses huh? Enjoy your time in the seal Chloe!" Logan taunted her but blinked when he saw the grin on her face. "Why are you smirking? I have the clear advantage?"

"Why? Because you're about to lose that advantage, I activate Level Modulation to bring back Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe activated the Spell and Logan's eyes widened as Silent Magician Level 8 returned to the field.

"Please, that bitch can't even beat my elves and you've already used up one of your drawn cards!" Logan scoffed as he drew two cards, when he saw two of them his grin widened. _"I drew another Pythic Victory! With this I can finish her off for good if she somehow gets rid of my elves on her next turn!"_

"Actually you're wrong; I drew Level Modulation with Spellbook Inside the Pot a few turns back, it was just a case of waiting for the right card to use it with." Chloe explained and Logan blinked as it hit him.

"Then…..then what DID you draw?!" Logan asked as he started to panic.

"I drew these Spell Cards go Eternal Rest!" Logan's eyes widened as the Gemini elves shattered into a million pieces, he reluctantly tossed Gemini Elf back at Chloe who sent the monster back to her graveyard and Logan did likewise with his Spell Cards.

"Yeah, so fucking what? You still can't attack because of Level Modulation!" Logan pointed out and Chloe grinned as she played a card. "Is that Mischief of the Time Goddess? Why is it that an Osiris Red Student can get that card and I can't?"

"Being friends with Seto Kaiba's stepson has its quirks." Chloe said as Silent Magician got ready to attack. "Silent Magician, finish him!" Chloe commanded and the magician pointed her staff at Logan before firing a beam of light at him bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Man that was too close." Chelsea commented with a sigh of relief as the seal closed in around Logan, Chloe was too busy gathering up her cards to notice Logan's scream as the seal took his soul and Chloe walked over to her friends.

"Err, yeah, I'm sorry if I worried you guys back there." Chloe apologized and Chelsea grinned. "As for how I got separated in the first place, blame the large crowd we were in."

"Don't worry about it, we're just glad that you're safe." Chelsea responded and the others nodded in agreement. "We'd better get back to our group, Jeff's sure to be worried by now."

"We'll do likewise." Theresa said as the group went their separate ways unaware that Jack was watching from the rooftops.

"Hey boss, Logan's big gamble was a big bust." Jack grunted as he walked away from the duel area. "The guys I recruited should be on their way to your regional office in Domino City as we speak."

"Good, call me if there are any problems, in the meantime I want you to accompany them to the office." Victor responded and Jack nodded before making his way towards the office.


	73. Day One Tornament Begins

"So these new Orichalcos Duelists have been using broken cards?" Kaiba asked Martin over the video phone, it was the day after the field trip and all of the students where back on Duel Academy Island getting ready for the tournament. "What were their names again?"

"Ritual of the Ancients, Pot of Chance and Pythic Victory." Martin responded and Kaiba nodded as he started typing away at his computer. "I searched all over Duel Academy's database, not only do those cards not exist but there's no records of them full stop."

"Someone's obviously creating extremely convincing fake cards; even the Orichalcos Model Duel Disks should not be able to recognize them." Kaiba answered as he stroked his chin. "I can only think of a handful of people who have this ability, Pegasus himself and the board of directors for I2."

"And Pegasus hasn't exactly been in the best of health lately." Martin added and Kaiba nodded in response. "Fortunately neither Chelsea nor Chloe where seriously injured in their Orichalcos Duels."

"Keep the other students on alert. It's likely that they'll be targeted soon and the tag tournament that the academy is hosting will keep them distracted." Kaiba added and Martin nodded. "Have there been any Duel Monster attacks since the last one?"

"Theresa did tell me that Eddie was attacked during an Autograph Session in his home city." Martin responded with a frown. "Besides that I have no clue."

"I remember the news report, it's fortunate that none of the children were injured." Kaiba remembered before frowning. "The tag tournament starts this evening correct? I intend to be there in person."

"Are you sure?" Martin asked and Kaiba nodded. "What about the students?"

"Don't tell them about my presence on the island, they are bound to feel pressured by it which will surely affect their performance." Kaiba responded before hanging up, Martin sighed before putting the phone down.

"_After all that's happened this year I'll welcome an uneventful tournament." _Martin thought as he glanced at the roster for the tournament. _"The first match is between Andreas Freshier and Damien Tarnow and Daniel Troy and Chase Donavon, I hope the students can put aside the recent run-ins with the Seal of the Orichalcos and put on a good match."_

*meanwhile at the Osiris Red Girls Dorm*

"Ugh, this is such bullshit!" Chloe groaned as she plopped down on the bottom bunk, Chelsea had been surfing the internet on her laptop when her roommate entered the room and she glanced up.

"Still pissed that they decided to stick you on the ship for the rest of the field trip?" Chelsea asked with a frown and Chloe nodded. "Chlo, I realize that it must've felt like being punished for getting lost but they probably just wanted to make sure that you didn't run into any other Orichalcos duelists."

"Okay, since when where you the voice of reason between the two of us?" Chloe said cheekily and Chelsea grinned sheepishly at that. "Besides it definitely felt like I was being punished, they took my deck and duel disk away for the rest of the trip and didn't let me out of the room unless I needed the bathroom or it was dinner time."

"Okay, I agree that that was way to fucking harsh!" Chelsea agreed as she turned to her roommate. "All you did was got separated because Jeff decided to take us through a heavily populated area of the city, at least tell me Maria took your side."

"I asked her about it on the way up, she said that her hands were tied and that they did it for my protection, needless to say I took a page out of your book and called bullshit on it." Chloe responded and Chelsea laughed at that. "And the less said about the Orichalcos Duel the better." Chloe added with a shudder. "At least the only ones targeted so far have been you and me."

"Yeah, emphasis on so far, weren't all the guys from Duel Academy that competed in Battle City targeted by the Orichalcos duelists?" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe frowned before nodding. "I know it's not exactly a pleasant memory Chlo, and the less said about your encounter with your dad the better, but you gotta admit, we all have to be on our guard."

"I know and that's why I'm not looking forward to the tournament." Chloe answered earning a surprised look from Chelsea. "What if the Orichalcos Duelists use the tournament as a distraction to infiltrate the island? They've already done that once."

"Thanks, I needed to be reminded about my first Orichalcos Duel." Chelsea commented sarcastically and Chloe laughed nervously. "I get what you're saying Chloe but they've been building towards this thing for a little over a month now and so have the competing duelists, there's no way in hell they'll cancel it now, not after all this time."

"I know, doesn't mean I have to be happy about it." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Come to think of it, they never revealed what the prize for the winning team was."

"Hey, you're right." Chelsea realized with a nod. "I'm sure they'll announce something when the tournament begins tonight." Chelsea added with a shrug and Chloe nodded in agreement, before either girl could say anything else there was a nod at the door. "I got it!" Chelsea told Chloe before getting up and answering the door. "Oh hey Tyler, what's up?" Chelsea asked and Chloe looked up when she heard the Obelisk Blue Student's name.

"Just checking up on Chloe following what happened yesterday." Tyler commented as he turned to the young Osiris Red Student. "How are you feeling?"

"Still pissed that they stuck me on the ship for the rest of the trip, as far as I'm concerned the fact that I had an Orichalcos Duel was punishment enough." Chloe sighed as she folded her arms. "At least our match is happening tonight."

"Actually our match got pushed back a few days." Chelsea told her and Chloe turned to her. "Jeff never specified but I think it has to do with our recent Orichalcos Duels."

"Okay, who's fighting in our place?" Chloe asked as she glanced at the two students.

"Andreas and Damien are facing Daniel Troy and Chase Donavon from Obelisk Blue." Tyler told her as he stepped into the room. "Daniel and Chase are good duelists but I don't think Andreas and Damien will have any problems with them."

"After that Theresa and Brandon are facing Rachel and Kyle, as much as I like Rachel and Kyle I don't think Theresa and Brandon will have any issues." Chelsea added as she checked the line-up. "Our match has been moved to the third day of the tournament."

"Yeah, against Donny and Drake, I don't know how well we'll do against them." Chloe commented as she leaned back on the bed. "Chelsea had a hard enough time against Drake when they dueled a few weeks back."

"Yeah, no thanks to that stupid trap of his!" Chelsea growled as she shook her head. "If I had drawn something like Heavy Storm, Judgment of Thunder or Mystical Space Typhoon that duel would've ended differently." Chelsea added with a frown.

"You'll be ready for whatever traps he throws your way and so will I." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "When are you and Marcus teaming up Tyler?"

"We're teaming up on the third day after your match." Tyler told her with a smirk. "I plan to use my second deck for that duel."

"You're not using your Psychics?" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded. "That's a duel I'll be watching closely then."

"The match has already gotten people interested since it's my first Duel Academy match since my duel against Dmitri a few weeks ago." Tyler commented with a confident grin." Just do me a favor and don't tell the other students."

"Why?" Chelsea asked and Tyler chuckled.

"Dramatic effect I suppose." Tyler answered causing the two girls to face-fault. "Come on, can you honestly think of a better reason than that?"

"Yeah, I can think off about ten." Chelsea grunted as she got back in her chair. "Seriously though, even though we've had a while to prepare for our matches in this tournament, I'm not sure how well we will do."

"Yeah we didn't really have time to familiarize ourselves which each other's decks what with the Expulsion Duels, Duel Monster Attacks and Orichalcos Duels that have been happening since I returned from New York." Chloe added with a frown. "Closest we've gotten is when I dueled Chelsea's dad a couple of weeks ago."

"I mean yeah, we've seen each other duel plenty of times since Chloe returned from Battle City but besides that and Chloe's duel against my dad we didn't have a chance to get used to each other's decks." Chelsea added with a sigh. "Ah fuck it! We'll make it work even if we end up facing Theresa and Brandon in the second round."

"Good to know." Tyler said with a nod before checking the time on his watch. "Okay, Andreas and Damien's match should be starting in two hours or so, I'd better go find Marcus."

"Good idea, maybe we can try to do some last minute preparations in the meantime." Chloe commented as Tyler left, once he closed the door behind him Chloe turned to her roommate. "So will we be attending tonight's matches?"

"Chloe, that's like asking if most of Obelisk Blue is arrogant dicks." Chelsea pointed out with a grin. "Off course we're going!"

"That's good and all but did that e-mail say where the matches are taking place?" Chloe asked and Chelsea opened up the e-mail to check.

"Yeah, same duel arena where we fought for our places here at Duel Academy." Chelsea answered and Chloe stood up before walking over to Chelsea to read the e-mail for herself. "I didn't think I'd be happy to be returning to that place so soon after the Expulsion Duels."

"You call two weeks "so soon"?" Chloe asked and Chelsea merely shrugged her shoulders in response. "My guess is that the other duel fields are too small to hold the amount of duelists that are likely to attend the duels."

"True enough." Chelsea nodded in agreement before closing her laptop lid. "Come on, maybe if we get there early enough we can grab some quality seats." Chelsea added and Chloe grinned at that idea. "Besides Beth's meeting me there with her partner for the tournament, might as well kill two birds with one stone right?"

"Sounds good, I was starting to get bored anyway." Chloe shrugged before Chelsea unplugged and picked up her laptop before she tucked it under her arm. "Something for you to do in between matches?"

"Yeah, the battery life in this thing should last me an hour at most unless I can find a place to plug this thing in." Chelsea answered before handing Chloe the laptop cable; she took it and the two girls made their way to the center of the island.

*meanwhile at the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm*

"Man, it's been so long since they announced the tournament I was beginning to think that they had completely forgotten about it." Marcus commented to Andreas as he looked over his deck, Andreas chuckled as he did likewise.

"Yes but on the other hand they likely held off on it so long so that the students could prepare." Andreas answered before looking over some of his best cards. "My teams up first, Chase and Daniel should provide an interesting fight."

"Yeah, I hope so; they are in Obelisk Blue after all." Marcus shrugged as he glanced around. "Wait, I thought Chloe and Chelsea where competing first?"

"Their match got moved to the third day, presumably due to their recent run-ins with….." Andreas paused before shuddering. "My apologies, I still have nightmares about the day when my soul was taken by it, the Orichalcos."

"I don't blame ya, when Lance beat his dad I thought we had seen the last of it." Marcus said with a frown. "You're partnering with Damien right? Doesn't he run a Dark Necrofear deck?"

"Used too, he told me that he threw that deck in the trash after he lost to Lance and started anew." Andreas told him as he fitted his deck back into his disk. "Apparently he intended to challenge Lance with the new deck but Battle City got in the way."

"Let me guess, the tag tournament got in the way off his second attempt at a rematch?" Marcus asked and Andreas nodded. "Well with any luck you'll end up facing Lance's team."

"That's what I told him." Andreas answered as he glanced towards Lance's room where the sounds of the Thrash Metal Band Warbringer where blasting out from. "In that case it'll be a match of the mismatched tag partners."

"You think that's bad? Tyler told me that he plans to use his second deck only he's not telling me what it is." Marcus said as he folded his arms. "And we're teaming up on the third day to face some guys from Obelisk Blue."

"Alexander Bender and Anton Kramer right?" Andreas asked and Marcus nodded. "I saw that on the line-up, never seen them duel before."

"Neither have I, they're transfer students from some Duel School in Europe according to Tyler." Marcus shrugged as he leaned against the wall. "Aren't the matches starting in an hour or so?"

"Yeah, I'm waiting for Damien to show up and after that I'll head over to the Duel Arena with him." Andreas said with a nod, eventually the music coming from Lance's room stopped and Lance stepped out. "Are you ready for the tournament as well Lance?"

"I was born ready." Lance said confidently as he rose up the arm that his Duel Disk was strapped too. "Even if my match isn't until the second day of the tournament I'm ready for anything."

"You're facing Jason York and Nicky Tryon right?" Marcus asked and Lance nodded. "I heard she was considering dropping out following the Duel Monster attack."

"Yes but from what I heard Jason talked her out of it." Andreas nodded as he thought back to that day. "Can't say I blame her, the official story did place blame on her duel disk."

"Well to be fair it was a malfunctioning duel disk that was blames." Marcus shrugged before noticing someone approaching the trio. "Looks like our partners have arrived." Marcus commented and Andreas and Lance looked up and saw Damien, Tyler and Evan approaching them.

"You guys ready for the tournament?" Evan asked once the trio of Obelisk Blue Students stopped in their tracks.

"We were born ready." Lance said confidently and the other two boys nodded in agreement. "Just don't cry when I beat you again Damien."

"Cute." Damien grunted before turning around. "Come on Andreas, our match is in half an hour and I know Daniel and Chase aren't going to lie down and let us beat them off…..that's not what I meant and you know it!"

"Sure, let's go," Andreas nodded before following Damien

"We'd better get going as well." Evan said and Lance and Marcus caught up to their respective partners. "We do want to get the best seats possible." Evan added and Lance grinned.

"By the way Tyler, does Chloe know that her team's match got pushed back?" Lance asked and Tyler nodded.

"I told her myself on the way over." Tyler confirmed with a nod. "Well technically her roommate did but you get the idea."

"Yeah, I guess they figured that having to duel the day after what happened yesterday would be a bit cruel." Lance shrugged as the boys left the dorm and headed to the center of the island. "Then again I also think that sticking her on the ship for the rest of the trip after the Orichalcos Duel was even crueler."

"She was pretty upset about it herself." Tyler admitted before shaking his head. "Still given that Chloe and Chelsea where both targeted by the Orichalcos Duelists I'd say it was a wise precaution."

"Just don't try saying that to Chloe." Lance said with a laugh as they entered the main building. "I guess this is where we split off."

"Indeed, the next time you see us will be on the duel field." Andreas said as he walked off with Damien.

*meanwhile*

"Mr. Kaiba, we have found an isolated spot in the duel field where you can observe the duels without being interrupted." Kaiba's assistant said as the CEO of Kaibacorp made his way towards the main building, he had just arrived by helicopter and was ready for the duel. "You'll be sharing in with the Obelisk Blue Headmaster however."

"He is a trusted colleague, that won't be an issue." Kaiba told him as he was led to the room in question. "What are the plans regarding my stay here? This tournament will take place over the next month and I don't think my Helicopter has enough fuel to make daily trips."

"We have living arrangements sorted out Mr. Kaiba, you will be staying on the ship for the duration." The assistant responded and Kaiba nodded as they entered the room. "Do you need anything? Popcorn? Hot Dog?"

"Some time alone so that I can enjoy the duels." Kaiba said bluntly and the assistant quickly left the room. _"I didn't just come here to watch the duels, since Battle City ended there's been one attack by a Duel Monster and two students have been targeted by Orichalcos Duelists."_ Kaiba thought as he watched Andreas and Damien step out on stage. _"To protect my company's reputation I need to make sure that the tournament goes off without a hitch."_

"Good to see that you made it in once piece Kaiba." Martin said as he entered the room, Kaiba glanced up as the headmaster sat down next to him. "I hope you find your living arrange to your liking, obviously if we had more time we would've gotten you a better room."

"The room you prepared for me will suffice." Kaiba answered as Daniel and Chase entered the duel field. "So is this the part where you announce how this tournament's going to work?"

"Yes, off course." Martin said before leaning into the microphone. "Good evening students and welcome to the opening round of the long awaited Tag Team Tournament, I know the teams are eager to begin but first I have to explain how the rules will work." Martin said before checking his notes. "The opening rounds will occur over the next two weeks with the first round starting tonight and the second round starting next week, obviously the teams that won their matches in Round 1 will move on to the second round but rather than face the other team that qualified on the same day their opponents will be chosen at random."

"_So if my team wins I could end up facing Chloe's team? That should keep things interesting." _Andreas thought as he glanced towards Damien. "You have any thoughts on that Damien?"

"Should keep things interesting, that's for sure." Damien said with a nod as he turned to his opponents.

"This will continue into the latter rounds until we are left with two teams to decide who will win the tournament and its prize, three booster pack filled with extremely rare cards for both duelists." Martin continued causing excited gossip between the students. "The runners up will get a small cash prize and a booster pack each."

"Those rare cards would make excellent additions to my deck." Andreas commented out loud and Damien nodded in agreement.

"You guys are acting like you're going to win this match." Daniel said confidently as he and Chase shuffled their decks. "But the truth is, me and Chase have known each other since we were in Osiris Red and unlike most of the teams in this tournament we're familiar with each other's decks and strategies, those booster packs are as good as ours!"

"I may not have known Damien for as long you know each other but we've had a month to prepare for this tournament." Andreas said confidently as he and Damien shuffled their decks. "Prepare to lose!"

"Now onto the rules for the tournament, each team with start with 8000 life-points each, you may use each other's card's and show their hands to their partner but no strategizing between each other." Martin continued as the four duelists finished shuffling their decks and drew their opening hands. "In order to be eliminated both partners must be eliminated but if one partner manages to beat both of his/her opponents they both go through, that is all now let the tournament begin." Martin finished and the four duelists look over their hands.

"So…..what's the order exactly?" Daniel asked as he looked over his hand.

"I competed in a Tag Team Match during Battle City; basically it went counterclockwise from the right so I think it's a safe bet that this duel will use the same order." Andreas said before frowning. _"And the least said about the circumstances surrounding the tag team duel the better." _Damien thought before drawing his first card. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Berserk Gorilla to the field in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and angry ape appeared on the field with a howl (4/2000/1000). "That shall do it for my turn."

"And my turn begins!" Daniel said as he drew his card. "I start with a Spell Card called Heaven's Lost Property, we all draw three cards but in exchange we have to discard two." Daniel played the card and all four duelists drew three cards, after they gave their hands a quick once over they discarded their cards and Daniel sent his Spell to the graveyard. "Now I summon Zombie Master to the field in attack mode!" Daniel played the card and a tall silver haired man in ragged clothes appeared on the field (4/1800/0).

"_He runs a Zombie deck? This should be interesting." _Andreas thought as he discarded a card.

"Next I activate the effect of Zombie Master, by discarding a monster from my hand to the graveyard I can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Zombie Monster like Beast of the Pharaoh to the field." Daniel played the card and a small black beast with a gold Egyptian style mask appeared on the field (3/400/600). "Finally I return one monster to the top of my deck to the graveyard to Special Summon the other monster I discarded for Heaven's Lost Property, Plaguespredder Zombie!" Daniel sent the card to the top of the deck and the small rotten zombie appeared on the field (2/400/200).

"Okay, let's cut to the chase." Andreas said as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "We all know that that's a tuner monster."

"Yes but I'm not done, I activate Double Summon which lets me summon Pain Painter as well!" Daniel played the card and the zombiefield painter appeared on the field (2/400/200). "We all know this guy was created to get around Plaguespredder's limiting but he has another effect, with it I can target Zombie Master and Beast of the Pharaoh and reduce their levels to two for the rest of the turn." Daniel explained as the two monsters levels went down. "Plaguespredder, let's give these zombies a Tune Up!" Daniel commanded and the three zombies leapt into the air, Plaguespredder dissolved into two green glowing Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Zombie Master and Beast of the Pharaoh, a bright flash enveloped the field and when it faded Archfiend Zombie Skull appeared on the field (6/2500/1200).

"Big deal Daniel, your big zombie may be strong but you left your tuner in attack mode and Plaguespredder's banished due to its effect!" Damien pointed out and Daniel grinned.

"True but he isn't sticking around, since Beast of the Pharaoh was used in the Synchro Summon I can Special Summon Zombie Master back to the field!" Daniel played the card and the silver haired man returned to the field. "Pain Painter, give Zombie Master a tune up!"

"Oh for fuck's sake, you're doing yet another Synchro Summon!" Damien grunted and Daniel smirked in response.

"Is there a rule that states I can only do one Synchro Summon per turn? I didn't think so." Daniel commented and the two monsters leapt into the air, when the flash faded Revived King Ha-Des appeared on the field (6/2450/0). "Normally I'd go on the attack right now but since tag team rules require I wait an extra turn and all…." Daniel shrugged before picking up two additional cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Daniel announced and Damien drew his card.

"Man, Daniel's not fooling around." Chelsea commented as she and the others watched the duel. "Pulling off one Synchro Summon in your opening move is impressive enough but two?"

"Yes but the strange thing is that's not his usual deck." Tyler told her and Chelsea turned to him with a look of surprise on her face. "He built it in preparation for teaming up with Chase who has a lot more experience than Daniel when it comes to Zombie type monsters."

"So wait, they're essentially a team of Zombie duelists?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded. "That's so unfair; Andreas and Damien's decks couldn't be more different and their decks are essentially carbon copies of each other's decks."

"Like it or not there's nothing in the tournament rule book about doing that." Tyler told her and Chloe frowned. "Don't worry, Andreas and Damien are good duelists, at the very least they should be able to hold their own."

"I set two cards face down on the field." Damien announced as the two facedown cards appeared before him. "And I summon Blood Pirate – Ghost Ship!" Damien played the card and a large ship appeared on the field, however it was in a state of decay and had a large skull on the front (1/0/0).

"I was able to summon two Synchro Monsters with over two thousand attack points and the best you can muster is an old ship with no attack or defense points?!" Daniel asked with a raised eyebrow and Damien smirked.

"Who said that was all I'm doing? Show them what I mean Andreas." Damien said and Andreas nodded before activating one of his facedown cards.

"Indeed, I activate my trap Labyrinth of Nightmare!" Andreas activated the trap and grinned. "Now as soon as Damien ends his turn off the monsters currently on the field will be forced into defense mode!"

"Why would you activate that? Berserk Gorilla will be destroyed when he's forced into defense mode!" Chase asked and Damien smirked.

"Just watch, I end my turn which activates the effect of Labyrinth of Nightmare!" Damien told them and Revived King Ha-Des and Archfiend Zombie Skull crouched down, Ghost Ship made no visible movement due to being a ship but Berserk Gorilla yelled in anger before shattering.

"Well, that was a waste." Chase commented dryly and Damien shook his head.

"Not quite because now that Ghost Ship has been moved to defense mode its effect activates, it allows me to take two monsters with "Blood Pirate" in their name and add them to my hand on the condition that neither of them are another copy of Blood Pirate – Ghost Ship." Damien explained before picking up his deck and searching through it, once he found the cards he was looking for he added them to his hand.

"And that's not the only effect that's activated." Andreas added as his life-points dropped to 7000. "Since a Beast Type Monster on my side of the field was destroyed and sent to the graveyard I can special summon another from my hand or graveyard and it all costs is a thousand life-points."

"Wait, I've seen that effect before!" Daniel realized as Andreas picked up a card in his hand. "You're about to summon Green Baboon, Defender of the Forrest!"

"Correct!" Andreas confirmed as the massive green baboon appeared on the field with a howl (7/2600/1800). "Now I believe it was Chase's turn." Andreas commented and Chase wasted no time in drawing his card.

"So that's his new deck huh?" Chelsea commented with a curious look on her face. "Wait; don't tell me, recently released archetype?" Chelsea asked as she turned to Tyler.

"Am I really that predictable? Don't answer that." Tyler answered and Chelsea grinned at that. "But yes, the Blood Pirates are a new archetype, they were released during the Battle City Tournament and support for them like Ghost Ship only just came out."

"Guess that explains why Damien hasn't done much dueling since Lance beat him." Brandon commented and Tyler nodded. "He was looking for a new deck that no one else had seen before."

"_This will be a piece of cake, all I'll need to do is end my turn and the monsters will be forced to change position again only this time it'll benefit us rather than them." _Chase thought before retrieving a card from his graveyard. "I remove the Mezuki that I discarded for Heaven's Lost Property from play so that I can special summon Goblin Zombie!" Chase played the card after he pocketed the monster and a hideous goblin like zombie appeared on the field (4/1100/1200). "Next I return a card to the top of my deck to Special Summon my own Plaguespredder Zombie!"

"Here we go." Damien commented dryly as the small rotten zombie appeared on the field again. "Let me guess, you're about to Synchro Summon Doomkaiser Dragon?"

"Oh I will but first things first, I activate the Zombie World Field Spell!" Chase played the card and the scenery was transformed into a desolate area covered with human remains. "As long as this is on the field all monsters on the field and in the graveyard are treated as Zombies, not only that but as long as it's active you can only Tribute Summon Zombie Monsters."

"Encase you didn't notice we have more ways of getting high level monsters onto the field rather than just Tribute Summoning them." Andreas pointed out and Chase grinned.

"That's not my problem but this is your problem. Plaguespredder Zombie, it's time to give Goblin Zombie a tune up!" Chase announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Plaguespredder Zombie dissolved into two green Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Goblin Zombie." Come on out Doomkaiser Dragon!" Chase played the card and a large skeleton dragon appeared on the field after the flash faded (6/2400/1500).

"Your dragon may be strong Chase but Green Baboon is the strongest monster on the field." Andreas pointed out and Chase grinned.

"Yeah but as soon as I end my turn you'll be forced to change it to defense mode and that'll leave it a sitting duck for our Synchro Monsters." Chase pointed out before grinning. "And now Doomkaiser Dragon's effect activates, it allows me to Special Summon one Zombie Type Monster from one of your graveyards."

"And thanks to Zombie World all of our monsters in the graveyard qualify." Andreas realized as the contents of their graveyards where shown via a hologram.

"_Okay, I don't recognize Damien's monsters; Berserk Gorilla will just be destroyed by Labyrinth of Nightmare again…aha!" _Chase decided before turning to Andreas. "I'll take Vorse Raider from Andreas's graveyard."

"Suit yourself." Andreas thought before retrieving the card from his graveyard and tossing it at Chase, Chase caught it before playing it and a zombiefied version of the hideous halberd wielding Beast Warrior appeared on the field (4/1900/1200).

"And that activates my trap card, go Trap of the Imperial Tomb!" Daniel activated the trap and grinned. "And this trap is bad news for you, since a monster from your graveyard was Special Summoned to our side of the field this trap will destroy two cards on your side of the field so say goodbye to your overgrown monkey and your ship!" Daniel explained with a grin.

"Don't count on it, I counter Trap of the Imperial Tomb with my own trap card Cursed Treasure!" Damien activated the trap which depicted a treasure chest with a sickly green glow around it. "Since I have a Blood Pirate monster on my side of the field this trap card will negate the activation of a Spell or Trap Card and destroy it!" Damien explained and Daniel shielded himself as Trap of the Imperial Tomb shattered.

"Okay, well that backfired….." Chase grunted as Daniel sent his trap to the graveyard. "But since I wouldn't be able to attack that glorified cruise ship for another turn anyway I'll set a card facedown….." Chase set the card down and its hologram appeared behind his dragon. "And end my turn which means Labyrinth of Nightmare's effect activates." Chase announced and once the monsters changed position again Andreas drew his card.

"I activate my Magic Planter Spell Card; in exchange for destroying Labyrinth of Nightmare I can draw two cards." Andreas played the card and once Labyrinth of Nightmare shattered Andreas drew twice.

"Finally realized that that card was doing you more harm than good?" Daniel asked and Andreas shrugged his shoulders as he sent his two cards to the graveyard.

"We never planned on keeping that card around anyway." Andreas answered before looking at his drawn cards. "I now change my baboon back to attack mode and I attack Doomkaiser Dragon!" Andreas announced and the baboon charged towards the dragon with its club raised up high…

"You're not getting past my Synchros that easily, I activate my trap card Spirit Shield!" Daniel activated the trap and the attack was blocked by a blood red force field. "As long as I remove one Fiend or Zombie type monster from my graveyard I can end the battle phase." Daniel explained as he pocketed Zombie Master.

"Maybe but once you run out of monsters to remove Spirit Shield will be destroyed." Andreas pointed out and Daniel frowned.

"Let us worry about that." Daniel answered and Andreas frowned.

"I set two cards facedown." Andreas set the cards that he had drawn with Magic Planter and they appeared behind his monster. "And I end my turn at that." Andreas announced and Daniel drew his card.

"_Okay, as long as I have Spirit Shield on the field my life-points should be safe." _Daniel thought as he looked over his hand. _"But in the meantime….." _Daniel decided before grinning. "Green Baboon may be too tough for my monsters to handle but Ghost Ship? I'm going to have Archfiend Zombie Skull sink it!" Daniel announced as the zombie stretched its arms out….

"I activate my trap Covering Fire!" Andreas activated the trap and Daniel's eyes widened when he heard the name. "And based on the look on your face you know what this trap does!"

"Yeah, since I attacked a monster on your side of the field that trap card will let you target one other monster on your field and add its attack to the defending monster." Daniel said as Ghost Ship and Green Baboon glowed briefly…..

"I got ya covered, I chain Covering Fire with my trap card Trap Jammer, and since it was activated during the Battle Phase this trap lets me negate it!" Chase activated the trap and Daniel breathed a sigh of relief as Covering Fire shattered.

"Actually you just did us a favor!" Damien announced and Daniel and Chase blinked in confusion. "I activate my Trap, Davy Jones Locker!" Damien activated the trap which depicted Ghost Ship sinking into the ocean. "Since you targeted a Blood Pirate monster on my side of the field for an attack this trap will let me Special Summon another Blood Pirate monster from my hand and redirect the attack to the new monster!"

"And you added two of them last turn!" Daniel realized and Damien grinned.

"That's right and I use my Trap Card's effect to Special Summon Blood Pirate - Mad Mary!" Damien played the card and a tall red-haired woman in a pirate's outfit appeared on the field wielding a large sword and as her name implied she had an insane look in her eyes (4/1200/2000).

"So the attack will be redirected to her huh? No big deal! She's an improvement over Ghost Ship but the attack will still damage your life-points!" Daniel shrugged as the lightning redirected towards Mad Mary.

"Don't count on it! You see when Mad Mary is Special Summoned via the effect of Davy Jones Locker or another Blood Pirate she can survive two attacks per turn." Damien explained before wincing as the attack hit Mary causing his life-points to drop to 6700. "Off course the trade-off is that the damage calculation is still applied."

"Fine, I'll just attack again and cause even more damage!" Daniel scoffed as Revived King Ha Des charged towards the female pirate…

"Yeah, not this time!" Damien said as he held up a card in his hand. "Say hello to Blood Pirate - Keelhaul Sal (3/700/1000), the other monster I added to my hand with Ghost Ship's effect last turn and she has an effect of her own." Damien explained before discarding the monster. "By discarding her from my hand when a Blood Pirate monster is targeted for a second attack in the same turn the damage gets transferred to you!"

"Wait, what?!" Daniel yelled out as Mad Mary blocked the attack with her sword and slammed it into the ground sending a shockwave towards Damien which brought his life-points down to 6750. _"Better not risk attacking with Doomkaiser Dragon, who knows what other nasty surprises he has in store for us!" _Daniel thought before picking up a card in his hand. "I set one card facedown and call it a turn at that." Daniel set the card down and Damien drew his card.

"_Okay, my combo should be all set." _Damien thought before looking at his drawn card. "I play a Spell Card called Man Overboard!" Damien activated the Spell which depicted a pirate falling off the side of a ship, presumably Blood Pirate – Ghost Ship. "To activate this I have to sacrifice a monster with Blood Pirate in its name but in exchange I get two draws."

"What kind of sense does that make? Isn't a man going overboard generally a bad thing?" Daniel asked as Blood Pirate – Ghost Ship's hologram shattered and Damien drew twice.

"Take it up with the guy at I2 who created the card." Damien shrugged his shoulders before sending his two cards to the graveyard. "But now Ghost Ship's second effect activates, since it was sent to the graveyard by a card effect I can revive one Blood Pirate from my graveyard as long as it's not the same monster I just sent to the graveyard."

"Wait, is that thing even legal?" Chase asked and Damien grinned.

"Yes but to be fair I can only activate the card's second effect once per duel, anyway my card of choice is a monster I discarded for Heaven's Lost Property a couple of turns back, Blood Pirate – Buccaneer Bible!" Damien played the card and a short man in a pirate's uniform appeared on the field crouching down, he had long black hair but most of it was hidden by a bandana and he was carrying a knife in his mouth (3/500/700).

"Why summon him and not Keelhaul Sal?" Daniel asked and Damien grinned.

"Two reasons really. Keelhaul Sal can't be Special Summoned from the graveyard and when Buccaneer Bible is special summoned via the effect of another Blood Pirate monster his level increases by 1." Damien explained as Buccaneer Bible's level went up to four.

"There's only one reason a monster would have an effect like that." Daniel realized as his eyes widened. "Buccaneer Bible's a Tuner Monster isn't he?"

"I knew you'd catch on quick." Damien said with a grin as Buccaneer Bible and Mad Mary leapt into the air, Buccaneer Bible dissolved into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Mad Mary.

"So what are you summoning? Is it Colossal Fighter?" Chase asked as he watched the Synchro Summon. "That would make sense; most of the Blood Pirates seem to be Warrior Monsters."

"They are with the exception of Ghost Ship, that monster's a Zombie Type." Damien answered before grinning. "But why would I summon him when I can't take advantage of his effect due to Zombie World?" Damien asked as the two Obelisk Blue students blinked.

"He's got a point." Chase admitted as the bright flash enveloped the field. "So what are you summoning?"

"This guy, come on out Blood Pirate – Quick Sword!" Damien played the card and once the flash faded a mountain of a man appeared on the field, he had a long black beard with matching hair and he was wearing the kind of gear you'd expect to see on a captain and was wielding twin swords (8/2200/1800).

"I was worried for a minute there." Daniel breathed a sigh of relief once he saw the stats. "But that guy's the weakest Synchro Monster on the field."

"Sometimes strength isn't everything because Quick Sword has a very powerful effect." Damien commented before picking up two cards from his deck. "I pick up two cards from my deck and if either of them are monsters than the real fun begins, if they aren't monsters then they get shuffled back into my deck." Damien explained before looking at the cards in question. "And it's my lucky day."

"You drew two monsters? How lucky can you get?" Chase asked and Damien shook his head.

"I wouldn't say I drew them, in fact once the effect's been resolved they'll be shuffled into my deck." Damien corrected him before grinning. "Basically the effects depend on the monsters attack points, what I mean by that is if one of the monsters attack points is bellow one thousand then one of your monsters gets its attack points cut in half." Damien explained and before Daniel or Chase could protest Quick Sword slammed it's swords into the ground cutting Doomkaiser Dragon's attack points to 1200. "Now the other monster I drew has an attack of 1700 which means you can't activate Spirit Shield's effect when it attacks."

"Wait, what?!" Daniel yelled out once it hit him. "That's gotta have a drawback."

"It does, basically I can't summon for two turns if I get two monsters." Damien explained before shuffling the monsters back into his deck. "Now onto business, Quick Sword, attack Doomkaiser Dragon!" Damien commanded and the pirate charged towards Chase's monster with surprising speed before cutting it down the middle bringing Chase's life-points down to 7000.

"You'll pay for that!" Chase responded and Damien grinned.

"I'll send you an IOU card." Damien responded before his grin widened. "And since I destroyed Doomkaiser Dragon Vorse Rader goes with him!" Damien added as Chase tossed Vorse Raider back at Andreas.

"Much obliged." Andreas said with a nod before sending his card to the graveyard.

"Don't get attached to Captain Jack Sparrow over there." Chase said with a frown. "As soon as my turn begins I'm sending him to the gallows!"

"That's pretty dark for trash talk." Andreas commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "And that doesn't even look remotely like Johnny Depp!"

"Let's focus Andreas." Damien commented dryly before picking up the two cards he had drawn via Davy Jones Locker. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Damien set the two cards and Chase quickly drew his card.

"_I need to get rid of that Synchro before he destroys our other monsters." _Chase thought before looking at his drawn card. "Hey Dan, you mind if I borrow Archfiend Zombie Skull?"

"If you intend to get rid of that pirate than by all means, do with him as you wish." Daniel nodded and Chase grinned as the zombiefied version of Summoned Skull appeared on his side of the field.

"That's exactly what I intend to do, Archfiend Zombie Skull, attack Quick Sword!" Chase commanded and the monster stretched its arms out…..

"I activate my trap." Damien activated the trap which depicted the pirates that Damien had used so far loading a treasure chest full of gold onto Ghost Ship whilst opposing ships fired on it.

"Fat lot of good that did you, that trap hasn't raised your monster's attack by one point!" Chase commented as Archfiend Zombie Skull launched lightning at the Quick Sword.

"Maybe not but Battle for Buried Treasure still has its uses." Damien responded as he discarded a card from his hand. "This trap can only be activated if a Level 5 or higher Blood Pirate monster is targeted for an effect or an attack, my monster survives the attack and I get to draw two cards, however unless I discard another Blood Pirate from my hand before drawing the cards then the Blood Pirate on the field is destroyed."

"You still take damage!" Chase pointed out and Damien winced as his life-points dropped to 6400.

"If it means getting another chance to use my Pirate's effect again I'll take it!" Damien answered and Chase frowned.

"I'll end my turn." Chase announced and Andreas drew his card.

"I set a monster in defense mode!" Andreas set the card and pointed to Revived King. "Now Green Babboon, destroy Revived King Ha-Des!" Andreas commanded and the monster charged towards Ha Des with his club held high…..

"Fine by me, I'll just remove a Zombie type monster from my graveyard so that Spirit Shield can end the battle phase." Daniel removed the card from play and Green Baboon's attack was blocked by the force-field.

"I shall end my turn at that." Andreas announced and Daniel drew his card.

"All right, let's go for Round 2!" Daniel said as he added his drawn card to his hand. "Revived King Ha Des, attack Quick Sword now!" Daniel commanded and the zombie reached forward with its claws again…..

"I activate my Trap Card Shift, and I'm using it to force Revived King Ha Des to attack Andreas's facedown card." Damien activated the trap and the zombie changed its course and ripped the facedown monster, revealed to be Nimble Mogumba (2/1000/100), to shreds.

"And that in turn activates two effects, first up is the monster you destroyed! I gain a thousand life-points back….." Andreas announced as his life-points increased to 8000. "But that's not all because not only do I get to Special Summon two more of them face down in defense position." Andreas said as he set the two cards down. "And finally since a beast type monster was destroyed in battle I can remove two beast type monsters in my graveyard….." Andreas said as he pocketed the first Nimble Mogumba and Berserk Gorilla…..

"Oh crap, I know that effect." Daniel gulped as Andreas played the card.

"That's right Daniel; I'm doing this so that I can summon the mighty Yellow Baboon, Archer of the Forrest in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and another massive baboon appeared on the field, this one was yellow in color as its name suggested and was carrying a massive bow and arrow (7/2600/1800).

"Fine, you managed to summon a powerful monster but that won't stop me from attacking again! Go Archfiend Zombie Skull, roast that Pirate!" Daniel commanded and the zombie stretched its arms out before launching lightning at the massive pirate destroying him and bringing Damien's life-points down to 6100. "Luckily for you I've already used up my other monster's attack so I'll end my turn at that." Daniel announced and Damien drew his card.

"I activate Pot of Avarice!" Damien played the card and retrieved Mad Mary, Keelhaul Sal, Buccaneer Bible, Ghost Ship and Quick Sword from his graveyard, shuffled them into his deck (or his extra deck in Quick Sword's case) and drew twice.

"Great, just when I thought we were rid of that pirate." Daniel grunted in annoyance as Damien sent his Spell Card to the graveyard.

"Technically you are." Damien responded earning confused looks from the other Obelisk Blue Students. "You see the Blood Pirate Synchro Monsters may have powerful effects but they share one weakness in common, they can only be Synchro Summoned once per duel."

"Then why did you bother to return it?" Chase asked and Damien shrugged.

"It was that or return a card I need for a combo." Damien explained before looking at his drawn card. "And here's part one of the combo, since I drew him outside of the draw phase and the only monster in my graveyard is a Blood Pirate monster I can Special Summon Blood Pirate - Sully the Staggering Drunk!"

"…..what was his name again?!" Daniel asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head, Damien played the card and a short man in pirate gear appeared on the field, as his name suggested he was carrying two bottles of beer in each hand (5/0/0). "Actually, scratch that, a Level 5 monster with zero attack and defense points?! Either it has a powerful effect besides the one you just mentioned or I2 went out of their way to make the most useless monster since Fusionist."

"Oh believe me he does." Damien responded before retrieving a card from his graveyard. "When he's summoned by his own effect I can take one Blood Pirate with a feminine name from my graveyard and add it to my hand."

"That's gotta be the most oddly specific effect in duel monsters." Chase commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Well according to the lure behind these cards Lully would hit on anything female whilst he was drunk, which was most of the time, so it makes sense…kinda." Damien shrugged his shoulders before playing a card. "Anyway back to business, I normal summon the monster I retrieved from the graveyard with Sully's effect, Blood Pirate – Eve the Bald!" Damien played the card a woman in a skimpy pirate outfit appeared on the field; she had long blue hair and was carrying a small dagger (2/700/600).

"And I'm guessing she has an effect as well." Daniel commented and Damien grinned.

"Yeah but that only comes into play when she's used in a Synchro Summon of a Blood Pirate monster and as luck would have it she happens to be a Tuner Monster!" Damien explained as the two monsters leapt into the air, Eve the Bald dissolved into two Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Lully the Staggering Drunk. "I tune my two monsters together to Synchro Summon Blood Pirate - Baird the Black!" Damien played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded a tall pirate whose face was covered by a mask and he wielded a large sword (7/2400/1900).

"That's an improvement over your last Synchro Monster." Daniel commented dryly and Damien remained silent. "But he's still the weakest card on the field."

"Let me worry about that whilst you worry about Eve The Dawn's Special Effect, when she's used in the Synchro Summon of a Blood Pirate monster and the other monster was Lully the Staggering Drunk I get to draw two cards." Damien announced before drawing twice. "Otherwise I would've only been able to draw one card."

"So after all that hype the only thing she can do is give you extra cards? That's some combo." Chase said as he rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't dismiss my move so soon; I equip Baird the Black with my Spell Card called Sword of the Seven Seas!" Damien played the card and Baird's sword was replaced with one that was ocean blue in color. "This sword can only be equipped to a Level 7 or higher Blood Pirate monster, as for its effect, well it's simple, all I need to do is remove one monster with Blood Pirate in its name from play from the graveyard like Eve the Bald." Damien said as he pocketed the tuner monster. "And Baird gains her attack points for the rest of the turn."

"Oh crap." Chase gulped as Baird's attack increased to 3100.

"Baird the Black, attack Chase's life-points directly!" Damien commanded and the masked pirate charged towards Chase…

"Did you forget about Spirit Shield already?" Daniel asked as he retrieved a card from his graveyard and pocketed it and Baird's attack was blocked by a force-field.

"Actually I didn't." Damien responded and the two duelists blinked in confusion. "By negating the attack you activated Baird's ability which destroys Spell and Trap cards equal to the number of monsters used in its Synchro Summon!" Damien explained and Daniel and Chase's eyes widened as Spirit Shield and Zombie World where destroyed one by one by Baird's sword. "However I can only use that during the turn that Baird's Synchro Summoned, there's another tradeoff and that is that I have to skip my next Battle Phase but that doesn't apply to my tag partner."

"We still have plenty of tricks up our sleeves!" Chase asserted and Damien smirked before picking up two cards.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Damien set the two cards and Chase drew his card.

"Man, I don't remember Damien being this good when he faced Lance." Chloe commented as she scratched her head in confusion.

"That was a long time ago as far as his dueling's concerned." Tyler told her and Chloe turned to him. "His defeat at Lance's hands delivered a serious blow to his ego and from what I've been told the stunts Otto pulled during the Battle City Semi-Finals made him reevaluate who he should keep as friends, as for the improvements in his dueling skills, I think they happened naturally."

"Yeah well, if it's all the same to you I'm reserving judgment for now." Chloe answered with a frown. "My first meeting with him didn't exactly leave a good impression."

"Yeah, Brandon told me about that." Tyler responded with a nod. "I can't say I blame you either."

"I activate a Spell Card, go Spellbook inside the Pot!" Chase played the card and all four duelists drew three times. _"At least he can't use the monster or his equip spell again, the only monster in his graveyard in that drunkard." _Chase thought before looking at his cards. "I set two cards facedown and I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Doomkaiser Dragon!" Chase played the cards and the zombiefied dragon returned to the field.

"Why that and not Archfiend Zombie Skull?" Andreas asked and Chase grinned.

"You'll see why soon enough, for now I end my turn." Chase responded and Andreas drew his card.

"_I don't like this, it's like he wants me to attack with my baboons." _Andreas thought before looking at his cards. "I flip summon one of the mogumbas I special summoned last turn." Andreas announced as the small squirrel appeared on the field. "Next I activate my trap Beast Burial Ritual, to activate it I have to destroy my mogumba but in exchange I get to draw two more cards."

"I know that thing's effect, and I also know that you can't use those cards for another turn." Daniel pointed out and Andreas simply smirked.

"I'll cross that road when I come to it." Andreas said before picking up one of the cards he had drawn with Spellbook. "First off since I have two Beast Type Monsters on my side of the field I can Special Summon Chain Dog in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and a small black and white dog with a golden chain that had a padlock around its neck appeared on the field (4/1600/1100).

"Okay, I admit, that monster's kind of cute." Daniel grunted as he folded his arms. "But is that the best you can do?"

"Far from it, for my Normal Summon I summon the Tuner Monster Uni-Horned Familiar!" Andreas played the card and a small odd looking beast appeared on the field, it had a unicorn's horn and was blue and orange in color (2/0/700). "Next I flip summon my remaining Nimble Mogumba." Andreas announced as the third squirrel appeared on the field.

"Wait a sec, you now have enough Synchro Material Monsters for a Level 8 Synchro!" Chase realized and Andreas grinned.

"Indeed and I shall now take advantage of it by tuning Chain Dog, Uni-Horned Familiar and my last Nimble Mogumba together!" Andreas announced as the three beasts leapt into the air, Uni-Horned Familiar dissolved into two Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Chain Dog and Nimble Mogumba. "To Synchro Summon Lightning Tricorn!" Andreas played the card and once the flash faded a golden unicorn appeared on the field; it had several red horns sticking out of its body and had a blue mane (8/2800/2000).

"Great, he has three powerful monsters at his disposal." Daniel gulped as he stared down the three monsters. "And if it weren't for Revived King I'd be out of the duel."

"Don't worry, I have you covered." Chase reassured him and Daniel nodded at that.

"Now Green Baboon, attack Revived King Ha-Des!" Andreas commanded and the baboon charged towards the monster before slamming its club into it destroying it and bringing Daniel's life-points down to 5950. "Your turn Lightning Tricorn, attack Doomkaiser Dragon!" Andreas commanded and the unicorn let out a whinny before charging towards Doomkaiser Dragon…

"Not this time, I activate my Trap Card Assault Mode Activate!" Chase activated the trap earning a collective gasp from staff and students alike as Doomkaiser Dragon vanished from the field. "Doomkaiser Dragon may be gone but he's being upgraded to Doomkaiser Dragon/Assault Mode!" Chase played the card and a massive version of the previous monster appeared on the field, it growled menacingly at Andreas's three monsters (8/2900/2000).

"Hah, nice, when Doomkaiser Dragon's Assault Mode is activated so too is his Special Ability!" Daniel said with a grin once he realized what was going to happen. "With it Chase can Special Summon any number of Zombie Type monsters from any of our graveyards to his side of the field." Daniel explained as Goblin Zombie, Zombie Master, Pain Painter and Beast of the Pharaoh appeared on the field.

"The only problem with this combo is the fact that all of my monsters effects are negated and they'll be destroyed during the end phase." Chase continued before smirking. "So Andreas, do you have the guts to continue your attack?"

"Well, since you left your weaker monsters in attack mode, yes!" Andreas announced as Lightning Tricorn changed course and headed straight for Pain Painter…..

"I knew you'd do that." Chase said confidently and Andreas blinked. "I activate my trap card Assault Slash, since I have an Assault Mode monster active this trap will destroy every card on the field."

"Wait, what?" Andreas asked as a large explosion engulfed the field destroying the zombies first and then Andreas's three beasts…

"I activate Mutiny Squashed!" Damien activated the trap which depicted Blood Pirate – Quick Sword forcing other pirates to work. "Since I have a Blood Pirate monster that's about to be destroyed this trap will save it from destruction!" Damien explained as Laird braced himself for the explosion, the monster survived the blast but the other facedown card didn't.

"Okay, so I wasn't completely able to clear the field but what that move did do was allow me to Special Summon Doomkaiser Dragon again!" Chase played the card and the zombiefied dragon returned to the field.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas set the cards down and Daniel drew his card.

"Aren't the Assault Mode cards supposed to be incredibly rare?" Chloe asked as she scratched her head m confusion. "How did Chase get his hands on three of the Assault Mode cards?"

"That's a good question." Tyler agreed as he folded his arms. "But just because their rare doesn't mean they aren't obtainable, same can be said for your Silent Magician cards."

"Yeah but I got those cards in the first place because my stepdad runs a card shop." Chloe pointed out and Tyler frowned once he realized that she had a point. "But Chase…..okay I haven't spoken to him much since I joined this academy so I don't really know." Chloe admitted with a sigh.

"_Okay, at least Andreas has lost his three powerhouses, maybe now we can start doing some damage." _Daniel thought before looking at his drawn card. "I play a Continuous Spell Card called Call of the Mummy, as long as I have no monsters on my side of the field this Spell Card will let me Special Summon a Zombie Type monster from my hand." Daniel said before playing another card.

"That's going to be a problem." Andreas commented and Daniel grinned as he played the card.

"You have no idea; in fact I'll go ahead and use the effect right now to Special Summon Il Blud in attack mode!" Daniel played the card and a large strange zombie appeared on the field, it was pink and had a bloated chest that had a grinning face on it (6/2100/800).

"Thank you very much for the nightmares." Andreas said sarcastically as he stared down the monster.

"There's more to this monster than meets the eye, you see this big guy is a Gemini Monster and I'm using my Normal Summon to activate its Gemini mode!" Daniel explained as Ill Bud started glowing. "And its effect is a pretty potent one, as long as it's on the field I can Special Summon another Zombie from either our graveyards, however since you destroyed Zombie World a few turns back I'll have to make do with my own graveyard."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Andreas commented as Daniel retrieved the monster from his graveyard and played it revealing it to be Zombie Master. "Wait, why didn't you summon either of your Synchros?"

"It wouldn't have been worth it." Daniel said honestly earning a curious look from Andreas. "Sure, I would've been able to do a fair bit of damage but if you somehow retrieved either of your Baboons from the graveyard and destroyed Ill Bud the Synchro monster would've gone with it." Daniel explained before pointing to Andreas. "Not like it matters, go Zombie Master, attack his life-points directly!" Daniel commanded and the monster started casting a spell.

"I activate my Battle Instinct Trap Card!" Andreas announced as his trap card flipped up and he picked up a card in his hand. "Since you just declared a direct attack this trap will let me Special Summon a Beast Type monster from my hand as long as it has 2000 or less attack points." Andreas said before playing the card revealing it to be another Berserk Gorilla.

"Well played, Zombie Master, call off the attack!" Daniel commanded and Zombie Master stopped casting the Spell. "Il Blud, attack Berserk Gorilla!" Daniel commanded and the strange zombie leapt into the air before body splashing the gorilla destroying it and bringing Andreas's life-points down to 7900.

"That's certainly the strangest death animation I've seen." Andreas commented dryly before activating a trap. "But since you destroyed my Gorilla you've allowed me to activate two effects, first my Animal Trail trap card which allows me to add another Beast Type monster to my hand." Andreas commented as he added the monster to his hand before wincing as his life-points dropped to 6900.

"Wait; don't tell me you're bringing back Green Baboon, Defender of the Forrest?" Daniel asked and Andreas grinned as he retrieved the monster.

"I'll let my next move answer that for me, as for the other effect…..well I guess it's time to welcome back an old friend!" Andreas commented as Green Baboon returned to the field with an angry howl.

"Fine, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Daniel set the card down and Damien drew his card.

"_Okay, if I can get rid of that Gemini monster Daniel's field will be wide open for Andreas's turn." _Damien thought before frowning. _"But due to Baird's ability I can't attack." _Damien thought before looking at his drawn card. "I play the Spell Card Treasure Chest of Greed!" Damien played the card which depicted a large treasure chest with an illustration of the infamous Pot of Greed on the front. "Since I have a Blood Pirate monster on my side of the field I can draw two cards." Damien explained before drawing twice.

"Just how many varieties of the Pot of Greed are there?" Daniel asked and Damien could only shrug his shoulders before looking over his drawn cards.

"Ask the guys at I2, not me." Damien answered before picking up a card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn."

"Ah yeah, I almost forgot about Baird's side effect." Chase admitted before drawing his card. "Hey Dan, you mind if I use Il Blud's effect?"

"Go ahead." Daniel with a nod and Chase nodded.

"Okay but first I summon Immortal Ruler to the field in attack mode!" Damien played the card and the robed zombie appeared on the field (4/1800/200). "But this guy's not sticking around for long because I'm activating his effect, by sacrificing him I get to return Zombie World to my hand!" Chase explained as the zombie disappeared from the field and Damien retrieved the card from his graveyard.

"Just when I thought we were rid of that thing." Andreas commented and Chase grinned as he played the Field Spell returning the scenery to the desolate wasteland.

"Please, I have plenty of ways to recycle my field spell." Chase responded as he pointed to Andreas. "Anyway I'm activating Il Bud's effect to retrieve Yellow Baboon from Andreas's graveyard." Chase announced and Andreas reluctantly tossed the card at Chase, he played it and a zombiefied version of the giant yellow baboon appeared on the field.

"And that gives me a chance to activate this, my second copy of Trap of the Imperial Tomb!" Daniel activated the trap and Andreas and Damien could only watch as their monsters where dragged beneath the ground by decaying hands.

"And that means that I can go on the offensive, Doomkaiser Dragon, Yellow Baboon, attack Andreas's life-points directly!" Chase commanded and the two zombies charged towards Andreas, they unleashed their attack on Andreas bringing his life-points down to 1900. "All I need to do is attack with Il Blud and Andreas is out of the match, hey Dan, may I borrow Il Blud?"

"Don't bother, I activate my trap card Damage Condenser, since I just took Battle Damage this trap will let me Special Summon a monster with attack equal to the damage I just took." Andreas announced before searching through his deck, he found the card he was looking for and played it revealing it to be Barrier Rat (3/0/0).

"Hey, I remember that card from your duel against Adrienne, that has the ability to survive one attack per round right?" Chase remembered and Andreas nodded. "Fine, I'll you may have brought yourself some time but it won't last, I'll end my turn." Chase announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_He's right, unless I draw something soon I'll be eliminated and Damien will be left with a huge disadvantage." _Andreas thought before looking at his hand. "I start my turn by normal summoning Red Forrest Fox!" Andreas played the card and a small red fox appeared on the field (2/100/100). "And when he is normal summoned his effect activates allowing me to Special Summon a Level 2 or higher monster from my graveyard, I chose Chain Dog!" Andreas played the card and the small black and white dog returned to the field. "His effects are negated and he can't attack off course but that's not an issue."

"Setting up some more defenses huh? That won't work; you left Red Forest Fox and Chain Dog in attack mode!" Daniel pointed out and Andreas grinned.

"Yes but I left them in attack mode because I know they won't be around for much longer, Barrier Rat is a tuner monster after all!" Andreas explained as the three beasts leapt into the air, Barrier Rat dissolved into three Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Chain Dog and Red Forrest Fox. "And I tune the three monsters together to Synchro Summon Red Baboon, Destroyer of the Forrest!"

"There's a third baboon monster?!" Daniel and Chase yelled out simultaneously as the monster appeared on the field, it was just as big as the other baboons but was blood red in color and was carrying a large club (9/2600/1800).

"Yes, and his effect is very deadly, you see the part about him being Synchro Summoned with three monsters is completely optional but when he is I get to destroy one card on the field for each Synchro Material Monster used to summon him!" Andreas explained and the two Obelisk Blue student's eyes widened as Red Baboon slammed its club into the ground destroying Zombie World and Il Blud taking the other monsters with it. "By the way, thank you for revealing Il Blud's side effect to me, otherwise I would've targeted Doomkaiser Dragon!"

"You're welcome." Daniel muttered sarcastically before sending his cards to the graveyard, Chase tossed Yellow Baboon back to Andreas and he caught it before sending the monster back to the graveyard.

"And now to continue the fun, Red Baboon, attack his life-points directly!" Andreas commanded and the massive baboon charged towards the student before slamming his club into him bringing his life-points down to 3350. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Andreas set the card and Daniel drew his card.

"_Mystical Space Typhoon, if I had drawn that last turn Andreas would've been eliminated." _Daniel thought as he glanced at the Spell Card. _"Ah well, better late than never!" _Daniel decided before playing the card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Andreas's facedown card!" Daniel announced as a storm washed over the field…

"I may be using a new Archetype but you can't go wrong with an old card, go Magic Jammer!" Damien activated the trap and after he discarded a card the storm subsided.

"Fine, I'll use Call of the Mummy's effect to Special Summon Spirit Reaper in defense mode!" Daniel played the card and the small, scythe wielding skeleton appeared on the field (3/300/200). "Not my best monster but the fact that he can't be destroyed in battle makes up for that." Daniel admitted before looking over his hand. "That ends my turn." Daniel announced and Damien drew his card.

"I activate a Spell Card called A Call to Arms!" Damien played the card which depicted Quick Sword recruiting some pirates. "This lets me Special Summon one Blood Pirate monster from my hand or graveyard with its effects negated so welcome back Baird the Black!" Damien played the card and the masked pirate returned to the field.

"Nice try but you can't get past my Spirit Reaper on strength alone!" Daniel pointed out and Damien grinned.

"I won't need to because now I activate my facedown card Song of the Sirens!" Damien played the card which depicted Ghost Ship crashing into some rocks whilst three women look on. "According to mythology the Siren's songs would often lead sailors to their deaths but in this case those same songs help them."

"What do you mean?" Daniel demanded only for a loud but beautiful song to fill the air, this lasted for a few seconds before Daniel's and Chase's eyes to widen when Doomkaiser Dragon and Spirit Reaper shattered.

"That's what I meant; as long as I have a Level 5 or higher Blood Pirate monster on my side of the field and I discard two Blood Pirate monsters from my hand Song of the Sirens will destroy all monsters on my opponent's side of the field." Damien said before turning to Andreas. "Mind if I borrow Red Baboon for this?"

"By all means, be my guest." Andreas nodded and Damien grinned.

"Then it's time to end this, Red Baboon, Baird, attack Daniel's life-points directly!" Damien commanded and the two monsters charged towards Daniel before striking him with their weapons bringing Daniel's life-points down to zero. "I end my turn but you gotta admit Chase, it's looking pretty bleak for you." Damien pointed out as Chase drew his card.

"You know what? I agree." Chase agreed before surrendering. "I surrender the duel to Damien and Andreas." Chase announced and the crowd cheered.

"Here are the winners of the match, Damien Tarnow and Andreas Freshier!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered as the two duelists grinned before waving to the crowd.

"Those guys are going to be a force to be reckoned with next round." Chelsea commented and Chloe nodded in agreement. "Then again they did just fine despite the differences in their decks so who knows? Maybe we'll do just as well." Chelsea said as she turned to Chloe.

"I hope so." Chloe nodded in agreement as she watched the four duelists leave the stage. "Theresa and Brandon are up next, I don't envy Rachel and Kyle one bit."

"Now that's something we can agree on." Chelsea agreed with a nod. "Come to think of it we never saw Kyle duel."

"I don't know much about his deck, all I saw off it was the closing moments of his match against Thomas Newborne a few weeks back." Chloe admitted as she scratched her head.

"Oh yeah, that was just before our little adventure in the Abandoned Dorm right?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "I'm hoping that we get put against his team next round, it'll be fun to see you kick his ass again."

"It'll be even more fun to kick his ass." Chloe responded before frowning. "Have you ever faced Spirit or X-Sabers before Chelsea?"

"I faced Spirits once, a girl at my old school thought that a Spirit vs. Watts duel would be fun, it was." Chelsea responded before frowning. "X-Sabers are one deck I haven't faced though."

"Pretty much the opposite is true for me." Chloe responded before frowning. "Still I'd take that over facing Theresa and Brandon."

"No doubt about that, we'll probably face them at some point but I'd prefer to get a few wins under our belts first." Chelsea responded and Chloe nodded in agreement.

"Andreas has improved a lot since Battle City." Kaiba commented as he watched the duel proctors prepare the stage for the next duel.

"He's always been a very good duelist but he simply had the luck of the Dinosaurs when he was drawn against Otto." Martin answered and Kaiba nodded. "This next duel however…."

"Theresa and Brandon vs. two Osiris Red Students, this shouldn't take long." Kaiba commented and Martin frowned. "I realize that Chloe is in Osiris Red but for a student from her dorm she is exceptionally gifted."

"There's potential in each Osiris Red student and Kyle and Rachel are no exception." Martin said simply as he watched the next two teams step onto the stage. "Our next match is a clash of the dorms, Rachel Travis and Kyle Winston from Osiris Red vs. Theresa Daniels and Brandon Thomas from Obelisk Blue!" Martin announced into the microphone and the crowd cheered.

"Man, I can already hear Obelisk Blue students taking bets on how long Rachel and Kyle will last. " Chelsea commented with an annoyed look on her face. "If it weren't for the fact that Martin can see us I'd be giving them a piece of my mind."

"And as entertaining as that'd be I don't have a way to block his view from hear." Tyler responded with a chuckle. "Seriously though, I like Rachel and Kyle but you can't honestly expect them to last long."

"I don't but that won't stop me from defending my dorm." Chelsea answered as she folded her arms, whilst that was going on the two teams where shuffling their decks.

"I hope you're ready, we won't go easy on anyone regardless of dorms." Brandon told them and Rachel grinned.

"Actually I should be saying the same to you." Rachel said with a grin earning confused looks from the older students. "We may be the underdogs in this match but we came up with a strategy that'll win us those booster packs!"

"Well in that case I can't wait to see it." Theresa responded and Kyle frowned. _"Kyle doesn't seem convinced though, maybe it's just pre-match nerves."_

"_Rachel makes it sound so easy but honestly? It's not." _Kyle thought as the two teams drew their opening hands. _"But if we can pull this off we'll be shooting straight to the top!"_


	74. Day One Bug Zapper

"Now this should be amusing." Thomas Newborne commented as he put his feet up, he was sitting in the audience with Cameron and Jessica but was across the stadium from where Chloe and Chelsea where. "Two lowly Osiris Red Rejects who I beat without breaking a sweat going up against two of the best students in Obelisk Blue? This will be over so quickly we'll have time for a third match!"

"I'm hoping they'll at least drag it out, I want to see what Deck Theresa will be using in the tournament." Cameron responded as he leaned back. "But still, this won't take long at all even if they drag it out."

"Didn't you say the female student uses insects?" Jessica asked and Thomas nodded. "Good, I hate insects and I enjoy watching them get squashed."

"You mean the students or the monsters?" Thomas asked and Jessica grinned.

"Both." Jessica answered simply, whilst that was going on the two teams where trying to decide the order.

"So….should we go in the order that the last two teams used?" Kyle asked as he scratched his head in confusion. "That seemed to work pretty well."

"Since Martin never specified what order the duels would go in I think we're free to decide." Theresa answered before nodding in agreement. "But yeah, that seems like the best idea, which means I'll go first, then Rachel, then Brandon and then Kyle."

"That's fine by me." Rachel shrugged as she looked over her hand. _"And the sooner I can get my combo going the better." _Rachel thought as Theresa drew her opening card.

"I activate the Continuous Spell Card called Shard of Greed!" Theresa played the card and the shattered remains of the Pot of Greed appeared on the field. "But that effect won't activate until my next turn, in the meantime I set two cards facedown and a card in defense mode, your move Rachel." Theresa set the cards and Rachel drew her card.

"_Okay, here goes nothing." _Rachel thought before playing a card. "I activate my Double Summon Spell Card; this lets me have two normal summons this turn."

"_Seems she's using her old Swarming tactics, if she thinks that'll be enough to take her team to the finals then she's in for a rude awakening." _Brandon thought as Rachel sent her Spell Card to the graveyard.

"And here comes my first normal summon, Petit Moth in attack mode!" Rachel announced causing several students to do double takes as the small green larvae appeared on the field (1/300/200). "And next I equip my moth with Cocoon of Evolution."

"…..Wait, what?!" Was all Brandon could say as a large pink cocoon wrapped it's self around petit moth. "Rachel, please don't tell me that your big strategy for this tournament is summoning one of the most ridiculously hard monsters to summon in the game?!"

"Well, I guess it is kind of obvious." Rachel admitted with a nervous laugh. "But yeah, I intend to summon Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth!"

"It was her idea, not mine." Kyle quickly pointed out with a dull look on his face. "She thought that she could use the tag format to speed things along…and then I pointed out that it said "6th of your turn"."

"Yeah, I admit, I probably should've read the text more carefully." Rachel admitted with a gulp. "But that won't stop me from pulling this off!"

"Rachel, you realize that you're testing this strategy against two of the best students in the school, right?" Theresa pointed out and Rachel nodded without hesitation. "Kyle, at least tell me you tried to talk her out of this?"

"From the moment she revealed her plan to me to the last day before this tournament." Kyle answered with a sigh. "And don't even get me started on the time that I got desperate enough to interrupt one of Maria's classes just to try to talk her out of it." Kyle added and Rachel blushed as she remembered that day. "She's so stubborn she makes Chelsea look complacent."

"He knows I can hear him right?" Chelsea grunted as she folded her arms. "But still, on one hand I have to give Rachel credit for using a strategy no-one could've predicted, on the other hand I have to call her an idiot for using one of the most impractical strategies in the game!"

"Yeah, I may be a rookie but even I can see at least ten flaws in her plan." Chloe commented as she folded her arms. "It's hard enough keeping one monster on the field for a turn or two nowadays, let alone six turns whilst using a monster with no attack points."

"But if she can pull it off she'll have an extremely powerful monster on the field in six turns." Tyler pointed out before frowning. "But even I have to admit that's a pretty big if!"

"Anyway, if I can get back on track….." Rachel said before playing a card. "I'll use my second Normal Summon to bring out Desert Protector in attack mode!" Rachel played the card and a small brown spider appeared on the field (4/800/1000). "I set two cards facedown which in turn activates Desert Protector's effect, basically he gains 300 attack and defense points for each Spell and Trap card I control." Rachel explained as Desert Protector's attack and defense increased to 1400 and 1600 respectively. "And I end my turn." Rachel announced and Brandon drew his card.

"Okay, Rachel, before I continue…..you realize how unlikely it is that this'll work, right?" Brandon asked and Rachel blinked. "Off the top of my head I can think of several cards that are capable of destroying Petit Moth before your second turn even begins and I have a lot of them in my deck."

"I don't care, I'll make this work!" Rachel said determinedly and Brandon shook his head.

"Kyle wasn't kidding about your stubborn streak." Brandon sighed before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Allure of Darkness, by banishing one Dark Type monster from my hand this Spell Card will allow me to draw twice." Brandon announced as he pocketed the monster and drew twice. "Don't say I didn't warn you, I summon Dark Crusader in attack mode!" Brandon played the card and the skeleton crusader appeared on the field pointing its sword and Rachel's monsters (4/1600/200). "Obviously I can't attack due to the rules of the tournament so I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the two cards down and Kyle drew his card.

"_Well, I'm stuck with her strategy for now, may as well wait it out." _Kyle thought with a sigh when another monster on Brandon's side of the field caught his eye, it was a small orb shaped machine with lasers attached to it (2/800/1200). "Is that D.D. Scout Plane? I don't remember that being in your deck?"

"It's a recent addition, so recent that I brought it during the field trip yesterday." Brandon answered and Kyle nodded before looking it his drawn card.

"I set two cards facedown." Kyle announced as the two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I summon Marauding Captain in attack mode!" Kyle played the card and the brown haired warrior appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "Now that I've summoned him his effect activates…."

"Kyle, Chloe uses that card in her deck." Brandon pointed out with a frown. "We know what it does."

"Right and I use his effect to summon Rare Metal Dragon!" Kyle played the card and the metallic wingless dragon appeared on the field (4/2400/1200). "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Kyle announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_I still think Rachel's putting too much faith in an outdated and impractical strategy." _Theresa thought as she glanced at the cocoon. _"But on the other hand if she's smart then she has a stall card or two to help bide her time." _Theresa thought before playing the card she had drawn. "First off my Shard of Greed gains its first counter." Theresa announced as the pot started to come together. "Next I summon Twin Sword Marauder in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a masked swordsman in purple and gold armor appeared on the field, he was carrying several swords in one hand which he pointed towards Rachel's monsters (4/1600/1000).

"He doesn't look so tough." Rachel gulped as she stared down the swordsman.

"This guy's a lot tougher than he looks but don't take my word for it." Theresa said before pointing to Cocoon of Evolution. "Because even if he had a fraction of his current attack points he can still take down your cocoon and put an end to your strategy!" Theresa announced as the swordsman leapt towards the cocoon….only for desert protector to jump into the path of the sword getting skewered in the process.

"Sorry Theresa but there's a reason I used my second summon on Desert Protector." Rachel said as she sent her monster to the graveyard. "When an insect monster on my side of the field would be destroyed this little guy takes the hit instead."

"You still take damage." Theresa pointed out as Rachel's life-points dropped to 7800.

"It's a small price to pay to keep my strategy going." Rachel shrugged her shoulders and Theresa shook her head.

"Yeah well, sooner or later we'll get past that cocoon and when we do then I hope for your sake that you have a backup plan." Theresa responded before picking up a card. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the card down…..

"And I activate my trap DNA Surgery, and the type I'm declaring is insects!" Rachel activated the trap and Twin-Sword, Dark Crusader and Kyle's two monsters transformed into insect versions of themselves and once that was done Rachel drew her card.

"Five bucks says the next card she plays is Insect Barrier or something similar." Chelsea commented and Chloe nodded in agreement.

"I'm not even going to take that bet because I know I'll lose it." Chloe responded as the two girls watched the duel.

"_Great, I didn't draw the card I was hoping for." _Rachel thought before playing a card. "I activate a Spell Card, go Swords of Revealing Light!" Rachel played the card and Theresa and Brandon shielded themselves as the swords pinned down their monsters. "Now you can't attack for three of your turns."

"Err, Rachel, did you suddenly forget that we are facing two opponents?" Kyle asked and Rachel blinked before it hit her. "You'll only be able to buy yourself one turn using that Spell."

"Crap….." Rachel gulped before maintaining her composure. "I'll end my turn but just remember I have five more turns before my moth hatches." Rachel announced and Brandon frowned before drawing his card.

"_That's off course assuming that her cocoon will last long enough." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. _"In fact I can put an end to it right now!" _Brandon thought before playing the card. "I sacrifice D.D. Scout Plane so that I can summon Caius, The Shadow Monarch!" Brandon played the card and the small plane vanished, in its place stood the mighty dark monarch in all its glory even as it transformed into a more insect like creature (6/2400/1000).

"Oh crap! With that you can banish my cocoon!" Rachel gulped as the monarch prepared a ball of dark energy.

"Sorry Rachel but I'm about to show you just how bad an idea this was! Caius, I order you to target her cocoon and banish it!" Brandon commanded and Caius prepared to launch the ball…but was stopped by several fiendish looking chains. "What the….."

"I activated my trap Fiendish Chain!" Kyle announced as he pointed to his freshly activated trap card. "This trap card not only negates Caius's effect as long as it's on the field but Caius is also prevented from attacking."

"I thought you were opposed to Rachel using this strategy?" Brandon asked once his surprise wore off.

"I am but I also realize that it's our best shot at victory right now." Kyle answered and Rachel nodded in agreement.

"Fine, since I can't do anything with Caius I'll settle for this, I activate Dark – Spirit Art Greed, I tribute my monarch…" Brandon announced as the monarch vanished. "And I get to draw two more cards." Brandon announced as he drew twice. "Next I activate Dark Crusader's effect; by discarding one Dark Type Monster from my hand this will let me give him an attack boost of four hundred points." Brandon explained as Dark Crusader's attack rose to 2000.

"_He's obviously setting up his graveyard for Dark Armed Dragon's summon requirements but if I can get rid of just one of those cards then I can stall his move." _Kyle thought before looking at his hand. "May I take my move yet?" Kyle asked and Brandon looked over his hand.

"Go ahead." Brandon told him and once the first sword faded Kyle drew his card.

"_I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up, Rachel may have cards that protect her monsters from being destroyed in battle but otherwise I have to use cards that negate effects to keep her cocoon safe." _Kyle thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Magic Planter; as long as I destroy Fiendish Chain this Spell Card will let me draw two cards." Kyle announced as the trap card shattered and he drew twice.

"_If my guess is right Kyle has some more cards that negate effects to go along with Rachel's cards that negate attacks." _Brandon thought with a frown. _"I still think that trying to summon Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth is this day and age is insanely stupid but I'll give them credit for trying to make it work." _Brandon thought as Kyle looked at the two new cards in his hand.

"I set two cards facedown, now Rare Metal Dragon, attack Twin-Sword Marauder!" Kyle commanded and the weird, dragon/insect hybrid rolled into a ball and rolled towards Twin-Sword Marauder….

"Nice try but not good enough, I activate my trap card Negate Attack!" Theresa activated the trap and the rolling ball of metallic dragon stopped in its tracks. "It's an old card but it still works."

"Fine, since I can't destroy your Marauder yet I'll switch my captain to defense mode and I'll end my turn." Kyle announced and once Marauding Captain crouched down Theresa nodded before drawing her card.

"_They are getting cocky but if they are anything like Chloe it'll get the better of them and they'll slip up eventually."_ Theresa thought before looking at her drawn card. "First off my Shard of Greed gets another counter!" Theresa announced as the pot shards started to form into the infamous pot.

"I think I can see where this is going." Kyle commented as Theresa picked up her Spell Card.

"That's right; I'm sending Shard of Greed to the graveyard so that I can draw two cards." Theresa confirmed before drawing two cards. "But since I can't attack I'll pass my turn." Theresa announced and once the second sword disappeared Rachel drew her card.

"_Yes! This is just what I needed!" _Rachel thought with a grin as she eyed the Spell Card she had just drawn, she wasted no time in playing it. "I activate Insect Barrier!" Rachel announced as a large yellow barrier appeared around hers and Kyle's monsters. "Now unless you can destroy DNA Surgery you can't get at my cocoon!"

"And by then it may be too late." Brandon commented with a frown.

"True but just to be safe….." Rachel said before switching her cocoon to defense mode. "Even if you get past my Insect Barrier/DNA Surgery combo you still have to get past a monster with 2000 defense points, in the meantime I'll end my turn." Rachel announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_If she manages to keep that combo on the field for four more turns then she'll be able to summon Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth and, as impractical as it is, that would mean big trouble for me and Theresa." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Brandon announced and the four duelists drew three cards.

"_Great! If I can keep my combo going until next turn then this combo will help speed things along!" _Rachel thought as she looked at the three cards that she had drawn.

"Now I activate Dark Crusader's effect again." Brandon added before discarding one of the cards he drew and Dark Crusader's attack increased to 2400. "Unfortunately that's all I can do so I end my turn." Brandon announced and once the last sword disappeared Kyle drew his card.

"I set two cards facedown." Kyle announced as two more cards appeared in front of him before he switched Marauding Captain to attack mode. "Now let's try this again, Rare Metal Dragon, attack Twin Sword Marauder!" Kyle commanded and the dragon/insect hybrid rolled towards Theresa's monster, this time the attack went through crushing the swordsman and bringing Theresa's life-points down to 7200. "Marauding Captain, attack her life-points directly!" Kyle commanded and the warrior charged towards Theresa…..

"I don't think so; since you just declared a direct attack I can negate it and end the battle phase by Special Summoning Battle Fader from my hand!" Brandon played the card and the small fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0).

"Thanks Brandon." Theresa thanked him and Brandon smiled in response.

"We'll get through to your life-points eventually." Kyle said before turning to Theresa. "That ends my turn." Kyle announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_Perfect, this card will blow Rachel's strategy out of the water." _Theresa thought before turning to Brandon. "Can I borrow Dark Crusader for a few minutes?"

"Go for it." Brandon said in response and seconds later Dark Crusader walked over to Theresa's side of the field.

"Why would you do that? It's not like you can attack." Rachel pointed out and Theresa smirked before playing her drawn Spell Card. "Oh crap, that's Mystical Space Typhoon, isn't it?"

"That's right and I'm using it to destroy DNA Surgery!" Theresa announced as a tornado ripped through the field….

"I activate my Trap Card Imperial Custom!" Kyle announced as the trap flipped up. "As long as this is on the field all continuous trap cards on the field besides Imperial Custom can't be destroyed."

"Which renders my Spell useless." Theresa said with a frown as she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard. "I end my turn." Theresa announced and once Dark Crusader returned to Brandon's side of the field Rachel drew her card.

"_Okay, here goes!" _Rachel thought as she picked up two of her cards. "I set two cards facedown…" Rachel announced as the two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I activate a Spell Card called Mischief of the Time Goddess!"

"Oh crap!" Brandon gulped as a giant clock appeared above Rachel's side of the field, the clocks hands moved until they reached midnight. "That means you're only two turns away from summoning your monster!"

"I think the better point to make is how you got your hands on that Spell?!" Theresa asked with a raised eyebrow. "It's one of the rarest Spell Cards in the game."

"I have my ways." Rachel said as she sent her spell to the graveyard.

"Err, Chloe, didn't you lend Rachel your copy of that Spell?" Chelsea asked and Chloe gulped.

"Yeah, she didn't say why, she just said that she'd give it back after the tournament." Chloe answered as she glanced down at her deck. "I have an extra copy in my side deck so I figured why not?"

"Well, here's hoping Rachel can keep her mouth shut about it." Chelsea commented as she folded her arms.

"But that's not all I'm doing, you see since it's technically been a turn since I set my traps I can activate them both!" Rachel announced as the two traps flipped up. "Pyro Clock of Destiny and with two copies of it active I can skip two more turns." Rachel said before her grin widened. "But that's not the important part." Rachel added as the cocoon started to hatch.

"I can't believe she actually pulled it off." Theresa gulped as the cocoon finished hatching and the massive green moth appeared on the field with a shriek (8/3500/3000).

"That's right, and this guy's got 3500 points off attack power directed at you Brandon." Rachel said as she pointed to Battle Fader. "Because it looks like you left Battle Fader in attack mode!"

"_Shit, she's right!" _Brandon realized as his eyes widened. _"I left it in attack mode because I thought I'd have at least a few more turns before she summoned her moth!"_

"Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth…okay that name's too much of a mouthful for me." Rachel admitted as a large sweat drop rolled down her head. "Ultimate Great Moth, attack Battle Fader!" Rachel commanded and the massive moth flapped its wings at the much smaller fiend causing a massive gust of wind that destroyed it and brought Brandon's life-points down to 4500. "I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Rachel announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_Dark Armed Dragon, off all the times to draw this card I had to do it whilst I have too many monsters in my graveyard." _Brandon thought before adding the monster to his hand. "I switch Dark Crusader to defense mode and set a card facedown." Brandon announced as the monster crouched down. "That ends my turn." Brandon announced and Kyle drew his card.

"I activate my second Magic Planter, by destroying Imperial Custom I get to draw two cards." Kyle announced as his trap's hologram shattered and he quickly drew two cards.

"But…but that leaves my combo wide open!" Rachel protested and Kyle shook his head.

"Rachel, that combo was only on the field so that you could summon your Moth in the first place, besides it's not like they're going to destroy it anytime soon." Kyle pointed out and Rachel frowned.

"_He has no idea how inaccurate that statement is." _Brandon thought with a sigh as he glanced towards Dark Armed Dragon.

"Heh, Brandon, you're about to wish that you left your crusader in attack mode!" Kyle commented and Brandon blinked in confusion. "I equip Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth….Rachel's right that is a mouthful….with Big Bang Shot!"

"That's going to be a problem." Brandon commented with a gulp as Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth's attack points shot up to 3900.

"You have no idea! Rachel, can I borrow Ultimate Great Moth?" Kyle asked and Rachel nodded without hesitation and the giant moth flew over to Kyle's side of the field. "Great Moth, attack Dark Crusader now!" Kyle commanded and the massive moth flapped its wings causing a massive gust of wind that blew away the knight. "Well, that's…" Kyle started upon realizing something. "Wait a sec; weren't you supposed to take battle damage?"

"Normally I would but Defense Draw saved me from taking any damage." Brandon announced as he drew another card. "And as the name implies I get a new card to boot!"

"Big deal, I have Rare Metal Dragon and Marauding Captain to make up for that!" Kyle pointed out as the two monsters charged towards Brandon…

"I activate my trap card Fortress of Dark Illusion!" Theresa announced as her trap flipped up revealing a well-fortified fortress that had a lightning storm flashing overhead. "Since you destroyed a dark type monster this turn all I need to do is remove one card from my graveyard to end the battle phase, and since we're sharing graveyards I think I'll remove D.D. Scout Plane from Brandon's graveyard."

"Nice save." Brandon complemented her before pocketing the monster.

"Big deal, you may get to summon that monster at the end of the turn but since our moth has been equipped with Big Bang Shot it's not much use to you." Kyle pointed out before setting the other card he had drawn with Magic Planter and another card. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Kyle announced and once D.D. Scout Plane was back on the field Theresa drew her card.

"I activate Arkhasic Record, I get to draw two cards but if I've used either of them in the duel already then I have to remove them from play." Theresa announced before drawing her cards.

"I'm guessing you haven't used them?" Kyle asked and Theresa nodded before picking up one of the cards that she had drawn.

"Sorry guys but I'm about to swat that moth!" Theresa said as she played the card she had drawn. "I activate Heavy Storm and I use it to clear the field and most importantly destroy Big Bang Shot!" Theresa announced and Rachel's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field…..

"Guess again, I chain my trap card Magic Jammer!" Kyle announced as his trap card flipped up and he discarded a card from his hand. "Now unless you have something like Seven Tools of the Bandit your Spell Card is negated." Kyle announced as the storm subsided. "Nice try."

"Fine, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa set the card and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief before drawing her card.

"_It's my own Magic Planter, with this I can destroy DNA Surgery and get to draw two more cards, only thing is that I will lose my combo and Insect Barrier will just take up a spot in my Spell/Trap Card zone." _Rachel thought before frowning. _"On the other hand with a monster as strong as Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth on the field how can we lose?"_

"Err, Rachel, are you going to make a move sometime today?" Brandon asked and Rachel nodded before playing her card.

"Yeah I am, and my move starts with my own copy of Magic Planter!" Rachel played the card and her copy of DNA Surgery shattered and once the monsters who were transformed by the trap card returned to normal Rachel drew twice.

"_I guess what Kyle said about not needing their combo any more got to her." _Theresa thought as Rachel looked over her cards.

"Ultimate Great Moth, attack D.D…" Rachel never finished her sentence as her commands where cut off by a loud roar. "What the….."

"I activated Threatening Roar, that what!" Theresa said as he sent her trap to the graveyard. "And unless you have another copy of Mischief of the Time Goddess you can't attack until your next turn."

"Yeah but what I can do is set two cards facedown." Rachel announced as her two traps appeared behind her moth. "And end my turn at that." Rachel announced and Brandon drew his card.

"I sacrifice D.D. Scout Plane to summon Beast of Talwar!" Brandon played the card and the small plane vanished, in its place stood the green, winged, twin scythe wielding demon (6/2400/2150).

"So? That monster may be stronger than D.D. Scout plane but it's still weaker than our moth!" Kyle pointed out before realizing something. "Wait, that thing's in attack mode?!"

"Your right but before I do anything else I activate this!" Brandon announced as he played the card. "I activate Pot of Avarice!" Brandon played the card and picked up Caius, Dark Crusader and the three cards he discarded for Dark Crusader's effect before shuffling them into his deck and drawing two cards.

"Don't get used to those cards!" Rachel said as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Null and Void, and since this trap seems to be a favorite of yours I doubt I have to explain what it does to you."

"You're right, you don't." Brandon said as he sent his cards to the graveyard. "But I have to thank you for that." Brandon added before retrieving the two cards revealing them to be Maiden of Macabre and Don Zaaloog. "Not only are these cards dead draws since I've already used up my normal summon this turn but you just gave me enough monsters to summon Dark Armed Dragon!

"Shit!" Kyle gulped as Brandon played the card and the massive dragon appeared on the field with a growl (7/2800/2100).

"It gets better, for us at least!" Brandon announced as he retrieved D.D. Scout Plane from the graveyard. "By banishing one Dark-Type monster from my graveyard I can destroy one monster on the field and I think it's pretty obvious which one I'm targeting." Brandon said as the massive dragon rose its tail up…..

"I activate my trap Breakthrough Skill!" Kyle announced as the trap flipped up. "With this I can negate the effect of one monster on your side of the field and negate its effect for the rest of the turn." Kyle announced as he sent the trap to the graveyard.

"Fine, you brought yourself some time for now." Brandon conceded before turning to Kyle. "But I can still do some damage, Beast of Talwar, attack Rare Metal Dragon!" Brandon commanded and the two monsters charged at each other, Rare Metal Dragon impaled Beast of Talwar on its horn before Beast of Talwar slashed him across the chest destroying both monsters.

"I still have my captain!" Kyle said nervously and Brandon smirked.

"Not for long, Dark Armed Dragon attack Marauding Captain!" Brandon commanded and the dragon rose its tail up before crushing the warrior bringing Kyle's life-points down to 6400. "That ends my turn." Brandon announced and once D.D. Scout Plane was back on the field Kyle drew his card.

"_I'd better get rid of his dragon fast!" _Kyle thought before turning to Rachel. "Can I borrow Ultimate Great Moth?"

"Go for it." Rachel responded with a nod as the giant moth once again flew over to Kyle's side of the field.

"Thanks, now Ultimate Great Moth, attack Dark Armed Dragon!" Kyle commanded and the moth took flight again….only for the subsequent gust of wind to be blocked by a strange small fiend that was white in color and had a big grin on its face (1/0/0). "What the….."

"This is another card I picked up yesterday, Damage Collector, when I level 7 or higher Dark Type monster would be destroyed in battle I can negate the attack by Special Summoning him and if damage would've been applied then it gets a Collection Counter." Brandon explained as a small white orb appeared above the small white fiend.

"Fine, I'll end my turn at that!" Kyle announced and Brandon drew his card. "If you're getting any ideas about using Dark Armed Dragon's effect then don't, I discard the Tuner Monster Effect Veilor from my hand to negate Dark Armed Dragon's effect!" Kyle announced as he sent the monster to the graveyard.

"That's fine by me because I wasn't planning on using it anyway." Brandon announced earning confused looks from the other duelists. "I sacrifice Damage Collector to summon an old friend, Caius, The Shadow Monarch!"

"Oh shit!" Kyle gulped as the small fiend vanished and in its place stood the mighty shadow monarch (62400/1000). "Well, at least we didn't learn what that counter does." Kyle said with a nervous laugh.

"You're wrong there but first I think it's about time we swatted that overgrown fly!" Brandon announced as Caius launched a ball of dark energy at the moth destroying it. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, you see if Damage Collector has a Collection token on him when he's removed from the field by methods other than being destroyed in battle than the opponent takes the card that attacked in the first place's attack as damage."

"Wait, what?!" Kyle protested before he and Rachel winced as their life-points dropped to 3900 and 4300 respectively. "That effect's too powerful!"

"Actually it's not, in exchange for using that effect we have to skip our next draw phases." Brandon said before sighing. "It's been a good duel guys but you relied on that moth too much."

"This coming from the guy who's deck revolves around summoning Dark Armed Dragon?" Rachel asked and Brandon sweat-dropped.

"Good point, now Caius, Dark Armed Dragon, attack Rachel's life-points directly!" Brandon announced and Rachel braced herself as the two monsters prepared their attacks, the attacks hit in the order Brandon commanded them bringing Rachel's life-points down to zero. "I end my turn and I'll leave it too Theresa to finish the job." Brandon announced and Theresa nodded.

"Brandon, can I borrow your monsters?" Theresa asked and Brandon nodded. "Kyle, if it helps I take no pleasure in eliminating you and Rachel this early."

"Thanks but the fact that we were able to hold our own against two of the best students in the school is enough for me." Kyle said honestly and Theresa nodded.

"Caius, Dark Armed Dragon, finish it!" Theresa commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Kyle bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Theresa Daniels and Brandon Thomas!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "That's all the duels for today but the tournament will continue tomorrow where we'll see Kimberly and Nathan Troy take on Beth McKenzie and Tommy Marlow and Lance Alvers and Evan Grant take on Jason York and Nikki Tryon."

"I didn't think the first day off dueling would finish so quickly." Chelsea admitted as she picked up her laptop and followed Chloe out of the main duel arena. "Before you know it we'll be dueling next."

"Yeah, well, hopefully we'll have better luck than Rachel and Kyle." Chloe said as the two girls left the stadium. "Still can't believe they managed to pull that off."

"Yeah, same here, if someone had told me last week that someone from our dorm would summon Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth I would've been laughing for the rest of the day." Chelsea said honestly as she put her hands in her pockets. "So what will we do now?"

"I don't know; chill out in the dorm room I guess?" Chloe shrugged as she turned to her roommate. "It's not like Duel Academy does classes at night anyway."

"True but then again classes where off for today because of the tournament." Chelsea said before glancing towards Theresa and Brandon who were discussing their duel whilst shuffling their decks. "If we beat Donny and Drake on Wednesday then I'm not looking forward to facing them."

"Yeah, not to mention the fact that we didn't see much of Theresa's deck." Chloe agreed as they headed to the backstage area, they saw Damien and Andreas discussing their match whilst walking towards the two girls. "That was a great duel guys." Chloe complemented them and the two boys looked up.

"Thank you, good luck in your match." Andreas said with a nod before walking off. "I'd love to stay and chat but I need to prepare my deck for the next round."

"I'll catch up with you Andreas." Damien called after him and Andreas nodded before walking off. "Chloe, you got a minute?"

"Sure." Chloe shrugged before turning to Chelsea. "See you back at the dorm Chelsea."

"Likewise." Chelsea nodded before turning around and walking off, Chloe turned to Damien and frowned.

"So, what's up?" Chloe asked as she folded her arms. "The last time I saw you you where one of Otto's buddies."

"Yeah well, Otto lost a lot of friends with the stunts he pulled during the Battle City Semi-Finals, even some of his most stubborn friends turned on him after they heard that he had destroyed your deck." Damien answered before sighing. "I know our first meeting back at the boat didn't exactly leave a good impression off me on you so I want to apologize for that."

"Wait, really?" Chloe asked as she looked at Damien skeptically. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, besides that you're not the only one who was abused as a kid." Damien said before pointing to his scar. "That's how I got this." Damien added and Chloe bit her lip as she thought back to their first meeting on the boat.

"Apology accepted, but that doesn't mean I won't go easy on you if we meet in the next round." Chloe answered eventually and Damien smirked.

"I was hoping you wouldn't." Damien said before walking off. "See you around Chloe."

"Yeah, see you." Chloe called after him before leaving the main building. _"After my recent Orichalcos duel I welcome a friendly match any day of the week."_ Chloe thought as she made her way to the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm.

*elsewhere*

The students and the teachers weren't the only duelists watching the opening round of the Tag Team Tournament as Victor Santiago was watching the match from his office via the video cameras had set up.

"And the award for most predictable duel goes to….." Jack trailed off as Theresa finished off Kyle with Caius and Dark Armed Dragon. "We should make another move against them before the tournament ends, those rare cards are bound to strengthen any deck off our targets."

"In due time Jack, in due time." Victor answered before his phone went off and he answered it. "Juliana, I said that I didn't want to be disturbed."

"Sorry sir but it's an urgent call from Dr. Schwartz down in R&D, he says it's something that you'll want to hear as soon as possible." Juliana answered and Victor frowned.

"Put him through." Victor answered before waiting a few minutes.

"Victor, I know you said that you didn't want to be disturbed but this is a breakthrough in harnessing the power of the Orichalcos." An old German accent rang out and Victor frowned. "You may remember that several souls where destroyed during Battle City."

"What about it?" Victor asked as he listened to Dr. Schwartz's explanation, his frowned turned into an evil grin as he thought of the possibilities. "How soon can you get it done?"

"This evening but the target will have to be asleep first." Dr. Schwartz answered before pausing. "Do you have any soul in mind for this experiment?"

"Just the one, make sure that he's using a particular deck as well." Victor answered as his grin grew wider. "As for the target….." Victor trailed off as he started to laugh evily.


	75. In Dreams of Terror

It had been several hours since the first two duels of the Tag Team Tournament and most of the students were getting ready for bed that is except for the students who were visiting their girlfriends/boyfriends for a romantic evening and Chloe Richardson.

"Chloe, since when did you have any problems getting to sleep?" Chelsea asked as her head poked out from the top bunk, Chloe had been rocking back and forth in her bed unable to get any sleep. "You usually go straight to bed."

"Sorry but I'm having trouble getting to sleep." Chloe sighed as she sat up in her bed. "I've tried everything I can think off, counting sheep, listening to the most boring music I know on my IPod, you name it."

"You tried listening to Nickleback?" Chelsea suggested jokingly and Chloe shuddered.

"Thanks but I'd rather not subject myself to a Fate Worse than Death." Chloe responded as she looked over her IPod. "What do you usually do when you can't get to sleep? And having sex with Beth doesn't count." Chloe asked and Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"You're no fun." Chelsea responded with a cheeky grin before thinking for a moment. "Well you've already listed two of them so that's out of the question…" Chelsea trailed off before thinking for a moment. "I've got it!"

"If it's "play solitaire with my Duel Monsters deck" then forget it, I never learned how to play that game." Chloe sighed as she leaned back on her bed.

"Okay, time to think off a new idea!" Chelsea responded before thinking for a moment. "Okay, I got it! You know you mentioned that you listen to music on your IPod to help get to bed right?"

"Yeah, why do you ask? I already said that the music on it's not doing the trick." Chloe asked and Chelsea hopped off the top bunk as quietly as she could.

"Trust me; the stuff on my IPod is bound to be at least ten times as boring as the stuff on yours." Chelsea reassured her before looking through her playlist. "No, no, no, fuck no, aha! Here we go!" Chelsea muttered under her breath before finding the song in question and giving Chloe her headphones, Chloe took out the headphones connected to her IPod and replaced them with Chelsea's.

"If this works I'll leave your IPod by your laptop when I do wake up." Chloe commented once she remembered that Chelsea had a class in the morning.

"Appreciate it." Chelsea said with a nod before climbing back up to her bunk and lying down on it. _"If this doesn't work I'll "borrow" some of Maria's music collection, it's not like she'll miss it." _Chelsea thought to herself before hearing the sounds of Chloe snoring. _"Ah Sully Erna, you may be a good singer and Godsmack may kick ass but you sure know how to put a girl to sleep." _Chelsea thought before leaning back on her bed.

*inside Chloe's dream*

Chloe was in a place she had visited many times but that wasn't a good thing, it was the dark area that she often visited in her dreams where all she could hear was the sounds off the abuse she suffered as a kid, she looked down at her outfit and confirmed that she was wearing her outfit from earlier today minus the blazer.

"_Same naval exposing tank top, same jeans, same boots…..but why does something feel different?" _Chloe thought as she rubbed her scarred arm nervously. "Silent Magician, are you there?" Chloe called out as she glanced around.

"Chloe, you must leave at once!" Silent Magician's voice rang out as she appeared before her protégé. "Some very powerful magic is at work here, I tried to protect you by keeping you awake with a spell but…." Silent Magician never finished as she found herself trapped in a crystal.

"SILENT MAGICIAN!" Chloe called out as her duel spirit was hung above her head, she quickly noticed one other thing from her outfit, namely her duel disk, and activated it. "I know your there! Show yourself!" Chloe demanded as she glared at the darkness, a familiar voice rang out with an evil laugh and Chloe's eyes widened. "No, it can't be!"

"What's the matter?" The voice asked and Chloe tensed up as she heard footsteps approaching her. "I thought you'd be happy to see your dad again." The voice added and Chloe's eyes widened as her biological dad stepped into view.

"You….." She trailed off as she glared at her dad. "How are you even here? Phillip told us that your soul was destroyed!"

"I'll spare you the details." Robert chuckled as his Orichalcos duel disk activated. "My former employer may have ordered my soul destroyed but let's just say that my current employer decided to give me a second chance."

"Like you deserve it you bastard." Chloe grunted as she glared at him, suddenly the sounds of several people hitting the ground behind Chloe rang out and Chloe looked up. "Guys, what are you doing here?" Chloe asked once she saw Lance, Tyler, Chelsea, Andreas, Brandon, Theresa and Marcus behind her.

"That's a good question." Chelsea grunted as she got back to her feet. "One minute I was having a dream involving me and Beth….."

"Yeah, please spare us the details of that dream." Chloe said as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Please don't." Marcus said almost immediately but was shut up by a glare from Chelsea.

"The next I'm…..well…..here." Chelsea added with a shrug before noticing Robert. "Who is that anyway?" Chelsea asked as she pointed to Robert and the other students who competed in Battle City eyes narrowed once they saw him.

"That's my dad." Chloe said with a sigh and Chelsea's eyes widened once it hit her.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Chelsea yelled at him before charging in with her fist outstretched.

"Chelsea, don't!" Silent Magician called out to her but Chelsea ignored her and tried to punch him in the face…..only to pass right through him.

"What the hell?" Chelsea yelled out before turning around and trying again only for her punch to pass through him, he smirked before backhanding Chelsea sending her flying towards the others. "I'm okay, pissed off but okay." Chelsea grunted as she forced herself back to her feet.

"I wouldn't try that again, here, I make all the rules." Robert chuckled before turning to Chloe. "Trust me, I'll deal with you pieces of shit later but first I have a job to finish."

"What do you want?!" Chloe demanded and Robert smirked.

"What do I want? Isn't that obvious? I want to finish the job I started ten years ago." Robert said as he grinned evilly. "I should've killed you that day along with that bitch but you got away!" Robert grunted and Chloe grit her teeth. "This is my chance to correct that mistake! We'll duel right here, right now, when I win then you'll be trapped here forever and you'll never wake up!"

"You bastard! What did she ever do to you?" Chelsea demanded and Robert smirked.

"She was born, that's what!" Robert answered before his evil grin grew. "You want to know the kicker though? You'll be fully aware the whole time, trapped in your body whilst your friends try desperately to wake you up before you're eventually taken off Life-Support." Robert added and Chloe shuddered at that memory.

"She can't accept that!" Lance snapped at him and Robert smirked.

"She doesn't have a choice, either we duel or you will all be trapped here." Robert answered and Lance grit his teeth.

"What if she beats you?" Tyler asked as he glared at the man and all eyes in the room turned to him. "What will happen then?"

"Well, I suppose there's no harm in telling you, it's not like she'll win anyway." Robert said as he folded his arms. "There's a machine that's allowing me to do this, right? Well it's only good to use on one soul that can't be brought back, I won't pretend to understand that specifics but if I'm defeated then you'll never see me again, not even in your dreams."

"How do we know you'll even stick to your word?!" Brandon asked and Robert smirked. "Your conviction may have been overturned but you're still a criminal!"

"Thanks for the reminder Brandon." Chloe grunted in annoyance and Brandon shook his head. "But yeah, he has a point."

"Do you think I have a choice? Victor Santiago promised me a new body if I could pull this off and…." Robert started before what he had just said hit him. "Forget what I just said."

"_Yeah right, nice try." _Brandon thought as his eyes narrowed.

"Well, if it means getting rid of you for good." Chloe conceded before drawing her opening hand. "I accept your challenge." Chloe added and Robert smirked before drawing his opening hand.

"Guys, what deck did he use in Battle City?" Chelsea whispered to the others and Brandon turned to her.

"Fiends mostly, his big play seemed to be based around the Destiny Board trap card." Brandon answered and Chelsea nodded once she remembered the card. "Most of his cards seemed to be high attack monsters with powerful effects."

"_Like that knowledge will help them." _Robert thought as he looked over his hand. _"I have a new deck now, one that blows my old one out of the water and if this doesn't break the little bitch's spirit than nothing will." _Robert thought before glaring at Chloe. "I'm going first!" Robert announced before drawing his card. "But before I continue….." Robert trailed off before snapping his fingers and the other students where quickly surrounded by the same type of crystal that held Silent Magician.

"What are you trying to do? Kill them?" Chloe demanded and Robert smirked.

"Don't worry, those crystals won't kill your friends, they'll just hold them in place until I'm done with you!" Robert answered before looking at his drawn card. "Now then, how about we take a trip down memory lane?"

"I took enough of those trips the last time we dueled!" Chloe snapped at him and Robert smirked.

"You don't get a choice! I activate the Continuous Spell Card Sad Story – Sorrowful Memories!" Robert played the card and the scenery seemed to change around them.

"What's going on? That wasn't a Field Spell!" Chelsea yelled out as she watched the scenery change showing the outside of a small apartment where several police officers were standing around. "This is getting weird….."

"Wait, is that mom?!" Theresa yelled out once she recognized one of the officers, Chloe looked up and saw the woman she recognized from the trip to New York.

"No one seems to be home chief." Theresa's mom told her superior officer, a large, heavyset man with short black hair and blue eyes. "You have any ideas?"

"Check the windows, the neighbors said they heard screaming and I'm not budging until we….." The chief trailed off when he saw a younger officer run towards them who looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Sir, you'd better see this!" The officer said before leading them to a window, they peered in and Chloe's eyes widened when she recognized the building.

"This…this is…" Chloe trailed off when she saw the inside.

"Yes, this is the piece of shit apartment that I could barely afford!" Robert finished for her as the officers saw a seven year old and barely conscious Chloe who was lay in a pool of her own blood with a massive gash down most of her arm, the chief personally kicked down the door and the officers ran in.

"Johnson, find and arrest the piece of shit that did this to her! Daniels, call an ambulance!" The chief commanded and the officer ran off whilst Theresa's mom went to call for an ambulance, the flashback ended and the scene returned to normal.

"Chloe…was…was that…?" Chelsea trailed off and Chloe turned to her.

"Yeah, that's the day I got the scar on my arm." Chloe said with gritted teeth before turning to Robert. "Was there a point to that?!"

"There was, from now on any monsters you draw during your draw phase get shuffled back into your deck." Robert explained before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Robert announced and Chloe shakily drew her card.

"Apparently just reminding her of the abuse she suffered in Battle City wasn't enough for this bastard." Marcus grunted as he glared at him. "You guys ever hear of these Sad Story cards?"

"I've heard rumors of them; they are supposed to be incredibly rare." Tyler commented with a frown. "It's a set of five cards, three spells, one trap and a monster, and the Spell Cards share the same effect but with what it affects changed."

"What I don't get is what's with that flashback?" Chelsea chimed in as she folded her arms. "Not even the most powerful cards in duel monsters have that much power."

"There are rumors about that." Tyler said after thinking for a bit. "The rumor states that under normal circumstances the cards act like any other Spell Card, but when there's magic involved then there's the added effect of bringing back memories for the players, often painful ones."

"I guess we can confirm that rumor." Chelsea said with a nod as they watched the duel.

"So, is it a monster or not?" Robert demanded and Chloe growled at him.

"It's a Spell Card and I'm activating it now! Go Spellbook Inside The Pot!" Chloe played the card and Robert frowned before drawing three cards and Chloe did likewise. "Now I set two cards facedown and I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900). "Gemini Elf, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the twin elves prepared their twin blasts…..

"I activate my Trap Card, Merlin's Barrier!" Robert announced as the trap flipped up depicting an old man in wizard's robes casting a Spell. "Not only does it negate the attack but if my opponent attacked with a Spellcaster than I get to add two Spell Cards to my hand free of charge."

"Gee, another broken card, what a surprise." Chloe muttered under her breath as Robert added the two cards to his hand. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Robert drew his card. _"That card's name can't be a coincidence; it's not exactly a secret that I'm a big fan of Sword and Sorcery adventure books." _Chloe thought as Robert frowned.

"It's a monster so it goes back to my deck." Robert announced as he shuffled the card back into his deck. "But that doesn't matter; your little Spell Card gave me another monster I can use! I summon Giant Orc in attack mode!" Robert played the card and the massive muscular and ugly orc appeared on the field (4/2200/0000). "Now I activate a Spell Card called Smashing Ground which destroys your elves!"

"Oh crap!" Chloe gulped as the two elves shattered into many pieces. _"This is going to hurt!" _Chloe thought as she braced herself.

"Giant Orc, attack her life-points directly!" Robert commanded and the Orc charged towards Chloe before slamming its club into Chloe's stomach bringing her life-points down to 5800. "What's the matter? No Numinous Healer/Emergency Provisions combo to save you?"

"Just end your….." Chloe never finished her sentence as she felt the pain from the attack. "Since when did you activate the Seal of the Orichalcos?"

"I didn't and I don't need to, the damage in this duel is as real as you and me." Robert said snidely before picking up one of his cards. "And I will end my turn but first it's time for another trip down memory lane with Sad Story – Dreadful Day!"

"Not this again!" Chelsea grunted as the scenery changed again, they were back in the apartment and this time they saw Chloe's younger self happily reading a fantasy novel, the arm that now bore her scar was in a cast which had a few signatures on it. "Err, Chloe, why did you cast have autographs on it?"

"I was pretty popular at my school at the time." Chloe said sheepishly as she looked at the cast. "Most of them where get well wishes."

"Damn kids." Robert muttered under his breath before grinning as the sounds of a struggle where heard downstairs. "Ah yeah, I remember this day clearly!"

"Oh please tell me it's not what I think it is." Chloe pleaded as her eyes widened as she watched her younger self walk downstairs, the site that greeted the younger Chloe caused the other student's eyes to widen and Chloe's eyes to water as it showed Robert standing over Chloe's mom with a gun in his hand, her mother was beaten and bloody and Chloe couldn't help but turn her head away from the scene.

"You're worthless you hear me? You're worthless! First I'll kill you and that mistake of a daughter!" The younger Robert yelled at Chloe's mom whilst the younger Chloe watched on.

"Robert, no!" Chloe's mom pleaded with him but it was clear that Robert wasn't going to listen; the younger Chloe tried to run from the scene but tripped catching Robert's attention. "Chloe run!"

"Get back here you little bitch!" Robert shouted before firing a shot at her which grazed her good shoulder, the younger Chloe turned around in time to see Robert shoot Chloe's mom in the head before fleeing and the flashback ended.

"You bastard! When I get out of here I'll….." Chelsea yelled out as she pounded on the crystal.

"You'll what? Get swatted aside again?" Robert taunted her and Chelsea grit her teeth, Chloe returned her attention to Robert whilst glaring at him. "I suppose you want to know what Dreadful Day does, basically its Sorrowful Memories's effect applied to trap cards." Robert announced as Giant Orc crouched down in defense mode. "I end my turn with a facedown card."

"And I activate Shock Draw! Since I just took two thousand points of damage I get to draw two cards!" Chloe announced before drawing twice, Chloe then drew again due to her draw phase. "It's a trap which means it goes back to my deck." Chloe announced before returning the card to her deck and shuffling it. "But that doesn't mean that I can't use my other cards.

"Like what?" Robert asked rudely as Chloe played the card.

"I'll show you, first I Special Summon Level Warrior via his effect!" Chloe announced as she played the card and what looked like a superhero in a red full body costume and cape appeared on the field, it had three stars on its costume and struck a heroic pose (3/300/600).

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Robert asked and Chloe frowned as Level Warrior's level increased by one.

"No but this is, since I summoned Level Warrior using its effect and you have a monster on your side of the field it's level increases by one!" Chloe announced before playing another card. "Next I summon Rose Warrior of Revenge in attack mode!" Chloe announced as the red haired female warrior appeared on the field (4/1600/600).

"You should be lucky that my monster's in defense mode!" Robert said cockily and Chloe's eyes narrowed as she played another card.

"But that's not all I'm doing, I'm equipping Rose Warrior of Revenge with Big Bang Shot!" Chloe announced as Rose Warrior's attack increased to 2000. "Rose Warrior, attack Giant Orc!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards Robert before skewering it with her knives bringing Robert's life-points down to 6000.

"I'm not down yet!" Robert said determinedly and Chloe just glared at him.

"And now Rose Warrior's effect activates inflicting 300 more points of damage to you!" Chloe announced and Robert winced as his life-points dropped to 5700, and again when Level Warrior's attack brought it down to 5400. "And finally I activate Urgent Tuning to tune my two warriors together!"

"Wait, what?!" Robert yelled out as Rose Warrior of Revenge and Level Warrior leapt into the air, Rose Warrior of Revenge dissolved into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Level Warrior.

"That's right and I'm using them to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter!" Chloe played the card and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded the massive warrior from Chloe's previous duels appeared on the field (8/2800/1000). "And since I used two warriors in his Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter gains two hundred attack points!" Chloe announced as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 3000.

"All right! Now that Chloe has that monster on her side of the field she can cause some major damage!" Chelsea said with a massive grin which was shared by Chloe

"Colossal Fighter, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards Robert…..

"That's enough of that! By Special Summoning Battle Fader from my hand I can negate the attack and end the Battle Phase!" Robert announced as the small fiend appeared in front of him (1/0/0), Chloe frowned as her warrior called off the attack.

"I end my turn." Chloe said reluctantly and Robert drew his card.

"It's my lucky day; the card I drew is a Spell Card." Robert grunted before playing the card. "And I'm activating it now, go Allure of Darkness!" Robert announced before drawing two cards and banishing one card. "Now I activate Dark Spirit Art – Greed!"

"I should've guessed he'd have that card in his deck." Brandon grunted as Battle Fader vanished from the field and he drew two more cards.

"There's not much I can do except set one card facedown…" Robert announced before grinning evilly. "Oh yeah, and I can activate the last Spell Card in the Sad Story trilogy, go Sad Story – Unwavering Truth!"

"Not this again!" Chelsea grunted as the scenery started to change, no one noticed that Silent Magician had started to cast a Spell from inside her crystal as the scenery changed to the inside of a small building. "Wait, Chloe isn't that?"

"Yeah, that's my dad." Chloe said with a nod with a tone in her voice that revealed that she was just as surprised as Chelsea was.

"_What's going on? This isn't the memory I was told would happen!" _Robert thought as he saw the scene unfold, Chloe's step-dad was talking to an older woman with short grey hair whilst the younger version of Chloe sat inside a small room, her arm was still in a cast and like in the previous flashback she was reading a fantasy novel.

"Mr. Richardson, are you sure?" The woman asked as she glanced towards Chloe. "Chloe's a polite girl but we still don't know how much damage was caused by the events of the past few months, let alone facing her dad at trial."

"I'm sure; this is probably our only chance of raising a child of our own and I think she's seen enough heartache to earn a second chance." Scott nodded in response and the woman nodded.

"Very well, I'll go get the paperwork ready." The woman said before leaving them alone, she returned a few minutes later with some paperwork which Scott and Chloe's stepmom signed without hesitation before she entered the room. "Chloe, I have some exciting news for you." The woman said and Chloe set her book aside as her future stepparents stepped into the room. "This couple wants to adopt you."

"…..Really?" The younger Chloe managed to say as she glanced up towards Scott and her stepmom, she grinned broadly as her future stepdad sat down opposite her.

"End this flashback damn it!" Robert shouted out and just like that the flashback ended. "What the hell's going on? This thing was supposed to show the end of our last duel!"

"It was but you forgot one thing!" Silent Magician chimed in and Robert glared at her. "I am a Level 8 Spellcaster Duel Spirit, messing around with magic like that is kid's stuff for me!"

"But it did show one unwavering truth!" Chloe chimed in and Robert turned to her. "My stepdad is a much better dad then you'll ever be!"

"Just take your damn turn already!" Robert said through gritted teeth and Chloe folded her arms. "Oh right, Unwavering Truth's effect, basically it forces us to reveal any Spells we draw and shuffle them into our decks." Robert told her and Chloe nodded before drawing her card.

"It's a Spell Card." Chloe grunted before returning the card to her deck and reshuffling it. "Not like it matters anyway, Colossal Fighter, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the massive warrior charged towards Robert…..

"You fell for it! Hook, line and sinker! I activate my trap card Dimensional Prison!" Robert activated the trap and Chloe's eyes widened as Colossal Fighter was sucked into a portal.

"Just make your move already!" Chloe snapped at him and Robert grinned before activating his other, long forgotten about Trap Card. "Sorrowful Chain!?"

"That's right and since I have the three Sad Story Spell cards on my side of the field this Spell Card will let me Special Summon Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings from my deck or hand!" Robert announced before playing the card, the monster was a large purple dragon with green wings which roared menacingly at Chloe (6/1900/2600).

"That queen doesn't look so tough!" Chelsea commented and Tyler shook his head.

"Looks can be deceiving." Tyler said plainly as Robert drew his card.

"It's a monster so it goes back to my deck!" Robert said before shuffling the monster back into his deck. "But you know what? I have all the firepower that I need on the field right now! Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings, attack her life-points directly, Tragedy Stream!" Robert commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Chloe who screamed in pain as her life-points dropped to 3700.

"Well, at least the worst of it is over." Chloe grunted and Robert grinned.

"You'd like that wouldn't you? But the fun's just beginning because now my queen's effect activates, with it I can force you to discard a card from your hand and I get to draw one card!" Robert announced and Chloe reluctantly sent a card to the graveyard before Robert drew another card. "That ends my turn." Robert announced and Chloe drew her card.

"It's a monster." Chloe said with a grunt before reshuffling the card into her deck. "But now I can play this! My Spell Card D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation!"

"No!" Robert shouted out as Chloe discarded another card and Colossal Fighter returned to the field, its power boost was intact except that it was now at 3200. "How….."

"The card you made me discard was another Warrior monster as was the monster I discarded for my Spell Card." Chloe said before retrieving the cards revealing them to be Blade Knight (4/1600/1000) and Gearfried the Iron Knight (4/1800/1600) before returning them to her graveyard. "Now it's time for some payback, Colossal Fighter, attack Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings!"

"You bitch!" Robert grunted as Chloe commanded her warrior and the monster charged towards the dragon before punching it through the stomach destroying it and bringing Robert's life-points down to 3100.

"I'll end my turn at that!" Chloe announced and Robert wasted no time in drawing his card.

"A Spell Card but that doesn't matter to me!" Robert said before picking up Sorrowful Memories and sending it to his graveyard. "You see, if Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings is in my graveyard during my standby phase I can send one Continuous Spell Card to the graveyard to Special Summon her from the graveyard!" Robert announced before playing the card and the queen returned to the field.

"I'll just destroy her again." Chloe said defiantly and Robert shook his head.

"Actually I was counting on you destroying her last turn." Robert responded before playing a card. "I activate Double Cyclone!" Robert announced and Chloe's eyes widened as Unwavering Truth and D.D.R. where both destroyed by a tornado taking Colossal Fighter with it. "But why leave it at that? I activate Shield and Sword!"

"Oh shit!" Chloe gulped as the dragon's attack rose to 2600 whilst its defense dropped to 1900.

"Now my queen, attack her life-points directly with tragedy stream!" Robert commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Chloe again bringing her life-points down to 1100, Chloe quickly discard a card and Robert drew again.

"You bastard, isn't attacking my life-points enough for you?!" Chloe grunted and Robert just grinned before looking at the card he had drawn.

"But why stop there? I activate Tremendous Fire!" Robert played the card he had drawn and Chloe screamed in pain as her life-points dropped to 100 whilst Robert winced as his life-points dropped to 2600. "That ends my turn." Robert announced as his dragon's stats returned to normal.

"Come on Chloe; don't let this bastard beat you!" Lance called out to her and Chloe grit her teeth before drawing her card.

"_Okay, here goes." _Chloe thought before turning to Robert. "The card I just drew is a Spell Card and since you destroyed Unwavering Truth I can now play it!" Chloe said before playing the card. "Go Arkhasic Record!" Chloe played the card and quickly drew two more cards. "I haven't played either of these cards so I get to keep them…" Chloe said before glancing up at Silent Magician.

"And you're glancing up at her, why?" Robert asked with a grunt and Chloe played one of the cards.

"Because this is just what I need to beat you." Chloe said as Silent Magician Level 4 appeared on the field (4/1000/1000) and she stepped back in fear when she saw Robert again. "Don't worry, you won't have to look at him for long, I activate Level Up!" Chloe played the card and the young magician started glowing and growing until it reached its adult form (8/3500/1000).

"That's it? Give me a break!" Robert scoffed as he looked at the card. "She may be strong but she isn't strong enough to beat me!"

"That's where you're wrong." Silent Magician said suddenly and Robert blinked before looking up at the crystal where Silent Magician was supposed to be only to find it empty. "My protégé has one more card to play, don't you Chloe?"

"That's right!" Chloe said with a nod before playing the card. "Go Monster Reborn!" Chloe played the card and Robert's eyes widened as Colossal Fighter returned to the field. "And I discarded another warrior due to your queen's effect which means he's even stronger." Chloe announced as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 3200.

"No! I won't be beat by you again!" Robert shouted out and Chloe glared at him.

"Colossal Fighter, finish off his queen!" Chloe commanded and the warrior charged towards the queen before punching her through the stomach and bringing Robert's life-points down to 1300."Silent Magician…." Chloe trailed off and Silent Magician placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Say no more." Silent Magician said and Chloe nodded before Silent Magician fired a magical blast from her staff at Robert bringing his life-points down to zero.

"No! No!" Robert shouted out before he vanished into thin air alongside the holograms and the crystals suspending her friends, Chloe turned to them when she heard them land with a thud.

"You guys okay?" Chloe asked as they got up.

"I'll have a hell of a cramp when I wake up but I'm otherwise fine." Chelsea said with a grunt as she sat up and the others nodded in agreement. "What about you?"

"I'm…I'm not sure." Chloe said with a sigh as she folded her arms. "I'm just glad that bastard's gone."

"I'm still confused as to how we ended up in Chloe's dream in the first place." Marcus commented as he scratched his head in confusion.

"When I realized what was happening I sent out a message to the other Duel Spirits for help, unfortunately bringing you all into the same dream was the best that they could do." Silent Magician responded and the other students nodded in response. "You should be waking up soon enough, by now it should be 9:00 in the evening roughly."

"That duel only lasted an hour?" Chloe asked with a confused look on her face. "I could've sworn in lasted longer than that."

"Time seemed to go by slowly whilst he was in here." Silent Magician told her with a frown. "I'll investigate it during the tournament." Silent Magician added as a bright flash enveloped everyone.

*in the real world*

Chelsea awoke with a start and looked around, it was still pretty dark out but without her IPod she couldn't confirm what time it was.

"_That was one weird dream." _Chelsea thought before it hit her, the sounds of her roommate sobbing only helped confirm it. "Chloe, are you awake?" Chelsea called out to her before waiting for a few moments.

"Yeah, I am." Chloe answered in a shaky voice, Chelsea wasted no time in getting out of bed and hopping off the top bunk to check on her roommate who was sitting in a fetal position on her bed.

"That dream hit you hard huh?" Chelsea asked as she sat next to her.

"Yeah, I tried to put on a brave face throughout that duel but not even I could keep that up forever." Chloe answered before sighing. "I still have no idea how he came back."

"Hey we'll figure something out." Chelsea reassured her with a pat on the back. "And as soon as we find this Santiago guy I'll kick his ass so hard he won't be able to sit down for a year." Chelsea added and Chloe smiled at that. "In the meantime, let's try to not think about it."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." Chloe agreed with a smile. "Hopefully we can get a good night's rest now." Chloe added as she started to calm down a bit.

"That sounds good to me." Chelsea said before noticing her IPod next to her laptop. "Just remember Chloe, if you need a chat you know where to find me."

"Yeah, either at your laptop or on the topbunk and that's when you're in the room." Chloe answered getting a laugh out of her roommate. "I guess I won't need this now." Chloe said before picking up the IPod and passing it to Chelsea.

"Yeah you probably won't." Chelsea agreed as she went up to her bunk. "Good night." Chelsea called called out to her before lying down on the bed.

"Good night." Chloe responded as she lay down in her bed. _"Here's hoping that what that bastard said about me never seeing him again is true." _Chloe thought as rested her hands behind her head.

*elsewhere*

"Dr. Schwartz, I gave you resources and funding your former co-workers would kill to get, you gave me your word that the plan was foolproof!" Victor said angrily as he watched the end of the duel on a computer monitor. "Instead Robert is gone forever and we are no closer to our goal."

"Mr. Santiago, please understand." Dr. Schwartz, a tall lanky old man with wild grey hair and blue eyes behind a pair of glasses, pleaded with his boss. "This technology is still new; it'll take time to perfect."

"I will give you until no later than the end of the Tag Team Tournament to perfect this technology." Victor said bluntly and Dr. Schwartz nodded. "As for the trial run, I'd say it was successful, we know the technology works and that the Duel Monster cards work perfectly with it." Victor added and Dr. Schwartz nodded in agreement.

"What about the fact that that idiot mentioned your name to them?" Jack asked bluntly as he folded his arms and Victor waved his hand dismissively.

"Please, a character in a teenage girl's bad dream just happened to mention me by name?" Victor said with a cocky smirk. "Any lawyer dumb enough to take that case to court may as well feed his license to his pet dog."

"Whatever you say boss but I say we make our next strike soon, just to be safe." Jack said with a shrug and Victor stroked his chin.

"Perhaps we shall." Victor eventually answered before the two men left the laboratory.


	76. Day Two: Spellcasting Fiends

Chloe woke up with a yawn before sitting up in her bed; she had gotten the best night's sleep she had had in a long time following her duel against her dad but right now she was more concerned with tonight's matches than anything else…..that is until her roommate shouting at her laptop screen broke Chloe's train of thought.

"Get back here you piece of shit!" Chelsea yelled at the screen as she used her mouse to input commands, Chloe blinked before leaning forward for a closer look and seeing that Chelsea was playing a game on it. "Yes! Last unit routed! Next stop, the square and after that Rome itself, that should be a snap!"

"Good morning Chelsea." Chloe said whilst trying to hold back her giggles as her roommate practically jumped out of her skin. "Getting a bit competitive?"

"Yeah, just a bit." Chelsea said with a sheepish grin once she regained her composure. "Are you feeling okay after last night?"

"I'm still not sure about that." Chloe responded with a sigh before turning to the laptop screen. "What are you playing?"

"It's an RTS called Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion." Chelsea responded before noticing the confused look on Chloe's face. "Oh yeah, I forgot that you're not much of a gamer outside of duel monsters, basically RTS means Real Time Strategy and the Total War series is a series of War Games set in different periods."

"That sounds cool." Chloe said with a shrug as she started getting dressed. "I would've thought that you'd be more into shooter games personally."

"Chloe, I think you mean FPS." Chelsea informed her as her roommate searched through the closet they shared for her clothes. "Besides, you think that just because I have the shortest temper in Duel Academy means that I like to play FPS games?"

"Did I accidentally insult you or something?" Chloe asked sheepishly and Chelsea shook her head as she continued to input commands.

"Nah, nothing like that, it's just that I prefer games that actually require the ability to think." Chelsea added as she resumed playing her game whilst Chloe picked out a pair of jeans and a black stomach exposing long sleeve top. "Besides if I wanted to beat off a bunch of short tempered boys and not so short tempered girls I'd do it tomorrow at the duel arena in front of everyone."

"Err…..Chelsea…" Chloe trailed off whilst she tried to hold back hysterical laughter, Chelsea blinked a couple of times before she realized what she had just said.

"How the hell did that sentence make it past the "in my head" stage!?" Chelsea said as she facepalmed. "At least I said it in here and not in front of anyone else."

"That's true." Chloe admitted as she sat down on the bed. "Could be worse, you could've said it as Beth was standing outside the door." Chloe added and Chelsea shuddered.

"Can we please get back on topic?" Chelsea insisted and Chloe sighed.

"Fine, we were talking about the game you were playing right?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "I guess that makes sense since those kinds of games can help out at the academy." Chloe shrugged as she removed her nightgown and put on her jeans, as she put them on a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Wait, don't you have Duel Theory around this time?"

"That class ended an hour ago, I thought you'd be awake by the time I got back but obviously that wasn't the case." Chelsea answered before checking the time. "It's coming up to twelve actually, good thing my next class isn't until two o'clock." Chelsea added and Chloe's eyes widened as she quickened her pace, something that Chelsea caught on to. "Was it something I said?"

"Err, yeah, I have Gym Class in an hour!" Chloe said as she finished putting on her jeans and her top. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"I figured you could use the lie in after your duel last night." Chelsea responded with a shrug. "Besides I would've woken you up in time." Chelsea said as she turned around and saw her roommate brushing her hair in front of the mirror; Chelsea couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her top choice. "Wait, you have gym class, yet you're wearing a long sleeve top?"

"Chelsea, the last time I wore a short sleeve top to gym class the teachers ended up finding out about the abuse I suffered growing up." Chloe answered and Chelsea winced "Don't you remember Theresa coming over from Obelisk Blue to comfort me?"

"Yeah, I do but we didn't have enough time to say hi since I had to get to class." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded. "And yeah I almost forgot about that, if it weren't for that class my first meeting with Lance would've ended with me kicking him in the nuts."

"A fact that I'm sure he appreciates." Chloe said jokingly as she picked up and put on her blazer. "How much time do I have?" Chloe asked and Chelsea quickly checked the time on her IPod.

"About half an hour and that's if you want to get there early, if you hurry you can get over there with plenty of time to spare." Chelsea told her and that was all the incentive Chloe needed to hurry to the door…..only to be greeted by Lance. "Good morning Lance." Chelsea greeted him.

"Yeah, morning, now if you excuse me I have to get to…..wait, don't you usually have Gym Class with me?" Chloe asked once it hit her. "What are you doing all the way over here?" Chloe asked and Lance shook his head.

"You didn't get the memo did you?" Lance asked and the two girls shook their heads. "Jeff called in sick this morning; they couldn't find a substitute in time so his classes are cancelled for today."

"That's a relief." Chloe said as she sat down on the bed. "I nearly had a heart attack because someone didn't wake me up at a decent time."

"I already explained my reasons." Chelsea said as she rolled her eyes. "Anyway Lance, call it a hunch but I get the feeling that you came over for reasons other than that."

"Was it that obvious?" Lance asked before turning his attention to Chloe. "Last night was pretty rough, you feeling okay?" Lance asked before blushing furiously. "Man that sounded wrong out of context!"

"To be fair I'm pretty sure there's no way we can explain the context without sounding crazy." Chelsea responded before grinning broadly. "Now, are you sure there's nothing between you two?" Chelsea teased them earning her a pair of mock death glares. "Little tip guys, don't use the death glare against someone who's mastered the art." Chelsea added and Chloe shook her head.

"Let's just pretend that slip-up never happened and move on." Chloe said as she shook her head. "But yeah, I'm feeling fine after last night, in fact with that behind me I'd rather worry about tonight's matches."

"True enough, Evan told me that we'll be in for a fight against Jason and Nicky." Lance responded before hearing two other female Osiris Red students giggling behind his back. "I knew I should've closed the door behind me!" Lance sighed before stepping forward and closing the door behind him. "And before that Beth's team is facing off against Kimberly and Nathan."

"Don't tell Beth but I don't think her team will win that match, as much as I'd like a shot at her team anyway." Chelsea admitted as she turned to Lance. "Beth's a good duelist and Tommy…..I haven't seen his deck in action but he's gotta be good to make it into Ra Yellow, but Kimberly and Nathan practically know their decks blindfolded."

"I have to agree there." Lance said with a nod before checking his watch. "The matches start at 1:00 which gives us half an hour to get to the duel field." Lance said before turning around. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat but Evan said he'd meet me in the Main Building and I don't want to keep him waiting." Lance said before he opened the door. "See you later." Lance added before closing the door.

"We'd better get moving as well." Chloe said as she stood up. "I don't know about you but I don't want to miss these matches."

"Yeah, same here, I mean, who knows? Maybe I'm wrong about Beth's team's chances?" Chelsea admitted before unplugging her laptop and following Chloe out of their dorm room.

*sometime later*

The students poured into the Main Duel Arena ready for the second day of the tournament to begin, the only students who weren't in the audience off course where the four students who were competing in today's matches and they were busy doing some last minute preparations, little did they know that three other spectators were also there.

"How did Victor persuade me to come here again?" Sarah muttered under her breath as she leaned forward on the skywalk, she and two other robed figures were waiting for the tournament matches to start but for reasons other than the students. "You have your orders, I'm sure you remember them?"

"Yeah, target the winners of the second match." One of the figures said in what sound like an American male accent. "After we beat them we'll get the hell off the island."

"You'd better." Sarah said with a scowl as she turned to them. "Logan and Katrina have already failed and the least said about the experiment with Robert the better, I'm sure that I don't need to remind you what the price of failure is."

"Don't worry about us, those two will be a piece of cake." The second figure, this time a female who was speaking with a Russian accent, responded. "Trust us Sarah, Victor will have their souls."

"_Trust a pair of hired guns? Victor may as well ask me to kiss a Crocodile on the lips whilst he's at it." _Sarah thought as she watched the first two teams enter the arena. "Watch this duel closely, neither of the two teams will be your opponents but if you beat the other team they will be your new target."

"Not like we have anything better to do." The American thug shrugged as the two teams stepped onto the podium.

"Well Tommy, here's hoping we do better than Rachel and Kyle did yesterday." Beth commented to her teammate, a short nerdy looking student with short black hair and blue eyes behind a pair of thick glasses, as they shuffled their decks.

"Indeed." Tommy agreed as they finished shuffling their decks. "Though we have one advantage over them, we didn't bet all our chips on summoning one monster."

"And if you think that'll help you then you're welcome to try." Nathan responded as he and his stepsister activated their duel disks, Tommy and Beth did likewise and the two duelists drew their opening hands. "But like it or not, the odds aren't exactly in your favor."

"Neither was Yugi Motuh's when he competed in Duelist Kingdom and the original Battle City." Tommy responded as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "And look how well that turned out for him."

"…did you seriously just compare yourself to The King of Games?!" Nathan asked as a pair of massive sweat-drops rolled down his and Kimberly's heads. "Look I know his story's a great underdog story that has had way to many movie adaptations to list but if you have then you've just set yourself a ridiculously high bar for you to match in this duel."

"How about we just decide on the order we're dueling in?" Kimberly said eventually and the other students nodded in agreement, "Okay, the order that the last two matches used seemed to work well so why change it?"

"Sounds good to me, and that means you'll go first followed by me, Nathan and Tommy in that order." Beth responded and Kimberly nodded before drawing her card. _"From what I remember from her Battle City duels Kimberly uses a Fiend Deck, mostly revolving around Archfiends." _Beth thought before looking at her drawn cards. _"But that works fine for me because if I can keep her from activating Pandemonium then she'll have to pay to keep her fiends on the field and with my cure/burn deck I should be able to finish this quickly."_

"I start my turn by discarding Archfiend General from my hand, by doing this I can add a certain Field Spell Card from my deck to my hand!" Kimberly discarded the fiend and started searching through her deck, she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand before shuffling her deck. "And now I'm activating it, go Pandemonium!"

"_Well, so much for keeping it off the field." _Beth thought as the scenery changed to the hellish arena featured on the card's artwork.

"Next I activate Trade-In; all I need to do is discard one Level 8 monster from my hand….." Kimberly trailed off before discarding the card. "And I get to draw two cards in exchange." Kimberly added before drawing her cards. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Shadowknight Archfiend!" Kimberly played the cards and the demonic knight appeared on the field brandishing his sword (4/2000/1600). "That ends my turn." Kimberly announced and Beth drew her card.

"Well since Kimberly's not wasting any time in getting her strategy going why should I? I summon Nurse Reficule the Fallen One!" Beth played the card and the fairy in the nurse's outfit appeared on the field (4/1400/600). "Now I activate Upstart Goblin, normally I'd get to draw a card and you'd gain a thousand life-points but with my Nurse on the field…"

"Beth, we were present for your duel against Chelsea a few weeks back." Kimberly reminded her as Beth drew her card. "You don't need to remind us." Kimberly added before wincing as her team's life-points dropped to 7000.

"Sorry, force of habit." Beth admitted before picking up her drawn card alongside another card. "I set these facedown for later and end my turn." Beth announced and Nathan drew his card.

"I'll start my turn by summoning Breaker, The Magical Warrior in attack mode!" Nathan played the card and the magic using swordsman appeared on the field (4/1600/1000) and his attack increased to 1900 via his effect. "But that Spell Counter isn't staying around for long, I'm removing it to destroy Beth's facedown card on the right!" Nathan announced and the warrior charged towards Beth's facedown…..

"I chain Breaker's effect by activating the trap, go Gift Card!" Beth activated the trap and Kimberly and Nathan's eyes widened as they were hit by a spell from Beth's Nurse bringing their life-points down to 4000, Breaker then cut the trap card in half destroying it.

"Sorry Kimberly." Nathan apologized as Beth sent her trap to the graveyard.

"Don't be, you had no way of knowing that that trap card was her set card." Kimberly told him and Nathan nodded in response before picking up two cards.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Nathan set the two cards down and Tommy nodded before drawing his card.

"I activate Reinforcement of the Army, with this I can add one Level 4 or lower Warrior Type Monster from my deck to my hand." Tommy played the card and picked up his deck, he searched through it and once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and sent his Spell Card to the graveyard.

"_Okay, he's running Warriors; this shouldn't be too much off a problem." _Kimberly thought as she glanced at both of her opponents. _"I know Beth runs Anti-Cure from her duel against Chelsea a few weeks ago but her deck doesn't have any synergy with Tommy's."_

"Now I summon Absolute Crusader in attack mode!" Tommy played the card and a warrior in gold and silver armor appeared on the field, he had a silver cape on and was carrying a sword (4/1800/1000). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Tommy set the cards and Kimberly drew her card.

"And now that it's my standby phase the effect of the monster I discarded last turn activates!" Kimberly announced as the transparent image of a hideous, vaguely female fiend flew into Shadowknight's body. "Imprisoned Queen Archfiend, as long as she's in the graveyard and Pandemonium is active one of my Level 4 or lower monster's attack increases by one thousand."

"That's going to be a pain in the ass." Beth grunted as Shadowknight Archfiend's attack increased to 3000.

"Not as big a pain as that nurse, anyway I activate my Allure of Darkness Spell Card, I draw two cards but unless I banish one Dark Type Monster from my hand my whole hand gets discarded." Kimberly played the card before drawing twice and pocking a monster. "Speaking of your nurse, Shadowknight, attack Nurse Reficule!" Kimberly commanded and the knight charged towards the nurse…

"I activate my trap card Waboku to protect my life-points and my monster!" Beth activated her trap and the three priestesses appeared in Shadowknight's path stopping its attack.

"Guess we'll have to put up with that nurse." Kimberly grunted in annoyance before looking at the two cards she had drawn with Allure of Darkness. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Kimberly announced and once the two cards appeared on the field Beth drew her card.

"I start my turn by switching my nurse to defense mode!" Beth announced as the nurse crouched down. "Now I equip her with the Equip Spell Card Mist Body!"

"Ugh, you're using this combo again?!" Kimberly grunted as Beth's nurse became shrouded is mist.

"If it isn't broke don't fix it." Beth shrugged in response before turning her attention to Nathan. "That's all for my turn." Beth announced and Nathan drew his card.

"I activate my facedown card Pitch Black Power Stone!" Nathan announced as the titular stone appeared on the field…..

"I see what you're up too but it's not going to work, I activate my facedown card Fiendish Chain!" Tommy announced as several chains ensnared Breaker. "Now you can't attack or use Breaker's effect!"

"Or so you think, I activate Dust Tornado and I use it to destroy Fiendish Chain!" Kimberly activated the trap and a tornado ripped through the field….

"I don't think so; I chain Dust Tornado with my Seven Tools of the Bandit Trap Card!" Tommy activated the trap and winced as his life-points dropped to 7000, however he grinned as he watched the tornado subside. "Nice try."

"Well, if I can't destroy Beth's Nurse I'll make do with destroying your crusader, I discard one card in my hand to the graveyard to Special Summon The Tricky in attack mode!" Nathan discarded the card and the mysterious spellcaster appeared on the field (5/2000/1200).

"Your right, Absolute Crusader won't be around for much longer but neither will The Tricky!" Tommy announced as his warrior vanished from the field. "Since you just Special Summoned a Level 5 monster I can tribute my crusader to destroy it!" Tommy announced and Nathan frowned as The Tricky shattered into a million pieces.

"Fine, since I haven't Normal Summoned this turn I'll set a monster in defense mode and that ends my turn." Nathan announced and Tommy drew his card.

"_This is not too bad." _Tommy thought as he looked over his hand. "I start with a Spell Card called Hero's Return, with this I can Special Summon a Warrior Type Monster from my graveyard as long as I don't mind the fact that it will be destroyed during my end phase!" Tommy played the card and Absolute Crusader returned to the field.

"You think we're worried? That warrior won't be around long enough to prevent another Special Summon!" Nathan pointed out and Tommy grinned before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"I didn't bring him back with the intention of keeping this guy around for much longer." Tommy answered with a grin as he picked up a card. "I summon the Tuner Monster Rose Warrior of Revenge!" Tommy played the card and the red-haired female warrior appeared on the field (4/1600/600). "Rose Warrior, it's time you gave Absolute Crusader a tune up!"

"Gee, I wonder what you're going to summon." Nathan muttered sarcastically as the two warriors leapt into the air, Rose Warrior dissolved into four green Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Absolute Crusader, once the flash faded Colossal Fighter landed on the field with a thud (8/2800/1000).

"Yeah I know Colossal Fighter is a popular card among Warrior Users in the school, especially after Chloe used it to beat Thomas Newborne, but as my tag partner said, don't fix what isn't broken." Tommy answered as Colossal Fighter's attack points increased to 3000. "Colossal Fighter, attack Breaker!" Tommy commanded and the massive warrior charged towards the much weaker magician…

"I activate Shift and I use it to force you to target my brother's facedown monster!" Kimberly activated the trap and Colossal Fighter changed course, it reared back its fist before colliding with the monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was quickly destroyed.

"And that in turn activates Apprentice Magician's effect!" Nathan continued before searching through his deck, he found the card he was looking for and quickly set it on the field.

"_She evidentially knows about Colossal Fighter's self-revival effect, otherwise she would've forced me to target Shadowknight." _Tommy thought before looking over his hand. "I'll end my turn at that." Tommy announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"Okay, first Imprisoned Queen Archfiend's effect activates no prizes for guessing what monster I'm choosing to target." Kimberly started as Shadowknight Archffiend's attack increased to 4000, she looked at the card she had drawn and smirked. "I hope you weren't relying on that trap Tommy!" Kimberly said with a smirk but Tommy kept his cool. "Because I'm destroying it so that I can Special Summon the Tuner Monster Trap Eater!"

"Oh crap!" Tommy gulped as Fiendish Chain got grabbed by a long tongue and pulled into the massive mouth of Trap Eater (4/1900/1600).

"I guess you were, to bad!" Kimberly commented before playing another card. "And for my Normal Summon I'm bringing out Sangan!" Kimberly announced as the small three eyed fiend appeared on the field (3/1000/600).

"And you call my moves predictable?" Tommy asked as he looked at Kimberly's three monsters. "It doesn't exactly take a genius to realize that you plan on bringing out Chaos King Archfiend!"

"Okay, yeah, you got me there; let's see you do something about it!" Kimberly challenged him as her two monsters leapt into the air, once the flash faded Chaos King Archfiend was indeed on the field (7/2600/2600). "And since Sangan has been sent from the field to the graveyard I get to add another monster to my hand." Kimberly announced before adding the monster.

"This is gonna hurt!" Tommy gulped and Kimberly smirked before pointing to Colossal Fighter.

"Shadowknight, attack Colossal Fighter!" Kimberly commanded and the monster charged towards the much larger warrior before cutting him down the middle bringing Tommy's life-points down to 6000.

"I use Colossal Fighter's second effect to revive its self from the graveyard!" Tommy announced as the massive warrior returned to the field.

"Fine, I'll just attack him with Chaos King Archfiend!" Kimberly announced and the fiend disappeared from the field only to reappear behind Colossal Fighter. "And I use Chaos King's effect to switch the monster's stats around!" Kimberly added as Colossal Fighter's attack and defense became 1000 and 3000 respectively, the monster was subsequently impaled through the chest by Chaos King's claws destroying it.

"And once again I bring him back using his effect." Tommy announced even as his life-points dropped to 4400 and Colossal Fighter returned to the field.

"I end my turn at that." Kimberly announced and Beth nodded before drawing her card.

"_On one hand I don't normally rely on attacks to get the job done." _Beth thought as she looked over her hand. _"On the other hand it's in our best interest to eliminate Kimberly's Synchro Monster before its effect wipes out Tommy's life-points." _Beth thought before turning to Tommy. "Can I borrow Colossal Fighter?"

"Go ahead!" Tommy said with a nod as Colossal Fighter marched over to Beth's side of the field, Beth gave him a nod of gratitude before turning her attention to Kimberly.

"Thanks, now Colossal Fighter, attack Chaos King Archfiend!" Beth commanded and the fighter charged towards the fiend before punching it through the stomach and destroying it bringing Kimberly's life-points down to 3600. "And for some extra damage I'll move to my second Main Phase and activate Card Loan, as long as I pay a thousand life-points….." Beth said before wincing as her life-points dropped to 7000.

"Knowing your deck that's likely a heal card." Kimberly pointed out and Beth nodded.

"That's right, with this I draw one card and normally you'd gain a thousand life-points but…..well I think it goes without saying…." Beth trailed off before Kimberly and Nathan winced as their life-points dropped to 2600 and 3000 respectively. "I end my turn which means that the card I just drew goes to the bottom of my deck." Beth added before placing the card at the bottom of her deck once that was done and Colossal Fighter was back on Tommy's side of the field Nathan drew his card.

"Okay, first I activate Spellbook inside the Pot which means we all get to draw three extra cards." Nathan activated the Spell and all four duelists drew three cards. "Next I move one Spell Counter from Pitch Black Power Stone to Breaker….."

"You just made a mistake, one of the monsters I drew was the Tuner Monster Effect Veiler and by discarding her I can negate Breaker's effect for the rest of the turn." Tommy discarded the card and Nathan frowned as Breaker lost the three hundred attack points it would've gained.

"Maybe but my sister isn't the only one who can Synchro Summon, first I summon Magical Exemplar in attack mode!" Nathan played the card and the green haired sorceress appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Next I activate Foolish Burial which I use to send one monster from my deck to the graveyard." Nathan added as he picked up and searched through his deck, he found the card her was looking for and sent it to the graveyard.

"And that in turn activates Exemplar's effect." Tommy added as two orbs floated around Magical Exemplar.

"Right and now I give up those tokens to Special Summon the monster I just sent to the graveyard, Night's End Sorcerer!" Nathan played the card and the two orbs vanished, after they were gone a short blonde boy in ragged clothes appeared on the field (2/1300/400). "But before I do anything else Night's End Sorcerer's effect activates which lets me remove two cards in my opponent's graveyard from play so say good-bye to those two warriors Tommy!"

"Oh shit!" Tommy winced before removing Rose Warrior of Revenge and Absolute Crusader from play, once they were gone Colossal Fighter's attack returned to normal. "Well, at least the worst you can do is a Level 6 Synchro."

"Wrong Tommy or did you forget about the monster I Special Summoned last turn?" Nathan asked and Tommy blinked. "In fact I'll go ahead and flip summon it, come on out Magicat!" Nathan flipped the monster up and a small white cat in magician's robes appeared on the field (2/600/500). "But as you've probably guessed her, Exemplar and Nights End aren't staying around for long because Night's End Sorcerer is a Tuner Monster!"

"I knew it!" Tommy winced as did Beth as the three monsters leapt into the air, Nights End Sorcerer dissolved into two green glowing Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Exemplar and Magicat. "Are there any Level 8 Spellcaster Synchros to begin with?!"

"There is and you're about to meet him, I tune Nights End, Magicat and Magical Exemplar to Synchro Summon Sorcerer of the Dark Arts!" Nathan played the card and once the flash faded a tall man in magician's robes appeared on the field, the robes where gold in color and he had a long beard that was grey in color (8/2400/2000).

"That's pretty weak for a Level 8 Synchro." Tommy pointed out and Nathan shook his head.

"True but he's got a few tricks up his sleeve but first things first, since Magicat was used to Synchro Summon a Spellcaster monster I can take one Spell Card from my graveyard and place it atop my deck." Nathan announced as he placed the card atop his deck.

"_I wouldn't be surprised if that's Spellbook inside the Pot." _Beth thought as she watched Nathan make his move.

"But we'll get to that in a minute because now I'm activating my Sorcerer's effect, I remove the remaining Spell Counters from Pitch Black Power Stone…." Nathan trailed off as he sent his trap to the graveyard. "And in return I can destroy one Monster and one face-up Spell or Trap Card for each non-monster used to summon my Spellcaster, that's two cards so I'll destroy Mist Body and Colossal Fighter!"

"Crap!" Tommy and Beth yelled out simultaneously as their respective cards shattered.

"Sorry Beth, I guess I jumped the gun by using Effect Veiler on Breaker." Tommy apologized but Beth shook her head.

"Relax, if he attacks Nurse Reficule then my life-points will be protected by the fact that she's in defense mode, if he attacks you you'll still have some life-points left." Beth pointed out and Tommy nodded once he realized she had a point.

"Actually I won't be doing any attacking this turn." Nathan responded and the two students blinked in confusion. "If I use my Sorcerer's effect I have to skip my Battle Phase so I'll end my turn at that." Nathan added and Tommy breathed a sigh of relief before drawing his card.

"So, Chelsea, does Beth use any other cards to protect Nurse Reficule?" Chloe asked as Tommy looked over his hand.

"Besides Misty Body I'm not sure." Chelsea answered as she turned to her roommate. "All I know about Beth's deck is that it's Anti-Cure and that she's beaten me a bunch of times with it."

"I would've thought you'd know her deck since you're her girlfriend and all." Chloe shrugged her shoulders and Chelsea frowned….before a cheeky grin crept onto her face.

"Well that depends, do you know Lance's deck as well as you know your own?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"Nah, he changes that thing so much that I can hardly keep up with it." Chloe answered only to blush like a madwoman when she realized what Chelsea was implying. "And Lance is not my boyfriend."

"The day I believe that is the day I listen to Justin Bieber." Chelsea answered with a grin ignoring the mock death glare that she was getting from her roommate.

"_Okay, I may have lost Colossal Fighter to that magician's effect and even if I bring it back he won't get a power bonus from….hello….." _Tommy thought as an idea popped into his head. "I set three cards facedown and I summon Black Knight of the Round in attack mode!" Tommy played the cards and a tall knight in jet black armor appeared on the field (4/2000/1600).

"_A level four monster with 2000 attack points? There has to be some kind of drawback unless it's in the same class as Gene-Warped Warwolf and Alexandrite Dragon." _Nathan thought as he stared at the monster.

"Black Knight, attack Breaker the Magical Warrior!" Tommy commanded and the knight drew his sword before charging at the magical knight and cutting it in two bringing Nathan's life-points down to 2900. "Unfortunately my knight has a drawback, if it inflicts battle damage then I have to discard one card from my hand, if I can't then my Knight's destroyed." Tommy added before sending a card to the graveyard. "And I end my turn at that." Tommy announced and Kimberly nodded before drawing her card.

"Why would he play a card like that when there's Normal Monsters with similar stats?" Chloe wondered out loud and Chelsea shrugged.

"You got me; my guess is because those two monsters aren't warriors." Chelsea commented before it hit her. "That is unless he has a way of getting Colossal Fighter back!"

"And the card he discarded was another warrior." Chloe realized with a nod as Kimberly looked over her hand.

"For starters my Imprisoned Queen's effect activates!" Kimberly announced as Shadowknight's attack increased to 5000. _"No point in attacking Beth's monster, its effect may be a pain but it's in defense mode." _Kimberly thought before pointing to Black Knight. "Now then, Shadowknight, why don't you show Black Knight what a real knight is all about?" Kimberly commanded and the demonic knight charged towards the monster…

"I activate my trap card Powerful Rebirth, with this I can Special Summon one monster from my graveyard and increase its level by one and its attack points by 100." Tommy activated the trap and a monster that Kimberly recognized as the Tuner Monster Sword Master (3/1200/0) appeared on the field with its level and attack increased to 4 and 1300 respectively.

"Fine by me, you just cost yourself the duel!" Kimberly said before pointing to Sword Master. "Shadowknight, attack Sword Master and eliminate Tommy!" Kimberly commanded and the knight changed its course…..

"Thanks but no thanks; I activate my trap card Rage Resynchro!" Tommy activated the trap and Kimberly blinked as Sword Master and Black Knight leapt into the air. "This handy little trap lets me Synchro Summon a monster from my graveyard and I'm using my two warriors to do it!"

"Wait, what?!" Kimberly and Nathan yelled out simultaneously as four blood red versions of the Synchro Rings surrounded Black Knight and seconds later Colossal Fighter was back on the field with its attack back at 3000.

"Fine, I'll just target Colossal Fighter instead!" Kimberly announced as Shadowknight Archfiend charged towards the Synchro Monster….

"Do you always charge in without thinking things through? Don't answer that, I activate my last facedown card Sekeretsu Armor!" Tommy activated the trap and Kimberly's eyes widened as the demonic looking armor attached itself to Shadowknight Archfiend before self-destructing taking the knight with it. "Fortunately for you there's still your normal summon."

"I know that." Kimberly said plainly before picking up four cards. "I set three cards facedown and a monster in defense mode and that ends my turn." Kimberly announced only to blink in surprise as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 3500. "What the….."

"Rage Resynchro is more than just an Urgent Tuning variant." Tommy informed them as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "During the end phase of the turn that it's activated Rage Resynchro increases the attack of the summoned monster by 500 points."

"_Note to self, try to get my hands on that card." _Nathan thought as Beth drew her card,

"_This is gonna hurt but if Nathan attacks Nurse Reficule with Sorcerer of Dark Arts then I need to be prepared." _Beth thought before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and I activate another Upstart Goblin!" Beth activated the Spell before drawing a card from her deck and the two siblings winced as their life-points dropped to 1900 and 2000 respectively.

"That nurse is starting to get annoying." Nathan grunted in annoyance as Beth added the card she had drawn to her hand.

"Starting?" Kimberly asked her step-brother with a dull look on her face.

"I was trying to be polite about it." Nathan responded with a smile before they turned their attention to Beth.

"We'll see just how far that politeness takes you two because I'm activating the card I just drew, my last copy of Upstart Goblin!" Beth activated the Spell and drew one card before the siblings winced again as their life-points dropped to 900 and 1000 respectively.

"Is that all you've got?" Kimberly asked and Beth smirked before looking over her hand.

"Actually…yeah it is." Beth said and Nathan wasted no time in drawing his card. "Let me guess, Spellbook inside the Pot?"

"That's right but I'm not going to activate it just yet." Nathan responded before adding the card to his hand. "Because I'm getting sick of that nurse so I command Sorcerer of Dark Arts to attack Nurse Reficule!" Nathan commanded and the sorcerer started casting another spell….

"This is going to hurt….." Beth grunted before activating her trap. "I activate Interdimensional Matter Transporter and I use it to remove my Nurse from play for the rest of the turn." Beth said as her nurse was sucked into a portal.

"Don't worry Beth, my fighter will protect you." Tommy added and Beth shook her head.

"Trust me Tommy; it's better for both of us that I take the hit." Beth told him and Tommy blinked before nodding reluctantly.

"I didn't think you and Chelsea where into that kind of stuff but I won't judge, Sorcerer of Dark Arts; attack her life-points directly!" Nathan commanded and Beth braced herself as the spell hit her directly bringing her life-points down to 4600.

"He's so lucky that I'm not down there with Beth." Chelsea grunted as she blushed like a madwoman.

"I end my turn with a facedown card." Nathan announced as Nurse Reficule returned to the field…..

"And I activate Shock Draw; since I just took two thousand points of damage this lets me draw two cards!" Beth announced before drawing two cards, once she did Tommy drew his card.

"And I'll join my tag partner in drawing outside of the draw phase; I activate Heaven's Lost Property!" Tommy activated the Spell Card and all four duelists drew three cards before discarding two. "And since the cards I just discarded where two more warriors…" Tommy trailed off as Colossal Fighter's attack increased to 3700.

"Great, as if that thing wasn't strong enough." Nathan grunted and Tommy smirked before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"It gets better or haven't you noticed that I now have enough power to finish you off? Colossal Fighter, attack Sorcerer of Dark Arts!" Tommy commanded and the warrior charged towards the sorcerer before punching it through the stomach. "One down, one to…."

"Look again!" Nathan interrupted him and Tommy looked up in time to see that Nathan's life-points where down to 300. "Remember me facedown card? It's a Quick-Play Spell Card called Rush Recklessly and whilst it's an old card it still has its uses like keeping me in the duel!"

"Yeah, you're still in the duel but just barely." Tommy retorted as he folded his arms. "All it will take is a direct attack from Beth's nurse and Nathan will be out of the tournament."

"Aren't you forgetting something? There's still my turn to go before you can take your turn." Kimberly answered and Beth just smirked.

"Well in that case I won't keep you." Tommy said before looking over his hand. "I end my turn at that." Tommy announced and Kimberly drew her card only to blink in surprise as Colossal Fighter's hologram shattered. "Ah yes, that's Rage Resycnchro's unfortunate side effect, the monster that's summoned with it is destroyed during the end phase of my next turn." Tommy explained with a frown.

"_I hope Kimberly has a way to get rid of that nurse for good, otherwise we'd be the second Obelisk Blue team to be eliminated." _Nathan thought as he watches his sister look over her hand.

"I activate Pot of Avarice!" Kimberly played the card before retrieving Imprisoned Queen Archfiend, Shadowknight Archfiend, Trap Eater, Sangan and Chaos King Archfiend, returned them to their respective decks and drew twice. "And I end my turn with a facedown card."

"That's it? Too bad, I actually expected more from a pair of Obelisk Blue Students." Beth commented as she drew her card. _"Damn, it's not a heal card but I can still use it to finish them both off!" _Beth thought before playing the card. "I activate Monster Reborn and I use it to revive Colossal Fighter from Tommy's graveyard!" Beth announced as Colossal Fighter returned to the field with his power boost mostly intact.

"And whilst he's lost its power boost from Rage Resynchro he still has more than enough attack power to win us the duel!" Tommy said confidently as Beth switched her nurse back to attack mode.

"Then why waste any more time? Nurse Reficule, attack Nathan's life-points directly!" Beth commanded and the nurse flew towards Nathan…..

"Big mistake, I activate Dimensional Prison!" Kimberly activated the trap and Beth's eyes widened as Nurse Reficule was sucked into a portal. "Look on the Brightside; you can still attack with Colossal Fighter."

"I hardly consider that the Brightside!" Nathan quickly chimed in.

"Well too bad! Colossal Fighter, attack Nathan's life-points directly!" Beth commanded and the massive warrior charged towards Nathan…

"Sorry Beth but by Special Summoning Battle Fader (1/0/0) from my hand I can negate the attack!" Kimberly announced as the small clock like fiend appeared on the field stopping Colossal Fighter in its tracks.

"I guess it's up to Tommy to finish you off then." Beth grunted before turning to Nathan. "But contrary to popular belief I have more than one monster in my deck and I happen to have one such monster in my hand." Beth said as she played a card. "And I set it to end my turn at that!" Beth announced and Nathan drew his card.

"He won't get a chance; first I activate Spellbook Inside the Pot again!" Nathan played the card and all four duelists said nothing as they drew three cards each.

"_Damn, if I had drawn this whilst Nurse Reficule was still on the field we would've won!" _Beth thought as she looked at her copy of the Spell Card Rain of Mercy.

"Next I special summon The Tricky via its effect again!" Nathan announced as he discarded a card and the mysterious Spellcaster returned to the field (5/2000/1200). "Next I summon Frequency Magician in attack mode!" Nathan played the card and a short man in a magician's outfit appeared on the field (2/800/400). "Now my magician's effect activates which adds a Spell Counter to him!" Nathan explained as a small orb orbited around Frequency Magician. "And next I activate Miracle Synchro Fusion!"

"_What is he up too?" _Beth thought as Sorcerer of Dark Arts and The Tricky appeared on the field again only to be sucked into a portal.

"I banish Sorcerer of Dark Arts and The Trick to Fusion Summon Supreme Arcanite Magician!" Nathan played the card and a tall magician in midnight blue robes appeared on the field (10/1400/2800). "I know he doesn't look like much but that'll change soon because when he's fusion summoned he gains two Spell Counters and a thousand attack points for each one!" Nathan explained as Supreme Arcanite Magician's attack increased to 3400.

"Is that it? Not much of a finishing move!" Tommy said confidently and Nathan shook his head.

"Just watch, now I activate Frequency Magician's second effect, I give up his Spell Counter to increase Arcanite's attack by 500." Nathan explained as Supreme Arcanite's attack increased to 3900. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Frequency Magician's a Tuner Monster!"

"Oh crap!" Tommy gulped as Frequency Magician and The Tricky leapt into the air, Frequency Magician dissolved into two green Synchro rings that quickly surrounded The Tricky.

"I've heard my colorful language used when I used this combo but each to their own!" Nathan shrugged his shoulders just before a bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded a shorter version of Supreme Arcanite Magician, this time in white robes appeared on the field (7/400/1800). "Meet Supreme Arcanite's younger brother Arcanite Magician and like Supreme Arcanite he gains two Spell Counters and a thousand attack points for each one." Nathan explained as Arcanite's attack increased to 2400.

"He still doesn't look like much!" Beth commented as she folded her arms and Nathan shook his head.

"Just watch, next I use Monster Reborn to bring back The Tricky!" Nathan played the card and The Tricky returned to the field.

"And that's my cue; I activate my trap card Return from a Different Dimension!" Kimberly activated the trap and winced as her life-points dropped to five hundred. "It may cost me half of my remaining life-points but it also allows Nathan to finish you both off in this turn." Kimberly added as Sorcerer of Dark Arts and the first Tricky appeared on the field.

"Look again; we both have monsters on the field!" Tommy said confidently and Beth nodded in agreement but Nathan shook his head.

"Yes but not for long, I activate the final part of the two Arcanite's effects, by giving up a Spell Counter on each I can activate one of two effects, either I draw one card for each magician or I destroy one card on the field, no prizes for guessing my choice." Nathan explained as the two magician's attack points dropped to 2900 and 1400 respectively and they cast spells at Colossal Fighter and Beth's facedown card destroying them both.

"Not that it matters but my facedown monster was Sangan." Beth explained as she searched through her deck, once she found the card that she was looking for she revealed it to be another copy of Nurse Reficule before adding it to her hand.

"I thought that might be the case." Nathan said with a nod before pointing at his opponents. "Go my magicians, finish this duel!" Nathan commanded and the five magicians launched their attacks at the opponents bringing their life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Kimberly and Nathan Troy!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered as the four duelists gathered up their cards.

"Man, this bites; out of all the Osiris Red teams that have competed in the tournament so far they have all been eliminated." Chloe overheard another Osiris Red student complain to his friend and frowned once she realized he had a point.

"If things continue the way they are we may be the only students representing Osiris Red left." Chloe commented to Chelsea who looked up from her laptop.

"Yeah and for you it'll be Battle City all over again." Chelsea said with a nod before frowning. "I'm not sure if I can handle that pressure though, how did you handle it?"

"Mostly by doing the best I could in spite of the competition." Chloe answered with a shrug before thinking of something. "Do you have any hard feelings about Beth being eliminated?"

"Nah, not really, she's good but her team was out of their league in this match even if they almost pulled out an upset victory." Chelsea answered with a frown. "Don't get me wrong, I would've liked to have a match against her team but even Beth admitted that she was having her doubts going up against Kimberly and Nathan."

"Ah well, maybe we'll get some revenge for them in the next round?" Chloe suggested as she shrugged her shoulders and Chelsea frowned.

"Let's worry about making it past this round first." Chelsea responded and Chloe nodded in agreement as the crowd cheered again and the two girls looked up. "It looks like the next match is starting."

"And I'll have to miss the end of it; my next class is in a half hour." Chelsea told Chloe after checking the time on her computer clock. "Good thing Duel Academy's been uploading the matches to their YouTube page."

"Are you sure? I'm sure the teachers will understand if you don't want to miss the match." Chloe answered but Chelsea shook her head.

"It's with Tracy and we both know how strict she is, she's almost as strict as Martin." Chelsea said with a sigh and Chloe frowned, whilst that was going on the two teams where busy shuffling their decks.

"Nicky, for the last time relax, what happened a few weeks ago won't happen again." Jason reassured her and Nicky turned to him.

"I wish I could Jason but how do I know that for sure?" Nicky asked and Jason sighed once he realized that she had point.

"_Kind of wish I could tell her that it won't happen again." _Lance thought as he fitted his deck into the deck slot. _"But I won't be able too without sounding crazy."_

"That's good and all Jason." Evan said as he finished shuffling his deck. "But encase you haven't noticed we have a match to do and unless Nicky wants to surrender rather than risk it….."

"No!" Nicky interrupted him as she finished shuffling her deck. "I'm not pulling out after we've come this far!"

"What she said." Jason said with a nod and Lance frowned before turning to Evan.

"That was a bit harsh, don't you think?" Lance asked and Evan shook his head.

"Maybe but it lit a fire under her which means she'll be motivated to put on a good match." Evan answered and Lance nodded when he realized that he was right.

"Well in that case let's duel!" Lance said and the other three duelists nodded in agreement.


	77. Day Two: Empty Dragon Jar

"So….do you have any predictions on this match?" Chloe asked Chelsea as the four duelists drew their opening hands; Chelsea looked up from her laptop briefly and shook her head.

"Nah, it could go either way." Chelsea said with a shrug as she closed her laptop lid. "Especially since what Evan said seems to have lit a fire under Nicky."

"Indeed." Tyler chimed in and the two girls turned to him. "It's clear that Evan not only wants a win but wants a win that he's earned, this should be an interesting match."

"Okay, I'm guessing we're using the same order as the last three duels?" Lance asked and the other duelists nodded. "Good, so Nicky's going first, then me, then Evan then Jason and back to Nicky?"

"That sounds good to me!" Nicky said with a nod as she drew her first card. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Nicky announced as the three cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn at that." Nicky announced and Lance drew his card.

"I activate a Spell Card, Assault of the Fire Kings!" Lance played the card and picked up his deck. "This requires that my opponent has a monster and I don't, with it I can Special Summon one Fire Type Beast, Beast-Warrior or Winged monster from my deck as long as it's effects are negated and I don't mind it being destroyed during the end phase, my card of choice is Great Angus!" Lance played the card and the blood red tusked beast appeared on the field (4/1800/600).

"You're still using that old thing?" Jason asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, but why shouldn't I? It's got a fairly decent attack and it combos well with my Spell Card since he doesn't have an effect to begin with." Lance shrugged his shoulders before playing another card. "As for my Normal Summon I'm bringing out the Tuner Monster Neo Flamvell Origin!" Lance played the card and a small red and blue flame with a smiley face on it appeared on the field (2/500/200).

"Don't tell me, you're bringing out Uriquizes?" Nicky asked and Lance nodded as his two monsters leapt into the air, Neo Flamvell Origin dissolved into two green Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Great Angus.

"That's right, and I'm tuning my two monsters to do it!" Lance announced and once the bright flash faded the warrior with the flames around his fist appeared on the field (6/2100/400). "Next I remove Great Angus from play to Special Summon Inferno in defense mode!" Lance played the card once he pocketed the monster and the small flame with the evil smile appeared on the field (4/1100/1900).

"Like defending will help you against my deck!" Jason scoffed and Lance frowned. "Is that everything?" Jason asked and Lance nodded.

"Yeah, I end my turn with two facedown cards!" Lance announced as he set the two cards and Jason drew his card.

"I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode!" Jason set the three cards…

"And I activate my trap cards Backfire and Kickfire!" Lance announced as the two trap cards flipped up, Jason blinked in confusion as he stared at the second card.

"Okay, I've heard of Backfire but Kickfire?" Jason asked and Lance grinned.

"We'll get to that in a minute." Lance told him before nodding towards Evan. "I'm guessing that's all you're doing for this turn?"

"Yeah, that's everything." Jason nodded and Evan quickly drew his card.

"And I summon Spellbook Magician of Prophecy!" Evan played the card and a young boy in white and blue magician's robes appeared on the field (2/500/400). "And when he's normal summoned I can add one Spellbook Spell card from my deck to my hand!" Evan explained before picking up his deck and searching through it, once he found the card that he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck.

"Wait, Spellbook? Prophecy? I thought your deck was more of a straight up Spellcaster deck?" Jason asked and Evan shook his head.

"It was but considering how popular those decks are in this school I felt the need to change things up a bit." Evan responded before playing another card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Evan announced and Nicky drew her card.

"Chloe, you ever hear of these Spellbook cards?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head. "Well regardless I think we can expect Tyler to tell us about them any moment now….."

"Am I that predictable?" Tyler asked them before shaking his head. "But it's not surprising that you two haven't heard of the Prophecy archetype, it was released a couple of weeks ago."

"Is it any good?" Chloe asked and Tyler shrugged.

"I wouldn't know, this is my first time seeing it in action." Tyler confessed and the two girls sweat-dropped when they heard that.

"_Okay, it seems the only one putting up a decent offense so far is Lance though given Jason's deck type that's no big surprise." _Nicky thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Rare Metal Dragon, if I had any methods of summoning it I'd do it in a heartbeat, still doesn't mean I can't use my facedown cards though." _Nicky thought before activating her trap. "I activate Reckless Greed which lets me draw two cards as long as I don't mind skipping my next two draw phases."

"You realize that applies to Jason as well, right?" Lance asked as Nicky drew her two cards, Jason shook his head as Nicky added the two cards to her hand.

"It doesn't bother me." Jason shrugged his shoulders as Nicky picked up another card in her hand.

"Next I play a Spell Card called Draconnection, all I have to do to activate this is reveal one Dragon type monster in my hand and I get to add another Dragon type monster with the same level to my hand from my deck." Nicky said before revealing the card and picking up her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled the card she revealed into her deck. "The drawback is that the monster I revealed gets shuffled into my deck." Nicky explained and Lance frowned.

"_I recognize the monster she shuffled, that's Rare Metal Dragon and my guess is that she couldn't summon it." _Lance thought as he waited for Nicky to continue her move.

"Next I summon Dragonic Guard in attack mode!" Nicky played the card and a monster that looked more like a fiend than a dragon appeared on the field, it was a blood red beast with wild flowing white hair and was wearing a purple outfit whilst carrying a small green dragon over his shoulder and a sword (4/1500/1800). "Dragonic Guard, attack Evan's Spellcaster!" Nicky commanded and the warrior charged towards the weaker monster…..

"Sorry but I anticipated my monster being an easy target so I activate my Negate Attack trap card!" Evan activated the trap and the sword bounced off of an invisible force field.

"Fine, I'll end my turn with a facedown card!" Nicky set the card down and Lance nodded before drawing his card.

"Sweet, I was hoping to get a chance to use this card." Lance commented with a grin before sending Inferno to the graveyard. "I sacrifice Inferno so that I can summon Hazy Flame Hyppogrif!" Lance played the card and the small flame extinguished, in its place stood a large majestic bird like creature that was seemingly made out of flames (6/2100/200).

"Seriously, are you ever satisfied with just one build of your deck?" Nicky asked before shaking her head. "Anyway by Normal Summoning a monster you've activated Draconic Guard's effect, each time you normal summon or set a monster he gets a Draconic Counter!" Nicky explained as her monster's sword started to glow.

"Yeah, pity we'll never find out what exactly those counters do, Uriquizas, attack Dragonic Guard!" Lance commanded and the warrior charged towards the demon like creature…..

"Sorry Lance but Waboku will protect my life-points and my monster!" Nicky announced as the three priestesses appeared in the warrior's path blocking it.

"I'll end my turn at that." Lance grumbled as his Synchro Monster returned to his side of the field and once it did Jason drew his card.

"And I'll start by flipping my monster into attack mode!" Jason flipped the monster up and Morphing Jar appeared on the field (2/700/600) and the other duelists frowned as they discarded their hands and drew five new cards. "Now I activate my facedown card, the Quick Play Spell Card Book of Eclipse, with this Spell Card I can flip all face-up monsters into facedown defense mode….."

"Jason, you've cost me my counters!" Nicky protested and Jason winced as the five monsters on the field were flipped facedown.

"Hey you'll get them back, besides as soon as I end my turn Book of Eclipse's second effect will kick in flipping all monsters face-up and they will draw one card for each effect monster." Jason said before turning to Lance and Evan. "And that's about…..now." Jason announced as the five monsters flipped back up and Evan and Lance drew five cards before the four duelists discarded their hands again and drew five more, Evan drew another card and looked at it.

"Ugh, a deckout strategy, this will take forever!" Chelsea moaned as she rested her chin on her hand. "I can't believe I'm saying this but I'd rather be enduring one of Martin's lectures right about now."

"The deckout strategy may not be a popular one but it's certainly an effective one." Tyler commented with a frown. "And as you just saw it's not exactly a duel suited for tag duels."

"Yeah, makes me glad that we're competing tomorrow." Chloe agreed before checking her watch. "Chelsea, didn't you say that you had class at 2:00pm?" Chloe asked her roommate and Chelsea nodded in response. "Well, you've got five minutes to get out of here if you want to get there on time." Chloe added and Chelsea's eyes widened.

"If that's a joke it's not funny!" Chelsea said with a nervous laugh before checking the time on her laptop clock. "Oh fuck! Good thing it's an IT class and that Tracy lets me bring me Laptop in!" Chelsea gulped before closing her laptop lid and standing up, she made her way through the crowd before turning to Chloe. "I have no idea how long the class will be in relation to the duel so how about we meet back at the dorm room?"

"That sounds good to me." Chloe nodded in agreement and Chelsea grinned before leaving alongside several other students.

"Believe it or not Jason your move just now was off great help to me." Evan commented earning himself a confused look from Jason. "I have a monster in my hand right now that can help me take advantage of the number of Spellbook cards in my graveyard, which also happens to be a Level Seven monster!" Evan explained earning some confused looks.

"Unless you have something like Monster Reborn in your hand I don't we'll be seeing that monster anytime soon!" Nicky responded with a smirk and Evan smirked.

"Normally that would be true but this monster also has an effect!" Evan announced before picking up three cards in his hand. "You see I can Special Summon this card by revealing three Spellbook spell cards in my hand and it just so happens that….." Evan trailed off as he turned the three cards around revealing them to be Divine Judgment of the Spellbooks, Spell Book Library of the Crescent and Spellbook Library of the Helliosphere. "Thanks to Jason's monster I have all the cards I need right here!"

"I told you to use your other deck!" Nicky grumbled under her breath and Jason rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Well it's not like I knew Evan was going to be using this deck!" Jason answered as Evan shuffled the three cards into his hand. "All right, where's the monster?"

"She's coming out now! Please welcome to the field High Priestess of Prophecy!" Evan played the card and a tall beautiful red-haired woman with long wavy hair appeared on the field, she was wearing a skintight white outfit and green gloves (7/2500/2100). "I know, I know, as far as stats go she's just a female Dark Magician right?"

"I thought that was Dark Magician Girl." Nicky pointed out and Evan blushed furiously.

"Yes, well, this magician has a lot more class than her and a much better effect if I do say so myself!" Evan commented before retrieving a Spell Card from his graveyard and pocketing it. "By banishing one Spellbook Spell Card from my graveyard I can destroy one Monster on the field and as helpful as it's been to me so far, inadvertently mind you, that Morphing Jar's gotta go!"

"Oh crap!" Jason gulped as the priestess cast a spell at the monster shattering it into a million pieces.

"But why stop there? I activate Spellbook of Eternity!" Evan played the card and retrieved the Spell Card. "With this I can target one banished Spellbook Spell Card and add it to my hand, I can only activate it once per turn and the targeted card can't be another Spellbook of Eternity but I'll make do!" Evan said before adding the card to his hand. "In fact I think I'll activate it now! Go Spellbook of Power!"

"Okay, this card I've actually heard off." Nicky commented as High Priestess of Power's attack increased to 3500. "It gives your monster a power boost of one thousand attack points."

"Good, but can you remember its other effect?" Evan asked and Nicky blinked in confusion before shaking her head. "Don't worry about it, it won't come into effect until after I've destroyed a monster in battle, speaking of which, High Priestess, attack Dragonic Guard!" Evan commanded and the priestess prepared to cast a spell.

"I don't think so; I activate my trap card Shift which forces you to target my facedown monster instead!" Nicky activated the trap and the spell that the priestess cast changed its course towards Nicky's facedown monster, revealed to be Masked Dragon (3/1400/1100) which was quickly destroyed. "Thanks for that Evan; I can now use my Masked Dragon's effect to Special Summon another one in defense mode!" Nicky played the card and another Masked Dragon appeared on the field.

"Maybe but now that I've destroyed a monster in battle Spellbook of Power's second effect activates!" Evan explained before he picked up his deck. "With it I can add one Spellbook Spell Card from my deck to my hand." Evan added before finding the card he was looking for and adding it. "Now I move to my second Main Phase and I activate the Spell Card I just retrieved, the Field Spell Card Grand Spellbook Tower!"

"Wait, do you say field spell?!" Jason yelled out as the scenery changed to a magnificent looking tower that almost touched the ceiling.

"Yes but its effect is pretty complicated so I'll explain it as I go along." Evan said before looking over his hand. "I end my turn by shifting my weaker Spellcaster to defense mode." Evan announced and once the monster crouched down Nicky nodded before drawing her card.

"_Okay, he has the weird field spell in play and a monster that can match Dark Magician point for point, no pressure in other words." _Nicky thought as she glanced at her drawn card. "I set this monster in defense mode and switch my guard to defense mode." Nicky announced as the facedown monster appeared in front of her and Dragonic Guard crouched down. "And I end my turn at that."

"_Like that'll help her." _Lance thought as he drew his card. "If you're hoping that playing it safe will save you then you're in for a big surprise, Flamvell Uriquizas can inflict piercing damage!" Lance told her and Nicky's eyes widened. "Why don't you show her Uriquizas? Attack her facedown monster!" Lance commanded and the flaming warrior charged towards the facedown monster…

"So glad I set this, I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Forbidden Chalice! Your monster may gain four hundred attack points but its effects will be negated in the process!" Nicky announced as the card flipped up and Uriquizas's attack increased to 2500, the facedown monster was revealed to be another Troop Dragon (2/700/800) which was quickly destroyed. "And I think I'll use its effect!" Nicky added before picking up her deck.

"_She's doing a lot of deck thinning, not smart when you're teamed with an Empty Jar deck." _Lance thought as the Osiris Red student searched through her deck, she found the card that she was looking for and quickly played it revealing it to be another Troop Dragon. "You know what? I won't target your second Troop Dragon just yet, Haze Beast Hippogriff, attack Masked Dragon!" Lance commanded and the large bird swooped down at the monster incinerating it with its wings. "And now Masked Dragon's effect activates…."

"And now Masked…yeah what you said." Nicky said before picking up and searching through her deck.

"_If she brings out a Tuner then she can use it with her other two monsters in a Synchro Summon." _Lance thought before Nicky played the card. "Wait, isn't that?"

"Yeah, it's Armed Dragon Level 3!" Nicky said as the tiny dragon appeared in front of her (3/1200/900). "What's the matter? Not what you expected?"

"You could say that." Lance grunted before looking over his hand. "I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance announced and once Uriquizas's attack returned to normal Jason drew his card.

"_Better play it a bit safer, if I accidentally get her to mill either of her stronger Armed Dragons than Armed Dragon Level 3 will be a sitting duck." _Jason thought before looking at his drawn card. _"This on the other hand can help her protect the monster." _Jason thought before setting the card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"That's it huh?" Evan asked before drawing his card. "Good because now I activate my Grand Spellbook Tower's effect, during my standby phase I can return one Spellbook Spell Card from my graveyard to my deck….." Evan explained as she retrieved a card and returned it to his deck. "And in return I get to draw one card." Evan added before drawing another card.

"_That'll be handy against Jason's Empty Jar strategy." _Lance thought as he watched Evan make his move.

"And since I have no interest in dealing with the stronger forms of Armed Dragon….." Evan trailed off before pointing to High Priestess. "High Priestess, attack Armed Dragon Level 3!" Evan commanded and the priestess started to cast her spell…

"Nice try but I activate Needle Barrier!" Jason activated the trap which depicted a small number of Needle Worms protecting a nest. "Nicky will still take damage but with this trap her monster will be safe from attacks and card effects." Jason added as the small dragon was protected by a barrier whilst Nicky's life-points down to 6700. "But here's the best part, now you both have to mill cards up to the monster's level." Jason added and Lance and Evan frowned before milling three cards.

"I'll end my turn by activating Spellbook Star Hall!" Evan announced as the spell card appeared on the field. "We'll get to its effect shortly, for now I'll end my turn." Evan added and Nicky drew her card.

"Since it's my standby phase my Armed Dragon levels up!" Nicky announced as the small dragon started glowing and growing until it was in its adult form (5/2400/1700). "Now I activate its effect, by discarding one monster from my hand I can target one monster on my opponent's side of the field and destroy it as long as its attack is equal to or less than the sent monster's attack, so I send Hyronzaro to the grave to destroy Flamvell Uriquizas!"

"I don't think so! I discard Effect Veiler from my hand to negate the effect!" Evan announced as he discarded the card and Nicky frowned.

"I guess I'll have to destroy it the old fashioned way." Nicky grunted before pointing to her dragon. "Armed Dragon, attack Flamvell Uriquizas!" Nicky commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the monster destroying it and bringing Lance's life-points down to 7700 whilst Nick's life-points dropped down to 5200 thanks to Backfire. "I end my turn which means my Armed Dragon levels up again!" Nicky announced as the dragon grew and glowed until it reached its Level 7 form (7/2800/1000).

"_Does she have Level 10 in her deck? If she does we're in trouble." _Lance thought as he drew his card. _"Spellbook Inside the Pot, normally I'd activate it without a second thought but Jason's deck strategy has done a number on my deck." _Lance thought with a frown before shifting Hippogriff to defense mode. "That's all I can do."

"Too bad because my move's just beginning!" Jason said cockily as he drew his card, he looked at it and smirked before setting it. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Jason announced and Evan drew his card.

"_Knowing his deck that monster's likely to Needle Worm or another Morphing Jar." _Evan thought as he drew his card. "Well for starters I'll use Grand Spellbook Tower's effect again!" Evan announced as he moved a Spellbook Spell Card from his graveyard to his deck, shuffled it and drew again.

"You won't be able to rely on that forever Evan." Jason pointed out and Evan frowned before looking at his new cards.

"We'll see about that." Evan responded before looking at his cards. "Just what I needed, I play the Spell Card Spellbook of Secrets, with this Spell Card I can add one other Spellbook Card from my deck to my hand and I think I'll use it on the card I just returned to my deck." Evan announced before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the card that he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled the deck.

"Well, that was pointless." Nicky grunted before noticing that High Prietesses's attack power had increased to 2600. "You never said anything about that Spell increasing a monster's attack!"

"Oh yes, and since I activated a Spellbook Spell card Spellbook Star Hall gains a Spell Counter and each Spellcaster monster I control gains a hundred attack points for each one." Evan explained before grinning. "And you'll remember the fact that I just added another, go Spellbook Organization!" Evan played the card and Nicky and Jason did double takes when they recognized the card's artwork.

"Did you say Spellbook Organization? You need your eyes tested, that's Pigeonholing Book of Spells!" Jason pointed out and Evan grinned.

"I'm well aware of that…the card's former name, not that fact that I need my eyes tested, you see this and another card where renamed to fit in with this new archetype, and I happen to have both in my deck because they fit in quite nicely." Evan added before picking up the top three cards in his deck. "With this Spell Card I can rearrange the top three cards in my deck in any order I wish." Evan added as he rearranged the cards. "And most importantly Star Hall gains a counter…."

"And your monster gains more attack points." Nicky finished for him as High Priestess's attack points increased to 2700.

"Next I set the card I drew first facedown!" Evan announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And I'll activate High Priestesses' effect and I use it to destroy Armed Dragon!" Evan announced as the Priestess cast a spell at the dragon destroying it. "And would you look at that? You left your Troop Dragon in attack mode!"

"_Shit! I knew I forgot to do something!" _Nicky thought with a frown.

"High Priestess, would you do the honors?" Evan asked and the magician casted another spell which quickly destroyed the small dragon and brought Nicky's life-points down to 4700.

"I use Troop Dragon's effect again!" Nicky announced before searching through her deck, once she found her third and final Troop Dragon she played it and reshuffled her deck.

"I shall end my turn at that." Evan announced and Nicky quickly drew her card.

"Okay, I have no intention of taking 2000 points of damage again so I tribute my Troop Dragon….." Nicky trailed off as the small dragon vanished, she gulped before summoning her next monster. "So that I can summon one of my best monsters, namely Strong Wind Dragon and I'm summoning him in attack mode!"

"Shit, not that card!" Lance gulped as the massive green dragon appeared on the field (6/2400/1000). "Ugh, I had a hard enough time going up against that thing during Battle City!"

"Then you're familiar with the fact that if the monster used to Tribute Summon it gains half of that monster's attack points?" Nicky asked as her dragon's attack increased to 2750. "Granted it's not as strong as it could be but this will do nicely, Strong Wind Dragon, blow that High Priestess away!" Nicky commanded and the dragon took flight before sending the priestess flying into the rafters with a gust of wind bringing Evan's life-points down to 7950.

"You should've attack my monster, you would've caused more damage!" Lance pointed out and Nicky grinned as she held up another card. "Wait; don't tell me, Mischief of the Time Goddess?"

"You got it! And before you ask Jason gave it to me." Nicky responded before playing the card.

"Honestly I'm surprised that card hasn't made its way onto the Forbidden List." Lance muttered under his breath as Strong Wind Dragon prepared for another attack.

"Well it hasn't so deal with it! Strong Wind Dragon, attack his Haze Flame!" Nicky commanded as the dragon blew its wings at the winged beast sending it flying and bringing Lance's life-points down to 5450 and Nicky's life-points down to 4200.

"I activate my trap, go Damage Condenser!" Lance announced as his trap flipped up. "Since I just took damage I can Special Summon a monster with an attack equal to or less than the amount of damage I took as long as I have a card that I can discard from my hand, so….." Lance trailed off as he discarded Spellbook inside the Pot." I'm bringing out one of my favorite cards, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch!" Lance announced as he played the card and the fiery monarch appeared on the field (6/2400/1000).

"You realize that you won't be able to use its effect due to the fact that it wasn't tribute summoned right?" Jason pointed out and Lance shook his head.

"Yeah well, I did it this way for two reasons, number one, this card was at the bottom of my deck so Nicky's dragon probably would've finished me off before you milled my deck enough that I could draw him." Lance explained as he shuffled his deck. "As for the second reason, I'll reveal that once Nicky ends her turn."

"_Okay, I know he uses Synchro Monsters so he's probably setting up a Level 8 Synchro." _Nicky thought as she looked over her hand. _"Problem is I have nothing that can stop him from doing that." _Nicky thought before turning her attention to Lance. "I end my turn." Nicky announced and Lance quickly drew his card.

"Just what I needed, I summon Royal Firestorm Guard in attack mode!" Lance played the card and the weird fire demon appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "Now I activate its effect, by returning four Pyro Type monsters to my deck this card will let me draw two cards!" Lance announced as he retrieved Uriquizas, Hippogrif, Neo Flamvell Origin and Inferno from his graveyard, shuffled three of them into his deck whilst returning the fourth one to his extra deck and drawing twice.

"_Well if he was going for a Synchro then he just blew his chance." _Nicky thought with a confident smirk as Lance added the two new cards to his hand.

"Now I activate Double Summon, this lets me Normal Summon another monster and I'm choosing the other card I just drew, the tuner monster Neo Flamvell Origin!" Lance announced as the small flame returned to the field. "Neo Flamvell, it's time to give Royal Firestorm Guards a tune up!" Lance commanded as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"So you went through all that just to Synchro Summon Uriquizas again?" Nicky asked as she folded her arms and Lance shook his head.

"Let's just say that Hippogrif wasn't the only new toy I picked up! I tune Neo Flamvell Origin with Royal Firestorm Guard to Synchro Summon Beast God Vulcan!" Lance announced as the Synchro Rings surrounded Royal Firestorm Guards and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a humanoid tiger that was carrying a massive hammer and was wearing black shorts (6/2000/1600).

"That's it? Not much of a god." Nicky said with a smirk but Jason shook his head. "Something wrong Jason? Wait; don't tell me, it has an effect?"

"I'll answer that for him, you see when Beast God Vulcan is Synchro Summoned its effect activates, with it I target one card on either side of the field and return it to our respective hands, my target is my Kickfire Trap Card that I never got to use and Strong Wind Dragon!" Lance announced and Nicky's eyes widened as the tiger slammed its hammer into the ground sending both cards flying. "Only downside is I can only use its effect once per turn but since I can still conduct my Battle Phase….." Lance trailed off as he pointed to Draconic Guard. "Beast God Vulcan, attack Draconic Guard!" Lance commanded and the tiger charged towards the monster before slamming its hammer into its head destroying it.

"Good thing I left that thing in defense mode." Nicky grunted as she braced herself for the attack from Thestalos.

"Thestalos, attack Nicky's life-points directly!" Lance commanded and the monarch launched a fireball at the Osiris Red Student bringing her life-points down to 1800. "As soon as Evan's turn begins you'll be out of the match….."

"If you're asking if I want to surrender or not then the answers no, I've given you a good fight, the least I can do is go down fighting!" Nicky said determinedly and Lance nodded.

"I end my turn." Lance announced and Jason drew his card.

"_Soon as Nicky's eliminated they'll focus on me! I'd better make my move now!" _Jason thought before flipping his facedown monster up revealing it to be Needle Worm. "Judging from the looks on your faces you know what this card does!"

"Unfortunately yes, we do." Evan said with a grunt as he and Lance milled the top five cards from their decks.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn!" Jason announced as he set the card and Evan drew his card. _"Soon as Evan starts his move I'll trigger Blasting the Ruins, it may hurt me in the long run but it'll hurt them as well."_

"For starters I will return one Spellbook Spell Card to my deck so that I can draw another card." Evan announced as he retrieved the card and shuffled it into his deck before drawing another card. "Now I activate my trap card Hidden Spellbook, with this I can shuffle two Spell Cards into my deck from the graveyard." Evan added as he retrieved the two cards and shuffled them into his deck. "And before anyone points it out, yes this was once Hidden Book of Spell."

"_That's not my concern though." _Jason thought with a frown as he glanced at his trap. _"I tried activating Blasting the Ruins but Evan and Lance's two moves must've reduced the cards in their graveyards to fewer than 30."_

"Now I activate Spellbook of Life, with this I banish one Spellcaster in my graveyard and reveal one Spellbook Spell Card in my hand….." Evan announced as he pocketed the monster and revealed Divine Judgment of the Spellbooks. "And in return an old friend returns!" Evan added as High Priestess of Prophecy returned to the field.

"Just when I thought we had seen the last of her." Jason grunted in annoyance as he folded his arms. "There's gotta be a point to going that far for a glorified Monster Reborn!"

"Your right, you see her Level will now increase by the level of the banished monster; I banished a Level 2 monster so her level increases by two." Evan explained as the Priestess's level increased to nine. "And last but not least I banish one Spellbook Spell Card in my graveyard to destroy Needle Worm!" Evan announced as the Priestess cast a spell at the monster destroying it. "Lance, can I borrow your monsters?"

"Go ahead." Lance nodded as his two monsters walked over to Evan's side of the field.

"Beast God Vulcan, attack Nicky's life-points directly!" Evan commanded and the tiger charged towards her before slamming its hammer into her side bringing her life-points down to zero, "Thestalos, High Priestess, attack Jason's life-points directly!" Evan commanded as the two monsters launched their attacks at him bringing his life-points down to 2100.

"Don't bother ending your turn." Jason told him as he surrendered. "I know when I'm beat!" Jason added as the holograms disappeared.

"Here are the winners of the match, Lance Alvers and Evan Grant!" Martin announced as the crowd cheered. "That's all for today but come back tomorrow where we'll see Osiris Red's Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham take on Drake Derringer and Donny Cramer followed by Marcus Reynolds and Tyler Kaiba taking on Obelisk Blue's Alexander Bender and Anton Kramer."

"_Finally, I get to be in a duel that won't put my life on the line." _Chloe thought as she left the stadium alongside the other duelists. _"Here's hoping that me and Chelsea can work well together despite the differences in our decks." _Chloe thought as she left the building, up in the rafters Sarah and the two Orichalcos Duelists where leaving as well.

"We all saw who won that duel." Sarah told them as she turned to them. "You know who your targets are."

"Don't worry; the boss will get their souls!" The American agent answered as they left the area.

"_For your sake, I hope your right." _Sarah thought as she watched them leave.


	78. Tag Team Terror

"_Come on, how much longer until this damn class ends?!" _Chelsea thought impatiently as she glanced towards the computer clock on her laptop, even though she was in the middle of an IT class she had already finished the work set out for her and she was currently killing time by researching cards for her deck, she was the only Osiris Red Student in the class but the other students where friendly enough not to belittle her about it.

"Okay, that's all for today." Tracy announced and the students sighed in relief before either shutting down their PCs or, like Chelsea, unplugging their laptops to take back to their dorm rooms. "I know a few of you complained about me scheduling my class in the middle of one of the Tag Tournament matches but I wasn't told that the matches would be happening so soon."

"_Yeah, sure you weren't." _Chelsea thought with a roll of her eyes as she put her laptop in her laptop case. _"Ah well, at least I can watch the match on YouTube later, just gotta leave this classroom and head over to the Osiris Red Girl's dorm….."_

"Oh and Chelsea, can I speak to you after Class?" Tracy asked and Chelsea groaned knowing that it usually meant more homework for her.

"_Curse me for being really good with computers!" _Chelsea thought as she waited for the other students to leave, once they had left she turned to Tracy. "Okay teach we both know you love giving me homework to do so get it over with already."

"Am I really that predictable?" Tracy sighed before handing her a USB Drive. "This should keep you busy until tomorrow's match." Tracy added as Chelsea took it and pocketed it.

"Which I'll be ill-prepared for if this is anything like your usual homework assignments." Chelsea sighed in annoyance. "Can I go now? I promised Chloe that I'd meet her back at our dorm room."

"Sure." Tracy told her and Chelsea wasted no time in standing up, picking up her laptop case, and leaving the IT room, by the time she left all of the students had left the main building besides a couple who were lucky enough to have class straight after the matches finished.

"_No sign of Chloe, and since her class doesn't start for another hour or so she's probably well on her way to the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm by now." _Chelsea thought as she glanced around; however she did notice one person she recognized. "Hey Beth!" Chelsea called out to her girlfriend and Beth looked up.

"Hey Chelsea, what's up?" Beth asked as she caught up to her, they shared a quick kiss before Chelsea shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm just glad to be out of Tracy's class." Chelsea commented as she motioned to her laptop case. "I may be good at computers but there's only so much of her teaching style I can take." Chelsea added with a grin as they hugged each other and continued to kiss.

"Get a room, you rejects!" Jessica Stevens told them as she walked past the couple earning her one of Chelsea's signature death glares as she broke off the hug she was sharing with Beth.

"That's pretty funny coming from the only student in Obelisk Blue to fuck every male member of her dorm." Chelsea retaliated and Jessica stopped in her tracks.

"What did you just say?!" Jessica demanded as she span on her heels and turned to face the younger student, Chelsea smirked as she saw how angry she was.

"What's the matter? Don't like the truth you little whore?" Chelsea asked and Jessica retaliated by punching her in the face. "Oh, that's the way you want to settle things?" Chelsea said as she got back to her feet and got ready to retaliate, before she could throw a punch however it was caught by a member of security whilst another kept Jessica at bay.

"That's enough you two." Hamden chastised the two girls as he approached them. "Security, make sure Jessica gets back to her dorm room without any further incident, same goes for Chelsea."

"What? She started it, not me!" Chelsea snapped at Hamden who simply folded his arms.

"Would you rather deal with me or Martin?" Hamden said simply and Chelsea simply stormed off making sure to flip off Jessica when she was sure Hamden wasn't looking.

"_Great, first Tracy makes me miss the match and gives me homework and now the pro Obelisk Blue bias rears its ugly head again!" _Chelsea thought as she made her way to the Osiris Red Girl's dorm not really caring about the looks she was getting due to the fist shaped bruise on her cheek. _"Its times like these that make the idea of enrolling in a Military Academy seem preferable to staying here!"_

"Chelsea, wait up!" A familiar voice rang out and Chelsea looked up and saw Brandon and Beth approaching her.

"You saw what happened huh?" Chelsea asked Brandon who nodded. "I swear the Obelisk Blue bias here just gets on my nerves sometimes." Chelsea grunted in annoyance and Brandon shook his head.

"Chelsea, Jessica may have started it but what you said to her didn't exactly help matters." Brandon pointed out and Chelsea span around when she heard that.

"Well, excuse me for having an intimate moment with my girlfriend!" Chelsea grunted as her eyes narrowed. "Besides that, are you seriously defending that bitch?!" Chelsea demanded but Brandon shook his head.

"Look I'm just as sick of Jessica's attitude towards Osiris Red and Ra Yellow as you are but I'm just stating the facts." Brandon answered and Chelsea frowned. "Besides bullies like Jessica love getting reactions out of their targets…"

"Yeah well, if those idiots in security hadn't intervened we would've seen just how much she loves getting the shit beat out of her!" Chelsea grunted before storming off towards her dorm, once she was at the door to the dorm room that she and Chloe shared Chelsea knocked on the door. "Chloe, are you in there? And most importantly are you decent?"

"Yeah, I'm in here, not so sure about decent though." Chloe replied jokingly and Chelsea rolled her eyes before opening the door, she saw Chloe looking over her deck on the top bunk. "How'd IT go?"

"Not much, just the usual boring stuff." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders as she started to unpack her laptop and set it up in its usual spot. "Tracy gave me some homework but it shouldn't be too hard."

"Don't look at me; I'm not the tech savvy roommate." Chloe said with a grin which Chelsea returned, Chloe's grin disappeared however when she saw the bruise on Chelsea's cheek. "Get into a fistfight?"

"Yeah, I'll give you two guesses as to which red-headed whore of an Obelisk Blue student it was, second one doesn't count." Chelsea responded and Chloe frowned when she realized who Chelsea was referring too. "I was having an intimate moment with Beth in the main building, nothing that would get us in trouble for having sex in the hallways before you ask, and that bitch told us to get a room in her usual manner."

"Knowing you I'm guessing you didn't take that lying down?" Chloe asked as she hopped off the top bunk and Chelsea nodded. "At least tell me you managed to get a few good shots in?"

"I wish." Chelsea said with a scoff as she retrieved the USB drive that Tracy gave her. "Security broke up the fight after she punched me, she can't even throw a decent punch for fuck's sake!"

"Somehow, I'm not surprised." Chloe commented as she folded her arms. "I know you can throw one, I've seen you send much bigger guys to the ground with a punch…..or a kick to the nuts."

"Ah that's nothing, one of my old schools had a Karate club and I figured it could help me with my anger." Chelsea told her as she waited for her laptop to boot up. "Managed to make up to red belt before my temper got me kicked out of that school but it worked."

"You still practice?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"I'd like too but Duel Academy doesn't do Karate classes and the nearest club is back on the Main Land." Chelsea responded as she logged in. "But still, I may be out of practice but if I had just gotten one shot in Jessica would've been out for the count."

"Err, Chelsea….." Chloe trailed off once she saw who was at the door.

"What? I didn't make any sexual innuendos this time!" Chelsea pointed out before realizing that her roommate was looking towards the door. "Don't tell me, Martin's outside the door and heard everything I just said?"

"No but close enough." Chloe gulped as the door opened and Chelsea turned around.

"You should really look before you say things like that young lady." Maria said as she entered the room and Chelsea gulped once she realized what she was here for.

"Do I even need to ask why you're here?" Chelsea asked with a sigh once she regained her composure and Maria shook her head. "I thought not."

"Chloe, do you mind leaving the room for a few moments?" Maria asked Chloe and once she retrieved her deck from the top bunk Chloe left the room without hesitation. "I understand you almost got into a fist-fight with Obelisk Blue's Jessica Stevens?"

"She started it, not me!" Chelsea asserted as Maria took a seat, Maria listened as Chelsea explained what happened and shook her head once she finished.

"May I see the bruise?" Maria asked and Chelsea turned her head so that Maria could see the side of her face with the bruise. "Chelsea, you know your temper is what kept you from being admitted into Ra Yellow."

"Yeah, I know." Chelsea grunted as she folded her arms. "But what do you expect me to do when a bitch like her was being rude to me and Beth like that? As far as I'm concerned she deserves an ass kicking just because of her attitude towards this damn dorm!"

"I expect you to be respectful to your fellow students…." Maria trailed off and Chelsea growled.

"That's a fucking joke, right?" Chelsea snapped at her and Maria stopped in her tracks. "Why don't you try telling that to that bitch who started it or are all teachers to biased towards Obelisk Blue to see that most of the students in that dorm are the real problem?!"

"That's enough, young lady!" Maria raised her voice and Chelsea kept her cool. "It may seem like most of the teachers favor Obelisk Blue students but we try to treat them no differently than the other students no matter what dorm they're in."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" Chelsea growled as she span her chair around. "If that's not true then why did Cameron and Jessica get slaps on the wrists when they practically bullied Chloe into turning off the safeties in her duel disk whilst Chloe got detention for the rest of the year?" Chelsea responded as she glared at the teacher. "Or better yet, why did you send more students from Obelisk Blue to Battle City than the other dorms? Hell Chloe was the only Osiris Red student on that trip!"

"Are you done venting?" Maria asked simply as Chelsea took several deep breaths, once she was done Chelsea sighed.

"Yeah, I am." Chelsea grunted as she dug around her pockets for the USB drive Tracy gave her.

"As for your questions, I realize that Cameron and Jessica's punishments may have seemed light compared to Chloe's but unlike Chloe who's punishment was undone by her expulsion duel they are still under scrutiny for it, in fact Jessica will be even more severely punished for the incident back at the main building." Maria told her and Chelsea frowned clearly not convinced.

"Yeah well, that still doesn't explain the lack of Osiris Red students besides Chloe at Battle City." Chelsea pointed out and Maria nodded.

"I was about to explain that." Maria added and Chelsea listened intently. "As for Battle City we had considered several students yourself included but as much as myself and Hamden campaigned for more Osiris Red students in the tournament it was ultimately Martin's decision."

"That didn't stop him from letting Kimberly join them, hell I was going to ask if I could go as well before I was pulled out of school for a few weeks." Chelsea added and Maria frowned.

"Yes, I remember you being pulled out after Nathan's soul was taken." Maria said with a nod and Chelsea frowned. "Like I said you were considered but we ultimately decided against it due to your criminal record."

"Wait, seriously? I only broke the law once and that was enough to keep me out of the damn tournament?!" Chelsea asked before shaking her head. "I was going to talk to Martin about that…."

"And it's unlikely that you would've been allowed on the trip." Maria pointed out and Chelsea sighed in resignation. "Look, Duel Academy's going to be represented at Battle City next year, by then you'll be eighteen and your record will be expunged."

"That's still a whole year away." Chelsea grunted as she folded her arms. "Is that everything? I have homework to do." Chelsea asked and Maria nodded before standing up and leaving the room, Chloe entered the room a few seconds later with a worried look on her face. "You heard my little rant huh?"

"It's not like Maria told me not to listen in." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as she sat down. "Had no idea you where that pissed about not going to Battle City."

"Yeah, but why not? I've always wanted to go to New York and to go on Kaibacorp's money just seemed perfect." Chelsea shrugged before sighing. "But no, my past mistakes bite me on the fucking ass again!"

"Hey relax, like Maria said you'll get another shot next year." Chloe reassured her and Chelsea shook her head.

"Yeah but that's still another year." Chelsea grunted before sighing. "At least we have our match tomorrow."

"Yeah, I was going over my deck trying to think of possible strategies when you showed up." Chloe responded as she glanced at her deck. "How's Beth feeling about being eliminated early?"

"Never got a chance to ask her before Jessica decided to be a bitch." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders before pausing. "Then again that's pretty much typical for her."

"Yeah I'm pretty sure she'll never stop being a bitch." Chloe added with a cheeky smirk. "Seriously, before the fist fight how was she feeling?"

"She seemed to be in high spirits all things considered." Chelsea said after thinking for a few moments. "I think almost beating two Obelisk Blue Students without a single attack helped a bit." Chelsea added and Chloe smirked at that.

"It did actually." Beth commented as she entered the room, she turned to Chelsea and frowned. "I'm glad to see you've calmed down since the incident back at the main building."

"Yeah, just a bit." Chelsea grunted as she blew a stray strand away from her face. "Is it a safe bet that you'll be rooting for me and Chloe in our match tomorrow?"

"Don't try to change the subject, besides we both know the answer to that question." Beth answered as she folded her arms. "Look babe, I was just as pissed off at Jessica as you are but….."

"Yeah, yeah, violence is not the answer." Chelsea grumbled under her breath as she rolled her eyes. "Besides she started it."

"Yeah, I know, I was there remember?" Beth pointed out before frowning. "I'm just concerned okay? We both know where your parents will send you if they expel you here."

"Don't remind me." Chelsea grunted with a sigh of annoyance. "I would've thought Tommy would've been with you back at the main building?"

"He was but he wanted to get back to the Ra Yellow Boys Dorm and think of ways to improve his deck." Beth responded before glancing over at Chloe. "You okay Chloe? You're not as talkative as you usually are."

"I'm fine, I was just daydreaming." Chloe answered as she fitted her deck into her duel disk ready for tomorrow's match. _"Yeah, daydreaming about what happened last night."_ Chloe thought with a slight shudder.

"Well anyway, I'm going back to my dorm." Beth said as she turned to leave. "Chelsea, if you want to come over later and…..relieve stress…..feel free."

"Ever heard of too much information?" Chloe said as a sweat-drop rolled down her head, Beth shook her head before closing the door. "So, you have any ideas for tomorrow's match?"

"Try not to get beat." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders as Chloe's sweat-drop grew in size. "Seriously though, I think we'll be fine, several of the teams that are already through to the next round don't have decks that match."

"Yeah and several others have been eliminated." Chloe added with a nervous gulp. "I'm at least familiar with your deck thanks to my duel against your dad."

"True and I did borrow your deck for that Duel Theory class where Martin made me use a different deck." Chelsea remembered as she grinned. "Relax Chloe; we have nothing to worry about."

"I hope your right." Chloe gulped as she leaned back on the bottom bunk. "I wonder what the other competitors are doing?"

"You mean the guys who haven't competed yet or the guys or have?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shrugged her shoulders as if to say "both". "Probably planning for their matches, why do you ask?"

"No reason." Chloe admitted as she rested her hands behind her head.

*elsewhere on the island*

"That was a close one." Lance sighed in relief as he walked side by side with Evan; the two boys were discussing their match and who they'd like to face in the next round. "Tomorrow's matches should be good."

"Indeed, Chelsea and Chloe should be a team to look out for in this tournament even if they're in Osiris Red." Evan agreed as he put his hands in his pocket. "After all, Chloe did come in third back in Battle City."

"Yeah and it's like I told you, she could've won the match against Theresa if she had played a different Synchro Monster." Lance said with a nod as they neared his dorm. "She sure is something special?"

"Indeed." Evan agreed before smirking. "Now, are you sure that you and Chloe are nothing more than friends?" Evan asked causing Lance to face-fault. "Oh come on man! It's obvious that you're crazy about her!"

"I refuse to even think about answering that." Lance grunted as he got back to his feet. "Honestly I spend one intimate moment with a pretty girl who I've known since before I joined Duel Academy…..and I'm going to shut up before I dig myself all the way to China."

"Shame, you were about halfway there." Evan said with a grin and Lance shook his head, before Lance could respond Evan spotted something amiss. "What are they doing here?" Evan asked and Lance blinked before leaning forward and seeing the two hired guns.

"I don't know but thanks to my experiences in Battle City I'm now extremely wearily of anyone who walks around in a black coat, especially considering how hot the island can get." Lance responded with a frown. "I'd say we ask them but if they are affiliated with the same organization that took Nathan's soul before Battle City…."

"Say no more." Evan nodded in understanding as he frowned. "Maybe we should follow them?" Evan asked and Lance nodded.

"Well I was going to chill out and listen to Sepultura's "Schizophrenia" album but I guess kickass metal can wait." Lance shrugged his shoulders before following Evan as the two boys followed the hooded figures from a distance. "Well I can tell that one of them is female."

"We're a few feet away from them and they are wearing cloaks, how can you tell what their gender is?" Evan pointed out as they followed them.

"I overheard one of them cussing in a female Russian accent." Lance responded and Evan sweat-dropped.

"You listen to metal and yet you have hearing that good?" Evan asked and Lance shrugged his shoulders.

"At least I don't listen to music that was around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth." Lance commented as they followed them to a clearing.

"I'll pretend I don't hear that." Evan grunted in annoyance as the two of them stopped in front of a clearing that the two duelists they were following had stopped in. "Why have they stopped?"

"Do I look like I can read minds?" Lance pointed out before shaking his head. "If they do belong to the same organization that employed Logan, Karina and the Orichalcos duelists that I and the others faced in Battle City then it can't be good."

"Where are they?" The Russian agent, who was apparently unaware of the fact that their targets where watching them from afar grunted as she folded her arms in annoyance.

"They can't be that far away, one of them is in Ra Yellow and that dorm's back there." The American agent answered as he motioned towards the dorm with his head, once again without turning around. "His teammate's in Obelisk Blue and that dorm's Boy's Dorm is just ahead of us."

"Do you think their looking for us?" Evan asked Lance who frowned.

"If they are I'm in no hurry to greet them." Lance grunted as he folded his arms. "I'm also in no hurry to be in another Orichalcos Duel."

"And I'm in no hurry to be in my first." Evan responded with a nod of understanding. "So, what do you suggest?"

"Standing back and seeing what happens?" Lance suggested as another two students entered the clearing. "Wait, isn't that Andreas and Damien?"

"Oh crap, they'll be in trouble if they get involved with those two." Evan realized as they watched the two other students walk into the clearing.

"You have no idea how glad I am to be out of Tracy's class." Andreas commented as he put his hands in his pockets. "She's a good teacher and I'm good at IT because of it but her teaching style just drags out the lesson."

"Tell me about it, I don't think there's a more boring teacher than her." Damien agreed before they looked up and saw the two duelists ahead of them. "Can we help you?" Damien asked as his eyes narrowed.

"Well we were looking for your classmates." The Russian woman chuckled as she and her partner revealed their Orichalcos Duel Disks. "But I suppose we can use you two as a warm up." She added and Andreas's eyes widened once he saw the duel disk.

"This is just what we need, more Orichalcos wielding scumbags!" Damien grunted as he glared at the two of them. "What do you want with our classmates? Are you looking to recruit another Otto?"

"Thanks for reminding me that my brother trapped my soul in the Orichalcos." Andreas grunted in annoyance and Damien just shook his head. "Feel free to answer that in your own time."

"Do you really think we'd risk recruiting another Otto?" The American agent asked and the two duelists blinked. "Seriously, the guy was supposed to be undercover but he blew his cover the moment he got to face his own brother, insulted some chick's dead mother and broke the law in the period of a week."

"What he's trying to say is he put the organization at risk over a silly little feud." The Russian woman added.

"And having agents attack competing duelists in one of the biggest Duel Monster Tournaments in the world didn't?" Andreas pointed out and the two duelists frowned.

"Enough talk." The Russian woman said before removing her cloak revealing an attractive, athletic woman with long black hair and blue eyes who was wearing a revealing outfit. "You may not be our intended targets but you will do for a warm-up, you may call me Anna."

"And as for me, you can call me Tyson." The American agent said before removing his cloak revealing a tall, well-built man with dirty blonde hair and green eyes who was wearing a black jacket with a red t-shirt underneath, blue jeans and black boots. "And as far as Andreas is concerned we're going to finish what Otto started."

"We won't give you the chance." Andreas grunted as he and Damien activated their Duel Disks and drew their opening hands and their opponents did likewise, unbeknownst to any of them Sarah was watching the exchange from a nearby clearing whilst watching the action on a laptop and she wasn't happy.

"I told you to target the winners of the last match!" Sarah said into her earpiece and the two Orichalcos Duelists frowned.

"Hey, just consider this a warm-up all right?" Tyson answered back with a smirk. "Besides we were bound to target Otto's brother at some point, this way we can kill two birds with one stone."

"All right but remember this match won't feature the same rules as the last tag match to feature the seal, if one of you goes then the match will continue." Sarah reminded them and they nodded. "And I'm sure I don't need to tell you what the price of failure is."

"We got it loud and clear." Tyson responded with a frown.

"_And this is why I hate working with hired guns." _Sarah thought with a grunt as she watched the duel unfold.

"All right, I'll go first!" Tyson said as he drew another card. "And it's your unlucky day, I activate Terra Forming, with this Spell Card I can add one Field Spell to my hand from my deck." Tyson announced before picking up and searching through his deck. "And I'm sure I don't need to tell you what I'm searching for, you've probably already guessed based on our duel disks."

"Yes, that seems to be a popular card among your fellow employees, that or Demise of the Land." Andreas responded as he folded his arms. "So go ahead, play it, we all know that it's coming." Andreas added as Tyson shuffled his deck.

"You're in an awfully quick mood to get your soul stolen again but don't worry, I'll happily oblige." Tyson answered as he sent his Spell to the graveyard and played the Field Spell. "I activate The Seal of the Orichalcos!"

"Here we go!" Damien grunted as the seal surrounded all four duelists and the pentagram appeared on Tyson and Anna's head. "Andreas, any tips for a first time Orichalcos fighter?"

"Yes." Andreas answered and Damien listened intently. "Try not to let them take your soul." Andreas answered causing Damien to face-fault. "Besides that, damage is real, seal can't be destroyed, and all their monsters gain five hundred attack points." Andreas responded as he thought back to his Orichalcos Duels. "Oh yes, anyone who uses the seal tends to be crazy."

"Gee, I never would've guessed." Damien said sarcastically before turning to Tyson and Anya. "Anything he forgot?"

"Nah, he covered all the basics." Tyson shrugged before picking up another card. "Let's see how you like this! I play another Spell Card called Greed Cyclone." Tyson played the card which depicted the hurricane from Heavy Storm only it was carrying the shattered pieces of the Pot of Greed. "But we'll get to its effect later, for now I set two down and end my turn." Tyson set the two cards down and Andreas drew his card.

"_No monsters? Those facedown cards must be powerful." _Andreas thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Blast, Closed Forrest would be a very useful card right now but I can't play it due to the Seal, but there are other moves I can make." _Andreas thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Berserk Gorilla in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the large, angry gorilla appeared on the field (4/2000/1000).

"_Since he brought that out it's a safe bet that he's going to try to use a similar combo to the one he used in his tag duel." _Tyson thought before grinning. _"Just try to bring out Green Baboon, I dare you!"_

"I end my turn." Andreas announced and Anna drew her card.

"_Tyson's started off strong; let's see if I can start off stronger." _Anna thought as she looked at her hand. "I start my turn by summoning Genex Udine in attack mode!" Anna played the card and a clearly female sea creature appeared on the field, besides that it was a strange creature that was dark blue in color (3/1200/600) and her attack increased to 1700 thanks to the seal.

"Genex Udine? I wasn't aware that people ran her in Genex decks." Damien commented and Anna and Tyson shared a grin.

"Whoever said I was running Genex?" Anna asked before sending a card from her deck to the graveyard. "But for now I activate Udine's effect, when she is Normal Summoned I can send once Water monster from my deck to the graveyard to add Genex Controller to my hand." Anna added before picking up her deck and searching through it, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand. "And now the effect of the monster I just sent to the graveyard activates!"

"That doesn't sound good." Andreas gulped and Anna grinned.

"For you it doesn't, the monster I just sent is a very lethal card called Atlantean Heavy Infantry." Anna said as she held up the card (2/0/1600). "When this card is sent to the graveyard I can target one card one the field and destroy it, and since Berserk Gorilla is the only monster you have….." Anna trailed off as the gorilla was consumed by a tidal wave.

"My gorilla may be gone." Andreas grunted as his life-points dropped to 7000. "But by destroying it you activated the effect of one of my strongest monsters, Green Baboon, Defender of the Forrest!" Andreas played the card and the large green baboon appeared on the field (7/2600/1800).

"Yeah, but that's not the only effect her combo activated." Tyson chimed in with a grin. "Remember Greed Cyclone? You see, its effect activates whenever a card's destroyed, with it I can draw two cards." Tyson explained before drawing twice.

"Wait, that's without any cost?!" Damien yelled out in surprise and the two duelists grinned. "That's broken….."

"And they don't care." Andreas told him and Damien turned to him. "I've been a witness to several of the recent Orichalcos Duels; this isn't the first time a broken card has been used by them and it won't be the last." Andreas told him and Damien grunted.

"And we're not done drawing, I play the Spell Card Moray of Greed, with this I shuffle two Water Monsters back into my deck and draw three cards." Anna explained before she shuffled the cards into her deck and drew three times. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Anna announced and Damien quickly drew his card.

"Okay, since you have monsters and I don't I can Special Summon Blood Pirate – Sword Jugglin' Jack in attack mode!" Damien played the card and a tall lanky man in a pirate's uniform appeared on the field, he was bold and was juggling a sword around (3/1200/1000). "And since he was special summoned via his effect I can activate his other effect which lets me search for a Level 4 or lower Blood Pirate monster and add it to my hand."

"And you called Greed Cyclone broken?" Tyson grunted as Damien picked up his deck and searched through it, once he found the card that he was looking for he added it to his hand.

"It's not broken because it comes with a drawback, if I use both effects I have to skip my Battle Phase." Damien explained before playing another card. "Next I activate Sword Test Dummy; this spell card cuts my warrior's attack in half." Damien explained as several scars appeared on Sword Jugglin' Jack's body causing his attack to drop to 600.

"Well, thanks for making him an even easier target for our monsters." Tyson said with a grin and Damien frowned.

"This coming from the guy whose field is empty?" Damien asked before shaking his head. "But in return for that Sword Jugglin' Jack can't be destroyed in battle until my next turn so….." Damien trailed off before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Damien announced and Tyson smirked before drawing his card.

"That's good, because the fun's just beginning!" Tyson said with a grin as he drew his card.

*elsewhere*

"Almost done….." Chelsea trailed off as she worked on the homework that she had gotten from Tracy, as she had expected it was a relatively easy piece of work; a Q&A sheet that listed several computer problems and Chelsea had to figure out how to fix them. _"First one was a piece of cake; I had that problem with my first desktop." _Chelsea thought to herself as she thought about the last problem.

"Need any help?" Chloe offered and Chelsea shook her head.

"It's cool, I got this." Chelsea responded as she typed in the answer. "No offense Chloe, would you be able to fix any of these problems without any help from me or anyone else?" Chelsea asked and Chloe looked at the sheet before sweat-dropping.

"Yeah, all of the stuff on this sheet just flies right over my head." Chloe admitted as she scratched her head in confusion. "How did you get so good at computers anyway?"

"My mom works as an IT Technician, I guess I inherited her passion for computers at an early age and she taught me the ins and outs." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders in response as she saved her work to the USB. "If you ever do get a laptop I'll have to teach you this stuff."

"Yeah, I know, for now though I'll just stick to my IPod." Chloe said as she sat down on the bottom bunk.

"_Chloe, I hope you're not planning on relaxing." _Silent Magician interrupted her train of thought and Chloe blinked. _"Andreas and Damien are in an Orichalcos Duel."_

"WHAT?" The two girls yelled out simultaneously and they shared a look.

"Wattchimera told you as well?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Okay, if we hurry we can there before their opponents even activate the seal."

"It's too late for that." Tyler said as he entered the room making the two girls jump. "I apologize but I'm assuming you two got the same message?"

"Yeah, where are the others?" Chelsea asked as she turned to him.

"They are on their way there now; they sent me to pick you two up, we weren't able to find Lance but I think it's a safe bet that he's at the duel site already." Tyler said before motioning them to follow him and the two girls left the dorm room.

*back at the duel*

"Now that my turn has begun I can activate my trap." Tyson announced as the trap flipped up revealing a building being demolished whilst one worker held the Pot of Greed. "Destructive Greed, this little trap requires that I already have a Continuous Spell Card on the field such as Greed Cyclone and I can only activate it during my standby phase."

"If it's anything like Greed Cyclone then we're in trouble." Damien said with a frown and Tyson grinned.

"You have no idea, you see when I draw outside of my draw phase this trap's effect lets me destroy one card on the field, discard one card in your hand AND remove from play one monster in your deck!" Tyson explained and his opponents' eyes widened when they heard that. "And before you complain about that effect being broken, I don't give a shit!"

"See what I mean?" Andreas muttered to Damien who nodded in response.

"Now the real fun begins, I summon Spirit of the Pot of Greed in attack mode!" Tyson played the card and the infamous Pot of Greed appeared on the field, a few seconds passed and a white transparent ghost emerged from it (1/100/100) and its attack increased to 600 because of the Seal's presence on the field.

"People still use that thing?!" Damien said with a scoff. "It's useless! Its companion card was banned long ago and I doubt it's ever coming back!"

"Damien, that is true but don't forget he isn't playing by our rules." Andreas pointed out and Damien's eyes widened when he realized that Andreas was right.

"Four eyes is right, I activate Pot of Greed!" Tyson played the card and quickly drew two cards. "And now Destructive Greed's effect activates, my first target is that overgrown monkey over there!" Tyson announced as Green Baboon howled in pain but its hologram shattered, Damien and Andreas quickly discarded a card each before removing a monster from their decks. "And with Spirit on the field I get to draw three cards instead of two but that's not all, now Greed Cyclone's effect activates!"

"Oh crap, he's going to use that effect again!" Damien grunted as Tyson drew three cards.

"That's right and I think I'll target Andreas's facedown card on the right!" Tyson announced as the trap card shattered.

"You just made a big mistake, the card you destroyed was a very powerful yet situational Trap Card called Forrest Graveyard!" Andreas announced as he held up the trap which depicted graves with the names of several beast type monsters on it. "To activate this it has to be targeted and destroyed by an opponent's card effect such as your combo, it lets me summon as many beast spirit tokens as possible." Andreas explained as five ghastly beasts appeared before him (1/0/0).

"Hah! Even my Spirit can destroy those things!" Tyson bragged and Andreas smirked.

"He won't get a chance because this move leaves you in a loop." Andreas commented and Tyson blinked in confusion. "As long as Forrest Graveyard is in my graveyard more Beast Spirit tokens will spawn each time one is destroyed and as long as at least one token is present on the field you can't target my spells or traps for an effect."

"And you accuse me of using broken cards!?" Tyson yelled out as he continued to draw, Sarah frowned as she watched the duel and contacted Anna.

"Anna we both know that Destructive Greed and Greed Cyclone's effects are mandatory, if you have a way to get Tyson out of the loop do it now!" Sarah yelled down the earpiece and Anna quickly looked over the cards on her field.

"I can't!" Anna responded and Tyson's eyes widened as his hand grew larger and his deck size shrank considerably with each beast token destroyed.

"Ya dumb broad! Do you know what'll happen once I run out of cards!?" Tyson yelled at her and Anna remained silent as Destructive Greed's effect activated for the last time causing Tyson to deck out. "No! No!" Tyson said as he dropped the cards in his hand, Andreas caught site of two of the cards and frowned.

"_It's starting to make sense." _Andreas thought as he looked at the cards, Infinite Cards and Muka Muka (2/600/300). _"If he had been able to activate Infinite Cards and summon Muka Muka he'd have a monster with potentially unlimited attack power." _Andreas thought as the seal closed in around Tyson and took his soul. "It's not too late to surrender Anna, your partner's out of the match after all….."

"You're kidding right?" Anna asked as Andreas drew his card. "My deck's so powerful that I can take on the two of you single handedly."

"We shall see about that." Andreas commented before looking at his drawn card. "I sacrifice one of my beast tokens to summon Big Tusked Mammoth in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the large purple mammoth appeared in the place of one of the tokens (5/2000/1000). "Your partner was wrong however, Forrest Graveyard does have a drawback."

"Oh?" Anna asked as she watched the remaining tokens shatter.

"Yes, if I tribute any of them the remaining tokens are destroyed." Andreas explained before grinning. "But I have a mammoth here that can prevent you from attacking the same turn you summon a monster and, more importantly, can destroy Genex Udine!" Andreas commanded and the mammoth charged across the field before impaling the monster on its tusk destroying it and bringing Anna's life-points down to 7700.

"No matter, that monster had fulfilled its purpose." Anna commented before sending the monster to the graveyard. "But before you even think about ending your turn I'll activate my trap card Abyss-Sphere, with this I can special summon a Mermail monster from my deck with its effects negated and I chose one of the cards I shuffled into my deck with Morray of Greed, Mermail Abysslinde!" Anna played the card and a mermaid appeared on the field, she had long, blue wavy hair and was wearing a breast plate (3/1500/1200) and her attack increased to 2000 thanks to the Seal. "However she will be destroyed during the end phase."

"_So callous, she's no better than Karen was in my first Orichalcos Duel." _Andreas thought before looking at his hand. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced and Abysslinde shattered as Anna drew her card.

"Good because now that Abysslinde has been sent to the graveyard her effect activates, this will allow me to special summon one more Mermail monster as long as it's not another copy of Abysslinde and I think that Mermail Oceabyss will do nicely!" Anna played the card and another mermaid appeared on the field, however she was blonde this time and was wearing a blue breastplate with a matching tail (3/1100/1900) and her attack increased to 1600 thanks to the seal.

"If she's anything like Abysslinde then she's more dangerous than she looks." Damien commented and Andreas nodded in agreement.

"More than you know but I'll get to her effect in a moment." Anna responded before discarding another card. "But first by discarding another Water Type Monster to my graveyard I can special summon another Mermail, Mermail Abyssteaus!" Anna played the card and a strange humanoid reptile appeared on the field, it was wearing silver armor and was carrying a spear (7/1700/2400) and its attack increased to 2200 thanks to the seal.

"Even with the power boost that is an incredibly weak Level 7 monster." Andreas pointed out and Anna grinned. "Besides, thanks to my Mammoth's effect it can't attack."

"I wouldn't concern yourself with such trivial matters, first I activate Oceabyss's effect whilst lets me target a Mermail Monster and Special Summon from my deck any number of Level 4 or lower Mermail monsters as long as their levels match up to the targeted monster, my target is Abyssteaus and the cards I'm bringing out are Mermail Abysslunde….." Anna trailed off as another Mermaid appeared on the field; this one seemed to be much younger than the other two with light brown hair with a matching breastplate (3/1300/400).

"This archetype uses child soldiers?!" Damien asked as her attack increased to 1800 thanks to the seal only to be ignored by Anna.

"And the only male Mermail, Mermail Abysspike and they are both in attack mode!" Anna played the card and another Mermaid appeared on the field, like Anna said it was a male and was very muscular, he was wearing a breast plate like the others though (4/1600/800) and its attack increased to 2100 thanks to the seal. "And when this card is Special or normal summoned I can activate its effect, I discard one more Water type card to my graveyard and in return I can add one Level 3 Water Type Monster from my deck to my hand."

"Mako Tsunami would've loved this archetype." Andreas grunted under his breath as Anna added the card.

"Who cares about that never was? Besides the monster I just added has an effect of her own so I special summon Mermail Abyssdine!" Anna played the card and a Mermaid who looked even younger than Abysslinde appeared on the field, she had long pink hair and was wearing a blue breastplate (3/1000/200).

"I take back what I said about Mako Tsunami." Andreas grunted in disgust as her attack increased to 1500 thanks to the seal and Anna shook her head.

"Who cares? I don't! Now then under normal circumstances I wouldn't be able to use her effect but since the Orichalcos is in play….." Anna trailed off before retrieving another card from her graveyard. "I can and will use her effect, when she's Special Summoned I can Special Summon a second Mermail from my graveyard and I chose Mermail Abysslinde!"

"You're doing more Special Summons? I'm half expecting there to be a Tuner Monster among them!" Damien commented as the monster returned to the field and Anna shook her head.

"Mermails don't have a tuner among their ranks but they instead rely on overwhelming power to crush their opponents." Anna responded and Andreas shook his head.

"Aren't you forgetting something? Because of my mammoth you can't attack!" Andreas pointed out and Anna smirked before picking up another card.

"That is true…..but I believe this next card should be familiar to you, after all, the one who defeated Logan made great use of this card!" Anna said as she played the card. "It's called Mischief of the Time Goddess!"

"Oh my god…" Andreas trailed off as the massive clock appeared above the field and moved forward one turn.

"Now I could attack Damien's monster but since it can't be destroyed in battle thanks to his Spell Card I'll settle for this, Mermails, attack and destroy Andreas!" Anna commanded and the strongest Mermail destroyed Big Tusked Mammoth first followed by the others bringing his life-points down to four hundred.

"Andreas, you okay?" Damien asked as Andreas fell to his knees.

"I'm fine!" Andreas grunted as he got back to his feet, he was breathing heavily due to the attack but didn't seem any worse for wear. "Are you done?" Andreas asked bluntly through gritted teeth and Anna looked over her hand.

"Yes, I am done." Anna announced and Damien drew his card. "But I feel to see how an Archetype as confusing as the Blood Pirates can do anything to stop my onslaught."

"We'll see about that." Damien commented as Sword Jugglin' Jack's attack increased to its normal amount.

"Sorry to interrupt Damien but I have a trap to play!" Andreas announced as he activated his trap. "Shock Draw, since I just took a little over seven-thousand points of damage I get to draw seven cards!" Andreas announced before drawing seven times.

"If I knew that you wanted to share Tyson's fate so badly I would've summoned another monster!" Anna commented and Andreas frowned.

"Did I hear that right?!" Chelsea yelled out as she, Chloe and Tyler approached the duel with the others in tow. "Seven Thousand Points of damage in one turn?!"

"Unfortunately yes and with that archetype I'm not surprised." Tyler commented as he folded his arms. "Mermails are a very dangerous archetype but they are even worse when paired up with another Archetype known as the Atlanteans."

"How bad can they be?" Chloe asked before noticing the amount of monsters on Anna's side of the field. "Am I seeing things?"

"No, you're not; swarming the field is just one of the Archetype's strengths." Tyler commented with a frown. "Let's hope that Damien and Andreas can get out of this."

"Wait, didn't our Duel Spirits say that there were two Orichalcos Duelists?" Chelsea realized and Lance turned to them.

"There where but Andreas was able to force one of them to deck out, he's the unconscious guy lying opposite Anna." Lance told them as he pointed him out. "Oh and hi by the way."

"Anyway since Sword Jugglin' Jack has been on the field for a turn I can activate my trap card!" Damien announced as the trap flipped up revealing Blood Pirate – Ghost ship at sea with a crew member going overboard. "Man Overboard!"

"Didn't you play a Spell Card with the same name during our tag duel?" Andreas asked and Damien nodded.

"Yeah but I2 created two cards with the same name but different effects…..not to mention the fact that one's a trap and one's a Spell Card." Damien admitted before shaking his head. "With this I can destroy Sword Jugglin' Jack!"

"Wait, what?!" Anna and Andreas yelled out simultaneously as the monster's hologram shattered into a million pieces.

"Then what was the point of using Sword Test Dummy?!" Andreas asked and Damien gave him a reassuring smirk.

"Because in exchange for that I can bring out two Blood Pirate monsters from my hand as long as they are the same level as the destroyed monster with their effects negated!" Damien announced as he played the cards. "So I summon Buccaneer Bible and Pete the Well-Tanned!"

"The more I learn about this archetype the weirder the names get….." Andreas trailed off as the two monsters appeared on the field, Buccaneer Bible he recognized from the tag duel (3/500/700) and the new monster was a tall pirate in a fancy pirate outfit with long black hair and, as the name suggested, a nice tan (3/1100/500). "But since Buccaneer Bible wasn't summoned via the effect of a Blood Pirate Monster you can't increase his level even if his effect wasn't negated."

"True but I just need these guys for this Synchro Summon!" Damien announced as the two pirates leapt into the air, Buccaneer Bible dissolved into three Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Pete the Well-Tanned. "I tune them together to Synchro Summon Blood Pirate – Lazy Eye Deb in attack mode!" Damien played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, this one was a female pirate in a revealing pirates outfit, she had an eye patch over one eye and had long dark hair (6/2000/2500).

"Hah! That pirate would've been better off in defense mode! Instead you made her a prime target for my army!" Anna said with a cocky smirk and Damien just grinned.

"That would be the case if it weren't for Pete The Well-Tanned's effect!" Damien commented as Lazy Eye Deb drew her sword. "If he's used in the Synchro Summon of a Level 6 or lower Blood Pirate Monster I can destroy up to two cards on the field that have more attack points than the monster in question!"

"What? NO!" Anna yelled out as Lazy Eye Deb dashed forward before cutting the two strongest Mermails in half with her sword.

"Now before you object to that effect being broken and whatnot, I'll save you the trouble, it's not." Damien commented as his monster returned to his side of the field. "If Pete The Well-Tanned's effect is used successfully than the monster summoned with it can't attack on the same turn its summoned so instead I'll end my turn." Damien announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_I don't have nearly enough life-points to bring back Green Baboon but I'm sure there's something I can do…" _Andreas trailed off before seeing the card that he had drawn. _"Perfect!" _Andreas thought before setting the card. "I set a monster in defense mode…" Andreas announced as the facedown monster appeared on the field. "Damien, can I borrow your Synchro?"

"Be my guest!" Damien answered and Lazy Eye Deb made her way over to Andreas's side of the field.

"Then it's time I got some revenge for the damage you caused! Lazy Eye Deb, attack Abyssdine!" Andreas commanded and the swordswoman charged towards the mermaid before cutting her in half and bringing Anna's life-points down to 7200. _"I may have a long way to go if I want to turn this duel around in my favor but this will do for now." _Andreas thought as he glanced at Anna's side of the field.

"Are you going to end your turn or not?" Anna asked impatiently and Andreas frowned before picking up three cards.

"I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced and once Lazy Eye Deb returned to Damien's side of the field Anna drew her card.

"Seven draws and the most you can do during your turn is set a monster and borrow your partner's Synchro for a turn? That's pathetic!" Anna scoffed before looking at her drawn card. "I activate a Spell Card called Salvage; this lets me add two Level 4 or lower Water Type Monsters from my graveyard to my hand!" Anna announced before retrieving the cards and adding them to her hand. "It's time I put you out of your misery, first I discard the two Water type monsters I just retrieved from my graveyard from my hand to special summon Mermail Abyssmegalo!"

"Oh joy, another strong monster." Andreas grunted in annoyance as the monster appeared on the field, it was a weird looking humanoid fish that was wearing gold armor (7/2400/1900) and its attack increased to 2900 thanks to the seal.

"You have no idea; first off when my monster is summoned in this fashion I can add an Abyss Spell/Trap Card from my deck to my hand!" Anna explained before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card that she was looking for she added it to her hand. "And now it's time for his other, more lethal effect! To activate it I must tribute another Mermail Monster….." Anna trailed off as Oceabyss's hologram shattered. "But in exchange he can attack twice."

"Oh no….." Chelsea trailed off when it hit her.

"Abyssmegalo, attack his pathetic last line of defense!" Anna commanded and the large sea creature charged towards Andreas's monster…..however Anna's eyes widened when he recognized the monster. "You drew Nimble Momonga (2/1000/100)? How the hell did you…?"

"Draw it when I needed it the most?" Andreas asked as his life-points increased to 1400. "Yugi Motuh would call this the "Heart of the Cards"; I just call it luck of the draw!" Andreas added before picking up two more copies of his monster and setting them. "I believe you have two more shots at this….."

"Abyssmegalo, attack the Nimble Momonga on the right!" Anna interrupted him and the sea monster turned his sword to the right increasing Andreas's life-points to 2400 and destroying the second Nimble Momonga.

"You just made a big mistake!" Andreas said with a grin even as his life-points dropped down to 1400 again. "Or did you forget the presence of a certain monster in my graveyard?" Andreas asked before playing the card and Green Baboon returned to the field alongside the set Nimble Momonga.

"Hah! Your baboon may be strong but he is no match for my strongest monster." Anna scoffed before setting a card. "I set this and end my turn." Anna announced and Damien drew his card.

"Lazy Eye Deb, attack Abysslinde!" Damien commanded and the pirate charged forward before slicing the young Mermaid down the middle bringing Anna's life-points down to 7000. "I end my turn at that."

"_She didn't activate her trap in response to Mermail Abysslinde's destruction; it might be another Abyss Sphere in that case." _Andreas thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Dead draw but I can remedy that." _Andreas thought before flipping up his last Nimble Momonga. "Now that I have flipped up my monster I'll activate one of my traps, Beast Burial Ritual! I give up my last Momonga….." Andreas trailed off as the monster's hologram shattered. "And I draw two more cards; however I can't use any of them for the rest of the turn."

"Well, that was pointless!" Anna said as Andreas drew his cards before sending the trap and monster to the graveyard.

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge if I where you!" Andreas retorted before looking over her field. _"Okay, the weakest monster on her field is Abyssdine but that thing's in her backrow which means I can't touch it." _Andreas thought before looking at his facedowns. "I shall end my turn at that."

"That's all huh? How pathetic, I expected more of a challenge!" Anna scoffed as she drew her card. "I activate my trap!" Anna announced as her trap card flipped up. "Abyss-squall, this lets me special summon three Mermails from my graveyard with their effects negated!" Anna announced as Mermail Oceabyss, Mermail Abysspike and Mermail Abyssteaus appeared on the field crouching down. "However they will be destroyed during the end phase."

"So what was the point?" Damien asked and Anna smirked.

"Let's just say that I wasn't being entirely truthful when I called Abyssteaus my strongest monster!" Anna responded as the two level seven monsters vanished in white orbs of light. "I use my two level seven monsters to construct an overlay network!"

"You're doing an XYZ summon?! Those monsters are supposed to be incredibly hard to get!" Damien yelled out and Anna smirked as she retrieved a monster from her extra deck.

"That is none of your concern!" Anna said as she played the card. "By overlaying my monsters I can XYZ Summon the strongest monster in my deck, Mermail Abyssgaios!" Anna announced as the monster appeared on the field, it was a massive male mermaid with a long flowing black beard that was wearing an ocean-blue breast plate and carrying a trident (Rank: 7/2800/1600) and his attack increased to 3300 thanks to the seal.

"This isn't good!" Damien gulped as he stared down the monster.

"Oh, it gets better." Anna said with a cocky smirk. "For starters this card renders your monsters useless! As long as it's on the field any level five or higher can't attack but that's not the only way they are rendered useless!" Anna said with as her smirk grew. "I detach one of my monsters to activate his effect and this effect allows me to negate the effects off all monsters on the opponents' side of the field until the end phase!"

"Oh no, our monsters are defenseless!" Damien yelled out and Anna smirked.

"You can consider this a message for my real targets! Abyssgaios, attack Lazy….." Anna trailed off before noticing that Andreas was shaking his head.

"Wouldn't it make more sense to target my monster?" Andreas asked earning confused looks from the other duelists. "Sure, Lazy Eye Deb is the weakest monster on our side of the field but at the same time Green Baboon is the bigger threat!"

"_He has a point." _Anna thought as she narrowed her eyes. _"I'd do more damage attacking Lazy Eye Deb but if he draws Megamorph or a similar card I'd be finished!" _Anna thought as she turned to Abyssgaios. "Abyssgaios, your new target is….."

"HE'S BLUFFING!" Sarah yelled down the earpiece catching Anna off guard. "It's obviously a trap! Don't fall for it!"

"Did you hear that?" Chelsea asked the others who nodded in agreement. "That sounded like it was coming from that clearing over there!"

"Chelsea, Chloe, Tyler, come with me." Theresa instructed them and they nodded. "The rest of you stay here and give them our support, if it's the same woman from Chelsea's Orichalcos Duel then we can't let her get away!"

"Don't need to tell me twice." Chelsea nodded in agreement as she and the others followed Theresa.

"Hey! I said no backseat dueling! This is my duel and I'll conduct it how I see fit!" Anna yelled back before turning to Andreas. "As I was saying, Abyssgaios, attack Green Baboon now!" Anna commanded and Abyssgaios pointed his trident at Andreas…..

"That was just what I was hoping for!" Andreas announced as he flipped his trap up. "I activate my trap card Gold Coins for Cats!"

"And you call the names of MY cards weird!?" Damien asked as he turned to him and Andreas shook his head.

"Not important, you see when a Beast Type Monster I control is targeted for an attack this trap lets me increase the targeted monster's attack by half the attack points of the attacking monster during the Damage Step only!" Andreas announced and Anna's eyes widened as Green Baboon's attack skyrocketed to 4200, it leapt over the wave sent by Abyssgaios's trident and slammed it's club into the XYZ monster destroying it and bringing Anna's life-points down to 6000.

"Hah! Nice bluff man!" Damien said with a grin which Andreas returned, Anna smeared before moving her remaining monster to defense mode.

"Just take your damn turn already!" Anna snapped at them and Damien grinned before drawing his card once Green Baboon's was back to normal and the remaining two Mermails that were summoned by Abyss-squall shattered into a million pieces.

"Damn it! I told her not to attack Green Baboon but she didn't listen!" Sarah grunted in annoyance as she punched the ground in frustration. "Even an idiot like Damien could see through that bluff like Andreas had a huge neon sign over his said with the words "I'm bluffing" on it!"

"Hey you, you're the one from my duel!" Sarah's eyes widened when she looked up to see Chloe, Chelsea, and Tyler and Theresa standing there, naturally it was Chelsea that spoke up.

"Well, look at the time, I'd better get going!" Sarah said before bolting, Tyler and Theresa took off after them whilst Chelsea had a better look at the laptop. "Victor, I have been found out and I am forced to leave the island, requesting immediate extraction!"

"What off the laptop?" Victor asked and Sarah shook her head.

"I had to abandon it; it would've slowed me down if I hadn't." Sarah answered as she ran towards the docks. "I wouldn't worry about that, I've set it up so that it'll automatically wipe the hard drive clean if anyone who doesn't know my password and fails to enter it three times tries to access the encrypted files on it!" Sarah added and Victor frowned. "As for Anna, tell her that if she wins despite that setback I'll have the speedboat return for her."

"Very well, I will have a replacement ready for you when you return to base." Victor answered and Sarah smirked as she saw the dock closing in with a waiting speedboat.

"She's getting away!" Theresa yelled out and Tyler frowned.

"Not this time!" Tyler said before he picked up the pace; however as he neared Sarah she leapt into the speedboat which quickly drove off before Tyler could jump in. "Damn it! That's twice that she's eluded us!"

"We did get one thing though, she left that laptop behind." Theresa answered and Tyler nodded.

"I'll look over it with Chelsea's help; she's bound to have some precautions in place in case she has to abandon it!" Tyler told her as they returned to the duel site.

*a few minutes earlier, at the duel site*

"Andreas, may I borrow Green Baboon for this one?" Damien asked and Andreas nodded as the monster made its way to Damien's side of the field. "I summon Blood Pirate – Seal Breath Ted!" Damien played the card and a tall muscular pirate appeared on the field carrying several swords at once (4/1900/1200). "He may be the only normal monster in the archetype but he still packs a punch, Seal Breath Ted, attack her last line of defense!" Damien commanded and the pirate charged towards the mermaid before cutting her in half.

"You're fooling yourself if you think that's my last line of defense!" Anna scoffed as she sent her monster to the graveyard. "All you'll manage to do with this attack is match my life-points point for point with Andreas's!"

"We'll see about that! Lazy Eye Deb, Green Baboon, attack her life-points directly!" Damien commanded and the two monsters charged towards Anna, their attacks hit bringing her life-points down to 1400. "That's your cue Andreas!"

"Right and I activate Beast Soul Swap! With this I return Green Baboon to my hand….." Andreas trailed off as the monster appeared in his hand. "And lets me special summon another Beast Type monster with the same level and since there's no limit as to what monsters I can bring back….." Andreas trailed off as Green Baboon appeared on his side of the field again. "He's all yours Damien!" Andreas announced as Green Baboon leapt back to Damien's side of the field.

"Right, I don't know who you planned to target after us but we are putting an end to it! Green Baboon, finish this duel now!" Damien commanded and Anna could only brace herself as the club slammed into her head again bringing her life-points down to zero. "That was too close!" Damien commented as the seal closed in around Anna, the seal took her soul was a blood curdling scream as the others returned. "Did you guys catch her accomplice?"

"No but she left a laptop behind." Tyler said as he held it up. "Chelsea, I'll need your help to crack this thing."

"Say no more!" Chelsea nodded as the duelists walked off.


	79. Day Three Intergender Madness

It had been a few hours since the tag duel and whilst the unconscious bodies of Anna and Tyson had been taken to a hospital on the mainland Chelsea, Tyler and Chloe where currently trying to work with the laptop that had been left behind by Sarah as the duel was ending with Tracy's help, they were currently in the IT Room and since she was the least technically savvy out of the people in the room Chloe was sitting to the side chiming in when she could.

"So, you find anything?" Tracy asked and Chelsea frowned.

"Some standard stuff, this thing still uses IE as its browser so it's probably a company laptop." Chelsea commented as she worked at the laptop. "Hmmm, wonder what's in this file?" Chelsea asked before she tried to access the file, she frowned however when she saw that it was encrypted. "Shit, I should've known that she'd have some kind of encryption in place."

"Can you hack it?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded.

"With Tyler's help I can hack it easily, if that woman was stupid enough to not heavily encrypt the file that is." Chelsea said before yawning. "What time is it?" Chelsea asked before checking the time on the computer clock. "9:00, Tracy, you mind if I try to hack this thing tomorrow? I don't know how long this will take me to hack it and I want to be up nice and early for my match tomorrow."

"Sure, I was about to suggest that anyway." Tracy nodded as she glanced at the clock on the wall. "But you or Tyler will have to take the laptop with you, I have an IT Class in the morning and I don't want any of my students playing around with that thing."

"Leave that to me." Tyler responded as he picked up the laptop, Chelsea went to protest but Tyler shook his head. "Chelsea, your room at Osiris Red is cramped enough without another laptop in there."

"Good point, I'll come by in the morning before my match to see if you've made any progress." Chelsea nodded in response before turning to Chloe. "So if you wake up and find that your alone in your room don't panic."

"Ugh, Chelsea I only did that once." Chloe grunted as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "And that was when I was still a new student!"

"Hey relax; I'm just messing with ya." Chelsea reassured her before yawning. "I don't know about you Chloe but I think we'd better get some sleep."

"Good idea." Chloe agreed with a yawn. "We'll see you guys tomorrow." Chloe added before following her roommate out of the IT Room.

"Tracy, if there's any developments I'll send you an e-mail." Tyler told her and Tracy nodded.

"I'll keep an eye out for it." Tracy responded as Tyler tucked the laptop underneath his arm and left the room. "I know your there Hamden." Tracy added as the younger teacher entered the room.

"What can I say? When I heard that the woman left behind something that we could actually use I got curious." Hamden said as he shrugged his shoulders. "If anyone can crack that encryption it's Tyler and Chelsea."

"I know but I'm just a bit concerned about what they'll find on it." Tracy said as she folded her arms. "That's pretty much the reason I told them to not hook it up to the network, for all we know that thing has a virus on it and it was left behind purposely by that woman."

"Do we have any clues as far as her identity is concerned?" Hamden asked and Tracy shook her head.

"Chelsea couldn't find anything pertaining to her identity, she's smart, I'll give her that much." Tracy said begrudgingly and Hamden nodded. "I'd better pack up for the night; it's been a long day what with the tournament matches, my classes and the Orichalcos Duel."

"Agreed, I'm heading back to my office at the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm." Hamden responded before leaving the room, as he walked down the hallways and passed he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. _"The last time the students were attacked by duelists wielding the Orichalcos was during the Battle City Tournament, this time the attacks started again just as we were getting ready to host this tournament." _Hamden thought as he left the main building. _"The first time is a coincidence, second time? I think something fishy is going on." _Hamden thought before walking off.

*the next day*

Chloe woke up with a yawn and looked around, Chelsea was nowhere to be seen and neither was her laptop but otherwise things looked normal for a room shared by two seventeen year old girls, Chloe swung her legs over before started to get changed out of her nightgown and into her casual clothes as she glanced around the room.

"_Did she leave already?" _Chloe thought as she put her jeans, navel exposing tanktop and blazer on before she noticed a note on the coffee table where Chelsea normally kept her laptop, Chloe picked it up and read it. "Chloe, since your still asleep I figured I'd leave this note instead of waking you up, I went to Tyler's dorm room to see if he's made any progress with the laptop we found and I don't know how long I'll be, don't worry, Tyler will send Brandon to keep you company and I should be back in time for our match but if not I'll meet you at the main building, signed: Chelsea." Chloe read the note aloud and frowned remembering that the laptop had left her roommate unable to get any sleep; she heard the door open and glanced up.

"Good morning Chloe." Brandon greeted her as he entered the room. "I see you got Chelsea's note."

"Morning Brandon and I think the fact that I was reading it outloud pretty much confirms that." Chloe answered as she put the note down. "Is there something wrong? You don't seem happy." Chloe asked and Brandon sighed.

"The new ban list was released this morning and it's put a major dent in my deck." Brandon commented as he folded his arms and Chloe looked at him curiously. "Sangan was banned."

"Wait, seriously? Wasn't banning Witch of the Black Forrest enough?!" Chloe asked and Brandon shook his head. "They didn't ban any of my cards, right?"

"Nah, you're safe unless you count Greed of the Tyrant being limited, Pride of the Pack and Lightning Recharge where also limited but it doesn't really hurt Andreas or Chelsea's decks since they only run one copy of those cards anyway." Brandon shrugged his shoulders in response and Chloe sighed in relief. "Before I came over I was looking up cards that could replace Sangan and I found a few, with Tyler's help I was able to get my hands on them too."

"Mind if I have a look?" Chloe asked and Brandon nodded before reaching into his pocket and showing her the new cards. "Tour Guide of the Underworld, Tour Bus from the Underworld…..they look like good cards, though pretty much the only cards I've heard of are D.D. Survivor and Mystic Tomato."

"I'm not surprised, Tyler said that that the Underworld cards where released a few weeks ago." Brandon commented with a shrug as Chloe handed his cards back. "In any case I plan to add these cards once I get back to Obelisk Blue."

"So how are Kimberly and Theresa taking the news? I know Theresa runs Sangan in her Dark Attribute deck and that Kimberly runs Sangan in her deck." Chloe asked and Brandon thought back for a bit.

"They found out at the same time I did, we were doing research into those Mermail cards that Anna used when we stumbled upon the new banlist." Brandon answered with a frown. "Kimberly can live without that card really, she has plenty of good cards in her side deck, and Theresa on the other hand is looking into getting a new card for her Dark Deck."

"Makes me glad I never considered running that thing in my deck." Chloe said with a frown before glancing at the time on her cell-phone. "Speaking of which I'd better get going, my match is starting soon."

"Sure, I and Theresa will be rooting for you." Brandon told her before stepping aside to let Chloe past him; he followed Chloe out of the dorm but not before closing the door behind him.

*earlier, at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm*

"_It feels so weird walking down the Obelisk Blue Dorm Room halls as an Osiris Red Student." _ Chelsea thought as she walked down the hallway with her hands in her pockets, her blazer alone was getting her some confused looks from the Obelisk Blue students but they just shrugged it off when they remembered that she was friends with Tyler.

"Oh, good morning Chelsea, here for Tyler I'm guessing?" Chelsea looked up and saw that it was Evan that had addressed her; she saw a toothbrush in his mouth and quickly guessed that he was going through his morning routine.

"That's right, I'm going to see if he's made any progress." Chelsea said with a nod as she turned to the older student. "It'll have to be a short visit for obvious reasons."

"Right, your match is today." Evan said with a nod once he realized what she meant. "Not sure who I'm routing for, you and Chloe are good, don't get me wrong but Donny and Drake are no slouches themselves."

"Yeah, I learned that the hard way when I faced Drake in a duel." Chelsea said with a nod before frowning. "This time I'm ready for any life-point protection traps he has!"

"Good to see you learn from your mistakes." Evan commented with a shrug and Chelsea grinned at that. "Well, I won't keep you any longer, if we spent any more time chatting then you'd be late for your match."

"Right, see ya later." Chelsea said as she waved to the departing Obelisk Blue Student, she made her way to the dorm before knocking on it. "Are you decent Tyler?"

"If I weren't I would've yelled "getting dressed" the moment you knocked." Tyler called out and Chelsea sweat-dropped. "Come in, I was expecting you."

"_Thanks Captain Obvious." _Chelsea thought to herself before opening the door. "Morning Tyler, had any luck with the laptop?" Chelsea asked as she entered the Obelisk Blue Student's dorm room, Tyler looked up and Chelsea was taken aback a bit, Tyler's eyes where bloodshot indicating that he had been up all night. "Actually I have a better question, did you get any sleep last night?"

"No, I spent most of the night hacking the encryption and I'm still not done." Tyler answered before inviting Chelsea to take a seat; Chelsea did so and scooted her chair a bit closer to the screen. "Feel free to use the extension cable to plug in your laptop." Tyler told her as he pointed it out to her and Chelsea did so. "The encryption's more advanced than you thought; whoever encrypted these files knows what they're doing."

"I should've known that would've been too easy." Chelsea grunted under her breath before looking at the screen and noticing several cans of Red Bull near the laptop. "Is that how you stayed up?"

"It helped, that's all I'm saying." Tyler answered as he typed in some commands on the keyboard. "Was Chloe awake by the time you left?"

"Nah, I figured she would need a good night's rest ahead of our match against Donny and Drake later on." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders in response. "I did leave her a note before I left though, including the part about you sending Brandon over to keep her company."

"Good thinking." Tyler nodded in approval. "This will take some time, you sure you don't want to prepare for your match?"

"And pass up an opportunity to inspect the laptop? Besides I did some preparation yesterday before I went to bed." Chelsea commented before setting up her laptop and booting it up. "I heard the banlist was released today."

"Did you get a good look at it?" Tyler asked and Chelsea shook her head. "Lightning Recharge, Greed of the Tyrant and Pride of the Pack got limited and Sangan got banned, that's as far as how it affects us and our friends."

"Good thing I only run one copy of it." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders before it hit her. "Sangan got banned? Seriously?! Why did they ban that and not every new card those Orichalcos Duelists are using?!"

"I think I know why." Tyler commented before nodding to his duel disk. "On a hunch I tried playing that Greed Cyclone card that Tyson used yesterday against Evan, only the card didn't register."

"It's a fake?!" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded. "Let me guess, same story with Destructive Greed?" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded again. "So why did it register with Tyson's duel disk?"

"I'm not sure, my father's company never made the Orichalcos Duel Disks, those things are custom built, but even then these cards shouldn't be able to register on them." Tyler answered and Chelsea frowned. "The weird thing is, pretty much the only legitimate cards being played by those two where Anna's Mermail monsters, that archetype have been creating quite a stir at a few regional level tournaments since it was released."

"So in other words, they have access to legitimate cards but whoever their new boss is has had someone create these fake and horrendously broken cards." Chelsea responded and Tyler nodded, it was then that she remembered the company logo that had served as the laptop's wallpaper. "What about that name we got from Robert? Victor Santiago? Doesn't the Wallpaper for the laptop have the name "Santiago Inc" on it?"

"Yes it does and I'm familiar with him and his company, he's a Latin American businessman who operates out of Los Angeles, and his company specializes in duel monsters much like my father's company does." Tyler told her as he showed her his picture.

"Sounds like you don't get along with him." Chelsea commented and Tyler shook his head.

"I never met the man but my father has told me about him, he used to be business partners with him starting shortly after he announced his retirement from Duel Monsters but something happened that caused them to break off that partnership, my dad refuses to elaborate, since then Victor's tried to buy my father's company several times and I think you can guess how successful that has been."

"Yeah, if Kaibacorp had been brought out you'd think we would've heard about it by now." Chelsea agreed with a nod. "So what's his connection to these Orichalcos Duelists?"

"I have no clue, this laptop obviously belongs to his company which means you were right about it being a company laptop but besides that I won't have any concrete proof until I can access these files and given the level of encryption this will take some time even with your help." Tyler commented and Chelsea frowned. "I can't track it back to its owner either; it has multiple profiles on it which suggests that it's meant for more than one user."

"And I don't really have time for that thanks to my tournament match." Chelsea said as she glanced at her laptop clock. "Shit, it's starting soon, Tyler, you mind if I leave me laptop in here?"

"Sure, after today's matches are done I'll take it to your dorm personally." Tyler told her and Chelsea grinned before standing up and closing the laptop lid. "Chelsea, be careful, we have no idea what these Orichalcos Duelists are planning next."

"I'll pass the message along to Chloe when I bump into her." Chelsea answered before leaving the dorm room, Chelsea made her way out of the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm and over to the main building before looking around for Chloe.

"Good morning Chelsea, ready for the match?" Chloe asked as she approached her roommate, Chelsea looked up and smirked confidently before holding up her duel disk.

"You bet!" Chelsea responded and Chloe smiled at that. "Tyler told me to keep an eye out for any Orichalcos Duelists or any suspicious activity in general, I figured I'd pass the word too you."

"Thanks for the warning." Chloe responded as she folded her arms. "Did you make any progress with the laptop?"

"Let's just say that it's going to be harder than I initially thought." Chelsea responded as the two girls made their way to the Duel Field. "Tyler stayed up all night working on it but I had to leave so I could duel today….."

"Wait, what?!" Chloe asked once it hit her. "He does realize that the match featuring him and Marcus is right after our match, right?"

"I never brought it up." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders earning an annoyed look from Chloe. "Give me a break, I was more interested in seeing if he had learnt anything but like I said there wasn't much progress."

"Well, here's hoping that they can win the match in spite of that." Chloe commented as the two girls entered the duel arena. "But first we have our own match to win!"

"Yeah, hopefully we'll win." Chelsea grunted as they looked up and saw Donny and Drake waiting for them. "You ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Chloe responded as the two girls hopped onto the duel arena.

"Welcome to day three of the Tag Team Tournament!" Martin announced earning some cheers from the crowd. "Our first match today features a team from the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm and a team Osiris Red Boy's and Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm, please welcome the teams of Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham and Donny Cramer and Drake Derringer.

"I hope you girls aren't planning on advancing to the next round." Donny said as he and Drake activated their duel disks. "Drake beat Chelsea before and he'll do it again!"

"Err, yeah, newsflash! Drake wouldn't have defeated me if it weren't for his damn trap card!" Chelsea grunted in annoyance and Drake shook his head.

"Is that a fact? You have a funny way of remembering things, you know that right?" Drake responded and Chelsea's eyes narrowed. "I seem to remember being in the lead for most of the match!"

"That doesn't matter anyway….." Chloe chimed in as she and Chelsea activated their duel disks. "Besides that duel was a while back and Chelsea's a much better duelist now!"

"You ever consider that we've improved as well?" Donny retorted as the four duelists drew their opening hands. "Okay, I'm guessing we're sticking to the usual format?"

"That sounds good to me." Chelsea agreed as she looked over her hand. "So Donny's first, then Chloe, then Drake, then me and back to Donny right?"

"Well I was going to suggest ladies first but if you two are comfortable with that order I won't object." Donny responded and Chelsea turned to Chloe who nodded as if to say that she agreed with that layout.

"We don't mind you two going first." Chloe responded and Donny nodded before drawing his opening card. _"This way we can get an idea of what to expect is this duel."_ Chloe thought as she waited for Donny to make his opening move.

"I start my turn with a staple of any Dragon Deck, Lord of Dragons in attack mode!" Donny played the card and the tanned; dragon protecting spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1200/1100). "Next I play a spell card called Flute of Summoning Dragon! Donny played the card and the dragon shaped flute appeared in Lord of Dragons' hands, he played a single note on it and Donny picked up two cards.

"I know what that card does; you'll be able to Special Summon two dragons with it!" Chloe said with a frown and Donny nodded.

"That's right and I use the spell card to special summon Vice Dragon and the Tuner Monster Dread Dragon!" Donny announced and Chelsea's eyes widened when she heard the last part.

"Crap, he's going for a first turn Synchro!" Chelsea yelled out once it hit her as the two monsters appeared on the field, the first one was the ugly purple dragon that Chloe had seen in action during Battle City (5/2000/1000) and the second was a smaller red dragon with purple hair (2/1100/900).

"Well, since Chelsea's already figured it out, I won't waste any more time!" Donny commented as the two dragons leapt into the air, Dread Dragon dissolved into two green Synchro Rings that surrounded Vice Dragon, once the bright flash faded a card that Chloe was all too familiar with landed on the field. "Say hello to Exploder Dragonwing (7/2400/1600)!"

"That card's bad enough on its own but with Lord of Dragons on the field….." Chloe trailed off and Donny grinned.

"That's the idea! Next I play another Spell Card called Raiding the Dragon's Cave! Since I have a Level 5 or higher Dragon Type monster in my graveyard I can now draw two cards." Donny played the card and quickly drew twice. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Donny announced and Chloe drew her card once the two facedowns appeared on the field.

"_Suddenly I'm regretting my decision to let them go first!" _Chloe thought with a gulp before looking at her hand. "You think you're the only one with the ability to Special Summon? I start things off with Reinforcement of the Army, with this I can add one Level 4 or lower Warrior type monster from my deck to my hand!" Chloe announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand.

"I'm still not seeing any Special Summons." Donny commented and Chloe frowned.

"I'm getting to that! I summon Marauding Captain in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the brown haired captain appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "And now his effect activates which lets me special summon a Level 4 or lower monster like Rose, Warrior of Revenge to my side of the field." Chloe added before playing another card and the red-haired female warrior appeared on the field (4/1600/800).

"Okay, we all know that Rose Warrior's a Tuner Monster so go ahead and do that Synchro Summon!" Drake commented and Chloe quickly looked over her hand.

"Actually…..I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced ignoring the surprised looks from Chelsea and her opponents as Drake drew his card.

"_What's she thinking? She was in a perfect position to bring out a Level Seven Synchro….." _Chelsea thought before eyeing Chloe's facedown cards. _"Maybe the cards in her back row have something to do with it, well whatever her reason was I'll have to make up for that mistake if it backfires."_

"Two can play at that game! I activate my own Reinforcement of the Army!" Drake played the card before picking up his deck and searching through it, once he found what he needed he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck before sending the Spell Card to the graveyard. "Next I activate Seven Star Sword! Think of it as kinda like Trade In except you banish a Level Seven Monster for the same result."

"_Why would he waste a powerful card like that?" _Chloe thought as Drake pocketed the monster before drawing twice.

"_He likely has another card that will let him retrieve the monster like you do with Level Modulation." _Silent Magician answered as Drake looked over the cards in his hand. _"And I know what you're planning Chloe, are you sure it'll work."_

"_I admit, it's a bit risky," _Chloeadmitted as she glanced at the cards on her side of the field. _"But it's like Hamden said in that last class I had with him yesterday, no-one got far in Duel Monsters without taking a few risks."_

"_I understand, let's hope that it doesn't backfire." _Silent Magician answered as Drake played another card.

"Now I activate my Spell Card D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation!" Drake announced before discarding a card from his hand. "And I'm using it to bring back the card I just discarded, a card I added so that my deck will work with Donny's, Buster Blader!" Drake played the card and the warrior made famous by Yugi Motuh appeared on the field wielding his sword (7/2600/2300). "And since there are two dragons in his graveyard Buster Blade gains one thousand attack points!" Donny added as Buster Blader's attack increased to 3600.

"_Had a feeling he'd add that card to his deck just for the tag duels." _Chelsea thought as she looked over her hand. _"No problem though, if he sets Spirit Force I'm ready for him!"_

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Drake announced as he set the two cards and once the cards appeared on the field Chelsea drew her card.

"Your Blader may be strong but I have something that'll bring his attack down a notch!" Chelsea said confidently before playing a card. "First I activate Terra-Forming and I use it to add a Field Spell to my hand." Chelsea announced before picking up and started searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand before shuffling her deck and sending the Spell Card to the graveyard. "And anyone who's familiar with my deck won't need an introduction for this card! I activate Wattcastle!"

"Here we go!" Drake commented dryly as the scenery changed to the cartoonish castle. "Ever thought of trying something different?"

"It's like I said back at our first duel, why fix what isn't broken?" Chelsea asked before playing another card. "Next I play Solidarity and as soon as I get a few of my Thunder Type Monsters in the graveyard this Spell Card will give them a much needed power-boost!" Chelsea announced before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a card in defense mode." Chelsea announced as the cards appeared on the field. "And now the real fun begins, it's your move Donny."

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Donny said before drawing a card. "And I activate Dust Tornado, and I use this trap to destroy Chloe's facedown card on the right!" Donny announced as a tornado sped towards Chloe's facedown…..

"In that case I chain it! Go Threatening Roar!" Chloe activated the trap and a load roar echoed through the building making Exploder Dragonwing, Lord of Dragons and Buster Blader cower in fear, the trap card was destroyed the roar subsided with it.

"In that case I'll use Dust Tornado's second effect to set a card facedown!" Donny said as he set the card. "That's all I've got!" Donny announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, phase one is complete, I just gotta hope that this works!" _Chloe thought before playing a card. "First I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900).

"_Okay, maybe her plan was to tune Rose Warrior and Gemini Elf to make Colossal or something…." _Chelsea thought before Chloe played another card.

"Now I play the spell card White Elephant's Gift, I send Gemini Elf to the graveyard….." Chloe trailed off as the monster shattered. "And I draw two cards." Chloe said before drawing twice.

"_Okay, maybe not." _Chelsea thought as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Chloe, no offense, but what the hell are you doing?!"

"You'll see." Chloe responded with a reassuring grin but Chelsea remained unconvinced. _"Good, I have Silent Magician Level 8 in my hand, if I can draw Trade-In, Level Up or Level Modulation I can get her out quickly." _Chloe thought before adding the drawn cards to her hand. _"First things first….." _Chloe trailed off before pointing at Lord of Dragons. "Rose Warrior, attack Lord of Dragons!" Chloe commanded and Rose Warrior pulled out her knives before stabbing Lord of Dragons in the chest with them destroying him and bringing Drake's life-points down to 7600. "And thanks to her effect you lose three hundred more life-points!"

"That's nothing compared to what you'll lose once my next turn begins!" Donny countered as his life-points dropped to 7300 only to realize that Chloe had activated her other trap. "Is that Urgent Tuning?!"

"That's right and I'm giving you three guesses as to what cards I'm tuning together, last two don't count!" Chloe said as Rose Warrior and Marauding Captain leapt into the air, Rose Warrior dissolved into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Marauding Captain. "I tune my two monsters together so that I can Synchro Summon a new addition to my deck, Driven Daredevil!" Chloe played the card and the green armored warrior once used by Theresa appeared on the field (7/2400/2100).

"Wait, Theresa, isn't that your card?" Brandon asked and Theresa shook her head.

"Was my card, I'm officially retiring the Warrior deck once the tournament ends, I figured she could get some good use out of it." Theresa explained and Brandon nodded. "And as confusing as her initial moves where I have to admit, that was a good move."

"Now I play a Quick Play Spell called Forbidden Chalice!" Chloe announced as Exploder Dragonwing started glowing a sickly green color…..

"I see where this is going and it's not going to work, I chain it with Spell Shield Type B!" Donny announced as his trap flipped up. "Since Forbidden Chalice targets a monster I can use my trap to negate and destroy the Spell Card!"

"Well, so much for that." Chloe grunted in annoyance as she sent her spell to the graveyard. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced as the two cards appeared on the field and Drake drew his card.

"_Okay, I know from experience that attacking Chloe's monster will just be a waste of time due to its effect." _Drake thought as he glanced towards her monster. _"Chelsea on the other hand has a facedown monster and knowing her deck its likely Wattdragonfly or even Shining Angel." _Drake thought before adding the card he had drawn to his hand. "Buster Blader, attack Chelsea's facedown monster!" Drake commanded and the swordsman charged towards Chelsea's monster before cutting it in two, the monster was revealed to be Wattdragonfly and Chelsea grinned.

"Thanks, now Buster Blader loses the thousand attack points he gained thanks to his effect." Chelsea said as Buster Blader's attack points dropped down to 2600. "And thanks to Wattdragonfly's effect I can special summon another Watt Monster from my deck!" Chelsea added before picking up her deck and searching through it. "And I choose Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the card and the electric colored snake appeared on the field (4/1000/500).

"I thought so." Drake commented as Wattcobra's attack increased to eighteen-hundred thanks to Solidarity just before his eyes widened when he saw Chelsea activate her facedown card. "Please tell me that's not Judgment of Thunder?!"

"It is!" Chelsea said bluntly as lightning started striking the ground. "And my target is…..your facedown card!" Chelsea announced and Drake's eyes widened when lightning struck the card destroying it.

"Why target that and not Buster Blader?" Drake asked before noticing the look on Chelsea's face. "Well?"

"Drake, you really need to work on your poker faces." Chelsea said as she shook her head. "I could tell from the look on your face when I destroyed that facedown card that it was Spirit Force!" Chelsea commented and Drake remained silent for a few moments before turning the card around confirming Chelsea's suspicions.

"I should've guessed that you'd be on guard as far as that card is concerned." Drake shrugged his shoulders before sending the trap to the graveyard. "Well played, I end my turn at that." Drake admitted and Chelsea drew her card. _"Little does she know that that was a bluff, I have a card in my deck that will wipe the floor with their monsters, just requires a bit of setting up, and thanks to D.D.R. I already fulfill one half of the requirement."_

"_Okay, I got rid of that trap that crippled my deck in my last duel against Drake but I still don't know what else he has up his sleeve." _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. "I set a card facedown….." Chelsea trailed off as the facedown card appeared on the field. "Now Wattcobra, attack Drake's life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the cobra leapt over Buster Blader before biting Drake in the arm bringing his life-points down to 6200.

"I've had worse." Drake grunted in pain and Chelsea grinned.

"And since my cobra's inflicted battle damage his effect activates, this lets me search for another Watt Monster and add it to my hand." Chelsea said before picking up her deck and searching through it, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "That ends my turn." Chelsea announced and Donny drew his card.

"_Okay, those two have drawn first blood but now it's our turn." _Donny thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Cards of Consonance; I discard one weak Dragon type Tuner from my hand….." Donny said as he discarded the card. "And I draw two cards." Donny added before drawing twice.

"And even better, since there's another dragon in his graveyard my Blader gains five-hundred more attack points." Drake added as Buster Blader's attack increased to 3100.

"Yeah, we kinda guessed that already, no need to tell us." Chelsea commented with a grunt and Donny shook his head.

"And there's no need to be a smart ass about it but that didn't stop you, nor has it ever come to think of it." Donny retorted and Chelsea went to retort but thought better of it. "Anyway, since attacking Driven Daredevil would just cost me a powerful Synchro…..Exploder Dragonwing, attack Wattcobra!" Donny commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the cobra….

"It didn't work for Drake and it's not working for you! By discarding Honest from my hand…..well you know the rest!" Chelsea announced and Drake's eyes widened as Wattcobra leapt over the flames and bit Dragonwing on the neck destroying it and bringing Donny's life-points down to 6600. "Sure, my Cobra lost the attack boost from Solidarity but I can live with that if it gets a pain in the ass Synchro Monster off the field."

"Aren't you forgetting something? Because Dragonwing's destroyed Buster Blader gets stronger!" Drake pointed out and Chelsea frowned as her monster dropped down to its original attack power whilst Buster Blader's attack increased to 3600.

"That's not all that move did! Since I just inflicted Battle Damage again I can search through my deck for another Watt Monster!" Chelsea said before picking up and searching through her deck again, it didn't take her long to find what she was looking for and she added it to her hand. "So thanks for the extra monster!"

"At that rate you'll deck yourself out." Donny pointed out and Chelsea simply smirked confidently. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Donny announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Much as I hate to admit it I have to agree with Donny." _Chloe thought as she added her drawn card to her hand. _"That's the fourth deck thinning that Chelsea's done and the duel just started! If she keeps this up I'll have to face them alone because she's decked herself out!" _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Greed of the Tyrant, can't really use that now, neither of them appear to have cards that start a chain." _Chloe thought before adding the card to her hand. "Driven Daredevil, attack Donny's life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the monster charged forward…..

"I activate my trap card Defense Draw! I'll still take the hit…." Donny trailed off before wincing as the swords connected. "But the damage is negated and I get to draw a card to boot!" Donny added before drawing a card.

"I'll end my turn at that." Chloe grunted in annoyance and Drake drew his card.

"_All right, I've drawn the other card I need to get in my graveyard; I just need to get it in the graveyard first!" _Drake thought before adding the card to his hand. "Let's try this again, Buster Blader, attack Wattcobra!" Drake commanded and the swordsman charged towards Chelsea's monster….

"Thanks, I was wondering when I'd get a chance to use this card!" Chelsea said as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Lumenize, since you targeted Wattcobra for an attack this lets me negate the attack and Wattcobra gains Buster Blader's attack until my end phase!" Chelsea announced as Buster Blader's sword hit a yellow forcefield and Wattcobra's attack increased to 4600.

"_I can't let her attack my life-points with that much strength, unfortunately that means getting rid of the monster I sent to my graveyard earlier." _Drake thought with a frown before turning to Chelsea. "Go ahead and take your turn." Drake announced and Chelsea grinned before drawing her card.

"Then let's cut to the chase, go get him Wattcobra!" Chelsea commanded and with a mighty leap Wattcobra leapt over Buster Blade…

"I remove Necro Guardna from play to negate the attack!" Drake announced as he pocketed the monster and the ghostly figure of Necro Guardna appeared on the field blocking Wattcobra's attack. "Sorry but you just wasted your trap!"

"_You've gotta be kidding me! This is our first duel all over again!" _Chelsea thought before it hit her. _"Wait a sec, if that's the card he discarded for D.D.R. then why didn't he use it earlier? His life-points would be in much better shape if he did!"_

"_That's an excellent question Chelsea." _Wattchimera agreed with a nod. _"Careful, he may be up to something."_

"_When haven't I been careful? Don't answer that!" _Chelsea responded before looking over her hand. _"Damn, not a single trap to protect my monster! And since Honest is a limited card I can't use its effect to save Wattcobra!" _Chelsea thought before turning to Donny. "That's all I've got for this turn." Chelsea announced and Donny drew his card once Wattcobra's attack was reduced to its normal amount.

"Good, I was getting tired of you searching your deck anyway." Donny commented ignoring the fact that Chelsea had rolled her eyes at that statement. "Not much that I can do but this will do nicely, I summon Axe Dragonute!" Donny played the card and the black, axe wielding dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/1200). "Now I could destroy Chelsea's monster but my dragon would lose half its attack strength thanks to her field spell."

"And attacking Driven Daredevil would just be a suicide run!" Chelsea pointed out with a grin. "Either way, we win."

"Actually no, I do intend to destroy Driven Daredevil." Donny answered earning confused looks from the two Osiris Red Students. "I'm well aware of that thing's effect but with this Spell Card that's no longer an issue!" Donny said as he played the spell. "But first I equip my dragon with Axe of Despair, this gives him an extra one thousand attack points." Donny announced as Dragonute's axe was replaced with a sinister looking one. "Axe Dragonute, attack Driven Daredevil!"

"Fine, he'll survive the attack and your monster will be destroyed." Chloe said with a smirk as Driven Daredevil endured the attack and whilst Chloe's life-points went down to 7400 Daredevil went for a counterblow…..

"Not gonna happen! I activate my Quick Play Spell Effect Shut!" Donny announced as the Spell Card appeared on the field. "Since your effect monster's effect just activated this will negate the attack and destroy it!" Donny announced and Chloe's eyes widened as Driven Daredevil's hologram shattered. "And now Axe Dragonute goes to defense mode due to its effect." Donny added as the dragon crouched down. "I end my turn." Donny announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Great, we had a strong start but now they have the advantage!" _Chloe thought with a frown before looking at her drawn card. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn. "Chloe set the monster down and Drake drew his card.

"Well that's one pain in the ass out of the way, let's get rid of the other!" Drake commented before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Card Trooper!"

"Wait, what?!" Chelsea yelled out as the small toy robot appeared on the field (3/400/400). "Your deck's a warrior deck, what the hell is a machine doing in it?!"

"I have my reasons but first I activate Card Trooper's effect, I mill three cards from my deck." Drake commented as he sent the cards to his graveyard, he briefly looked at them and grinned. _"Perfect, just got to draw the card I need and I'll be all set!" _Drake thought before sending the cards to the graveyard as Card Trooper's attack increased to 1900. "Card Trooper, attack Wattcobra!" Drake commanded and the machine charged towards Chelsea's monster destroying it and bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 7100, at the same time Card Trooper's attack went down to 900 due to Wattcastle. "Buster Blader, I think it's time I got some revenge for those direct attacks!"

"This is gonna suck!" Chelsea gulped as the swordsman charged towards her before slashing her across the stomach and bringing her life-points down to 3500.

"At this rate it'll be a repeat off our first duel." Drake commented as Chelsea got to her feet. Neither he nor Donny noticed that Chelsea was losing her temper but Chloe did.

"Chelsea, calm down, losing your temper won't help!" Chloe pleaded with her and Chelsea just ignored her as she gathered up her cards.

"That should do it for my turn." Drake commented and Chelsea quickly drew her card. "Feel free to surrender off course, I beat you before and I'll….."

"SCREW YOU!" Chelsea snapped at him as she drew her card, it was then that Donny and Drake realized that her legendary temper had been set off.

"You just had to go and deal over four thousand points of damage to a girl who's known for being a sore loser and having a fierce temper!" Donny pointed out and Drake gulped.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Drake asked as Chelsea set the card she had drawn. "Besides there's no way she can come back from that!"

"Drake, she made a comeback in her test duel with only fifty life-points left!" Donny pointed out and Drake frowned when he realized that he had a point. "This is probably a walk in the park for her!"

"_Oh god, her temper is going to cost us the duel! I just know it!" _Chloe thought as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance.

"Last I checked it's still my move!" Chelsea said as she played a card. "And I summon Wattgiraffe in attack mode!" Chelsea played the card and the electric colored giraffe appeared on the field (4/1200/1000). "Next I play a spell card called A Feather of the Phoenix, I discard one card and in return I'll return Honest to the top of my deck!" Chelsea played the card and after she discarded a card she moved the sole fairy in her deck to the top of her deck. "And that means that Solidarity's effect comes into play again!" Chelsea added as Wattgiraffe's attack increased to 2000.

"So what's the plan? Are you going to attack my life-points again?" Drake asked and Chelsea shook her head whilst maintaining her glare.

"I'm not about to let you send any more cards to the graveyard and since the attack directly effect isn't mandatory….." Chelsea trailed off as Wattgiraffe charged towards Card Trooper before destroying it and bringing Drake's life-points down to 4600.

"By destroying Card Trooper you activated his other effect which lets me draw one card from my deck." Drake announced as he drew a card. _"Perfect, this is just what I needed!"_

"I set a card facedown and end my turn!" Chelsea announced and Donny drew his card.

"_I have to admit, I'm just as confused as Chelsea is about the presence of Card Trooper in Drake's deck." _Donny thought as he looked over his hand. _"I get that having as many cards in his graveyard as possible helps with his deck but the presence of Card Trooper confuses me even with that in mind." _Donny thought before looking at his drawn card.

"Are you going to make a move sometime today?!" Chelsea said impatiently and Donny shook his head at her impatience and general temper.

"_It's a miracle that that girl's temper hasn't gotten her in serious trouble since she's joined Duel Academy, unless you count the abandoned dorm incident but that has more to do with her twisted sense of what a joke is." _Donny thought as he played a card. "I set a card facedown." Donny announced as the facedown card appeared on the field and he switched Axe Dragonute to attack mode. "Now, who to attack, if I take out Chelsea's monster than Drake will be free to finish her off on his next turn….."

"Don't get any smart ideas, it doesn't suit you!" Chelsea grunted as she activated her trap. "So to protect both of our monsters I activate Threatening Roar!" Chelsea announced as a loud roar echoed out causing Axe Dragonute to cower in fear.

"Fine, I guess I'll leave the attacking to Drake!" Donny grunted as he looked over his hand. "I end my turn." Donny announced and Chloe drew her card.

"I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Chloe played the card and Chelsea grinned slightly as she drew three cards as did the other three duelists.

"_Good, once they attack I can use Honest's effect again!" _Chelsea thought as Chloe looked over the new cards in her hand. _"Here's hoping Chloe drew something that can help her!"_

"Next I activate Trade-In; by discarding a Level 8 monster from my hand I can draw two more cards!" Chloe said as she discarded a card and drew twice. "But that monster won't be staying in the graveyard for long, I activate Level Modulation!" Chloe played the card and Chelsea grinned as she recognized the combo.

"_Hah! Sweet, she's using the same combo she used in her duel against Cameron!" _Chelsea thought as she watched Silent Magician Level 8 appear on the field (8/3500/1000) and Donny and Drake drew two more cards. _"If she has Mischief of the Time Goddess in her hand…wait, Chloe never got Mischief back from Rachel after her team was eliminated two days ago! Here's hoping we can still win!" _Chelsea thought as her eyes widened.

"I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the three cards down and Drake grinned before drawing his card.

"I was hoping that I'd get a chance to use this card." Drake said as he retrieved two of his monsters from the graveyard. "And thanks to Card Trooper I can! I remove one light and one dark type monster from play…."

"Wait, one dark and one light…" Chloe trailed off as it her and Chelsea like a ton of bricks. "Oh please tell me you're not summoning what I think you're summoning?"

"Well, let's see, its counterpart has been banned since before I got my first deck and I'm running warriors." Drake commented as he pocketed the monsters. "I summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning in attack mode!"

"SHIT!" Chelsea yelled out as the two girls' eyes widened and the new monster appeared on the field, a tall pale man wearing blue and gold armor appeared on the field (8/3000/2500) and a shocked silence fell over the arena at the site of the monster.

"I know what you're thinking, how could an Osiris Red Student get his hands on a card this rare, right?" Drake asked as he grinned broadly. "My dad's a collector of rare cards, when I expressed an interest in the dueling side of the game he gave me a copy of this card."

"Just like that?" Chloe asked with a skeptical look on her face. "Besides, I thought Yugi Motuh had the only copy of the card in his deck!"

"You thought wrong, there are several copies but because this card is so powerful only a handful of the cards were made." Drake corrected her and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "As for your first question, my dad has three of the copies."

"I'm not sure if I want to know how he has three copies of that damn card!" Chelsea commented with a frown. "Why would he have three copies of that card anyway? It's been banned as long as Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End!"

"Like I said, my dad's a collector; he's never actually played the game." Drake answered with a smirk. "As for the point of it being banned…..well it did come off the banlist a couple of formats back."

"Yeah, I almost forgot about that." Chloe admitted with a frown. "But are we going to stand around talking about this monster or duel?"

"Yes, I guess I did waste a bit of time there." Drake admitted before shaking his head. "And Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning wouldn't be so infamous if it weren't for his effects, wouldn't he? Now I could attack Chelsea's monster and then go for a direct attack but I know that she has her copy of Honest in her hand thanks to Chloe's Spell Card and attacking Silent Magician would just be suicide, so instead I'm using his effect to remove Silent Magician from play!"

"Oh shit!" Chloe gulped as the swordsman charged towards Chloe's monster, Silent Magician tried to block his sword using her staff but it eventually broke in half leaving the soldier free to cut her down the middle destroying her, Chloe reluctantly pocketed the monster and bit her lip. _"I can't use D.D.R. to bring Silent Magician back due to her effect; I hope Chelsea has an idea."_

"Now obviously Black Luster Soldier can't attack the turn it removes a monster from play." Drake continued before smirking. "Buster Blader on the other hand is under no such restriction! Buster Blader, attack Chloe's facedown monster!" Drake commanded and the swordsman charged towards Chloe's facedown monster before cutting it in half, however the monster was revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) and Drake frowned. "Go ahead and summon whatever you like, it won't save you!"

"We'll see about that!" Chloe said as she picked up and searched through her deck, she found the card that she was looking for and set it on the field before shuffling her deck.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Drake announced and Chelsea bit her lip as she drew her card.

"_Great, Chloe's best monster has been removed from play by that ridiculously overpowered effect and even if she draws her own copy of D.D.R. Silent Magician's effect prevents it from working on her!" _Chelsea thought before looking over her hand. _"My best chance is to attack Black Luster Soldier with Wattgiraffe then use Honest's effect again to send it to the graveyard, and that's if it works!"_

"And you accused us off taking a while to make your move." Drake commented and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"You're that eager to lose your best monster?" Chelsea asked as she pointed to Wattgiraffe. "That's fine by me! Wattgiraffe go ahead and attack Black Luster Soldier!" Chelsea commanded and the giraffe charged towards the soldier. _"I'll lose Solidarity's effect again but considering how limited my options are at the mo…." _Chelsea thought as she got ready to discard Honest.

"And you accused me of having a bad poker face!" Drake said as he activated his trap. "I activate my trap card Mind Crush! All I have to is declare the name of a card and if it's in your hand you have to discard it, and I know that thanks to your Spell Cards you have Honest in your hand!" Drake announced and Chelsea's eyes widened as Wattgiraffe's attack dropped down to 1200.

"But…that means…" Chelsea trailed off as Wattgiraffe was decapitated by Black Luster Soldier's sword bringing her life-points down to 1700.

"That means that I can defeat you with either of my monsters!" Drake said with a grin before noticing that Black Luster Soldier was in pain. "What the…"

"Forget about Wattcastle's effect already?" Chelsea taunted him and Drake frowned once he realized that she was right which was only confirmed by Black Luster Soldier's attack dropping to 2000. "That move may not have had the intended effect but once we get a strong enough card on the field your monster's toast!"

"I have other cards that can prevent that!" Drake countered as he grinned. "And as soon as I get past your defenses I'll punch our ticket to the next round!

"Hey numbnuts, it's still my move!" Chelsea pointed out before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense." Chelsea announced as the three cards appeared on the field. "That ends my turn." Chelsea announced and Donny drew his card.

"Hmmm, decisions, decisions." Donny mused as he looked over his hand; he added the newly drawn card to his hand before turning to Drake. "Drake, could I borrow Black Luster Soldier?"

"Well, if it defeats them any quicker than I'm all for it!" Drake responded as Black Luster Soldier walked over to Donny's side of the field.

"Wait, Donny, you don't have Chaos Emperor Dragon in your deck, right?" Chloe asked and Donny looked at her as if she had just said that Yata-Garasu should come back.

"Chloe, even if I had a copy of that card it would be useless to me because of the banned list." Donny pointed out with a frown. "And last I checked this tournament isn't using the Traditional Format like Battle City does."

"Oh, yeah, I didn't think about that." Chloe said with a nervous laugh as the other three duelists sweat-dropped.

"Anyway, Black Luster Soldier, attack Chloe's facedown monster!" Donny commanded and the soldier charged towards the monster, revealed to be another Apprentice Magician, which was quickly destroyed.

"I use Apprentice Magician's effect again!" Chloe announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card that she was looking for she set it in defense mode.

"Fine, I'll use Black Luster Soldier's second effect, when it destroys a monster it gets another attack." Donny announced as the soldier charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be Chloe's third and final Apprentice Magician and she, like the others, was destroyed with ease. "Let me guess, using Apprentice's effect again."

"Yeah, I am." Chloe said with a nod as she set the monster. _"I don't know how long I can keep this up! Unless I draw my copy of Pot of Avarice my life-points will be a sitting duck by Drake's turn!" _Chloe thought as she turned to Donny.

"Your turn Axe Dragonute, attack Chloe's facedown monster!" Donny commanded and the axe wielding dragon charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be a pale with wild white hair wearing tattered armor (2/1300/400) who was quickly decapitated. "Axe Dragonute moves to defense mode due to its effect….." Donny trailed off as the dragon knelt down. "And I end my turn." Donny announced and once Black Luster Soldier was back on Drake's side of the field Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, I've drawn Pot of Avarice, it's now or never!" _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Pot of Avarice!" Chloe announced before returning the three Apprentice Magicians, Marauding Captain and Driven Daredevil to their respective decks and drawing twice.

"_Why didn't see return Rose Warrior? She could've gotten out some of her stronger monsters with that card." _Chelsea thought as Chloe looked over the two new cards. _"I hope you know what you're doing Chloe."_

"_Okay, here goes….." _Chloe thought before picking up the cards that she had drawn. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the cards down and Drake drew his card. _"I hope this works, if not then we're out of the tournament."_

"I'll cut to the chase, Black Luster Soldier; attack Chloe's life-points directly!" Drake commanded and the soldier charged towards Chloe before slashing her with his sword bringing her life-points down to 5400. "It's your turn Buster Blader!" Drake commanded and Buster Blader charged towards Chloe before slashing her with his sword bringing her life-points down to 800. "As soon as Donny's turn begins he'll be able to eliminate you….."

"I activate my trap card Damage Condenser!" Chloe interrupted him as her trap card flipped up. "I discard one card…." Chloe said as she sent Blade Knight to the graveyard. "And I can special summon a monster with attack equal to or less than the damage I just took."

"Crap! That means you can Special Summon a monster with over 3000 attack points!" Drake yelled out as his eyes widened, Chelsea on the other hand was grinning broadly.

"Yes! We're still in this!" Chelsea said before it hit her. "Wait, Chloe, besides Silent Magician, do you have any monsters with over three-thousand attack points in your deck?"

"Unfortunately no, I don't." Chloe answered as she played the card. "But what I do have is Magical Exemplar in defense mode!" Chloe played the card and the dark haired spellcaster wearing green robes appeared on the field (4/1700/1400).

"And you let the attack by Buster Blader go through, why?" Chelsea asked with a confused look on her face and Chloe gave her a reassuring look.

"I have to admit, I'm wondering the same thing." Drake admitted as he moved to his second main phase. "No matter, I'll just use Black Luster Soldier's effect….."

"Not going to happen! I negate Black Luster Soldier's effect by discarding Effect Veiler from my hand." Chloe announced as she discarded the card and Drake frowned.

"You're a lot more persistent than I thought you'd be, I'll give you that much." Drake grunted before looking at his hand. "I end my turn at that." Drake announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_I don't know what she's up too; in fact as it stands we'll both be eliminated if they get past their defenses in one move." _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Wait, Into the Void? Why do I still have this card? I took out Pride of the Weak a couple of weeks back." _Chelsea thought before adding it to her hand. _"I don't have that good a hand so what do I have to lose?" _Chelsea decided before playing it. "I activate Into the Void!"

"Wait, what?" Drake asked as Chelsea drew one card. "Why do you still have that? I heard that you took out Pride of the Weak?"

"I did but I must've forgotten to take this out as well." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders before looking at her drawn card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea announced and Donny drew his card once Chelsea discarded the rest of her hand.

"I know what you're going to ask so go ahead and borrow Black Luster Soldier." Drake told Donny and Donny nodded as Black Luster Soldier marched over to his side of the field. "The duel's pretty much over anyway!"

"Right, once Chloe's out then your turn will begin and you can finish the job." Donny said with a nod as he turned to Chloe…only to realize that she had activated Thunder of Ruler whilst he was talking to Drake. "Why didn't I hear you announce its activation?"

"I did announce it but you must've missed it somehow." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as she sent her trap to the grave. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"_Is she really asking that?" _The other duelists thought simultaneously before Donny shook his head.

"Isn't that obvious? I'm using Black Luster Soldier's effect to remove Exemplar from Play!" Donny announced as Black Luster Soldier charged towards Chloe's monster.

"Go Imperial Iron Wall!" Chelsea activated the trap and Donny and Drake's eyes widened as Black Luster Soldier was stopped in its tracks. "Sorry boys but I just rendered one of your Soldier's effects useless!"

"I'm not even going to ask what that's doing in a Watt Deck." Drake admitted as Black Luster Soldier returned to their side of the field.

"_Well I did add it encase we go up against Brandon and Theresa later on in the tournament but they don't need to know that." _Chelsea thought as she folded her arms. "Anything else you wanna do?"

"No, I'm ending my turn." Donny announced and once Black Luster Soldier was back on Drake's side of the field Chloe drew her card.

"_Magic Planter, I wonder if this will work on Chelsea's cards as well." _Chloe thought before playing it. "I activate Magic Planter; by destroying Chelsea's Imperial Iron Wall I can draw two cards and more importantly my Exemplar gains two spell counters!" Chloe played the card and once the card's hologram shattered she drew twice.

"I hope you know what you're doing Chlo that was our only defense against Black Luster Soldier's effect." Chelsea said with a gulp and Chloe took a deep breath as she looked at her new cards.

"Chelsea, if this works we won't have to worry about that monster!" Chloe reassured her before playing a card. "First I activate Lightning Vortex!" Chloe activated the trap and Drake and Donny's eyes widened as lightning struck their monsters destroying them, after Chloe had discarded another monster off course.

"Aren't you forgetting something? All we'll need to do is draw a Monster Reborn and Black Luster Soldier will be back!" Drake pointed out and Chloe grinned.

"You won't get a chance! I activate Magical Exemplar's effect, by removing two Spell Counters from her I can Special Summon a Spellcaster type monster with the same level as the number of Spell Counters removed, so I remove two Spell Counters to Special Summon Night's End Sorcerer!" Chloe announced as the spellcaster that had been Special Summoned earlier via Apprentice Magician's effect appeared on the field.

"Why would you summon that?" Drake asked and Chloe grinned.

"Because when he's Special Summoned his effect kicks in! It allows me to remove two monsters from the opponent's graveyard and I'll give you two guesses as to what monsters I'm choosing!" Chloe announced as Night's End Sorcerer started to cast a spell.

"You're removing Black Luster Soldier and Buster Blader!" Drake realized as his eyes widened before reluctantly retrieving the two cards and pocketing them.

"That's not all I'm doing! Exemplar still has two more Spell Counters and I'm using her effect again to Special Summon Magicat!" Chloe played the card and the small cat in magician's robes appeared on the field (2/600/500). "And finally I activate my trap Trapped Level Soul!" Chloe activated her trap which depicted Armed Dragon Level 10 escaping from a vortex. "This is a bit long winded so bear with me! This card can only be activated if I have a Level Monster that's been banished and monsters whose levels equal that level on my side of the field."

"Right and in this case it's Silent Magician Level 8 and your three monsters." Drake said with a nod and Chloe frowned.

"For starters the monsters on my side of the field lose 500 attack points." Chloe continued as Exemplar, Night's End and Magicat's attack points dropped to 1200, 800 and 100 respectively. "But in return my Level Monster comes back to the field with her effects negated!" Chloe played the card and Silent Magician Level 8 returned to the field with her arms crossed (8/3500/1000).

"So you got your best monster back, so what? You've weakened your other monsters to do it!" Donny pointed out and Chloe grinned.

"There's one other thing you need to know about Night's End Sorcerer, he's a Tuner Monster!" Chloe announced as the three Spellcasters leapt into the air, Night's End Sorcerer dissolved into two Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Magical Exemplar and Magicat and once the flash faded Colossal Fighter appeared on the field in Exemplar's place (8/2800/1000). "And thanks to Colossal Fighter's effect he gains one-hundred attack points for each warrior in the graveyard, I have Rose Warrior and Blade Knight and I know that Drake has a few as well." Chloe added as Colossal Fighter's attack points increased to 3300.

"That's enough to eliminate me from the match." Drake realized as he smiled. "It's been a good duel; I'm just disappointed that we didn't make it as far as we hoped too."

"Believe me, I know the feeling." Chloe said as she thought back to Battle City and being eliminated by Theresa. "Silent Magician, Colossal Fighter, attack Drake's life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the two monsters charged up their respective attacks, the two attacks hit bringing Drake's life-points down to zero. "It's all up to you Chelsea; feel free to use my monsters."

"Believe me, I will." Chelsea responded as she drew her card and Chloe's two monsters went over to her side of the field. "Last chance to surrender Donny, unless you draw something like Mirror Force we're walking away with the win!"

"Your right, there's pretty much no point in trying to mount a comeback at this point." Donny agreed as he surrendered. "Well done girls, you earned this victory."

"Here are your winners, Chelsea Cunningham and Chloe Richardson!" Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd cheered, Chloe and Chelsea gathered up their cards before making their way to the backstage area only to be surprised by a polite clap.

"Good show, good to see that Osiris Red students are working hard to defeat their reputation." An English Accent rang out and Chloe and Chelsea looked up, they saw two male Obelisk Blue students standing by the doorway, the one that had spoken up had shoulder length red hair in a ponytail and blue eyes and his friend had short spiked up dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.

"Err, do we know you?" Chloe asked and the red head smiled warmly.

"No but we've seen you both around our dorm, your friends with Tyler Kaiba and Brandon Thomas right?" The blonde asked and two girls nodded. "I'm Alexander Bender and he's Anton Kramer."

"And you're facing our friends next." Chelsea finished for him with a frown. "Let me guess, your trying to get any Intel on their duel strategies, right."

"No, no, we are just being friendly." Anton insisted and Chelsea looked at him skeptically. "I understand your skepticism but don't worry, we mean you no harm."

"I'm guessing you were back here so you wouldn't be late for your match?" Chloe asked and the two students nodded. "Well we'll be watching the match so good luck."

"And good luck to you two in the tournament." Anton responded as the two boys walked off.

"I don't know Chloe; something seems off about those guys." Chelsea commented as they walked over to the audience section. "Maybe it's because of the recent attacks on students by the Orichalcos duelists that has me on edge."

"I get what you're saying but they just seem like nice guys to me who don't let their dorm get in the way of that." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as they started searching for seats. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"

*meanwhile*

"Your orders are clear, find the laptop and retrieve it before they get access to any of the files on it." Victor said into the earpiece of a man dressed in all black, including a Ski Mask, as he made his way towards the Obelisk Blue Boy's dorm. "The tracer Sarah installed has pinpointed its location in Tyler Kaiba's room at Obelisk Blue."

"Don't worry, it's just some spoilt rich kid's room, how hard can it be?" The thief asked as he made his way to the dorm. "I know that's unlikely since there's duels going on but what should I do if I'm caught?"

"You have the Seal of the Orichalcos in your deck, make use of it." Victor responded as the thief made his way to the dorm's entrance.


	80. Day Three Princes and the Pauper

"_Man, where is he?" _Marcus thought as he paced back and forth, his match in the tournament was starting soon but there was no sign of Tyler anywhere. _"If Tyler's any later then they'd consider it a forfeit and we'll lose without getting a chance to duel!"_

"Sorry for the wait Marcus." Tyler said with a yawn as he approached his tag team partner. "To make a long story short I had another go at cracking the encryption on that laptop we found."

"No luck?" Marcus asked as he turned to him and Tyler shook his head, that was when Marcus noticed Tyler's bloodshot eyes. "Dude, what the hell, did you stay up all night working on that encryption?!"

"I understand that your upset but I was trying to help us get a leg up on those Orichalcos Duelists." Tyler said as the two boys entered the arena where Anton and Alexander where waiting and they stepped onto the arena. "I may be tired but I'm still an excellent duelist."

"Yeah but what if you doze off in the middle of the duel?" Marcus pointed out with a frown. "Can't we get a delay or something like your dad did for Chloe when Otto destroyed her original deck back in Battle City?"

"Already asked about that, Martin said that as much as he wants me to duel at my best this, unlike Battle City, is a school run tournament and the teachers are having a hard enough time working their schedules around the tournament as it is." Tyler told him with a frown. "For now let's focus on the duel."

"Good, I was wondering when you were going to stop bickering." Anton commented as he and Alexander activated their duel disks, Tyler and Marcus did likewise and the four duelists drew their opening hands. "We'll use the same order as the previous duels starting with myself, then Tyler, then Alexander then Marcus, any objections?"

"I'm okay with using that order." Marcus said as he looked over his hand, Tyler nodded in agreement and Anton drew his first card.

"Very well, then allow me to start this duel off with a bang!" Anton said before looking at his drawn card. "And I start with a Spell Card known as Pot of Duality, in exchange for my ability to Special Summon a monster this turn this lets me look at the top three cards in my deck, one card of my choice will go to my hand and the others will be returned to my deck." Anton explained before picking up the three cards and revealing them.

"_Okay, I recognize one of those cards as Reinforcement of the Army but I've never seen the other two before." _Marcus thought as Anton picked up Reinforcement of the Army and added it to his hand before shuffling the other cards into his deck and sending the Spell Card to the graveyard.

"Now I play the Spell Card I just added to my hand, the old but extremely useful Reinforcement of the Army!" Anton played the card and started searching through his deck; once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled the deck again. "To conclude my move I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode!" Anton announced and once the three cards appeared on the field Tyler drew his card.

"_Damn, I forgot to change my deck, I was prepared to use my other deck not my psychics." _Tyler thought once he had a good look at the contents of his hand. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Psychic Commander!" Tyler played the cards and the small general in the floating tank head appeared on the field (3/1400/800).

"Opening things up with a tuner are we? The only way that thing can be of any use to you is if we don't draw a monster with more than 1900 attack points." Alexander pointed out and Tyler frowned.

"I end my turn." Tyler announced and Alexander drew his card.

"Wait, didn't Tyler say he was using his second deck?" Chloe asked Chelsea who nodded in response as they watched the duel.

"Yeah, I was at Tyler's room this morning but I didn't see his second deck anywhere, I assumed that he had already swapped his decks out." Chelsea responded and Chloe frowned. "I don't like this, he's clearly tired from the night he spent working on that laptop we found and he's dueling with a deck he wasn't prepared to use."

"He'll be fine, I've faced his Psychic Deck before remember?" Chloe pointed out as she turned to Chelsea. "I know how good it is."

"Is that all you have to say? That's too bad." Alexander said as he looked over his hand. "I activate the effect of Burner, Elemental Dragon of Fire (3/1000/200), by discarding him and one other dragon from my hand I can special summon the mighty Blaster, Elemental Dragon of Calderas from my deck!" Alexander announced before discarding the cards and searching through his deck, once he found the card that he was looking for he played it and a huge, menacing looking dragon appeared on the field, its scales where lava rad and it had massive wings (7/2800/1800).

"Did you say Elemental Dragons? That's a new one." Marcus commented with a gulp as he stared down the massive dragon.

"I'm not surprised you haven't heard of them Marcus." Alexander said as his dragon roared menacingly. "The Elemental Dragons are extremely rare cards in England and Japan, they haven't even been released over here yet, but when you have a dad as well connected as I do then you can get these cards for cheap." Alexander added before retrieving the two cards in his graveyard and pocketing them. "For my next move I banish the two dragons in my graveyard to Special Summon a second Elemental Dragon, Tempest, Elemental Dragon of Cyclones!"

"Oh great, your summoning another one?" Marcus gulped as a second dragon appeared on the field; this one was just as big as Blaster but was blue and purple in color (7/2400/2200).

"Yes but that's not all, you see the other dragon I banished was a third Elemental Dragon, Tidal, Elemental Dragon of Cascades (7/2600/2000) and if he is banished then I can search through my deck for another Water Type Dragon monster and add it to my hand." Alexander explained before picking up and searching through his deck again, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand.

"Off course both monsters will be returned to your hand once Marcus ends his turn." Tyler pointed out and Alexander nodded in response. "That is, off course, if those monsters are still on the field."

"And they won't be! I'm using my two Elemental Dragons to construct an overlay network!" Alexander announced as both monsters faded into white orbs of light. "Come forth to your duty Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger!" Alexander played the card and the orbs formed into a new monster, it was a dragon with the famous monster Gaia The Fierce Knight on top of it, the dragon was white in color and had red armor (Rank: 7/2600/2100).

"Who would've thought that I2 would make so many members of the Gaia family?" Marcus commented with a gulp as he stared down the XYZ monster.

"Indeed however unlike that Synchro Monster this card has an effect, but I won't go into that just yet." Alexander said before playing a card. "Next I play Super Rejuvenation, now being a fellow Dragon user I'm sure you know what this does Marcus."

"Yeah, during the end phase you'll draw a card for each dragon you've discarded this turn." Marcus said with a nod as he frowned. "And since you discarded four cards you'll draw four more."

"Correct but for now I set two cards facedown." Alexander added as he set the cards. "And I end my turn thus activating the effect of my Spell Card!" Alexander added before drawing four cards and Marcus drew his card.

"So that's the Elemental Dragons huh?" Chelsea commented as she folded her arms. "Hate to face them in the next round if they beat Marcus and Tyler."

"You've heard of them?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded.

"Yeah but this is my first time seeing them in action, like Alexander said they are really rare cards." Chelsea responded as she shrugged her shoulders. "What's weird is that there's no footage of them on YouTube."

"Your right, that is weird." Chloe agreed as she watched the duel. "Especially given how powerful they are."

"Yeah well, if they do beat Tyler and Marcus and we do face them in the next round we'll be ready for them." Chelsea added as they watched the duel.

"I start with a Spell Card of my own, Cards of Consonance!" Marcus announced before discarding a card. "By discarding one weak Dragon Type Tuner I can draw two cards!" Marcus added before he drew twice.

"And knowing your deck I'm sure that the card you discarded was White Stone of Legend." Anton responded and Marcus nodded before retrieving the card from his deck.

"That's right and I use its effect to add the Blue Eyes White Dragon to my hand!" Marcus added as he shuffled his deck. "But I'll get to that in a bit, so I set a monster in defense and two cards facedown." Marcus announced as the three cards appeared on the field. "And that ends my turn." Marcus added and Anton drew his card.

"You've met my partner's monsters; now allow me the pleasure of introducing my own! First I slip summon my facedown monster, the beautiful, the eloquent Queen's Night!" Anton flipped the card up and the beautiful female knight appeared on the field (4/1500/1600).

"_Queen's Knight? Is he running Arcana Knight Joker?" _Marcus thought as he waited for Anton to continue his move.

"But I'm afraid that my maiden won't be staying for long." Anton admitted before picking up the card and slipping it into his graveyard slot. "You see I'm about to Special Summon a monster with a very potent ability, but to do so I first have to send a Level 4 Light Type Warrior Monster to the graveyard." Anton explained as Queen's Knight shattered. "Come forth to the field Ignoble Knight of Black Laundsallyn!"

"Yeah I'm not even going to try to spell that guy's name!" Marcus grunted as a new warrior appeared on the field, this one was wearing black armor and had long flowing black hair, he had glowing red eyes and was wielding a sword (5/2000/800).

"Honestly you're the first person I've met who's had trouble with the spelling." Anton commented as he picked up a card. "In fact most of my opponents have trouble pronouncing my night's name." Anton added before playing the card. "For my normal summon I call forth Rescue Rabbit to the field."

"Rescue what now?" Marcus asked as a new monster appeared on the field, this one was a small rabbit appeared on the field, it had a small yellow helmet, goggles and a walkie talkie on its body and had red eyes (4/300/100) and most of the female members in the audience cooed when they saw the monster.

"Don't let its admittedly adorable appearance fool you, this monster is very lethal." Anton said as he pocketed Rescue Rabbit. "You see I can banish Rescue Rabbit in order to Special Summon two Level 4 Normal Monsters from my deck, so come forth Noble Knight Atorigus!" Anton played the cards once Rescue Rabbit disappeared from the field two knights appeared on the field, they had blonde spiked up hair, was wearing silver armor and wielded large swords (4/1800/1800).

"I know what that monster does and I also know that both monsters will be destroyed during the end phase." Tyler pointed out before frowning. "But you have a different purpose in mind for them, don't you?"

"Am I that obvious? Don't answer that, first I play a Spell Card called Card Destruction." Anton said as he and the other duelists discarded their cards and drew the same number of cards. "Now I use my two weaker knights to construct an Overlay Network!" Anton announced as the two knights transformed into white orbs of light. "In order to exceed summon Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights!"

"You're summoning the same monster only in XYZ form?" Marcus asked and Anton ignored him as another knight appeared on the field, this one had black spiked up hair and a matching goatee, he had silver armor on and was wielding a sword (Rank: 4/2000/2000). "He doesn't look so tough compared to other exceed monsters."

"Appearances can be deceiving." Anton said as he retrieved three of the cards he had discarded. "There's a reason I used Card Destruction before summoning him as Antorigus has a very lethal effect, first when he is XYZ summoned I can take up to three Noble Arms equip Spells from my graveyard and equip them to him as long as they have different names, so I equip him with Noble Arms Arfeudutyr, Caliburn and Gallatin!" Anton announced as the three swords appeared on Antorigus's armor and his attack increased to 3500 almost immediately.

"You had all three Noble Arms Cards in your opening hand?" Tyler asked and Anton merely shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Luck of the draw, need I say more?" Anton asked with a grin. "Now onto the effects of these cards, the extra 500 attack points are from Caliburn and the extra 1000 attack points are from Gallatin." Anton explained with a grin. "They have far more interesting effects but they don't matter right now, what does matter is Arfeudutyr's effect, whilst the other swords give attack points this one takes them away, five hundred to be precise." Anton explained as Antorigus's attack dropped to 3000.

"There has to be a reason for that." Marcus reasoned and Anton nodded.

"Indeed there is, you see the equipped monster permanently loses five-hundred attack points when I target a set card that my opponent controls, such as the card on Tyler's left, that card is destroyed." Anton explained as the facedown card shattered. "But then there's Artorigus's other effect and his most lethal one! I discard one Overlay Unit….." Anton trailed off as he sent one of the knights to the graveyard. "And I destroy any number of Spell or Trap Cards up to the number of equip spells equipped to him!"

"Wait, what?!" Marcus yelled out as his and Tyler's facedown cards were destroyed. "That's gotta have some kind of drawback!"

"Unfortunately for you it doesn't." Anton responded before looking over the field. "Now who to attack…."

"Go after Tyler," Alexander told him and Anton turned to him. "Even if he uses his Commander's effect he'll still lose life-points."

"That's an excellent point." Anton acknowledged before turning to Tyler.

"You won't be doing any attacks; I chained your monster's effect with my Threatening Roar Trap Card." Tyler said as he held up the trap. "So feel free to use any other effects that you want to."

"Very well, I shall." Anton said as the weaker knight disappeared from the field. "I activate the effect of Ignoble Knight, by sacrificing one Noble Knight from my side of the field I can add one Noble Arms equip spell to my hand." Anton explained before searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand. "And to conclude my move I set two cards facedown and I activate the Field Spell Noble Knight Stronghold!"

"This archetype has a field spell as well?" Marcus asked as the scenery changed, it looked like the English Countryside and there was a castle in the foreground.

"Yes it does but I will get to its effect in a moment, feel free to take your turn Tyler." Anton announced and Tyler drew his card.

"As a fantasy buff I can't help but get a laugh out of the irony of knights teaming up with dragons." Chloe commented and Chelsea nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I see what ya mean." Chelsea said as she watched the duel. "On a more serious note I've heard of these Noble Knights, it's an archetype that hasn't been released over here yet."

"So Noble Knights and Elemental Dragons are both rare cards in other words?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded in response. "They don't have any other cards as nasty as that XYZ Monster do they?"

"Nah, at the moment that monster's the only XYZ in the set." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "As far as effects go I'm not sure, like with the Elemental Dragons this is my first time seeing them in action." Chelsea admitted as they watched the duel.

"_Those XYZ monsters are going to be a problem unless I do something about them."_ Tyler thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate a Spell Card called Arkhasic Record, I draw two cards but if I've used either of them they both get removed from play." Tyler played the card and quickly drew twice. "And I haven't used either of these cards so I get to keep them."

"It's not like they'll help you against our powerhouse monsters." Alexander pointed out with a grin and Tyler frowned.

"We'll see about that." Tyler said as he added the cards to his hand. _"That field spell's obviously got something to do with Equip Spells especially since the Noble Knight Archetype relies on them."_ Tyler thought as he looked over his hand. "I play a Spell Card called Emergency Teleport, with this I can Special Summon another Level Three or lower monster from my hand or deck, and I choose to summon Raizbellt the Regulator!" Tyler played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a man who was almost completely covered in armor that was black and silver in color, his right hand glowed a sickly green as he stared at his opponents (3/800/800).

"Very impressive, if it was any stronger at last." Anton said as he folded his arms. "Summon a Level one monster and I may be intimidated."

"That won't be necessary because by Special Summoning this monster I've activated his effect!" Tyler said as Raizbellt pointed his hand towards Psychic Commander. "With I can target one face up Psychic Type Monster I control and increase his level by up to three until the end of my turn so I increase my commander's level to five!" Tyler explained as Psychic Commander's level increased to five. "And as anyone who's seen me duel can tell you Psychic Commander is a Tuner Monster so I tune him and Raizbellt together!" Tyler announced as the two psychic monsters leapt into the air.

"A Level Eight Synchro Summon, how quaint." Alexander commented as Psychic Commander dissolved into five Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Raizbellt. "Well let's get this over with, what are you summoning?"

"Why don't I show you?" Tyler asked as he played the card and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, a monster that many recognized as Thought Ruler Archfiend (8/2700/2300).

"Ah yes, you used that card in your expulsion duel against Dmitri Romanoff, didn't you?" Anton asked and Tyler remained silent. "If it could defeat my King I'd be worried."

"Encase you haven't noticed I still have a normal summon to do." Tyler said as he played the card. "I summon Genetic Woman in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and the woman who had used in his previous duels appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "I know I normally use her in combination with Psychic Lifetrancer's effect but I'm willing to make an exception just this once, I play a Spell Card called Psi-Impulse!" Tyler played the card and Genetic Woman vanished from the field. "First I tribute one Psychic Type Monster I control and in return two effects activate, first all the cards in your hand get returned to the deck."

"Now hold on a minute!" Anton went to protest but thought better of it when Tyler shook his head and the two duelists returned their cards to their hands. "And what is the other effect?"

"It's quite simple, I draw three cards." Tyler explained before drawing three cards. _"That should slow them down a bit." _Tyler thought before setting two cards. "I set two cards facedown, now Thought Ruler Archfiend; attack Gaia Knight, The Thunder Charger!" Tyler commanded and the monster reached forward with its claws….

"You didn't think it would be that easy would you?" Alexander asked as his trap card flipped up. "I activate Reinforced Space, now each XYZ monster we control gains three hundred attack points for each overlay unit attached to it!" Alexander announced and Tyler's eyes widened as Gaia Knight's attack increased to 3200, the dragon dodged the claws and pierced the fiend through the chest destroying it and bringing Tyler's life-points down to 7500.

"Just be thankful it isn't my move for another two turns, otherwise your facedown cards would be destroyed as well." Anton added and Tyler frowned.

"I end my turn." Tyler announced and Alexander drew his card once Gaia Dragon's attack returned to its original amount.

"_Hmmm, more Elemental Dragons, I could summon them but for all I know Tyler has a Bottomless Trap Hole set." _Alexander thought before adding his monster to his hand. "Gaia Dragon, attack…Marcus's facedown monster!"

"Wait, what?!" Marcus yelled in surprise before the dragon charged towards his facedown monster, revealed to be Troop Dragon (2/700/800) which was quickly skewered by Thunder Charger's lance. "Thanks for that because you just activated my Troop Dragon's effect….." Marcus started only to wince as his life-points dropped to 6200. "What just happened?"

"My Thunder Charger's effect happened, put simply if it attacks a monster in defense mode it inflicts piercing damage." Alexander explained with a grin as Thunder Charger returned to his side of the field. "Now I believe you were about to explain the fact that when Troop Dragon is destroyed you can summon two more in his place?"

"Err, yeah that's right!" Marcus said with a nod as he played the cards and two more Troop Dragons appeared on the field.

"_He's likely to tribute those dragons to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon." _Alexander thought with a frown before smirking. _"Whilst my facedown card isn't another copy of Reinforced Space it'll still do an adequate job of protecting me if and when Marcus decides to attack, and the same will go for this trap!" _Alexander thought as he looked over the cards in his hand. "I shall end my turn with a facedown card." Alexander announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Okay, this is my best shot at getting my best monster on the field and I'd better take it!" _Marcus thought before picking up the two remaining Troop Dragons and sending them to the graveyard. "You guys may have your best monsters on the field but I'm about to bring out mine, I tribute my two weaker dragons to bring out my best monster the one, the only, the mighty Blue-Eyes White Dragon in attack mode!" Marcus played the card and the two weaker dragons vanished from the field, seconds later the mighty white dragon appeared on the field with a roar (8/3000/2500).

"How drove." Alexander said as he rolled his eyes. "That monster may have been powerful and dreaded once upon a time but now? All he amounts to is a glorified beatstick and my Elemental Dragons fulfill that purpose better than he could any day." Alexander added as he stared down the dragon. "Why do you think it's getting a reprint after all these years of Seto Kaiba owning the only three copies?"

"Mock it all you want, he's still stronger than Thunder Charger!" Marcus pointed out before pointing to Thunder Charger. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon fired its famous attack at the XYZ monster disintegrating it and bringing Alexander's life-points down to 7600.

"You may have destroyed Thunder Charger but there are more moves that I can make!" Alexander responded as he sent his three monsters to the graveyard.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Marcus announced and Anton drew his card.

"Ah yes, this'll do nicely, I summon Noble Knight Joan to the field in attack mode!" Anton played the card and a female knight appeared on the field, you couldn't see most of her body due to the fact that most of it besides her lower jaw was covered in armor that was silver and gold in color (4/1900/1300). "I assure you that Joan is more than just a member of the 1900 club."

"Then why don't you show us?" Marcus asked and Anton grinned.

"Oh, I shall." Anton said with a grin. "Noble Knight Joan, attack…the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

"Wait, what?!" Marcus yelled out as the female knight charged towards the dragon, the dragon looked towards the knight before firing its famous attack at her disintegrating the female warrior before she could even cross the field. "Why waste a strong card like that?"

"I'll show you; for starters if Joan attacks she loses 300 attack points." Anton grunted as his life-points dropped to 6600. "It's a small price to pay compared to her other effect, when Noble Knight Joan is destroyed in battle or by a card effect I can target a Level 4 or lower Warrior Type Monster in my graveyard add it to my hand." Anton explained before retrieving a card from his graveyard and adding it to his hand.

"_That's likely Queen's Knight which means he has another copy of Ignoble Knight in his hand." _Tyler thought as he glanced towards Artorigus.

"But that's not all because since a Noble Knight Monster with under two-thousand attack points was destroyed in battle the effect of Noble Knight Stronghold activates." Anton added with a grin. "Simply put this Field Spell's effect lets me search through my deck for a monster with knight in his name like so." Anton added before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand. "Unfortunately it comes with the side effect of activating once per turn."

"That's good to know at least." Marcus grunted before glancing up at Tyler who seemed to be barely awake at this point. _"Man, I hope Tyler drank a whole can of Red-Bull before the duel started, otherwise we're in trouble!"_

"Now then, that only leaves my king and considering the fact that sending my king into battle against your monster would be suicide and Tyler's field is wide open….." Anton trailed off before pointing to Tyler. "Artorigus, attack Tyler's life-points directly!" Anton commanded as the king charged forward…..

"I activate my Trap Card Pin-Point Guard!" Tyler activated the trap and retrieved a monster from his graveyard. "Since you just declared an attack I can special summon Psychic Commander from my graveyard in defense mode!" Tyler announced as the Psychic Tuner Monster returned to the field. "Don't bother trying to attack instead, for this turn only Psychic Commander can't be destroyed by battle or card effects."

"Well played." Anton acknowledged as his king returned to his side of the field. "I end my turn for now." Anton announced and Tyler drew his card. _"If I had used Artorigus's effect again he wouldn't have been able to use his trap, no matter, I'll make up for that mistake next turn." _Anton thought with a frown as Tyler looked over his hand.

"I sacrifice Psychic Commander….." Tyler trailed off as the tuner monster disappeared from the field. "So I can summon Storm Caller to the field!" Tyler played the card and in Psychic Commander's place stood a large ape like cyborg that was blue in color and a large, strange device was strapped to his head (6/2300/2000).

"You had me worried for a second there Tyler." Anton commented with a smirk. "And whilst Storm Caller may be strong it isn't strong enough to make a dent in my king's armor though you can attack my partner's life-points directly."

"A direct attack is my plan, but it's on you! I activate my Trap Card Battle Teleportation!" Tyler announced as his trap card flipped up. "Now that I've activated it I can target Storm Caller and have him bypass your king!"

"What? No!" Anton yelled out once it hit him. "Wait a minute, unless that has a drawback that's incredibly broken."

"It does, once my Battle Phase ends you'll get Storm Caller for the rest of the duel." Tyler explained and Anton's shocked expression turned into a smirk. "But I'll get to that in a minute! Storm Caller, attack Anton's life-points directly!" Tyler commanded and the monster took flight before blowing strong winds at Anton bringing his life-points down to 4300.

"Well, thank you for the strong monster." Anton commented smugly.

"Don't get too attached to him." Tyler commented as Storm Caller floated over to Anton's side of the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Tyler set the card down and Alexander drew his card.

"_A duelist like Tyler wouldn't give us such a strong monster without some strings attached, what's he up too?" _Alexander thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate Heaven's Lost Property!" Alexander announced before the four duelists drew three cards and discarded two. "At the moment I have two Dragon Type Water Monsters in my graveyard, why do I bring this up? It's because I'm about to banish them to Special Summon Tidal, Elemental Dragon of Cascades!" Alexander pocked the two cards and the large water dragon appeared on the field (7/2600/2000).

"Great, more Elemental Dragons," Marcus grunted as he stared down the monster. "He maybe strong but my Blue-Eyes is stronger!"

"Very true but I never said anything about my dragon being on the field long enough for you to destroy it!" Alexander said before activating his trap. "I activate Interdimensional Matter Transporter and I use it to banish my Elemental Dragon until the end phase!" Alexander announced as the dragon vanished from the field.

"Wait, what? Why didn't you protect Thunder Charger with that card?" Marcus asked and Alexander grinned as he pocketed the dragon.

"Two reasons, and I'm about to reveal two of them." Alexander said as he picked up his deck. "First when my Dragon is banished I can add another Water Type Dragon Monster from my deck to my hand." Alexander explained as he added the card. "Next I activate my trap card Return from a Different Dimension, and since two of your friends are found of using this card I'm sure explaining its effect will be pointless."

"Yeah, you get to summon as many monsters from you're removed from play spot as possible at the cost of half of your life-points." Marcus said with a nod as Alexander winced as his live-points dropped to 3800 two copies of tidal and a younger version of the monster appeared on the field (4/1600/2000). "I don't recognize the weaker monster."

"It's Steam, Elemental Dragon of Water, think of it as the Water equivalent of the monster I discarded to get Blaster in my hands." Alexander explained before playing another card. "And speaking of which I activate Monster Reborn and I use it to bring back that very dragon! Burner, Elemental Dragon of Fire!" Alexander played the card and the lava red dragon appeared on the field. "Now I use my two weaker dragons to construct an overlay network!"

"Here we go again!" Marcus grunted as the two dragons transformed into white orbs of light.

"Get used to it; I have one more to do after this one!" Alexander said after playing the card. "To XYZ Summon Queen Dragon Djinn!" Alexander played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a female warrior riding a dragon made of fire, the warrior was blonde and was wearing blue spiked armor (Rank: 4/2200/1200).

"Okay, she doesn't look too bad." Marcus admitted as he stared down the monster. "And I mean both in looks and in attack strength."

"You're not the only one to make such comments about my queen and you won't be the last." Alexander commented as the two stronger dragons transformed into orbs of light. "Now I construct a second overlay network to XYZ Summon my second Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger!" Alexander played the card and the latest iteration of Gaia the Fierce Knight returned to the field.

"You realize that I'm just going to destroy that big guy all over again right?" Marcus asked and Alexander grinned before picking up a card.

"You're certainly welcome to try." Alexander answered as he set the card. "I set one card facedown and I shall end my turn."

"He paid half his life-points just to bring back Thunder Charger?" Chelsea asked as they watched the duel. "I'll admit I'm not a big expert when it comes to XYZ monsters but there's gotta be stronger rank sevens than that!"

"You're asking the wrong girl, I'm still getting used to Synchro Monsters." Chloe answered as she shrugged her shoulders. "But still I have to agree; unless that facedown card is another Reinforced Space he just cut his own life-points in half for nothing."

"Well I'm not about to let this opportunity pass me up!" Marcus said as he added his drawn card to his hand and pointed too Gaia Dragon. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, deep fry that Dragon Charger with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon opened its maws to prepare the attack….

"Nice try but not good enough! I activate my trap card Covering Fire!" Alexander announced and Marcus's eyes widened when he heard that. "Now he gains my Queen's attack points making him much stronger than your famous dragon!" Alexander added as Gaia Dragon's attack increased to 4800, he flew over the attack and pierced Blue-Eyes White Dragon through the chest destroying it and bringing Marcus's life-points down to 3400. "If you wish to continue to defeat yourself we won't stop you."

"Yeah, yeah, very funny, but I still have a move or two that I can do!" Marcus said as he picked up two cards. "I set a card facedown and I summon Alexandrite Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the beautiful crystal dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/100). "And I end my turn at that." Marcus announced and Anton drew his card.

"_It would be a simple matter for me to destroy their facedown cards with my king's effect so why did they set those cards?" _Anton thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate my king's effect…"

"And I'll put your king in chains! Fiendish Chain that is!" Tyler activated the trap and Anton's eyes widened as his king became ensnared by chains. "You won't be doing any attacks or using his effect as long as these chains ensnare him!"

"Did you forget about your own card already?" Anton asked as he pointed to Storm Caller. "You may have prevented my king's effect and any further attacks from him but the monster you gave me is more than strong enough to make up for it! Storm Caller, attack your former master directly!" Anton commanded and the psychic monster took flight…..

"I knew you wouldn't be able to resist that!" Tyler responded as he activated his trap which depicted a man clutching his head in pain whist several Psychic Monsters surrounded him. "Go Psychic Betrayal! This trap can only be activated if an opponent's Psychic Type Monster declares an attack, instead of attacking it lets loose a telepathic attack that attacks the brain waves…"

"Anyone have a translator for what Tyler's saying?" Marcus asked as he scratched his head in confusion, Alexander and Anton could only shrug their shoulders in response and Tyler sweat-dropped.

"Sorry, channeled my father for a bit there." Tyler said sheepishly before clearing his throat. "In game turns the Psychic type monster is destroyed and it takes the other monsters on your side of the field with it, downside it that I have to cut my life-points in half to use it!" Tyler said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 3750. "But at the same time it activates Storm Caller's effect!" Tyler added as Storm Caller, Artorigus and Alexander's two dragons shattered.

"What effect?" Anton asked only to wince as his life-points dropped to 4300. "Never mind, I believe I just found out."

"Yes, you have, when Storm Caller is destroyed by a card effect the controller takes damage equal to the card's original attack." Tyler explained and Alexander's eye's widened.

"Wait a minute, if that's effect damage then….." Alexander trailed off as his life-points dropped to 1500. "Anton! You just cost us the duel!"

"No I haven't, what are the chances of either of them drawing their own copies of Monster Reborn? Besides even if you're eliminated I'll still be in the duel!" Anton pointed out and Alexander breathed a sigh of relief. "I end my turn!"

"You really shouldn't have said that!" Tyler said as he drew his card. "I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Thought Ruler Archfiend!" Tyler played the card and the psychic type monster returned to the field. "It's been a good duel guys but this is over, Thought Ruler, attack Alexander's life-points directly!" Tyler commanded and the archfiend reached forward with his claws before slashing him across the chest and bringing his life-points down to zero. "Marcus, it's your turn, if you want to use my monster to finish Anton off feel free."

"Thanks, I will." Marcus said with a nod as he drew his card. "And I'm ending this in style! I activate Dragon Rebirth! I banish Alexandrite Dragon to bring back an old friend!" Marcus announced as the weaker dragon disappeared and in its place stood the famous dragon, Thought Ruler Archfiend floated over to his side of the field and Marcus pointed to his two monsters. "Thought Ruler Archfiend, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, punch our ticket to the next round!" Marcus commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Anton, they hit in that order bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Tyler Kaiba and Marcus Reynolds!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered in response as the four duelists deactivated their duel disks, whilst they did that Martin turned to Kaiba. "I see you taught your son well."

"If that's some snide comment about him channeling me, don't go there." Kaiba warned him before shaking his head. "Otherwise, I completely agree."

"You had me worried there Tyler, I thought you were going to pass out on me." Marcus commented as he approached Tyler.

"Actually I had a power nap during the opening match, helped me keep my energy up." Tyler answered before noticing that Anton and Alexander had approached them for handshakes.

"That was an excellent duel, good luck in the next round." Anton told them and Alexander grinned before nodding in agreement, Tyler and Marcus nodded as well before accepting the handshake.

"Good to see that the duels so far have ended in good sportsmanship." Chelsea commented as she and Chloe got ready to leave.

"Yeah, definitely, maybe tomorrow will end the same way?" Chloe offered as the two girls made their way out of the stands.

"Come back tomorrow morning where Cameron Matthew and Jessica Stevens will take on Fred Goff and Heath Chen and Thomas Newborne and Rajin Kanda will take on Ora Spence and Sarah Baker." Martin announced over the PA causing nearly every student to groan at that.

"Well, that idea just got tossed out the window, nuked, set on fire and launched into space." Chloe commented earning a confused look from Chelsea.

"Where the hell did you come up with THAT sentence?!" Chelsea asked and Chloe could only shrug her shoulders in response. "Anyway let's head back to the dorm, Tyler said that he'll bring my laptop over personally."

"Sounds good, I want to chill before my next class anyway." Chloe agreed as she followed her roommate out of the arena.

*later on*

"Man it's been four hours, where is he?!" Chelsea groaned as she paced back and forth in the dormroom that she shared with Chloe, Chloe had just come back from her class and saw Chelsea pacing back and forth.

"He still hasn't come back yet?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "You have another laptop don't you?"

"Yeah, my back-up one in case the main one kicks the bucket." Chelsea responded with a nod. "But here's the thing, you remember my homework that Tracy gave me a few hours before that Tag Team Orichalcos Duel?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Well I haven't had a chance to make a backup off it; the only copy is on my main laptop and its due right after tomorrow's matches."

"What about the USB Stick she gave you?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Good idea but the last time she let a student use a USB on their computer and one of DA's computers the network got hit by a nasty virus." Chelsea responded as she folded her arms. "She nearly lost her job as well, I don't know the details but since then me and the other IT Students were told to save it to our own USB sticks."

"What happened to the student?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shrugged.

"He got an expulsion duel since it was found out that he didn't even know that his computer was infected." Chelsea responded as she sat down. "He won and graduated from the academy later that year."

"I think it's a safe bet that he's a lot more careful nowadays." Chloe commented and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Anyway, relax, Tyler's a good guy and like you he's really good with computers, I'm sure he'll get it back to you safe….." Chloe never got a chance to finish as Tyler burst into the room clearly out of breath. "Ever heard of knocking?"

"Sorry girls but this is urgent!" Tyler said before turning to Chelsea. "Chelsea, how badly would you kick my ass if I told you that your laptop was stolen when I was dueling?"

"That would depend on whether you locked the door or not." Chelsea said as her eyes narrowed and Tyler nodded.

"Good thing I locked the door then." Tyler responded and Chelsea's eyes widened.

"If this is a joke it's not funny!" Chelsea said and Tyler gave her a look that told her that he was serious. "Do you have any idea who did it?"

"No but I've alerted security and the others, their searching the island as we speak, your free to join in the search if you want." Tyler responded and that was all the girls needed for them to follow Tyler out of the dormroom.


	81. Short Circuit

It had been two hours since the last tag team match of day three and most importantly since Chelsea's laptop had been reported stolen, the police had been called to the island and they were currently taking Chelsea's statement regarding the theft.

"Ugh, do I have to give you the description for my laptop again?!" Chelsea grunted in annoyance as she glanced at the two police officers, she was in Martin's office giving them the info they needed whilst Martin watched on from behind his desk.

"Ms. Cunningham, I understand your frustration but I just want to make sure that we have the correct info." The police officer answered before getting an idea. "How about I show you what I've written down?"

"That would probably help, yeah." Chelsea agreed and the officer showed her his notes. "Yeah, that's correct; I'm surprised you wrote down what games I have on it."

"I'm a bit of a gamer myself." The police officer said sheepishly before he and his partner stood up. "I'm going to be honest Chelsea, it's unlikely that you'll get your laptop back if the thief's left the island but we'll do our best."

"I know but thanks for the vote of confidence." Chelsea sighed as the two officers left the room. "Ugh, this sucks!"

"Chelsea, I'm sure they will find it and all you can do for now is wait for them to finish their search." Martin said and Chelsea turned to him. "As for Tracy, if they can't find it I'll talk to her and get her to give you more time to finish the work."

"I had it finished, that's what pissing me off!" Chelsea commented with a grunt as she folded her arms. "Well, that and the fact that it was stolen in the first place."

"That's understandable." Martin said with a nod of understanding. "Hmmm, wasn't the laptop you found after the last Orichalcos Duel the same make as yours?"

"Not really, it was an older model but similar in appearance." Chelsea responded with a nod. "Why do you ask?"

"Just a theory, you said that you set your laptop up next to the one you found?" Martin asked and Chelsea nodded in response. "It's possible that the thief is an Orichalcos Duelist and got the two mixed up."

"If that's the case I'm going after him and once I find I'll kick his ass so hard he'll hand my laptop back on a silver platter!" Chelsea said as she stood up and activated her duel disk.

"I can't allow that." Martin said plainly and Chelsea turned to him. "Like it or not you're still injured from your last Orichalcos Duel, you ribs may have healed for the most part but I don't want to risk it."

"Try and stop me!" Chelsea said as she stormed towards the duel.

"Very well, you've forced my hand." Martin said as he leaned forward. "The moment you leave this room is the moment your team is disqualified from the tournament and Donny and Drake get your spot in the next round." Martin said causing Chelsea to stop in her tracks just as she was about to open the door.

"You're actually blackmailing me?!" Chelsea asked as she turned to Martin.

"No, more along the lines of preventing you from making any ill-advised decisions, I understand why you're upset but is it really worth getting injured again?" Martin asked and Chelsea bit her lip before sitting back down.

"My laptop had better be found after all this!" Chelsea grunted in annoyance as she sat down opposite Martin.

*elsewhere on the island*

Fortunately for Chelsea the thief was still on the island, unfortunately for her he was at the speedboat that had transported him to the island.

"So you found it huh?" Jack asked as he took the laptop from the thief.

"Yeah, it was a piece of cake!" The thief responded with a grin. "Now where is my payment?" The thief asked and Jack frowned.

"Just gotta confirm that it's the right laptop and if it is then I'll let Victor handle the rest." Jack said before opening up the laptop and booting it up, the thief waited eagerly for confirmation on a job well done but that quickly disappeared when Jack turned to him. "You are an idiot! Does this LOOK like the right laptop!?" Jack asked before showing him the login screen with Chelsea's username.

"It…..it was my mistake, the two laptops where right next to each-other with the lids closed!" The thief asserted and Jack's eyes narrowed.

"And you didn't think to check them? Save you damn excuses!" Jack said before putting a hand to his earpiece. "Victor, the guy you hired fucked up big time, what do you want to do with him?" Jack asked the thief bit his lip as he watched Jack talk to the boss. "You have one more chance, just one!" Jack said before tossing the laptop back to the thief. "Take this piece of shit back to the dormroom and get the right laptop!"

"That'll be a piece of cake!" The thief responded as he turned around.

"But if you fail then you get to face me in an Orichalcos Duel and I can assure you that they will never find the body!" Jack added before the driver of the speedboat sped off, the thief gulped before walking off.

"_Great, can my luck get any worse?" _The thief thought as he made his way towards the middle of the island.

*meanwhile*

"Any sign of him or Chelsea's laptop?" Brandon asked as he ran up to Kimberly and Nathan who were talking with the police officers, they looked up and shook their heads.

"No, you'd think a guy in a Ski Mask at a place as hot as Duel Academy Island would be easier to spot but either he's left the island or he's sticking to the forested areas." Kimberly answered with a frown. "Why would anyone want Chelsea's laptop anyway? It's a good laptop but it's still a couple of years old."

"I don't know but I guess we can ask him if we bump into him." Nathan responded earning odd looks from everyone else. "What?"

"Anyway, you kids are free to continue your search but if you find him call us; he's likely to be armed and dangerous." The policeman said after a few awkward minutes before leaving the group. "Bill, I'm going to check the West Side of the island, near the Osiris Red Girl's dorm."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll check the Southside." Bill said with a nod before the two cops went their separate ways.

"Let's take a page from their book and split up in order to try to find this bastard." Brandon suggested and Kimberly and Nathan nodded in agreement. "I'll try the area around the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm."

"Good choice, he may try to return to the scene of the crime." Kimberly agreed with a nod. "If not then there's a chance that I'll catch him around the dockyard, after all he may try to escape that way like that woman did."

"If that was an option he would've taken it by now." Nathan pointed out with a frown. "Still it's worth a look, as for me I'll check the areas near the Ra Yellow dorms, he may go there to try to throw us off his scent."

"Sounds like a plan." Brandon said with a nod. "Kimberly, you still have my phone number from Battle City right?" Brandon asked and Kimberly nodded in response. "Nathan, did she ever give you my number?"

"Err…..yeah, she did encase Sangan ever got banned and we needed to discuss new additions to our decks." Nathan said with a nod. "Good thing Tyler told her about the new Archfiend monsters."

"There are new Archfiend monsters?" Brandon asked and Kimberly nodded. "Anyway call me if you find him."

"We will." Kimberly said with a nod. "Oh yeah and you won't get a chance to see them in action until the next round." Kimberly added before the three duelists went their separate ways, Brandon glanced down at his deck with a frown on his face.

"_Everyone seems to be upgrading their decks now that Sangan's banned, well everyone who uses Sangan in their deck anyway." _Brandon thought as he made his way to his dorm. _"Here's hoping that the improvements I've made to my deck will be enough!" _Brandon thought before the thief caught his eye. "Hey!"

"Oh shit!" The thief yelled out before bolting, Brandon took off after him eventually cornering him in a clearing.

"That laptop doesn't belong to you, give it back!" Brandon demanded before spotting the Orichalcos Disk. "You're no ordinary thief are you?"

"Took you long enough to figure that out!" The thief spat out before removing his mask revealing a shaved head with blue eyes and a goatee that was black in color. "That's much better! How do you kids put up with the heat?"

"We get used to it." Brandon said with a frown. "But a better question is why does your boss want Chelsea's laptop?"

"You think I stole this by choice? I came to this damn island to steal back the laptop that was left behind by Sarah!" The thief responded before grinning broadly. "Oh though, with this situation I can kill two birds with one stone!" The thief added before activating his duel disk. "The boss gets your soul and the laptop back!"

"Why would I agree to that?" Brandon asked and the thief grinned.

"How else is your lesbo friend supposed to get her laptop back?" The thief asked and Brandon's eyes narrowed. "Beat me and you'll get the laptop back!"

"You should be thankful that she's elsewhere, otherwise you'd be dealing with her temper." Brandon grunted before activating his duel disk. "But if that's the way it is then I'll make do!"

"That's fine by me!" The thief responded as the two duelists drew their opening hands. "But I'll show you that I'm more than just a thief, I'm a soul thief as well!"

"How is that any different from the other Orichalcos Duelists we've faced to date?" Brandon pointed out and the thief sweat-dropped when he realized that Brandon had a point.

"Just shut up and duel me!" The thief responded as he looked over his hand.

*elsewhere*

Whilst that was going on Jack was on his way back to HQ in the speedboat, the fact that the thief had mixed up the laptops had left him in a sour mood and he doubted that his mood could get any worse.

"Jack, would you mind telling me why the thief is wasting time dueling Brandon Thomas?" that was until Victor called him with that message.

"HE'S WHAT?!" Jack yelled back before quickly grabbing his own laptop. "Patch me into the island's security system and patch me through to that idiot, if he's going to duel then I may as well support him the best I can!"

"Already done, you just need to login." Victor responded and Jack wasted no time in logging in.

"Hey, I thought I told you to steal back the right laptop!?" Jack yelled at the thief through his earpiece and the thief frowned.

*back at the duel*

"Look, this way I can kill two birds with one stone." The thief answered catching Brandon's attention. "The laptop will be back in Victor's hands and he'll have a nice soul to add to his collection as well."

"All right, I see your point." Jack grunted in annoyance. "Just watch out for that damn dragon!"

"Don't need to tell me twice." The thief responded before turning his attention back to Brandon. "Oh you heard that huh? Well good luck finding him, the last time I saw him he was speeding away in a speedboat."

"_Speedboat huh? Is that how they're getting on the island?" _Brandon thought to himself before turning his attention to the thief. "Well in that case I'll cut to the chase, I'm going first!" Brandon said as he drew his card. "And I summon Tour Guide from the Underworld in attack mode!"

"Wait, Tour Guide from the what?" The thief asked as the new monster appeared on the field; she was an attractive red haired woman wearing a small blue and red dress with a matching hat and had a purse with a skull on it (3/1000/600). "She's easy on the eyes and to defeat, what a combo!"

"Don't get too cocky, when Tour Guide is normal summoned her effect activates which lets me Special Summon a Level 3 Fiend Type Monster from my hand or deck with its effects negated." Brandon explained before picking up his deck. "Off course the downside is that the monster's effects are negated and I can't use the monster in a Synchro Summon, off course since I don't run Synchros that's hardly a problem for me."

"Ohhh, I'm shaking!" The thief said sarcastically as Brandon searched through his deck. "Newsflash genius, the best card to use with it just got banned!"

"Oh, you mean Sangan? Yeah that's a pain in the ass." Brandon commented before playing the card. "But I have ways around that, like summoning Tour Bus from the Underworld with Tour Guide's effect!" Brandon played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a black and orange demonic looking bus with Sangan driving it (3/1000/1000).

"Tour Guide, Tour Bus, is there a Tour Brochure as well?" The thief asked and Brandon's eyes narrowed as he finished shuffling his deck.

"I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the two cards down and the thief drew his card. "So is that your own deck or did you steal it?"

"Very funny, but let's see how funny you feel after I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" The thief played the card and Brandon braced himself as the seal enveloped both duelists, soon afterwards the seal appeared on the thief's head and he grinned sadistically. "Now the real fun begins!"

"You have a twisted view of the term "fun"." Brandon said dryly and the thief ignored him.

"Let's see who's laughing after I make this move! I summon Don Zaloog in attack mode!" Brandon's eyes widened as the monster that he had used only a few times since Battle City appeared on the field wielding the twin daggers (4/1400/1500).

"A thief using Dark Scorpions, gee, how original, seriously do you realize how stereotypical your being?" Brandon asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down the side of his head. "Let me guess, Mustering of the Dark Scorpions is next?"

"You pesky little know it all." The thief muttered under his breath as he played the card. "Your right and I'm gonna use it to summon Chick the Yellow, Cliff the Trap Remover, Gorg the Strong and Maenea the Thorn!" The three monsters appeared on the field one by one each wielding their weapons of choice. "And as you know they each get a bonus from my field spell!" The thief added as the monsters received their attack bonuses.

"That may be but as long as my monsters are on the field my life-points will be safe." Brandon pointed out and the thief grinned before playing a card.

"That's where you're wrong! I play a Spell Card called Dark Scorpion Ambush!" The thief played the card which depicted the Dark Scorpions getting ready to attack a trade caravan. "This Spell Card requires that I have all the members of the Dark Scorpions on my side of the field, for this turn only they can bypass your monsters and attack directly!"

"Oh crap!" Brandon commented as he braced himself and the Scorpions rushed forward, four of the Scorpion's attacks connected bringing Brandon's life-points down to a mere six hundred. "Hah! I thought you were tough but I guess you're just another victim of my first turn kill, and in this case I mean it literally!"

"I activate my Trap Card Dark Spirit Art Greed! I send Tour Guide to my graveyard and draw two cards, but not before I chain it to Emergency Provisions, so I send it and my other facedown card to the graveyard and gain two thousand life-points!" Brandon announced and once Tour Guide Shattered he drew twice and sighed as his life-points increased to 2600. "More importantly you can't use Cliff's effect."

"Damn, I was so close!" The thief cursed himself before pointing to Cliff. "But I guess I'll have to fix that, Cliff, attack his life-points directly!" The thief commanded and the scorpion leapt forward before slashing Brandon and bringing his life-points down to 900.

"And now the effects of the Scorpions activate." Brandon said with a wince.

"Right and I'm gonna start with Gorg's effect, but since Tour Bus will be easy pickings for my monsters anyway I'll chose to send the top card from your deck to the graveyard!" The thief announced and Brandon complied without a word. "Next up is Chick the Yellow and I wanna use his effect look at the top card of your deck."

"It's your choice." Brandon shrugged before showing the card revealing it to be Battle Fader.

"That thing could stop another OTK attempt so it's going to the bottom." The thief announced and Brandon complied. "Next up is Cliff the Trap Remover but since you've removed your traps for him I'll use his effect to send two more cards to the graveyard." The thief added and Brandon sent the two cards to the graveyard without a word.

"That just leaves Don and Meanea." Brandon said as he folded his arms. "So what's it going to be?"

"First I'll use her effect to add a Dark Scorpion to my hand." The thief replied as he searched through his deck, once he found the card that he was looking for he added it to his hand. "And finally Don Zaloog's effect will send two more cards to the graveyard." The thief replied and Brandon sent the cards to the graveyard without hesitation. "Hah! Even if you draw your dragon you'll have too many monsters in your graveyard for his effect!"

"Are you done yet?" Brandon asked and the thief looked over his hand.

"Yeah, I'm done!" The thief responded and Brandon quickly drew his card. "But with so many life-points lost already you may as well give up!"

"I'm not giving up yet! Not when I still have moves to play!" Brandon said as he played a card. "I activate Allure of Darkness, by banishing one Dark Type monster from my hand….." Brandon tailed off as he pocketed the monster. "I can draw two cards." Brandon added before drawing two cards. "And now I tribute Tour Bus from the Underworld….." Brandon trailed off as the bus shattered. "So that I can summon one of my favorite cards the mighty Caius, the Shadow Monarch in attack mode!"

"No! Not that!" The thief yelled out as the dark monarch appeared on the field (6/2400/1000).

"Yes, yes that, and now that Tour Bus has been sent to the graveyard his effect will chain Caius's effect!" Brandon said as he retrieved the cards in his graveyard. "With it can shuffle one monster in either of our graveyards back into our decks; however since the only monsters you have are on the field I'll be using my own graveyard." Brandon explained before looking over the graveyard. "And what do you know? You sent Dark Armed Dragon to my graveyard with that last attack!"

"And now you're putting it back into your deck!" The thief realized as Brandon shuffled the card into his deck and returned the others to the graveyard. "Yeah, so what if you have your best monster back? You'll have to get the others out of the graveyard to even use it!"

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, now for Caius's effect!" Brandon announced as the monarch formed a ball of dark energy in his hand. "And I think I'll target Gorg the Strong!" Brandon added as the monarch tossed the ball at the strongest Dark Scorpion destroying him. "And I know from personal experience that all Dark Scorpions are Dark Type Monsters so you'll lose one thousand life-points to boot!" Brandon added as the thief's life-points dropped to seven thousand.

"I have more where that came from!" The thief retorted and Brandon just smirked.

"Good luck adding them to your hand after I destroy Meanae with Caius!" Brandon responded as the shadow monarch launched a dark ball of light towards the sole female member of the Dark Scorpions destroying her and bringing the thief's life-points down to sixty-one hundred. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the three cards before smirking. "Oh yeah, the monster I banished for Allure's effect? It's a little monster called D.D. Scout Plane and if he's banished he returns to the field during the end phase." Brandon added as the small spaceship appeared on the field (3/800/1200), the thief said nothing as he drew his card.

"You think that monarch's supposed to scare me?" The thief scoffed as he stared down the monster. "He's powerful but as soon as I draw another Dark Scorpion Ambush your soul will belong to the Orichalcos!" The thief added before looking at his drawn card and frowning. "Consider yourself lucky, I switch my remaining Dark Scorpions to defense mode and end my turn." The thief announced and once the Dark Scorpions that where left over had crouched down Brandon drew his card.

"_Apparently the guy forgot about the fact that Dark Scorpion Ambush requires all Dark Scorpions to be on the field." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Dark Armed Dragon, if it weren't for his Scorpions I could summon him now, but I guess I'll have to hold onto him for now." _Brandon thought before adding the card to his hand.

"Brandon, there you are." Brandon looked up and saw Kimberly and Nathan approaching the duel area with Chloe, Marcus and Andreas behind them; it was Kimberly that had spoken up. "Any luck…actually, I have a better question, how did you end up in an Orichalcos Duel?"

"You want the good news or the bad news?" Brandon asked and the other duelists looked at him with confused looks on their faces. "Good news is that I've found the guy who stole Chelsea's laptop, he meant to target the laptop we found after the last Orichalcos Duel but got the two mixed up." Brandon told them before frowning. "Bad news is he's the thief." Brandon added before pointing to his opponent.

"That still doesn't explain how you got in this mess to begin with." Nathan pointed out and Brandon nodded in response.

"Basically I corned him and he offered to duel me in return for getting Chelsea's laptop back." Brandon explained with a frown. "It hasn't gone well so far, I'm down to nine hundred life-points whilst he's down to sixty-one hundred life-points."

"So the duel's been going on for a few minutes, right?" Andreas asked and Brandon shook his head.

"It just started and you can thank yet another broken card for that fact." Brandon answered with a frown. "Dark Scorpion Ambush, think a spell version of Dark Scorpion Combination but without the damage reduction side effect."

"Hey! Are you going to take your turn or are you going to stand there telling them about my deck strategy?" The thief said impatiently and Brandon's eyes narrowed.

"If you insist, Caius, attack Don Zaloog!" Brandon commanded and the monarch launched his ball of dark energy at the Dark Scorpion leader destroying him. "Now you can't use another copy of Dark Scorpion Ambush."

"I have other copies of that card in my deck." The thief retorted and Brandon just ignored him.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Brandon announced and the thief drew his card.

"_Hah! This is perfect! Now I can bring out my best monster!" _The thief thought before playing a card. "You think there aren't any more Dark Scorpions? Think again, I summon Dark Scorpion – Bull the Red!" The thief played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, he was dressed like the other Dark Scorpions and had red spiked up hair and blue eyes, he was wielding a large sword and was more muscular than the other members (2/1300/800) and its attack increased to 1800 thanks to the seal.

"Okay, that's definitely something I didn't expect." Brandon commented before realizing something. "You left it in attack mode? Good luck, you'll only be able to defeat D.D. Scout Plane!"

"I will bring down your monarch and I'll use Bull the Red to do it!" The thief retorted with a cocky smirk. "But not in the way you're expecting! You see, Bull the Red is a tuner monster and I'm tuning him with Chick the Yellow and Cliff the Trap Remover!" The thief announced as the three monsters leapt into the air, Bull the Red dissolved into two green Synchro Rings that surrounded the other Dark Scorpions. "So that I can summon my best monster, allow me to introduce Dark Scorpion – Elten the Elder!"

"That doesn't sound good!" Brandon said as he shielded his eyes from the bright flash, seconds later a new monster appeared on the field, he was dressed like the other Dark Scorpions but was obviously much older with a chest length beard and like Don Zaloog he was wearing an eye patch (8/1900/1200). "Wow, I never thought I'd see the day where I2 would release a Level 8 member of the 1900 club." Brandon commented dryly as he stared at the monster. "Even with the bonus from the Orichalcos that monster can't beat my monarch!" Brandon added as the Dark Scorpion member's attack increased to 2400.

"Don't you use Dark Scorpions yourself? You should know that they make up for their low attacks with their effects." The thief retorted with a grin. "And guess what? Elten the Elder has one hell of an effect!"

"It had better for a Level 8 Synchro with such low attack points." Brandon pointed out and the thief grinned before retrieving Gorg the Strong from the graveyard.

"Oh it does, as long as Don Zaloog is in the graveyard I can use my monster's effect, by removing one Dark Scorpion from play….." The thief trailed off as he pocketed the monster. "Elten the Elder gains their attack points for the rest of the duel AND the attack points stack!" The thief added as Elten's attack power increased to 4200.

"And here I thought Dark Scorpion Ambush was broken." Brandon commented dryly as he braced himself for the attack.

"Who cares if it's broken? Well besides you obviously." The thief retorted with a grin. "Besides I now have more than enough power to finish you off! Elten, attack Caius!" The thief commanded and the old man drew an impressive looking sword before charging towards Caius and cutting him in two. "Well, that was fun, now I can finish the job I started….."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Brandon retorted and the thief turned around.

"Why isn't the Seal closing in around you?" The thief asked before realizing that Brandon had activated a trap. "Is that Defense Draw?"

"I originally set it in case you drew another copy of Dark Scorpion Ambush." Brandon said as he drew his card. "Either way it keeps me in the game and lets me draw a new card." Brandon added as he added the new card to his hand.

"Damn it, why can't you stay down?" The thief grunted in annoyance before looking over his hand. "I end my turn."

"_Okay, I saved myself there but unless I draw a way to get Dark Armed Dragon on the field I may as well surrender." _Brandon thought as he drew his card. _"Wait a minute, since this began this guy hasn't set a single trap card, hell the only non-monster card he's played besides the Orichalcos is Dark Scorpion Ambush." _Brandon thought as he turned to the thief. "Out of curiosity, do you have any traps in your deck?"

"Nope, don't need them!" The thief retorted with a cocky grin. "Especially when I have this much power on my side of the field, Trap Cards are overrated anyway!"

"I don't know if it weren't for trap cards my soul would've been trapped in the Orichalcos by now." Brandon answered and the thief just glared at him. "Anyway it's still my move and I play a Spell Card called Nightmare's Steel Cage!" Brandon played the card and a menacing looking cage surrounded him. "Now neither of us can attack for two more turns."

"Who runs that when Swords of Revealing Light is at three and buys you one more turn then that card does?!" The thief asked with a scoff and Brandon frowned.

"I do, that's who!" Brandon retorted before looking over the rest of his hand. "I end my turn." Brandon announced and the thief grinned cockily as he drew his card.

"Well, I can't really do much except this!" The thief said as he played a card. "First I play Heaven's Lost Property."

"And you'd probably steal that if you had the chance." Brandon deadpanned as the two duelists drew three cards and discarded two; the thief ignored him as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard.

"Joke all you want, the two cards I just sent to the graveyard where two more Dark Scorpions which means I have more fodder for Elten's effect!" The thief retorted as he pocketed Chick the Yellow causing Elten's attack to increase to 5400. "I end my turn but even if you tribute Scout Plane for something stronger you can't beat my Scorpion." The thief added as Brandon drew his card.

"Do you guys think Brandon can win?" Chloe asked with a gulp as she stared down the monster. "And if he does lose what should we do then?"

"He won't lose; he still has Dark Armed Dragon in his deck." Tyler reassured her as she turned to him. "Once he summons him it won't matter if Elten has six thousand or ten thousand attack points, all Brandon will have to do is remove a Dark Type monster from play and he'll be in the driver's seat."

"How cute, your friends think that you have a chance against me." The thief said with a scoff and Brandon ignored him. "You may as well surrender at this point Brandon."

"Not going to happen!" Brandon retorted before looking at his drawn card. "At the moment I have thirteen monsters in my graveyard, nine more than the amount that's required to summon my best monster."

"Why are you telling me this? Are you actually admitting defeat?" The thief asked and Brandon shook his head. "Then why?"

"Because I just drew a Spell Card that can help me get around that problem." Brandon explained as he played the card. "I activate The Beginning of the End, since I have over seven dark type monsters in my graveyard this will let me remove five of them from play in order to draw three cards."

"Hey wait a sec…." The thief went to protest but stopped when Brandon pocketed the five monsters and drew three cards. "You still have too many cards in the graveyard to summon your monster!"

"Not anymore, I activate Pot of Avarice!" Brandon played the card and the thief's eyes widened as Brandon retrieved five monsters from his graveyard and returned them to his deck before drawing two more cards. "And now the stage is set, I summon my best monster, Dark Armed Dragon!" Brandon plated the card and the sinister looking dragon appeared on the field (7/2800/1000). "Obviously he can't attack due to Nightmare's Steel Cage but I don't need to attack in order to destroy Elten."

"This isn't happening!" The thief yelled out as Brandon pocketed Tour Guide from the Underworld and the dragon raised its tail high before bringing it down and crushing the Dark Scorpion. "You may have destroyed Elten but all I'll need to do is use Monster Reborn to bring him back and….." The thief trailed off as it hit him.

"Elten's attack power will be back to normal, wouldn't it?" Brandon asked and the thief nodded reluctantly. "What's the big deal? You'll still be able to use its effect right?"

"Err…..no." The thief said reluctantly. "I can only use its effect if I summon the monster via a Synchro Summon, otherwise I'd just be stuck with a 2400 beatstick."

"Well that's too bad for you!" Brandon retorted before looking over his hand. _"That's odd, none of the other broken cards that they have used had such a restriction so why does this one?" _Brandon thought before turning to the thief. "Since I can't attack I'll end my turn but not before I discard three cards due to the handsize limit." Brandon announced and once he discarded the cards the thief drew his card.

"_Ugh, there's gotta be something I can do! Knowing my luck Victor will probably have my soul destroyed if I lose this duel because of how epically I've failed!" _The thief thought before looking at his hand. _"Hah! Nice!" _The thief thought before playing the card. "I activate a Spell Card called The Pillager."

"They're still printing that thing?!" Brandon thought out loud as he walked over to the thief. "I thought that thing was banned after Battle City."

"It was but I don't care! Now show me your hand rich boy!" The thief demanded and Brandon reluctantly turned his cards around. _"Okay, Dark Crusader, Maiden of Macabre, Magic Planter, Lightning Vortex, Polymerization and some winged beast that I don't recognize, I think we have a winner here!" _The thief thought before grinning. "I'll take Lightning Vortex if you don't mind."

"I do mind but it's not like I have a choice here!" Brandon responded before handing over the Spell Card and walking back to his side of the field.

"Too bad for you because now I'm activating it!" The thief said as he played the card and once he discarded a card lightning struck the huge dragon destroying it. "Now that the path is clear I summon my second copy of Cliff the Trap Remover!" The thief played the card and the smartest member of the Dark Scorpions appeared on the field (4/1200/1000). "What do you have to say about that?"

"I activate my Trap Card Hidden Soldier!" Brandon responded before picking up a card. "Since you just normal summoned a monster I can use this cards effect to special summon Dark Crusader!" Brandon played the card and the skeleton knight appeared on the field (4/1600/200). "Your Trap Remover may be stronger due to the Orichalcos…." Brandon trailed off as Cliff's attack increased to 1700. "But thanks to my Spell Card you can't attack for another turn."

"God damn it, why can't you just give up already? You have nine-hundred life-points left for fuck's sake!" The thief yelled out and Brandon frowned.

"I've only ever given up when it was obvious that there was no way that I could win, that's only happened once and that was back in the Battle City Semi-Finals." Brandon responded before grinning. "Besides, the day that I give up because a thief and a coward is beating me is the day that I give up my inheritance."

"I'm no coward!" The thief retorted before looking over his hand. "Make your damn move already!" The thief added and Brandon drew his card as the cage disappeared. _"Just gotta relax, Dark Armed Dragon's back in the graveyard and even if he got it back in his hand he still has too many cards in his graveyard to summon him." _The thief thought as Brandon played his drawn card.

"Since I have a Dark Type monster on my side of the field I can Special Summon Kuro Kuro Kuro from my hand." Brandon played the card and a small strange looking bird appeared on the field, it had a tiny body and a huge head, his feathers where blue in color and it had blades attacked to its feet (2/900/600).

"Hey, it's the monster I saw in your hand!" The thief realized as he tried to stop himself from laughing. "Why the hell do you even have that thing in your deck?"

"I know this little guy doesn't look like much but then again neither do you." Brandon said as he glanced at the thief. "On a more serious note I added this card to my deck for a reason."

"Do I even want to know?" The thief asked and Brandon didn't answer, instead he played another card and Kuro Kuro Kuro disappeared from the field, in its place stood Caius once more. "Argh, not that guy again!"

"Sorry but I returned Caius to my deck when I played Pot of Avarice." Brandon responded as Caius prepared a ball of dark energy. "Now I'd say which monster I'm planning to target but since you only have one card to target….." Brandon trailed off as Caius launched the ball of energy at Cliff destroying him and bringing the thief's life-points down to 5100. "Next I activate Dark Crusader's effect; I discard one monster from my hand…" Brandon trailed off as he discarded Maiden of Macabre from his hand. "And his attack increases to 2000." Brandon announced as Dark Crusader's attack increased. "And this duel is over."

"Wait, what? I'll still have plenty of life-points left!" The thief responded and Brandon shook his head.

"Forget about my facedown card? Guess what? It's a trap and I'm about to show you why they're not overrated." Brandon announced as the trap card flipped up. "I activate Call of the Haunted and I use it to bring back Maiden of Macabre!" Brandon announced and the thief's eyes widened as the geisha returned to the field. "Now I could switch Scout Plane to attack mode but let's face it, this duel's over!"

"No! No! No!" The thief yelled out as he frantically looked over his hand. _"Where the hell is my copy of Battle Fader when I need it?!"_

"Dark Crusader, Maiden of Macabre, Caius, finish him off!" Brandon commanded and the three monsters launched their attacks at the thief bringing his life-points down to zero, the thief collapsed just before the Seal took his soul and Brandon sighed in relief. "That was way to close." Brandon commented before walking over to the thief's unconscious form and retrieving the laptop, he opened it up and grinned.

"What's the damage?" Chloe asked as she and Tyler walked up to him, Brandon looked up and grinned.

"Fortunately it seems that they never even bothered to try to get past the login screen, knowing Chelsea she probably has at least ten passwords for this thing anyway." Brandon shrugged his shoulders as he stood up. "Besides that there doesn't seem to be any major damage but I guess Chelsea would be the best person to check for that."

"I think she was asking about you." Tyler commented and Brandon sweat-dropped.

"Still a bit sore from that guy's opening move but I'm otherwise fine." Brandon responded as he handed Tyler the laptop. "You said that you'd deliver the laptop to Chelsea personally, I think it's only fitting if you take it back to her."

"Agreed, still you'd better let the nurse check you out, just to be safe." Tyler told him and Brandon nodded in response before the two boys made their way to the main building.

*later*

"I'm beginning to wish I had brought my IPod with me." Chelsea moaned as she rested her chin in her hand, it had been a long wait and all Chelsea was able to learn in that time was that Martin liked to play chess in his spare time.

"I thought you enjoyed games of strategy." Martin answered as he moved a piece. "And that's checkmate!"

"Yeah but I prefer video games and Duel Monsters." Chelsea moaned as she gathered up her pieces. "And I prefer winning for that matter."

"I wasn't the president of the chess club in my school for nothing Ms. Cunningham." Martin answered as he gathered up his pieces.

"That explains a lot." Chelsea muttered under her breath as she got ready for another game.

"I heard that." Martin answered and Chelsea sweat-dropped whilst laughing nervously, fortunately for her there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" Martin called out and the door opened revealing Tyler and Chloe. "Ah, has there been any word?"

"Brandon found the thief; he had targeted Chelsea's laptop by mistake as he was originally meant to target the laptop we found." Tyler answered and Chelsea turned to them. "From that you can probably guess that he was an Orichalcos Duelist, fortunately Brandon was able to defeat him."

"That is good news indeed." Martin agreed with a nod. "How is Brandon?"

"Sore and being checked out by the nurse, otherwise he's fine." Tyler answered before turning to Chelsea. "Oh yes, and I think I found something that belongs to you Chelsea." Tyler added before giving her laptop back.

"My laptop…." Chelsea said as she grinned broadly before taking it back. "Thanks Tyler, if I was single and straight I'd probably kiss you and Brandon."

"Think nothing off it." Tyler said as he turned to Martin. "Can she leave?"

"Yes, now that the threat has passed she can." Martin nodded and the three teens grinned before leaving the office. "Great, now I have no-one to play Chess with."

*meanwhile at sea*

"Well, that was a bust." Jack grunted as he turned off the laptop. "Hey boss, what do you want me to do with that idiot?"

"I'll handle it, first I'll locate the hospital he's staying at then I'll have his soul destroyed and him taken off life-support." Victor answered and Jack nodded. "Once you reach the mainland go to the local branch, there will be a helicopter there waiting to transport you."

"I got it." Jack responded before hanging up.

*later*

The abandoned dorm was as quiet as ever, it had seen no activity since the students with Duel Spirits dueled here, that is until tonight when said duel spirits where meeting in the underground area.

"This had better be good!" Lord of Dragons commented with a frown. "I need to help Marcus with his homework."

"Silent Magician and Armed Dragon only call meetings like this when there's something urgent going on." Serene Psychic Witch answered and Wattchimera nodded in agreement. "I assure you it is good!"

"How would you know? You're the late bloomer off the group." Thestalous pointed out and Serene Psychic Witch glared at him.

"I apologize for the wait." Silent Magician said as she and Armed Dragon appeared in the room. "I have just received a message from the spirit world and Armed Dragon had to confirm it."

"Confirm what?" Wattchimera asked with a frown.

"That the Legendary Dragons are ready to return." Armed Dragon answered and the whole room fell silent when they heard that.


	82. Day Four Rivals Appear

There were few things that could cause Victor Santiago to lose his temper and failure was something that he could normally tolerate to a degree, this was one of those moments where the failure couldn't be tolerated.

"I told you to find someone who I could hire who could retrieve the laptop." Victor said as he turned to Jack with a look of anger on his face. "To give him the Seal of the Orichalcos and any of our new cards that he thought would suit his deck encase he failed, what happened?"

"He not only stole the wrong laptop but he lost an Orichalcos Duel before he could retrieve the right one." Jack grunted as he folded his arms. "Not my fault sir, I was led to believe that he would be the right man for the job."

"And who led you to believe that?" Victor asked and Jack frowned.

"My contacts in the underworld recommended him." Jack said as he shook his head. "I've already sent out Orichalcos Duelists to deal with them and to establish new, better contacts for me."

"Good, I won't tolerate this operation being hindered by outside influence." Victor responded with a nod. "As for the laptop, leave it for now, they are bound to keep it under lock and key following his failure."

"And if they manage to get at the encrypted files?" Jack asked and Victor frowned.

"Then prepare for war." Victor added and Jack said nothing else before leaving Victor's office. _"I don't know what happened to Phillip following the Battle City operation and frankly I'm terrified to find out." _Victor thought as he glanced towards his deck. _"But I can avoid that fate easily, my deck is much more powerful than his and I won't fail!"_

*the next day*

It was the day after the attempted theft of Chelsea's laptop (and by extension the laptop they found) and Chelsea had spent most of the day making sure that all off her files where intact and that there wasn't any viruses on it despite Chloe telling her that they hadn't gotten past the login screen, fortunately everything was in working order and Chelsea was able to save her homework to a flash drive.

Chelsea was working away at her laptop when she heard her roommate wake up with a yawn and she looked up. "Good morning Chloe."

"Morning, you convinced that there's nothing wrong with the laptop?" Chloe teased her and Chelsea rolled her eyes at that comment.

"Cute." Chelsea grunted in annoyance as she turned her attention back to the laptop. "You were right though, those idiots never made it past the login screen, then again given how many passwords I have for this thing either they never bothered to try to login or they gave up after numerous tries."

"Why are you even wondering about that?" Chloe asked as she got out of bed and walked over to the mirror in order to brush her hair. "Either way they didn't get to your files."

"I don't know morbid curiosity?" Chelsea shrugged her shoulders before she glanced over her shoulder. "I did notice that the laptop was pretty wet which probably means that it was handled on a boat off some kind." Chelsea added as she shook her head. "Fortunately none of the internal components where affected."

"I'll just take your word for that that's a good thing." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as she finished brushing her hair and started picking out her clothes. "So, are we going to the matches today?"

"Nah, I'd rather not watch Cameron and Jessica duel in person." Chelsea answered with a shake of her head. "Besides they've been streaming the matches for guys who choose not to attend or have classes during the matches so we won't miss anything."

"You know anything about their opponents?" Chloe asked as she started to get dressed and Chelsea shrugged.

"Haven't met them but I know Frank's in Osiris Red and Heath's in Ra Yellow." Chelsea answered as she got the link to the stream up. "Which may be a problem since their up against two of the best students in Obelisk Blue."

"If they had the foresight to add Mask of Restrict to their decks like I did when I dueled Cameron then they should be fine." Chloe pointed out before realizing something. "Then again if Cameron's smart he would've added a few countermeasures to his deck."

"That's a pretty big if." Chelsea answered with a grin. "Okay, Stream's not running yet but I got some e-mails waiting for me so I may as well answer them." Chelsea added before checking the e-mails. "Huh, Tyler wants us to come over to his room."

"Did he say why?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Nah, just that he wants to discuss something whilst we watch the stream on his computer screen, which suits me just fine because that's a pretty big screen he's got." Chelsea answered as she turned to Chloe who was putting on the naval exposing tank top she wore during the Battle City Finals. "I'm ready to go when you are."

"In that case let's go." Chloe said as she finished putting on her blazer and stood up; Chelsea picked up her laptop and carried it with her as she led her roommate out of the dorm room. "I'm surprised that you're taking that with you after what happened yesterday."

"I know what you mean but don't worry; I don't plan on leaving it this time." Chelsea answered as she turned to Chloe. "Besides we won't be competing until round two begins so it's not like I'll have to leave for a tournament match."

"True enough, with any luck we won't have to worry about the Orichalcos Duelists for a while anyway." Chloe answered as the two girls made their way to the center of the island.

*meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm*

"Are you sure about this?" Brandon asked as he looked at the screen. "I could've sworn that I was right about them."

"I'm sure; this came from I2's official website." Tyler answered as he typed away at his computer screen. "But this isn't even supposed to be out for another couple of months, how did they get their hands on it?"

"So are you boys going to fill us in or are we supposed to assume that you are watching porn?" Kimberly asked with a dull look on her face as she, Theresa, Marcus, Andreas and Lance tried to look at the screen. "Also the match is starting soon, are you going to switch to the stream at some point?"

"I checked ten minutes ago, the match is slated to start in twenty minutes." Tyler answered with a sigh as he turned to them. "As for what we've been checking I'd rather wait for Chloe and Chelsea to come over before I reveal it."

"Fine but if they don't arrive in ten minutes I'm e-mailing everyone I know to tell them that Tyler Kaiba and Brandon Thomas looks at porn, after fifteen I'll add that it's the most disgusting porn I've seen." Lance said just before he got punched in the back of the head by Theresa. "What did I do?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about the fact that sending that could imply that Brandon watches that stuff with me?" Theresa said and Lance quickly backed off, fortunately for him there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Lance yelled out before quickly running over to the door, he opened it up and sighed in relief. "Oh thank god!"

"Err, why are you thanking god?" Chelsea asked as large sweat-drops rolled down hers and Chloe's heads. "I know you like Chloe but…"

"Okay, let's change the subject and quick!" Lance interrupted her once he saw the grin on her face before standing aside. "Guys, Chloe and Chelsea have arrived."

"Good, come in girls." Tyler called out to them and the two Osiris Red students entered the room. "Chelsea. I don't even need to turn around to know that you've brought your laptop with you so feel free to set it up."

"Thanks." Chelsea responded as she set her laptop up on a desk, Brandon brought up a chair to her and she made herself comfortable. "Hey, where's the laptop we found?" Chelsea asked once she realized that the laptop was no longer where it was.

"After yesterday's attempted theft Martin thought it would be safer to keep it in the technician's office and let the technicians finish what we started." Tyler answered as he turned to her. "But he did say that he'll call us if there are any developments."

"Makes sense, I wouldn't keep it in a student's dormroom either." Chloe responded as she took a seat. "Err, no offense Tyler."

"No offense taken." Tyler answered before motioning them over to the screen. "The match doesn't start for another twenty minutes but after what happened the last time we watched Cameron duel in person I figured it would be better if we did it this way." Tyler added and the others nodded in agreement. "Besides, I have some new theories about the Orichalcos Duelists."

"What do you mean?" Chelsea asked as she nudged up to the screen. "Is that a new Dark Scorpion monster?"

"It's one of two that have been confirmed." Brandon responded with a nod. "Dark Scorpion – Elten the Elder and Dark Scorpion – Bull the Red, respectfully they are a Synchro and a Tuner Monster."

"Hold up, the set that those cards are being released in won't be released for another couple of months yet." Chelsea realized as she read the post. "Why is this important?"

"My opponent used those monsters in my duel against him yesterday." Brandon answered with a frown. "At first I thought that they were just more custom cards like the other new cards that the Orichalcos Duelists have used but then I heard their side effects."

"Elten requires three Dark Scorpion monsters, one tuner and two non-tuners, to summon him and can only use his effect if he's summoned via a Synchro Summon." Tyler added as he pointed to the line of text in question. "That and it requires Don Zaloog to be in the graveyard for the effect to work."

"Bull the Red has a similar effect." Brandon added as he brought up the link.

"To put it simply it can only be used in the Synchro Summon of a Dark Scorpion Synchro Monster which suggests that there's more than one." Tyler added with a frown. "The only one we know off is Elten the Elder."

"And knowing I2 there will be one on the way." Chelsea responded before frowning. "So just to recap, these guys have access to legitimate cards, they have access to legitimate cards that haven't even been released yet and they still use these fake, broken cards." Chelsea added with a frown. "The more info we find out about these guys the more confusing it gets."

"There's also the fact that the guy I faced used The Pillager." Brandon said as he got another link up. "That card's been banned so long that most of the guy's I talked too following my duel against him have never heard of it."

"Yeah, I think that card was only played once in an official tournament, when Bandit Keith faced off against Joey Wheeler in the Semi-Finals of the original Duelist Kingdom Tournament." Kimberly remembered as she looked at the card. "That thing's basically a one-sided version of Exchange. I'm still surprised that thing got made."

"I'd say that it was a different time with different rules in place but not even that's applicable." Brandon agreed with her before shaking his head. "That card's so rare that it fetches for thousands of dollars on E-Bay, how did a lowly thief life him get his hands on it?"

"He either stole it from someone else, likely a collector since that card has no chance of coming back, or it's another broken card that this Victor Santiago guy has access to." Chelsea said as she shrugged her shoulders. "Just once I'd like some straight answers about these guys."

"Yeah, you and me both, and that's not even touching the fact that the guys we faced in Battle City didn't use any broken cards that where fakes." Lance agreed with her as he frowned. "How about we change the subject? By my watch the next match in the tournament should be starting soon." Lance added and Brandon nodded in agreement before bringing up the stream.

*meanwhile at the arena*

"Where are those idiots?" Jessica moaned as she and Cameron waited for their opponents. "I have a tournament to win!"

"We have a tournament to win, there is no I in team." Cameron corrected her and Jessica rolled her eyes. "Give them time. I'm sure they'll show up."

"We're here, sorry for the wait." A male voice rang out and the two duelists looked up to see a pair of younger, male students, the Ra Yellow Student was an Asian teen with short black hair and brown eyes whilst his partner, a younger teen with messy brown hair and blue eyes, was the one who had spoken up.

"You idiots would've been better off no-showing." Jessica scoffed as she and Cameron activated their duel disks and drew their cards, Heath and Frank did likewise and Heath's eyes narrowed.

"You'll be eating those words when we join the others in the next round." Heath responded with a frown that only deepened when Jessica laughed at his statement. "If you're not going to take this seriously then we'll give you a reason, Frank will go first, then Jessica then me then Cameron."

"You're a lowly Ra Yellow student, you don't get to decide the order!" Jessica mocked him once she stopped laughing.

"Actually I'm fine with that order." Cameron chimed in and Jessica turned to him. "And judging by the look on his face so is Frank, like it or not you've been outvoted."

"We are supposed to show dominance over these lowly students!" Jessica protested and Cameron's eyes narrowed.

"And we'll do that in the match!" Cameron answered before turning to Frank. "Go ahead, this won't take long."

"Ever heard of the phrase "famous last words"?" Frank asked as he drew his card. "I set one card facedown and I summon Ojama Blue!"

"Wait, what?!" Cameron yelled out as a strange monster appeared on the field, it seemed to be related to the Ojama Monsters but was blue in color (2/0/1000). "Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"You'll see soon enough." Frank responded before looking over his hand. "That ends my turn." Frank announced and Jessica drew her card.

"He's using an Ojama deck?" Chelsea wondered out loud as she watched the duel via the stream. "Sure Chazz Princeton is famous for using those things but how the hell is a deck built around them supposed to work?"

"We'll find out soon enough." Tyler agreed as the students watched the duel.

"_He runs an Ojama Deck? This will be quick!" _Jessica thought as she looked at her hand. "I play a Spell Card called Dark Room of Nightmare, now as long as you take effect damage you'll take an additional three-hundred points of damage."

"So the ice queen of Obelisk Blue runs a burn deck?" Heath scoffed and Jessica's eyes narrowed. "Then again given how many male Obelisk Blue students you've fucked….."

"Show some respect!" Cameron interrupted him and Heath scoffed.

"You show us respect first, otherwise you get none." Heath said and Jessica growled at him.

"Just for that I'm activating my Spell Card Poison of the Old Man and I chose to use its burn effect!" Jessica played the card and Heath and Frank winced as their life-points dropped to 6500. "I set a card facedown…." Jessica trailed off as she set the card. "And end my turn."

"_No monsters? She's lucky that I won't be able to attack until next turn." _Heath thought as he drew his first card of the duel and looked at it. "I start my turn with a rather popular Spell Card, Reinforcement of the Army!" Heath played the card and he picked up his deck, he searched through it and once he found the card that he was looking for he added it to his hand. "Now I activate a Field Spell, Shien's Castle of Mist."

"Ojamas and Six Samurais, this may not have been as one sided as I had hoped." Cameron grunted as the scenery changed to a Japanese Castle shrouded in mist.

"Next I set two cards facedown." Heath continued as the two cards appeared on the field. "And I set one monster in defense mode in order to end my turn." Heath announced as the set card appeared on the field and Cameron drew his card.

"Here we go, here comes the Steelswarm monsters." Chloe commented with a frown as she thought back to the duel she had against Cameron.

"Yeah well, if he pulls any stunts like the one in his duel against you I'll march over to the arena myself and kick him in the nuts." Chelsea responded with a smirk and Chloe smiled at that. "Anyone know anything about Heath or Frank?"

"Sorry but all I know about Heath is that he's an Asian American who moved to Japan to attend here." Brandon commented with a frown. "He could try some racist remarks but Heath has a fairly short temper as well, if he tries that then Heath may well beat you too it."

"As for Frank he joined at the same time you guys did, his test duel was the one after Chelsea's." Theresa added as she turned to them. "His deck choice is odd but it was good enough to get him in the school even if he's stuck in Osiris Red."

"My move and I believe it's time I showed you idiots how a real duelist duels!" Cameron commented as he drew his card. "For starters, since my opponents have monsters on their side of the field and I don't I can Special Summon Steelswarm Cell to the field!" Cameron played the card and a small, circular black fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0). "But this monster isn't staying around, I tribute it to summon Steelswarm Mantis!" Cameron played the card and Steelswarm Cell disappeared, in its place stood a large black humanoid mantis who prepared for battle (5/2200/0000).

"Your Steelswarms don't scare us!" Frank said confidently and Cameron grinned.

"Then I'll give you a reason to be scared, when Steelswarm Mantis is Tribute Summoned by using a Steelswarm monster its effect activates." Cameron explained as his life-points dropped to 7000. "It costs me a thousand life-points but in exchange I can Special Summon Steelswarm Cell from the graveyard." Cameron added as the small fiend returned to the field.

"Too bad you've already used up your Normal Summon." Heath pointed out and Cameron scoffed.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious." Cameron said as he rolled his eyes. "But I never said I was done, I activate my Double Summon Spell Card!" Cameron played the card and grinned. "Now I get an additional Normal Summon and I use it to tribute Steelswarm Cell to summon Steelswarm Moth!" Cameron played the card and Steelswarm Cell disappeared from the field, in its place stood a massive moth with a human like body (6/2400/0000).

"And cue its effect…" Heath muttered under his breath which Cameron ignored.

"And when Moth is summoned using a Steelswarm Monster its effect activates." Cameron added as his life-points dropped to 6000. "It costs me an additional one thousand life-points but with it I can return up to two cards an opponent controls to their hand, I could target your backrow but where's the fun in that? I use Moth's effect to return Ojama Blue and Heath's facedown monster to your hands!" Cameron announced and the two duelists braced themselves as Moth beat its wings towards the monsters sending them flying.

"That move cost you two-thousand life-points and it was your opening move." Heath commented as he returned his monster to his hand. "How did you get in Obelisk Blue again?"

"Save your insolence you lowly reject." Cameron growled as he picked up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Cameron announced and Frank drew his card.

"Well, if that's all you've got then I've got bad news for you, first I summon Ojama Blue back to the field…." Frank announced as the small blue creature returned to the field. "And I end my turn with a facedown card."

"Oh, really, you question my boyfriend's lack of moves, yet all you can do for your move is Summon that ugly little thing back to the field." Jessica scoffed as she drew her card.

"Hey don't call Ojama Blue ugly!" Frank protested and Jessica rolled her eyes. "Especially since it's obvious that you haven't looked in the mirror lately, in fact the only ugly thing here is you!" Frank added and the crowd let out a collective "OOOOOOHHHHHH" in response to his burn.

"I like Frank already." Chloe said as she tried her best to keep herself from laughing her ass off, Chelsea on the other hand wasn't even trying.

"Oh man, I'm gonna have to make a clip off that from the replay that DA will put on its YouTube channel later and upload it!" Chelsea said in between bursts of laughter. "My YouTube channel will get a million hits easily."

"You know as well as I do that YouTube doesn't work that way." Tyler commented with a frown as Chelsea regained her composure.

"Yeah, that's why I'm gonna post it on Duel Academy's Website!" Chelsea responded as she wiped away some laughter induced tears.

"You'll pay for that comment!" Jessica growled as she looked at her card. _"All right, I have one half of my combo in my hand, soon as I draw one of the other components this match is mine!" _Jessica thought as she set the card. "I set one card facedown and I'll flip my facedown card up, Just Deserts, this card may be old but with the ability to inflict five-hundred points of damage to your life-points for each monster you control!" Jessica announced Frank and Heath winced as their life-points dropped down to 6000. "And now Dark Room of Nightmare comes into play." Jessica added as their life-points dropped to 5700. "That ends my turn."

"Out of curiosity, does your deck have any monsters in it?!" Heath asked as he drew his card, Jessica merely smirked at the comment.

"Oh I do have monsters in this deck." Jessica said with a devilish smirk. "In fact once I summon my best monster you'll wish you never enrolled in this academy!"

"Then I guess it's up to us to make sure that that doesn't happen!" Heath responded before looking at the card he had just drawn. "I didn't do this last turn because I was worried about those traps but seeing as how Frank was able to make his move without incident…." Heath trailed off before playing his card. "I summon Kagemusha of the Six Samurai to the field!" Heath played the card and a samurai in green armor appeared on the field (2/400/1800).

"You were afraid to do what? Summon a pathetic monster?" Jessica scoffed and Heath grinned.

"Don't jump to conclusions. Next I flip my facedown card up, Asceticism of the Six Samurai!" Heath announced as his Quick Play Spell Card flipped up. "And this is a very lethal spell card, when it's flipped up I can target one Six Samurai on my side of the field such as Kagemusha and Special Summon a monster with a different name but the same attack points, such as Elder of the Six Samurai!" Heath played the card and a much older samurai in white robes appeared on the field, he was wearing a mask over his face and was crouching down in defense mode (3/400/0000).

"You summoned two pathetic monsters in the same turn? Well, thanks for the easy targets!" Cameron scoffed and Heath's grin grew wider.

"I'm not done yet, next since I control a Six Samurai monster I can Special Summon the mighty Grandmaster of the Six Samurai!" Heath played the card and an old warrior appeared on the field though he wasn't as old as elder, he was muscular and had long flowing white hair, a beard and was wearing gold and black armor (5/2100/800).

"Well, he's an improvement over your other monsters but still no match for my Steelswarms!" Cameron said cockily and Heath's grin grew into a broad one. "Unless….."

"Unless one of my monsters is a Tuner Monster, in this case it's Kagemusha and I'm tuning him with Elder!" Heath announced as the two samurai leapt into the air, Kagemusha dissolved into two green Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Elder. "So that I can Synchro Summon the mighty Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En!" Heath played the card and once the flash faded a new samurai appeared in place of Elder, this one was fully decked out in red and gold armor, had a gold cape and was carrying a sword (5/2500/1400).

"He doesn't look so legendary to me." Cameron scoffed and Heath grinned.

"He's still stronger than your Steelswarns, speaking of which Shi-En, attack Steelswarm Mantis!" Heath commanded and the samurai charged towards the monster…

"And once again a lowly reject has fallen into my trap!" Cameron said as his trap card flipped up. "Mirror Force reflects the attack right back….." Cameron trailed off when Shi En cut Mirror Force's hologram in half before doing the same to Mantis bringing Cameron's life-points down to 5700.

"Sorry to disappoint you but this "lowly reject" as defeated your trap." Heath said cockily as Shi En returned to his side of the field. "Once per turn during either of our turns Shi En can negate the activation of a Spell or Trap Card and destroy it!" Heath said before pointing to Grandmaster. "And I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it seems your girlfriend's field is wide open, I'm sure she's used to having her legs wide open but that's beside the point." Heath added whilst ignoring the glare from Jessica as Grandmaster drew his sword. "Grandmaster, attack her life-points directly!" Heath commanded and the old warrior charged towards Jessica…

"You fool! Mirror Force was a bluff and you fell right for it! I activate my trap card Sekeretsu Armor!" Cameron announced as his second trap card flipped up. "And since you said that Shi En's effect only works once per turn….."

"I know what I said but I have a trap of my own! I activate my Counter Trap Card Musakani Magatama!" Heath activated the trap and grinned. "This trap card….."

"Does anyone have a translator for that card's name?!" Frank asked abruptly and Heath sweat-dropped in response.

"All you need to know about this card is two things, one, the name is a play on Yasakani no Magatama, one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan." Heath explained only to get a confused look from Frank. "I'll explain after the match, second when a Spell, Trap or Monster Effect that would destroy a card whilst I have a Six Samurai monster on my side of the field is activated this trap negates the activation and destroys it!" Heath explained and Jessica's eyes widened as Sekeretsu Armor's hologram shattered and Grandmaster sliced his sword down the middle of Jessica bringing her life-points down to 5900. "It would appear that these lowly rejects have taken the lead, I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"It's about time!" Cameron growled as he drew his card. "And I'll make you pay for that comment towards Jessica! First I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Steelswarm Cell!" Cameron played the card and the small fiend returned to the field for the third time in the duel. "But they won't be staying around, I tribute my monsters to summon the dreaded Steelswarm Caucastag!" Cameron played the card and the two monsters vanished from the field, in the place of Moth stood a huge insect like fiend with butterfly like wings and a long tail (8/2800/0000).

"That looks bad." Frank gulped as he stared down the massive monster. "But he's still nothing that we can't handle!"

"That's where you're wrong, if you think the effects of my other Steelswarms are bad enough then I have bad news for you!" Cameron said with a cocky grin. "When this monster is tribute summoned using two Steelswarm monsters I can activate one of two effects, either destroy every other monster on the field or destroy all Spell and Trap Cards on the field and since I don't want to mess with Jessica's strategy….."

"You won't get a chance to do either! By discarding Effect Veiler from my hand I can negate that thing's effect!" Frank announced as the he discarded the card and the large insect like fiend grunted in pain, Cameron growled at him as he glared at him.

"Just for that I'm having my monster squash Ojama Blue!" Cameron announced as the large fiend charged towards Ojama Blue….

"I activate my trap card! Go Magical Hats!" Frank activated the trap and three comically large magician's hats appeared on Frank's side of the field, one of them covered up Ojama Blue and the hats shuffled around for a few seconds before stopping. "Three hats, one of them has Ojama Blue underneath it, the others…well that's for me to know and you to find out!"

"Fine, have it your way!" Cameron grunted as his eyes narrowed. "Caucastag, attack the hat on the right!" Cameron commanded and the fiend charged towards the hat before chopping it in two, the contents was revealed to be Ojama Blue which was quickly destroyed.

"Thanks for that, when Ojama Blue is destroyed by battle I can add two Ojama cards from my deck to my hand!" Frank announced as he picked up and searched through his deck, he found the cards that he was looking for and added them to his hand. "And since you've used up your attack you have to end your battle phase."

"Yes, I do!" Cameron grunted as he looked over his hand. "As a matter of fact I end my turn which means that whatever was contained in those hats goes to the graveyard!" Cameron added as the two hats vanished.

"And I have more bad news for you! One of the two facedown cards I set was Ojamamajic and when they are sent to the graveyard I can add one copy of Ojama Yellow, Red and Black to my hand!" Frank added as he picked up and searched through his deck again, once he found the cards that he was looking for he added them to his hand and shuffled his deck again before drawing his card.

"So, wait, he just added five cards to his hand AND drew his card." Chloe realized as she watched the duel. "Is that move even legal?"

"It is and it's very lethal." Tyler responded with a nod. "Especially if he can get the best monster in the Ojama series on the field, if he can do that then we may see an upset!"

"My move and I activate Polymerization!" Frank played the card and picked up the three cards that he had added to his hand via Ojamamajic. "I fuse the three Ojamas in my hand together to fusion summon Ojama King!" Frank added as the three Ojamas appeared on the field briefly before being sucked into a portal, from the portal emerged what could be best described as a giant, grey Ojama complete with a red thong, tiny eyes and a small golden crown (6/0/3000).

"What the fuck is that?!" Chelsea yelled out as she stared at the computer screen. "I run Watts and that is still the weirdest monster I've ever seen!"

"You haven't seen the contents of my second deck." Tyler answered before shaking his head. "On a more serious note that is the best Ojama monster and you'll see why!"

"Is that…..thing supposed to scare me!?" Jessica scoffed as she stared down the massive Ojama monster. "I've seen scarier kittens!"

"Do you know any kittens that can render three Monster Card Zones useless?" Frank retorted and Jessica blinked in confusion. "That's the effect of Ojama King but since you don't seem interested in summoning monsters at the moment I'll use it on Cameron!" Frank added as three of Cameron's spaces sparked with electricity. "I have one more card to play but first I activate my facedown card Ojama Trio and I use it to Special Summon three Ojama Tokens to Jessica's side of the field!"

"This is your big play? Filling up our monster card zone spaces?" Jessica asked as the three tokens appeared on her side of the field.

"No, this is! I activate my Spell Card Ojamuscle!" Frank played the card and Ojama King grew to huge proportions. "First I destroy all over Ojama monsters on the field and thanks to Ojama Trio's effect you lose nine-hundred life-points for each one destroyed!"

"Wait a minute….." Jessica trailed off as Ojama King leapt into the air and flattened the three Ojama tokens bringing Jessica's life-points down to 3200.

"And here's the best part!" Frank added as Ojama King returned to his side of the field. "Ojama King gains three hundred attack points for each monster destroyed in that matter, feel free to do the math!" Frank explained as Ojama King's attack points shot up to three thousand. "Ojama King, attack her life-points directly!" Frank ordered and the massive king leapt into the air before squashing Jessica and bringing her life-points down to a mere two hundred. "At this point Heath could attack with one of his weakest Samurais and you'd be out of the duel."

"You little punk! No-one disrespects me like that!" Jessica spat as she forced herself to her feet, Frank merely smirked as he looked at his hand.

"That ends my turn." Frank announced and Jessica angrily drew her card.

"Man, I could watch that attack all day!" Chelsea said as she laughed her ass off at the attack, Chloe on the other hand was trying not to laugh. "And too think we were worried about those two!"

"I wouldn't dismiss them just yet." Tyler said grimly as he noticed the look on Jessica's face. _"Are the rumors true? Does she really have that…..thing in her deck?"_

"Well, this duel is practically over!" Jessica said with a smirk and Frank grinned. "Stop grinning! We'll never surrender to lowly rejects like you!"

"Really? Didn't your boyfriend use underhanded tactics to avoid losing to Chloe Richardson when she came back from Battle City?" Heath asked and the two Obelisk Blue Student's eyes narrowed. "That seems pretty close to surrendering to me!"

"That bitch got lucky!" Cameron spat and Heath merely shook his head.

"As I was saying, I summon Tour Guide from the Underworld!" Jessica played the card and the tour guide that Brandon used in his duel against the thief appeared on the field (3/1000/600). "And I use her effect to summon one more Tour Guide from my deck!" Jessica said as she played the card and another Tour Guide appeared on the field. "And now I construct an overlay network using my two monsters!"

"A Rank Three XYZ Summon?" Frank asked as the two monsters dissolved into orbs of light. "Meh, nothing I can't handle!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself! I use the Overlay Network to XYZ Summon Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction!" Jessica played the card and a few seconds later a huge golem made of acid appeared on the field, it had multiple eyes all over its body and was terrifying to look at (Rank: 3/3000/3000).

"What…what the fuck…..is…..that!?" Chelsea stammered as she stared at the computer screen in shock as did the other duelists in the room and those in the audience.

"_A Number Monster? This could be trouble!"_ Tyler thought as he and the others watched the duel.

"Allow me to introduce the best monster in my deck, Acid Golem of Destruction!" Jessica said with a broad grin. "And he does have a destructive effect, I have to detach an Overlayed Monster from him during each of my end phases, if I can't I'll lose two thousand life-points, or in this case the duel, whilst it's on the field I can't Special Summon and whilst it has no XYZ Material Monsters it can't attack."

"Then why summon…..actually let me rephrase, why the hell would you run that card in the first place?!" Heath asked once the shock wore off.

"Let me worry about that! First I play Lightning Vortex to clear your side of the field!" Jessica played the card and discarded a card…..

"And I negate it with Shi En's effect!" Heath announced as Shi En raised his sword and deflected the lightning. "Forget about Shi En's effect already?"

"No, actually I was counting on you using his effect because you've freed me up to use my real plan!" Jessica said as she played a card. "I activate Onmi-Gami Combo! I detach Acid Golem's overlay units and now he can attack twice!"

"What's the point in that? You said it yourself that he can't attack without his Overlay Units!" Frank pointed out as he stared at the large monster. "And don't get me started on the fact that you've basically committed suicide."

"You're wrong on both counts because I have another Spell Card to play, Forbidden Chalice!" Jessica played the card and Frank and Heath's eyes widened as Acid Golem's attack points increased to 3400. "Acid Golem, dethrone that king and slaughter Shi En!" Jessica commanded and the golem drew back it's fist before punching straight through Ojama King bringing Frank's life-points down to 5300, it would've done the same to Shi En but Grandmaster leapt into the path of the fist destroying him.

"When Shi En would be destroyed by battle I can have another Six Samurai take the hit for him." Heath commented as his life-points dropped to 5200. "I may still take the damage but you'll still lose the duel!"

"Sorry but no, I move into my second main phase and I activate Creature Swap, I'll take Shi En and you'll take Acid Golem!" Jessica activated the trap and Heath's eyes widened as the two monsters swapped place. "So it seems that I have you two in a no-win situation."

"We'll see about that." Heath grunted as he glanced at the field. _"I have to admit, it's looking pretty hopeless, my Six Samurais are all about Special Summoning and Frank's best monsters are in his Extra Deck but as long as this monstrosity is on our side of the field we can't special summon!"_

"That ends my turn." Jessica announced and Heath reluctantly drew his card.

"I move Acid Golem to defense mode and set a card in defense." Heath sighed as he made his move. "And end my turn." Heath added as their life-points dropped to 3300 and 3200 respectively and Cameron drew his card.

"In that case why not speed things along?" Cameron said as he added his card to his hand. "Caucastag, Shi En, make that punk pay for insulting Jessica!" Cameron commanded and Frank braced himself as the two monsters charged towards him, their attacks came quickly, almost as quick as his life-point's declension to zero. "That ends my turn."

"Come on Heath! You can still win!" Frank tried to encourage him and Heath shook his head.

"She's completely shut down my deck with her strategy and I'll lose next turn at this rate." Heath sighed as he surrendered. "I surrender."

"Good, grovel at our feet like the rejects you are." Jessica said with a laugh as the holograms disappeared and she and Cameron left the area triumphantly, Heath and Frank left dejectedly on the other hand and there was no cheering for once.

"Here are your winners, Cameron Matthews and Jessica Stevens!" Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd remained silent.

"That XYZ Monster has got to be one of the most broken cards I've seen!" Chelsea exclaimed once the stream switched back to the countdown to the next match. "Aren't the Numbers supposed to be incredibly rare? I think I heard something about their being Number Hunters or something."

"Your right about the rarity, as for the Number Hunters all I've heard is rumors." Tyler said as he scratched his chin. "And that confirms the rumor that Jessica has one of those monsters in her deck."

"There was a rumor about that?" Lance asked and Tyler nodded. "We'll have to watch out for that thing in the next round, that's for certain."

"Well, next up is Thomas and Raja; at least we know what they run." Theresa commented with a frown. "But for now let's worry about the Orichalcos Duelists."

"You really think they'll be dumb enough to try another attack after yesterday's theft?" Chelsea asked as she looked up from her laptop.

*meanwhile*

"All right, this is an operation so simple even a brain damaged monkey could do it!" Jack said as the two cloaked Orichalcos Duelist got off the boat. "Grab as many souls as you can before you're caught and leave, do I make myself clear?"

"Very and don't worry, I won't fail like that idiot did yesterday." The figure answered as he walked towards the center of the island. "Leave it to me!"


	83. Day Four A Rival and a friend

"_That last match went exactly as expected." _Thomas thought as he walked down the hallways towards the arena, it was almost time for his tag team match and he had spent the time preparing his deck. _"If that bitch thinks that she'll beat me again she's sorely mistaken! My deck is much more powerful than it was back then!"_

"There you are." Thomas looked up and saw Rajin waiting for him with his Duel Disk in hand. "I was waiting for you and we're going to be late because of it!"

"No, we won't." Thomas said simply as he walked up to him. "If you actually paid attention to the time you'd realize that there is five minutes left on the clock, besides I've been using the time to prepare for the match that we'll inevitably win."

"You'd be foolish to underestimate our opponents." Rajin said as the two boys entered the arena and saw the two female Osiris Red Students waiting for them. Ora had long dark brown hair in a ponytail and blue eyes behind a pair of reading glasses whilst Sarah had shoulder length dark blue hair and green eyes. "After all, weren't you beaten by an Osiris Red student?"

"Rajin, if you want this partnership to work you will refrain from referring to that incident!" Thomas snapped at him as the two boys climbed onto the arena. "Now let's make this quick, I have a tournament to win!"

"You'll be lucky to make it past the first round if that's how you treat your partner." Sarah scoffed as she and Ora activated their duel disks and Thomas and Rajin did likewise. "And as much as you want to pretend that the duel never happened it did and Chloe beat you cleanly!"

"That bitch got lucky!" Thomas growled as he drew his opening hand. "You two on the other hand will be lucky to survive the first five turns!"

"Those are some bold words coming from someone who hasn't won a single duel since he lost to Chloe." Ora responded as she, Sarah and Rajin drew their opening hands. "Off course I could make a joke about you finishing any encounter with a woman early but I think your partner's a little underage for such humor."

"Shut up and decide the order already!" Thomas snapped at them and Sarah smirked.

"Fine, unless you don't believe in ladies first I'll go first followed by Rajin then Ora and finally the raging jackass over there." Sarah commented and Rajin and Ora nodded in agreement, Thomas on the other hand just shot her a death glare for the comment as she drew her first card.

"So, what do we know about Sarah and Ora?" Chloe asked as she watched the duel on Chelsea's laptop, she was at it as she felt that the crowd around Tyler's monitor was getting too cramped for her tastes.

"Joined at the same time you, Chelsea and Lance did but they've apparently been friends since before then." Theresa answered as she turned to them. "As for their decks, Ora ran an Agents deck whilst Sarah ran an Ice Barrier deck."

"Did you say Ice Barrier? Didn't Lance's opponent during the Duel Spirit Duels run one of those cards?" Chelsea asked and Theresa nodded.

"Yeah he did, as for Sarah and Ora I don't know if they are running the same deck nowadays, the Ice Barriers got hit hard when Brionic and Trishula got banned and Agents is a tricky deck to run." Theresa responded with a nod. "Sarah was lucky in the fact that she joined DA before those cards got banned but now? She would've been in big trouble if she had joined when the test duels where held two weeks ago."

"That reminds me, when are the new students joining?" Chloe asked and Theresa shrugged.

"Their arrival at the academy was delayed a bit when the Orichalcos Duelists started attacking students on the island but they should be joining this weekend." Theresa responded before turning to Andreas. "You hear that Nicola got accepted into Osiris Red?"

"I did and I'm happy for her, that's the best place for her at her current skill level." Andreas responded before frowning. "And no, I'm not happy for her because we're dating because we're not."

"Sure you're not, just like Chloe isn't dating Lance!" Chelsea teased him ignoring the glares she was getting from Lance, Andreas and Chloe. "Let's focus on the duel in any case!"

"I start my turn with a Spell Card called Moray of Greed. I shuffle two Water Type Monsters into my deck…." Sarah said as she picked up the two cards and shuffled them into her deck. "And I draw three cards." Sarah added as she drew her cards.

"What do you want, a medal?" Thomas asked as he rolled his eyes. "We all know you run ice barriers!"

"And how is that any different from you running X-Sabers?" Sarah asked and Thomas growled at her. "Anyway I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode and that ends my turn." Sarah announced and Rajin drew his card.

"_I've definitely had stronger opening hands." _Rajin thought as he glanced over the contents of his hand. "I set two cards facedown." Rajin announced as the two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn at that."

"_I'd normally question that but since Rajin runs Spirits any monster he summons would just return to his hand," _Ora thought as she drew her card. "My move and I summon Agent of Wisdom - Mercury to the field!" Ora played the card and an angel with green skin appeared on the field, she had wide blue wings, dark blue hair and was wearing a dark blue dress (4/0/1700).

"Why summon a monster with no attack points in attack mode?" Rajin asked and Ora shook her head.

"I don't know why didn't you summon any monsters during your turn?" Ora asked and Rajin frowned once he realized that she had a point. "I end my turn with two facedown cards.

"About time, now let me show you how a REAL duelist operates." Thomas said snidely as he drew his card. "I activate the Spell Card known as Reinforcement of the Army, given how common this card is I'm sure that I don't need to explain its effect." Thomas played the card he drew and picked up his deck, once he found the cad he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck before sending his Spell Card to the graveyard. "Now I play another popular card, Terra Forming."

"Here comes Saber Vault." Ora commented and Sarah nodded in agreement as Thomas retrieved the card from his deck and added it to his hand.

"Well my deck would be incomplete without this card." Thomas responded as he shuffled his deck. "But as you'll soon see my deck is much more powerful than it was when I was humiliated by your dorm-mate, I play the Spell Card Double Summon!" Thomas played the card and picked up two cards. "And I use its effect to summon two Level 3 Monsters from my hand so I summon XX-Saber Emersblade and XX-Saber Fulhelmknight!" Thomas played the cards and the blonde tuner monster appeared on the field (3/1300/1000) followed by the insect like warrior (3/1300/800), "Now I could go for a Level Six Synchro Summon but I have grander plans than that, such as constructing an overlay network!"

"_Wait, what?" _Sarah thought as the two monsters dissolved into white orbs of light. "I thought your deck was Synchro Centric."

"It was when I faced Chloe Richardson." Thomas said as he spat to the side. "But now I run both Synchros and XYZs, let me demonstrate by XYZ Summoning M-X-Saber Invoker!" Thomas played the card and a new monster appeared in Fulhelmknight's place, this one was a mechanical humanoid bull with a red cape and helmet that was wielding a large sword (Rank: 3/1600/500). "He may not look like much but then again neither does most of Osiris Red!"

"Do us a favor and save your snide comments." Ora growled as she glared at the Obelisk Blue student. "Don't forget it was an Osiris Red Student that beat you!"

"If you wish to avoid my anger then refrain from referring to that incident any further!" Thomas snapped at her before pointing to Invoker. "Next I activate Invoker's effect, I detach Fulhelmknight to Special Summon a Level 4 Earth Warrior or Beast Warrior type monster from my deck in face up defense position such as X-Saber Anu Piranha!" Thomas played the card and another female X-Saber monster appeared on the field, she had blonde hair like Fulhelmknight but her face was covered by a red mask and she was wearing red and black armor whilst wielding two swords (4/1800/1100).

"Gee, I wonder what effects she has." Sarah muttered under her breath as the female warrior crouched down in defense mode.

"She has none. Anu is the only X-Saber that happens to be a Normal Monster." Thomas said before playing another card. "But you don't need to worry about her for long. I use Monster Reborn to bring back Fulhelmknight!" Thomas played the card and the Tuner Monster returned to the field. "And this time I have every intention of using her in a Synchro Summon!"

"You're doing a XYZ and a Synchro Summon in the same turn?!" Ora asked as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"Congratulations, you have decoded my strategy too late to do anything about it!" Thomas responded as Fulhelmknight dissolved into three Synchro Rings that surrounded Anu. "In any case I use my monsters to Synchro Summon the mighty X-Saber Souza!" Thomas played the card and once the flash faded a new monster emerged on the field, this one was a tall and muscular man who wasn't wearing a shirt but was wearing a tattered cape ridiculously high pants and was wielding twin swords (7/2500/1600). "And I end my turn with a facedown card." Thomas announced and Sarah let out a sigh of relief before drawing her card.

"_Man, I never thought he'd end his turn." _Sarah thought before looking at her hand. "Sorry to disappoint you Thomas but that Synchro isn't staying around!" Sarah said before playing a card. "I activate Magic Triangle of the Ice Barrier, all I need to do is reveal three Ice Barrier monsters with different names in my hand….." Sarah trailed off as she revealed the three monsters, Prior, Dai-Sojo and Defender of the Ice Barrier. "And in exchange I can destroy one monster my opponent controls and Special Summon an Ice Barrier monster from my hand!" Sarah added as ice started to form on Souza's body…..

"And I chain it with Forbidden Lance!" Thomas activated his Spell Card and to Sarah's surprise Souza's attack dropped to 1900 as he broke free of the ice. "It costs him 800 attack points but it also causes him to not be affected by Spell or Trap Cards for the rest of the turn."

"_Damn it!" _Sarah cursed herself before glancing at her hand. "I can still Special Summon and I use its effect to Special Summon Dai-Sojo of the Ice Barrier in defense mode!" Sarah played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a man who was wearing a massive hat that concealed his head, a black jumper and blue dress pants (6/1600/2200). "And as long as this guy's on the field he and the other Ice Barrier Monsters can't be destroyed by Spell or Trap Card Effects."

"That was a wasted effort." Thomas scoffed as the monster crouched down in defense mode. "His defense points may be formidable but Souza can easily destroy him."

"Yeah, I noticed." Sarah grunted as she looked at her trap cards. _"Just need to hope that my traps will be enough to protect him." _Sarah thought before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Sarah announced and Rajin drew his card.

"My move and I summon Susa Soldier!" Rajin played the card and a Silver Haired warrior appeared on the field, he was wearing silver armor and was wielding a sword (4/2000/1600). "The attack damage you'll take will be cut in half by Susa Soldier's effect…" Rajin trailed off as the soldier got ready for battle. "But he's still more than enough to destroy Mercury!" Rajin added as the soldier charged towards the fairy.

"I may be in Osiris Red but I'm not stupid enough to leave a monster that has no attack points in attack mode without a backup plan!" Ora said as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Draining Shield, this negates the attack and as an added bonus Susa Soldier's attack points will be added to my life-points!" Ora announced as the sword bounced off of an invisible wall increasing Ora's life-points to ten-thousand."

"You idiot, you gave them the lead!" Thomas snapped at Rajin who ignored him.

"I move into my second main phase and I'll activate my Trap Card Spirit's Invitation!" Rajin said as his trap card flipped up. "But I'll explain its effect when the time comes, which coincidentally is now! I end my turn which means that Susa Soldier returns to my hand." Rajin said as he picked up the card and Susa Soldier vanished from the field. "And with Spirit's Invitation's effect I can return one card on the opponent's side of the field to their hand, I believe I will target Sarah's Ice Barrier Monster!" Rajin explained and Sarah reluctantly returned the monster to her hand as Ora drew her card.

"Good, I was hoping you'd target her monster." Ora commented ignoring the annoyed look from Sarah. "I summon The Agent of Mystery – Earth in attack mode!" Ora played the card and a young fairy with pale skin appeared on the field, she was wearing a green white and blue dress, had green and blue wings and was carrying a staff (2/1000/800). "And when she's summoned her effect activates which lets me add another Agent Monster from my deck to my hand as long as it's not another copy of Earth!"

"Ah yes, she is the Agents archetype's searcher." Thomas said with a yawn as Ora searched through her deck, once she found the card that she was looking for she added it to her hand. "Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"Maybe this will impress you, I play my own Double Summon card and I use it to summon The Agent of Creation – Venus!" Ora played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a third fairy with long blonde hair that was wearing a green and white dress and had golden wings (3/1600/0). "Now I activate her effect, I pay 500 life-points to summon one Mystical Shine Ball from my deck!" Ora played the card and once her life-points dropped to 9500 a small ball of light appeared on the field (2/500/500).

"You're throwing balls at an X-Saber player?!" Thomas said with a laugh and Ora glared at him. "This will be easy!"

"You're about to eat those words because The Agent of Mystery – Earth is also a Tuner Monster!" Ora announced and Thomas quickly stopped laughing as Earth, Venus and the Mystical Shine Ball leapt into the air. "I tune my three monsters together to Synchro Summon Ancient Sacred Wyvern!"

"Do you realize what your foolish move has done?!" Thomas yelled at Rajin once he recognized the monster name, once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, the dragon that Theresa used in her Battle City Semi-Final match against Brandon to be precise (7/2100/2000).

"Tell me Thomas, how was I supposed to know that she had that thing in her extra deck?!" Rajin countered as Wyvern's attack shot up to 3600 thanks to its effect. "I've never even seen her duel before!"

"And that will cost you two the match." Ora said before playing a card. "But just encase I'm activating my Sanctuary in the Sky Field Spell!" Ora announced as the scenery changed to the magnificent castle in the sky, Thomas merely scoffed as he stared down the field spell.

"Have you forgotten that I have Saber Vault in my hand?" Thomas asked with a grin. "All I'll need to do is play it and your strategy will go out the window!"

"Actually, no, I didn't forget." Ora responded as she played the last card in her hand. "That's why I'm playing the Field Barrier Spell Card! Now you'll have to get past this barrier if you want to play your field spell." Ora announced as the field was covered by a green barrier. "Now onto business, Wyvern, attack Rajin's life-points directly!" Ora commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Rajin bringing his life-points down to 4400. "I'll end my turn at that." Ora announced and Thomas drew his card.

"_I knew I should've activated Saber Vault when I had the chance." _Thomas thought before looking at the card in his hand. _"Perfect!" _Thomas thought before playing the card. "First I activate a Spell Card, Forbidden Magic!" Thomas played the card which depicted several well-known Spellcasters casting a Spell. "This can only be activated if I have at least one Spell Card in my hand and four cards in my hand, since my hand fulfills the requirements I merely need to return said spell card to my deck." Thomas said before shuffling Saber Vault into his deck. "And I get to draw two cards." Thomas added as he drew twice.

"_I think it's pretty obvious that the card he just sent was Saber Vault." _Ora thought as Thomas looked at his new cards.

"I summon XX-Saber Darksoul to the field!" Thomas played the card and the Grim Reaper like figure appeared on the field (3/100/100). "But my monster won't be staying around, I tribute it to activate Souza's effect…..or should I say one of his effects?" Thomas asked as Dark Soul disappeared from the field. "As long as I tribute another X-Saber monster on my side of the field Souza gains one of the following effects, either he's unaffected by trap cards for the rest of the turn or the effect I'm going with, at the beginning of the Battle Step if this monster battles an opponent's monster the attacked monster is destroyed and I think I'll target Wyvern!" Thomas announced as Souza charged towards the dragon…..

"You didn't think it would be that easy, would you?" Ora asked as she nodded towards Sarah.

"I activate my Trap Card Dimensional Prison!" Sarah activated the trap and Thomas's eyes widened as Souza was sucked onto a portal. "Now that your monster's removed from play we've practically punched out tickets through to the next round!"

"I have better monsters to choose from!" Thomas grunted as he looked over his hand. "First I enter my Second Main Phase and detach Invoker's last overlay unit to Special Summon Bull Blader in attack mode!" Thomas played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, to put it simply it was a Minotaur carrying a large sword (4/1600/1200). "Now I shift Invoker to defense mode and end my turn which activates Dark Soul's effect, with it I can search through my deck and add another X-Saber to my hand." Thomas picked up his deck and searched through it, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand.

"That's not the only effect that activates!" Ora said as Mercury started glowing. "If my Agent of Wisdom is on the field from my standby phase to my opponent's end phase I get to draw one card." Ora said as she drew a card and added it to her hand.

"Huh, I don't remember seeing any non X-Sabers on his deck list." Brandon commented as he watched Sarah draw her card via the stream.

"Yeah but then again he said that he's updated his deck." Chloe pointed out with a frown. "Maybe he's included generic Beast Warrior and Warrior support?"

"That's the thing. Bull Blader isn't a Beast-Warrior Support card, it's not even a Beast-Warrior for that matter it's a Warrior Type Monster and it's not even a Warrior Support Card." Andreas chimed in and Chloe turned to him. "But at the same time it has a powerful effect."

"It would have to considering it's a monster with 1600 attack and 1200 defense points in today's game." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "Especially since he summoned that thing in attack mode, it's like he wants either Ora or Sarah to attack!"

"_I don't like this Thomas could have all sorts of nasty moves up his sleeves now that he has that Bull Blader on the field." _Sarah thought before looking at her drawn card and adding it to her hand. _"What's worse is that I don't have a method of getting Dai-Sojo, but I can get rid of Rajin's trap!" _Sarah thought before playing the Spell Card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Spirit's Invitation!" Sarah announced and Rajin shielded himself as the tornado blew towards his trap destroying it.

"That may be but I have another trick!" Rajin said as he played the card. "If I card with "Spirit" in its name is destroyed by a card effect I can Special Summon Spirit Shaman in defense mode!" Rajin played the card and an old, Asian man appeared on the field, he had a long flowing white beard and wore clothes that suggested that he belonged to a tribe of some sorts (1/0/2000). "Before you ask he isn't a Sprit Monster and he has another effect but I'll get to that later."

"_Probably has something to do with keeping Spirit Monsters on the field." _Sarah thought to herself before picking up a card. "I set a monster in defense mode and two cards facedown to end my turn." Sarah announced and once the set monster appeared on the field Rajin drew his card.

"Anyone heard of that Sprit Shaman card?" Chelsea asked as she scratched her head in confusion. "I've never heard of it."

"Well I've heard rumors that I2 where releasing new Spirits support cards and Spirit Shaman was among the names listed." Tyler responded as he watched the duel. "I've heard nothing about them actually being released but I may look into it after the duel is done."

"I'm going to take a guess and say that the rumors didn't say what the effects where?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded. "Well if it was released then I guess we know what one of the effects is."

"Chelsea, you mind if I use your laptop?" Brandon asked and Chelsea turned to him with a frown on her face. "Don't worry, I'm not going to access any files, I just want to look up the Spirit Shaman card for myself."

"Fine but I want to keep an eye on you just encase." Chelsea sighed in resignation before standing up and letting Brandon take her seat. "Okay, shouldn't take me too long to get to I2's official website."

"I hope so, this is a fast laptop." Chelsea responded as Brandon accessed the Firefox window. "You mind using a new tab to access it?"

"I was going to anyway." Brandon responded as he opened up a new tab on the browser. "I'm guessing I2's website is in your browsing history?" Brandon asked and Chelsea nodded.

"It's my move and I tribute Spirit Shaman in order to summon the mighty Great Long Nose in to the field attack mode!" Rajin played the card and Spirit Shaman disappeared from the field, in his place stood a tall, red humanoid beast with a long flowing white beard and matching hair that was wearing a long grey robe and, as the name suggested, he had a long nose (5/1900/1700). "I realize that this monster doesn't look like much."

"That's the understatement of the century!" Ora chimed in as she folded her arms. "A Level Five Spirit Monster with 1900 attack points? It had better have a damn good effect."

"Oh, it does, when Great Long Nose inflicts Battle Damage you have to skip your next draw phase." Rajin said before playing another card. "So I equip him with Big Bang Shot!"

"Wait, what!?" Sarah and Ora yelled out simultaneously as Great Long Nose's attack shot up to 2400.

"Why run that in a Spirit deck?" Sarah asked as she stared at the Beast Warrior. "Sure, he'll be able to inflict piercing damage but he'll also return to your hand as soon as you end your turn."

"And that will destroy Big Bang Shot and remove Great Long Nose from play." Ora added as she folded her arms. "In other words, you're wasting a perfectly good card!"

"Let me be the judge of that, Great Long Nose, attack Sarah's defense monster!" Rajin commanded and the spirit monster charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be Blizzed, Defender of the Ice Barrier (1/300/500) who was quickly cut in half by Long Nose's claws. "You may get to draw a card thanks to that monster's effect but you also lose 1900 life-points and your next battle phase."

"Sorry but no, I activated my Defense Draw trap card which negated the Battle Damage and let me draw one more card and Broken Blocker which lets me Special Summon two more copies off Blizzed!" Sarah said as she added her two new cards to her hand and two more Blizzeds appeared on the field. "And as soon as you end your turn Great Long Nose will be gone for good."

"If I can chime in for a second you'd realize how wrong you are." Thomas responded and Sarah turned to him. "As long as Spirit Shaman is in the graveyard none of Rajin's monsters will be returned to his hand."

"So in other words it's a monster version of Spiritual Energy Settle Machine that activates from the Graveyard." Ora responded and Thomas nodded. "That has to have some kind of drawback."

"It does, I'm only allowed to have one Spirit Shaman in my graveyard at a time, it has another drawback but I'll cross that bridge when the time comes" Rajin responded as he looked over his hand. "I end my turn with a facedown card." Rajin announced and Ora drew her card.

"_That Sprit Shaman's going to be a problem but as long as I have Ancient Sacred Wyvern on the field I can keep his Spirit Monsters off the field the old fashioned way." _Ora thought before looking at her drawn card. "I'll play a spell card called Diane Keto the Cure Master, this boosts my life-points by a thousand….." Ora said as her life-points increased to 10,500. "And more importantly Ancient Sacred Wyvern gets even stronger!" Ora added as her dragon's attack increased to 4600. "Wyvern put Great Long Nose out to pasture!" Ora commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the Spirit Monster…..

"I activate my Trap Card, Spirit's Salvation!" Rajin activated the trap which depicted Marauding Captain taking a blast for Inaba White Rabbit. "Since you just targeted my Spirit Monster for an attack this trap will redirect the attack towards a non-spirit monster and since we're sharing the field I'll redirect it towards Bull Blader!"

"Fine by me, he'll be destroyed anyway." Ora said as the blast was redirected it towards the Minotaur which was quickly roasted. "Not to mention the fact that he has lower attack points than Great Long Nose means my Wyvern's even stronger!"

"And once again the Osiris Red Students prove their inferiority!" Thomas said and the two students blinked before realizing that his life-points hadn't dropped by a single point. "Bull Blader's effect activates when an attack is declared involving him and an opponent's monster, for starters neither of us take any damage from the battle." Thomas said before grinning broadly. "And the attacking monster gets destroyed!" Thomas added and Ora's eyes widened as Ancient Sacred Wyvern shattered into a million pieces. "Like it or not your only defense right now is that pathetic agent!"

"Aren't you forgetting something? I drew a card with this "pathetic agent's" effect last turn." Ora pointed out as she picked up the card. "And I'm setting it face-down before I end my turn." Ora announced and once the card appeared on the field Thomas drew his card.

"I'll start with my trap card Sound the Retreat! With this I return Invoker and any other monsters I control to my hand but since Invoker is my only monster at the moment….." Thomas trailed off as Invoker vanished from the field and he returned the monster to his extra deck.

"So you'll be able to recycle Invoker the next time you get a pair of Level 3 monsters on the field?" Ora said as she folded her arms. "Unless you have a monster that you can summon right now that was a stupid move."

"I don't just have one monster I can summon, I have five." Thomas responded as he played a card. "And here's the first one, Goblindergh in attack mode!" Thomas played the card and a small red plane being piloted by a goblin appeared on the field (4/1400/0).

"That's gotta be one of the goofiest card designs I've ever seen." Sarah muttered under her breath and Ora nodded in agreement.

"Maybe but with his effect I can special summon my second monster and all I have to do is shift him to defense mode to do it!" Thomas announced as the plane landed on the field. "As for the monster itself, I'll show you, Rescue Rabbit in attack mode!" Thomas played the card and the cute small rabbit in the worker's helmet appeared on the field (4/300/100). "Now I banish Rescue Rabbit to Special Summon two copies of X-Saber Anu Piranha!" Thomas announced as the small rabbit vanished from the field and two copies of the female X-Saber appeared on the field. "Now I use all three of my monsters to construct an Overlay Network!"

"A three monster overlay? This is bad." Sarah gulped as the three monsters dissolved into orbs of white light that started spinning around.

"You have no idea! I use my three monsters to XYZ Summon One-Eyed Skill Gainer in attack mode!" Thomas played the card and in the place of one of his X-Sabers stood a new monster, he was a tall one-eyed warrior with green skin, blue, anime like hair and he was wearing blue and gold armor with red scarfs around his neck and waist (Rank: 4/2500/2600). "Now he does have a very lethal effect but I won't get into that just yet." Thomas said before pointing to Mercury. "But what I will do is attack Ora's agent!" Thomas announced as the warrior drew his sword before charging towards the monster…..

"I activate my trap card Shift and I use it force you to attack one of Sarah's Blizzeds instead!" Ora activated the trap and One-Eyed Skill Gained shifted his attention to one of the weak Winged Beasts who was quickly cut in half.

"And thanks to its effect I get to draw a card!" Sarah added before drawing a card.

"And you'll get to draw another card as soon as my turn ends." Thomas grunted as his eyes narrowed. "I'd pretend to be impressed but a move that basic doesn't even deserve that! So instead I set a card facedown and end my turn." Thomas announced and once Ora drew her card Sarah drew her card.

"You guys heard of that One-Eyed Skill Gainer card?" Chloe wondered as she watched the duel and Chelsea shook her head.

"No but I'm willing to bet that Mr. Know It All over there does." Chelsea answered as she and Brandon looked up Spirit Shaman. "Wait, am I reading that right?"

"Yes, you are, and that makes Spirit Shaman incredibly broken." Brandon responded with a nod as he read the effect.

"I'm not sure if I should take "Mr. Know It All" as a compliment or not." Tyler grunted as he watched the duel. "It's a powerful XYZ monster and the reason that Thomas didn't activate its effect is simple, it requires the opponent to have an XYZ monster on their side of the field."

"Okay, so why summon it now?" Chloe asked as she watched the duel. "Hell he could've used Rescue Rabbit's effect to get Invoker back on the field instead!"

"That's a good question." Tyler admitted as his eyes narrowed. "It has strong attack and defense stats but until Sarah or Ora summon an XYZ monster it may as well be a beatstick."

"_Okay, that card I drew after Thomas destroyed Blizzed will help a lot." _Sarah thought before frowning and turning her attention to Rajin. _"And as strong as One-Eyed Skill Gainer is eliminating Great Long Nose takes priority and whilst Ora's attempt may have failed I can pick up where she left off." _Sarah thought before playing a card. "I sacrifice my last remaining Blizzed to summon an old friend back to the field!" Sarah played the card and the last winged beast shattered, in its place stood Dai-Salgo of the Ice Barrier ready for battle (6/1600/2200).

"Humph, you're relying on that old tactic?" Thomas scoffed as he stared down the monster. "Not only is his defense weaker than either of our monsters attack points but it's obvious that you summoned it in attack mode!" Thomas pointed out with a grin. "How on Earth did you make it through the entrance exam in the first place with moves like that?"

"I made it into this school because of combos like this!" Sarah responded before playing another card. "I activate my Shield and Sword Spell Card to switch the attack and defense scores of all monsters on the field for the rest of my turn!" Thomas's eyes widened as the four monster's stats got switched around, Dai-Salgo's; Mercury's and One-Eyed Skill Gainer's attacks went up to 2200, 1800 and 2600 respectively whilst Great Long Nose's attack dropped to 1700. "It may not be enough to take care of that Skill Gainer but I'll take taking out Great Long Nose instead!" Sarah announced as Dai-Salgo casted a spell at Great Long Nose causing it to be slowly encased in ice before finally shattering bringing Rajin's life-points down to 7500. "That ends my turn." Sarah announced and Rajin drew his card once the stats of the remaining monsters on the field returned to normal.

"_She may have destroyed Great Long Nose but I have more cards like that in my deck." _Rajin thought before looking at his drawn card. "I activate a Spell Card Offerings from Beyond!" Rajin played the card which depicted a grave stone with a statue of the infamous Spirit Monster Yata-Garasu on top of it, on top of the grave it's self where six duel monster cards.

"That's a fitting place for such a broken card." Ora commented as she recognized the monster's statue.

"Congratulations, that's the first smart thing you've said in this duel." Thomas said with a scoff before turning to Rajin. "Now I believe you were going to explain that Spell Card's effect."

"Indeed, since I have a Spirit Monster in my graveyard this Spell Card will allow me to draw until I have six cards but if I draw any copies of a monster already in my graveyard then I have to skip my Battle Phase." Rajin explained before drawing until he had six cards in his hand, once he saw the contents of his new hand he nodded in approval. "Excellent, there's not a single copy of Great Long Nose or Spirit Shaman."

"Like that'll help you, don't forget that we have a powerful wall blocking your way." Sarah pointed out as she motioned to Dai-Salgo and Mercury.

"Yes but the monster I'm about to summon will leap over your wall!" Rajin said before playing a card. "I summon Inaba White Rabbit in attack mode!" Rajin played the card and Sarah and Ora's eyes widened as the small white rabbit on the strange pogo stick appeared on the field (3/700/500).

"You just made a mistake Rajin." Ora realized with a smirk. "In order to attack our life-points directly Inaba has to be summoned or flipped."

"She's right! And as long as Spirit Shaman is in your graveyard you'll only get one shot at it!" Sarah added and Rajin smirked.

"Well, why not make the most of it? I equip my Rabbit with Unstable Evolution!" Rajin played the card and his rabbit started glowing. "This card is fairly situational as it depends on how high or low my life-points are, if I have lower life-points than my opponent then the equipped monster's attack increased to 2400." Rajin explained as White Rabbit's attack increased to 2400. "However if my life-points are higher than my opponent's life-points then its attack will drop to 1000."

"I can see why it's so unstable." Ora grunted as she stared at the monster. "And if, for any reason, we have the same amount of life-points?"

"Honestly I don't know." Rajin commented with a shrug before pointing to Ora. "And I'm afraid that Sanctuary's effect won't save you from this attack!" Rajin announced as the rabbit leaped towards Sarah before hitting her with his pogo stick bringing her life-points down to 8100. "And that ends my turn." Rajin announced and Sarah drew her card.

"For starters I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Ora played the card and all four duelists drew until they had three more cards in their hand. "Now I activate Monster Reborn and I use it to bring back Mystical Shine Ball!" Ora played the card and the small ball of light appeared on the field. "Why bring that back and not Wyvern? Let me show you, I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Inferno Reckless Summon from my hand to bring back the other Shine Balls!" Ora played the card and the other two Shine Balls appeared on the field. "You'll be able to summon copies of your own monsters if you can."

"I can't." Rajin admitted and Thomas and Sarah nodded in agreement.

"Good, now onto business, I use two of my Shine Balls to construct an Overlay Network!" Ora announced as the two balls vanished into slightly larger balls of light. "So I can summon Gachi Gachi Gantetsu in defense mode!" Ora played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small rock golem that was crouching down in defense mode who was wearing red pants (Rank: 2/500/1800). "This guy may not look like much but for each XYZ Material monster attached to this monster all monsters on our side of the field….."

"Gain two hundred attack and defense points and it can detach an overlay unit to survive an attack or destruction effect." Thomas interrupted her as he folded his arms whilst Gachi and Mercury's attack and defense points increased to 900/2200 and 400/2100 respectively. "I said that my deck is an XYZ/Synchro Hybrid and I meant it and that includes being well versed when it comes to the effects of XYZ monsters."

"Well, let's see how you handle that." Ora said before picking up the last card in her hand. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Ora announced and Thomas grinned before drawing his card. _"I don't know what he's grinning about but my facedown card is another Draining Shield so if he attacks with One-Eyed Skill Gainer I can get the life-points I lost from Rajin's attack and then some."_

"Well you've waited long enough so I guess it's only fair that I demonstrate the effect of One-Eyed Skill Gainer and I'll detach Goblindergh in order to do it." Thomas announced as he sent the monster to the graveyard. "And I target Gaichi!"

"That won't do you any good, don't forget that Gaichi can survive being destroyed by detaching an Overlay Unit!" Ora pointed out and Thomas just grinned. "What are you…?" Ora trailed off when One-Eyed Skill Gainer's and Inabba White Rabbit's attack points shot up to 2900 and 2800 respectively. "What did you just do?!"

"I took Gaichi's effect and made it my own! One-Eyed Skill Gainer has a very powerful effect." Thomas replied with a wide grin. "You see by detaching an overlay unit from Skill Gainer I can target an XYZ monster that you control and he'll gain his name and effect." Thomas explained with a grin. "Downside is that I can only use it once whilst Skill Gainer is Face-Up on the field but I don't need to worry about that." Thomas said as he played another card. "I activate XYZ Energy, now by detaching another Overlay Unit from One-Eyed Skill Gainer I can target one monster you control and destroy it and I choose Gaichi!"

"And I detach a unit from Gaichi to save him!" Ora said as she quickly sent one of the Shine Balls to the graveyard and Gaichi survived the blast. "All you've done is weakened him and your own monster!"

"I don't think so! I activate my Trap Card Sin Key Law!" Thomas announced as his Trap Card flipped up. "For this effect I shall target my One-Eyed Skill Gainer and with this trap I can Special Summon two Umbrallis Mirage Tokens!" Thomas announced as two Egyptian Statue heads appeared on the field (1/?/0). "And thanks to my trap card's effect their attack becomes the same as Skill Gainer's including the boost he got from his effect!" Thomas added as the token's attack increased to 2700. "Now what they can't do is initiate a direct attack but you have enough target practice on your side of the field as it is!"

"Huh?" Ora blinked in confusion before it hit her. "I left my remaining Shine Ball in attack mode!"

"Exactly and to make sure that trap card doesn't get in the way….." Thomas trailed off as he played a card. "I activate the ever popular Heavy Storm to blow it and the other cards on the field away!" Thomas announced and Ora braced herself as her three Spell and trap cards were destroyed. "Rajin, I require Inabba White Rabbit's assistance."

"Say no more." Rajin said as the rabbit hopped over to Thomas's side of the field.

"No Sanctuary in the Sky, no Field Barrier, no escape, now my tokens, finish off Gaichi!" Thomas commanded and the two tokens charged towards the XYZ monster, it survived the first attack but not the second returning the scores on their side of the field to normal. "Skill Gainer, destroy Shine Ball!"

"Oh this is going to hurt!" Ora gulped as Skill Gainer charged towards Shine Ball before cutting it in half and bringing her life-points down to 5900.

"Inabba White Rabbit, destroy her last line of defense!" Thomas commanded and the rabbit hopped towards Mercury finally destroying her. "Off course you had one to many cards in your hand to use her effect but I was getting sick of you drawing cards during my end phase." Thomas commented before looking at his hand. "I set a card facedown." Thomas announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And that ends my turn."

"Damn, in one move he crushed Ora's forces!" Chelsea said after letting out an impressed whistle.

"Chloe may have beaten him last month but it's obvious that he's a much stronger duelist now." Brandon agreed with her as he watched the duel. "Even if she draws something that can get back Wyvern she'll be at a disadvantage due to her lower life-points."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Wyvern's side effect." Marcus commented with a nod. "Can you think of anything that Sarah can do to get them back in this?"

"If she draws another copy of Shield and Sword she can do some major damage by attacking Thomas's tokens since their defense points are non-existent." Tyler answered with a frown. "Besides that nothing comes to mind, the best Ice Barrier monsters are on the Banned List after all."

"Well there is one Ice Barrier Synchro that isn't banned, Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier, though that monster's effect is easily the weakest out of the three." Theresa responded after thinking for a few minutes. "That may explain why it hasn't been banned."

"Think they got a shot if they can get it out?" Chelsea asked and Theresa shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Theresa responded with a frown as Sarah drew her card.

"_This is my only chance; if we want to win I'll have to for a Synchro." _Sarah thought once she looked over her hand. "I activate the Spell Card Demotion! With this I lower Dai-Salgo's level by two!" Sarah announced as her monster's level dropped to four. "Now I summon Cyromancer of the Ice Barrier in attack mode!" Sarah played the card and a bald man wearing a toga appeared on the field (2/1300/0000). "His effect states that as long as he's on the field Level Four or higher monsters can't attack but that's not why I summoned him." Sarah said as Cyromancer and Dai-Salgo leapt into the air. "I summoned him because he's a Tuner Monster."

"If Brionic wasn't banned I'd be worried right now." Thomas said with a yawn as Cyromancer dissolved into two green Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Dai-Salgo.

"I wouldn't run a card that broken even if he was legal!" Sarah answered as she retrieved a monster from her extra deck. "I tune my monsters together to Synchro Summon Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier!" Sarah played the card and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field in Dai-Salgo's place, it was a large, ice colored tiger that was wearing gold armor (6/2000/1400).

"Ah yes, here he is the black sheep of the Ice Barrier Synchros." Thomas said with a yawn. "You seriously consider that weakling to be better than Brionic or Trishula?"

"No but as far as legal Level 6 Synchros go he's among the best!" Sarah answered with a grin. "But for starters I activate the Continuous Spell Card Water Hazard!" Sarah said as she played the card. "But I won't bother to explain the effect because I'm using it as fodder for my Tiger King's effect, once per turn I can return one card I control to my hand to give his attack power a boost of five hundred points!" Sarah announced and once the card was back in her hand Dewloren's attack increased to 2500.

"Encase you haven't noticed our monsters are stronger than him even with the extra attack power!" Thomas quickly pointed out and Rajin cleared his throat. "What now?"

"Unstable Evolution's side effect, that's what!" Rajin said as he pointed to Inabba whose attack had dropped to 1000. "I don't know why that didn't resolve during your turn but because of your attacks my Rabbit is vulnerable."

"I never thought I'd hear that sentence." Sarah muttered under her breath before pointing to Inabba White Rabbit. "Dewloren, attack Inabba White Rabbit with Ice Claw Slash!" Sarah commanded and the tiger leapt towards the rabbit before cutting it in two with his claw and bringing Rajin's life-points down to 3400. "And I'll end my turn at that."

"Enjoy your victory whilst it lasts!" Thomas sneered as Rajin drew his card.

"_Hmmm, another Spirit Support card that Thomas gave me….." _Rajin thought to himself as he looked at the card in his hand. _"I could use this but…."_

"If you drew a good card then use it!" Thomas said impatiently and Rajin hesitated before playing it.

"I activate my Spiritual Rebirth Spell Card!" Rajin played the card which depicted Dark Dust Spirit bursting out from a grave. "With this spell card I can bring back one Spirit monster or monster with the word Spirit in its name and in the case of Spirit Monsters the summoning restrictions are ignored, however the monster in question will be removed from play at the end of my turn if it's still on the field."

"_It sounds like he's going to use that monster for Tribute or even Synchro Fodder." _Sarah thought to herself as Rajin retrieved the cards from his graveyard and looked through them. _"Not like it matters, the big Spirit Monsters are Yamata Dragon and that warrior whose name I can't pronounce; unless he has another copy of Spiritual Rebirth we should be safe."_

"And I use it to bring back Spirit Shaman!" Rajin played the card and to everyone's (except Thomas's) surprise Spirit Shaman returned to the field.

"Wait, what? That was your best monster and your risking it bring removed from play?!" Ora yelled out in surprise and Thomas chuckled.

"Rajin, I believe it's time you told them Spirit Shaman's other drawback!" Thomas told him and Rajin took a deep breath.

"Spirit Shaman can only be used in the Synchro Summon of a Spirit Synchro Monster." Rajin explained and Ora and Sarah, alongside everyone else in the arena, did double takes.

"Wait, what? There aren't any Spirit Synchro Monsters…and are you telling me that thing's a TUNER?!" Sarah yelled out once it hit her and Rajin nodded before playing another card.

"That is exactly what I am saying, for my Normal Summon I bring out Izanami!" Rajin played the card and a young Asian Woman with her hair tied up in a bow appeared on the field, she was wearing a white and green gui and bowed respectively to the opponents (4/1100/1800). "Now her effect activates, I discard one card from my hand to add another Spirit Monster from my deck to my hand." Rajin said before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled the deck. "Now I tune Izanami with Spirit Shaman!" Rajin announced as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"_If there are Spirit Synchros then we're in trouble." _Ora thought as Spirit Shaman dissolved into one Synchro Ring that quickly surrounded Izanami.

"Please welcome to the field the first ever Spirit Synchro Monster, Baku Consumer of Nightmares!" Rajin played the card and once the flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a strange furry creature that was approximately the size of a large dog and had the head to match, and it growled at the two women as it got ready to pounce (5/1700/2400).

"That's the Spirit Synchro Monster?!" Ora asked with a raised eyebrow. "What good will that thing do you besides attacking my life-points directly?"

"I'm glad you asked because Baku gains one of three effects depending on the number of non-tuner Spirit Monsters used in its summon." Rajin responded as he pointed to Dewloren. "For example since I used one such monster in its Synchro Summon I can destroy one monster on the field and inflict damage equal to its attack points." Rajin explained as Baku leapt towards Dewloren and slashed it with its claws bringing Ora and Sarah's life-points down to 3900 and 6000 respectively. "Thomas, if you will let me borrow One Eyed Skill Gainer I can finish off Ora."

"Very well, the sooner we can end this nonsense the better." Thomas grunted as One-Eyed Skill Gainer walked over to Rajin's side of the field.

"Then this duel is over for Ora! Baku, One-Eyed Skill Gainer, attack her life-points!" Rajin commanded and the two monsters charged towards Ora before attacking her and bringing her life-points down to zero. "That ends my turn and since Ora's out of the duel this means that it's over for you Sarah!"

"Indeed." Thomas said as he drew his card. "Let's not waste any time here, I summon the Tuner Monster X-Saber Airbellum!" Thomas played the card and a humanoid armadillo with wolverine like claws appeared on the field (3/1600/200). "Now I tune him with my tokens to Synchro Summon X-Saber Wayne!" Thomas announced as the three monsters leapt into the air, Aiebellum dissolved into three Synchro Rings that surrounded the two tokens and once the flash faded a man in typical cowboy gear appeared on the field (5/2100/400). "And when Wayne is Synchro Summoned Successfully I can Special Summon another Warrior type monster from my hand such as XX-Saber Boggart Knight!"

"Wait I surr…." Sarah never got a chance to surrender as Thomas's new monster appeared on the field, it was an extremely muscular knight who was wearing a red cape and silver armor (4/1900/1000) and with a simple neck slice motion Thomas commanded the three monsters to attack without mercy bringing Sarah's life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Thomas Newborne and Rajin Kanda!" Martin announced as the two boys hopped off the arena but rather than cheer them the audience booed them for ignoring Sarah's surrender.

"Did you see that bullshit?!" Chelsea yelled out in shock and disgust. "Ignoring a surrender?! That's not just disrespectful, it's against the rules!"

"Actually it's not." Tyler responded and Chelsea turned to him. "I don't like it either but there's nothing in the rule book about honoring the surrender, normally it's just common courtesy."

"And I know from personal experience that that's one thing Thomas definitely lacks." Chloe commented with a frown on her face. "What about that Spirit Synchro?"

"Well it's a real card, requires Spirit Shaman to summon it, and like the Non-Synchro counterparts it returns to the extra deck during the end phase." Tyler said as he looked up the card. "What Rajin said about the effects is true as well. Two or more monsters will allow Baku to wipe out the opponent's spells and traps." Tyler said as he read up on the card. "If I2 are smart they'd limit Spirit Shaman or Spiritual Rebirth in the next ban list."

"That's not for another couple of months though." Chelsea commented with a frown before packing up her laptop. "Well I'm going back to Osiris Red, see you guys in a bit."

"I'm coming as well." Chloe said and Chelsea nodded before leaving the room with her roommate.

*elsewhere*

"I can't believe that asshole ignored my surrender!" Sarah grunted in annoyance as she leaned against the tree, Ora and Sarah where currently chatting in a clearing about the duel. "They had the damn thing won! Why go the extra mile to rub it in!"

"Because I think Thomas is calling the shots." Ora commented with a frown. "Rajin's a good duelist but he's just a kid, hell he was barely old enough to apply here when he joined."

"Something troubling you, miss?" The cloaked figure asked as he approached the girls and Sarah jumped into action when she saw the Orichalcos Duel Disk.

"Great, another Orichalcos Duelist." Sarah said before grinning. "Actually why don't we duel right now?" Sarah offered and the cloaked figure grinned under his hood.

"Sarah, are you sure?" Ora asked as Sarah and the figure activated their duel disks.

"I'm sure; I want to take my anger out on something anyway!" Sarah responded as they drew their opening hands. "Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"


	84. Rise of the Dragons

It had been an hour since the fourth day of the tournament had wrapped up and there was considerable controversy over the fact that Thomas Newborne had ignored Sarah Baker's surrender and continued with the attack regardless, at the moment the headmasters of the three dorms where chatting with each other about it.

"So, what can we do about it?" Jeff asked with a frown. "Several students have been trying to get the decision reversed in the past hour even those who don't know Sarah and Ora personally."

"The sad fact of the matter is that there's nothing that we can do." Martin said with an annoyed sigh. "There was nothing in the Tournament Rulebook about ignoring surrenders as Thomas did because I didn't think that it would be necessary."

"Martin, you're the head the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm and whilst the students in Obelisk Blue aren't as nasty as they were during Jaden Yuki's time in the academy you know how some of them can get as well as I do." Tracy responded as she folded her arms. "Next time we hold a tournament like this we should prepare for anything, even the Egyptian God Cards showing up in a duel."

"As unlikely as that is she's right." Maria agreed with a frown. "But for now I guess I'll have to break the bad news to….." Maria was interrupted when the door opened revealing Chloe, Chelsea and Lance panting for breath.

"Students, what have we told you about interrupting staff….." Martin trailed off when he saw the look on their faces. "What's happened?"

"It's…its Sarah Baker sir." Chloe said once she caught her breath. "She's lost an Orichalcos Duel!"

"WHAT?" Martin demanded as the three students caught their breath. "Where was this duel held?"

"It was in the forested area between the three dorms." Chelsea said once she caught her breath. "Theresa's already called for a medic and we were told to get you guys by Brandon."

"All right, we'll postpone the meeting for now." Martin said as he stood up. "Chelsea, take us to the duel site, Lance, Chloe, go back to your dorms for now."

"Teach, with all due respect, we want to help search for the asshole that did this." Lance asserted and Jeff shook his head.

"And you'll do what? Duel him?" Jeff asked and Lance nodded without hesitation. "We can't let that happen, we've already lost one student to the Orichalcos."

"Yeah but they've been in an Orichalcos Duels before, hell most of their duels in Battle City where just that!" Chelsea pointed out as she folded her arms. "Look, I get that you guys don't want any more casualties but honestly, as far as I'm concerned they'll do fine."

"Besides if we manage to beat this bastard we'll prevent him from taking any more souls." Chloe added and Martin frowned.

"All right, you've made a very good case and I'll allow it." Martin said and Chloe and Lance grinned. "However I don't want the two of you searching for him separately, Chloe, Chelsea, Lance, I want you three to search for him as a group."

"That's fine by me." Chelsea responded and the others nodded in agreement. "We'd better get to the duel site huh?"

"Indeed, lead the way." Martin responded and the three students led them to the duel site.

*elsewhere*

The site of the duel was one of high tensions, several students were watching from a distance as Sarah's unconscious and badly beaten body was being loaded onto the stretcher to be taken to the medical ward.

"I don't get it, why would Sarah duel an Orichalcos Duelist?" Brandon asked as he brought Ora a drink, Ora took it and sighed.

"She was still angry from how our duel ended and she saw the duel against the guy as a way to take out her frustrations." Ora said as she glanced at the ground sadly. "If I knew that his deck was that vicious I would've tried to talk her out of it and gotten one of the Obelisk Blue students like you to handle it."

"I understand but don't worry, we'll find this guy." Brandon responded with a frown as Chloe, Chelsea, Lance and the teachers ran up. "Ora said the guy ran off after he fought Sarah."

"Do we know what deck he runs?" Martin asked and Ora shook her head.

"The cards in the deck were all part of the same archetype but it's an archetype that I've never seen before." Ora answered with a frown as she turned to the teachers. "But besides that I have no clue, the guy's whole body was covered in a cloak so I can't give you an accurate description either."

"A guy in a cloak won't be that hard to find, especially in today's weather." Chelsea responded as she walked up to Ora. "Do you have any idea where he ran too?"

"Yeah, he ran towards the North Side of the island." Ora nodded in response and Chelsea turned to the teachers.

"You three are free to go up there but stay clear of the volcano and the abandoned dorm, understood?" Martin asked and the three students nodded.

"If they are going after him we're going as well." Brandon said as he turned to Andreas, Theresa, Tyler and Marcus who nodded. "The more eyes we have up there the better chance we have of finding him."

"I don't like this I mean we were willing to send three students after him because we know that they can hold their own on the dueling field." Jeff commented with a frown once he discussed it with the other teachers. "But sending eight of them? No offense but we don't want eight more beds to be taken up in the med bay."

"Think of it like this Jeff." Theresa said as she stepped forward. "If we send Lance for example to take on the duelist and, god forbid, he loses he'll just get away, with eight of us there's a big chance that he won't get away." Theresa added and Jeff frowned.

"Okay but I'm going with them, just encase." Jeff asserted and the other teachers nodded. "Students, keep in contact with me once we split up to find him, it's very easy to get lost in that area."

"And if we find him?" Chloe asked and Jeff thought for a moment.

"Contact me before approaching him." Jeff said as he folded his arms. "And be careful, this man is clearly dangerous."

"Gee, I never would've guessed that he was dangerous based on the fact that he's an Orichalcos Duelist." Chelsea commented with a frown and Jeff glared at her. "Okay, let's go." Chelsea said as the students followed Jeff to the North Side.

*meanwhile*

"Boss, one soul has been captured." The figure said into his earpiece as he paced back and forth, he was in a clearing not too far from the Abandoned Dorm giving his report to Jack. "The main targets are bound to target me now."

"And you'll get two souls for the price of one!" Jack said with a laugh. "That dumb little bitch never stood a chance! I mean honestly, why didn't we send you to the island in the first place?"

"Well my services don't come cheap even for someone with Victor's wealth." The figure responded as he looked down at his deck. "And rest assured I won't fail!" The figure added before letting out a loud, evil laugh.

"Yeah that's another thing, don't laugh that loud into your earpiece, are you trying to deafen me?!" Jack interrupted him mid-laugh and the figure stopped laughing. "That and you're bound to attract unwanted attention now."

"That will just mean more victims for the Orichalcos, nothing more!" The figure responded and Jack hung up. _"God damn it! Why the hell didn't they warn me about this place's hot weather? I feel like I'm being roasted alive!" _The figure thought as he wiped some sweat from his brow.

"No Jeff, I haven't seen him." Chloe sighed as she unwittingly closed in on the cloaked duelist's location. She was talking to Jeff on her cell-phone whilst being careful not to walk into any trees. _"Ugh, at least when we came here to prepare for the expulsion duels I had an idea of who to look out for." _Chloe thought to herself as she brushed some tree branches away. "If I see him….." Chloe trailed off when she saw the cloaked duelist. "Jeff, I've found him, I'm near the abandoned dorm but not close enough to break any Duel Academy rules."

"You mean he's in one of the clearings near there?" Jeff asked and Chloe made an "Mmhmm" sound which confirmed it. "Okay, confront him but be careful."

"I will Jeff, and thanks." Chloe said before hanging up and activating her duel disk. _"I haven't wanted to defeat a duelist this much since my match against Otto in the Battle City Semi-Finals." _Chloe thought as she stepped into the clearing. _"You have any thoughts Silent Magician?"_

"_Yes, I have plenty." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe sweat-dropped_. "As for any that have anything to do with him, just be careful, he's clearly dangerous and he's already captured a soul."_

"_I'll try thanks." _Chloe responded before frowning. "Hey you, err, are you the duelist who defeated Sarah!?" Chloe called out to the figure and he looked up.

"That depends technically she's tasted defeat at the hands of three duelists." The figure chuckled before revealing his duel disk. "If you're looking for the duelist who trapped her soul in the Orichalcos than yes, you've found him." The figure chuckled upon seeing Chloe's activated duel disk. "Do you wish to duel me?"

"No, what I "wish" to do is stop you before you hurt anyone else!" Chloe snapped at him as her eyes narrowed. "So do you have a name?"

"I am Stefan." Stefan introduced him as he removed his hood revealing a man with messy black hair, tanned skin and blue eyes. "I know who you are Chloe Richardson."

"Yeah, I kinda became a celebrity when I came third in this year's Battle City Tournament whilst representing Osiris Red." Chloe responded with a grin as they drew their opening hands. _"As much as I hate to admit that fact, ugh, if I get asked for one more autograph this week I'll scream!" _Chloe thought to herself as she looked over her hand.

"_So, can I have your autograph?" _Silent Magician asked and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"_That's not funny." _Chloe responded before turning to Stefan. "But I get the feeling that you know me from my duels against your allies."

"Off course I do! I knew about you BEFORE you reached the Battle City Semi-Finals." Stefan responded with a laugh and a large sweat-drop rolled down Chloe's head. "What?"

"You do realize how hipster you just sounded, right?" Chloe asked and Stefan growled.

"Just for that I'm going first!" Stefan announced as he drew his first card. "And I start things off with a combo you're bound to be familiar with, I activate Terra Forming!" Stefan played the card and picked up his deck, once he found the Field Spell that he was looking for he added it to his hand and sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "And I'm now going to activate the Field Spell I just retrieved, The Seal of the Orichalcos!"

"Your right, I saw this coming miles way." Chloe grunted as she braced herself, the Seal quickly surrounded both duelists and Chloe was pushed back a bit by the force but held her ground; she looked up and saw the infamous pentagram on Stefan's head. "You know, ever since this whole ordeal started….."

"The Battle City one or this one?" Stefan asked and Chloe cleared her throat.

"Both." Chloe said simply before continuing. "I've been wondering, who the hell would run such a dangerous card in their deck?"

"It's simple really." Stefan said as he picked up a card. "Some Orichalcos Duelists have nothing to lose and everything to gain like the hired guns, some have a personal vendetta like the guys you and your friends faced before Phillip." Stefan said before grinning sadistically. "And then there's the psychos, like me!"

"_I just had to ask." _Chloe thought with a sigh as Stefan finally played the card.

"Now if there isn't any more time wasting questions I would like to go ahead and make my move!" Stefan said as he played the card. "Now I activate Allure of Darkness, I draw two cards but unless I banish one I have to kiss my hand good-bye." Stefan played the card and drew twice before he picked up and pocketed a monster. "And that ends my turn."

"_Wait, he's opening up with nothing?!" _Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"On one hand that monster he banished could've been the only monster in his hand but I don't know….."_

"Chloe!" Chloe blinked before looking over her shoulder and seeing the others approaching her, it was Lance that had spoken up and they reached the duel site. "So this is the creep that attacked Sarah?"

"Actually she challenged me to a duel and I accepted." Stefan corrected him before grinning. "But yes, this handsome man was behind that!"

"_Is this guy for real?!" _Every woman in the area thought simultaneously as large sweat-drops rolled down their heads.

"Anyway I would've guessed that he said ladies first…..if it weren't for the fact that the Seal is active." Lance commented as the girls regained their composure. "What's up with that?"

"I don't know but I'm about to make him regret it!" Chloe responded before playing a card. "I summon Blade Knight!" Chloe played the card and the knight in blue armor appeared on the field (4/1600/1000). "This is for Sarah you asshole! Blade Knight, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the knight charged towards him…only for the blade to be stopped by a ghostly hand. "What the….."

"Aha! You fell for the same trick she did!" Stefan said as he played the card. "Since you just declared a direct attack I can summon Ghostrick Lantern to the field in facedown defense position and negate it!" Stefan announced as the monster appeared on the field, it was a small figure dressed in a scarecrow's outfit that had some kind of helmet under his hat and two small green eyes poking out from under it (1/800/0) however the monster quickly disappeared as soon as it appeared.

"Err…what the hell is that?!" Chelsea said as she stared at the strange monster.

"Ghostrick, I've heard of this archetype." Tyler commented with a frown. "It was only just released in Europe and it's been making the rounds through the regionals."

"You don't seem that worried." Marcus realized and Tyler nodded.

"Because the Ghostricks are so impractical that they make Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth look like an easy monster to summon." Tyler responded with a frown. "Out of the Ghostricks that are out they share one effect; they can only be summoned if there's another Ghostrick already on the field."

"That applies to all his monsters?" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded. "Then how did Sarah be beaten by them?"

"Mercilessly." Stefan responded before folding his arms. "Is that everything?"

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Stefan drew his card.

"Now that the stage is set I think I'll summon Witch of the Ghostrick to the field in attack mode!" Stefan played the card and a young girl in a red and black trick or treater witch outfit appeared on the field, she had shoulder length blonde hair, blue eyes and was carrying a broom (2/1200/200) and her attack power increased to 1700 thanks to the seal. "And I flip summon Ghostrick Lantern!" Stefan added as the strange monster reappeared on the field with the power boost from the Orichalcos boosting his attack power up to 1300. "Witch, attack Blade Knight!" Stefan commanded and the witch casted a spell at the knight destroying him and bringing Chloe's life-points down to 7900. "Ghostrick Lantern….."

"Not so fast! I activate my Trap Card Rope of Life!" Chloe activated the trap and quickly discarded the remaining cards in her hand. "Now in exchange for discarding the rest of the cards in my hand I can bring back Blade Knight with an 800 point attack boost!" Chloe played the card and Blade Knight reappeared on the field with his attack power raised to 2400. "And thanks to his effect he gains an extra five-hundred attack points since my hand's empty," Chloe added as Blade Knight's attack increased to 2900.

"Very clever, I move to my Second Main Phase and I activate the second effect of my Ghostrick monsters." Stefan announced as the monsters disappeared from the field. "Once per turn I can flip them facedown into defense mode, and furthermore…." Stefan trailed off as he set a card facedown. "I'll end my turn by setting this card facedown." Stefan announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, with his monsters in defense mode I should be able to destroy them without any problems." _Chloe thought before frowning. _"On the other hand there is his facedown card, I'm willing to get that it's a trap like Mirror Force." _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Damn it, no sign of MST, Breaker or any of my other destruction cards, but if I want to get field advantage I'll have to attack." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I summon Magician's Valkyria!" Chloe played the card and the red-headed spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1600/1800). "Blade Knight, Valkyria, attack….."

"I activate my trap card Ghostrick Panic!" Stefan interrupted her as his trap card flipped up. "With this I can target any number of facedown Ghostrick monsters on my side of the field and flip them face-up!" Stefan added as Lantern and Witch flipped up. "But don't think I'm leaving you with two easy targets for your attacks because now your monsters get flipped facedown!" Stefan added and Chloe frowned as Blade Knight and Magician's Valkyria flipped facedown.

"_Damn it! And because of my stupid move I have nothing to protect them!" _Chloe thought before grinning. _"Except for Valkyria's defense points, even with the Orichalcos increasing their strength I still have that protecting me! Besides, how strong can these Ghostrick monsters be?" _Chloe thought before turning to Stefan. "I have no choice but to end my turn."

"Good, now it's my turn." Stefan said as he drew his card, when he saw it he grinned. "Ah yes, I have the cards I need to defeat you."

"Those are some brave words considering that this duel has just started." Chloe countered and Stefan grinned before playing a Continuous Spell Card. "Multi-Earth?!"

"This card is a godsend to any Orichalcos players whose decks have field spells in them, like me!" Stefan said as he pointed to the card which depicted the Field Spell Card Sogen, however one side of it was snowy and it was sunny on the other. "For absolutely no cost this Spell Card lets me play more than one Field Spell!"

"Wait, what?!" Chloe yelled out as it hit her and Stefan grinned as he picked up another card. "I shouldn't be surprised. Your colleagues have played broken cards as well!"

"What can I say? Our benefactor is very generous." Stefan said with a grin before playing another card. "But I won't activate my Field Spell just yet; first I summon Tour Guide from the Underworld!" Stefan played the card and the tour guide that several other duelists had used appeared on the field (3/1000/600) and her attack increased to 1500 thanks to the seal. "Now I activate her effect and I use it to Special Summon another Tour Guide!" Stefan added as another Tour Guide appeared on the field.

"Oh shit, you're going for an XYZ aren't you?" Chloe asked as her eyes widened.

"Yes I am! I was hoping to wait for a bit before doing this, to prolong your agony and what not." Stefan said with a sadistic grin. "But I guess beggars can't be choosers, I use my Tour Guides to construct an overlay network!" Stefan said as the two women vanished into white orbs of light. "To XYZ Summon my best monster, Ghostrick Alucard!"

"He's summoning the protagonist for Castlevania Symphony of the Night?" Chelsea asked only to be ignored as a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall white demon wearing black body armor who was also wearing a red cape (Rank: 3/1800/1600) and his attack increased to 2300 thanks to the Seal. "I'll explain his ability in due time but first, Alucard, Lantern, attack Valkyria and Blade Knight!" Stefan commanded and the two monsters charged towards their respective targets and destroyed them. "Witch, attack her life-points!" Stefan commanded and the Spellcaster casted her spell at Chloe bringing her life-points down to 6200.

"It's going to take a lot more than that to defeat me!" Chloe grunted as she forced herself to her feet.

"Let me tell you a little secret, this duel has played out exactly like my duel against Sarah Baker, move for move." Stefan said with a grin. "There is a small difference though, when I attacked with Alucard it was a direct attack." Stefan added before playing a card. "Now I move to my Second Main Phase and I activate the Field Spell Card Ghostrick House!" Stefan played the card and the scenery changed to a haunted house within the Orichalcos. "Now we can't target facedown monsters for attacks full stop, speaking of which…" Stefan trailed off as Witch and Lantern flipped disappeared. "Now I end my turn."

"As goofy as his monsters look he has an effective strategy going." Chelsea admitted as she folded her arms. "And this is coming from the Watt player."

"Have faith, Chloe will find a way out of this." Tyler answered as he folded his arms. "Does she run Light of Intervention in her deck?"

"Err, no." Chelsea said in response and Tyler frowned.

"Well…this is going to be a problem." Tyler said as Chloe drew her card.

"_Well, he said that the effect of his field spell applies to facedown monsters so if I play defensively I'll be good to go!" _Chloe thought before picking up the card she drew. "First I play the Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot, with this we'll both draw three cards!" Chloe announced as she and Stefan drew an additional three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode. That ends my turn." Chloe announced as she set the three cards and Stefan drew his card.

"_Hmmm, Heavy Storm, any other time I'd jump at the chance to use this Spell Card." _Stefan thought as he glanced at his drawn card. _"However if Multi-Earth is destroyed then both of my Field Spells will be destroyed." _Stefan thought as he added the Spell Card to his hand. _"The Seal will be saved via its own effect but Ghostrick House on the other hand won't be."_

"_This guy's taking ages so he probably got a dead draw." _Chloe thought as Stefan played another card.

"Setting your monster would've been a wise move but I have ways around that." Stefan said as the card flipped up causing Chloe's eyes to widen. "Go Swords of Revealing Light!" Stefan announced as the three swords rained down on Chloe's side of the field revealing her monster to be Doppelwarrior (2/800/800). "Such a shame that that weakling isn't in attack mode but I can fix that to, go Stop Defense!"

"Oh no, this isn't good!" Chloe gulped as the soldier was forced into attack mode.

"You have no idea!" Stefan said as Witch and Lantern reappeared on the field. "Go Alucard attack the pathetic warrior!" Stefan commanded and the fiend charged towards Chloe's monster before cutting him in half and the other two monsters quickly followed bringing Chloe's life-points down to 1700. "Just give up! Your soul will make for a fine addition alongside that other Osiris Red Student's!"

"I've said it once and I'll say it again!" Chloe said as she forced herself to her feet, she winced in pain as a result of the attacks before activating her trap. "Not as long as I have Life-Points left! And thanks to Numerous Healer I have an extra one thousand life-points!" Chloe announced before sighing as her life-points increased to 2700.

"All that will do will save you from a grand total of two attacks!" Stefan said as Lantern and Witch disappeared from the field again and he discarded Heavy Storm due to the hand size limit. "And that is fine by me because I get to prolong your agony! I end my turn!" Stefan announced and Chloe activated her trap.

"Not before I activate my other trap card, I activate Shock Draw! You see, since I just took 5,000 points of damage this will let me draw five cards!" Chloe announced before drawing five cards and an additional one at the beginning of her turn. _"Heart of the Cards, dumb luck, I don't know what this is but thanks!" _Chloe thought before playing another card. "I activate my own Swords of Revealing Light!"

"Curses, if it weren't for my copy of Swords I'd be worried!" Stefan taunted her as Witch and Lantern reappeared on the field.

"Then let me give you a reason to worry! I summon Silent Magician Level 4!" Chloe played the card and the younger version of her ace monster appeared on the field (4/1000/10000). "Normally three turns wouldn't be enough for her to crush your ace monster but his attack is only 2300 and by the time your swords wear off….."

"She'll have twenty five hundred attack points." Stefan interrupted her with a yawn. "You ever consider that I have some back up just encase? Your magician will be toast before she grows up!" Stefan added with a grin. _"And who's to say I won't draw Mystical Space Typhoon before then? And then there's Witch's effect! I have more ways around that annoying magician's effect then she realizes!"_

"I'm well aware of all of that." Chloe responded as she picked up a card. "So why don't I speed things up a bit? I activate One Day of Peace! In exchange for neither of us taking any damage until the end of your turn we both draw a card!" Chloe announced and Stefan frowned as they drew their cards causing Silent Magician to gain her first counter and five hundred more attack points. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced as Stefan drew his card as the first sword disappeared causing Silent Magician to gain another counter and another five hundred attack points.

"Okay, at least Chloe's brought herself a little time." Chelsea commented and the others nodded in agreement. "With any luck she'll crush his forces before dinner time!"

"Don't forget that they both have Swords of Revealing Light in play at the same time." Jeff responded with a frown. "As for her tactics, I've practically seen the same move made by her dozens of times no matter of many times she improves her deck! I'm not saying that it's not an effective tactic but she needs to be more flexible if she wants to stand a chance in the pro-leagues."

"If you think your magician's effect will save you think again! It's time I activated my Witch's effect!" Stefan announced as he pointed to the magician. "Witch, show her a magic trick and make her magician disappear!"

"What?" Chloe asked as the Witch casted a spell at Silent Magician causing her to vanish. "What just happened?"

"Look at your duel disk." Stefan told her and Chloe did quickly realizing that Silent Magician had now been set. "Once per turn my witch can flip an opponent's monster and set it down." Stefan explained before setting a card. "I won't bother with the effects of my two weaker Ghostricks because you can't attack regardless! Instead I set a card facedown and end my turn." Stefan announced as the card appeared on the field and Chloe drew her card once one of the swords disappeared.

"_This is bad; unless I can draw Level Up I won't be able to access Silent Magician Level 8." _Chloe thought with a frown before seeing the card in her hand. _"Oh great, I drew Diffusion Wave Motion? This has to be one of the worst dead draws ever." _Chloe thought as she added it to her hand. "I have to pass."

"_Perfect!" _Stefan thought before playing the card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I'm using it to end the duel! My target is Swords of Revealing Light!" Stefan announced as a storm washed over the field destroying Chloe's swords. "Now then…"

"Go Threatening Roar!" Chloe activated the trap and Stefan's three monsters cowered in fear as a roar echoed throughout the field. "What's the matter?Didn't think I wouldn't come prepared?" Chloe said with a relieved sigh and Stefan growled before holding up one finger.

"One turn, that's all the time you have!" Stefan announced as Chloe got ready to draw. "Enjoy it whilst it lasts! I end my turn."

"_That was way to close!" _Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"But I can't lose now! This bastard's already claimed one soul today and he's not claiming another!" _Chloe thought as she looked at her drawn card. _"Okay, here goes." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate my Spell Card Trade-In! I discard one Level Eight Monster from my hand….." Chloe announced as she discarded Gilford the Lightning. "And I draw two cards!" Chloe announced as she drew her cards, the first card was her ace monster Silent Magician Level 8.

But the second card would have an unexpected effect.

*elsewhere*

"Wha…..what the….." Chloe stammered as she suddenly found herself in an unfamiliar place, it was an old, Greek style temple that was brown in color and surrounding the area was a beautiful meadow. "Where am I? What is this place? What happened to my duel?"

"All your questions will be answered momentarily." Silent Magician said as she appeared in front of Chloe. "Welcome to the Duel Monster Spirit World."

"Wait, seriously?" Chloe asked as she looked around. "It's…..it's beautiful but why am I here? I have a duel to win."

"I know Chloe." Silent Magician said as she motioned for her protégé to follow her. "But believe it or not this will help you win! Dark Magician Girl, are you there?" Silent Magician asked and the famous busty, blonde Duel Monster appeared on the field.

"I am here Yiyana." Dark Magician Girl greeted her and Silent Magician nodded respectively. "And this must be your protégé."

"Err, yeah that's me." Chloe gulped as she greeted the Duel Monster. "So, what's up? Silent Magician said something about helping me win my match."

"Follow us Chloe." Silent Magician instructed her and Chloe did so without hesitation, she was eventually lead them to a statue encased in Ice with a large sword sticking out of it. "Chloe, this is Timeaus, one of the three Legendary Dragons, not only will he help you win but he'll help you put an end to the Orichalcos for good!"

"Wait, really? Awesome! What do I have to do?" Chloe asked and Dark Magician Girl raised an eyebrow.

"She's oddly accepting of this." Dark Magician Girl commented and Chloe shook her head.

"Look, over the past few months I've dealt with an ancient evil, duel monster spirits and asshole students at my school, at this point I'm willing to believe in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny again!" Chloe answered and Dark Magician nodded.

"That's a fair point I suppose." Dark Magician Girl admitted before pointing to the sword. "All you have to do is remove that sword."

"Err, Silent Magician, she knows that I'm not that strong right?" Chloe asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"It'll be fine Chloe; I'll be here to support you." Silent Magician reassured her and Chloe gulped before going up to the sword and putting her hands around the handle, she placed one foot on the ice and started pulling.

"_Come on Chloe! If there was ever a time for you to put your back into it it's now!" _Chloe thought as she grit her teeth and pulled at the sword, with one last pull she surprised herself by being able to pull out the sword.

*back at the duel*

"Are you going to make your move or not?!" Stefan shouted at Chloe just as she snapped out of it. "Well, I guess your surrendering after….."

"No! I'm not!" Chloe said as she looked at her hand. _"Okay, Trade-In got me Silent Magician and….." _Chloe trailed off when she saw the other card. _"Wait, what the? The Eye of Timaeus, I've never even heard of this card!" _Chloe thought before reading the effect. _"Its effect…it doesn't make a lot of sense but I wonder…." _Chloe thought as she looked at the field. _"It's now or never!" _Chloe thought before flipping up her magician. "She's not staying around! I activate Level Up to upgrade her!"

"Oh crap!" Stefan yelled out as Silent Magician Level 4 started glowing and growing until she reached her Level 8 form (8/3500/1000). "Big deal, she can't attack and I'll just use my witch's effect next turn!"

"_Here goes." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate…THE EYE OF TIMAEUS!"

"WAIT, WHAT?!" Stefan yelled out as Silent Magician Level 8 started glowing.

*meanwhile*

Jack sat there on the boat with his mouth hanging open as Chloe played the card, he had been watching the duels on his laptop and had assumed that Stefan had this in the bag, oh how wrong he was.

"Holy shit….." Jack trailed off before quickly contacting Victor. "Victor, are you getting this?!"

"OFF COURSE I'M GETTING THIS!" Victor yelled down the phone causing Jack to wince. "What I want to know is how this brat got her hands on that thing!"

"I'm on it!" Jack said without hesitation as he started reviewing the footage.

*back at the duel*

"Err, Chloe what have you just played?" Chelsea asked as she watched Silent Magician transform, she turned to Tyler who frowned. "Are you going to tell us about this card yet?!"

"I'm afraid that this is one card I've never heard of." Tyler responded and Chloe grinned.

"With this Spell Card I can fuse it with any monster on my side of the field so I'm fusing it with my Silent Magician to summon…." Chloe said as a card she had never seen before ejected from the extra deck slot, she looked over it and its effect before grinning. "So that I can summon this monster and it's the mighty Silent Dragon Rider Level 8 to the field in attack mode." Chloe played the card and Silent Magician finally stopped glowing, Silent Magician was unchanged for the most part but she was now carrying a large sword in place of her staff and, as the name suggested, was riding a majestic looking dragon (8/3500/3000).

"That thing's no stronger than Silent Magician!" Stefan scoffed as he stared down the monster. "And even if you could attack I'll survive!"

"Then I guess it's time I activated my Dragon Rider's effect!" Chloe said as her life-points dropped to 1350. "It costs me half of my life-points but in exchange all spells and traps on your side of the field are destroyed!"

"What? NO!" Stefan yelled out as the dragon took flight and charged towards Stefan's side of the field, through a combination of flames and sword slashes nearly all the Spell Cards were destroyed; only the Orichalcos remained due to its own effect. "I'm still in this and my life-points are still standing!"

"I'm not done! I activate Megamorph! Since my life-points are lower than yours this doubles the attack of my Dragon Rider!" Chloe announced as her monster's attack shot up to 7000. "And here's another thing, Dragon Rider may be a dragon type monster but she's also treated as a Spellcaster which lets me play this! The Spell Card known as Diffusion Wave Motion!"

"NO! NO!" Stefan yelled out as Chloe's life-points dropped to 350.

"This is for Sarah! Dragon Rider, attack!" Chloe commanded and Dragon Rider raised her sword up high before doing a vertical slash with it cutting Lantern, Witch and Alucard in half and sending Stefan's life-points plummeting to zero. _"I…..I can't believe that worked!" _Chloe thought as the holograms disappeared, all except for the Orichalcos which quickly closed in around Stefan.

"Chloe, that was awesome!" Chelsea said as she ran up, Chloe just smiled at her roommate as she turned to her. "Where did you get that Timeaus card anyway?"

"That's a bit of a long story." Chloe said as she looked down at her duel disk and blinked. "What the…..Dragon Rider's gone!" Chloe said and Chelsea looked, the only cards on Chloe's duel disk were Silent Magician Level 8, Megamorph, Diffusion Wave Motion and The Eye of Timaeus. "This is just getting weirder."

"I wouldn't worry about that for now." Jeff said as he walked up to the girls. "But I will have to talk with the eight of you with Martin present, stop by Martin's office after your classes for the day have finished."

"We will, if you guys have any answers I'm willing to hear them." Chloe answered and the others nodded in agreement. "What now though? My next class isn't for an hour."

"Same here, I guess we can head back to our dorm." Chelsea answered and the others nodded in agreement before leaving.

*elsewhere*

"I'm telling you Victor, it's the weirdest thing." Jack said as he reviewed the footage. "Things are pretty normal up until she plays Trade-In, however the feed cuts as she draws her second card."

"Yes, I can see the footage." Victor answered with a frown. "And after ten minutes pass she plays Level-Up and most importantly The Eye of Timaeus, she obviously received the card during that ten minute time-frame."

"Yeah and if the other Dragons are ready to be awakened we a thoroughly screwed!" Jack answered as he closed the lid. "What now? Do you want me to recruit more guys?"

"Come back to base, we must discuss the results at the earliest convenience." Victor said after thinking for a moment and Jack nodded.

"You heard the guy! Step on it!" Jack told the speedboat driver who nodded before speeding off.


	85. Day Five Sibbling Rivalry

"So, err, how long exactly have we been waiting?" Chloe asked as she shifted her weight, the student's classes for the day had ended and as promised they went to Martin's office, unfortunately for them Martin was taking a while. "I mean, we were asked to be here?"

"We've been sat here for about fifteen minutes by my clock." Chelsea answered after she checked the time on her watch, "Martin's probably busy anyway."

"Yeah but if I had known that I'd be waiting this long I would've brought my IPod." Chloe answered with a frown. "Hell, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ending to my duel."

"And we're still trying to figure out how you got that Eye of Timaeus card." Brandon chimed in and the two girls turned to him. "Not to mention that Silent Dragon Rider card."

"Yeah, I don't even remember adding that thing to my deck but it worked well enough." Chloe commented as she glanced at her duel disk. "Makes me wonder what the other cards in my deck could create when combined with Timeaus."

"Let's think about that later, for now we just need to figure out how that thing can help us against the Orichalcos Duelists." Theresa pointed out and Chloe nodded in agreement. "Especially since the last agent they sent managed to capture a soul before we could stop him."

"Yeah, I'm still pissed off about that." Lance grunted as he glanced off to the side. "How well is Ora taking this? I know that she and Sarah where close."

"She locked herself in her dorm room for the rest of the day and hasn't come out since, not even for dinner." Chelsea answered with a frown. "I think that gives you an idea of how well she's taking it."

"Sorry for the wait students." Martin said as he stepped out of his office. "After Jeff told me what happened I wanted to see the footage for myself just to be sure."

"Yeah, that was pretty crazy." Chloe agreed as she turned to the teacher. "So what do you want to talk about?"

"Not out here, come in." Martin told them before motioning for them to come into his office, the students nodded and followed him in and saw the rest of the headmasters waiting for them. "All right, let's start from the top." Martin said as he sat down behind the desk. "Chloe, in your own words, can you tell us what happened?"

"Didn't the footage tell you everything you needed to know?" Chloe asked and Martin shook his head.

"After you played Trade-In there was a problem with the cameras, after ten minutes passed they came back on like nothing happened." Martin answered before motioning to Jeff. "According to Jeff you just stared off into space for the duration of that time so he doesn't have a clue either."

"_I should've known that it wouldn't be that easy." _Chloe thought as she took a seat. "Okay, as you said everything was pretty normal up until I played Trade-In, the two cards I drew were Silent Magician Level 8 and…well…this." Chloe said before digging through her deck and producing The Eye of Timaeus. "Next thing I knew I had some kind of vision, I had no idea how much time had passed during it but the long and short of it is that I obtained this card in that vision." Chloe said before returning it to her deck. "I know I'm probably sounding crazy right now….."

"It's fine, please continue." Martin reassured her and Chloe nodded.

"After the vision ended I was back at the duel and I had The Eye of Timaeus in my hand, I read through the effect and it didn't make any sense to me, especially since I don't run any fusion monsters, but at that point I was desperate enough to try it with Silent Magician Level 8." Chloe said as she shifted her weight. "The next thing I knew a card that I had never heard of, let alone added to my deck, ejected from my Extra Deck slot but the two cards I used met the requirements so I played it."

"You mean Silent Dragon Rider Level 8 right?" Tracy asked and Chloe nodded. "And from there you won the duel."

"Yeah, it was close but I was able to pull off the win." Chloe nodded as she glanced towards her deck. "I can't wait to use it in the tournament."

"That's what we wanted to discuss with you." Martin said and Chloe turned to him. "Under no circumstances are you allowed to use The Eye of Timaeus outside of an Orichalcos Duel."

"Wait, you expect her to not use an awesome card like that?!" Chelsea asked as she glanced at the teachers. "No offense but why?"

"None taken, I had anticipated such a question anyway." Martin said as he shifted his weight. "Timaeus is one of three Legendary Dragons cards, the other two are The Fang of Critias and The Claw of Hermos, and respectively they were wielded by Yugi Motuh, Seto Kaiba and Joey Wheeler when they fought against the Orichalcos."

"Not only are these cards powerful but they were never officially released by I2." Hamden chimed in and Chloe turned to him. "That was done at Yugi's request; he considered them to be too powerful for the general public to use."

"_And the envoys aren't?" _Chloe thought to herself before shaking her head. "Okay, you've made your point, I'll put The Eye of Timaeus in my side deck for my tournament duels, same goes for non-tournament and non Orichalcos duels."

"Good." Martin said as Chloe retrieved The Eye of Timaeus and put it in her side deck. "At some point two of you will receive the other two Legendary Dragons. I request that you do the same when the time comes." Martin added and the other students nodded.

"As for Sarah, we'll do what we can for her but we don't exactly have the best medical facilities here." Tracy added with a sigh. "Kaiba himself has promised to have her transferred to a hospital on the mainland though so that shouldn't be a problem."

"Until her soul is free, right?" Chloe asked and the teachers nodded. "At least with the duelists back in Battle City we had an idea of where to look for them but these guys? We don't even know how they are getting to the island."

"There may be a way around that." Hamden said and they turned to him. "After the tournament is over the school will close for Summer Break, you can use that time to plan an attack against the Orichalcos Duelists."

"And maybe even bring them down." Theresa responded with a nod. "It's a long shot but at the same time it's our best shot."

"Well you have a little over a month to plan it and between then and now you have your graduation duels from your respective dorms and the tournament." Maria told them and the students nodded. "Be prepared for anything."

"We will." Chloe said with a nod before turning to Martin. "Speaking of the tournament, will it be continuing over the weekend?"

"No, we'll be giving the students a two day break over the weekends starting after tomorrow's matches." Martin responded and the students nodded. "Is there anything else?"

"Can we go?" Chloe asked and Martin nodded.

"Yes, you may." Martin responded and the students stood up and left the office, once the door was closed Martin frowned. "The Eye of Timaeus is arguably the strongest of the three Legendary Dragons, why would they give him to a rookie like Chloe?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Hamden responded with a frown. "We'd better keep an eye on any non-tournament matches they have that involve the Orichalcos encase the other Dragons show up."

"Agreed, for now we need to prepare for tomorrow's matches." Martin responded and the others nodded in agreement.

*elsewhere*

Jack was normally a cool, calm and collected man especially when dealing with his boss, so the site of him running down the hallways as fast as his legs could carry him caught several other staff members off guard.

"_This is bad! This is bad! This is really fucking bad!" _Jack thought as he turned a corner that would lead him to Victor's office, Victor's secretary Juliana looked up from the magazine that she was reading when she heard Jack's frantic breathing, she was a good looking woman with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes who was wearing suitable clothing for her job.

"He's waiting for you inside and no, we're still not going on a date." Juliana commented once she recognized Jack, normally he'd try to get her to see it from his perspective but now was really not the time so he went straight in and saw Victor talking to the remaining agents via a video call.

"_Damn bitch! She willingly sucks Victor's dick and does god knows what other kinky shit he's into every other Friday but she has no time for me?!" _Jack thought as Victor turned around. "I…..I came here as soon as I could." Jack said once he caught his breath and Victor nodded.

"Good, needless to say the reemergence of The Eye of Timaeus is a matter of great concern!" Victor said as he motioned for Jack to come closer. "Sara's gone out to recruit more agents to our cause but in the meantime we must discuss strategies to use against Timaeus and the other Legendary Dragons to make sure that they can't be used against us again."

"No offense but it's the damn Legendary Dragons! Unless you're planning to force one of the duelists to use the Orichalcos….." Jack trailed off before grinning. "That's exactly what your planning, isn't it?"

"It worked against Yugi Motuh; it'll work against these students." One of the agents chimed in and Victor turned to him. "I volunteer myself for the job but I require a week minimum to prepare my deck."

"Use all the time you need." Victor told him and the agent nodded before hanging up. "As for the rest of you, we've claimed one student's soul and I say that we claim another, Francs, Tanner, I expect you to be at Domino City Port by 4:00pm tomorrow."

"You got it!" A female agent answered before hanging up, a male agent merely nodded before hanging up as well. "The rest of you, go out there and claim me more souls."

"Yes sir." The other agents answered before simultaneously hanging up.

"I'll go get a speedboat ready." Jack said as he went to leave the office.

"Not this time." Victor said and Jack turned around. "I'll be sending Sara to monitor the duels, as for you, you have the night off." Victor said before passing him a credit card with a piece of paper on it. "That has the card's number on it, feel free to use it at your favorite Strip Club, consider it my treat for a job well done." Victor told him and Jack grinned. "Oh and don't try to use it after tonight, I'll be cancelling that card in the morning."

"You got it boss!" Jack said before leaving the office with a confident grin on his face, once the door was closed Victor messaged his temples in annoyance.

"_Losing agents is one thing; the return of the Legendary Dragons is another thing entirely." _Victor thought before calling Juliana. "Juliana, I know we normally do this on a Friday but I need a good stress relief, if it's good enough you'll get a pay raise."

"Yes, right away sir." Juliana answered and Victor leaned back in his seat with a grin.

"_I love my position as a boss sometimes." _Victor thought as he rested his hands behind his head and waited for Juliana.

*the next day*

"_Okay, so I'll just go and greet Chloe and Chelsea at their dorm and we'll go down to today's matches together!" _Lance thought as he walked down the path that would lead him to the Osiris Red Dorms, he had agreed to meet up with the two girls and watch the matches with them for a couple of reasons, Evan was ill from something he ate last night and was sitting out the matches and he wanted to be with Chloe. _"Ever since her match against that psycho last night I can't stop thinking about her…..am I developing a crush on my best friend?" _Lance thought as he neared the Osiris Red dorms and saw Chelsea and Chloe waiting for him. _"I'll figure it out later, for now let's focus on what's happening now."_

"Good morning Lance." Chloe greeted him as she saw Lance approaching her, Lance grinned at the eighteen year old as he neared her. "So you ready for the matches?"

"You bet I am." Lance said with a grin before nodding to Chelsea. "Either of you know who's competing today? I can't remember if it was announced after Thomas and Rajin's match."

"Err, yeah, in the first match Tyler's sister is teaming with Socorro Stanley to take on Melody Walsh and Sallie Rodriguez and the second match is Kristopher O'Neill and Lamont Berry vs. Billie Prince and Carmelo Van Albert." Chelsea responded after checking the match schedule. "Besides Miranda I haven't heard of any of the competing duelists."

"I know Miranda's partner is in Osiris Red, I've seen her around a few times but I've never spoken to her." Chloe responded after thinking for a couple of minutes. "Their opponents…..I think Melody and Sallie are in Ra Yellow and Osiris Red respectively."

"I wouldn't know about Melody, I don't hang around the Ra Yellow girl's dorm as much as I'd like too." Lance commented before wincing as he remembered that he was talking to two girls. "I probably shouldn't have said that last part out loud." Lance commented as Chelsea and Chloe glared at him. "Why don't we focus on getting to the duel arena?"

"Yeah, lets." Chloe agreed before the trio walked to the duel arena. _"Okay, I don't know what those Orichalcos Duelists are planning next but I'll be ready for it!" _Chloe thought as they walked to the arena.

*meanwhile*

Despite everything that happened the previous day the tournament was still on and the eight duelists who were competing today where preparing for their matches and Miranda Kaiba was no different.

"_Okay, my deck's all set." _Miranda thought as she fit the deck into her deck slot. _"If Chelsea thinks the deck she faced a while back is powerful then she hasn't seen anything yet, then again I didn't add these cards encase I faced her again." _Miranda thought before looking around for her tag team partner. _"Chelsea and Chloe are good duelists, no doubt about that, but I added these cards for when I face my fellow Obelisk Blue Students in the Tournament even if that means going up against my brother's team."_

"There you are." Miranda looked up and saw her tag team partner Socorro Stanley waiting for her, she was one of the youngest female Osiris Red Students at the age of sixteen and she had elbow length black hair and blue eyes. "I've been waiting for you."

"Sorry Socorro, I was busy making some last minute preparations for our match." Miranda apologized and Socorro nodded. "Don't worry, with the improvements I've made to my deck we're bound to win the match and the whole tournament!"

"I hope so." Socorro sighed as she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Still I can't help but feel pressure since I'm teaming up with the sister of the best student in the school."

"Don't worry about it, you'll do fine, now let's go out there and kick some ass!" Miranda reassured her and Socorro nodded before they made their way to the duel arena where their opponents where waiting.

"I was beginning to think that you had given up." Melody commented as she and Sallie drew their opening hands, Melody looked like a typical Goth, make-up and all, with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes, pretty much the only item of clothing with any color to it that she was wearing was her Ra Yellow blazer but besides that she was wearing all black. "Too bad, guess we'll have to earn our victory the hard way."

"You're pretty confident considering who my brother is." Miranda commented as she and Socorro drew their opening hands, Melody scoffed but it was Sallie that spoke up next.

"Tyler Kaiba may be your brother and he may be the best student in the school." Sallie commented as she looked over her hand, she was pretty much the opposite of Melody as she was a Latin student with short black hair, brown eyes and was wearing plenty of color including her blazer. "But I think we all know that he's the better duelist out of the two of you."

"Besides, you're basically running a copy of your dad's deck! At least Tyler has enough self-respect to run his own decks." Melody added and Miranda's eyes narrowed at her comment. "Oh, we're sorry, did we touch a nerve?"

"How about you stop making incorrect assumptions and decide the order already?" Miranda asked with a grunt and the two girls looked over their hands. "In fact I'll do it for you, Sallie goes first followed by Socorro followed by Melody and finally followed by me."

"That's fine by me, I was about to suggest that anyway." Sallie commented as she drew her first card.

"Melody and Sallie definitely hit a nerve there." Chloe commented as she watched the duel with Lance and Chelsea. "You have any idea why?"

"You remember your match against Tyler?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Well as you know I had a chat with Miranda during the course of the match, she told me that she's always worried about living in her dad's shadow and that it's a bit of a berserk button for her."

"So why run a blatant copy of his deck?" Lance asked and Chelsea shrugged.

"Didn't get a chance to ask as it came up just as the match was wrapping up and we all know what happened afterworlds." Chelsea responded and the other two students nodded. "Between my match against her and that chat with Tracy, not to mention the duel monster attack, I didn't really get a chance to ask her."

"Maybe Tyler knows but for now we'll just have to focus on the match." Lance commented as Sallie looked over her hand.

"I activate a Spell Card called Toon Table of Contents; with this I can add one Toon card from my deck to my hand." Sallie played the card and picked up her deck before searching through it, once she found the card that she was looking for she added it to her hand. "But I'm gonna cut to the chase, I activate Toon World!"

"Well, this is unexpected!" Miranda commented as a comically large green book appeared on the field, it turned on its side and opened up revealing a dark castle. "Paying a thousand life-points this early in the match?"

"If it keeps my Toons on my side of the field then I'm not complaining." Sallie answered as her life-points dropped to 7000. "Besides, wasn't your dad beaten by the Toons?"

"Okay, first off, my dad was only beaten by that damn Millennium Eye, not by the Toons!" Miranda said as her eyes narrowed. "Second, I thought the Toons where considered too powerful for the general public?" Miranda pointed out and Sallie shrugged.

"I2 must've finally realized that the cards they were releasing where a lot more powerful than the Toons and made them available." Sallie answered before picking up two more cards. "I set a card facedown and I summon Toon Piper!" Sallie played the cards and a cartoonish figure leapt from the book, he seemed to be modeled after the famous pied piper but was clearly cartoonier than Mystic Piper (3/600/1000).

"And apparently that extends to releasing new Toon monsters." Socorro commented as the Piper pulled out a pipe from nowhere and started playing a tune…..incredibly out of tune but still a tune. "And he needs music lessons."

"Very funny but when Toon Piper is Normal Summoned and I have Toon World on my side of the field his effect activates." Sallie said before picking up her deck again. "And much like the fabled pied piper Toon Piper can lead people to do his bidding, in game terms his effect acts much like Tour Guide from the Underworld's effect but it only applies to other Toons and the monster goes to my hand." Sallie explained before finding the card she was looking for and adding it to her hand. "I end my turn at that." Sallie announced once she shuffled her deck and Socorro drew her card.

"I have to agree with Miranda here." Lance commented as he scratched his head. "The Toon monsters weren't exactly something that I was expecting."

"I did here something about I2 finally releasing the Toon Monsters alongside new support cards but this is the first time I've seen them in action." Chloe admitted as she scratched her head. "Is there any truth to what they are saying?"

"Yes and no, there's a rumor going around that Pegasus and Kaiba had a match just before the Duelist Kingdom Semi-Finals started though the rumors don't say what the reason was." Chelsea commented with a shrug. "All I really heard was that Kaiba was defeated by Pegasus convincingly after he used Kaiba's Crush Card Virus against him."

"Ugh, Crush Card Virus, that's one card that will cause me to quit the game if it ever comes back." Lance commented as they watched the duel.

"_Sallie's lucky that none of us can attack yet, otherwise she'd lose even more life-points." _Socorro thought as she added the drawn card to her hand. "I activate Cards from the Sky! I banish one Light-Type Monster from my hand…." Socorro said as she pocketed the monster. "And I draw two cards, this may cost me the ability to conduct my Battle Phase but since it's my first turn it's not like it matters." Socorro added before drawing two cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode! That ends my turn." Socorro set the cards down and Melody drew her card.

"About time, I play Allure of Darkness!" Melody played the card and quickly drew two cards before banishing another card. "Now I activate Fortune's Future! I simply return the card I banished to my graveyard….." Melody announced as she retrieved her pocketed card and sent it to the graveyard. "And I get to draw two more cards!" Melody added before drawing twice more.

"Four cards in the same turn? Unless you got some good cards you just thinned your deck for nothing." Miranda pointed out and Melody scoffed before playing another card.

"Well I'm about to do some more thinning, I activate One for One! I discard one monster from my hand to Special Summon my Fortune Lady Light!" Melody played the card and once she discarded the card a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young woman with long flowing curly blonde hair who was wearing a gold, white and blue dress (1/?/?). "You're probably wondering where she gets her power from; well I'll tell you right now, her level! You see she gains two-hundred attack points depending on her level with the maximum level being twelve off course." Melody explained as her monster's attack and defense increased to two hundred.

"She's still the weakest monster on the field." Miranda pointed out and Melody grinned.

"Let me worry about that, in the meantime I'll set these cards facedown….." Melody announced as she set two of the drawn cards. "And end my turn." Melody announced and Miranda drew her card.

"So the Goth's running Fortune Ladies huh?" Lance said as he scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I was half-expecting a fiend deck of sorts."

"I don't mind, I think enough students here run those anyway." Chloe pointed out and Lance nodded in agreement. "So what's up with these Fortune Ladies anyway?"

"I faced off against them at the school I was in before this one. They're not very strong but make up for it with strength and consistency." Chelsea answered before frowning. "I just contradicted myself, didn't I?"

"I wasn't going to say anything for fear of getting my ass kicked but yeah, you did." Lance commented and Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"Just watch the duel and you'll see what I mean." Chelsea responded with an annoyed grunt as they watched Miranda make her move. _"She didn't take this long when I faced her; did she draw a bad opening hand?"_ Chelsea thought as Miranda picked up three cards.

"I set two cards facedown." Miranda announced as the two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I summon Vorse Raider!" Miranda played the card and hideous halberd wielding beast-warrior appeared on the field (4/1900/1200). "That ends my turn." Miranda announced and Sallie drew her card.

"Took you long enough, I almost got one of my comic books out!" Sallie said with a smirk before looking at the card she had drawn and the monster she had added to her hand via Toon Piper's effect last turn. _"Hmmm, with this combo I could bring out my best monster right away but I'd need another card to do it and without another copy of Toon Table of Contents in my hand I can't do that just yet." _Sallie thought before grinning. _"But I can do this!" _Sallie thought before playing a card. "First I play Shadow Toon!" Sallie announced as a dark cloud appeared above Toon World's castle. "Since I have Toon World on my side of the field this Spell Card lets me inflict damage equal to an opponent's monster's attack points and since Vorse Raider's the only monster on your side of the field….." Sallie trailed off as the cloud rammed into Vorse Raider and Miranda bringing her team's life-points down to 6100.

"I didn't think such innocent looking Toons could pack such a punch!" Miranda grunted as Sallie sent her Spell Card to the graveyard.

"Please, it's not like cartoons lack for violence, it's just animated." Sallie said as she picked up a card. "Unless your target audience is kindergarten age but that's beside the point! To follow that up I summon the monster I retrieved from my deck last turn, Toon Cat!" Sallie played the card and another monster appeared on the field from within the castle, this one seemed to be based on the titular character from the famous Tom & Jerry Cartoons but had a more cartoonish appearance, looking more Anime inspired (3/500/200). "I know this cat isn't very strong but his effect makes up for it!"

"And what effect is that exactly?" Miranda asked and Sallie grinned.

"I'll show you! If I summon Toon Cat when there's Toon World on my side of the field I can shift him to defense mode to Special Summon another Toon monster from my deck!" Sallie explained as the cat, for lack of a better term, fell asleep. "So I use his effect special summon Toon Dog to the field in attack mode!" Sallie played the card and another monster emerged from Toon World's castle, this one was, well, a dog with comically large eyes that resembled a pit-bull (3/1000/1200). "And this little puppy's ability is a doozy…."

"Err, Sallie…" Miranda trailed off and Sallie blinked before looking at her side of the field, Toon Dog was growling at Toon Cat who was hiding up a tree that wasn't there five seconds ago, a large sweat-drop rolled down Sallie's head before she shook her head.

"Personally I hate the Cats vs. Dogs stereotype, I grew up with both animals and they never fought once!" Sallie said as she put a hand on her hip. "Granted one of my dogs was a Labrador who wouldn't hurt a fly but…."

"Err, Sallie, can you please continue with your move?" Socorro interrupted her and Sallie blushed.

"Oh right, as I was saying, when Toon Dog is Special Summoned via the effect of another Toon Monster I can increase the levels of all Toon Monsters on my side of the field by one!" Sallie explained as her three monster's levels increased to four. "And now you're really in trouble! I use my Toons to construct an Overlay Network!"

"I saw that coming." Miranda grunted as Toon Piper, Toon Cat and Toon Dog vanished into white orbs of light, taking the tree with it in the process.

"Well let's see if you can see this coming…you know what I meant!" Sallie said as she shook her head before retrieving a card from her extra deck. "I use my three monsters to XYZ Summon Toon Minotaur!" Sallie played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, as the name suggested it was the Minotaur from Greek Mythology but it was a lot more cartoony looking complete with a comically oversized axe (Rank: 4/2000/1500).

"I don't know if I should find that thing amusing or horrifying." Socorro commented with a gulp and Miranda nodded in agreement.

"Honestly that's not the first time I've heard that." Sallie admitted as Toon Minotaur snorted causing smoke to come out of its nostrils. "Anyway it's time I activated his effect, by detaching an XYZ material from him I can search for another Toon Monster and add it to my hand." Sallie explained before sending Toon Dog to the graveyard and picking up her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck.

"I'm sorry but a Monster version of Toon Table of Contents?" Miranda asked with a raised eyebrow. "Using such an effect of a Triple Monster XYZ seems a bit wasteful if you ask me."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Toon Minotaur has another effect!" Sallie said with a grin as Toon Minotaur got ready for battle. "As long as he has an XYZ Material monster attached to him my Toons don't have to wait a turn before attacking, even the ones that can attack directly."

"I just had to go and open my big mouth." Miranda sighed and Sallie grinned before pointing to Miranda.

"And guess what? Toon Minotaur can attack directly!" Sallie added as the Minotaur charged towards Miranda…..only to be stopped in its tracks due to being ensnared by chains. "What the….."

"Sorry Sallie but I activated my Shadow Spell Trap Card!" Miranda said as she pointed it out. "Now your monster can't attack and loses seven hundred attack points!" Miranda added as Toon Minotaur's attack dropped to 1300.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Sallie grunted as she set the card and Socorro drew her card.

"I activate my Spell Card Celestial Transformation! With this I can Special Summon one Fairy Type monster from my hand with its attack cut in half! I'll use its effect to summon Dunames Dark Witch!" Socorro played the card and the witch that Theresa used in her Battle City Duels appeared on the field (4/1800/1050) and her attack dropped to 900 due to Celestial Transformation's effect. "She'll be destroyed during the end phase but she won't be around long enough for that."

"Why? Do you plan to use her for a tribute or Synchro Summon?" Melody asked and Socorro shook her head before playing another card.

"Just watch! For my normal summon I bring out Nova Summoner!" Socorro played the card and the strange fairy appeared on the field (4/1400/800). "And I'm not going to waste any time here! I use my two monsters to construct an Overlay Network!" Socorro announced as the two monsters vanished into white orbs of light, Socorro retrieved a monster from her extra deck and played it. "Come on out Fairy Cheer Girl!"

"Excuse me, what?!" Melody asked as the new monster appeared on the field, it could best be described as a fairy cheerleader with blue hair, a blue and green dress, blue wings and yellow bom-boms (Rank: 4/1900/1500).

"Now I activate her effect, I detach Nova Summoner and I draw a card in exchange." Socorro added as she sent Nova Summoner to the graveyard and quickly drew a card. "I know she doesn't seem like much but my deck's full of surprises." Socorro added before grinning. "Oh yeah, she can destroy Toon Minotaur whilst I'm at it!" Socorro commanded as the cheerleader did a high kick…..

"Don't count on it! I activate my Trap Card known as Toon Reinforcement!" Sallie activated the trap which depicted Toon Goblin Attack Force charging onto a field already populated by Toon Dark Magician Girl and Toon Gemini Elf. "This trap can only be activated if a Toon Monster I control is targeted for an attack, since you were so kind as to try to attack my Minotaur all I need to do is banish one Toon Monster from my graveyard….." Sallie said as she pocketed Toon Dog. "And the attack is negated."

"Seems like a lot of work just for a Toon specific version of Negate Attack." Socorro pointed out as Toon Minotaur blocked the attack with his axe sending the cheerleader flying back.

"Well then, I guess it'll be a good time to mention its other effect." Sallie added before picking up her deck. "If Toon World's active when I activate Toon Reinforcements I can Special Summon another Toon Monster from my deck in defense mode." Sallie added before playing the card and Toon Gemini Elf appeared on the field (4/1900/900). "I know that effect seems pretty broken but it comes with a drawback, namely the summoned monster can't attack."

"Fine, I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Socorro grunted in annoyance and Melody drew her card.

"_Seems that my partner is setting up another XYZ summon, that suits me just fine, I have my own move to make." _Melody thought as Fortune Lady Light's attack and defense increased to six hundred thanks to her effect. "My Fortune Lady is stronger but she isn't sticking around, I activate my Trap Card Dimension Switch!" Melody announced as her facedown card flipped up and Fortune Lady Light disappeared from the field. "As long as this trap's on the field my Fortune Lady's removed from play."

"Why would you banish your own monster?" Miranda asked with a raised eyebrow and Melody grinned.

"Because when Fortune Lady Light is removed from play via a card effect her second effect activates!" Melody responded before picking up her deck. "This effect lets me Special Summon another Fortune Lady from my deck like Fortune Lady Fire!" Melody played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young woman with short red hair who was wearing a strange red and blue outfit and had a pair of bats wings coming out of her hair (2/?/?). "Not only does Fortune Lady Fire share Fortune Lady Light's effect….." Melody trailed off as Fire's attack and defense increased to 400. "But when she's Special Summoned via the effect of another Fortune Lady her own effect activates which lets me target one face-up monster my opponent, or in this case opponents, controls and destroy it!"

"Oh crap!" Socorro gulped as Fortune Lady Fire pointed her staff at her Fairy Cheer Girl destroying her.

"And now it gets fun, you see when Fortune Lady Fire destroys an opponent's monster via her effect that monster's attack comes out of your life-points!" Melody added and Socorro and Miranda winced as their life-points dropped to 4200. "Now I activate the second part of Dimension Switch's effect, be removing it from the field I can Special Summon Fortune Lady Light back to the field." Melody added as her trap card disappeared and Fortune Lady Light returned to the field. "And to complete my combo I activate my other Trap Card Give And Take!"

"What the….you don't have any monsters in your graveyard!" Socorro protested and Melody grinned.

"She does." Miranda corrected her and Socorro turned to her. "She sent a monster there via her Allure of Darkness/Fortune Future combo."

"She's right and now I'm going to summon her to Socorro's side of the field, so please welcome Fortune Lady Dark!" Melody announced as she tossed the card at Socorro and she reluctantly played it, the monster that was summoned seemed to be closer to Melody's appearance then any of her other monsters as it was a pale woman with long purple hair who was wearing a black dress (5/?/?). "And like the other Fortune Ladies her attack depends on her level only this time it's times four hundred, since she's a Level 5 monster….." Melody trailed off as Fortune Lady Dark's attack increased to 1500.

"Well, thanks for the monster, not saying it fits in with my deck but she's still stronger than your monsters." Socorro responded and Melody shook her head.

"First off Fortune Lady Dark's level gets added to Fortune Lady Light's increasing her level to six." Melody responded as Fortune Lady Light's attack increased to 1200. "Second, Fortune Lady Dark won't be yours for long; I activate my Spell Card Owner's Seal to return her to me!" Melody played the card and Socorro's eyes widened as Fortune Lady Dark returned to Melody's side of the field. "Do the math, I have three monsters and you have one, Miranda's beast warrior may be stronger but what about your defense monster?" Melody asked before pointing to it. "Fortune Lady Dark, attack Socorro's defense monster!" Melody commanded as her monster pointed her staff at the facedown monster.

"Thanks for that." Socorro thanked her and Melody blinked before realizing that she had destroying Shining Angel (4/1400/800) which was quickly destroyed. "Now I can use Shining Angel's effect to Special Summon another one!" Socorro added as a second Shining Angel appeared on the field.

"Fine, you've saved yourself for now." Melody said before frowning. _"Damn it! I should've waited a bit before using this combo because otherwise I would've been able to summon another Fortune Lady." _Melody thought before picking up a card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Melody announced and Miranda drew her card.

"You weren't kidding about the Fortune Ladies." Lance commented with an impressed whistle. "That was an impressive combo!"

"Yeah, my opponent didn't use that combo but they are still pretty nasty to deal with." Chelsea responded as Miranda looked over her hand. "Still for Melody's sake I hope her facedown card is something that can protect her Fortune Ladies because otherwise they'll be nothing but bloodstains on Vorse Raider's halberd."

"And Miranda would be stupid to not attack them." Chloe agreed with a frown. "Next turn Fortune Lady Dark will be strong enough to destroy Vorse Raider and by that time their life-points will be in big trouble."

"_Okay, Sallie has that Toon XYZ monster and Melody has an army of Fortune Ladies at her disposal." _Miranda thought as she looked over the field. _"Fortunately my Vorse Raider's all I need to destroy her monsters but that facedown card has me concerned, unfortunately I have nothing in hand or on my field that can destroy Spells and Traps." _Miranda thought as she added her drawn card to her hand. _"Okay, I have one half of my combo already in my hand, I just need to draw the other card and I'll be all set! But in the meantime….." _Miranda trailed off before playing a card. "I activate Card of Demise, with this I draw until I have five cards in my hand but only if I'm okay with discarding them after five turns."

"Yeah, we know, your dad used that card a lot." Melody responded as Miranda drew her cards. "Hell, didn't you use it in your duel against Chelsea Cunningham last month?"

"Maybe, maybe not, but as for whether or not I'm going for the same combo well I won't reveal that just yet." Miranda responded before picking up another card. "But here's what I will do! I summon Spear Dragon!" Miranda played the card and the blue and orange dragon with the ridiculously long nose appeared on the field (4/1900/0000). "Now I could use my monsters to wipe out Sallie's but I don't know if she has any tricks up her sleeve, you on the other hand, well I'm sure that facedown's a bluff."

"Then why don't you go ahead and try attacking my Fortune Ladies?" Melody asked as she folded her arms, Miranda frowned as she looked over Melody's field.

"_If that facedown's a trap then why is she calling my bluff?" _Miranda thought with a frown. _"Even with Card of Demise I didn't draw anything like Mystical Space Typhoon so who knows what she has in store." _Miranda thought before deciding on her plan of action. _"Next turn Fortune Lady Dark will be strong enough to destroy my two monsters and I have no intention of letting that happen!"_

"Are you going to make a move sometime this year?" Melody asked as she tapped her foot impatiently.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, Vorse Raider, attack Fortune Lady Dark!" Miranda commanded and the Beast-Warrior charged forward…..

"I activate my Trap Card Interdimensional Matter Transporter! With this I banish Fortune Lady Light!" Melody responded as her Fortune Lady vanished from the field. "Not only does this force a replay but now I can use Fortune Lady Light's effect again!"

"Let me guess, Fortune Lady Fire?" Miranda asked and Melody shook her head before playing another card.

"As fun as she is to use I have different plans and they involve Fortune Lady Water!" Melody played the card and a new monster appeared in Fortune Lady Light's place, it was another woman with light blue skin, ocean blue hair and was wearing a strange blue dress (4/?/?). "Like the other Fortune Ladies Fortune Lady Water gains her power from her level this time times three hundred." Melody added as Fortune Lady Water's attack and defense increased to twelve hundred. "That's not all! When she is Special Summoned whilst I have another Fortune Lady out, well, she basically turns into a monster version of Pot of Greed!" Melody added before drawing twice.

"That's all well and good but using it on Fire would've been a better choice." Miranda responded with a frown. "Besides that you've used up your only trap card! Unless you have another trick up your sleeve your monsters are sitting ducks for mine!"

"That's the beauty about Fortune Ladies; they always have a trick up their sleeve." Melody responded with a grin. "So go ahead, try it!"

"Famous last words, Vorse Raider, Spear Dragon, attack Fortune Lady Dark and Fortune Lady Fire!" Miranda commanded as her two monsters charged forward…..only for Vorse Raider to be stopped by a horrible high pitched sound. "What the….."

"I activated a Quick Play Spell from my hand, one that your dad should be familiar with." Melody announced as she turned it around. "It's called Command Silencer! Since you declared an attack this negates it and lets me draw one more card." Melody announced as she drew her card.

"That still negated only one attack." Miranda said as Spear Dragon pierced through Fortune Lady Fire's chest destroying it and bringing her life-points down to 6500. "And with that I've drawn first blood for my team."

"Don't get used to it!" Melody retorted as Spear Dragon crouched down in defense mode. "And like it or not my strongest Fortune Lady is still on the field."

"_She's right, better prepare my defenses!" _Miranda thought before picking up two cards and setting them. "I end my turn with two facedown cards." Miranda announced as Fortune Lady Light returned to the field.

"Good, I was starting to get bored." Sallie responded before drawing a card. _"Toon Briefcase, if I had drawn this last turn I could've prevented Spear Dragon's summon and our life-points would still be untouched, doesn't mean I can't use it though." _Sallie thought before setting it. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Sallie announced and Socorro raised an eyebrow before drawing her card.

"_She didn't use Toon Gemini Elf in an XYZ Summon, either she has something else in mind or she didn't draw a suitable monster." _Socorro thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Perfect!" _Socorro thought before playing the card. "I activate Terra-Forming and I use its effect to add a Field Spell to my hand." Socorro announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "Now I activate it! Go Sanctuary in the Sky!"

"I saw that coming." Melody commented as she rolled her eyes, once the scenery changed to the magnificent palace among the clouds Melody scoffed. "Is that all you can do?"

"Not quite, I activate my trap card, Beckoning Light!" Socorro announced as her trap card flipped up. "First I ditch my entire hand….." Socorro said as she discarded her cards. "And for each card discarded I get to add one Light Type Monster to my hand from the graveyard!" Socorro added before adding two monsters and returning the other to the extra deck. "I set one monster in defense mode, shift Shining Angel to defense mode and end my turn."

"_Discarding her entire hand just to recycle some cards? She must be getting desperate." _Melody thought before looking at her hand. _"Can't do a move as elaborate as my last one but with these cards on the field I won't need too!" _Melody thought as her monster's levels increased raising their attacks to 2400, 1500 and 400 respectively. "Well I don't need her anymore so I tribute Fortune Lady Water to summon Fortune Lady Earth!" Melody played the card and Fortune Lady Water vanished from the field, in her place stood a woman with short brown hair who's eyes where hidden behind a thick pair of glasses, like her counterparts she was wearing a strange brown dress (6/?/?). "And before you ask, the total number of attack points she gains from her level is four hundred." Melody added as her attack increased to 2400.

"I'm not worried about Fortune Lady Earth!" Miranda said confidently and Melody smirked.

"Then let me give you a reason to be worried, Fortune Lady Dark, attack Vorse Raider!" Melody commanded and the dark Fortune Lady pointed her staff at the beat warrior destroying him and bringing her life-points down to 3700, "Did you ever wonder why I let you destroy Fortune Lady Fire and not Dark? Well now you're about to know! When Fortune Lady Dark destroys a monster by battle she allows me to Special Summon another Fortune Lady from my graveyard!"

"Oh no….." Miranda's eyes widened as Fortune Lady Fire reappeared on the field, almost immediately she pointed her staff at Spear Dragon bringing Miranda's life-points down to 1800 whilst Socorro's life-points dropped to 2300.

"Never thought it would be this easy to beat an Obelisk Blue Student, let alone Seto Kaiba's daughter, but I guess that shows how out of date your deck strategy is! Fortune Lady Earth, finish her off!" Melody commanded and Fortune Lady Earth pointed her staff at Miranda…only to be stopped by a familiar screech.

"Like you said Melody, my dad used Command Silencer a lot." Miranda said as she drew a card. "In fact he used it so much that it came with this deck!"

"So you're still in this? Big deal! Light, Fire, attack her life-points!" Melody commanded and the two Fortune Ladies prepared their staffs…

"And I summon Battle Fader to negate the attack!" Miranda played the card and the small clock like fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0). "Surprised? I may have inherited this deck but dad never said that I couldn't improve it!"

"Fine, I end my turn! I'll just finish you off next turn instead!" Melody responded and Miranda drew her card.

"_That was close, but unless I get what I need we're finished!" _Miranda thought before her eyes lay upon her drawn card. _"Yes!" _Miranda thought before playing the card. "I summon the monster that will win me this duel, Azure-Eyed Maiden!" Miranda played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, she was a young woman with long white hair and blue eyes who was wearing clothes from the Ancient Era (1/0/0).

"You're kidding right?" Melody asked as she stared at the new monster. "How is she supposed to win the duel for you?"

"I'll show you, I activate Wonder Wand and I equip it to my maiden!" Miranda played the card and a small wand appeared in her hands. "Which lets me activate her effect but I'll let it speak for itself." Miranda announced as she searched through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she played it and a loud, familiar roar rang out.

"What the….." Melody trailed off as the Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field with a roar (8/3000/2500). "Okay, it's not to…SHIT! I left Fortune Lady Light in attack mode!"

"That's the least of your worries! First I activate Wonder Wand's effect; I send it and Maiden to the graveyard and draw two cards." Miranda announced as she sent the two cards to the graveyard and once Azure-Eyed Maiden vanished from the field she drew twice. "Now I activate Monster Reborn to bring her back!" Miranda played the card and the maiden returned to the field. "Blue-Eyes, attack Fortune Lady Light with White Lightning!" Miranda commanded and the dragon fired its famous attack at the weak Spellcaster destroying her and bringing Melody's life-points down to 3700.

"I'm still in this!" Melody said defiantly and Miranda simply activated her trap. "Is that Urgent Tuning? Since when did you have a Tuner on the field?!"

"You're looking at her!" Miranda said as she pointed to Azure-Eyed Maiden as she leapt into the air alongside Blue-Eyes White Dragon. "Consider yourselves honored! You're the first duelists that I get to use my new toy on! I tune Azure Eyed Maiden with Blue-Eyes White Dragon to summon Azure-Eyed Silver Dragon!"

"That doesn't sound good!" Melody gulped as Azure-Eyed Maiden dissolved into one giant Synchro ring that surrounded Blue-Eyes White Dragon and once the flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a bigger and more beautiful version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon and it let out a mighty roar as it hit the field (9/2500/3000).

"_Damn it! If I had used Toon Briefcase we wouldn't be in this much trouble right now!" _Sallie thought as she stared down the monster. "That thing's weaker than the original Blue-Eyes! What would your dad say about that….."

"My dad was the one that introduced me to these cards!" Miranda interrupted her and Sallie gulped once she saw the frown on her face. "Guess what he told me? He told me that he would've loved to have these cards back in the day and here's why, until the end of the next turn dragons can't be targeted or destroyed by card effects!" Miranda added before pointing to Fortune Lady Earth. "And yeah, I know all about Fortune Lady Earth's burn effect so she's my dragon's first victim! Attack with Silver Lightning Crash!" Miranda commanded and the dragon let loose with a mighty attack that destroyed Fortune Lady Earth and brought Melody's life-points down to 3600. "And I end my turn with a facedown card!"

"_This is bad, this is bad, and this is really fucking bad!" _Sallie thought as she shakily drew her card. _"Melody can't destroy her dragon with Fortune Lady Fire's effect and due to my fuck up we'll lose!" _Sallie thought before sighing. "I…..I have to pass!"

"That's all? That's too bad!" Socorro commented as she drew her card. "Miranda, can I use your dragon?"

"We're partners, aren't we?" Miranda asked as her dragon flew over to Miranda's side of the field. "But let me make your choice a bit easier, I activate Dragon's Rage!"

"Nice!" Socorro said with a grin before pointing to Toon Gemini Elf. "Azure-Eyed Silver Dragon, attack Toon Gemini Elf with Azure Lightning Crash!" Socorro commanded and the dragon let loose with the attack again bringing Sallie's life-points down to 6400 as Toon Gemini Elf was vaporized. "I end my turn."

"_Great! I never got to do that XYZ summon!" _Sallie thought as Melody drew her card once Miranda's dragon was back on her side of the field.

"_Threating Roar, this can help us at least!" _Melody thought before setting it and switching her remaining monsters to defense mode. "That ends my turn." Melody announced and Miranda drew her card…..and the other duelists where caught off guard by another roar. "What the…."

"I almost forgot about this effect! You see once per turn during my stand-by phase my Silver Dragon lets me bring back a Normal Dragon Monster! I'll give you two guesses as to what monster I'm bringing back and the second doesn't count!" Miranda announced as the Blue Eyes White Dragon returned to the field. "And that was perfect timing! I activate my Spell Card Burst Stream of Destruction!" Miranda announced and Melody and Sallie's eyes widened as the Blue Eyes fired its attack wiping out their monsters.

"I chain Threating Roar!" Melody activated the trap and the two dragons cowered when a roar echoed through the field. "Sorry but we are still in this!"

"You would be, if not for this Spell Card!" Miranda said as she played it. "The dreaded Mischief of the Time Goddess, sorry Melody but I'm about to wipe you out."

"Fine, just…..just attack already!" Melody sighed and Miranda gave the order, the two dragons fired their attacks bringing her life-points down to zero. "Sallie, I think it'll be best if you just surrender at this point."

"I….I….." Sallie trailed off as she searched desperately for a way out. "Your right, I surrender!" Sallie said as she surrendered.

"Here are the winners of the match, Socorro Stanley and Miranda Kaiba!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered as the two teams dispersed.

"Err, yeah, I think Miranda's team just got updated to "Team to Beat" status." Chelsea gulped as the two teams dispersed. "Seriously, that new dragon is nasty!"

"No card's unbeatable though, the trick is figuring out how to beat it." Lance pointed out and the two girls nodded in agreement.

*elsewhere*

"Just so we're clear, whatever you do DON'T go after Chloe Richardson!" Sara told the agent as he hopped off the speedboat. "I want her for myself and even if I didn't the Legendary Dragon in her deck makes her way too difficult to confront."

"I thought the boss was building decks to counteract that card?" The agent asked and Sara shook her head.

"That will take time, time we don't have." Sara responded and the agent nodded. "Besides Chloe you are free to target whoever you want, got it?"

"I got it!" The agent nodded and the speedboat sped off. _"Stephan may have earned us a soul but he didn't go far enough! I'll soon correct his mistakes." _The agent thought as he entered the island.


	86. Day Five Unknowns

It had been a half hour since the last Tag Team duel and every other student was talking about the match but more specifically the ending of the match and the Dragon monster that Miranda had summoned, almost to the point that it was overshadowing the fact that there was a second duel that day.

One of the duelists competing in that match was making his way to the duel arena, Kristopher O'Neil was a tall Osiris Red student with short black hair and blue eyes behind a pair of glasses, he had never met Chloe or her friends before but he had seen them around the school and seen them duel once or twice.

"_I know me and Lamont will have a tough task ahead of us, not just in terms of winning this match but topping Miranda's performance in her match." _Kristopher thought as he looked at his deck. _"Still my deck's got me this far and with any luck it'll take me all the way to the finals."_

"Going in there without me Kristopher?" Kristopher looked up and saw his tag team partner running up to him, Lamont was shorter than Kristopher and had short blonde hair and blue eyes. "You're a bit over eager aren't you?"

"Sorry, I was daydreaming." Kristopher shrugged as he turned to the Obelisk Blue Student. "That and thinking about the end of the last match."

"Indeed but we should do well." Lamont nodded in agreement as they stepped out onto the arena where their opponents where waiting. "Sorry for the wait ladies but we are here."

"Yeah, we can see that." Billie commented as she rolled her eyes before activating her duel disk, Billie was the youngest female Osiris Red student at fifteen and she had long red hair tied up in a ponytail and blue eyes. "And I don't know about you but I intend to win this match!"

"We all do my deer, but why don't we be realistic? Only one team will win this match and it'll be the all-male team." Lamont responded as he and Kristopher activated their duel disks. "The entire tournament has, so far, been dominated by Obelisk Blue."

"With teams like Kimberly and Nathan Troy and Theresa Daniels and Brandon Thomas are you really surprised by that?" Carmelo responded as she activated her duel disk and the four duelists drew their opening hands, she was the second shortest of the four duelists and had shoulder length black hair and blue eyes. "Enough talk, we have an order to decide, don't we?"

"Well the order the other duelists used worked just as well so why change it?" Kristopher asked and the other duelists nodded. "So just so we're clear here, Billie first, then me, then Carmelo and finally Lamont?"

"That works for me!" Billie responded as she drew another card.

"I almost forgot about the second match." Chloe commented as she watched the banter between the four duelists. "You heard of these guys?"

"Seen Billie around the girl's dorm, heard that she has a pretty nasty temper but not as nasty as mine." Chelsea answered with a frown. "Not sure about the others."

"I'd have to ask Brandon and Theresa about the Obelisk Blue Students." Lance said with a frown. "As for Kristopher, isn't he in your dorm?"

"What gave it away? Was it the Osiris Red Blazer?" Chelsea asked with a dull look on her face. "But yeah, he is in Osiris Red but we haven't really chatted with him since he's in the boy's dorm and all, not saying we haven't seen him around but we haven't spoken to him either."

"So in other words, it's a duel full of unknowns." Lance responded and the two girls nodded in agreement. "Well it'll be interesting to watch at least, hell we may get another surprise like we did in the last duel."

"Somehow I doubt either of them has anything like Miranda's dragon in their decks but you never know." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as Billie made her move.

"I start my turn with the Spell Card called Pot of Duality with this I get to have a sneak peek at the top three cards off my deck and chose one to add to my hand whilst the others are shuffled into my deck." Billie played the card and picked up the top three cards off her deck, she gave a satisfied smile before adding one card to her hand, shuffling the others into her deck and sending the Spell Card to the graveyard.

"You realize that that Spell Card also prevents you from Special Summoning right?" Kristopher asked and Billie nodded.

"I'm well aware of that but then again the card I've added doesn't Special Summon monsters." Billie said before playing the card she added. "I activate Terra-Forming!" Billie played the card and picked up her deck; once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "And now I'll activate the field spell! Go Madolche Chateau!"

"Did you say Madolches!?" Kristopher echoed as the scenery changed to a castle that looked like it was made of candy. "I can't say I was expecting that!"

"What can I say? I like keeping my opponents guessing." Billie responded before playing another card. "Next I activate Madolche Ticket but we'll get to this Continuous Spell Card's effect next turn, for now I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense to end my turn." Billie set the three cards and once they appeared on the field Kristopher drew his card.

"_Maldolche's just made this duel a lot harder but it's nothing I can't handle." _Kristopher thought to himself before looking at the card that he had drawn. "I start my turn by summoning Gradius in attack mode!"

"You're summoning what?!" Billie and Carmelo asked simultaneously as a small jet craft clearly based on the hit video game Gradius appeared on the field (4/1200/800).

"And here I thought Rachel's idea to summon Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth was stupid….." Billie trailed off as she stared at the outdated monster. "Who the hell runs that thing nowadays?!"

"This is coming from someone running Madolches?" Kristopher asked and Billie growled at him. "Back to the point, now that I have a Gradius on my side of the field I can Special Summon Gradius's Option!" Kristopher played the card and a second copy of the jet fighter appeared on the field with the same stats as Gradius. "Now granted, my two monsters aren't very strong at all so I'll just set these cards facedown….." Kristopher trailed off as three facedown cards appeared on the field. "And end my turn."

"I never thought I'd go on a nostalgia trip during a duel." Chelsea commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Then again I never thought I'd see anyone run those cards in this day and age."

"As much as I'd like to argue about their effects, I can't really do that." Lance sighed as he leaned back. "Gradius is a product of a simpler time, hell he was brand new when Yugi Moto was still dueling, but I guess Kristopher is running a retro machine deck."

"Even then there's got to be better cards to run in it then Gradius." Chloe commented with a frown. "Pretty much the only thing that's stopping them from destroying it is the tournament rules." Chloe added as she leaned forward. _"I don't know what the hell he's running but if his team wins this match they'll be a team to look out for in the next round." _Chloe thought as Carmelo made her move.

"_Dolls and retro machines, if I didn't know Lamont's deck from personal experience I'd say he was running a Mokey-Mokey deck just based on what's been played so far." _Carmelo thought as she looked over her hand. "I start my turn with a Spell Card called Flight of the Dragons!" Carmelo played the card which depicted several famous dragon type monsters flying in the air with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon at the front. "Think of this as a Reinforcement of the Army for Dragons."

"Yet another Dragon deck?" Kristopher asked as Carmelo picked up her deck. "Haven't there been enough of those recently?"

"Actually there's only been three Dragon Decks played so far, Marcus Reynolds's, Alexander Bender's and Nicky Tryon's, Miranda Kaiba's doesn't count because it's more of a throwback to her dad's deck even with the cards she added." Carmelo pointed out before finding the card she was looking for and adding it to her hand before sending her Spell Card to the graveyard. "I set one monster in defense mode and two cards facedown to end my turn." Carmelo announced and Lamont drew his card.

"I activate a Spell Card called Onslaught of the Fire Kings!" Lamont played the card and picked up his deck. "Since the two of you have cards on your side of the field and I don't this Spell Card shall allow me to Special Summon one Fire Type Beast Warrior, Winged Beast or Beast Type Monster from my deck, in this case I'm going with a Beast Warrior, more specifically Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Hawk!"

"I heard you were running Fire Fist nowadays." Carmelo commented as Lamont played the card and a man in blue and gold armor appeared on the field, however the weirdest thing about him was the wings protruding from his back (3/200/1500). "I'd say something about originality being dead but considering what else has been played so far it may be redundant."

"Yes well, whilst Hawk's effects are negated and he'll be destroyed the moment that I end my turn I have no intention of keeping him around that long." Lamont answered before playing another card. "For my Normal Summon I bring out the Tuner Monster Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Boar!" Lamont played the card and a humanoid boar in gold armor appeared on the field (4/1100/1400). "Before I continue I equip Boar with the Spell Card Synchro Boost, increasing his attack by five hundred and most importantly increasing his level by one."

"I can see where this is going." Billie commented as Boar's attack increased to 1600 and its level increased to five. "You're going to Synchro Summon Crimson Blader, well bring it! I know that thing's effect from Lance's first duel in the Battle City Semi-Finals."

"My dear, you are under the mistaken impression that I run Crimson Blader." Lamont said as the two Fire Fist monsters leapt into the air, Boar dissolved into five Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Hawk. "But no, I am going for something far more lethal! I tune Hawk and Boar together to Synchro Summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Kirin!" Lamont played the card and once the flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a tall, muscular man with a long black beard who was wearing weird armor (8/2000/2800).

"I fail to see how that is an improvement over Crimson Blader." Billie commented and Carmelo nodded in agreement.

"Strength isn't everything as I'll now demonstrate; when Kirin is successfully Synchro Summoned I can take one "Fire Formation" Spell Card and set it directly from my deck." Lamont said before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he set the card and shuffled his deck.

"So why don't you activate it? It's not like it's a trap card?" Billie asked and Lamont nodded in response.

"An excellent idea, now I activate it, Fire Formation – Tensu! Now in addition to my Normal Summon I get an additional summon, such is Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Spirit!" Lamont played the card and the monster that appeared was a dark purple spirit like monster wearing silver and gold armor (3/500/200). "And to get your question out of the way no, it's not a Spirit Monster."

"I'm not worried about that thing!" Billie said defiantly and Lamont chuckled.

"You should be worried about his effect, when he's Normal Summoned I can Special Summon one Fire Fist monster from my graveyard so long as it's a Level 3 monster such as Hawk!" Lamont played the card and the winged man appeared on the field again. "But he won't be staying around for much longer because Spirit is another Tuner Monster!"

"Oh, that is just great!" Billie said sarcastically as the two monsters leapt into the air, Spirit dissolved into three Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Hawk.

"I certainly like to think so! Now I tune my two monsters together to Synchro Summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Horse Prince!" Lamont played the card and another monster appeared on the field, it was a man with long wild black and silver hair wearing midriff bearing armor who was riding a blue horse (6/2200/2200). "And this card has a lethal effect of his own; after I Synchro Summon it I can Special Summon one Level 3 Fire Monster from my deck such as Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Chicken in defense mode!"

"Okay, your monsters are getting weird." Billie commented as Lamont played the card and a red-haired woman in multicolored armor appeared on the field (3/1500/100).

"Whilst that may be true Chicken has an effect of her own, when she's Special Summoned via the effect of a Fire Fist monster she lets me search through my deck for another one." Lamont announced as he picked up his deck again and searched through it, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand.

"If that's the case why didn't you summon Horse Prince first?" Billie asked and Lamont frowned.

"Horse Prince comes with a side effect, after its Synchro Summoned I can't summon any more Level 5 or higher monsters for the rest of the turn." Lamont explained before grinning. "Oh yes and thanks to Tenju all my monsters gain 100 attack points." Lamont added as Chicken, Kirin and Horse Prince's attacks increased to 1600, 2100, and 2300 respectively. "Kirin has another effect but this turn has dragged on enough so I end my turn with two facedown cards."

"Well if this was a contest for longest, most overcomplicated move then Lamont wins." Chelsea commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "As for the Fire Fists, didn't they just come out?"

"Yeah, they did." Lance nodded in response. "Where do you think I got my copy of Onslaught of the Fire Kings?" Lance added and Chelsea nodded. "They've been out for a year over in Europe and Phil's told me that he's seen some crazy opening moves since they've been released."

"Yeah I kinda guessed that when he summoned two Synchros in the same turn." Chelsea responded with a nod as Billie drew her card.

"_Okay, I can't get past either of Lamont's strongest monsters and I don't know if that facedown card is something that'll protect him." _Billie thought before turning her attention to Kristopher. _"Kris on the other hand has two week monsters on his side of the field, easy pickings if you ask me!" _Billie thought before playing her drawn card. "I summon Madolche Chouxvalier in attack mode!" Billie announced as the new monster appeared on the field, it was a young girl wearing all black who was riding a white horse with a gold mane (4/1700/1300). "And thanks to my field spell she gets a power boost of five hundred attack and defense points and whilst she's not as strong as either of Lamont's Synchros she is stronger than Gradius..." Billie said with a grin only for her eyes to widen when Madolche Chouxvalier's attack dropped to 2100. "What the….."

"That is Kirin's second effect; all my opponent's monsters lose one hundred attack points for each face-up Spell or Trap Card on my side of the field." Lamont explained and Billie frowned. "You were saying?"

"Madolche Chouxvalier, attack Gradius!" Billie commanded and the horse galloped towards the outdated machine…..

"Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right B A start!" Kristopher yelled out only to sweat-drop at the looks he was getting and sighed. "I activate my trap card Konami Code!" Kristopher announced as the trap card flipped up depicting an NES Controller being held by someone hitting the start button. "This can only be activated if I have Gradius and Gradius's option on my side of the field and one of them is attacked, it negates the attack and lets me draw one card." Kristopher explained before drawing a card.

"Why didn't you just say that instead of reciting the Konami Code?" Billie asked before shaking her head. "Forget I asked, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Billie announced and Kristopher drew another card.

"Good, now I can start my true move!" Kristopher said with a broad grin as his two machines vanished from the field. "I sacrifice Gradius and Gradius's Option to summon B.E.S. Covered Core in attack mode!" Kristopher announced as he played the card and in Gradius's spot stood a much larger; UFO like ship that was silver and gold in color and had a pair of ray guns (7/2500/800). "And when he's normal summoned he gets two counters!" Kristopher added as the ship's shields activated. "But more importantly he can't be destroyed by battle, speaking of which Covered Core, attack Madolche Chouxvalier!" Kristopher commanded as the ship pointed its guns at and subsequently vaporized the doll bringing Billie's life-points down to 7600. "What do you have to say about that?" Kristopher asked with a massive grin.

"Thanks." Billie responded and Kristopher's grin quickly turned into a look of confusion. "Sure, you have the lead but by destroying Madolche Chouxvalier you've activated an effect that applies to all Madolche monsters, instead of being sent to the graveyard they get shuffled into my deck." Billie explained as she shuffled her monster into her deck. "But why stop there? At the same time you've activated Madolche Ticket's effect which lets me search for a Madolche monster and add it to my hand." Billie explained before picking up her deck, once she found the card that she was looking for she added it to her hand.

"Fine, I'll end my turn at that." Kristopher said with a grunt and Carmelo grinned before drawing her card.

"_Excellent, I have everything I need for my next move!" _Carmelo thought before playing a card. "First I summon the monster I retrieved from my deck last turn, Hieratic Dragon of Gebeb!" Carmelo announced as the monster appeared on the field, it was a large orange dragon with golden armor (4/1800/400).

"You realize that for as strong as he is he'll be weakened by Kirin's effect, right?" Lamont asked as Gebeb's attack dropped to 1700.

"Maybe but he's still stronger than your chicken!" Carmelo pointed out as she pointed to Lamont's monster. "Gebeb, roast his chicken!" Carmelo commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the chicken destroying it. "And now that he's destroyed a card by battle my dragon's effect activates letting me Special Summon another dragon from my hand, deck or graveyard."

"Does that apply to any dragon?" Kristopher asked and Carmelo nodded.

"Yes and before you accuse that effect of being broken I'll add that the attack and defense of said monster becomes zero." Carmelo added before playing a card. "Like Alexandrite Dragon for instance!" Carmelo added as the beautiful, crystalline dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/100) and its attack and defense dropped to zero almost as quickly as it appeared. "But it won't be around long enough for you to destroy it! I move to my second main phase and use my two dragons to construct an Overlay Network!" Carmelo announced as the two dragons vanished into white orbs of light. "And I do this so that I can summon the mighty Queen Dragon Dijinn to the field in attack mode!" Carmelo played the card and the female dragon rider appeared on the field (Rank: 4/2200/1200).

"Impressive but you realize that my Synchros are stronger, don't you?" Lamont asked and Carmelo just grinned.

"Who said I was done? Next I activate my Spell Card Foolish Burial!" Carmelo announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she sent it to the graveyard and shuffled her deck. "Next I activate Raiding the Dragon's Cave, since the monster I just sent to the graveyard is a Level 5 or higher monster this lets me draw two cards." Carmelo added before drawing two cards. "Now I activate my Queen's effect, I detach one overlay unit from her to Special Summon the monster I just sent to the graveyard, Hiretic Dragon of Eset!" Carmelo announced as the new monster appeared on the field, it was a large purple dragon wearing bronze armor (5/1900/1200).

"A Level 5 monster with 1900 attack points in this day and age?" Kristopher asked with a raised eyebrow. "That thing has to have an effect of some kind."

"You'd be right there." Carmelo nodded with a grin. "But I don't need him on the field so I'll use him as tribute fodder for another Hiretic Dragon's effect!" Carmelo added as the monster vanished from the field. "It's an effect that lets me summon him from my hand! Come forth Hieratic Dragon of Nebthet!" Carmelo played the card and another dragon appeared on the field, this one looked like Eset but its scales where a darker shade of purple (5/2000/1600).

"Well, that thing's a little bit better." Kristopher commented and Carmelo grinned.

"I know but he isn't sticking around either because by sacrificing Eset for any reason it triggers his effect." Carmelo added as she picked up another card from her hand. "And this effect is basically the same effect as Cebeb's , this time I'm special summoning an old relic from a simpler time in duel monsters known as Curse of Dragon!" Carmelo played the card and the yellow; snake like dragon used by Yugi Moto appeared on the field (5/2000/1500) and like Alexandrite Dragon before it its attack and defense dropped to zero. "And once again I construct an overlay network!"

"How long is this turn going to take?" Kristopher asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head, Carmelo just shook her head as the two dragons vanished into white orbs of white light.

"Don't worry, I'm almost done, I use my monsters to summon Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon!" Carmelo played the card and a tall female fiend with pale skin appeared on the field, she was wearing a long black dress, had large wings and had wild hair (Rank: 5/2600/1700). "And I know she'll lose attack points thanks to Kirin's effect but that won't be an issue, I detach one overlay unit to destroy Kirin via Adreus's effect!" Carmelo announced as she sent Nebthet to the graveyard and Adreus cast a spell at Kirin destroying it. "Now as Kristopher has pointed out this turn has gone on too long so I'll end my turn." Carmelo announced and Lamont breathed a sigh of relief before drawing his card.

"If I knew that the turns would take this long I would've brought my laptop." Chelsea commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Are Lamont and Carmelo competing to see who can do the longest turns in the tournament?"

"I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if they were." Lance agreed with a nod. "Still Carmelo has two nasty XYZ monsters on her side of the field and Lamont just lost two of his monsters, I'm giving her the advantage right now."

"Then again the advantage can change in an instant." Chloe added as she watched Lamont make his move. "Why didn't she target Covered Core though? It's stronger than Kirin and Kirin's effect wasn't doing that much damage."

"You're asking me? It's been ages since I last saw that card in question." Lance answered as they watched the duel.

"_Losing Kirin and Chicken was a pretty big blow but on the other hand I have other moves that I can make." _Lamont thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Perfect!" _Lamont thought before playing the card. "I play a Spell Card called De-Synchro! With this I can split Horse Prince into its Synchro Material monsters!"

"Okay but what's the point?" Billie asked as Horse Prince vanished from the field and Hawk and Spirit returned to the field. "You won't get any benefit from tuning them together again!"

"That's true but that's also why I have a different move in mind." Lamont answered as his two monsters vanished into white orbs of light. "More specifically using my two monsters to construct an Overlay Unit and summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Lion Emperor!" Lamont played the card and a portal opened up on the field, from it emerged a new monster, it was a white humanoid lion silver and gold armor (Rank: 3/2200/200).

"He's only one-hundred points stronger than Horse Prince, what's the point of summoning him?" Billie asked as Lion Emperor's attack increased to 2300.

"Because Lion Emperor can do things that Horse Prince can't, why do you think he's a prince and my current monster's an emperor?" Lamont asked before returning Hawk to the graveyard. "Observe! By detaching one Overlay Unit from Lion Emperor I can take one Fire Monster from my graveyard and add it to my hand like Chicken!" Lamont added as he retrieved the card from his hand. "However I cannot use it for the rest of the turn but he'll come in handy later!"

"_Yeah, so he can search out more monsters."_ Carmelo thought with a frown as Lamont looked over his hand.

"Now for obvious reasons I can't destroy Carmelo's stronger XYZ Monster." Lamont continued as he turned his attention to her. "But where would be the fun in that? I activate my trap card Fire Formation – Kaiyo!" Lamont announced as the trap card flipped up. "As for its effect, why don't I demonstrate it?" Lamont asked rhetorically before pointing to Billie's facedown monster. "Lion Emperor, crush her defense and demonstrate the ability of my trap card!" Lamont commanded and the monster charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be a young red-haired girl wearing an old fashioned dress and hat (4/1400/1200) which was quickly destroyed.

"The monster you just destroyed was Madolche Magileine and like my other Madolches….." Billie trailed off before wincing as her life-points dropped to 6500. "You never said anything about your monster having a trampling effect!"

"He normally wouldn't have one." Lamont said before pointing to his trap. "But my trap card allows my monsters to inflict piercing damage! Now are you going to explain your monster's effect?"

"Err, yeah, when she's normal or flip summoned I can add another Madolche monster to my hand." Billie said once she shuffled the monster in her deck and added another monster to her hand. "Not only that but Madolche Ticket's effect kicks in as well letting me search for another Madolche monster!" Billie added before picking up her deck and searching through it again, once she found the card she was looking for she shuffled the deck again once she added it to her hand.

"Searching for two monsters for the price of one, that's a very impressive combo." Lamont complimented her before looking over his hand. "I believe that will do it for my turn." Lamont announced and Billie quickly drew her card. _"Madolches are formidable but most of the archetype lacks any heavy hitters, so long as Carmelo's monsters don't become a problem I'll be fine!"_

"So Chelsea gets nostalgic flashbacks to some video game she played as a kid and now I'm getting nostalgic flashbacks to one of my favorite Disney Movies." Chloe commented as she scratched her head, Chelsea turned to her and smirked quickly getting the idea.

"Lion King, right?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, I even named one of my dogs after the female lead." Chloe responded and a sheepish grin. "I'm half expecting one of them to play a card that has the same effect on Lance."

"Unless there's a card that automatically plays 1980s Metallica albums I highly doubt it." Lance commented earning odd looks from his female companions. "Yeah, I know, I'm too young to have been around when they were originally released but still."

"I'm hardly one to talk! I'm pretty sure my parents were teenagers when The Lion King came out." Chloe responded as they watched Billie make her move.

"_Okay, this isn't too bad, I mean I'm behind in life-points and they have powerful monsters on their side of the field….." _Billie's train of thought trailed off before she glanced over at Carmelo's side of the field. "Carmelo, can I….."

"If you want to borrow Keeper of Armageddon go ahead." Carmelo sighed and Billie quickly nodded as Keeper of Armageddon appeared on her side of the field. "Just be careful with her!"

"I'll try." Billie nodded before grinning. "For starters I'm detaching an overlay unit from Keeper of Armageddon…."

"You telegraphed that move harder than Chloe Richardson telegraphs half of her moves." Lamont sighed as he discarded a card. "I discard Effect Veiler from my hand to negate the effect and since its part of the chain Keeper of Armageddon loses her effect!"

"I told you to be careful with that card." Carmelo grunted as Keeper of Armageddon doubled over in pain. "Now she's nothing but a beatstick!"

"Don't worry, I have a back-up plan…..kinda….." Billie trailed off as she looked at her hand. _"Man I seriously screwed up that move!" _Billie gulped before playing a card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Billie announced and Kristopher drew his card.

"Why is it that people like to make fun of my tendency to telegraph moves?" Chloe asked as she ran her hand down her face. "Yes I know it's a habit of mine but still!"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Chelsea asked and Chloe quickly shook her head in response and Chelsea grinned. "I thought not."

"I haven't even telegraphed any of my moves in the past ten duels I've been in." Chloe commented as she folded her arms. "Hell, going for a Synchro right away during our tag duel would've qualified as that."

"Yeah, I realize that now but I didn't realize it at the time." Chelsea agreed as they watched the duel.

"I activate a Spell Card called Foolish Burial! With this I send one monster from my deck to the graveyard." Kristopher played the card and picked up his deck before searching through it and once he found the card that he was looking for he sent it to the graveyard and shuffled his deck. "But my monster won't remain in the graveyard for much longer! I activate Monster Reborn to bring it back!"

"_Kristopher used this combo during our practice duels." _Lamont thought as Kristopher retrieved the monster from his graveyard. _"Boss Rush would've been a better choice but I guess he wants to hold onto Covered Core." _Lamont thought as Kristopher played the card.

"You've met Covered Core and now meet B.E.S. Big Core MK-2!" Kristopher played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a massive silver space shuttle that prepared its weapons for firing at the enemy (6/2400/1100). "Why go through that much trouble to summon a Level 6 monster with above average attack points? Because when Big Core MK-2 is Special Summoned he gains three counters!" Kristopher explained as three shields appeared in front of the plane.

"Yeah I'm still not seeing the point." Billie commented and Kristopher grinned.

"We'll see about that, Big Core, Covered Core, attack her life-points directly!" Kristopher commanded and the two planes prepared their weapons…..

"I activate my Trap Card Waboku!" Billie's trap flipped up and the three priestesses blocked the blasts from the planes. "Sorry Kris but you're going to have to try harder than that."

"He won't have to." Carmelo answered and Billie blinked. "It would've been better to take the damage because Lamont can use his turn to inflict even more damage to you as soon as he's able to summon one of his heavy hitters again."

"Crap!" Billie gulped once she realized her mistake. _"What's up with me today? I've never made this many misplays in one duel!" _Billie thought with as sweat rolled down her forehead.

"I end my turn at that." Kristopher announced and Carmelo drew her card.

"_Billie's been making a lot of mistakes, seems the pressure of teaming up with an Obelisk Blue Student is getting to her." _Carmelo thought before looking over her hand. "Why not give everyone a little help? I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Carmelo played the card and the four duelists drew three times. "Next I activate a Spell Card! Go Swing of Memories!" Carmelo announced as the Spell Card flipped up. "With this I can Special Summon a Normal Type monster from my graveyard, only downside is that the monster will be destroyed once I end my turn, I believe Curse of Dragon will do nicely!" Carmelo played the card and the yellow snake like dragon returned to the field.

"But knowing you that dragon won't be around long enough for that." Lamont commented and Carmelo nodded before playing a card.

"That's right! I activate another Spell Card, Hieratic Seal of Supremacy!" Carmelo announced as the Spell Card's hologram appeared on the field. "This card's effect is simple enough; with it I can Special Summon one Hieratic monster from my hand, say hello to Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon Overlord!"

"That's gotta be the longest name in Duel Monsters history." Kristopher commented with a dull look on his face as the monster appeared on the field, simply put it was a massive golden sphere with a red, Egyptian style eye on its front (8/0/0). "And based on those stats the most useless from the look of things."

"I'll admit that a Level 8 monster with non-existent attack and defense points isn't exactly impressive." Carmelo conceded before playing another card. "But in case you haven't noticed I haven't done my normal summon yet, so I tribute Curse of Dragon!" Carmelo announced as the yellow dragon disappeared from the field. "So that I can bring back an old friend, that mighty Hieratic Dragon of Eset in attack mode!" Carmelo played the card and the purple dragon returned to the field

"That's a lot of effort just to swarm the field." Kristopher commented as he folded his arms and Carmelo smirked.

"That may be true but when I originally summoned Eset I never got a chance to explain its other effect!" Carmelo responded as the giant sphere started glowing. "And it's a very powerful one! With this effect I can target one face-up dragon type normal monster and increase the levels of all my monsters until it matches that monster's level until I end my turn!" Carmelo announced as Eset and the Sphere disappeared into white orbs of light. "But that doesn't matter because I'm using my dragons to construct an Overlay Network in order to summon my best monster!"

"That doesn't sound good." Kristopher commented and Lamont nodded.

"You have no clue." Lamont responded as Carmelo played the card.

"You really don't! I use my monsters to XYZ Summon Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis!" Carmelo played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a massive red and gold dragon that looked majestic and threatening at the same time (Rank: 8/3000/2400). "And I'm not going to waste any time, I activate my dragon's effect! I detach one overlay unit from him…." Carmelo announced as she sent Eset to the graveyard. "And for each card I discard I get to destroy an equal number of monsters!"

"But that will leave you with no cards in your hand!" Kristopher pointed out and Carmelo shook her head before playing another card. "I should've guessed that Super Rejuvenation would be part of that combo!"

"That's right, so I discard two cards from my hand to destroy the cores!" Carmelo announced as she discarded the monsters and the dragon flew towards the machines.

"Nice try but I use my Quick Play Spell Card Forbidden Chalice to protect my partner!" Lamont announced as the dragon doubled over in pain.

"Very clever but you've just made my dragon stronger!" Carmelo responded as her dragon's attack increased to 3400. "Sun Dragon Overlord, attack Covered Core!" Carmelo commanded as the dragon flew towards it.

"Thanks! You just activated Covered Core's effect!" Kristopher announced before searching through his pockets for a few minutes. "Err, this is really awkward but does anyone have any lose change I can borrow?" Kristopher asked sheepishly and the other duelists face-faulted, once she regained her composure Billie tossed him a coin. "Thanks, now how my Core's effect works is simple, I toss this coin and call it; if I call it wrong my core loses a counter!"

"That's it?" Carmelo asked as Kristopher tossed the coin. "I was expecting something a bit more impressive!"

"You'll get something impressive! I call heads!" Kristopher called out as the coin landed on his palm; he looked at it and frowned. "Oh man, I knew I should've added Second Coin Toss to this deck!" Kristopher moaned as Covered Core lost a counter.

"That doesn't matter! Your monsters destroyed!" Carmelo said as her dragon breathed fire at Covered Core bringing Kristopher's life-points down to 7500. "And your Big Core's next!"

"I'd take another look at the field if I where you!" Kristopher responded and Carmelo blinked before realizing, to her shock, that Covered Core was still on the field. "That's Covered Core and Big Core's effects, as long as they have counters on them they can't be destroyed by battle."

"That's going to be a problem." Carmelo admitted as her dragon returned to her side of the field. "I end my turn which activates Super Rejuvenation's effect!" Carmelo announced before drawing three cards. "But why stop there? Super Rejuvenation is a Quick Play Spell meaning that I can activate it during the end phase."

"You're kidding right?" Kristopher asked and Carmelo answered by playing another copy of the Spell Card and drawing three more cards. "How was that not banned long ago?"

"Cards like the Elemental Dragons and my dragons weren't around when this card was released." Carmelo responded as she added her drawn cards to her hand. "As I was saying, it's your move Lamont!" Carmelo added and Lamont drew his card.

"Though if it was just a generic drawing card it would've been banned long ago." Chelsea commented and Chloe nodded in agreement, it was then that Chloe noticed that she was playing a Facebook game on her laptop. "Before you ask, it's a game called Duel Monsters Bam, a Facebook game that basically runs on its own Duel Monsters rules."

"Is it any good?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"As a time waster, yeah it is." Chelsea answered as she closed the laptop. "But the cards can be incredibly broken, not sure how they'd stack up against the cards the Orichalcos Duelists have been using."

"Well as long as those rules stay on that Facebook game and not in the actual game I won't complain." Lance commented as he watched Chelsea play the game over her shoulder. "Duel Monsters is confusing enough already!"

"Tell me about it!" Chelsea agreed as she turned her attention back to the duel.

"I kick things off with a Spell Card called Arkhasic Record!" Lamont played the card and quickly drew twice. "I haven't used either of these cards so I get to keep them for the time being." Lamont added before adding the two cards to his hand. "Next I activate Lion Emperor's effect I detach Spirit to add one fire type monster from my graveyard to my hand, however since I'm sending it to the graveyard anyway I shall use its effect on Spirit!" Lamont announced before sending the monster to the graveyard only to retrieve it just as quickly and add it to his hand, "Downside is that I can't Normal or Special Summon it or a monster with the same name for the rest of the turn."

"That won't stop you from doing another Synchro or XYZ Summon next turn." Carmelo pointed out and Lamont nodded.

"That's true but I'll get to that next turn." Lamont said before turning to Kristopher. "I require the use of your machines."

"Go ahead." Kristopher nodded as Big Core and Covered Core flew over to Lamont's side of the field. "I must apologize to you Billie but your misplay has just eliminated you from the duel, Lion Emperor, Cores, attack her life-points!"

"Hah! Not a problem! Carmelo's monster will protect me!" Billie said confidently but her confidence was quickly shattered when she saw Carmelo shaking her head, next thing she knew the attacks hit bringing her life-points down to zero. "What the hell is your problem?!" Billie demanded as her Spell Cards' holograms disappeared from the field.

"Sorry Billie but I won't tolerate misplays like that in the next rounds." Carmelo responded and Billie looked at her funny. "Our team may be down to one person but don't forget, we're still in the duel and I have the best monster on the field." Carmelo added before sighing. "Sorry but this is the only way you'll learn…Billie?" Carmelo asked once she realized that her partner was storming off in a huff.

"Yeah, call it a hunch but I don't think your partner's taking your lesson very well." Kristopher commented as he folded his arms. "And it is still two on one."

"Maybe but my life-points are untouched." Carmelo commented turning to Lamont. "Anything else or can Kristopher take his move now that Billie's eliminated?"

"I set a card facedown to end my turn." Lamont announced and Kristopher drew his card.

"Your life-points won't be untouched for long!" Kristopher announced as he played the card. "I activate Limiter Removal! Sure my machines will be destroyed during the end-phase…." Kristopher started as Big Core and Covered Core's attacks increased to 5000 and 4800 respectively. "But as you can see it gets the job done, Big Core, Covered Core, attack Dragon Queen and Keeper of Armageddon!" Kristopher announced as once he called the coin for Covered Core's effect (and called it right), the machines fired their weapons destroying them both and bringing Carmelo's life-points down to four thousand. "I move to my second main phase and set a card facedown." Kristopher announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Kristopher announced and Carmelo drew her card.

"I activate my Dragon's effect!" Carmelo announced as she detached her monster and got ready to discard her cards.

"And I chain it with my own Effect Veilier." Kristopher announced as he sent the Tuner Monster to the graveyard. "Nice try but not good enough!" Kristopher added as Carmelo returned the cards to her hand.

"This is coming from the guy who wasted Limiter Removal to destroy my weakest monsters?" Carmelo asked as she pointed to the dragon. "Sun Dragon, attack Kristopher's life-points directly!" Carmelo commanded and the dragon breathed fire at him bringing his life-points down to 4500. "That ends my turn, my life-points may be down to half strength but I'm not going down without a fight!" Carmelo announced and Lamont drew his card.

"We shall see about that, first I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Spirit back to the field in attack mode!" Lamont announced as the Tuner monster returned to the field. "And I use its effect to bring back Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Chicken!" Lamont played the card and the monster returned to the field, Lamont searched through his deck without another word and once he was satisfied he added the card he was looking for to his hand. "I think we all know what's next." Lamont said after he shuffled his deck, the two monsters leapt into the air and once the Synchro Summon was performed Horse Prince returned to the field.

"You have two monsters which are weaker than my own? Are you getting desperate?" Carmelo asked and Lamont shook his head.

"My monsters may not be as strong as yours but they are all I need to finish this duel." Lamont said as he played a card. "I activate my Lightning Vortex Spell Card!" Lamont played the card and Carmelo's eyes widened as lightning struck her monster destroying it. "Horse Prince, Lion Emperor, please send my team through to the next round, would you?"

"_Okay, I should've saved Billie in hindsight." _Carmelo thought with a sigh as the two monsters launched their attacks bringing her life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Kristopher O'Neil and Lamont Berry!" Martin announced over the cheering crowd and as the three duelists deactivated their duel disks the students in the audience prepared to leave. "We won't be holding any matches over the weekend but the new students will be arriving tomorrow, on Monday we will see Obelisk Blue's Amelia Gray and Caitlin Acosta Osiris Red's from Osiris Red take on Chong Harrison and Clement Clark from Obelisk Blue followed by Keri Harmon and Lacey Morse from Osiris Red taking on Delia Garrett and Esther Benjamin from Obelisk Blue."

"Heh, I was just wondering if we were the only Osiris Red team in this Tournament Chloe." Chelsea commented with a laugh as she closed her laptop lid. "Still at least we have a weekend to chill out and meet the new kids."

"That's true, though the only one I know off is Nicola." Chloe agreed and Lance grinned a bit. "Something you're not telling us?"

"Let's just say that the improvements Brandon made to Mike's deck in Battle City paid off." Lance commented and Chloe blinked.

"Wait, your brother made it into the school?" Chloe asked and Lance nodded. "That's great! What dorm is he in?"

"He got stuck in Osiris Red due to an average test score and inexperience like you were." Lance told her as they stood up to leave. "Mike could care less! He's just glad to finally be accepted."

"Don't blame him there." Chelsea said with a grin as she patted Lance on the back. "Don't you have a little sister as well?"

"Yeah, she's too young to apply though." Lance answered as they made their way out of the arena. "She's rather spooked about the return of the Orichalcos though."

"Aren't we all?" Chloe asked and Lance nodded in response. "So what do you want to do now?"

"I need to get back to our dorm room, my laptop ran out of juice just as the duel ended and I need to charge it up before my next IT class." Chelsea answered before checking her time table. "Fortunately that isn't for a few hours."

"I'm heading back to my dorm as well, want to listen to some music and chill for an hour." Lance said as he walked away from the girls who had started chatting with each other, as he walked away he glanced up at Chloe. _"Maybe I am developing feelings for her, but what if she's waiting for me to make the first move?" _Lance thought as he stepped out into the hallway. _"Maybe I should ask Brandon for advice." _Lance decided before walking off.

*meanwhile*

"Two trips in the same day, this had better be worth it." The speedboat driver grumbled under his breath as the female agent stepped onto the island, due to the size of the boat they had to make two trips to get both agents on the island and he wasn't happy.

"I told you before; Victor will cover the fuel cost." Sarah answered before turning to the agent. "Rendezvous with Jackson in the forested area that connects the Osiris Red Dorms to the Main Building, remember what I told you on the way."

"Don't target the brat with the Legendary Dragon, got it." The agent answered before walking off. _"Why is she so obsessed with her anyway? Yeah she has that dragon but she's hardly the strongest duelist between the targets." _The agent thought before walking off. _"Whatever, I have souls to collect with or without Jackson's help!" _The agent thought as she disappeared into the forested area.


	87. Double Attack

It had been about twenty minutes since the last tournament duel of the week ended and Lance had made a quick detour to the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm before making his way back to his dorm, he had texted Brandon on the way over saying that he wanted to talk about something so Brandon knew that he was coming.

"_It shouldn't be too hard right?" _Lance thought to himself as he walked down the halls of the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm, according to Brandon Cameron was over at the Obelisk Blue Girl's dorm "strategizing" with Jessica and it didn't take Lance long the figure out what he meant by that, as for Thomas all he said was that Thomas was elsewhere on the island. _"Not that I'm complaining, the less headaches I get before I meet Mike at the docks the better!" _Lance thought before coming upon Brandon's dorm room and knocking on it.

"Come in!" A female voice rang out and Lance blinked, he recognized the voice as it was Theresa's voice but Brandon had said nothing about her being there.

"Hey Theresa, it's me." Lance said as he walked up to the door. "Is Brandon in there? And if he is how decent are you two?"

"Relax Lance, we're just adjusting my dick…err, I mean deck, deck!" Brandon called out and Lance nearly died of laughter at his slip-up. "Are you going to stand out there laughing your ass off or are you coming in?"

"And before you ask, would I have yelled "come in" if we weren't decent?" Theresa added and Lance shrugged before opening the door, fortunately for him Brandon was telling the truth as they were going through Brandon's deck. "Brandon said you were coming over."

"Yeah, that's right." Lance nodded as he paused for a bit. "Okay, I have this friend who wants to ask a girl out…."

"It's about you and Chloe isn't it?" Brandon asked and Lance face-faulted. "We saw you sitting with Chloe and Chelsea during the duels earlier."

"That was something we set up shortly after Chloe's Orichalcos Duel yesterday, figured it would be a good change of pace." Lance responded before shutting the door behind him, once Lance was back on his feet he sighed. "Thing is, since the whole incident with Chloe's dads in Battle City I've….been developing feelings for her, I've pretty much only just figured that out though."

"And you want advice on how to proceed?" Brandon asked and Lance nodded. "I'll let Theresa handle that, women's minds are too confusing for me."

"Thanks, I think." Theresa responded before walking up to Lance. "Okay, Lance, I'm going to ask you one question and I want an honest answer."

"Okay, fire away." Lance shrugged his shoulders as he awaited the older student's question.

"Why did you wait so long?" Theresa asked and Lance blinked in confusion before shaking his head.

"Like I said, I didn't realize that I was developing those kinds of feelings for her until recently." Lance answered as he leaned back on the door. "Besides that, given Chloe's history I didn't want to rush into anything."

"Okay, that's fair enough." Theresa nodded before shaking her head. "Lance, the only advice I can give you is to just go for it." Theresa added and Lance did a double take. "Girls like guys with confidence and you definitely don't lack in that department, besides in my experience most girls tend to wait for the guy to make the first move."

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you don't mean duel monsters." Lance responded and Theresa laughed before nodding. "Yeah but I've known Chloe for a little over a year now, I think the ship's sailed as far as making the first move goes."

"No, it hasn't." Theresa said as she shook her head. "By the time we started dating I had known Brandon for a little longer than you've known Chloe for, if anything waiting any longer will just improve the chances of Chloe getting a boyfriend before you get the chance."

"I didn't think about that." Lance commented with a frown. "I need some more time to think about this, I mean setting up a first date would be easy enough if we were on the Main Land but….maybe I can try at Summer Break?"

"By then she may be taken for." Theresa pointed out and Lance sighed in resignation. "If it helps Martin helped set up our first date when we started dating."

"Wasn't that a bit weird considering he's in his forties?" Lance asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head and Theresa blinked.

"Huh, never thought of it that way." Theresa admitted before shaking her head. "Not really, I mean, all he really did was give us our own table at dinner but I'll admit that that may be a bit difficult since you and Chloe are in different dorms." Theresa admitted before shaking her head. "But on the other hand I'm sure something can be arranged." Theresa added and Lance nodded. "Well I hope my advice will be helpful for you and Chloe's sake, I always thought you two made a cute couple anyway."

"Err, thanks." Lance said with a nervous laugh as he went to leave.

"By the way, I heard Mike got accepted into the school." Theresa commented as Lance opened the door and he turned to her. "If I don't see him tell him I said congrats and good luck when you see him tomorrow."

"I will do." Lance commented before leaving the dorm room, once he closed the door behind him he sighed before leaning against the wall. _"Theresa's been a great help, then again she's had three boyfriends since she joined here so I shouldn't be surprised really." _Lance thought as he made his way down the hall. _"Still Chloe doesn't exactly share her personality so who knows how she'll react to it, I'll figure it out later." _Lance decided as he left the dorm.

*the next day*

Since the Duel Academy students had weekends off the students usually used the opportunity to chill out, play some friendly games of Duel Monsters and even spend some time with their significant others, the weekends where also usually when the student's parents came to visit the students but today was the day when the new students were arriving and as a result several students where at the docks awaiting the arrivals.

"Good morning Lance." Chloe greeted him with a tired yawn as she approached him. "How long do we have to wait until the ship arrives?"

"About ten minutes according to Jeff and Hamden." Lance answered before pointing out the two teachers to Chloe. "Now I'm beginning to feel like how the students felt when we returned from Battle City."

"I know right?" Chloe asked with a grin as she turned to towards the ocean. "Any idea how many students successfully qualified?"

"Err, about twenty for Osiris Red, thirty for Ra Yellow and ten for Obelisk Blue, and yeah that's counting both the girls and boys dorms." Lance answered after thinking for a moment. "I guess our exploits in Battle City attracted a lot of students to the school."

"I had no idea you intended to tape the make-out session we walked in on." Theresa teased Lance as she and the rest of the duelists with Duel Spirit Partners walked up causing Chloe and Lance to face-fault simultaneously. "Seriously, if that is the case then I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, our performance in Battle City was practically a giant marketing campaign for Duel Academy."

"Yeah and they didn't even have to spend one cent on it." Lance grunted as he and Chloe got to their feet. "Not counting the meals out that they paid for." Lance added with a sheepish grin. "The new students should be arriving in ten minutes."

"Yeah, we heard you mention that to Chloe." Chelsea responded as she stepped forward. "I still remember the butterflies I had in my stomach when I saw the island for the first time, can't imagine how those students must feel."

"You think you were nervous? I and Chloe arrived on the island safe in the knowledge that two Obelisk Blue students wanted to duel us." Lance pointed out and Chelsea just grinned at that. "Somehow I doubt those students have that kind of pressure on them, especially since Theresa and Brandon where on the island this whole time."

"You make it sound like we want to duel every new Osiris Red and Ra Yellow student we meet." Theresa pointed out and Lance laughed nervously. "Even if we wanted too Brandon figured it would be better if we stayed on the island and prepared for the Tournament."

"Well, if you say so." Chloe responded before checking the time on her watch and turning to the others. "I'm getting a drink, you guys want anything?" Chloe asked and once the others shook their heads Chloe made her way through the crowd of students and headed to the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm.

"So…..have you told her?" Theresa asked Lance once Chloe was out of earshot and Lance shook his head.

"Haven't had a chance too, we had seen each other for the first time today a couple of minutes before you guys arrived." Lance responded as he put his hands in his pockets. "Besides I'm waiting for a time and a place that isn't as crowded."

"Okay, that's fair enough." Theresa responded as Chloe returned to the group with a can of soda in her hand, just as she returned the students spotted the ship arriving and cheered. "It shouldn't be too long now."

"Can the students please create some room on the pier so that the new students can arrive on the island?" Jeff instructed the students and they cleared as much room as they could, some students went onto the island itself whilst the others simply stayed on the dock with some students sitting on the edge. "Much better, now remember if any students ask you to direct them to their respective dorms don't hesitate to help then." Jeff added and the students nodded as the ship came to a stop next to the pier.

"I don't know about you Lance but I can't wait to see Nicola again." Andreas commented with a small smile and Lance just grinned.

"Yes, I can't wait to see you two making googily eyes at each other again." Lance responded causing Andreas to face fault. "As for me I'm just waiting for my brother to get off the ship."

"Yes, I heard that he had been accepted." Andreas responded as he got back to his feet. "In a couple of years your sister will be old enough to enroll as well, correct?"

"Yeah but she's just happy to have her older brothers in the school for now." Lance answered as the ramp lowered and the new students poured onto the pier, the Osiris Red Students got off first followed by the Ra Yellow students and the Obelisk Blue students in that order. "I don't see Mike yet….."

"BRO!" Mike's voice rang out and Lance grinned as his younger brother ran up to him. "Man, it's been so long since Battle City."

"Indeed, it's good to see you again Mike." Andreas commented before spotting Nicola in the crowd of female Osiris Red students. "Nicola, I'm over here!" Andreas called out to her and she grinned once she heard his voice and ran up to him. "How have you been since Battle City?"

"I've been good; my deck's improved a lot." Nicola said as she held up her duel disk. "What about you?"

"I can say the same really." Andreas answered before seeing Chelsea approaching them,

"So you're Andreas's long distance girlfriend huh?" Chelsea asked causing them both to face-fault, they quickly got to their feet and Chelsea laughed at the glares she got. "Relax; I'm only messing with you."

"I'm sure." Andreas said as he rolled his eyes. "Nicola, this is Chelsea, she's Chloe's roommate in Osiris Red." Andreas introduced her and the two girls shook hands. "Piece of advice, don't get on her bad side."

"Oh come on! Her temper can't be that bad, can it?" Mike asked and Lance shook his head.

"Trust me Mike; I made that mistake when I met her for the first time." Lance answered as they watched the rest of the new students pour out from the boat. "So, err, anyone up for showing them to the dorm rooms?"

"I'll show Nicola to the girl's dorm, I need to head back to the dorm anyway." Chelsea commented and Nicola grinned before following Chelsea. "So how'd you do in the test duel?" Chelsea asked as she turned to Nicola.

"I did well enough to qualify." Nicola answered as she put her hands in her blazer's pockets. "If you're asking how close the duel was, there was a fifty point difference between my score and the proctor's and we were down to our last few hundred life-points, I'm glad that I drew Amethyst Cat when I did." Nicola added and Chelsea nodded. "What about you?" Nicola asked and Chelsea sighed in annoyance.

"Look Nic, I know you're just asking and all but I'm just going to bring it to you straight." Chelsea said as she turned to Nicola. "That duel is not something I'm proud off, by the time I had won the duel I literally only had fifty life-points left and my temper had basically flown off the handle." Chelsea said as she glanced to the side. "If I had kept my temper in check I would've been put in Ra Yellow instead."

"Oh…." Nicola said as she rubbed her arm nervously. "Sorry, I didn't know."

"It's cool, just don't bring it up and you'll stay on my good side." Chelsea responded as the two girls made their way up the hill to the girl's dorm. "So you and Andreas…."

"We became close after he eliminated me from Battle City; it's kind of a long story." Nicola responded and Chelsea nodded. "What about you? You have any boyfriends?" Nicola asked and Chelsea laughed nervously.

"Kind off, I came out of the closet a couple of years back and I'm dating another girl in Osiris Red." Chelsea answered and Nicola blushed a bit. "You'll probably see her around the dorm, her name's Beth."

"Yeah, I'm sure I will." Nicola said nervously and Chelsea turned to her. "What about Chloe?"

"She's single last I checked and I don't think she's ever had a boyfriend." Chelsea responded as they approached the girl's dorm. "You know what room they stuck you in?"

"Err, hold on…." Nicola responded before checking her phone. "Yeah, room twenty six in the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm."

"I could've guessed the last part." Chelsea pointed out and Nicola just grinned at that. "Looks like you're in the dorm room next to me and Chloe's; at least I don't have too…." Chelsea trailed off when she heard a loud scream coming from the forested area. "What the hell was that?!"

"I don't know…" Nicola responded and Chelsea glanced at the other new students who were equally as confused as Nicola.

"Stay here, I'm off to investigate." Chelsea said before running off towards the source of the voice. _"Wattchimera, you didn't happen to pick up any Orichalcos activity recently, right?"_

"_Yes, I did." _Chelsea's duel monster spirit partner responded as his transparent image appeared running next to her. _"It was last night after your final lesson of the day."_

"_And you didn't mention that sooner because…." _Chelsea asked and Wattchimera sighed.

"_Silent Magician thought it was a false alarm." _Wattchimera admitted and Chelsea looked at him funny. _"Even Duel Monster spirits are prone to mistakes."_

"_Whatever, just tell me if I'm going in the right direction or not." _Chelsea sighed in annoyance as she neared the clearing; she could see Carmelo in the clearing and stopped to catch her breath. "Err, Carmelo right?" Chelsea asked once she caught her breath and the student looked up. "I heard a scream and I came running over.

"I'm not going to waste any time then." Carmelo responded before motioning for Chelsea to come forward, Chelsea did so but her eyes widened when she saw the unconscious and badly beaten forms of Billie Prince and Frank Goff with Orichalcos cards next to them. "I have no idea how long they've been here but I came over to apologize to Billie after my lapse of judgment cost us the duel yesterday."

"And you found her here?" Chelsea asked and Carmelo nodded. _"Son of a bitch, we need to do something about those bastards!" _Chelsea thought before getting her phone out. "I'm giving Martin a call, better that he finds out about this sooner rather than later, right?"

"Indeed." Carmelo agreed as she ran a hand through her hair, once Chelsea finished her phone call Carmelo sighed before turning to her. "Chelsea I realize that I came off as harsh towards the end of the match but Billie needed to understand that misplays like that wouldn't go unpunished and that I honestly thought that I could win it on my own."

"Well obviously you didn't." Chelsea said as she rolled her eyes. "Let's not focus on that for now, did you see anyone suspicious on the way over?" Chelsea asked and Carmelo thought for a moment.

"I think I saw a man and a woman wearing cloaks heading towards the island's north side." Carmelo responded after thinking for a few minutes. "Normally that would be suspicious enough given how hot the island can get but with the recent Orichalcos attacks I decided to follow them."

"What happened next?" Chelsea asked before wincing as she saw Nicola and another new Osiris Red student approaching. "You have any ideas for keeping them away?"

"We don't." Carmelo answered and Chelsea turned to her. "Look, their bound to find out at some point so why delay it?"

"Do you always think of things like that?" Chelsea asked and Carmelo just shook her head in response. "You still didn't answer my first question."

"So I didn't." Carmelo realized with a nod. "I tried to follow them but I lost them in the forested area, I was planning on reporting it to the security staff when I found them."

"Reporting what?" Nicola asked as she and the new student entered the clearing, when they saw Frank and Billie their eyes widened. "Oh god, what happened here?"

"The Orichalcos, that's what." Chelsea answered and Nicola's eyes widened even further when she heard that word. "Yeah, I thought they were defeated whilst we were being represented in Battle City but apparently we thought wrong."

"No kidding." The other Osiris Red student, a seventeen year old girl with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes answered. "The name's Makayla by the way."

"I'm Chelsea, she's Carmelo and you've already met Nicola." Chelsea introduced herself and Carmelo before motioning to Billie and Frank. "And they are Billie Prince and Frank Goff, they were in the tag tournament but their teams where already eliminated so it shouldn't affect the tournament too much."

"She called the Obelisk Blue Headmaster over before you two arrived." Carmelo added as she walked up to the two new students. "He should be over shortly."

"You called?" Martin asked as he and some EMTs entered the area with the other students with Duel Spirit Partners who were clearly concerned over the situation, the EMTs immediately set to work tending to Frank and Billie whilst Martin talked to Carmelo.

"Let me guess, Martin told you about my phone call?" Chelsea asked and the others nodded, Chelsea pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance as she glanced towards the unconscious duelists. "Just how many agents does this Santiago guy employ?!"

"That's a good question." Theresa agreed with a frown. "Where did Carmelo say see saw the Orichalcos Duelists go?"

"She said that she lost them in the North side of the island." Chelsea answered with a nod. "She didn't say where exactly except for the fact that they were in the forested area."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down." Brandon responded with a frown. "Okay, it's obvious that we need to stop them before they capture another soul and that means we have to go there."

"Yeah because I'm sure that Martin will be just thrilled to send us out there unsupervised." Lance said sarcastically as he glanced towards Martin. "Not only are three Duel Academy students in the infirmary because of those Orichalcos Duelists but let's not forget the fact that one of our trips up there ended with us being this close to being expelled."

"Lance, aren't you forgetting something?" Chloe asked as she turned to him, she retrieved her side deck from her blazer's breast pocket and produced The Eye of Timaeus from it. "As long as I have this card we have an advantage over them."

"Not only that but we only faced expulsion in the first place because Chloe's duel spirit cast a spell that caused our duel disks to drag us to the abandoned dorm." Brandon added before sweat-dropping. "Jesus, saying that out loud makes me sound crazy!"

"Given everything that's happened since me and Chloe joined Duel Academy that sentence sounds normal compared to the stories that we'd be telling the grandkids one day." Lance pointed out and the others nodded in agreement. "But you're both right, at the same time though I think we should split up into groups of two."

"That's a good idea, we'll cover more ground and since there are two duelists we can challenge them to a tag team duel and eliminate them both." Brandon agreed with a nod. "I say we pair up Lance and Chloe, me and Theresa, Andreas and Marcus and Chelsea and Tyler, any questions?" Brandon added and once the others shook their heads they made their way out of the clearing.

*on the north side of the island*

"Two more souls for Victor's little collection." Tanner commented as she leaned against a tree, they were a little to the south of the island's volcano but still far enough so that the guards guarding the entrance wouldn't see them without leaving their posts. "Wonder how long it'll be before they wise up and start posting guards on the boarders of the island?"

"What, with this tournament going on? Not likely." Francs answered as he lit up a cigarette. "Think about it, Kaiba himself came to the island to oversee the tournament and make sure that it went smoothly, as long as we don't target duelists who haven't already been eliminated we'll be in the clear to come and go as we please."

"Yeah, but if we take out too many of them Kaiba will order the school to take immediate action to secure the safety of the remaining students, especially since they've brought in a bunch of new students." Tanner pointed out with a frown. "And that's if the parents of our victims don't beat him to the punch."

"Are you two going to keep bickering or am I going to get a chance to chime in?" Sara's voice rang out through the two duelist's earpieces and they frowned. "Here's the good news, bodies have been found but no one knows your exact location."

"And cue the bad news in five…..four…..three…..two…..one….." Francs counted down and Sara frowned.

"I was getting to that." Sara responded with a frown. "The bad news is that the bodies were discovered by Chelsea Cunningham and Carmelo Von Albert, Carmelo you don't need to worry about but Chelsea is Chloe Richardson's roommate."

"And Chloe Richardson is the current holder of The Eye of Timaeus." Tanner responded with a frown. "What do you want us to do?"

"Stick to your orders, do not target Richardson until MacLeod has finished his deck." Sara responded and the agents nodded. "As for the others, consider them a first come first serve."

"We got it." Tanner responded and Francs nodded before they hung up. "Things just got fun."

"Do we really need MacLeod to take her out?" Francs asked as he turned to her. "Even if she uses the Eye of the Timaeus it doesn't exactly guarantee victory."

"Have you seen Victor's deck?!" Tanner asked as she turned to him. "I think it's in our best interest to follow his orders and stay on his good side." Tanner added and Francs agreed with a nod.

*meanwhile*

"Okay, this is where we split off." Brandon said as the students entered the north side of the island. "Now remember, stick with the person you were paired with and be careful when approaching these duelists, we all know how dangerous the Orichalcos is."

"Indeed, I still have nightmares about the time I was trapped in it." Andreas responded with a frown as he glanced to the others. "If we find these duelists should we contact each other before confronting them?" Andreas asked and Brandon nodded.

"Yeah but do it in a low voice so that they don't hear us." Brandon responded and they nodded. "Wait until we're on the scene before confronting them, if they confront you first then we'll get there as soon as possible." Brandon added as they started walking in opposite directions. "Oh and Chloe, there's one more thing."

"What is it?" Chloe asked as she turned to Brandon.

"They may try to target you specifically due to the Legendary Dragon in your deck." Brandon answered and Chloe nodded in response. "Be careful."

"If they do it'll hardly be my first Orichalcos Duel." Chloe answered with a confident grin. "But thanks for the warning." Chloe added and Brandon nodded before the students went their separate ways, Chloe followed Lance as they walked near the area where the Abandoned Dorm was. "So, you have any ideas for what we'll do when we find these bastards?"

"Duel them and try to keep anyone else from getting hurt." Lance answered with a nod and Chloe nodded in response, they continue to walk for a few minutes and for the most part they were lost in their own thoughts. _"I know this isn't the best time but we're alone out here and it'll be at least ten minutes before the others call, if I want to make my move on her it's now or never." _Lance thought before turning to Chloe. "Chloe, you mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure Lance." Chloe answered with a nod and Lance hesitated.

"Err, well…." Lance trailed off before the keyboard intro to "Bye, Bye Beautiful" by Nightwish rang out indicating that he had a call. "You've got to be fucking kidding me! Who the hell is calling at this time?"

"Err, Lance, it's the early Afternoon." Chloe answered once she checked her watch but Lance ignored her before answering the phone, after talking for a few minutes Lance hung up. "Who was it?"

"Brandon, he and Theresa have found the duelists." Lance responded as he pocketed his cell-phone. "I guess my question will have to wait for another time." Lance added and Chloe nodded before they turned around and made their way to Brandon's location. _"Just my luck, I go to him for advice on how to ask this girl out and he interrupts my first attempt!"_

*meanwhile*

"Okay, that's everyone called." Brandon said after pocketing his cell-phone. "They should be here in a few minutes."

"Knowing Lance's luck you probably called him just as he was about to ask Chloe if she was ready to take their relationship to the next level." Theresa said as she shook her head, she glanced towards Tanner and Francs before frowning and turning to Brandon. "You want to wait for them or should we go ahead?"

"If we wait for them there's a chance that they'll get away and capture another student's soul." Brandon responded as he activated his duel disk. "I may not have known Billie and Frank that well but I'm not willing to risk that chance." Brandon added and Theresa nodded in agreement before activating her own duel disk. "By the time they arrive the duel will start, let's go!" Brandon added before leading Theresa into the clearing. "You guys don't know when to quit, don't you?"

"As long as the Orichalcos hungers for souls we'll never quit." Tanner responded as she turned to the two duelists. "Well, well, two Obelisk Blue Students are our next victims; Victor will be very pleased about this!"

"We're not your victims." Theresa said as her eyes narrowed. "We're the ones that'll stop you!" Theresa added and Tanner and Francs chuckled.

"You may have defeated our compatriots during Battle City." Francs responded with a grin. "But they are nothing compared to us."

"Those are some brave words coming from a pair of cowards who prey on innocent kids." Theresa responded as her eyes narrowed. "So who are you guys anyway?"

"If you're that eager to find out the names of the last duelists you'll ever face…." Tanner commented before removing her robe, she was a tall, good looking woman who looked like she had some Latino heritage in her blood; she had shoulder length dark brown hair and blue eyes. "I'm Rachel Tanner."

"And I'm Nelson Francs." Francs added as he removed his robe, he was around Rachel's height and had short black hair, blue eyes and was wearing all black. "Who the hell decided it would be a good idea to come to an island this hot whilst wearing robes that heavy? We may as well have been dueling over that damn volcano!"

"I don't care, as long as the pay's good." Rachel responded before turning to Brandon and Theresa. "And if you think that you're in for an easy time in this match then you can think again!"

"Like you we don't care." Brandon responded as he and Theresa activated their duel disks, Rachel and Nelson did likewise and Brandon glanced at Theresa. "By the way Theresa, what deck did you bring?"

"I brought my dark attribute deck." Theresa answered as the four duelists drew their opening hands. "Since we were hunting two duelists I figured I'd bring it so that we can have some synergy in our decks."

"Good call." Brandon answered with a nod before turning to them. "Okay, Theresa's going first then Rachel, then me and finally Nelson, any objections?" Brandon asked and once the others shook their heads Theresa drew her card.

"_I have no idea what decks these guys run; unlike the guy Chloe dueled the other day no one has seen these guys in action besides their victims." _Theresa thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Not bad." _Theresa thought before playing the card. "I start with the Spell Card Allure of Darkness; as long as I banish one dark type monster from my hand in return this card will let me draw two cards." Theresa played the card and quickly drew her two cards; she pocketed one monster in her hand and shuffled the other cards into her hand. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode!" Theresa announced as the three cards appeared on the field. "And end my turn at that."

"Is that all?" Rachel taunted her as she drew her card. "I was expecting more from the girl who took second place in Battle City but I guess that was a fluke." Rachel added before looking at the card she had drawn. "I play a Spell Card of my own, Terra-Forming! As I'm sure you both know this lets me add a Field Spell Card to my hand."

"Yes and we also know what card you'll be adding to your hand." Brandon grunted as Rachel picked up and searched through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "You aren't exactly the first Orichalcos Duelist to use that combo you know."

"Why fix what isn't broken? I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Rachel played the card and the two Obelisk Blue students braced themselves as the seal encircled them, soon enough the Orichalcos pentagram appeared on the heads of Rachel and Nelson and they grinned evilly. "Now the real duel begins!"

"You realize that once you lose you'll just become another soul in Victor's collection right?" Brandon asked and their eyes narrowed. "I mean honestly, why else would he bring in a pair of common thugs like you two?"

"These common thugs happen to be two of the best duelists in his employ." Nelson retorted as his eyes narrowed. "That's a fact that you'll find out for yourselves as the duel progresses."

"Enough talk, I still have a move to do!" Rachel responded as she picked up a card. "And I start with Heavy Storm! Say good-bye to your face-down cards Theresa!" Rachel played the card and Theresa braced herself as a storm washed over the field destroying them both.

"You realize that if you had waited a turn you could've taken out any other traps they had set, right?" Nelson asked and Rachel just grinned.

"Watch and learn Nelson." Rachel responded before picking up a card. "Now for my opening move I summon Bujin Yamato!" Rachel played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a tall humanoid in red, gold and black armor (4/1800/200) and its attack increased to 2300 thanks to the seal. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Rachel said before grinning. "But not before activating Yamato's effect, during my end phase I can add one Bujin monster from my deck to my hand as long as I can discard a card in return." Rachel explained before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand, shuffled the deck and subsequently discarded the card she retrieved.

"_What the….she didn't even attempt to hide that the card she discarded was the one she searched for." _Brandon thought as he drew his card. _"That probably means that that monster can do a lot more damage in the graveyard." _Brandon thought before looking over his hand. "I've been waiting for a chance to use this card; I summon Gaia, Knight of Polar Knights!" Brandon played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was similar to the famous Gaia the Fierce Knight in appearance but the knight's armor was jet black whilst the horse was white with a gold mane (4/1600/1200).

"Oh look, another Gaia monster." Rachel said with a scoff. "Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"I'm not done, next I activate a Spell Card called Double Summon, and with this I can have one more Normal Summon this turn so I think I'll use that effect on Maiden of Macabre!" Brandon played the card and the sinister scythe wielding geisha appeared on the field (4/1700/0). "But she won't be on the field for long, I tribute her to activate Gaia's effect!" Brandon announced as Maiden of Macabre disappeared from the field. "Using this effect I can add one Level Four Light Type Monster from my deck to my hand but like Yamato's effect I have to discard a card from my hand in return."

"_Hmmm, Brandon told me he had modified his deck so that it's more Chaos oriented." _Theresa thought as Brandon searched through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and discarded a card. _"Time will tell if the modifications make it stronger or weaker but regardless he's already managed to set up his graveyard for Dark Armed Dragon's summon, just have to wait for his knight to bite the dust."_

"I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Brandon set the card down and Nelson grinned before drawing a card.

"About time, now let's see what I can do!" Nelson commented before looking at his drawn card. "I activate the Continuous Spell Card Call of the Mummy!" Nelson announced as the card appeared on the field. "Now as I don't have a monster on my side of the field this spell card will let me Special Summon a Zombie Type monster….."

"And you can only use it once per turn." Theresa pointed out and Nelson frowned. "I run a Zombie Deck among the many decks that I own, I pretty much know the effects of the key cards in a Zombie Deck like the back of my hand." Theresa added and Nelson's eyes narrowed.

"Stupid, annoying little know-it-all…." Nelson muttered under his breath before picking up a card. "You may know that but I can guarantee you that you've never faced a deck like mine before! I summon Vampire Sorcerer by the effect of Call of the Mummy!" Nelson played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a tall man with grey skin, green hair and he was wearing a sorcerer's outfit (4/1500/1500).

"_So the Vampires finally make an appearance." _Brandon thought as his eyes narrowed. _"I remember reading up on them whilst I was researching replacements for Sangan, apparently they, along with the Ghostricks Chloe's opponent used in her last duel, was designed to slow the next format down."_

"But my sorcerer won't be staying around." Nelson added as the monster's attack increased to two-thousand thanks to the seal. "For my normal summon I tribute him to summon Vampire Dragon!" Nelson played the card and Vampire Sorcerer vanished from the field, in its place stood a large, one eyed dragon with vampire fangs (5/2400/0) and its attack increased to 2900 thanks to the Seal.

"Your monster may be strong but strength isn't everything." Brandon pointed out and Nelson grinned before playing another card.

"Who said I was done? Next I activate Foolish Burial to send one monster from my deck to the graveyard." Nelson played the card and picked up his deck before searching through his deck, once he found the card that he was looking for he sent it to the graveyard and shuffled his deck. "But that monster won't be in the graveyard for long, it's a monster known as Mezuki and as I'm sure you know by removing him from play I can Special Summon another Zombie from my graveyard." Nelson pocketed the monster and retrieved Vampire Sorcerer from the graveyard before playing it, soon enough the vampire returned to the field with his power boost intact.

"_Two powerful monsters and they likely have powerful effects to go with it." _Brandon thought as his eyes narrowed. _"Fortunately that move left him with two cards in his hand, unless it's a trap or a Spell Card Theresa's move should be starting soon."_

"I set two cards facedown." Nelson announced as the facedown card appeared on the field behind Vampire Sorcerer. "And I end my turn." Nelson announced and Theresa drew her card.

"_Bujins and that new Vampire Archetype, I can see why Billie and Frank where defeated." _Theresa thought as she looked over her hand. _"Bujins have been wreaking havoc in the Pro-Leagues since Battle City and Vampires aren't even supposed to be released until the same set that contains the Ghostricks."_ Theresa thought before making a move.

"_I may have two Darks in my graveyard but I want to take my new monsters for a test run before I summon Dark Armed Dragon." _Brandon thought as he looked over his hand. _"Here's hoping Theresa doesn't screw things up too much for me."_

"I activate my Trap Card Reckless Greed!" Theresa said as he trap card flipped up. "I may lose my next two draw phases but since I get to draw two cards that's not an issue." Theresa added before drawing her two cards and sending her trap to the graveyard. _"That was a big risk but here's hoping it's worth it." _Theresa thought before playing a card. "And I will now tribute my facedown monster to summon Dark General Freed!" Theresa played the card and the zombiefied general appeared on the field (5/2300/1700).

"_Damn, her new monster's stronger than my sorcerer!" _Nelson thought as his eyes narrowed. _"At least she can't use his effect since it requires a draw phase."_

"Freed, I hope you brought some garlic and a cross because I want you to attack Vampire Sorcerer!" Theresa commanded and the general drew his sword….

"I'll have you know that the story about garlic being harmful to vampires is just that, a story!" Nelson said as his trap card flipped up. "But even if it wasn't my Negate Attack trap card will protect my monsters!" Nelson added as Freed's sword bounced off of a forcefield.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced and Rachel grinned before drawing her card.

"Good because now I can use the effect of the monster I discarded last turn." Rachel said before retrieving the card. "I remove Bujin Quilin from play so that I destroy Dark General Freed!" Rachel announced before showing the monster (4/1600/900) and pocketing it, soon afterworlds a transparent image of an armored horse with a sword for a face appeared on the field long enough to run through Freed. "Now I activate a Spell Card that I know you're familiar with and a card that I know my partner will find useful, Multi-Earth!"

"I should've known you'd be sharing your cards." Brandon commented as the Spell Card appeared on the field.

"Yeah, but why shouldn't we? We already share the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Rachel responded before pointing to Theresa. "Now Yamato, attack her life-points directly and draw first…." Rachel never finished her command as an ear-piercing screech rang out drowning out her voice. "What the hell?"

"You're not the only one with a Spell Card but in my case it was a Quick Play Spell Card known as Command Silencer!" Theresa explained as she pointed to the card's hologram. "Your attack is negated and I get to draw an extra card!" Theresa added before drawing another card.

"Fine, you've managed to save yourself for now." Rachel said before looking over her hand. "I end my turn but at the same time I activate the effect of Yamato!" Rachel added before picking up and searching through her deck again, once she found the card she needed she added it to her hand and discarded another card.

"Then it's my draw!" Brandon said as he drew his card. _"Okay, I know that that monster she retrieved likely wasn't another copy of Quilin, otherwise she would've discarded it like she did with the last copy, still that doesn't mean that the second card she discarded wasn't a copy of that monster." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "I start with my Spell Card Allure of Darkness!" Brandon played the card and drew two cards before banishing another.

"Yawn, that thing's pretty much a staple of Dark Type decks." Nelson said as he yawned. "Why don't you show us something we haven't seen before?"

"Ask and you'll receive." Brandon said before playing another card. "I summon Gaia, Knight of White Nights!" Brandon played the card and another knight appeared on the field, this one had white armor and was riding a white horse with a golden mane (4/1600/1200). "And now I activate his effect, to do so I have to banish one dark type monster from my graveyard," Brandon said as he retrieved Maiden of Macabre and pocketed the monster.

"Am I supposed to be worried?" Nelson asked with a cocky smirk….which quickly disappeared when Vampire Sorcerer doubled over in pain as it's attack dropped back down to 1500.

"I think I just gave you a reason to be worried because your monster's now lost five-hundred attack points until your next end phase!" Brandon announced before activating his trap. "But before I do anything else I activate my trap card DNA Transplant, with this I change the attributes of all monsters on the field to light types!"

"And what's the point of that?" Nelson asked as his eyes narrowed.

"Let me show you, I activate the effect of White Nights but to do so I have to tribute my Polar Knight." Brandon announced as the first knight vanished. "This effect is pretty much Polar Knight's effect applied to Light Type monsters." Brandon added as he searched through his deck and added the card that he was looking for to his hand. "But he's not gone for long; I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Polar Knight!"

"What? Are you going to use the same effect twice?" Nelson asked as the knight returned to the field.

"No, unlike you guys the new cards I use aren't broken, in other words I can only use each monster's effect once per turn." Brandon said before his final trap flipped up. "But first I activate my third trap card, Exchanging First Light and Twilight!" Brandon said as the card flipped up. "I can only use each effect once per turn but I'll use them to great effect."

"And what are these effects?" Rachel demanded and Brandon grinned.

"I can only use it once per turn but unlike my monsters I can only use it once, in this case I can send one light Warrior-Type monster from your hand to the Graveyard so that I can then add one dark Warrior-Type monster of the same Level as the sent monster from your Deck to my hand." Brandon explained before picking up a card. "And in this case I'll discard Jain, Lightsworn Paladin (4/1800/1200) from my hand and add a Level Four Dark Type monster in his place." Brandon announced before discarding the card, searching through his deck and adding the card he was looking for to his hand.

"_Wait, he's actually using Goldsmith's cards." _Theresa thought as she thought back to Brandon's last duel during their stay in New York. _"I can see why since a card that mills is a great help in a Chaos Deck but does he remember what the Lightworns almost did to him?" _Theresa thought as she looked at her boyfriend with a look of concern on her face.

"Okay, I think I've dragged this out long enough, White Knight, attack Vampire Sorcerer!" Brandon commanded as the knight charged forward.

"Oh you're finally attacking? Sorry I was daydreaming!" Nelson taunted him as he activated his trap. "I activate Vampire Shift; with this I can activate one Field Spell from my deck!" Nelson said as he played the card. "Welcome to the Vampire Kingdom!"

"I knew things were going too smoothly." Brandon commented as the scenery changed to a large, eerie looking city with a blood red moon over it.

"You don't know the half of it, you see as long as Vampire Kingdom's in play my zombies gain five-hundred attack points during damage calculation!" Nelson explained and Brandon's eyes widened as his knight was consumed by a swam of bats bringing his life-points down to seventy-six hundred life-points.

"I end my turn with a facedown card." Brandon said as he set the card. "But that's not all, the monster I just banished was D.D. Scout Plane and during the end phase of the turn he was banished he's special summoned back to the field." Brandon added as the small plane appeared on the field (2/800/1200) and once it was on the field Nelson drew his card.

"Now I could attack Brandon's remaining monsters and leave his field wide open for Rachel…." Nelson said as he added the card he had drawn to his hand. "But where's the fun in that? First I activate Dark Gate of Reincarnation!" Nelson played the card which depicted several zombie monsters coming through a portal. "Since I have two Zombies on my side of the field I can now draw until I have six cards in my hand."

"_Another card I've never heard off and smart money says that it has no drawback." _Brandon thought as Nelson drew his six cards. _"Knew it, it's just another broken card that's most likely custom made."_

"_These cards will come in handy later especially my second copy of Vampire Shift." _Nelson thought before shuffling around his deck. "Now onto business, Vampire Dragon, Vampire Sorcerer, attack Theresa's life-points directly!" Nelson commanded as the two monsters charged towards Theresa….

"Unfortunately for you I came prepared!" Theresa said as she played a card. "And thanks to Battle Fader's effect I can Special Summon him and end your Battle Phase!" Theresa played the card and the small clock like fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0) blocking the charge of the much stronger monsters. "Like it or not it'll take a lot more than those two monsters to beat us!"

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Nelson announced and once the card appeared on the field Theresa started her turn.

"_Brandon's move gave them a slight lead but as long as I can protect my life-points we'll be safe." _Theresa thought as she looked over her hand. _"I won't be able to do my Draw Phase for another turn but there's more than one way to draw a card." _Theresa thought before playing a card. "I activate my Spell Card Power of One!" Theresa played the card which depicted Attack Gainer glowing with energy. "This requires that I tribute a level one monster with no attack or defense points." Theresa explained as Battle Fader vanished from the field and she pocketed the monster due to its effect. "In return I get to draw two cards." Theresa added before drawing twice.

"_I hope she knows what she's doing." _Brandon thought as she looked over her hand. _"She could've used Battle Fader in a tribute summon instead but I guess she has her own idea."_

"I set two cards facedown." Theresa said as her two facedowns appeared on the field. "And I end my turn at that."

"That's all? How pathetic, I thought Obelisk Blue students were supposed to be the best students in the school but I guess not!" Rachel taunted her as she drew her card. "But then again your parents probably brought your way into that dorm anyway."

"Okay first off I earned my place in this dorm and my right to wear this blazer the old fashioned way, besides my mom's a cop and a single mom of two, she could barely afford to send me here." Theresa responded as her eyes narrowed. "And whilst what you just said is true in Brandon's case it's worth noting that he wanted to earn his place in this dorm as well."

"If that makes you feel any better than…..actually I don't care either way, Yamato, attack her life-points directly!" Rachel commanded and the warrior charged towards Theresa who braced herself, the attack hit bringing Theresa's life-points down to fifty-seven hundred. "If you did fight your way up the ranks then the standards in this school must be at an all-time low!"

"Actually there's a reason I took the hit." Theresa responded with a wince as her trap card flipped up, the attack knocked her ponytail lose letting her shoulder length hair flow down. "And that reason is called Damage Gate! Since I just took twenty-three hundred points of damage this trap will let me Special Summon a monster with an attack equal or less than the damage I just took so welcome back Dark General Freed!" Theresa played the card and the zombiefied general returned to the field.

"Powerful monster or not you and your boyfriend are still behind in life-points." Rachel pointed out with a grin. "I end my turn thus activating Yamato's effect again!"

"And it also allows me to activate the effect of my other Trap Card Shock Draw!" Theresa activated the trap and went to draw her cards. "Since I just took two thousand points of damage I get to draw two cards!" Theresa added as she drew her cards.

"Your annoyingly persistent, you know that right?" Rachel asked and Theresa frowned.

"Here's one other thing you need to know about me, I may be in Obelisk Blue but as a former Osiris Red and Ra Yellow student I know how tough they have it and I go out of my way to help them." Theresa said as her eyes narrowed. "And as long as bullies like you two continue to make their lives hell I will continue to fight for them!" Theresa added before looking at her drawn cards. _"Okay, I drew my copy of Caius and….."_

*in the duel monster spirit world*

"_What…..what the….." _Theresa thought as she looked around, she was at the same temple Chloe was at when she received Timeaus and was looking around confused. "Where am I? What happened to the duel?"

"You will return to the duel momentarily Theresa." Armed Dragon Level 10 said as he landed next to his protégé. "But your time has come! Welcome to the Duel Monster Spirit World."

"This is the Spirit World?" Theresa asked as she looked around. "It's beautiful but why am I here? I have a duel to win."

"Do you remember when Chloe got the Eye of Timaeus?" Armed Dragon asked and Theresa nodded before it hit her.

"I'm about to receive a Legendary Dragon?" Theresa asked and Armed Dragon nodded. "So, I just have to go through there?"

"Indeed, I will not be able to accompany you due to my size but they are expecting you." Armed Dragon told her and Theresa nodded before entering the temple and seeing Dark Magician Girl waiting for her.

"There isn't a moment to lose Theresa." Dark Magician Girl told her and Theresa nodded before following her to a dragon's statue encased in ice with a sword sticking out. "Freeing that sword will grant you the ability to use the Fang of Critius."

"Knowing my life-point situation at the moment I need all the help I can get." Theresa said as she approached the sword. "And Chloe, she's come a long way since she joined Duel Academy but it wouldn't be fair to expect her to face this threat as the lone duelist with a Legendary Dragon!" Theresa said as she grabbed onto the handle and started pulling with all her strength. _"Come on Theresa! The other students are counting on you!" _Theresa thought as she pulled the sword free.

*back at the duel*

"And I end my turn." Nelson announced and Theresa blinked as she came too, she was on her backside courtesy of an attack and she looked around, Brandon now had Caius the Shadow Monarch on his side of the field in D.D. Scout Plane's place and DNA Transplant was gone.

"_Brandon has two extra cards in his hand so he probably destroyed it himself with Magic Planter." _Theresa thought as she got to her feet, she didn't bother to draw knowing that she couldn't due to Reckless Greed and had a look at her life-points showing that it was at eight hundred. "What just happened?"

"You weren't paying attention?" Brandon asked and Theresa shook her head. "Okay, I began my turn by activating Magic Planter and destroying DNA Transplant, after that I sacrificed Scout Plane to summon Caius banishing Vampire Dragon and used MST to destroy Vampire Kingdom, then brought Nelson's life-points down to four thousand thanks to the attacks of my remaining knight and Caius, I used Exchange to discard another Light Type Monster and ended my turn."

"Bringing back my monsters was easy enough and so was attacking your life-points." Nelson commented with a cocky smirk. "So you ready to give up yet?"

"No." Theresa said as she picked up a card. "I'm ready to defeat you and it starts with this!" Theresa played the card and Rachel and Nelson laughed. "For Frank, for Billie, for Sarah, I ACTIVATE THE FANG OF CRITIUS!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Rachel and Nelson yelled out simultaneously and Theresa turned to Brandon.

"I'm going to need Exchanging First Light and Twilight Brandon." Theresa told him and Brandon nodded.

"I have everything I need in my graveyard, feel free." Brandon told her and the trap card vanished.

"I fuse my monster with this Trap Card….." Theresa said as a card popped out of her extra deck. _"That's not a sentence I ever expected to say in my career as a duelist." _Theresa thought as she played a card. "And I do this in order to summon the mighty Twilight Dragon to the field in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a huge purple dragon with long fangs and blue eyes (8/2500/2000).

"_The Fang of Crittius…..they…..they have TWO LEGENDARY DRAGONS!" _Rachel thought as she started sweating bullets. "Nelson, you have something that you can do, right?"

"I've never even HEARD of that card before, how am I supposed to do anything about it?!" Nelson demanded with a gulp. "Besides my Vampire Dragon's stronger!"

"But its base attack isn't." Theresa said before wincing as her life-points dropped to four hundred. "By cutting my life-points in half I can destroy all monsters my opponents control as long as their base attack is lower than my dragon's attack!" Theresa explained and their eyes widened as the dragon breathed fire at the two duelists destroying all their monsters. "In exchange for that my dragon can't attack." Theresa said as her eyes narrowed. "But my other monsters can! First I Special Summon Caligo Claw Crow by his effect!" Theresa played the card and the small purple crow appeared on the field (2/800/800). "But I have no intention of keeping him around! Because I tribute him to summon my own Caius the Shadow Monarch!"

"No! NO!" Nelson yelled out as the small crow disappeared and the monarch appeared in its place. _"I need Battle Fader and I need it now! Where the hell is it?"_

"Caius, Dark General Freed, finish him off!" Theresa commanded and Nelson could only watch as the two monsters launched their attacks at him bringing his life-points down to zero. "This is your last chance Rachel." Theresa said as the seal closed in around Nelson who was clearly panicking. "You either surrender…." Theresa trailed off as a blood curdling scream echoed out from Nelson's lips. "Or you share his fate."

"I'll never surrender!" Rachel said as she drew her card. "I set this facedown and summon another Yamato to end my turn." Rachel announced and once her cards appeared on the field Brandon drew his card. _"That Twilight Dragon's effect doesn't affect my traps and not even the mighty Crittius can withstand Mirror Force!"_

"I start with Heaven's Lost Property!" Brandon played the card and all three remaining duelists drew three and discarded two. "Next I activate my Spell Card Night Beam!" Brandon played the card and to Rachel's horror her trap card shattered. "Think of this card like MST except it can only target facedown cards and cards can't be activated in response to it." Brandon said before grinning.

"What are you happy about? I'll still have life-points when all is said and done!" Rachel demanded and Brandon's grin grew wider.

"Now I have six cards in my graveyard, three light types and three dark types, and my new monster requires that I remove from play all of one type." Brandon said as he retrieved the three light type monsters and pocketed them. "I was saving this for my next tournament match but I guess now is as good a time as any, I summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Twilight!"

"They made a new Black Luster Soldier card?!" Theresa realized as Brandon played the card, the monster looked like Black Luster Soldier but its armor was gold in color and it glared at Rachel (8/3000/2500).

"I was just as surprised as you were but after reading its effect I had to add it." Brandon explained before turning to Rachel. "Whilst this card is on the field it's also treated as a Light Type monster and depending on what attributes I used to summon it I get one of two effects, if I used Dark Type monsters I'd get to banish a random card in your hand facedown until the end phase."

"And what about light types?" Rachel asked with a gulp.

"Since I used light types I get to banish one monster on your side of the field face-up!" Brandon explained and Rachel's eyes widened as Yamato vanished. "And here's the kicker, the monster I drew with Heaven's Lost Property? It requires exactly three dark type monsters."

"Don't tell me you mean….." Rachel trailed off as Dark Armed Dragon appeared above the field. "No! No!"

"Typical, you two are nothing but cowards and bullies." Brandon said as he pointed to her. "I know someone is monitoring this duel so he/she can take this message to their boss when they see him next! Duel Academy is not going to sit idly by and let you attack its students! Bring it on next time because we'll be ready for you!" Brandon said with a grin. "Caius, Black Luster Soldier, Dark Armed Dragon, finish her!" Brandon commanded and the three monsters launched their attacks at Rachel bringing her life-points down to zero.

"That was a great duel guys!" Chloe's voice rang out and the two duelists looked up and saw the other students there, they were about to ask why they hadn't spoken up when they saw Martin.

"I heard you plan to attack those two." Martin said as his eyes narrowed. "But now that we have two of the dragons we'll be ready for anything, that said don't do anything this reckless again."

"You got it." Brandon said with a nod and Theresa nodded in agreement as she retrieved her ponytail. "Are you going to be okay Theresa?"

"I'll live." Theresa said as she glanced towards Rachel and Nelson. "But unless we stop those bastards soon Duel Academy is going to be a lot emptier."

"Indeed." Martin agreed with a sigh. "Oh yes, be sure to check Duel Academy's website tomorrow morning students, the new banlist is being released then."

"Oh joy; I wonder how it will screw up my deck this time." Brandon grunted as he followed the other students out of the clearing.

*elsewhere*

"Two Legendary Dragons have revealed themselves Victor." Sarah said as she yelled down the earpiece. "It's only going to be a matter of time before the third one reveals its self so I say we drop the hired help and deal with them directly!"

"And risk my company? I don't think so." Victor responded with a frown. "My lawyers are currently making the arrangements so that I can give control of the company to the board of directors but as talented as they are it's a slow process, until then I can't confront them, come back to HQ at once."

"I got it." Sarah responded as she looked towards Duel Academy Island. _"Chloe Richardson may have Timeaus but she doesn't have the skill needed to use it." _Sarah thought with a frown. _"I'll duel her soon enough, and after that my beloved step-sister will finally meet her match!"_


	88. The More Things Change

(OOC Note: Thanks to Colossal Fighter GX for supplying the characters of Jason Hutchins and Chakra Silvers as well as some of the cards in their decks, all custom cards in their decks were created by him and all creative credit goes to him)

It was now the day after Theresa got The Fang of Crittius and the rest of the previous day went quietly considering the island was home to a boarding school/duel monsters training center and whilst the new students were getting acquainted with the school grounds the students with Duel Spirit partners where waking up.

"Is there something on your mind Chloe?" Chelsea asked as she glanced up from her laptop, they had been awake for the past twenty minutes and her roommate seemed to be distracted by something, Chloe only looked up when Chelsea called out to her.

"It's Lance, I can't stop thinking about him…..and not in a sexual way either!" Chloe quickly added once she saw the grin on Chelsea's face. "When we split up yesterday to find the Orichalcos Duelists yesterday he wanted to ask me something."

"Okay, what did he want to ask?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"By the time he got around to asking me his cell-phone went off with Theresa's text message." Chloe answered with a confused look on her face. "By the time I finally got around to asking him what it was about Theresa had summoned her legendary dragon."

"And then we got hauled into Martin's office for sneaking off to find those bastards." Chelsea sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Excuse us for taking the incentive." Chelsea muttered under her breath before turning to Chloe. "You plan on asking him again?"

"I will, just letting him calm down for a bit." Chloe said earning a curious look from Chelsea. "He seemed frustrated about Theresa texting him just as he was about to ask the question and well, you know the rest."

"_Oh yeah, I know what that question was about!" _Chelsea thought with a grin. "Maybe he was asking you out?" Chelsea asked and Chloe blushed. "Oh come on! You're obviously crazy about each other!"

"Yeah and I'm about as reluctant to date anyone as they come." Chloe answered and Chelsea turned to her. "Believe it or not I've never had a boyfriend before."

"A girl with your good looks hasn't dated before…." Chelsea trailed off as it hit her, "Why do I get the feeling it has something to do with your childhood?"

"You'd be right there." Chloe responded with a nod. "I've gotten interest from several guys, and one girl…." Chloe said getting a laugh out of Chelsea. "But I'm worried that I'd be a hindrance to whoever I date because of my childhood."

"Wait, really?" Chelsea asked as she turned to her. "Chloe, all things considered, you've coped really well with that and you have several friends, what makes you think that?"

"Because that'll be the first time I've let anyone get that close to me since my mom's death." Chloe answered with a sad sigh. "Even my step-parents, for everything they've done to help me cope with the past, find it difficult to get close to me because of that."

"Oh man, now that you put like that…." Chelsea trailed off as she shook her head. "Look, Chloe I know it's a completely different thing but I'm a rock chick with a temper as short as they come and a criminal record, for a while I didn't think any girl would date me, doesn't help that most of the girls in Osiris Red are either straight or only willing to experiment with girl on girl, but now I'm dating Beth."

"Yeah, I know but…." Chloe trailed off and Chelsea shook her head.

"No buts Chlo." Chelsea said with a grin. "If someone like me can get into a relationship then you should be able to get into one no problem." Chelsea added with a grin. "Besides life's all about taking chances, your parents took quite a big chance when they adopted you back then." Chelsea added before wincing. "Wow that's gotta win the award for most insensitive example in the history of mankind."

"It's okay; I get what you're saying." Chloe answered with a nod. "Even so it's not a risk I want to rush into and if that was the case I would've told him exactly that."

"I hear ya; it's a pretty big leap." Chelsea agreed as she turned to her laptop. "Come on, where is that damn thing?!"

"Loose something?" Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow and Chelsea shook her head.

"Nah, I'm trying to find a link to the new banlist." Chelsea answered as she loaded up Google. "The last one caught me off guard with Lightning Recharge's limiting but since I only run one copy it wasn't that big an issue."

"Yeah I remember you saying." Chloe responded with a nod. "Wasn't the last one released a few days ago though?"

"I asked Martin about that, apparently I2 feel that E-Drags and Prophecy are dominating the game too much so they made an emergency banlist to address those decks, I know Lance's tag partner won't be happy about that." Chelsea answered as she turned to her. "I also asked when the promotion duels where taking place and it's next weekend and pretty much all the students with Duel Spirit partners who aren't in Obelisk Blue are up for promotion."

"That's good." Chloe agreed with a grin. "As much as I like it here moving up to Ra Yellow would be great."

"Definitely, and since the room will have its own computer I'll see if I can be your roommate again if we both win and I can help you get set up on the thing." Chelsea said with a nod. "As for who we'll be facing, it'll be either other students or the teachers but that's all Martin would tell me." Chelsea said before turning to her laptop and grinning. "Yes! I found it!" Chelsea said before loading it up; however the grin quickly disappeared once she saw the banned cards. "Oh boy….."

"Is there something wrong?" Chloe asked before looking at the banlist, her eyes widened when she saw it. "Heavy Storm, Monster Reborn, Pot of Avarice, Card Destruction, those cards are all banned?!"

"Unfortunately yes, I2's pretty much hit every deck in the school big time." Chelsea said with a wince before retrieving her copies of Avarice, Reborn and Heavy Storm. "I'm gonna have to go to the shop later and buy new cards, with these three banned my deck is now three cards short of the minimum deck size requirements."

"Yeah, same here, mine's not too bad because I've never been able to get my hands on Heavy Storm but Monster Reborn, Avarice and Card Destruction on the other hand…." Chloe trailed off as she retrieved the cards. "If they had banned Card Destruction earlier I likely would've lost my first round match in the Battle City Semi-Finals."

"And you never would've gotten your revenge on Otto for those comments." Chelsea added with a frown. "We'd better get there early, as soon as the other students find out that those cards are banned the card shop's going to be cramped!"

"Agreed, I've been meaning to include some XYZ monsters in my deck anyway." Chloe agreed before following her roommate out of their room.

*meanwhile*

The Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm was a lot busier than usual due to the influx of new students into the boy and girls dorms, and any new student walking past Lance's room could hear the sounds of the song "To Reign Again" by Kataklysym emanating from it.

"Huh, didn't realize that there was other Metalheads at this school." One new student commented as he walked past the dorm room. "Maybe I should meet him…."

"OH SON OF A BITCH!" Lance's voice rang out over the music which subsequently stopped the new student sweat-dropped as Lance emerged from his room. "Heavy Storm, Monster Reborn, Pot of Avarice, really I2, out of all the cards you ban you pick those three?!"

"Let me guess, you've seen the banlist?" Andreas asked as he glanced up at Lance. "What on Earth was I2 thinking hitting that many cards on one banlist."

"Well it is an emergency banlist." Marcus commented with a frown. "Man I had just got my hands on Super Rejuvenation and I2 goes and bans it?"

"Err; is this a bad time to introduce myself?" The new student asked nervously and three boys turned to him. "Hi, I'm Justin; I heard your music playing."

"Yeah well, if the noise levels disturb you just give me a knock and not go to Jeff." Lance responded as he pocketed his now forbidden cards. "The last thing I want is an earful from him!"

"But….but I was enjoying it." Justin commented and Lance shook his head before leaving. "Where are you going?"

"The card shop, I don't know if you noticed but I2's released its Emergency Banlist and it has rendered my deck several cards short." Lance called back to him as he left. "The name's Lance by the way." Lance added before leaving.

"Is he always like that?" Justin asked Andreas who shook his head.

"No, he's just been a bit on edge since earlier today." Andreas sighed as he shook his head. "And speaking of which I'm off to follow in his footsteps." Andreas added before following Lance. "I'll talk to you later!"

"Yeah same here!" Marcus added before following the other duelists, Justin blinked before noticing something.

"You realize that you left your dorm rooms open right?" Justin called out to them and they quickly ran back, closed their doors and left. _"Boy, I'm glad I never ran those cards in my deck." _Justin thought before wondering off.

*later on*

Fortunately for the duelists who had read the new banlist they were able to get to the card shop early and get new cards for their decks, however Chloe and Chelsea left the shop about twenty minutes before the boys from Ra Yellow did denying Lance another chance to talk to Chloe.

Right now Chloe and Chelsea where relaxing on the roof of the Osiris Red Girl's dorm, they rarely want up there for a couple of reasons, whilst the roof was flat there wasn't enough room for a Duel Disk assisted duel and even a good old fashioned game with just playmats got boring after a while, still that didn't stop the two girls from testing out their decks with a friendly traditional style duel.

"And Wattchimera attacks directly for the game!" Chelsea said with a grin and Chloe sighed as she used the calculator app on her phone to reduce the life-points down to zero. "That was a good game Chloe."

"Yeah but I could've won if Heavy Storm and Pot of Avarice wasn't banned." Chloe grunted in annoyance as she picked up her huge graveyard. "Or hell, even Monster Reborn would've helped me a lot.

"Yeah, I still can't believe they banned those cards." Chelsea commented as she gathered up her cards, once she and Chloe where done she rested her arm on her leg. "Killing off E-Drags and Prophecy like they did I can understand given how stupidly broken those decks where but banning Avarice, Reborn, Storm and Card Destruction?"

"I'm just glad I was able to replace the cards I lost due to the list." Chloe answered as she shuffled through her deck. "And yes even if I didn't get to use any of my new cards against you." Chloe added with a sigh. "Still they are apparently releasing another banlist in a few months so I'm going to hold onto my copies of those cards in the meantime."

"Good idea." Chelsea agreed before something caught her eye, there was a third student on the roof with them and like the two girls it was an Osiris Red Student, unlike Chloe and Chelsea however it was a male student. "How did we miss a boy being on the roof with us?" Chelsea wondered out loud and Chloe looked up once she returned her deck to her duel disk.

The student looked like he was a couple of years younger than the two girls and had short black hair; he had a giant bang in his hair with a grey highlight in the middle which ran from his forehead to the side of his head and was wearing a white shirt under an open Osiris Red Blazer.

"I don't know." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as she stood up. "I haven't seen him around the school so maybe he's one of the new students?"

"Seems likely, he has a first year blazer like we do." Chelsea agreed before turning to Chloe. "What do you say? Should we talk to him?"

"Wouldn't hurt, at least we can find out what he's doing on the roof of the Osiris Red Girl's dorm." Chloe responded and the two girls walked up to him. "Err, hi." Chloe greeted him and the teen nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Oh sorry, I didn't see you there." The teen responded once he turned to the two girls. "What are you doing here anyway? Isn't this the boy's dorm?" The teen asked and the two girls sweat-dropped.

"_Yep, he's definitely a new kid." _Chloe and Chelsea thought simultaneously and Chelsea spoke up.

"Actually this is the Girl's Dorm; the boy's dorm is a bit further along the coast line." Chelsea explained and the teen blushed upon realizing his mistake. "How about we start from the top? I'm Chelsea Cunningham and this is my roommate Chloe Richardson."

"Hi, I'm Jason Hutchins." Jason introduced himself with a small smile. "I err, came up here to clear my head, I just had a rather nasty encounter with an Obelisk Blue Student."

"This student wouldn't happen to be called Jessica, Thomas or Cameron, would they?" Chloe asked and Jason looked at her confused. "They are three students that have given me some trouble since I returned from Battle City."

"Err, no I haven't met them." Jason admitted after thinking for a moment. "The student was a girl by the name of Chakra Silvers; she's a new student like I am."

"What can you tell us about her?" Chelsea asked and Jason sighed.

"Well at first she was nice to me but after a talk with a female Obelisk Blue Student with red hair who was wearing a skimpy version of the Obelisk Blue Girl's Uniform got into her ear and whilst I don't know exactly what she said to her but she shunned me right afterwards." Jason explained with a sigh.

"Wait, Silvers, have I heard that surname before?" Chloe asked after thinking for a few minutes.

"I have, the Silvers are pretty prestigious in the fields of politics and finance, aren't they?" Chelsea asked and Jason nodded.

"That's them, once I found that out it didn't take me long to figure out how she got into Obelisk Blue in the first place." Jason responded with a frown. "At the moment I'm considering challenging her to a duel but I don't know how to go about that."

"You can go to Professor Hamden's office at the Boy's Dorm and request a duel request form from him." Chloe answered with a frown. "On the other hand I may want to duel Chakra myself, sounds like she has quite the attitude problem."

"As long as you can avoid turning off the safeties on your duel disk you should be all set." Chelsea responded and Jason looked at her with a confused look on his face whilst Chloe gave her an annoyed look. "It's a long story and it involves two of the three students Chloe mentioned before."

"They sound like nasty pieces of work." Jason commented with a frown. "So what's the plan? I want to duel Chakra and so does Chloe and something tells me that she isn't willing to accept a two on one handicap match."

"So you guys going to let me chime in?" Theresa asked as she approached them, Chloe looked up and smiled at the older student.

"Err, Theresa, how long have you been standing there?" Chelsea asked as she rubbed the back of her head nervously.

"I've only been up here for the past few minutes." Theresa said with a shrug. "I came by Chloe and Chelsea's room to talk with Chloe about something but when you didn't answer Nicola told me you had headed up to the roof."

"We wanted to test out the new cards we were pretty much forced to get thanks to the banlist." Chloe responded as she turned to her. "But only Chelsea got a chance to test them out."

"You'll get another chance." Theresa reassured her and Chloe nodded in agreement, Theresa turned to Jason and frowned. "Weren't you the kid who was talking with Chakra earlier?"

"Yeah that's me, I'm Jason Hutchins." Jason introduced himself. "Why do you ask?"

"I heard some of her comments about Osiris Red on the way over, they weren't pretty but it wasn't nearly as bad as some of the comments from people like Cameron and Jessica." Theresa responded with a frown. "Not all Obelisk Blue students are like her and you shouldn't let it get to you."

"I know but the thing is both I and Chloe want a duel with her but we can't decide how to go about it." Jason explained with a frown. "Well, you wanted a chat with Chloe and I need to get to the boy's dorm before the headmistress finds me up here, see you around Chloe." Jason added before leaving the rooftop area.

"I'd leave as well." Chelsea said as she took a seat on the edge of the roof. "But I get the feeling this has to do with a certain trio of dragons."

"You got it Chelsea." Theresa nodded in response before turning to Chloe. "So, two of the three Legendary Dragons have revealed themselves."

"Yeah and they seemed to have gone to opposite ends of the experience spectrum when choosing their holders." Chloe commented as she retrieved Timeaus from her side deck. "Here's the thing I've been trying to figure out since they chose you for Crittius, what deck are you going to use him in?"

"That's a good question, one that I stayed up all night trying to figure out." Theresa responded with a yawn. "And that's when I wasn't asking Brandon to borrow some cash so I could afford the new cards in the decks I own that ran Reborn, Storm and Avarice which was most of them."

"You didn't borrow too much did you?" Chelsea asked as she turned to Theresa. "Knowing how rich Brandon's family is and all."

"I didn't have too, Brandon insisted on buying the cards for me." Theresa responded as she turned to Chelsea. "He also insisted that I didn't have to pay him back, just as long as my new cards won us the tag tournament."

"Err, yeah, you may have a bit of trouble there considering that me and Chloe plan to win the tournament ourselves." Chelsea responded with a good natured grin and Theresa smiled at that. "So don't get your hopes up."

"You realize that the competitions only going to get tougher once the second round starts, right?" Theresa asked and the two girls nodded. "No offense but for all we know you two could end up against me and Brandon in the next round."

"Yeah, that would be some incredibly shitty luck." Chelsea responded with a wince. "So, can we go back to the Legendary Dragons?"

"Good idea. Anyway I eventually decided to keep it in my side deck and only add it to the deck I want to use against them when the time comes, at least then I can use it in all my decks, even if I'm retiring a lot of them." Theresa responded and the two girls looked at her surprised. "I realized after Battle City that over twenty decks was way too many for one duelist even an Obelisk Blue like me, that coupled with the fact that I never got around to using most of them meant that they had to go."

"That's a lot of decks." Chloe pointed with a frown. "What did you do with all those cards?"

"I sold most of them to the card shop, got quite a bit of money for them, others I traded to other students in Obelisk Blue for cards that I've been trying to get my hands on for a while and I kept what was left over in my side deck." Theresa responded with a nod. "All in all that's left me with four decks in total, my Kaiba Deck, my Fairy Deck, my Dark Deck and….one I'm saving for the finals, I'm not ready to reveal what that is just yet."

"If it's Chaos Dragons we may as well drop out right now." Chloe commented before pausing. "I meant drop out of the tournament, not the school."

"I had a feeling that was the case." Theresa responded with a nod. "And no, it's not Chaos Dragons; I'm leaving the Chaos stuff to Brandon since that seems to be the theme for his deck nowadays." Theresa responded and the two girls sighed in relief. "As for what it is you'll have to wait until the finals to find out."

"And if it's anything like your other decks and we're your opponents we're in trouble." Chloe said with a gulp.

"Don't sweat it Chloe, we'll still win!" Chelsea said confidently before yawning a bit. "I'm heading back to the dorm room to do some homework I got from Tracy on Friday, see you guys in a bit." Chelsea added before leaving the rooftop area.

"Good, I never thought she'd leave." Theresa commented and Chloe blinked, Theresa's tone of voice was a lot more serious now and she turned to her. "Chloe, we need to talk about the Legendary Dragons."

"Weren't we doing that already?" Chloe asked as she scratched her head.

"We were but I wanted a serious talk and as much as I like Chelsea the conversation kept getting derailed with her around." Theresa answered as she walked up to the younger student. "Chloe, you realize how much power we have in our decks with these cards in them right?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded.

"Err, yeah, whilst their effects still don't make any sense to me, especially yours, they are great cards and if we hadn't drawn them when we did…." Chloe trailed off before shuddering. "After seeing what it did to Andreas back in Battle City I'd rather not think about that."

"I don't blame you but that's not what I meant." Theresa responded and Chloe blinked. "Like the teachers said after you got Timeaus the dragons where used to fight the Orichalcos by Yugi Moto, Seto Kaiba and Joey Wheeler but after your duel I decided to do some research on the cards."

"To prepare for when someone else got one, right?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded. "What did you find out?"

"Well Duel Academy's website has a file on the dragons but it's restricted to the headmasters and Chancellor Wilkins, I asked Tyler if he could help but he declined." Theresa said with a sigh. "He said that, as much as he wanted to know more about the dragons, he'd rather not risk another expulsion duel for hacking the academy's website."

"Wait, students can have more than one expulsion duel?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded.

"It operates on a Three Strike System, obviously that's only applicable if you win your first one." Theresa responded with a frown. "If you win your second one you get suspended for a month immediately after the duel but if you break a major rule for a third time there's no Expulsion Duel, you are expelled, plain and simple."

"Man, that's harsh." Chloe said with a gulp. "But I guess it makes sense at the same time." Chloe added and Theresa nodded in agreement. "Have there been any times when they skipped expulsion duels in the first place?"

"And just expelled them?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded. "A few times but that usually involves something big happening, the most recent example being Otto after everything he did during the Battle City Semi-Finals, thankfully those incidents are rare because the school doesn't like to throw away a student's future career as a duelist." Theresa added with a frown. "For that to happen one of three things have to happen, they have to use the Orichalcos willingly like Otto did, they have to go one step to far with their bullying, like trying to drive another student to suicide, or they physically attack a staff member or willingly break a crime on canvas in general."

"Has the third one actually happened?" Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Once, back when I was an Osiris Red student, an Obelisk Blue student with a temper almost as short as Chelsea's disagreed with a grade Hamden gave his duel and that led to him punching Hamden." Theresa responded with a frown. "His family was rich and he thought that he could use his family's connections to get out of trouble, obviously it didn't work and it served as an example to the other students."

"Attack a staff member and we'll expel you no matter how rich your family is." Chloe responded and Theresa nodded. "We were talking about the dragons?"

"Right, well I went to several other tech savvy students including Chelsea whilst you were at gym class but they said the same thing so I went to an outside source for my info." Theresa responded with a nod. "Took a bit of searching but I was able to find some info….." Theresa trailed off when she heard the door to the roof open and saw two female Osiris Red students entering the roof area.

"You were saying?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head.

"Not up here, I don't want anyone listening in; I'll stop by your dorm room later." Theresa said before walking off and Chloe followed her whilst offering a friendly wave to the students. "By the way, did Lance ask you something yesterday?"

"That's oddly specific." Chloe said before shaking her head. "He was about to but your text interrupted him and we rushed off to your tag duel, I think you know the rest." Chloe added with a confused look on her face. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Theresa responded as the two girls made their way down the hall. _"I had a feeling that was the case, hopefully Lance will ask her."_

"So what will we do when the third dragon reveals itself? Hell we still don't know who it'll choose since theirs seven of us to choose from." Chloe said in a low voice.

"I'll figure something out when the time comes, unfortunately the best time for us to tackle this problem will be when Summer Break arrives and that's not until after the tournament." Theresa added with a frown. "On the bright side the second round will be starting in a few days so we don't have that long a wait."

"So when are they going to announce the second round matches?" Chloe asked and Theresa shrugged.

"Likely when the last first round match ends and if my guess is correct they'll likely give the competing students some time to prepare, probably half an hour like the Battle City Semi-Finals did." Theresa answered as the two girls reached Chloe's dorm room. "Well, this is your stop, I'll stop by later to talk about the dragons."

"Sure, see you later." Chloe answered before opening the door to her room and entering it, once the door was closed Theresa made her way out of the dorm.

"_Theresa, you realize that you'll have to tell her at some point, don't you?" _Armed Dragon asked and Theresa nodded.

"_That's why I came over in the first place." _Theresa answered as she made her way out of the girl's dorm. _"But I didn't want to panic the girls who joined us on the roof if they realized that we were talking about the Orichalcos, when I stop by later I'll insist that we meet in the forested area between the dorms." _Theresa answered as she walked towards the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm.

"So, you must be Theresa." Theresa stopped in her tracks and turned around, behind her was a female first year Obelisk Blue student with long dark-silver hair tied into a ponytail and blue eyes, her uniform was fairly standard and she was wearing a chain necklace, bracelets and anklets. "I heard a lot about you, the name's Chakra." The student added before offering a hand.

"Let me guess, your last name is Silvers?" Theresa asked and Chakra blinked before nodding. "I heard a lot about you as well, not all of it pleasant."

"Don't tell me, you had a chat with Jason Hutchins right?" Chakra asked and Theresa nodded. "He's a nice kid but I was forced to choose between that and my fellow Obelisk Blue students."

"And you choose your fellow students." Theresa said as she shook her head. "I understand wanting to fit into a school you just moved into but take my advice, the likes of Jessica Stevens are not the kind of people you want to hang out with."

"I'm not naïve Theresa." Chakra said as she folded her arms. "I may be a rich girl but I could tell from one conversation with Jessica that I was not going to get along with her at all so I split off from her." Chakra said with a frown. "That said I'm off to the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm to apologize to Jason for my behavior and before you ask, yes, I do know how to get there."

"Good thing you waited this long, he somehow ended up at the Girl's Dorm by accident." Theresa answered and Chakra blinked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Funny thing you should mention that actually, there's two students over there who want to duel you, Jason and Chloe Richardson."

"Is she the same Osiris Red girl who came in third at Battle City?" Chakra asked and Theresa nodded. "I saw her deck in action when I watched the finals; I wasn't impressed even after her deck was destroyed by Otto."

"Basing a deck's strengths on a tournament that happened a few months ago isn't wise; she's been constantly improving her deck since then." Theresa answered before grinning. "So who's it going to be? Will you duel Chloe or Jason?"

"That is a good question." Chakra admitted as she folded her arms. "I know what cards they run, like I said I watched Chloe's duels in the Semi-Finals and Jason's qualifying match was just before mine." Chakra added before smirking. "I have an idea, I'll duel both of them, one after the other, and I'll even let them choose the order."

"You want to face them in a gauntlet match?" Theresa asked with a raised eyebrow and Chakra nodded. "Well you'd better tell them that yourselves." Theresa said before pointing behind Chakra, she turned around and saw Chloe and Jason standing there. "Chloe, meet Chakra, she has an interesting proposition for you."

"I know I overheard your conversation, same with Jason." Chloe said with a nod before turning to Chakra. "You're really willing to go through with this?"

"Well I have been looking for an excuse for my duel as part of this academy." Chakra answered with a smirk. "Meet me at the Obelisk Blue Duel field if you're still up for it." Chakra added before walking off in the direction of the main building.

"Err, Theresa, I don't know where that duel field is." Jason answered as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"You have nothing to worry about there." Chloe reassured him as she turned to him. "They won't let Osiris Red or Ra Yellow students onto that field without an Obelisk Blue Student with them."

"Yeah and either she doesn't know that yet or she did know that and she knew that I'd be accompanying you two." Theresa responded before leading them to the duel field. "So Jason, what deck do you run?" Theresa asked as she turned to the younger student.

"Me? I run a Genex Deck, it's mostly machine monsters." Jason responded and Theresa nodded. "I know Genex Udine has seen some play in Mermail decks but this deck doesn't have any Mermails in it."

"Yeah, we know, one of our friends had a run in with a Genex Deck a few days ago and managed to win." Chloe responded with a nod. _"Though what he doesn't need to know is that said run in was with an Orichalcos Duelist but that's beside the point." _Chloe thought as they made their way to the Main Building. "Did you watch the Battle City Finals on TV by any chance?"

"Yeah, I did." Jason responded with a nod. "It was part of the reason my parents were convinced to send me to this school in the first place, I mean a girl from Osiris Red made it to the Top Three so I'm actually glad to be in Osiris Red."

"That's not a sentence I was expecting to hear." Chloe muttered under her breath as they reached the duel field. "So how are we deciding the duel order? Rock, Paper Scissors?"

"If you want to go first I won't mind." Jason responded with a shrug as they climbed the stairs to the duel field. "But I wanted to duel her first so I'll go first."

"You know what? Let's just do the Rock Paper Scissors game for simplicity's sake." Chloe sighed in annoyance and Jason nodded in agreement, they stopped on the stairs and did a quick game of Rock, Paper Scissors which resulted in Chloe choosing Scissors and Jason choosing Rock. "Guess you are going first, at least this will give me an idea of what to expect."

"That's fine by me." Jason responded as the two students entered the duel field with Theresa, they located Chakra quickly enough and Jason activated his duel disk. "We decided that I am going first Chakra."

"I heard." Chakra responded with a nod as Jason stepped onto the duel field. "And we have a small audience." Chakra added before motioning towards the bleachers, Jason and Chloe looked up and saw Andreas, Marcus, Lance, Mike, Nicola, Brandon, Chelsea and Tyler in the audience and Chloe grinned. "Just don't start making out with your boyfriend Chloe, we all know what almost happened at Battle City." Chakra added causing Lance and Chloe to face-fault.

"I'll have you know that nothing like that happened!" Lance called out to her as he and Chloe got back to their feet. "All that happened was we shared a passionate moment and I should really stop referring to that incident like that." Lance commented as a huge sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Just shut up before you embarrass me even more!" Chloe responded as she sat down next to Lance, whilst that was going on Jason hopped onto the duel arena and Chakra activated their duel disk. "So was anyone here present for their test duels?"

"I'm afraid not, we couldn't find the time to leave the island due to the tournament and our lessons." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "Not to mention the Orichalcos Duelists. "Chelsea added in a low voice and the others nodded in agreement.

"But I have talked to some of the students who could find the time to attend the duels, most of them where students already eliminated from the Tournament." Theresa responded with a nod. "Chakra's deck was all they could talk about."

"What do you mean?" Lance asked as he turned to Theresa.

"You'll see when the duel starts." Theresa answered as Jason and Chakra drew their opening hands.

"I'm a firm believer in ladies first." Jason said as he looked over his hand. "So I'm letting you go first!" Jason added and Chakra nodded before drawing another card.

"Excellent, then let me make things more interesting." Chakra said as she played a card. "I activate the Field Spell Card Silver Dungeon!" Chakra played the card and the scenery changed to a silver, medieval style dungeon. "I'll get to its effect in a bit but first I chain it's activation with another Spell Card, Silver Pot of Chains!" Chakra played the card and silver colored Pot of Greed wrapped in chains appeared on the field. "This Quick Play Spell can only be activated at Spell Speed 2 or higher and since I activated it at Spell Speed 2 I get to draw two cards." Chakra explained before drawing twice. "And since it was activated at Speed Spell 2 it returns to my deck!" Chakra said as she returned the card to her deck. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode, feel free to take your turn." Chakra announced and Jason drew his card.

"Good and I'll start my turn by summoning Genex Searcher!" Jason played the card and a tall, slender dragon appeared on the field, it looked like a stereotypical robot except for the dome like head, large red eye and pincer like claws (4/1600/400). "Genex Searcher, attack her facedown monster!" Jason commanded and the monster charged forward…..only to bounce back as Jason's life-points dropped to 7400. "What?"

"You fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book!" Chakra responded as her monster reveal itself, it was a large fiend seemingly made out of smoke that was purple in color and had a dog like face and bat like wings (4/1300/2200). "Emperor Sem's defense is too strong for your searcher to crack."

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Jason announced as the facedown monster appeared on the field and Chakra drew her card.

"For the girl whose deck was the most talked about thing from the Test Duels her deck does not impress me." Chloe admitted as she scratched her head. "The only thing she's done is play a very situational draw card, a strong defense monster, a mysterious field spell and two facedowns."

"Don't underestimate her, the test proctor made the same mistake." Theresa answered as Chakra looked over her hand.

"Unfortunately my Pot of Chains card comes with a side effect, if I draw more than two cards with its effect I have to mill cards equal to the number of cards in my hand, I have seven which means I mill seven cards." Chakra explained as she milled her cards.

"That's a pretty harsh drawback." Jason commented and Chakra shook her head.

"Remember its effect from the first turn? Guess what? That effect also applies at Spell Speed 2!" Chakra added as she returned the card to her deck. "Now I truly start by activating my Trap Card Ultimate Offering!" Chakra's trap card flipped up and there was a bunch of gasps coming from where the spectators where. "Yes, I'm aware that this card is on the Banned List and before anyone questions it this trap works on my deck because it's configured to the OCG list where the only banned cards are the Baby Dragon Rulers and Spellbook of Judgment."

"You mean to tell me that we wasted that much money on new cards where we could've just reconfigured our disks?!" Lance yelled out and Chakra shook her head.

"Lance, reconfiguring duel disks for different banlists is a lot harder than it sounds, not even I or Tyler can do it." Chelsea answered as she turned to the Ra Yellow student. "That and doing so would get you in trouble with the teachers…..come to think of it why aren't you in trouble for that Chakra?"

"Oh I got a sneak peak at the banlist Friday morning when I was flying to Domino City on my family's private jet." Chakra answered as she turned to her. "When I arrived in Domino City I stopped by a small but nice looking card shop and asked its owner, a tall bald man, if he could help me reconfigure my duel disk."

"Err, that card shop wouldn't happen to be on the west side of the city, would it?" Chloe asked and Chakra nodded. "I'm asking because you just described my stepdad's card shop and my stepdad."

"Huh, I thought I recognized him." Chakra commented before shrugging. "If it helps your father has a very keen business sense." Chakra said once she saw the confused look on Chloe's face.

"Actually I'm more surprised that he knows how to reconfigure a duel disk whilst my two tech savvy friends don't." Chloe answered and Chakra shook her head.

"Anyway back to the duel and I activate Ultimate Offering's effect." Chakra said before wincing as her life-points dropped to 7500. "And I do so that I can summon this monster, Combo Fighter, in attack mode!" Chakra played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a tall, muscular shirtless man with spiked up red hair, a green band around the hair and green and brown pants (4/1600/800). "And I chain the summoning to another Silver Pot of Chains and Mystical Wind Typhoon!"

"Did she say WIND Typhoon?!" Lance yelled out as a typhoon appeared on the field before subsequently destroying Jason's facedown Trap Stun.

"Yes I did, it's like MST but it can only be activated at Chain Link 3 or higher and I can't have cards with effects that share a name in said chain." Chakra explained as she drew three cards before grinning broadly. "But that's not all it did! Just look at Genex Searcher!"

"Huh?" Jason asked before looking, his eyes widened as she saw his robot being weighed down by several chains as his attack and defense dropped to 1300 and 100 respectively. "What….."

"That's the effect of Silver Dungeon, when a chain is activated that excludes my field I can put Chain Counters on one face-up monster my opponent controls and said monster loses one hundred attack and defense points for each link in the chain, there were three chain links so your monster loses three hundred attack points." Chakra added before grinning. "Oh yes, I almost forgot, want to know why my monster's called Combo Fighter?"

"No but I get the feeling I'm about to find out." Jason grunted and Chakra grinned.

"To put it simply if a chain occurs that has two chain links or higher during my first main phase he gets to attack twice during the battle phase!" Chakra responded and Jason's eyes widened. "And that battle phase is starting now! Combo Fighter, attack Genex Searcher!" Chakra commanded and the warrior charged towards the restrained robot before kicking its head of in one kick bringing Jason's life-points down to 7100. "Anything you want to say before my monster attacks again?"

"I activate the effect of Genex Searcher! When he's destroyed in battle I can search through my deck for another Genex Monster with fifteen hundred attack points or less and Special Summon it to the field!" Jason responded before picking up his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he played it before shuffling his deck. "And I summon Genex Turbine!" Jason played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small green engine that was shaped like a football and had a green light at the end (4/1400/1300). "He may not look like much but Genex Turbine's effect gives all Genex Monsters four hundred attack points including him!" Jason explained as Turbine's attack increased to eighteen hundred.

"Very clever, I'll call off my attack for now." Chakra conceded as Combo Fighter returned to her side of the field. "But since I destroyed a monster that had Chain Counters attached to it my field spell's effect activates, you now have to mill cards from your deck for every two counters that it had attached to it, Genex Searcher had three so you have to mill two!" Chakra explained as Jason milled two cards. "I end my turn with two facedown cards."

"So let me get this straight, her entire deck strategy revolves around Chain Links?!" Chelsea asked as she scratched her head. "I've seen some weird deck strategies in my time but that takes the cake!"

"I don't know what's weirder; the fact that that's her deck strategy or the fact that it works!" Marcus added as he scratched his head. "What about those Silver cards? Anyone heard of those?"

"Yes but they are incredibly rare due to how powerful they are." Tyler nodded in response. "Just one of those cards can go for thousands of dollars."

"And that's pocket money to someone as rich as Chakra's family." Brandon responded with a frown. "I think I have a couple of Silver Pot of Chains in my deck vault back home but it's been a while since I last looked in there so I wouldn't know."

"Then why don't you run them?" Chloe asked and Brandon sighed.

"Couple of reasons, there's the fact that those cards are incredibly situational to the point that you have to build a deck around them like Chakra has done and my deck doesn't really have any Quick-Plays outside of Mystical Space Typhoon." Brandon explained as he turned to Chloe. "That and I've had to do so many edits to this thing recently that I just want a chance to duel with one build off it without changing it."

"My move and since I have a Genex Monster on my side of the field I can Special Summon Onmi Genex!" Jason played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a bulky machine which looked a bit more outdated than the other Genex monsters (5/1000/1000). "And for my normal summon I'm bringing out Genex Controller!" Jason played the card and a small brown robot's head on wheels appeared on the field (3/1300/1200).

"Let me guess, a Synchro Summon?" Chakra asked whilst looking unimpressed as the two Genex monster's attacks increased to 1700 and 1400. "I know that Controller's a Tuner Monster!"

"That's right and I'm tuning Genex Controller with Onmi Genex!" Jason explained as the two monsters leapt into the air, Genex Controller dissolved into three green Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Onmi Genex. "Please welcome Thermal Genex!" Jason played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a giant blue robot with several flamethrowers attached that looked menacing (8/2400/1200) and it's attack increased to 2800 thanks to Genex Turbine.

"Wait a minute, I'm familiar with the Genex Monsters and I know that that monster requires the non-tuner monster to be a Fire Type Monster and I could see from her that Onmi Genex was an earth type." Chakra protested and Jason grinned.

"Well for starters it's a LIGHT Type monster but that's beside the point because its Special Summon effect isn't its only effect." Jason said as his grin grew wider. "In fact it has three effects, first off my monster's treated as a FIRE, WATER, WIND, and EARTH type monster and as for its other effect, well I'd explain but I don't have enough cards in my graveyard." Jason explained before grinning. "Thermal Genex, attack Emperor Sem!" Jason commanded and the machine fired it's flamethrowers at the fiend destroying it. "And when Thermal Genex destroys a monster in battle it's effect activates inflicting damage equal to the amount of Genex Monsters in my graveyard times two hundred to you, that's normally bad enough but the two cards you made me mill where two more Genex Monsters."

"That's five cards which means I lose a thousand life-points." Chakra commented with a frown. "But no matter, I chain it to my Chain Heal Trap Card which gives me five hundred more life-points but more importantly it activates my Dungeon's effect and I'll be targeting your Synchro Monster…." Chakra said as her trap card glowed.

"In that case I'll chain my own Quick Play Spell Furnace Explosion!" Jason played the card and Thermal Genex exploded. "Not only is Thermal Genex destroyed but you take damage equal to half its attack power." Jason explained and Chakra winced….but quickly grinned.

"I can't believe you fell for that bluff." Chakra said as her trap card flipped up. "Accumulated Fortune can only be activated at a chain link of four or higher and it allows me to draw two cards, in other words I'm now targeting Turbine and that monster's now going to lose four hundred attack points!" Chakra explained as she drew two cards, winced as her life-points dropped to sixty-eight hundred, sighed in relief her life-points increased to seventy three hundred only to wince again as her life-points dropped to 6300. "In other words you just wasted a powerful monster and weakened your monster!" Chakra added as four chains ensnared Turbine bringing its attack points back down to its original score.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Jason set the card and Chakra drew her card.

"Wow, I've seen some moves backfire before but that takes the cake!" Chelsea said with a wince. "Chakra may be behind on life-points but she got two more cards, got rid of Jason's Synchro by tricking him into destroying it and weakened Turbine."

"And if her deck has any of the nastier chain cards then Jason will be in trouble." Tyler agreed with a nod. "And so will Chloe once that duel ends."

"Man, I had almost forgotten that I was facing her after this duel." Chloe responded with a gulp. "Still my Silent Magician Level Eight will be immune from the effects of her Field Spell so I have that going for me."

"If you can get it out that is." Theresa pointed out and Chloe nodded. "Then again your deck has several methods of getting her out so who knows?"

"I activate the effect of Ultimate Offering." Chakra announced as she winced as her life-points dropped to 5800. "And I use its effect to Special Summon another Emperor Sem!" Chakra announced as the fiend returned to the field. "Now for my normal summon I tribute Combo Fighter to summon his master, the appropriately titled Combo Master!" Chakra played the card and Combo Fighter disappeared from the field, in its place stood another, older man with the same hair as Combo Fighter but was slightly bulkier (5/2200/1500).

"I'm going to guess that he shares Combo Fighter's effect?" Jason asked and Chakra grinned.

"Exactly, but first Emperor Sem's effect activates, whenever I tribute summon a monster we can choose one card in our graveyards and return it to our decks, and I chain it to my trap card Pharaoh's Treasure." Chakra explained as the trap flipped up. "But you'll have to wait until I draw it again before I explain its effect because when Pharaoh's Treasure is activated it goes to the top of my deck face up and is shuffled into it." Chakra added before shuffling it into her deck, she then retrieved her graveyard and she picked up Accumulated Fortune and returned it to her deck.

"And I'll use its effect to return Thermal Genex to my extra deck." Jason announced before picking up his graveyard, once he found Thermal Genex he returned it to his extra deck and waited whilst Chakra shuffled her deck. "Is there a reason you're being so helpful?"

"Well I'd say it's because of my field spell's effect but it isn't, the truth is that my field spell can't target monsters that already have Chain Counters on it." Chakra explained before grinning. ""So I guess you could say that I did it because I could! Well that and Combo Master's effect, speaking of which, Combo Master, attack Genex Turbine!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards the machine before short circuiting it with a swift kick bringing Jason's life-points down to 6300. "Since another monster with chain counters was destroyed you have to mill four cards." Chakra added and Jason milled the four cards. "Combo Master, attack his life-points!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards Jason…..

"I activate my trap card Genex Bulward!" Jason announced as the trap flipped up revealing several Genex Monsters stopping a charge. "I can only activate this during Damage Calculation, by removing a Level 3 or lower Genex Monster like Controller from my graveyard I can reduce the damage I'd take to zero." Jason explained before pocketing the monster and wincing as Combo Master punched him. "As an added bonus I can now draw cards equal to the level of the removed monster!"

"A Genex Exclusive Defense Draw with variable drawing power, not bad." Chakra admitted as Jason drew three cards, Chakra looked over her hand before picking up a card. "I set a card facedown and end my turn."

"Then I guess it's time I used Onmi Genex's effect." Jason said as he drew his card, he added the new card to his hand and retrieved Onmi Genex. "By removing him from play I can take four monsters with different attributes, shuffle them into my deck and draw two cards, if my hand was empty I'd get to draw four cards but I'll make do." Jason explained as he shuffled the cards into his deck and drew twice. "And before you ask, I can't use that effect on Light or Dark Type monsters."

"I wasn't about to say anything." Chakra commented with a shrug as Jason looked over his hand. "So what do you plan to do now?"

"I'll show you!" Jason said as he picked up four cards. "I set three cards facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn."

"Playing defensively to get around my Dungeon's effect, very clever," Chakra admitted as she drew her card. "But not clever enough."

"If you're planning on using Ultimate Offering…." Jason said as his trap flipped up. "My Trap Stun trap card has something to say about that, for the rest of your turn neither of us can use Traps."

"Then I may as well make the most of it, I chain Trap Stun to my facedown card Chain Detonation, now you take five hundred points of damage and since it was activated after Trap Stun its effect takes priority!" Chakra said before playing a card from her hand. "And I'll chain that to my first Silver Pot of Chains!" Chakra activated the card and the silver pot appeared on the field and she drew three cards. "And what luck! I drew into Pharaoh's Treasure!" Chakra said as she sent it to the graveyard. "Now I get to add one card from my graveyard to my hand as long as it's not Pharaoh's Treasure." Chakra explained before retrieving a card from her graveyard, Jason winced as his life-points dropped to 5800.

"_No matter what I do it backfires, I'd better hope that my facedown cards can help!" _Jason thought as he braced himself.

"Then there's the fact that Trap Stun affects your cards as well." Chakra said with a grin. "You would've been better off holding on to that and now you'll regret it, Combo Master, attack his defense monster!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be a short bulky brown robot carrying a scythe (3/1000/1900) which was quickly destroyed. "Genex Gaia, too bad, if you had drawn that earlier it could've helped you but I digress, Combo Master, attack his life-points directly!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards Jason before kicking him in the chest bringing Jason's life-points down to 3600. "You may as well face it Jason, as good as you are your out of your league!"

"Last I checked it's my move!" Jason answered back as he drew his card. _"Using Trap Stun that early did cost me but I have other tricks up my sleeve!" _Jason thought before playing a card. "I summon Genex Undine!" Jason played the card and the water monster Andreas recognized from his last Orichalcos Duel appeared on the field (3/1200/600). "Now I activate her effect, I send another Genex Udine to the graveyard to add my second Genex Controller to my hand." Jason explained before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the cards he was looking for he sent one to the graveyard and added the other to his hand before shuffling his deck.

"And what good will that do you?" Chakra asked and Jason grinned.

"I did it because with Undine on the field I can activate this Quick Play Spell Card." Jason said as the card flipped up revealing Genex Udine glowing with energy. "Geyser Rejuvenation, in exchange for sacrificing Undine my life-points gets a boost equal to her attack strength." Jason explained as Undine disappeared from the field and he sighed as his life-points rose to 4800. "And I end my turn at that!" Jason explained and Chakra nodded before drawing her card. _"I have everything I need to summon my Ace Monster and my facedown copy of Genex Bulwad will protect my life-points again."_

"I'm sure you remember the side effect of Silver Pot of Chains." Chakra said and Jason nodded before they took a card from their graveyards, Pharaoh's Treasure for Chakra and Genex Undine for Jason, and shuffled them into their decks. "It seems that I don't need a chain to defeat you Jason."

"Huh?" Jason blinked and Chakra grinned.

"Yes, why defeat an opponent with complicated strategies when I can beat him the old fashioned way? I sacrifice Emperor Sem in order to summon the mighty Vanity's Fiend!" Chakra played the card and a tall, muscular man with long red hair appeared on the field, he was dressed in a long black cloak with a red jumper under it (6/2400/1200). "And if you're planning on bringing out more Genex Synchros next turn don't bother, as long as Vanity's Fiend is on the field neither of us can Special Summon!"

"You're kidding?!" Jason yelled out and Chakra grinned.

"I'm afraid not, Vanity's Fiend, attack his life-points directly!" Chakra commanded and the fiend charged towards Jason…..

"I'm not out yet! Activate trap card Genex Bulward, I remove Genex Undine from play to reduce the damage I would've taken to zero!" Jason announced before reaching into his pocket…..before noticing Chakra's grin. "Oh no, I've set off a chain haven't I?

"That's right; I activate Silver Pot of Chains from my hand and I'll add Chain Strike as well, this Spell can only be activated at Chain Link 2 or higher and you take four hundred points of damage for each link in the chain!" Chakra quickly played the cards before drawing twice and Jason winced as his life-points dropped to 3600, Jason pocketed Undine without a word and drew three cards. "And since a chain resolved my Combo Master can attack twice and finish it!" Chakra added as the master charged towards Jason and kicked him twice in the chest bringing his life-points down to zero.

"I….I lost." Jason stammered as he got back to his feet, Chakra grinned as she folded her arms.

"Off course you lost, your Genex Deck is good but my deck blows it out of the water!" Chakra responded as Jason gathered up his cards. "Now are you sure you want to go through with this duel Chloe?" Chakra asked as she turned to the female student.

"I'm sure!" Chloe answered as she marched down the audience stairs and entered the arena. "Your deck's good but no deck is unbeatable."

"Axel Loather's deck was unbeatable for a long time." Chakra pointed out and Chloe shook her head.

"But he finally met his match when he fought Theresa during Battle City." Chloe answered as she activated her duel disk. "And like I said, there is a way to beat your deck and I intend to find it!"

*meanwhile*

"Hey boss, are you sure about this?" A robed figure asked as he entered the island via a speedboat where Jack was. "They already have two Legendary Dragons."

"Legendary smegendary, even with two of them those guys are up a creek without a paddle without the third one." Jack shrugged his shoulders as he turned to the figure. "You have your orders; take out the remaining duelists with Duel Spirit partners before The Fang of Hermos gets a new owner." Jack added and the figure nodded before going into the forested area of the island. "And don't screw it up, if they get a third dragon we are screwed!" Jack called after him and the figure nodded before leaving.


	89. Seize the Day

It had been a long weekend for Duel Academy for a number of reasons.

The teachers were hard at work trying to get the new students settled into their respective dorms whilst keeping the students who had been with the school longer under control, not easy with students like Thomas Newborne, Cameron Matthews or Jessica Stevens in Obelisk Blue or students with Chelsea Cunningham's temper but they managed.

The fact that three student's souls had been claimed by the Orichalcos wasn't helping matters.

"Yes, yes, I know Mrs. Prince; we are doing everything we can for your daughter." Martin said with a sigh into the phone receiver. "No, I assure you that pulling her out of Duel Academy and moving her to a different dueling school would just be a rash move and I'm sure that your daughter would agree with me once she gets better." Martin added and the only thing he heard for several seconds was the hung up noise, Martin sighed before putting the phone down. _"If these Orichalcos attacks keep up I'll have to consider early retirement, I've heard Florida is lovely this time of year." _Martin thought as he ran a hand down his face.

"Err, sir." Martin's new secretary, a young woman with long red hair in a ponytail and blue eyes dressed in casual wear, said into the phone receiver. "I know you're busy but there's a phone call for you from the Technician's Office."

"Thank you Misty, patch them through." Martin thanked her and the secretary did so. _"Either there's been a duel disk malfunction or they've made some progress with that laptop Chloe Richardson found after that tag duel on Tuesday." _Martin thought before answering it. "What is it?"

"Sir, this isn't anything to worry about but we've found an anomaly with one of the new student's duel disks." The technician answered and Martin nodded. "It seems that Chakra Silvers has configured her duel disk to the OCG Banlist so that she can run Ultimate Offering in her deck."

"I see." Martin responded with a frown. "Has she fought anyone yet?"

"Yes, she fought Osiris Red's Jason Hutchins in a duel which she ultimately won." The technician answered and Martin nodded. "She's about to duel another Osiris Red Student, Chloe Richardson, it's too late for us to intervene."

"Very well, I'll send Tracy to the duel field in twenty minutes that should be more than enough time for the two girls to finish their duel." Martin answered before hanging up. _"I know the emergency banlist hit a lot of decks at this school, mine included, but I made it clear in the rules that whenever I2 releases different banlists for the TCG and OCG the school will always stick to the TCG banlist."_ Martin thought as he retrieved his deck from a drawer in his desk. _"I'll advise Tracy to not punish Chakra too severely as it is her first weekend with the academy but a firm warning should dissuade her from trying this again."_

*meanwhile at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field*

"Err, are we sure Chloe can hold her own against Chakra?" Marcus asked as he scratched his head. "She's good, don't get me wrong but she wiped the floor with Jason!"

"You realize I'm sitting right next to you, right Marcus?" Jason asked as he folded his arms. "Off course Chloe will win, she came in third at Battle City and whilst that was a few months ago you gotta think that she's improved her deck since then."

"She has, more than a few times actually." Theresa answered with a nod. "One of her biggest problems early on was that whilst she was a good duelist her deck building skills left some things to be desired, with my help she's improved a lot in that area."

"And my help as well, off course." Lance said with a grin. "Oh come on, with the amount of times Chloe's visited my room…get your heads out of the gutter now before I remove them with a crowbar…." Lance warned them and the other students started whistling innocently well besides Brandon and Theresa who instead gave Lance a knowing look. "I've seen her deck more than a few times and I've helped her improve it."

"Yes, and I'm sure that's not all you did whilst she was in your room." Andreas commented with a smirk and Lance glared at him.

"Andreas, do you really want me to start talking about your relationship with Nicola?" Lance asked and Andreas quickly shut up. "I thought so."

"Do they always bicker like old people?" Chakra asked Chloe who was watching her bickering friends whilst a progressively larger sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Usually when it comes to whether or not I'm dating Lance, which I'm not." Chloe answered as the two duelists drew their opening hands. "Okay, since the whole "Ladies First" thing would be kind off redundant at the moment how are we going to decide who goes first?" Chloe asked and Chakra thought for a moment.

"For the sake of continuity I'll go first." Chakra answered as she drew her first card. _"Excellent, I have Silver Dungeon and Silver Pot of Chains in my hand; this should go as easily as my duel against Jason!" _Chakra thought before playing a card. "I activate the Field Spell Card Silver Dungeon and I'll chain it to Silver Pot of Chains!"

"_She's using this combo again? At least I know what to expect from those Spell Cards thanks to Jason's duel against her." _Chloe thought as Chakra drew two cards and the scenery changed to the silver dungeon.

"Now to continue my move I'll set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode!" Chakra announced as the three set cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn at that."

"_How naïve does she think I am?" _Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"I saw her duel against Jason and the only monster she set during that whole duel was Emperor Sem, if she thinks I'm falling for the same trick he did then I'm going to have to disappoint her." _Chloe thought with a grin. "Sorry Chakra but I may be coming up to my first year anniversary as a duelist but I know a predictable move when I see it! I set my own monster in defense mode and end my turn." Chloe set the monster down and Chakra frowned before drawing her card.

"You think Chloe made the right move by calling her bluff?" Jason asked the others who simply shrugged their shoulders in response.

"Who knows? If she's right then she just saved herself some life-point damage." Lance responded as he watched the duel. "If she's wrong and that facedown monster was something else entirely then she might be in trouble."

"Chloe, I'm going to be honest with you." Chakra said as she added the card she had drawn to her hand. "You really should've attacked."

"Huh? But your facedown monster…." Chloe trailed off and Chakra grinned.

"You were expecting Emperor Sem? Sorry but I don't even have that monster in my hand!" Chakra said as she flipped her monster up revealing it to be Combo Fighter (4/1600/400). "And whilst my Silver Dungeon won't work on your face down card that won't stop me from doing some chains! I activate my trap card Generation Shift! We this I destroy Combo Fighter and add another Combo Fighter to my hand, but not before I chain it to my other trap card Ultimate Offering…." Chakra said before wincing as her life-points dropped to 7500. "I'll pay 500 life-points to summon another Combo Fighter!" Chakra explained before another Combo Fighter appeared on the field and the second one vanished, Chakra then picked up and searched through her deck before adding the monster she was looking for and adding it to her hand before shuffling her deck.

"What was the point of that? All you did was use your cards to destroy one Combo Fighter and summon another!" Chloe pointed out and Chakra grinned.

"Maybe but why not, it did its job did it not? It caused a chain didn't it?" Chakra asked and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "But more importantly my Combo Fighter can now attack twice during the Battle Phase that's starting now! Combo Fighter, attack her facedown monster!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards Chloe's monster which was revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was quickly destroyed.

"I use Apprentice Magician's effect to Special Summon another magician from my deck!" Chloe announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she set it down on the field and shuffled her deck.

"Using Apprentice Magician's effect to get around the fact that Combo Fighter can attack twice? Not bad, Combo Fighter, attack the second Magician!" Chakra commanded and the fighter charged towards Chloe's monster…..which ended up being Old Vindictive Magician (2/450/600). "You said you summoned another Apprentice Magician!"

"Actually I said I was using her to summon another Magician, never said anything about it being another Apprentice Magician!" Chloe pointed out as Old Vindictive Magician cast a spell at Combo Fighter as he kicked the old man in the chest destroying them both. "You're not the only one who can bluff Chakra and my bluff just cost you one of your best monsters!"

"My deck doesn't just rely on one monster like yours does!" Chakra countered before picking up and playing a card. "But just to be on the safe side I'll bring out my third Combo Fighter!" Chakra played the card and the red haired warrior returned to the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"My deck doesn't just rely on one monster Chakra." Chloe said as she drew her card. "True, my best monster is Silent Magician Level 8 but encase you've forgotten my deck is half Spellcaster, half Warrior and my warriors have a powerhouse backing them up too!"

"Let me guess, Colossal Fighter?" Chakra asked and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "You may not have gotten the chance to use him during the Semi-Finals but that monster's a staple of any Synchro Deck that has warriors in it!"

"Yeah, I run that card and if you want to face off against both of my strongest monsters I'd be happy to oblige!" Chloe answered before looking at her hand. _"Oh man, Arcane Barrier? This would've been so useful last turn!" _Chloe thought with a frown. _"Well, no time like the present I guess!" _Chloe thought before playing it. "I activate my Continuous Spell Card Arcane Barrier!"

"That's a rather mistimed draw isn't it?" Chakra asked as the Spell Card appeared on the field. "If you had drawn that card last turn it would have two counters already!"

"Trust me, I know." Chloe responded with an annoyed look on her face. "Now I summon Magician's Valkyria!" Chloe played the card and the brunette spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1600/1800). "And I…." Chloe went to end her turn but stopped. _"Ultimate Offering can be used by both players but will it even work on my disk?"_

"_Are you asking because of the banlist?" _Silent Magician asked and Chloe nodded. _"Hard to say, officially the banlist won't come into effect until tomorrow morning US Time."_

"_Well, I'd better take a chance." _Chloe thought before wincing as her life-points dropped to 7500. "I use your Ultimate Offering's effect to Normal Summon another Spellcaster, Night's End Sorcerer in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the young magician appeared on the field (2/1300/400). _"Okay, her only monster is that fighter and as it stands Valkyria is the only monster on my side of the field that can defeat him; on the other hand I don't want to risk a Synchro Summon because of that facedown card." _Chloe thought as she made up her mind. "I end my turn."

"Did she really just use Ultimate Offering's effect?" Chelsea wondered out loud as she face palmed. "Does Chloe really want to get in trouble again?!"

"I couldn't tell you for sure, if I could read minds I'd be the Battle City Champ by now." Theresa answered with a frown. "Still if she wanted to do a Synchro Summon she's missed her chance unless she has Urgent Tuning facedown."

"Well if she wanted to set up a Synchro Summon why stop at one monster?" Andreas asked with a shrug. "Ultimate Offering's effect can be used more than once and five-hundred life-points? That's nothing this early in the game."

"You do have a point there." Theresa admitted with a nod. "Then again Chloe does have Level Six Synchros in her extra deck, she just rarely gets a chance to use them."

"You really should've attacked or performed a Synchro Summon and then attacked when you had the chance." Chakra said as she drew her card. "But you missed out on an opportunity that you'll never get back! Combo Fighter, attack….." Chakra's command was cut off by an ear piercing screech that caused Combo Fighter to clutch his ears in pain. "What the…."

"Command Silencer, since you just declared an attack this card negates it and I get to draw a new card out of the deal." Chloe explained as she drew a card. "And even if you had attacked Magician's Valkyria would've taken the hit for Night's End Sorcerer thanks to her effect."

"Ah yes, I had almost forgotten about that since it's a rather old card." Chakra commented before shaking her head. "No matter, I'll simply enter my second Main Phase and activate my facedown cards, Chain Heal and Chain Detonation, whilst chaining Silver Pot of Chains from my hand!" Chakra played the cards and sighed as her life-points increased to 8500 whilst Chloe winced as her life-points dropped to 6800, once that was done Chakra drew three cards. "And now the effect of my Field Spell activates! I believe I'll use it to weaken your Valkyria!" Chakra announced as several chains sprung up from the ground beneath Magician's Valkyria ensnaring her and bringing her attack and defense points down to 13000 and 1500 respectively.

"Why didn't you just do that to begin with?" Chloe asked with a frown as she drew her card. "That is unless you wanted to lure out one of my facedowns!"

"You got it on your first try, that's not bad for someone who only got an average score on the written test when she applied here." Chakra commented and Chloe's eyes narrowed.

"How do you even know about that? I took that test a few months ago and I'm pretty confident that if I took it again I'd do a lot better on it now." Chloe pointed out and Chakra shook her head.

"I have no doubt about that but if you must know I originally applied at the same time as you, Chelsea, Lance, Rajin and all the other students did." Chakra explained as her eyes narrowed. "I did well on the written exam but I failed the test duel, I never drew Silver Dungeon, not even once!" Chakra said as her eyes narrowed. "They said try again in a few months so I did and….well you can see the results for yourself." Chakra added and Chloe frowned before smirking.

"Well, it seems your deck DOES have a weakness." Chloe said as her grin grew wider. "And I know about it all thanks to you!"

"What do you mean?" Chakra asked and Chloe grinned.

"Your Field Spell, you just said that you failed your first test duel because you never drew it once and judging by that it's pretty clear to me that without it your deck's up the creek without a paddle." Chloe said with a huge grin. "So, am I right or am I wrong?" Chloe asked and Chakra hesitated before sighing in resignation.

"It's true, without the Field Spell my deck loses a lot of its power." Chakra answered with a frown. "The real question is can you destroy it?"

"It's a field spell, a powerful one don't get me wrong but still just a Field Spell, and I don't remember you mentioning any effects that prevent destruction during your duel with Jason." Chloe pointed out and Chakra said nothing. "Destroying it should be a piece of cake!"

"_Yes but I never got a chance to use all of its effects during that duel." _Chakra thought to herself as she looked over her field. _"By the time she draws something like Mystical Space Typhoon I'll be ready." _Chakra thought before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"_And since she drew three cards during that move her Pot of Chain's side effect will kick in next turn." _Chloe thought as she drew her card. _"It's likely that those facedown cards are more chain cards, likely something to destroy my facedowns." _Chloe thought before making her move. "I move Night's End Sorcerer and Magician's Valkyria to defense mode." Chloe announced as her two Spellcasters crouched down, Valkyria had some difficulty due to the chains but she managed it. "And I set another monster in defense mode to end my turn."

"Playing it safe hmmm, we'll see how long that helps you!" Chakra said as she drew her card. "First off the side effect of Silver Pot of Chains activates, I currently have six cards in my hand forcing me to mill six cards from my deck." Chakra said before grinning. "But first I'll chain another card to its effect, my facedown card Pharaoh's Treasure!"

"And that will now be shuffled into your deck face-up." Chloe commented and Chakra nodded.

"But not before I add another link to the chain, Chain Summoning!" Chakra announced as she played the card from her hand. "This Spell Card can only be activated at Chain Link 3 or higher and it allows me to have up to three Normal Summons this turn."

"You're kidding, right?" Chloe asked with a gulp and Chakra grinned.

"No but you'll wish I was! Now that the chain has resolved my Field Spell's effect activates." Chakra said as she milled six cards and shuffled her trap card into her deck. "And I'll target Night's End Sorcerer." Chakra added as chains ensnared the young sorcerer bringing his attack and defense scores down to one thousand and one hundred respectively. "Now for my first two summons I bring out two Emperor Sems." Chakra announced as the two smoke like fiends appeared on the field (4/1300/2200). "But I don't intend to use their effects this time around, instead I'm using them as tribute fodder for my third summon!"

"That doesn't sound good!" Chloe gulped and Chakra grinned as the two fiends vanished from the field.

"Just be glad that you had the foresight to move your monsters into defense mode." Chakra said as she played the card. "I summon Lightning Punisher!" Chakra played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a tall slender but toned man with tanned skin and lightning blue spiked up hair, he was wearing a skin tight black and white outfit with a purple gemstone in the center (7/2600/1600). "Now I would explain its effect but I can't, not just yet anyway, but since there was a chain link of two or higher during my main phase my Combo Fighter can attack twice."

"Yeah, that part I know." Chloe said with a gulp as her monsters braced themselves.

"Good luck doing anything about it! Combo Fighter, attack Magician's Valkyria!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards Valkyria before kicking her in the chest destroying her. "Now that Valkyria has been destroyed you must mill three cards."

"I know that." Chloe said as she quickly milled three cards, one of them caught her attention and she frowned. _"Silent Magician Level Eight, better hope that my copy of Level Modulation doesn't get milled when she destroys Night's End Sorcerer." _Chloe thought as Combo Fighter turned his attention to Night's End Sorcerer.

"Combo Fighter, attack Night's End Sorcerer!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards the young sorcerer before kicking him in the chest and destroying him. "You know what to do." Chakra commented as Chloe milled the cards. "Your turn Lightning Punisher, attack her facedown monster!" Chakra commanded and the monster charged towards Chloe's facedown monster…..and Chloe grinned.

"You would've been better off using Combo Fighter to attack my facedown monster!" Chloe said as the monster appeared on the field revealing it to be a tall warrior carrying a large axe and dressed in Barbarian Garb.

"That looks like Axe Raider!" Chakra commented as the monster held off the attack from Lightning Punisher sending him stumbling back to Chakra's side of the field.

"That's because he is Axe Raider, well actually he's Expert Axe Raider (4/1700/1150), a retrained version of Axe Raider that can survive attacks from monsters with more than two thousand attack points." Chloe explained with a grin. "As for why I didn't try to destroy Combo Fighter with him, well I didn't trust your facedown cards and I still don't!"

"Fine, I'll just correct that mistake next turn!" Chakra said before looking over her field and her hand. "I end my turn at that." Chakra announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Not Level Modulation but with this I can put a major dent in her strategy!" _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Silver Dungeon!" Chloe announced and Chakra's eyes widened as a storm washed over the field sending her dungeon crumbling into ruins. "And that means no more milling for me!"

"We'll see how long that lasts." Chakra said with a frown and Chloe grinned.

"And I'm not done! I summon Knight Hunger Monger in attack mode!" Chloe said as a new monster appeared on the field, it was a knight with long blonde hair in a ponytail that seems to have two stomachs and tiny legs (4/1000/1600).

"You know there are monster designs that make you wonder just what the designers at I2 where smoking when they created the card, that card's one of them!" Chelsea commented with a large sweat-drop rolling down her head.

"I'll admit it looks silly but that's not important." Chloe admitted before gulping. "I use my two monsters to construct an overlay network."

"Wait, since when did she have XYZ Monsters?" Theresa asked as she turned to Chelsea.

"She's had them since this morning when we found out about the banlist." Chelsea answered as the two warriors transformed into white orbs of light. "She's apparently been looking for an excuse to buy some and the banlist gave her that excuse!"

"She realizes that she could've just called her dad, right?" Tyler asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"It was pretty much a last minute decision anyway." Chelsea responded as Chloe retrieved a card from her extra deck.

"I use my two monsters to XYZ Summon Comics Hero King Arthur!" Chloe played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was another knight but he was muscular and had gold and silver armor (Rank: 4/2400/1200). "I'll get to his effect later but first I have a pain in the ass monster to destroy, Arthur, attack Combo Fighter!" Chloe commanded and the monster charged towards Combo Fighter before cutting him in half with his sword bringing Chakra's life-points down to 7300.

"You may have destroyed Combo Fighter but he was hardly my best monster." Chakra responded as she sent her monster to the graveyard. "And that was a wasted effort in any case, your knight may be strong but Lightning Punisher is stronger!"

"We'll see about that." Chloe said before looking over her hand. "I end my turn at that." Chloe announced and Chakra drew her card. _"At least with Silver Dungeon destroyed I won't have to worry about my monster being weakened."_

"That card I just drew is Pharaoh's Treasure so I send it to the graveyard and I draw another card, but not before chaining Silver Pot of Chains from my hand and my facedown card Mystical Wind Typhoon!" Chakra explained as a storm washed over the field destroying Chloe's facedown and she drew four cards. "And now Lightning Punisher's effect activates, since I just performed a three link chain I can destroy one card on the opponent's side of the field and I only see one!" Chakra explained as the monster charged forward…..

"Nice try but I chain its effect with Effect Veiler!" Chloe announced as she discarded the card. "And now your monster's effects are negated." Chloe added…..only to be taken aback as Chakra started laughing.

"That's just what I was hoping for! I chain Effect Veiler's effect with a Spell Card that you should be familiar with." Chakra said as she played a card that she had drawn. "The Field Spell Card known as Silver Dungeon!"

"Wait, what?!" Chloe yelled out as the scenery changed to the silver dungeon again. "I think your duel disk is on the fritz because there's no way that should've worked!"

"You know it's funny, the test proctor said the exact same thing when I used this effect against him." Chakra responded with a grin. "Silver Dungeon has a one of a kind effect when it comes to Field Spells, it can be activated at Spell Speed 2!"

"That's a joke, right?" Chloe said with a gulp. "A card can't be that broken, right?"

"Look around you and see for yourself." Chakra responded with a grin as Lightning Punisher doubled over in pain. "You may have negated Lightning Punisher's effect but you've allowed me to bring back my dungeon in the process and whilst I can't use the Dungeon's effect since the chain involved the card Lightning Punisher is still stronger than your XYZ Monster!" Chakra responded as Lightning Punisher charged towards Arthur…..

"In that case I activate my monster's effect!" Chloe said as she sent Knight Hunger Monger to the graveyard. "If my monster would be destroyed in battle I can detach one material from him instead, and as an added bonus he also gains five hundred attack points whilst you lose five hundred life-points!" Chloe explained as the knight fought off Lightning Punisher and sent it back to Chakra's side of the field, as it did his attack increased to 2900 and Chakra's life-points dropped to 6800. "But that's not all, when Knight Hunger Monger is sent to the graveyard to be used for an XYZ Monster's effect his effect activates letting me Special Summon a Level 3 or lower monster from my hand."

"And what good would that do you? You only have two cards in your hand." Chakra pointed out as Chloe played the card.

"That maybe the case but I'm using my Knight's effect to special summon Dash Warrior in defense mode!" Chloe played the card and a large red robot appeared on the field (3/600/1200). "Is it my move yet?" Chloe asked and Chakra nodded before drawing her card. _"Great, she has Silver Dungeon back on the field and that was my only copy of MST." _Chloe thought as she looked at her drawn card. _"This could be more trouble than it's worth with that Dungeon's effect but with the low amount of cards in my hand I can use the boost!" _Chloe thought before playing the card.

"Spellbook inside the Pot, I had heard that many duelists had started using that thing after I2 banned Card of Sanctity following Battle City." Chakra commented as she and Chloe drew three cards. "You realize that that move helped me as well?"

"Maybe but it was worth it." Chloe said as she retrieved Spellbook inside the Pot from her graveyard. "I remove Spellbook inside the Pot from play so I can Special Summon Spell Striker!" Chloe played the card and the small cartoonish warrior appeared on the field (3/600/200). "And for my normal summon I bring out the tuner monster Torapart!" Chloe played the card and the strange Spellcaster like warrior appeared on the field (2/600/600).

"Two warriors and a machine monster, what on earth are you trying to summon exactly?" Chakra asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well for starters, despite all appearances Dash Warrior is a Warrior type monster." Chloe answered as the three warriors leapt into the air and Torapart dissolved into two green Synchro Rings that surrounded the other warriors. "And as for what I plan to summon, why don't I show you? I tune Torapart, Dash Warrior and Spell Striker together to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter!" Chloe played the card and once the bright flash faded the best warrior monster in her deck appeared on the field (8/2800/1000). "Now let's do the math, I have nine warriors in my graveyard, the three monsters I used in Colossal Fighter's summoning, Knight Hunger Monger and the monsters you made me mill with your Field Spell, and I could tell from here that Combo Fighter is a warrior type as well and you have three of them in your graveyard."

"You are correct." Chakra conceded as Colossal Fighter's attack points increased to 4100.

"And your graveyard's about to have one more warrior in it, Arthur, attack Lightning Punisher!" Chloe commanded and the knight charged towards Lightning Punisher before cutting it in half bringing Chakra's life-points down to 7100. "Wait, why hasn't my Colossal Fighter's attack increased, Lightning Punisher's a warrior isn't it?"

"Actually it's not, it's a Thunder Type." Chakra answered as she braced herself.

"Not like it matters, Colossal Fighter, attack her life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the fighter charged towards Chakra before punching her in the stomach and bringing her life-points down to 3000. "Looks like that the tide's turned in my favor but I have one more card to play." Chloe said as she played it. "And it's called Level Modulation!"

"When did you send Level Monsters to the graveyard exactly?" Chakra asked before it hit her. "When I forced you to mill cards a Level Monster must've been among them!"

"And this card in question happens to be my best Spellcaster!" Chloe added as she played the card. "Come on out Silent Magician Level 8!" Chloe played the card and her ace monster appeared on the field (8/3500/1000). "Since my Spell Card's effect prevents her from attacking your safe for another turn but I pretty much have the match won, don't I?"

"There won't be a next turn." Tracy's voice rang out as the holograms shut down and the two students looked up and saw Tracy standing there with Maria behind her. "Chakra, you know Ultimate Offering is banned on the TCG list."

"Oh yes, the same list that crippled nearly every deck at this school and forced the students to buy new cards to replace the banned ones because the school prefers that list for no stated reason." Chakra said as she rolled her eyes. "Ultimate Offering is one of the best cards in my deck and you expect me to take it out?"

"That's exactly what I expect." Tracy said with a frown. "Come with me, you're going to have your duel disk reconfigured unless you want to be the first student in Duel Academy history who gets an expulsion duel on her first weekend at the academy." Tracy added and Chakra bit her lip before sighing in resignation and following Tracy out of the duel field. "As for you Chloe, I'll let Maria handle you." Tracy said before walking off, Chloe sighed in annoyance as she sat down on the edge of the duel field.

"I use that card's effect once and it gets the duel cancelled?!" Chloe asked with an annoyed grunt as Maria turned to her. "I wasn't even sure if it was going to work or not!"

"You still used it." Maria said as she sat down next to her. "Considering it was a minor offense I'll let you off but don't make a habit of it."

"You know what? I agree with Chakra." Lance said as he approached them. "Why the hell does this school insists on using the TCG List when it damages so many decks at this school?!"

"It's not just this school young man, all duel monsters training centers are required by I2 to adhere to the TCG list." Maria answered before turning her attention back to Chloe. "Like I said I'll let you off with a warning this time but don't let it happen again." Maria said before standing up and leaving the students alone.

"So, err, how you feeling after that?" Lance asked as he approached Chloe.

"How do you think?" Chloe asked as she turned to him. "That would've been my first victory against an Obelisk Blue student since my match against Thomas Newborne a couple of months ago, why couldn't she just let me finish the duel?"

"If I had known that they were there." Lance said with an annoyed sigh. "I would've tried to persuade them to give you a chance to finish the duel."

"Chakra's not stupid it's likely that she was on the verge of surrendering when Tracy stopped the duel." Theresa commented as she approached the two of them. "But the fact that you used Ultimate Offering's effect is pretty bad."

"Ugh, she was the one who activated it and I only used its effect once, all of my other summons were either Special Summons or normal summons." Chloe grunted in annoyance as she hopped off the duel field. "I need something to take my mind off this, and not a duel either I'd rather do something else for a change."

"Well, I've got the perfect thing then." Chelsea said with a grin as she approached them. "Some of the girls invited me to the hotspring on the east side of the island for a relax and a swim in the lake nearby, maybe you can join me?"

"I don't know it's been ages since I've swam and I don't even know where my swim suits are." Chloe commented and Theresa grinned.

"That's easily rectified; you just have to search for them." Theresa answered with a reassuring grin. "Besides you need something to take your mind off of this whole situation and this seems perfect." Theresa said before frowning. "Or are you worried that someone will see the scar on your arm?"

"Yeah, that's also part of it." Chloe responded with a frown. "Since my match against Otto the only thing the other students at Duel Academy know about my childhood is that it was troubled, I'd rather not have the details be widely known."

"They won't be." Chelsea reassured her with a grin. "We'll figure out a way to keep the scar on your arm from being to visible and it'll be easy to hide whilst your swimming provided you remember how to swim."

"Err, yeah, I had some swimming lessons whilst I was in foster care, shouldn't be too hard to remember." Chloe responded before grinning. "Ah screw it what do I have to lose? Let's do it!"

"That's more like it!" Chelsea said before dragging her roommate off, once the two girls left Lance sighed in annoyance.

"Great, I was this close to asking her but something got in the way again." Lance sighed in annoyance. "Am I ever going to get a chance?"

"You'll get one and hopefully it'll be soon." Theresa responded before getting an idea. "Maybe I can talk them into letting you be on the lookout for any perverts?"

"Wouldn't the other girls think that I'm a pervert?" Lance asked and Theresa shook her head.

"They likely know that your Chloe's friend, and potential boyfriend, so it should be good enough as an explanation." Theresa responded and Lance grinned.

"Okay, guess I'll have to go dig out my swimming trunks." Lance said as he started to leave the duel field. "Thanks Theresa."

"You think it'll work?" Brandon asked as he walked up to Theresa.

"I'm hoping it does, like I said before I've always thought that they'd make a cute couple." Theresa responded as she turned to her boyfriend. "Don't forget, you were in Lance's spot before we upgraded our relationship."

"Yeah, except for the fact that I had no one to go to get advice for such a thing." Brandon responded with a frown. "To this day I'm still not sure how I managed to muster up the courage to ask you."

"Well you did and it worked out great for both of us." Theresa said before noticing that the others had already left. "So what's the plan? We stick around here, play some practice duels or…."

"Some practice duels sound good to me." Brandon responded as he activated his duel disk. "And no I don't have the Yubel cards, they are back in my duel vault and I have no intention of using those things again."

"Good, now shut up and duel me!" Theresa responded before activating her duel disk.

*later on*

It was now getting late and whilst it took some searching but Chloe was able to find a modest bikini that she could wear whilst swimming and in the hotsprings and she, alongside Chelsea, Beth, and several other Osiris Red girls….and Lance.

The girls were currently enjoying a swim in the lake next to the hotsprings whilst Lance was chilling by the pool, even though he doubted that he'd need it he had brought his duel disk along just in case. "You girls okay in there?" Lance asked as he rested his arms behind his head.

"Yeah, the water's great." Chloe called out to him as she swam through the water. "You should join us."

"Nah, I'm okay with just admiring the view…why did I say that out loud?!" Lance asked once realization hit him.

"Oh, enjoying the view are we?" One of the other girls asked with a massive grin on her face. "What do you say girls? Should we pull him in?"

"No, no, I'm fine, really!" Lance asserted with a nervous grin on his face. "At the moment I really don't want to be pulled into a pool full of smoking hot, swimsuit and bikini clad girls, two of whom are a lesbian couple and why am I against this again?"

"You heard him girls!" Chelsea said with a grin as they each grabbed a hold of his legs and dragged him in; Lance quickly emerged from under the water and gave the girls a mock death glare.

"Huh, you weren't kidding, the water is great!" Lance realized as he rested his hands above his head. "And the company isn't bad either." Lance added as he glanced at Chloe. "I didn't realize you were such a strong swimmer."

"Eh, I'm a little rusty; my last swimming lesson was when I was eight years old for crying out loud." Chloe responded with a grin. "So, Lance, what were you going to ask me yesterday?" Chloe asked and Lance blinked before it hit him.

"Oh that." Lance responded with a nod, he looked around to check to see if the other girls were close enough to overhear them and once he saw that they weren't he turned to Chloe. "Well, Chloe, we've known each other for about a year and…."

"PERVERT!" One of the girls yelled out and Lance blinked.

"Oh come on! I'm just talking to Chloe!" Lance protested and Chelsea turned to him.

"It's not you Lance, there's someone lurking in the bushes." Chelsea responded and Lance sighed before getting out of the pool.

"I'll go take care of it, be back in a sec!" Lance responded as he dried himself off and grabbed his duel disk and his cell phone. _"Just encase." _Lance thought as he ran into the bushes. "Hey, is there anyone there? You realize that the majority of those girls are underage right!" Lance called out to the bushes.

"Lance, first off you've probably scared him off." Chelsea responded as she glanced up from the pool. "Second this is a school so it's likely that he's underage as well and third what do you plan to do with them?"

"Duel whoever's there." Lance shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? It may be good practice." Lance added before frowning. "Chelsea, on the off chance that the pervert's an Orichalcos Duelist I'll text you, when I do get the others to safety, grab Chloe and come find me, feel free to get dressed first if it makes you feel any better."

"I never thought I'd hear that sentence coming from a straight male's mouth being directed towards a good looking woman like me." Chelsea muttered under her breath before nodding. "Got it, I'll pass the message on to Chloe." Chelsea added and Lance nodded before going into the bushes.

"_Walking through the bushes in nothing but my swimming trunks, oh yeah, this is a great idea! I swear if this is a prank by the girls because of my comment earlier…." _Lance's train of thought was interrupted when he heard a twig snap. "Who's there?"

"Oh crap, I should've known the girls would have a guy with them." An unfamiliar voice rang out and Lance blinked as a robed figure emerged from the shadows; however Lance's eyes narrowed when he saw the Orichalcos duel disk on his arm.

"You bastards don't know when to quit, do you?" Lance asked as his eyes narrowed. "I beat your leader back at Battle City, why are you guys still floundering about?"

"Phillip Alvers wasn't our true leader he was just the head of the Domino City Branch of our organization and by extension the man behind the failed Battle City operation." The robed figure explained and Lance frowned before grabbing his cell-phone.

"Chelsea, I was right, it's an Orichalcos Duelist, get the others to go to the hotsprings and meet me in the bushes." Lance sent the text before quickly sending another. "And no I won't be naked." Lance put the phone down before turning to the figure. "You have a name?"

"The name's Stanley." The figure said before removing his hood, he was an ugly man with short black hair and blue eyes who had a scar running down his cheek. "And I'm the last duelist you'll ever meet!"

"We'll see about that!" Lance answered back as he activated his duel disk.


	90. Feel the Burn

"Lance has been gone a while hasn't he?" Chloe asked Chelsea as she continued to swim through the lake, whilst Lance was about to duel Stanley the girls had continued to swim with a couple of them going to the hotsprings to relax.

"Not really, he's only been gone a few minutes by my clock." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders as she watched some of the other girls swim. "On the other hand if we don't hear from him for another ten minutes or so then we can start getting worried."

"Yeah, I guess." Chloe responded before flipping her hair. "Lance was about to ask me something when Makayla called out that a pervert was nearby."

"Oh, was he really?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Any idea what he was going to ask?"

"No but based on his phrasing I think he was going to ask me out." Chloe responded as she leaned against the edge of the lake. "He started talking about how long we've known each other but didn't get much farther than that."

"Yep, he definitely has the hots for ya!" Chelsea responded with a grin and Chloe started blushing like a madwoman. "I mean seriously, why else would he open up a conversation like that?"

"I guess…." Chloe trailed off before sighing. "I'm just reluctant to make that big a leap, I already explained why yesterday."

"You'll have to make that leap at some point Chloe." Chelsea responded as she shook her head.

"Hey Chelsea, your cell-phone's going off." Beth called out to her and Chelsea grinned before swimming over to where the girls had left their cell-phones and clothes before grabbing hers.

"Thanks Beth." Chelsea responded before grabbing the phone. "Okay, two texts from Lance…." Chelsea trailed off as she read the contents before quickly swimming back to Chloe. "Chloe, we have a situation." Chelsea said before showing her the first text.

"Ugh, not this bullshit again, don't those bastards know when to call it quits?!" Chloe asked with a grunt of annoyance before getting out of the lake, Chelsea followed suit and the two girls started drying themselves with their towels. "We're off to check on Lance, we won't be too long."

"Wearing only a bikini and a swimsuit?" One of the girls asked and Chelsea sighed.

"Yeah, that's why we're getting dressed first!" Chelsea responded as the two girls finished drying themselves, grabbed their clothes and went behind a tree to get dressed in privacy. _"Hang in there Lance, we're coming!" _Chelsea thought as she started taking off her swimsuit.

*meanwhile*

What was Lance up too whilst the girls were getting dressed? Well he was trying to decide his first move having opted to go first.

"_Okay, this hand isn't that bad but I've had better." _Lance thought before deciding on a move. "First I activate the Spell Card Hand Destruction!"

"Wasn't that card just banned?" Stanley asked and Lance shook his head.

"You're thinking of Card Destruction, Hand Destruction is completely different." Lance explained before grinning. "With this Spell Card we each have to send two cards from our hands to the graveyard and draw two more cards in that order." Lance explained before picking up two cards and discarding them before drawing two more cards whilst Stanley did likewise. "But that's not all I'm doing, I remove one of the monsters I just discarded from play to Special Summon Inferno in defense mode!" Lance explained as he went to pocket Great Angus…..and quickly remembered that he was still in his trunks which didn't have any pockets. "I knew I should've gotten dressed before coming out here!"

"Lance, toss any removed from play cards over here." Chloe called out to him and Lance looked over his shoulder, standing behind him were Chloe and Chelsea who were now dressed. "We'll keep an eye on them."

"Thanks." Lance responded before tossing the card at Chloe who pocketed it. "And whilst I'm at it meet Stanley, he's the latest Orichalcos Duelist that those bastards have pulled out of their asses."

"Hey, I resent that!" Stanley yelled out and Lance rolled his eyes.

"Anyway please welcome Inferno to the field!" Lance played the card and the small red flame with blue eyes and a mouth appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "But I'm not done with my Special Summons, first I activate Tremendous Fire inflicting one thousand points of damage to you and five hundred to me." Lance said before picking up another card. "But before that resolves meet a friend of mine, Achacha Chanbara in attack mode!"

"Achacha what?!" Stanley asked as the monster appeared on the field, it was a tall man in a red samurai outfit and a white mask with red lines down it with black haired tied into a bun who was wielding twin swords (3/1400/400). "Big deal, he can't hurt me any worse than your spell card can." Stanley said as both players winced.

"That's were your wrong, you see when Achacha is summoned this way you take four hundred points of damage on top of the damage you take from Tremendous Fire!" Lance explained and Stanley grunted as his life-points dropped to 6600 whilst Lance's life-points dropped to 7500. "Next I activate Rekindling, with this I bring back the other monster I discarded for Hand Destruction, Laval Forrest Sprite!" Lance played the card and a small girl with long flowing red hair appeared on the field, she was wearing a white and blue dress and was ready for battle (2/300/200). "She'll be removed from play at the end of the turn but that's not important. What is important are the facts that the removed from play effect requires her to still be on the field and she's a tuner monster!"

"Are you going to make a normal summon sometime today?!" Stanley yelled out as Forrest Sprite and Inferno leapt into the air.

"Yeah I will but not until after I tune Forest Sprite with Inferno to Synchro Summon one of my favorites, Flamvell Uruquizas!" Lance played the card and once the bright flash faded the flame fisted warrior appeared on the field (6/2100/400). "That just leaves my other monster and like Chloe I've added a few XYZ's to my deck, but first I use my normal summon….."

"Finally!" Stanley yelled out and Lance ignored him.

"In order to bring out yet another Achacha Chanbara in attack mode, as for why I'm not summoning him via his effect…." Lance trailed off as another twin sword wielding samurai appeared on the field. "That because Tremendous Fire was the only burn card in my hand, but I do have two more Spell Cards and this combo is a doozy, I activate…."

"Did he really just call his combo a doozy?" Chloe asked Chelsea as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head and Lance face-faulted.

"Can I finish my move without interruptions?" Lance asked with an annoyed look on his face. "As I was saying I activate Synchro Boost and equip it to my first Achacha increasing his level to four and his attack power to twenty-one hundred!" Lance played the card and the samurai glowed as his stats changed. "Now I activate my other Spell Card Resonance Device! Since I have two Fire Attribute Warriors on my side of the field I can increase the level of one of them to the level of the other." Lance explained as the weaker samurai's level increased to four. "And last but not least I use my monsters to construct an overlay network!" Lance explained as the two monsters vanished into white orbs of light.

"Is this turn ever going to end?!" Stanley yelled out and Lance grinned as he retrieved a monster from his extra deck.

"Just as soon as I XYZ Summon Lavalval Chain in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a large, metallic looking dragon appeared on the field, it was black and red in color and had flames surrounding him (Rank: 4/1800/1000).

"Hah! Joke's on you! That move overextended your resources and as a result you only have one card left in your hand!" Stanley pointed out and Lance grinned.

"Maybe but I'll set the card facedown." Lance said as he set the card. "And I'll activate Chain's effect, by detaching an overlay unit from him I can send one card from my deck to the graveyard." Lance announced as he sent one of the Achachas to the graveyard and did the same for a monster in his deck. "But that's not all that move did, you see the monster I just sent to the graveyard is Laval Phlogis (4/1700/800) and when this guy's sent to the graveyard all Laval monsters I control gain 300 attack points!" Lance explained as Chain's attack increased to 2100. "And I end my turn at that."

"If I had known that Lance was going to take that long I would've stayed in the lake for a bit longer." Chloe commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"That's not the only problem, I can't believe I'm saying this about an Orichalcos Duelist but he has a point." Chelsea responded with a frown. "He way overextended his resources with that move and I'd understand if he was in Osiris Red like us but he isn't!"

"You girls know I can hear you, right?" Lance asked with a frown as he waited for Stanley to make his move. "But you two can relax, I'll have this duel won in no time and we can head back to the lake!"

"I wouldn't get too cocky Lance!" Stanley said as he played a card. "I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Stanley played the card and Lance braced himself as the infamous seal encased both duelists, soon the seal appeared on Stanley's forehead and he grinned sadistically. "You think you know something about Fire Monsters?"

"I like to think so, yeah!" Lance answered back with a confident grin. "Just look at my side of the field if you want proof off that!"

"Well you don't and I'll show you right now! I activate my Spell Card Evo-Diversity!" Stanley played the card and the Spell Card appeared on the field. "I can only use this Spell Card once per turn but since it allows me to search through my deck for an Evolite or Evosaur monster and add it to my hand I think it's worth the price."

"Evosaur, what's that?" Chloe asked with a confused look on her face.

"I've heard of them, as an archetype they aren't that well known." Chelsea answered with a frown. "I heard an Evosaur player entered Battle City but was eliminated early by Axel Loather; based on your reaction I'm guessing you didn't see that duel?"

"No, I only saw Axel a couple of times before the Semi-Finals and that was when we were either dueling or about to duel." Chloe answered honestly. "The first duel I watched off him was his match in the Semi-Finals against Mike."

"Now I summon the monster I added, Evoltile Najasho!" Stanley played the card and a small snake with what appeared to be a dinosaur's face appeared on the field, it was grey in color and had bat like wings and spikes along the back (2/100/2000). "And now I activate Evo-Force! With this Spell Card I tribute Najasho and use it to special summon one Evosaur monster from my deck like Evosaur Diplo!" Stanley played the cards and Najasho vanished from the field, in its place stood a purple Diplodocus with spikes running down its back (4/1600/800) and its attack score increased to 2100 thanks to the seal.

"That dinosaur doesn't care me! With my cards it'll go extinct in a matter of turns!" Lance answered back Stanley picked up his deck again. "Hey, what the hell is going on here? You said only once!"

"I did but this is Najasho's effect in play, when it's sacrificed for any reason I can special summon another Evosaur like Evosaur Elias in defense mode!" Stanley played the card and a monster that could best be described as an Amphicoelia that was red and black in color and had spikes all over him appeared on the field (6/100/2400). "And when he's summoned by the effect of an Evolite monster…." Stanley never got a chance to finish as the three teenagers started laughing causing him to face-fault.

"A level 6 monster with one hundred attack points? Seriously? That's gotta be one of the dumbest monsters I2's ever released." Lance laughed out loud as Stanley got back to his feet. "Forget Diplo, that dino's going extinct first!"

"Dinosaurs don't like jokes about extinction! As I'll demonstrate with their effects! First Evosaur Elias lets me special summon another Evosaur monster from my hand as long as it's Level Six or lower like Evosaur Terias!" Stanley played the card and another dinosaur appeared on the field, this time it was a green T-Rex with a single wing that was ready for battle (6/2400/600).

"I'm beginning to think that laughing at that monster's stats was a bad idea." Chloe said with a gulp. "He's setting up a rank six XYZ Summon!"

"Don't worry; my facedown card will take care of that!" Lance said confidently before turning around…..and seeing Evosaur Diplo charging towards it. "Let me guess, it can destroy Spells or Traps when it's special summoned?"

"Well, you are half right, that only applies when it's summoned by the effect of an Evolite monster!" Stanley explained and Lance grinned.

"Well, better use this whilst I can! I activate Reckless Greed and I use it to draw two more cards from my deck!" Lance activated the trap and quickly drew twice. "Obvious downside is the fact that I have to skip my next draw phases but I'll make do!" Lance added as Diplo destroyed Reckless Greed's hologram.

"Why would he say that his trap card would protect him when it's just Reckless Greed?" Chloe asked as she scratched her head. "It's a good drawing card but it's not a defense card!"

"Maybe he was bluffing." Chelsea said as she ran a hand through her still wet hair. "If he was then I hope for his sake that he drew more drawing cards with that card."

"That's the least of his worries!" Stanley said as his two Level Six Evosaurs vanished into white orbs of light. "As for why, well it's because I use my stronger Evosaurs to open the Overlay Network and XYZ Summon Evolzar Solda in attack mode!" Stanley played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large, ice blue pterosaur that was frightening to look at (Rank: 6/2600/1000) and its attack increased to 3100 thanks to the seal. "Don't bother trying to destroy it with card effects; as long as this monster has material attached to it you can't destroy it outside of battle."

"Wait a sec, a monster stronger than the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that can survive card effects? That's gotta be broken!" Chloe protested earning odd looks from Lance and Chelsea. "What?"

"This is coming from the girl who runs Silent Magician Level 8?" Lance asked and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"Err, yeah, I'll shut up now." Chloe gulped and Stanley cleared his throat.

"Good! Now let the fun begin! Solda, attack Uriquizas!" Stanley commanded and the monster took flight before piercing Uriquizas through the chest and bringing Lance's life-points down to 6500. "Now I could kamikaze Diplo against Chain but I don't feel like taking a direct attack so I'll set this facedown…." Stanley said as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Stanley added and Lance didn't draw because of Reckless Greed's effect.

"To be honest, you did me a favor by destroying Uruquizas." Lance said as he looked over his two cards. "For one thing Chain, despite being a Fire Type Monster, is a Sea Serpent type monster and second now that I have four pyro types in my graveyard it's set me up for my next monster's effect, I summon Royal Firestorm Guards!" Lance played the card and the strange demon appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "And whilst Pot of Avarice is banned this card isn't because it's a watered down, no pun intended, version of that card that only applies to Pyro type monsters, in other words with this card I can shuffle four Pyro Type Monsters in my graveyard back into my deck and draw twice." Lance explained before grabbing Uruquizas, Forrest Sprite, Phlogis and Inferno from the graveyard and drawing two cards.

"That won't help you! My Solda is stronger than both of your monsters!" Stanley taunted him and Lance's eyes narrowed.

"I set two cards facedown….." Lance said as the two cards appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Lance announced and Stanley drew his card.

"Wait, why didn't he move Chain to defense mode? It may match Dipplo point for point but it's still weaker than his XYZ Monster!" Chelsea pointed out as she scratched her head in confusion.

"You're asking me? He changes his deck so much that I can hardly keep up!" Chloe responded and Lance chooses to ignore them and focus on the duel.

"_I need to get rid of those Firestorm Guards before he uses them to Synchro Summon Uruquizas again." _Stanley thought before grinning. _"Then again he doesn't know about Solda's effect!" _Stanley thought before looking at his drawn card. "I'll throw you a bone by activating Spellbook inside the Pot! Now we both draw three cards!" Stanley announced and Lance frowned before drawing three cards. _"Perfect! Now I can bring out another XYZ Monster!" _Stanley thought before playing the card. "I summon Sabersaurus!" Stanley played the card and a red triceratops appeared on the field (4/1900/500).

"Wait, that's an Earth Type Monster, why would you say that you know more about fire type monsters than I do when you run that thing?" Lance protested and Stanley sighed as Sabersaurus's attack increased to 2400 thanks to the seal.

"Look, I run Rescue Rabbit in this thing all right? And until I2 releases a Fire Attribute Dinosaur type normal monster I'll continue to run this and Kabazauls (4/1700/1500)!" Stanley answered as his two weakest dinosaurs vanished into white orbs of light. "But that's not important! I use Diplo and Sabersaurus to construct an overlay network and XYZ summon Evolzar Laggia!"

"Oh shit!" Lance yelled out as the new monster appeared on the field, it was a large ice blue dragon that let out a loud roar at Lance who winced (Rank: 4/2400/2000) and its attack increased to 2900 thanks to the seal.

"Now I'm fully aware that this thing is a dragon but that's not what you should worry about!" Stanley said with a grin. "What you should worry about is its effect!"

"I activate Bottomless Trap Hole to destroy Laggia and remove that thing from play!" Lance announced and Stanley grinned as he picked up the dinosaurs he had used in the XYZ Summon.

"Nice try but by detaching both of my monster's XYZ materials I can negate the effect of Bottomless Trap Hole and destroy it!" Stanley responded as the trap card shattered. "What do you have to say about that?!"

"Oh, not much, you've only done what I was hoping you'd do!" Lance answered back and Stanley blinked before it hit him. "This isn't my first time facing that broken card Stanley, I may not have faced Evosaurs before bit I did fight a Dino-Rabbit deck once during Duel Theory so I know what that card's capable off!"

"You…..you….." Stanley trailed off before screaming in frustration…..really, really loud.

*meanwhile*

"Did you girls hear that?" Beth asked the other girls as she relaxed in the hotsprings, the other girls looked around but shrugged once they saw nothing. "Huh, guess it's just me."

"CANNONBALL!" One of the girls at the lake yelled out as she leaped into the lake causing a pretty big splash.

*back at the duel*

"Ah who the hell cares?" Stanley yelled out in frustration. "My two monsters are still stronger than yours and like an idiot you left them in attack mode, Solda, Laggia, attack Royal Firestorm Guards and Lavalval Chain!" Stanley commanded and the two monsters charged towards Lance's monsters, Solda cut Royal Firestorm Guards to ribbons with his attack bringing Lance's life-points down to 5100 and Laggia burned Chain alive bringing Lance's life-points down to 4400. "Hah! This will be easy, despite that ridiculously long opening move which I'm convinced was done to impress the ladies over there…."

"Err; actually the taller of the two of them came out of the closet two years ago." Lance answered as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "The other one…..I'm not even going to answer that." Lance said before activating his trap. "Anyway I activate Shock Draw, since I just took a little over 2000 points of damage I get to draw two cards." Lance added before drawing twice.

"No wonder you didn't move your monsters into defense mode!" Stanley grunted before picking up a card and setting it. "I end my turn by setting this facedown." Stanley announced and Lance didn't draw due to Reckless Greed.

"_Okay, I lost my monsters but they are hardly the only monsters that I have up my sleeve." _Lance thought as he looked over his hand. _"Thanks to Spellbook and Shock Draw I now have a full hand, just gotta use it." _Lance thought before tossing on of the Achachas at the girls and summoning Inferno again in defense mode.

"Summoning that thing again is the best you can do? That's too bad for you!" Stanley said as he detached an overlay unit from Solda. "By detaching an overlay unit from Solda I can negate the Special Summon off a monster and destroy it!" Stanly explained as Solda charged towards Inferno and put the flame out.

"I set a card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Lance announced as he set the cards and Stanley drew his card. _"Okay, there's only one more turn left before I can stop using resources to draw cards due to lack of Draw Phase." _Lance thought as Stanley added the drawn card to his hand.

"I activate my trap card Wrath of the Dinosaurs!" Stanley announced as the trap flipped up depicting jeep being chased by a T-Rex.

"Okay, either I2 based a card off of Jurassic Park, which I wouldn't mind because that's my favorite movie of all time, or that's yet another broken card." Lance commented with a frown and Stanley grinned. "I get the feeling it has to do with the latter option."

"You got it! When Wrath of the Dinosaurs is activated I can target one Dinosaur on my side of the field and it's unaffected by Spells and Traps and I can declare a direct attack with it! And I choose Solda!" Stanley announced as the monster started glowing. "Now, attack his life-points!" Stanley commanded and the monster flew over Lance's facedown monster and stuck Lance in the chest bringing his life-points down to 1300. "All I need to do is activate Wrath of the Dinosaurs again and you're finished! But since I want to keep this interesting and all I'll have Laggia attack your last line of defense!" Stanley announced as the dragon breathed fire at the monster, revealed to be UFO Turtle (4/1400/1200) which was subsequently destroyed.

"I use UFO Turtle's effect." Lance announced before searching through his deck, once he found the monster he was looking for he summoned it revealing another UFO Turtle.

"Fine, I'll just negate that Special Summon as well!" Stanley announced as he sent another card to the graveyard and Solda charged towards the second UFO Turtle and destroyed it. "Why won't you give up?"

"Give up? I've never given up, not even once!" Lance said as he spat to the side. "Did I give up when me and my siblings where put in foster care due to my mom's drug addiction? No! Did I give up when I faced you bastards for the first time? No and I'm not starting now! I won't give up as long as someone is depending on me, either my siblings for moral support or the students at this academy who don't want a fourth student's soul to be captured!"

"They won't have a choice!" Stanley growled before looking at his hand. "I end my turn." Stanley announced as Lance drew his card.

"_I can't let this guy get to me! I've beaten Laggia before and I'll beat his Evosaurs as well!" _Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. _"It's the card I got to replace Avarice, and I have enough variety in my graveyard to use it!" _Lance thought before playing it. "I activate Pot of Duplicity! This is even more watered down version of Avarice but with it I can return three monsters of different types to their respective decks…" Lance said as he held up Chain, Achacha and Royal Firestorm Guards. "And draw twice in exchange for my battle phase."

"Like that would help you!" Stanley scoffed and Lance rolled his eyes before drawing his cards.

"_Okay, I drew Ultimate Baseball Kid and….."_

*in the duel monster spirit world*

"…_..and what the hell just happened?!" _Lance thought as he looked around his new surroundings, he was at the same temple where Theresa and Chloe got their dragons and also saw that he was dressed in his dorm uniform. "Hello? Is there anyone here?"

"I'm here Lance." Thestalos said as he appeared before Lance. "Welcome to the Duel Monster Spirit World."

"Say what?" Lance asked before looking around. "Look I can see why you guys like it here but I have a duel to win so if you could send me back that would be great!"

"You will be sent back but with the tools to bring down the Orichalcos." Thestalos said catching Lance's attention. "The third legendary dragon has chosen you."

"Me?" Lance asked as he pointed to himself and Thestalos nodded. "Is it a coincidence that the three holders happen to be from all three dorms?"

"Huh, never noticed that until now." Thestalos admitted before shaking his head. "Go inside Lance, you will receive further instruction once you enter." Thestalos explained as he pointed to the temple and Lance entered it without hesitation.

"Err, hello, anyone here?" Lance called out and Dark Magician Girl appeared before him. "Huh, the Dark Magician Girl, now this is very nice."

"If you could stop staring at my cleavage for a second Lance," Dark Magician Girl said causing Lance to blush before she pointed to a statue encased in ice with a sword sticking out of it. "Remove the sword and the Claw or Hermos is all yours!"

"It's that easy huh?" Lance asked and Dark Magician Girl nodded, he walked up to the sword and placed his hands on the hilt before he started pulling with all his strength. _"Theresa, Chloe, you guys are great duelists but you need a man on your team, you know to even things out a bit." _Lance thought as he continued to pull. _"I can't fail, not just for the sake of the world but so I can proclaim my love for Chloe!" _Lance thought as he freed the sword.

*back at the duel*

"Oh for fuck's sake, he's taking even longer than he did on his first move!" Stanley yelled out in frustration as Lance came too, Lance shook his head and, once confirming that he was in his trunks again, looked at his drawn card. "Are you going to make a move or not!"

"I am! And this move is going to rock your world." Lance answered as he played the card. "I summon Ultimate Baseball Kid!" Lance played the card and the young baseball player appeared on the field (3/500/1000).

"Hah, why would you summon him in attack mode? We both know that he's useless on his own!" Stanley laughed and Lance grinned.

"There's no such thing as a useless monster, even the Level Five Normal Monsters with under two thousand attack points have a use what with the advent of XYZs and Synchro Monsters combined with Ancient Rules." Lance answered before grinning. "And I'm about to prove it! I activate Call of the Haunted to bring back one of the UFO Turtles you destroyed." Lance said as his monster returned to the field and Baseball Kid's attack increased to fifteen hundred. "And now to bring this to a close, first I activate Double Summon and I use my extra summon to bring out Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch using UFO Turtle as the tribute!"

"Hah, that's no big deal!" Stanley scoffed as the monarch appeared on the field (6/2400/1000); Stanley held out his hand and winced as Thestalos threw a fireball at it. "Ugh, that was another Elias!" Stanley explained before sending it to the graveyard as his life-points dropped to 6000. "Is that really all you can do?"

"No, I have one more card to play." Lance said as he played it. "Introducing the third Legendary Dragon….."

"No…." Stanley said as he took a step back.

"The Claw…." Lance said with a grin.

"NO…" Stanley yelled out as he started sweating bullets.

"…..of Hermos!" Lance played the card and grinned as Ultimate Baseball Kid vanished. "I send this card and Baseball Kid to the graveyard to activate the Equip Spell Card Ultimate Bat which I equip to Thestalos!" Lance said as the bat appeared in Thestalos's hands. "Now with this beauty I can activate an effect that costs me one thousand life-points…." Lance said as his life-points dropped to three hundred. "I can wipe out all your monsters and inflict damage equal to their attack points to you, now math has never been a strong subject for me but even I know that that's exactly zero life-points, in other words, you lose!"

"NO!" Stanley yelled out as Thestalos launched flaming balls at the two monsters destroying them and bringing his life-points down to zero, Lance collapsed to his knees as the seal closed in around Stanley and sighed in relief. "Thank god that's over!"

"And thank god you stopped him before anyone was hurt." Chelsea agreed with a grin as she handed over the removed from play cards. "So, we now have all three dragons and everything we need to stop them!"

"Everything except the time to take them on and even when we get time we'll need to figure out where they are and how to strike." Chloe answered as Lance shivered. "I know the Orichalcos is bad news Lance…."

"Actually I'm beginning to regret not getting changed." Lance said with a sneeze. "Typical, the one night it's actually cold here and I duel in my swim trunks!"

"Yeah, I'd better call the medics." Chloe said as she got out her cell-phone. "You know, just to be on the safe side!"

"_Great, second chance to proclaim my love for Chloe tonight and I'm too cold to even think about it!" _Lance thought with a frown.

*meanwhile*

"And we are thoroughly screwed!" Jack said with a gulp as he watched the end of the duel. "The guy didn't even get a chance to capture any souls Victor; he was too busy perving over those girls in the lake."

"Not like you ever did any different." Victor answered and Jack frowned.

"Hey, I never targeted under aged girls, only girls above the age of consent!" Jack answered back with a frown. "What now?"

"Get back to base; Dr. Schwartz has the machine ready to target Andreas." Victor answered and Jack nodded.

"Good, I'll be there soon!" Jack answered as the speed boat sped off.


	91. Dream Evil

An hour had passed since Lance had gotten his hands on his Legendary Dragon and he was still in the infirmary, fortunately he had only caught a slight cold as a result of the exposure to the elements and normally he would be free to go.

Unfortunately for him word of his duel with Stanley had reached the other students and more importantly the staff.

"For the hundredth time I didn't know the guy was an Orichalcos Duelist at first!" Lance grunted in annoyance as he glanced at Martin. "One of the girls had caught him spying on them whilst they were swimming in the lake near the hotsprings and since I was on lookout I volunteered to go after him."

"Yes, but you did so in your swimming trunks this late at night?" Martin asked with a raised eyebrow and Lance sighed.

"I didn't think it would take that long, either I'd get a quick duel out of the deal or I'd scare him off and return to the lake." Lance responded with a frown. "Obviously that wasn't the case."

"Indeed." Martin responded with a nod. "You were present for the talks with Theresa and Chloe about their legendary dragons, will you do the same?"

"Put in my side deck before you arrived." Lance answered and Martin nodded in approval, Lance let out a sneeze and Martin handed him a handkerchief. "Thanks." Lance said as he started wiping away the snot.

"All right, I'll instruct Jeff to let you sit out a few lessons until you're feeling better which, according to the nurse, should be this Wednesday." Martin said and Lance nodded. "We still haven't decided the duel schedule for the second round of the tournament but as soon as Jeff says you feel better we'll book your team's match."

"That's good, I tried dueling with a cold before, not only was it not fun but my opponent caught my cold to boot!" Lance responded and Martin shook his head before leaving the room, Lance quickly got dressed and had put on his blazer by the time the door to the infirmary opened and someone approached his bed. "If it's a teacher I've already told Martin all he needs to know."

"That's good and all but we're too young to be teachers." Chloe's voice rang out and Lance looked up, Chloe was standing behind him and so were the others. "How are you feeling Lance?"

"Being lectured by Martin? Not fun, being lectured by Martin whilst you have a cold? That's seriously not fun." Lance responded as he turned to the others. "Chloe and Chelsea fill you guys in?"

"Yes, they did." Theresa responded with a nod before turning to Chloe. "What did you tell the other girls at the lake?"

"We told them that Lance had gotten caught up in a duel, left out the Orichalcos part." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded. "We figured there was no point in worrying them since those bastards have claimed three souls already."

"Ora quickly figured it out once she heard that bastard's scream but she agreed to keep quiet about it." Chelsea added with a frown. "We're going to have to do something about those bastards before they capture any more souls."

"Agreed and with all three Legendary Dragons at our disposal we are in a prime position to do just that." Andreas agreed with a nod. "Only problem is the wait until summer break."

"It'll be worth the wait." Marcus asserted with a nod. "We'll defeat those bastards, bring down the Orichalcos for good and free our friends."

"Yeah but until then we need to be careful." Lance pointed out with a frown. "I mean they attacked Chloe in her dream, who knows what other nasty tricks they have up their sleeve."

"Thanks, I was trying to forget about that." Chloe responded with a frown and Lance laughed nervously. "But your right, no matter happens we can't let anyone else's soul be captured."

"And I'd rather not be captured by the Orichalcos again." Andreas agreed with a shudder. "I think we should keep in phone contact encase there's an Orichalcos attack, even if there's a lesson going on."

"Err, yeah, slight problem there, what if it's a lesson like gym class?" Chloe pointed out with a frown. "That and we're not allowed to have cell-phones in the main building."

"That may be a rule but rules were made to be broken." Lance responded as he shrugged his shoulders. "Besides I'm sure the teachers would understand."

"I'm more than a little wary of taking that chance with teachers like Martin and Tracy." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in agreement.

"In any case it's getting late and the tournament is starting again tomorrow." Andreas responded once he checked his watch. "I want to get an early night on the off chance that my team's one of the first to compete in the second round."

"Good idea, I'll see you at the dorm room as soon as I'm discharged." Lance responded and Andreas nodded before leaving the ward with the others. _"Man, when the hell am I going to get some alone time with Chloe without being interrupted by something?" _Lance thought as he rested his hands behind his head.

*later on that night*

All the students were in their respective dorms trying to get some sleep and forget the events of a rather eventful weekend, the ones that involved the Orichalcos at least.

"Why on Earth can't I get any sleep?" Andreas wondered out loud as he leaned back on his bed, he had stopped by Lance's room to check up on him a few minutes prior but since then he had been in his room trying to get some sleep. "Let's see, I've tried counting sheep, doing homework, going over my deck…." Andreas muttered under his breath before sighing. "And nothing seems to work!" Andreas commented before there was a knock at the door causing him to sit up.

"Nightly bed check, are you in there Andreas?" One of the security guards called out and Andreas sighed.

"Yes I am, now please leave me alone, I'm having enough trouble getting to sleep as it is!" Andreas called out to him and the guard didn't respond, simply moving on to the next room instead. _"What on Earth is the point of those checks anyway? The students know the routine and the ones who are in relationships usually leave a note on the door before heading over to their significant other's dorm room!" _Andreas thought as he leaned back on the bed and dozed off.

*inside Andreas's dream*

"_Oh wonderful, it's this dream again!" _Andreas thought sarcastically as he glanced around, he was currently at the duel dome where the first two rounds of the Battle City Semi-Finals where held and a quick glance around confirmed that the same people where in the audience, however the other students were missing from the crowd of duelists surrounding the stage and instead silhouettes where in their place. _"What on Earth is going on?"_

"_Andreas, you must leave at once!" _Master of Oz's voice rang out catching Andreas's attention. _"You are in grave ARGH!"_

"_Master of Oz?" _Andreas yelled out mentally but got no answer; he heard footsteps approaching the stage and looked up, his eyes narrowed when he saw who it was. "Otto, I was hoping I'd never see you again!"

"Yes, it is me, in the flesh." Otto chuckled as he stepped onto the podium. "Are you ready for history to repeat itself?"

"What's going on here?" Andreas asked as he glanced around. "I've had this dream before but it's always ended the same way it did in real life…..and how do I know that it's a dream exactly?"

"Do you remember the last incident with Chloe's biological father?" Otto asked and Andreas's eyes widened. "I don't have as much to lose as he did, I still have my soul and my body, but I volunteered myself to take out my brother for good, if I lose all I'll feel is a minor discomfort."

"I think you mean WHEN you lose." Andreas answered as he activated his duel disk, before he could continue though he heard a series of thuds and glanced over his shoulder. "Well, I was wondering when you'd arrive."

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Chelsea grunted as she, Chloe, Lance, Tyler, Theresa, Brandon and Marcus got to their feet. "Where are we exactly?"

"I remember this place; it's where the Semi-Finals of the Battle City Tournament took place." Chloe remembered as she glanced around, when she saw Otto her eyes narrowed. "And it's just my luck that your opponent is someone who I never wanted to see again."

"Trust me, the feeling is mutual." Andreas agreed with a nod. "I suppose you were brought here by the same spell Silent Magician used the last time we were in this situation?"

"I don't see how else we could've gotten here." Marcus answered before noticing the glare that Chelsea was giving Otto. "I'm guessing you're still pissed over those comments he made."

"No, I'm admiring his bad hairdo, WHAT DO YOU THINK?!" Chelsea answered back and Marcus gulped nervously before backing off. "I thought you were dropping the soap in a prison shower alongside the other Orichalcos duelists who competed at Battle City Otto."

"How cute, Chloe's even more pathetic roommate thinks she can say such things to me without consequence." Otto scoffed and Chelsea growled. "All right, enough of this!" Otto yelled out before swinging his arm and without warning the students that weren't on the podium where thrown into the stand and strapped to chairs, a lose chain quickly wrapped around their necks and Otto grinned. "The more life-points you lose the tighter the chain gets and when your life-points hit zero…." Otto trailed off before making a cut throat motion.

"You wouldn't dare." Andreas growled and Otto chuckled.

"It's a perfect opportunity really! I get to take out the holders of the Legendary Dragons without dueling them and my new boss is free to continue as he pleases." Otto said as his eyes narrowed. "My defeat of you was what motivated them to take out the Domino City branch of the Organization, now I can correct the mistakes of the past, and just so you know, anyone who dies in here dies in the real world as well."

"That isn't going to happen!" Andreas growled as he activated his duel disk. "I'll beat you and free my friends!"

"My only regret is that I can't target the Osiris Red Bitch that beat me!" Otto added as he glared at Chloe who was sitting next to Lance. "I would've preferred targeting her but I was under strict orders to target you, apparently I can't target duelists who are in the possession of those damn Legendary Dragons!" Otto said before activating his duel disk. "No matter, I'll defeat you and wipe them all out!"

"And I'll avenge my defeat at Battle City!" Andreas answered back as the two brothers drew their opening hands, before Andreas could say anything Otto drew another card.

"Guys, I know it's been a few months but didn't Otto use Cyber Dragons during the Battle City Semi-Finals?" Chelsea asked as she struggled to get free.

"Yeah, his ace card was Cyber End Dragon." Chloe responded with a nod. "I have no idea how he got his hands on such powerful cards but if I hadn't set Spellbinding Circle when I did…."

"Yeah, let's try not to think about that." Lance interrupted her and the others nodded in agreement.

"_If they still think I run that Cyber Dragon deck they are mistaken." _Otto thought as he looked over his hand. _"After the humiliation I suffered at Battle City I swapped it out for a much better deck! One that doesn't rely on a single fusion monster but instead has several powerful monsters ready to be brought out." _Otto thought as he looked over his hand. "I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown." Otto announced as the two set cards appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Otto announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_It's not like Otto to start on the defensive but based on his Battle City Duels that card is likely Cyber Phoenix." _Andreas thought with a frown having watched the rest of the Battle City Finals on the plane ride home from New York. _"And I have a monster that can attack over it and give me the early lead!" _Andreas thought before playing the card. "I summon Enraged Battle Ox!" Andreas played the card and the angry Minotaur appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Attack his defense monster with Axe Slam Attack!" Andreas commanded and the Minotaur charged towards Otto's monster before slamming his axe into it…..only to be sent stumbling back as Andreas's life-points dropped to 7800. "What?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you expecting Cyber Phoenix?" Otto asked in an almost mocking way as the facedown monster appeared on the field, it was a large, heavily armored machine that was brown in color besides the head which was green, it was carrying two large shields that where in front of him (4/1100/1900). "Meet Geargiarmor, not only is his defense too strong but when he is flipped up I can search through my deck for another Geargia monster and add it to my hand."

"Wait, Geargias? That archetype isn't even out over here yet." Andreas pointed out with a frown. "How do you keep getting your hands on these monsters?"

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Otto answered as he added the monster to his hand. "Oh yes, and I believe the chains should be choking your friends right about now." Otto added and Andreas's eyes widened as he heard his friends moaning.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas set the two cards down and Otto drew his card.

"Man, he wasn't bluffing, was he?" Chelsea groaned as she tried to ignore the pain. "Let's hope Andreas can win this."

"I'm concerned about what'll happen if Andreas takes a bigger hit." Brandon responded with a frown. "That was only two hundred life-points, what if the amount of choking goes up with the amount of damage taken?"

"Err, yeah, let's not think about that." Lance said with a gulp as he turned his attention back to the duel.

"Now since I have a Geargia monster on my side of the field I can Special Summon Geargiaccelator from my hand!" Otto played the card and a small Formula One Racing Car appeared on the field, it was blue, gold and white in color and had a pair of cartoony hands poking out of it (4/1400/800)."But before I do anything else I'll activate Geargiarmor's other effect which lets me flip it facedown into defense mode!" Otto explained as the monster disappeared from the field. "And now I'll flip it face-up and use its effect again!" Otto announced as the monster returned to the field and he picked up his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand. "Now I use my monsters to construct the Overlay Network!" Otto announced as the monsters turned into swirling balls of energy.

"This isn't good." Andreas commented as the new monster appeared on the field, the monster looked like something out of a Transformers cartoon from the 1990s complete with a color scheme that resembled Optimus Prime and it had a large blue gear on its back (Rank: 4/2300/1500).

"How right you are, Gear Gigant X here has a very potent effect which I'll now demonstrate by detaching one Overlay Material Monster." Otto said as he sent Geargiaccelator to the graveyard. "With this effect I can search through my deck or my graveyard for a Level Four or Lower Machine Type Monster and add it to my hand like so." Otto announced before searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled the deck. "But before I do anything else I activate Foolish Burial!" Otto played the card and quickly sent a monster from his deck to the graveyard.

"What was the point of that?" Andreas asked as Otto shuffled his deck again.

"You'll find out soon enough! Now if your friends didn't like your initial damage they'll hate this! Gigant, attack Enraged Battle Ox!" Otto commanded and the machine charged towards the Minotaur before punching him through the chest and bringing Andreas's life-points down to 7200.

"Andreas, if you could stop taking damage that would be great!" Lance managed to choke out as the chain tightened around his neck.

"He won't have a choice!" Otto scoffed as he looked over his hand. "I'll end my turn." Otto announced and Andreas drew his card.

"I discard one Beast Type Monster from my hand….." Andreas announced as he discarded Chain Dog (4/1600/1100). "And I do it so that I can summon the Tuner Monster known as Egotistical Ape in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large transparent ape that towered over Andreas's side of the field (5/1200/1200). "Now I use its effect, which lets me reduce its level by the level of the discarded monster." Andreas explained as Egotistical Ape's level dropped to one.

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Andreas asked with a yawn and Andreas smirked.

"You may change your tune, for my normal summon I bring out Mine Mole!" Andreas played the card and a small mole with a miner's hat and pick axe appeared on the field (3/1000/1200). "And finally, since I control two Beast Type Monsters I can Special Summon Chain Dog from my graveyard!" Andreas played the card and a pit-bull with a gold chain appeared on the field, around its neck was a golden padlock. "Now I tune my three monsters together!" Andreas announced as the three beasts leaped into the air, Egotistical Ape dissolved into a single Synchro Ring that surrounded Mine Mole and Chain Dog in seconds. "So that I can Synchro Summon the mighty and majestic Lightning Tricorn!"

"I'm still not impressed!" Otto commented as the monster appeared on the field, it was a large horse with several pink horns protruding from its body wearing golden armor and a blue mane (8/2800/2000).

"I got this card for the Battle City Semi-Finals; I just never got a chance to use the thing!" Andreas said as his eyes narrowed. "Before I continue, when Mine Mole is used in the Synchro Summon of a Beast Type Monster I can draw one card." Andreas explained as he drew his card. "Next I activate a Spell Card called Burial from a Different Dimension! With this I can return Chain Dog to my graveyard as it was removed from play via its effect." Andreas explained before retrieving the card from his pocket and placing it in his graveyard. "But that's enough stalling! Tricorn attack Gear Gigant!" Andreas commanded and the Triciorn charged towards the robot before piercing it with its horn causing a massive explosion and bringing Otto's life-points down to 7500.

"Yes! Andreas has drawn first blood!" Chelsea said with a broad grin. "And the chain's grin isn't loosening up, great!"

"Did you think it would be that easy Cunningham?" Otto scowled as he sent Gear Gigant and Geargiarmor to the graveyard. "Now to reveal why I used Foolish Burial last turn, when Gear Gigant X is destroyed and sent to the graveyard I can target one Level 3 or lower Geargia monster and Special Summon it to the field, I believe Geargiano will do nicely!" Otto played the card and a small green and white gear with cartoonish eyes appeared on the field (3/500/1000).

"Fine, I'll activate an effect of my own, Hunting Season!" Andreas played the card which depicted Berserk Gorilla about to pounce upon an unsuspecting hunter. "Since my beast monster just destroyed your monster I can make two additional draws as long as I forfeit my next battle phase!" Andreas explained before drawing twice. "And I end my turn with a facedown card." Andreas announced and Otto drew his card.

"Is it me or do Otto's monsters seem….unthreatening?" Chloe grunted as she struggled against the chain. "At least compared to his Battle City deck?"

"I noticed that as well." Tyler responded as he struggled against the chain. "But as you can see the Geargias are a powerful archetype."

"They don't seem as good as the Cyber Dragons in you ask me." Chelsea chimed in as she watched the duel. "Then again I've only seen four of them!"

"_Oh how ignorant you are but you'll learn better soon enough!" _Otto thought before playing a card. "I activate Card of Variation, now I draw two more cards but unless I discard one during my end phase I will take three thousand points of damage." Otto announced before drawing twice. "Now I activate Geargiano's effect, to do so I have to send him back to the graveyard!" Otto announced as the monster vanished. "And in exchange I can special summon Geargiaccelator from the graveyard with its effects negated!" Otto announced as the racing car returned to the field. "Now why settle for just one when I can have two? I Special Summon another Geargiaccelator from my hand via its own effect." Otto announced as a second racing car appeared on the field.

"So what are you going to do? Another XYZ summon?" Andreas asked and Otto smirked.

"Yes but not before I play another Spell Card, I activate the dreaded Limiter Removal!" Otto played the card and Andreas's eyes widened as the two racing cars doubled in size and attack strength all the way up to 2800. "Now your Synchro does present a problem, it is as strong as my Geargiaccelerators but I have a way to prevent that, another Limiter Removal!" Otto announced and the teens eyes widened as the racing car's attacks went up to 4200.

"Oh this is gonna hurt in the morning." Marcus moaned as he the others braced themselves for the tightening of the chains.

"There won't be a morning for you! Geargiaccelerators, attack now!" Otto commanded and the two cars drove towards Andreas, once ran over Lightning Tricorn and the other ran over Andreas bringing his life-points all the way down to 1600.

"Andreas….." Lance choked as the chains tightened around their necks. "It's getting a little hard to breath up here so if you could, oh I don't know, STOP TAKING DAMAGE that would be great!"

"I'm trying." Andreas responded as he got to his feet and gathered up his cards.

"Don't worry, the pain will pass soon!" Otto commented as the two racing cars transformed into white orbs of energy. "In the meantime I'll use my monsters to construct an overlay network and XYZ Summon another Gear Gigant X!" Otto announced as the machine returned to the field. "And I end my turn." Otto announced before quickly discarding a card to get around Card of Variation's effect.

"My friends, I'm sorry but the damage I took was for the best." Andreas sighed before activating his trap. "I activate Shock Draw and I chain Miracle's Wake! With this second trap I can special summon one monster that was destroyed in battle this turn so welcome back Tricorn!" Andreas announced as Lightning Tricorn returned to the field. "And with Shock Draw I can draw five cards since I took five thousand points of damage this turn."

"Humph, that's very impressive." Otto said sarcastically as Andreas drew five cards. "Not like they'll help you, as soon as my machine can get past your defenses you and the others are through." Otto added, unbeknownst to them or the others Lance had instinctively grabbed onto Chloe's hand for support and she had noticed it before returning the favor whilst Andreas drew his card.

"_Rescue Rabbit, It's just my luck that I get my hands on this card after it is limited to one." _Andreas thought with a frown. _"But it's now or never!" _Andreas thought before playing the card. "I summon Rescue Rabbit in attack mode!" Andreas played the card and the small rabbit in the worker's helmet appeared on the field (4/300/100). "And now I shall activate its effect banishing it so that I can special summon two normal type beast monsters!" Andreas announced as the monster vanished and he picked up his deck, once he found the cards he was looking for he special summoned them and two humanoid alligators in red and black armor carrying curved swords appeared on the field (4/1500/1200).

"Alligator's Sword, really Andreas, that's the monster you bring out?" Lance choked out with a frown. "Those things weren't cool when Joey Wheeler used them in his deck!"

"Look, I said that they were Beast Type monsters, I never said anything about them being powerful!" Andreas responded with a frown. "First off since I once again have two Beast Type Monsters on my side of the field I can bring out Chain Dog!" Andreas played the card and the dog returned to the field. "Now I use my two Alligator's Swords to construct an overlay network!" Andreas announced as the monsters transformed into orbs with light.

"You never had any XYZ monsters in your deck!" Otto protested as a monster emerged from Andreas's extra deck.

"That was true during Battle City but with the recent banning of Monster Reborn and Pot of Avarice I figured that it was about time that I invested in some!" Andreas said as he played the card. "And here's one of them! I XYZ Summon Diamond Dire Wolf!" Andreas played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large hairy wolf with silver and red armor that let out a howl as it landed on the field (Rank: 4/2000/1200).

"Well, so much for the big bad wolf! My Gear Gigant is far stronger!" Otto scoffed as he stared down the wolf.

"Don't underestimate him and I'm about to demonstrate why!" Andreas said as he sent one of the overlay materials to the graveyard. "By detaching one overlay unit from my Dire Wolf I can target one Beast, Winged Beast or Beast-Warrior monster I control and one monster my opponent controls and destroy them both!" Andreas announced and Otto's eyes widened as Chain Dog disappeared from the field and Dire Wolf charged towards Gear Gigant before tearing it to pieces.

"Hah, the joke is on you! You see Geargigant's effect activates when it leaves the field, regardless of whether or not it was actually destroyed!" Otto announced as Geargiano returned to the field. "And you've already used up your normal summon!"

"Who said I was done?" Andreas asked and Otto blinked. "Don't forget that I have a lot of cards in my hand at my disposal!"

"Yes and you'll be discarding a lot of them when your turn ends." Otto responded and Andreas grinned before playing a card.

"Not quite, I activate Polymerization, fusing Big Koala and Des Kangaroo to fusion summon Master of Oz!" Andreas played the card and once the monsters fused together Master of Oz appeared on the field, Otto appeared nervous for a moment before chucking. "And finally I equip Dire Wolf with Big Bang Shot!" Andreas announced as Dire Wolf's attack increased to 2400.

"How quickly you forget your own card's effect." Otto said with an evil chuckle. "I specifically remember the part of Hunting Season's effect that states that you have to skip your next Battle Phase!"

"I know, that's why I included the card that's about to defeat you, Mischief of the Time Goddess!" Andreas played the card and Otto's eyes widened as the turn skipped ahead to the next Battle Phase. "Dire Wolf, attack Geargiano!" Andreas commanded as the wolf charged towards the machine and destroyed it bringing Otto's life-points down to 6100. "This is for trapping me in the Orichalcos! Tricorn, Master of Oz, finish it!" Andreas commanded and the two monsters charged towards Otto before hitting him with their attacks and bringing his life-points down to zero.

"You haven't seen the last of me!" Otto scowled as he got back to his feet. "Rest assured I will have my revenge!" Otto added before disappearing, Andreas heard a series of relieved sighs and rushed over to the other students.

"Are you all right?" Andreas asked as he freed the students, Lance and Chloe quickly realized where their hands where and tried to move them without being spotted to no avail. "And I didn't really need any more proof that you two are together but thanks anyway."

"I'm really not in the mood Andreas." Lance grunted as he rubbed his sore neck. "I was holding her hand to support her through that."

"And I was doing likewise." Chloe responded with a frown. "How did Otto even get in here anyway? I thought he was in jail?"

"Err, yeah, about that." Andreas said as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Ever since my match against him in Battle City I've been having the same nightmares, about being trapped on the outside of the Orichalcos wall and not being able to change the outcome of the match."

"Those bastards must be able to see into our dreams somehow." Lance reasoned with a grunt. "As for how I am, my neck usually gets this sore from headbanging so I guess you could say that I'm used to it."

"I can't say the same but at least that chain isn't choking me anymore." Chloe agreed as she rubbed the back of her neck in pain. "So how are we going to get out of here? When they tried the same trick with me Silent Magician was on hand to send us back."

"You called?" Silent Magician asked as she appeared next to the students. "Chloe, I'm sorry, I tried to use my magic to prevent the chain from choking you but something was blocking my magic."

"Great, they can block the magic of a Level 8 Spellcaster Duel Sprit." Brandon grunted as he rubbed his neck in pain. "Why do I get the feeling that the only advantages we have over them are the Legendary Dragons?"

"That is the unfortunate truth Brandon." Silent Magician answered with a sigh. "I and Armed Dragon will be holding a meeting at the Abandoned Dorm with the other duel spirits to discuss this; don't worry, if the meeting requires your attendance I will use my power to bring you to somewhere that you won't get in trouble for merely being there."

"At least you've learned from the whole Abandoned Dorm incident." Chelsea grunted as she turned to the duel spirit. "Now, can we please go back? I'd rather be in Beth's nice comfy bed right about now."

"Not until she tells us what she was doing in that bed!" Marcus quickly added with a grin only to get punched in the back of the head by Chelsea. "On second thought, don't." Marcus said with a gulp and Chelsea nodded in approval.

"Yes, off course." Silent Magician nodded before casting her spell.

*back at duel academy*

Andreas awoke with a start and took several deep breaths, it felt good to get revenge on his brother for trapping him in the Orichalcos but at the same time Andreas wanted to forget about it.

"_At least it wasn't as bad as Chloe's experience." _Andreas thought with a frown as he leaned back. _"She had to relive her past memories all in one duel, me? I took over five thousand points of damage and still won." _Andreas thought before leaning back on the bed. _"Wonder how the others are doing?"_

*in Beth McKenzie's room*

"Argh, my neck…." Chelsea groaned as she rubbed her sore neck, at the time that she was called to Andreas's duel so was sleeping off a make-out session she had with Beth and was naked as a result.

"Is there something wrong babe?" Beth asked as she sat up using the covers to cover up her cleavage, Chelsea did the same as she turned to her girlfriend.

"Yeah, just woke up with a neck cramp." Chelsea lied and Beth nodded. "What time is it?" Chelsea asked and Beth looked over at the alarm clock.

"Just gone half nine according to this." Beth answered as Chelsea lay down again. "You want my advice? Sleep off the neck cramp, if it's still hurting tomorrow morning stop by the nurse's office and have her look at it." Beth added and Chelsea nodded. "We could always go for another round if it helps?"

"Normally I wouldn't say no to that but the pain in my neck would be a pretty big distraction." Chelsea answered and Beth nodded in understanding. "That sounds like a good plan anyway; I have IT Class tomorrow just before the tournament duels and whilst I will be stopping by my dorm room to grab my laptop I'll probably just go straight to the main building."

"It might be a good idea to text Chloe in the morning so she knows that." Beth added and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Well, good night."

"Good night Beth." Chelsea said as she closed her eyes. _"Oh man, that was way to close." _Chelsea thought with a frown. _"The sooner that something can be done about those idiots the better."_

*elsewhere*

The other duelists were feeling the same neck cramp that Chelsea was but knew that it would go away by night's end; however the group behind the attack wasn't too happy.

"Well, that was a bust." Jack grunted as he folded his arms. "What's the point of targeting them in their dreams with this thing anyway? We won't be able to capture their souls if we kill them in their dreams!" Jack said as he kicked at the machine.

"Don't do that!" Schwartz said as he got in between Jack and the machine. "Do you know how expensive this machine was to build?"

"Dr. Schwartz, rest assured that you will be compensated for any damage this Machine takes." Victor said as he folded his arms. "And it will come out of Jack's salary."

"Yeah, yeah, I still think it's a worthless piece of shit!" Jack responded as he glared at the machine.

"Quite the contrary Jack, it is very useful." Otto said as he wiped his face. "Seeing those fools choke nearly half to death was very satisfying."

"Saying that about your former classmates, you're not just a bad student, you're a damn sociopath." Jack said as he glared at Otto. "Why Phillip decided to recruit you in the first place is beyond me, the same goes for Victor giving you a get out of jail free card."

"How very amusing, you think that you can talk trash to me." Otto said before turning to Victor. "What's our next move?"

"Your next move is to head back to the apartment I brought you and get some rest." Victor said and Otto nodded before leaving. "As for us…" Victor trailed off before getting a phone call, he answered it and frowned. "What is it?" Victor asked before waiting for a few seconds, he grinned broadly once he got his answer. "Very well, Jack will transport you to the island first thing in the morning and you are to target Chloe Richardson." Victor said getting the attention of his subordinates. "Use whatever means necessary to lure her out." Victor added before hanging up.

"I thought we weren't targeting the duelists with the dragons until…oh…." Jack trailed of as he grinned. "He's finally ready?"

"Yes, he is." Victor responded with a nod. "He'll meet you at the airport, from there you will catch a flight to Domino City and once you arrive I'll have a car take you to the pier, the Speedboat will be waiting."

"Oh man, do I have to fly commercial?" Jack moaned and Victor grinned.

"You'll get to fly first class." Victor responded and Jack grinned. "Besides the helicopter suffered some damage whilst it was transporting you and Stanley, they still haven't fixed the problem so I'm just playing it safe." Victor explained and Jack nodded before leaving. _"This had better work, otherwise we're in trouble." _Victor thought as he left the lab.


	92. Day Six Return of the Tornament

Chloe woke up a yawn and, to her relief, found that the pain in her neck from Andreas's duel against Otto had long since passed; still she couldn't shake the bad memories from that match and tried to think of something different as she started getting dressed.

"_Man, I hadn't felt that close to death in a long time." _Chloe thought with a shudder as she picked out her outfit for the day. _"Not since dad killed mom…." _Chloe thought sadly as she started getting dressed. _"Still, there's one thing I can't shake from last night, besides the pain I was in, Lance grabbed my hand for support and I did the same but…..oh god, am I actually developing feelings for him?"_

"_I'd say so!" _Silent Magician's voice rang out making Chloe jump, unfortunately for Chloe she was in the middle of putting on her jeans which caused her to fall out of bed. _"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."_

"_Silent Magician, what have I said about listening in on my thoughts?!" _Chloe thought with an annoyed puff. _"Well, it can't get any worse I guess."_

"Good morning Chloe…." Chelsea's clearly amused voice rang out and Chloe looked up to see her roommate with her laptop under her arm. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"Very funny, could you at least close the door?" Chloe asked as she got to her feet and finished putting her jeans on, Chelsea did just that and sat down at the coffee table whilst Chloe put on her stomach exposing tanktop. "What's up? I thought you had IT Class?"

"That just ended, as for where I was last night, I was at Beth's dorm room for sex remember?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "How are you feeling after last night?"

"I'm just glad that the pain's passed." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded in response. "What about you?"

"Well I was sleeping off my make-out session with Beth when I was sucked into Andreas's dream…..and that sounded strangely kinky but fuck it, when I woke up I told Beth that it was just a cramp in my neck and Beth recommended going to the nurse's office in the morning just encase, I did just to shut her up and I was given a clean bill of health." Chelsea answered with a small grin which quickly faded. "We're going to have to do something about those bastards."

"I know, and I hate the fact that I have to wait until after the tournament to do so." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded. "So when's the tournament starting?"

"About half one according to the schedule, and we were wrong about when the second round's starting, it's starting on Day Eight as the second duel of the day." Chelsea added and Chloe nodded. "As for today's duels, Amelia Gray from Obelisk Blue is teaming with Caitlin Acosta from Osiris Red to take on Chong Harrison and Clement Clark, both from Obelisk Blue."

"Sounds like an interesting match." Chloe commented and Chelsea nodded. "What's the other match?"

"Another all Obelisk Blue team, namely Delia Garrett and Esther Benjamin, are taking on Keri Harmon and Lacey Morse from Osiris Red." Chelsea answered with a frown. "As much as I want to root for the home team in that match I'll be surprised if the Osiris Red Girls win that match."

"I hope they do, it would suck to be the only Osiris Red Student in a tournament again, well, in this case it would be Osiris Red Team but you get the idea." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "What time is it anyway?" Chloe asked as she put her blazer on, open as always.

"Just gone half eleven, the tournament matches should be starting in an hour." Chelsea responded as she checked her computer clock. "Huh, I just realized something about Andreas's duel against Otto last night."

"What's that?" Chloe asked with a curious look on her face.

"The cards in the Geargia deck that he used were all legal cards, including that XYZ monster he summoned." Chelsea responded as she turned to her roommate. "Unlike the other Orichalcos Duelists we've faced recently he didn't have a broken card in his deck."

"Well, in the case of that Mermail deck that is debatable." Chloe responded and Chelsea shook her head.

"Not what I meant, that Mermail deck was powerful but it was still beatable." Chelsea responded and Chloe nodded. "Granted that XYZ monster's revival effect was pretty much a Level 3 Machine Specific Monster Reborn but still."

"Yeah and I can just tell that my deck will be missing Monster Reborn once the second round starts." Chloe grunted as she ran a hand through her hair. "Besides you may be wrong about Otto's deck, Andreas ended the duel just after he took that massive hit so I think that Otto has a broken card in his deck but never got a chance to use it." Chloe added and Chelsea nodded in agreement before Chloe got an idea. "You said that the duels should be starting in a half hour, right?"

"Yeah I did, why?" Chelsea asked as she glanced at her roommate before seeing the grin on her face. "Oh, you want to get there early and grab the best seats available, don't you?"

"Considering the last time we went there we were in the third row with Lance, yeah I do." Chloe responded with a nod and Chelsea grinned before grabbing her laptop. "Any idea if Lance will attend the duels?"

"I don't think it's likely, he still has that cold from yesterday from what I've heard and Duel Academy has been streaming the duels from its YouTube channel." Chelsea responded before grinning. "Why? So you can hold his hand again?"

"NO!" Chloe responded whilst blushing like a madwoman. "I was just wondering that's all!"

"Sure you were." Chelsea responded with a grin whilst ignoring Chloe's death glare. "Come on, if we sit here arguing all day we'll never get to the duel field." Chelsea said as she unplugged her laptop and carried it with her, Chloe followed her roommate out of the room and closed the door behind her.

*meanwhile at the Ra Yellow Boys Dorm*

"FUCK THIS COLD!" Lance yelled out as he sneezed for what felt like the hundredth time that morning, being unable to attend the classes or the duels had left him with little to do besides sneeze and listen to "At the Edge of the World" by Kataklysym and as much as he liked the song he was finding it hard to enjoy it with his cold. "I could've gotten dressed before chasing after that bastard but noooo, I had to go duel in my fucking swim trunks! At least Chloe and Chelsea had the common sense to get changed out of their swim suits before coming to support me!"

"Talking to yourself again?" Lance looked up and saw Jeff by the door. "How are you feeling?"

"I have a cold and I can't attend today's duels, how do you think?" Lance asked and Jeff shook his head in response, Lance shook his head before he paused the music and turned his attention to Jeff. "Have you figured out how those Orichalcos assholes are getting to the island?"

"We're working on that, in the meantime we'll have to rely on you, Chloe and Theresa to make sure that no more souls get captured, no student's souls anyway." Jeff responded and Lance frowned.

"Encase you haven't noticed the Legendary Dragon trio is down one member because of my cold, until I get better Chloe and Theresa will have to fight those bastards alone." Lance pointed out and Jeff nodded. "All though, granted they have the others to back them up as well so it won't be too bad."

"Well, if you say so." Jeff said as he turned to leave. "The next round's tournament duels won't be starting until day eight of the tournament, until then you can watch the rest of the matches via Duel Academy's stream."

"Yeah, I was going to do that after I listened to Kataklysym." Lance answered and he got no answer from Jeff, only the sound of the door closing. _"I thought he'd never leave." _Lance thought as he went over to his laptop and loaded up the stream. _"Chloe and Chelsea should be at the duel field by now if they want to get good seats." _Lance thought before frowning. _"I can't get that moment when I and Chloe held hands last night out of my head, sure it was for support since Otto's chains where choking us but maybe Chloe feels the same way I do about her about me?" _Lance thought as he loaded up the stream. _"Unfortunately I'll be cooped up in this room until Wednesday due to my cold so I can't ask her until then."_

*at the duel field*

The duel field's audience was filling up fast, both with the new students who had joined over the weekend and the students who had been at the academy for longer.

"It's so good to have a good seat for one." Chloe commented with a small grin as she made herself comfortable, Chelsea nodded in agreement as she watched the seats get filled up.

"Tell me about it, we should definitely make getting here early a priority from now on…..well besides on the days when we're dueling or the days when Cameron, Jessica or Thomas are dueling." Chelsea agreed as she folded her arms. "It will get pretty lonely up here without Lance though."

"You girls mind if we join you?" Chloe and Chelsea looked up and saw Marcus with Tyler standing next to him, Chloe nodded and they took a seat each followed by the other duelists with duel spirit partners (besides Lance for obvious reasons) and Nicola. "You guys know anything about who's competing today?"

"I don't know any off the competitors in the first match, the second match though…." Theresa trailed off before frowning. "The two Obelisk Blue Girls are friends with Jessica."

"Great, we needed another reason to root for the home team." Chloe grunted as she rolled her eyes. "How close are they to Jessica?"

"There is a rumor that they once had a three-way with Jessica when Cameron was pulled from school." Theresa answered earning a confused look from Chloe. "That was when Nathan's soul was captured; Jessica got to stay because she convinced her parents that she could look after herself."

"Is there any truth to that rumor?" Chelsea asked and Theresa shrugged.

"The only ones who know for sure are the three girls who allegedly took part in it and asking them about it is a good way to get a complaint filed against you." Theresa answered as she shook her head. "I'm curious but I don't want a complaint filed against me, especially since I have one expulsion duel on my record already."

"Knowing how many people she's slept with it was likely a one off thing." Chelsea responded with a shrug. "If she did swing both ways you'd think we'd hear about it."

"That or she threatens to file a complaint against the girls she does sleep with." Brandon responded as the first two teams entered the arena. "The girls in Jessica's posse usually don't have the best records so they'd do anything to avoid a complaint."

"Yeah, let's change the subject before any of her other friends overhear us." Chelsea suggested once she noticed that a large number of female Obelisk Blue students were seated right behind Theresa, Brandon and Tyler, not to unusual since they were from the same dorm but they didn't exactly look like the friendly type, Theresa glanced over at them and they seemed to be caught up in their own little conversation but nodded regardless.

"Sounds like a plan, how about we just watch the matches for now?" Theresa suggested and the others nodded in agreement before turning their attention to the duel.

"_Man that was a long weekend." _Caitlin thought as she shuffled her deck, she was around Chloe's height and had shoulder length strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes though her uniform identified her as a second year student. _"Still I can't let Chloe and Chelsea hog all the spotlight in the next round by being the only Osiris Red team and that means that my team has to win."_

"Are you ready Caitlin?" Caitlin looked up and saw her partner for the tournament Amelia Gray, a tall (for a woman) Obelisk Blue student with short black hair and blue eyes, Caitlin nodded as she finished shuffling her deck and activated her duel disk as the two girls turned to their opponents. "Sorry boys but we're about to book our place in the second round!"

"I highly doubt that." Clement commented with a yawn, he was tall and handsome with shoulder length blonde hair tied into a ponytail and blue eyes. "What can you honestly do with an Osiris Red Reject on your team? Oh, that's right, nothing!"

"Clement, you are so insufferable sometimes you know that?" Chong grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, he was an Asian teenager with short black hair and brown eyes which were behind a pair of reading glasses, both boys where clearly second year students based on their uniforms. "Don't forget that one of those so called rejects came in third at Battle City."

"Yes and we both know that if she hadn't drawn Spellbinding Circle when she did Otto would've taken her place." Clement responded as he rolled his eyes. "Enough talk, let's get this over with."

"Attention all students competing in this match, I have an announcement regarding the winners of this match." Martin's voice rang out and the students turned their attention to him. "Due to the low amount of available opponents in the next round the decision has been made to offer a pass to the third round to the winners of this match."

"Wow, I haven't even met Clement and I hate him already." Chloe commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Let me guess, he's friends with Cameron and Jessica?"

"Yeah, he is." Theresa responded with a nod. "He only got into Obelisk Blue because of his wealthy parents so it's only natural that he views Osiris Red and Ra Yellow that way." Theresa added and Brandon cleared his throat. "All though I will add that Brandon is the exception to that rule." Theresa added and Brandon nodded in agreement.

"Relax Chloe, that'll just give us more reason to cheer for the girls to win." Chelsea responded with a grin. "Besides for all we know Clement could be all bark and no bite, and with Martin's announcement they have extra incentive to win this match."

"Okay, I'll go first followed by Chong, then Amelia, then the pompous asshole and then back to me?" Caitlin suggested and the others nodded whilst Clement ignored her comment as they drew their opening hands, Caitlin made an additional draw and looked over her hand. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Caitlin set the three cards and they appeared on the field. "And I end my turn at that."

"_If Heavy Storm wasn't banned over the weekend I'd use it to destroy her facedown cards." _Chong thought as he drew his card. _"But I'll make do and besides I won't be able to attack until Amelia ends her turn even if I wanted too." _Chong thought before looking at his drawn card. "I'll start my turn with a Continuous Spell Card known as Black Whirlwind!" Chong played the card and it appeared on the field.

"Didn't that card get unlimited by that emergency banlist?" Caitlin asked and Chong nodded.

"Yes it was, but I'll get to its effect in a minute, first off since you have a monster and I don't I can Special Summon Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn!" Chong played the card and a large humanoid crow appeared on the field, it had large black wings and purple feathers down its neck (5/2000/900). "Now I'll use my normal summon to bring out another Blackwing, Blackwing – Zephyros the Elite!"

"That's a fitting name for a card that belongs to an Obelisk Blue Student." Clement commented with a smirk as the monster appeared on the field, it was a tall, slender humanoid crow with a large, white pointed beak, wild blue hair and red and black armor (4/1600/1000).

"Now that I've normal summoned my Spell Card's effect activates letting me search through my deck for another Blackwing monster and add it to my hand." Chong explained before picking up his deck and searching through it, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled the deck. "But the monster I added to my hand isn't any old monster, when this one is added to my hand by the effect of a Spell, Trap or Monster I can Special summon it straight to the field so please welcome Blackwing – Breeze the Zephyr!"

"Yet another summon?" Caitlin asked as she looked at her watch. "Is this turn ever going to end?" Caitlin asked as the monster appeared on the field, it was smaller and more birdlike than the other Blackwings and was red in color (3/1100/300). "Yes, even if it is kind of cute."

"You're not the only one to call this one cute but that's beside the point, Breeze the Zephyr is a Tuner Monster that can only be used to Synchro Summon a Blackwing Synchro Monster so I'll go ahead and do just that by tuning it with Zephyros the Elite!" Chong announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Breeze dissolved into three Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Zephyros the Elite. "Please welcome to the field Blackwing Armor Master!" Chong played the card and an even larger humanoid crow appeared on the field, as its name suggested it was covered head to toe in armor but unlike the others its beak appeared to be a helmet (7/2500/1500). "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chong set the cards down and Amelia drew her card.

"So he runs Blackwings huh? No wonder he's been trying to get his hands on my copy of Dark Armed Dragon." Brandon commented with a frown. "Blackwings is an all dark Archetype so I can see why he wanted it."

"What I don't get is why didn't he tune Breeze with Sirocco? He would've been able to go for a Level Eight Synchro Summon if he did." Chloe pointed out with a confused look on her face. "Sure, Armor Master's strong but there's gotta be stronger Level Eight Synchros."

"There are but I think he wanted to Synchro Summon Armor Master to set up another move later on." Theresa commented with a frown. "Besides Armor Master has a damn good effect of his own, it just needs a monster to be face-up on their side of the field."

"_Chong started off strong but I have a trick or two up my sleeve." _Amelia thought with a smirk as she looked over her hand. "I activate a Spell Card called Reinforcement of the Army, considering how popular this Spell Card is I don't think an explanation is necessary." Amelia announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "And now I summon that monster, Barbarian Warrior - Thuddal the Ruthless!" Amelia played the card and a tall muscular but unshaven man appeared on the field, he had long black hair, a matching beard and brown piercing eyes, as the name suggested he was wearing barbarian garb (4/2000/1000).

"Barbarians, I'd expect that from a lowly Osiris Red student not an Obelisk Blue Student." Clement commented with a scoff and Amelia frowned. "Besides that monster's a little strong for a Level 4 isn't he?"

"He is but his effect makes up for it." Amelia said as the warrior glared at the two students. "You see when Thuddal is summoned when I have no monsters on my side of the field I can search through my deck for a certain field spell as long as I permanently cut his attack points in half." Amelia announced as she picked up her deck again and searched through it, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand as Thuddal's attack dropped to one thousand.

"You call yourself an Obelisk Blue student? Terra-Forming would've worked just as well and you wouldn't have had to waste your normal summon." Clement pointed out and Amelia shook her head.

"Here's the thing about that field spell." Amelia said as she shuffled her deck. "There's only one way to search for it and that's by way off a monster with Barbarian Warrior in its name." Amelia said as she played the card. "It may seem a bit harsh but it'll make sense soon, I activate my Field Spell Card Barbarian Village!" Amelia played the card and the scenery changed to a rural looking village, the kind the Ancient Romans would pass through back in the day complete with wooden huts.

"Okay, so what does this Field Spell do exactly?" Chong asked and Amelia smirked.

"Not yet." Amelia said before picking up two cards and setting them. "To keep you boys guessing I'll set these cards facedown and end my turn." Amelia announced and Clement drew his card.

"Blackwings, Barbarians, what else do we have to expect from this duel?" Chelsea asked with a shrug. "I'm half expecting Clement to start playing Roman based cards."

"Well, they have made god knows how many cards based on Ancient Egypt so I wouldn't put it past I2." Marcus commented as they watched the duels. "Hey Tyler, you heard of these Barbarian Warrior monsters?"

"I only know very little about those things." Tyler answered with a frown. "They are apparently being released in an upcoming booster pack, not the same ones that those Ghostrick and Vampire monsters are being released in but the one after that, no idea how Amelia got her hands on them."

"Well, apparently her folks work for I2 so maybe they got her a gig as a play tester on the side?" Marcus suggested and the others turned to him. "That's according to a female Obelisk Blue Student who I've been trying to hit it off with as of late….and no, you can't know her name." Marcus said as he started blushing like a mad man.

"_Barbarians and a concealed monster, this should be a piece of cake!" _Clement thought as he looked at his drawn card. "I activate a Spell Card called Blaze Accelerator!" Clement played the card before discarded a card from his hand and as that happened a small cannon on what looked like a tri-pod appeared on the field. "Now that I've discarded a weak pyro type monster I can target one monster my opponent controls and destroy it, I think I'll chose that filthy barbarian!" Clement announced as the cannon got ready to fire….

"I'm afraid that this "Filthy Barbarian" won't be defeated that easily, I activate my trap card Warcry!" Amelia activated the trap depicting Barbarian Village being invaded and several barbarians fighting off the invasion, including Thuddal, Thuddal let out a fearsome roar before drawing out an axe and chopping the Spell Card in half. "Since I have Barbarian Village on my side of the field this counter trap lets me negate the effect of a Spell Card that would've destroyed a Barbarian Warrior and destroy it, only downside is that Thuddal will have to attack if it's still on the field during my next turn."

"Well, that's a nuisance." Clement grunted before looking over his hand. "The monster I discarded for Accelerator was Volcanic Shell, and at the cost of five hundred life-points…." Clement added before wincing as his life-points dropped to 7500. "I can add another one to my hand." Clement said before picking up and searching through his deck.

"Funny how you call my dorm pathetic when you're blatantly copying Axel Brodie's deck." Caitlin mocked Clement and Clement scoffed.

"Making your own deck is all well and good but if this deck worked for one duelist then it will work for me." Clement retorted before adding the card to his hand and shuffling his deck. "The downside to Blaze Accelerator is that I can't attack the same turn I use it, but since I wouldn't have been able to attack in the first place I'll set these….." Clement announced as two set cards, a monster and a Spell/Trap Card, appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Clement announced and Caitlin drew her card.

"_Okay, I don't know a lot about Amelia's monsters but from what I've seen their pretty good, hopefully I can keep up!" _Caitlin thought as she looked over her hand. _"Not too good a draw but I do have Reckless Greed facedown, using it this early would be a risk though…."_

"I activate Dust Tornado!" Clement announced as his facedown card flipped up. "And I target the facedown card on the right!" Clement announced as a large storm washed over the field….

"In that case I'll chain it! Go Reckless Greed!" Caitlin activated the trap before drawing twice. "It may cost me my next two draw phases but I get two cards in exchange." Caitlin explained as the trap card shattered.

"Fine, I'll use Dust Tornado's effect to set a card facedown." Clement announced as another facedown card appeared on the field. "You were saying?"

"Err, right…." Caitlin trailed off before looking at her two new cards. _"Can't really use either of them and as much as I'd like to go on the attack my facedown monster wouldn't be enough." _Caitlin thought before setting the card she drew first face down on the field. "I end my turn."

"_She isn't attacking just defending; she likely lacks any powerful monsters at the moment." _Chong thought before turning his attention to Amelia. _"And whilst I still don't know what kind of secrets her deck hides if I want to draw first blood for our team I'll have to destroy that barbarian!" _Chong thought before adding the card he had drawn to his hand. "Sirocco the Dawn, attack Thuddal the Ruthless!" Chong commanded and the winged beast took flight….

"In that case I'll activate my other trap card, Sacred Grove!" Amelia flipped her trap up which depicted a beautiful looking grove with a barbarian praying. "For many Barbarian tribes their gods resided in the trees and the rivers, and those gods protected them as often as they could, in game terms this trap lets Thuddal survive up to two attacks per turn." Amelia announced as Thuddal fought of Sirocco with his axe.

"Yes, but clearly you still take damage." Clement commented as Amelia's life-points dropped to seven-thousand. "You know what to do Chong!"

"Actually I would advise against that." Amelia announced and the two boys turned to Amelia and saw that Thuddal's attack points where back at two thousand. "Because they held their lands so close to their hearts Barbarians would fiercely fight off invaders in order to protect, in game terms as long as Barbarian Village is on the field any battle damage I take is added to a monster with Barbarian Warrior in their name."

"In that case I won't risk a second attack." Chong said as he looked over his hand. _"I can use Armor Master's effect to render that effect useless but I'd rather use it on a stronger monster, historically Barbarians where weak against more advanced civilizations like the Romans with a few exceptions and if I2 did create a Barbarian archetype then her deck might contain bigger fish." _Chong thought before looking over his hand and setting his drawn card. "I end my turn at that." Chong announced and Amelia drew her card.

"Yeah, I came here for a duel not a history lesson." Chelsea commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Can't Amelia just cut to the point and explain her card's effects like she did with that Warcry trap?"

"I've known Amelia for a while and she's quite the history buff." Theresa responded as she watched the duel. "And she won't hesitate to show off her knowledge of history like she's doing at the moment."

"If that's the case why isn't she running a Heroic Deck like Ricardo did?" Chelsea asked as she scratched her head. "Those monsters seem like they would fit her deck more."

"I can think of a couple of reasons based on my conversations with her, one she likes to keep her opponents guessing, two her main area of interest is the various Barbarian Tribes the have existed throughout history, Celts, the Germanic Tribes, the Gauls, even the Mongols." Theresa responded after thinking for a few minutes. "Not sure if there's a card based on any of the most famous Barbarians like Boudicca or Genghis Khan but if they are any she'll know."

"Unfortunately my Field Spell comes with a drawback, to keep it in play I have to reveal one monster in my hand." Amelia said as she turned the card around, once she was sure that both Chong and Clement had seen it she turned it around and played it. "And since there's no point in leaving her in my hand I'll summon Barbarian Warrior - Kanasisha the Cunning!" Amelia played the card and the monster appeared on the field, it was a tall and muscular woman with long red hair tied into a ponytail who was wearing Barbarian garb that exposed her midriff (3/900/1200). "Despite their appearance Barbarian women where often just as fierce as the men in battle and that applies to Kanasisha herself!"

"Oh for the love off, enough with the damn history lessons already! Just get on with it and explain her damn effect!" Clement commented with a yawn and Amelia grinned.

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you! In exchange for giving up her attack this turn Kanasisha can target one facedown Spell or Trap Card and destroy it, and just for that little comment I'll target your facedown card!" Amelia announced as Kanasisha drew a small knife and charged at Clement's facedown card before destroying it.

"I was anticipating a Mystical Space Typhoon but I think this will do nicely, the trap card you just destroyed was Dormant Volcano!" Clement said as he held it up. "When this is destroyed by a card effect my opponent takes three hundred points of damage." Clement commented and the two women winced as their life-points dropped to 7700 and 6700. "It has another effect but that will wait until my next Stand-By Phase."

"Give us a break; we saw Lance Alver's expulsion duel as well." Amelia answered before pointing to Clement's facedown monster. "Thuddal, attack the facedown monster!" Amelia commanded and the barbarian charged towards the monster, revealed to be UFO Turtle, which was quickly destroyed.

"I use UFO Turtle's effect to Special Summon Solar Flare Dragon!" Clement announced as the large dragon made out of fire appeared on the field (4/1500/1000). "I'm sorry, where you planning a direct attack?"

"_That's going to be a problem; Barbarian Village's effect only applies to battle damage." _Amelia thought before picking up and setting a card. "I end my turn with this facedown card!" Amelia announced and Clement drew his card.

"_Her strongest monster is that Thuddal card but even then it's not that strong." _Clement thought before picking up his deck. "Now Dormant Volcano's effect activates, with it we can add one FIRE monster from our decks to our hands, it's pretty obvious that I have quite the selection but I doubt either of you do."

"Actually I do." Amelia responded before picking up her deck and searching through it, once she found the card that she was looking for she added it to her hand and Clement did likewise with his deck.

"Okay, anyone else?" Clement asked and Chong and Caitlin shook their heads as their partners shuffled their decks. "Good, now I can continue, I remove the first Volcanic Counter from play in order to special summon Inferno in attack mode!" Clement played the card and the small flame with a face appeared on the field (4/1100/1900). "His attack score may not be much but he's still stronger than that female barbarian, Inferno, burn her alive!" Clement commanded and the small flame flew towards the female barbarian before burning her alive. "And let's not forget that when Inferno inflicts battle damage you take fifteen hundred life-points on top of that!" Clement added and Amelia winced as her life-points dropped to 5100.

"That may be but now I can activate my trap card Rite of Passage!" Amelia activated the trap which depicted a Barbarian being buried whilst his family watched on. "Since my barbarian was just destroyed I can add another one to my hand as long as its level doesn't exceed the other barbarian's level." Amelia explained before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck.

"Very well, I'll set a card facedown and end my turn." Clement announced and once the set card appeared on the field Caitlin didn't draw due to Reckless Greed.

"_I can't be left in the dust by these guys, I need to go on the offensive and soon!" _Caitlin thought before looking over her hand. _"Unfortunately Reckless Greed didn't leave me with a lot of options and I won't be able to draw again for another turn." _Caitlin thought before sighing. "I'll pass my turn." Caitlin said begrudgingly and Chong drew his card.

"_If I destroy Amelia's Barbarian I can set up a direct attack from Sirocco and since Clement has already destroyed that female barbarian it'll be a snatch!" _Chong thought as he added his drawn card to his hand. "Armor Master, destroy Thuddal the Ruthless!" Chong commanded and the winged humanoid flew towards Amelia before destroying her barbarian bringing Amelia's life-points down to 4600. "Sirocco, attack her life-points directly!" Chong commanded and the monster flew towards Amelia…..

"I don't think so! I activate my trap card Staunch Defender and I use it to force Sirocco to attack my monster instead!" Caitlin activated the trap and the humanoid changed course targeting the facedown monster. "You've been targeting my partner so much that I was being left out!"

"Yes, well, it's not like your dorm is worth remembering." Clement muttered under his breath as the facedown monster revealed itself to be a massive humanoid made out of clay (4/800/2000). "Wait a minute, is that what I think it is?"

"That's right, it's Elemental Hero Clayman!" Caitlin said with a grin as Sirocco's attack was deflected by Clayman's skin. "And he's just got enough defenses to block your attack!"

"_Elemental Heroes, I haven't seen that archetype at this academy since Jaden Yuki graduated." _Chong thought as Sirocco returned to his side of the field. _"Still that deck took a hit when Stratos was banned so I doubt she'll be that much of a problem." _Chong thought before picking up a card and setting it. "I end my turn with this facedown card." Chong announced and Amelia drew her card.

"Blackwings, Barbarians, a Fire Deck and Elemental Heroes, yep, this duel has everything all right." Chelsea commented as they watched the duel. "All though I'm surprised that Caitlin's even willing to still use those things since they got a big hit on that banlist."

"They did take a big hit when Stratos was banned but they still have E – Emergency Call which served as their main searcher until Stratos got released." Tyler responded with a nod. "Whether or not she can draw it is another matter."

"_Good, now I can put my plan into motion!" _Amelia thought before playing a card. "I reveal one Barbarian Warrior in my hand to keep Barbarian Tribe in play." Amelia announced as she showed the card. "My next card may be a generic Warrior support card but he still works well with this deck! I summon Marauding Captain!" Amelia played the card and the brown haired, twin sword wielding warrior appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "Now I'll activate his effect allowing me to summon Barbarian Warrior – Jothal the Blood-Thirsty!" Amelia played the card and a new warrior appeared on the field, it was a short but muscular barbarian with a long black beard, matching hair and piercing brown eyes (2/500/1000).

"With a name like that I was expecting something a little stronger." Chong commented and Clement nodded in agreement.

"You want something stronger? I'll give it to you! First when Jothal is Special Summoned by the effect of another warrior his level goes up by one." Amelia commented as the Barbarian's Level increased. "Now I use Jothal and Marauding Captain to construct an overlay network!" Amelia announced as the two warriors turned into swirling orbs of energy. "And I use these monsters to Special Summon the XYZ Monster Barbarian Warlord – Kravas the Brave!" Amelia played the card and a new monster emerged on the field, it was a tall barbarian who somehow looked more dignified than the others, he was bald with a scar down his right eye and was carrying a large sword (Rank: 3/2100/1800).

"All that buildup for a warrior who's barely stronger than Sirocco the Dawn, I expected better from an Obelisk Blue Student." Clement commented and Amelia scowled.

"What's the first rule of Duel Monsters again? Oh yeah, don't underestimate the opponent's monsters based on their attack strength." Amelia said as she sent Jothal to the graveyard. "And by detaching an overlay unit from Kravas I can activate his effect forcing him to attack the strongest monster on your side of the field."

"Hold on, let me get this straight, you have a monster who's effect revolved around being forced to attack a potentially stronger monster than he is and not only do you run it but you summon it." Clement commented as he shook his head. "Did I miss something?"

"Yes, Jothal's other effect; when he's detached for the effect of a Barbarian Warlord monster all monsters on your side of the field lose five hundred attack points until the end of the turn." Amelia added and the two male student's eyes widened as Inferno, Armor Master and Sirocco's attack points dropped to six hundred, two thousand and fifteen hundred respectively.

"Well if there was ever a good time for me to use Sirocco's effect it's now!" Chong announced as his two Blackwings started glowing. "Once per turn I can target another Blackwing monster and give it the total sum of all Blackwing monsters beside itself."

"Err, just to be clear, we're still on the Main Phase right?" Caitlin asked and the other students nodded in response. "Good, then you won't mind me chaining Effect Veiler's effect to Sirocco's!"

"Actually I do…." Chong trailed off as Sirocco doubled over in pain.

"That's too bad, good save Caitlin." Amelia responded with a nod of approval…..before noticing the grin on Chong's face. "Okay, now what?"

"Go ahead, attack Armor Master, it'll be a wasted effort." Chong explained as his grin grew wider. "Armor Master can't be destroyed by battle and I take no damage from a battle involving him, your partner would've been better off using Veiler to negate Armor Master's effect!"

"Actually Caitlin did the right thing." Amelia responded as Kravas charged towards Armor Master. "Kravas won't be able to attack the next turn but in exchange any monsters he battles get their effects negated during the damage step." Amelia added as the warlord decapitated Armor Master with his sword bringing Chong's life-points down to 7900. "Are you really that surprised? Warlords where often the leaders of the various Barbarian tribes and they often went into battle against larger tribes and empires…."

"Oh for the love of crap enough with the damn history lessons already!" Clement yelled out interrupting Amelia. "I get it, you are really well read when it comes to your chosen deck and barbarians but I came here for a damn duel!"

"That's too bad because when you duel me you get both!" Amelia responded as her XYZ monster returned to her side of the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn…."

"And I activate Miracle's Wake!" Chong announced as Blackwing Armor Master returned to the field with his original attack points. "I had a feeling you'd try something like that and Armor Master is back on the field, not only that but I noticed that you said "when he attacks" not when he is attacked so I'll be free to attack him next turn." Chong added as Clement drew his card.

"Anyone else lose count of the amount of effects that where just activated?" Chelsea commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Seriously, this has to be one of the best duels of the first round so far."

"Maybe but the first round won't end until Wednesday." Tyler pointed out as he turned to her. "For all we know there might be a better match than this before then."

"Even if that is the case whoever wins this match will be a team to watch out for in the next few rounds." Chloe chimed in and the others nodded in response.

"As much as I'd hate to help my opponents this is necessary, I activate Spellbook Inside the Pot." Clement played the card and the four duelists drew three cards, Caitlin did so enthusiastically clearly relieved to be able to draw again. "Ah perfect, this Spell Card is quite the deadly one and my monster fits the bill perfectly, I activate Raging Inferno!" Clement played the card and Inferno increased in size until it towered over Caitlin and Amelia's monsters. "Inferno will be destroyed once my Battle Phase ends but in exchange it can attack directly!"

"Oh shit!" Caitlin gulped as Amelia braced herself.

"Why would I waste my time attack you when I could attack your tag team partner instead? Her life-points have been practically untouched!" Clement chuckled as Caitlin's eyes widened as Inferno slammed into her bringing her life-points down to forty-four hundred. "Now my battle phase ends!" Clement announced as Inferno's hologram shattered. "But Inferno is gone but not forgotten, I simply remove my first Inferno from play to Special Summon a second one in defense mode!" Clement announced as the small flame returned to the field. "I shall end my turn at that." Clement announced and Caitlin didn't draw because of Reckless Greed's effect.

"Okay, I've sat on the sidelines for long enough and thanks to your Spell Card I can now take the initiative! I activate Polymerization!" Caitlin played the card and sent a monster from her hand alongside Clayman to her graveyard. "I fuse Clayman on the field with Elemental Hero Avian (3/1000/1000) in my hand to fusion summon Elemental Hero Great Tornado!" Caitlin played the card and the two heroes where fused together in a vortex and from it emerged a tall Elemental Hero in green and yellow spandex wearing a ragged robe over the left side of his body (8/2800/2200). "And when he's fusion summoned his effect kicks in cutting the attack scores of all my opponents' monsters by half!" Caitlin added as Inferno, Armor Master and Sirocco's attack strength dropped to five hundred and fifty, twelve hundred and fifty and one thousand respectively. "Now as tempting as it is to get some revenge on Clement his monster is in defense mode…..but on the other hand why should I stop at one fusion? I activate Fusion Recovery! I use this Spell Card to return Polymerization and Clayman to my hand!"

"_She's obviously planning something big, I'm glad I set Dimensional Prison last turn." _Chong thought as Caitlin retrieved her cards from the graveyard and added them to her hand.

"Now I activate Polymerization again! This time I'm fusing Clayman with Burstinatrix in my hand to fusion summon Elemental Hero Nova Master!" Caitlin played the card and Clayman appeared again alongside the lone female Elemental Hero (3/1200/800) before they were both sucked into a portal, from the portal emerged a tall Elemental Hero in fire red and yellow armor who's eyes could barely be seen behind it's helmet (8/2600/2100). "Just one last thing really….."

"If you want to borrow my Warlord go ahead." Amelia cut her off before activating her trap. "But first give me a chance to make sure that Chong can't try anything! I activate my Trap Card Rebellion!" Amelia announced as her trap flipped up depicting any army of Barbarians charging an army from a clearly more sophisticated civilization, presumably the Romans. "I shouldn't have to explain what rebellion means but I will explain my card's effect, for this turn only you guys can't activate any traps!"

"I don't remember you saying that it negates monster effects so I'll go ahead and use Sirocco's effect on Armor Master." Chong announced as the two Blackwings started glowing as Armor Master's attack shot up to twenty-two hundred and fifty. "He may not be as strong as he used to be but he is stronger than your warlord and let's face it, your warlord is the only monster on the field that can attack Armor Master and destroy him." Chong added and Caitlin hesitated.

"Go ahead and attack with Kravas, I have other monsters I can summon." Amelia instructed Caitlin who looked at her funny.

"But Kravas is weaker!" Caitlin pointed out and Amelia gave her a reassuring look. "Err, okay, Kravas, attack Armor Master!" Caitlin commanded and the warlord charged into battle as did Armor Master.

"If you wanted to lose that badly why didn't you just surrender?" Clement scoffed before noticing that Amelia had played a Quick Play Spell. "Sacrifice before the Battle?"

"The Romans weren't the only ones doing this, they just used animals." Amelia responded as the card's hologram appeared on the field depicting a Barbarian getting ready to kill a chained man. "Many barbarian tribes used humans and this Quick Play Spell reflects that, in game terms all I need to do is discard two Level Three or lower Barbarian Warrior monsters from my hand…." Amelia said as she discarded the two cards. "And Kravas gains a thousand attack points until the end of the turn." Amelia added as Kravas's attack increased to thirty one hundred and Kravas, once again, decapitated Armor Master bringing Chong's life-points down to 7050.

"He'll pay for that on my next turn." Chong said as his eyes narrowed.

"Err, hello, I still have two more monsters to attack with." Caitlin chimed in before pointing to Nova Master. "Nova Master, attack Sirocco the Dawn!" Caitlin commanded and the fiery Elemental Hero flew towards Chong's only remaining monster.

"It won't be enough to save my monster." Chong admitted as he discarded a card from his hand. "But by discarding Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow from my hand I can increase Sirocco's attack points by fourteen hundred allowing me to soften the blow!" Chong announced as Sirocco's attack increased to twenty four hundred, despite the increase though the humanoid was quickly incinerated bringing Chong's life-points down to 6850.

"And why did you not save Armor Master with that card?" Clement asked with an annoyed look on his face. "Your misplay just cost us the best monster on our side of the field!"

"I have my reasons." Chong responded before turning to Caitlin again. "Now I believe you have one more attack?"

"I do but not yet, when Nova Master destroys a monster by battle I get to draw a card." Caitlin responded before drawing a card. "Now Great Tornado, attack Chong's life-points directly!" Caitlin commanded and the monster let lose a tornado at Chong bringing his life-points down to 4050.

"Are you done yet?" Clement asked with a bored yawn and Caitlin shook her head.

"Not yet, now I enter my second main phase and activate the card I drew with Nova Master's effect, E - Emergency Call! Now I can add another Elemental Hero to my hand!" Caitlin played the card and picked up her deck; once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "And now I end my turn at that!" Caitlin announced and once Kravas returned to Amelia's side of the field Chong drew his card.

"I activate a Spell Card called Cards for Black Feathers! With this I remove from play one Blackwing monster in my hand….." Chong said as he pocketed the monster. "And I draw twice." Chong added before drawing two cards. "Because of its side effect I can't Special Summon this turn so instead I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chong set the two cards down and Amelia drew her card.

"It looks like Chong is going to be the first to be eliminated." Chelsea commented with a frown. "Unless those two facedown cards are stall cards then I don't see him surviving the round."

"I'll have to agree but Chong is a good duelist." Tyler responded with a nod. "If anyone can find a way out of this it's him."

"I no longer need Barbarian Village so it's destroyed." Amelia announced as the field spell's hologram shattered. "I'm afraid your time in this match is up Chong." Amelia said as she played a card. "I summon Barbarian Warrior – Kudda the Relentless!" Amelia played the card and a short male barbarian appeared on the field, his hair was black and scruffy and he had a small axe in his hand. (4/1900/1100). "I'll get to Kudda's effect once I weaken up Chong….." Amelia trailed off as a loud roar cut off her order sending the four warriors cowering. "Let me guess, Threatening Roar?"

"You may have enough power to knock me out of the match but that doesn't mean I'm not in this." Chong responded as he sent his trap to the graveyard. "You'll get a chance on Caitlin's next turn so just hope that she can finish the job."

"Oh, she will." Amelia responded before looking over her hand. "Since I can't attack I'll pass my turn." Amelia announced and Clement smirked before drawing his card.

"Excellent, I'm about to prove how short sited Caitlin's decision to not destroy Inferno was." Clement announced as Inferno disappeared from the field. "I sacrifice Inferno so that I can summon the mighty Thestalos, The Firestorm Monarch to the field in attack mode!" Clement played the card and the monarch of fire used several times by Lance appeared on the field (6/2400/1000). "Now as I'm sure anyone who's familiar with the Monarchs is also familiar with their effects I won't bother explaining it."

"Err, just one question, how is this effect going to work? You have two opponents." Caitlin chimed in and Clement hesitated.

"As it's a tag team duel both of Clement's opponents will be targeted for Thestalos's effect." Martin chimed in over the PA system and the four duelists nodded. "Please continue."

"Very well, for Amelia I target the card on the far right." Clement announced and Thestalos threw his fireball at the card, revealed to be another Thuddal, destroying it and bringing Amelia's life-points down to forty-four hundred. "Now I'll target the same card for Caitlin!" Clement announced and the monarch threw a fireball at the card in her hand.

"Crap, not my Bubbleman!" Caitlin groaned as she sent the card to the graveyard bringing her life-points down to four thousand.

"I'm afraid that your pathetic Elemental Hero is the least of your worries." Clement responded as he played another card. "I activate March of the Monarchs, now as long as I don't mind losing the ability to Special Summon any monsters Thestalos here can't be targeted or destroyed by card effects."

"Err, newsflash, my heroes are stronger than him!" Caitlin pointed out with a grin. "Unless you want to lose your monster next turn you'd better play something else!"

"An excellent idea, you're smart for an Osiris Red Student!" Clement mocked her as he played another card. "I activate a fairly old card that still has its uses, Salamandra! With this I equip it to Thestalos and give his attack score a boost of seven hundred!" Clement announced as the flaming sword appeared in Thestalos's hands increasing his attack to thirty one hundred. "And whilst Kravas may be weaker I have no intention of letting you go plus one with another attack from Nova!" Clement commanded and Thestalos charged towards the hero before cutting him down the middle and bringing Caitlin's life-points down to thirty five hundred. "I shall end my turn at that!" Clement announced and Caitlin drew her card.

"_Man, what I wouldn't give to have Stratos right now!" _Caitlin thought with a groan before spotting her drawn card and grinning. _"On the other hand I may not need Stratos!" _Caitlin thought before discarding the card she had drawn. "The card I just discarded was Elemental Hero – Captain Gold (4/2100/800) and with his effect I can now search out the home of the Elemental Heroes!"

"Ugh, I know where this is going!" Clement grunted as she searched through her deck. "Chong, please tell me that facedown card is either Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado."

"No such luck Clement." Chong sighed in annoyance as Caitlin found the card that she had been looking for and added it to her hand.

"And that's too bad for you! I play the Field Spell Card Skyscraper!" Caitlin played the card and once again the scenery changed this time to a large city filled with skyscrapers set at night. "I'll let its effect speak for itself, Great Tornado, attack Thestalos!" Caitlin commanded and the hero flew towards the monarch. "And since he's weaker than Thestalos he instantly gains one thousand attack points." Caitlin added as Great Tornado's attack points shot up to thirty eight hundred, his fist connected with the monarch destroying it and bringing Clement's life-points down to 7300. "About time you took some damage!"

"Yes but I still have far more life-points than either of you and besides, if you had borrowed Amelia's warriors you could've finished off Chong instead of dealing a merely seven hundred points of damage to me." Clement pointed out and Caitlin frowned.

"Don't worry Caitlin. I'll finish him off myself." Amelia responded and Caitlin nodded.

"I end my turn at that." Caitlin announced and Chong drew his card.

"In that case I activate my other trap card Escape from the Dark Dimension and I use it to Special Summon the monster I banished last turn." Chong announced as he retrieved the monster and played it. "Please welcome Blackwing – Calima the Haze!" Chong played the card and a new winged beast appeared on the field, unlike the other Blackwings though this one was pink in color and was very thin (4/600/1800). "This card does have an effect but it needs to be in the graveyard first!" Chong added before playing another card. "So I'll use my Normal Summon to bring out the Tuner Monster Blackwing – Kochi the Daybreak!" Chong played the card and another small Blackwing appeared on the field, this one was black and was a lot more crow-like than the others (4/700/1500).

"If you intended to do another Synchro Summon why didn't you use Cards for Black Feathers on Kochi?" Clement asked as Chong searched out a monster via the effect of Black Whirlwind.

"It's because if I had then I wouldn't have been able to do a Synchro Summon." Chong responded as he turned to Clement. "If Kochi is Special Summoned I can't use him in a Synchro Summon and since I don't run any XYZ monsters that would've left me with two very weak monsters and nothing to defend with!" Chong explained before playing another card. "Next I use my own Equip Spell Demotion to reduce Calima's level by two." Chong explained as Calima's level dropped to two.

"Why on earth would you do that? You can't do a Level Eight Synchro Summon anymore." Clement pointed out and Chong sighed.

"I thought we went over our decks when the teams were announced?" Chong asked and Clement said nothing in response. "I couldn't have done a Level Eight Synchro Summon regardless; the monster I intend to summon requires two non-tuner monsters."

"You've already used up your normal summon so you can't summon a monster regardless!" Caitlin pointed out and Chong shook his head.

"That is technically true but I still have some cards in my hand like this one, the Spell Card Double Summon!" Chong played the card and picked up another card. "Now I can have a second normal summon and I'll use it to summon Blackwing – Fane the Steel Chain!" Chong played the card another winged humanoid appeared on the field, this one's face couldn't be soon but it's feathers where black and it had a long green ponytail (2/500/800).

"I don't like the look of him." Caitlin gulped as Chong searched out another monster with Black Whirlwind.

"You can relax because this monster doesn't have an effect that you should worry about it's basically a Blackwing version of one of Chelsea Cunningham's Watt Monsters." Chong explained as the three monsters took flight. "What you should worry about is the monster I'm about to Synchro Summon." Chong added as the green Synchro Rings surrounded Calima and Fade. "I tune my three monsters together to summon my best monster, Blackwing – Silverwind the Ascendant!"

"I definitely don't like the sound of that!" Caitlin gulped as the new monster appeared on the field, it was a large Blackwing monster with a very long beak and red eyes, its wings where multi-colored with shades of black, grey and gold in them and it was carrying a large sword (8/2800/2000).

"And this card's effect is something you should worry about, when it's Synchro Summoned I can select and destroy two face-up monsters whose defenses are lower than Silverwind's attack and I target Great Tornado and Kravas!" Chong announced and two girls braced themselves as their monsters where cut through by Silverwind's sword. "Fortunately for you I can't conduct my battle phase the same turn I use this cards' effect so I'll set this card facedown." Chong announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Chong announced and Amelia drew her card.

"So Chong just went from the guy who was likely to be the first one eliminated from the match to the guy with the best monster on the field in the space of a turn, yeah I'm not looking forward to facing his team if they win." Chloe commented with a gulp and the others nodded in agreement. "If anything I now have more reason to root for Amelia and Caitlin."

"Yeah, except for the fact that they will be that much harder to beat since they beat this powerhouse team." Chelsea pointed out with a frown. "The fact that they are getting a free ticket to the third round doesn't help."

"Yeah, you'd think DA would be better prepared for something like that." Marcus agreed with a nod. "Couldn't they enter two of the new students and announce that they will compete against the winners of this match?"

"I think they're not doing that because it's a last minute decision." Theresa responded with a frown. "This tournament's had enough trouble getting off the ground as it is, they had to delay it due to our expulsion duels and the Duel Monster attack a couple of months back, based on that evidence I think they just wanted to get this thing started and deal with any issues as they come."

"That would be unusually short sited for Duel Academy but I guess that makes sense." Brandon agreed with a nod as Amelia looked over her hand.

"_Okay, Chong's Synchro Monster is powerful and I can definitely see why it needed two non-tuner monsters to be summoned in the first place." _Amelia thought as she added her drawn card to her hand. _"But unfortunately Great Tornado was our best shot at defeating that monster and Chong destroyed it in short order, I know Caitlin has another copy in her extra deck but whether or not she can summon it is another matter entirely." _Amelia thought before switching Kudda to defense mode and setting her drawn card. "That's all I can do for this turn." Amelia announced and Clement drew his card.

"Well, this is just perfect!" Clement said as he played his drawn card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy Skyscraper!" Clement announced and a large storm washed over the field destroying Skyscraper and once again returning the field to normal. "Now that we don't have to worry about Skyscraper's effect being used to destroy Silverwind…." Clement trailed off as he turned to Chong.

"If you want to use Silverwind for a direct attack I won't stop you." Chong announced as his Blackwing flew over to Clement's side of the field. "Unless she summons something I should be able to finish her off on my turn." Chong added and Clement nodded. _"And even if she does my deck has one more surprise for her."_

"Then I will be more than happy to lay down the ground work, Silverwind, attack Caitlin's life-points directly!" Clement commanded and the humanoid charged towards Caitlin before slashing her with his sword bringing her life-points down to seven hundred. "And I'm not foolish enough to leave my field unprotected so I'll set a monster in defense mode….." Clement said as the facedown monster appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Clement announced and Caitlin drew her card.

"_This is bad; I'm one attack away from elimination!" _Caitlin thought as she started sweating bullets, she looked at her drawn card and blinked before playing it. "I activate Card of Variation, I draw two cards but unless I can discard a card at the end of my turn I'll take three thousand points of damage." Caitlin added before drawing her two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Caitlin set the two cards down and once she discarded a card Chong drew his card.

"Well, I guess it's time I knocked you out of the tournament." Chong said as he added his drawn card to his hand. "Silverwind, finish the job you started!" Chong commanded and the monster took flight again…..

"I activate my Trap Card Draining Shield!" Caitlin announced as the attack was deflected by an invisible field bringing her life-points back up to 3500. "Nice try Chong but I'm still in this match!"

"Fine, you've brought yourself some time but we'll see how long it lasts." Chong said before looking at his drawn card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Chong announced and Amelia drew her card.

"_Caitlin's still in the match but for how long is another matter; I'll have to do everything I can to make sure she survives until the next round." _Amelia thought before looking at her drawn card. _"They are bound to try again as soon as Clement begins his turn, fortunately this Quick Play Spell Card can help." _Amelia thought before setting it. "I end my turn with a facedown card." Amelia announced and Clement drew his card.

"I activate Hand Destruction! Now we all discard two cards and draw two more!" Clement played the Spell Card and the four duelists drew and discarded their cards. "Excellent, I've used one card used by Lance Alvers and now I'll use another, I summon Royal Firestorm Guards!" Clement played the card and the strange demon used numerous times by Lance appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "Now I activate his effect, I return Thestalos, Inferno and the two monsters I discarded for Hand Destruction to my deck and draw two more cards." Clement added before retrieving the monsters in question, returning them to his deck and drawing twice. _"This monster is quite useful but I've already used my normal summon on Firestorm Guards." _Clement thought before adding his cards to his hand and looking up in time to see Caitlin and Amelia chatting. "This is hardly the time for idle chatter!"

"Relax Clement; she just made a request to me." Amelia responded and Clement frowned. "And it's nothing that'll give us an unfair advantage either." Amelia added and Clement nodded. _"In fact, it'll do the exact opposite." _Amelia thought as Clement looked over his hand.

"I'll just take your word for it, now Chong I require Silverwind's assistance again." Clement informed him and Chong nodded as the winged beast flew over to Clement's side of the field. "Whatever request she made to you won't matter now because I'm about to finish her off, Silverwind, attack her life-points directly!" Clement commanded and the winged beast flew towards Caitlin again before slashing her with his sword bringing her life-points down to seven hundred. "And now to bring my team one step closer to victory, Royal Firestorm Guards finish her off!" Clement commanded and the demon prepared its attack.

"Not this time Clement!" Amelia said as her facedown card flipped up depicting a Barbarian defending his family from invaders. "Hold the Line's effect is quite simple, when a direct attack is declared and I have a Barbarian Warrior or Warlord on my side of the field the attack is negated." Amelia added as Kudda leapt into the path of Royal Firestorm Guards' charge blocking it with his axe. "Encase you're wondering her request was to save any protection cards for Royal Firestorm Guards."

"A rather foolish mistake as she's back to where she started." Clement scoffed as his monster returned to his side of the field. "I end my turn."

"And now I reveal the reason I made that request, go Shock Draw!" Caitlin activated her trap and drew two cards before drawing a third to start her turn. _"Yes! I can turn this around maybe even eliminate Chong!" _Caitlin thought before playing a card. "I activate Miracle Fusion, with this I remove from play Elemental Hero Sparkman and Clayman from my graveyard to fusion summon my best monster."

"Based on your previous monsters it can't be that impressive." Clement scoffed as the two Elemental Heroes appeared on the field briefly before being sucked into a dark portal.

"You're going to regret those words." Caitlin responded as she played the card and a new Elemental Hero appeared on the field, its armor was white, gold and red in color and it had a giant golden ring on its back. "Say hello to Elemental Hero – The Shining!" (8/2600/2100).

"That's your best monster? Great Tornado was stronger!" Clement pointed out but any further comments by him where cut off by The Shining's attack points increasing to 3200. "How did it get so strong?"

"By his effect, that's how!" Caitlin responded with a grin. "Elemental Hero – The Shining gains three hundred attack points for each of my banished Elemental Heroes and thanks to Miracle Fusion I have two powering him up."

"If you wanted to finish me off I'm not impressed." Chong said as his eyes narrowed. "Your monster's strong but it's hardly strong enough to finish me off."

"Who said I was done? I activate another Miracle Fusion fusing Burstimatrix and Captain Gold this time around!" Caitlin played the card and the two heroes appeared on the field briefly before being sucked into a dark portal, seconds later another copy of Elemental Hero – The Shining appeared on the field (8/2600/2100). "And now that I have four banished Elemental Heroes my two monsters attack points go up by two hundred more points." Caitlin added as the two monsters' attack points increased to 3400. "And finally I equip one of my heroes with Megamorph!" Caitlin played the card and the first Shining doubled in size as its attack points shot up to 6800. "And I'll use my strongest Elemental Hero to attack Silverwind!" Caitlin announced as the hero flew towards the monster before punching him through the chest and bringing Chong's life-points down to a messily fifty life-points. "And now to finish you off….."

"I'm not done, not by a long shot!" Chong interrupted her as he pocketed a monster. "Remember Calima the Haze? Well if she's in my graveyard and I have no monsters to protect me I can remove her from play to special summon a Blackwing Synchro Monster from my graveyard." Chong played the card and Blackwing Armor Master returned to the field. "Unfortunately it will be removed from play as soon as you end your turn but since it doesn't lose its effect I'll take no damage if you decide to attack."

"Fine, I'll end my turn instead." Caitlin announced and once Armor Master vanished from the field for the last time Chong drew his card.

"Come now Chong, you may only have fifty life-points left but your still in the game." Clement pointed out as he turned to his partner. "Surely you have something you can do."

"There's only one thing I can do that doesn't involve surrendering." Chong answered as he picked up Black Whirlwind. "Remember Zephyros the Elite? By returning one card I control to my hand I can Special Summon him from the graveyard." Chong added as the monster returned to the field. "I can only use this effect once per duel so I'll set another monster in defense mode." Chong announced as another monster appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Cong announced and Amelia drew her card.

"Excellent, Caitlin's had a chance to show off her best monster and now it's my turn, I start my turn by activating Kudda's effect, once per duel he can destroy one face-up monster on the field." Amelia announced and the axe wielding barbarian charged towards Zephyros before decapitating him with his axe. "An additional side effect states that Kudda will be destroyed during the end phase if I use this effect but he won't be around for that."

"Let me guess, you're about to do another XYZ Summon?" Clement asked and Amelia shook her head.

"No actually, my best monster is a Synchro Monster!" Amelia responded before playing a card. "One that requires the tuner and non-tuner monsters to be Barbarian Warrior monsters and it just so happens that the card I just drew is a Tuner monster; I summon Barbarian Warrior – Klamul the Elder!" Amelia played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was another barbarian but this one was a lot older than the others with a long bushy white beard, matching hair and blue eyes (4/0/2000). "Klamul, it's time you gave Kudda a tune up!" Amelia told him and the two Barbarians nodded at each other before leaping into the air, Klamul faded into the four familiar Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Kudda. "I summon Barbarian Warlord - G'nothir the Wise!" Amelia played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, this barbarian was taller than the others and had blonde hair, a long scar going down his right eye and blue piercing eyes (8/2500/2000).

"You had me worried there but that monster's no stronger than the others." Clement scoffed and Amelia grinned.

"I wouldn't be so dismissive if I were you, if Klamul the Elder is used in a Synchro Summon the monster that he helped in summoning gets the ability to inflict piercing damage!" Amelia announced and Chong's eyes widened. "Caitlin, can I use your monsters to punch our ticket for the third round?"

"You didn't even need to ask." Caitlin responded with a grin as the two monsters walked over to Amelia's side of the field.

"G'nothir, attack Chong's facedown monster!" Amelia commanded and the monster charged towards the set monster, revealed to be another Calima the Haze, which was quickly destroyed bringing Chong's life-points down to zero. "Were you hoping to use its effect to summon Silverwind again?"

"I guess you could say that." Chong sighed as he deactivated his duel disk and retrieved the rest of his cards from his graveyard and pockets; whilst he shuffled his deck together Amelia turned her attention to Clement.

"You may have defeated Chong but encase you haven't noticed I still have a monster on my side of the field and plenty of life-points left!" Clement said cockily as he stared down the two Elemental Heroes. "Unless you have something that allows you to attack again I'll still survive."

"I do and it's G'nothir." Amelia responded as she retrieved a monster from her graveyard. "After G'nothir destroys an opponent's monster by battle all I have to do is banish another Barbarian Warrior from my graveyard and he can attack again!" Amelia added and the barbarian charged towards Clement's facedown monster, revealed to be Solar Flare Dragon, destroying it and bringing Clement's life-points down to 5800. "And I'll use the stronger Shining to defeat you!" Amelia announced and the Elemental Hero flew towards Royal Firestorm Guards before punching it through the chest destroying it, the second Shining charged towards Clement before punching him in the chest and bringing Clement's life-points down to zero.

"Here are your winners, Amelia Gray and Caitlin Acosta; as a result they get a bye to the third round." Martin announced over the cheering crowd. "In just five minutes time the next match between Esther Benjamin and Delia Garret of Obelisk Blue take on Lacey Morse and Keri Harmon of Osiris Red so don't go anywhere….unless you have a class of course." Martin added and the crowd quieted down as two of the Obelisk Blue students behind the duelists with Duel Spirit partners got up and left for the duel field.

"The next participants definitely have a tough act to follow." Brandon commented as he watched Esther and Delia leave. "You guys have any thoughts on who you want to win?"

"As unlikely as it is I do want Keri and Lacey to win so that me and Chloe aren't the only all Osiris Red team in the next round." Chelsea commented and Brandon nodded in response. "Besides if they're friends with Jessica then they are bound to be bad news."

"Agreed, though after the promotion duels on Saturday we may be the only all Ra Yellow students in the tournament." Chloe commented with a frown as they watched the duel, unknown to them someone else was watching the duels and he wasn't supposed to be there.

"Victor, I see my target, she's watching the duels with her friends." McLeod said into his earpiece as he leaned on the railing. "Do you have any advice on how to proceed?"

"Wait until tonight's matches are finished then lure her out." Victor responded and McLeod nodded. "Be prepared for anything and remember she has a Legendary Dragon in her deck."

"Understood Victor and don't worry, her Legendary Dragon won't be a problem after today!" McLeod said as he waited for the next duel to start.


	93. Day Six David vs Goliath

Five minutes had passed since the climax of the duel between the teams of Amelia Gray and Caitlin Acosta and Chong Harrison and Clement Clark and whilst the students who had just competed where recovering from the match the teams competing in the next match where preparing for theirs, and in the case of the Osiris Red Team dreading it.

"Man, it's just our luck that we get drawn against a team from Obelisk Blue." Lacey Morse moaned as she approached the arena, she was a short girl around Chloe's height with shoulder length light brown hair and blue eyes. "I would've preferred to be down against Amelia and Caitlin, at least we wouldn't have been the underdogs."

"Lacey, relax, we may be the underdogs but we can still win." Keri responded as she walked up to her, she was taller than Lacey and had neck length black hair and blue eyes. "Chloe was the underdog going into Battle City and she still came in third."

"Comparing us to Chloe Richardson? You did see her matches in the tournament right?" Lacey asked as she turned to her. "Besides Chloe's up for promotion to Ra Yellow on Saturday and so is her partner, to be frank I'd be surprised if they are still in Osiris Red by the end of the weekend, I'm just saying that you're setting the bar a bit high for us."

"Good point, for now let's focus on our match." Keri responded and Lacey nodded reluctantly before the two girls made their way into the arena and onto the Duel Platform.

"Just when I was beginning to think that you two had come to your senses." Esther Benjamin commented as she shook her head, she was a tall English student with shoulder length red hair and blue eyes. "But I guess you're hoping to get lucky like Chloe Richardson did."

"If you're referring to Chloe's match against Otto in Battle City then I think you're forgetting something." Keri responded as she activated her duel disk. "For starters Chloe had him on the ropes with Silent Magician Level Eight and she likely would've won even if he hadn't drawn Power Bond!"

"How cute, you think you can predict what would've happened if things went differently in the past." Delia scoffed as she, Lacey and Esther activated their duel disks and the four girls drew their opening hands, she was the same height as Esther but was clearly American with shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. "We all know Otto was framed anyway."

"Ugh, don't start with that bullshit again," Lacey grunted as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Okay, how about we decide the order we're going in?"

"Fine, I'll go first then the reject standing opposite me, then Esther and then the other reject!" Delia announced and didn't give either of the Osiris Red girls a chance to answer before drawing her first card. "I start my turn by summoning Lonefire Blossom to the field!" Delia played the card and a small plant appeared on the field, it was orange in color, had purple leaves and a large bulb on top (3/500/1400).

"That thing doesn't look too tough!" Lacey scoffed and Delia grinned.

"I assure you, it's a lot more potent than either of your pathetic decks!" Delia answered as Lonefire Blossom disappeared from the field. "I activate Lonefire Blossom's effect, by sacrificing it or any other Plant Type monster I control I can special summon one Plant Type Monster from my deck such as the mighty Gigaplant!" Delia played the card and a new monster appeared in Lonefire Blossom's place, it was a much larger green plant with a Venus flytrap like mouth (6/2400/1200). "Gigaplant does have an effect of its own but it's a Gemini monster so I have to wait a turn." Delia added before picking up and setting two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Delia announced and Lacey drew her card.

"So that's two duels in a row where I hate a person, or in this case the whole team, without ever meeting them." Chloe commented as she shook her head. "Well, I guess I have another reason to root for Lacey and Keri."

"Unfortunately it won't be easy for them." Tyler responded and Chloe turned to him. "Delia's Plant deck is very potent and summoning Gigaplant as quickly as possible is part of her main strategy."

"You've dueled against them before?" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded.

"They gave me a hell of a fight but I won in the end." Tyler responded as he turned his attention back to the duel. "Time will tell if Lacey and Keri will have similar luck."

"_Okay Lacey, no need to panic, she just has a 2400 beatstick on her side of the field that happens to be a Gemini Monster." _Lacey thought as she looked over her hand. "I activate Foolish Burial!" Lacey played the card and quickly picked up her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she sent it to the graveyard and shuffled her deck. "But more on that later, I'll set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Lacey set the cards and Esther smirked before drawing her card.

"That's all? Well that's too bad!" Esther scoffed before looking at her drawn card. "And I start my turn by summoning Rescue Rabbit!" Esther played the card and the small rabbit in the worker's helmet appeared on the field (4/300/100). "And I'll activate its effect, banishing my rabbit…." Esther trailed off as the rabbit disappeared. "So I can Special Summon two copies of Gem Knight Garnet!" Esther played the card and two red armored warriors with a single flaming fist between them appeared on the field (4/1900/0).

"Let me guess, you're about to use them in a XYZ Summon?" Lacey asked and too her surprise Esther shook her head.

"I could do that but why summon one monster when I can do something better?" Esther asked before playing a card. "I activate Gem-Knight Fusion! I send the two Garnets from my field alongside Gem-Knight Obsidian (3/1500/1200) to fusion summon Gem-Knight Master Diamond!" Esther played the card and the three monsters fused together, out of the vortex emerged a tall armored figure carrying a large sword whose armor was grey and it had sparkling diamonds on it (9/2900/2500). "As strong as Master Diamond is he's about to get stronger, he gains one hundred attack points for each Gem monster in my graveyard and thanks to my move there's three!" Esther added as Master Diamond's attack increased to 3200.

"Oh crap, this is bad!" Lacey gulped only to blink in confusion when Master Diamond's attack dropped to 3100. "Huh?"

"Remember Gem-Knight Obsidian? When he is sent from the hand to the graveyard I can Special Summon one Normal Monster from my graveyard." Esther explained as Garnet returned to the field. "But I'm not done, I activate another Gem Fusion fusing Garnet with Gem-Knight Sapphire in my hand to fusion summon Gem-Knight Ruby!" Esther played the card and the two monsters where sucked into another portal, in Garnet's place stood a taller version of Garnet with a purple cape and a long staff (6/2500/1300) and Master Diamond's attack increased to 3400 thanks to its effect. "I set my sole remaining card facedown and end my turn." Esther announced and Keri drew her card.

"_Okay, things just went from bad to worse." _Keri thought with a gulp as she looked over her hand. _"They have three powerhouse monsters on their side of the field and three facedowns with it, if they summon another then they could go for a One Turn Kill." _Keri thought before her eyes rested on her drawn card. _"But not if I can help it!" _Keri thought with a grin before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Keri announced and Delia quickly drew her card. _"Come on, take the bait…."_

"Well it's been a turn so I'll use my Normal Summon to activate Gigaplant's Gemini mode!" Delia announced as the monstrous plant started glowing. "And it's a very potent one, in a way it's a lot like the effect of Lonefire Blossom but it doesn't require a sacrifice and it also applies to insects, however I'll use it to summon another Gigaplant." Esther played the card and another monstrous plant appeared on the field.

"_Okay Lacey, relax, that one doesn't have its Gemini Mode active and she's already used up her summon." _Lacey thought as Esther played an equip spell.

"I activate Supervise! With this Equip Spell my second Gigaplant is now treated as a Gemini Monster." Esther played the card and the second Gigaplant started glowing. "And I'll use its effect to summon my third and final Gigaplant." Delia played the card and the third monstrous plant appeared on the field.

"Going for your old One Turn Kill Delia?" Esther asked with a grin and she nodded. "Then feel free to use Master Diamond." Esther added as her stronger monster walked over to her partner's side of the field.

"Then I will, Master Diamond, attack her defense monster!" Delia commanded and the monster charged towards the defense monster….

"Hah, gotcha, go Mirror Force!" Keri activated the trap and the two Obelisk Blue Girls grinned. "Huh?"

"Not happening, go Trap Stun!" Delia activated the trap and grinned. "Nice try you reject!"

"Thanks but I have my own trap to back her up! Go Trap Jammer!" Lacey activated the trap and Delia's eyes widened as Trap Stun's hologram shattered and the five monsters on their side of the field soon followed suit. "Who's the reject now?"

"Supervise has another effect, when it's face-up on the field and sent to the graveyard I can Special Summon one Normal Monster from my graveyard." Delia added as she retrieved the card from her graveyard. "And since Gigaplant is considered a Normal Monster in the graveyard…." Delia added as the monstrous plant returned to the field. "And guess what rejects? It's still my Battle Phase! Gigaplant, attack her defense monster!" Delia commanded and the plant sprouted vines from underneath the set monster, revealed to be a small robot that was grey and red in color wearing a yellow scarf, a frying pan on its head which face wasn't visible besides the eyes (1/100/300) which was quickly crushed. "Hah! What on earth was that?!"

"That monster was Tuningware and believe me he's a lot tougher than he looks." Lacey responded and Delia scoffed. "Are you done?" Lacey asked and Delia nodded reluctantly before Lacey drew her card. _"Crap, this isn't the card I need!" _Lacey thought before setting it. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Lacey announced and Esther drew her card.

"Delia's attack may have backfired but I still have some moves I can make." Esther said as she retrieved four cards from her graveyard. "If Gem Knight Fusion is in my graveyard I can banish one Gem Knight Monster to retrieve one of them so I'll banish my two Garnets to retrieve two of them." Esther added as she pocketed the two monsters and added the Spell Cards to her hand.

"That won't help you; Gem Knight Fusion will only work with cards in your hand and on the field." Lacey pointed out and Esther scowled at her.

"Don't interrupt me you reject!" Esther scowled as she activated her trap. "I activate Return from a Different Dimension, I cut my own life-points in half….." Esther trailed off before wincing as her life-points dropped to four thousand. "So I can Special Summon the two Garnets and Rescue Rabbit!" Esther added as the three monsters returned to the field. "They will be banished once I end my turn but that's not an issue." Esther added as the two Garnets formed an Overlay Network.

"You used that just to do an XYZ Summon?" Lacey asked and Esther growled at her.

"What did I tell you about interrupting me?" Esther asked as she played a card. "First I use my Garnets to construct an overlay network and summon Infernal Flame Vixen!" Esther announced as a new monster appeared on the field, it was fire that had taken the form of an attractive woman and had a long scythe made of fire as it's weapon, strangely enough a woman's head poked out of the flames and sprouted two demon wings (Rank: 4/2200/2000).

"Okay, that's just creepy." Lacey said with a gulp as she stared down the monster.

"Next I'll use Rescue Rabbit's effect again, this time I'll use it to summon Gem Knight Tourmaline!" Esther played the cards and once Rescue Rabbit vanished from the field two Gem Knights in yellow armor appeared on the field (4/1600/1800). "Now I'll play Gem-Knight Fusion, fusing them together to summon Gem-Knight Prismaura!" Esther played the cards and the two Gem Knights fused together to form a large knight in white and gold armor that was carrying a shield and sword (7/2450/1400). "I'll get to his effect in a bit but first I'll help Delia by using my Normal Summon on Gigaplant."

"Thanks." Delia thanked her as her plant started glowing.

"Next I'll detach an XYZ Material from Flame Vixen to activate her effect, until the end phase she gets five-hundred attack points." Esther added as her XYZ Monster's attack increased to 2700. "Now I'll get my revenge on that reject for destroying my first monsters, Flame Vixen, attack her life-points directly!" Esther commanded and the monster charged towards Lacey.

"I activate my trap card Graceful Revival! With this I revive Tuningware in attack mode!" Lacey played the card and the weak machine returned to the field.

"Fine, you'll just loose less life-points than you would have in the first place, continue your attack Flame Vixen!" Esther commanded and the monster set the monster a light bringing Lacey's life-points down to 5400. "Prismaura put that reject in her place." Esther commanded and the fusion monster stabbed Lacey with his sword bringing her life-points down to 2950. "You won't even survive until your next turn you reject; I end my turn….."

"I activate Shock Draw!" Lacey activated the trap and quickly drew four cards before Keri drew hers.

"Am I alone in thinking Esther just made a dumb move?" Chloe asked as she scratched her head. "Yeah, she has two new powerhouses on her side of the field but cutting her own life-points in half this early in the duel?"

"The way I look at it she wants this finished and fast, she's probably counting on Delia to finish the job she started." Theresa answered with a frown. "And since she used her normal summon on Delia's Gigaplant she can do just that unless she has something in her hand to counter it."

"Effect Veiler is the first thing that comes to mind but that's if she drew it with Shock Draw just now." Brandon agreed with a nod. "And that's if she drew something to get around the attacks that would follow up."

"They've outsmarted them before, I'm sure Lacey and Keri will do it again." Chelsea chimed in as she folded her arms. "And if they win, well it'll be fun to watch those two idiots eat there rejects comments."

"_This is bad; Lacey will be eliminated next if I don't draw something we can use." _Keri thought as she looked at her drawn card. "As much as I hate helping my opponents…." Keri sighed as she played a card. "I activate Spellbook Inside the Pot." Keri played the card and Esther and Delia grinned as the four duelists drew three cards each.

"Don't worry, we'll make you regret that next turn." Esther responded and Keri's eyes narrowed.

"We'll see about that." Keri responded before looking at her drawn cards and grinning. "I set two cards facedown…." Keri said as she set the cards. "And a card in defense mode….." Keri said as she set the other card. "And I end my turn at that." Keri announced and Delia quickly drew her card.

"Then I won't waste any time, I'll use Gigaplant's effect to Special Summon one of the other Gigaplants!" Delia played the card and the second Gigaplant returned to the field. _"I'm not going to fall for the same trick twice, if I lose these Gigaplants without a back-up plan then I'm in big trouble and thanks to Monster Reborn being banned I'm one card short of my usual back-up plans." _Delia thought before pointing to Lacey. "Finish her off!" Delia commanded and the two monsters charged towards her…..

"Did you forget about little old me? I activate my Staunch Defender Trap Card to force one of the Gigaplants to attack one of my monsters instead!" Keri activated the trap and the Gigaplant that was summoned first changed direction and shot its vines towards the defense monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was quickly destroyed. "And I'll use my Magician's effect to summon another monster in defense mode!" Keri added before setting the monster she searched her deck for.

"Fine, but that won't save your partner from this attack!" Delia responded as the vines wrapped themselves around Lacey and squeezed bringing her life-points down to 450. "Even my partner's weakest Gem Knight can finish her off at this point!"

"Just end your turn already." Lacey grunted as she got back to her feet and Delia nodded reluctantly before Lacey drew her card. _"Yes, finally, I've drawn a card I can use!" _Lacey thought as she played it. "I may be behind on life-points but I'm not out of this by a longshot! I summon Junk Synchron!" Lacey played the card a cute, little machine appeared on the field; it was orange in color and had several human like features (3/1300/500).

"Hah! I've never seen such a fitting name for a monster!" Esther scoffed but stopped laughing when Tuningware returned to the field in defense mode. "What?"

"When Junk Synchron is Normal Summon his effect activates, this effect lets me Special Summon one Level Two or lower monster from my graveyard in defense mode with his effects negated." Lacey explained before playing another card. "That's not all, now that I have a Tuner monster on my side of the field I can Special Summon the monster I sent to the graveyard with Foolish Burial, Quilbolt Hedgehog!" Lacey played the card and a small, orange hedgehog with bolts instead of quills appeared on the field (2/800/800).

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Esther asked and Lacey grinned before playing another card. "Is that Machine Duplication?"

"That's right and I'm using it on Tuningware!" Lacey responded as she played the card and two more copies of the machine appeared on the field. "There's two other things you need to know, when Tuningware is used for a Synchro Summon I can treat its level as two, as for the other effect….." Lacey said before grinning as she pointed to Junk Synchron. "Junk Synchron is a tuner monster!"

"Wait, how many levels is that in total?" Delia asked as the five monsters leapt into the air with Junk Synchron leading the way, Junk Synchron pulled at a previously unseen chord and the Synchro Rings quickly surrounded the other monsters.

"Eight and you know what? I'm using all my monsters to Synchro Summon Junk Destroyer!" Lacey played the card and from the bright flash emerged a massive robot that closely resembled a Transformer; it was black, red and gold in color and was very intimidating to look at (8/2600/2500). "Now when Tuningware is used in a Synchro Summon I can draw one card but since I used three…." Lacey trailed off as she drew three cards. "And when Quilbolt Hedgehog is summoned by his effect he is banished, but that's not the effect you should worry about."

"What are you talking about?" Esther demanded as Junk Destroyer suddenly opened fire with previously unseen guns destroying her Gem Knights and Esther's Gigaplants. "What have you done?!"

"I just turned to the duel around in my team's favor, when Junk Destroyer is Synchro Summoned I can destroy one monster on the field for each Synchro Material used in its summon." Lacey explained as her grin grew wider.

"Hope you don't mind me chiming in partner." Keri said as her trap flipped up. "I activate Synchro Strike, now Lacey's Synchro Monster will gain five hundred attack points for each Synchro Material Monster used to summon it for the rest of the turn, there were four of them so…." Keri trailed off as Junk Destroyer's attack points shot up to 4600. "Now, who was it that cut their life-points in half again?"

"Oh shit….." Esther trailed off as it hit her. "I…..I'm not losing to a team of rejects!"

"That's too bad Esther! Otto lost to a reject himself and now it's your turn." Lacey responded before sweat-dropping. "Man I really should've worded that better…." Lacey trailed off before pointing to Junk Destroyer. "Junk Destroyer, finish her off!" Lacey commanded and the monster fired its weapons at Esther bringing her life-points down to zero. "Obviously I can't attack twice so I'll set this…." Lacey trailed off as the set card appeared on the field. "And I end my turn."

"And since Esther's been eliminated it jumps straight to my turn." Keri added as she drew her card. "Lacey, could I use Junk Destroyer?"

"Go for it!" Lacey responded as Junk Destroyer went over to Keri's side of the field.

"Good and now to summon a powerhouse of my own." Keri said as her two facedown monsters disappeared. "I sacrifice my facedown monsters to summon Sorciere de Fleur!" Keri played the card and a tall robed Spellcaster appeared on the field, she had long blonde hair and her robes where white and red in color, she had a golden staff with a purple gem on it (7/2900/0). "And when she's Normal or Special Summoned I get to take one monster from your graveyard and Special Summon it to my field!"

"You wouldn't dare!" Delia gasped as Keri's monster casted a spell and Gigaplant reappeared on Keri's side of the field. "A reject like you isn't worthy of a…."

"Oh just shut up already!" Lacey snapped at her and Delia stopped short. "We've been enduring that bullshit all duel and like it or not we're about to win this match!"

"That's right, Junk Destroyer, Gigaplant, attack her life-points directly!" Keri commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Delia bringing her life-points down to three thousand. "Now normally my remaining monster wouldn't be able to attack the same turn she's summoned, in fact she'll be destroyed at the end of the turn under normal circumstances."

"What do you mean "Normal Circumstances"?" Delia demanded and Keri's last trap flipped up. "Is that Pyro Clock of Destiny!?"

"That's right! Since this trap moves the turn forward by one….well, you know the rest." Keri responded as the time skipped a turn, Gigaplant and her strongest sorcerer launched their attacks again bringing Delia's life-points down to zero.

"Here are your winners of the match, Lacey Morse and Keri Harmon!" Martin announced over the cheering yet shocked crowd as the two Osiris Red Girls high fived each other as they hopped off the arena. "Come back tomorrow when Grace Cathryn Craig of Obelisk Blue teams up with Staci Griffin of Osiris Red to take on Vernon Chan of Ra Yellow and Charity Hensley of Osiris Red but not before Bettye Blanchard of Obelisk Blue teams up with Kara Byers of Obelisk Blue team up to take on Latoya Conley and Louella Schneider of Ra Yellow!"

"Now that was satisfying!" Chloe said with a grin as she stood up with the others. "No offense to Tyler, Theresa and Brandon but I think we have enough Obelisk Blue Students in the second round."

"None taken but we'll see what happens in the following days." Theresa responded as they left the arena. "There are a lot of Obelisk Blue students left after all."

"Yeah and there's way too many all Obelisk Blue teams." Chelsea added and Theresa shook her head at that. "So what are you guys planning now?"

"We'll probably head back to our dorms; I know I'll be checking up on Lance." Andreas answered with a nod. "Besides that I'll see if I can squeeze in some duels as well."

"Yeah, same here, well see you guys later." Chloe said as the Osiris Red Girls split off from the others, whilst that was going on another group was talking amongst themselves.

"Correct me if I'm wrong…." Thomas commented to Cameron and Jessica as he followed them to the main area. "But weren't you friends with Esther and Delia Jessica, in fact you were quite close as I understand it?"

"Not anymore." Jessica said plainly as she followed her boyfriend. "They disgraced Obelisk Blue with that loss and they can drop out for all I care."

"And I can say the same for Clement." Cameron added as he turned to them. "Caitlin may have had Amelia on her team but that's no excuse."

"I'm surprised that you're willing to hang out with me now that you know that I lost to Chloe Richardson before the tournament." Thomas added and they turned to him.

"Don't push your luck Thomas, she beat you because you where careless and practically gave her your Tuner Monster on a silver platter." Cameron commented with a frown. "If you face her team later on don't make the same mistake."

"Believe me, I won't." Thomas responded with a nod. "She won't last one turn against my new deck."

"We'll hold you too that." Jessica added with a smirk. "Don't forget that without Monster Reborn your deck loses a lot of power."

"And so does yours." Thomas responded and they frowned once they realized that he had a point. "For all we know I2 will rectify the many mistakes of the latest banlist by the time of our match against her team but I wouldn't hold my breath, especially since Pegasus's daughter will be taking over in a few years."

"Yes, I heard about that, I believe she graduated from Obelisk Blue last year." Cameron responded with a nod. "She hasn't made much noise in the Pro-Leagues since then but that may explain why."

"Let's focus on the next matches; this should be entertaining at the very least." Thomas responded and they nodded, whilst that was going on MacLeod was making his move.

"Victor, I'll strike later on in the day when the girl's classes are finished." MacLeod said as he made his way out of the arena. "She'll be in a false sense of security and it'll be an easy target."

"Fine, but be ready regardless and remember, she still has that dragon." Victor responded before hanging up.


	94. How the Mighty Have Fallen

"Silent Magician, finish it!" Chloe commanded and her strongest monster nodded before pointing her staff at Chloe's opponent, one of the new girls at her dorm who she was facing as part of Duel Theory which happened to be her last class of the day, and firing a beam of light at her bringing her life-points down to zero. "Good duel Natalie." Chloe complemented her as she deactivated her duel disk.

"Thanks." Natalie responded as she got to her feet and deactivated her own duel disk. "I didn't think my first duel in this academy would be against the girl who inspired me to join in the first place though."

"Eh, these things happen." Chloe shrugged as she glanced around, Martin was currently observing the duels from an elevated position and most of the duels that where taking place as well where wrapping up such as Chelsea's duel against Marcus. "All though I will say that I'm flattered to hear that from you." Chloe added as she blushed a bit.

"All I'm going to say is that I wasn't the only one." Natalie responded and Chloe nodded. "Did you think you would become such an inspiration when you signed up for Battle City?"

"Actually I was selected by Duel Academy, same goes for the other participants from the school." Chloe responded with a sheepish grin. "If it where up to me I wouldn't have attended in the first place."

"Why's that?" Natalie asked and Chloe sighed.

"You know the tournament took place in New York, right?" Chloe asked and Natalie nodded. "I'm from New York and…..let's just say I don't have good memories of that place."

"If you don't want to talk about it I won't pry." Natalie responded and Chloe smiled at that, they heard Marcus yelp out in surprise and looked up to see Chelsea grinning victoriously.

"Sorry big guy but that restriction Martin placed on ya really bit ya on the ass." Chelsea said with a grin as she shuffled her deck. "Nice try though."

"Yeah, yeah, just wait until our teams meet in the tournament." Marcus said as he got up to his feet. "They'll be no restrictions and nothing to stop my dragons from running over your Watt Monsters."

"Keep telling yourself that, don't forget that Chloe's my partner in the tournament and she kicked your ass once." Chelsea responded with a grin before noticing that Chloe and Natalie where listening in. "Weren't you still using the first version of your deck at the time as well?"

"Yeah, I was." Chloe nodded as she walked up to her roommate. "But he's improved his deck as well so who knows who will win if we face off again?"

"Why don't we find out now?" Marcus asked with a grin. "Come on, there's gotta be some time left in the class right?" Marcus asked just as the bell rung signifying the end of the class. "Well, so much for that."

"I'll take you up on that offer if we ever have the same Duel Theory class, that or either of us will get a Duel Request Form, either way we'll duel again." Chloe responded and Marcus nodded in agreement as they left the classroom. "Well, that was my last class of the day, what are you guys going to do for the rest of the day?"

"I'm going to look around the island, I'm still getting used to this area." Natalie responded as she adjusted her bra strap. "The north side's off limits, right?"

"Just the Abandoned Dorm and the Volcano, you should be fine as long as you avoid those areas." Chelsea responded and Natalie nodded. "As for me I'm heading back to our dorm room, got some homework to do and after that I'm hoping to get some progress done on Rome: Total War 2."

"Just don't wake me up by yelling every swear word in the dictionary again." Chloe responded with a sheepish grin. "Not to mention inventing a few new ones."

"Not my fault that the damn AI is so cheap!" Chelsea responded with a grin. "What about you Marcus?"

"I'm heading back to my dorm as well; Jeff's apparently trying to set us up with some roommates from the influx of new students." Marcus responded as he turned to her. "If he does I want to be there for when he has a roommate ready for me."

"Sounds like a plan." Chloe responded as Natalie walked ahead of the group, once they were alone Chloe frowned. "We'd better stay in contact encase those Orichalcos Duelists show up again."

"I don't know, I mean in the past they attacked us just as the Tournament Duels had ended for the day and they ended a few hours ago." Chelsea pointed out once she checked her watch. "Not that I'm complaining off course." Chelsea added before nodding. "Still, it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Definitely, I'll call if anything happens." Marcus responded with a nod before he left the two girls alone to head over to his dorm and Chloe and Chelsea made their way over to their dorm.

"So, are you as anxious to team up again as I am?" Chloe asked Chelsea as the two girls made their way to the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm, Chelsea grinned at her question before answering.

"Is Yata Garasu one of the most broken cards in Duel Monsters History?" Chelsea asked and Chloe grinned at that. "Considering how well our duel against Drake and Donny went last week I think we should be fine going into the next few rounds."

"That is unless we're unlucky enough to face off against Theresa and Brandon in the next round of course." Chloe responded and Chelsea gulped at the thought of that. "Speaking off, any teams you want to face in the next round?"

"Well, I'd say Amelia and Caitlin but they have a pass to the third round." Chelsea answered after thinking for a moment. "Yeah, I'll have to get back to you on that."

"You don't want to face Cameron and Jessica?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shrugged.

"It would be good to kick their asses but I'd rather have time to think up a counter for Cameron's Steelswarms and Jessica's Acid Golem." Chelsea answered with a frown. "We already have Mask of Restrict for dealing with Cameron's monsters but for all we know he's added something like Trap Eater to his deck to get around it."

"Maybe you can look up some cards on I2's website." Chloe suggested before pausing. "In between homework and Rome: Total War 2 at least."

"Yeah, that might work." Chelsea agreed with a nod. "Maybe you can give your old man a call whilst you're at it."

"Yeah, if there's someone I can rely on to get new cards fairly quickly it's him." Chloe agreed with a smile as the two girls entered their dorm room…..and found it a mess. "What the hell? Did a tornado pass through this room whilst we were at the Duel Field?"

"Oh yeah, because a tornado would only focus on a small bedroom used by two teenage girls." Chelsea said sarcastically before it hit her. "Chloe, you have your side deck, right?"

"No I left it here in one of my jacket pockets." Chloe answered as she shook her head. "Why do you…." Chloe trailed off before it hit her, she searched frantically for the jacket and once she found it she located her side deck. "Come on; please still be in here…."

"You left The Eye of Timeaus in your side deck?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Chloe, what if it was stolen?"

"Look, it wasn't as if I would've been dueling at the arena today or in Duel Theory and well, the last time I wore this thing was during the Battle City Semi-Finals." Chloe said as she searched through her deck. "I figured no one would think to look in…..it….." Chloe trailed off as all color drained from her face. "The Eye of Timeaus isn't in here!"

"That's not funny Chloe." Chelsea responded with a nervous laugh but then she saw the look on Chloe's face. "Okay, okay, I'm going to call Theresa and Lance and tell them what happened, if the thief was an Orichalcos Duelist then we'd better be prepared for anything."

"Yeah, thanks for saving me from that conversation." Chloe thanked her as she noticed a note on the floor. "Chelsea, I've found something."

"What is it?" Chelsea asked as she leaned over, Chloe picked up the note and the two girls read it out loud.

"Missing a certain dragon? Meet me outside the abandoned dorm by midnight or I'll rip it up, bring your duel disk. Signed: MacLeod," The two girls finished reading it and shared a look.

"Chloe, this has to be a trap." Chelsea pointed out as Chloe bolted for the door. "Besides do you really want to go back there after what happened last time?"

"I'll take the long root, no cameras, and no second expulsion duel and most importantly I'll have The Eye of Timeaus back safe and sound." Chloe answered as she pocketed the rest of her side deck. "Call the others as well, and Hamden if you need too."

"Hamden? Why should I call him?" Chelsea asked with a confused look on her face. "He may be our unofficial tutor but how would he help."

"He snuck off to the dorm when we were dueling the duel spirits; it's likely he knows the quickest route that doesn't involve the cameras." Chloe answered before tossing Chelsea the note. "If they need proof of this….."

"Say no more." Chelsea nodded as her roommate ran out of the room. _"I hope Chloe knows what she's doing." _Chelsea thought as she started tidying up the dorm room. _"Who am I kidding? She's faced at least a dozen of these guys without her Legendary Dragon backing her up and she did just fine, still I'd better make that call as soon as possible." _Chelsea thought as she dug out her cell-phone.

*later on*

"_Okay, maybe taking my chances with the security cameras would've been a better idea." _Chloe thought as she walked towards the Abandoned Dorm, she knew that it wasn't that far from her current position but her legs were starting to ache from the long walk. _"I can't let that distract me! That bastard has my Legendary Dragon and I'll get it back one way or another!"_ Chloe thought before stopping for a rest, she could see the Abandoned Dorm from where she was but she couldn't see MacLeod anywhere, she quickly checked the time on her watch and saw that she had plenty of time left. _"Please tell me that he isn't in the dorm!"_

"_He isn't Chloe." _Silent Magician chimed in as she appeared alongside her. "_Armed Dragon has been on alert since Chelsea told Theresa about the incident and he said he'd contact me if anyone entered the dorm."_

"_And no one's gone in there?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician nodded, Chloe took a deep breath before continuing her trek up the hill, she eventually reached the dorm and looked around. "I know you're here MacLeod, show yourself!" Chloe called out before waiting for a few minutes, soon a pair of footsteps came from behind the dorm and a robed figure emerged from it.

"So you're Chloe Richardson, a pleasure to make your acquaintance at last." MacLeod greeted her in what was clearly a Scottish Accent and Chloe's eyes narrowed.

"Cut the pleasantries." Chloe snapped at him as her eyes narrowed. "You have something that belongs to me and I want it back!"

"Oh, you mean this?" MacLeod asked as he held up The Eye of Timeaus. "Take it, it's yours." MacLeod added before tossing the card at Chloe's feet, she bent over and picked it up whilst keeping her eyes on MacLeod. "I bet your wondering why I would even steal it if I didn't want it?"

"Yeah, among other things, why would you give me this back in the first place?" Chloe asked as she stood up straight. "If you had used this against me you…."

"I wouldn't have been able to use it in the first place." MacLeod cut her off and Chloe blinked in confusion. "I tried using it on my Duel Disk whilst I was waiting for you to arrive but it simply didn't work, seems it'll only work when used by its mistress."

"That's a relief." Chloe answered as she quickly added the card to her deck and shuffled it. "Why do I get the feeling that this was a blatant ploy to get me to duel you?"

"You got that right lady!" MacLeod answered as he removed his hood; he was a tall man with wild brown hair and a matching beard with brown eyes. "You already know my surname but you can call me Sheamus."

"Whatever your name is you'll pay for taking my card!" Chloe responded as she activated her duel disk and Sheamus did likewise. _"I have no idea what this guy's running…." _Chloe thought as they drew their opening hands. _"Maybe I should let him go first?" _Chloe thought as she looked over her opening hand. "I know it's customary for you to let the lady go first and all but I'd rather let you go first."

"That's fine by me!" Sheamus responded as he drew his opening card. "I activate Terra-Forming! But you've dueled against my partners in crime enough times to know this combo!"

"Yeah, I know it." Chloe responded as Sheamus picked up and searched through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck. _"Knowing these guys that card was likely his copy of The Seal of the Orichalcos and whilst I won't be able to destroy it at least I'll know what to expect."_

"Now I set three cards facedown, two Spell/Traps and a monster in defense mode!" Sheamus continued as the three cards appeared on the field. "And I activate Exchange!"

"Wait, what?" Chloe asked as Sheamus walked over to her. "But…..the only card in your hand is…."

"Aye lass The Seal of the Orichalcos is the only card left in my hand." Sheamus nodded as he showed her the infamous Field Spell Card, Chloe hesitated but knew she had little choice but to take it. "Now let me see your hand."

"Fine, here it is." Chloe responded before showing him her hand which consisted of Apprentice Magician, Marauding Captain, Arcane Barrier, Magician's Circle and Trident Warrior.

"I'll take your Captain." Sheamus decided and Chloe handed it over, Chloe quickly added the field spell to her hand and Sheamus did likewise. "And I end my turn at that." Sheamus added once he was back on his side of the field and Chloe drew her card.

"_Okay, that was weird." _Chloe thought as she added her drawn card to her hand. _"Why would he give me the Seal of the Orichalcos rather than play it…."_

"_Play it!" _A voice rang out and Chloe stopped mid thought, she was used to hearing Silent Magician Level 8's voice but this voice was different.

"_Who's there?" _Chloe asked but there was no response. "I summon Trident Warrior in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a tall, muscular warrior appeared on the field, he was wearing midriff exposing blue armor, had a beard and was wielding a trident (4/1800/1200). "And when he's summoned his effect activates, allowing me to Special Summon a Level 3 monster like Familiar Knight to the field!" Chloe played the card and the knight she had used several times appeared on the field (2/1200/1400). _"Okay, he saw my hand when he played Exchange so there's a good chance that he knows that his monster can't stand up to Trident's attack…."_

"_Activate the Seal." _The voice rang out again and Chloe bit her lip.

"_Well, it would ensure that my warriors can attack over whatever he's got set….." _Chloe trailed off before shaking her head. _"No! I still remember the pain I was in during my first Orichalcos Duel, I'm not activating it!" _Chloe thought before pointing to Sheamus's defense monster. "Trident Warrior, attack his defense monster!" Chloe commanded and the warrior pointed his trident at the monster before firing an electric shock at it….but Chloe quickly recognized the defense monster. "That's Golem Dragon!"

"That's right lass and with two thousand defense points your warrior can't make a dent in it!" Sheamus answered as the shock bounced off of the rocky dragon bringing Chloe's life-points down to 7800. "Off course, if you had activated the seal lass then you wouldn't be behind in life-points."

"It's still early in the game and if you think for one second I'm activating that Spell Card then you can forget about it!" Chloe grunted in response before looking over her hand. _"Silent Magician, can you please do something about the voice in my head?"_

"_I'm doing my best Chloe but it has something to do with the Seal." _Silent Magician responded and Chloe sighed.

"_I'll figure it out myself." _Chloe responded before picking up Magician's Circle. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Sheamus drew his card.

"Jack, she isn't taking the bait, any ideas?" Sheamus whispered into his earpiece as he drew his card.

"She'll come around eventually but if not you have that card from Victor to help you." Jack responded and Sheamus frowned. "Do you have that Spell Card?"

"No but I have another one." Sheamus responded before playing his drawn card. "I activate Pot of Betrayal!" Sheamus played the card which depicted a knight stealing the Pot of Greed from the castle featured on Royal Decree. "This Spell Card can only be activated if we both have cards that weren't ours originally."

"And thanks to Exchange we do." Chloe grunted as her eyes narrowed. "I get the feeling it's a broken effect but what is it's effect?"

"Not at all Lass, we both get to draw two cards." Sheamus responded and Chloe's eyes narrowed as she drew two cards as did Sheamus. "But unless we both use those cards by the end of your next turn then we both take three thousand points of damage."

"Wait, what?" Chloe asked as her eyes widened.

"And to save myself from the damage I'll summon your Marauding Captain to the field!" Sheamus played the card and the brown haired, twin sword wielding captain appeared on the field (3/1200/400), "And I use his effect to summon Alexandrite Dragon!" Sheamus played the card and the beautiful diamond encrusted dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/100). "Now I use my two dragons to construct the overlay network!" Sheamus announced as the two dragons transformed into white orbs of energy that swirled into a vortex, from it emerged a monster that Chloe recognized from the tournament duels, Queen Dragun Djinn (Rank: 4/2200/1200). "Queen Dragun, attack Familiar Knight!" Sheamus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the knight bringing Chloe's life-points down to 6800.

"Sorry but the joke's on you Sheamus! I can now use Familiar Knight's effect to Special Summon Apprentice Magician!" Chloe played the card and the young Spellcaster appeared on the field (2/400/800). _"Not the most idea solution especially since he can use it as well but at least she'll keep my life-points safe."_

"And I'll use Familiar Knight's effect to Special Summon Rare Metal Dragon!" Sheamus played the card and the metallic dragon appeared on the field (4/2400/1200). "And I activate one of my traps, Dimension Slice, since I just Special Summoned a monster Trident Warrior gets banished." Sheamus announced as the trap flipped up and Trident Warrior got sucked into a portal. "Your magician may be in defense mode but not for long, I activate my other Trap Card!"

"Oh great, now what are you up too?" Chloe asked as the Trap flipped up depicting The Unhappy Maiden standing up to the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. "Defiant to the End, I'm afraid to ask but what does that do?"

"Glad you asked lass, it forces your weakest monster into attack mode!" Sheamus responded and Chloe's eyes widened as Apprentice Magician stood up. "Rare Metal Dragon, attack Apprentice Magician!" Sheamus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the magician destroying it and bringing Chloe's life-points down to 4800.

"I use my Magician's effect to summon another one in defense mode!" Chloe said as she quickly set the monster down. _"Man, I knew I should've used Arcane Barrier!"_

"Fortunately for you Defiant to the End only works on one Face-Up monster." Sheamus said before pointing at Marauding Captain. "Marauding Captain, attack her defense monster!" Sheamus commanded and the warrior charged towards the monster, revealed to be Old Vindictive Magician (2/450/600) which fired a beam of light at Marauding Captain destroying it. "Why didn't you target my Queen?"

"Maybe I did it so you wouldn't use my own monster against me." Chloe responded as she sent both monsters to the graveyard and pocketed Trident Warrior. "You're all out of attacks so if your plan was to force my hand then you're out of luck."

"There's other ways to deal damage lass!" Sheamus responded as he picked up a card. "I activate XYZ Bullet! With this Spell Card all I have to do is target one XYZ Monster I control and detach the overlayed monsters from it…." Sheamus explained as he sent Alexandrite Dragon and Golem Dragon to the graveyard. "And you take five hundred points of damage for each monster detached from for Djinn!" Sheamus added and Chloe grunted as her life-points dropped to 3800. "It seems your stuck between a rock and a hard place lass, either use the Seal or lose the duel, I end my turn with a facedown card."

"Chloe, he was joking about that, right?" Chelsea's voice rang out and Chloe looked up, her roommate was standing behind her with the other duelists with Spirit Partners and Hamden.

"I wish he was." Chloe sighed as she added her drawn card to her hand. "During his first turn he forced me to add the Seal of the Orichalcos to my hand via Exchange and has been trying to force me to use it since."

"Well, you don't exactly have to play it right?" Marcus asked and Chloe shook her head.

"He used another Spell Card, Pot of Betrayal, which gave him two more draws since we both have cards that weren't ours originally." Chloe responded before sighing. "But unless I activate it before I end my turn I'll take three thousand points of damage." Chloe added before looking at her drawn card. _"But this could help." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot." Chloe played the card and both duelists drew three times.

"Err, Hamden, if she uses that Spell Card under these circumstances how much trouble would Chloe be in?" Brandon asked and Hamden turned to him.

"The security cameras are currently down for maintenance and that probably explains why he came here in the first place." Hamden responded as he glanced around the dorm. "But the technicians will pick up on the fact that she's used that Spell Card if she does use it."

"Well, her Duel Disk has been faulty lately, that's why she was able to use Ultimate Offering's effect during her duel against Chakra two days ago." Chelsea responded and Hamden turned to her. "Maybe we can use that as an excuse to the other teachers."

"Say that Sheamus played the card but the Duel Disk read outs got faulty from that moment onwards?" Hamden asked and Chelsea nodded. "It might work as long as there aren't any other witnesses to this duel."

"I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode!" Chloe set the two cards and got ready to pick up a third.

"_Activate the Seal! Harness its power!" _The voice rang out and Chloe bit her lip.

"And I end my turn." Chloe announced earning shocked looks from the others, Sheamus grinned as a dagger appeared above Chloe's head. "And I chain Pot of Betrayal's side effect to my Quick Play Spell Card Spell of Pain!"

"WHAT! NO?" Sheamus yelled out as the dagger flew towards him bringing his life-points down to five thousand. "You clever bitch, you'll pay for that!"

"Just start your turn already!" Chloe grunted and Sheamus drew his card. _"That was close but if I can hold out for a few turns I can find a way to win without the Seal."_

"_There is no way." _The voice rang out again and Chloe's eyes narrowed. _"Even if you don't use the Orichalcos he will still be free to attack others."_

"_He….he has a point, what if he targets someone like Natalie or Nicola because I didn't use the Seal against him?" _Chloe thought as sweat started pouring down her face.

"_Don't listen to him Chloe!" _Silent Magician's voice rang out again and Chloe stopped. _"I'm doing what I can but for now use your facedown card!"_

"Queen Djinn, attack the facedown monster….." Sheamus's command was cut off by an ear piercing roar. "What the…."

"Threatening Roar, it's an old card but it forces you to skip your Battle Phase." Chloe responded and Sheamus growled.

"Fine, I'll end my turn at that." Sheamus announced and once he discarded some cards due to the hand size limit Chloe drew her card.

"_I've made it this far but how long can I keep going?" _Chloe thought as her eyes rested upon the Seal of the Orichalcos which was currently in the far right corner of her hand. _"God, I wish Card Destruction hadn't been banned!"_

"_Activate the Seal! It's the only way!" _The voice rang out and Chloe shook her head determinedly.

"_NO! I won't give in!" _Chloe responded before picking up the card she had drawn. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced as the facedown card appeared on the field and Sheamus drew his card.

"_I'll give her credit, she has some serious will power to keep going this long." _Sheamus thought but before he could give the order to attack he realized that Chloe's facedown card had been flipped up. "Thunder of Ruler, you know you can't stall for much longer right?"

"I'll stall for as long as possible." Chloe responded as Sheamus looked at the card in his hand….and grinned sadistically. "What are you up too now?"

"I'll show you! I activate my Spell Card Spell of Sacrifice!" Sheamus played the card and the Spell appeared on the field depicting an unknown Spellcaster casting a powerful spell. "This card will prove to a sadistic choice for you lass! With this Spell Card I can inflict damage equal to the number of monsters on the field times a thousand, that's four thousand points of damage lass, you lose!" Sheamus pointed out before grinning. "But if you have a Spell Card in your hand then you can activate it now and save yourself."

"If you're trying to force me to play the Seal of the Orichalcos again then you're going to be disappointed." Chloe responded as she reached for Arcane Barrier. "Or did you forget that I still have Arcane Barrier in my hand?"

"I didn't and that's why my Spell Card has another effect." Sheamus responded and Chloe blinked. "Almost any Spell Card can be used…except for Continuous Spell Cards." Sheamus added and Chloe's eyes widened as she looked over her hand.

"Chloe, don't worry." Brandon called out as he activated his duel disk. "Take the damage and I'll take out this bastard myself!"

"Yeah, and if he tries the same stunt on him," Chelsea added as she activated her duel disk. "Then he'll have to deal with me!" Chelsea added and the others nodded before activating their duel disks including Hamden but they didn't know what was going on in Chloe's head.

"_Play the Seal my child! There is no time like the present!" _The voice rang out and Chloe bit her lip.

"_Chloe, don't!" _Silent Magician's voice rang out. _"You heard your friends! They are more than happy to pick up where you left off!"_

"_How do you even know if he'll stay in the same spot for much longer?" _The voice rang out again and Chloe's eyes widened.

"_He could move on, target some other student…." _Chloe thought as she reached for the Seal. _"I can't let that happen."_

"_Chloe, listen to me!" _Silent Magician's voice rang out one more time and Chloe sighed.

"Guys…..I'm sorry…." Chloe trailed off as her Field Spell Card slot opened up.

"Chloe, wait!" Chelsea yelled out as she made a rush for her friend.

"…I activate The Seal of The Orichalcos!" Chloe played the card and the Seal quickly encased both duelists sending Chelsea flying back, Tyler and Brandon helped her up and the Seal appeared on Chloe's forehead.

"It's about damn time." Sheamus responded and Chloe glared at him. "Now obviously I can't attack due to your Trap Card so I'll just end my turn." Sheamus announced and Chloe drew her card without a word.

"Err, what the hell was Chloe thinking just now?" Chelsea asked as she got to her feet. "She had pretty much all her friends minus Lance willing to take her spot!"

"I don't know to be honest, Chloe has been stubborn before but this is ridiculous." Theresa responded with a frown. "As much as I hate to admit it I don't know who to root for at the moment."

"Root for Chloe, she may have played it but I think she feels that she was forced into a corner by Sheamus." Tyler responded with a frown. "Don't forget that if he hadn't broken into Chloe and Chelsea's dorm room in the first place she wouldn't be in this situation."

"Yeah and I should've remembered to lock it before heading over to the Duel Field for today's matches." Chelsea grunted with a frown. _"I hope Chloe knows what she's doing."_

"I activate my Spell Card Hand Destruction!" Chloe played the card and both duelists discarded two cards before drawing two more. _"Great, I can win the duel with this combo." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Trade-In; by discarded one Level Eight monster from my hand I can draw two more cards." Chloe quickly discarded the card and drew two cards. "Now I activate Level Modulation!"

"And I think I can guess what card you're getting back." Sheamus responded as he drew two cards and Chloe played the card, shortly afterworlds Silent Magician Level Eight appeared on the field (8/3500/1000) and her attack increased to four thousand thanks to the seal. "And now to bring this to a close, I activate The Eye of Timeaus!"

"_Perfect!" _Sheamus thought as the two cards seemed to merge together…..and Chloe's eyes widened when she saw the fusion fail. "I think there's something wrong with your disk lass."

"I….I don't understand…." Chloe trailed off as she reluctantly sent The Eye of Timeaus to the graveyard. _"It worked when I fought Stephan last week but why…."_

"_Chloe!" _Silent Magician's furious voice rang out and Chloe stopped short, she looked up and realized that Silent Magician was glaring at her from over her shoulder. _"Chloe, you can still win this, I'll sort it out after the duel."_

"_But…." _Chloe trailed off before looking at her other drawn cards. "I activate Megamorph, since my life-points are lower than yours this will double my magician's attack until the end of the turn." Chloe played the card and Silent Magician glowed as her attack shot up to eight thousand.

"It seems you have enough power to defeat my lass, give me your best shot!" Macleod taunted her and Chloe's eyes narrowed. _"And once she does I'll activate Dimensional Wall to direct the damage back to her, best part is if she somehow destroys that trap I have Magic Cylinder to finish her off instead!"_

"I have one more card to play and you may remember this from my duel against Stephan!" Chloe said as she played the card. "Diffusion Wave Motion, for the cost of a thousand life-points I can attack each monster on your side of the field!" Sheamus's eyes widened as Chloe's life-points dropped to 2800. "Silent Magician, finish it!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician powered up her staff before releasing a beam of light at his monsters one by one bringing his life-points down to zero.

"No! No!" Sheamus yelled out as the Seal closed in on him, he let out a blood curding scream and seconds later his soul was captured and Chloe dropped to her knees both from exhaustion due to the long trek up the hill and from the mental shock of it all.

"_I won; I defeated an Orichalcos Duelist before he could hurt anyone…." _Chloe thought as she looked towards the Seal. _"But there's no way I can feel good about this win…."_

"Chloe…." Chelsea's voice rang out and Chloe didn't turn around.

"Look, if you guys want to read me the riot act for what I just did go ahead, it's not like I don't deserve it." Chloe said with a sigh as she turned to them.

"Actually, I think she will do that for us." Brandon responded and Chloe looked up, Silent Magician was still on the field and had turned her attention to her with a scowl on her face.

"Silent Magician…..I can…." Chloe trailed off before the magician pointed her staff at her. "W…..what…what are you doing…."

"Sorry Chloe, it's the only way." Silent Magician said and before the others could intervene she fired a beam of light at Chloe and the others turned away. "You can look now." Silent Magician said after a few minutes and they did, Chloe was still on the ground more or less in one piece.

"Err, what did you just do?" Chelsea asked as she approached the two of them and Silent Magician sighed.

"A purification spell, it eliminated any traces of the demonic force behind the Seal from her mind." Silent Magician answered before twirling her staff around and pointing the safe end of the staff at Chloe who grabbed hold of it, Silent Magician pulled her up and folded her arms. "I told you to ignore him Chloe." Silent Magician said sternly and Chloe sighed.

"I know but I didn't want that bastard to get away." Chloe responded as she glanced at the others. "I heard what you guys said but whoever that other voice was pointed out that he could've left."

"What, with seven other duelists here? We would've surrounded the area." Theresa answered as she shook her head. "There would've been nowhere for him to go except for inside the dorm."

"And those doors are normally locked." Silent Magician added before her eyes rested on the Seal of the Orichalcos card that Chloe had used. "What do you want to do with that?"

"Tear it up and pretend that this never happened." Chloe responded as she picked it up. "I don't think I'll be in any condition, mentally, to duel again after this."

"I'll tell Martin to let you skip some Duel Theory sessions until you feel up to it, I'll think of something, leave that to me." Hamden responded and Chloe nodded.

"No one else must learn what happened here." Silent Magician added as Chloe started ripping up the card. "The Technicians will have picked up on this but I'm assuming that you will tell them the story you came up with earlier?" Silent Magician added and Hamden nodded. "Chelsea, get her back to the dorm room, I think she's had enough excitement for one night."

"Gotcha, common Chloe, let's get out of here." Chelsea answered and Chloe followed her down the hill as Silent Magician vanished. "Don't worry; I cleaned up the mess Sheamus left."

"Not all of it." Chloe sighed and it didn't take Chelsea long to figure out what she meant. "I should've listened to you and let you guys take over."

"Hey, what's done is done and besides, I'm not gonna chew you out over it." Chelsea responded and Chloe sighed in relief. "The older students might but I'll be there to back ya up if that happens."

"Thanks." Chloe sighed as the two girls left the area. _"Man, how could I be so stupid? I knew how dangerous the seal was and I still used it." _Chloe thought as she walked down the hill. _"At least they won't try that again, right?"_

*meanwhile*

"Err, Victor, do you want the good news or the bad news?" Jack said into his earpiece as the speedboat sped away from the island. "Bad news is Sheamus's soul was claimed by the Orichalcos, good news is Chloe was pretty shaken up by the experience."

"Yes, I can see that." Victor responded and Jack nodded. "Come back to HQ, I will discuss this in detail when you get here."

"Got it Victor, see you in a few hours." Jack answered before hanging up.


	95. Day Seven Aftermath

It had been a few hours since Chloe's last Orichalcos duel and she and Chelsea where back in their dorm room at Osiris Red, as Chelsea said the room was no spotless and you'd never think that it was broken into in the first place.

Chelsea was at her laptop playing a game whilst her roommate was lying down on the bed with her hands behind her head and her blazer resting atop the chair facing the coffee table that wasn't occupied by Chelsea's laptop, pretty much the same position they found themselves in when they returned to the dorm after Chloe's duel with Sheamus earlier.

"Chloe, are you still beating yourself up over what happened earlier?" Chelsea asked as she paused the game and turned to her roommate, Chloe sat up and rested her hands on the bed. "You haven't said a word since we got back and I'm getting a bit worried."

"Yeah, I am a bit." Chloe said with a sigh of resignation. "I was the first duelist in Battle City to face off against an Orichalcos duelist and I ended up being on pain killers for the rest of the tournament, almost three months later and now I've used it myself."

"I'm not saying I blame ya but ya can't change the past Chloe." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded. "Trust me, I wish I could go back and undo the aftermath of my first tournament duel but I can't."

"That's the one where you punched the opponent and got sent to juvie hall for it, right?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Look, don't tell anyone but….using the Orichalcos was kind of a thrill."

"…tell me I just imagined that sentence?" Chelsea pleaded as she turned to her roommate. "You realize what you just said right?"

"Yeah I know but….well I guess it's kind of hard to explain?" Chloe trailed off as she sat up. "Trying to think of an example for comparison's sake…you ever tried alcohol?"

"Yeah, I tried it a few times, mostly when I was alone with my partners." Chelsea responded with a shrug of her shoulders. "Hangover wasn't fun but it usually resulted in a fun night."

"Yeah, you just dipped into the too much information area Chelsea." Chloe commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Can you remember what it was like to try it for the first time?"

"Kinda, like I said, the resulting hangover does kinda hindered my memory of that night." Chelsea answered with a frown. "It was after my stint in juvie hall, I was staying over at my boyfriend's for the night…."

"Wait, you had a boyfriend?" Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow. "I was under the impression that you always preferred girls."

"Nah, that's Beth your thinking off." Chelsea said as she shook her head. "My first date was with a guy I met back home in Chicago, he took me home, we got drunk, don't ask me how he snuck the alcohol past his parents, and the next thing we knew we were making out in his bed." Chelsea said before laughing. "My parents weren't exactly thrilled when I came home the following morning."

"I bet they weren't." Chloe said as she shook her head. "So what happened after that?"

"That relationship didn't last that long, my dad threatening to kick his ass if he ever came near me again didn't help." Chelsea answered as she leaned back. "I dated a few boys after that but none of them really did anything for me, it wasn't until I somehow ended up having a one night stand with a girl at a house party that a friend of mine was holding that I realized that I preferred girls, I came out of the closet to my parents a couple a months later."

"So how did they take it?" Chloe asked and Chelsea sighed.

"They were shocked off course, especially since I had been dating a guy before the party." Chelsea sighed as she turned to her roommate. "The guy took it even worse, he thought we'd be together well beyond our high school years so when I broke up with him he wasn't happy, and that was before I told him that I was leaving him for a girl." Chelsea added with a sigh. "I didn't exactly hear much from him after that, from what I heard his parents moved from Chicago shortly after I came out but besides that I don't know what he's up too."

"Was he any good at Duel Monsters?" Chloe asked and Chelsea looked at her funny. "I think you know why I'm asking this."

"The Orichalcos, right?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "I don't think he was ever really into the game, he'd watch me play the game and give me some support but he preferred being a bystander, I can't even remember if he had a deck." Chelsea answered with a frown. "Speaking off, how about we get this conversation back on track?"

"Right, right, we were talking about your first time trying alcohol." Chloe commented with a frown. "I've never tried the stuff but I guess it would be accurate to compare it to the buzz you get from getting drunk for the first time."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense, just don't join the Orichalcos Duelists behind our backs like Otto did." Chelsea commented with a frown. "Do we even know how long he's been with those bastards?"

"I don't know, I found out at the Battle City Semi-Finals like the others did." Chloe responded as she shook her head. "Didn't get much of a chance to ask him during our match in the finals either."

"Given how much he pissed you off over the course of the Semi-Finals I can't exactly blame you." Chelsea responded before letting out a yawn. "Man, what time is it?" Chelsea wondered but before she could check the clock there was a knock at the door.

"Nightly dorm check are you in there girls?" A female guard's voice rang out and Chelsea grinned sheepishly.

"That was almost on cue." Chloe commented a chuckle. "Yeah, we are, we'll be going to bed soon." Chloe called out and the guard subsequently walked off. "Man, I still can't get used to that."

"I can, they did that all the time back in juvie." Chelsea responded before letting out another yawn and closing the laptop lid. "I think we'd better get to sleep, we have tomorrow's duels, classes and whatever crazy scheme those bastards come up with to look forward to tomorrow after all."

"I don't think that last one could count as something to look forward too." Chloe pointed out as Chelsea grabbed her pajamas and headed to the top bunk to get changed, Chloe got up to get her pajamas out of the closet the two girls shared and turned to Chelsea. "You won't tell anyone about what I said regarding the Orichalcos, will you?"

"Not as long as you don't activate it again." Chelsea responded with a sigh. "I don't think your duel spirit will be too happy with you though." Chelsea added and Chloe winced before she started getting changed. "Good night Chloe."

"Good night." Chloe responded before getting into bed. _"Silent Magician, I know I messed up today but…."_

"_We've been through this Chloe and mistakes happen, even big ones like what happened today." _Silent Magician responded and Chloe sighed in response. _"Oh and don't act on your feelings towards the Orichalcos or else I might need to do something drastic."_

"_Err, I'm afraid to ask but what do you mean by drastic?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician sighed.

"_Remember when I almost got you and your classmates expelled?" _Silent Magician asked and Chloe nodded. _"Murdering your protégé is one of the worst crimes you can commit as a Spirit Guide but there are a couple of exceptions to the rule."_

"_Like what?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician frowned.

"_If the protégé is dying from something that is painful such as cancer or bleeding out he/she can request a mercy kill." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe winced. _"Off course the methods used by duel spirits vary, warriors would stab them in the heart, spellcasters would cast a spell to stop it…."_

"_Err; wouldn't stabbing them in the heart make the bleeding worse?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician shook her head.

"_Warrior spirits who use swords and other bladed weapons are masters of their craft, trust me, they know what they are doing." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe nodded. _"As for the other exception, that only counts when someone uses the Orichalcos or a similar card more than once."_

"_Oh…" _Chloe trailed off with a sigh. _"I think I'm ready to go to sleep now."_

"_Indeed you are, good night Chloe." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe dozed off soon after.

*the next day*

The students at Duel Academy where getting up nice and early in preparation for the day ahead but another group was preparing for the day ahead as well, just for entirely different reason.

"So Victor, what will we do now?" Jack asked as he took a sip from his drink. "MacLeod was successful in getting Chloe to use the Orichalcos but he was defeated."

"Yes, I saw that." Victor said as he rested his hands on the desk. "We'll keep a close eye on them for now but maybe it's time we extended our target list?"

"Okay, first off are you suggesting that we install cameras into a dorm room shared by two teenage girls, one of whom is a lesbian?" Jack asked and Victor glared at him. "Thought not, second, what do you mean by that?"

"The other students at the academy should be easy enough to target, especially if they have no connection to Chloe and her friends." Victor responded with a frown. "Don't target the three Obelisk Blue students we've been watching, I think you know why." Victor added and Jack nodded. "I'll be sending an e-mail containing a list of all the students to my agents, including the new students that joined over the weekend, with instructions to target them."

"And that means I get to play delivery boy again." Jack grumbled under his breath. "Seriously Victor, why waste so much manpower when me and Sarah could probably duel circles around those students?"

"Because I will not and cannot risk losing my top agents." Victor answered and Jack frowned. "You'll get your chance but not today."

"_That chance had better come soon! I know I can beat that punk with the Claw of Hermos, I know it!" _Jack thought with a frustrated frown before turning to Victor. "You want me to pick up an agent or not?"

"I'll have to call an agent first but as soon as I can find one you will be the first to know." Victor answered and Jack nodded. "As for Richardson, I doubt she'll be in any shape to duel for the next few days, we both know how mentally tasking using the Orichalcos for the first time is, but I'll advise against targeting her, even with that in mind she is still a talented duelist."

"Please, the kid's a fucking rookie, how long exactly has she been dueling anyway? Last I checked she only has a little under a year's experience under her belt!" Jack scoffed and Victor frowned. "Yeah, yeah I know, what the boss says goes but my point still stands!"

"If you are done you can leave and go to the helipad, I should have an agent ready for pick-up by the time you get there!" Victor responded and Jack puffed before leaving the office, he put a hand on the phone and dialed his secretaries' number. "Juliana, send Dr. Schwartz up to my office, I have a task for him."

"Understood sir, I'm calling him now." Juliana answered before hanging up.

"_All this effort over a children's card game," _Victor thought as he glanced down at his deck. _"When I was business partners with Kaiba I couldn't understand the fixation he had on it, until I did some research in the private files of Kaibacorp's database that is." _Victor thought as he grinned broadly. _"It was then that I saw its true potential, something I achieved when I revived the Orichalcos, in due time it'll be my turn to duel and not even the Legendary Dragons can save those brats from my wrath." _Victor thought as the door opened and Dr. Schwartz entered.

*elsewhere*

Despite yesterday's events Chloe and the others were able to go along their school day routine without any interruptions, and in this case Chloe, Chelsea and Marcus where in PE.

"Good time on the obstacle course Chelsea." Jeff commented as he looked at his stopwatch, Chelsea was taking a moment to catch her breath having just run the course and Marcus was up next. "Cut down on the junk food a bit and you'll do even better."

"Tell that to the big guy over there and not the girl who's actually in shape!" Chelsea responded with a grunt before turning to Marcus. "No offense Marcus."

"No offense taken Chelsea," Marcus responded as he warmed himself up for his run off the course, the class was about to end and only he and Chloe hadn't run the course yet, Chloe, remembering what happened the first time she ran the course, was wearing one of her long sleeve tops. "Ready when you are Jeff."

"Just give me a second to reset the timer…." Jeff trailed off as he set the timer. "And go!" Jeff added and Marcus started running the course, whilst that was going on Chelsea joined her roommate who was currently warming up for her turn.

"Look on the Brightside Chelsea." Chloe commented as her roommate caught her breath. "At least we'll be heading over to the duel field after this class."

"Yeah, after we get changed out of these sweaty clothes you mean." Chelsea grunted as she stood up straight. "This has to be Jeff's idea of a sick joke, putting PE right before today's tournament duels?"

"Just be glad that we know for sure that we won't be competing today." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea nodded as Chloe finished her stretches. "Though given Marcus's running speed we may still be here by the time the third round's started…."

"Ha, ha, very funny Chloe, you're up next by the way." Marcus grunted as he finished the course and stopped the catch his breath, Chloe said nothing as she walked up to the track and Jeff gave her the signal the run the course. "So Chelsea, has Chloe talked about last night's events since you returned to your dorm?"

"Yeah, she did." Chelsea said as she ran a hand through a hair. "But the topic of the convo isn't something I'm comfortable talking about within earshot of a teacher."

"I hear ya; maybe we can talk about it over the arena?" Marcus suggested as he caught his breath. "You girls get up to much besides that?" Marcus asked and Chelsea shrugged.

"I played some Rome: Total War 2 like I said I would, almost done conquering the world on that game." Chelsea answered as she watched her roommate run the course. "Chloe on the other hand just spent the rest of the night on the bottom bunk; she did look exhausted after the duel so I'm wouldn't be surprised if she dozed off at one point."

"I'd like to say that I know that feeling but….well, you know." Marcus responded as Chloe rounded a corner on the course, the last corner before she would complete the course. "Well, she's already beaten my time."

"Marcus, a snail could beat your time." Chelsea teased him before shaking her head. "I doubt she's doing it as fast as I did though, those short legs of hers don't exactly make for great running speed."

"I can hear you Chelsea." Chloe grunted as she climbed over the second to last obstacle. _"Silent Magician, can you cast some kind of spell that could make me run faster?"_

"_Well, I could…." _Silent Magician trailed off as Chloe tumbled over the climbing frame landing face first into the safety matt and getting a few laughs out of a few students. _"But that would be too easy, that and you wouldn't be able to stop running until you collapsed from exhaustion."_

"_You're kidding, right?" _Chloe asked as she got to her feet and proceeded down the rest of the course, compared to the climbing frame the last obstacle was fairly easy but it was still something Chloe had difficulty with. _"Man, I still hate that climbing frame, that thing led to the teachers learning about my childhood."_

"_Do you always carry grudges against inanimate objects?" _Silent Magician asked as Chloe finished the last obstacle and crossed the finish line. _"As for your question, no, I'm not."_

"Good run Chloe, better than your run last week." Jeff complemented her as Chloe stopped to catch her breath. "Okay, that's all for today, I know you want to get to the Duel Arena for today's duels but I'm not letting anyone out until they get changed back into their uniforms." Jeff added earning a collective groan from the students. "My next class isn't until after the duels and I'm willing to wait." Jeff added and the students begrudgingly made their way into their respective locker rooms. _"No matter how young they are duelists never change." _Jeff thought as he shook his head. _"I remember wanting to forego my personal hygiene to watch or participant in a duel as well, good times." _Jeff thought as the students emerged from their locker rooms in their uniforms. "All right, unless you have classes during the duels enjoy them, and because I have class to prepare for myself please refrain from any spoilers because anyone who does gets to run around the course twice in a row the next time we have a lesson." Jeff added and the students nodded with gulps before leaving.

"Man, am I glad to be out of there." Chelsea groaned as she and Chloe made their way to the duel arena for today's matches, Marcus had gone ahead in order to find the others leaving the two girls to their own devices. "I mean, I would've been happy to just run over to the dorm room, get changed and run back with my laptop but nope, he had to make us wait."

"Chelsea, the girl's dorm would've taken you more than twenty minutes to get to by my watch." Chloe pointed out as she followed her roommate. "There's no way you could've made it back before the first turn."

"Yeah but at least I'd have my laptop." Chelsea answered as they neared the duel arena. "Instead I'll have to make do with watching the duels."

"Isn't that the point though?" Chloe asked and Chelsea sighed.

"It is but I have IT Class right after the duels, I won't have time to run over there and grab it." Chelsea responded and Chloe frowned before getting an idea. "Don't tell me, you're volunteering to get it for me?"

"Well, I don't have class after the duels; in fact my next class isn't until the early afternoon." Chloe answered once she checked her schedule. "It won't be a problem."

"Okay fine but be careful with that thing, my work is on it." Chelsea answered and Chloe nodded. "Oh and thanks."

"No problem." Chloe answered and Chelsea grinned before they entered the arena. "You know who's competing today? And by that I mean, as in, personally?"

"No I don't, Staci was with us at the lake on Sunday but Beth invited her, I never met her before then and I didn't really talk to her that much." Chelsea answered as she turned to her roommate. "Off course we both know who we can blame for that."

"That Orichalcos Duelist Lance faced." Chloe answered with a frown and Chelsea nodded. "It sucks that we can't get time off to take the fight to them….come to think of it why didn't we think of that sooner?"

"Believe me, I tried." Theresa's voice rang out and the two girls looked up and saw Theresa ahead of them at the top of the stairs. "After Lance got his hands on The Fang of Critius I went to Martin with a request for time off for all of us."

"By your tone of voice I'm guessing it didn't work?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded. "Why?"

"Lance's cold played a factor but in the end it was the tournament that drove the final nail in that coffin." Theresa answered as the two girls caught up to her. "Martin understood my reasoning but he pointed out that it wouldn't exactly be fair on the other competing duelists, especially Lance and Andreas's tag team partners, I tried to get him to postpone it but Martin said that it was past that point."

"I'm guessing that's something you're not willing to disclose to anyone else?" Chelsea asked and Theresa nodded without hesitation. "That's good; the students have been anticipating this tournament for so long that any further delays wouldn't have helped."

"It gets worse than that." Theresa responded getting the attention of Chloe and Chelsea. "Martin pretty much said that the only way we could get time off at this point was if the tournament was cancelled all together."

"You're kidding?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head. "If that happened then what would've happened to the prize?"

"Martin already planned for that." Theresa said as she turned to them. "They were considering cancelling the tournament due to the long delays but it was Hamden who saved it, if that had happened the booster packs would've returned to the shops at a discounted price with the prize money being put in the school's budget."

"That makes sense." Chelsea responded with a nod. "Rare cards at a discounted price? That would've sold like hot cakes."

"That plus a little extra money in the budget on top of all that, either way the school would've made money." Chloe added and Chelsea nodded as the three girls made their way up the stairs.

"I think the cards will go on sale at the card shop at some point anyway." Theresa added as she turned to them. "Like you said, they'd sell like hot cakes." Theresa added before frowning. "Chelsea, can you go ahead? I want a chat with Chloe."

"Err; sure, I'll give you guys a shout if the match is starting and you're still down here." Chelsea responded before going up ahead, once she was out of earshot Chloe sighed.

"It's about my last Orichalcos Duel isn't it?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded. "I know how stupid my decision was in hindsight but, well, you heard what I said after Silent Magician used that spell on me."

"Yeah, I did, can't say it made my feelings about it any better though." Theresa responded and Chloe winced once she sure the look on her face. "Chloe, you know firsthand how dangerous that card is, hell you ended up leaving the site of your first Battle City duel in an ambulance because of it." Theresa added as she folded her arms. "What were you thinking?!"

"I know this is going to sound crazy but compared to all the other stuff that's happened since I joined Duel Academy it may seem tame." Chloe said with an annoyed sigh. "You remember when Silent Magician mentioned a demonic force?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded. "There was a voice in my head after I got the Orichalcos from Sheamus, it sounded nothing like Silent Magician and I think it was the force she mentioned."

"What did it say?" Theresa asked and Chloe thought back for a bit.

"I can't remember exactly, I had a lot on my mind for obvious reasons." Chloe admitted and Theresa nodded. "But the jist of it is that it was trying to get me to play the Seal every other turn, I was able to ignore it for the majority of the duel up until Sheamus played Spell of Sacrifice, I was this close to taking the bullet and letting someone take over like you and the others where suggesting but the voice said that he could've gotten away if I hadn't and well, you know the rest." Chloe added as she lowered her head in shame

"You are one stubborn girl sometimes Chloe." Theresa sighed and Chloe glanced up. "Like I said after your duel, we would've surrounded the area, left him with nowhere to go and eventually he would've found himself in a situation where he was either forced to use the Orichalcos himself or retreat giving his boss a mission failed report, either way his mission would've failed."

"And instead I used the Orichalcos and even in defeat his mission succeeded." Chloe sighed as she shook her head. "Man, I'd hate to think what my parents would think if they knew that."

"They won't, from what you've told me they will probably be too busy with their own work." Theresa responded and Chloe nodded. "Even if they do ask if you've been in any other Orichalcos duels you can still lie to them, I know your stepdad lied to you for years about your real dad's incarceration but considering the alternative…."

"Yeah, I get the idea." Chloe said before noticing her roommate motioning them over at the top of the stairs. "Come on, if we stay down here too long we'd miss the first move."

"Good idea." Theresa responded as the two women made their way up the stairs. "You don't have to worry about Tyler or Brandon chewing you out either, we drew straws to decide who got to do that."

"Wait, seriously?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded. "Did you three want to chew me out that badly?"

"To the point where I could hear them practicing their chewing out sessions in my sleep, we spent last night in Tyler's room." Theresa said before blushing once she noticed the look on Chloe's face. "The Obelisk Blue students have an exam later, it's to do with who gets to graduate from the academy and who doesn't, and we were studying for that."

"Oh, okay." Chloe said with a shrug before realizing something. "Are you saying that you three could graduate during the tournament?"

"No, we'll graduate on the last day of the term; we'll get to choose our graduation opponents and everything." Theresa answered and Chloe nodded. "Don't worry; we plan to take out the Orichalcos for good before we even think about making our pro circuit debuts."

"That's a relief." Chelsea chimed in as they approached her. "Come on, the match will be starting in a few minutes." Chelsea added and they followed her to where the others were seated, once again they had good seats and the three of them took their seats. "The duelists haven't arrived yet but by my watch we're about five minutes out from the first duel starting."

"That sounds about right." Tyler answered as he checked his watch before turning to Chloe and Theresa. "Did you two talk about last night?"

"Yeah, we did." Chloe responded with an annoyed sigh. "And she told me that you and Brandon had your own plans on chewing me out."

"Guilty as charged but since Theresa kept her end of the bargain we won't go through with it." Brandon admitted and Chloe sighed in relief. "As much as you deserve it for using that thing in the first place we're men of our words."

"Gee, thanks for the reminder." Chloe grunted before noticing two teams of duelists entering the main arena. "Guys, the duel's starting." Chloe added as they turned their attention to the duel.

"Welcome to day seven of the Tag Team Tournament." Martin's voice rang out and the crowd cheered. "It's the second to last day of the first round and I'm sure that today's competing duelists will not disappoint! Today's first match is between the teams of Bettye Nanette Blanchard of Obelisk Blue and Kara Byers of Ra Yellow and Latoya Conley and Louella Schneider of Ra Yellow."

"_Okay Kara, you can do this." _Kara thought as she shuffled her deck, she was a short girl around Chloe's height with shoulder length red hair and blue eyes whose uniform identified her as a second year student. _"Ra Yellow is seriously underrepresented in the second round but no matter who wins this match that fact will change."_

"Are you nervous Kara?" A feminine French accent rang out and she glanced up, her tag team partner, Bettye, was a French transfer student who had transferred from a school in France that had trained the French national champion last year and she had quickly made a good impression, going up from Osiris Red to Obelisk Blue in the space of a year, she was around Theresa's height with elbow length black hair and brown eyes. "Don't be, you'll do fine with me on your team."

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Louella's voice rang out and they looked up, the two Ra Yellow students on the other end of the arena where clearly American and Louella had shoulder length brown hair and blue eyes. "Kara, you may have an Obelisk Blue Student on your team but don't forget, four Obelisk Blue students were eliminated yesterday."

"Yeah, I know, I watched that duel as well." Kara answered with a frown. "But Chong's team only lost because his partner was an arrogant snob who couldn't back it up on the duel field."

"And Esther and Delia, well they were a team of Obelisk Blue snobs." Bettye added with a smirk. "A team that arrogant was only setting themselves up for their defeat no matter who they were against."

"Any way you look at it the Obelisk Blue dorm is not looking good going into the next round." Latoya responded with a smirk. "And they'll look even worse when we win this match!" Latoya added as she and Louella started shuffling their decks, she had short black hair and blue eyes and, like the other Ra Yellow students in the duel, she was clearly a second year student.

"We'll see about that." Bettye responded as she started shuffling her deck. "As for the order, how about Kara goes first, then Louella, then Latoya and finally me?" Bettye suggested and the other three girls nodded. "Good, now let's begin!" Bettye added as the four duelists drew their opening hands and once they nodded to confirm this Kara drew her first card.

"Well, at least there's no one I outright hate this time." Chloe commented as she listened to the opening trash talk between the two teams. "You guys know anything about them?"

"Bettye was a transfer student last year but quickly made it known that she was one of the best duelists at the school she transferred from." Theresa said as she turned to Chloe. "And once her turn begins you'll see why."

"I'm afraid I don't know much about the others though." Andreas added with a frown. "Yes, they are in Ra Yellow as well but I don't hang around the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm as much as I'd like too." Andreas added only to be playfully elbowed in the ribs by Nicola who was sitting next to him. "I get the feeling that I shouldn't have said that out loud."

"_Okay, not a bad hand so far, but I'd better play it safe." _Kara thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode." Kara announced as the two set cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn at that." Kara added and Louella drew her card.

"You think playing it safe will protect you? That's not likely." Louella responded before looking at her drawn card and smirking. "But don't take my word for it; first I activate Foolish Burial to send one monster from my deck to my graveyard." Louella played the card and picked up her deck before searching through it, once she found the card she needed she sent it to the graveyard, reshuffled her deck and returned it to the deck holder. "But more on that later, I summon Blazewing Butterfly to the field!" Louella played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large orange butterfly with wings made of flame (4/1500/1500).

"A Gemini deck, not bad but you've already used up your normal summon." Bettye pointed out and Louella grinned. "Besides I'm surprised that anyone still runs that after Ultimate Offering was banned."

"My deck would've taken a hit because of that but truthfully I've never ran that card." Louella responded as she picked up a card. "Not that I never considered it but all the shops I tried, even the DA shop, didn't have any copies off it and besides, the only way my deck was hit was when Monster Reborn and Pot of Avarice where banned."

"Join the club." Kara sighed and Louella shook her head.

"Anyway back to my move and I play another Spell Card Double Summon!" Louella said as she played a card. "And I'll use my second summon to activate Blazewing's Gemini mode and, most importantly, it's effect, in a way it's like that Gigaplant monster that Esther used yesterday but there's a big difference." Louella added as Blazewing Butterfly disappeared from the field. "All I need to do is tribute it and I can Special Summon one Gemini monster from my graveyard with its Gemini Mode already activated as long as it's not another Blazewing Butterfly."

"And you've already sent one there with Foolish Burial." Kara realized and Louella nodded as she retrieved the card. "So what is it exactly?"

"I'll show you, I summon Tuned Magician!" Louella played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall man in weird white and gold robes with a gold colored wizard's hat (4/1800/1600). "I'll get to his effect on my next turn but for now I'll set this." Louella announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And I end my turn."

"A Gemini deck," Chloe said as she scratched her head. "I ran one in my old Battle City deck but never seen a whole deck based around it."

"They are a pretty tricky deck to work, even more so now that Ultimate Offering has been banned." Tyler responded with a frown. "But from what I've heard Louella's managed to work around that."

"That was also a pretty major misplay." Chelsea added getting Chloe's attention. "A better move would've been to use Supervise to activate Blazewing's Gemini Mode and once she used it to summon Tuned Magician use Supervise's other effect to bring back Blazewing."

"Why's that?" Chloe asked as Bettye looked over her hand.

"Tuned Magician is treated like a Tuner monster whilst its Gemini Mode is active." Chelsea answered with a frown. "With that move she could've made a Level Eight Synchro easily."

"That is true but I can think of a couple of reasons why she didn't." Theresa chimed in and the two girls turned to her. "Kara's facedown monster could've been something like Bottomless Trap Hole or a similar trap or she simply didn't have Supervise in her hand."

"I doubt your first theory, if Kara was smart she'd use that card on Tuned Magician if she had it." Chelsea pointed out with a frown. "That way any potential Synchro Summons get cut off at the pass unless she runs something like D.D.R. like Chloe does."

"_My partner's playing it safe and Louella's setting up to bring out the big guns early." _Bettye thought as she added her drawn card to her hand. _"But I can still make a move of my own." _Bettye thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and summon Milla the Temporal Magician." Bettye played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young woman in a white and gold dress with short silver hair who was wielding a golden staff (4/1800/1000).

"That monster's just as strong as Tuned Magician, why would you summon her?" Louella asked as Milla pointed her staff at Louella's facedown card and it started glowing. "What the…."

"This is why, when Milla is Normal Summoned I can look at one facedown trap card you control." Bettye responded and Louella grinned.

"Fine, I'll chain it, go Birth…." Louella trailed off when she realized that her duel disk wasn't responding to her command. "Err; I think my Duel Disk is broken."

"It isn't, simply put you can't activate Spells or Traps in response to this activation." Bettye explained as the facedown card flipped up revealing the trap card Birthright. "I had a feeling it was that trap card when you tried to activate it."

"Yeah well, now that you've seen it goes back facedown again." Louella responded as her trap card flipped facedown again.

"Obviously but most importantly I now have a solid idea of what your strategy is." Bettye responded before looking over her hand again. "I can't attack so I'll end my turn at that." Bettye announced and Latoya drew her card.

"Err; wouldn't a card like Night Beam work better?" Chloe asked as she scratched her head. "It features that Spellcaster's last effect but destroys it rather than reveals it."

"I was thinking the same thing but it's likely that Bettye hasn't drawn it yet, and that's if she runs that card." Brandon responded with a thoughtful look on his face. "It's not exactly a common card, the only reason I have a copy at all is because I basically got lucky when I was buying cards to replace the ones banned in that emergency banlist last week."

"Then again like most Obelisk Blue students Bettye's family is rich so it's possible she has it." Theresa chimed in and Chloe nodded as they turned their attention back to the duel.

"_One set monster and two attack position monsters with equal attack, nothing that I can't handle." _Latoya thought before looking at her hand. _"If I had a decent hand that is, which I don't." _Latoya thought with an annoyed look on her face. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Latoya announced and Kara drew her card.

"I think it's time I went on the offensive, I flip summon Road Roller!" Kara played the card a small roller appeared on the field; it was yellow and red in color and had spikes at the front (4/600/2100). "Why didn't I leave him in defense mode? I'll show you, I activate two Spell Cards, first up is Foolish Burial but since Louella's already used it I don't need to explain its effect." Kara explained before playing the card and picking up her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she sent it to her graveyard and shuffled her deck. "As for my second Spell Card, it's a special one called Charging Construction!"

"What's so special about that?" Louella asked as she picked up another card.

"I'll show you, for my normal summon I bring out Jumbo Drill!" Kara played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was another Machine Monster but this one was large, dark blue in color and seemed to be a drill off some king (4/1800/100). "When Jumbo Drill is Normal Summoned I can increase the levels of all Machine Monsters I control by one." Kara continued as Jumbo Drill and Road Roller's levels increased to five.

"So you're going for a Rank Five XYZ using your machines?" Latoya asked and Kara grinned.

"No, not exactly," Kara responded as she retrieved the monster she sent to the graveyard with Foolish Burial. "Remember Charging Construction? Well now that I've done my Normal Summon its effect activates, it's an effect that only works on three specific monsters, Road Roller, Jumbo Drill and the monster I sent to the graveyard."

"And what does it do exactly?" Louella asked and Kara frowned.

"I'll show you if you'd stop interrupting." Kara responded before playing the card. "It lets me Special Summon that monster from the graveyard, in this case it's Strong Shovel Excavator." Kara added as she played the card. It was a red excavator with a large metal claw (3/1800/100). "When Excavator is Special Summoned its level increases by one." Kara added before picking up another card. "But that's not good enough for me, you see you were correct when you guessed that I was going for a Rank Five XYZ Summon but this is different, this monster requires three Level 5 monsters."

"Then you're out of luck, Excavator's one level short." Latoya pointed out as Kara played another card. "Unless you have a card that can increase its level again I don't see how you're going to XYZ Summon this monster you're talking about."

"Just watch, I play one more Spell Card and it is called Resonance Device!" Kara played the card and Excavator and Jumbo Drill started glowing. "Since Excavator and Jumbo Drill are both Earth Type Machine Monsters I can change Excavator's level so that it matches Jumbo Drill's Level for the rest of the turn." Kara added as the overlay network opened up and the three machines where sucked in. "But Excavator, or my other machines for that matter, won't be around that long, I use all three of them to XYZ Summon my best monster, Digvorzhak, King of Heavy Industry!"

"We won't be required to try to spell the names of the monsters after the duel will we?" Latoya added as the monster appeared on the field, true to its name it was a massive machine, more specifically a Bucket-wheel excavator, that towered over the others (Rank: Five/3200/2000). "Wait a sec; I've heard of that monster, it's one of the rarest XYZ Monsters in the game."

"Yeah it is, and you don't want to know how much of a headache I had trying to get my hands on it." Kara responded as she sent Jumbo Drill to the graveyard. "Now I activate my king's effect, by detaching an overlay unit I can force you two to mill the top three cards in your deck, you'd better hope that you don't get any monsters though." Kara added as the two girls milled their cards. "Because if there are any monsters among the cards milled I get to destroy just as many cards on the field, so what's the result?"

"Well I'm safe." Louella responded with a sigh of relief. "The three cards I milled where all Spell Cards." Louella added before turning to Latoya. "What about you Latoya….." Louella trailed off when she saw her partner was sweating bullets. "Oh shit, how many monsters did you just mill?"

"All three of them where monsters…." Latoya said simply and Louella's eyes widened.

"Please tell me you have Effect Veiler in your hand?" Louella pleaded and Latoya shook her head.

"No, but I can do this!" Latoya said as her facedown card flipped up. "I chain activate Reckless Greed, it costs me two Draw Phases but I get to draw two cards before that thing goes on a rampage." Latoya added as she drew two cards.

"Fine, I'll destroy Tuned Magician, Latoya's facedown monster and Birthright!" Kara announced and the massive machine started picking up speed before running over the three cards destroying them all. "Now you'd think that my machine wouldn't be able to attack after an effect like that." Kara said before grinning broadly. "You'd be wrong, Digvorzhak, attack Louella's life-points directly!" Kara commanded and the machine picked up speed again before charging at Louella…..

"Not so fast, one of the cards I drew with Reckless Greed was Battle Fader!" Latoya played the card and the small pendulum fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0) causing the machine to stop in its tracks.

"Thanks." Louella thanked her partner with a sigh of relief before turning to Kara. "Your machine's powerful but it's not invincible, we'll find a way to defeat it!"

"You're welcome to try, for now I'll end my turn." Kara announced and Louella drew her card.

"No wonder that thing's so rare." Chloe said with a gulp. "That effect's deadly!"

"It's deadly but situational at best." Tyler corrected her and Chloe turned to him. "What if Latoya is running a Lightsworn deck? If she is then Kara just played right into her hand."

"I've never heard of a Lightsworn deck that ran Battle Fader and Reckless Greed before." Brandon responded with a frown. "I mean I did face a Lightsworn deck back in New York but now that I'm more familiar with it I know that it wasn't that good a Lightsworn build."

"How about we talk about that later and just focus on the duel?" Chelsea suggested as she turned her attention back to the duel.

"_Okay, my first strategy is out the window thanks to that machine of hers." _Louella thought as she looked over her hand. _"Good thing I have a back-up plan." _Louella thought before playing a card. "I activate a Spell Card called Swing of Memories, since my Gemini monsters are considered Normal Monsters whilst they are in the graveyard this Spell Card will let me Special Summon Blazewing Butterfly back to the field." Louella played the card and the butterfly returned to the field. "Next I activate Supervise and equip it to Blazewing."

"I think I know where this is going." Kara said as Blazewing started glowing. "Especially since Supervise was used in the last tournament duel."

"That's right; normally the monster summoned with Swing of Memories would be destroyed during the end phase." Louella responded as Blazewing vanished from the field and Tuned Magician appeared in its place. "But I can cut right to the chase by using Blazewing's effect, and speaking of which now that the equipped monster is in the graveyard I can use Supervise's other effect." Louella added as Blazewing returned to the field. "Now we've already gone over Blazewing's effect and how any monster summoned with its effect is in its Gemini mode but thanks to that machine's effect I never got a chance to go over Tuned Magician's effect, basically as long as it's in Gemini Mode Tuned Magician is a Tuner Monster."

"I thought so, with a name like that it had to have an effect like that." Kara said as Tuned Magician and Blazewing Butterfly leapt into the air, Tuned Magician turned into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Blazewing Butterfly. "I don't care what you're summoning because it can't be stronger than my machine."

"No, but he's close enough, I tune Tuned Magician with Blazewing Butterfly to Synchro Summon Black Brutdrago!" Louella played the card and once the blight flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a massive black dragon in terms of height and weight that had a horn sticking out of its head and large claws (8/3000/2600). "First I'll activate Brutdrago's effect, by sending one Gemini Monster from my hand to the graveyard I can destroy one Spell or Trap Card my opponent controls."

"To bad I didn't set any cards." Kara said with a smirk but Louella shook her head.

"No, but your partner did." Louella pointed out as Brutdrago slammed one of its feet down causing Bettye's facedown card, Magician's Circle, to shatter. "And whilst my monster won't be able to destroy that machine he can destroy Bettye's Spellcaster!" Louella announced as the monster charged towards the Spellcaster before impaling her on its horn bringing her life-points down to 6800. "First blood goes to us! I set one card facedown and end my turn." Louella announced as the facedown card appeared on the field and Bettye drew her card.

"First blood may go to you but the duel is far from over yet." Bettye responded before looking at her drawn card. _"Not bad." _Bettye thought before playing the card. "First I summon Necro Fleur in attack mode!" Bettye played the card and a small, red weltering flower appeared on the field (1/0/0). "Now I activate a Spell Card called Fragrance Storm, in exchange for destroying one plant type monster on my side of the field…." Bettye trailed off as Necro Fleur's hologram shattered. "I can draw another card, if it's another plant type monster I can reveal it to draw one extra card."

"That seems like a waste of a normal summon to me." Louella pointed out as Bettye drew her card, revealed it to be another Necro Fleur and drew again.

"Not quite, when Necro Fleur is destroyed by a card effect its own effect activates which lets me summon another card used in the last duel, Sorciere de Fleur!" Bettye played the card and in Necro Fleur's place stood the mysterious sorceress (7/2900/0). "Now I activate her effect which, as you may remember, allows me to Special Summon a monster from your graveyard to my field." Bettye added as Tuned Magician appeared on the field in defense mode. "One part of her effect that they didn't cover was the fact that the monster would be destroyed once I end my turn." Bettye added before playing a card. "But like you I'll cut to the chase, I play Magical Dimension!" Bettye announced and Tuned Magician disappeared from the field. "And now I tribute your Tuned Magician in order to Special Summon my Magical Exemplar to the field in attack mode." Bettye played the card and dark haired sorceress in the green robes appeared on the field (4/1700/1400). "But most importantly Magical Dimension's other effect now activates destroying Black Brutdrago!" Bettye added as the monster shattered.

"Black Brutdrago may be gone but he's not forgotten! When he's destroyed its effect activates meaning I can special summon one Gemini Monster from my graveyard with its Gemini Mode active." Louella responded as Tuned Magician returned to the field. "I may not be able to do much with him but he's stronger than Exemplar and we both know that Sorciere can't attack the same turn she's summoned."

"Very well, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Bettye set the card down and Latoya didn't draw due to Reckless Greed.

"_I may not be able to attack or draw but what I can do is use my cards to buy us some time." _Latoya thought before picking up the other card she drew with Reckless Greed. "I set one card facedown and switch Battle Fader to defense mode….yes; I summoned it in attack mode, shut up." Latoya said as she set the card and switched the monster to defense mode. "And I end my turn at that." Latoya announced and Kara grinned before drawing her card.

"I detach another Overlay unit to use my king's effect again!" Kara said as she sent Road Roller to the graveyard and the two girls sent their cards to the graveyards. "So what's it going to be?"

"I didn't mill any monsters." Louella responded before turning to Latoya. "Please tell me you had better luck this time?"

"I did, I didn't mill any monsters either." Latoya responded and Louella sighed in relief.

"Your luck will run out eventually." Kara responded before pointing to Tuned Magician. "Attack her monster!" Kara commanded and the machine started to pick up speed again…..but was stopped by an ear piercing screech. "What?"

"The card I just set was Command Silencer." Latoya responded as she held up her quick-play Spell Card. "Negates the attack and lets me draw one more card, not bad if I say so myself." Latoya added before sending it to the graveyard and drawing one card.

"Thank god that thing has been limited since the original Battle City." Kara grunted before looking at her drawn card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Kara announced as the facedown card appeared on the field and Louella drew her card.

"_A drawing card, we've milled a few cards thanks to her machine's effect so for all I know this could end up doing more harm than good." _Louella thought as she looked at the card. _"But it's a chance I have to take, otherwise my only move would be to move Tuned Magician to defense mode." _Louella decided before playing the card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot."

"Thanks for giving my Exemplar her first Spell Counter by the way." Bettye responded as the four girls drew three cards.

"I know that." Louella responded before looking at her drawn cards and grinning. "But this risk has paid off! First I play A Feather of the Phoenix! Your Exemplar may get another Spell Counter but with this I can return Black Brutdrago to my Extra Deck at the cost of a card." Louella played the card and once she discarded the card she returned her Synchro Monster to her Extra Deck.

"I suppose you did that so you can Synchro Summon again?" Bettye asked and Louella grinned.

"Just watch, next I play Silent Doom which I use to bring back the monster I just sent to the graveyard, Dark Valkyria!" Louella played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it seemed to be a Dark Counterpart to Dunames Dark Witch with an all-black outfit, black wings, silver hair and purple skin (4/1800/1050).

"Err, Louella, is there a reason your practically handing Exemplar tokens on a silver platter?" Latoya asked and Louella sweat-dropped.

"Relax; she isn't going to be around that long anyway." Louella responded before Dark Valkyria started glowing. "I activate Dark Valkyria's Gemini Mode and her effect, with this I give her a Spell Counter of her own and she gets three hundred attack points for it." Louella added as the monster's attack increased to 2100. "But that's not the best part, by removing that Spell Counter I can destroy one monster on the field and I think I'm going to destroy that eyesore of a machine!"

"Oh crap!" Kara cursed under her breath as Dark Valkyria casted a spell at her monster destroying it.

"And before you even think about getting revenge for that…." Louella trailed off as the two monsters leapt into the air for a Synchro Summon and seconds later Black Brutdrago returned to the field. "You're going to have some problems there."

"Nice, now you can destroy Bettye's strongest monster!" Latoya responded and Louella grinned.

"Yeah, but not just yet, I activate Dragon's Mirror!" Louella played the card and the two Gemini monsters used to summon Brutdrago reappeared briefly before vanishing again. "I remove Tuned Magician and Dark Valkyria from play to fusion summon Superalloy Beast Raptinus!" Louella announced as she pocketed the monsters and another new monster appeared on the field, it was another dragon but this one was snake like and was blue and gold in color (8/2200/2200). "I know he's pretty damn weak for a Level Eight monster but his effect makes up for it, as long as he's on the field all Gemini Monsters get their Gemini Modes instantly!"

"That's going to be a problem." Kara grunted as Louella played another card.

"And just so I can recycle Dark Valkyria and Tuned Magician I use Burial from a Different Dimension to return them to the graveyard." Louella added before returning the monsters to the graveyard. "Now, let's get to it, Brutdrago, attack Kara's life-points directly!" Louella commanded and the dragon prepared its attack….

"Sorry but it's not going to be that easy, I activate my Trap Card XYZ Reborn!" Kara announced as the facedown card flipped up. "Monster Reborn may be banned but this isn't! With it I can bring back my king and use this trap card as overlay material!" Kara added as the overlay network opened up and the monster returned to the field. "Care to reconsider your move?"

"Easiest decision ever, Brutdrago, your new target is Sorciere de Fleur!" Louella commanded and the dragon changed course before slamming its tail into Sorciere bringing Bettye's life-points down to 6700. "And sorry to disappoint you but you won't get a chance to use all those tokens I gave you, Raptinus, attack Exemplar!" Louella commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the spellcaster destroying her and bringing Bettye's life-points down to 6200. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Louella announced and Bettye drew her card.

"You think you've seen the last of Sorciere? Don't forget, I drew another one with Fragrance Storm last turn." Bettye pointed out before looking at her drawn card. "But I won't summon it; instead I'll summon Gagaga Magician!" Bettye played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young looking magician wearing what looked like a blood red version of the Dark Magician's outfit (4/1500/1000). "Now I activate Double Summon!" Bettye played the card and quickly sent it to the graveyard. "Let's just say that Kara isn't the only duelist on our team capable of doing an XYZ Summon!"

"If you think that your monster can beat either of mine then bring it!" Louella said confidently and Bettye grinned.

"Famous last words, I use my second normal summon to summon Gagaga Girl!" Bettye played the card and another monster appeared on the field, as the name suggested it was a young blonde girl wearing a dark blue and pink magician's outfit (3/1000/800). "Now I could change Magician's Level by its effect but that's not needed, when both Magician and Girl are on the field Girl's level increases until it's the same as Gagaga Magician's." Bettye explained as Gagaga Girl's level increased by one and the overlay network opened up again. "And that means I can construct the overlay network to XYZ Summon Kachi Kochi Dragon!" Bettye played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large, metallic silver dragon that was very intimidating to look at (Rank: 4/2100/1300).

"You had me worried there." Louella said with a sigh of relief. "But that dragon isn't even strong enough to defeat Raptinus!"

"Are you sure? If I where you I'd be worried about Black Brutdrago." Bettye responded and Louella blinked in surprise before looking at her dragon, once she did her eyes widened when she saw that his attack had dropped to zero. "When Gagaga Girl is used in an XYZ Summon I can target one monster you control that was Special Summoned and reduce its attack to zero." Bettye added before playing another card. "Now I activate another Spell Card, Stoic Challenge! Whilst I can only control one copy of this card its effect is very deadly, by equipping it to my dragon it gains six hundred attack points for each material attached to it!" Bettye announced as her dragon's attack increased to 3300. "The unfortunate truth is I can't use its effect in exchange for this but with the battle damage doubled I'd say that it is worth it."

"Please tell me you're kidding…." Louella pleaded and Bettye shook her head.

"I'm afraid not." Bettye responded before turning to Kara. "May I use your monster?"

"Go for it." Kara nodded as her machine picked up speed.

"Let's see you negate this! Kachi Kochi Dragon, attack Brutdrago Dragon!" Bettye commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the dragon incinerating it and sending Louella's life-points plummeting down to 1400.

"I used Brutdrago's effect to Special Summon Dark Valkyria in defense mode!" Louella played the card and the dark angel returned to the field in a crouching position.

"That won't save your remaining dragon! Digvorzhak, attack her dragon!" Bettye commanded and the machine charged towards Louella's dragon before running it over and bringing her life-points down to 400. "If I were able to use Kachi Kochi Dragon's effect that would've been a One Turn Kill but alas, I cannot." Bettye sighed as Kara's machine returned to Kara's side of the field. "I end my turn which means Stoic Challenge gets sent to the graveyard alongside my dragon." Bettye announced as she sent the two cards to the graveyard and Latoya didn't draw due to Reckless Greed.

"Holy shit, that was brutal!" Chelsea said with an impressed whistle. "For a minute there I was wondering if she deserved her place in Obelisk Blue but now."

"Bettye's deck is full of surprises and it's very deadly for it." Tyler responded with a nod. "If her team wins this match then her deck will be one to watch out for."

"No kidding." Chelsea said with a nod before turning to Chloe. "Didn't you add the Gagaga monsters to your deck on Sunday?"

"Yeah, I haven't had a chance to use them though." Chloe responded with a nod. "And after that I can't wait for my chance."

"_Louella's almost out of life-points and I still can't draw, things aren't looking good." _Latoya thought before looking over her hand and grinning. _"But I don't need too!" _Latoya thought before picking up Battle Fader. "Say good-bye to your machine Kara!"

"You're going to destroy it again? Your welcome to try, I have more than one copy of XYZ Reborn." Kara responded as Latoya pocketed Battle Fader.

"I am going to get rid of it, but I never said anything about destroying it!" Latoya responded before playing the card. "I tribute Battle Fader in order to summon your machine's demise, Caius, The Shadow Monarch, come to the field in attack mode!" Latoya played the card Kara's eyes widened as the dark monarch appeared on the field (6/2400/1000). "And now I use his effect to banish Digvorzhak!" Latoya announced as the monarch launched his shadow ball at the massive machine banishing it.

"Fortunately for me Digvorzhak is an Earth Type Monster." Kara responded as she pocketed the XYZ monster. "So, are you going to attack directly?"

"I am but not just yet, I activate Dark Valkyria's effect to increase her attack score." Latoya added as Dark Valkyria's attack increased to 2100. "May I use Valkyria?"

"On one condition, target Bettye instead of Kara." Louella responded and Latoya nodded. "Her life-points are lower than Kara's and I want some payback for that move she just did."

"I got it! Caius, Valkyria, attack Bettye's life-points directly!" Latoya commanded and the two dark monsters launched their attacks at her bringing her life-points down to 1700. "One more attack and you're through, for now I'll end my turn."

"That may be true but by attacking me you played right into my hand." Bettye responded as her facedown card flipped up. "Literally, I activate Shock Draw!" Bettye announced before drawing four cards from her deck, once that was done Kara drew her card.

"_Ugh, I could really use D.D.R. right now." _Kara thought with a frown as she looked at the monster she drew. _"But even if I drew it I wouldn't be able to use its effect, I'd better play it safe, especially if they are going to focus on taking out Bettye." _Kara thought before playing the card. "I set one card in defense mode to end my turn."

"_I may be almost out of life-points but at least there's a chance that we can win this." _Louella thought before her eyes rested on her drawn card. "First I use Dark Valkyria's effect to destroy Kara's facedown monster!" Louella announced and Valkyria casted her spell again destroying the monster, revealed to be Card Trooper (3/400/400) which was quickly destroyed.

"I use Card Trooper's effect to draw one card from my deck." Kara responded as she drew a card. _"D.D.R.?! I drew that now!? Ugh, knowing my luck I won't survive until the next turn!"_

"Now I activate Spell Power Grasp, with this Spell Card I can give Valkyria one Spell Counter and add another copy to my hand." Louella played the card and once Dark Valkyria's attack was back at 2100 she added another copy of the card to her deck. "And now to bring this to the home stretch, I summon another Tuned Magician!" Louella played the card and the spellcaster returned to the field. "Tuned Magician, finish Bettye off!" Louella commanded and the magician casted his spell at Bettye bringing her life-points down to zero. "Valkyria, Caius, attack Kara's life-points directly!" Louella commanded and the two dark monsters launched their attacks at Kara bringing her life-points down to 3500. "From where I stand you have two choices Kara, surrender or take another direct attack."

"Make that one choice." Kara responded with a sigh as she surrendered. "I know when I'm beaten!"

"Here are your winners, Latoya Conley and Louella Schneider!" Martin announced over the cheering crowd. "Don't go anywhere, next up is the match between the teams off Grace Cathryn Craig and Staci Griffin and Vernon Chan and Charity Hensley and that match starts in just a few minutes!" Martin added as the four duelists hopped off the arena.

"The next match will have a tough act to follow, that's for sure." Chloe commented and the others nodded in agreement. "Think I'd have enough time to run over to my dorm and grab Chelsea's laptop?" Chloe asked as she checked the time.

"If you leave now then you should be back in time for the opening move." Tyler responded before standing up. "Still, I'll go with you just encase anything happens." Tyler added and Chloe nodded as the two of them made their way out of the arena.

*meanwhile*

"Jack, I'm in position." A robed female figure said as she watched the duel from a balcony. "Chloe and Tyler just left the arena, should I go after them?"

"That would be too risky, stick to the plan for now." Jack responded and the figure nodded. "Remember, Victor said to target either eliminated duelists or duelists who aren't competing for some other reason so that we can use this tournament to scout out our main targets' decks, understood?"

"Perfectly, don't worry; Victor will have another student's soul for his collection." The figure responded as she watched the action.


	96. Day Seven Action Continues

OOC Note: The character of Ashitaka Tomoe was created by MunroMae; all creative credit goes to him for the character)

The action was getting fierce in the arena but some students where outside it, including Chloe Richardson and Tyler Kaiba.

They were on their way back from the dorm that she shared with Chelsea with Chelsea's laptop underneath Chloe's right arm, at the moment they were walking away from the dorm and talking amongst themselves.

"Okay, by my watch we should be back at the arena with plenty of time to spare." Tyler commented as he checked his watch. "I'm still surprised that Chelsea didn't grab her laptop before the duel."

"She had PE with me and Marcus right before the duels started, Jeff wouldn't let us leave without getting changed first which didn't give her much time at all to go and grab it." Chloe explained and Tyler nodded as the two of them made their way through the path that connected the center of the island to the area where the Osiris Red dorms where. "Otherwise she would've."

"I suppose I can't blame Jeff in that case." Tyler shrugged as they made their way down the pathway. "I'm not going to chew you out for it but how are you feeling after last night's duel?" Tyler asked and Chloe sighed.

"Like crap to be honest, being chewed out by Theresa didn't help." Chloe responded as she turned to him. "I'd rather just pretend that it didn't happen."

"I can understand that but being in denial about it probably won't help." Tyler answered before noticing someone in Chloe's way. "Chloe look out!" Tyler warned her but it was too late as she bumped into the student sending her on her backside.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." Chloe apologized before looking at the student; he was a male, Japanese Ra Yellow student with long black hair in a ponytail wearing traditional Japanese clothing under a first year Ra Yellow blazer.

"No need to apologize miss, I'm just familiarizing myself with the island." The youth responded before helping Chloe back up to her feet. "My name is Ashitaka Tomoe; I joined the academy last weekend."

"I'm Chloe, he's Tyler." Chloe introduced herself as she picked up the laptop. "I get the feeling I'm going to be here all day trying to pronounce that name so do you mind if I call you Ash for short?"

"If you think it will be easier then I won't mind." Ashitaka responded with a respectful nod. "I was looking for the main arena, the tournament duels interest me greatly but I have been unable to find it."

"You're in luck; we were just heading over there." Tyler responded and Ashitaka nodded. "Unfortunately you've already missed the first duel of the day but there's another one being held in a bit."

"Ah, good, I was worried that I had missed them." Ashitaka said with a sigh of relief. "Would you mind showing me the way?"

"Sure." Chloe nodded before Tyler led them to the main building. "So, how are you finding Duel Academy so far Ash?"

"I'm finding my way around okay so far." Ash answered as the three teens made their way down the pathway. "Though the student I was supposed to room with ended up getting sick so Jeff stuck me in one of the spare rooms until further notice." Ash added and Chloe and Tyler shared a look before Chloe turned her attention back to Ash.

"That student wouldn't happen to be Lance Alvers, would it?" Chloe asked and Ash nodded in response. "Yeah, Marcus mentioned that the Ra Yellow students would be getting roommates soon, you should get along with him fine."

"I'm sure I will." Ash responded with a nod before getting a thoughtful look on his face. "Though I do doubt that accuracy of the rumors about how he got the cold in the first place, I mean, dueling at night in nothing but your swimming trunks? Who does that, honestly?" Ash asked and Chloe laughed nervously as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"I was there, trust me the rumors are true." Chloe answered earning a confused look from Ash. "As for how it happened, it's a long story but basically me and some other girls where swimming in the lake near the hot springs and Lance was on the lookout for any perverts that might have been lurking in the bushes." Chloe added and Ash nodded.

"So he ended up fighting a pervert and didn't have time to get changed?" Ash asked and Chloe nodded. "Okay, I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah, it does, don't worry he should be okay by tomorrow." Chloe responded as they entered the building. _"And it's definitely a lot easier to explain than the real reason."_

"_He will find out at some point Chloe." _Silent Magician's voice rang out as her transparent form appeared alongside her. _"I'm concerned about how the Orichalcos Duelists will follow up their last attack."_

"_You think they will start targeting other students?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician nodded, Chloe turned her attention back to Ashitaka briefly before turning to Silent Magician. _"Well, this guy was good enough to get into Ra Yellow so he should be fine if he's targeted."_

"_So was Andreas and he ended up having his soul captured." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe winced as she thought back to the second duel of the Battle City Semi-Finals.

"Is there something on your mind Chloe?" Ashitaka asked and Chloe looked up before shaking her head.

"Nah, I'm just thinking about some stuff." Chloe shrugged her shoulders as they entered the main building, they led him to the arena and too Chloe's relief the duel hadn't started yet. "If you want too you can sit with us."

"I appreciate the invitation, thank you." Ashitaka responded before following Chloe and Tyler to where the other students were sitting.

"Thanks for getting my laptop Chloe." Chelsea thanked her as Chloe handed it over. "There is a bit of a delay due to one of the students losing their decks but things should be back on track now." Chelsea added before noticing Ashitaka. "Who's he?"

"I am Ashitaka Tomoe; I'm one of the new Ra Yellow students." Ashitaka introduced himself as he took a seat. "I bumped into Chloe here on the way over, literally."

"Me and Tyler where talking on the way over and I wasn't paying attention as a result." Chloe added with a sheepish grin before turning her attention back to the duel field. "How did one of the participants lose their deck anyway? I was under the impression that most duelists kept their decks in their duel disks or deck holders."

"That was just what we were told by Martin over the PA system." Marcus responded as he turned to her. "If you want the specifics ask him, I think the participant will be too embarrassed to go into detail about it."

"I won't blame that duelist one bit if that's the case." Chloe agreed as the four duelists that where competing today stepped into view. "They should be thankful that they're team was on second tonight because I'd hate to be held up by something like that."

"I can't help but agree there." Andreas nodded in agreement as the four duelists stepped onto the arena. "But the match is starting now so let's focus on that."

"I'm sorry for the wait students but the second match is about to begin!" Martin's voice rang out and the crowd cheered. "In this match we will see Grace Cathryn Craig of Obelisk Blue team up with Osiris Red's Staci Griffin to take on Ra Yellow's Vernon Chan and Osiris Red's Charity Hensley, they will have a tough act to follow after that last match but please put it together for the next participants!" Martin added and the crowd cheered. "After this match I'll announce tomorrow's matches as usual but that includes the first second round match!" Martin added and the crowd cheered louder at that news.

"Yeah, there's no pressure on any of us." Staci gulped as she shuffled her deck; she was around Chelsea's height with shoulder length dark brown hair and blue eyes who was clearly a first year student. "Teaming with an Obelisk Blue student is bad enough but after that match? I'll have to bring my A Game to even feel proud of myself." Staci added before hearing her partner clear her throat.

"Then I expect you to back up your words on the duel field." Grace answered back and Staci glanced up, Grace was tall for a woman with black hair that went just past her shoulders and blue eyes. "Talk is cheap after all."

"I know." Staci nodded as the two girls activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands before turning to their opponents. "I hope you guys weren't planning on joining the others in the second round because we have our tickets punched!"

"It's like your partner said Staci, talk is cheap." Vernon answered as he activated his duel disk, being the only male in the match he was easily the tallest duelist and he had short black hair and brown eyes which were behind a pair of small, round glasses. "Back up your words on the duel field and I'll believe it because otherwise I hope the two of you can find comfy seats up in the stands for the rest of the tournament."

"For a guy who says "talk is cheap" you like the sound of your own voice." Charity said as she shook her head, she was the shortest out of the four duelists and had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. "And as for you two, well as far as I'm concerned all you can look forward too is your place in the loser's circle!" Charity added before she activated her duel disk and drew her opening hand, Vernon did likewise and the two teens grinned. "So, what order will we go in?"

"I think I should go first followed by Charity, then Grace and finally Vernon." Staci offered and once the other three duelists nodded she drew her first card. _"Okay, not bad so far but I've definitely had a better opening hand." _Staci thought before picking up two cards. "I set two cards facedown…" Staci said as the two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And one monster in defense mode in order to end my turn now let's see how you handle that." Staci announced and once the third card appeared on the field Charity drew her card.

"You want to know how I can handle that huh? I'll show you!" Charity answered before looking at the card she had drawn. _"If Heavy Storm was still legal I'd happily use it to wipe out Staci's facedown cards but it isn't and I can't, doesn't mean I don't have a move that I can't make." _Charity thought before playing the card. "I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown." Charity announced as the two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn at that."

"_Everyone seems to be playing defensively so far." _Grace thought as she drew her card. _"Off course that could mean any number of things, setting up a future strategy or simply not having a good hand." _Grace thought before she looked at her drawn card. _"Excellent, I have everything I need!" _Grace thought before playing a card. "I summon Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior to the field!" Grace played the card and the tanned man with blue hair appeared on the field wearing his armor and wielding his weapon (4/1850/1300). "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Grace set the card and Vernon drew his card.

"Oh great, another Lightworn deck," Chloe said with a shudder. "I still remember Brandon's match in New York against that deck."

"That was a really close duel." Brandon agreed with a nod. "If I hadn't have drawn Leeching the Light when I did…." Brandon added before shuddering. "I'd rather not think about it."

"You're that scared of an archetype?" Ashitaka asked with a raised eyebrow and Brandon frowned before shaking his head.

"It's a long story." Brandon said and Ashitaka nodded before turning his attention back to the duel, Brandon leaned over and whispered in Chloe's ear. "You didn't tell him about the Orichalcos?"

"I didn't want to scare the new guy." Chloe responded with a frown as she turned to him. "Besides your duel against Goldsmith was after the tournament was over so even if he was following it I doubt he knows about that duel or the Orichalcos."

"Good point." Brandon admitted with a nod before frowning. "Still I think you'd better keep an eye on him just encase." Brandon added and Chloe nodded in response as they turned their attention back to the duel.

"_Two defense monsters and a Lightsworn monster, if I had anything that could attack over Garoth right now I'd happily summon it." _Vernon thought as he looked over his hand. _"But that doesn't mean there's nothing I can do." _Vernon thought before making his move. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Vernon announced and once the three cards appeared on the field Staci drew her card.

"_So far Grace has been the only one to go on the offensive." _Staci thought as she glanced up at Garoth. _"I don't see why not, her monster's fairly strong, but if I had something that I could use alongside it that would be great." _Staci thought before looking at her drawn card and grinning. _"Perfect!" _Staci thought before sending her set monster to the graveyard. "I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon Morbius, the Frost Monarch!" Staci played the card and another monarch appeared on the field, this one was made of ice complete with an icy crown and a long cape (6/2400/1000). "And your facedown cards are about to get a severe case of frostbite, when Morbius is tribute summoned…."

"You get to destroy up to two facedown Spell/Trap cards we control, we aren't ammeters Staci, and we know how the monarchs work." Vernon interrupted her as his trap card flipped up. "And besides that your monster's effect won't work plain and simple, I activate Skill Drain!" Vernon played the card and Staci's eyes widened as Morbius doubled over in pain before he could use his effect. "It may cost me a thousand life-points." Vernon added as his life-points dropped to seven thousand. "But it prevents neither of us using any monster effects on the field."

"And just encase either of you have something like Mystical Space Typhoon or that flip effect Lightsworn monster, I have this!" Charity chimed in as her facedown card flipped up. "Imperial Custom, to get to Skill Drain or any other continuous trap cards you will have to get through this."

"You may have stopped Morbius's effect but he can still attack!" Staci responded as she pointed to Vernon's facedown monster. "Morbius put that monster on ice!" Staci commanded and the frost monarch launched a ball of ice at the monster, revealed to be Prevent Rat (4/500/2000) which was quickly destroyed. "You run a normal monster skill drain deck? I wasn't aware that such a thing existed."

"It's my own unique creation and considering that it put me in Ra Yellow when I applied for this school, well I'd say that it's served me well." Vernon responded as he sent his monster to the graveyard. "And as the duel goes on you'll see why!"

"We'll see about that, for now I'll end my turn." Staci announced and Charity drew her card.

"I'm going to warn you in advance." Charity said as she added the card she drew to her hand. "If you think I'm dumb enough to destroy Imperial Custom with something like Magic Planter like Kyle Winston did last week then don't."

"I always say that those who don't remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Vernon added with a smirk as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "But please, continue with your move!"

"Gladly, I summon Vorse Raider!" Charity played the card and the hideous; halberd wielding beast warrior appeared on the field (4/1900/1200). "He may not be strong enough to attack over that monarch but Garoth on the other hand….." Charity trailed off as Vorse Raider charged towards the Lightsworn monster…..

"Skill Drain may monster negate effects but not traps! I activate my Trap Card Lightsworn Barrier!" Grace said before sending the top two cards from her deck to the graveyard. "By doing that I negate Vorse Raider's attack but there's more!" Grace added as Wulf, Lightsworn Beast appeared on the field. "He happened to be one of the cards I milled and since Skill Drain doesn't affect the graveyard…."

"Very clever, and I notice that Lightsworn Barrier is a Continuous Trap Card as well." Vernon said with a frown. "And since Imperial Custom affects all Continuous Trap Cards on the field you're effectively using our own strategy against us."

"Not quite what I had in mind when I set this card but I'll take it." Grace admitted with a nod before turning to Charity. "Anything else you can do?" Grace asked and Chastity looked over her hand.

"I set one card facedown." Charity announced the facedown card appeared on the field. "Go ahead and take your turn." Charity told her and Grace nodded before drawing her card.

"_My best chance is to destroy Vorse Raider with Wulf then go for a direct attack with Garoth." _Grace thought as she added her drawn card to her hand. _"That facedown card may be a problem in that regard but if I can draw first blood we'll be in a good spot." _Grace thought before looking at the card she had drawn. _"Hello…." _Grace thought with a grin before picking it up. "You may not be dumb enough to destroy Imperial Custom Charity but what you are dumb enough to do is to activate it without giving it any protection."

"Yeah but so what, I mean it's not like a Lightsworn deck has many destruction cards besides Ryko!" Charity responded with a grin which quickly disappeared as Imperial Custom was swallowed up by Trap Eater (4/1900/1600). "Since when do Lightsworn decks have THAT?!"

"Mine does, it's like your partner said, it's my own original version of a Lightsworn deck." Grace responded with a grin as she played another card. "And don't think Skill Drain's safe either, I have more than one copy of Trap Eater in my deck and whilst I don't have such a monster in my hand at the moment I do have this monster, for my Normal Summon I shall bring out Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner!" Grace played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young girl with short blonde hair who was wearing a white and gold dress (3/1000/1000).

"You had my worried for a moment there." Vernon scoffed as he folded his arms. "But I know Lumina's effect and how you could summon another copy of her at the cost of one card from your hand thus allowing you to go for a Rank Three XYZ monster that is if it weren't for my Skill Drain." Vernon added with a cocky smirk. "Even without Imperial Custom my Skill Drain still hinders you."

"It would, if I was going for an XYZ Summon." Grace answered and Vernon's grin disappeared. "Skill Drain may negate effects but there's one thing it can't negate, the fact that Trap Eater's a Tuner monster!" Grace added as Trap Eater and Lumina leapt into the air, Trap Eater dissolved into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Lumina. "So, I tune Trap Eater with Lumina to Synchro Summon Michael, Lightsworn Lord!"

"There aren't any Lightsworn Synchro Monsters!" Vernon pointed out as the bright flash enveloped the field, once it faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large, white dragon like the one from Neverending Story but the main feature was on top of the dragon as it was being ridden by a man in gold armor with shoulder length blonde hair and a pair of golden wings (7/2600/2000). "Okay, I stand corrected."

"I'm not surprised that you've never heard of Michael as the Lightsworn Synchros where only just released." Grace said with a smirk as the dragon touched down on the field. "And yes, that plural was intentional, there's more than one of these things in circulation."

"Well, if he has an effect you can't use it." Vernon countered as he pointed to Skill Drain. "Or did you forget about this already?"

"I didn't, but even without his effect he's still useful as a 2600 attack point beatstick, Michael, attack Vernon's life-points directly!" Grace commanded and the dragon breathed fire at Vernon….

"I was saving this but I'll make do, I activate my Trap Card Birthright!" Vernon activated the trap before retrieving Protect Rat from his graveyard. "As the duelists in the last duel demonstrated this is a useful card to have in a Gemini Deck but it's also useful in mine! I use my trap to Special Summon Prevent Rat in attack mode!" Vernon announced as the monster returned to the field.

"I've seen some dumb moves in my time but that? That's pretty much suicidal!" Grace scoffed as she pointed to Protect Rat. "Michael, your new target is that rat!" Grace commanded and the dragon prepared its breath attack….

"And I was saving this for when you attacked Vorse Raider with Wulf but now's as good a time as any." Charity said as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Justi-Break! Since you just targeted a face-up attack position Normal Monster for an attack this trap card destroys all monsters on the field that aren't Normal, attack position monsters!" Charity announced and her opponents' eyes widened as Morbius, Michael, Wulf and Garoth shattered. "And it gets worse; your trap card is now useless since you've used up your Normal Summon for this turn."

"So it is." Grace said as she played another card. "I activate Magic Planter! I destroy Lightsworn Barrier….." Grace trailed off as her trap card shattered. "And I get two draws in return." Grace added before drawing twice. "Then I'll set two cards facedown….." Grace trailed off as her two drawn cards appeared on the field. "And end my turn."

"And you mocked me for my deck choice!" Vernon scoffed as he drew his card. "Well, I'll play a drawing spell of my own, White Elephant's Gift! Prevent Rat goes back to the graveyard….." Vernon trailed off as the rat disappeared from the field. "And I get to draw two cards as well!" Vernon added before drawing twice, once he saw his drawn cards he grinned. "Now I activate Swing of Memories to bring back Prevent Rat." Vernon played the card and Prevent Rat returned to the field again. "And now I sacrifice it to summon Cyber-Tech Alligator!" Vernon played the card and Prevent Rat disappeared from the field, in its place stood a large alligator wearing red armor with metal claws (5/2500/1600). "Cyber-Tech Alligator, attack Grace's life-points directly!" Vernon commanded and the alligator charged towards Grace before slashing her with his claws bringing her life-points down to 5500.

"If you want to use Vorse Raider for a follow up attack, I won't stop you." Chastity added and Vernon nodded.

"I will, but not on Grace." Vernon responded before pointing to Staci. "Vorse Raider, attack her life-points directly!" Vernon commanded and the beast warrior charged towards Staci before slashing her with his halberd bringing her life-points down to 6100. "Next I move to my second main phase and I'll activate my own Magic Planter! I'll use to destroy my now inert Birthright!" Vernon played the card and once his trap card shattered he drew two more cards. "I set this…." Vernon said as another facedown card appeared on the field. "And I end my turn.

"But not before I activate my own trap!" Grace said as her trap card flipped up revealing Shock Draw, she quickly drew two cards and Staci drew her card once Shock Draw was in the graveyard.

"_Okay, this is bad." _Staci thought as she added her drawn card to her hand and shuffled it around. _"Their decks are unconventional to say the least but they actually make it work leaving me and Grace with little that we can do except hope that we draw something that can attack over their monsters." _Staci thought before looking at her drawn card and playing it. "I activate Instant Fusion! I play one thousand life-points…" Staci trailed off as her life-points dropped to 5100. "And in exchange I get to Special Summon one Level Five or lower Fusion monster from my extra deck."

"And how exactly will that help you?" Vernon asked as Staci retrieved her monster from her extra deck. "Even if you summoned something life Reaper on the Nightmare you wouldn't be able to use its effect!"

"Who said I was summoning a monster for its effect?" Staci asked before playing the card. "I use Instant Fusion to summon Dragoness, The Wicked Knight!" Staci played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a female warrior wearing yellow and green armor, a helmet that covered her hair and eyes, had wings and was wielding twin curved swords (3/1200/900). "Dragoness doesn't have an effect for Skill Drain to negate."

"And she has an absolutely laughable attack score for a fusion monster." Vernon pointed out with a laugh. "Unless you're planning an XYZ summon with that thing I don't see the point."

"I'll show you the point, I tribute Dragoness to summon another monarch!" Staci announced as she played the card and Dragoness disappeared from the field, in her place stood a monster that they didn't take long to recognize as Caius, the Shadow Monarch (6/2400/1000).

"I'd be worried if you could use that thing's effect." Vernon said as Caius went to use its effect. "But as we both know he can't!"

"Actually he can, I chain my remaining facedown card to Caius's effect, go Trap Stun!" Grace activated the trap and Vernon's eyes widened as Skill Drain got consumed by electricity alongside his facedown cards. "Not the most ideal solution but with those traps negated for the rest of the turn Staci is free to use Caius's effect!"

"That's right and I use it on Cyber-Tech Alligator!" Staci added as Caius launched its shadow ball at the alligator banishing it. "I may have been able to do more damage by banishing Vorse Raider but considering that you could've easily destroyed my monster with that card I was not about to take that chance!"

"Trust me; you'll pay for that on my next turn!" Vernon scowled as he pocketed Cyber-Tech Alligator and braced himself.

"I'll send you an IOU card, now Caius! Attack his life-points directly!" Staci commanded and the monarch launched another ball of dark energy at Vernon bringing his life-points down to 4600. "You can consider that revenge for those direct attacks you did last turn, but for now I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Staci announced and Chastity drew her card.

"_They may have the lead over Vernon but not me." _Charity thought as she looked at her drawn card. _"Besides, using Trap Stun so that they could use Caius's effect was clever but Trap Stun's effect wore off the moment she ended her turn and with Skill Drain on the field her monster's nothing but a 2400 beatstick." _Charity thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Correction, make that dead meat!" _Charity thought before playing the card. "I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon….well; it worked well for my partner so why differ?" Charity asked as a second Cyber-Tech Alligator appeared on the field. "Now Cyber-Tech Alligator, attack Caius!" Charity commanded and the alligator charged towards Caius before slashing him with his claws bringing Staci's life-points down to 5000. "Now it's your turn Vorse Raider!" Chastity commanded and the beast warrior charged in before slashing her with the halberd bringing her life-points down to 3100. "You'd better hope that your partner drew something good with Shock Draw because otherwise you'll be out of the duel after Vernon's done, I end my turn." Charity announced and Grace drew her card.

"_Fortunately for us I did draw something good with Shock Draw." _Grace thought as she looked at one of the cards in her hand. _"Granted, it's not MST, Royal Decree or Trap Eater good but it's still good." _Grace thought before picking up the card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Grace set the card and Vernon grinned before drawing his card. _"I'd better hope that he hasn't drawn his own MST because otherwise I'll be joining my fellow Obelisk Blue students in the loser's circle."_

"_Hmmm, MST, with this I could destroy Grace's facedown card and secure is our spot in the next round." _Vernon thought as he looked at the card he had drawn. _"Ah, who needs it? That facedown card is probably a bluff!" _Vernon decided before turning to Charity. "I need your monsters and I think you know why."

"Go for it." Charity responded with a nod and Vernon grinned as the two monsters made their way over to his side of the field. "The sooner you can secure our spot in the second round the better!"

"Then I won't waste any time, Cyber-Tech Alligator, Vorse Raider, eliminate Staci!" Vernon commanded and the two monsters charged towards her before hitting their attacks. "One down, one too…."

"Vernon, Grace activated a trap." Charity cut him off and Vernon stopped himself short before looking up. "And you've just fucked up big time!"

"Rainbow Life…." Vernon trailed off as he stared at the card in disbelief.

"That's right and besides the swearing I couldn't have put it better myself." Grace responded as she pointed to her trap in question. "Rainbow Life here requires me to discard a card from my hand but in exchange the damage that she would've taken instead gets added to her life-points." Grace explained as Staci's life-points increased to 7500. "I was lucky that you didn't draw MST when you did." Grace added and Vernon started sweating bullets.

"Err, yeah, about that….." Vernon trailed off before quickly playing MST and using it to destroy Staci's facedown card. "I had MST in my hand since the start of the turn." Vernon added and Charity quickly glared at him. "How mad would you be if I said that the only reason I didn't use it right away was because I thought that facedown card was a bluff?"

"I would be very, very, very, VERY mad." Charity said as she glared at him. "I'm not even using my regular deck for this duel because you assured me that this deck was better for teaming with you and you go and pull that crap?!"

"Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions." Vernon said with a nervous laugh. "Besides if I was right then you would've eliminated her!"

"Ugh, no wonder you lost your deck before the duel started." Charity said as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance and Vernon blushed furiously.

"I thought we agreed never to speak about that in public!" Vernon said as he blushed like a madman.

"Wait, that was you?!" Staci asked with an amused look on her face and Vernon nodded reluctantly. "Just out of curiosity, where did you find it in the end?" Staci asked and Vernon somehow managed to blush a deeper shade of red.

"Err, well, it's not my place to say really…." Vernon said as the three women gave him amused looks. "I….I spent the night in my girlfriend's dorm room last night and I….." Vernon trailed off before sighing. "I found it amongst her sex toys." Vernon admitted and it was exactly five seconds before the rest of the stadium had face-faulted.

"…..what….." Charity, who was now more amused and shocked than angry, trailed off as she stared at him. "What was it doing in there…..you know what? Forget it! I actually want to eat dinner later!"

"I'm still not so sure myself; the last thing I remember is drinking some alcohol that she had snuck into her dorm room." Vernon admitted before shaking his head. "How about we get this duel back on track before I dig myself all the way to China?"

"It's too late for that." Staci muttered under her breath as Vernon looked over his hand.

"I set one monster in defense mode to end my turn." Vernon said quickly and Staci drew her card.

"…..did that conversation really just happen?" Chloe said after a few minutes as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head. "I mean, that's pretty much the one sentence I was told never to expect from a duelist when my dad was teaching me the basics."

"Err, yeah, if I where you I'd call him later on and tell him that a duelist actually said that." Chelsea said as she got to her feet. "And yeah, that sentence really did happen and now you know why I leave my duel disk in our dorm room whenever I pop over to Beth's for the night."

"At least you have more common sense than Vernon." Brandon chimed in before it hit him. "Wait, why where you and your dad talking about stuff like that whilst you where training?" Brandon asked and now it was Chloe's turn to blush like a madwoman.

"Look, I was sixteen when he first started training me and by that point he had taught me about the birds and the bees whilst warning me about the dangers of teen pregnancy." Chloe answered as she tried her best to hide her embarrassment. "We somehow ended up talking about sentences a duelist would never say, stuff like "The Unhappy Maiden has destroyed the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon" you get the drill, dad came up with that one and we pretty much agreed to end the conversation there because there was no way it could be topped."

"That sounds like a fun conversation to be a fly on the wall for." Theresa said with a slight laugh before turning her attention to the duel. "How about we just focus on this for now?" Theresa suggested and the other, equally embarrassed, students nodded before turning their attention to the duel.

"_Well, I'm ready to pretend that never happened." _Staci thought as she shook her head. _"And I'm guessing that they are as well." _Staci thought before looking at her card and setting it alongside a monster. "That ends my turn."

"_Out of all the students I get paired up with in Duel Academy it had to be him…." _Charity thought as she shook her head. _"I'd gladly trade partners with Cameron Matthews right now if I could!" _Charity thought before looking at her drawn card. "I may as well start on bringing your life-points back down to size! Vorse Raider, attack her defense monster!" Charity commanded and the beast warrior charged towards the monster, revealed to be Dandilion (3/300/300) which was quickly destroyed.

"Dandylion's effect activates in the graveyard meaning I get two Dandylion Tokens!" Staci announced as two spores appeared on the field (1/0/0) in defense mode.

"Fine, Cyber-Tech Alligator, attack the token on the right!" Charity commanded and the alligator charged towards the token before destroying it with his claws. "That ends my turn." Charity announced and Grace drew her card.

"_Well…..that happened….." _Grace trailed off as she looked at the cards in her hand. _"Poor kid, he won't be able to live this incident down for the rest of his time at Duel Academy!" _Grace thought with a sigh before playing a card. "I activate Charge of the Light Brigade! I may not be able to use my Lightsworn monster's effects but I can still use this." Grace announced before drawing twice and milling three cards. "And what luck, I just milled my two remaining Lightsworn Beasts." Grace announced as two copies of Wulf appeared on the field.

"Fine, they'll make for good target practice." Vernon scoffed and Grace shook her head.

"Not what I had in mind!" Grace announced as the Overlay Network opened up. "I'm using my Lightsworn Beasts to construct an Overlay Network and XYZ Summon Costellor Omega!" Grace played the card and the two beasts where sucked into the Overlay Network, from it emerged a tall humanoid figure that was muscular and had white and gold armor, it's face was covered by a mask and it had golden wings (Rank: 4/2400/500). "I'm going to tell you right now, as soon as I activate my monster's effect he won't be able to be affected by Spells or Traps for the rest of the turn."

"Did you forget already?" Vernon scoffed as he pointed to Skill Drain. "As long as this is on the field no effects can be activated!"

"I didn't forget because that card won't be on the field for much longer!" Grace said as she played a card. "Fittingly it's the same card that you forgot to play Vernon!"

"Oh no…." Vernon trailed off as Mystical Space Typhoon appeared on the field and shattered Skill Drain. "I have more than one copy of that trap!"

"And unless your facedown cards are more copies of it I don't see it activating any time soon." Grace added as she sent one of the beasts to the graveyard. "Now I use Omega's effect!"

"_Well, so much for my Birthright/Justi-Break combo!" _Vernon thought as he braced himself.

"For my normal summon I bring out another Garoth!" Grace played the card and the warrior returned to the field, Grace pointed at Vernon's facedown monster and he charged at it before slicing the monster, revealed to be another Vorse Raider, in two. "Costellor Omega, attack his life-points!" Grace commanded as the fairly launched a beam of light at Vernon bringing his life-points down to 2200. "It seems you're in the same spot that Staci was in a couple of turns back."

"Except we only need one direct attack to finish you off." Staci added with a massive grin as Vernon got back to his feet.

"I end my turn at that." Grace announced and Vernon quickly drew his card.

"I activate the Spell Card Spellbook inside the Pot!" Vernon played the card and all four duelists drew three cards, Vernon grinned when he saw his before sending his Spell Card to the graveyard. "Now I'll play another Spell Card, Taking the Bait." Vernon played the card which depicted Dark Scorpion – Chick the Yellow and Cliff the Trap Remover cracking into a safe not realizing that the police were behind them and had already captured the other Dark Scorpions. "This costs me a thousand life-points." Vernon continued as his life-points dropped to 1200. "But I can take one trap card from my graveyard and add it to my hand." Vernon added before taking Skill Drain and adding it to his hand.

"You realize that if you activate that trap card you'll be in worse shape than you where before, right?" Grace asked and Vernon nodded before playing another card.

"It's a price that I'm willing to pay, I activate Trap Booster! All I need to do is discard one card from my hand…." Vernon trailed off as he sent a monster to the graveyard. "And I can activate one Trap Card from my hand and I think you both know my intended target!" Vernon added before playing the card and sure enough Skill Drain appeared on the field as his life-points dropped to 200. "Next I activate Birthright and I use it to bring back the monster I just discarded for Trap Booster!"

"It must be a good one if you're willing to put your life-points in the red." Grace commented as Vernon played the card.

"Not only is it a good one but it's my best monster!" Vernon announced as the monster appeared on the field, simply put it was a hulking behemoth of a man with blue skin, one, Cyclops like eye and long red hair, strapped to his back was a sack containing numerous golden items and the straps where gold as well as having spikes on them (7/2750/2500). "Say hello to Sengenjin!"

"That monster's strong but I've seen stronger." Grace commented with a grin as she stared down the monster. "Besides, he won't do that much damage when he attacks Omega."

"Who said that was the target? Last I checked Staci still had a token left and I have two cards that are really going to put the hurting on her!" Vernon responded before played the cards. "First up is Megamorph! As you said my life-points are in the red but as a result this will double Sengenjin's attack score!" Vernon responded as Sengenjin's attack score shot up to 5500. "As for the other card well it is a little Spell Card called Big Bang Shot!"

"Oh crap….." Staci trailed off as the monster's attack score shot up to 5900. "Grace, if he summons another monster I'm out of the duel!"

"I know that Staci!" Grace responded before looking over her hand. _"Damn, not a single copy of Mystical Space Typhoon!"_

"And you're out of the duel! I summon La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp!" Vernon played the card and a lamp appeared on the field, seconds later a green muscular genie emerged from it with a Fu Manchu beard and black hair tied into a ponytail (4/1800/1000). "Charity, I require the usage of Vorse Raider!"

"He's all yours." Charity responded as her monster walked over to his side of the field. "But if we do win this duel, do me a favor and leave your deck in your dorm room the next time you visit your girlfriend!"

"I am never going to live that down, am I?" Vernon asked and the three girls shook their heads simultaneously, Vernon sighed before pointing at Staci. "Knock her out of the duel guys!" Vernon commanded and the monsters charged towards Staci before hitting their attacks bringing her life-points down to zero. "I end my turn which in turn turns things over to Charity; feel free to use my monsters."

"As long as I don't have to touch them I'm not complaining." Charity sighed as she drew her card and Vernon's monsters walked over to her side of the field; it was then that she realized something. "Vernon, you are an idiot!"

"What did I do now?" Vernon asked before it hit him. "Your life-points where untouched throughout the duel!"

"And now Megamorph's side effect kicks in." Charity nodded as Sengenjin's attack points plummeted to 1775; Charity looked at her drawn card and sighed. "You're lucky I drew this when I did." Charity added as she activated Emergency Provisions, Vernon quickly got the idea before sending Megamorph to the graveyard and boosting their respective life-points up to 1200 and 9000 respectively whilst boosting Sengenjin's attack score up to 3150. "Sengenjin, attack Costellor Omega!" Charity commanded and the monster charged towards the XYZ Monster before smashing it with his hammer bringing Grace's life-points down to 4750. "Vorse Raider, attack Garoth, Cyber Tech, La Jinn, attack her life-points." Chastity commanded and the three monsters launched their attacks bringing Grace's life-points down to 400. "Technically it's your turn now but with your life-points as low as they are I wouldn't blame you for surrendering." Charity announced and Grace drew her card.

"_Mystical Space Typhoon, funny how I draw this after it would've proved useful." _Grace thought as she shook her head and surrendered. "Never thought I'd surrender to a Normal Monster deck but you've earned this win! Good luck in the next round."

"Here are your winners, Vernon Chan and Charity Hensley!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "The tournament will continue tomorrow but after the first match the second round will commence starting with a duel that's sure to bring the house down! In the first match Osiris Red's Omar Boyle will team up with Ra Yellow's Shon Robinson to take on Lemeul Hicks and Kenny Maynard but in the first second round match we will see the perpetual underdog team from Osiris Red, Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham…."

"Oh….." Chloe trailed off as it hit her.

"Take on Ra Yellow's Andreas Freshier and Obelisk Blue's Damien Tarnow!" Martin announced as the crowd cheered, all except one section.

"Shit….." Chelsea finished for her as her eyes widened. "Chloe, will you be ready for that match? Please, say yes?"

"It hasn't been long enough since my last duel." Chloe said with a nervous gulp. "This is bad…."

"And at this point it is most likely too late for the day's to be switched again." Andreas chimed in with a frown. "Well Chloe, your one duelist that I've never had the pleasure of facing and I do wish that it was under better circumstances but it seems our match is set in stone."

"I'll try to be ready for the match by tomorrow; maybe I'll have some practice duels against Chelsea." Chloe said as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "If I can then I look forward to a great match." Chloe added before noticing that Ashitaka had left. "Anyone see where Ash went?"

"I think he left after the duels where announced." Theresa answered as she looked around for the Ra Yellow student. "I'm sure he can look after himself but maybe you and Chelsea should keep an eye on him encase he is targeted." Theresa added and the two girls nodded before leaving.

*meanwhile*

"Victor, ironically it was Chloe that identified my target for me." The female figure said with a smirk as she looked at Ash's profile. "Ashitaka Tomoe, seventeen year's old, five foot nine one hundred and forty nine pounds, even runs a variant of Tanner's deck." She added with a grin. "I can take that kid easily."

"I have the profile in front of me and I agree he seems like an ideal first target." Victor responded and she grinned. "Isolate him, challenge him and capture his soul."

"Understood, I'll be back before dinner, US Time." The figure added before walking off.


	97. Blood of the Innocent

(OOC Note: The character of Hu Wukong is also created by MureoMae; all creative credit goes to him)

It had been twenty minutes since the last tournament duel and Chloe was waiting for Chelsea's class to end, unlike Chelsea Chloe didn't have a class right now and as much as she wanted to keep an eye on Ash on the off chance that he was targeted Chelsea couldn't skip her IT Class so she ended up waiting on her, that wasn't all that was on her mind however as she also had her next tournament duel on her mind as well.

"_This is so unfair!" _Chloe thought as she leaned against the wall with her arms folded. _"It seems like fate's punishing me for using the Orichalcos in the first place!" _Chloe thought before realizing something. _"Hey, Silent Magician…."_

"_If I had that kind of power you would've won the Battle City Tournament." _Silent Magician cut her off and Chloe sighed in relief. _"There's only one item with that kind of power to my knowledge, the Millennium Puzzle, and that thing's been buried under the sands of Egypt for years now."_

"_Yeah, I heard about that thing but I've mostly heard rumors about it." _Chloe answered as she shook her head. _"Anyway can you keep an eye out for any Orichalcos activations?"_

"_I've been doing that all day, no activity so far." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe nodded, before Chloe could say anything else the bell rung and seconds later the door to the IT Room opened up before the students who were taking the class poured out with her roommate trailing behind.

"Hey Chelsea," Chloe greeted her and her roommate smiled as she looked up. "How was class?"

"Eh, nothing much, just the usual stuff." Chelsea answered as she put her laptop in a case. "Tracy noticed that I didn't have a laptop case and gave me one." Chelsea explained and Chloe nodded. "Anyway, I know you want to find Ash and make sure he's all right but I want to head back to our dorm room and make sure my laptop's safe and unpacked, after it was stolen last week I don't want to take any chances."

"I guess I can't blame you." Chloe admitted before getting an idea. "Why don't we meet up a bit later then? I'll text you Ash's location and we meet up there?"

"Good idea, I'll leave my phone on in anticipation for that text." Chelsea nodded before walking off with her new laptop case slung over her shoulder. "He probably went over to the Ra Yellow's boy's dorm so it might be worth starting there."

"I was thinking the same thing, see you in a bit." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded before leaving, she kicked off the wall before walking towards the exit of the main building. _"Okay, just gotta get to the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm quickly, hopefully without bumping into…."_

"Well, well, look who it is." Jessica's voice rang out and Chloe glanced over her shoulder, standing behind her where Jessica, Cameron and Thomas and she groaned.

"What the hell do you idiots want?" Chloe asked as she glared at the trio. "Don't you have someone else to annoy?"

"Oh, nothing much, we're just here to give you our condolences," Thomas said with a smirk and Chloe glared at him. "After all, it's obvious that you'll lose your match tomorrow!"

"Funny coming from the guy I beat without my best monster." Chloe countered and Thomas's smirk quickly disappeared. "And as for you Cameron, if you hadn't have pulled that stunt during our last duel you'd be in his shoes!"

"You'll treat us with the respect we deserve you little tramp!" Jessica scowled and Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, I'm the tramp when you where the one who slept with half the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm!" Chloe scoffed earning several shocked gasps from the surrounding students. "And respect? Give me a fucking break, stop treating my dorm like trash and maybe I'll show you some respect." Chloe added and the next thing she knew Jessica went to punch her….only for her fist to be stopped.

"Let me go…." Jessica said as she struggled against the male hand, Chloe looked up confirming that Ash had caught the fist.

"Well, if you insist." Ash responded before letting go with a slight shove sending her on her backside. "Are you all right Chloe?"

"Yeah, they thought they could talk down to me, emphasis on thought." Chloe said as she shook her head. "I put up with enough of that bullshit from Otto in Battle City, those guys can't even compare to him!"

"Why, you little punk, I'll teach you to respect us!" Cameron growled before aiming a fist Ash's head, he side stepped him and pulled out a kendo stick from his belt and pointed it at his head.

"Do you wish to try that again?" Ash asked and Cameron hesitated before storming off with Jessica and Thomas in toe. "It's best to ignore bullies like that." Ash sighed as he sheathed the kendo stick. "But even then sometimes it's not possible."

"Tell me about it." Chloe agreed with a sigh. "Thanks again for that, I've been in enough trouble with the school already without a fight breaking out in the Main Building." Chloe added as she shook her head. "That was a kendo stick, right?"

"Indeed, I'm an expert at that Martial Art." Ash responded with a nod. "My father taught me, he's descended from a line of Samurai."

"Wow, that's really fucking cool." Chelsea said as she walked up to them, she turned to Chloe who grinned at her. "When you didn't text me after a few minutes I figured something was up, I'm guessing it has to do with The Three Stooges storming off?" Chelsea and Chloe nodded before Chelsea turned to Ash. "I didn't get a chance to introduce myself back there; I'm Chelsea, Chloe's roommate and partner in the tournament."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Ash responded with a nod. "I have a rather interesting family if I do say so myself, my mother is descended from a line of Shinto Priests."

"Huh, the only interesting thing about my family is that my dad's on the pro circuit." Chelsea responded as the two girls started walking with Ash and made their way out of the main building. "So, I was wondering, what deck do you run?"

"I run a Bujin deck." Ash answered and the two girls winced as they thought back to the tag team duel where Theresa got the Fang of Critius. "It's a combo of my parent's decks; my dad runs a Six Samurai deck whilst my mother runs a Lightsworn deck."

"Are they on the pro circuit?" Chloe asked and Ash nodded. "My stepdad's a retired pro duelist; last time he dueled was in Battle City which proved to be a one off return." Chloe added and Ash nodded.

"What about your real dad?" Ash asked and Chloe winced.

"Err, trust me Ash, you really don't want to know. "Chelsea quickly chimed in once she saw the look on Chloe's face and Ash raised an eyebrow. "Let me put it this way, if you ever found it what that bastard did to her you'd want to shove that Kendo Stick up his ass."

"Ah, I see." Ash nodded once he got the idea. "I won't pry if she doesn't want to disclose the details I can't imagine what growing up in such a situation did to her psyche."

"All things considered I've adjusted pretty well." Chloe responded with a sigh. "But it's like she said, it's not exactly pretty." Chloe added before momentarily glancing towards the forest. _"I can't shake the feeling that we're being watched by someone."_

"_I sensed that too Chloe." _Silent Magician chimed in as her transparent form appeared alongside her. _"Be on your guard, given recent events it's a safe bet that there's an Orichalcos Duelist on the island." _Silent Magician added before vanishing from sight.

"Something caught your eye Chloe?" Ash asked and she shook her head once she turned to him.

"No, I just feel like we're being watched by someone." Chloe responded and the two teenagers looked in the direction that she was looking. "I know there are a lot of students here, especially after the new applicants moved in on Saturday, but I've never had that feeling until now."

"Yeah, I noticed that too now that you mention it." Chelsea responded with a nod. "I thought it was just me being paranoid."

"Well, you are two lovely girls; I wouldn't be surprised if you two had some admirers." Ash shrugged and Chloe blushed a bit whilst Chelsea just laughed. "Is there something funny Chelsea?"

"Kinda, you see I do get some male admirers but most of the time it has more to do with my gay status than anything else." Chelsea responded and Ash looked at her surprised. "Yeah, you're not the first one who was surprised to learn that."

"Well I admire your honesty about it." Ash responded and Chelsea grinned at that. "That girl you mentioned, Beth, is she your partner?"

"Yeah, we got together whilst Chloe and the others was at Battle City." Chelsea nodded in response. "I thought I was the only gay girl in a dorm of straight girls for a long time but Beth proved me wrong and we hooked up not long after that."

"So, err, what do you do for fun?" Chloe asked as she turned to him.

"I do traditional Samurai stuff, tea ceremonies, Haiku Writing and I'm not dueling I play a game called Kokyo." Ash explained earning two confused looks. "I'm guessing you haven't heard of it?"

"No, we're both originally from the US." Chloe explained and Ash nodded. "I'm from New York and Chelsea's from Chicago."

"I see." Ash responded with a nod. "I've always wanted to go to New York but I guess this is the closest I'll get."

"Trust me, it's as a big as it looks on TV." Chloe said with a sheepish grin on her face. "I'm from the area known as Brooklyn and I mostly stayed around that area growing up."

"I can understand that I suppose, such a big city and so easy to get lost in." Ash responded before pausing. "You girls mind if I go on ahead? I just realized that I left my duel disk back at my temporary dorm room."

"Go ahead." Chloe nodded and Ash walked off, once he was out of earshot she turned to Chelsea. "He seems nice enough."

"Yeah, just gotta remember to stay off his bad side." Chelsea responded as she leaned against a nearby tree. "You really think he's going to be targeted by those bastards?"

"Considering their last agent forced me to use the Orichalcos I'm not taking anything to chance with them." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded in response. "Honestly I'm surprised that they haven't targeted you again."

"Yeah, I agree there but at the same time I'm not complaining." Chelsea responded as she shuddered. "My ribs have completely healed since then but it's still not something that I'm in a hurry to experience again." Chelsea added and Chloe nodded. "I guess you felt the same way after your first Orichalcos Duel back in Battle City."

"Yeah, I did, remember when Theresa mentioned that I left the scene of that duel in an ambulance?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "She wasn't exenterating, I was bleeding pretty badly throughout the match and to be blunt I'd rather not think of how I would've ended up if the duel had continued past the turn I won it in."

"That's what caused you to be on painkillers for the rest of the tournament, right?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Man, now I feel like I got off easy by aggravating my bruised ribs." Chelsea added before shaking her head. "Ash is taking a while isn't he?"

"We've only been talking for a few minutes." Chloe responded after checking her watch. "On the other hand the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm isn't that far a walk from here so maybe he started talking with one of the other Ra Yellow students?"

"Maybe…." Chelsea trailed off with a frown on her face. "How about we give him ten more minutes and we go look for him if he hasn't returned?" Chelsea suggested and Chloe nodded in approval of the idea.

*meanwhile*

Ash had found his duel disk in that time but he was currently going through his deck to make sure that he had all the cards he needed.

"_Those girls are nice enough, maybe I can get a duel out of them?" _Ash thought as he shuffled through his deck, the spare dorm room he was in was a small one with a desktop computer in the corner but he made do for the time being. _"I was hoping to get my first Duel Academy duel done by the end of the weekend but I got side-tracked, shouldn't be too difficult to get a duel now that I've made some friends." _Ash thought before hearing a knock at the door, he put his deck in his duel disk and strapped it on. "Who is it?"

"You know who it is Ashitaka." A male Chinese voice rang out and Ashitaka frowned before standing up and answering the door, on the other end was a Chinese youth with a shaved head and brown eyes, he was around 6ft 2 and was pretty muscular. "I had heard that you hadn't found a duel yet."

"I am working on that Hu." Ashitaka answered with a frown. "From what I heard you rushed into things and challenged one of the Obelisk Blue girls."

"Yes, Kimberly Troy, that was my first mistake." Hu admitted as he folded his arms inadvertently showing a burn scar on his left hand. "But to get noticed around here you have to challenge the best, besides I saw you hanging around those girls from Osiris Red."

"You mean Chloe and Chelsea? Chloe was one of the first people I talked too when I came here and Chelsea's her roommate, they also happen to be very charming women." Ashitaka added before smiling. "In fact, I plan to challenge them to a duel at some point."

"You challenge them and not your old rival?" Hu scoffed before walking off. "It seems my old rival has gone soft, we will duel again and I will beat you." Hu added before disappearing down the hallway.

"Who was he?" Ashitaka looked up and saw Chloe and Chelsea nearby and it was Chloe who had spoken up, he checked his watch and he saw that ten minutes had passed. "Sorry, we got a bit impatient."

"Its fine, time flew away from me." Ashitaka answered with a shrug. "As for him, his name's Wu Wukong, I guess you could say that we're rivals."

"Doesn't seem like a friendly rivalry to me." Chelsea pointed out and Ashitaka shook his head.

"No, no, he's just loud, brash and extremely passionate about Duel Monsters." Ashitaka answered with a frown. "The rivalry started a few years ago, I had flown to China for a tournament and met him in the opening round, I won but it was a close duel."

"By the sound of things he didn't take the loss well." Chelsea answered and Ashitaka nodded.

"Not at all, he's tried several times since then to beat me each with the same result." Ashitaka sighed as he shook his head. "To say that I wasn't surprised to see him at the qualifying duels last weekend would be a big understatement." Ashitaka added before turning to them. "Anyway, I was wondering if I could duel either of you."

"A duel huh?" Chelsea asked before digging out her timetable. "Okay, let's see here, my next class isn't for a couple of hours yet, what about you Chloe?"

"I won't have time." Chloe sighed as she looked at her timetable. "My next class is in an hour and I get the feeling that this duel is going to run for a bit longer than that."

"So I guess that settles it." Chelsea said with a grin. "I'll be your first Duel Academy opponent, where too?"

"I was hoping you'd tell me, I don't know the area well enough yet." Ashitaka answered and Chelsea nodded.

"Well, unless Theresa, Tyler and Brandon are free I don't see us using the Obelisk Blue Duel Field." Chelsea said as she looked at her watch. "And from the look of things they won't be, that exam Theresa mentioned is going on right now and I doubt they'll be willing to leave such an important one."

"Well, there are the other two duel fields, they are smaller but we won't need an Obelisk Blue student with us to use them." Chloe answered after thinking for a few minutes. "Problem with that is that I've never used either of those duel fields and I don't know where they are."

"I could go ahead and find the duel field." Ashitaka offered and Chelsea nodded.

"Good idea, need to go through my side deck anyway and see if I need to make any changes." Chelsea answered and Ashitaka nodded. "Do you have a cell phone?" Chelsea asked and Ashitaka nodded. "Good, you can text me when you find the location." Chelsea added before showing him her cell-phone number, he jotted it down before leaving the two girls alone.

"You sure you're going to be okay facing him Chelsea?" Chloe asked once he was out of earshot. "Brandon and Theresa had a hard enough time facing the Bujin deck last weekend."

"I get what you're saying Chloe but trust me, I'll be fine." Chelsea reassured her as she looked through her side deck. "Besides from what I saw off that match that archetype seems to be focused on protecting one monster, Bujin Yamato, if I get that thing out of the picture it should be an easy match from that point onwards."

"If you think it will be that easy then it's no wonder you're in Osiris Red." Chelsea blinked before looking up; Hu was standing there leaning against the wall. "I've heard of you two; you're the Osiris Red team that's competing tomorrow in the second match, right?" Hu asked and the two girls nodded.

"Yeah and let me set some things straight." Chelsea said with a frown. "First off they considered me to be good enough for Ra Yellow but they stuck me in Osiris Red because I lost my temper during the test duel, second me and Chloe are two of the duelists up for promotion on Saturday so we won't be in Osiris Red for long."

"I heard that too, if you're as good as you say then you should make it to Ra Yellow no problem." Hu answered before walking off. "But take it from someone who's faced Ashitaka many times before, he is not someone to be underestimated." Hu added before walking off.

"Think we can trust him?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Who knows he definitely has an attitude problem but compared to certain other students…." Chelsea trailed off and it didn't take Chelsea long to figure out what she meant. "At least there's someone else at this school who hates losing as much as I do now."

"I didn't think that was possible." Chloe joked and Chelsea just grinned at that. "Still, I hope Ashitaka will be okay."

*meanwhile*

"_Okay, if I remember correctly from watching the stream of the tournament Chelsea runs a Watt deck." _Ashitaka thought as he walked towards the main building. _"A rather difficult deck to run but she clearly has enough talent to pull it off, this should be a good challenge for my first Duel Academy duel." _Ashitaka thought before he spotted a note on a tree he was walking past. _"Odd, I remember seeing a noticeboard in the main building." _Ashitaka thought before walking up to and reading the note.

"If you want a real duel come to the clearing just north of the main building Ashitaka." That was what the note read and Ashitaka frowned to himself.

"_I know where that clearing is, and it won't take me long to get there." _Ashitaka thought with a frown as he pocketed the note. _"Maybe I can see how Chelsea feels about dueling there instead, after this duel off course." _Ashitaka thought before texting Chelsea. "Chelsea, I've found a better duel spot for our duel, in a clearing just north of the main building, someone else has challenged me but we can have our duel afterworlds." Ashitaka read the text out loud as he typed the letters in and, once he was satisfied that there were no typos he sent it.

*meanwhile*

"Huh, that's weird." Chelsea commented with a frown as she read her text and Chloe turned to her as the two girls made their way to the main building. "Ash just texted me back saying that someone else has challenged him but he doesn't know who."

"If that's not an obvious trap I'm eating the contents of Lance's sock and underwear draw." Chloe responded with a frown before blushing. "And no, I don't know where he keeps them because I've never been to his dorm room."

"Sure you haven't." Chelsea responded with a grin before turning her attention back to her phone. "In any case we'd better find him, he said that the duel will take place in a clearing just north of the main building, I think he's talking about the same place we trained for our expulsion duels." Chelsea added and Chloe looked at the text.

"Yeah, looks like it." Chloe responded with a nod before getting her phone out. "Should I call the others? I don't want to risk wasting their time encase it's a red hearing."

"I wouldn't, don't forget that Tyler, Theresa and Brandon are still in that test, Andreas and Marcus have Hamden's class and Lance is still recovering from his cold." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded before pocketing her phone. "If it is an Orichalcos duelist then they'll find out eventually, if it's not then it shouldn't be a problem."

"And that means we'll be supporting him on our own." Chloe sighed before checking her schedule. "Like I said earlier, I have class in an hour so whether or not I'll be able to stick around that long is anyone's guess." Chloe added and Chelsea looked at her schedule.

"You have Hamden though and he's usually pretty lenient on students being late." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded. "Come on, we'd better get over there encase it is an Orichalcos duelist." Chelsea added before leading her roommate along.

*meanwhile*

"_Well, this is the place." _Ash thought as he entered the clearing, he activated his duel disk and looked around in search for his challenger. "I'm here, show yourself!" Ash called out as he looked around the clearing. "Hu, if this is some elaborate plot to get into a duel with me then I'll happily defeat you again!" Ash added after a few minutes of silence.

"I don't know this Hu but he sounds like a rather weak rival." A feminine voice rang out and Ash's eyes narrowed as a cloaked woman emerged from the trees surrounding them with an Orichalcos Duel Disk on her arm. "And to be blunt I'm surprised that plan worked."

"Who are you?" Ash demanded as his eyes narrowed. "Are you one of those Orichalcos Duelists I've heard about?"

"No wonder they say that chivalry is dead." The woman scoffed before removing her hood revealing that she had shoulder length black hair and blue eyes. "You can call me Alexis and I will be your first…." Alexis trailed off as she activated her duel disk. "…..and your last opponent in Duel Academy Ashitaka, prepare to duel."

"We'll see about that." Ashitaka responded with a frown as they drew their opening hands. _"Chloe did try to keep the truth about the Orichalcos duels in Battle City from me earlier and I understand her reasoning based on what she said to Brandon during that tag match but I was following Battle City from start to finish, I know she combatted that accursed card during Battle City."_ Ashitaka thought as he looked over his opening hand.

"Ash, there you are." Ashitaka looked up and saw Chloe and Chelsea approaching him, it was Chloe that had spoken up. "I'm guessing she's the one who challenged you?"

"That is correct." Ashitaka responded with a nod before sighing. "And whilst I understand why you did it you didn't need to keep the Orichalcos's existence from me." Ashitaka said as he turned to her. "I was following the Battle City Tournament and your performance in it was what inspired me to join this school in the first place."

"Man, you're like, the fifth person who's told me that since the new students moved in." Chloe said with a slight blush and Ash laughed at that. "Based on that I'm guessing she's an Orichalcos Duelist?"

"You are correct." Ashitaka responded with a nod before turning to Alexis. "Her name is Alexis but that's all I know at the moment, I'll appreciate any support you can give me."

"You're going to need it." Alexis responded with a grin before looking over her hand. "I'll go first!" Alexis announced and before Ashitaka could object she drew her first card. "I activate the Spell Card Terra Forming! As I'm sure you are well aware this spell card lets me take one Field Spell from my deck and add it to my hand." Alexis played the card before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card that she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "And now I activate it! Go Seal of the Orichalcos!"

"That wins the award for most predictable opening move ever." Chelsea commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head and the infamous seal encased both players. _"I hope Ashitaka will be all right!"_

"Now I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode." Alexis played the cards and the two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And that ends my turn." Alexis announced and Ashitaka drew his card.

"In that case I activate a Spell Card of my own." Ashitaka announced as he played the Spell Card revealed to be Pot of Duality; he subsequently picked up the top three cards in his deck and looked through them. "I shall keep this one." Ashitaka announced as he added the card to his hand shuffled the other two back into his deck. "Now I will summon the monster I just added to my hand, Bujin Yamato!" Ashitaka played the card and the holy Beast-Warrior appeared on the field (4/1800/200). "Yamato, attack her defense monster!" Ashitaka commanded and the monster charged towards the defense monster, revealed to be Mystic Tomato (4/1400/1100) which was quickly destroyed. "Is that a Dark Attribute deck or a plant deck?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Alexis responded before picking up her deck and searching through it. Once she played the card a tall fiend that closely resembled the devil appeared on the field, it was light blue, black and gold in color and had bat like wings (6/1500/1800).

"What the….a Level Six monster with fifteen hundred attack points?" Chelsea asked as she tried not to laugh. "I didn't realize that it was the early days of Duel Monsters again!"

"His attack score may be pitiful but Legendary Fiend is no laughing matter." Alexis responded as the pentagram appeared on Legendary Fiend's forehead bringing his attack up to two thousand. "First he gains the bonus from the Orichalcos but his effect is something I'll get into later."

"I set this facedown." Ashitaka announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And I end my turn, which activates Yamato's effect!" Ashitaka added before picking up and searching through his deck again, once he found the card that he was looking for he added it to his hand and discarded another before Alexis drew her card.

"Good, now I can explain my fiend's effect." Alexis announced as Legendary Fiend's attack points shot up to 2700. "During each of my standby phases this monster gains seven hundred attack points."

"That's it? No wonder that card doesn't get much play nowadays." Ashitaka commented with a frown as Alexis played another card. "Is that Soul Exchange?"

"That's right and I'll be using your Yamato for this summon." Alexis responded as Yamato vanished from the field and another Legendary Fiend appeared on the field. "I already had this one in my hand but for obvious reasons it wasn't exactly practical to summon him the normal way." Alexis responded as her monster's attack increased to two thousand. "Now obviously I can't attack so I'll end my turn."

"Very well, I activate my Trap Card Bujin Regalia - The Sword!" Ashitaka played the card and retrieved Yamato from his graveyard. "This allows me to activate one of two effects, either add a banished Bujin monster to my hand or add a Bujin monster in my graveyard to my hand, as you can see I'm going for the latter option." Ashitaka explained before adding the monster to his hand and drawing a card.

"Well, he's not doing too badly so far." Chelsea commented with a frown. "Then again I didn't do too badly in my Orichalcos duel at first either."

"Well it's obvious that those fiends are a key part of her strategy, it's almost like an even more outdated version of the Monarch decks." Chloe responded with a frown. "And that's saying a lot."

"Trust me bitch, as soon as I'm done with your friend here you're going to pay for that comment!" Alexis responded with an angry frown as she glared at the teenager.

"Ahem, last I checked it's my move." Ashitaka responded before adding his drawn card to his hand. "First I summon Yamato back to the field!" Ashitaka played the card and the beast warrior returned to the field. "Next I activate the effect of Bujin Quilin from my graveyard, as I have a Bujin monster on my side of the field I merely need to remove him from play…." Ashitaka said as he pocketed the monster. "And I get to destroy one face-up card you control, like the Orichalcos!"

"Err, Ash….." Chloe trailed off but Ash put his hand up.

"You can relax I know what I'm doing." Ashitaka reassured her as the transparent form of the monster appeared on the field and charged towards the seal. "Without the seal your monsters lose most of their power which leads me to scoring first blood!"

"You should've listened to your friend Ashitaka." Alexis responded and Ashitaka blinked before realizing to his shock that Quilin's effect had failed.

"Explain yourself!" Ashitaka demanded and Alexis scoffed.

"The Orichalcos can't be destroyed, period." Alexis responded and Ashitaka's eyes widened. "In other words you just wasted a perfectly good effect."

"Perhaps I did." Ashitaka admitted as he picked up a card. "All though that does explain one thing I was questioning whilst I was watching the Battle City Semi-Finals."

"Why no one tried to destroy the seal?" Chloe asked and Ashitaka nodded. "If it makes you feel any better I tried the same thing with Breaker the Magical Warrior during my first duel in that tournament." Chloe added and Ashitaka sighed in response.

"It does a bit, but there was another reason I used Quilin's effect, failed effect or not." Ashitaka added before playing a card. "I'll get to that in a second but first I set a card facedown and end my turn activating Yamato's effect again." Ashitaka responded before searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and sent another card to his graveyard before Alexis drew her card.

"First my monsters gain their attack boosts!" Alexis said as her monsters' attack points increased to 3400 and 2700 respectively, once she saw the card she had drawn she grinned. "Now you're in for it! I activate Mystical Space Typhoon!" Alexis played the card and Ashitaka's eyes widened as a storm swept over the field destroying his set Mirror Force. "Mirror Force, too bad, that could've caused me some damage, damage you'll now take! Now, Legendary Fiend number one attack Yamato!" Alexis commanded and the fiend took flight…..

"Mirror Force would've caused a lot of damage…..if it were my true strategy." Ashitaka responded before discarding a card and suddenly Yamato's attack strength shot up to 3600.

"How….." Alexis trailed off before regaining her composure. "Legendary Fiend, stop your attack!" Alexis commanded but it was too late as the fiend was impaled on Yamato's sword bringing her life-points down to 7800. "Okay, now it's your turn to explain yourself!"

"It's quite simple really you see the monster I just discarded was Bujingi Crane (4/1600/300)." Ashitaka responded as he held up the card "In a way it works like Honest except if a Beast Warrior Bujin monster I control battles an opponent's monster during either of our turns its original attack gets doubled during that damage calculation only." Ashitaka added as his monster's attack returned to 1800. "Off course your weaker fiend can attack but do you really want to risk losing two monsters in the same turn?"

"And pass up a chance to get revenge on my first monster? Not a chance, Legendary Fiend, avenge your fallen ally." Alexis commanded and the fiend took flight, flew towards Yamato and slashed him across the chest bringing Ashitaka's life-points down to 7100. "Just as I thought, that was a huge bluff!"

"It may have been a bluff but my deck isn't as one directional as yours." Ashitaka retorted and Alexis frowned before motioning for him to take his turn, Ashitaka nodded before drawing his card and looking at it. "And here's an example of just that! I activate the Spell Card Bujincarnation!" Ashitaka played the card and retrieved Crane and Quilin. "As you control a monster and I don't this allows me to Special Summon one Bujin monster in my graveyard and another that's been removed from play." Ashitaka explained before playing the cards and Quilin appeared on the field alongside a majestic black and gold crane.

"So you plan on doing an XYZ summon?" Alexis asked and Ashitaka nodded, she scoffed in response. "There's no way a Rank Four monster could match my fiend!"

"You haven't seen all of them." Ashitaka responded as the overlay network opened up. "Now this does come with a side effect, if I do use them in an XYZ Summon the monster has to be a Beast-Warrior or a Winged-Beast, fortunately for me this next monster fits the bill! I use Quilin and Crane to XYZ Summon Bujintei Susanowo!" Ashitaka played the card and the two monsters vanished into white orbs of light, from the portal emerged a tall, heavily armored figure wearing the same colors as the other Bujin monsters, his helmet was dome shaped and he was carrying a large sword (Rank: 4/2400/1600) and Alexis scoffed at the monster.

"Just how is that supposed to help against an obviously stronger Legendary Fiend?" Alexis asked and Ashitaka grinned before sending Quilin to the graveyard.

"This is the combo that got me into this school and I'm about to show you why! First by detaching an overlay unit I activate Susanovo's effect which allows me to either add another Bujin monster from my deck to my hand or send it to the graveyard." Ashitaka explained before picking up his deck, once he found the card he wanted he added it to his hand, shuffled the deck and summoned it revealing another Yamato.

"Fine, I'll destroy that one too!" Alexis said with a confident smirk and Ashitaka shook his head before retrieving a card from his graveyard. "Wait, don't tell me…."

"That's right, the card I just detached was Quilin and I now use his effect again!" Ashitaka responded as the transparent form of the monster appeared on the field again before charging towards the remaining Legendary Fiend and skewering it through the chest. "And as you can see I learn from my mistakes!" Ashitaka added as Alexis reluctantly sent her monster to the graveyard. "Now onto business, Susanowo, attack her life-points directly!" Ashitaka commanded and the monster drew his sword….

"Did you forget about my facedown card already?" Alexis asked as her forgotten about trap card flipped up revealing Call of the Haunted. "And I use it to bring back Mystic Tomato in defense mode!" Alexis announced as the monster returned to the field.

"Very well, Susanowo, continue your attack!" Ashitaka commanded and the monster charged towards the monster before cutting it in half, once Alexis was done searching through her deck she played a card and her last Legendary Fiend appeared on the field in attack mode.

"Sorry to disappoint you but my life-points are safe for the time being!" Alexis responded with a broad grin as her fiend's attack increased to two thousand. "You've already used up your XYZ monster's attack and if it weren't for the fact that the Seal was in play you'd be able to destroy my fiend…."

"I'm normally a lot more polite than this." Ashitaka sighed in annoyance as he cut her off. "But you are getting on my nerves, Susanowo, attack Legendary Fiend!" Ashitaka commanded and before Alexis could protest the monster stabbed the fiend in the chest bringing her life-points down to 7400. "You see my monster has another effect which allows him to attack all of my opponent's monsters, speaking off attacks…."Ashitaka trailed off as Bujin Yamato charged towards Alexis before punching her in the chest bringing her life-points down to 5600. "You're out of Legendary Fiends which means that it'll be a matter of time before I win this!"

"All I'm going to say is this, my deck isn't as one dimensional as you seem to think." Alexis responded and Ashitaka frowned.

"I end my turn with a facedown card, at the same time this activates Yamato's effect." Ashitaka announced and once the effect was resolved Alexis drew her card.

"_Well, I can definitely see why they put him in Ra Yellow after a combo like that." _Chloe thought as Silent Magician's transparent form appeared alongside her. _"What did I say? He'll be fine!" _Chloe added as she turned to her Duel Spirit.

"_He is doing well." _Silent Magician admitted with a frown on her face. _"But something has felt off for me ever since Alexis summoned her first Legendary Fiend."_

"_I'm guessing it's not because she'd be better off running Monarchs?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician nodded. _"I have to admit, compared to the other decks these guys have used this thing seems like a bit of a step-down, maybe we've taken out their best duelists?"_

"_There is that possibility but you had better be prepared." _Silent Magician added before disappearing again.

"_Damn, can't use this yet." _Alexis thought with a frown as she set a monster on the field. "That's all I can do." Alexis announced and Ashitaka drew his card.

"In that case I won't waste any time, Susanowo, attack her defense monster!" Ashitaka commanded and the swordsman charged towards the monster…..and Ashitaka frowned when he saw that it was Spirit Reaper (3/300/200).

"Your XYZ monster may be able to attack all monsters." Alexis mocked him with a grin on her face. "But Spirit Reaper will survive them all!"

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Ashitaka announced and Alexis drew her card once Yamato's effect resolved.

"_Yes! This is exactly what I needed!" _Alexis thought as she retrieved the three fiends. "Did you honestly think those outdated cards where the best my deck had to offer?"

"You really don't want us to answer that." Chelsea sighed and the others nodded in agreement.

"Apparently they don't teach the students here about rhetorical questions." Alexis muttered under her breath as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Anyway, allow me to show you the true power of my deck! I remove my Legendary Fiends from play to summon Dark Necrofear!"

"That card's even more outdated than those fiends!" Chelsea pointed out as the demonic woman appeared on the field (8/2200/2800). "And her effect won't do you much good since she's affected by the Orichalcos." Chelsea pointed out as Dark Necrofear's attack increased to 2700.

"And if you think I'm stupid enough to use something like Crane or Honest against that thing then forget it!" Ashitaka added as he looked over his hand.

"I'll admit those are all valid points." Alexis responded before playing another card. "But first things first, I activate Burial from a Different Dimension to return the three fiends to my graveyard." Alexis added before taking the three monsters and putting them in her graveyard slot. "Next I activate another Spell Card, Alter to Necrofear!" Alexis played the card which depicted Headless Knight, Gross Ghost of Fled Dreams and The Portrait's Secret kneeling before a statue of Dark Necrofear. "Think of it as a Spell Version of Dark Spirit Art – Greed." Alexis explained as her monster vanished and she drew twice. "Only with two exceptions, there's no way to negate it without something like Dark Bribe and I can only tribute Dark Necrofear."

"I had a feeling that was the case based on the card's name." Ashitaka responded with a frown. "But why go through all the trouble of summoning Necrofear for that effect?"

"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to do that? Don't answer that." Alexis responded once she saw that Chelsea was going to make a comment. "When Alter to Dark Necrofear is used the same turn that Dark Necrofear is summoned it's treated as her being destroyed in battle!"

"Excuse me?!" Ashitaka asked and his eyes widened as Susanowo was possessed by Dark Necrofear's spirit and brought over to Alexis's side of the field. "That has to be one of the most broken cards I've seen!"

"Trust me Ash we've grown to expect that from them!" Chelsea responded as Susanowo's attack increased to 2900 thanks to the seal. "I realize that's probably not helping but still!"

"Enough talk! Susanowo, attack your former ally!" Alexis commanded and the warrior charged towards Yamato before cutting him in half and bringing Ashitaka's life-points down to 6000. "If I had drawn this last turn I'd be in the lead but since I didn't I'll make do." Alexis added before setting two cards. "Tell me, how does it feel to be defeated by your best monster?"

"I'd tell you if Susanowo was my best monster." Ashitaka responded as he drew his card earning a confused look from the three women present. "I'll explain momentarily." Ashitaka added before looking at his drawn card. "I set a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Ashitaka announced and Alexis smirked before drawing her card.

"I was expecting a better fight than this!" Alexis responded as she looked at her drawn card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Alexis played the card and both duelists drew three times.

"_Almost have all the cards I need, just need one more." _Ashitaka thought as he looked at his three new cards. _"But unless I can draw it soon I'm in big trouble."_

"Now I activate another Spell Card, Monster Reborn!" Alexis played the card and one of the Legendary Fiends returned to the field. "Yes, I realize that that card's banned but as you can see my duel disk could care less." Alexis added as Legendary Fiend's attack points rose to 2000 thanks to the seal. "Legendary Fiend, attack his monster!" Alexis commanded and the fiend took flight before charging at the monster, revealed to be a small turtle wearing the Bujin colors (4/1700/1200) which was quickly destroyed. "Susanowo, attack your former master's life-points directly!" Alexis commanded and the swordsman charged towards Ashitaka before slashing him down the middle bringing his life-points down to 3100. "That ends my turn." Alexis announced and Ashitaka drew his card.

"Things are looking bad." Chelsea said with a gulp as Ashitaka looked at his drawn card. "Don't worry Ash if you lose I can take her easily."

"I'm sure you could." Ashitaka responded as he added his drawn card to his hand. "But you won't need to because I'll be the victor in this duel." Ashitaka added before looking over his hand. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Ashitaka added as he set the monster and Alexis drew her card.

"First my Legendary Fiend gets stronger…." Alexis trailed off as her monster's attack increased to 2700. "Then he destroys your monster!" Alexis added and the fiend launched his attack against the monster, revealed to be a strange, boar like monster that was white and blue in color and had red tusks (4/1100/1900) which was quickly destroyed. "Susanowo, attack him directly!" Alexis commanded and the warrior charged towards him before slashing him down the middle bringing his life-points down to 200. "Even my Spirit Reapers could beat you at this point, surrender!"

"Not in this life-time!" Ashitaka responded before drawing his card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon!" Ashitaka played the card and Alexis scoffed.

"Even if you could destroy the Orichalcos what good would it do you now?" Alexis asked as the storm appeared on the field again.

"The Orichalcos isn't my target, it's Dark Necrofear!" Ashitaka responded and Alexis's eyes widened. "That thing is pretty much an Equip Spell and once I destroy it I get back my monster!" Ashitaka added as the fiend was blown away and Susanowo looked all too happy to return to his master's side of the field.

"That doesn't matter! My Legendary Fiend is still stronger!" Alexis pointed out and Ashitaka shook his head before playing a card.

"Not for long, from my hand I activate the Spell Card Forbidden Lance!" Ashitaka played the card and a large lance appeared in the fiend's hands apparently heavy enough to weigh it down and bring his attack points down to 1900. "Your monster loses eight hundred attack points and whilst it will be protected from the effects of Spell and Trap Cards for the rest of the turn that isn't what it needs to worry about, Susanowo, attack Legendary Fiend!" Ashitaka commanded and the swordsman charged towards the fiend before cutting it in half and bringing Alexis's life-points down to 5100. "It seems that we are back to square one, I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"Except for the fact that your life-points are so low that even the Sparks Spell Card could defeat you." Alexis responded as she drew her card. "Fortunately for you I don't run that useless card but I do have another Spell Card, Pot of Avarice!"

"Wait, so she can use that card and we can't!?" Chloe protested as Alexis retrieved Mystic Tomato, her three Legendary Fiends and Dark Necrofear from the graveyard, shuffled them into her deck and drew twice. "Almost makes joining them tempting…." Chloe added earning a worried look from Chelsea. "I said almost!"

"_So the Orichalcos did tempt her…." _Alexis thought before putting a hand to her earpiece. "Victor, did you get all that?"

"Loud and clear, we are looking for another duelist who can use Sheamus's strategy as we speak." Victor responded and Alexis nodded before looking at her drawn cards.

"I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Alexis set the two cards and Ashitaka drew his card.

"I summon Bujin Yamato!" Ashitaka played the card and the monster returned to the field. "Susanowo, attack her defense monster!" Ashitaka commanded and the swordsman slammed his sword into the ground destroying the set monster, revealed to be another Mystic Tomato, which was quickly destroyed.

"I use my Tomato's effect to summon another Spirit Reaper!" Alexis played the card and Spirit Reaper returned to the field. "So unless you have another Forbidden Lance in your hand my life-points are safe!"

"Then I have some bad news for you, I activate my second Forbidden Lance!" Ashitaka played the card and the lance appeared above the Reaper's head…..

"Fortunately I prepared for that, go Dark Bribe!" Alexis announced as her facedown card flipped up. "Now your card gets negated and you draw twice."

"As good as that sounds I must decline the offer, I activate my Trap Card Trap Jammer!" Ashitaka activated the trap and Dark Bribe shattered alongside Spirit Reaper seconds later. "Susanowa, Yamato, attack her life-points directly!" Ashitaka commanded and the two warriors charged towards her before hitting their attacks bringing her life-points down to 900. "It seems that we are now in the same boat!"

"I won't be defeated by some punk." Alexis growled as she drew her card once Yamato's effect resolved. "Perfect, I activate Tribute to the Doomed and I target Susanowo!" Alexis played the card and bandages went to wrap around the monster…..only to be stopped by the ghostly form of the turtle she destroyed earlier. "What?"

"You can call this revenge from beyond the grave." Ashitaka responded as he pocketed the monster. "If Bujingi Turtle is in my graveyard and a card is activated that targets one Bujin monster I control I can banish it and negate the effect." Ashitaka explained with a small grin. "Don't you have a move to complete?"

"I set this card facedown and end my turn." Alexis announced and Ashitaka drew his card. _"Once he attacks I'll activate Dimension Wall to reflect the damage back at him and win the duel! Not exactly the way I intended to win but a win's a win!"_

"I hope you weren't counting on that facedown card." Ashitaka said as he pocketed another monster. "The card I just banished was Bujingi Centipede (4/1700/500) and if I banish him whilst I control a Bujin Beast-Warrior Monster I can destroy one Spell/Trap Card you control." Ashitaka explained and Alexis's eyes widened as the trap card shattered. "I could finish it now but I'm a man of my word."

"What do you mean?" Alexis demanded as Ashitaka played the card he had drawn and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear appeared on the field (4/1600/1200). "Why would you summon him this late in the game?"

"So I can construct the overlay network again!" Ashitaka announced as Bear and Yamato vanished into white orbs of light. "I couldn't summon this earlier because his effect specifically requires two Beast-Warrior monsters but now I can! I use Bear and Yamato to XYZ Summon my best monster, Bujintei Kagutsuchi!" Ashitaka played the card and out of the vortex a new monster appeared on the field, it was a horseman riding a horse made out of flames that glared at Alexis (Rank: 4/2500/2000). "When he is XYZ Summoned I must mill five cards from my deck." Ashitaka said as he milled the five cards. "And since the cards I milled were all Bujins my monster gains five hundred attack points." Ashitaka added as his monster's attack increased to 3000. "Kagutsuchi, finish her off!" Ashitaka commanded and the horseman charged towards her before hitting his attack bringing her life-points down to zero.

"Hah, that was awesome!" Chelsea said with a grin as the seal enclosed around Alexis and the holograms disappeared. "I can definitely see why you made it into Ra Yellow."

"Thank you Chelsea." Ashitaka nodded before sighing. "And I apologize for this whole incident, if I had just ignored the note none of this would've happened."

"I'm just glad you're safe." Chelsea responded and Ashitaka nodded.

"Besides if anyone should apologize it's me." Chloe added and Ashitaka turned to him. "When I met you I didn't take into account the possibility that you followed Battle City and that's why I kept the Orichalcos's existence from you." Chloe added and Ashitaka nodded.

"Like I said, I understand why but at the same time I accept your apology." Ashitaka said before wincing. "That duel was rough, how about we take a raincheck on our duel Chelsea?"

"You got it." Chelsea responded as the three teenagers left the area. "We'd better tell the teachers about this attack, they'll want to know."

"Good idea." Chloe said as she checked her watch. "I have Duel Theory with Martin next so I'll tell him after that class, once I tell him word should spread to the other teachers pretty quickly."

"Good idea and I'll make sure the others know." Chelsea responded with a nod. "Based on that I'm guessing the test the Obelisk Blue students were taking is over so I should be able to get a hold of Theresa, Brandon or Tyler." Chelsea said as she checked her watch, the two girls nodded and began to walk away.

"Girls, wait….." Ashitaka called out to them and the two women turned around. "During the Semi-Finals I thought the Orichalcos was just a regular card, now I know the truth." Ashitaka added before bowing to them. "If you ever need my assistance in bringing down this evil just ask."

"You got it Ash." Chelsea responded with a nod and Chloe nodded in agreement. "We could definitely use someone with your skills on our side."

"What about Hu? Would he tag along?" Chloe asked and Ashitaka shook his head.

"I couldn't tell you, he hasn't experienced its power first hand." Ashitaka responded with a frown. "If I where you I'd wait to see if he's targeted first and if he is ask him then."

"Being in an Orichalcos duel might motivate him to help." Chloe responded with a nod. "Well, you have Chelsea's phone number so you can either contact us on that or pop over to the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm if you want a chat."

"I'll probably just stick to the phone or talking during a match, I wouldn't want to risk walking in on you two getting dressed." Ashitaka responded with a respectful nod. "I'll see you around." Ashitaka added as the two girls walked off.

"_That was way to close." _Chloe thought as she walked away and Silent Magician appeared next to her. _"If he hadn't drawn NXT when he did who knows what would've happened?"_

"_I agree, we'd better be vigilant encase anyone else is targeted." _Silent Magician answered with a nod. _"Still he won the match and that's what matters."_

"_Definitely, and if we can get him on board for when we go after the Orichalcos it'll be that much better." _Chloe responded with a nod as Silent Magician disappeared. _"I hope at least." _Chloe thought as she walked alongside Chelsea. "Well Chelsea, I'm off to duel theory, see you back at the dorm room?"

"See you there." Chelsea responded and her roommate nodded before entering the main building.


	98. Day Eight Last First Round Match

It had been a half hour since Ashitaka's duel against Alexis and Chloe was still in Duel Theory, she had arrived a bit late and had told Martin and Hamden, who was filling in for a proctor in that class, that she'd explain to him why after the class ended, Chloe had just finished a duel against one of the new students and was waiting for the class to end.

"_So I guess Hamden's attempts to get me out of this class failed." _Chloe thought with an annoyed sigh as she sat down next to a Ra Yellow student. _"I had a feeling he wouldn't be able to considering how strict Martin is but at least I had some good practice for the duel."_

"You don't look happy with how that duel went." Chloe looked up and saw that the student she had sat next to had spoken up; it was a male student with short black hair and blue eyes who spoke with an Australian accent. "I don't see why, you did win the match."

"Yeah, it's something else entirely and it's a bit of a long story." Chloe responded with a sigh as she turned to the student. "I'm Chloe."

"The name's Mike." Mike introduced himself with a smile. "I never thought I'd see a Spellcaster/Warrior deck work like yours does."

"It took a lot of work and I'll be the first to admit that." Chloe admitted with a sheepish grin. "My deck was so inconsistent and mismatched back when I first joined the school that I barely qualified, no wonder I got stuck in Osiris Red."

"We all gotta start somewhere I guess." Mike responded with a shrug. "It must've been quite a thrill to represent Duel Academy in Battle City."

"It was….and it wasn't…." Chloe trailed off with a sigh. "I guess you could say the Orichalcos played a part in that but there was other factors to boot." Chloe added but before she could elaborate the bell rung ending the class.

"Well it was good to meet you Chloe." Mike said as he stood up. "But I have to get going, are you heading over to the Osiris Red Girl's dorm?"

"Yeah but I have to chat with Martin first, I'm not in trouble but it still something that needs to be done." Chloe responded and Mike nodded before leaving, soon the other students followed suit leaving Chloe alone with the two teachers who quickly approached her.

"All right Richardson, I'm giving you five minutes to explain why your where late as I can't hold off the next group much longer." Martin told her and Chloe nodded in response.

"May as well cut to the chase, the Seal of the Orichalcos was involved." Chloe explained and the looks on the two teachers' faces turned to worried looks fairly quickly. "I wasn't involved in the duel it was one of the new students, Ash Tomoe."

"I see." Martin said with a frown. "Is he all right?"

"Yeah, he won the duel in the end despite having only two hundred life-points left." Chloe responded with a nod. "I and Chelsea went up there to support him through the duel and it ran long hence why I was late." Chloe added and Martin nodded. "The duelist he faced is in a clearing just north of the main building."

"Thank you, we'll send security to that clearing as soon as possible." Martin nodded and Chloe stood up intending to leave. "There's one more thing Ms. Richardson." Martin added and Chloe glanced over her shoulder at him. "I've been told that there was an argument between you and Jessica Stevens, Cameron Matthews and Thomas Newborne that almost came to blows because of a few comments you made." Martin added and Chloe winced.

"_I should've known that argument would come back and bite me on the ass." _Chloe thought before sighing in annoyance. "For starters, they started it, I was on my way out of the Main Building when they started taunting me over my match tomorrow, and I didn't back down from them, as a result Jessica almost punched me."

"And Ashitaka Tomoe had to intervene to prevent said fight." Martin sighed as he shook his head. "You're one of the brightest students in Osiris Red Chloe but whilst it isn't as bad as your roommate's your temper will get you in trouble one of these days." Martin added as he went to leave. "I'm telling you this for your own good Chloe, unless you face their teams in the tournament stay out of Cameron, Jessica and Thomas's way, you already have one expulsion duel on your record and I'm sure Theresa Daniels explained the three strike system in place for those duels to you, we don't want to put you through that again but we will if necessary." Martin added before leaving the room.

"If I had known that was going to happen I would've just borrowed Chelsea's laptop and e-mailed him." Chloe sighed to herself as she glanced over at Hamden. "Did you know he was going to bring that up?"

"We discussed it before the class started, as you had left the main building at the time and no one had seen you enter your dorm room we decided to wait until this lesson before confronting you with the facts." Hamden explained and Chloe nodded. "Truth be told, I'm not a big fan of that trio either, the incident when Cameron insulted your mom didn't help matters." Hamden admitted and Chloe shuddered a bit at that thought. "But Martin was right on the money with what he said."

"Yeah, I know." Chloe admitted as she folded her arms, then she got an idea. "If I get promoted to Ra Yellow on Saturday…."

"The Expulsion Duel will still be on your record." Hamden interrupted her and Chloe sighed in annoyance. "You're hardly the first student to ask that question to me or any other staff member here, to say we've grown to expect it wouldn't exactly be an exaggeration."

"Well, can't blame me for trying." Chloe responded with a sheepish grin. "I also noticed that you weren't able to get me out of this class."

"I tried but Martin pointed out that your performance in Duel Theory was a major factor in your promotion, not to mention your performance in Battle City." Hamden explained and Chloe nodded. "The only way we could've gotten you out of Duel Theory is if we postponed to promotion duels, sorry."

"I guess it was a no win situation." Chloe responded and Hamden nodded in response. "I'd better get going before the next class starts." Chloe added before going to leave.

"There's one more thing Chloe." Hamden called out to her and Chloe looked up. "If another student gets targeted and the others aren't available straight away call me and I'll get to the location of the duel as soon as I can."

"And if your phone's off?" Chloe asked as she turned to him.

"The only time I leave my phone if is if I'm teaching a class or if I'm in a meeting with the other teachers, if that happens just leave me a message." Hamden responded and Chloe nodded before leaving the class room.

"_Okay, no sign of a certain annoying trio." _Chloe thought as she left the classroom and looked around, Martin's classroom wasn't that far from the Obelisk Blue duel field but it was still a bit of a walk to get to the main entrance/exit. _"As long as I can get over there without any incidents…."_

"Chloe, there you are." Chloe looked up and saw Theresa approaching her. "Chelsea told us about the Orichalcos Duel that happened earlier, is Ash okay?"

"He's a bit roughed up but he's otherwise fine." Chloe answered as the older student caught up to her. "How did the exam go?"

"It went well, I should here from Martin in a couple of days if I'm going to graduate or not but I'm pretty confident that I am." Theresa answered and Chloe nodded. "I also heard about the incident between you, Cameron, Jessica and Thomas." Theresa added with a frown and Chloe sighed in annoyance.

"Martin's already chewed me out over it." Chloe said as she started making her way towards the exit. "So if you're bringing it up to do the same than someone's beaten you too it."

"I wasn't going too anyway." Theresa answered and Chloe looked at her. "You were just standing up for yourself and by all reports they started it in the first place so I don't really have anything to chew you out over." Theresa added and Chloe sighed in relief. "Besides I think the chewing out I gave you yesterday was more than enough."

"I couldn't agree more if I tried." Chloe answered with a small grin on her face. "So why are you bringing it up anyway?"

"I just wanted to check if you were okay after it considering how far those three can take their bullying." Theresa answered and Chloe nodded. "And you seem to be in good spirits about it so I guess that answers my question."

"Ash intervened before it could get any worse." Chloe explained and Theresa nodded. "Though I'm surprised Cameron hasn't complained about him carrying around a Kendo Stick!"

"Wait, Ash was carrying a Kendo Stick?" Theresa asked with a raised eyebrow and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, he said that he's an expert in that martial art but I wouldn't know because I don't know much about it." Chloe responded and Theresa nodded. "I mean you'd have thought that the first thing he did was go straight to Martin and complain."

"That depends Chloe did he draw it on Cameron?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded. "Did he use it?" Theresa asked and Chloe shook her head.

"No, he just warned him and Cameron ran off with his tail between his legs with Jessica and Thomas not far behind." Chloe explained and Theresa nodded.

"That explains it then." Theresa responded and Chloe turned to her as the two girls made their way out of the main building. "Students who practice martial arts like Ash or Tyler are allowed to have stuff like kendo sticks on their person as long as they don't use them for anything other than self-defense or training."

"So even if Cameron did complain it would've been baseless?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded. "That's good to know; come to think of it does the school have a martial arts club?"

"No they don't, surprising since there are a few students who practice martial arts but one hasn't been established." Theresa answered after thinking for a few moments. "Why do you ask?"

"Chelsea told me that she used to practice Karate in an attempt to control her temper when she was still going to one of her previous schools, didn't work out and she told me she's out of practice since the nearest club is back on the main land." Chloe responded and Theresa nodded. "I just figured it would be a good thing for her."

"I'll talk to Martin about it, see what he thinks." Theresa said and Chloe turned to her. "I'm one of his top students remember? If he'll listen to anyone on the student body about suggestions for after school activities it's me."

"There doesn't seem to be a lot of those besides the hot springs." Chloe responded and Theresa sweat-dropped.

"Yeah, any requests like that have to be passed by the board who ultimately answer to Kaiba, not to mention the hot springs have been open since before I joined the academy." Theresa responded with a frown. "I've managed to get a few proposals passed like a computer club and an indoor swimming pool, the last one will be built over the summer before you ask, but others like a chess club haven't passed."

"Let's hope you can add "Martial Arts Club" to the ones you've managed to get passed." Chloe responded and Theresa nodded in agreement, Chloe checked the time on her watch and grinned. "I'd better get back to my dorm room; I told Chelsea that I'd meet her there after Duel Theory and that ran long due to me telling Martin about Ash's Orichalcos Duel."

"Not to mention talking about the incident with Cameron, Jessica and Thomas." Theresa responded and Chloe sighed. "I won't keep you in that case, oh and by the way do you have any other classes today?" Theresa asked and Chloe checked her schedule.

"No, I have a pretty lax day today; hell most of my days this week are pretty lax." Chloe commented as she read her timetable. "Is it because I'm up for promotion?"

"That sometimes happens, you see when the timetables are sent out they take into account if the student has anything coming up like a wedding or, in your case, a promotion duel." Theresa explained and Chloe nodded. "Anyway I was asking because I was wondering if you were doing anything later."

"It doesn't involve another rematch between us, right?" Chloe asked and Theresa shook her head. "Thank god, I'd rather wait to see if our teams meet up in the tournament before that happens."

"That's understandable considering how our last duels went." Theresa responded with a nod. "Brandon figured we'd help you and Chelsea study ahead of the promotion duels since they'll be a test as well, Chelsea already knows and she's up for it as are the others, what about you?"

"If it helps me do better than I did on the written test I did back when I joined I'm all for it." Chloe responded and Theresa nodded. "When and where?"

"Stop by the Obelisk Blue Duel Field later, I'll tell the guards to let you in." Theresa told her and Chloe nodded before walking off.

"_Now those bastards have started targeting students." _Chloe thought with a frown as she made her way towards the area of the island where the Osiris Red Dorms where. _"It was bad enough when only me and the others were targeted but now? Now we have to worry about the other students." _Chloe thought before looking up and seeing Chelsea walking towards her. "Hey Chelsea," Chloe greeted her and Chelsea looked up.

"Hey Chloe, I was wondering what was taking so long." Chelsea commented with a grin as she stopped in her tracks. "Does Martin know?"

"Yeah, he knows, I told him after the class ended." Chloe responded as she walked up to her roommate. "He also knows about the incident between me, Cameron, Jessica and Thomas."

"Ah," Chelsea said with a wince. "I'm guessing he took time out of his schedule to chew you out for it?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Besides that were there any other problems?"

"Not really, I had a chat with Theresa and I know you told her about Ash's Orichalcos duel." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded. "I also know about the study session she arranged with you."

"Oh yeah, that." Chelsea said with a grin. "I would've texted you about it but I was in Beth's dorm room at the time to prepare for our tag match tomorrow and…..well let's just say that we ended up naked and on top of each other in a matter of minutes."

"Yeah, you just dived into too much information Chelsea." Chloe said as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Were you as blatantly honest about your sex life when you lived with your parents?"

"How do you think they found out about my brief fling with that boy I mentioned?" Chelsea asked with a sigh and Chloe just shook her head. "Though to be fair after that incident I made a rule of not discussing my sex life with my parents unless I ended up getting pregnant, obviously that never happened and the next time I had any talk like that with them was when I came out of the closet."

"And I'm guessing that you felt that you had to get that conversation out of the way as soon as possible?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded without hesitation. "Anyway, let's change the subject, you have any classes left?" Chloe asked and Chelsea checked her timetable.

"Err, just one and that's with Maria, it's the class I mentioned earlier." Chelsea answered and Chloe nodded before Chelsea checked the time on her watch. "Actually I'd better get going if I don't want to be late, see you at the dorm."

"Will do, see you later." Chloe called after her as her roommate ran off, Chloe continued walking towards the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm and put her hands in her jeans pockets. _"At least I can use the duels at the Obelisk Blue Duel Field to prepare for my match against Andreas and Damien tomorrow." _Chloe thought before realizing something. _"Didn't the doc say that Lance would be feeling better by now? I hope so…."_

*meanwhile*

"Yes, I've finally got over this cold!" Lance said with a grin as he leaned back on his bed, he was feeling a lot better and was celebrating the only way he knew how, by listening to metal and in this case he was listening to the song "Broken Jade" by the Taiwanese Black Metal band Chthonic. "Should be good to go to the duels tomorrow and finally ask Chloe out…..I hope."

"Lance, can you turn that down for a minute?" Jeff's voice rang out from the other side of the door to his dorm room and Lance did so before answering the door. "Good to see that you're feeling better."

"Yeah, I feel good enough to run about a hundred laps the next time I have PE." Lance said confidently before sweat-dropping. "On second thought, forget I said that."

"Sure, why not." Jeff shrugged before motioning someone over. "There's someone I want to meet, he'll be your roommate for as long as you are in Ra Yellow, we'll get another bed and computer put in here during your next class, which is in an hour if you're up for it."

"Yeah, I'm up for it, I've been dying of boredom since I was cooped up in here." Lance answered and Jeff nodded. "And if I'm promoted up to Obelisk Blue on Saturday?" Lance asked as he sat up and paused the music.

"Finding him a new roommate will be easy enough, there's a few of the new Ra Yellow who haven't found a permanent dorm room yet." Jeff answered as Ashitaka stepped forward carrying a bag over his shoulder and pulling a suitcase behind him. "This is Ashitaka Tomoe, one of the new students."

"Err, hi." Lance greeted him with a handshake. "Welcome to the dorm As….Ash….."

"Just call me Ash." Ashitaka told him and Lance nodded. "I've heard about you from a girl in Osiris Red, she said that you dueled in your swimming trunks at night."

"Yeah, that's not one of my proudest moments." Lance admitted with a wince. "Who told you that?"

"Chloe Richardson." Ashitaka answered and Lance nodded as Jeff left the room closing the door behind him. "You seem close to her."

"You could say that, I knew her before we enrolled here a few months back." Lance admitted as he turned to him. "Ash, before I continue, how good are you at keeping secrets?" Lance asked and Ash turned to him.

"If you don't want it revealed I won't reveal it unless asked." Ashitaka answered and Lance nodded. "Is this to do with Chloe?"

"Yeah, thing is me and Chloe have been best friends for a little under a year now, give or take, and I'm thinking it's time I upgraded it if you know what I mean." Lance explained and it didn't take Ash long to figure out what he meant.

"You want to see if she's interested in being your girlfriend." Ash said and Lance nodded. "Does anyone else now?"

"Yeah, I went to a friend of mine in Obelisk Blue for advice, she said I should just go for it since a girl with Chloe's good looks probably has a few male admirers already." Lance admitted before frowning. "Unfortunately things keep getting in the way, my recent cold being the most, well, recent."

"You'll get your chance my friend, for your sake I hope it's soon." Ashitaka responded as he folded his arms. "So I heard heavy metal blaring out."

"Yeah, that's the kind of music I go for, been a fan for as long as I can remember." Lance explained as he went up to his desktop. "I don't just go for American bands either; I listen to bands from Sweden, Canada, Poland, even Taiwan." Lance added with a grin. "So what do you listen too?" Lance asked and Ashitaka blushed a bit.

"And now it's my turn to request that you keep a secret." Ashitaka sighed as he turned to him. "You won't tell anyone?" Ashitaka asked and Lance nodded. "Okay…..I love JPop; it's something of a guilty pleasure."

"….seriously? Dude, I can think of ten genres that are worse than that just off the top of my head, starting with regular pop music." Lance answered with a good natured grin.

"I'm sure you could and I do listen to any and all genres of music, don't get me wrong, but like I said I wouldn't want that spread around too much." Ashitaka explained and Lance nodded.

"You got it I'll keep it as much a secret as my love for lesbian porn." Lance said before blushing furiously. "And let's pretend I didn't say that last part."

"As long as you look it up when I'm out of the room I won't complain." Ashitaka responded with a chuckle and Lance frowned. "Don't worry, I won't tell Chloe."

"That's a relief." Lance sighed in relief as he looked through his music library. "I normally use metal to drown it out so if you hear metal there's a good chance that….well, you know…." Lance trailed off before clearing his throat. "And no, I wasn't looking at it just now."

"Good," Ashitaka commented before pausing. "Wait, why do you look up that stuff when you have a lesbian friend in real life?"

"Chelsea?" Lance asked and Ashitaka nodded. "Dude, have you seen how nasty her temper can, and often will, get?" Lance asked and Ashitaka shook his head. "I have and trust me she's the last person on this island who isn't a staff member that I want to piss off."

"Her temper's that bad?" Ashitaka asked and Lance nodded. "She's around 5ft 6 and your 6ft, why are you worried about her?"

"One simple reason, she told me that she used to do Karate, and one of her specialties is kicking boys who piss her off in the balls." Lance answered with a wince. "Now imagine what would happen to me if she caught me spying on her making out with Beth?"

"I believe your balls would have to be surgically reattached in that scenario." Ashitaka responded and Lance shuddered at that thought. "That's if you don't run off course."

"It wouldn't matter where I ran too, she'd probably catch me, hell she may forgo putting her clothes back on." Lance sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "I've seen her run the obstacle course during PE, trust me, she's in good shape and is pretty damn fast on her feet."

"I've met her and I don't doubt that one bit." Ashitaka commented with a nod. "All though she didn't mention her karate background."

"It's probably because she's out of practice." Lance said as he shrugged his shoulders. "She has a history of being kicked out of schools due to her temper, to the point that I'm surprised that Duel Academy gave her a chance, she took up Karate at one of her old schools hoping that it would help her control her temper and….well I think you can guess how that went."

"Not well." Ashitaka answered as he shook his head. "It's a shame, I thought she was charming enough when I met her earlier but I guess appearances can be deceiving."

"Yeah," Lance nodded before noticing the time on his computer clock. "I'd better get going my class is in half an hour and I don't want to be late for my first class since I recovered from my cold." Lance said before standing up. "Good meeting you Ash but, well you know."

"I understand and I'll see you when you get back." Ashitaka nodded and Lance grinned before leaving the room.

*elsewhere*

Whilst all that was going on there was another group talking amongst themselves, unfortunately for the students that group was someone who had been plaguing them for the past few months.

"Send me to the island Victor." Sarah insisted as she folded her arms. "It's like Alexis said, Chloe has tasted the power of the Orichalcos and she wants more."

"You mean beside the fact that Chloe won her match against Sheamus after activating the Orichalcos?" Jack pointed out and Sarah frowned. "Sheamus's deck was good but a dragon swarm deck isn't exactly the best deck for this kind of situation."

"Why do you think I want a chance? My deck is far more powerful than his!" Sarah boasted and Victor cleared his throat.

"I'm not sending either of you to the island as anything other than escorts for my agents and that's final." Victor asserted with a frown. "I'll only use your dueling abilities as a last resort and that's if and only if the students find our HQ." Victor added before turning to Dr. Schwartz. "Now I understand that you have made some improvements to the dream machine?"

"Yes, I believe that with my new improvements I can warp the memory of the target, play mind games with them and then duel them." Dr. Schwartz explained with a nod. "Warp a significant memory and that duelist will be in no condition to duel."

"I like where this is going." Victor said as he turned to him. "What about targets?"

"I have two possible targets, neither of them have the Legendary Dragons but if it works on them I'll use it on the Dragon wielders." Dr. Schwartz explained and Victor nodded. "Those targets are two female Osiris Red Students, Chelsea Cunningham and Nicola Hastings."

"Chelsea….wait, wasn't she the chick who beat Cortez?" Jack asked and the others nodded. "In that case I say target her first, she's clearly the strongest threat out of the two."

"Don't count out Nicola as Phillip was interested in targeting her during the Battle City operation." Victor responded as he read her Duel Academy profile. "I can see why, before her duel with Andreas she defeated a top ranked duelist from South America eliminating her in the process, hmmm, says here that her career as a pro-duelist went down the drain after that loss."

"Possible recruit?" Jack asked and Victor nodded.

"I'll send someone who speaks Spanish to her home, according to records she speaks fluent English and Spanish but the locals may not." Victor responded before turning to Schwartz. "Dr. Schwartz, how soon can you target them?"

"It'll take longer than it would to target them normally due to how complex the process is." Dr. Schwartz answered with a frown. "I'd need at least four days for it to work."

"Get on it, only target the one who's ready first and do a background check on them in the process." Victor answered and Dr. Schwartz nodded before leaving. "In the meantime I'll send another agent to the island, whilst I read Ashitaka's profile I discovered that he has a rival in Ra Yellow, a Chinese Student called Hu Wukong."

"Yeah, I remember that kid, I almost recruited him but you shot it down." Jack answered with a frown. "What I don't get is why we're waiting until after the tournament duels, if we attack them during we'd have them all in one place."

"And the army of security guards that the school has employed pointing guns at us." Sarah answered with a frown. "That won't be a mission, it would be suicide!"

"And all it would take is one disloyal agent who's willing to testify against me to cut a plea deal for it to bring my empire down." Victor added with a frown. "Jack, if your plan wasn't so flawed I would've executed it sooner!"

"Okay, I get it already." Jack grunted as he folded his arms. "But if we can take out the guards they'll be easy pickings."

"Even if we manage that there's always the possibility that all our agents will be defeated at once." Victor pointed out with a frown. "Don't forget that this is a school for duelists, we may have captured three student's souls but we've lost even more."

"And if that happens there'd be no way we could recruit more agents fast enough to replenish our ranks." Sarah added with a frown. "Our current objective may be slow but it is more practical than what you are suggesting."

"Now, as I said I am going to send an agent to the island to target Hu Wukong, Jack I want you to accompany him." Victor added and Jack nodded. "You'll leave first thing in the morning so try to get as early a sleep as possible, for now the two of you are dismissed." Victor added and they nodded before leaving the office.

*the next day*

"Ugh, five more minutes….." Chloe groaned as she turned in the bottom bunk of the bunk bed that she and Chelsea shared, it was early in the morning and Chelsea was trying to get her to wake up so that they would be well rested for their match later that day but wasn't having much success.

"Are you trying to get out of our match or something?" Chelsea asked and Chloe didn't answer, Chelsea let out an annoyed sigh before grinning as she got an idea. "Have it your way Chloe, I'll just tell Andreas and Damien later when we approach the podium for our match that you where fantasizing about Lance all night last night." Chelsea added and Chloe quickly sat up, she was blushing quite a bit with furious shade of red on her cheeks as she did.

"I WAS NOT!" Chloe asserted and Chelsea laughed a hearty laugh.

"Oh Lance, you're so rugged and handsome, and you have such a big c….." Chelsea's mocking was cut off by a thrown pillow to the face courtesy of Chloe. "Give me a break Chloe." Chelsea said as she passed the pillow back to her roommate. "I may be gay but like I said, I've had boyfriends before and even if I hadn't I could've heard you muttering in your sleep from the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm!"

"And you haven't muttered in your sleep about Beth?" Chloe teased her and Chelsea grinned.

"Yeah, there's two big differences there Chloe, me and Beth are in a relationship and if I wanted to experience Beth in the bedroom first hand I'd just shoot her an e-mail, see if she's up for it and if she was I'd pop around to her dorm room for the night." Chelsea answered and Chloe shook her head before getting out of bed. "Seriously, are you that worried about our match later? You were at Duel Theory yesterday and I heard that you were dueling other students."

"It was a class taught by Martin, I didn't really have much of a choice there." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea nodded in understanding. "Besides, aside from the restrictions Martin put on my deck those where friendly duels with nothing besides bragging rights on the line, this match on the other hand….."

"Yeah, I know but I'll need you at your best if we are going to win this match." Chelsea sighed before she turned away from her roommate once she saw that Chloe was about to get changed into her uniform. "We both know how good a duelist Andreas is and we still don't know a lot about Damien's deck."

"I know I just wish our duel was a bit later in the second round." Chloe answered as she picked out her outfit and got changed out of her nightgown. "I'm pretty sure I don't need to repeat why." Chloe said before sighing. "I'm going to hop in the shower." Chloe decided as she opened the door to the en suite bathroom the two girls shared.

"Yeah, you probably need a cold shower considering what you where dreaming about last night." Chelsea joked earning a mock glare from Chloe as she closed the door behind her, once the water started running there was a knock at the door. "Don't worry Chloe, I'll get the door." Chelsea called out to her and whilst there was no response she assumed that he still heard her and she answered the door. "Good morning Beth." Chelsea said with a grin as she and her girlfriend shared a quick kiss before Chelsea let her in.

"Good morning Chelsea." Beth greeted her as she entered the room. "Is Chloe around?"

"She's in the shower." Chelsea said as she closed the door behind her. "She needed a cold shower after she spent the night fantasizing about Lance."

"NO I WASN'T!" Chloe yelled out and Chelsea just grinned. "OH AND MORNING BETH!"

"Morning Chloe," Beth responded before raising an eyebrow at Chelsea. "So…..was she or wasn't she fantasizing about Lance?"

"I could've heard it from the shower room." Chelsea responded with a grin. "She was moaning and grunting about Lance and how well-endowed he was all night, if I was really sadistic I would've recorded it on my IPad."

"NO, SERIOUSLY BETH, I WASN'T!" Chloe shouted out again and Chelsea shook her head.

"Chloe, are you even in the shower or are you just listening in whilst using the shower as a cover?" Chelsea asked and Chloe paused for a moment. "Did you forget how thin these walls are? I can hear the water but I don't hear you moving around in there."

"YOU WIN THIS ROUND!" Chloe replied as Chelsea heard her get in the shower, satisfied Chelsea turned to her girlfriend.

"So what brings you over this morning?" Chelsea asked as she sat down at her laptop. "I know we don't have any classes until after the tournament duels but I would've thought that you would've stayed at your dorm?"

"A girl isn't allowed to visit her girlfriend all off a sudden?" Beth joked and Chelsea grinned. "Just figured I'd stop by and say hi, that's all."

"As long as you two don't start making out whilst I'm trying to sleep on the bottom bunk I'm not complaining." Chloe chimed in as she poked her head out of the door, her long hair was tied up in a towel as was her naked, wet body. "I'll be out in a sec, just gotta dry off."

"You enjoy your cold shower?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head before closing the door again, Chelsea turned to Beth and sighed.

"She did not want to wake up this morning." Chelsea commented with a frown. "Any other day I'd understand since I'm not exactly a morning person either but she's competing today."

"Has she faced off against Andreas or Damien before?" Beth asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"No, thought that match would happen during the Battle City Semi-Finals but well we both know what happened there." Chelsea answered and Beth nodded before shuddering a bit. "Damien did duel against Lance back when he was going by his middle name Dwayne and I think Chloe was present for that one."

"Wasn't that Lance's first duel at the academy?" Beth asked and Chelsea nodded. "Let's not forget that Damien was using a completely different deck back then." Beth added with a frown. "I may no longer be in the tournament but I'm willing to help, if I where you I'd try to get her spirits up before your tag team match later."

"Don't worry about us Beth, Chloe may be out of it but she'll be ready and kicking ass in no time." Chelsea responded before noticing Chloe's hand reaching through the door trying to feel around for something. "Looking for your uniform?"

"Err, yeah, I know it's nothing you guys haven't seen before but I'd rather not risk a surprise visit from one of our male friends." Chloe answered and Beth passed Chloe's uniform to her. "Thanks Beth." Chloe thanked her before closing the door behind her, a few minutes later she was out of the room and dressed in her uniform with her blazer open revealing the top she wore during the Battle City Semi-Finals, her hair was still wet from the shower though. "What time do the matches start?" Chloe asked as she turned to Chelsea and Chelsea checked the schedule.

"We'll be okay for time because we've got an hour yet." Chelsea responded as she looked up at the other two girls. "If you wanted to we could go down there and grab the best seats possible that are near the exit so that we will be ready for the tag match but we'll be waiting a while."

"I wouldn't mind, not like I have much else to do in the meantime." Chloe commented and the two girls nodded.

"Good, I was about to say that the others will be meeting us at the arena and they sent me to pick you guys up anyway." Beth responded as she made her way to the door. "You sure you don't want to give your hair a bit more time to dry off Chloe? Given how long it is its going to take a while and you'll probably get a cold in the process."

"I'm sure; besides we all know how hot the arena gets so it should really dry in no time." Chloe answered and Beth nodded before the three women left the dorm room with Chelsea carrying her laptop in her case. _"Err, Silent Magician, you've been monitoring my dreams right?"_

"_Yes." _Silent Magician answered with an annoyed sigh and Chloe winced.

"_So….in my dreams where me and Lance….." _Chloe trailed off before gulping.

"_Yes, you where, one of the more…..unfortunate powers that come with being a duel spirit of the Spellcaster variety is that you can monitor your protégé's dreams, unfortunately it's a spell that's extremely difficult to stop." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe winced. _"If it helps you didn't say the things Chelsea said earlier in the dream….but you may as well have."_

"_Yeah, that doesn't help." _Chloe responded as she followed the girls.

*a bit later*

Whilst it was still early in the day and the duels wouldn't be starting for another hour yet there were some students who had the same idea as Chloe, Chelsea and Beth and had arrived early, that said the amount of students who had done this was pretty small as there were still some students who had class just before the tournament matches started, and in the case of one of the two teams they were getting ready for their match.

"Okay, no pressure." Omar muttered to himself as he shuffled his deck, he was an African-American teen with short black hair and brown eyes who was clearly a second year Osiris Red student. "Osiris Red has been doing pretty well in this tournament so far, I just have to continue that tradition in this match."

"Don't forget about me Omar." Shon chimed in with a smirk, he was taller than Omar with shoulder length dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, his uniform identified him as another second year student in the Ra Yellow dorm. "My dorm's been doing pretty well as well so far and I want to join the other Ra Yellow students in the second round as well."

"That's if we beat Kenny and Lemuel." Omar said as he finished shuffling his deck. "Any thoughts on the first second round match?"

"It should be a great match." Shon responded with a nod. "Chloe and Chelsea should've been in Ra Yellow a long time ago as far as I'm concerned and Andreas and Damien are a formidable team in their own right."

"I can't help but agree there." Omar responded with a nod. "Anyway, by my watch we have a few minutes left before our match so I say we'd better get going." Omar responded before standing up and leaving the room with his tag team partner not far behind, they made their way to the arena and stepped onto the podium as the crowd started pouring in and after a few minutes everyone was in place.

"Welcome to the eight day of the tournament!" Martin's voice rang out over the PA system and the crowd cheered. "In our first match Osiris Red's Omar Boyle will team up with Shon Robinson of Ra Yellow to take on Kenny Maynard and Lemuel Hicks of Ra Yellow and Osiris Red respectively, after that the second round will start with Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham of Osiris Red taking on Andreas Freshier from Ra Yellow and Damien Tarnow from Obelisk Blue!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered.

"Great, as if I needed a reminder of that." Chloe sighed as she shifted her weight. "You guys know anything about the teams in this match?"

"Omar and Shon are up for promotion on Saturday but beside that I don't know much about them." Theresa answered as she watched the four boys shuffle their decks. "Kenny and Lemuel joined at the same time you, Lance and Chelsea did and they've made some waves since then."

"How did they do that?" Chelsea asked as she turned to her.

"They took on all comers, that's how." Theresa answered as the two boys went through their decks. "I faced Omar before my match against Chloe, the first one, he gave me a tough fight but I won in the end." Theresa added and Chloe winced as she thought back to that match.

"As for Kenny and Lemuel, I don't know much about them besides the fact that they joined last year." Brandon answered with a frown. "I didn't catch their duels either, once I told my dad that I had made it into the academy he insisted on taking me to a fancy restaurant to celebrate, not that I'm complaining off course, I think it was one owned by a celebrity chef."

"How did we go from talking about the match to talking about a restaurant Brandon ate at a year ago?" Chelsea wondered out loud and Brandon just smiled at that. "How about we just focus on the match?"

"I agree there." Theresa nodded before turning to Chloe. "Are you going to be ready for your match?" Theresa asked and Chloe sighed.

"Not as much as I'd like to be." Chloe answered with a frown. "The fact that Hamden couldn't get me out of Duel Theory helped a lot but that was one thing and my next tournament duel will be another thing entirely."

"Look Chloe, if you did well in Duel Theory you'll be fine in the Tournament Duel." Theresa reassured her and Chloe nodded. "Just be ready for a fight, we both know how good Andreas and Damien are."

"Trust me, I am." Chloe nodded and whilst that was going on the four competing duelists were getting ready for their match.

"All right guys, we all know that this is the last match of the first round and all." Omar commented with a smirk as he shuffled his deck. "So why don't we end the first round with a bang?"

"Sounds like a plan." Kenny responded as he finished shuffling his deck, he was the tallest of the four duelists and had short blonde hair and blue eyes. "Give the guys and gals in the next match a hell of a match to top and all that!" Kenny added before smirking. "Off course, I and Lemuel will be the ones joining them."

"Don't get your hopes up man." Shon answered with a grin as he finished shuffling his deck at the same time as Omar. "We'll take this tournament and the prize money!"

"Based on the way you're talking, you'd think this was the last match of the tournament." Lemuel responded as he finished shuffling his deck, as opposed to his partner he was clearly the shortest of the four competing duelists and had long black hair in a ponytail and blue eyes. "But the truth is the first round isn't even over and for all you know, you could end up facing Theresa and Brandon in the next round."

"Been there, done that." Omar commented with a laugh as the four boys drew their opening hands. "Okay, how about we stick to the old format? I go first, then Kenny, then Shon, then Lemuel and finally back to me?" Omar suggested and once the others nodded to confirm that Omar drew his first card. "I start with a Spell Card called Cards from the Sky, all I need to do is banish one Fairy Type Monster…." Omar said before pocketing the monster. "And I draw two cards." Omar added before drawing twice.

"On the condition that you can't Special Summon or conduct your Battle Phase this turn." Lemuel reminded him and Omar smirked.

"My deck isn't too concerned about Special Summoning, besides it's still the first turn." Omar added before picking up four cards. "Next I set three cards facedown and I summon Bountiful Artemis!" Omar played the cards and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a clearly female fairy but her entire body was covered in silver armor, she was wearing a purple cape and had a pair of mechanical wings attached to her neck (4/1600/1700). "I'll get to her effect later but for now I end my turn. " Omar announced and Kenny drew his card.

"I see Omar's deck hasn't changed much." Theresa commented with a chuckle. "His opening move in my match against him was practically identical to that move, only difference is that he played Sanctuary in the Sky as well."

"Looks like just another Fairy deck to me." Chelsea commented with a shrug. "I mean we've seen variants of that deck almost as much as we've seen dragon decks so far."

"Omar's deck is different, I assure you." Theresa responded with a nod. "And it's very lethal; in fact I wouldn't be surprised if he was in Ra Yellow this time next week to be honest."

"I start with Reinforcement of the Army!" Kenny played the card and reached for his deck….

"Not so fast! Go Dark Bribe!" Omar activated the trap and smirked. "You'll get something from your deck but not what you intended, Dark Bribe negates Reinforcement's effect and you get two draws." Omar explained as Reinforcement shattered and Kenny frowned before drawing two cards. "And that also activates Bountiful Artemis's effect which lets me draw a card whenever I activate a Counter Trap Card." Omar added before drawing another card, and then he noticed the look Kenny was giving him. "What?"

"Activating a counter trap to negate my first move? That's just dirty man!" Kenny grunted and Omar just shook his head.

"There isn't a rule against doing that! Once a trap card's been on the field for a turn I can activate it whenever I want!" Omar pointed out as he folded his arms. "You're just mad that I chose to use it as soon as possible!"

"Well there's also the fact that you were the one who suggested that we make this a competitive match a couple of minutes ago!" Lemuel pointed out with a frown. "I mean seriously, are you a hypocrite or do you just say things when they suit you and not follow up on them?"

"Guys, can we please just continue the duel?" Shon sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I don't like it either but Omar is right."

"Ugh, fine!" Kenny grunted in annoyance before looking at his drawn card. "Luckily I just drew the monster I was going to search for, I first summon Bachibachibachi!" Kenny played the card and an oversized wasp appeared on the field, it had an angry expression on its face (3/800/800). "Before you ask, don't try to pronounce that name yourselves, it took me at least three tries!"

"I'm more concerned about the fact that you didn't use your warrior that you were searching for." Omar admitted and Kenny shook his head.

"Getting to that, next I play a spell card and unless Omar has another Dark Bribe on the field I'll go ahead and use it." Kenny played the card and once Omar shook his head to confirm that he didn't have another Dark Bribe on the field Kenny continued. "It's called Orichalcum Chain and how it works is pretty simple, if I'm going to XYZ Summon a monster this turn this Continuous Spell Card will allow me to do so with one less monster!"

"Wait a sec, what?" Omar asked as the Overlay Network opened up and Bachibachibachi was sucked into the vortex. "That sounds pretty broken!"

"Don't worry, it comes with a side effect but we'll get to that later." Kenny reassured him before retrieving a card from his extra deck. "I XYZ summon Greenosaurus!" Kenny played the card and the monster that appeared on the field was a large, red dinosaur with flames coming out of its eyes (Rank: 3/2000/1900). "Now as much as I'd like to attack Bountiful Artemis I can't so I'll set this." Kenny announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Kenny announced and Shon drew his card.

"Omar doesn't mess around does he?" Chelsea wondered out loud. "And yeah, I'd be pretty pissed if I were in Kenny's shoes."

"Chelsea, considering how short your temper is that doesn't narrow it down." Lance pointed out as he folded his arms. "Please don't hurt me." Lance pleaded once he saw the look on her face. "But yeah, I can see why he's been making waves, namely by doing dickish moves."

"Those moves aren't exactly sporting in any sense of the word." Theresa admitted with a frown as Shon looked over his cards. "But they're effective to say the least."

"Almost makes me glad that I'm facing Andreas's team next." Chloe grunted with a frown on her face. "I'd hate to face a deck like that."

"I don't have as much to do as the other participants." Shon sighed to himself before picking up two cards. "But what I can do is this I set one card in defense mode and a card facedown." Shon announced as the two set cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn." Shon added and Lemuel nodded before drawing his card.

"_I'd better play it safe." _Lemuel thought as his eyes fixed on Omar's two facedown cards. _"Bountiful Artemis's effect is one that revolves around counter traps so I guess it's a safe bet that he has other cards with similar effects and a bunch of Counter Traps." _Lemuel thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Hello…." _Lemuel thought before playing it. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon!" Lemuel activated the trap and the storm appeared on the field. "And my target is Omar's facedown card in the middle!" Lemuel added as the storm swept in that direction…..

"It may not be Dark Bribe but a counter trap is a counter trap in my book!" Omar announced as the third facedown card flipped up. "And it's called Curse of Royal! I can only activate this trap card when a Spell, Trap or monster card that would destroy one of my Spell or Trap Cards is activated and since you did this negates the effect." Omar added as the storm subsided. "Not only that but since I used another Counter-Trap Bountiful Artemis's effect activates again." Omar added before drawing a card.

"That monster of yours is starting to get annoying." Lemuel grunted before playing a card. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Lemuel announced and Omar drew another card. _"This is insane, this guy's in Osiris Red but he's put together a combo that would make you think he was in Ra Yellow!"_

"If you think she's annoying, just wait until you meet the other members of her family." Omar responded before playing his drawn card. "In the meantime I play this, Terra-Forming! Considering how popular this spell card is among the students here I don't' think I need to explain." Omar played the card and picked up his deck, searched through it and added the card he needed to his hand before shuffling his deck. "And now I'll play it, Sanctuary in the Sky!" Omar played the card and the scenery changed to the magnificent palace in the sky. "I set two cards facedown." Omar said as two more facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I switch Artemis to defense mode to end my turn!" Omar announced as his fairy crouched down and Kenny drew his card.

"All I'm going to say is that you were probably jumping for joy when you saw Heavy Storm on that Emergency Banlist." Kenny grunted before looking at his drawn card. _"Then again he's probably got a few more Dark Bribes and Curse of Royals to deal with that." _Kenny thought before looking at his drawn card. "Since I control an XYZ Monster I can Special Summon Photon Slasher!" Kenny played the card and a tall swordsman wearing silver futuristic armor appeared on the field (5/2100/1000). "And for my normal summon I bring out Star Drawing."

"The names of these duel monsters get weirder with every new booster pack." Shon commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small girl with green hair, black eyes who was wearing a small black and white dress and a black hat, her appearance was a lot more cartoony compared to the other monsters on the field (4/1600/1000). "And apparently so do the monsters!"

"I'll admit that she's weird looking." Kenny admitted as the overlay network opened up again. "But sometimes the weirder monsters have the best effects."

"Hey wait a minute, Photon Slasher's Level 5 so you can't build an overlay network with those monsters!" Omar protested as the two monsters where sucked in.

"Under normal circumstances, you'd be right." Kenny admitted as he retrieved a card from his extra deck. "But Star Drawing has two effects and her first one is that if she's used in an XYZ Summon I have the option to increase her level to five." Kenny added before playing the card. "As for the other one, look for yourself, I summon Shark Fortress!" Kenny played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large mechanical shark with several weapons attached (Rank: 5/2400/1800).

"So how long do I have to wait for Star Drawing's other effect?" Omar asked impatiently and Kenny smirked.

"Not long at all, you see when Star Drawing is used in an XYZ Summon her effect transfers to the XYZ Monster, basically when I XYZ Summon a monster using Star Drawing I get to draw one card." Kenny announced as he went to draw a card. "That is unless your facedown cards object to that." Kenny added and Omar paused.

"_Shark Fortress probably has an effect of its own so I'll save my trap card." _Omar thought before shaking his head and Kenny drew his card.

"Now I'll activate Shark Fortress's own effect!" Kenny announced as he sent Star Drawing to the graveyard. "By detaching an Overlay Unit I can designate one monster on the field, that monster can attack twice for the rest of the turn."

"_Bingo!" _Omar thought as his trap flipped up. "Sorry to disappoint but I activate Divine Wrath! I discard one card from my hand…." Omar trailed off as he discarded the card. "And Shark Fortress's effect is negated along with the monster being destroyed." Omar added before drawing a card due to Artemis's effect. _"Perfect, soon as I can use another Counter Trap I can go on the offensive!"_

"_I was hoping to draw out a Counter Trap using Star Drawing but I guess this will have to do." _Kenny thought before pointing to Greenosaurus. "I know it doesn't mean much now thanks to Sanctuary but when Bachibachibachi is used in an XYZ summon his effect acts a lot like Star Drawing's effect except the monster in question can inflict piercing damage!" Kenny announced as the monster charged towards Bountiful Artemis before biting her in half destroying her. "Good riddance."

"She may be gone but I'd say that I got some good mileage out of her effect." Omar shrugged as he sent his monster to the graveyard.

"Maybe but Sanctuary can't protect you from this!" Kenny responded before sending Bachibachibachi to the graveyard. "When Greenosaurus destroys a monster in battle I can detach one overlay unit from him to inflict one thousand points of damage to the opponent, or opponents in this case!" Kenny added and Omar and Shon winced as their life-points dropped to seven thousand. "I end my turn." Kenny announced and Shon drew his card.

"Then it's time I went on the offensive!" Shon announced as he played the Spell Card he had drawn. "First I play Foolish Burial! I think we all know how this card works by now." Shon played the card and after a few minutes he sent the monster he was looking for to the graveyard. "We'll get to that later! Next I flip summon my facedown monster!" Shon announced as the monster flipped up revealing a small yellow and red frog (2/1000/500). "Allow me to introduce the mighty Swap Frog!

"Oh boy, here we go." Kenny grunted as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "So how many cards are you going to discard before the turn ends? Will it be one? Will it be three? Or will it be a Hundred?"

"Very funny, and for your information I'm only discarding one." Shon responded with a grunt. "I activate one of Swap Frog's effects, since I summoned him I have to discard one Level Two or lower Aqua monster." Shon added before doing so. "Now I'll activate his other effect, returning Swap Frog to my hand….." Shon said as he picked up the card. "And in return I can Normal Summon in addition to my normal summon one Frog Monster from my hand as long as it's not Swap Frog or Frog the Jam."

"Please Shon, we all know how….." Lemuel trailed off before sweat-dropping. "What was the name of that other monster you mentioned again?" Lemuel asked and Shon sighed in annoyance.

"Frog the Jam and yes, it's a real monster." Shon responded with a frown. "Basically it's a Level Two Normal Water Aqua type monster with seven hundred attack and five hundred defense that was released years before Junk Synchron or hell even Tuner and Synchro Monsters in general where a thought in Pegasus's mind." Shon explained as he shook his head. "And for some reason that I still can't wrap my head around to this day, it got mentioned in Swap Frog's effect!"

"I don't know, maybe Pegasus had drunk too much wine whilst they were making that card." Omar commented as he scratched his head in confusion. "So are you going to continue?"

"Oh right, I use Swap Frog's effect to Special Summon Poison Draw Frog!" Shon played the card and in Swap Frog's place stood a smaller, orange frog (2/100/100). "Don't worry he's not poisonous despite what the name says."

"Dude, it's a hologram, I think that goes without saying." Kenny responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down his and Lemuel's heads and Shon sighed.

"Force of habit, my first duel at this academy was against a girl from Osiris Red who actually thought that the card was poisonous." Shon responded as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "She dropped out before Chloe and Lance joined the school before you ask." Shon added before playing another card. "Anyway back to business, I tribute Poison Draw Frog to summon Caius, the Shadow Monarch."

"Frog-Monarchs, this is just great!" Kenny grunted as the Shadow Monarch appeared on the field (6/2400/1000). "I'm guessing that it goes without saying that you're targeting Greenosaurus."

"That's right but before I do I chain my facedown card to my Monarch's effect." Shon announced as his facedown card flipped up. "DNA Transplant and my attribute of choice is Dark which means Caius's effect can work on any monster!" Shon announced as Caius launched its shadow ball at Greenosaurus destroying it and bringing Kenny and Lemuel's life-points down to seven thousand. "That's not the only effect that activates! When Poison Draw Frog is sent to the graveyard by a method other than being destroyed by battle I get to draw one card." Shon added before drawing and subsequently playing a card. "And I'm not done drawing! Next I play Magic Planter!" Shon played the card and his copy of DNA Transplant shattered before he drew twice. "Caius, attack Kenny's life-points directly!" Shon commanded and the monarch launched his shadow ball at Kenny bringing his life-points down to 4600. "And I end my turn at that." Kenny announced and Lemuel drew his card.

"He was kidding about that Frog the Jam card right?" Chelsea asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "I know Duel Monsters was….weird back in the early days but I'm having a hard time believing that that's a real card even with that in mind."

"Trust me, it's real." Chloe sighed as she turned to her roommate. "When I was learning the game my dad used the card as an example of weak and strong monsters, the strong monster he used was Five-Headed Dragon." Chloe said as she shook her head. "Not only do I know that card's real but I actually held it for a few minutes."

"Isn't that card supposed to be really rare?" Theresa asked as she turned to Chloe. "How did you dad have a copy?"

"He owns a card shop, remember?" Chloe asked and Theresa nodded. "He has access to most of the cards ever mass produced, including Frog the Jam, and no I don't know why he holds onto it."

"Maybe we should ask that at summer break." Chelsea suggested before turning her attention back to the duel. "But in the meantime we have a duel to watch!"

"_Okay, we're behind on life-points but if Chloe and Chelsea can win despite Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning being on the field then we can win this no problem." _Lemuel thought as he looked over his hand. _"It'll be tough especially since Kenny's behind on life-points and Omar, most likely, has a few more Counter Traps up his sleeve but I'll find a way!" _Lemuel thought before playing a card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"_Damn, now I'm in a tough spot!" _Omar thought with a frown. _"I can negate that Spell Card with my second Dark Bribe and bring out the big guns but on the other hand I'll be missing out on three draws." _Omar thought before sighing. "I'll let that Spell Card go through." Omar announced and the four duelists quickly drew three cards.

"_Not Mystical Space Typhoon like I hoped but it's something." _Lemuel thought before realizing something. _"Wait, Omar hesitated just now as he was reaching for the activate trap button on his duel disk but why? That facedown card of his is probably another Counter Trap but if I can call his bluff I can draw first blood for our team!" _Lemuel thought before playing a card. "I summon Pahunder in attack mode!" Lemuel played the card and a tall warrior with hair made of lightning appeared on the field (4/1300/600). "And I activate his effect which allows me to Normal Summon another Level 4 Light Thunder Monster from my hand as long as it's not another Pahunder." Lemuel added as he picked up a card. "That is unless you have any objections Omar."

"If I did I would've activated it by now." Omar responded and Lemuel nodded before playing the card.

"In that case I summon Mahunder!" Lemuel played the card and another human with lightning hair appeared on the field, however this one was a woman in red armor (4/1400/700). "Now I could use her effect which is pretty much the same effect as Pahunder buy I won't, instead I'll use my two hunders to construct an overlay network of my own!" Lemuel announced as the vortex opened up and the two monsters where sucked into it. "I XYZ Summon Starliege Paladynamo!" Lemuel played the card and in Mahunder's place emerged a tall, muscular warrior wearing silver, futuristic armor and carrying a massive sword (Rank: 4/2000/1000).

"You had me worried there." Shon said with a sigh of relief. "But Caius, or hell any of my Monarchs, can total that thing easily."

"I know, and that's why I'm making this move count!" Lemuel responded as he sent the two Hunders to the graveyard. "I activate Starliege's effect, an effect so powerful it requires me to detach both of its overlay units!"

"That has to be one hell of an effect." Shon commented as Starliege Paladynamo struck the ground with his sword sending a shockwave towards Caius that he survived. "Well, so much for its destruction effect."

"Who said it was a destruction effect?" Lemuel asked and Shon blinked before looking at the field again.

"What…..what the hell have you done?!" Shon stammered as he saw that Caius's attack had plummeted down to zero.

"That's Starliege's effect in action, in exchange for those overlay units I can reduce the attack of one monster my opponent controls to zero." Lemuel explained with a grin. "And if you're hoping that I won't be able to attack this turn because an effect that powerful has to have a drawback think again!" Lemuel commanded and Starliege charged towards Caius before cutting him in half bringing Shon's life-points down to 5000. "I end my turn with a facedown card." Lemuel announced and Omar drew his card.

"_Damn it, if I had used Dark Bribe Shon wouldn't be behind on life-points!" _Omar thought as he looked at his drawn card. _"Then again he still could've drawn those Hunders thanks to Dark Bribe's side effect so who knows? What I do know is that I need more counter-traps on the field!" _Omar decided before picking up three cards. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Omar announced and Kenny smirked before drawing his card.

"Not so confident now that we know your game, aren't you Omar?" Kenny asked before playing a card. "I summon Marauding Captain!" Kenny announced as the staple in many warrior decks appeared on the field (3/1200/400). "And I use his effect..."

"I don't think so, go Solemn Warning!" Omar announced as his trap card flipped up. "It costs me two thousand life-points but I can negate Marauding Captain's summon and destroy him!" Omar added as his life-points dropped to 5000.

"Sorry Omar but you just wasted two thousand life-points!" Lemuel interrupted him as his own trap card flipped up. "I activate Counter Counter! With this I can negate the activation of a Counter Trap Card and destroy it!" Lemuel added and Omar's eyes widened as his trap card shattered. "You were saying Kenny?"

"Right, I use Marauding Captain's effect to summon Sacred Crane!" Kenny played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large white bird with a black head, red beak and a matching tail (4/1600/400), "I realize that I could've gone for a Rank 3 XYZ Summon with this combo but when Sacred Crane is Special Summoned it's effect activates allowing me to draw a card." Kenny explained before drawing a card. "And this is just what I needed! I equip my Captain with Synchro Boost!" Kenny played the card and Marauding Captain started glowing as his level increased to four and his attack increased to 1700. "And that means that I can use Crane and Captain to reopen the Overlay Network!" Kenny added as the vortex opened up and his monsters where sucked in.

"Well whatever your monster is I'm ready for it!" Omar said confidently and Shon nodded in response as a new monster emerged from the vortex, simply put it was a robotic cowboy. "What the….."

"Say hello to Gagaga Cowboy!" (Rank: 4/1500/2400) Kenny announced as the cowboy crouched down into defense mode. "He may not be as strong as my partner's Rank 4 but he still packs a punch!" Kenny added as he sent Marauding Captain to the graveyard. "For example, when Gagaga Cowboy is in defense mode I can detach an overlay unit to inflict 800 points of damage to my opponents!" Kenny added and his opponents winced as their life-points dropped to 4200. "He has another effect but that requires him to be in attack mode and for now I'm comfortable leaving him in defense mode!" Kenny added before setting a card. "That ends my turn." Kenny announced and Shon quickly drew his card.

"Remember the monster I discarded for Swap Frog? Well he's coming back." Shon announced as he retrieved his monster from the graveyard. "Since I have no cards in my Spell/Trap Card zones I can special summon Treeborn Frog from my graveyard!" Shon played the card and a small orange toad with blue stripes and white wings appeared on the field (1/100/100). "But this little guy isn't sticking around, because I'm sacrificing him to summon the mighty Morbius, the Frost Monarch in attack mode!" Shon played the card and Treeborn Frog vanished, in its place stood the mighty ice monarch ready for battle (6/2400/1000). "And I now use my Monarch's effect….."

"Not so fast Shon! Go Fiendish Chain!" Lemuel activated the trap and chains started making their way to Morbius. "I know all about the Monarch's effects and if you think I'm letting you destroy two of our trap cards think again!"

"Sorry, but you don't have a choice! Go Seven Tools of the Bandit!" Omar activated his trap before wincing as his life-points dropped to 3200. "I could've used this earlier but I figured it was best to save it for anything that could stop one of Shon's Monarch's effects."

"Fine, I'll negate him another way by way of Effect Veilier (1/0/0)!" Kenny discarded the monster and whilst the chains shattered Morbius never got to launch its attack. "So you just wasted a perfectly good trap and one thousand life-points! I'd be kicking myself if I where you!"

"But that's not why I activated Seven Tools!" Omar responded as he played a card. "I drew this monster a couple of turns back but I needed a Counter Trap to activate so I could make it happen! Come on out Van'Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord!" Omar played the card and a massive dragon appeared on the field, it was black, purple and red in color and was very intimidating (8/2800/2500). "And that's not even the best part! Since it was a trap card that I negated I can destroy one card on the field like Starliege!" Lemuel's eyes widened as the dragon breathed fire at the warrior destroying him. "Don't worry about their cowboy, I'll deal with that myself next turn!"

"If you say so but I want to attack directly with that big guy!" Shon responded and Omar nodded as the dragon flew over to Shon's side of the field. "But before I do I activate Shield Crush to destroy your facedown monster!" Shon announced as the facedown monster shattered. "Your life-points have gone untouched for too long Lemuel! Morbius, Dragon who's name I can't pronounce! Attack his life-points directly!" Shon commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Lemuel bringing his life-points down to 2800. "You may as well not bother with that cowboy, you just need to attack directly with your dragon and we'll be halfway home."

"Good idea!" Omar nodded with a grin before turning to them. "It's your last turn guys, make it count!" Omar announced and Lemuel drew his card.

"You know, it's funny." Lemuel said as he added his drawn card to his hand. "If you had attacked Cowboy we would've been in big trouble!"

"What do you mean?" Omar asked and Lemuel turned to Kenny who nodded knowing what he was talking about as the cowboy made his way over.

"I mean that it's time to demonstrate Gagaga Cowboy's other effect!" Lemuel responded as he moved his monster to attack mode. "I detach his last overlay unit….." Lemuel said as he tossed Sacred Crane to Kenny who sent the monster to the graveyard. "And you'll see the results in a bit, but first I summon another Pahunder!" Lemuel played the card and the monster returned to the field. "And I use his effect to normal summon another Mahunder!" Lemuel played the other card and the female warrior returned to the field, then the overlay network opened up again and Starliege Paladynamo returned to the field. "I use his effect on Morbius!" Lemuel added as he sent the two monsters to the graveyard and Starliege struck the ground with his sword bringing Morbius's attack points down to zero.

"Let me guess, your plan is to attack Morbius with Cowboy and then attack directly?" Omar asked as he folded his arms.

"Your decks are so predictable." Shon added with a massive grin and Omar nodded in agreement.

"This is coming from the Frog-Monarch and Counter Trap players." Kenny pointed out and Omar and Shon sweat-dropped when their hypocrisy hit them. "And that's not our plan anyway but I'll let Lemuel explain this one!"

"Thanks Kenny." Lemuel nodded before pointing to Cowboy. "Gagaga Cowboy, attack…Omar's dragon!"

"WHAT?" Omar, Shon and pretty much every other student yelled out as the cowboy drew his weapons and aimed them at the dragon.

"Are you stupid?" Omar asked as the dragon got ready to breathe fire at the cowboy. "You just sent your cowboy on a suicide mission!"

"Look again." Lemuel responded and Omar did so…only for his eyes to widen as his dragon toppled over dead.

"What the….." Omar asked before looking at his life-points and seeing that they had dropped to 3000. "What happened to my life-points?"

"Gagaga Cowboy's effect happened! Since I detached its overlay unit whilst it's in attack mode an effect applies that affects both Cowboy and the monster it's attacking, the monster loses five-hundred attack points whilst Cowboy gains a thousand!" Lemuel explained before pointing to Shon. "And I'm not done, go Starliege!" Lemuel commanded and the warrior cut the frost monarch in two bringing Shon's life-points down to 2200. "It's anyone's game at the moment so feel free to take your turn!" Lemuel announced and Omar drew his card.

"_Wait, Mirror Force? If I had drawn this last turn we'd be well on our way to the second round by now!" _Omar thought with a frown. _"Screw it! If I'm going to set it I may as well set it now!" _Omar thought before setting it. "That ends my turn!" Omar announced and Kenny drew his card.

"Sorry Omar but if you were hoping that that trap card would save you then you're out of luck! Go Mystical Space Typhoon!" Kenny played the card and Shon braced himself as the storm appeared on the field….

"I've waited a long time to use this thing! I chain Dark Bribe!" Omar announced as his facedown card flipped up. "So, my trap card stays and you get two draws."

"Yeah, I don't think so! I chain Dark Bribe with my own trap card Trap Stun!" Lemuel announced and Omar's eyes widened as Dark Bribe got consumed by electricity and the other trap card was destroyed. "And by the look on your face that was your last hope! Finish it Kenny!" Lemuel told him as Starliege walked over to Kenny's side of the field.

"I will but I don't want to deal with another Monarch so I'll take out Shon first!" Kenny announced as the two monsters launched their attacks at Shon bringing his life-points down to zero. "That ends my turn, Lemuel, let him have it!"

"You got it!" Lemuel responded as he drew his card and the two monsters walked over to his side of the field. "Any last requests Omar?"

"Just one and that's that you guys kick ass in the next round!" Omar responded and Kenny and Lemuel nodded as their warriors launched their attacks bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Kenny Maynard and Lemuel Hicks!" Martin's voice rang out and the crowd cheered as the two teams left. "That concludes the first round of the tournament but don't go anywhere! Coming up next is Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham vs. Andreas Freshier and Damien Tarnow!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered.

"You sure you're going to be ready for this Chloe?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded as she stood up. "I hope so! Andreas may the best team win!"

"You don't need to worry about that girls, my team will win this match!" Andreas responded with a grin. "I'm off to find Damien, see you on the duel field!" Andreas added and Chloe and Chelsea nodded before leaving.

"_My first serious duel since I used the Orichalcos." _Chloe thought as she followed her roommate. _"And it just so happens to be against one of the best Ra Yellow students and a guy with a deck that I've only seen in action twice! I hope we can win this!"_


	99. Day Eight Second Round Begins

"There you are." Damien commented as Andreas came into view, he was outside the duel arena ready to enter one of the competitor's entrances and Andreas had just approached him. "We have a hell of a match to top don't we?"

"Yes and since we're going up against Chloe and Chelsea I'm confident that we can do just that, not to mention win and go through to the next round." Andreas responded with a confident grin. "Are you sure your Blood Pirates can stand against Chloe and Chelsea's decks?"

"Chelsea's Watt deck is strong but its main weakness is the same one as any other Watt deck, she doesn't have that much power in it, not even her Synchros." Damien responded with a confident grin. "Chloe's deck makes up for that but it's too reliant on Silent Magician Level Eight, my deck has power and it has several different monsters at its disposal, we can win this."

"Don't underestimate them." Andreas responded with a frown. "Everyone underestimated Chloe when she went with us to Battle City, even Chloe herself, and she ended up taking third place, Chelsea on the other hand beat Lance in a close duel, something you couldn't do."

"We both know I was using my old deck in that duel!" Damien responded with a growl. "But I guess you have a point there, any other advice?"

"Don't underestimate Chelsea's Watt monsters." Andreas responded as the two boys entered the arena. "Many duelists have done the same thing after all."

*elsewhere*

Whilst the two boys were discussing strategy with one another their opponents where doing the same thing on the other side of the arena, Chelsea was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed as Chloe was going through her deck.

"Okay, we know Andreas's deck focuses on two things, beast monsters and swarming the field with powerful monsters as quickly as possible to get a win." Chelsea said as she looked at her roommate and partner. "I know you have Mirror Force in your deck but do you have anything else that could help us stop that?"

"I have a couple of ideas." Chloe answered as she looked up. "First thing is my Diffusion Wave Motion/Silent Magician/Megamorph combo, since I got my hands on Diffusion Wave Motion it's helped me win a few of my matches."

"I think the only one it didn't win you was your expulsion duel and that was thanks to the fact that Erick had Enchanted Javelin on his side of the field." Chelsea responded with a frown. "Maybe it's just me but if I where Erick I would've used Nutrient Z instead."

"Chelsea, how about we just focus?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "You have any destruction cards in your deck?"

"Err, Judgment of Thunder, Mirror Force, I had Heavy Storm but, well we both know what happened there." Chelsea responded after thinking for a few minutes. "What about Damien's deck? Do we know anything about that?"

"Only that his card effects are weird and that they seem to focus on Synchro Summoning." Chloe responded as she thought back to the previous duels. "I thought you were going to look up info on that archetype anyway?"

"Unfortunately I didn't have time." Chelsea responded with a frown. "By the time I got back from Maria's class yesterday I was so spent that I just wanted to play Total War for the rest of the night, which I did." Chelsea added and Chloe frowned at that. "Yeah, I know, it's not good form for me, especially when I was the one trying to get you out of bed earlier so that you'd be ready but give me a break, we both know what Maria's classes are like."

"Yeah, I understand." Chloe responded before the two girls made their way up the staircase. "But if we're going to win we're going to have to give it our all, I know that pretty much goes without saying but still." Chloe added as the two girls made their way onto the arena.

"How about we just focus on kicking ass?" Chelsea responded and Chloe grinned at that. "I've always preferred doing things on the fly anyway!"

"That definitely explains the time you got sugar high and ran around the girl's dorm in just your bra and panties." Chloe said with a cheeky grin and Chelsea glared at her. "Hey, you used my dreams against me so it's only fair!"

"Yeah, but we agreed to never speak of that incident again, it is part of the reason Maria banned me from accessing the sweets in the kitchen." Chelsea responded with a frown as she folded her arms. "Besides I wasn't sugar high, that was just the cover story you told her to keep the fact that we had snuck alcohol into our room and I ended up drinking two whole bottles."

"And by us you mean you and Beth instead of me and you because Beth's room was being sprayed for bugs at the time." Chloe responded as she shook her head. "I thought you said you could handle your drink."

"I'm only going to say two things, that stuff was laced with something and we're here so let's shut up about it!" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe looked up seeing that they had reached the arena door, she nodded before opening the door and holding it open for Chelsea.

"Welcome back to day eight of the Tag Team Tournament and the start of Round Two!" Martin's voice rang out and the crowd cheered as the two teams stepped into view. "And what a way to kick the second round off, representing Osiris Red we have two of the best female students from that dorm, Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham!" Martin added as a spotlight shone upon the two girls. "They defied the odds in the last round but so did their opponents, Andreas Freshier of Ra Yellow and Damien Tarnow of Obelisk Blue!" Martin announced as the spotlight shone upon Andreas and Damien.

"Chelsea, the spotlight's hurting my eyes." Chloe groaned as they made their way onto the podium.

"Good, at least I'm not the only one." Chelsea responded as their opponents joined them on the podium. "What do you boys say to skipping the usual trash talk and getting down to business?"

"That sounds like a plan to me girls." Damien responded and the four duelists activated their duel disks. "So what's the order we're going in?" Damien asked as they drew their opening hands.

"Ahem," Martin's voice rang out just before Chloe was about to suggest an order and the four duelists stopped in their tracks. "In the first round we left the orders up to the competing duelists but that is something that will be changing in the second round as the order will be decided by the staff until the third round begins, also all tournament duels from now on will have a three minute time limit on each turn."

"_It sounds like they got tired of letting the students run the asylum." _Chelsea thought as the four duelists glanced towards Martin's podium, they couldn't see Kaiba but they could see Martin clear as day. _"Also, three minutes? Is he serious? I can think of a dozen different combos that need more time than that." _Chelsea thought with a frown before shaking her head. "_Makes me wonder what the third round will be like." _Chelsea thought with a frown as she waited for Martin's decision.

"The order will be as follows, Chelsea will go first followed by Damien, then Chloe and finally Andreas." Martin announced and the four duelists changed position to reflect it. "Do you have any questions?" Martin asked and the four duelists shook their heads. "Then let the duel begin!" Martin added and Chelsea drew her first card.

"_This isn't a bad opening hand but I've had better." _Chelsea thought as she glanced around the other duelists. _"I hope Chloe's ready for this, facing those two is bad enough but she's still shook up from her Orichalcos Duel." _Chelsea thought before playing a card. "I set a card facedown and I summon Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the cards and the electric colored snake appeared on the field (4/1000/500). "Do your worst!" Chelsea added and Damien took it as his cue to draw his card.

"You want my worst? Well you've got it! I activate Terra-Forming!" Damien played the card and started searching through his deck.

"That archetype has a field spell?" Chelsea asked as Damien added a card from his deck to his hand and shuffled his deck.

"Can you think of an Archetype that doesn't? Dragon Rulers don't count since they've adopted Dragon Ravine following the Baby Dragons' banning." Damien asked as he played the card. "In any case I'll activate my Field Spell Card Pirate Island!" Damien announced as the scenery changed to a large island with a rustic looking village in the center of it. "I'll get to its effect later but for now I'll set my own card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Damien played the cards and Chloe quickly drew her card.

"_Okay, Chelsea has one of her staples on the field whilst Damien's defending, not to mention Damien has this Field Spell and a facedown card in play." _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"But not for long!" _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I summon Breaker, The Magical Warrior!" Chloe played the card and the red armored magic swordsman appeared on the field (4/1600/1000) and his attack increased by 300 thanks to his effect. "I activate his effect! By removing one Spell Counter from him I can destroy one card on the field like Damien's facedown card!" Chloe announced and the swordsman charged towards the set card before cutting it in half. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chloe set the card and Andreas nodded before drawing his card.

"_If that set card is what I think it is then Chloe may regret destroying it once Damien's turn begins." _Andreas thought as he looked over his hand. _"Excellent, I can go for a first turn Synchro Summon!" _Andreas thought before picking up a card and pocketing it. "I remove one Spell Card in my hand from play so I can Special Summon Monoceros!" Andreas played the card and a large brown unicorn with a white Maine appeared on the field, its legs where armored with a light blue armor (3/1000/1000). "And for my normal summon I will bring out Mine Mole!" Andreas played the second card and the small brown mole appeared on the field (3/1000/1000). "And finally I activate One for One! I discard one card…." Andreas said as he sent another card to the graveyard. "And in return I can Special Summon a Level One monster from my deck."

"_Does Andreas even have any Level One monsters in his deck? The closest I've seen is his Egotistical Ape monster and that monster is a Level Five one with Level Manipulation abilities." _Chelsea thought as Andreas searched through his deck.

"The monster I Special Summon is the Tuner Monster Snyffus!" Andreas played the card and a brown squirrel with unusually large eyes appeared on the field (1/100/100). "Now I tune my three monsters together!" Andreas announced as the three beasts leapt into the air and Snyffus dissolved into a single Synchro Ring that quickly surrounded Monoceros and Mine Mole. "So I can Synchro Summon Voltic Bicorn!" Andreas played the card and once the flash faded a majestic black horse with two horns appeared on the field, its mane was light blue in color and it whinnied at the opponents (7/2500/2000). "First, since Mine Mole was used in a Synchro Summon I get to draw one card." Andreas added as he drew a card. "Next since Monoceros was used in a Synchro Summon I can take one Beast Type Tuner Monster from my graveyard and Special Summon it!" Andreas added as Snyffus returned to the field.

"Not bad, you've got a powerful monster and a monster to defend with on your first turn." Chelsea commented with a smirk which quickly turned to a look of confusion as Andreas's monsters leapt into the air again. "Wait, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm tuning Snyffus with Voltic Bicorn to Synchro Summon Lightning Tricorn!" Andreas played the card and the monster Chloe and Chelsea recognized from his duel with Otto appeared on the field once the flash faded (8/2800/2000). "Why did I go to all that trouble? You'll find out later, for now I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas set the card down and Chelsea drew her card.

"That was a lot of effort just to Synchro Summon Lightning Tricorn." Lance commented as he scratched his head in confusion. "Wouldn't it have been easier just to use something like Uni-Horned Familiar instead of that freaky squirrel?"

"It may have but Andreas didn't make good use of Tricorn during his last duel." Tyler responded with a nod. "If anything this is the better move."

"I'll take your word for it." Lance responded with a shrug as Chelsea looked over her hand.

"_Okay, Chloe has Breaker out, I have Wattcobra out, and if I knew what that facedown monster was I'd attack it without hesitation." _Chelsea thought with a frown. _"Screw it I mean it can't be that strong if he's defending with it!" _Chelsea decided before turning to Chloe. "Can I borrow Breaker for a sec?"

"Knock yourself out." Chloe responded with a nod and Chelsea grinned as Breaker made its way over to her side of the field.

"Then let's get started! Breaker, attack Damien's defense monster!" Chelsea commanded and the warrior charged towards the facedown monster, revealed to be a young boy in a pirate's outfit, which was quickly destroyed.

"Thanks for that! You just destroyed Blood Pirate – Cabin Boy!" Damien announced as he held the monster up (2/800/700). "When he's destroyed in battle by a Level Four or lower monster I can remove him from play and Special Summon two other copies of the card in defense mode!" Damien explained before pocketing the monster and soon afterwards two other Cabin Boys appeared on the field crouching down. "And if they're summoned this way they can't be destroyed by battle until your next draw phase."

"Did you forget something?" Chelsea asked with a grin as she motioned towards Wattcobra. "My snake may not be big on offense but he can attack directly!" Chelsea commanded as the snake leapt towards Damien…..only to be blocked by one of the Cabin Boys' swords. "What the…."

"You can thank Chloe for that!" Damien responded as he held up the card Chloe had destroyed during her turn which depicted Ghost Ship getting repaired. "The card she destroyed was Defense Reinforcement, as long as this is in the graveyard and I have at least one face-up Blood Pirate on my side of the field you can't inflict battle damage!"

"Shit…." Chloe trailed off as it hit her. "Sorry Chelsea."

"No need to apologize, I should've attacked directly with Wattcobra to begin with." Chelsea responded with a frown. _"And we still don't know what this Field Spell does." _Chelsea thought as she glanced at the field. "I can't use my Cobra's effect since the attack failed so I'll end my turn." Chelsea announced and once Breaker was back on Chloe's side of the field Damien drew his card.

"_Okay, I have my two Cabin Boys on the field and with the right Tuner Monster I can bring out the big guns!" _Damien thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Just what the doctor ordered!" _Damien thought before playing the card. "I summon Blood Pirate – Support Crew!" Damien played the card and a small stocky man in a pirate's outfit appeared on the field (1/100/200). "Now I activate his effect, in a way it works like Rescue Rabbit but with one big difference." Damien explained as Support Crew disappeared from the field. "By removing him from play I can special summon up to two Blood Pirate monsters from my deck but I only need one."

"I think I know what that card is." Chelsea grunted as Damien picked up and searched through his deck, soon enough Blood Pirate - Buccaneer Bible appeared on the field (3/500/700). "I knew it! You're planning to Synchro Summon Quick Sword!"

"Guilty as charged, first since Buccaneer Bible was Special Summoned via the effect of a Blood Pirate monster his level increases by one." Damien announced as his monster's level increased. "And now I tune Buccaneer Bible with my two Cabin Boys to Synchro Summon Blood Pirate – Quick Sword!" Damien announced as the three monsters leapt into the air, once the Synchro Summon was complete the monster the girls recognized from Damien's duel against Chase and Daniel appeared on the field (8/2200/1800). "I activate Quick Sword's effect!"

"I don't think so!" Chloe interrupted him as she discarded a card. "Take a wild guess at just what the monster I just discarded was,"

"Don't tell me, Effect Veiler?" Damien asked and Chloe nodded as Quick Sword doubled over in pain. "You may have prevented Quick Sword's effect but not my Field Spell's, when I Synchro Summon a Blood Pirate monster whilst I have Pirate Island on the field I get to draw once for each non tuner used in the Synchro Summon." Damien added before drawing twice. "But unless I use them by turn's end I lose both."

"Define "use them" exactly." Chloe said as she folded her arms. "Because if they are monster cards then you're going to lose them because you've used up your normal summon."

"I know that." Damien responded before looking at the cards. "I set two cards facedown." Damien added as he set the cards he had drawn. "Now Quick-Sword, attack Wattcobra!" Damien commanded and the pirate charged towards the cobra before cutting it in two and bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 6800.

"Thanks for that!" Chelsea responded with a grin as she sent her monster to the graveyard. "I activate my Trap Card Damage Gate! Since I just took 1200 points of damage I can Special Summon from my graveyard one monster with attack equal to or less than the damage I just took."

"What's the point? The only monster you've got in your graveyard is the one I just destroyed." Damien pointed out and Chloe grinned as Chelsea nodded to her.

"Who said she was targeting her graveyard?" Chloe asked as she retrieved Effect Veiler. "This is a tag team duel and last I checked under tag team rules card effects affect both players!" Chloe added before playing the card and the green haired Spellcaster appeared on the field (1/0/0). "As soon as my turn begins I'll be able to go for a Synchro of my own so thanks Damien!"

"Just make sure that the damage was worth it Chloe!" Chelsea responded with a nod before turning to Damien. "Anything else you can do?"

"No, I end my turn." Damien announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_I hope this combo works, it's our best chance at clearing the field." _Chloe thought before playing a card. "I summon Magical Exemplar!" Chloe played the card and the dark haired, green dress wearing spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1700/1400). "Now I activate the Spell Card Foolish Burial!" Chloe announced as she retrieved a monster from her deck and sent it to the graveyard, once she shuffled her deck two floating orbs appeared around Exemplar.

"Ah yes, that is Exemplar's effect." Andreas said with a raised eyebrow. "I think I know what's coming next!"

"I'll let the results speak for themselves! I remove two Spell Counters to Special Summon Magicat in defense mode!" Chloe announced as the two orbs vanished and the small white cat carrying a staff appeared on the field (2/600/500). "Okay Andreas, it's time I did my own Synchro Summon! I tune Effect Veiler, Magical Exemplar and Magicat together!" Chloe announced as the three Spellcasters leapt into the air, Effect Veiler dissolved into a single Synchro Ring which quickly surrounded the other Spellcasters.

"Wait, when did you get a Level Seven Synchro?" Chelsea asked as she turned to her roommate. "The last time you brought new cards was when the new banlist was revealed…..oh….."

"The new banlist may have forced me to get some replacement cards for my Main Deck but that didn't stop me from expanding my Extra Deck either!" Chloe responded as the bright flash enveloped the field. "And as for this monster, I've wanted to test this bad boy out for a while! I Synchro Summon Arcanite Magician!"

"Oh great, I recognize that card from Nathan's duel." Damien grunted as Chloe played the card and the white robed Spellcaster appeared on the field ready for battle (7/400/1800).

"Yeah, I that but just as a reminder, when Arcanite Magician is Synchro Summoned he gains two Spell Counters and one thousand attack points for each one!" Chloe added as Arcanite Magician's staff started glowing and its attack power increased to 2400. "Before I attack I have to resolve Magicat's effect, since I used her in a Synchro Summon I get to take one Spell Card from my graveyard and put it at the top of my deck." Chloe added before doing so. "Arcanite Magician, attack Quick Sword!" Chloe commanded and the magician pointed his staff at the pirate before firing a beam of light at him consuming the pirate and bringing Damien's life-points down to 6800. "Breaker, it's your turn! Attack directly!" Chloe commanded and the magical warrior charged towards Damien…..

"I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Hung at the Gallows." Damien activated the Spell Card which depicted several Blood Pirates being hung from the gallows. "This Spell Card can only be activated if a Blood Pirate monster is destroyed by battle, since that just happened I can Special Summon a Gallows Token." Damien added as a medieval style executioner appeared on the field. "Not only does it count as a Blood Pirate monster but when a Gallows Token is Special Summoned it gains the base attack of the weakest monster my opponent controls, namely Breaker!" Damien added as the token's attack increased to 1600. "It seems you're at a stalemate because you forgot about my facedown cards."

"Not exactly, I activate my Trap Card Pitch Black Power Stone!" Chloe activated the trap and Damien's eyes widened. "And I'll use its effect to transfer another Spell Counter to Breaker making him strong enough to destroy your token." Chloe added as Breaker's attack increased to 1900, he charged at the token before cutting him in half and bringing Damien's life-points down to 7500. "Now I move to my Second Main Phase and I'll use the secondary effects of both my monsters, first I'll have Breaker take out your remaining Facedown Card." Chloe announced as Breaker's attack went down to 1600 and he charged the trap card, revealed to be the Trap Version of Man Overboard, which was quickly destroyed. "Now I'll use Arcanite's effect to destroy Lightning Tricorn!" Chloe announced as Arcanite's attack dropped to 1400 and he cast a spell at the beast destroying him. "It seems your back to where you started."

"Don't count on it." Andreas responded and Chloe turned to him before noticing the grin on his face. "You wanted to know why I used Bicorn in Tricorn's Synchro Summon, didn't you. Well now you're about to find out." Andreas added as Voltic Bicorn returned to the field. "When Tricorn is destroyed by a card effect or battle I can Special Summon either of the other Unicorn Synchros in his place."

"So wait, you were counting on either me or Chelsea destroying your Tricorn?" Chloe asked with a look of confusion on her face which Chelsea shared.

"That's one way to look at it, yes." Andreas answered with a nod and Chloe frowned.

"I end my turn at that." Chloe announced and Andreas quickly activated his facedown card. "Is that Call of the Haunted? Don't tell me you're bringing back Tricorn?"

"That's exactly what I'm doing!" Andreas answered as Lightning Tricorn returned to the field and Andreas drew his card. "You may remember that I removed a card from play last turn."

"What, that Spell Card? What about it?" Chelsea asked as Andreas retrieved the Spell Card from his pocket.

"It's a Spell Card called Card from a Different Dimension!" Andreas answered as he added it to his hand. "If this is removed from play during my turn I get it back during the following turn's stand-by phase and we all get to draw two cards." Andreas explained before the four of them drew two cards. _"I'll hold onto these for later." _Andreas thought before pointing to Chloe's monsters. "Lightning Tricorn, attack Arcanite Magician, Voltic Bicorn, attack Breaker the Magical Warrior now!" Andreas commanded and the two unicorns whinnied before charging at Chloe's monsters before hitting their attacks bringing Chloe's life-points down to 5700. "Now I move to my Second Main Phase and I set two cards facedown to end my turn." Andreas set the two cards down and Chelsea drew her card.

"_What I wouldn't give to have Heavy Storm right now." _Chelsea thought with a sigh as she looked over the field. _"Chloe may have cleared out Damien's side of the field but she unintentionally gave Andreas two powerful monsters in the process, at least with Andreas's Spell Card I drew some good cards." _ Chelsea thought before playing a card and another Wattcobra appeared on the field. "Wattcobra, attack Andreas's life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the snake leapt over the two unicorns before biting Andreas and bringing his life-points down to 7000. "Since Wattcobra inflicted damage to your life-points I get to search through my deck for another Watt Monster." Chelsea added as she searched through her deck and added the monster to her hand before shuffling her deck. "Next I set two cards facedown and I end my turn." Chelsea announced and once the two cards appeared on the field Damien drew his card.

"_I may have lost Quick Sword but the sooner I can get another Blood Pirate Synchro on the field the sooner I can protect my life-points again." _Damien thought as he looked over his three new cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Damien set the cards and Chloe drew her card once the three cards where on the field.

"_I need to get rid of those Unicorns and quick!" _Chloe thought before looking at her hand. _"Not my best but this combo could work!" _Chloe thought as she played a Spell Card. "First I activate Arcane Barrier! Now every time one of my Spellcasters get destroyed this Spell Card gets a Spell Counter and by sacrificing it along with a monster I get to draw one card for each Spell Counter." Chloe explained before Pitch Black Power Stone started glowing. "But why wait? I use Power Stone's effect to transfer a Spell Counter to Arcane Barrier!" Chloe announced before picking up another card. "I set this in defense mode and end my turn." Chloe announced as the defense monster appeared on the field and Andreas drew his card.

"No use in wasting any time Voltic Bicorn, attack Wattcobra!" Andreas commanded and the beast charged towards Wattcobra….

"Hah, gotcha," Chelsea responded with a grin as she discarded a card. "The monster I just discarded was Honest and you know what that means!" Chelsea added as Wattcobra's attack went up to 3500, Wattcobra leapt towards Bicorn before biting it in the neck and bringing his life-points down to 6000.

"Bicorn may be gone but its effect will leave a lasting impression forcing us all to mill seven cards from our decks." Andreas responded as he and the others milled seven cards. "Tricorn, attack Chloe's defense monster!" Andreas commanded and the remaining unicorn charged towards the monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was quickly destroyed.

"Arcane Barrier gets another counter." Chloe started as her Spell Card glowed. "And I get to summon another magician in defense mode!" Chloe added as she set another monster.

"_It's likely that that monster is Old Vindictive Magician, she's used that combo a few times now." _Andreas thought as Chloe shuffled her deck before he activated one of his face-down cards. "I activate Miracle's Wake to bring back Bicorn!" Andreas announced as the monster returned to his side of the field. "It's still my Battle Phase and I'll have my Bicorn attack your newly set monster." Andreas announced as the horse charged towards the monster, revealed to be another Apprentice Magician, which was quickly destroyed.

"What's the matter? Expecting something else?" Chloe asked as she searched through her deck again and set another monster down. "Regardless my Arcane Barrier gets another counter!"

"So it does, but since my monsters destroyed yours this turn I'll activate Hunting Season!" Andreas activated the trap and the two girls frowned once they recognized that name. "As you know I get to draw two cards in exchange for skipping my next battle phase." Andreas added before drawing twice. "My turn is over." Andreas added and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Why would he use Hunting Season? He clearly has the advantage over us." _Chelsea thought with a frown as she stared at the two beasts. _"I know he has stronger cards at his disposal so why is he relying on those cards?" _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card…..and grinning. _"Oh yeah, this is what I'm talking about!" _Chelsea thought before playing a card. "I summon Wattbetta!" Chelsea played the card and the small red fish appeared on the field (2/100/0).

"That's one of your Tuner Monsters!" Andreas said as he recognized the monster. "So are you planning to Synchro for Wattchimera?"

"Maybe but I'm not doing that just yet! I activate my trap card Judgment of Thunder! Since I just summoned a Thunder Type Monster this trap lets me destroy one card on the field and I chose Damien's facedown monster!" Chelsea announced as thunder struck the monster destroying it. "Now I'll enter my Battle Phase, Wattcobra, attack Andreas's life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the snake once again leapt over the horses before biting Andreas bringing his life-points down to 5000. "Your turn Wattbetta, attack Damien's life-points!" Chelsea commanded and the fish leapt towards the Obelisk Blue student before head-butting him and bringing his life-points down to 7400.

"What was the point of that?" Damien asked and Chelsea grinned.

"The point was two-fold! First when Wattbetta successfully attacks directly you have to discard a card of my choice from your hands and if I remember correctly Martin said that effects like Wattbetta's effect affect both opponents!" Chelsea announced and the two boys held out their hands. "Okay, Damien you lose the card on the far right, Andreas you lose the card on the left." Chelsea decided and the two boys discarded their cards. "As for the other point, I'll let my remaining trap card explain it for me go Urgent Tuning!"

"Oh no….." Damien trailed off as Wattcobra and Wattbetta leapt into the air, Wattbetta dissolved into two Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Wattcobra and once the bright flash faded Wattchimera appeared on the field (6/1400/1200). "I know he doesn't look like much when compared with other Level Six Synchros but when it comes to the Watt Monsters he's the cream of the crop!"

"Yeah, yeah, we all know Wattchimera can attack directly as well." Damien said with a tired yawn. "So get on with it already!"

"You'll regret rushing me! Wattchimera, attack Andreas's life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the mythical beast leapt towards Andreas before biting him bringing his life-points down to 3600. "And that's not all, since the attack was successful I get to take one card from your hands and place it on top of your decks!" Chelsea explained and the two boys put their cards on top of their decks. "I was expecting more of a fight but I'm not complaining! I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"You wanted more of a fight?" Andreas asked as his last trap card flipped up. "Well, how do you like Shock Draw? I just took two thousand points of damage which means I get to draw two cards!" Andreas added before drawing twice.

"And it's allowed me to activate my own Trap Card, Taking the Bullet!" Damien activated the trap which depicted a pirate jumping in front of a bullet meant for Quick Sword. "By my count me and Andreas just took about twenty-five hundred points of damage, with this I can special summon one Blood Pirate monster for each thousand points of damage we just took from my graveyard with their effects negated." Damien explained as Buccaneer Bible and an unknown female Blood Pirate monster in a skimpy outfit appeared on the field which Chloe and Chelsea assumed was one of the monsters milled when Voltic Bicorn was destroyed (4/1900/1000).

"I…I just fucked up big time, didn't I?" Chelsea asked as she face palmed and Damien drew his card.

"If by that you mean you attacked without taking into account the consequences then yeah, you did." Damien answered as he looked over his hand after he drew his card. "Because it's time I did another Synchro of my own! I tune Buccaneer Bible with Blood Pirate - Slippery Mary Grimm!" Damien announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Buccaneer Bible dissolved into three Synchro Rings which quickly surrounded Slippery Mary Grimm and minutes later Blood Pirate – Baird the Black appeared on the field (7/2400/1900). "I know Honest is a Limited Card but I'm not going to risk you using it with Wattchimera!" Damien added as he drew two cards due to Pirate Island's effect. "And I don't have to attack to do just that!"

"What do you mean?" Chelsea asked only to be caught off guard as Wattchimera shattered. "What the hell just happened?"

"Slippery Mary Grimm's effect happened! When she is used in a Synchro Summon of a high level Blood Pirate Synchro Monster like Baird I can destroy one face-up Special Summoned monster on the opponent's side of the field!" Damien explained before grinning. "Oh and encase you're wondering, yes, I can still attack the same turn I use Slippery Mary Grimm's effect! In fact I'll do it right now!" Damien announced and Chelsea braced herself as the pirate charged towards her and slashed her with his sword bringing her life-points down to 4400. "I end my turn at that!" Damien announced and Chloe gulped before drawing her card.

"Err, Chelsea, before I make my move," Chloe said as she turned to her. "How's your temper right now?"

"Slowly losing it….." Chelsea trailed off as she took a deep breath. "But we still have the lead so as long as we don't lose that I won't lose it."

"Yeah, that's going to be easier said than done, isn't it?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded reluctantly. "Anyway….I flip summon my facedown monster, Old Vindictive Magician!" Chloe flipped the monster up and the old, bearded magician appeared on the field (2/450/600). "And since I flipped him up I get to destroy one card on the field….." Chloe added before trailing off. _"Err, Silent Magician, need a little help here…."_

"_You want to know which monster to target, don't you?" _Silent Magician asked as her transparent appeared alongside Chloe but didn't wait for Chloe to respond. _"Bair the Black, if you target Voltic you'll lose seven more cards and he can just bring back him once Tricorn is destroyed…."_

"_Err, why don't I just target Tricorn?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician turned to her. _"I mean really, all he's summoned so far is two non-tuner monsters and the same tuner monster twice and last I checked One for One didn't affect the extra deck with its discard effect."_

"_You do have a good point." _Silent Magician answered with a sigh of resignation. _"Also, don't interrupt me."_

"CHLOE, TIME LIMIT!" Chelsea yelled at her and she blinked before remembering it.

"Shit, how long do I have?" Chloe asked with a gulp.

"Relax, you were staring into space for about a minute, your teammate was just getting impatient." Damien reassured her and Chloe sighed in relief. "Now, what monster are you targeting for your Magician's effect?"

"Right, right, my target is Lightning Tricorn!" Chloe announced and the magician pointed its staff at the unicorn before firing a beam of light at it destroying it. "Next I use Pitch Black Power Stone's effect one last time to transfer another Spell Counter to Arcane Barrier!" Chloe added as the trap card shattered. "Now I'll use Arcane Barrier's effect and the monster I'm sacrificing for it is Old Vindictive Magician!" Chloe added as both her Spell Card and her monster shattered before drawing four times.

"_I hope she knows what she's doing." _Chelsea thought as Chloe looked over her newly filled up hand. _"She's freed up space in her Spell/Trap Card zones but I can only think of a few monsters in her deck that can destroys theirs, including her best monsters! Not to mention the fact that I am this close to being eliminated."_

"I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode!" Chloe announced as the three cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn." Chloe announced and Andreas drew his card. _"I hope this works, if not then Chelsea will be eliminated and I'll be fighting an uphill battle!"_

"Damien, I need to use Baird the Black and I think you know why." Andreas told him and Damien nodded as the pirate made his way to Andreas's side of the field. "Sorry Chelsea but for you this duel is over! Lightning Tricorn, Baird the Black, finish her!" Andreas commanded and Tricorn charged in first….

"I activate my trap card Hot Tag!" Chloe announced as the facedown card flipped up depicting a wrestler making a tag. "This is a tag team duel only card, mostly because Hot Tags on happen in tag team matches in wrestling, because it requires my partner to not have any monsters to defend with and I do and much like in wrestling I'm coming in to make the save!"

"Err, Chloe, how do you know so much about wrestling?" Chelsea asked and Chloe blushed furiously before sighing.

"I'm a wrestling fan all right? It's kind of a guilty pleasure of mine!" Chloe responded before shaking her head. "In game terms, with this I redirect the attack to my facedown monster!" Chloe announced as Lightning Tricorn changed course….

"Nice try Chloe but you just revealed your guilty pleasure for nothing because that's not good enough, I activate Cursed Treasure!" Damien announced as the facedown card flipped up.

"Shit, that'll negate Hot Tag!" Chelsea said as her eyes widened.

"Not on my watch! I chain Cursed Treasure with my own trap card Trap Jammer!" Chloe announced as her second trap card flipped up negating Cursed Treasure and Tricorn destroyed Chloe's facedown Necro Guardna (3/600/1300).

"A valiant effort but don't forget! I still have Baird the Black!" Andreas announced as the pirate charged forward…..only to be stopped by the ghostly form of Necro Gardna. "Huh?"

"I didn't set that monster for no reason Andreas! It was Necro Gardna and by removing him from play I can negate one attack per turn." Chloe said as she pocketed the monster.

"Thanks for the save Chloe, I told you that getting that trap card would be worth it!" Chelsea responded with a grin and Chloe grinned. "Yes, even if I'm going to be teasing you over your wrestling fandom."

"Just don't go saying wrestling's fake and we'll be on good terms." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in response. "Is there anything else Andreas?"

"I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced as the two cards appeared on the field and once Baird the Black was back on Damien's side of the field Chelsea drew her card.

"Huh, I have to admit, Chloe's the last person I'd expect to be a wrestling fan." Theresa commented as she watched the duel. "I'd expect Lance to be one before her!"

"Okay, first off, I am a wrestling fan and I have been since I was a kid." Lance responded with a proud grin. "Second, being a wrestling fan's nothing to be ashamed off, just look at me!"

"Yeah and it gives you and Chloe another thing in common even if she's embarrassed by it." Brandon pointed out as he shifted his weight. "Seriously, what's stopping you at this point from asking her?"

"Well, beside the fact that things keep getting in my way, like my cold, the Orichalcos Duelists and just general bad luck…." Lance trailed off before shaking his head. "You know what? Fuck it, I'll ask her this weekend after the promotion duels."

"Good plan, that way they'll be no distractions." Theresa responded with a nod. "But if you want my advice, try to get her alone in one of the clearings." Theresa added and Lance stared at her for a few minutes as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Theresa, I'm not going to try to screw her if she says yes, well, not straight away anyway." Lance responded and Theresa sweat-dropped. "Besides wouldn't my bedroom be better for that? Less chance of being caught, less chance of bugs getting into undesirable areas….."

"Lance, shut up before you give me nightmares!" Theresa cut him off as she shuddered before standing up and turning to her with an agitated look on her face and Lance winced. "And I wasn't talking about sex either! I mean, if you want to screw her on your first date with her then that's your own business!" Theresa said before taking a deep breath. "Sorry, didn't mean to yell, I was just not comfortable with the direction the conversation was heading."

"Believe me Theresa, you're not the only one." Marcus responded as he pointed out that the students who had been sitting behind Lance and where close enough to overhear him had moved to an entirely different section far away from Lance.

"Anyway, what I was talking about was that if you take her to a clearing and ask her you'll be able to do it with some privacy." Theresa said with a sigh as she sat back down. "Sure, doing it, as in talking to her, in your bedroom may be easier but if I where you I wouldn't want to risk having someone listen in on the conversation. Especially if you two are promoted!"

"Actually I just realized something about that." Brandon chimed in with a frown. "Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue hold welcome parties for the newly promoted students, DJs and all and they don't do that for Osiris Red because, well, it's the lowest dorm."

"That's right, I never thought about that." Theresa realized with a nod. "And before you ask Lance, those parties can and usually do last long into the night which probably explains why they've always held the promotion duels at weekends." Theresa added and Lance frowned.

"Wait, would I be able to sneak out of the Obelisk Blue party and go to Ra Yellow one?" Lance asked and Theresa nodded.

"Newly promoted former Ra Yellow students do that all the time as it gives them a convenient way to get to their bags in the morning." Theresa responded and Lance grinned. "You're going to ask her at the party?"

"Once I can get her alone, yeah…..and that just makes it sound like I'm going to fuck her at the party." Lance realized as a massive sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Boy! Am I glad she's competing right now or what?"

"Oh right! I forgot about the duel!" Theresa remembered before turning her attention back to the duel.

*meanwhile*

Whilst that was going on Chelsea was looking over the field and the cards in her hand.

"_Okay, Chloe's combo pulled my ass out of the fire but unless I drew something good I'm in trouble!" _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card and the cards in her hand. _"Wait, this combo could work!" _Chelsea thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode." Chelsea announced as the two set cards appeared on the field. "And that ends my turn." Chelsea announced and Damien drew his card. _"If there was ever a more perfect time to practice my poker face I've never heard of it!"_

"_If I had any of my MSTs I could destroy her facedown card and lay the groundwork down for eliminating Chelsea." _Damien thought with a frown as he looked at Chelsea's facedown card. _"But I don't and I think she used up her only copy of Judgment of Thunder earlier in the duel so, unless that's Mirror Force I should be safe!" _ Damien decided before turning to Andreas. "I need to use Voltic Bicorn and I think you know why!"

"Say no more." Andreas said with a nod and Damien grinned as Voltic Bicorn made its way to his side of the field.

"Then I won't waste any time, Baird the Black, attack Chelsea's defense monster!" Damien commanded and the pirate charged towards the monster….and he frowned as it was revealed to be Wattdragonfly (2/900/100) which was effortlessly destroyed. "I should've known! That monster is pretty much the only one you set in defense mode."

"I'd say that I'm sorry to disappoint you but considering how pretty fucking obvious it was that you were hoping to attack directly with Bicorn, well, I'm not." Chelsea responded with a grin as she picked up and searched through her deck, she grinned when she saw the card she was looking for and played it. "In any case I special summon Wattpheasant!" Chelsea played the card and the electric colored pheasant appeared on the field (4/1000/800).

"You should've summoned Wattaildragon! We both know that without Honest that bird won't stand a chance against Voltic Bicorn!" Damien responded with a grin….which quickly faded when he saw Chelsea's facedown card flip up. "Oh no, don't tell me that's another Judgment of Thunder!"

"I could but I'd be lying!" Chelsea responded with a grin as lightning struck Voltic Bicorn destroying it, once the four duelists had milled their seven cards Chelsea turned to Damien. "Your deck's running a bit low by the way." Chelsea pointed out and Damien looked.

"_Crap! She's right!" _Damien thought with a frown as he did a quick count of the cards in his deck. "Andreas, don't summon Bicorn again, I've only got seven cards left in my deck."

"I understand, don't worry though, I have other tricks up my sleeve!" Andreas said before wincing as his life-points dropped to 2600.

"Oh shit, don't tell me….." Chelsea trailed off as Green Baboon Defender of the Forrest appeared on Andreas's side of the field (7/2600/1800). "How long have you had that thing in your hand?"

"He was one of the cards I drew with Shock Draw last turn." Andreas responded with a nod. "Call it my back-up plan. Just encase you got past Tricorn and Bicorn."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Chloe asked with a grin. "One Magic Cylinder and you'll be eliminated from the duel."

"Yes, that is a problem." Andreas sighed to himself before shaking his head. "I believe it's still Damien's turn."

"Yeah, it is and I've already ended my battle phase so go ahead and call yourself lucky." Damien responded before looking over his hand. "I'll end my turn at that." Damien announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_My deck's running low as well. I'd better hope I can turn this around for the better." _Chloe thought as she looked over her hand. _"Level Modulation, Megamorph and Diffusion Wave Motion, if I had a way of summoning Silent Magician Level Eight I could use this combo to inflict some major….wait a minute…." _Chloe realized as she glanced towards her graveyard. "Anyone mind if I check my graveyard quickly?"

"Go for it." Andreas responded and Damien nodded in agreement, Chloe started looking through her graveyard as Chelsea looked on.

"_Okay, Rose Warrior of Revenge, Level Warrior, Doppelwarrior, Salvage Warrior, huh, I was wondering what had happened to my warriors." _Chloe thought with a small grin which grew wider when she saw the card she was looking for. _"I knew it! Silent Magician Level Eight was one of the monsters I milled for Voltic Bicorn's effect just now!" _Chloe thought before returning the cards to her graveyard. "I activate my Spell Card Level Modulation!"

"Great, as if my deck wasn't running low already!" Damien grunted as he and Andreas drew two cards and seconds later Chloe's ace monster appeared on the field (8/3500/1000). "At least she can't attack!"

"Trust me boys, you have bigger problems! I activate Diffusion Wave Motion!" Chloe announced before wincing as her life-points dropped to seven thousand. "Say goodbye to your monsters boys!" Chloe announced as Silent Magician held out her staff….

"I won't be defeated that easily! I chain Emergency Provisions, sending my other facedown card to the graveyard to gain back the life-points I paid for Green Baboon's effect!" Andreas cut her off as the trap card shattered and his life-points increased to 3600 just before the beams of light hit the monsters bringing his life-points down to 2500 and Damien's life-points down to 6300.

"Since Silent Magician is the only monster that can attack because of Diffusion Wave Motion I'll end my turn with a facedown card." Chloe announced as the facedown card appeared on the field and Andreas drew his card.

"_They may have defeated my Unicorns and Green Baboon but my deck wouldn't be as good as it is if it didn't have a few more tricks at its disposal." _Andreas thought picking up a card. "I summon Lock Cat!" Andreas played the card and a large white cat appeared on the field with a huge golden lock as its collar (3/1200/1000). "When Lock Cat is Normal Summoned her effect activates which allows me to Special Summon one Level One Beast Type monster from my graveyard such as Key Mouse!"

"Wait, why are you using its effect on that and not Snyffus?" Chloe asked as the monster appeared on the field, it was a small white mouse which, like the cat, had a lock around its neck and a key attached to its tail (1/100/100).

"No real reason, they are both Tuner Monsters, I'm merely choosing to use this one, as for when it was sent to my graveyard, my best bet is either of the times that Voltic Bicorn was destroyed." Andreas said before retrieving another monster from the graveyard. "But this monster is one I put there myself with One for One."

"Let me guess, Chain Dog right?" Chelsea asked as she remembered the monster from Andreas's duel against Otto, Andreas nodded as he played the card and the small white dog appeared on the field (4/1600/1100). "Don't tell me you have two Lightning Tricorns in your Extra Deck." Chelsea gulped and Andreas shook his head.

"Too impractical, one copy of each Unicorn Synchro, Master of Oz, my other Synchro Monsters and the new XYZ monsters I have, well they took up enough space as it was." Andreas answered with a grin. "But what I have instead is just as deadly and I'm not talking about Red Baboon either!"

"_If he's not talking about that Red Baboon monster then what is he talking about?" _Chloe thought to herself as they got ready for whatever the monster was.

"First I activate a Spell Card called Resonance Device! Since Lock Cat and Chain Dog are both Earth Type Beast Monsters I can increase Lock Cat's Level to four!" Andreas played the card and the two beasts glowed as Lock Cat's Level increased. "Now I tune them with Key Mouse!" Andreas added as the three monsters leapt into the air.

"A Level Nine Synchro Summon?!" Chelsea asked as the Synchro Ring surrounded the two beast monsters. "Chloe, can you think of any monsters that fit that bill?"

"Only a handful and none of them are Beast Monsters!" Chloe answered with a gulp as the bright flash enveloped the field. "Just what are you summoning Andreas?"

"I'm glad you asked as it's a recent but very powerful addition to my deck!" Andreas responded as he retrieved the monster from his extra deck and played it, it took a second for Chloe and Chelsea's eyes to readjust but when they did they had to do a double take when they saw the monster.

"What…..the…..fuck…" Chelsea trailed off as she stared at the monster and whilst Chloe didn't say anything it was clear that she shared Chelsea's sentiments, it was a massive black lion-like beast with a golden mane and red piercing eyes, its claws where razor sharp and it growled fiercely at the two girls (9/2500/2200). "Andreas, is that Leogun?!"

"Yes and no, this monster is a retrained version of that creature." Andreas responded as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Let me get the basics out of the way first, this monster is known as Leogun, Lord of the Jungle and it can only be Synchro Summoned using three beast type monsters that are at least Level Four or lower, and once it leaves the field it can't come back full stop, not even if a monster's effect allows that to happen!"

"_Summoning conditions like that can only mean one thing." _Chelsea thought with a nervous gulp. _"It has a very powerful effect."_

"And whilst those are some of the strictest summoning conditions I've seen for a Synchro Monster its effect makes up for." Andreas elaborated as he retrieved a monster from his graveyard. "By removing one Beast Type monster from play I can destroy one monster whose defense is weaker than its attack power."

"Wait, what?" Chelsea asked with a gulp.

"And before you say that, it's not broken as I must forfeit my Battle Phase the turn I use this attack, so I may as well use it on the strongest monster on the field!" Andreas added as Leogun leapt towards Silent Magician Level Eight….

"I activate my Trap Card Fiendish Chain!" Chloe activated the trap and Andreas's eyes widened as chains ensnared his beast. "Now he can't attack or use his effect full stop!"

"Oh yeah, there's one other thing." Chelsea chimed in with a massive grin on her face. "Didn't you say that your monster will be gone for good once it leaves the field?"

"I did but I guess I'll have to improvise." Andreas responded before playing a card. "First I activate Burial from a Different Dimension to return the banished Chain Dog to my graveyard!" Andreas played the card and returned the monster from his pocket to the graveyard. "Next I activate De-Synchro to split Leogun into its individual parts." Andreas played the card and Leogun vanished from the field, in its place stood the three monsters use in its Synchro Summon crouching down in defense mode.

"Let me guess, Red Baboon?" Chloe asked and Andreas shook his head.

"No, instead I plan to summon the third member of the Unicorn Family!" Andreas said before playing a third spell card. "But first I activate Level Thunder, with this I can take the combined levels of all monsters on the field and inflict battle damage equal to that number too you."

"That's two thousand points!" Chelsea realized before the two girls winced as their life-points dropped to 2400 and 5000.

"That's right and now that that's done I'll use Chain Dog and Key Mouse Synchro Summon my monster!" Andreas announced as the two beasts leapt into the air, Key Mouse quickly dissolved into a single Synchro Ring which surrounded Chain Dog. "I Synchro Summon Thunder Unicorn!"

"Finally, you've summoned a monster with a normal name." Chelsea grunted under her breath as the monster appeared on the field, it was a dark blue unicorn with lightning stripes on its body, an orange mane and a lightning like horn (5/2200/1800). "All though with those stats you would've been better off summoning Red Baboon."

"Maybe, maybe not but Thunder Unicorn has a very potent effect, once per turn I can target one monster my opponent controls such as Silent Magician and that monster will lose 500 attack points for each monster I control." Andreas explained and the two girls blinked in confusion.

"Err, Andreas, you realize that, even weakened Silent Magician can still destroy that monster right?" Chloe pointed out as her monster's attack strength dropped to 2500.

"I'm well aware of that." Andreas responded with a nod. "But I have one last Spell Card to play this turn, I was originally going to use this with Leogun but I guess I'll make do! I activate Wild Nature's Release and for its effect I target Thunder Unicorn!" Andreas played the card and Thunder Unicorn's attack shot up to four-thousand. "Now for this turn only my unicorn will get its defense score added to its defense score.

"_Crap, he could eliminate me! Even worse is the fact that I have no way to get back Honest!" _Chelsea thought as she looked over her hand. _"I only have one chance, better hope that that monster was milled." _Chelsea thought before holding her hand up. "You guys mind if I check my graveyard quickly?"

"Make it quick." Andreas responded and Chelsea nodded before checking her graveyard.

"_Okay, where are the monsters that Voltic Bicorn made me mill?" _Chelsea thought before grinning. _"Perfect! Let's see, no, no, could've used that earlier, hell no, perfect!" _Chelsea thought before returning the cards to the graveyard. "I'm good."

"We'll see about that." Andreas responded as he looked over the field. "Now I could eliminate you as you have no doubt realized but I have other plans, Thunder Unicorn, attack Silent Magician!" Andreas commanded and the unicorn charged towards Chloe's monster….

"Not exactly what I was expecting but I'll take it." Chelsea responded as she retrieved the monster from her graveyard and suddenly a chubby blue ogre with wild orange hair appeared on the field, it was wearing purple plants, a black hat and trench coat and most importantly it was carrying two flags, one red and one blue (1/100/100). "Meet A/D Changer!"

"What's this, a monster that isn't a Watt Monster in your deck?" Andreas asked and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"Andreas, I run Thunder Seahorse and Honest in this damn thing, off course I do." Chelsea responded with an annoyed look on her face. "My basic rule when it comes to Non-Watt monsters in my deck is this, if it can help my deck in some way it's going in."

"Then explain Wattaildragon." Damien pointed out and Chelsea turned to him. "Yeah, he has Watt in his name but he's pretty much a Watt Monster in name only, he isn't even a Thunder Type Monster!"

"True but I added that thing to give my deck a chance against Skill Drain decks, at least until I discovered Judgment of Thunder but even then I kept it in since it combos well with Wattdragonfly." Chelsea responded before shaking her head. "Sorry, went way off topic there! When A/D Changer is in my graveyard I can remove him from play to change the battle position of one monster on the field, I chose Thunder Unicorn!"

"What?" Andreas asked as Thunder Unicorn stopped in its tracks and suddenly crouched down.

"And yes, I know about Wild Nature Release's side effect, soon as you end your turn Thunder Unicorn is history!" Chelsea added with a grin on her face.

"Thanks for the save Chelsea, I don't think I would've been able to come back from losing Silent Magician!" Chloe thanked her and Chelsea grinned.

"Yeah, well, you've saved my ass enough times in this duel; I figured it was about time I returned the favor." Chelsea responded before turning her attention back to Andreas. "So are you ending your turn?"

"Not quite, I activate my facedown card Forbidden Chalice!" Andreas activated the Spell and Thunder Unicorn's attack plummeted to 1400. "Yes, it loses all the attack he just gained and then some but it makes it immune to the side effect of Wild Nature's Release, and since I used up the contents of my hand in that move I end my turn." Andreas announced and once Thunder Unicorn's attack was back to normal Chelsea drew her card.

"_He obviously banked everything on that move well I hope I can turn this around because I can't risk him activating another Level Thunder!" _Chelsea thought as she looked at her drawn card. _"Monster Reincarnation, with this I can get back Honest and have it raring to go but they will probably expect it, in the meantime Wattphesant's attack would banish Thunder Unicorn but he can just bring it back, I know Chloe can finish it off with her magician but I don't….hold on a sec, what was one of the other cards I saw in my graveyard?" _Chelsea thought before looking through it again. _"It's risky but I'll take it!" _Chelsea decided before playing a card. "I activate Monster Reincarnation! With this I recover one monster from my graveyard and return it to my hand at the cost of another card in my hand!" Chelsea played the card before discarding another monster and recovering the monster, without another word she the monster and pointed at Andreas. "You know what to do Wattpheasant!" Chelsea commanded and the bird flew over Andreas's monsters before pecking it him bringing his life-points down to 1600. "Thunder Unicorn gets banished for the rest of the turn." Chelsea added as the monster vanished. "And I end my turn." Chelsea announced and once Thunder Unicorn was back on the field Damien drew his card.

"_Who does she think she's fooling? It couldn't have been more obvious that the monster she retrieved was Honest and she set another monster to throw us off!" _Damien thought with a smirk. "I'm not fooling for that Chelsea, I pass my turn!" Damien announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Was that really a bluff? I know she's beefed up her deck since our last tournament duel but still!" _Chloe thought with a frown as she looked at the card she drew. "I summon Gemini Elf!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900). "Gemini Elf, attack Lock Cat!" Chloe commanded and the elves fired their twin magic at Lock Cat destroying the monster and bringing Andreas's life-points down to 1300. "Sorry Andreas but for you this duel's over! Silent Magician, attack Thunder Unicorn!" Chloe commanded and the magician fired her beam of light at Andreas's last monster bringing his life-points down to zero. "That just leaves you Damien and you passed your turn so you have nothing to protect you, go ahead Chelsea!"

"Got it Chloe, now let's win this duel" Chelsea responded with a grin as she drew her card. "Any chance I could borrow your Magician and your elves?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded as the two monsters made their way over to her side of the field. "Oh and there's one more thing, Damien? You seriously thought I was bluffing?"

"You weren't?" Damien asked with a gulp. "But the only monster you would retrieve is with Reincarnation is Honest!"

"That's what I wanted you to think!" Chelsea responded as her monster flipped up revealing a small turtle with a silver shell and the words S and N in bold, red letters underneath its head (4/0/1800). "Electromagnetic Turtle, in a way it works like A/D Changer except it can only work the turn it's sent to the graveyard and it sends the battle phase."

"So, you where bluffing?" Damien asked and Chelsea shrugged.

"Yeah, just not in the way you initially thought, either way I have a combined attack power of 6400 attack points here, more than enough to send us through to the next round! Get him guys!" Chelsea commanded and the monsters launched their attacks bringing Damien's life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Chloe Richardson and Chelsea Cunningham!" Martin's voice rang out and the crowd cheered whilst the two girls exchanged a celebratory fist bump. "And if you think that match was something just wait until tomorrow! Theresa Daniels and Brandon Thomas team up to face fellow Obelisk Blue Student Tyler Kaiba and one of the top Ra Yellow Students Marcus Reynolds!"

"Oh boy, that's going to be a tough match to call!" Chelsea said with an impressed whistle and Chloe nodded in agreement. "I don't even know who to route for in that one!"

"Join the club." Chloe nodded in agreement and whilst that was going on the two teams where talking amongst themselves.

"So, you guys are going from facing a team with an outdated strategy to us!" Marcus said with a confident grin. "May the best team win guys because I know it's gonna be a good one!"

"If you perform as well as you did in our duel in the Battle City Semi-Finals Marcus I don't doubt that for a second!" Brandon responded with a grin and Theresa nodded in agreement. "As for you Tyler, I've wanted to face you for a while."

"Just don't get angry when my Psychic monsters run rampant over your Chaos deck." Tyler responded and Brandon grinned. _"At least that's what he thinks! I'm bringing out my second deck for this duel and I mean it!" _Tyler thought as the two teams on the podium exchanged handshakes.

"Following that duel the controversial team of Cameron Matthews and Jessica Stevens will team up to take on a team who pulled out an upset victory last round in Keri Harmon and Lacey Morse!" Martin added and the cheers quickly turned to boos.

"Err, yeah, anyone up for watching the duels on the stream tomorrow?" Chloe asked and the other students nodded in agreement. "Obviously Tyler, Marcus, Theresa and Brandon will have to be here but still!"

"How about we meet up at my dorm room then?" Andreas offered and they turned to him. "Unless Tyler is willing to let us use his room I don't think there are any other choices there."

"I say we ask him first." Chloe said before getting her schedule out. "Anyway I have class with Hamden starting soon so I'd better get going." Chloe said as she left the podium.

"And I don't so I'm off to my dorm room." Chelsea added as she gathered up her cards. "See you guys later." Chelsea added before following Chloe out of the arena.

*meanwhile*

"Victor, are you sure about this?" Jack asked as the two agents got off the boat. "Another team duel so soon after the last one?"

"The agent insisted." Victor responded and Jack sighed. "But the target stays the same, Hu Wukong, you have his profile on you and anyone he's with at the time is to be targeted as well." Victor added and the two agents nodded.

"Got it boss, and don't worry you have two souls on the way!" The female agent responded before leaving with the male one.

"_Yeah, but in more ways than one," _Jack thought before the driver powered up the speed-boat. _"Win or lose, doesn't matter, we'll have two more souls for our collection!"_


	100. Hot Team

"_Man that duel lasted ages." _Chelsea thought as she checked the time on her watch, it had only been a few minutes since Chloe and Chelsea had defeated Andreas and Damien allowing the two girls to advance to the third round but due to the length of the duel it felt like more time had passed to her. _"We're only in the second round and this is how crazy the competition is getting, almost makes me wish that I had lost that tag match."_ Chelsea thought before shaking her head. _"I can't think along those lines! I mean with any luck I'll finally be in Ra Yellow by the time the third round starts!"_

"Hey, did you see that last tag team duel?" Chelsea overheard a male Ra Yellow student say to his friends. "Man, if that's how the Osiris Red Students duel I definitely came to the right place!"

"_All though on the other hand getting my ego stroked definitely helps!" _Chelsea thought a small grin on her face but decided to not butt in on the conversation between the male students. _"At worst they may end up hitting on me not realizing that I'm gay, and besides I want to head back to my dorm room and play some Total War before my first class starts." _Chelsea thought as she made her way out of the main building. _"And that's not taking into account what their thoughts on gay people are….."_

"Ah, we meet again Chelsea." Chelsea blinked before glancing over her shoulder and seeing Hu Wukong, Ash's rival, approaching her with his hands in his pockets. "That was quite an impressive duel."

"Yeah well, I would've preferred it if Chloe didn't have to bail my ass out every other turn but I'm not complaining." Chelsea responded as the Chinese student caught up with her. "Are you heading over to the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm?"

"Yes, I don't have another class until later on this afternoon." Hu nodded as the two of them left the main building. "All though I was wondering something about you."

"Don't tell me, you've been asking around about me, right?" Chelsea asked and Hu nodded much to her annoyance, Chelsea sighed to herself as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Okay, before you continue, what exactly have you heard about me?"

"I heard that you're a short tempered woman who is passionate about dueling but has been kicked out of several schools because of her temper." Hu responded and Chelsea just shook her head. "In other words we share a lot in common, well besides the kicked out of schools part, and the juvenile record."

"Are you going somewhere with this?" Chelsea asked as she turned to him. "And how did you find out about my record in the first place? The only other person on this island who knows is my roommate Chloe and she promised not to tell anyone!"

"It's mentioned in your Duel Academy profile." Hu answered and Chelsea face-faulted.

"Note to self, have the IT staff members take out that part!" Chelsea muttered under her breath as she got up to her feet. "Let me just get one thing clear, the only reason I have that record to begin with is because I punched my first round opponent in my first ever tournament who happened to be a pro-duelist who's agent pressed charges." Chelsea added as she turned to him. "Saying that it's not one of my prouder moments is like saying that Thousand Eyes Idol is a pretty weak monster!"

"I can understand that." Hu nodded in understanding as he turned to her. "But still, given how much we have in common I was wondering if you were interested in getting together sometime."

"Wait, my Duel Academy profile doesn't mention anything about my sex life?" Chelsea asked and Hu shook his head. _"Typical, mentions my first and only arrest but conveniently leaves out my sexual orientation, I'm going to have a chat with the IT Staff about this!" _Chelsea thought before turning her attention back to Hu. "Sorry to disappoint you Hu but I'm taken…"

"I see." Hu sighed to himself. "Whoever he is, he is a very lucky man."

"Yeah, that's the other thing, as much as I appreciate the complement." Chelsea responded as she glanced at him. "It's not a boy I'm dating, it's another girl."

"Oh." Hu said as it hit him. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been out of the closet?"

"About two years now, give or take." Chelsea answered with a nod. "The girl I'm dating is another Osiris Red Student called Beth McKenzie, she joined at the same time I did."

"Is she in the tournament?" Hu asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"She was but her team was eliminated in the first round by a team of Obelisk Blue Students." Chelsea answered as she pocketed her hands. "Her anti-cure deck is good but she couldn't hang with an Archfiend and a Spellcaster duelist unfortunately."

"Anti-Cure is a difficult deck to run." Hu responded and Chelsea nodded. "What version does she run? Simochi? Nurse Reficule?"

"Reficule, she even has a tattoo of that monster about her naval." Chelsea responded with a frown. "Part of the problem was that beside Sangan which she played on her last turn, and that duel was before Sangan was banned before you ask, she literally relied only on Reficule." Chelsea added before deciding to change the subject. "Anyway, you know what deck I run so what deck do you run?"

"I run a Fire Fist deck, I heard that there's a team in the tournament who has that deck in it." Hu commented and Chelsea nodded. "My deck mostly relies on XYZ monsters though as opposed to yours since your deck relies on Synchros."

"I wouldn't say relies, I've actually won a few duels without either of my Synchros." Chelsea responded before grinning as she got an idea. "Hey Hu, you have enough time before your next class for a duel?" Chelsea asked and Hu grinned as he got the idea before checking his schedule.

"You're in luck my next class isn't for a couple of hours." Hu answered with a grin. "So, were too?" Hu asked and Chelsea thought for a moment.

"Well the duel fields were being used last I checked and we both know how long these duels can last." Chelsea answered after thinking for a moment. "Why not one of the clearings on the island's north side?"

"Isn't that area of limits?" Hu asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"No, just two areas, the Abandoned Dorm and the volcano, trust me I went up to the Abandoned Dorm once and I almost got expelled for it." Chelsea responded with a grin. "They've lightened up a bit since then because back then the whole North Side was off limits but now? As long as we stay clear of those two areas we'll be fine." Chelsea answered and Hu nodded. "Probably had something to do with the fact that any duelists and/or couples who go up there to duel or make out, or possibly both I've heard of weirder things, were staying clear of those areas."

"Does that include you and your partner?" Hu asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Beth, my partner, is a total clean freak, we often joke that the day that I have sex with her outside her dorm room is the day that Yata-Garasu comes off the Ban List." Chelsea responded getting a chuckle out of Hu. "Tell ya what, I'll go ahead and find us a spot…..crap, I just realized that I don't have your number on my phone!"

"You do now." Hu responded as he wrote down his phone number onto a piece of paper and showed it to her, Chelsea added the number to her phone and nodded. "I need to get my duel disk from my dorm anyway."

"Good, I'll see you later." Chelsea answered before making her way to the northern area of the island quickening her pace when she saw a certain trio of Obelisk Blue students emerge from the Main Building. _"After a win like that there's one thing I don't need and that's an encounter with Thomas, Cameron and Jessica."_

"_I agree." _Wattchimera's voice rang out and Chelsea grinned at that. _"And you called me crazy for suggesting A/D Changer and Electromagnetic Turtle for your deck."_

"_In my defense my deck doesn't have a lot of ways of getting cards in the graveyard unless you count Beckoning Light." _Chelsea answered as she shook her head. _"I'm still on the fence about Damage Reflector though."_

"_Well, why not? Once you remove it from play you can possibly turn a duel around." _Wattchimera pointed out and Chelsea paused before retrieving the monster from her side deck.

"_You have a point; maybe if I had this back when I took my test duel I'd be in Ra Yellow already." _Chelsea thought as she glanced at the monster, on the surface it was a Level Two Dark Fiend Type Monster that had zero attack and eight hundred defense but it's powerful effect made up for its weak stats. _"Screw it!" _Chelsea decided before adding it to her main deck. _"I'll use my duel with Hu as a test run for this card and if it works it's staying in the deck." _Chelsea added before frowning. _"But if it backfires it's going back in my side deck."_

"_You should consider adding the other card I suggested." _Wattchimera added and Chelsea blinked before looking at the card.

"_One for One, this card did help Andreas get his combo off the ground, not to mention his back-up plans." _Chelsea thought before nodding and adding it to her deck. _"I'm applying the same policy as Damage Reflector to One for One before you ask."_

"_When have I ever done you wrong since becoming your Duel Spirit Guide?" _Wattchimera asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"_Well, beside your failure to find those new Watt Cards that are coming out next year?" _Chelsea asked with a small grin, she had known about the new cards for a few months now but ever since Wattchimera had gotten her Lightning Recharge she had been hounding him about it.

"_I told you before, I'm working on…." _Wattchimera trailed off and Chelsea raised an eyebrow. _"Chelsea, call the others."_

"_What? Why?" _Chelsea asked with a frown, there was something about the Duel Spirit's tone that had her unnerved.

"_There are two Orichalcos Duelists in the clearing ahead of us." _Wattchimera answered and that was all Chelsea needed to persuade her to get her phone out.

"Okay, Chloe, Theresa, Brandon…..oh shit!" Chelsea said out loud once it hit her. _"Wattchimera, we have a problem, the other students with Duel Spirit Partners are in class."_

"_I won't chastise you for that as you had clearly forgotten." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea nodded. _"Anyone else you can think off?"_

"_I think Ash, Jason and Chakra are in class as well, Beth is pretty busy with homework and she might not have time to spare to run over, only one I can't think off is….." _Chelsea trailed off before dialing Hu's number. "Come on, come on pick up already!"

"Chelsea?" Hu's voice rang out from the cellphone and Chelsea sighed in relief. "Have you found a spot for our duel already?" Hu asked and Chelsea sighed.

"Yes and no." Chelsea responded as she leaned against a nearby tree. "Have you heard of the Seal of the Orichalcos?"

"Off course, I was following the Battle City Tournament." Hu responded and Chelsea nodded. "Why do you ask?"

"I've found a pair of Orichalcos Duelists on the North Side and I don't know about you but I don't think facing those bastards in a handicap Orichalcos Duel would be good for my health, you know?" Chelsea answered before waiting a few minutes to let it sink in. "Just so I'm clear, the only reason I'm contacting you in the first place is because anyone who's decks I'm familiar with is in class right now, otherwise I'd call them and we were going to have that duel anyway, I'd understand if you want to back out Hu…."

"I'm on my way." Hu interrupted her before hanging up.

"Huh, that was easy." Chelsea commented to herself before pocketing her cell-phone and glancing around. _"Okay Wattchimera, how far am I from those bastards?"_

"_You're not far, that is how I was able to detect them." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea nodded. _"Chelsea, will be okay going into this duel? You were just in a grueling match."_

"_I know but don't worry I'm tougher than I look." _Chelsea responded as she started making her way towards the duelists with directions from Wattchimera.

*meanwhile*

"Never thought I'd see the day when I was going into an Orichalcos Duel with someone who I've known for a day." Hu commented to himself as he looked over his deck. "Still I can't deny Chelsea's talent or passion for dueling, if she was straight and single I'm sure we'd make a great couple."

"Yes, you'd argue all the time and the police would be called to your house quite often." Ashitaka's voice rang out and Hu looked up seeing his rival. "What's this about an Orichalcos Duel?"

"I and Chelsea were going to have a friendly duel over on the North Side of the island." Hu responded as he loaded his deck into his duel disk slot. "But she just called me and informed me that she's found two Orichalcos Duelists and that I was the only one available to team up with her."

"I'm not surprised since I just got back from class." Ashitaka responded with a nod. "Are you sure that you want to team with her?" Ashitaka asked and Hu nodded. "In that case I'll come with you for support, take it from me, you're going to need it!"

"Fine, now you'll be able to see how much better my deck is than yours!" Hu responded as the two Asian boys left the dorm and made their way to the North Side of the island.

*meanwhile*

"_Wattchimera, I thought you said that those bastards where nearby." _Chelsea grunted as she walked up the hill. _"I mean I'm in good shape but even I have my limits."_

"_You're not far Chelsea." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"_Err, yeah, you've said that about ten times already." _Chelsea responded with a frown. _"I swear if this is some elaborate ploy to get me to exercise I'll…..actually I don't know what I'll do!"_

"_Trust me if I joked about that then Chloe's duel spirit will be chewing me out over it before long!" _Wattchimera responded and Chelsea grunted. _"Besides, you're here." _Wattchimera responded as she came to a clearing, Chelsea stopped in her tracks and leaned over for a better look seeing two cloaked figures, one male and one female, in the clearing but the one thing she noticed almost immediately was their Orichalcos Duel Disks.

"_There's no way in hell I'm going in there alone, I may be confident in my abilities but I'm not suicidal!" _Chelsea thought with a frown before looking around for Hu. _"But if Hu doesn't show up soon I might have no choice!"_

"Chelsea, I'm over here!" Hu's voice rang out and she looked up seeing the two Asian boys approaching her. "Ashitaka is here for support, where are they?"

"They are in that clearing." Chelsea answered as she motioned to the clearing with her head. "Before I continue let's get the basic facts of the Orichalcos out of the way, don't bother trying to destroy it because Ash made that mistake yesterday, the only real way to get rid of that thing without the opponents playing it is to prevent them from playing it all together and try to avoid direct attacks at all costs."

"Doesn't the last one go without saying?" Hu asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Let me put it this way, my first, and to date only, Orichalcos duel ended with me aggravating a rib injury that left me out of action until the tournament." Chelsea answered with a frown. "In other words, monsters are real and so is the damage, understood?"

"Yes, I understand perfectly." Hu responded with a nod before turning his attention to the Orichalcos Duelists who hadn't even noticed the three teenagers at this point. "How should we proceed?"

"Our usual approach is to go ahead and challenge them, and that's if they haven't targeted one of us specifically using underhanded tactics." Chelsea responded as she joined Hu. "Not too late to back out if you're unsure about this Hu."

"I appreciate the concern but I wouldn't have come here if I wasn't sure about this." Hu answered and Chelsea nodded. "If anything I should be worried about you, you were just in a grueling duel."

"Don't worry about me I'm tougher than I look." Chelsea reassured him and Hu nodded.

"If you say so, and since you where the one who found them in the first place I think it's only fitting that you issue the challenge." Hu answered and Chelsea nodded before walking towards them.

"Well, well, we didn't even have to lure anyone out this time." The female agent said with a grin. "The Smurfette can leave we're only interested in Hu!"

"Did you just call me Smurfette?!" Chelsea echoed whilst staring at the female agent. "Okay, first off, of all the things to make smartass comments about you chose my hair?" Chelsea added as she grabbed one of the streaked strands of her hair and pointed to it using her free hand. "I mean seriously, do you know how much hair dye it takes to get this much blue in my hair? I practically keep the hair dye industry alive with the amount of the stuff I buy!" Chelsea added before letting go of her hair and letting it fall back to her shoulders.

"Err, Chelsea, your rambling." Ashitaka pointed out and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"Oh, sorry, second, there's no way in hell that I'm letting Hu compete alone." Chelsea added before nodding to Hu as they activated their duel disks. "Like it or not we're facing you two bastards together!" Chelsea added and the two agents shared a look.

"You were the one who insisted on dragging me along!" The male agent pointed out and the female agent sighed in resignation.

"Fine, you want a tag match? You got one! But it's your funeral!" The female agent responded and Chelsea grinned as they removed their hoods, the female agent had short black hair and blue eyes one of which had a scar down it. "You can call me Marissa." Marissa added with a smirk as her partner removed his hood revealing short spiked red hair and brown eyes.

"And you can call me Tony." Tony added as the two duelists activated their duel disks, the four duelists drew their opening hands and they looked over them. "Okay, I know a tag team tournament has been going on at this school so I think it's safe to assume that you two know the rules of tag team duels."

"Considering I was in a tag match about twenty minutes ago I think it is a bit obvious." Chelsea responded before looking over her hand. _"Huh, A/D Changer, Electromagnetic Turtle and Damage Reflector in my opening hand, just need to get these things into my graveyard and I'll be set!" _Chelsea thought with a grin before looking up. "Okay, so what's the order going to be?"

"I'll go first, followed by Chelsea, then Tony and finally Hu, any objections? Well that's too bad!" Marissa responded before drawing her first card. _"No sign of the Orichalcos and I don't have any ways of searching it out yet, but it's not like they'll be able to attack until my next turn." _Marissa thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card in defense mode and a card facedown." Marissa announced as the two set cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn." Marissa announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Beckoning Light? Perfect! Better hope this card survives the rest of the turn!" _Chelsea thought before picking up two cards. "Normally I hate being a copycat but my hand isn't too good right now, I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn!"

"Well, this is getting boring!" Tony grunted before drawing his card. "But that's about to change! Marissa, if you draw the Orichalcos after this turn consider it a dead draw!"

"You don't mean….." Chelsea trailed off as Tony played the card.

"Yes! I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Tony played the card and Marissa grinned as the seal encircled all four duelists, seconds later the seal appeared on Tony and Marissa's foreheads and Tony grinned. "You should've taken our advice Chelsea! Because now the amount of hair-dye you use is the least of your worries!"

"The day I back down from you bastards is the day I give up dueling!" Chelsea answered back before turning to Hu. "You remember what I said?"

"As clear as day." Hu answered with a nod before frowning. _"But it'll all be for naught unless I can get one of my powerhouses on the field!"_

*meanwhile*

"Man, I never thought that class would end." Chloe muttered under her breath as she exited the class alongside the other students, Hamden's classes rarely dragged on for long but when they did the whole class felt it and that was usually because of one thing, a test, as was the case with this class. _"Okay, Chelsea should be back at the dorm room, likely playing a game on her laptop, and neither of us have class for another hour so…."_

"Chloe, there you are." Chloe's train of thought was interrupted when she heard Theresa's voice and she looked up seeing Theresa alongside the other students. "That was a great duel by the way."

"Thanks." Chloe thanked her with a grin before noticing the look on their faces. "Let me guess, Orichalcos Duel?"

"Yeah our Duel Spirits just told us, Chelsea is competing with Hu Wukong in a tag match against two Orichalcos Duelists." Brandon responded with a nod before raising an eyebrow. "Wait a sec, Silent Magician didn't tell you?"

"If she did I didn't hear her because I was focused on the test." Chloe said as she motioned to the classroom. "Were too?"

"We're going to a clearing on the Southern end of the North side of the island." Andreas answered and Chloe nodded. "Why do they keep going there?"

"It's out of the way, heavily forested and has two areas that are forbidden for students to even approach let alone enter." Lance responded with a frown. "They probably figure that it's the last place on the island anyone would think to look for them." Lance reasoned before shaking his head. "But obviously it's backfiring!"

"How about we just focus on getting there?" Chloe suggested and the others nodded before leaving the main building. _"Hey Silent Magician, I have a quick question, why didn't you tell me about the Orichalcos Duel anyway?"_

"_What you said about your test was partially correct I knew that Hamden was unlikely to let you get out of it early so I knew that telling you would be a waste of our time." _Silent Magician responded and Chloe sighed.

"_The one time you do live up to your name and it's when my roommate and an Asian friend's rival who happens to be a male version of my roommate are in an Orichalcos Duel." _Chloe responded getting a chuckle out of her duel spirit partner as she followed the others out of the Main Building.

*back at the duel*

"_Chelsea, the others are on their way, their classes have just ended." _Wattchimera told her and Chelsea nodded as she watched the duel, Tony had ended his turn with a facedown card and Hu had opened up with Fire Formation – Tenki which he was using to search through his deck. _"If you had been a bit more patient you'd be teaming with someone you know."_

"_Number One: I had no way of knowing when their classes where ending especially since Chloe has that test today, Number Two: if I had waited they could've gotten away before I had the chance to contact them, Number Three: Chloe was in that tag match as well but she doesn't have my stamina, I don't think she would've been in any condition to duel." _Chelsea pointed out as Hu found the card he was looking for and added it to his hand.

"_You raise some excellent points." _Wattchimera admitted and Chelsea turned her attention back to Hu.

"Now I summon the monster I just searched out, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear!" Hu played the card and a large bear appeared on the field, it was surrounded by flames and growled menacingly (4/1600/1200) and its attack increased to 1700 thanks to Tenki's effect. "I set a card facedown and end my turn." Hu set the card down and Marissa drew her card.

"About time, I start my turn with my own Spell Card, Mystical Space Typhoon! Say good-bye to your facedown card Chelsea!" Marissa announced as the tornado whipped towards the trap card….

"In that case I chain-activate it! Go Beckoning Light!" Chelsea activated the trap and once it flipped up she gathered up the rest of the cards in her hand. "I discard my entire hand and I get to replace it with Light Type Monsters, I have four cards in my hand which means I get four new cards." Chelsea explained before discarding the cards and searching through her deck, once she found the cards that she needed she replenished her hand and shuffled her deck as Beckoning Light's hologram shattered.

"Like those cards will help you!" Marissa scoffed as they sent their respective cards to their graveyards. "I summon Enraged Battle Ox!" Marissa played the card and the angry Minotaur appeared on the field (4/1700/1000) and its attack increased to 2200 thanks to the seal. "And I flip summon my facedown monster, Obnoxious Celtic Guardian!" Marissa announced as the swordsman appeared on the field (4/1400/1200) and his attack increased to 1900 thanks to the real.

"What is this, a retrained deck?" Chelsea asked with a nervous gulp. _"If she's smart she'll attack with Battle Ox first and as much as it will hurt I'll have to let the attack go through, I'll save Damage Eater for an attack with more bite."_ Chelsea thought with a frown as she braced herself.

"That's exactly what it is! Enraged Battle Ox, attack Chelsea's defense monster!" Marissa commanded and the Minotaur charged towards the monster, revealed to be Wattdragonfly (2/900/100) which was quickly destroyed bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 5900.

"I may have lost life-points but Wattdragonfly's effect lets me Special Summon another Watt Monster from my deck!" Chelsea announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the monster she was looking for she summoned it revealing it to be Wattcobra (4/1000/600).

"_Why did she summon that and not Wattaildragon, that monster is far stronger than her guardian?" _Hu thought with a frown as Chelsea shuffled her deck. _"If she had set Judgment of Thunder as well as Beckoning Light I'd understand but this move makes no sense!"_

"It's your funeral because there's no way in hell that snake's getting anywhere near me! Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, attack her cobra!" Marissa commanded and the swordsman charged forward…..but was stopped by a field of electricity. "What?"

"Truth is Marissa I would've activated Beckoning Light even if you hadn't activated MST." Chelsea said as she held up Electromagnetic Turtle (4/0/1800). "This little guy is called Electromagnetic Turtle and if I remove him from play the same turn he's sent to the graveyard I can end the battle phase immediately!" Chelsea added as she pocketed the card. "And I have a lot more where that came from!"

"And you didn't use that sooner because….." Hu asked with a raised eyebrow and Chelsea sighed.

"I wanted to get Wattcobra on the field first! How could I have known that she had Enraged Battle Ox in her deck?" Chelsea pointed out and Hu sighed in resignation.

"Good point." Hu admitted before turning to Marissa. "Your battle phase is over and unless you have another move you can make its Chelsea's turn!" Hu pointed out and Marissa looked over her hand.

"I end my turn." Marissa announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"Sounds like things are getting heated already." Chloe commented as she and the others approached the clearing, Ash looked up and saw them approach. "What's the score Ash?"

"Everyone's life-points except Chelsea's are untouched and you can thank Enraged Battle Ox for the damage to Chelsea's life-points." Ash responded as they approached the wall. "She would've lost more life-points but she discarded Electromagnetic Turtle earlier in the turn for Beckoning Light's effect." Ash added and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, I remember that thing from the tag match, didn't get to see its effect in action though." Chloe responded as Chelsea looked over her hand. "Here's hoping that'll be the last points of damage she'll suffer."

"Trust me Chloe, the feeling's mutual." Chelsea responded as she glanced over her shoulder at her roommate who nodded in response and Chelsea turned her attention back to her hand. _"At least I can get some revenge for that attack now!" _Chelsea thought before pointing to Wattcobra. "Okay Wattcobra, why don't you show Marissa what you can do and attack her directly?" Chelsea commanded and the cobra leapt over Marissa's monsters…..

"I know full well what that card and the other Watt Monsters can do but it's not going to work! I activate my Trap Card Spirit Barrier!" Marissa activated the trap and Chelsea's eyes widened as the attack didn't damage her life-points one bit. "As long as I have a monster on my side of the field…."

"I can't damage your life-points, I know!" Chelsea snapped at her before quickly turning to Hu. "You have MST in your hand, right?"

"If I did I would've chained it to Spirit Force's activation." Hu responded with a frown and Chelsea growled in frustration before turning her attention back to Marissa. "For now we'll have to hope that the other cards in your graveyard can help."

"_They can but I don't want to waste them." _Chelsea thought before picking up a card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea announced and Tony drew his card.

"I won't waste any time then, Marissa, I need your monsters." Tony told her and Marissa nodded as Enraged Battle Ox and Obnoxious Celtic Guardian made their way over to his side of the field. "Enraged Battle Ox, attack Wattcobra!" Tony commanded and the Minotaur charged towards her monster…..

"Thanks for that!" Chelsea responded with a grin as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Lumanize! Not only does this trap card negate your Ox's attack….." Chelsea trailed off as the Ox was temporarily blinded by a flash of light forcing it to stop its attack. "But my Cobia gets an added bonus, namely Ox's attack points!" Chelsea added as Wattcobra's attack shot up to 3200.

"Fine, I may not be able to destroy your monster but your partner's monster is right for the taking, go Obnoxious Celtic Guardian!" Tony commanded and the swordsman charged forward…..

"You're not doing any destroying, period!" Chelsea interrupted him as she pocketed a monster and A/D Changer appeared on the field. "I remove A/D Changer from my graveyard to force your Guardian into defense mode! And before you ask, A/D Changer was another monster I discarded for Beckoning Light!" Chelsea explained as she pocketed the monster and the guardian crouched down.

"Thank you, now I can do something about that Guardian on my turn." Hu thanked her and Chelsea grinned at that.

"No problem. We should be fine unless they have another copy of that monster." Chelsea responded and Hu nodded in response.

"I end my turn." Tony grunted in annoyance and once Wattcobra's attack returned to normal and Marissa's monsters returned to her side of the field Hu drew his card.

"_So far, so good, Chelsea may be behind on life-points but depending on what else she sent to her graveyard we should be fine." _Hu thought as he looked over his hand. _"Right now our best bet is an XYZ summon but the only other Level Four Monster we have is Wattcobra." _Hu thought before turning to Chelsea. "I need to borrow Wattcobra."

"Go for it." Chelsea told him and Hu nodded as Wattcobra made his way over to his side of the field. "If you're planning an XYZ summon then go for it, it's probably our best bet right now."

"All right, I will!" Hu announced as Wattcobra and Bear where sucked into the overlay network. "I use Wattcobra and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear to XYZ Summon Maestroke the Symphony Djinn!" Hu played the card and minutes later a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall slender magician wearing a magician's outfit and wielding a sword (Rank: 4/1800/2300). "Now I activate his effect, I detach one overlay unit….." Hu trailed off as he retrieved Wattcobra and tosses it to Chelsea who sent it to her graveyard. "And I do so in order to force Enraged Battle Ox into facedown defense position." Hu added as the monster disappeared from the field.

"Err, Hu, what was the point of that?" Chelsea asked with a raised eyebrow. "Maestroke is the only monster on your side of the field."

"Yes, but I haven't made my normal summon yet!" Hu responded and Chelsea grinned once she got the idea. "As I was about to say before my partner interrupted me, I summon Brotherhood of the First Fist – Gorilla in attack mode!" Hu played the card and a second monster appeared on the field, as the name suggested it was a gorilla with fiery fists (4/1600/1000) and its attack increased to 1700 thanks to Tenki. "Maestroke, attack Obnoxious Celtic Guardian!" Hu commanded the Djinn charged towards the defense position monster before cutting him in half destroying him. "Gorilla, attack her facedown Enraged Battle Ox!" Hu commanded and the gorilla charged forward before destroying the monster. "But there's more, when Gorilla destroys a card by battle I can take one Spell/Trap card from my deck and set it down, so I set this and end my turn." Hu announced and Marissa drew her card.

"Your partner shouldn't have been so quick to surrender her monster! Because now she's ours for the taking! I summon Dark Blade, the Captain of the Evil World!" Marissa played the card and a tall, menacing figure wearing Dark Blade's armor appeared on the field (4/1800/1500) and the monster's attack increased to 2300 thanks to the seal, "I'll get to its effect later but I will say this, I added this to my deck on the off chance that I ended up fighting either you or your roommate Chelsea."

"That's comforting to know." Chelsea muttered sarcastically under her breath.

"Before I go in the attack I activate Foolish Burial!" Marissa played the card and searched through her deck, once she found the card that she needed she sent it to the graveyard. "But I'll explain that later! Dark Blade, attack her life-points directly!" Marissa commanded and the monster charged forward…..

"I defend with Hot Tag!" Hu announced as he activated the trap. "And your new target is Maestroke!" Hu added and the captain changed course….

"Fine by me, you will lose life-points regardless!" Marissa responded as the captain slashed at the Djinn.

"But I won't lose my monster!" Hu responded and Marissa's shock Maestroke survived the blow as Hu's life-points dropped to 7500. "By detaching an overlay unit from Maestroke I can save him from being destroyed in battle." Hu explained as he sent Bear to the graveyard.

"Fine, Tony will just finish the job on his turn." Marissa scoffed before looking over her hand. "I set this and end my turn." Marissa announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Okay, what do I have that can defeat Dark Blade?" _Chelsea thought as she looked over her hand before sighing. _"Not a lot but I've drawn Lightning Recharge and with any luck that will help!" _Chelsea thought before playing the card. "I activate Lightning Recharge! I remove Wattcobra and Wattdragonfly from play and I draw two cards in return." Chelsea pocketed the two monsters before drawing twice. _"Okay, I got One for One and…..NICE!" _Chelsea thought with a broad grin as an idea popped into her head. "I activate One for One!"

"Err; are there any Level One Watt Monsters?" Lance whispered to Chloe who shrugged.

"You're asking the wrong girl. I may have dueled with Chelsea's deck once but I didn't get a good luck at it." Chloe responded as Chelsea discarded a monster and picked up her deck and searched through it.

"As a matter of fact there is and that monster's called Watthopper!" Chelsea played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large grasshopper with an electric blue back that was surrounded by electricity (1/0/0) and the monster quickly crouched down in defense mode. "Why did I summon him? I'll get to that latter," Chelsea said as she shuffled her deck. "But for now I summon another Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the card and Wattcobra appeared on the field.

"Do you really think those two weaklings will protect you?" Marissa asked with a scoff. "Just wait until Tony uses Dark Blade's effect!"

"_Times like these I wish I had drawn Judgment of Thunder a while back." _Chelsea thought before setting a card facedown. "I set this and end my turn." Chelsea announced and Tony drew his card.

"Marissa, I need to use Dark Blade." Tony said and Marissa nodded as Dark Blade walked over to Tony's side of the field. "I don't have a Dark Type Monster in my graveyard…..yet…..but I can still attack! Dark Blade, attack Wattcobra!" Tony commanded and the captain charged forward…..only for Watthopper to jump in the path off the blade at the last moment destroying it. "Okay, now what?"

"You really think I'd summon a Watt Monster with zero attack and defense points for no reason?" Chelsea asked with a grin as she sent Watthopper to the graveyard. "As long as I have another Watt Monster on my side of the field Watthopper in the only monster you can attack!" Chelsea explained and Tony growled.

"I end my turn!" Tony announced and once Dark Blade returned to Marissa's side of the field Hu drew his card.

"_Perfect!" _Hu thought as he looked at his drawn card and played it. "Spirit Barrier is no more! I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it!" Hu activated the card and Marissa braced herself as a storm washed over the field destroying her trap card. "Now my partner is free to attack as she sees fit."

"That's not all I'll do!" Chelsea added as her facedown card flipped up revealing it to be Call of the Haunted. "I use Call of the Haunted to Special Summon the monster I discarded for One for One's effect, Wattaildragon!" Chelsea played the card and the huge, electric blue dragon appeared on the field with a growl (6/2500/1000). "As soon as my turn begins your Dark Blade is history!"

"_Or so she thinks." _Marissa thought with a grin before turning to Hu. "Are you done?"

"Not quite, first I switch Maestroke to defense mode!" Hu added as the monster crouched down. "And I summon Coach Soldier Wolfbark!" Hu played the card and a small white and yellow werewolf appeared on the field wearing blue pants (4/1600/1200). "I use his effect to Special Summon Bear from my graveyard!" Hu added as the other monster returned to the field. "Now I use Bear and Gorilla to open up the Overlay Network once more!" Hu announced as the two Beast-Warriors where sucked into a portal.

"_I could've negated Wolfbark's effect easily." _Tony thought as Hu retrieved a monster from his Extra Deck. _"But he still could've used Wolfbark and Gorilla in an XYZ Summon! I'll save it for whatever he's summoning!"_

"I use my monsters to XYZ Summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal in attack mode!" Hu played the card and a tall robed man appeared on the field, his robes where white and gold, had what looked like the Fire Attribute Symbol in the center and he was surrounded by flames (Rank: 4/1800/2200). "Now I activate his effect which requires me to detach both of his Overlay Units!" Hu announced as he sent his monsters to the graveyard. "With this I target the two Fire Fist Monsters in my graveyard and two cards on your side of the field, namely Dark Blade and Tony's facedown monster, and shuffle them back into the deck!"

"You're not getting rid of our monsters that easily Hu! I negate Cardinal's effect with Effect Veiler." Tony discarded the monster and Hu frowned as Cardinal stopped his Spell.

"I end my turn." Hu announced and Marissa grinned before drawing her card.

"_Perfect! I now have the perfect combo for Dark Blade!" _Marissa thought before retrieving a monster from her graveyard. "I activate Dark Blade's effect! By banishing one Level Four or lower Dark Type Monster from my graveyard I can take one Light Type Monster on my opponent's side of the field and equip it to Dark Blade!"

"Oh shit!" Chelsea cursed as Wattcobra disappeared from the field. "Wait, why did you equip Wattcobra and not Wattaildragon?"

"I'll show you! I activate Dark Hole to clear the field!" Marissa played the card and the opposing team's eyes widened as all the monsters, besides Dark Blade, where sucked into a black hole destroying them. "Why did Dark Blade survive? Simple, if Dark Blade would be destroyed by a card effect or by battle whilst it has a monster equipped to it than the equipped monster is destroyed instead!"

"_Err, Wattchimera, should I use Damage Eater now or save it?" _Chelsea asked with a nervous gulp as she braced herself.

"_Save it, you have no idea what might happen on Tony's turn." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea nodded in response before looking over her hand.

"_Best monsters I have are Wattpheasant and Wattgiraffe, great cards but they'll be rendered useless if she equips them to Dark Blade." _Chelsea thought before turning her attention to Marissa, "Bring it!"

"Your funeral, Dark Blade, attack her life-points directly!" Marissa commanded and the knight charged towards her before slashing her with his sword bringing her life-points down to 3600. "I end my turn but unless you draw something worthwhile you're finished!" Marissa taunted her and Chelsea growled before drawing her card.

"_I need something good and fast!" _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Did I just draw Mystical Shine Ball? I mean, seriously? I added those things alongside that agent that summons them because I figured that Gaichi-Gaichi-Gaichi would be a good fit for my deck! This is easily the worst dead draw I've ever had!"_

"We're waiting!" Marissa said impatiently and Chelsea gulped.

"_Better hope that Damage Eater can bail me out!" _Chelsea thought before setting her drawn card. "I set this and…." Chelsea was about to end her turn but Hu turned to her with an angry look on his face.

"That's the best you can do? Seriously?" Hu asked as Chelsea glared at him. "You where the one who dragged me into this mess in the first place!"

"Oh yeah, because I totally knew what card I was going to draw on my last turn and how this duel would turn out ahead of time!" Chelsea growled as she turned to him. "You may as well yell at the birds for migrating!"

"Err, should we intervene?" Tony whispered to Marissa who grinned.

"Are you kidding? At the moment I wish I had popcorn!" Marissa answered as their opponents continued to argue. "Besides, we didn't tell them that the time limit from the duels is in effect! Just let them argue for three minutes, tell them at the last minute and they'll lose!"

"That's not the point! Do you realize what will happen if we lose?" Hu argued back and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"Err, yeah I do! There are three duelists in the infirmary because of these bastards for fuck's sake!" Chelsea snapped back as she pointed to their opponents. "Okay, not them specifically but you get the idea!"

"YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Their arguing was cut off by Ash jumping into the air and slamming his kendo stick into the wall, the attack, obviously had no effect but it got Chelsea and Hu to stop arguing. "My apologies, it was the only way I could get your attention."

"Ash, anyone ever tell you that you have a fucked up way of getting attention?" Chelsea asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Quite often actually but that's beside the point." Ash answered as he seethed his Kendo Stick. "Basically, this is what I was trying to tell you, they had conveniently left out the fact that there is a time limit on this duel and by my watch you two just spent two minutes of a three limit time limit arguing!" Ash added and Chelsea gulped before turning to her opponents.

"Right, thanks for that Ash!" Chelsea thanked him before taking a deep breath. "As I was saying, I end my turn!" Chelsea announced and Tony drew his card.

"Then this duel's over for you! I summon my own Enraged Battle Ox!" Tony played the card and the angry Minotaur returned to the field. "Marissa…."

"Say no more!" Marissa nodded as Dark Blade made its way over to Tony's side of the field.

"Finish her off!" Tony commanded and the two monsters charged towards Chelsea as she retrieved a monster from her graveyard and pocketed it, Enraged Battle Ox destroyed Mystical Shine Ball whilst Dark Blade slashed her with his sword.

"CHELSEA, NO!" Chloe shouted out as her eyes widened.

"Chelsea, I'm sorry." Hu sighed to himself as he and Chloe turned away.

"…..you guys can look up now." Chelsea told them after a few minutes and they looked up seeing that she was back on her feet and that the seal wasn't closing in on her. "Sorry about giving you a heart attack there but I wanted them to think they had eliminated me!" Chelsea said as she held up her duel disk to show her life-point counter.

"What?" Marissa asked and her eyes widened when she saw Chelsea's life-point counter. "7600? What the hell just happened?"

"You're asking me?" Tony asked as he stared at her in disbelief. "Her duel disk must be busted or something!"

"No such luck, there was a third monster I discarded for Beckoning Light's effect a few turns back and that was this little guy here!" Chelsea said before reaching into her blazer's breast pocket and retrieving Damage Reflector. "Say hello to Damage Reflector, this guy may be a Fiend Type Monster but he has an effect that helps me out a lot! If he's in my graveyard and I'm about to take damage from two monsters I can remove him from play to turn all that damage into Life-Points." Chelsea said before returning the monster to her hand. "Sure, it means that I have to skip my next draw phase in return but I'll make do!"

"You….you tricked us!" Marissa trailed off as she stared at her in disbelief. "Fine, you just said that you'll have to skip your next draw phase anyway so we'll finish you off next turn."

"We'll see about that!" Hu responded as Tony gave him the nod to draw his card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot! My partner may be forced to skip her next draw phase but this Spell Card shall more than make up for it!"

"You realize that we get to draw as well." Marissa pointed out and Hu shrugged as they drew their cards.

"It's a sacrifice that I'm more than willing to make!" Hu responded as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "For my follow up I summon another Coach Soldier Wolfbark!" Hu played the card and the Wolman returned to the field. "I use his effect to summon my first Wolfbark!" Hu announced as a second one appeared on the field.

"Another XYZ Summon?" Chelsea asked as she turned to her partner.

"Yes, but first I activate my Enemy Controller Spell Card!" Hu announced as he played the card. "And I use it to force Dark Blade into defense mode!" Hu added as the monster crouched down, seconds later the overlay network opened up again and the two Wolfbarks where sucked in. "Now I use my monsters to XYX Summon Photon Papilloperative!" Hu played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, this one was a massive humanoid butterfly that was clearly female and had purple wings (Rank: 4/2100/1800). "I activate her effect but to do so I need to detach an overlay unit!" Hu announced as the monster was sent to the graveyard. "I use it to force Dark Blade back into attack mode!"

"She still can't beat my monster so why bother?" Marissa asked as Dark Blade stood up; however she quickly noticed that her monster was clearly in pain. "What have you done?!"

"That's the other half of my monster's effect; the affected monster loses 600 attack points!" Hu explained as his monster took flight. "Now then, attack Dark Blade!" Hu commanded and the monster flew towards the captain before cutting him in half bringing Marissa's life-points down to 7600. "I set this and end my turn, unless you have another Dark Blade your life-points are ours for the taking!" Hu added as Marissa drew her card.

"_Getting the damn monster on the field isn't the problem; it's getting another Light-Type monster in the graveyard!" _Marissa thought before looking at her drawn card. "I set this in defense mode and end my turn." Marissa announced and Chelsea didn't draw due to the effect of Damage Reflector.

"_Okay, what did I draw thanks to Hu's Spellbook Inside the Pot?" _Chelsea thought as she looked at the cards in her hand. _"Burial from a Different Dimension, huh, I could combo this with Hu's monster." _Chelsea thought before turning to Hu. "Can I borrow your monster?"

"Yes, by all means, please do." Hu responded as his monster made her way over to Chelsea's side of the field.

"Good, first I activate Burial from a Different Dimension! With this I take three of the monsters I've removed from play and return them to my graveyard." Chelsea said as she activated the Spell Card and retrieved A/D Changer, Wattcpbra and Damage Reflector and returned them to her graveyard before sending her Spell Card to the graveyard as well. "Now I remove A/D Changer from play to force Enraged Battle Ox into defense mode!"

"I think I can see where this is going!" Hu commented as the Minotaur crouched down.

"That's right! I detach her last Overlay Unit and use her effect to force Enraged Battle Ox back into attack mode!" Chelsea announced as the Ox stood up clearly in pain. "Now I'll summon my final Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the card and the small snake returned to the field. "Hopefully this will work this time! Photon…you know what? Fuck it! I'm not even going to try to pronounce the second half of her name!" Chelsea decided as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Attack Enraged Battle Ox!" Chelsea commanded as the monster flew towards Enraged Battle Ox and cut it in half bringing Tony's life-points down to 7500.

"You really think that will stop us?" Tony growled and Chelsea grinned.

"Maybe not but this will put us on the right track! Wattcobra, attack Marissa's life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the monster leapt over Marissa's set monster before biting her and bringing her life-points down to 6600. "And that means I can finally use my damn monster's effect!" Chelsea added before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the monster she was looking for she added it to her hand. "And I end my turn with a facedown card!" Chelsea set the card after she shuffled her deck and Tony drew his card.

"_We may have lost our monsters but we can defend!" _Tony thought before picking up and setting a card in defense mode. "I set this in defense mode and I end my turn." Tony set the monster down and Hu drew his card.

"I activate the Spell Card Instant Overlay! With this I target my XYZ monster and it instantly becomes an overlay unit!" Hu announced as the monster started glowing. "And guess what? My monster's effect applies to facedown monsters as well so I'll remove its overlay unit and use it on Marissa's facedown monster!" Hu announced as the monster flipped up revealing it to be another Obnoxious Celtic Guardian as its attack dropped to 1300. "Now I summon another Bear!" Hu played the card and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear appeared on the field and its attack increased to 1700. "Bear, attack Obnoxious Celtic Guardian!" Hu commanded and the bear charged towards the guardian before punching him and bringing Marissa's life-points down to 6200, he pointed to his remaining monster who charged in for a follow up attack bringing her life-points down to 4100. "That will do it for my turn!" Hu announced and Marissa drew her card.

"_Ugh, we keep getting dead draws!" _Marissa thought as she looked over her hand, she quickly set a monster and turned to Chelsea. "Take your damn turn already!" Marissa told her and Chelsea quickly drew her card.

"I activate Pot of Dichotomy! And no, I don't know what that means! Basically it's a watered down version of Avarice!" Chelsea played the card and took Damage Reflector, Wattaildragon and Electromagnetic Turtle from her graveyard. "It requires me to shuffle three monsters of different types into my deck, shuffle it and draw two cards." Chelsea added before shuffling her deck and drawing her cards. "Only downside is that I lose my battle phase!" Chelsea added before looking at her drawn cards and grinning. "But this makes up for it! I summon Agent of Creation – Venus!" Chelsea played the card and the blonde haired fairy appeared on the field (3/1600/0).

"I was wondering if you had that after you set Shine Ball earlier." Hu commented before raising an eyebrow. "Which brings me to my next question, why use that in a Watt Deck?"

"Yeah, I mean was it some kind of stealth pun because of your sexuality?" Marissa chimed in and Chelsea glared at her.

"I'm not even going to ask how you know I'm gay." Chelsea said as her eyes narrowed. "And on a personal note, I hate the cliché of fairies being associated with gay people as an insult; have you ever actually read the bible? I'm guessing no because if you did you'd know that fairies where pretty bad-ass in their own right!"

"Chelsea, you're rambling again." Hu commented as he face-palmed again and Chelsea shook her head.

"Wait, again?" Chloe asked with a look of confusion on her face.

"She went on a bit of a tangent earlier about how much hair-dye she uses in response to being called Smurfette." Ash responded and Chloe sweat-dropped when she heard that. "Though considering blue isn't a natural hair color I'd believe it."

"Anyway…." Chelsea trailed off as her life-points dropped to 6600. "I pay one thousand life-points to summon my other two Mystical Shine Balls!" Chelsea played the cards and the two mystical balls of light appeared on the field (2/500/500). "And now I use my balls…..anyone who even thinks of making a dirty joke at my expense will get a kick up the balls." Chelsea added and the boys started whistling innocently…..including Hu and Tony. "Whose side are you on?"

"You opened the floodgates by wording it like that." Hu pointed out and Chelsea's eyes narrowed. "Besides do you really want to argue again considering what happened last time?"

"…yeah, that's a good point actually!" Chelsea admitted as the overlay network opened up and the two Shine Balls where sucked in. "As I was saying, I use my MYSTICAL SHINE BALLS…." Chelsea yelled out as she glared at the males present. "To XYZ Summon Gachi Gachi Gantetsu in defense mode!" Chelsea played the card and the small rock ogre appeared on the field (Rank: 2/500/1800). "And since he has two overlay units he and the rest of our monsters gain four hundred attack points and defense points for each one!" Chelsea added as Wattcobra's attack went up to 1800, Gaichi's attack and defense went up to 900 and 2200 respectively, Venus's attack went up to 2000 and Hu's monsters' attacks went up to 2100 and 2500 respectively. "As much as I'd like to attack I gave up my battle phase earlier so that's all for now." Chelsea announced and Tony drew his card.

"I didn't think she, off all people, was a bible reader." Lance admitted with a sheepish grin. "And I'm not saying that because she's gay either."

"I come from a Christian family Lance." Chelsea answered as she looked up at him. "So yeah, I've read the bible, hell I read it whilst listening to metal." Chelsea added before sweat-dropping. "And yeah, it made coming out of the closet even more awkward than usual."

"I'm not sure if that explains a lot about her or not." Theresa commented as she scratched her head and Chelsea just shook her head.

"All I'm going to say is that I'm not exactly a regular church goer back home in Chicago." Chelsea answered as she waited for Tony to make his move.

"And I thought Victor and his cronies where weird." Tony muttered under his breath before looking at his drawn card. "I pass my turn I can't use the card I just drew!"

"Very well, the duel should be over soon anyway." Hu commented as he drew his cards. "Chelsea, I need Wattcobra and Venus."

"You didn't need to ask." Chelsea responded as her three monsters made their way over to Hu's side of the field.

"Good, Gorilla, attack Marissa's defense monster!" Hu commanded as the gorilla charged at the monster, revealing it to be another Dark Blade, which was quickly destroyed. "Photon, Venus, finish her off!" Hu commanded and the two female monsters launched their attacks bringing her life-points down to zero, Hu waited until the seal enclosed around her sealing her soul in the process before pointing to Wattcobra. "Wattcobra, attack his life-points directly!" Hu commanded and the snake leapt over his defense monster and bit Tony bringing his life-points down to 5700. "I end my turn but since I've eliminated your partner it goes straight to my partner's turn, face it, you're finished!"

"And if, for some reason, you don't believe my partner I'll show you!" Chelsea said as she played a card. "I activate Shield Crush! Say good-bye to your last monster!" Chelsea played the card and the facedown monster, revealed to be another Obnoxious Celtic Guardian, was destroyed. "Shame because that would've brought you another turn, not that I'm complaining." Chelsea added before turning to Hu.

"You're about to win us the duel yet your still asking if you can use my monsters." Hu commented with a chuckle as Chelsea grinned sheepishly. "Go for it." Hu told her and Chelsea nodded as his monsters made their way over to her side of the field.

"Gladly, okay guys let's bring this duel to a close!" Chelsea commanded and the monsters charged towards Tony before hitting their attacks bringing his life-points down to zero. "I'm glad that's over." Chelsea sighed to herself as the seal closed in around Tony.

"The feeling is mutual." Hu responded with a nod as they deactivated their duel disks. "Sorry about the argument but as I'm sure you can understand I tend to get passionate about dueling."

"Let me put it this way." Chelsea responded as she turned to him. "If I did complain about that then I may as well have been calling the kettle black." Chelsea responded with a grin as she turned to Marissa and Tony's unconscious forms. "So, who gets to tell the teachers this time?"

"I called Martin on the way over, he was in the middle of a meeting but he said that he'd send security over once I called him back to confirm that the duel was over." Theresa answered with a nod before frowning. "Something needs to be done about the security on the island during the duels, we've done well to keep the casualties as low as we have been but it's only a matter of time before another student gets captured, as you almost where Chelsea."

"What can I say? I like having a flare for the dramatic." Chelsea said with a sheepish grin before frowning. "You do that, I just want to head to my dorm room!"

"I don't blame you." Theresa nodded in understanding before turning to Hu. "Are you okay Hu?"

"I'll live." Hu responded before grinning. "But if you need an extra hand whenever you decide to go after those bastards just give me a call."

"Will do, I'm guessing Chelsea has your number?" Theresa asked and Hu nodded, the teens left without another word knowing that security would be there soon.

*meanwhile*

"What did I tell ya? That was a total waste of resources that could've been used to create new cards for them!" Jack pointed out over the earpiece. "I'm telling you Victor, these thugs we're hiring need to know their place."

"I know but I'll get to that later." Victor responded with a nod. "As for you, return to base, we need to plan our next move." Victor added and Jack nodded before hanging up.


	101. Day Nine Clash of the Titans

It had been a few hours since Chelsea and Hu teamed up to duel Marissa and Tony and now Chelsea was back in her dorm-room with her roommate Chloe, both girls where getting a rest-bite due to the fact that they had been in some intense duels that day and they didn't have class until later that evening.

"So is it safe to assume that you'll be avoiding dueling for a few days?" Chloe asked as she sat down on the bottom bunk and Chelsea looked up from her laptop.

"Yeah, but only as much as I can." Chelsea answered with a nod. "My first class after tomorrow's tag duels is Duel Theory and, well, you couldn't get out of it despite feeling down as a result of your last Orichalcos Duel so I don't think I have much of a chance." Chelsea added before grinning. "Not to mention the promotion duels on Saturday."

"Yeah, that is something I'm definitely looking forward too." Chloe responded with a nod. "I'll miss the uncomfortable beds, the cramped feeling of the dorm room, having to share the same plug for my phone charger as your laptop charger…..wait, why will I miss this place again?" Chloe asked getting a laugh out of Chelsea.

"Well, if anything we'll miss what we learned here." Chelsea responded and Chloe nodded in agreement. "But I think we should focus on winning our promotion duels, or at the very least getting a draw."

"What will happen if a draw happens?" Chloe asked and Chelsea turned to her.

"You didn't read the handbook when you won your promotion duel, did ya?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"I was too excited to find time to read that thing." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in understanding. "I could've read it during the boat trip but then my duel with Otto happened, not to mention my temporary roommate deciding to play hairdresser."

"Hey, at least Ora apologized once you got that gunk out of your hair!" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe laughed whilst nodding in agreement. "Fortunately I had my streaks done by a pro, including how often I had to re-dye my hair to keep the look! Anyway we were talking about the promotion duels?"

"Yeah, I was asking about what would happen in the event of a draw." Chloe nodded and Chelsea nodded.

"Right, basically if a draw happens it'll depend on who your facing, if you're facing a teacher like Martin for example you'll either get promoted or stay in your current dorm based on your performance in the duel, if you draw against a student from your own dorm then whoever had the highest amount of life-points will get promoted." Chelsea answered and Chloe nodded.

"And if both our life-points hit zero?" Chloe asked and Chelsea checked the handbook.

"Then that will depend on how many cards are left in the deck, according to Tyler that rule has screwed over quite a few Lightsworn players for obvious reasons." Chelsea responded after thinking for a few minutes. "If you draw against someone who's a dorm higher than you, in other words all our friends who are up for promotion, then both duelists get promoted."

"Life-Points won't play a factor?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"They will but the lower ranked duelist will automatically get promoted, the higher ranked one will depend on the things I previously mentioned." Chelsea answered as she shook her head. "It's not exactly a popular method of promotion especially for Ra Yellow students but it has happened before, I think Theresa told me that she was promoted to Obelisk Blue that way."

"I think I'll wait until I know who I'm facing before deciding on what my plan will be on Saturday." Chloe decided and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Wasn't the next banlist supposed to have leaked by now?"

"You mean the actual one after that emergency one that pretty much did our decks in this ass with no lube?" Chelsea asked and Chloe just stared at her slack jawed. "Trust me, I've been there and I've done that, it's not fun."

"…you mean back when you were straight, right?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Either way, I won't be sleeping tonight."

"Neither did I back when I tried it." Chelsea answered and Chloe sweat-dropped. "Anyway, it should be easy enough to check." Chelsea added as she opened up Firefox. "Well what do you know? DA's website has the new banlist already." Chelsea said as she read it.

"I won't have to change my deck again, will I?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Your safe, hell your deck will be even stronger." Chelsea answered as she turned to her. "Magician of Faith is at one."

"Wait, seriously? Man, back when dad told me about her I thought she would never come back, remind me to pop down to the card shop before Saturday Night." Chloe said with a grin and Chelsea nodded. "Maybe you can run it too?"

"Chloe, the only vital spell cards I run are Burial, Wattcastle, Lightning Recharge, Duplicity…..actually you have a point there." Chelsea admitted after thinking for a few minutes. "As for the other changes, the big dragons are limited; Dragon Ravine and Return from a Different Dimension, Self-Destruct Button and Sixth Sense are banned."

"They brought Sixth Sense back? I thought that card was so broken that it was never released overseas?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shrugged.

"Apparently it was one of the final decisions Pegasus made before he stepped down and his daughter took over, if re-banning it is her first move then I definitely support it." Chelsea answered before scrolling down. "I think we both know who will be mad that Return's gone though."

"Yeah, namely Brandon and Lance, Brandon didn't even get to use Return again following his Expulsion Duel." Chloe responded with a nod. "Right before his big match tomorrow as well."

"Yeah, Return could've done some major damage in Brandon's new Chaos deck but now we'll never now unless it gets unbanned again." Chelsea responded before frowning. "Here's the bad news, Storm, Avarice, Reborn and Card Destruction are still gone."

"Damn, I was hoping they'd come back!" Chloe cursed to herself. "Is there anything else?"

"Debris Dragon got hit to one so there's a bit of damage on Tyler's team as well." Chelsea said as she looked at the list. "Remember that Sacred Sword card that Donny used against us? That's limited too alongside Divine Wind of Mist Valley, Final Countdown and Spellbook of Fate; man Lance's team can't catch a break with these banlists, " Chelsea said with a chuckle. "Chaos Sorcerer and Lonefire Blossom are at two, Tenki, that XYZ they limited last time, Tour Guide, T.G. Striker, Plaguespredder Zombie, Mezuki and Archlord Kystya are all off the banlist."

"Well if they wanted to kill the Dragon Rulers they just did that in spades!" Chloe said before realizing something. "Aren't Lance and Marcus in Duel Theory right now?"

"Yeah, they are based on what they told me." Chelsea responded with a nod. "And banlists, as far as DA go, usually go into effect as soon as they are posted on the site, let's hope for his sake that he doesn't try to use it."

*meanwhile at Duel Theory*

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN RETURN'S BANNED?" Lance yelled at Martin as his trap card was taken away, his duel was the last one of the class and he had tried to win his duel against Marcus with Return. "IT WASN'T ON THE LAST BANLIST!"

"You didn't see the announcement, did you Alvers?" Martin asked as he rubbed his ear in pain and Lance shook his head. "The new banlist was sent to the board this morning and was posted on the website this afternoon, as per Duel Academy policy it went into effect immediately.

"But…..but can I at least keep Return? You know, for when I2 decide to bring it back?" Lance asked and Martin shook his head. "Just fucking great, as if that damn emergency banlist didn't hurt my deck enough already, can I at least have a rematch with Marcus?"

"Sorry Alvers but….." Martin trailed off as the bell rung. "Your out of time, I'll try to schedule you in next week and I'll have you two fight each other again then." Martin said as he walked off and the rest of the class left.

"Sorry dude, I didn't see the announcement either." Marcus said as he walked up to him. "I'll just be happy if my deck gets out unscathed."

"Speak for yourself, knowing my luck they probably hit my partner's deck too!" Lance responded with a frown as they left the class room. "At least that's my last class of the day. I'm off to the card shop to find a replacement for Return."

"Then I'll see you at the dorm room." Marcus nodded as the boys went their separate ways; Lance made his way to the card shop pretty quickly and saw a pair of familiar faces going through packs. "Hey Brandon, hey Theresa," Lance greeted them and they looked up.

"Hey Lance, I'm guessing you know that Return's banned?" Brandon asked and Lance nodded with a grunt. "And judging from the look on your face you found that out during a duel."

"Worse, I found out during Duel Theory." Lance answered and Theresa and Brandon winced once they realized what that meant. "Martin didn't even let me keep my copy of Return from a Different Dimension for fucks sake!"

"Harsh but at least you didn't find out during your promotion duel." Theresa pointed out and Lance nodded in agreement. "We've made some great finds in this pack so maybe give it a shot?" Theresa suggested before handing Lance a booster pack.

"Thanks." Lance thanked her before opening it up and looking through it. "Okay, that would do me no good in my deck, neither would that, maybe as a side deck card…hello…?" Lance commented before producing one card from it and reading the card's effect. "D.D. Dynamite, I think I just found my answer."

"Let me see that." Brandon requested and Lance showed it to him. "It seems like it would make for a powerful combo with Inferno Tempest." Brandon pointed out once he read the effect and Lance nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I just gotta hope that Evan can compensate for being limited to one Spellbook of Fate." Lance commented as he paid for the card.

"I wouldn't doubt it since Magician of Faith is now legal." Theresa commented and Lance face-faulted when he heard that. "Let me guess, you only know that Return is banned?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Lance responded as he got up and added D.D. Dynamite to his deck. "I mean, Magician of Faith, seriously? Hasn't that thing been on the banned list since it was created?"

"I think it has but I guess I2 felt it was time it was brought back." Theresa commented before shaking her head. "Christ, that thing hasn't seen play since the Duelist Kingdom Tournament."

"I'm just glad that there's no plans to bring back Kaiba's prototype duel disks." Lance commented as he shook his head. "I remember seeing a video of those things on YouTube which featured a duel using those things between two Kaibacorp employees and I spent half the video wondering two things, how the hell they were supposed to work and how long until someone gets clonked in the head by accident."

"I think I saw that same video…..and yeah I was pretty much wondering the same thing." Brandon admitted as he went up to the counter. "I guess it's a good thing those things where redesigned for the original Battle City Tournament, hell can you imagine trying to do a Synchro Summon with those things?"

"Well it's not like Synchros and Tuners were around back then but even then that's still a terrifying thought." Lance agreed as he heard footsteps approaching them and looked up. "Oh hi Chloe, I'm guessing you saw the banlist." Lance commented as Chloe entered the store.

"Yeah but I'm mostly here to get two copies of Magician of Faith, one for me and one for Chelsea." Chloe answered as she got in line. "Chelsea would've come with me but she has homework to do."

"Not surprised considering how much of a workaholic she is." Theresa responded before pausing. "When she isn't playing Total War or reading the bible with heavy metal in the background." Theresa added before frowning. "Is she holding up okay?"

"Yeah but she just wants to take it easy with dueling for a few days, I mean, two tag duels in a row can get pretty exhausting after all." Chloe responded and Theresa nodded as Brandon got out of the line letting Chloe step up to the counter. "You have any copies of Magician of Faith?"

"You're in luck, I just got the shipment and you're the only one who's asked about it so far." The shop keep answered before picking up a box. "You said you wanted two, right?"

"That's right." Chloe nodded as she watched the shop keep ring up the order. "Does that say thirty dollars, seriously?"

"You sound surprised, I card this old and powerful would normally go for more but with DA's discounted prices for students and all…." The shop keep answered as Chloe started searching through her pockets for loose change.

"_I knew I should've grabbed my purse before leaving!" _Chloe thought when Lance stepped forward.

"If it's okay, can I pay for her cards?" Lance asked and the shop keep nodded, he paid for the cards in cash and handed them over to her. "If you're worried about paying me back don't be, just make sure to use her well."

"Thanks Lance." Chloe said with a broad grin before taking the cards and walking out of the shop.

"Trying to get on her good-side before asking her out?" Brandon asked and Lance laughed sheepishly at that.

"Maybe it's that or maybe I'm just being a good friend…..to a smoking hot girl who I have the hots for….." Lance trailed off before sighing. "I hope this works."

"I hope so too, for your sake." Theresa responded as she looked through the cards in a pack. "Do you have any classes left today Lance?" Theresa asked and Lance checked his schedule before shaking his head.

"Duel Theory was my last class for the day I don't have another class until after tomorrow's duels." Lance added before turning to Theresa. "How do you guys feel about your match? It's a pretty big one even if you take out the fact that it's a duel between friends."

"Probably the same way Chloe, Chelsea and Andreas felt earlier." Theresa responded as she turned to him. "I know it'll be a great match but I would've preferred fighting another team."

"You want to name names?" Lance asked and Theresa glanced around.

"Between you and me, we were hoping to face Cameron and Jessica in this round." Theresa responded with a frown. "And the reason ties into Jessica's ace monster."

"Acid Golem of Destruction," Lance commented with a grunt. "That thing is way too overpowered for a Rank 3 monster."

"That's exactly why we want to face them." Brandon chimed in with a frown. "That team is already powerful enough with Cameron's Steelswarm monsters but Acid Golem pushes it over the top, I don't know if my new Chaos Deck has an answer for it but I'm willing to try."

"Err, no offense but couldn't your new Envoy monster be lumped into that group." Lance pointed out as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "And Theresa, you have so many decks that I can barely keep up with them!"

"Okay, Lance, first off I retired the majority of my decks last week because I realized that over twenty decks were a bit too much, that and it was hard making sure that they each got equal play." Theresa responded with a frown. "Second, you'd have a good point about Envoy of the Twilight except for one thing, the summoning requirements."

"I had to redesign my deck to make summoning it possible and maintaining the best results at the same time." Brandon added with a frown. "I get what you're saying but trust me I wouldn't have added Envoy of the Twilight if it was as broken as Acid Golem."

"Okay, I get the point." Lance sighed as he pocketed his hands. "Well, I've got what I came for so I'm off to my dorm, see you guys tomorrow." Lance said as he went to leave the shop.

"Oh Lance, there's one more thing before I forget." Theresa called out to him and he looked up. "The school should be posting the roster for the students up for promotion in the morning."

"Thanks, I'll keep an eye out." Lance responded before leaving the shop.

*the next day*

"Okay, so we're in agreement that we'll be skipping today's duels, right?" Chelsea asked as she turned to her roommate, who was in the middle of getting dressed, it was early in the morning and the two girls where getting ready for the day ahead including the duels. "As much as I'd like to watch the duel between Theresa, Brandon, Marcus and Tyler I don't want to be in the same room as Cameron and Jessica."

"Yeah, we're agreed there." Chloe nodded as she pulled down her black naval exposing halter top and grabbed her blazer. "Besides, Andreas is letting us use his room so at least we won't be cramped in here."

"True enough, that and they should be back in time for Cameron and Jessica's match." Chelsea responded with a nod. "And if we can avoid bumping into Cameron and Jessica as well that's definitely a plus." Chelsea added before she started packing up her laptop. "Well we're both dressed so really, what's keeping us from going over now?"

"My duel disk, that's what." Chloe answered as she put it on. "I want to be prepared encase you know who decides to visit the island." Chloe added and Chelsea nodded before grabbing her duel disk.

"Good point, we've been caught unaware before and I don't want that to happen again." Chelsea responded as she put on her duel disk and slung her bag over her shoulder. "Anything else you can think off?"

"No, not really, let's go." Chloe added as the two girls made their way out of the dorm room.

"By the way, thanks for getting me Magician of Faith." Chelsea added as she turned to her. "Those cards are pretty expensive, how did you afford to pay for both?"

"I didn't." Chloe answered and Chelsea turned to her with a confused look on her face. "No, I didn't steal them, I'm pretty sure that would net me a second expulsion duel." Chloe added and Chelsea sighed in relief. "Lance paid for both."

"Wait, seriously? Okay, Chloe, seriously, what the hell's stopping you from asking him out at this point?" Chelsea asked and Chloe blushed. "You think new cards are expensive? Cards fresh from being unbanned are even more expensive and he did that for you?"

"Err, well…." Chloe trailed off and Chelsea turned to her.

"I mean, the next thing you'll tell me is that he told you to not worry about paying you back!" Chelsea added and Chloe nodded, Chelsea stared at her for a few seconds before grinning. "Chloe, take it from me, if I was single and straight and he did that for me I would've asked him out as soon as the transaction was complete!"

"Yeah but you've had more boyfriends and girlfriends that I can count!" Chloe pointed out and Chelsea shook her head as she folded her arms. "Besides, I told you why I don't want to ask him out…."

"Yeah, I know, you're afraid to take the leap because of what your dad did to you and your mom." Chelsea said once she checked to see if any of the new students where close enough to overhear their conversation. "But trust me, a guy who's willing to do that for you is a keeper! Like you said, I've had more than my fair share of partners, both genders, but that just means I have the most experience with this kind of thing!"

"I…..I need some time to think on this!" Chloe sighed and Chelsea just shook her head before leading her along. "Besides, how do I know he was just being nice?" Chloe asked and Chelsea face-palmed.

"Chloe, Lance is a nice guy, don't get me wrong but there's a line between being nice and having the hots for someone." Chelsea answered as she turned to her. "Don't forget, I've been there and you haven't, I actually have experience when it comes to these things." Chelsea added before sighing. "I know you said that you need some time to think on this but if someone of the opposite sex who your friends with spends that much money on ya then he's obviously looking for a relationship upgrade, you should give him a chance, that's all I'm saying."

"Maybe your right," Chloe said as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "But I still need to think on this, how about you give me until after today's duels to make up my mind?"

"Sounds good…..oh shit!" Chelsea said before checking the time on her watch. "If we don't want to miss the opening moves we'd better get moving now!" Chelsea added and Chloe nodded before the two girls made their way to the southern end or the island.

*meanwhile*

Whilst the students who weren't competing today where gathering in Andreas's dorm room the four duelists that where competing next where already nearing the duel arena.

"You think your replacement for Return can work?" Theresa asked as she chose her deck and started shuffling it, Brandon let out an exasperated sigh and she looked up. "Brandon?"

"Sorry Theresa but I'm just sick of changing my deck so much!" Brandon grunted as he shifted his weight. "Sangan's banning was bad enough but then came the emergency banlist that pretty much hit every deck in the school and don't even get me started on the next one!" Brandon added as he started shuffling his deck. "All I want is one build of my deck that doesn't get hit!"

"Let's hope that Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Twilight doesn't get hit." Theresa nodded in agreement. "Still I understand where you're coming from, your deck getting hit once is annoying enough but it getting hit in three consecutive banlists, maybe it was inspired by your Battle City performance."

"If it was then Dark Armed Dragon probably would've been hit as well." Brandon responded with a frown before shaking his head. "Let's try not to jinx it! By my watch we'd better get going." Brandon added after checking his watch and Theresa nodded in agreement before following her boyfriend up the stairs that would lead them to the arena.

*meanwhile*

Whilst their opponents where discussing strategy Tyler and Marcus where doing the same on the other side of the arena.

"Okay, I think it's pretty clear that Brandon's the biggest threat on the opposite team." Marcus said as he folded his arms. "Theresa may be one of the best students in Obelisk Blue but Brandon's new Chaos deck is just deadly man."

"I agree, especially after Chaos Sorcerer came off the limited list and is now on the Semi-Limited list." Tyler agreed with a nod as he shuffled his deck. "We faced some stiff competition in the last round but if we can eliminate Theresa and Brandon we'll be the team to beat in the next round!"

"You make it sound easy." Marcus commented with a frown. "She may have retired several of her decks but Theresa's four decks are still wild cards, no pun intended, we won't know what deck she's running until her turn begins!"

"True but that doesn't make her unbeatable." Tyler responded as he led his partner up the staircase and too the arena. "If that were true she would've won the Battle City Tournament."

"Yeah, that's something I've been wondering about for a while now that you mention it." Marcus commented as he turned to him. "If Theresa had won would she still be able to go to the academy? I mean it's not like Battle City is a small tournament that no-one's heard off."

"I'm sure Duel Academy would've worked out some kind of arrangement with any potentially interested agents, I know Chloe earned some interest from the agents thanks to her coming in third but my dad's insisted that they wait until she graduates." Tyler commented as he shook his head. "Chloe did do very well in Battle City, much better than anyone thought she would, but she's still a seventeen year old Osiris Red Student."

"She's eighteen actually she had her birthday the week before that field trip." Marcus corrected him as they reached the door to the arena. "That is unless you were talking about her age at the time of the tournament off course."

"I was and I do know Chloe celebrated her birthday recently." Tyler responded as he opened the door. "But that's not important. I was to focus on winning this match." Tyler added and Marcus nodded as they entered the arena.

"Welcome to the ninth day of the Tag Team Tournament boys and girls." Martin called out over the PA system and the crowd cheered as spotlights shone upon the two teams. "Today's duels kick off with a match between Tyler Kaiba of Obelisk Blue and Marcus Reynolds of Ra Yellow and Theresa Daniels and Brandon Thomas of Obelisk Blue, the order will be as follows, Theresa followed by Tyler followed by Brandon and finally Marcus!"

"_He didn't waste any time did he?" _Theresa thought to herself as the four duelists activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "I don't know about you boys but I say we skip the pleasantries and jump right into the action!" Theresa said and once the others nodded in agreement she drew her opening card. _"Not bad, I was going to use my Dark Attribute deck like I did in the last round but since Brandon's changed his deck so it's more Chaos oriented I've changed that as well." _Theresa thought before playing a card. "I activate Cards from the Sky!"

"You're using your Fairy deck? You haven't used that since Battle City ended." Tyler pointed out as Theresa banished a monster and drew two cards.

"There's a reason for that, I've been retooling it since then." Theresa said as she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Theresa announced and once her cards appeared on the field Marcus drew his card.

"Retooling it?" Chloe asked as she watched the duel, she and Chelsea where in Andreas's dorm room with the others watching the duel on Andreas's desktop computer, all besides Chelsea who was watching it on her laptop. "I had a hard enough time beating that deck back in Battle City but now?"

"Yeah, but I can think of a couple of reasons." Chelsea chimed in as she glanced at her roommate. "Like I said earlier, the latest ban lists have not been kind to our decks to say the very least, that and, well she was defeated by Eddie whilst she was using that deck."

"No matter what she's done to her deck she's going to be a tough opponent in this tournament." Andreas responded and the others nodded in agreement. "Almost makes me glad that my team was eliminated yesterday." Andreas added and Chelsea nodded.

"Yeah, I mean we were going at it for a while you and Damien really gave us the hard time we were hoping for but in the end we came out on top." Chelsea responded before turning to her laptop. "And I just realized how dirty that sounded." Chelsea added as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Chelsea, did you even listen to that sentence as it came out of your mouth?" Andreas asked her with a deadpan look on his face as Chloe blushed furiously. "Not even Lance makes those kinds of innuendos any time he has to assert that he isn't bonking Chloe."

"Did you have to word it like that?!" Chloe said as she, somehow blushed an even deeper shade of red.

"Just be glad he didn't drop all pretenses Chloe." Chelsea sighed to herself as she turned to the duel whilst trying her best not to laugh at the angry look Lance was giving Andreas.

"_Okay, Theresa's deck choice did throw me through a loop as I thought she'd be using her Dark Attribute deck like she did in her last duel." _Marcus thought as he looked over his hand. _"It's a problem sure but I can work around it!" _Marcus thought before playing a card. "I activate Cards of Consonance! I discard one weak dragon type tuner from my hand….." Marcus announced as he sent the monster to the graveyard. "And I draw twice!"

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Theresa chimed in as Marcus drew his cards and sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "You did combo that with White Stone right?"

"Nope, I have something else in mind!" Marcus responded before looking at his drawn cards. "I set this card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Marcus set the two cards and Brandon frowned before drawing his card.

"_If the Tuner he discarded for Consonance wasn't White Stone then what was it? I don't think it was Maiden with Eyes of Blue, even if he had that card it's a Spellcaster and wouldn't qualify for his Spell Card's effect." _Brandon thought before looking at his drawn card. "Well, everyone else has kicked off their turns with a draw card so I may as well join in the fun, I activate Allure of Darkness!" Brandon played the card and drew twice before pocketing a monster.

"How the heck did we all manage to draw drawing cards at the same time?!" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow and Brandon just shrugged.

"Just a coincidence I guess." Brandon responded before picking up a card. "For my normal summon I bring out Gaia the Polar Knight!" Brandon played the card and the knight in jet black armor appeared on the field (4/1600/1200). "I set one card facedown and end my turn which means the monster I banished for Allure of Darkness's effect returns!" Brandon retrieved the monster from his pocket and played it revealing it to be D.D. Scout Plane (2/800/1200) and once that was done Tyler drew his card. _"I can't think of many draw cards that are Psychic specific and the ones I can think off are Trap Cards so we should be safe."_

"I set this card facedown." Tyler said as a facedown card appeared on the field. "And I summon T.G. Rush Rhino!"

"Okay, that's different…." Brandon trailed off as a new monster appeared on the field and it was a large muscular humanoid rhino wearing blue armor (4/1600/800). "You're actually using your second deck for once."

"Judging from the look on your face you were expecting my Psychic Deck." Tyler responded as he folded his arms and Brandon nodded. "That's why I dusted off this deck, to keep you guessing but in any case I end my turn." Tyler announced but before Theresa could draw her card Brandon activated his trap. "Exchange of Twilight, I just knew that would be your facedown card."

"What can I say? It's been a great asset since I made my deck more chaos oriented." Brandon responded and Theresa drew her card after waiting to see if anyone else was activating a trap. _"And more importantly Theresa can't use her Legendary Dragon so the only way this is going is if either of them uses MST."_

"I summon Dunames Dark Witch!" Theresa played the card and the fairy appeared on the field (4/1800/1050). "And I activate my Trap Card Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri, unless either of you have a trap card to reveal in your hand I will continue to use its effect." Theresa added and once the boys shook their heads Theresa continued as her monster vanished from the field. "I tribute my witch to summon the monster I banished to use Cards from the Sky last turn and I think you recognize him!" Theresa added as she played the card and Airknight Parshaff appeared on the field (5/1900/1400).

"Crap, that card can inflict piercing damage!" Marcus realized as his eyes widened and Theresa grinned.

"That's true but we may as well face that facts, Parshath is a monster that has not aged well." Theresa admitted as she picked up another card. "I mean, a Level Five monster with only 1900 attack points? Not even his effect can make up for that!" Theresa added before playing a card. "As for where I'm going with this, well thankfully I2 created an updated version of him which I'm playing now, I tribute Parshath to Special Summon Neo-Parshath, the Sky Paladin to the field in attack mode!" Theresa played the card and Parshath disappeared from the field, in his place stood a clearly older version of him that was almost entirely covered in feathers (7/2300/2000). "I realize that my new monster doesn't look much better on paper but on top of his optional summoning condition he retains the original Parsath's effects!"

"That's not good." Marcus winced as Theresa played another card.

"But who said I was done there? I activate Sanctuary in the Sky!" Theresa played the card and the scenery changed to the magnificent palace in the sky. "As you know this Field Spell will protect my life-points as long as I have a Fairy Type monster on my side of the field which I obviously do, but Neo-Parshath has another effect and what better way to demonstrate it then to show it off? Neo-Parshath, attack Marcus's defense monster!" Theresa commanded and the fairy took flight towards the monster, revealed to be Masked Dragon (3/1400/1100) which was quickly destroyed bringing Marcus's life-points down to 6800.

"I activate my dragon's effect! And I use it to summon Fang Dragon!" Marcus played the card and a small, ugly dragon appeared on the field, it was brown in color and had long fangs (3/800/1200).

"_Okay, that's a new one, probably came in the booster pack with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon reprint." _Theresa thought as her monster glowed. "You may have a new monster on your side of the field but I can still activate my monster's effects, first since I just inflicted Battle Damage to you I get to draw an extra card." Theresa said before drawing her card. "And the other effect is something you're going to hate, in fact it works similar to Ancient Sacred Wyvern with one major difference, he doesn't lose any points if my life-points are lower and the points get added to both his attack and defense score!"

"You're kidding?!" Marcus yelled out and Theresa shook her head as her monster's attack points shot up to 3500. "This is bad!"

"It's only going to get worse!" Theresa responded and Marcus quickly activated his trap.

"In any case I'll use my trap card and take a page from Chelsea's book…no, I won't be getting angry because I'm losing…..I activate Damage Gate and I use it to summon the Tuner monster from my graveyard!" Marcus activated the trap and retrieved the monster before playing it. "Namely this guy, I summon Galaxy Serpent in defense mode!" Marcus played the card and a small blue dragon appeared on the field (2/1000/0).

"Okay, that monster I've heard off, Marcus why would you waste a slot in your deck with that card?" Theresa asked with a frown on her face. "Yes, it's a tuner monster but it also has the rare distinction of being one of the few Normal Type Tuner monsters!"

"I have my reasons." Marcus responded as he sent his trap card to the graveyard. "Are you done?" Marcus asked and Theresa looked over her hand.

"Yes, I am." Theresa responded and Marcus drew his card.

"Theresa's not messing around." Chloe commented as she and the others watched the duel. "Did she even have Neo-Parshath in her deck back at Battle City?"

"I don't think she did but then again she may have either added it recently or never got a chance to use it." Andreas responded as he looked up from the computer. "Either way she has a very lethal combo going."

"It will get even deadlier once Brandon starts his turn." Lance added with a frown. "I remember that Polar Knight's effect from Brandon's last Orichalcos Duel and he already has a perfect set up for his effect thanks to D.D. Scout Plane, as for Exchange of Twilight, he may as well have an open door to summon Dark Armed Dragon and that new Envoy monster."

"Setting up the graveyard is all well and good but actually drawing the cards you need is another matter." Chelsea pointed out as she looked up from her laptop. "Take my last Orichalcos Duel for example, I was very lucky to get that opening hand alongside Beckoning Light as my opening draw otherwise it would've been a hand full of dead draws."

"That is a good point but Brandon has pulled it out of the bag before." Andreas agreed with a frown. "What about Marcus and Tyler's decks? What do we know about them?"

"Nothing seems to have changed about Marcus's deck since Battle City outside of a few new cards." Chloe responded and Chelsea shook her head.

"Chloe, remember that Duel Theory class where I took on Marcus?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "I know you were too busy fighting that new girl Natalie but I got to see a lot of his new cards for myself and trust me, his deck's a lot different nowadays."

"No offense Chelsea but I'll believe it when I see it." Chloe responded and Chelsea shrugged her shoulders. "What about Tyler's deck?"

"I don't know much about the T.G. monsters beside the fact that the initials stand for Tech Genius." Lance responded with a shrug. "There was that deck that was making it big a couple of years back, T.G. Agents I think it was, and they hit T.G. Striker to hurt it."

"Yeah and it only just came back from the limited list." Chelsea chimed in with a nod. "I'd say Tyler chose a hell of a time to dust it off." Chelsea added before turning her attention back to the duel.

"I guess now would be a good time to explain Fang Dragon's effect!" Marcus said as he added his drawn card to his hand. "All I need to do is reveal one Spell Card in my hand like so….." Marcus said before turning his drawn card around revealing it to be Dragon's Mirror, he turned it back around and shuffled it back into his hand before continuing. "And I get to increase his level by the level of one Level Four or lower Normal Dragon Type Monster on my side of the field for the rest of the duel at the cost of me being able to attack with him but more importantly that means he's now a Level Five Monster!" Marcus added as Fang Dragon's level increased.

"_That can only mean one thing….." _Theresa's thoughts trailed off as her eyes narrowed. "You're planning a Synchro Summon!"

"You got it! So I'll just go ahead and…" Tyler turned to Marcus and shook his head indicating that he should wait. "Err, okay, actually I'll set this card facedown and end my turn." Marcus set the card down and Brandon drew his card.

"_Why did he hesitate? He was in a perfect position to Synchro Summon a Level Seven monster." _Brandon thought as he added his drawn card to his hand. "Unlike you Marcus I'm not going to hesitate with this move, first I activate Polar Knight's effect and I tribute D.D. Scout Plane to use it!" Brandon announced as his weakest monster vanished from the field, once that was done he started shuffling through his deck. "With this effect I take one Level Four Light Type Monster from my deck and add it to my hand." Brandon added before he found the card he was looking for, added it to his hand and shuffled his deck. "But before I do anything else I'll use my Trap Card's effect!"

"I think I can guess your combo now." Tyler commented as Exchanging Twilight started glowing.

"You could say that." Brandon responded as he picked up and sent Dark Crusader (4/1600/0) to the graveyard. "Now that I've sent a Dark-Type monster to my graveyard I can add a Light Type Warrior Monster from my deck to my hand!" Brandon added before picking up his deck again, once he found the card he wanted he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck. "And finally I summon the monster I just added to my hand via Polar Knight's effect, Gaia, the White Knight!" Brandon played the card and the knight in white armor appeared on the field (4/1600/1200). "I could use White Knight's effect but I'm not going to do that." Brandon added before pointing to Marcus's dragons. "Usually it's the knight who slays the dragon, just ask Chloe, and I'm about to continue that tradition!"

"Activate Trap Card Threatening Roar!" Tyler interrupted him and a loud roar echoed out forcing the knights to back off. "Sorry I didn't use this earlier I wanted to confirm my suspicions first."

"No problem man, I'm just hoping your plan works." Marcus responded and Tyler nodded in response before they turned their attention to Brandon.

"I have nothing else to do so I end my turn." Brandon announced and Tyler drew his card.

"I summon the Tuner Monster T.G. Cyber Magician to the field!" Tyler played the card and a small, male magician appeared on the field, he was wearing futuristic looking armor and was carrying a staff (1/0/0). "This monster is unique among the other Tuner Monsters as I can use the monsters in my hand to assist in the Synchro Summon of a T.G. Synchro Monster!" Tyler added as another copy of Rush Rhino appeared on the field. "So I tune the Rush Rhino in my hand with T.G. Cyber Magician!" Tyler announced as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"That doesn't sound good." Brandon commented as the Synchro Rings surrounded Rush Rhino and a bright flash enveloped the field, when it faded the monster that was revealed was another male Spellcaster though this one was clearly older, was wearing silver and black robes and was carrying a book (5/2400/1800).

"Say hello to T.G. Hyper Liberian!" Tyler announced with a small smirk on his face. "I'll get to its effect shortly but first, Liberian, attack Polar Knight!" Tyler commanded and Liberian casted a spell at the knight destroying it and bringing Brandon's life-points down to 7200. "Marcus, is your facedown card Urgent Tuning?"

"Err, yeah, why?" Marcus asked and Tyler nodded, he quickly got the idea and activated the trap card. "I activate Urgent Tuning! Galaxy Serpent, give Fang Dragon a tune-up!" Marcus commanded as the two dragons leapt into the air, once the bright flash faded a monster Theresa and Brandon recognized from Battle City appeared on the field. "I Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing!" Marcus announced with a grin as the dragon growled (7/2400/1600).

"Excellent that means that I can use Liberian's effect, whenever a monster is Synchro Summoned from now on I get to draw a card." Tyler explained before drawing a card.

"That's why you wanted me to wait!" Marcus realized and Tyler nodded.

"Yes and now we have three powerhouse monsters on our side of the field!" Tyler responded with a grin as Exploder Dragonwing flew over to his side of the field. "Exploder Dragonwing, attack White Knight!" Tyler commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the knight incinerating it and bringing Brandon's life-points down to 5600. "Sorry Brandon but this time it was the dragon that slayed the knight!"

"You had to say it, didn't you?" Brandon groaned and Tyler shrugged his shoulders.

"You opened the floodgates on your previous turn." Tyler pointed out before pointing to his remaining Rush Rhino. "Rush Rhino, attack his life-points directly!" Tyler commanded and the monster charged towards Brandon. "When Rush Rhino declares an attack his effect activates increasing his attack points by four hundred!" Tyler added as Rush Rhino's attack increased to 2000.

"Then it's a good thing that that attack won't be connecting, Neo-Parshath, intercept the attack!" Theresa commanded and the fairy launched a beam of light at the beast warrior destroying him and bringing Tyler's life-points down to 6700. "Not only did I save Brandon from taking a lot of damage but I get to draw a card thanks to Neo-Parshath's effect!" Theresa added as she drew a card.

"I activate Rush Rhino's second effect, when it is destroyed by battle I can take another T.G. monster from my deck and add it to my hand." Tyler announced before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand. "The only downside is that it can't be another copy of Rush Rhino but my deck has more monsters where that came from." Tyler added before picking up the card he drew with Liberian's effect. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Tyler announced and once Exploder Dragonwing was back on Marcus's side of the field Theresa drew her card.

"Man, they've really turned things around now." Lance commented as he watched the duel on Andreas's laptop. "I'm glad I didn't bet any money on this match!"

"You were betting money on the matches?" Chelsea asked with a raised eyebrow and Lance shook his head.

"No, that was Evan but that's beside the point." Lance responded and Chelsea grinned at that. "What I meant was that I would've had a hard time deciding who to bet on."

"And I'm guessing the fact that the match features four of your friends didn't help your decision." Andreas added and Lance laughed nervously. "Just out of curiosity, who did you bet money on for my match against Chloe and Chelsea?"

"Do you want me to get my ass kicked by Chelsea?" Lance asked as Chelsea glared at him. "At the risk of being attacked by a short tempered metal chick with a background in Karate…continuing that sentence will be the worst idea I've ever had."

"If it helps we'd try to restrain her long enough for you to get away." Andreas responded and Lance just shook his head as Andreas turned his attention back to the duel.

"I said it to my new roommate and I'll say it to you, it wouldn't matter how far or fast I'd run because she'd catch me!" Lance responded getting a laugh out of Chelsea.

"That's not fair I'd at least give you a ten minute head start!" Chelsea responded and Lance shook his head. "Anyway I think we're missing a match here!" Chelsea added and the others turned their attention to their respective computer screens.

*back at the duel*

"_Okay, both Marcus and Tyler have powerful monsters on their side of the field but Exploder Dragonwing is by far the biggest threat." _Theresa thought as she added her drawn card to her hand. _"I can't risk them negating my monster's effect and attacking with Dragonwing because not only would I lose one of my best monsters but my life-points would take a serious hit." _Theresa decided before pointing to Exploder Dragonwing. "Neo-Parshath, attack Exploder Dragonwing!" Theresa commanded and the fairy prepared his attack…..

"Nice try Theresa but I had a feeling you'd try that! Activate trap card, Negate Attack!" Tyler activated his trap and Theresa frowned as the trap bounced off of a force field. "It negates the attack and ends your battle phase, couldn't get any simpler really."

"I know that." Theresa responded with a grunt before picking up her drawn card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Theresa announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Tyler brought me some time with his trap but unless I can get rid of Neo-Parshath before her next turn Theresa will continue to draw whilst dealing damage and her monster will get stronger the lower our life-points get." _Marcus thought before looking at the card he had drawn and grinning. _"And I have just the ticket!" _Marcus thought before playing the card. "I activate Forbidden Chalice!"

"Oh crap!" Theresa cursed as Neo-Parshath took a sip from the infamous chalice and doubled over in pain as his attack dropped to 2300.

"That's right! And Neo-Parshath is mine for the taking!" Marcus announced as Exploder Dragonwing breathed fire at Neo-Parshath destroying him and bringing Theresa's life-points down to 6700. "And Sanctuary in the Sky can't save you from effect damage!"

"I know that!" Theresa grunted before activating her trap card. "But Sanctuary in the Sky does allow me to activate this, Sacred Salvation!" Theresa announced as her trap card flipped up depicting a wounded man limping towards the palace depicted on Sanctuary in the Sky's artwork. "This trap requires Sanctuary in the Sky to be active on the field; since a monster of mine was just destroyed by a card effect I can Special Summon another monster from my deck." Theresa added before picking up her deck. "Only side effect is that it can't be an effect monster so I'll just summon another Dunames Dark Witch!" Theresa added as the brunette fairy returned to the field.

"_Yeah, I think I can guess what she wants Brandon to do next." _Marcus thought as he glanced towards Brandon. _"He's bound to have more than one copy of those Knights cards and if he can summon Polar Knight he can use Dunames as tribute fodder for his effect." _Marcus thought before picking up and setting his drawn card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_Exploder Dragonwing is a problem and unless we solve it soon our time in this tournament will be short lived." _Brandon thought with a frown as he looked at his drawn card. _"I have the three monsters I need to summon Dark Armed Dragon but drawing it is a….." _Brandon trailed off before setting his drawn monster in defense mode. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"_I can't think of many monsters in Brandon's deck that are defensive, beside maybe D.D. Sprite and the Dark Scorpions." _Tyler thought as he drew his card. _"I could attack Theresa's monster but Sanctuary in the Sky will protect her life-points so it's best to leave that to Marcus, Brandon's monster on the other hand….." _Tyler thought before pointing to Brandon's defense monster. "T.G. Hyper Liberian, attack Brandon's defense monster!" Tyler commanded and Brandon smirked as the spell was cast at the monster, revealed to be Magician of Faith (1/300/200) which was quickly destroyed. "I knew it was a matter of time before that thing saw play once it came off the banlist, I just didn't expect it so soon."

"Please don't talk to me about Banlists, my deck has been hurt enough by the last few banlists as it is and I'd rather not be reminded!" Brandon responded before sending his monster to the graveyard and retrieving a Spell Card in its place. "Since I've only played one Spell Card up to this point I guess it's pretty obvious that I've just retrieved Allure of Darkness!"

"Yes, it is." Tyler responded before looking at his hand. _"I'll save this for later." _Tyler decided before turning to Theresa. "I end my turn." Tyler announced and Theresa drew her card.

"I'll admit I was kind of hoping to be the first one to use Magician of Faith in the tournament." Chloe said with a sheepish grin on her face as she watched the duel with Chelsea on her roommate's laptop. "But even I have to admit that that would be an almost impossible task given how quickly the shop sold out of the card."

"Tell me about it, I was considering ordering a copy from your dad's shop if you couldn't get me a copy." Chelsea responded with a nod. "Is it me or has the weather been a bit hotter than usual today?" Chelsea added as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. "I almost left my blazer in my dorm room for fuck's sake."

"Chelsea, you're kidding right?" Lance scoffed as he took a sip from his drink. "It's not that hot."

"Lance, you're from Arizona, of course it's not that fucking hot to you!" Chelsea responded with a roll of her eyes. "I mean hell my older sister attended culinary school up there and every time I went up to see her I had to remember to were my summer clothes."

"Your sister's a chef?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow and Chelsea chuckled.

"Yeah, Jamie is." Chelsea responded as she turned her attention back to the duel. "She moved to L.A. after she graduated and she works there she works at one of the top restaurants in the city, every time we've gone up to see her she's managed to blow us away with her cooking." Chelsea added before grinning. "What can I say? I inherited my dad's talent for dueling; she inherited mom's talent for cooking!"

"If we end up in LA somehow do you think that she'll do you think to cook for free for us?" Andreas asked and Chelsea grinned.

"She did tell me over the phone that she'd be willing to cook for any friends I'd make if I ever came back to the states with them, it'll just have to fit around her schedule." Chelsea responded as she shook her head and watched the duel.

*back at the duel*

"_So far so good, Tyler attacked Brandon's monster just as I hoped and didn't take control of Exploder Dragonwing for a follow-up attack." _Theresa thought before looking at her drawn card and quickly playing it revealing it to be another copy of Cards from the Sky. "I think you know how this works by now." Theresa added before pocketing a monster, drawing her cards and sending her Spell Card to the graveyard, once she saw one of the monsters she had drawn she grinned to herself before quickly maintaining her poker face. "I end my turn at that." Theresa announced and Marcus blinked before drawing his card.

"_Why would she leave her witch in attack mode? She knows she won't be able to save her life-points with Sanctuary's effect when I attack with Exploder!" _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card and playing it. "I activate Dragon Shrine! Think of this like a Dragon exclusive version of Foolish Burial!" Marcus announced before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he sent it to the graveyard and shuffled his deck. "But there's a twist, you see I just sent a Normal Dragon Type Monster to my graveyard which activates Dragon Shrine's second effect allowing me to send another dragon type monster to my graveyard." Marcus added before sending another monster to the graveyard.

"_Okay, that first monster was likely Blue Eyes White Dragon which means he's planning something as a back-up." _Brandon thought as Marcus sent his spell to the graveyard. _"But what was the first monster?"_

"Exploder Dragonwing, attack Dunames Dark Witch!" Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the witch. "Not even Sanctuary can save you Theresa."

"No, but this card can!" Theresa announced before flipping around her copy of Honest before sending it to her graveyard and Dark Witch's attack shot up to 4200, Dark Witch dodged the flames in the nick of time before firing a beam of bright light at Exploder Dragonwing destroying it and bringing Marcus's life-points down to 6200. "Marcus, I know you've been dueling Chelsea in duel theory so you had to know that that was a common trick by duelists who run Honest in their decks." Theresa pointed out as her witch's attack returned to normal.

"I know that but I guess I jumped the gun." Marcus grunted before glancing towards his graveyard. _"No need to worry, come next turn I'll be all set up to bring out the big guns!" _Marcus thought before turning to Brandon. "My turn is over." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card.

"_Theresa's trick brought us some time and more importantly destroyed Exploder Dragonwing." _Brandon thought as he looked over his hand. _"And it's up to me to continue the momentum!" _Brandon thought before playing Allure of Darkness, pocketing a monster and drawing twice. "Tyler, if you think I'm about to let you use your librarian's effect again think again! Since I have three Dark Type Monsters in my graveyard I can Special Summon Dark Armed Dragon!" Brandon played the card and Tyler's eyes widened as Brandon's signature monster appeared on the field. "Next I remove D.D. Scout Plane from play to destroy Liberian!" Brandon pocketed the monster and the dragon raised its tail high before slamming it down on the Spellcaster destroying it.

"My librarian may be gone but I'm far from defenseless! Since a Synchro monster I control was just destroyed I can Special Summon T.G. Metal Skeleton!" Tyler played the card and a tall, metal skeleton appeared on the field in defense mode (2/1100/0).

"You realize that I can easily destroy that thing right?" Brandon asked as he stared down the monster.

"How do you know that's its only effect?" Tyler asked and Brandon hesitated. "For all you know it has a devastating effect that only activates from the graveyard, do you really want to take that chance?"

"_I can't tell if he's bluffing or not." _Brandon thought as his eyes narrowed. _"If it was an archetype I was familiar with I'd know for sure but I don't." _Brandon thought before sighing. "I end my turn." Brandon announced and once D.D. Scout Plane was back on the field Tyler drew his card.

"My bluff worked." Tyler commented with a smirk and Brandon's eyes widened. "All of Metal Skeleton's effects are active as long as it's on the field! But since you hesitated I can put this duel back in our favor." Brandon added before looking at his drawn card. "I summon T.G. Striker!" Tyler played the card and an armored man with a visor over his face appeared on the field (2/800/0). "Now I activate One for One! I discard one monster….." Tyler trailed off as he sent the monster to the graveyard. "So I can summon Tuningware!" Tyler announced as the small machine appeared on the field.

"Okay, we all know that TG Striker is a tuner monster so you may as well get it done." Brandon said as his eyes narrowed. "In fact as I remember it the fact that it's a tuner monster was the reason it was limited in the first place."

"Well, it was that and the fact that T.G. Agents needed to be hit but that's beside the point." Tyler said as his three monsters leapt into the air, Striker dissolved into two Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Tuningware and Metal Skeleton. "I suppose you're expecting me to summon another Hyper Liberian." Tyler commented as he retrieved a monster from his extra deck. "But I have something else in mind, by treating Tuningware as a Level Two Monster I Synchro Summon Celestial Wolf Lord, Blue Sirius!" Tyler played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a blue, two headed wolf with silver, spiked armor that growled at Tyler's opponents (6/2400/1500). "First I draw a card thanks to Tuningware's effect." Tyler added before drawing a card.

"You seem to be missing the point." Theresa pointed out with a frown. "Your wolf is strong but Brandon's dragon is stronger."

"No, I'm not!" Tyler responded with a grin. "Sirius, attack Dark Armored Dragon!" Tyler commanded and the wolf charged towards the much larger dragon, the dragon easily dodged the wolf's claws before flattening it with his tail bringing Tyler's life-points down to 6300.

"That was pointless." Brandon commented as Tyler sent his monster to the graveyard, however when Brandon saw the grin on Tyler's face he frowned. "Or was it?"

"Don't ask me, ask Dark Armed Dragon!" Tyler responded and Brandon blinked before turning to his dragon and his eyes widened when he saw that the dragon's attack had dropped to a mere four hundred. "When Sirius is destroyed and sent to the graveyard I can target one monster my opponent controls and reduce its attack by 2400 points!"

"Oh shit!" Brandon cursed under his breath one he realized what that meant. _"If Marcus summons Blue-Eyes White Dragon on his next turn I'm in big trouble!"_

"It's not a total loss Brandon." Theresa chimed in and Brandon turned to her. "Don't forget, Tyler destroyed his own monster to weaken yours."

"That's true but I'm far from defenseless, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Tyler set the two cards down and Theresa drew her card.

"_He's up to something but what? For all I know one of his facedown cards is Call of the Haunted." _Theresa thought before looking at her drawn card. _"I'll save this for later." _Theresa decided before pointing to her witch. "Dunames Dark Witch, attack Tyler's life-points directly!" Theresa commanded and the fairy fired her attack at the portly duelist….

"I activate my trap card! Go Attack Guidance Armor!" Tyler activated the trap and Brandon's eyes widened as the hideous armor appeared on Dark Armored Dragon, Theresa could only watch as the witch directed her attack at the dragon destroying it and bringing Brandon's life-points down to 4200. "Your dragon is destroyed and you have no one to blame but your partner!"

"Dude, that's a bit harsh isn't it?" Marcus asked as he turned to him. "Don't forget that whilst they may be our opponents they are still our friends!"

"It's alright Marcus I should've seen that trap coming." Theresa admitted before quickly setting a monster. "I set one monster in defense mode and end my turn." Theresa announced and Marcus grinned before drawing his card.

"Okay, since I just entered my standby phase and I have no monsters on my side of the field I can Special Summon Totem Dragon from my graveyard in attack mode!" Marcus announced as he retrieved the monster and played it, it was a small green, odd looking dragon with a winged compass attached to its tail (2/400/200). "But my monster won't stay around for long, I activate Dragon Reincarnation! I banish Totem Dragon to bring out the big guns!"

"I think we all know what he has in mind." Brandon commented to Theresa and she nodded in agreement as the mighty roar echoed through the stadium, seconds later the Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field (8/3000/2500). "I'm going to assume that I'm your target."

"Well, you where, but I've got bigger plans!" Marcus responded before playing a card. "And they start with A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon!"

"Oh no….." Brandon trailed off as the dragon took flight and with one mighty beat of its wings destroyed every remaining Spell and Trap Card on the field destroying Sanctuary in the Sky last. "You realize that you took out Tyler's last trap card right?"

"I can live with it." Tyler responded as Marcus returned his monster to his hand. _"My trap card will do more damage in the graveyard anyway, especially if Brandon summons Envoy of the Twilight." _Tyler thought before turning to Marcus. "Last I checked he still has a move to do."

"That's right, but first I activate Raiding the Dragon's Cave! Since I have a Level 5 or higher dragon type monster in my graveyard I get to draw two cards." Marcus played the Spell Card and quickly drew two cards. "Now I haven't done my normal summon yet so why don't I use it to summon another Totem Dragon?" Marcus played the card and the small odd dragon appeared on the field. "Next, I activate Double Summon!"

"Wait, your activating that after you've used up your regular normal summon? Totem Dragon has another effect, doesn't it?" Theresa asked and Marcus nodded as the dragon disappeared from the field and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon returned to the field.

"That's right, as long as Totem Dragon is on my side of the field it counts as two tributes!" Marcus added before pointing to Dark Witch. "Sorry Theresa but with D.D. Scout Plane in defense mode and Sanctuary in the Sky in the graveyard your Dark Witch is a sitting duck! Blue-Eyes, attack with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon opened its maw before letting loose with its famous attack destroying the fairy and bringing Theresa's life-points down to 5500. "You'd better hope that Brandon draws something good because otherwise not only will we win but we'll be the ones to beat in the third round! For now I end my turn." Marcus announced and Brandon drew his card.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Marcus, don't forget that that was the main reason you were eliminated during the first round of the Battle City Tournament." Tyler reminded him and Marcus frowned when he realized that Tyler had a point. "But I have to agree, it is looking dire for you two right now."

"We'll see!" Brandon responded before looking at his drawn card. _"Spellbook inside the Pot, this is an inherently risky card but if I draw the cards I need we may be able to win this." _Brandon thought before playing it, once the hologram appeared on the field all four duelists drew three cards. _"Perfect!" _Brandon thought before playing another spell card. "I activate Monster Reincarnation! I discard one monster and retrieve Dark Armed Dragon!"

"I'd be worried if you actually had enough monsters to summon that thing, unless the monster you discarded was a Dark Type Monster." Tyler responded and Brandon shook his head.

"Not exactly but I'll get to that in a minute, first I tribute D.D. Scout Plane to summon one of my favorites, Caius, the Shadow Monarch!" Brandon played the card and D.D. Scout Plane disappeared from the field, in its place stood the shadow monarch that Brandon had used several times since Battle City (6/2400/1000). "I activate his effect and my target is Marcus's dragon!" Brandon announced as the monarch fired up its shadow ball.

"You've activated my trap card…..from the graveyard!" Tyler interrupted him as he retrieved the trap card that Marcus had destroyed which depicted Dark Scorpion – Chick The Yellow bring dragged by a decomposing hand into a grave. "This trap card is called Skill Suppression and if I set it facedown and it's destroyed by a card effect I can remove it from play to negate the effect of a monster for the rest of the turn." Tyler explained as he pocketed the card and Caius doubled over in pain. "I can only activate it once per duel but I just foiled your comeback play!"

"You'd like to think that, wouldn't you?" Brandon asked with a smirk and Tyler blinked. "You're not the only one who can bluff around here Tyler and I just bluffed the hell out of you! Let me put it this way I have exactly six monsters in my graveyard, three light monsters, three dark."

"Oh no….." Tyler trailed off once it hit him. "You're about to summon Envoy of the Twilight and Dark Armed Dragon!"

"You're right on the money!" Brandon responded as he pocketed his three light type monsters and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Twilight appeared on the field (8/3000/2500). "Unless either of you have Effect Veiler in your hand I'm activating Envoy of the Twilight's effect, since the monsters I just banished are all light type monsters I banish Blue-Eyes White Dragon face-up!" Brandon announced but he could tell from the resigned look on their faces that neither of them did, Envoy of the Twilight slammed it's sword into the ground sending a shockwave towards Marcus's monster destroying it. "Next, since I have three dark type monsters again….." Brandon trailed off as Dark Armed Dragon returned to the field. "I know math isn't your best subject Marcus but the combined attack of my three monsters is 8200, the duel's over for you!"

"I'm just glad I lost to you and not Cameron and Jessica." Marcus sighed as the three monsters launched their attacks at Marcus bringing his life-points down to zero. "Tyler, I know you're the best duelist in the school but can you turn this around?"

"I can't, I have no monsters left in my hand and Theresa's turn is next, if I somehow survive that it will automatically jump to Brandon's turn because of your elimination." Tyler sighed before taking a deep breath. "But I guess I inherited my step-father's pride, I'll face defeat like a man rather than surrender!"

"I had a feeling you would, I end my turn." Brandon announced and Tyler drew his card, he sighed to himself before passing his turn.

"_The truth is, if I had drawn this last turn we'd still be in the driver's seat." _Tyler thought as he looked at his copy of Effect Veiler. _"Brandon would've been forced to use an alternate method of destroying Blue-Eyes but knowing how cautious he is he likely wouldn't have run the risk of running into another effect negator."_

"Brandon, I need your monsters." Theresa told him and Brandon nodded as the three monsters made their way over to his girlfriend's side of the field, Theresa pointed her hand at Tyler and the three monsters launched their attacks at him bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Here are the winners of the match, Brandon Thomas and Theresa Daniels!" Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd cheered. "In just a few moments we will host our next match, Cameron Matthews and Jessica Stevens of Obelisk Blue vs. Keri Harmon and Lacey Morse representing Osiris Red!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered, Martin backed away from the microphone and turned to Tyler. "Are you disappointed that your son lost?"

"I have nothing to be disappointed about except for the possibility of Reynolds not being promoted on Saturday." Kaiba answered as he turned to Martin. "My son fought a hard match and even though he lost he is taking it like a man, besides my daughter's also in the tournament and as I understand it her team's competing tomorrow."

"Yes, they are." Martin nodded in response as the four duelists left the arena.

*meanwhile*

"Well, that was as close as I expected it to be." Lance commented as he rested his hands behind his head. "Shame that Marcus and Andreas won't be in the next round though."

"I'm sitting right next to you, don't rub it in!" Andreas warned him and Lance laughed nervously. "What's the plan now?"

"Theresa told me to tell you guys that we're meeting them at her door room to watch the next match and considering how cramped Andreas's room is right now I think that's a good idea." Lance responded and the others nodded before getting up and leaving the room, Chelsea was the last to leave the room as she had to pack up her laptop.

"_The competition's getting even fiercer." _Chelsea thought as she packed up her laptop. _"If I want to keep up I'll need to update my deck again, maybe add some more Synchros…."_

"_Chelsea…"_ A demonic feminine voice rang out and Chelsea looked around.

"Hey, did you guys here something?" Chelsea called out to the others and Lance poked his head around the doorway.

"Hear what?" Lance asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Forget it maybe it's just nerves going into the promotion duels on Saturday." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders as she packed up her laptop and joined the others outside. _"That wasn't nerves, was it Wattchimera?"_

"_No it wasn't, I'll report this to Silent Magician immediately." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea nodded. _"Be on your guard, this is similar to Chloe's situation during her last Orichalcos Duel." _Wattchimera added and Chelsea nodded with a gulp.


	102. Day Nine Heart of the Underdog

(OOC Note: I didn't expect to have to do this but as a fan of TGWTG I feel the need to do this: this chapter is dedicated to the late Justin "JeWario" Carmichal)

It was a few minutes to go before the next tag team duel was set to begin and most of the students with Duel Spirit Guides were in Tyler's dorm room ready to watch the duel, all except for the two female Osiris Red Students that is.

"Silent Magician said that we needed to talk." Chloe told Chelsea as they found a quiet spot in the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm to talk, Chelsea sighed to herself quickly figuring out why. "When I joined this school that was one sentence I never thought I'd say unless I lost my mind but that's beside the point, she told me that something's bothering you and it's to do with the Orichalcos."

"You don't know the half if it Chloe." Chelsea sighed as she leaned against the wall. "Look, I know it's not exactly a memory your eager to remember but remember when you activated the Orichalcos last week?" Chelsea asked as she glanced around to make sure that no one was listening in, Chloe shuddered for a few moments before nodding. "That voice you mentioned, was it feminine in any way?" Chelsea asked and Chloe paused.

"No, it was definitely male." Chloe responded after thinking for a few moments and Chelsea shuddered. "What's wrong?"

"As I was packing up my laptop to move over to Tyler's dorm room I heard a demonic voice, a feminine one like I said." Chelsea answered and Chloe frowned clearly concerned for her roommate. "Here's the weird part, well, weirder, all she did was call out my name and nothing else."

"Is that why you asked if we heard anything?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "You sure it wasn't just your imagination?"

"Chloe that voice concerned Wattchimera enough to report it to Silent Magician, if that doesn't raise enough red flags to cover the entire island then I'm Mai Valentine!" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded when she realized that her roommate had a point. "Besides, given everything that's happened these past few months I'm surprised that you're willing to dismiss it as an overactive imagination so quickly."

"I wasn't dismissing it, I just wanted to make sure that my bases where covered." Chloe answered with a frown. "You think they'll attack you in your dreams again? Like they did to me and Andreas?"

"I'm not sure and quite frankly I'd rather not think about that." Chelsea answered as she folded her arms. "Did you get anything like that recently? I mean besides the Orichalcos Duel?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"If I did I would've gone down to the shrink's office weeks ago." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded. "You ever considered doing that?"

"You mean in general?" Chelsea asked and she sighed when Chloe nodded. "Chloe I have enough trouble opening up to you and Beth about my past, how am I supposed to do that with a guy who's old enough to be my granddad with a PHD in Psychology?"

"Chelsea, my first few months in foster care were mostly spent talking to a child psychologist that worked with the DA office, to help them build a case against my dad." Chloe said as she took a deep breath. "I'm sure I don't need to explain why I don't want to go into detail but I turned out fine, for the most part."

"Chloe, no offense but you were seven years old and a child abuse victim, me? The one time I was worried about how my dad would react to anything was when I came out of the closet." Chelsea responded as she glanced up at her roommate.

"Not even when you punched that pro-duelist?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"I pretty much knew how he was going to react once I came to my senses, let me tell ya, that was the only time I ever dreaded coming home from school." Chelsea answered with a frown. "And besides, I have been to see shrinks before, numerous times; I think you can guess why."

"You went to see them because of your anger issues?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Didn't go well?"

"Not at all, the last time it seemed like one of those guys got through to me was the one who suggested me taking up a sport which led to me joining a karate club, haven't been to one since." Chelsea responded as she leaned against the wall. "All I'm saying is that I and shrinks don't get along well."

"Maybe you've just been visiting the wrong ones." Theresa's voice rang out and the two girls looked up seeing Theresa standing nearby. "Anyway, unless you want to miss the opening move I suggest you guys hurry."

"Oh crap, thanks Theresa." Chloe responded once she looked at her watch and the two girls followed Theresa to Tyler's Dorm Room. "So, how much of that conversation did you overhear?"

"Just the parts about Chelsea's anger issues but I knew what you were originally talking about thanks to Armed Dragon." Theresa answered with a nod. "You have any idea where that voice came from Chelsea?"

"No, I don't." Chelsea answered as she folded her arms. "And considering a demonic voice led to Chloe activating the Orichalcos I'd rather not think on that too hard."

"Yeah well if anything else happens let us know ASAP." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in response as the three women reached Tyler's dorm room. Theresa opened the door and held it open for the two Osiris Red Students before entering the room herself. "We didn't miss anything, did we?" Chloe asked as she took a seat near Tyler's computer and Chelsea started setting up her laptop.

"No, the participants haven't arrived yet but as you can see the stream's switched to the arena so the match should be starting soon." Tyler responded as he shifted his weight. "And before you ask my ego isn't too bruised from being eliminated this early in the tournament."

"Well, regardless I think Brandon just took your title for best duelist in the school." Lance commented and Tyler shook his head.

"I have lost before and, much like my last duel, I lost the match by the skin of my teeth." Tyler responded before frowning. "If I can be honest though, I think I would've done better if my duel was on a different day like tomorrow or Monday because at least then I would've had time to prepare my deck, that or just sticking to my psychic deck in general." Tyler added and Marcus shook his head.

"It would've been a close match no matter which deck you used." Marcus responded with a frown. "If anything I wish I had a method of summoning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon sooner."

"The only way I can think off is if you drew Mind Trust and Blue-Eyes White Dragon in that order." Tyler responded as Chelsea finished setting up her laptop. "Oh yes, before I forget, the line-up for the promotion duels on Saturday was announced."

"It's about time!" Chelsea said with a grin as she hit the power button on her laptop. "Who's facing who?"

"Chloe and Lance are facing off in the first match of the day, Chelsea is facing Martin, Marcus is facing Hamden, Andreas is facing Maria and Beth's taking on Jeff." Tyler responded and Chloe and Lance quickly exchanged excited looks at the prospect of facing off. "There are other students competing but those are the ones that affect the students in this room."

"Well, it looks like I'm getting a chance at revenge on Martin for all the times his restrictions have screwed me over in Duel Theory." Chelsea said with a grin as she took a sip of her drink. "Glad to see Beth's up for promotion as well, at least then we won't have to walk far if either of us get in the mood for sex."

"That's provided she wins off course." Tyler pointed out and Chelsea frowned. "Besides Jeff is in the position he's in for a reason, his Gravekeeper deck is very powerful and with the new Gravekeeper cards it's even more powerful than it was in Battle City."

"That deck's even stronger? Crap, now I'm glad that I'm not facing him!" Chloe realized once she heard that and Tyler blinked. "I had an unofficial match against him just before the Battle City Semi-Finals began, it was close but he beat me."

"As for how the match came about…..I don't think Chloe would be comfortable with me discussing it with her in the room." Lance added and Chloe nodded in agreement. "To put it as simply as I can, it involved her biological dad."

"Yeah, I think I get the idea." Chelsea said as she shifted her weight. "So I'm taking on Martin, anyone know what deck he runs? The only idea I have is some kind of Chess theme and that's because I had several games of chess with him whilst you guys were looking for that thief last week, I lost all of them but still."

"No one knows because it's rare that he can find the time to duel." Tyler responded and Chelsea frowned at that. "He is known to be an excellent duelist though; he was a pro league duelist before he was hired by Kaiba."

"Okay, does anyone have any footage from his pro-league days then?" Chelsea asked and Tyler thought for a moment.

"If I where you I'd check the internet for that, there's bound to be footage of him somewhere." Tyler responded before looking up at the screen. "Anyway, it looks like the duel's about to begin."

*back at the duel field*

"Welcome back to the ninth day of the tournament!" Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd cheered. "In our next match the controversial Obelisk Blue team of Jessica Stevens and Cameron Matthews will take on Osiris Red's Keri Harmon and Lacey Morse!" Martin added and the crowd's cheers quickly turned to boos as spotlights shone on the four duelists. "Also be sure to check the website as the line-up for this Saturday's promotion duels has been announced!"

"Is this really necessary?" Jessica moaned as she and Cameron stepped onto the arena where their opponents where waiting for them. "Everyone knows we have this match in the bag!"

"Everyone thought that about their opponents in the last round and look at who we're facing!" Cameron pointed out as he stepped onto the arena and helped his girlfriend up. "Relax we'll finish them off in five turns!"

"Tell me Jessica, does he always finish that early when he's with you?" Keri asked with a smirk and Cameron blushed furiously once he realized what she was implying, back at the dorm room Chelsea, Marcus, Lance and Andreas simply started laughing hysterically when they heard that. "Besides, I think your friends made a similar boast."

"You mean FORMER friends!" Jessica said as she glared at the two girls. "I refuse to associate with anyone who is beaten by an Osiris Red Reject!"

"Then why do you hang around with Cameron and Thomas? Cameron was almost beaten by Chloe and if it weren't for that dirty trick he pulled he would've lost! Lacey chimed in and Cameron's eyes narrowed when he heard that. "Unlike Thomas, who practically handed Chloe the cards to defeat him with on a silver platter!"

"First off as far as we're concerned the duel between me and Chloe never happened." Cameron growled as he glared at the two girls. "Second, Thomas made it very clear to us that Chloe must've cheated somehow in her match with him!"

"WAIT, WHAT?!" Chloe yelled out as she pushed through the other students in the room so she could get a closer look. "Is he for real? I never cheated in my match with him!"

"First off, thanks for yelling in my ear." Lance moaned as he rubbed his ear in pain. "Second, me and Tyler where there as well, I don't know about him but all your moves in that match seemed by the book to me!"

"I agree with Lance, it seems to me that Thomas is using that as an excuse to try to save face with the other Obelisk Blue Students." Tyler responded with a nod. "It's not exactly the first time something like that has happened in fact it happened to Chelsea during her first week at the academy."

"You just had to remind me of that bullshit, didn't you?" Chelsea asked with a frown on her face. "I'll admit, I'm not exactly the most graceful loser in the school but I'll never resort to cheating even if my back's against the wall in a duel." Chelsea added before sighing. "Unfortunately despite me getting practically every other girl in the Osiris Red Dorm to back me up the technicians still had to review the footage to shut up that Obelisk Blue student."

"But not before you kicked him in the balls for putting you through that." Lance added and Chelsea nodded. "Who was it again?"

"I think it was Clement, the other friend of Cameron and Jessica's who was eliminated in the last round." Chelsea said before shaking her head. "Doesn't matter, I'm just glad that he decided to not report me for the nut-kicking incident, let's just focus on the duel!"

*back at the duel*

"Now that the argument has settled….." Martin trailed off as he cleared his throat. "The order will be as follows, Cameron, then Keri, then Jessica and then Lacey." Martin announced and the four duelists changed their positions on the arena to reflect the order. "Also, Jessica, Cameron, any derogatory remarks made towards the opponents or any slanderous remarks made about Chloe Richardson will result in your immediate disqualification, am I clear?" Martin added and Jessica went to object but Cameron stopped her and shook his head. "Good, now let the duel begin!" Martin added and the four duelists drew their opening hands.

"This will be over quickly." Cameron muttered as he drew a card and looked at it. "I activate a Spell Card called Veil of Darkness!" Cameron played the card and the Continuous Spell Card appeared on the field. "I'll get to its effect next turn but first I'll set another card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Cameron set the other two cards and Keri drew her card.

"I activate One for One! I discard one monster from my hand to Special Summon a Level One Monster from my deck!" Lacey played the card and discarded the monster from her hand, seconds later Tuningware appeared on the field (1/100/300) in defense mode and she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard without another word.

"Knowing your deck that card is likely Quilbolt Hedgehog." Cameron commented as Lacey finished shuffling her deck. "Your deck is so predictable."

"My deck is predictable yet you run a Steelswarn deck and a Burn deck respectively." Lacey commented as she rolled her eyes. "But I guess it's alright if an Obelisk Blue student uses a predictable deck! Anyway I set a card facedown and I end my turn." Lacey set the card down and Jessica drew her card.

"_There's no way I can summon Acid Golem right now." _Jessica thought with a frown as she looked over her hand. _"But I can still cause some damage!" _Jessica thought before playing a card. "I activate Wave-Motion Cannon!" Jessica announced as a large cannon appeared on the field. "But you don't have to worry about that yet, next I activate Dark Room of Nightmare!" Jessica added as the second Spell Card appeared on the field. "I set three cards facedown and end my turn."

"I bet you're glad that Heavy Storm was banned before this duel!" Keri commented as she drew her card. _"Setting five cards on the field would've been suicide back when Heavy Storm was legal, thankfully for her it's not but I picked up a few tricks from our last opponents!" _Keri thought before playing her drawn card and, to Cameron and Jessica's shock, Lonefire Blossom appeared on the field (3/500/1400).

"How did you get your hands on that card?" Jessica demanded as Keri sent Lonefire Blossom to the graveyard and once the monster's hologram shattered she started searching through her deck. "Did you steal it from Esther?"

"No!" Keri snapped at her as she played the card. "I brought it from the card shop last week after we kicked their asses! I thought it would work well in my deck! Anyway using Lonefire Blossom's effect I special summon Copy Plant!" Keri played the card and a second monster appeared on the field, this time it was a large brown humanoid that seemed to sprout up from the earth (1/0/0). "Next I activate Miracle Fertilizer! With this I can target one Plant Type Monster in my graveyard and bring it back!" Keri added as the monster returned to the field. "And whilst I'm at it I'll activate Copy Plant's effect, with it I can target one Plant Type Monster on the field and for the rest of the turn Copy Plant's level becomes equal to Lonefire's!" Keri added as Copy Plant's level increased to three.

"What's the point of all this?" Jessica asked as she looked unimpressed. "Actually, don't answer that!" Jessica said as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Secret Barrel! With this I can inflict damage to the two of you equal to the number of cards in your hand and on the field X200!" Jessica added and the two girls winced as their life-points dropped to 6700. "And don't forget about Dark Room of Nightmare! This Spell Card inflicts an extra three-hundred points of damage on top of that!" Jessica added as the two girls' life-points dropped to 6400.

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Keri set the card down and Cameron drew his card.

"Well would you look at that! I just drew a Dark Type Monster!" Cameron said before sending it to the graveyard. "And since I have Veil of Darkness in play I can send it to the graveyard to draw another card." Cameron added as he drew again. "Unfortunately that effect only applies during the draw phase but I'll make do." Cameron added before looking at his drawn card. "Now I banish the monster I just discarded, Stygian Street Patrol…. (4/1600/1200)" Cameron added as he pocketed the monster. "So that I can special summon one Fiend Type Monster with two thousand or less attack points from my hand, I summon Steelswarn Scout!" Cameron played the card and a small black insect appeared on the field that closely resembled a beetle (2/200/0).

"I think I can see where this is going." Lacey commented and Keri nodded in agreement.

"Let me show you how right or wrong you are then, I tribute Steelswarn Scout in order to summon Steelswarn Girastag to the field in attack mode!" Cameron played the card and Steelswarn Scout vanished from the field, in its place stood a massive insect like monster that was black and red in color (7/2600/0). "Before you say anything about the number of monsters I just sacrificed for his summon know this, when Girastag is tribute summoned I can treat one Steelswarn monster as the tribute!"

"Why do I get a feeling that that's not his only effect?" Keri asked and Cameron smirked.

"Your right and it costs me one-thousand life-points!" Cameron added as his life-points dropped to seven-thousand. "I target one card my opponent controls and send it to the graveyard, in exchange I will get back the 1000 points I've paid! I think I'll target Tuningware!"

"I don't think so! I discard Effect Veiler from my hand to negate that big ugly bug's effect!" Keri announced as she discarded the monster and the massive bug doubled over in pain.

"For starters, despite their appearance all of my Steelswarn monsters are fiends!" Cameron said before smirking. "But it doesn't matter, Girastag's effect may be negated but its ability to attack isn't! Girastag, attack Tuningware!" Cameron commanded and the massive bug flew towards the much smaller machine before crushing it. "Fortunately your pathetic machine monster was in defense mode because otherwise your life-points would have a large dent in them, so instead I'll end my turn." Cameron announced and Lacey drew her card.

"_Great, I have Machine Duplication but no way of adding Junk Synchron to my hand." _Lacey thought as she looked over her hand. _"My facedown card's risky but if it worked for Chloe during her expulsion duel it'll work for me!" _Lacey thought before activating her trap. "I activate Reckless Greed!"

"You have to be truly desperate to risk losing two of your draw phases for two more draws." Jessica scoffed as her own trap flipped up. "I chain Reckless Greed with my Quick-Play Spell Card Chain Strike! Since I activated this at Chain Link 2 you take 800 points of damage each!" Jessica added and the two girls winced as their life-points dropped to 5600. "Now, is there something I'm forgetting? Oh yeah, Dark Room of Nightmare's effect also kicks in!" Jessica said mockingly and the two girls winced as their life-points dropped to 5300. "You may as well give up whilst you have the chance! Our life-points are untouched and you've lost 2700 life-points each!"

"We beat your friends and we'll beat you!" Lacey said before quickly snatching up her two cards from her deck and sent her trap card to the graveyard. _"Perfect!" _Lacey thought before playing another card. "We won't have to worry about Dark Room of Nightmare anymore! I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it!" Lacey added as the storm washed over the field….

"You'd like it to be that easy, wouldn't you?" Cameron asked as his trap card flipped up. "I activate Curse of Royal! Since Mystical Space Typhoon would've destroyed Dark Room of Nightmare this negates it and destroys it!" Cameron added as the storm subsided and the Spell Card's hologram shattered.

"_Damn it! Now we'll have to put up with the extra damage for a few more turns!" _Lacey thought as she picked up the other card she had drawn. _"On the other hand if we can beat them before they can bring out Acid Golem we'll be okay!" _Lacey thought before setting the monster down. "I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown to end my turn." Lacey announced and Jessica drew her card.

"_Not something I can XYZ for Acid Golem with but still a useful card." _Jessica thought as Wave-Motion Cannon powered up. "It's been a turn since I activated Wave-Motion Cannon which means that if I send it to the graveyard now I could inflict one-thousand points of damage to you…but I won't…." Jessica said before setting her drawn card. "I set this card facedown and I end my turn." Jessica announced and Keri blinked before drawing her card.

"It's your loss." Keri responded as Copy Plant glowed again. "First I activate Copy Plant's effect, which I use to copy Lonefire Blossom's Level." Keri announced as Copy Plant's level increased to three whilst Lonefire Blossom disappeared from the field again. "I activate Lonefire Blossom's effect sending it to the graveyard so I can summon something with a bit more punch! Lord Poison!" Keri played the card and a hideous plant like being appeared on the field (4/1500/1000).

"Ugh, I've never seen something so ugly!" Jessica gagged as she stared down the monster.

"Well, it's pretty obvious that you've never looked in a mirror." Keri retorted and Jessica's jaw dropped when she heard that comment. "What's the matter? Can't handle the truth?"

"You'll pay for that comment you reject!" Jessica growled and Keri smirked.

"Yeah, this reject eliminated two of your fellow Obelisk Blue Students so I'd watch who you threw those comments around!" Keri retorted as she discarded a card. "Next I discard Pinecorno from my hand to Special Summon Acorno!" Keri played the card and an orange acorn appeared on the field before sprouting arms, legs and comically large green eyes (1/200/400).

"Cute, but I don't see the point." Cameron commented as Keri retrieved a monster from her graveyard.

"I'll show you the point! When Pinecorno is sent to the graveyard by the effect of Acorno I can Special Summon him to the field!" Keri explained as a young boy with acorn like hair appeared on the field (1/400/200).

"You're lucky I didn't draw another copy of Secret Barrel!" Jessica scoffed as she stared at the four monsters. "And I still don't see the point of it! All you've done this turn is summon four weak monsters!"

"Let me put this as simply as your tiny brain can comprehend!" Keri retorted and Jessica's eyes narrowed at that comment. "Copy Plant is a Tuner Monster! And I'm tuning all four of my monsters together!" Keri added as the four monsters leapt into the air, Copy Plant dissolved into three Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Lord Poison, Pincorno and Acorno.

"Wait, there's a Level Nine Synchro Monster?" Jessica asked and Keri chuckled as the bright flash enveloped the field.

"You're in Obelisk Blue but you don't know that whilst you call me pathetic?" Keri scoffed as she retrieved the monster and she went to make another comment but thought better of it. "I would make a joke about who you've slept with but I'd rather not get in serious trouble with the teachers! I use my monsters to Synchro Summon Mist Wurm!"

"Oh no, not that card!" Cameron realized as the monster appeared on the field, it was a massive purple worm that looked to be the size of a skyscraper (9/2500/1500).

"You had me worried for a minute but that monster's pretty pathetic for a Level 9 Monster!" Jessica scoffed as she stared down the monster. "Then again, what should I expect from an Osiris Red….."

"Jessica, shut up!" Cameron interrupted her and Jessica turned to her boyfriend in surprise. "That monster is a lot more powerful than it looks! For one thing when it's Synchro Summoned its controller can return up to three cards the opponent controls to their hand!"

"WHAT?" Jessica yelled out as it hit her.

"Your boyfriend's right Jessica, in fact we added this card to our decks to combat Cameron's Steelswarn monsters!" Lacey chimed in as the worm let out a mighty roar. "I target Cameron's monster, Dark Room of Nightmare and Wave-Motion Cannon!"

"In that case I may as well save face! I activate my trap card Fairy Wind!" Jessica announced as her facedown card flipped up. "With this I destroy all other face-up Spell and Trap cards on the field but both teams will take damage for each card destroyed times three-hundred!"

"That's nine hundred points each!" Cameron added and the four duelists winced as each Spell Card was destroyed bringing Cameron and Jessica's life-points down to 7100 whilst bringing Lacey and Keri's life-points down to 4500.

"I was saving this for when I had more cards on the field but I'll make do." Jessica added as Steelswarn Girastag disappeared from the field. "And besides, Cameron has plenty of ways to bring back his bugs!"

"Fiends….." Cameron corrected her but went ignored.

"If I where you I'd be more worried about yourself!" Keri responded before pointing to Mist Wurm. "Mist Wurm, attack her life-points directly!" Keri commanded and the massive worm charged forward before hitting her in the face bringing Jessica's life-points down to 4600. "Wouldn't exactly be the first time you've taken something that big and phallic to the face…..."

"Shut up! Shut up your fucking reject!" Jessica snapped at her before picking up a card. "That move just proves why this school would be better off without Osiris Red or Obelisk Blue! I summon Gorz the Emissary of Darkness!" Jessica played the card and the infamous warrior appeared on the field (7/2700/2500). "And since I summoned it through the battle damage effect I can summon an Emissary of Darkness Token!" Jessica added as the younger warrior appeared on the field (7/?/?) and thanks to the token's effect its attack increased to 2500. "What do you have to say about that?"

"I set a card facedown and end my turn." Keri announced and Cameron drew his card.

"Good to see that bitch being taken down a peg." Chelsea said with a grin as she watched the duel. "She may have been able to summon Gorz but if Keri's facedown card is what I think it is then they are in big trouble!"

"Agreed, but at the same time I can't help but feel that Keri took too much of a risk in that move." Tyler commented with a frown. "For starters she left two very weak monsters on the field in attack mode where they would've been better off in defense mode, was she that willing to risk the possibility of Cameron not attacking her plants?"

"Maybe she was hoping that her trap card would scare him off." Chloe chimed in whilst sharing Chelsea's grin. "But I agree Gorz is a big problem for them right now."

"I remember facing that thing in my first Orichalcos Duel." Theresa commented with a sigh. "The only reason I won is that my opponent was dumb enough to attack even though I had set a facedown card on my previous turn which ended up being Magic Cylinder, though he was kind of an idiot."

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked and Theresa sighed.

"Whilst I was looking through his cards to claim his rarest card I realized that he had drawn MST on his last turn, if he had activated it….." Theresa added before shuddering. "Let's just keep watching the duel, okay?" Theresa asked and the others nodded in agreement.

*back at the duel*

"Jessica, I need your monsters." Cameron said and Jessica nodded as Gorz and the token made their way over to his side of the field. "Gorz, attack Mist Wurm!"

"Thanks!" Keri said with a grin as her trap card flipped up. "I activate Mirror Force!"

"WHAT? NO!" Jessica yelled out as Gorz's attack was reflected back at the two monsters destroying them. "Cameron, what have you done?!"

"Leave it to me." Cameron sighed before picking up the monster he had drawn and setting it. "I set a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Cameron announced and Lacey drew her card.

"_Good, we've taken out several of their heavy hitters and if we can keep this up we can win!" _Lacey thought before frowning. _"But not THE heavy hitter, Acid Golem is still in Jessica's extra deck and if she draws into Tour Guide from the Underworld…."_ Lacey thought before shuddering and playing the card she had just drawn. "I activate Tuning! With this Spell Card I can take one Synchron Tuner Monster from my deck and add it to my hand." Lacey announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the monster she was looking for she added it to her hand and shuffled her deck before milling a card. "Bad news is that I have to mill a card from my deck afterwards."

"_Her deck runs Junk Synchron and presumably the other Synchron Monsters." _Cameron thought with a frown as she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard. _"Not exactly much of a drawback."_

"And for my normal summon I bring out Junk Synchron!" Lacey played the card and the small, cute orange robot appeared on the field (3/1300/500). "I activate his effect to Special Summon Tuningware from the graveyard!" Lacey added as the small machine returned to the field in defense mode. "And finally I activate Machine Duplication!"

"Here we go again." Cameron sighed as two more Tuningwares appeared on the field in defense mode. "You realize that summoning Junk Destroyer at this time would be a waste because we don't have many cards on our side of the field, do you?"

"I wouldn't exactly call it a waste because you still have two monsters on your side of the field!" Lacey pointed out as Junk Synchron and the three Tuningwares leapt into the air. "I tune Junk Synchron and my Tuningwares together to Synchro Summon Junk Destroyer!" Lacey announced and once the bright flash faded from the field the massive, transformer like robot appeared on the field (8/2600/2500).

"Now you'll draw three cards thanks to Tuningware." Cameron commented and Lacey nodded as she drew three cards.

"And through the effect of Junk Destroyer I destroy Cameron's facedown monsters!" Lacey announced as the robot fired its weapons at the two monsters destroying them. "Junk Destroyer, attack Cameron's life-points directly!" Lacey commanded and the robot fired its weapons at Cameron brining his life-points down to 5400. "I end my turn." Lacey announced and Jessica drew her card.

"_I need to get rid of those cards and fast!" _Jessica thought before looking at her drawn card and grinning. "If you were hoping that I wouldn't summon Acid Golem in this duel…sorry to disappoint you! I summon Tour Guide from the Underworld!" Jessica played the card and the infamous Tour Guide appeared on the field (3/1000/600). "I use her effect to summon another Tour Guide!" Jessica added as a second Tour Guide appeared on the field. "And I use them to build the Overlay Network!"

"Shit, not this again!" Lacey commented with a gulp as the Overlay Network opened up and the two Tour Guides where sucked in, seconds later the dreaded Acid Golem of Destruction appeared on the field with a roar (Rank: 3/3000/3000). "You know as well as I do that that monster's a liability as long as it's on your side of the field!"

"Oh, I know." Jessica said with a grin before playing a card. "So here's another card you'll recognize from our last tag team duel! I activate Onmi-Gami Combo!" Jessica played the card and sent the two Tour Guides to the graveyard. "And I'll chain it with Forbidden Chalice!" Jessica added as the golem grunted in pain as its attack increased to 3400.

"Even if you attack twice I still have my facedown monster!" Lacey pointed out and Jessica grinned before playing the Spell Card Nobleman of Crossout, Lacey's eyes widened as the knight charged towards her facedown monster, revealed to be another Quilbot Hedgehog, which was quickly destroyed.

"Not even your pathetic defenses can save you now! Acid Golem, attack Junk Destroyer!" Jessica commanded and the monster punched right through the robot bringing Lacey's life-points down to 3300. "Acid Golem, use your second attack to attack Lacey directly and finish her off!" Jessica commanded and the Golem threw another fist hitting the young student in the stomach and bringing her life-points down to zero. "And now for the Coup de Grace, I activate Creature Swap! I'll take Mist Wurm and you pathetic rejects take Acid Golem!" Jessica announced as the two monsters swapped places. "I end my turn but you may as well surrender!" Jessica announced and Keri drew her card and as soon as her standby phase began their life-points took a hit bringing Keri's down to 2500.

"You are nothing but a cowardly bitch! What's the matter with you? Can't beat us without forcing us into a bullshit lock? And you call us pathetic!" Keri growled as she looked over her hand which consisted of nothing but monsters that could only be Special Summoned, in other words her hand was useless due to Acid Golem's effect, Keri gritted her teeth before sighing and surrendering without another word.

"Here are the winners of the match, Jessica Stevens and Cameron Matthews!" Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd booed whilst only a few of them, namely Obelisk Blue Students, cheered. "That's all for today's duels but tune in tomorrow where we'll have two more action packed matches! First Lemuel Hicks and Kenny Maynard of Osiris Red and Ra Yellow will take on another controversial team in Rajin Kanda and Thomas Newborne!" Martin announced and the crowd's boos increased as it was obvious that Thomas's actions in the last round had not been forgotten. "After that Kimberly and Nathan Troy of Obelisk Blue will take on Sirocco Stanley of Osiris Red and Miranda Kaiba of Obelisk Blue!"

"I guess that's another pair of duels we'll be watching from this room." Chelsea commented with a frown and the others nodded in agreement. "I'm surprised that Thomas is still in the tournament after that bullshit he pulled in the last round!"

"I don't like it either Chelsea but technically he didn't break any rules." Theresa sighed in resignation as she turned to her friend. "At the moment the only way he'll get eliminated is if his team gets eliminated and we'll just have to hope that Lemuel and Kenny can do the job."

"Honestly I'm hoping they don't because I'd rather be the one who eliminates his team." Chloe admitted and Theresa turned to her. "The asshole's been claiming that I cheated in our match to win ever since I beat him so I kind of want to give his ego another kick in the nuts."

"And I'll be happy to see that happen and help you along the way." Chelsea nodded in agreement as she turned to Chloe. "So the duels are over, what are our plans now?"

"I have a class to get to." Theresa responded once she checked her time-table. "I have Duel Theory with Martin."

"I'll be joining you then." Chelsea said as she checked her time-table. "Chloe, you mind making sure that my laptop gets back to our dorm room? I don't have time to make a quick detour to the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm and the last time I left it in here it ended up being stolen."

"I'm on it." Chloe nodded and Chelsea grinned before quickly packing up her laptop and handing the bag to Chloe. "You mind if I leave it in the bag?"

"That's fine." Chelsea nodded in response as the students started leaving the dorm room. _"Have you had any progress Wattchimera?"_

"_I'm afraid not, if I find something I'll let you know." _Wattchimera answered as Chelsea left Tyler's dorm room.

*meanwhile*

"So, you say that the machine will be ready to attack Chelsea Cunningham tonight?" Victor asked Dr. Schwartz over the phone as he sat behind the desk. "Remember, this is a delicate operation and if it fails I'm holding you responsible."

"I know Victor but don't worry, I have it under control." Dr. Schwartz answered and Victor nodded. "Her soul will be ours."


	103. The Dream Calls for Blood

It had been a few hours since the Tournament Duels had ended and since most of the classes had ended for the day most of the students had returned to their respective dorms including Chelsea Cunningham.

"Chloe, are you in here?" Chelsea called out as she entered the dorm room the two girls shared, her clothes were sweaty as her last class was PE with Jeff and because of a smart ass remark she made he made her run the obstacle course twice. "Chloe?"

"Over here." Chloe responded as she got out of the bathroom. "Your laptop bag's on the coffee table and I kept an eye on it whilst you were out."

"Thanks." Chelsea answered as she started getting changed out of her clothes. "You had any trouble from Cameron, Jessica or Thomas?"

"Thankfully not, I don't think they even know where our dorm room is otherwise I think we would've had a visit by now." Chloe sighed in response as she sat down on the bed. "What about you?"

"Thomas was in Duel Theory but he kept his distance from me, not sure if he wanted to avoid trouble from Martin or getting his ass kicked by me but either way I was relieved by that." Chelsea responded as she put another top on, a Slayer top that exposed her stomach, and grabbed a pair of jeans. "Did anyone come looking for me?"

"Beth did since you didn't answer her e-mail, she left after I told her that you were in class." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded as she started unpacking her laptop. "Hu stopped by as well. Apparently you had left something behind after leaving Martin's classroom."

"I did?" Chelsea asked with a confused look and Chloe nodded. "Did he say what?"

"He said that it was a card that you forgot to pick up after losing to Theresa." Chloe said and Chelsea frowned. "You didn't take that loss well I take it?"

"Nah but since it was Theresa I lost to I kept my temper mostly in control." Chelsea said with a frown before noticing the card on top of her laptop bag. "That's the card I left I take it?"

"Yeah, that's the one." Chloe nodded as Chelsea picked up the card and, after looking at it, returned it to her deck. "What is it?"

"You didn't look?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head. "It's one of the new Watt monsters, Wattcanine." Chelsea responded as she started setting up her laptop. "I finally got my hands on it just after today's duels ended."

"Yeah I heard that there were new Watt Monsters coming out." Chloe responded as Chelsea sat down at her laptop. "Wattcanine and two others, right?"

"Three others, I should know, I've been bugging Wattchimera about them." Chelsea commented earning a confused look from her roommate. "Remember when I got my hands on Lightning Recharge right before the Expulsion Duels? Wattchimera acquired it and the other new cards in my deck for me thanks to his contacts in the spirit world, obviously the fact that they work on my duel disk means that it's worth the wait."

"Err, are you sure that's wise?" Chloe asked with a gulp. "I mean, there's still a lot we don't understand about the Duel Spirit World."

"Chloe I've been using Lightning Recharge for a couple of months now and I only just started using the other cards. If there was a problem with it I would've noticed by now." Chelsea responded as she continued to surf the internet on her laptop. "You know what? Why don't we ask our resident expert on the subject, Silent Magician?"

"I guess it's worth a shot." Chloe nodded as she closed her eyes. _"Silent Magician, are you there?"_

"_I'm always here Chloe." _Silent Magician answered. _"And I heard your conversation with your roommate Wattchimera's activities do concern me."_

"_So there is something wrong with a Duel Spirit Guide giving his/her protégé cards from the Spirit World?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician shook her head.

"_Yes and no, it's a touchy area and whilst they sometimes work fine as in Chelsea's case there have been times when something goes wrong during the transfer process." _Silent Magician answered and Chloe nodded. _"At best these incidents can cause serious injury, at worst they can kill the protégé and the spirit guide would be held responsible, however I must stress that these incidents are a rarity."_

"_Right, thanks Silent Magician." _Chloe nodded before turning to Chelsea. "Do you want the good news or the bad news?"

"Give me the bad news first." Chelsea answered and Chloe nodded.

"Okay, bad news is that there have been times when the transfer process has gone wrong, best case scenario is serious injury and I think you can guess what the worst case scenario is." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded with a shudder as she got the idea. "Good news is that they are rare."

"So as long as Wattchimera's careful I'll be okay?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shrugged.

"From the way she worded it sounded more like a case of Russian roulette with duel monsters instead of bullets." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded. "But you've been lucky so far since Wattchimera became your Spirit Guide so there is that."

"That's true, but I guess I can understand your concern." Chelsea nodded in response. "Besides, those cards have served me well since I got my hands on them and who's to say the same thing won't happen again…..you know what? I'm going to shut up before I end up jinxing myself and something like that does happen in the third round!"

"Or when you next face an Orichalcos Duelist, either way jinxing yourself is probably not a good idea." Chloe responded and Chelsea shuddered.

"Okay, I need something to take my mind of off that possibility and I'm not in the mood for a duel so I may as well do the homework Tracy gave me." Chelsea responded as she booted up her laptop and waited for it to load. "Yes, I really did just say that sentence you can pick your jaw up off the floor Chloe." Chelsea added with a grin as her roommate closed her mouth.

"Are you feeling all right? Or are you an imposter and the real Chelsea's buried alive somewhere?" Chloe asked and Chelsea laughed for a good minute at that.

"You know what? I'm not even going to answer that question!" Chelsea said once she stopped laughing and picked up her USB. "And hopefully my homework progress won't be impeded by this laptop being stolen again!"

"Well, since the technicians have that laptop and those bastards haven't tried to steal it from there yet I don't think that's going to happen." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Come to think of it, has there been any progress since we turned it over to them?"

"I've been asking Tracy about it at every opportunity." Chelsea said as she turned to her. "They've been backlogged by the actual computer problems that staff and students alike have been experiencing since then but they've made a bit of progress, she just didn't say what."

"Well, that's just great!" Chloe grunted as she folded her arms. "Did you press the issue?"

"Chloe, did you suddenly forget who you're talking too? Off course I did!" Chelsea responded with a big grin on her face. "Not that it did me any good, no matter how many times I pointed out to her that not only where students being targeted by those bastards but three students are in the infirmary as well! Not to mention the fact that Andreas got his soul stolen at the start of the Battle City Semi-Finals!"

"What about the IT Techs?" Chloe asked as she shifted her weight. "I mean, alongside making sure that the servers work properly their job is to ensure the safety of the students by maintaining the duel disks and if you ask me there's nothing more threatening than the Orichalcos!"

"I agree and that was my next stop after Tracy literally kicked me out of her office." Chelsea sighed as she turned to her roommate. "They refused to disclose the details even though we had gotten it from the Orichalcos duelists and whatever's on that thing can be crucial to bringing them down, they said that doing so would pretty much be career suicide."

"There's obviously something on that laptop that Kaiba doesn't want getting out." Chloe responded with a frown. "But we'll need that info if we are to beat them."

"The way I see it we have two options." Chelsea responded after thinking for a couple of minutes. "We are going to need that thing before we leave for Summer Break, there's no doubt about that, and as far as I'm concerned the options are either we persuade Martin to get the technicians to hand it back over to us or we do something that might result in a second expulsion duel for us, if we're lucky."

"You mean steal it?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Do I even need to say which option I prefer?"

"Nope, it's obvious that you want to steal it." Chelsea joked and Chloe rolled her eyes. "Seriously though, I think we should get Theresa and Tyler in our plan, Theresa's one of Martin's top students and Tyler's the stepson of the guy whose company funds the academy, if he'll listen to anyone it's them!"

"And given the circumstances I think Tyler won't be showing any loyalty to his dad." Chloe responded before thinking for a bit. "I think our best bet will be to ask them over the weekend since the only thing that will be taking place is the promotion duels which according to Tyler will take up the whole day including the welcome parties."

"Sounds like Sunday will be our best bet then." Chloe commented and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Think you could shoot them an e-mail about it?"

"That's just what I was thinking." Chelsea responded before she opened up her e-mails and started typing a message. "Okay, the e-mail is being sent to Tyler but I'm including Theresa's e-mail as a CC that means that it should go to both of them providing their inboxes aren't full."

"And they should hopefully reply soon." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Are they in any classes right now?" Chloe asked and Chelsea thought for a moment.

"I did see them at the main building when I was on my way back from my last lesson of the day and I said hi to them, nothing much besides that because they told me that they had a class to get too." Chelsea responded with a nod. "That was twenty minutes ago so they are probably still in class unless it got cut short for whatever reason."

"What was their class?" Chloe asked and Chelsea checked the online schedule.

"Duel Theory, yeah I don't think it's going to get cut short." Chelsea responded with a frown. "Whilst you guys where in Battle City there was a Duel Disk malfunction during Duel Theory the left a student injured, he was taken to the infirmary but the class continued."

"If Martin doesn't stop the class for that then there's nothing he'll stop it for." Chloe reasoned and Chelsea nodded. "Was he okay?"

"Minor injuries at best, mostly because I was his opponent and the duel disk malfunction happened just as I did a direct attack with Wattcobra." Chelsea responded and Chloe sweat-dropped when she heard that. "The worst part was, besides the injury that is, is the fact that it my first turn of the duel and my initial hand was crap!"

"You were using Wattcobra in an attempt to improve it?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "So what happened after that?"

"I was investigated off course." Chelsea responded with an annoyed sigh. "But I was ultimately cleared for one thing the malfunction came from my opponent's duel disk." Chelsea added as she shook her head and turned her attention back to the schedule. "Shit!"

"Is there something wrong?" Chloe asked as Chelsea hurriedly unpacked her laptop.

"You could say that! I'm ridiculously late for my IT Class!" Chelsea responded as she packed up her laptop and quickly stood up. "We'll have to continue this chat later Chloe but if you excuse me I have some running to do!" Chelsea added before she left the dorm room the two girls shared and ran down the hallway barely avoiding the other students in the process.

*meanwhile*

Whilst Chelsea hurried her way to the class that she was late to a certain group had something sinister in mind for her and the other students, namely the Orichalcos Duelists.

"Dr. Schwartz, I'm assuming that this plan of yours is going to work." Victor commented as he entered the German Scientist's laboratory with Jack and Sarah following him in. "Your experiments to date have been a failure."

"Yes I do know what I'm doing and no, I don't consider the experiments a failure." Dr. Schwartz responded as he worked at the machine. "It's all about psychological warfare these fools won't know when or how we're going to strike next until it's too late."

"The effect may be diluted with each time they manage to defeat us!" Jack pointed out with a frown. "It's already happening each time we send an agent to the damn island!"

"Yes, that is true but we haven't attacked them like this." Dr. Schwartz responded as he glanced up at the trio. "This time I'm targeting Chelsea Cunningham, I realize that she was already targeted yesterday and whilst I wasn't aware of the duel that happened last night it plays into my hand all the same." Dr. Schwartz added as he typed away at his desktop.

"She's the lesbian with the short temper, right?" Sarah asked as she approached the machine. "It should be easy enough to use against her." Sarah added and they nodded.

"If all goes to plan we'll have one less pest to deal with." Dr. Schwartz responded with a nod. "And it'll all begin tonight as soon as she retires to the bunk bed that she shares with Richardson."

"You realize that you just made it sound like she's cheating on her girlfriend with her roommate, right?" Jack asked and Sarah gave him a dirty look. "What?"

"Just shut up." Sarah grunted before storming off leaving Jack looking confused whilst Victor chatted with Dr. Schwartz.

*later that night*

"99 Mystical Sheep…..100 Mystical Sheep…..ugh, it's still not working!" Chelsea yelled out as she threw her hands up in frustration, it was late at night on Duel Academy Island and the girls had gotten their nightly dorm checks a few minutes earlier, despite that Chelsea couldn't get any sleep. "What the hell? I'm usually asleep by now!"

"Let's see, we've tried counting Mystical Sheep, listening to boring music not made by Nickleback, actually listening to Nickleback….." Chloe trailed off as she read her copy of The Lord of the Rings and Chelsea shuddered. "Hey you where the one who suggested that last one!"

"Yeah, out of desperation!" Chelsea responded as she glanced at her roommate. "Getting told off by Tracy for showing up late was bad enough but this?"

"Just be glad you weren't late for Duel Theory." Chloe responded with a grin and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Besides, I'm a bit concerned about this if I can be honest."

"Concerned about what? That I'm having trouble getting some sleep?" Chelsea asked with a raised eyebrow and Chloe shook her head. "Wait, you're talking about the dream attacks aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's right, I had trouble getting some sleep the night I was attacked and Andreas told us that the same thing happened to him." Chloe responded with a nod. "And then there's the voice you heard earlier."

"Thanks, I was hoping to forget about that." Chelsea deadpanned as she leaned back on the top bunk of the bed, neither of the two girls said anything else for a few minutes but the silence was broken was Chelsea started snoring indicating that she was asleep.

"_About time, hopefully my hunch about why she was having trouble getting to sleep was incorrect." _Chloe thought as she put a bookmark in the pages of her book and closed it before putting on the bedside table and before long Chloe was asleep as well.

*in Chelsea's dream*

"Okay, what the hell's going on?" Chelsea asked as she glanced around, her surroundings could best be described as a dark void with the only thing possessing any color being her outfit which was the same one she had worn after hey Gym Class. _"Usually I dream about one of two things, winning battle city or sex with Beth, this is just weird."_

"_Chelsea! Wake up before it's too late!" _Wattchimera's voice rang out and Chelsea looked around trying to find her Duel Spirit Guide but she had no luck.

"_Wait a minute, inability to get any sleep, dark void, a warning from my duel spirit guide…" _Chelsea's thoughts trailed off as it her like a ton of bricks. "Okay, so it's another dream duel! Bring it you bastards! I'm not scared of anything you have in store for me!" Chelsea called out to the void but no answer came, without hesitation Chelsea activated her duel disk and waited. _"Wattchimera, what's the scoop here? You have any idea what they are going to throw at me?"_

"_I'm afraid not but if you want to sort this out be my guest, I have contacted Chloe's Duel Spirit and she should be with us momentarily." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea nodded before a giant version of a Spell Card appeared on the field.

"Wait, that's one of the Spell Card's Chloe's dad used against her." Chelsea realized as she recognized the Spell Card's artwork. "Sad Story – Dreadful Day, what are they playing at?"

"_I don't know but be ready for anything!" _Wattchimera's voice responded and Chelsea nodded as the scenery changed to a living room, Chelsea quickly recognized it as the living room in her home back at Chicago and also recognized what was going on.

"This…..this is when I came out of the closet!" Chelsea realized as her eyes narrowed. "That wasn't exactly a dreadful day unless you count my dread towards how my parents would react." Chelsea added before glancing around, the scene was practically playing out the same way it did in real life as her parents where sat down on the couch whilst Chelsea and her first girlfriend, a girl called Kaylee, were sitting next to each other on a pair of seats.

"Chelsea, I know you have something to tell us but can you make it quick?" Her dad asked and Chelsea turned to her fifteen year old self, she didn't have the streaks in her hair at the point, those where added when she was sixteen, but she still had her nose piercing. "I've got places to go, we both know that."

"Okay, you guys know that I haven't exactly found Prince Charming, right?" The younger Chelsea asked and her parents nodded whilst the older Chelsea face-palmed.

"Oh god, what the hell was I thinking with that corny line?" Chelsea moaned as she watched the scene.

"Well, I've found someone else." The younger Chelsea said before glancing at Kaylee who glanced back. "And it's another girl." The younger Chelsea finished and her parent's jaws dropped in shock.

"_Okay, if I remember correctly then they should remain like this for another ten seconds before accepting my life-style choice sure my dad had problems accepting it at first but…." _Chelsea's train of thought was cut off when her mom started sobbing and her dad got angry. _"Wait, what?!"_

"How could you do this to us? We raised you better than this!" Her dad shouted at the younger Chelsea who was clearly taken aback by this. "Pack your bags! I want you and your girlfriend out of my house by tomorrow!" Her dad added and Chelsea ran up to her room crying whilst Kaylee glared at them before storming out of the house, the scenery changed back to the dark void again leaving Chelsea shocked.

"What the hell was that?!" Chelsea said after a few moments of silence. "That's…that's not how it played out at all!"

"_I don't know Chelsea but Chloe's duel spirit should be here momentarily." _Wattchimera's voice responded and Chelsea nodded before another giant version of a spell card appeared in front of her. _"It's another Sad Story card!"_

"_Yeah, Sad Story - Sorrowful Memories, I don't like this!" _Chelsea thought with a frown as the scenery changed again this time showing her parents pacing back and forth outside a door. _"That's my room all right! I'd recognize that Slayer poster anywhere!"_

"Eddy, don't you think you where harsh on her?" Her mom asked as she stopped pacing and Eddy did likewise. "It's her life-style choice and for all we know this could be just a phase she's going through."

"_Yeah, a phase that's lasted for two years and has shown no signs of slowing down." _Chelsea thought as she watched her parents talk.

"It's not just that Samantha! We are a Christian family and whilst I was willing to tolerate her listening to metal music I can't tolerate this!" Her dad responded and Samantha sighed in response. "But maybe we should talk it over with her." Her dad admitted and her mom nodded in response.

"_It's about time!" _Chelsea thought as her dad opened the door however what she saw caused her eyes to widen and water. _"No! This…..this….."_

"Chelsea! No!" Her dad yelled out in shock at the site, his daughter had hung herself using one of her belt buckles as the noose and a small stall lay to the side having been kicked away. "Samantha! Call an ambulance now!"

"_This…..this….." _Chelsea thought as she dropped to her hands and knees and started sobbing her eyes out as the scene cut to a pair of paramedics trying to revive Chelsea to no avail, eventually she clenched her fists and stood up. "THIS IS ALL A FUCKING LIE!" Chelsea yelled out and the scene shattered into a million pieces, Chelsea took several deep breaths as she wiped the tears from her eyes. _"Those bastards have crossed the line!"_

"_I can't help but agree!" _Wattchimera's clearly disgusted voice rang out before they heard a pair of footsteps approaching them. _"Chelsea, you must wake up now! You're in no condition to duel!"_

"_I can handle whatever they throw at me!" _Chelsea asserted as she took another deep breath and waited for whoever was going to emerge from the void, however nothing could prepare her for what she saw next. "What the fuck….."

The figure that emerged from the void was easy enough to identify, it was Chelsea or rather the younger version that had committed suicide moments ago, her body was clearly decaying and her clothes where tattered but most shocking off all was her head as the neck was broken apparently from the hanging, her hair was tattered and her eyes where bloodshot with a cold, dead look in her eyes. "I've been waiting for you Chelsea."

"_That voice…..it's the same one I heard earlier….." _Chelsea realized as her eyes widened. "What…..what do you want?!"

"I want to kill you." The younger Chelsea answered as a duel disk appeared on her arm, it didn't take Chelsea long to recognize it as it was her first ever duel disk which, like it's owner, was showing signs of rust on the body. "We will duel right now! Whoever wins survives to live another day!"

"And if I refuse?" Chelsea asked with a gulp and the younger Chelsea grinned before snapping her fingers. "What the….." Chelsea's expletive was cut off as a long, iron linked chain shot out from the darkness and wrapped it's self around her neck, she struggled to breath for a few minutes eventually dropping to her knees before the younger Chelsea snapped her fingers again causing the chain to unwrap itself and retreat into the darkness. "Strangulation, is that really the best you've got?"

"I never said that you would die like that, next time the chain won't unwrap it's self instead dragging you off to the creatures on the other end and…..let's just say that the beings in this void are a lot less merciful than I am!" The younger Chelsea answered as Chelsea got back to her feet glaring daggers at the being in front of her.

"_Wattchimera, what's the ETA on Silent Magician's arrival?" _Chelsea asked as she forced herself to her feet.

"_I do not know." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea frowned at that. _"Be careful Chelsea, this being is a lot more dangerous than she looks."_

"_No fucking shit!" _Chelsea snapped at her duel spirit before drawing her opening hand and the being did likewise. "What the hell am I supposed to refer to you as anyway? You're definitely not me for starters!"

"What makes you so sure?" The being asked and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"Because no matter how tough things get for me suicide is the last thing I'd ever consider!" Chelsea responded with a glare and the being remained silent for a few moments.

"Aelsehc," The being answered and Chelsea blinked. "It's your name with the words switched around much like I am you if your parents didn't accept your homosexuality! I can't think of a more fitting name, can you?"

"Yeah I'm just going to call you Ael rather than try to pronounce that." Chelsea responded a deadpan expression on her face and Ael said nothing before drawing her opening hand.

"Call me whatever you like! This night, you die!" Ael answered as she drew her opening card.

"_I'm not even sure how that decaying arm of hers is holding up that duel disk but I guess she's making the first move!" _Chelsea thought as Ael set the card she had drawn face down on the field.

"I end my turn with this facedown card!" Ael announced and Chelsea blinked before drawing her card.

"_One trap and no monsters, either she has something like Gorz in her hand or that facedown card is something that can negate Battle Damage." _Chelsea thought with a frown before looking at her drawn card. _"Okay, I have Beckoning Light, A/D Changer and Electromagnetic Turtle in my hand, with any luck I'll be able to pull off the same combo I used in the tag team duel!" _Chelsea thought before playing a card. "I summon Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the card and the electric colored snake appeared on the field (4/1000/100). "At this point I'd normally explain that Wattcobra can attack directly even with a monster on your side of the field but…..you don't have any and I just explained it anyway, Wattcobra, attack!"

"I already knew about that monster's effect, not that it'll help you!" Ael responded as her trap card flipped up.

"Defense Draw, I should've known!" Chelsea responded with a frown as Wattcobra bit onto Ael's arm but she took no damage, Wattcobra tried to let go but instead ended up ripping off a piece of flesh. "WHAT THE FUCK?" Chelsea yelled out as Wattcobra quickly spat out the piece of flesh and jumped back to Chelsea's side of the field.

"Oh, did I forget to mention that this is a shadow game?" Ael asked sarcastically as she drew a card thanks to Defense Draw. "The rules of this game are simple every time we take an attack we get injured."

"Don't tell me, when our life-points hit zero we'll die?" Chelsea asked with a nervous gulp and Ael shook her head.

"No, but you'll wish you were dead." Ael answered as she pointed to the dark void. "Trust me you don't want to know what the creatures that lurk in the void do to their victims, especially female victims."

"What about you?" Chelsea asked as her eyes narrowed and Ael laughed, it wasn't exactly a pleasant laugh either as it was the kind that sent a shiver up Chelsea's spine.

"You can't kill what's already dead." Ael stated matter of factly with a devilish smirk that unnerved Chelsea to no end.

"I….I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Chelsea set the two cards down and Ael said nothing as she drew another card. _"I listen to death and thrash metal on a daily basis and I'm a big horror movie fan, hell I met Beth thanks to our mutual love for the Horror Genre…" _Chelsea thought before shuddering. _"But that…thing is way scarier than any horror movie villain!"_

"_Don't let her get to you Chelsea! She may be scary to look at but no-one is unbeatable!" _Wattchimera encouraged her and Chelsea grit her teeth.

"I activate a Spell Card, Pot of Forbidden Spells!" Ael played the card which depicted Exodia, the Forbidden One reaching for the Pot of Greed. "With this Spell Card all I need to do is discard one Spell Card at random from my hand….." Ael added before discarding a spell card. "And I get to draw three cards."

"Yet another broken card, why am I not surprised?" Chelsea asked before flipping up one of her trap cards. "I chain it with Beckoning Light! I toss the rest of my hand….." Chelsea trailed off as she discarded the three cards in her hand. "And I get a fresh start!" Chelsea added before drawing three cards at the same time as Ael.

"Don't think you're going to get off that easy!" Ael scoffed before looking at one of her drawn cards. "I summon Berserk Gorilla!" Ael played the card and the large, angry gorilla appeared on the field (4/2000/1000). "Berserk Gorilla, attack Wattcobra!" Ael commanded and the gorilla let out an angry howl before charging at Wattcobra…..

"I activate the effect of Electromagnetic Turtle from my graveyard!" Chelsea responded as she retrieved the monster from her graveyard and pocketed it. "By removing it from play during the same turn that it's sent to the graveyard I can end the battle phase just like….." Chelsea trailed off as she went to snap her fingers but stopped herself short.

"You're worried that you will signal the beings of the void, aren't you?" Ael asked and Chelsea gritted her teeth before nodding. "Don't be, only I can do that, as a demonstration….."

"Oh fuck, not this again!" Chelsea moaned as Ael snapped her fingers and the chain shot out, this time it didn't wrap around her neck for very long as Ael ordered it to let go after a few minutes. "I'm not complaining but….." Chelsea said in between deep breaths. "Why even bother with the duel? Why not have the creatures just use the chain and drag me off to whatever horrible fate they have in store for me that I'm sure I've seen in one of my many horror films?"

"Don't push your luck." Ael responded with a sadistic grin. "You want to know the real reason? I like to watch my opponents squirm! And another thing, don't even bother comparing what the creatures have in store for you to what Hollywood churns out every Halloween, not even the Saw franchise can match what they do to female victims!"

"I'm not even a fan of the Saw franchise!" Chelsea responded before retrieving another monster from the graveyard. "And speaking of monsters I activate A/D Changer's effect from the graveyard! With this I force Berserk Gorilla into defense mode!"

"And thanks to Berserk Gorilla's effect it gets destroyed!" Ael responded as the Gorilla shattered into pieces. "But what if I told you that I wanted that to happen?"

"Don't tell me…." Chelsea trailed off as Ael's life-points dropped to 7000 and another piece of flesh dropped off, soon afterwards Green Baboon, Defender of the Forrest appeared on the field in Berserk Gorilla's place (7/2600/1800). "Are you copying Andreas's deck or something?"

"Oh please, you acting like he's the only one who ever thought about including Green Baboon and his counterparts in a Beast Deck!" Ael said as she rolled her eyes, literally into the back of her head before they were reset. "But no, I'm not, you'll see soon enough! I set one card facedown and end my turn." Ael set the card down and Chelsea drew her card.

"_She's not running a beast deck despite the fact that she's running Green Baboon and Berserk Gorilla, so what the hell is she running?" _Chelsea thought with a frown before looking at her drawn card. _"Maybe she's running an Exodia variant? Two of her cards so far have been drawing cards and she's gone out of her way to make sure that she has a monster on the field, well two can play at that game!" _Chelsea thought before setting her drawn card in defense mode. "I set a monster in defense mode! Now Wattcobra, as much as I'll end up regretting the results, attack her life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the cobra hesitated before leaping towards Ael…

"I activate my trap card Spirit Barrier!" Ael activated the trap and Chelsea's eyes widened as Wattcobra bounced off of the force-field. "Ah yes Chelsea, I had the foresight to include the one card that is considered to be the bane of the existence of every duelist who runs Watt Monsters."

"Just because you run it doesn't mean you'll beat me!" Chelsea asserted with a growl. _"Damn it, if I had used Trap Stun before attacking then I would be at an advantage!" _Chelsea thought as she looked at her facedown card. "Do you worse!" Chelsea taunted her and Ael grinned before drawing her card. _"Wattchimera, Silent Magician's ETA would be really handy right now!"_

"_I know Chelsea and as soon as I know you'll know." _Wattchimera responded and Chelsea bit her lip as Ael looked over her hand. _"I must say, you've been taking this whole thing really well."_

"_I've been taking it as well as a seventeen year old lesbian can take the site of a zombiefieid version of herself complete with a broken fucking neck after seeing her commit suicide!" _Chelsea responded as Ael played a card and a monster she recognized appeared on the field. "Alexandrite Dragon?" Chelsea asked as she stared at the dragon (4/2000/100). "Don't tell me you're actually running my old beatdown deck?"

"I'm running an improved version of it you never had cards like Green Baboon or Spirit Force in it!" Ael corrected her and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah because when I was fifteen those cards where really fucking expensive!" Chelsea snapped at her and Ael said nothing in response. "You know, I had my doubts but this seals it for me! You're working with the Orichalcos Duelists aren't you?"

"I guess the cat's out of the bag." Ael said with a sinister smirk. "If you think this is bad just wait until you see what they have in mind for your roommate and Nicola!"

"Leave Nicola out of this you bitch!" Chelsea snapped at her as her eyes narrowed. "Not only is she innocent but she's autistic for fuck's sake! Is there no low you won't stoop too?" Chelsea added with an angry growl Ael grinned.

"Am I not living proof of the fact that the answer's no?" Ael asked and Chelsea's eyes narrowed even further. "That's a trick question off course! After all, it implies that I'm still alive!"

"You're not dead either! You're just a figment of my imagination!" Chelsea snapped at her before getting an idea and grinning. "In fact I have a solution to this! I'll just imagine you away!" Chelsea said before closing her eyes for a few moments and concentrating really hard, however a sharp pain in her head broke her concentration and caused her to fall to her knees.

"You honestly thought that would work? Please, not even a vivid horror fan like you has this twisted an imagination and even if you had there are forces at work here that you can't understand!" Ael answered with a scoff before pointing to her monsters. "Kill her monsters now!" Ael commanded and Green Baboon charged towards Wattcobra before squashing it with his club bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 6400 whilst Alexandrite Dragon incinerated her facedown Magician of Faith (1/300/200). "Before you even think about using your magician's effect, take a moment to look at your right arm!"

"Huh?" Chelsea asked before looking at her arm, indeed there was a large gash on her arm presumably from the two attacks. "You think that's supposed to scare me?" Chelsea said defiantly as she got back to her feet and retrieved a Spell Card from her graveyard which she had discarded for Beckoning Light. "I'm a girl who put up with bruised ribs and having my arm broken on my third day in juvenile hall! So no, this doesn't concern me!" Chelsea added before tearing off a piece of her shirt and using it as a makeshift bandage.

"No but I can think of one way to scare you." Ael answered before motioning around her. "Remember the beasts? By now they've had a good look at your body and they like what they see."

"You couldn't get me interested in those…..things if you offered me a million dollars and every duel monster card in existence!" Chelsea interrupted her as her eyes narrowed.

"How cute, you think they care about your opinion." Ael answered back with a sadistic grin. "You're not exactly their first female victim Chelsea and let me tell you, once they get ahold of you the only time you'll stop screaming is either when you wreck your vocal cords or when they rip them out, they haven't had a female victim in a long time so you're out of luck there!" Ael answered before picking up a card. "But that's enough stalling! I set this facedown and end my turn." Ael announced and Chelsea quickly drew her card.

"_Wattchimera, can't you do something about those things?" _Chelsea asked as she casted a worrying glance towards the area behind her, she couldn't see the creatures but she could hear them and what she heard sounded terrifying.

"_If I could have done something I would've done it from the moment she first had them use that chain on you." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea frowned as she drew her card not liking that answer one bit. _"Remember, you may be behind on life-points but you're not out of it yet!"_

"_Damn right I'm not!" _Chelsea responded before playing the Spell Card she retrieved last turn which depicted a thunderbolt coming down from the heavens. "I activate Gift from Zeus! At the moment I have three light type monsters in my graveyard which means that I can use this to shuffle them back into my deck." Chelsea responded before taking the cards and shuffling them into her deck. "And as an added bonus I get to draw two cards." Chelsea added before drawing her cards. _"Oh yeah, that's the ticket!"_

"What are you up too now?" Ael asked impatiently and Chelsea grinned.

"I'll show you! First I activate my Trap Card Trap Stun!" Chelsea activated the trap and Ael's eyes widened as electricity washed over Spirit Barrier. _"Her other facedown's a Spell Card? It's probably a Quick Play." _Chelsea thought as she sent her Trap Card to the graveyard. "And now that the path has been cleared I summon Wattcobra back to the field!" Chelsea played the card and the electric colored snake returned to the field.

"As predictable as ever I see!" Ael scoffed and Chelsea's eyes narrowed before she turned to her monster.

"Wattcobra, I don't like this as much as you don't but I need you to attack her directly to get the lead." Chelsea explained to him and the snake nodded before leaping over her monsters and biting Ael, once again removing some of the decaying flesh and bringing her life-points down to 6000. "I set two cards facedown and I call it a turn at that." Chelsea set the card down and Ael drew her card. _"She didn't activate her facedown card, I don't like this."_

"_Yes and neither do I." _Wattchimera agreed with her as Ael added her drawn card to her hand.

"Why waste any time? Alexandrite Dragon, take out that Cobra!" Ael commanded and the dragon did just that incinerating the cobra and bringing Chelsea's life-points down to 5400. "Now I could just attack and be done with it…..but where would the fun be in that? I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Rush Recklessly!"

"Oh shit!" Chelsea winced as Green Baboon's attack shot up to 3300.

"Don't worry it'll be over soon, your suffering on the other hand?" Ael said before grinning sadistically. "It'll begin as soon as the chain wraps around your neck! Green Baboon, attack her life-points directly!" Ael commanded and the baboon raised its club high before slamming it down, Chelsea rose her drawing arm instinctively but that proved to be a big mistake because as soon as the club connected with her arm a sickening crack echoed through the void and Chelsea cried out in pain as her arm fell limp bringing her life-points down to 2100 and causing her to drop her hand. "Well, it seems like I won't have to attack again to defeat you."

"_Wattchimera, what's the damage report?" _Chelsea asked as she clenched her limp arm in pain and fell to her knees. _"It doesn't feel broken!"_

"_It's not but I can confirm that the attack dislocated your shoulder." _Wattchimera answered and Chelsea grunted as she gritted her teeth in pain. _"Any other time I'd recommend surrender….."_

"_And that's what she wants! Besides I'm sure the pain I'm in right now will be nothing compared to the pain I'd suffer if I'm dragged off towards those things!" _Chelsea thought before getting an idea, she removed her good arm from her blazer and bit into the sleeve as she moved her hand into position. _"This is gonna suck!" _Chelsea thought before popping her shoulder back into place with a muffled cry, she took several deep breaths before forcing herself back to her feet and giving her arm a shake to check that she could use it before gathering up her cards and returning her arm to her blazer.

"How the hell are you still standing?" Ael demanded as Chelsea activated her traps.

"I'm still standing because I refuse to lose like that! I activate my trap cards Shock Draw and Damage Condenser!" Chelsea activated her traps and drew four cards before discarding one of them to the graveyard and summoning Wattcobra back to the field. "As long as I have life-points left I will fight to the end! I won't be defeated by you, you cu….." Chelsea was cut off as the chain wrapped around her neck again.

"Finish that sentence and I'll win this match by technicality, the technicality being that my opponent was subjected to a horrible fate at the hands of the beasts of the void!" Ael warned her as the chain unwrapped and retreated back into the void and Chelsea took several deep breaths. "I end my turn." Ael announced and Chelsea drew her card as soon as she was back on her feet.

"_If I take one more attack like that and I won't get a chance to pop my shoulder back into place, hell my shoulder would probably be devoured by one of those beasts in a few hours!" _Chelsea thought with a gulp before looking at her drawn card. _"Perfect!" _Chelsea thought before picking up the card. "I summon the tuner monster Wattfox!" Chelsea played the card and the monster appeared on the field. "Next, I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Chelsea announced and Ael said nothing before drawing her card.

"Just to prolong your suffering I activate Upstart Goblin!" Ael played the card and Chelsea sighed in relief as her life-points increased to 3100 whilst Ael drew a card. "I summon Enraged Battle Ox to the field!" Ael added as the angry Minotaur appeared on the field (4/1700/1000). "Alexandrite Dragon, Enraged Battle Ox, kill her monsters!" Ael commanded and the two monsters prepared their attacks…..

"Gotcha, activate Trap Card Mirror Force!" Chelsea activated her trap and Ael's eyes widened as the attacks were reflected back at her three monsters destroying them all one by one. "You may be running my old deck but from where I stand you don't even have a fraction of my skill!" Chelsea added with a grin on her face as Ael glared daggers at her. "I'm turning this duel around whether you like it or not!"

"Just take your turn already!" Ael demanded and Chelsea drew her card. _"It doesn't matter what she does, I have more than one way to bring back Green Baboon in this deck and as long as Spirit Barrier is on the field she can't touch me with her Watt Monsters."_

"Sorry to disappoint you Ael but your Baboon isn't coming back!" Chelsea said as she played a card. "I activate Gravedigger Ghoul! This may be an old card but I included it to get around cards just like Green Baboon, so I select Green Baboon and Berserk Gorilla and remove them both from play!" Chelsea added and Ael tossed the cards aside. "Huh, normally I just pocket them."

"Do I look like I have pockets?" Ael asked as she motioned to her outfit which was completely devoid of pockets however Chelsea could not bear to stare at her decaying body for more than a few minutes before shaking her head.

"Forget I said that!" Chelsea added with a shudder as she pointed to her monsters. "Guys, I don't like this either but it's this or…." The sounds from the bests rang out again and she shuddered, that was all the monsters needed as motivation as the two monsters charged at Ael before hitting their attacks causing more damage to her and bringing her life-points down to 4200 and once Chelsea resolved Wattcobra's effect she activated another trap. "Now I activate another trap card! My old favorite Urgent Tuning!" Chelsea activated the trap and the two monsters leapt into the air, minutes later Wattchimera appeared on the field ready for battle (6/1400/1200).

"Chelsea, are you hurt?" Wattchimera asked and Chelsea took a couple of deep breaths before shaking her head.

"My arm hurts like hell but I'll survive!" Chelsea responded with a nod as she activated her third and final trap. "And now to take out that pain in the ass trap card of yours, I activate my last trap card! Go Judgment of Thunder! My target is Spirit Barrier!" Chelsea announced as lightning struck the trap card's hologram destroying it. "Get her Wattchimera!" Chelsea commanded and the monster leapt towards her before slashing her with his claw bringing her life-points down to 2800. "And now I have you where I want you!"

"What do you mean?" Ael asked as more skin rotted away and Chelsea's grin.

"Here are the facts, each time Wattchimera successfully pulls off a direct attack his effect activates which moves one card from your hand to the top of your deck!" Chelsea added and Ael's eyes widened as she moved a card. "And that means I have you in a loop!"

"I think the pain's getting to your mostly empty head!" Ael snapped at her and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"I've been paying attention to your moves Ael and let me tell you something! Whenever you summoned another monster it was always fresh of your deck, Berserk Gorilla, Green Baboon, Alexandrite Dragon, Enraged Battle Ox, all of them where fresh draws!" Chelsea responded with a grin. "You know what that tells me? The rest of your cards are either high level monsters that lack Green Baboon's effect or they are all cards that you can't use, admit it!"

"I'll never admit that!" Ael snapped at her and Chelsea grinned.

"That's all the confirmation I need!" Chelsea responded as Ael glared at her. "Off course you could surrender!"

"NEVER!" Ael shouted at her and Chelsea's grin grew wider.

"Then take you turn!" Chelsea responded and Ael drew her card but had to pass, the loop continued for two more turns and as more rotting flesh fell off the angrier Ael get until her life-points dropped to zero. "You know what Ael? For all your fucked up imagery and your sadistic streak, underneath all that you're just a mediocre duelist who relied too much on a single card." Chelsea said as she glared at her. "And now that I've beaten you you'll disappear like the rest!"

"I don't think so!" Ael shouted out before snapping her fingers one final time and the chain shot out again, this time it didn't choke Chelsea instead dragging her back towards the darkness. "I never intended to let you live Chelsea!"

"You…..bitch!" Chelsea managed to blurt out as she was dragged towards the darkness, she tried to resist but whoever was pulling her was too strong, she looked behind she saw several sinister looking sets of red eyes in the darkness which she quickly identified as the beasts. _"Shit! Shit! I'm not going out like this! I'm not!"_

"BEASTS BEGONE!" And with that loud shout a flash of light hit all off the beasts and they screamed in pain before disappearing and the chain stopped pulling Chelsea, seconds later the chain was snapped and Chelsea looked up to see her savior. "Chelsea, I'm sorry I couldn't arrive sooner." Silent Magician said as she helped her up.

"What…..what did you just do!?" Ael yelled out as she stared at the magician.

"I killed the Beasts of the Void and quite frankly it should've been done long ago." Silent Magician said as she glared at Ael before pointing her staff at her. "No creatures that sadistic or bloodthirsty should be allowed to roam this earth or any other planet, and that goes for you as well."

"Wait….." Ael pleaded but it was no use as Silent Magician killed her with a blast from her staff disintegrating her.

"So, what was she exactly?" Chelsea asked once she caught her breath.

"She was an evil spirit that wonders the globe looking for troubled teenagers to target they bring out their worst fears and make them a reality." Silent Magician said as she turned to Chelsea. "Whoever is orchestrating these dream duels must've gotten in contact with one of them and a deal must've been struck."

"Look, as long as I don't experience that ever again I'm not complaining." Chelsea said before glancing towards the void. "And those beasts…."

"They were as terrible as she described, I rarely agree with one of those beings but you don't want to know the extent of their cruelty." Silent Magician explained and Chelsea shuddered. "As for what they did to female victims, obviously there are firsthand accounts as the only ones who have ever seen them are their victims but they do have a particular taste for female victims."

"And that's all I want to know." Chelsea responded with a shudder. "But still, what I saw before the duel? That's was some really fucked up shit!"

"You're referring to the visions." Silent Magician responded and Chelsea nodded. "Let me help." Silent Magician said as she casted a spell and a third massive version of the Sad Story Spell Cards appeared in front of them.

"Sad Story - Unwavering Truth? No thanks, I've had enough of those Spell Cards." Chelsea said as she folded her arms before realizing something. "My arm, it's…."

"Not hurting as much?" Silent Magician asked and Chelsea nodded. "When I saw the extent of your injuries I casted a healing spell on you, give it until tomorrow the pain should pass."

"Even my dislocated shoulder?" Chelsea asked and Silent Magician nodded. "So why haven't you used this on Chloe's scars?" Chelsea asked and Silent Magician sighed.

"I'd love too, I really would, but unfortunately the spell is most effective on recent injuries like yours rather than old injuries like hers." Silent Magician responded and Chelsea sighed to herself. "I'm afraid that it would have little to no effect on her."

"Can't blame me for asking I guess, so what about the vision?" Chelsea asked and Silent Magician nodded.

"Give it a few seconds." Silent Magician answered as the scene cut to one that she quickly recognized as it was the moment when she came out of the closet for the first time to her parents. "I'm aware that Ael as you know her used a twisted version of this memory against you."

"Yeah, she…..it did….." Chelsea trailed off before turning to Silent Magician. "Do those things even have genders?"

"Technically they don't but they often adopt the appearance of their target when attacking." Silent Magician added and Chelsea looked at her curiously. "Not many people have seen their true forms, not even myself." Silent Magician added as the scene played out up until Chelsea came out of the closet, the original point of deviation.

"Are you certain that this is what you want Chelsea?" Her mom asked and the younger Chelsea nodded without hesitation. "Are you sure that you not only to date someone so soon after breaking up with Drake but to date another girl?"

"I'm certain mom." Chelsea nodded as she started holding Kaylee's hand. "I didn't rush into anything with Kaylee as I've known her for a while now we only made it official last week."

"I'm a bit uneasy with it if I can be honest." Her dad answered and Chelsea and Kaylee exchanged uneasy looks. "But if it makes you happy then I won't stop you, just be sure to adopt a child once you and your partner are old enough, we still want grandkids from both you and Jamie!"

"You got it dad." Chelsea said happily and Kaylee nodded in agreement before the vision disappeared just as the two women kissed.

"Oh man, I needed that." Chelsea sighed in relief as she turned to Silent Magician. "Thanks for that, I don't even want to think about what would've happened if you hadn't arrived when you did."

"Chelsea, Chloe may be my protégé but I'm also the most powerful Spellcaster of the group, trust me, the pleasure is all mine." Silent Magician assured her and Chelsea grinned at that. "You should be waking up soon but you will need to tell the others as soon as possible, this kind of attack can't go ignored."

"I definitely agree there." Chelsea said with a nod as she started walking towards the spot she had started from. "I just hope that this won't happen again!" Chelsea added and Silent Magician nodded before a bright flash enveloped the scenery.

*in the real world*

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Chelsea yelled out as she shot up in bed, she looked around the room and confirmed that she was back in her dorm room safe and sound, well besides the fact that she was aching all over. "Oh man, oh man, that was fucked up….." Chelsea added with a shudder.

"Chelsea, what the hell," Chloe's clearly tired voice rang out and Chelsea leaned over seeing her roommate sitting up in her bed. "Do you have any idea what time it is!?"

"No but I'm guessing it's late." Chelsea responded with a shudder and Chloe quickly caught on.

"You were attacked in a dream?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded, she was clearly shaking and this worried Chloe. "This wasn't the kind of attack that I and Andreas suffered through, was it?"

"Trust me, it wasn't." Chelsea responded as she took a deep breath. "I need to tell the others, you included, but I don't want to give you nightmares either."

"Tell me in the morning then, in fact it might be best if we talk about it when we meet up with the others for the Tag Duels in Tyler's dorm room." Chloe responded as she leaned back on her bed. "I know it's hard, but try to get some sleep."

"Yeah, I'll try." Chelsea responded with a nod before leaning back in her bed.


	104. Day Ten Friend and Foe

It was the morning after yesterday's tag team duels and, most importantly, Chelsea's nightmare/dream duel that very nearly ended in her gruesome death if it weren't for the intervention of Chloe's duel spirit guide, Chloe was just waking up herself and since neither of the two girls had classes until after the tournament duels which were taking place in the early afternoon they figured that they could use the sleep in.

"Chelsea, are you awake?" Chloe called out to the top bunk of bunk bed that they shared but got no answer, she climbed up to the top bunk but saw that it was empty besides Chelsea's side deck. _"She probably woke up earlier than I did and decided to go for a walk." _Chloe thought as she hopped off the ladder to the top bunk. _"Based on what I saw off her last night I can't blame her."_

"You called?" Chelsea's voice rang out and Chloe nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard her roommate's voice, she looked up and saw her standing by the door to the en-suite bathroom they shared with a towel wrapped around her naked body and her hair was soaking wet, it didn't exactly take Chloe long to figure out what she had been doing. "Sorry, I felt I needed a shower after last night's nightmare."

"It was that bad, huh?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Worse, I know DA's rules prohibit underage drinking but fuck it! I need a strong drink after that." Chelsea sighed in response before using another towel to dry off her hair. "We haven't gotten any noise complaints yet?"

"If we did we probably slept through them." Chloe responded with a shrug as she started getting dressed. "At least you seem to be doing better than you where after you woke up last night."

"Just be glad you didn't see me when I initially woke up this morning." Chelsea responded as she turned away from Chloe to give her some privacy. "No matter what I wouldn't stop shivering, even with the window and door closed."

"The dream was that scary?" Chloe asked as she selected a black crop top and jeans and Chelsea nodded as she put the clothes on. "You thought about telling the teachers?"

"And say what? That I had a really bad nightmare?" Chelsea asked as she started picking out her clothes whilst Chloe put on her blazer. "Chloe, I'm seventeen! Not five years old!"

"But we both know that it wasn't a simple nightmare, for one thing you would've walked it off by now if it was." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea sighed in resignation once she realized that Chloe had a point. "Now don't get mad but I used your laptop earlier."

"Wait, what?" Chelsea asked as she span around. "Chloe, two things, what does that have to do with the nightmare and how the hell did you manage to guess one of my passwords?"

"One of your passwords was Slayer." Chloe responded with a deadpan expression on her face and Chelsea face-faulted.

"I knew I should've changed that damn password!" Chelsea grunted in annoyance as she got up. "Okay, what did you see and, once again, what does this have to do with the nightmare?"

"Relax I didn't go into your files, just my e-mail account." Chloe reassured her and Chelsea sighed in relief. "I e-mailed the others telling them that you were attacked in a nasty dream duel and that you wanted to go into detail when we meet up to watch the tournament duels later, I didn't ask because I didn't want to wake you up."

"Okay, that's a bit better." Chelsea sighed as she got dressed. "Did I have any e-mails waiting for me in my inbox and spam folders?"

"Didn't see any but that was two hours ago." Chloe responded as she motioned to the set up laptop. "I haven't looked at them since."

"I'll check before we head over to Tyler's dorm room." Chelsea responded as she walked over to the laptop. "But seriously, as soon as we're promoted to Ra Yellow I'm doing two things, asking the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm headmistress if we can room together again and getting you set up on the desktop so you at least have decent knowledge of computers and what not."

"Tell me about it, when I accessed my Duel Academy e-mail address I had at least two hundred unread e-mails waiting for me." Chloe responded and Chelsea looked at her curiously. "Not kidding and most of them where from male students who likely didn't realize that I've never used a computer before and that it would've been easier to come up to me."

"Chloe, take it from me, most boys are too embarrassed to even consider talking to a pretty girl let alone one with your good looks." Chelsea responded as she shook her head and accessed her e-mails. "Oh, Chloe, you forgot to log out."

"Wait, seriously?" Chloe asked as she walked up. "I thought I had."

"Don't sweat it, even I make that mistake from time to time." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders before hitting the log out button and entering her e-mail address and password which Chloe turned her attention away from the laptop for, whilst Chelsea checked her e-mails there was a knock at the door. "Great, it's probably a noise complaint!"

"Let me handle it." Chloe assured her and Chelsea nodded as Chloe answered the door finding their next door neighbor Nicola standing there. "Good morning Nicola."

"Morning Chloe, is Chelsea awake?" Nicola asked and Chloe nodded.

"Yeah, she's just checking her e-mails." Chloe responded as Chelsea leaned over and waved to Nicola who waved back. "What's up?"

"Look, I don't like getting your guys in trouble or anything….." Nicola trailed off and the two girls winced knowing where this was going. "But I heard Chelsea screaming last night around 3:00am, the kind of scream that you'd normally hear in a horror movie when a victim's about to be killed, I even asked around to confirm if it was my imagination before coming here and some of the other girls heard it as well so we kind off filed a noise complaint with Maria."

"Great, this exactly what I DON'T need going into my promotion duel tomorrow!" Chelsea moaned as she messaged her temples in annoyance. "Why didn't you guys ask what I was screaming about first?"

"I suggested that but we weren't sure if you and Chloe were still asleep or not." Nicola responded and Chloe shook her head.

"When did you start asking around exactly?" Chloe asked and Nicola thought for a moment.

"About ten minutes ago, give or take, and we filed the complaint five minutes later." Nicola responded and Chloe nodded.

"I was asleep and I think Chelsea was in the shower." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded to confirm that. "Look, the long and short of it is this, Chelsea had a really nasty nightmare last night that woke her up."

"It woke her up with a scream loud enough to be heard by several students?" Nicola asked and Chelsea nodded.

"Trust me you really don't want to know the details." Chelsea responded before sighing. "Let me guess, Maria wants me to talk to her as soon as possible?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Nicola responded with a nod and Chelsea moaned. "She assured us that you won't be in any trouble and that she just wanted to make sure that you were all right."

"Fine but if I see Martin in the room with her I'm out of there!" Chelsea responded as she checked the last of her e-mails and logged off. "Chloe, the tournament duels should be starting soon so I'll meet you at Tyler's dorm room, okay?"

"Will do, I'll let them know what's happening." Chloe responded with a nod as Chelsea stood up after logging out of her laptop, Nicola and Chloe stood aside to let her pass and Chelsea walked off. "Were you off too now?"

"The main duel arena for the same reasons you guys are heading to Tyler's dorm room." Nicola responded and Chloe nodded in response. "I get that you don't exactly like Cameron, Jessica and Thomas but refusing to go to the duel arena because of that?"

"I don't blame you for not understanding, the incident with Cameron happened right after I came back from Battle City and the incident with Thomas a couple of days after that." Chloe explained and Nicola nodded. "You remember the incident with my dad back at Battle City?"

"How could I forget that?" Nicola asked with a shudder. "What about it?"

"I was in a duel with Cameron and I was this close to winning, then he insulted my mom." Chloe responded and Nicola frowned when she realized what she was talking about. "To make matters worse I turned off the safeties on my duel disk immediately afterwards and got caught before I could fire off an attack."

"Okay, yeah, that is pretty bad." Nicola winced in response and Chloe nodded in agreement. "What about Thomas?"

"I fought him during my first class back from Battle City, namely Duel Theory, and beat him." Chloe responded as she folded her arms. "He didn't take it well at all and it wasn't until after that class that I found out that he was friends with Cameron and Jessica."

"And I'm guessing they are just as bad as each other?" Nicola asked and Chloe nodded, Nicola checked the time on her watch before nodding and looking up. "I'd better make a run for it if we want to get there in time." Nicola added before showing Chloe the time.

"And I'd better get going as well." Chloe responded before making her way out of her dorm room and making her way out of the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm. _"I hope Chelsea's conversation with Maria doesn't last too long, at this rate by the time she arrives at the dorm room we'd have to wait until after the duels are over." _Chloe thought as she walked down the halls of the girl's dorm.

*meanwhile*

"_First I have the single most fucked up nightmare in the history of fucked up nightmares and now this…."_ Chelsea thought as she walked towards Maria's office, she had been there a few times since she qualified for Duel Academy but this was one of three occasions where it wasn't entirely her fault. _"What did Maria expect me to do after I got hit with that water balloon? Enter a fucking Wet T-Shirt contest?!" _Chelsea thought as she remembered one of the incidents before coming upon the door that led to Maria's office. _"Just get this over with before the tournament duels start, they already know about the Dream Duels so it should be easy…..I hope…." _Chelsea thought before knocking on the door and waiting. "Maria, you wanted to see me?" Chelsea called out before waiting for a couple of minutes. _"Shit, my hair's still wet from the shower, okay on the way back give hair a quick blast with the hair dryer before grabbing laptop."_

"Come in Chelsea." Maria's voice rang out and Chelsea opened the door quickly seeing that Tracy was with Maria. "Take a seat."

"You know, Nicola said that you assured her that I wouldn't be in trouble over the noise complaint." Chelsea said after she closed the door behind her and took a seat. "But the fact that there are two of the headmistresses and one student in this office doesn't exactly help that assertion."

"I was already here for a separate matter Chelsea." Tracy explained as she sat down on the desk. "But once we figured out that you were in a dream duel from what Nicola and the other Osiris Red girls told us I decided to stick around." Tracy added and Chelsea gave them an odd look. "Also, your hair is wet."

"I had a shower and I didn't have time to give my hair a quick blast from the hair dryer before Nicola stopped by me and Chloe's room." Chelsea explained as she blew away a stray stand of wet hair from her eyes. "And you got that from me screaming in the middle of the night?"

"The students described, and I quote, "Terrified screams that could practically be heard from the main building"." Tracy responded as she read the description from her notes. "The fact that these dream duels have been happening since the beginning of the tournament is disturbing enough, this description however tells me that there was a lot more too it then the others." Tracy added as she turned to Chelsea who took a deep breath.

"Look, I've had some fucked up dreams before but that…..that took the cake." Chelsea said as she shifted her weight. "The fact that it was a dream duel only made things worse!"

"Language aside I understand that." Maria answered and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"You've known me since I joined this school and you only just noticed that I swear like a sailor?" Chelsea asked and Tracy shook her head.

"Chelsea, we both know that the amount of swear words you use, especially when losing a duel, is enough to make a ship full of sailors blush." Tracy pointed out and Chelsea shook her head. "Now can we get back on track?"

"Fine, but you'll understand why I tried to put it off once I'm done." Chelsea responded with an annoyed sigh. "I'm going to be telling this to the other students who have been dealing with the Orichalcos Duelists since they cropped up on our radar but besides them, tell me this won't leave this office."

"That will ultimately depend on the severity of it, and based on what we know so far I can't make any promises." Maria answered and Chelsea sighed to herself before beginning to describe the events of her nightmare in detail only being stopped twice, at Ael's description and what she knew about the Beasts from the Void, needless to say the two teachers where pretty much speechless by the time she was done. "I'm a horror movie fan and that was too much for me to handle." Chelsea added as she leaned back in her chair.

"Jesus Christ, no wonder you were terrified." Tracy said after a few minutes and Chelsea nodded. "How are you holding it together?"

"Waking up in the middle of the night helped actually, it meant I could dream about other, less fucked up things." Chelsea responded after thinking for a few moments. "I was basically a mess when I woke up from that nightmare, no matter what I couldn't stop shivering and it was at least an hour before I could get back to sleep."

"Given what you told us I'm surprised that you got any sleep at all." Maria responded and Tracy nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately there is no way around it we will have to tell the other teachers about this so that we can protect you and the other students in the future."

"Just tell them not to pity me because of the nightmare and I won't complain." Chelsea responded before standing up. "I gotta go anyway I told Chloe I'd meet her at Tyler's dorm room to watch the duels with the others, not to mention tell them about the nightmare."

"Chelsea, before you go." Tracy called out to her as Chelsea went to leave the office and she turned to her. "You know where my office is, if you need a chat my door's always open."

"Got it and thanks." Chelsea sighed in response before leaving the office and heading back to her room to dry her hair and grab her laptop.

"Someone will have to something about those bastards." Tracy sighed to herself as she stood up and turned to Tracy. "Chelsea's a tough girl and there's a surprisingly low amount of things that can faze her but you heard her description of the events of her dream duel and how she was when she woke up last night."

"Yes, and that is unfortunate." Maria agreed as she set up the group call and started scanning in the notes she had written about Chelsea's dream duel which were on a separate page from the notes from the noise complaint. "Do you think I should include the noise complaint?"

"Yeah, it's connected to the nightmare/dream duel and it'll help give a bit of context for the other teachers." Tracy responded with a nod and Maria nodded before scanning that part in as soon as the notes from the meeting with Chelsea where scanned. "Martin's probably on his way to the PA booth so that he can watch over today's matches so I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't answer."

"Good point, I'll call Martin later after the duels are finished." Maria said as she cancelled the call to Martin and waited for the others to pick up. "But we both know what would be a great help to the students in their fight against the Orichalcos."

"The laptop they found that's currently rusting away in a storage closet, all because the IT Staff don't want to risk losing their jobs over the info they found on it." Tracy sighed in annoyance as she folded her arms. "Chelsea, well we both know how stubborn she is."

"Indeed, I know that better than anyone on the island." Maria responded with a nod. "Didn't she try to find out the info herself?"

"Yeah, went to me first and then straight to the IT Staff, she did try to cover it up by saying that there a problem with her laptop but I knew better, for one thing she's always been hands on with those kind of problems." Tracy nodded before shaking her head and getting an idea. "You make the call I have a stop to make before I head back to my office."

"Let me guess, the IT Staff Room?" Maria asked and Tracy nodded before holding up a USB Stick. "Isn't that your personal one?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Tracy responded before leaving the office.

*meanwhile at Tyler's dorm room*

"Err, Chloe, didn't you say that Chelsea had a noise complaint to sort out with Maria?" Lance asked as he checked the time on his watch, she was now in Tyler's dorm room with the others including Hu and Ash who had decided to join them. "I've had noise complaints before, mostly from Andreas….."

"Yes, well, whilst I enjoy heavy metal as much as the next metalhead playing it at three in the morning at full blast is a bit too far." Andreas interrupted hum with an annoyed expression on his face.

"That only happened once during my first few weeks at the academy and you brought me some damn good headphones as soon as you had the money for it in order to make up for it!" Lance pointed out and Andreas just shook his head. "Basically I had those noise complaints sorted out in five minutes at most, even taking into account the walking distance between here and the Osiris Red Girl's dorm and the fact that she had to grab her laptop and quickly dry her hair, she shouldn't be taking this long, should she?"

"Normally I'd agree with you especially since her hair's a lot shorter than mine." Chloe responded with a nod. "But, don't take this the wrong way, your noise complaint was about music, her noise complaint was about her screaming in terror because of a nightmare."

"Wait, that's it?" Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow. "Chloe, she's a horror fan, she's even recommended me some damn good indie horror flicks and games, and a nightmare spooked her?"

"I'm just as surprised as you are Marcus but last night I saw a side of her I haven't seen before." Chloe responded with a shudder. "Here's what I do know, there was a dream duel involved and a nasty one at that and when she woke up she was muttering to herself and was visibly shaken, hell I could see her shaking in terror from the bottom bunk."

"I agree this is way too out of character for Chelsea for us to just shrug it off." Theresa agreed with a nod. "Did she give any other details?" Theresa asked and Chloe shook her head.

"She didn't want to give me nightmares as well." Chloe responded with a sigh. "I was concerned so I told her to tell us as a group before the tournament matches started."

"That was a good call since it might do her some good to get it off her chest if she hasn't already told Maria." Brandon complemented her with a nod. "I'm guessing that's where the mass e-mail you sent us came into play?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Chloe nodded in response. "Granted I had to access her laptop to send it but still."

"Wait a second you used her laptop without her permission?" Theresa asked and Chloe nodded knowing where this was going. "Chloe, I know you meant well but you know better than that."

"I know! But what was I supposed to do? Chelsea was still asleep and when I woke up the library wasn't going to open for another hour." Chloe responded with a sigh. "And just so I'm clear, I stayed out of her personal files, I only used Firefox which I only used to access my e-mails and the hundreds of unread e-mails I had." Chloe added as she shook her head. "I didn't even hack into it! She literally named one of her passwords after Slayer." Chloe added causing the others to face-fault.

"So let me get this straight….." Tyler trailed off as he and the others got to their feet. "That girl has several different passwords for her laptop all her important documents are Read-Only and Password Protected and she has an anti-virus that I recommended personally running a scan every two hours…..and she names one of the passwords after one of her favorite bands?"

"It gets worse, she was wearing a Slayer Top after PE finished so it was literally the first possible password that came to mind." Chloe added and the others shook their heads as the door to Tyler's room opened up.

"And I changed that password before I left our dorm room so do me a favor and don't get any ideas." Chelsea's voice rang out and they looked up seeing her standing in the doorway with her laptop bag over her shoulder. "How long do we have before the duels start?" Chelsea asked as she entered the room and sat down.

"Twenty minutes." Tyler responded and Chelsea grinned as she started setting up her laptop. "Chloe told us the basics so if you want to go into detail now's the time."

"Just promise me that this won't leave this dorm room, it was difficult enough telling Maria and Tracy about it just now." Chelsea sighed and the others nodded. "Ash, Hu, you know about the dream duels?"

"We just learned about them." Ash nodded in response as did Hu. "I'm still processing the information but the fact that they've made it even worse disturbs me to no end."

"For once, we agree on something Ashitaka." Hu responded with a nod. "Take your time Chelsea."

"If I did that then the duels would've started by the time I'm halfway through." Chelsea pointed out and Hu nodded. "Just be warned, this is really fucking weird and gruesome."

"Besides the gruesome part, we've dealt with the weird." Lance pointed out and the others nodded in agreement.

"Even by those standards Lance, even by those standards." Chelsea responded getting everyone's attention, she took a deep breath before starting. "It started off like Chloe's dream duel I was alone in a dark void with nothing but my voice and my concerned duel spirit to keep me company."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on." Ash said as he cut her off. "Did you say Duel Spirit?"

"Oh right, I forgot about you guys." Chelsea said with a wince. "Basically…."

"You mean you guys have one two? Huh. I thought I was the only one." Ash asked and the other's jaws dropped.

"Out of curiosity, who's your spirit guide?" Lance asked and Ash held up one of his copies of Yamato. "Somehow I'm not surprised."

"I know off them but I don't have one before you ask." Hu quickly added before nodding to Chelsea. "You were saying?"

"Right, I wouldn't recommend eating anything before this part." Chelsea winced and Marcus and Andreas shared a look before putting down the food they were eating, from there Chelsea went into detail about the dream including the part where Silent Magician saved her life in the nick of time, needless to say the others where left speechless and slack jawed by the end. "Before you ask, I never learned anything else about the Beasts from the Void and to be frank I REALLY don't want to know anything else!"

"Oh fuck, what was that, the next Cannibal Corpse album cover or your dream duel!?" Lance asked with a wince and Chelsea shook her head. "How did they even find out some of that info?"

"I'm tempted to say background check but even then those things wouldn't be THAT detailed." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "The beasts and that spirit are dead, they can't hurt me or anyone else anymore and that's what matters!"

"Do we even know how many victims they've claimed?" Theresa asked once the shock wore off and Chelsea shook her head.

"Silent Magician said that she should've killed the beasts a long time ago, at best I can estimate hundreds." Chelsea responded with a shudder. "The worst part is that the spirit told me that they were particularly brutal to female victims, I don't know about you but I'd rather not dwell on that thought!"

"Well, this is certainly not something I wanted to know first thing in the morning." Tyler responded as he shuddered. "We know one thing for certain, they are now using these dream duels for psychological warfare and they used you as a test subject."

"Thanks for the reminder." Chelsea grunted before noticing that Marcus and Andreas had tossed their food in the bin. "Any other time I'd be surprised Marcus….."

"Yeah, I know." Marcus responded as he shook his head. "But that…I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm just going to avoid eating for the rest of the day."

"The same goes for me that nightmare is the kind that could reduce anyone to practically being on a hunger strike from the description alone." Andreas agreed with a nod as he took a deep breath. "But to actually experience it first hand? I must say, a lesser mind would've snapped long ago."

"Thanks, but I'm not exactly saying that I took it easy." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "Just ask Chloe, she saw how I was when I woke up."

"I already told them, I knew it was bad but…." Chloe trailed off as she shuddered. "It almost sounds too terrible to be true."

"Yeah, and believe it or not, it gets worse." Chelsea said as she shifted her weight and the other students exchanged worried looks. "She mentioned that she planned to target Nicola and Chloe next."

"WHAT?" Andreas yelled out as he turned to her. "That had better not be a joke Chelsea."

"You really think I'd joke about this?" Chelsea asked as she turned to him. "I got it straight from the horse's mouth they are planning similar attacks on Nicola and Chloe."

"Son of a bitch, we'd better warn Nicola!" Lance grunted and Chelsea shook her head.

"Warn her about what, that she'll get attacked in her dreams?" Chelsea pointed out and Lance paused. "I don't like it either but it's not exactly an easy thing to warn someone about even someone with High Functioning Autism like Nicola."

"I understand your point but it may be a bit easier than you think." Andreas responded and she turned to him. "As you know we met Nicola whilst she was competing in Battle City, she witnessed two Orichalcos duels whilst she was in New York."

"Yes, Marcus took on an agent who was threatening her dad's life and the other….." Tyler winced when he saw the look on Andreas's face. "It was the duel when Andreas's soul was captured."

"Actually she was also there when we fought Chloe's dad." Brandon chimed in and Chloe winced at that memory. "I know it's not exactly a good memory Chloe but I'm just stating facts."

"Speaking of memories, you just gave me an idea Brandon." Lance chimed in and Brandon turned to him. "Where does Martin keep his private stash of alcohol?"

"You're kidding right?" Chelsea asked as she and the other students not named Lance or in Obelisk Blue looked at him funny. "I mean, I know the other teaches have private stashes and that the students in relationships often borrow from it for a night with their partner but Martin? He's a close associate of Kaiba for crying out loud….."

"There's a fridge behind the painting of the Blue Eyes White Dragon in the main hall, you can find the alcohol on the top shelf." Brandon and Tyler interrupted him simultaneously causing the other students, besides Theresa and Lance, to face-fault.

"You really think we'd be that naïve? Dealing with students like Cameron and Thomas on a daily basis would drive anyone to drink!" Brandon added once the others got back to their feet. "If anyone asks tell them that you're doing it as a favor for another student."

"Can't I just use the "using it for a night with my girlfriend" excuse?" Lance asked and Tyler shook his head in response.

"Lance, everyone in the school thinks that you and Chloe are dating." Tyler pointed out and Chloe and Lance sweat-dropped at that.

"Err, not everyone." Chelsea chimed in with a small grin. "There's a few girls in Osiris Red that think that me and Chloe are a couple, they usually drop that train of thought once they see me with Beth and find out that Chloe's straight."

"…how many girls in Osiris Red think that we're a lesbian couple?" Chloe asked after a few minutes as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head and Chelsea paused for a few minutes.

"About twenty I think but it's mostly the new girls that joined last weekend but even then it's just a rumor started by gossip because we spend a lot of time together and the fact that I'm a lesbian is one of the worst kept secrets at this academy." Chelsea responded before turning to Tyler. "You were saying?"

"Right, even if that and your excuse were true you'd get caught before you reached either the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm or the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm." Tyler responded with a nod and Lance winced.

"Point taken, I'm off to raid Martin's stash." Lance responded before standing up and leaving Tyler's dorm room.

"Speaking of Thomas, what's with the delay? Shouldn't the match have started by now?" Chelsea asked once Lance left the room.

"There's been a delay due to technical issues with one of the duel disks, they didn't say what it was but it was severe enough to delay the match." Tyler responded and Chelsea nodded. "The technicians are on it so it should be sorted out in a few minutes."

"The same technicians that are dragging their feet with the laptop we found." Chelsea responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "You'll have to excuse me for not having much faith in them."

"I understand why you don't exactly have a high opinion of them but they do good work, I should know, my dad hired them." Tyler responded and Chelsea went to say something "Yes I know that you found out that the reason they won't give you the information we need to bring down the Orichalcos is because they don't want to lose their jobs and I've been trying to use my father's influence to get my hands on that data myself."

"Let me guess, it didn't work?" Chelsea asked with a dull expression on her face and Tyler nodded. "Have you tried talking to your dad?"

"I've considered it but considering that he's the head of a multi-national gaming corporation who has investors to answer to finding the time to chat hasn't been easy." Tyler responded and Chelsea frowned at that. "I can typically find time to have a Skype Call with him in the evenings/early mornings but since the tournament started he hasn't been in his office."

"He hasn't?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded. "What about your uncle Mokuba?"

"I did talk to him but he told me that my dad's away on business and he didn't say where that business was or when he'd be back." Tyler responded as he shook his head. "As much as I can tell he's somewhere where he can still run Kaibacporp's day to day operations, I can think of a dozen international branches where that is possible just off the top of my head."

"So great, the technicians have data from that laptop that could help us put an end to the Orichalcos Threat once and for all but won't release it for fear of their jobs and their boss is nowhere to be seen." Chelsea grunted as she folded her arms in annoyance. "Anyone have any other good news to share?"

"Well, the match appears to have finally started." Andreas responded after a few moments and Chelsea nodded before turning to her laptop.

*meanwhile at the arena*

"Welcome to Day Ten of the Tag Team Tournament." Martin's voice rang out over the PA system and the crowd of students cheered. "Our first match of the day pits the controversial team of Thomas Newborne of Obelisk Blue and Rajin Kanda of Ra Yellow against Lemuel Hicks and Kenny Maynard of Osiris Red and Ra Yellow respectively!" Martin added as the two teams stepped onto the arena.

"If Kenny was one dorm lower then this would be a repeat of our last match." Thomas commented with a chuckle as he shuffled his deck. "You idiots may as well just save us the trouble and give up right now, it's clear that you don't stand a chance."

"We would but you have a nasty habit of ignoring surrenders." Kenny responded with a frown and Thomas grunted in response. "Besides, it's your fault that Sara got her soul stolen after your match against her so you can consider this to be payback."

"Do I have the Orichalcos in my deck? No, did I duel again that day? No, don't throw around baseless accusations you reject!" Thomas snapped at him and Lemuel rolled his eyes.

"You may not have been directly responsible but we talked with Ora, she said that your conduct at the end of your match against her team led Sara to challenge an Orichalcos Duelist in an attempt to take out her frustrations on him." Lemuel responded and Thomas's eyes narrowed. "What we're saying is that your actions had a domino effect that led to there being three comatose students in the infirmary rather than two."

"What happened to Sara, Frank and Billie is unfortunate." Rajin chimed in and the opposing team turned to him. "But my partner was not responsible, Sara may have been frustrated following her loss but she needs to learn how to handle losses better."

"Are you for real Rajin? Do you even listen to what your partner says most of the time?" Kenny asked him and Rajin remained silent. "Besides, it's pretty funny that you're talking about sore losers when your partner tried to accuse Chloe Richardson of cheating after he practically handed her a Tuner Monster to summon Colossal Fighter with on a Silver Platter."

"Unless you want to see just how unprofessional my conduct can get in a duel then that will be the only time that you'll mention that duel today!" Thomas snapped at him as he and Rajin activated their duel disks. "Besides, that bitch did cheat! It just hasn't been proven!"

"BECAUSE I DIDIN'T CHEAT YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!" Chloe yelled at Chelsea's laptop screen causing the others to sweat-drop simultaneously. "Sorry, I'm still pissed off at that bullshit."

"Chloe, just breathe and hope that you and Chelsea are the opponents of Thomas and Rajin in the third round, then you can use that match to take out your frustrations on him." Theresa advised her and Chloe took a deep breath as she calmed down. "He's just using the "you cheated" line to save face with the other Obelisk Blue Students, as much as I'd like to say otherwise it's been a popular tactic since Jaden Yuki was a student here."

"A tactic that's losing popularity because of the school clamping down on the elitist attitudes among the students in our dorm I might add." Tyler added and Chloe turned to him. "I know it's equally popular to accuse the staff of bias towards Obelisk Blue because of several different incidents, including some that involved you in some capacity, but that couldn't be further from the truth."

"Yeah, no offense Tyler but I'll believe it when I see it." Chelsea responded with a frown as the door opened up and Lance entered the room with some beer bottles and glasses in hand. "Lance, I know Thomas is an asshole but do you really need alcohol to get through his matches?"

"Very funny, and besides this beer isn't for me Chelsea, it's for you" Lance responded and Chelsea blinked as Lance started pouring her a glass. "Why? Because after a nightmare like that I know that I'd need a strong drink!"

"Thanks, this will help a lot." Chelsea responded as she took a sip.

"Even so I'd take it easy if I were you." Theresa responded and Chelsea turned to her. "Unless you plan to turn up to your first class of the day wasted."

"Good point, especially since I've got Duel Theory after the duels finish." Chelsea responded with a nod as she took a sip. "What took you so long anyway Lance? They gave you some pretty clear directions."

"Let me put it this way, there's more than one Blue-Eyes White Dragon painting in the main hall." Lance pointed out and Tyler and Brandon winced when they remembered that. "Miranda ended up helping me out."

"Miranda's sitting out the duels as well?" Tyler asked and Lance shrugged.

"Yes but not just today's duels, she said that she caught a cold after her last tournament match and hadn't attended a duel since then." Lance responded and Tyler nodded. "She seemed pretty ill when I saw her so she wasn't making it up either and she thinks that she'll be over it once the weekend's over anyway."

"Let's hope so for her team's sake." Andreas responded and Tyler nodded in agreement.

*back at the arena*

"Okay, now that we have some order." Martin added as he cleared his throat. "The order of the match will be as follows, Rajin followed by Lemuel followed by Thomas and finally by Kenny, any questions?" Martin asked and the four duelists shook their heads in response. "Then begin!" Martin called out and the duelists drew their opening hands with Rajin drawing a sixth card.

"_If Rajin is smart he'll try to get Spirit Shaman into the graveyard as soon as possible." _Kenny thought as Rajin looked over his hand. _"And I can already think of a hand full of ways he can do that without doing a first turn Synchro Summon."_

"I activate the Spell Card Foolish Burial! With this I take one monster card from my deck and send it to my graveyard!" Rajin played the card and picked up his deck once he found the monster he was looking for he sent it and the Spell Card to the graveyard and shuffled his deck. "Next I summon the monster known as Inaba White Rabbit!" Rajin played the monster and the small white rabbit on the oversized pogo stick appeared on the field (3/700/500). "I end my turn with a facedown card, now normally my monster would return to my deck but since the monster I just sent to the graveyard was Spirit Shaman my monster stays!"

"_Like that!" _Lemuel thought before drawing his card. "I activate my Spell Card Reinforcement of the Army! I don't think I really need to explain its effect at this point!" Lemuel played the card before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the monster he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled the deck. "And speaking of warrior deck staples, I summon Marauding Captain!" Lemuel played the card and the brown haired, twin sword wielding warrior appeared on the field (3/1200/400).

"Look, I'm certain that the only people who don't know that monster's effects among the students that reside on this island are those morons in Osiris Red so please, just get on with it!" Thomas interrupted him when he realized that Lemuel was about to explain his monster's effect.

"Who was the last person to beat you? What was her name again?" Kenny asking mockingly and Thomas growled. "Oh yeah that's right, Chloe Richardson, an Osiris Red Student! And don't give us that "she cheated" bullshit because if she had cheated during DUEL THEORY then she would've been in even more trouble then she already was at the time."

"Kenny, did you suddenly forget that that duel was literally right before the last expulsion duels? The expulsion duels that she took part in alongside several other students?" Lemuel pointed out and Kenny sweat-dropped. "Even if that did happen that would've been wiped when she won her expulsion duel."

"My point still stands!" Kenny answered as he shook his head. "Anyway Lemuel, don't you have an effect to resolve?"

"Right, I use Marauding Captain's effect to summon Comrade Swordsman of Landstar!" Lemuel played the card and a warrior that closely resembled Swordsman of Landstar but in better armor appeared on the field carrying a sword and a shield (3/500/1200). "He may not look like much but he's a Tuner and all my warrior monsters gain four hundred attack points." Lemuel explained as his two monster's attack points rose to 1600 and 900.

"It's an improvement over the old Swordsman of Landstar, I'll give you that." Thomas scoffed as he stared down the two monsters. "But honestly, why on earth did Joey Wheeler even consider using that monster in his deck? It was just another weak Normal Type monster that was created during the early days of the game even its flavor text said that it's an ammeter with a sword!"

"You could ask Joey yourself if you could find him." Lemuel responded with a grin. "And let's face it, Joey's deck was always weird, most of his cards had no synergy with each other."

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with a reject but you have a point." Thomas admitted with a grunt. "Now finish your move already! There is that damn time limit and I'd actually like to make a move before the tournament ends!"

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lemuel set the two cards down and Thomas grinned before drawing his card.

"Finally, first I activate the ever popular spell card Reinforcement of the Army!" Thomas played the card and picked up his deck, searched through it and added the monster he was looking for to his hand before shuffling his deck.

"In that case I activate this! My trap card Insightful Cards of Reversal!" Lemuel activated the card and Thomas did a double take. "I see you've heard of it!"

"Yes, I've heard of it, how a reject like you obtained such a powerful trap card is beyond me!" Thomas shouted out and Lemuel grinned.

"Saving up, calling in a few favors, going to the game shop and buying it, the usual." Lemuel shrugged his shoulders with a grin. "Since you just added a card to your hand outside of your draw phase I can draw cards equal to the number of cards in your hand and I count six!" Lemuel responded before drawing his cards and sending his trap card to the graveyard.

"Ugh, that fucking trap card, I can't stand it!" Chelsea grunted as she watched the duel and punched the desk causing the others to look at her strangely. "Not only have I been trying, and failing, to get that card since I first heard of it but it's been used against me by practically every student with basic knowledge about my deck and had one handy."

"I can see why that's frustrating but please don't punch my desk." Tyler responded with a frown and Chelsea glanced up at him. "I know it's highly unlikely but if you break the desk Martin will charge me and since the last time I tried to get my dad to pay for anything that was damaged by anyone in my room here…wasn't pleasant…I'll be sure to charge you."

"You know what? I'm not going to ask." Chelsea responded as she shook her head and resumed watching the duel.

"So you tried asking Wattchimera to get that card for you?" Chloe whispered to her roommate and Chelsea nodded.

"It was one of the first cards I asked for and I'm still waiting for it!" Chelsea responded with a look of annoyance on her face as the two girls resumed watching the duel.

"Okay, now that you've used that card's effect." Thomas commented with a grunt as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "I summon this! X-Saber Galahad in attack mode!" Thomas played the card and a tall man appeared on the field wielding green armor and carrying a green spear (4/1800/800). "I set a card facedown and end my turn."

"What? No insane combo that results in you having an XYZ Monster and a Synchro Monster?" Kenny asked with a grin and Thomas growled.

"How would I do that? One of my main components for that combo has been banned yet again and the only decent card in my hand at the moment is Reinforcement of the Army!" Thomas responded as Kenny drew his card. "Besides Galahad is a very powerful monster and as soon as I'm able to attack you'll see what I mean!"

"Anyway it's my turn and I summon my own Marauding Captain!" Kenny played the card and another brown haired captain appeared on the field. "And I use his effect to summon Sacred Crane!"

"Ah yes, the same combo you used in your last duel." Thomas commented as he rolled his eyes as Kenny drew his card. "What next? Did you conveniently draw Synchro Boost?"

"Sorry Thomas but I don't have your luck, but what I do have is two facedown cards." Kenny responded as he set the two cards. "And I call it a turn."

"Okay, so Kenny and Lemuel could've easily done a Synchro or a XYZ Summon just now but they didn't." Chelsea commented as she scratched her head and took a sip from her drink. "You guys have any ideas why?"

"Only reason I can think off is to keep the opponents guessing." Tyler responded as he shook his head. "But they have their facedown cards for that."

"I guess we'll see what happens." Chloe commented as she watched the duel.

"_Susa Soldier, I'll save him for later." _Rajin thought as he added the monster to his hand. "Inabba White Rabbit, attack Kenny's life-points directly via your effect!" Rajin commanded and the rabbit bounced right over the monsters' heads before hitting Kenny and bringing his life-points down to 7300, "And I end my turn."

"_That's it? Sure Inabba works well with Spirit Shaman and he still has that facedown card but that's a pretty dumb move if that's a bluff." _Lemuel thought as he drew his card. "Marauding Captain, attack Rajin's Rabbit!" Lemuel commanded and the warrior charged towards the rabbit….

"I activate my trap card, Spirit Salvation!" Rajin announced as his trap card flipped up. "How ironic is it that the monster saving the Rabbit in the artwork is the one attacking the rabbit this time around?"

"Just redirect the attack towards Thomas's monster already!" Lemuel responded with a sigh and Rajin nodded as the warrior changed its target to the X-Saber monster. "At least the damage won't be much."

"Think again." Kenny pointed out and Lemuel grinned when he saw Galahad's attack drop to thirteen hundred. "Looks like Rajin just made a mistake!"

"If he did then why am I so calm?" Thomas asked with a grin and Kenny and Lemuel blinked in confusion. "Let me spell it out for you! I activate my Trap Card At One With The Sword!"

"I should've known." Lemuel grunted as Galahad's attack shot up to 2100 and the sword appeared in its hands before it cut the Captain down bringing Lemuel's life-points down to 7600.

"And I get to draw another card as an added bonus." Thomas responded as he drew his card. "Please continue to defeat yourself it's very amusing for me!"

"It's us that'll get the last laugh in this round! I activate my own Trap Card Call of the Haunted!" Lemuel activated the trap and Marauding Captain returned to the field. "I don't see Spirit Salvation on the field so it's clear to me that it's a onetime only card! Marauding Captain, take another swipe at that rabbit!" Lemuel commanded and the captain charged towards the rabbit again before cutting it in two and bringing Rajin's life-points down to 7000. "Comrade Swordsman of Landstar, it's your turn!" Lemuel commanded and the cartoony warrior charged at Rajin before striking him with his sword and bringing his life-points down to 6100. "And I end my turn." Lemuel announced and Thomas drew another card.

"_Rescue Rabbit, this is just perfect!" _Thomas thought before playing the card. "Rajin's rabbit may be gone but I have one of my own, the ever popular Rescue Rabbit!" Thomas played the card and the small rabbit in the worker's helmet appeared on the field (4/300/100). "And now, I activate his effect!" Thomas announced before pocketing the monster and once the rabbit disappeared from the field he picked up his deck.

"_Okay, the fact that he's going for an XYZ Summon couldn't be more obvious but I don't think he's going for One-Eyed Skill Gainer like he did in his last duel." _Lemuel thought as Thomas summoned two copies of X-Saber Anu Piranha appeared on the field in defense mode and Thomas shuffled his deck. _"That monster may have decent attack strength but it requires a third monster and I don't think he's too interested in getting rid of Galahad, besides it's effect needs us to have an XYZ Monster on our side of the field, which we don't, what is he summoning?"_

"And now I'll do something that you idiots should've done by now! I use my two Anu Piranhas to construct the Overlay Network!" Thomas announced as the two female warriors disappeared into white orbs of light. "What will I summon you ask? You two should know! It's a monster that you should be familiar with!"

"What are you talking about?" Kenny asked as Thomas played the card and their eyes widened as Gagaga Cowboy appeared on the field (Rank 4/1500/2400). "How long have you had that card?"

"It was one of the first XYZ Monsters that I purchased after I unfairly lost to Chloe Richardson." Thomas responded with a grin. _"I could've sworn I just heard that bitch scream in rage but that's beside the point, she's not even present for this duel." _Thomas thought as he sent one of the XYZ Materials to the graveyard. "But regardless I just summoned him in attack mode so by detaching a XYZ Material monster from it he will gain one thousand attack points as soon as he goes on the attack."

"Yeah, we know or did you forget that we run that monster?" Kenny asked but Thomas ignored him. _"I just hope our plan works."_

"Gagaga Cowboy, attack Marauding Captain!" Thomas commanded and the cowboy took aim at the warrior monster…..

"Kenny now's the time to spring our plan!" Lemuel called out to him and Kenny nodded.

"That's music to my ears! I activate my trap card Urgent Tuning!" Kenny activated the trap and grinned. "And I use it to Tune my Captain and my Swordsman together!" Kenny added as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"You could've used that when you attacked my partner." Thomas commented as he rolled his eyes. "Why wait?"

"I'll show you why we waited! I Synchro Summon HTS Psyhemuth!" Kenny played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a massive, robotic looking dog with several gems poking out of his body that growled menacingly at the opponents (6/2400/1800).

"You fool! You realize that by doing that you not only just softened up the damage you would've taken from Gagaga Cowboy but left yourself open to a direct attack from Galahad?" Thomas asked as he pointed to the new monster. "Gagaga Cowboy, that robot dog is obsolete! Put it out of its misery!" Thomas commanded and the cowboy pointed its guns at the robot dog before firing and, as its attack rose to 2500, it fired its guns at the robot dog destroying it and causing a large explosion in the process. "That was a waste of a perfectly good Synchro Summon! You would've been better off summoning a different Level Six Synchro or even using Sacred Crane to do a Level Seven Synchro!"

"Look again." Kenny responded and Thomas blinked as the smoke from the explosion cleared, HTS Psyhemuth was gone but so was Gagaga Cowboy.

"Explain yourself!" Thomas demanded and Kenny grinned.

"Gladly, when HTS Psyhemuth is attacked his effect allows me to banish both the attack monster and Psyhemuth himself, in other words if anyone wasted their Special Summon it's you." Kenny explained as his life-points dropped to 7200.

"There is more than one way to make a move! From my hand I activate the Quick Play Spell Card Burial from a Different Dimension!" Thomas played the card and quickly retrieved Rescue Rabbit and Gagaga Cowboy from his pocket and returned them to his graveyard. "Now I just have to get them back in their respective decks but that'll be a simple matter, for now I attack Sacred Crane with Galahad!"

"Huh?" Kenny asked as Galahad charged towards Sacred Crane. "But you'd do more damage by attacking me directly!"

"Maybe but I wouldn't have gotten to use At One with the Sword's effect." Thomas explained as Galahad's attack suddenly shot up to 2900. "Oh yes, I almost forgot, when Galahad attacks it gains three hundred attack points and when it's attacked, as you found out earlier, it loses five hundred attack points." Thomas added as Galahad ran through Sacred Crane bringing Lemuel's life-points down to 6700. "And I end my turn." Thomas grunted as he drew his card and Kenny did likewise.

"Chloe, are you going to keep screaming like that every time he says that?" Chelsea asked as she rubbed her ear in pain and her roommate glared daggers at Thomas through the laptop screen. "And if yes at least warn me next time!"

"If I could predict that future…..well for starters I would've won Battle City…I would." Chloe grunted as she calmed down a bit. "But since I can't I can't really help you there!"

"Okay then maybe you should just try controlling your temper whenever he, Cameron or Jessica says that bullshit." Chelsea responded and the others stared at her with deadpan expressions on their faces. "Yeah, I know how hypocritical that is coming from me!"

"My turn, and whilst Sacred Crane may be gone he won't be gone for long!" Kenny commented as he drew his card. "First I activate Monster Reincarnation! I discard one card from my hand." Kenny added as he sent the card to the graveyard. "And I take back Sacred Crane."

"That won't help you as you have already resolved Marauding Captain's summoning effect." Thomas scoffed as Kenny returned his monster to his hand.

"That may be true but I'm about to take a page from your book! I summon Goblindergh in attack mode!" Kenny played the card and the plane piloted by the goblin appeared on the field (4/1400/0). "And I activate his effect to summon Sacred Crane back to the field!" Kenny added before playing the card and Sacred Crane returned to the field.

"And you'll draw a card thanks to Sacred Crane's effect." Thomas commented with a grunt as Kenny drew his card.

"Yeah and it's just what I needed! I activate Resonance Device! Since Marauding Captain and Goblindergh are both Earth Type Warrior Monsters Marauding Captain's Level becomes equal to Goblindergh's Level for the rest of the turn." Kenny explained as Marauding Captain's level increased. "And now that I have three Level Four Monsters on my side of the field I'll use them all to construct the Overlay Network!"

"I'll admit, I thought you were just planning on a regular XYZ Summon." Thomas commented as the three monsters turned into white orbs of light. "But a three monster XYZ Summon, please! Unless you have One Eyed Skill Gainer in your extra deck I'm not impressed."

"I don't, and trust me! I looked in the card shop when I found out that we were facing you." Kenny responded before retrieving a monster from his extra deck, "But instead I have this! I use all three of my monsters to XYZ Summon Night Papilloperative!" Kenny played the card and a new monster appeared on the field in Sacred Crane's place, he was a tall warrior in black, purple and gold armor that had a massive pair of blue and red butterfly wins on his back (Rank: 4/2600/2000).

"You had me worried for a moment there." Thomas commented with a chuckle. "But your XYZ Monster is no match for Galahad."

"Did you forget your own monster's effect?" Kenny asked and Thomas's eyes widened when he realized when he meant. "Man, how are you in Obelisk Blue again? No wonder Chloe beat you!"

"Just attack already!" Thomas demanded through gritted teeth and Kenny shook his head.

"Not yet, I activate my monster's effect!" Kenny said before sending Goblindergh to the graveyard. "By detaching an overlay unit I can give him three hundred extra attack points for each XYZ Material Monster attached to a monster for the rest of the duel!" Kenny explained as his monster's attack jumped up to 3200. "Now to take care of a certain pain in the ass card, attack Galahad!" Kenny commanded and his night charged towards the other one before cutting it in half with his sword and bringing Thomas's life-points down to 6900. "Looks like you won't be joining your friends in the next round!"

"Don't count me out yet! I activate my Trap Card Damage Gate!" Thomas responded before retrieving and summoning Rescue Rabbit from the graveyard. "Since I just took damage this trap lets me Special Summon a monster in my graveyard who's attack points are less than or equal to the damage I took, since it was the only monster in my graveyard that fit the bill Rescue Rabbit fit quite nicely."

"_And it'll allow him to do another XYZ Summon next turn unless Lemuel can destroy it." _Kenny thought before looking over his hand. "My turn is over!" Kenny announced and Rajin drew his card.

"I activate Offerings from Beyond!" Rajin played the card and drew until he had six cards in his hand. "I drew another Inabba White Rabbit but I wasn't planning on attacking to begin with! I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"He wasn't planning on attacking?" Chloe asked as she scratched her head. "Why? Lemuel's field was wide open!"

"Good question." Tyler agreed with her as he watched the duel. _"I get the feeling that Thomas has been dictating Rajin's every move since their first match in the tournament but why? Does he hate Ra Yellow and Osiris Red so much that he won't trust his own partner to make decisions on his own? Rajin's a good duelist but he is the youngest student in Ra Yellow."_

"_I'd love to attack that Rabbit and shut down whatever plans Thomas has, especially if they involve One-Eyed Skill Gainer being summoned, but I have no monsters in my hand." _Lemuel thought before playing a card. "I activate MST and I target Rajin's facedown card on the left!" Lemuel announced as a storm washed over the field destroying the facedown card. "But I have no other moves so I have to pass!" Lemuel announced and Thomas grinned before drawing his card.

"I activate a Spell Card! Go, Spellbook Inside The Pot!" Thomas played the card and the four duelists drew three cards. _"Excellent!" _Thomas thought before playing the card. "I summon Big Belly Knight to the field!" Thomas played the card and the overweight knight previously used by Chloe appeared on the field (4/1000/1600). "And I activate the effect of Rescue Rabbit one more time!" Thomas announced as the Rabbit disappeared from the field again and a pair of Battle Oxs appeared on the field, with a snap of his fingers Thomas opened up the Overlay Network again and One-Eyed Skill Gainer appeared on the field (Rank: 4/2500/2600). "I activate his effect!" Thomas as he sent Big Belly Knight to the graveyard and One-Eyed Skill Gainer's attack increased to 3100.

"This is bad!" Kenny winced and Thomas chuckled.

"You think things are bad now? Just watch! Since I used Big Belly Knight to resolve an XYZ Monster's effect his own effect activates allowing me to summon another monster from my hand as long as it's Level 3 or lower, I summon Boost Warrior!" Thomas played the card and the armored, red haired warrior appeared on the field (1/300/200). "And thanks to its effect my monsters only get stronger!" Thomas added as One-Eyed Skill Gainer and Boost Warrior's attack increased to 3400 and 600 respectively.

"If you think we're scared of a week monster with a stat boosting ability than think again!" Kenny pointed out with a grin and Lemuel nodded in agreement. "Besides, you have to choose between attacking Lemuel directly and taking out my knight!"

"I prefer to go with a third option." Thomas responded as he played a card. "I activate XYZ Energy! Say good-bye to your knight!" Thomas played the card and after detaching a Battle Ox Kenny's knight exploded into a million pieces. "My monster may lose three hundred attack points." Thomas added as One-Eyed Skill Gainer's attack points dropped to 3100. "But I'm not sort on options, not even close I activate a Spell Card called Message in a Bottle."

"Okay, that's a new one." Kenny commented as three monsters appeared on the field, two of the Anu Piranhas and Big Belly Knight all of them in defense mode. "Are you hoping to use Big Belly Knight's effect again?"

"I couldn't if I wanted to, the monsters that are summoned with Message in a Bottle lose their attack points and their effects." Thomas added before playing a card. "But this comes with a disadvantage, unless I use them in an XYZ Summon I'll lose 4000 points of damage…..which is exactly why I don't intend to do another XYZ Summon."

"Say what?" Kenny asked with a confused look on his face. "Are you suicidal?"

"Far from it, from my hand I activate the Quick Play Spell Card XYZ Reflect!" Thomas played the card which depicted a mirror reflecting the image of a terrified looking Blade Armor Ninja. "This Spell Card requires that I have at least one XYZ Monster and three other monsters on my side of the field, from this point forward I won't be able to make any additional summons, XYZ, Synchro or otherwise, but in exchange any damage that I lose is dealt to you for the rest of the turn!"

"NO WAY!" Lemuel yelled out once he realized what was about to happen.

"Yes way, be thankful that attacking with all of my monsters would be pointless for reasons that I have already explained." Thomas added before pointing to One-Eyed Skill Gainer. "But Skill Gainer on the other hand? He's free to attack, Skill Gainer, Boost Warrior attack Kenny's life-points directly!" Thomas commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks bringing Kenny's life-points down to 3500. "As soon as I end my turn the duel will be over for you and what do you know? I'm ending my turn now!" Thomas announced and the two duelists winced as Kenny's life-points dropped to zero whilst Lemuel's life-points dropped to 2700. "You may as well surrender, there's no way you can win and it's my partner's turn."

"That's fucking hilarious coming from you." Kenny spat as he got up to his feet. "You were the one who ignored his opponent's surrender in the last round!"

"So I did, not like anything came of it!" Thomas responded with a grin as Rajin drew his card. "Rajin, take control of Skill Gainer and end this."

"Very well, I will take control of One Eyed Skill Gainer!" Rajin nodded as the monster walked over to Rajin's side of the field. "Finish this duel!" Rajin commanded and the monster charged into action before hitting Lemuel and ending the duel by reducing his life-points to zero.

"Here are your winners, Thomas Newborne and Rajin Kanda!" Martin announced over the PA system as the crowd booed the winning team. "Coming up next three Obelisk Blue Students collide as Kimberly and Nathan Troy team up to take on Miranda Kaiba and Osiris Red's Socorro Stanley!"

"You know, as broken as Spirit Shaman is, I was hoping to see some more Spirit Synchros in that duel." Chelsea admitted with a shrug. "Instead Thomas controlled the match from the get-go."

"And that only confirms what I previously theorized." Tyler nodded in agreement. "As for the next match, I'm not sure who I want to root for."

"Torn between your sister and your friends, right?" Chloe asked and Tyler nodded. "Well Miranda does have that Blue-Eyes Synchro in her deck."

"And Kimberly has the new Archfiend monsters." Theresa chimed in as she shook her head. "It'll be a hard match to decide but it should be good."

"True but as long as no more fucked up bullshit dreams happen tonight I'm not complaining." Chelsea responded as they waited for the duel to start.


	105. Day Ten Clash of the Dorms

The second match of the day hadn't started yet so most of the students who were watching the match, either at the arena or through the stream like our heroes, were taking the chance to stretch their legs including Chloe and Chelsea.

"The two teams we want to beat in this tournament seem unbeatable, don't they?" Chloe asked Chelsea as she leaned against the wall next to Tyler's dorm room door, the two girls were taking a break to stretch their legs outside of the dorm room and had told the others to let them know when the match was going to start. "Jessica and Cameron have that nasty XYZ Monster whilst Thomas and Rajin seem to have a dozen ways between them to win the match!"

"Chloe, relax." Chelsea responded as she turned to her roommate. "Their decks may be strong but no duelist is unbeatable, you know it as well as I do." Chelsea added as she folded her arms. "We just need to find a way to keep Acid Golem off the field when we face Cameron and Jessica, as for Thomas and Rajin we'll just have to be ready for anything!"

"We both know that that's going to be easier said than done." Chloe responded as she folded her arms. "Take my match against Cameron a while back for example, I had the match won but….well we both know what happened there."

"They won't get away with pulling the same stunt this time though." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "For one thing that will be an official tournament duel and they'd be stupid to try that stunt when we face them." Chelsea added as she thought for a moment. "Actually I think I have a way around Acid Golem."

"I'm listening." Chloe responded as she turned to Chelsea.

"There's a Quick Play Spell Card out there called XYZ Encore, from what I heard I2 released it to try to counteract the XYZs but so far it hasn't helped." Chelsea responded before getting out her IPod and accessing the internet. "Let's see here…." Chelsea trailed off before she found the card and showed it to Chloe.

"Can you order it?" Chloe asked once she read the effect and Chelsea nodded.

"I can but I have no way of knowing if it'll arrive on time." Chelsea responded as she turned off her IPod and pocketed it. "We had the same problem when we ordered the Endymion cards whilst you were still in New York…..come to think of it you never really used them since you got back."

"Trust me, I've wanted to but I can never draw the cards when I need them even after adding Terraforming to my deck." Chloe responded as she shook her head. "By the way Chelsea, how much alcohol have you drank since Lance raided Martin's stash?"

"I've only had a couple of glasses, why do you ask?" Chelsea asked before taking a moment to smell her breath. "Oh shit! My breath reeks of the stuff!"

"How strong is that alcohol exactly?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shrugged. "Who do you have for your first class?"

"I got Jeff in PE and hopefully he won't be able to smell anything." Chelsea responded with a frown and before Chloe could respond the door opened and Andreas stuck his head out.

"Ladies, sorry to interrupt but the match is about to start." Andreas explained to them and the two girls nodded before returning to the dorm room.

*meanwhile at the arena*

"_Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon helped to secure our team's victory in the last round." _Miranda thought as she looked at the Synchro monster whilst making her way to the arena alongside Socorro. _"But against my fellow Obelisk Blue Students? I may have added the new Blue-Eyes White Dragon support cards to help combat them but I get the feeling that I'll need something more."_

"Usually it's me who's lost in thought." Socorro commented as she glanced over at the older student. "What's up Miranda?"

"Nothing much really, I'm just thinking about potential strategies that I can use with this card." Miranda responded before returning it to her extra deck. "Don't worry Socorro, once the match starts I'll be totally focused." Miranda added as the two girls reached the stairs to the arena and started climbing up it. "And given the caliber of our opponents we are going to need it!"

"No kidding, especially since Kimberly has the new Archfiend monsters." Socorro responded as they reached the top of the stairs and she went to open the door. "Are you ready?"

"I was born ready." Miranda responded and Socorro nodded before opening the door and the two girls stepped out into the arena where they were greeted by cheering students.

"Welcome to the second match of the day!" Martin's voice rang out over the PA system and the crowd cheered. "Today's final match will feature Miranda Kaiba and Socorro Stanley taking on Kimberly and Nathan Troy in what promises to be a very good match!"

"I hope you guys don't plan on going through to the next round." Miranda said as the four duelists activated their duel disks. "Because we have already booked our spots in the next round thanks to a monster in my extra-deck and we'll use it to win!"

"What? You mean that Blue-Eyes White Dragon Synchro Monster?" Nathan asked as they drew their opening hands. "Don't get us wrong, it's definitely a powerful monster but no monsters unbeatable."

"The Creator God of Light, Horakhty says otherwise." Miranda responded as she folded her arms.

"True but that card's almost impossible to summon!" Kimberly responded as she shook her head. "It needs all three Egyptian God Cards on the field, as in the originals which are hard enough to summon one copy of those cards to begin with, but otherwise your right." Kimberly added as she shook her head.

"Not to mention the fact that only one copy of it exists in the world and that copy is deep with I2's vaults." Nathan chimed in and the others nodded in agreement. "Enough of this, isn't Martin supposed to announce the order by now?"

"The order will be as follows, Miranda followed by Kimberly followed by Socorro followed by Nathan and finally back to Miranda." Martin's voice rang out and the students moved into position. "Now, let the duel begin!"

"I've actually never heard of the card they were just talking about." Chloe commented as she sat down next to Chelsea. "Can someone fill me in?"

"Most duelists even doubt that it even exists, that's how rare it is." Theresa responded as she turned to Chloe. "Basically, like they said, it requires all three Egyptian God Cards to be sacrificed, it's summon can't be countered at all and you pretty much win the duel the moment you summon it."

"Wait, seriously? Man, I'd hate to imagine what would happen if one of the Orichalcos Duelists got their hands on it." Chelsea responded and Tyler shook his head.

"You have nothing to worry about, for one thing you can't use cards that can be treated as different monsters, it actually requires the original Egyptian God Cards and those things are buried somewhere in Egypt, they could try counterfeiting them but let's just say that they'd have to be suicidal to even try that." Tyler explained as he shook his head.

"Well, why don't we just try convincing them to try it?" Lance suggested with a shrug. "It'd save us a lot of trouble and they'd probably get struck down by lightning before they could even summon that monster."

"Yeah, that's the other problem, no one has seen The Creator God of Light, Horakhty's artwork outside of the Pegasus family and the guys who made the card and most of the card designers who worked on the card are either dead or retired." Theresa chimed in as she shook her head. "They may be talented counterfeiters but that would require starting from scratch and I think they are burning enough money as it is getting agents to the island or setting up those dream duels."

"Gee, thanks for reminding me that I was recently in one of those things!" Chelsea grunted in response and Theresa winced. "Whatever, let's try to focus on the duel." Chelsea added as she and the others turned back to the duel.

"I set two cards facedown and summon Vorse Raider!" Miranda played the cards and the halberd wielding beast warrior appeared on the field (4/1900/1200). "And I end my turn at that!" Miranda announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"_It seems Miranda's sticking to her old tricks even with the new monsters in her deck." _Kimberly thought before looking at her hand and grinning. "First I activate the Spell Card called Trade In! I discard one Level Eight Monster and I get to draw two cards in response!"

"And I'm willing to bet good money that that monster is Infernalqueen Archfiend." Miranda commented with a frown as Kimberly drew two cards. "Reusing your strategy from your last duel?"

"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not." Kimberly responded before discarding another monster. "For my next trick I discard Archfiend General so that I can add Pandemonium from my deck to my hand!" Kimberly explained before retrieving the Field Spell from her deck and adding it to her hand before shuffling her deck. "And let's cut to the chase, I activate Pandemonium!"

"I called it." Socorro commented as she shook her head and the scenery changed to the hellish arena. "Honestly Kimberly, your deck is so predictable!"

"Yeah but so are your decks." Kimberly responded as she shook her head. "Honestly between Miranda practically using a carbon copy of her dad's deck and you using a Fairy Deck it's almost like the pot calling the kettle black."

"I'm using my dad's deck with improvements, don't forget about that." Miranda responded as she rolled her eyes and Kimberly shook her head.

"Improvements or no improvements my point still stands, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Kimberly set the two cards she had drawn with Trade In down and Socorro looked at her in confusion before drawing her card.

"_My deck may be predictable but why fix what isn't broken?" _Socorro thought to herself as she looked at the card she had just drawn. _"Besides, Kimberly opened her move by discarding her only two monsters and playing her field spell, two facedowns and nothing else, unless she has something like Battle Fader waiting in the wings I don't see the point." _Socorro thought before playing a card. "I activate Cards from The Sky!"

"There's a surprise." Kimberly commented as she shook her head and Socorro pocketed one of her monsters and drew two more cards. "Let me guess, one of your next cards will be Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri?"

"Give me a break, I may be an Osiris Red student and the only non-Obelisk Blue duelist in this duel but I know better than to reveal my plans to my opponent before putting them into action." Socorro responded as she rolled her eyes. "Anyway I set two cards facedown and I summon Dunames Dark Witch!" Socorro played the cards and the brunette fairy type appeared on the field (4/1800/1050). "And I end my turn." Socorro added and Nathan drew his card.

"I activate the Continuous Spell Card Arcane Barrier!" Nathan played the card and the spell card appeared on the field. "Next I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Nathan set the monster down and Miranda drew her card.

"_If that facedown monster isn't Apprentice Magician I'll eat my Duel Disk." _Miranda thought as she looked at her drawn card. _"Wonder Wand, if I had Maiden with Eyes of Blue in my hand I could use this in a combo, still I have other combos." _Miranda thought as one of her facedown cards flipped up. "I activate my Trap Card Castle of Dragon Souls!"

"That's a new one." Nathan commented as Miranda picked up her deck. "What does it do?"

"I'll show you! Once per turn I can take one Dragon Type monster from my deck and banish it." Miranda responded as she pocketed the monster and shuffled her deck. "And in exchange for that Vorse Raider gets a power boost of seven hundred points." Miranda added as Vorse Raider's attack increased to 2600. "Granted it may seem like it would've been easier to use Rush Recklessly but there's two problems with that, Castle of Dragon Souls is a Continuous Trap Card which means I can use it as many times as I want as long as I have Dragon Type Monsters in my deck."

"And since you based that deck on your dad's I'm willing to bet that there's more than a few." Nathan commented and Miranda nodded. "Wait can you use that effect more than once per turn?" Nathan asked and Miranda shook her head.

"Don't worry I think I2 learned their lessons from the Dragon Ruler babies and Dragon Rulers in general when they made this card." Miranda responded as she pointed to her Trap's Hologram. "I can only use this trap once per turn but it has another effect."

"It has another effect? What's that?" Kimberly asked and Miranda grinned before playing a Spell Card. "Magic Planter?"

"That's right, so I'll send my Castle to the Graveyard and draw two cards." Miranda responded as her trap card's hologram shattered and she drew twice. "Why would I pass up a chance to use Castle of Dragon Soul's second effect? Simple, to activate its other effect it needs to be sent to the graveyard and this effect allows me to summon one Dragon Type monster that I banished with its effect."

"And you just banished one." Nathan realized as Miranda reached into her pocket and produced the monster. "And I think I know what that card is!" Nathan added as the famous roar echoed throughout the arena and the Blue Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field (8/3000/2500). "Just how many ways do you have of summoning that monster?"

"More ways than I care to count." Miranda responded before playing another Spell Card. "But I'm not done with my deck yet, I activate Foolish Burial!" Miranda played the card before picking up her deck again and searching through it, once she found the card she was looking for she sent it to the graveyard.

"Err, Miranda, did you forget about the time limit?" Socorro asked as she turned to her partner. "You might want to hurry things up."

"Don't worry, I'm almost done anyway!" Miranda responded before pointing to Kimberly. "Blue-Eyes, Vorse Raider, attack her life-points directly!" Miranda commanded and the two monsters leapt into action…..only to be stopped by Battle Fader (1/0/0). "I had a feeling you had that or a similar card in your hand."

"Did you honestly think I'd leave my field open without a backup plan?" Kimberly asked and Miranda shook her head.

"I set one card facedown and end my turn." Miranda set the card down and Kimberly drew her card.

"Well, Miranda's not messing around." Chelsea commented as she watched the duel on her laptop. "It's barely her second turn and she's already summoned one of her aces."

"I'm not surprised." Tyler commented and the others turned to him. "She has been practicing that combo a lot since she secured her spot in the second round last week including in a duel against me, however it is weaker than it once was."

"I'm going to assume that this combo featured Return from a Different Dimension?" Lance asked and Tyler nodded in response. "Man and I thought my deck was hit hard by that ban."

"A lot of duelist's decks were hurt by that ban, not just yours." Brandon responded as he shook his head. "It was going to be a key component of my Chaos Deck but, well you know what happened there." Brandon added before they resumed watching the duel.

"_Too bad Miranda didn't keep Castle of Dragon Souls on the field I could've used it to summon Trap Eater." _Kimberly thought with a frown before looking at the monster she had drawn. _"Actually this could work out better." _Kimberly thought before playing the card. "I summon the Tuner Monster Devil Jester!" Kimberly played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small demon in a twisted version of a court jester's outfit (1/500/600).

"Cute but I don't see the point." Miranda commented as she rolled her eyes. "There aren't any Level Two Synchros, everyone knows that!"

"True but I'm not going for a Level Two Synchro." Kimberly responded before sending a card from her hand to the graveyard. "I activate his effect! By sending one Level Four or lower Fiend type Monster to the graveyard I can increase his level until it matches the monster, so I send my Level Four Trap Eater to the Graveyard and…." Kimberly trailed off as Devil Jester increased in size as its level increased to four. "And that means that I can use him and Battle Fader in a Synchro Summon!" Kimberly added as the two weak fiend monsters leapt into the air.

"It doesn't matter what you summon Kimberly, I still have the advantage here!" Miranda bragged before the bright flash enveloped the arena and when it faded Stygian Sergeants appeared on the field in Devil Jester's place (5/2200/1800). "If you're thinking of attacking Vorse Raider and then crashing into my dragon I have bad news for you! Castle of Dragon Souls may be gone but Vorse Raider keeps its power boost."

"I saw that but that's not my target, or did you forget about Socorro?" Kimberly asked as the demon biker revved up his engine. "Stygian Sergeants, attack Dunames Dark Witch!" Kimberly commanded and the biker ran over the witch destroying her and bringing Socorro's life-points down to 7600. "And now his effect activates, he gains eight hundred attack points and can attack again but rather than attack directly I'll have him deal with Vorse Raider!" Kimberly added and the demon biker's attack increased to three thousand before charging towards Vorse Raider and running it over bringing Miranda's life-points down to 7600. "I don't want my turn to run as long as yours did so that's it for now!" Kimberly announced and Socorro drew her card once Stygian Sergeant's attack had returned to normal.

"_Okay, I think it's pretty clear what I need to do here, I need to get rid of that Synchro Monster before it does any more damage." _Socorro thought before glancing up at Miranda's dragon. _"And Miranda has provided me with the best opportunity to do just that!" _Socorro thought before grinning. "Miranda, do you mind if I borrow Blue-Eyes White Dragon?"

"Go for it!" Miranda responded and Socorro grinned as the dragon flew over to his side of the field. "Just be careful, Kimberly has two unused facedown cards."

"You have nothing to worry about!" Socorro responded as one of her trap cards flipped up. "Next up is my Trap Card Spiritual Light Art – Hijiri, now unless you have a trap card that you can reveal I'm about to summon the monster I banished last turn."

"That was as predictable a move as it gets." Kimberly deadpanned before shaking her head. "In any case I don't have any Trap Cards in my hand, what about you Nathan?"

"Same here go ahead and summon your monster." Nathan responded and Socorro grinned as she retrieved the monster from her blazer pocket. _"Truth is I do have a trap card in my hand but I want her to be able to destroy my facedown monster so I can use Arcane Barrier's effect."_

"I use my Trap Card's effect to summon Athena!" Socorro played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, she was a tall, beautiful woman with long, flowing silver hair who was wearing a white dress and wielding a sword and a shield (7/2600/800). "First things first, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, dismiss those sergeants with White Lightning!" Socorro commanded and the dragon opened its maws before letting lose with its famous attack destroying the fiend type Synchro and bringing Kimberly's life-points down to 7200.

"Don't even think about following that up with a direct attack! I activate my Trap Card Shadow Impulse!" Kimberly activated the trap and retrieved another card from her extra-deck. "Since a Level Five Fiend Type Synchro Monster has just been destroyed this Trap Card lets me Special Summon a second Synchro Monster with the same type and level such as Armades, Keeper of Boundaries!" Kimberly played the card and in Stygian Sergeants place, he was a tall muscular man wearing only a robe around his waist with long silver and gold hair who had a flaming ball of fire around his right hand (5/2300/1500).

"I was worried for a moment there but that monster's barely stronger than Stygian Sergeants making him target practice for Athena!" Socorro responded as her fairy type monster leapt into battle…..

"Sorry but I don't intend to take any more damage this turn! I activate my other trap card Attack Guidance Armor!" Kimberly activated the trap and the hideous looking armor attached itself to Nathan's facedown monster causing Athena to change her target to the facedown monster, revealed to be Apprentice Magician (2/400/800) which was quickly destroyed.

"And not only does that mean that my spell card gets its first counter." Nathan added as Arcane Barrier glowed. "But Apprentice Magician's effect activates!" Nathan added before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the monster he needed he set it on the field and shuffled his deck. "So thanks!"

"Why didn't you use that combo when I attacked Stygian Sergeants?" Socorro asked and Miranda nodded in agreement. "That seems like a pretty major misplay to me."

"Maybe but I never intended for Stygian Sergeants to be my main monster, he was just a means to an end." Kimberly responded as she sent her trap cards to the graveyard. "Besides I wanted to try out Shadow Impulse anyway and that attack gave me the perfect opportunity."

"Well, whatever you say, I still say it's a major misplay." Socorro responded before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Socorro announced and once Blue-Eyes White Dragon was back on Miranda's side of the field Nathan drew his card.

"I flip summon my facedown monster!" Nathan announced as the monster appeared on the field revealed to be another Apprentice Magician. "And her often forgotten about effect activates, since she was flip summoned I can add another counter to Arcane Barrier." Nathan added as his spell card glowed again. "Next I activate Book of Moon to flip her back into facedown position." Nathan played the card and Apprentice Magician was set back down again. "Next I set a card facedown and I summon Breaker, The Magical Warrior!" Nathan played the card and the sword wielding spellcaster appeared on the field (4/1600/1000).

"I think I know what's going to happen next." Socorro commented with a wince as Breaker's attack increased to 1900 thanks to his effect.

"I activate Breaker's effect to destroy Socorro's remaining facedown card!" Nathan announced and once Breaker's attack points where back to normal he charged at the facedown card before striking it with his sword destroying it.

"Well, so much for Mirror Force." Socorro grimaced as she sent her trap card to the graveyard. "But that just means I'll have to destroy him on my next turn."

"We'll see if you get the chance, for now I end my turn." Nathan announced and Miranda drew her card.

"_Don't get me wrong, Mirror Force is a powerful trap card and its reputation as a comeback card is well deserved but by the time I'm done Nathan's going to wish that he had targeted my trap card instead!" _Miranda thought before looking at her drawn card and playing it. "I activate Summoner's Art! With this I add one Level Five or higher Normal Monster from my deck to my hand!" Miranda announced before picking up and searching through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she added it to her hand. "And no, there are no prizes for guessing what card I just added."

"Good, because knowing your dad's deck that would be pretty easy to figure out." Nathan responded as Miranda shuffled her deck and sent her Spell Card to the graveyard. _"And even if she did add one of her other Blue-Eyes White Dragons to her hand she'd need two tributes to summon it, even if she had another monster that would require her to sacrifice one Blue-Eyes and another monster to summon it."_

"And now that I know that one of Kimberly's Trap Eaters is in the graveyard I'm free to activate my trap card!" Miranda added as her trap card flipped up.

"Oh shit! It's Dragon's Rage!" Nathan realized once he recognized the artwork.

"Exactly and the only reason I didn't activate this last turn was because I wasn't sure what your facedown monster was." Miranda added before pointing to her dragon. "But now that I know that it's another Apprentice Magician I can strike her down safely with White Lightning!" Miranda added and her dragon took it as its cue to let loose with its famous attack destroying the young magician and bringing Nathan's life-points down to 5800.

"Arcane Barrier gains its third counter!" Nathan announced as the Spell Card glowed. "And I summon another monster from my deck!" Nathan announced as he set his facedown card. _"These next two turns will hurt like hell but if I can survive I'll draw a total of four cards with Arcane Barrier's effect which might mean the difference between life and death for our team."_

"What good will those counters do when your life-points run out?" Miranda asked before setting two facedown cards. "I'm setting these just in case but for now I end my turn." Miranda announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"_Maybe I should've used my combo first last turn, Stygian Sergeants would be a very handy card to have right now." _Kimberly thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Damn, I needed another Trap Eater to get rid of Dragon's Rage before Nathan's life-points dropped into the red but I didn't draw it." _Kimberly thought before surveying the field. "I have no choice but to pass, no point in shifting my monster to defense mode with that trap card on the field." Kimberly announced and Socorro drew her card.

"I activate my Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot!" Socorro played the cards and all four duelists drew three cards. "Miranda, can I borrow your dragon again?"

"You didn't even need to ask." Miranda responded as the dragon made its way to Socorro's side of the field again.

"Good because I'm continuing what your started!" Socorro said before pointing to the facedown monster. "Blue-Eyes, attack with White Lighting!" Socorro commanded and the dragon let lose its famous attack destroying the final Apprentice Magician and bringing Nathan's life-points down to 3600, once Arcane Barrier's and Apprentice Magician's effects where resolved Socorro pointed to Breaker. "It's your turn Athena! Attack Breaker and destroy him!" Socorro commanded and Athena charged towards Breaker before slashing him down the middle and bringing Nathan's life-points down to 2600. "This has to be my easiest match against a team of Obelisk Blue Students ever!"

"Don't get cocky, we may be behind on life-points but we're hardly out of the match." Nathan responded and Kimberly nodded in agreement.

"We could wipe you out with a direct attack from either of our monsters! You seem pretty out of it to me!" Socorro responded before setting two cards facedown. "I end my turn with these facedown cards." Socorro announced and Nathan drew his card.

"Well for starters one of your monsters won't be around for much longer! I flip summon my facedown monster, the Old Vindictive Magician!" Nathan flipped the monster up revealing the cranky old magician (2/450/600) and it casted a spell at Athena destroying her. "Now I sacrifice Old Vindictive Magician and Arcane Barrier to use Arcane Barrier's second effect!" Nathan added as the two holograms shattered and Nathan drew four cards.

"Careful Nathan, you'll deck out at this rate." Kimberly pointed out as Nathan sent his cards to the graveyard.

"I still have plenty of cards left!" Nathan responded before looking at his drawn card and grinning. _"Perfect!" _Nathan thought before discarding a card. "By discarding a card from my hand I can Special Summon The Tricky in attack mode!" Nathan played the card and the mysterious spellcaster appeared on the field (5/2000/1200). "And for my normal summon I'm bringing out my own Tuner Monster, Night's End Sorcerer!" Nathan played the card and the young Spellcaster in tattered robes appeared on the field (2/1300/400).

"So you're going for your own Synchro Summon, do I get a prize for guessing which monster?" Miranda asked and Nathan shook his head.

"You didn't offer any prizes for guessing that you had added Blue-Eyes White Dragon to your hand via Summoner's Art's effect so I won't either." Nathan responded as The Tricky and Night's End Sorcerer leapt into the air. "But your right, I'm tuning Night's End Sorcerer and The Tricky together to Synchro Summon Arcanite Magician!" Nathan played the card and once the bright flash from the Synchro Summon faded the tall magician in white and purple robes appeared on the field (7/400/1800). "Since he was Synchro Summoned he gets two Spell Counters and two thousand attack points." Nathan added as the Spellcaster's attack increased to 2400.

"That may be enough to do a decent amount of damage to Socorro's life-points but it's still not enough to defeat my dragon!" Miranda pointed out and Nathan shook his head.

"True but who said that that was my plan?" Nathan asked as he played another card. "I activate Miracle Synchro Fusion! I fuse together Arcanite Magician in my hand and The Tricky in my graveyard to summon Supreme Arcanite Magician!" Nathan played the card and the mysterious Spellcaster appeared on the field again for a few seconds before being sucked into the fusion vortex alongside Arcanite Magician and a few seconds later Supreme Arcanite Magician appeared in its place (10/1400/2800) and its attack rose to 3400 thanks to its effect.

"I suppose your about to use its effect to destroy my Blue-Eyes White Dragon?" Miranda asked and Nathan shook his head.

"No, not really, instead I'm just going to attack your dragon with Supreme Arcanite!" Nathan announced and the magician started firing up a spell…..

"I won't let my dragon be defeated that easily! I activate my Trap Card Interdimensional Matter Transporter!" Miranda activated the trap and the dragon disappeared from the field in short order just before the attack hit. "And that means that my dragon is removed from play until the end of the turn!"

"And you called Kimberly's move a misplay?!" Nathan exclaimed as he and Kimberly stared at Miranda like she had just grown two additional heads. "You off all people should know that since the field's changed in the middle of the Battle Phase a replay will occur!" Nathan added and Supreme Arcanite Magician fired up another spell that hit Miranda in the chest bringing her life-points down to 4200.

"Oh, I know! In fact I was counting on it! I activate my Trap Card Damage Condenser!" Miranda activated the trap and Nathan's eyes widened when he realized the implications. "All I need to do is discard one card from my hand and I can use this effect to summon one monster from my deck with an attack equal to or less than the damage I just took." Miranda explained before discarding the card. "Now I know what you thinking and the answer's no, I'm not summoning another Blue-Eyes White Dragon because I have two of the three in my hand and the third will be back on the field as soon as your turn ends."

"Wait, are you telling us that you opened things up with two Blue-Eyes White Dragons in your opening hand?" Nathan asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Either you have some of the biggest luck of the draw ever or that is some legendary top decking!"

"Actually there's a third and accurate option, I had no Blue-Eyes White Dragons in my opening hand." Miranda responded and Nathan frowned. "I summoned the first one with Castle of Dragon Souls, added the second to my hand via Summoner's Art and the third was one of the monsters I drew with Spellbook inside the Pot."

"Okay, you convinced us but some of us do have classes to attend at the end of the day." Nathan responded as he checked his watch. "So can you hurry things along?"

"Sorry, got sidetracked there." Miranda apologized as she picked a card out from her deck and played it. "I use Damage Condenser's effect to summon Kaiser Seahorse!" Miranda played the card and the trident wielding Sea Serpent appeared on the field (4/1700/1650).

"So that was your plan, you took the damage to summon Kaiser Seahorse to open things up for you to summon one of your other Blue-Eyes." Nathan realized as his eyes widened and Miranda grinned.

"You'll have to see for yourself when my turn begins." Miranda responded as she glanced towards the graveyard slot. _"What they don't know is that I discarded my other Blue-Eyes White Dragon to summon Kaiser Seahorse! Monster Reborn might be banned but I have other ways to bring it out!"_

"I'm not ending my turn just yet." Nathan decided once he looked at his hand. "Instead I'm removing a Spell Counter from Supreme Arcanite Magician to destroy Dragon's Rage!" Nathan announced and Supreme Arcanite Magician's attack dropped to 2400 before it casted a spell at the trap card destroying it. "And I set one card facedown to end my turn." Nathan set the card down and Miranda drew her card once Blue-Eyes White Dragon was back on her side of the field.

"Wait why did he destroy that Trap Card and not Kaiser Seahorse instead?" Chloe asked as she watched the duel. "I mean I know that Dragon's Rage had caused a lot of damage to Nathan's life-points and it would've caused a lot more damage with two of them on the field but still."

"I was wondering that myself, but I have the feeling that his facedown card has something to do with it." Tyler responded as he glanced up at Chloe. "Nathan isn't stupid he wouldn't make a move like that without a back-up plan."

"Well, I'd better not waste any time then!" Miranda commented as she sent Kaiser Seahorse to the graveyard. "First since Kaiser Seahorse counts as two tributes for a Light Attribute monster I'll tribute it to summon my second Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Miranda played the card and Kaiser Seahorse vanished from the field, in its place stood the second Blue-Eyes White Dragon in all its glory (8/3000/2500).

"I had a feeling that that was…" Nathan trailed off as realization hit him. "Wait, you said first?!"

"That's right, remember Damage Condenser? The card I discarded for its effect was my third and final Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Miranda responded before playing a card. "And what do you know? I have the means to bring it back! I activate my Spell Card Swing of Memories to revive my final Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the graveyard!"

"You're kidding?" Kimberly asked as her eyes widened and the fact that the third Blue-Eyes subsequently appeared on the field denied that possibility. "Nathan, if your misplay costs us the duel you are carrying my books for the rest of the month!"

"But you have so many books!" Nathan protested and Kimberly nodded in response. _"Good thing it's not going to cost us the duel then!"_

"But before I take out Nathan….." Miranda trailed off before playing another card. "I activate Faustian Bargain! With this I send Kimberly's Synchro Monster to the graveyard…." Miranda trailed off as Kimberly's monster shattered. "And in return I get to Special Summon one Level Four or Lower Monster from my hand like Alexandrite Dragon!" Miranda played the card and the beautiful sapphire dragon appeared on the field (4/2000/100). "You know, it's sad, I was expecting more of a challenge from my dorm mates but I guess you can't win them all, Blue-Eyes White Dragons, eliminate Nathan with White Lightning!" Miranda commanded and the two dragons fired up their attacks…

"We're not of the duel yet but your dragons are! I activate my trap card Mirror Force!" Nathan activated the trap and Miranda's eyes widened as the infamous trap card flipped up and the attacks were reflected back at Miranda's monsters destroying them all. "You spent so much time trying to get your dad's monsters on the field that you forgot about my trap card."

"Maybe but that was hardly my only trick up my sleeve." Miranda responded as she looked over her remaining cards. _"If I can get Maiden with Eyes of Blue in my hand I'll have a great way to summon Azure Eyes Silver Dragon but as it stands I have no way of adding it to my hand, at least not directly!" _Miranda thought before playing a card. "I move into my Second Main Phase and I activate Card of Demise! With this I draw until I have five cards in my hand as long as I don't mind discarding my remaining cards after five turns."

"That will be a process that's sped up by the tag team duel format." Kimberly pointed out as Miranda drew her cards. "I hope for your sake that it's worth the risk!"

"I guess we'll have to see won't we?" Miranda asked as she drew her final card, whilst she maintained her poker face on the outside on the inside she was ecstatic. _"This is better than I could've hoped for! I'll have to hope that I can hold out until my next turn!" _Miranda thought before picking up two of the cards. "I set these cards facedown and end my turn." Miranda set the cards and Kimberly drew her card.

"_I have to give Nathan credit he definitely knows how to lead his opponents along." _Kimberly thought as she drew her card. _"But still, Miranda has five new cards to play with and we still don't know what other plans she has in mind." _Kimberly thought before looking over her hand. _"Huh, I was wondering when I was going to draw one of the new Archfiends."_

"_I've seen that look before. Kimmy's just drew something good." _Nathan thought as he watched his step-sister make his move.

"I summon Archfiend Cavalry!" Kimberly played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a skeleton demon in red armor that was carrying a large spear and riding a purple horse in gold armor that had a strange blue glow in its eye (4/1900/0) "He has an effect but I won't go into it yet! Archfiend Cavalry, attack Miranda's life-points directly!" Kimberly commanded and the monster charged into battle…..but was stopped in its tracks by an ear piercing screech.

"Sorry Kimberly but it won't be that easy." Miranda responded once the screech faded and the source, Miranda's "Command Silencer" Quick Play Card, revealed itself. "Defense Draw may be more popular than this but it's still a good card to have handy." Miranda added as she drew another card through Command Silencer's effect.

"_And I was worried about Nathan decking out." _Kimberly thought as Archfiend Cavalry made its way back to her side of the field. _"But Miranda's manipulated her deck even more literally from the start of the duel and for what? Just to get her dad's dragons on the field, well Nathan made sure that it was all for nothing!" _Kimberly thought before looking over her hand. "I end my turn. "Kimberly announced and Socorro drew her card.

"_This is bad, Miranda still has her remaining facedown card but if Nathan decides to destroy it before attacking then we're in trouble." _Socorro thought before looking at her drawn card and setting it in defense mode. "I end my turn." Socorro announced and Nathan drew his card.

"_That was definitely one way to turn the duel around, better late than never to keep it up!" _Nathan thought before pointing to Miranda. "Supreme Arcanite Magician, attack her life-points directly!" Nathan commanded and the magician started firing up another spell….

"Nice try." Miranda responded as her trap card flipped up. "But I still have some tricks up my sleeve like the Trap Card Birthright! And I use it to bring back one of my Blue-Eyes White Dragons!" Miranda added as the Blue-Eyes returned to the field with a mighty roar.

"In that case I call off my attack and move to my second main phase." Nathan added as Supreme Arcanite Magician stopped casting the spell. "And I use my Arcanite Magician's effect one last time to destroy Birthright!" Nathan announced and the magician casted another spell destroying the trap card and taking the dragon with it. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Nathan set the card down and Miranda drew her card.

"Sorry Nathan but by doing that you've practically signed your team's Death Warrant!" Miranda boasted before quickly playing a card. "I summon Maiden with Eyes of Blue!"

"I was wondering when that monster was going to show up." Nathan commented with a smirk as the young woman with long white hair and blue eyes appeared on the field (1/0/0). "So what's next?"

"I'll show you! I equip my Maiden with Wonder Wand!" Miranda played the card and a small wand appeared in the woman's hands and seconds later the dragon that her family had made famous appeared on the field again. "I'd use the combo that I used in the last round but with Monster Reborn banned I can't." Miranda added before grinning. "So I may as well cut to the chase, I'm tuning my two monsters together!" Miranda announced as the two monsters leapt into the air to perform to Synchro Summon.

"Trying to end the duel the same way you ended your last duel?" Nathan asked and Miranda didn't answer as the bright flash enveloped the field and seconds later Azure Eyes Silver Dragon appeared on the field (9/2500/3000). "You realize that our life-points are in better shape than your last opponents, right?"

"Oh, I know that." Miranda said as a huge grin appeared on her face. "But that won't be an issue for much longer! I activate Dragon's Mirror!"

"Kimberly, tell me I just imagined that last sentence." Nathan said as he and his step-sister started sweating bullets as the three dragons appeared on the field one last time before they were sucked into the fusion vortex. "Tell me she's not summoning the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

"I'd love to but I'd be lying!" Kimberly responded as the massive, three headed dragon appeared on the field with a roar (10/4500/3800). "That was one hell of a series of draws you did last turn Miranda, you realize that right?"

"Oh trust me, I know!" Miranda said with a grin before playing another card. "Next I activate Burial from a Different Dimension to move the three Blue-Eyes White Dragons back into my graveyard!" Miranda announced as she retrieved the three dragons from her blazer pocket and put them back into her graveyard slot. "Now to bring this duel to an end….." Miranda trailed off before a loud roar, not from either dragon as they had both cowered from it, echoed through the arena. "Threatening Roar?"

"I was waiting for the perfect time to use it." Kimberly responded with a shrug as she sent her trap card to the graveyard. "And I'd say preventing an attack that could end the duel in your favor a pretty perfect time, wouldn't you?"

"I guess I would, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Miranda set the card down and Kimberly drew her card.

"I'm pretty sure we're looking at a nightmare scenario for most duelists." Brandon commented with a wince. "Seriously that has to be one of the luckiest series of draws in Duel Academy history."

"I don't think even Yugi Motuh had that much luck on a good day." Theresa agreed as they watched the duel. "It's either that or she topdecked but Miranda has too much pride and dignity to resort to cheating."

"Either way unless Nathan and Kimberly get a lucky draw between this turn and the next they'll be knocked out of the duel on the next turn." Chloe commented with a frown. "Okay, it's pretty obvious that Miranda's going to use Azure Eyes Silver Dragon's effect on Blue Eyes White Dragon next turn, how much damage would that cause?"

"That would cause a lot of damage." Chelsea shrugged her shoulders and Chloe sweat-dropped. "What? You wanted an exact number? Give me a sec." Chelsea added before booting up the Calculator app on her laptop. "That would cause Ten Thousand Points of damage in one turn." Chelsea responded as she showed the number to Chloe. "Even more if Miranda finds a way to Special Summon the other dragons, in other words Kimberly and Nathan are screwed unless Kimberly draws something good."

"_I hate to admit it but it's not looking good." _Kimberly thought as she glanced towards Miranda's two dragons. _"Unless I draw something that can buy me some time…." _Kimberly trailed off before looking towards her remaining facedown card. "I shift Archfiend Cavalry to defense mode!" Kimberly announced as the monster crouched down. "And I activate Dark World Dealings! This spell card allows us all to draw one card and discard one card each." Kimberly played the card and discarded a monster to her graveyard, once the others followed suit Kimberly sent her spell card to the graveyard. "That ends my turn, oh Miranda if my math is correct your five turns are up."

"You're right." Miranda admitted once she did the math in her head and once she discarded her remaining cards Socorro drew her card.

"I know what you're going to say Socorro and the answer's yes, go ahead and take control of my dragons." Miranda said once she saw Socorro looking at her and the dragons flew over to her side of the field. "But attack Kimberly, I'll take care of Nathan!"

"Got it Miranda, but first I activate a Spell Card called Lightning Vortex!" Socorro played the card and discarded another card from her hand before lightning crashed down on both Supreme Arcanite Magician and Archfiend Cavalry destroying them. "Now the coast is clear for us!"

"Or so you think!" Kimberly shouted out as she retrieved a monster from her graveyard. "Since you destroyed Archfiend Cavalry by a card effect his own effect activates which lets me Special Summon another Archfiend from my graveyard like Shadowknight Archfiend!" Kimberly played the card and demonic knight appeared on the field in defense mode. "And yes, that was the card I discarded for Dark World Dealing's effect."

"Your Shadowknight's strong but he's no match for Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack with Neutron Blast!" Socorro commanded and the three dragon heads fired their attacks vaporizing the knight. "It's your turn Azure Eyes Silver Dragon! Attack her life-points directly!"

"Nice try but the third attempt won't be the charm! I activate my Trap Card Archfiend's Roar!" Kimberly activated the trap and winced as her life-points dropped to 6700. "It may cost me five hundred life-points but compared to the three-thousand life-points that I would've lost instead I'll take it!" Kimberly added as Archfiend Cavalry returned to the field again in defense mode.

"Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon, attack Archfiend Cavalry!" Socorro commanded and the dragon let loose with its attack vaporizing the monster in seconds. "That may not have had the desired effect but it did wipe out the last line of defense you had! I end my turn." Socorro announced and Nathan drew his card.

"_If this works I can buy us another turn." _Nathan thought as he looked at his newly drawn trap card. _"But if it isn't then I'll never get my match against Chloe, well here goes." _ Nathan thought before setting the card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"Do you honestly think that any trap card can save you from this onslaught?" Miranda asked as she folded her arms with a cocky smirk. "First my Azure Eyes Silver Dragon's effect activates allowing me to Special Summon an old friend!" Miranda added as another Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field. "Don't worry Nathan, I'll make this quick! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, attack his life-points directly and eliminate him with Neutron Blast!" Miranda commanded and the dragon prepared its attack.

"I activate my Trap Card Rainbow Life!" Nathan activated the trap and quickly discarded a card from his hand.

"Weren't you listening? No trap card can save you!" Miranda responded as the blast hit Nathan nearly knocking him off the arena in the process. "One down, one to go, Blue-Eyes White Dragon….."

"You might want to hold off on that attack Miranda!" Nathan cut her off as he got to his feet and got back into position. "Take another look at my life-points!" Nathan instructed her as he held up his life-point counter and Miranda's eyes widened when she saw it.

"You have 7100 life-points?!" Miranda blurted out before shaking her head. "So you have a faulty Duel Disk that means nothing!"

"Your Kaiba's daughter and you've never heard of Rainbow Life?" Nathan asked as he held his trap card up. "Let me spell it out for you! All for the cost of discarding one card from my hand any life-point damage I would've taken this turn is turned into life-points and added to my score." Nathan added before grinning broadly. "Oh and by the way, since this is a tag duel that effect applies to Kimberly as well!"

"_I knew I heard that Trap Card's name before but I couldn't put my finger on it." _Miranda thought with a frown before looking at the remaining card in her hand. "Well, look at what I just drew." Miranda commented with a grin. "It seems Rainbow Life was a blessing in disguise, I move to my Second Main Phase and I equip Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Megamorph!"

"Oh shit!" Kimberly and Nathan said simultaneously as the already massive dragon doubled in size and attack power all the way up to 9000.

"Do the math guys, unless you have another copy of Rainbow Life left then this duel is going to end in our favor!" Miranda commented with a grin as she folded her arms. "I end my turn." Miranda announced and Kimberly drew her card.

"_I hate to admit it but she's right, unless we draw something useful we're done for!" _Kimberly thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Not what I was hoping for but it'll buy us a bit of time." _Kimberly thought before setting it down. "I set this card facedown and end my turn." Kimberly announced and Socorro drew her card. "Don't bother asking if you can use Miranda's dragons Socorro, I activate Thunder of Ruler!"

"Crap." Socorro grunted in annoyance before looking at her drawn card. _"I haven't drawn a single monster since my facedown monster! It seems Miranda's getting all the luck and I'm getting nothing but crappy luck!" _Socorro thought before shaking her head. "I pass in that case." Socorro sighed and Nathan nodded before drawing his card.

"_Kimberly brought us some time but I don't know how long….." _Nathan trailed off before looking at his drawn card. _"It's a big risk, if Miranda draws something like MST or A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon than we're out of the duel!" _Nathan thought before shaking his head. _"If I want to win I'll have to take the risk!" _Nathan thought before setting the card. "I set this facedown and end my turn." Nathan set the card down and took a deep breath as Miranda drew her card.

"_Synchro Boost, not exactly the ideal time for a dead draw but with my dragons on the field I have nothing to lose!" _Miranda thought before adding the card to her hand. "Azure Eyes Silver Dragon's effect activates again allowing me to summon my second Blue-Eyes." Miranda announced as another Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field. "But it's not like that matters! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, eliminate Nathan with Neutron Blast!" Miranda commanded and the dragon prepared the attack…..

"Sorry Miranda but if anyone's being eliminated it's you! I activate my trap card Dimension Wall!" Nathan activated the trap and Miranda's eyes widened. "I'll still take the hit but you'll take the damage, in other words you've just eliminated yourself!"

"No….." Miranda trailed off as the blast hit her sending her flying back and sending her life-points plummeting to zero, Socorro's eyes widened as the weight of the situation hit her as the holograms of Miranda's dragons disappeared one by one. "Socorro, you have something that can still win this match for us right?"

"Unfortunately no, I don't." Socorro winced as she looked over her hand and field Kimberly had already drawn a card as Miranda's elimination meant that the turn had passed to her automatically. "As much as I'd like to say otherwise I have no choice but to surrender." Socorro sighed as she surrendered.

"Here are your winners, Kimberly and Nathan Troy!" Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd cheered. "There won't be any tournament duels over the weekend but tomorrow the promotion duels will begin! If you haven't seen the line-up you can find it on Duel Academy's website but on Monday the duels will begin anew starting with the team of Kristopher O'Neill and Lamont Berry taking on Lance Alvers and Evan Grant followed by Vernon Chan and Charity Hensley taking on Latoya Conley and Louella Schneider, and on Tuesday the third round will begin, however before all of that the new banlist will be posted first thing in the morning, be sure to check the website before you prepare for your promotion duels!"

"Oh for the love off….." Brandon trailed off as it hit him. "Yet another banlist? Hasn't I2 hit enough decks already?"

"Blame Sophia Pegasus, she's apparently doing all this to try to make the game fair and balanced again." Tyler responded as he shook his head. "As for the result of the duel I'm not surprised, Miranda's strategy was powerful but she was hit hard by Card of Demise's side effect, and then there's Socorro."

"What about her?" Theresa asked whilst in the background Chelsea started packing up her laptop with Chloe's help.

"She was relying on Miranda's monsters so much towards the end that if Miranda had lost she would've followed suit soon after." Tyler responded with a frown. "For an Osiris Red Student she was okay….."

"And what's THAT supposed to mean?!" Chelsea's voice rang out and Tyler winced as he glanced up at Chelsea who was glaring at him along with Chloe

"Chelsea relax, you to Chloe." Theresa quickly intervened as she stood in between them. "What he was saying is that you two are two of the best duelists in the dorm and your both up for promotion tomorrow, let's face it most of the students in your dorm are in the worst dorm for a reason."

"Yeah, I guess." Chelsea sighed before checking her watch. "Chloe, can you take my laptop back? I have PE soon and if I take a detour to our dorm I'll be late for class."

"You got it I'll meet you back at the dorm." Chloe responded as she took the laptop and the two girls left quickly followed by the others.


	106. Promotion Duels Part One

Whilst the final tournament duel of the day was wrapping up another group was watching from a penthouse/office in LA, unfortunately for the students that group was the same one that had been plaguing the students over the past couple of months dating all the way back to the beginning of the Battle City Tournament and they were planning their next move.

"Victor, I'm surprised that you haven't sent us to the island." Jack commented as he folded his arms. "You usually do that after the tournament duels are done for the day."

"Money and resources are one of the main problems." Victor responded as he watched Miranda practically defeat herself. "As rich as I obviously am these daily trips to the island are costing me money and what have they gotten me? Several souls of defeated agents, three student souls that weren't even the main targets and, oh yes, how could I forget? There was also the return of the three Legendary Dragons."

"I know that's a major problem but we still have to go after them before they get to strong for us to handle." Sarah responded as the duel academy stream ended since the match had ended, she sat down at the computer and after some searching came upon Chloe's Duel Academy Profile. "I suggest we target the girl who wields Timeaus first."

"You've been obsessed over her ever since you got brought into the fold!" Jack commented as he rolled his eyes. "She's not even the best duelist amongst the ones who hold the Legendary Dragons! That honor goes to Theresa!"

"That is true but the Eye of Timeaus is the strongest Legendary Dragon card." Victor responded as he shook his head. "Besides thanks to Sheamus's little operation earlier this week she isn't in the best of terms with her Legendary Dragon therefore she should be targeted before she can make amends!" Victor added before turning to Sarah. "Make the arrangements I'll have a boat take the two of you to the island during the promotion duels."

"I'll send word as soon as I find a suitable agent." Sarah responded before leaving the office, with Victor preoccupied with making the preparations Jack took his chance and ran up to Sarah.

"Hey Sarah, I have a quick question." Jack said as he caught up to her and whilst Sarah kept walking she did glance over her shoulder at her partner in crime. "Why are you so obsessed with the Richardson chick anyway? I mean I know she's hot but I didn't think that you were into girl on girl….." Jack never got a chance to finish as Sarah span around and punched him in the face knocking him to the ground.

"That's on a need to know basis!" Sarah snapped at him as Jack rubbed his aching jaw. "And as far as I'm concerned there are only two people who need to know, myself and Chloe Richardson!" Sarah added before storming off leaving a hurt and confused Jack in the dust.

"What the hell was that about?!" Jack wondered out loud as he pulled himself to his feet, the punch had removed his hood from his head revealing a scruffy young man with messy dark brown hair and an unkempt goatee, before he could say anything else he heard a female voice chuckling behind him and glanced over his shoulder seeing Juliana at her desk typing away at her computer with one eye on Jack. "How much did you see?"

"All of it." Juliana added with a devilish smirk. "The real question is what are you willing to do for me to keep my mouth shut?" Juliana asked and Jack blinked before grinning broadly as an idea entered his head.

"Does that involve the two of us sneaking off to a disused room and making out?" Jack asked hopefully and Juliana shook her head before grabbing what looked like a mountain of paperwork.

"No, but maybe after you do this for me I'll consider it." Juliana responded and Jack begrudgingly stood up and grabbed the paperwork…only to subsequently drop all of it after tripping on Juliana's outstretched heel

"Son of a bitch….." Jack grunted as Juliana started whistling innocently as she typed away at her computer.

"Oh and there's another thing." Juliana said as her devilish grin grew wider. "That's just the first pile of printouts that I need to do, there's at least ten more to go."

"_The opportunity to tap that ass had better be worth this bullshit!" _Jack grunted as he started gathering up the scattered pieces of work.

*the next morning*

Usually on the weekends most of the students preferred to have lie ins since there weren't any classes on the weekends, however as that particular Saturday hosted the latest round of promotion duels some of the students were getting up as early as they could to avoid being late, namely the students who were up for promotion.

"Five more minutes….." Chloe moaned as she turned in her bed, however for a certain female Osiris Red Student getting out of bed was proving to be harder than her roommate anticipated.

"Seriously Chloe, did you forget what's happening today all ready?" Chelsea asked as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance, Chloe's roommate had been awake for the past twenty minutes or so and was already dressed, whilst she had initially decided to let her roommate sleep for a couple of more minutes those "couple of more minutes" had quickly turned into ten minutes.

"But it's the weekend!" Chloe responded with a grunt as she continued to ignore her roommate.

"Yeah, I know, and it's also the day of the promotion duels!" Chelsea responded and that was all she needed for Chloe to bolt out of bed and start getting dressed in a hurry. "Don't worry Chloe the duels aren't going to start for another hour yet."

"But I still seriously slept in late!" Chloe responded as she put her jeans, crop top and blazer on. "And I'm in the first match against Lance!"

"Chloe, you'll do fine, I'm sure of it." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "You've dueled against Lanced before right? How did you do in those duels?"

"I lost both matches and lost the first after Lance put me in a Lava Golem lock." Chloe responded as she grabbed her duel disk and main deck, side deck and extra deck. "Did I mention that my first duel against him was my first non-practice duel after my stepdad taught me how to play the game?" Chloe added and Chelsea winced.

"No wonder you hate that card so much." Chelsea said with a wince before grabbing her own duel disk and decks. "But you can relax, that was months ago and you're a much better duelist then you were back then."

"The same can be said for Lance." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea frowned knowing that she had a point. "Thanks for waking me up before I slept through the duels by the way?"

"It's nothing they wouldn't have preceded without you anyway." Chelsea responded before remembering something. "Oh yeah, the new banlist is on the website."

"Did my deck get hit?" Chloe asked before sighing in relief when Chelsea shook her head before getting her IPad out, accessing DA's website and looking at the banlist.

"Nah, the two Morphing Jars got banned, Coach Soldier Wolfbark, Mermail Abyssgunde, Rekindling and Infernity Barrier are all limited, Necroface and Hieratic Seal of Convocation are Semi-Limited and Primal Seed and Magical Stone Excavation are Unlimited." Chelsea responded as she read off the banlist and Chloe grinned when she heard one of the limits. "Let me guess, you just realized that Rekindling's limit has given you a big advantage?"

"You got that right." Chloe responded with a grin before she checked the time on her watch. "I know you said that the duels aren't starting for another hour but maybe we can get there early."

"Sounds like a good idea to me, according to DA's website the duels are being held in the main arena." Chelsea responded and Chloe grinned in response. "Let's go!" Chelsea added and the two girls soon left their dorm room. _"Hopefully this will be the last time we're going to leave this dorm room as its residents." _Chelsea thought before following Chloe down the hallway.

*meanwhile*

"Does I2 have it out for me or something?" Lance wondered out loud as he took out two out of the three copies of Rekindling that he had in his deck, put them in in his side deck and replacing them with two other Spell Cards from his side deck, he was currently in the dorm room that he shared with Ash and had just found out about the new banlist. "Seriously, first Return from a Different Dimension gets banned and now this?"

"Just be glad that they didn't outright ban Rekindling." Ash responded as he shook his head and Lance shuddered in response. "Still, you can't let this distract you from your match against Chloe."

"I know she's come a long way since she joined Duel Academy and I know that it'll be stupid to underestimate her." Lance responded as he glanced over his shoulder at him. "And then there's my post Promotion Duels plans."

"Namely asking her out?" Ash asked and Lance nodded. "Well, good luck with that and your duel my friend I think you're going to need it in both instances."

"I know I'm going to need it." Lance responded as he grabbed his deck. "Still I've come a long way as well and if there was a way for both of us to advance up a dorm we'll have definitely earned it."

"I believe there may be a way but I guess we'll have to see." Ash responded and Lance nodded before checking the time on his watch. "Is it time to go?"

"No but I think it'll be best if we get going regardless." Lance responded as he stood up. "I don't want to be late however." Lance added and Ash nodded in response before the two teams left.

*later*

The students had, once again, gathered in the main arena to watch a series of duels, however unlike the recent tournament duels that had been taking place over the past two weeks these matches had repercussions beyond a simple tournament as they would determine if certain students would advance up a dorm or not.

"I hope you're not feeling to rusty Martin." Jeff chuckled as he shuffled his deck. "Chelsea was considered to be good enough for Ra Yellow when she joined the school and she's only improved since then."

"I do not doubt Ms. Cunningham's obvious talents as a duelist." Martin responded as he looked over his deck. "But at the end of the day she is just a student, I was a pro duelist before she even came out of the closet."

"Yes but if anyone knows that girl's stubborn streak it's me Martin." Maria chimed in as she finished shuffling her deck. "She won't give up for anything."

"We at least get to relax for a few minutes anyway." Hamden added as he glanced out towards the arena. "The first match is between two students."

"Yes, that reminds me, I'd better get into position." Martin added before he started making his way to the booth. "Hamden, since I obviously can't be in two places at once I'll need you to take over from me whilst I am dueling Chelsea."

"Just give me the word and I'll go up to the booth." Hamden responded and Martin nodded before walking off, whilst that was going on the students were pouring into the stands for the second day in a row whilst the students who were up for promotion where getting ready for their matches.

"Chloe, are you going to be okay going into your match with Lance?" Chelsea asked as she watched her roommate shuffle her deck.

"Yeah, I will be." Chloe responded as she briefly glanced over her shoulder before returning her attention back to her deck. "Why do you ask?"

"You just seem nervous, that's all." Chelsea responded as she shrugged her shoulders and Chloe finished shuffling her deck.

"Last minute nerves I guess, besides if anyone should be nervous it's you." Chloe responded as she turned to her roommate and folded her arms. "I'm just facing a fellow student who happens to be my best friend….."

"And crush." Chelsea interrupted her with a cheeky grin and Chloe blushed furiously.

"I'm not even going to justify that with a response." Chloe said as the red in her cheeks disappeared. "But you on the other hand, you're facing Martin in your promotion duel and if you lose then who knows how long it'll be before you get another chance?"

"That's why I don't plan on losing!" Chelsea responded with a confident smirk. "Besides, my deck still has a few tricks that you haven't seen yet, trust me I'll be fine!"

"Have you even seen Martin duel?" Chloe asked and Chelsea went to answer but hesitated. "I thought not."

"Chloe, it's time." One of the Duel Proctors told her and Chloe took a deep breath before she started making her way to the arena.

"Good luck Chloe!" Chelsea called out to her and Chloe glanced over her shoulder, smirked and continued to follow the proctor.

"Welcome to the start of the day's promotion duels." Martin announced over the PA system and the crowd cheered. "As you know this is the time where several students will duel for their right to be promoted to a dorm higher than the one that they are already in and we are kicking things off with a duel between two students, first from the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm, Chloe Richardson!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered as Chloe stepped onto the arena. "And her opponent from the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm here is Lance Alvers!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered again as Lance stepped onto the arena.

"I hope your ready Chloe." Lance commented as they started shuffling their decks. "We may be friends but I'm not going to let that stop me from taking my place in Obelisk Blue!"

"And I won't let that stop me from taking my place in Ra Yellow!" Chloe retorted and Lance grinned as they finished shuffling their decks.

"Now I know this question has been asked off me since the first match of the second round so I'll get this out of the way, no, the rules that apply to the second round matches of the Tag Team Tournament won't apply to today's matches." Martin announced and Chloe and Lance sighed in relief. "These duels are independent from the Tag Team Tournament and as such they won't be held to the same rules."

"I guess that just leaves one thing Lance." Chloe commented as they drew their opening hands. "Who's going first?"

"I always say ladies first Chloe so you go first." Lance responded after looking over his hand and Chloe nodded before drawing her first card. _"My hand isn't that bad but I'd rather see what she has in store for me before I make any moves."_

"_Ugh, out of all the duels for me to get a bad hand in!" _Chloe thought with a wince as she looked over her hand, it consisted of three monsters, two traps and a newly drawn spell card but all but one of the monsters were too high a level for her to summon right away whilst the monster she could summon was a weak one. _"At least it's not as bad as my first hand of the Battle City Semi-Finals." _Chloe thought before picking up the Trap Cards and the Monster. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Chloe announced as the holograms off the three cards appeared on the field. "And that ends my turn." Chloe announced and Lance drew his card.

"_She's playing defensively and unless that facedown monster in Apprentice Magician I'm going to go ahead and assume that she got a bad opening hand." _Lance thought as he drew his card, when he looked at the card he drew he quickly played it. "I activate Dark World Dealings, now we both draw one card and discard another." Lance played the card and he and Chloe quickly drew their cards, however when he saw one of the cards he had drawn his eyes widened.

"Something wrong Lance?" Chloe asked as she discarded one of her monsters for Dark World Dealing's effect and Lance shook his head.

"No, it's nothing." Lance said dismissively as he discarded a card. _"If only it was nothing! I mean, out of all the duels to draw Lava Golem in and on my first turn as well." _Lance thought before getting an idea. _"Well, she doesn't have enough cards for me to use its effect so….." _Lance thought before discarding Lava Golem. _"If I need to use it I have ways to bring it back but at least now I can get it out of my hair." _Lance thought before retrieving Lava Golem from the graveyard. "Next I remove the monster I just discarded from play to summon Inferno in defense mode!" Lance played the card and the small red flame with the blue demonic face appeared on the field (4/1100/1900).

"_I'm getting the feeling that he was lying about it being nothing, he was pretty quick to discard it and remove it from play." _Chloe thought as she watched Lance make his move. _"And that just makes me wonder what the monster he drew was."_

"But Inferno's not staying around! I sacrifice him to summon one of my old favorites, Thestalos, the Firestorm Monarch!" Lance played the card and Inferno disappeared from the field, in its place stood the mighty monarch of fire (6/2400/1000). "You've seen enough of my duels to know how this guy's effect works Chloe to hold up your hand!" Lance instructed and Chloe did as she was told. "I pick the card on the far right!"

"Sorry Lance but I'm not getting burnt yet!" Chloe responded as the fireball hit the card. "The card you just targeted was the only Spell Card in my hand and all my other cards are monsters." Chloe added as she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard.

"Out of all the rotten luck, still there's one more thing he can do!" Lance sighed to himself before pointing to Chloe's facedown monster. "Thestalos, attack her defense monster!" Lance commanded and the monarch threw a fireball at the monster, revealed to be Dopelwarrior (2/800/800) which was quickly destroyed. "You set that guy?"

"He was the only monster I could summon at the time." Chloe admitted as she sent her monster to the graveyard. "So in other words, my opening hand was pretty crap."

"I'll say." Lance commented before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Lance announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_Now this is more like it!" _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I summon Blade Knight in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the blue armored knight appeared on the field (4/1600/1000). "And I end my turn at that!"

"Wait, what?" Lance asked with a confused look on his face as he drew his card. "You do realize that Blade Knight's a lot weaker than Thestalos right? Even if you could use his effect this is pretty basic stuff when it comes to Duel Monsters."

"I know all right." Chloe responded with a grin. "Besides, even if I wasn't as good at this game as I am, I still know how to do basic math!"

"Yeah, I guessed that." Lance commented as he shook his head. _"This trap couldn't be more obvious if she tried but with Heavy Storm still banned I can't get rid of those trap cards!" _Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. _"But I can get rid of one trap card!" _Lance thought before playing the card. "I activate Night Beam! With this I can destroy one facedown Spell/Trap Card on your side of the field and you can't activate a trap card in response to it."

"So what card are you going to target?" Chloe asked as she did her best to maintain her poker face.

"I chose the one on the right!" Lance announced as the beam charged towards the facedown card destroying it and Chloe sent it to the graveyard. "That trap couldn't be more obvious if you tried Chloe! Thestalos, attack Blade Knight!" Lance commanded and the monarch threw a fireball at the knight destroying him and bringing Chloe's life-points down to 7200. "Looks like I've drawn first blood!"

"But at the same time you played right into my hand! I activate my Trap Card Rope of Life!" Chloe activated the trap and Lance's eyes widened as she discarded the rest of her hand and Blade Knight reappeared on the field. "Not only does Blade Knight get another chance but he gains eight hundred attack points in addition to the four hundred attack points he gets from his effect!" Chloe explained as Blade Knight's attack shot up to 2800.

"But…..but your other facedown card….." Lance trailed off as Chloe sent Rope of Life to the graveyard and retrieved the other trap card.

"You mean this? It was Magician's Circle." Chloe answered before turning the Trap Card around to confirm it. "I originally set it in the hope of drawing one of my Spellcaster monsters but it ended up helping me in a different way." Chloe explained before returning the trap card to the graveyard. "So how do you feel after pretty much defeating your own Monarch?"

"Well for one thing I wish I had drawn MST as well." Lance responded with a grunt. "I set a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Lance set the monster down and Chloe quickly drew her card.

"_Okay, my life-points may have been damaged but at least I can deal some damage back!" _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Perfect! Now I can take out his defense monster as well!" _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I summon Gemini Elf in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/400).

"_Great, right now I'm almost wishing that I hadn't banished Lava Golem last turn!" _Lance thought with a frown as he stared down Chloe's two monsters. _"On the other hand using that monster against her again might just screw up my chances of dating her."_

"Blade Knight, overthrow that monarch now!" Chloe called out and the knight leapt into the air before bringing his sword down upon Thestalos's head destroying him and bringing Lance's life-points down to 7600. "Gemini Elf, attack his defense monster!" Chloe commanded and the elves fired their twin attack at the monster, revealed to be UFO Turtle, which was quickly destroyed.

"I use UFO Turtle's effect to Special Summon Solar Flare Dragon in defense mode!" Lance called out as he sent his monster to the graveyard and a few seconds later the dragon made of fire appeared on the field crouched down (4/1500/1000). "Good thing that you don't have a third monster!"

"For you maybe, for now I end my turn." Chloe announced and Lance drew his card.

"_On the Brightside I can't access Lava Golem as long as it's removed from play unless I play something like Burial from a Different Dimension and even then I'd need a card that could return it to my deck." _Lance thought as he looked at his drawn card. _"Royal Firestorm Guards, well that's half of the problem solved and I already have Thestalos and Inferno in my graveyard so I'm halfway to the activation requirements." _Lance thought before adding the monster to his hand and switching Solar Flare Dragon to defense mode. "I shift my dragon to defense mode!" Lance announced as the dragon crouched down. "And to keep him company I summon another one!" Lance played the card and a second Solar Flare Dragon appeared on the field.

"In other words, I can't attack you because of Solar Flare Dragon's effect." Chloe responded with a sigh as she looked over her hand. "Besides Lance, if you intend to beat me with a Solar Flare Dragon lock then that's hardly an impressive way to win a match!"

"If you're trying to talk me out of this move then you're a little late, just saying." Lance responded before looking over his hand. "I end my turn which means that my dragons effects activates!" Lance announced and the two dragons breathed fire at Chloe causing her life-points dropped to 62000, Chloe said nothing as she drew her card.

"Lance isn't messing around, isn't he?" Chelsea commented to Andreas, Beth and Marcus, the other students up for promotion were watching the duel from the sidelines and whilst they weren't the only students up for promotion they were the only ones talking amongst themselves, the others were watching the duel silently.

"I don't blame him." Andreas commented as he folded his arms. "As nice as the rooms in Ra Yellow are the students there all have the same goal, to graduate to Obelisk Blue."

"Yeah, the same can be said for the Osiris Red students and Ra Yellow." Chelsea responded with a nod. "There's also the fact that they've known each other since before they joined Duel Academy so they pretty much know each other's strategies like the back of their hands."

"Even so, I bet they wish that they were scheduled to duel a teacher." Marcus responded with a nod. "No matter whom wins one of them won't get to graduate and considering how close they are I don't think they want that."

"Well they could always try to go for a draw but Lance graduating to Obelisk Blue would depend on several factors which I'm sure you're familiar with." Andreas responded and Chelsea nodded. "It's not an easy situation for anyone to be in and, as excited as they must've been to face off against each other in the first place, they probably realized that for themselves at some point prior to the match."

"Yeah, this is making me glad that I'm facing a teacher in my duel." Chelsea responded with a nod. "I'd hate to be a similar situation to them, like facing Beth for instance."

"_Okay, there's not much I can do at the moment….." _Chloe thought before eyeing her newly drawn monster, it was a card that she had recently added to her deck and she grinned when she saw it. "I summon a new addition to my deck, Mathematician, in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and like she said a new monster appeared on the field, he was an old man in green wizard's robes with a long flowing beard and was carrying a staff with a pair of comical eyes on it (3/1500/500).

"Mathematician? This is a duel monsters game not a math test!" Lance protested as he stared at the strange Spellcaster.

"Lance, you know as well as I do that math is an important part of the game." Chloe pointed out and Lance nodded reluctantly once he realized that she had a point. "For example, I'm going to use Mathematician's effect to do some subtraction!"

"You've lost me." Lance admitted and Chloe shook her head.

"Basically when Mathematician is normal summoned he lets me take one Level Four or Lower monster in my deck and send it to the graveyard." Chloe explained before doing just that. "He has another effect but more on that later, for now I end my turn."

"_She's probably hoping that I'll crash Solar Flare Dragon into Mathematician, fortunately I'm not that stupid." _Lance thought as he drew his card, when he saw what it was he grinned. "Sorry Chloe but I'm about to weaken Blade Knight!"

"Just try it!" Chloe taunted him but quickly regretted it when Lance played a Spell Card. "Spellbook inside the Pot!?"

"You got it and you've used this card more than enough times to know that it lets us both draw three cards." Lance added as he drew his cards and Chloe, reluctantly, did likewise causing her knight's attack to drop to 2400. "Oh yeah, there's the ticket! I summon the Tuner Monster Laval Coatl in attack mode!" Lance played the card and a new monster appeared on the field it was a small red and yellow creature with wings and a sharp beak (2/1300/700). "Like Mathematician he has an effect that I'll get into later, for now I tune Coatl with one of my Solar Flare Dragons!" Lance announced as the monsters leapt into the air.

"Wait, he's breaking his own lock?!" Chelsea asked as she watched the Synchro Summon be performed.

"I guess he got tired of playing defensively." Marcus responded with a shrug before the bright flash enveloped the field and Flamvell Uruquizas appeared on the field (6/21000/400).

"Okay, you had me worried for a second there." Chloe commented as she folded her arms. "But even without the bonus from its effect Blade Knight is still stronger!"

"Trust me Chloe, that's not an issue whilst I have Flamvell Baby in my hand!" Lance responded as he turned the monster around. "And I activate his effect by discarding him from my hand during the Main Phase of my turn Uruquizas gets just enough attack points to dismiss that knight of yours!" Lance added as Uriqizas's attack shot up to 2500. "Flamvell Uruquizas, attack Blade Knight!" Lance commanded and the soldier charged towards the knight before punching him through the chest engulfing him in flames in the process and bringing Chloe's life-points down to 6100. "Your Blade Knight/Rope of Life combo is good but it'll take more than outdated strategies to beat me Chloe."

"I know that and whilst Spellbook inside the Pot did weaken Blade Knight it's given me the cards I need for a new strategy!" Chloe responded and Lance frowned at that.

"_And knowing her deck that means that she's about to do one of two things, a Synchro Summon or an XYZ Summon." _Lance thought with a frown before picking up another card that he drew with Spellbook inside the Pot. "Since Uruquizas has inflicted battle damage he gains three hundred attack points." Lance commented as his monster's attack rose to 2800. "Not only that but the boost from Baby is permanent which means I have a powerhouse on my side of the field and you have two weak Spellcasters."

"You should know as well as I do that strength isn't everything Lance." Chloe responded with a confident grin. "Now are you going to end your turn? I'm pretty sure there other students would like to duel before the finals of the Tag Team Tournament."

"Not just yet, I set a card facedown and end my turn." Lance set the card down and, once Solar Flare Dragon's effect had reduced her life-points down to 5600, Chloe drew her card.

"_I could easily take out Lance's remaining dragon with either my elves Mathematician but that would leave my other monster open to an attack from Uruquizas and quite frankly the last thing I need is for that monster to get stronger." _Chloe thought with a frown before looking at her drawn card and grinning. _"Or I could take a third option!"_

"_I know that grin she's just drawn a good card." _Lance thought as he shook his head. _"She was never that good at Poker Faces."_

"I activate my Spell Card Resonance Device! Since Gemini Elf and Mathematician are both Earth Type Spellcaster Monsters I can make Mathematician's Level the same as Gemini Elf!" Chloe played the card and like she said Mathematician's Level increased to four. "And that means I can use them to build the Overlay Network!"

"I knew it." Lance grunted as the two monsters turned into white orbs of light. "Chloe, you realize that your lack of skill with poker faces is going to bite you on the ass someday, right?"

"If I had a dollar for every time Martin told me that during Duel Theory I'd be the richest eighteen year old girl in the world." Chloe responded as she shook her head and the overlay network opened up. "In any case I use my monsters to XYZ Summon Downerd Magician in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and from the Overlay Network a new monster appeared on the field, she was a young girl with long, flowing purple hair and blue eyes who was wearing a pair of goggles, a red dress and was levitating a crystal ball (Rank: 4/2100/200).

"Okay, now it's my turn to be unimpressed." Lance commented as he folded his arms. "That monster's only strong enough to take out my dragon and that's stretching it, she'll only do slightly better against Uruquizas than your other monsters."

"Look again." Chloe responded and Lance blinked before realizing that Downerd Magician's attack had shot up to 2500. "My magician gains two hundred attack points for each XYZ Material attached to her."

"That's a pretty good effect but your forgetting one thing." Lance pointed out as he folded his arms. "Even with your monster's effect she's still weaker than Uruquizas by three hundred points so unless you're planning on using an Equip Spell…..that's exactly what you're planning isn't it?"

"Well that and two other moves." Chloe responded before playing a card. "First I activate Overlay Regen! I can use this Spell Card and turn it into an extra XYZ Material for Downerd Magician!" Chloe responded as her monster's attack increased to 2700. "And now I activate Wonder Wand and equip it to her!" Chloe played the card and the wand appeared in the girl's hands increasing her attack power to 3200.

"Nice try Chloe but you're forgetting one other thing!" Lance responded with a confident grin. "Namely Solar Flare Dragon's effect, Uruquizas is a Pyro Type Monster and even without the lock he still protects Uruquizas!"

"Lance, has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?" Chloe asked as she shook her head. "In case you haven't noticed I haven't done my Normal Summon yet! So I use it to summon another new monster, Azure Dragon Summoner!" Chloe played the card and another new monster appeared on the field, he was a young male in blue and gold robes with blue hair and eyes (4/1500/600).

"So what are you planning to crash him into Solar Flare Dragon?" Lance asked as he folded his arms. "That doesn't seem wise or productive!"

"Actually that's exactly what I'm planning! Azure Dragon Summoner, attack Solar Flare Dragon!" Chloe commanded and the youth casted a spell at the dragon at the same time as it breathed fire at the youth destroying them both. "Why did I do that? Simple, when Azure Dragon Summoner is sent from the field to the graveyard I can search my deck for a Dragon, Warrior or Spellcaster type monster, obviously I don't have any dragons but….."

"But that's pretty much a universal searcher for your deck!" Lance realized and Chloe nodded.

"Yes and no, he would be if his effect didn't specifically state that it had to be a normal type monster." Chloe responded once she searched through her deck, found the card that she was looking for and added it to her hand. "Not that I don't have plenty of those either but still!" Chloe added as she shuffled her deck. "But more importantly the cost is now clear! Downerd Magician, attack Flamvell Uruquizas!" Chloe commanded and the Spellcaster casted her spell at the warrior destroying him and bringing Lance's life-points down to 7400. "I may still be behind on life-points but I've destroyed one of your strongest monsters."

"Emphasis on "one of", my deck has plenty of powerful monsters!" Lance responded before glancing towards his pocket. _"And at this rate I'm going to have to use Lava Golem! This won't be pretty!"_

"Downerd Magician has a side effect, when she inflicts battle damage to my opponent she has to lose one of her overlay units." Chloe explained before sending Overlay Regen to the graveyard and reducing her attack to 3000. "And I end my turn." Chloe announced and Lance drew his card.

"It's like Chloe said! She's behind on life-points but she still has plenty of moves left!" Chelsea commented with a grin as she watched the duel. "She'll be in Ra Yellow before you know it!"

"Yes, but I fear she might not be ready." Andreas responded as he adjusted his glasses. "Marcus, tell me because I'd rather not look up and see it but is she giving me one of her signature death glares?"

"Oh yeah, better clarify before she kicks you in the nuts." Marcus responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head as Chelsea glared at the German Student.

"I expected as much." Andreas responded with a sigh. "Chelsea, before your foot has a meeting with my genitals let it be known that I was the one who suggested those new cards to Chloe and I am very familiar with their effects."

"I'm listening." Chelsea responded as she started to calm down.

"Chloe already explained Azure Dragon Summoner's effect after she crashed him into Solar Flare Dragon but a better move would've been to crash Mathematician into Solar Flare Dragon instead." Andreas explained as he turned to her. "Azure Dragon Summoner may be a good searcher for her deck but when Mathematician is destroyed and sent to the graveyard his second effect would've activated allowing her to draw another card."

"Okay, I can kind of see your point." Chelsea admitted with a nod. "But honestly, can you name one duelist in duel monsters history that hasn't made a major misplay? If we were that nick picky about Duel Monsters then Joey Wheeler's legacy as an underdog duelist would've been ignored long ago."

"Point taken, let's hope for her sake that she doesn't make another misplay." Andreas conceded as they resumed watching the duel.

"_I have the means to get Lava Golem back into my deck but what's the chance of her forgiving me?" _Lance thought as he bit his lip. _"Her first encounter with that monster almost caused her to quit the game outright, she's grown a lot since then but still….." _Lance trailed off before playing a card. "I activate Burial from a Different Dimension to return the monster I banished for Inferno a couple of turns back to my graveyard!" Lance played the card and reached into his pocket, he stared at the monster for a few seconds before returning it to the graveyard and sending his Spell Card with it.

"_That monster's probably something powerful if he wanted it back that badly." _Chloe thought as Lance looked over his hand. _"But in that case why did he banish it in the first place?"_

"Now I summon a monster I drew earlier but couldn't use, Royal Firestorm Guards!" Lance played the card and the large red demon appeared on the field (4/1700/1200). "And since I normal summoned him I can shuffle four Pyro Type Monsters back into my deck and draw two cards." Lance added before picking up Inferno, one of his Solar Flare Dragons, Thestalos and Lava Golem, shuffling them into his deck and drawing twice. _"Now let's see what I've got here….." _Lance thoughts trailed off when he saw the second card he drew. _"I drew Lava Golem AGAIN?! Is fate against the idea of me and Chloe dating or something?!"_

"_Lance doesn't look happy with his draws! This could be my opening!" _Chloe thought as she waited for Lance to finish his move and soon enough Lance set the other card he drew facedown.

"I set one card facedown and end my turn!" Lance announced and Chloe drew her card. "I activate Thunder of Ruler!"

"I just knew you would draw that eventually." Chloe sighed before looking at her drawn card. _"This will come in handy, I just know it! But right now it's pretty much a dead draw." _Chloe thought before adding it to her hand. "I pass in that case." Chloe announced and Lance drew his card.

"_Okay, it's cool I mean maybe I can win this without using Lava Golem!" _Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Or not…." _Lance sighed before adding it to his hand. "Chloe before I make this move let me make one thing clear, you've forced me into a corner, I have no other ways of winning otherwise….."

"_What's he going on about?" _Chloe thought with a confused look on her face.

"And I hope you'll forgive me when this duel's over." Lance added with a heavy sigh before playing his drawn card. "First I activate XYZ Encore! Downerd Magician returns to the extra deck and her materials return to the field." Lance played the card and Downerd Magician disappeared from the field and in her place Gemini Elf and Mathematician returned to the field. "And even if they were the same level normally you can't bring her back because Encore also reduces the monster's levels by one."

"Okay, fine, I have more copies of Resonance Device and plenty of Rank Threes!" Chloe responded as she sent Wonder Wand to the graveyard. "In other words I don't see the point!"

"You'll see it in a few seconds." Lance said as he, hesitantly, picked up another card. "The monster I'm about to summon requires two tributes BUT I can tribute my opponent's monsters to summon it to their side of the field."

"_Oh no….." _Chloe thought as realization hit her like a ton of bricks. "Lance, if this is a joke it stopped being funny a few seconds ago!" Chloe responded and Lance let out another heavy sigh.

"Trust me, I wish it was a joke but it's not!" Lance responded as he played the card. "Chloe, I'm sorry, I tribute your Gemini Elf and Mathematician so that I can summon Lava Golem to your side of the field in attack mode!"

"Oh god, this is gonna get ugly!" Chelsea said with a wince as Chloe's two Spellcaster's disappeared from the field and in their place stood the massive golem made of lava as it stood behind Chloe (8/3000/2500) and after a few seconds the large cage dropped around Chloe trapping her. "Can you think of a way for Chloe to get out of this?"

"That is easier said than done." Andreas responded with a frown. "If Lance's facedown card is Mask of Restrict then she'll have nowhere to go."

"He's right I mean she could use it in a Synchro Summon but how many Level Nine Spellcaster Synchros do you know or Warrior Synchros for that matter?" Marcus asked and it didn't take Chelsea long to shake her head. "She could always do another XYZ Summon with it but she only has two Level Eight monsters doesn't she?"

"Yeah, Gilford the Lightning and Silent Magician Level Eight." Chelsea responded with a nod. "As much as I'd hate to say it I don't see Chloe winning this one especially given her nasty history with that monster." Chelsea responded and whilst that conversation was going on Lance was trying to talk to Chloe who hadn't talked once since Lava Golem was played.

"Err, Chloe, are you in there?" Lance asked and Chloe didn't answer, her head was lowered to the point where her long hair was covering her eyes and Lance winced. _"Man Lance, you really screwed up this time." _Lance thought before Chloe eventually looked up but he still couldn't see her eyes because of her hair. "I, err, I switch Firestorm Guards to defense mode and end my turn." Lance announced as his guards crouched down and Chloe drew her card without a word, she didn't even make a sound as Lava Golem's effect resolved for the first time bringing her life-points down to 4600. "Chloe, are you even going to say something? Look I know your first encounter with this card was nasty but I forced into a corner!" Lance added and before he could say anything else Chloe held up her hand to tell him to stop talking.

"I am going to say something." Chloe said as she kept her head low, she took a deep breath before raising her head revealing a huge grin on her face. "Thanks!"

"Thanks?" Lance echoed as he stared at his friend strangely. "That's not something I'm used to hearing when I play Lava Golem in a duel!"

"Your right, it's not." Chloe responded as she took another deep breath. "Lance, remember the promise you made me just before we left Domino City for New York to compete in Battle City?"

"The one I made not to use Lava Golem against you?" Lance asked and Chloe nodded. "What about it?"

"Back then I was still scared of that monster and seeing you use it against Andreas in your first duel against him didn't help." Chloe responded as she picked up a card. "But as you know the further I made it into Battle City the more my confidence grew and eventually I realized how silly my fear or this monster is." Chloe added as she looked up at Lava Golem. "Sure, he's scary and he has a nasty effect and I had a rough first experience with this card but at the end of the day he's still a duel monsters card."

"That still doesn't explain your reaction when you figured out what I was up to last turn." Lance pointed out and Chloe shrugged her shoulders.

"Force of habit I guess." Chloe responded as she held the card up. "But you want to know the one duel that really helped me get over it? Your expulsion duel, more specifically when Mark turned this card against you!"

"_Oh shit!" _Lance thought when he realized what she was up to. "Don't tell me you have what I think you have between your fingers right now!"

"I'll let you be the judge of that!" Chloe responded as she played the card. "I activate the card that'll let me finally get over my fear of Lava Golem, Owner's Seal! With this Spell Card I return all monsters on my side of the field to you, namely this big lug!" Chloe played the card and Lava Golem disappeared from the field, Lance looked around for a bit but quickly realized where it was now once the cage dropped around him.

"I'm beginning to think it's time I took this card out of my deck." Lance commented with a frown. "But even so I still have a three-thousand attack beatstick on my side of the field!"

"Yeah, I can see that." Chloe responded before setting a card. "That ends my turn!" Chloe announced and Lance drew his card.

"_Why didn't she summon anything? Even with Lava Golem on my side of the field I can end this right now!" _Lance thought before wincing as Lava Golem's effect kicked in bringing his life-points down to 64000. "You may have overcome your fears Chloe but you couldn't overcome me! Now if you excuse me I have a room in Obelisk Blue with my name on it!" Lance boasted before switching Firestorm Guards back to attack mode. "Attack her life-points directly!" Lance commanded and the golem started seeping lava…

"Sorry Lance but I'm getting rid of that monster for good! I activate Dimensional Prison!" Chloe activated the trap and Lance's eyes widened as Lava Golem was sucked into a portal banishing it. "Looks like your room in Obelisk Blue will have to wait a bit longer!"

"Maybe not but I have more tricks up my sleeve!" Lance responded as he pocketed Lava Golem again. "Royal Firestorm Guards, attack her directly!" Lance commanded and the demon flew towards Chloe before slashing her with his claws bringing her life-points down to 2900. "You may have been able to turn my own monster against me but the truth is your still behind on life-points, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Lance set the card and Chloe drew her card.

"_I don't know what that facedown card is but I can't afford to take any more direct attacks." _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Magician of Faith, do I even have any Spell Cards in my graveyard?" _Chloe thought as she replayed the duel in her head. _"I played Resonance Device to summon Downerd Magician but that won't be of much use to me right now…..that's right! Lance forced me to discard a Spell Card when he summoned Thestalos earlier, what was it again?" _Chloe thought before remembering the card's name and setting the monster. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Chloe announced and Lance drew his card.

"_If I had drawn another Tuner I could've done another Synchro Summon." _Lance thought with a frown as he looked at his drawn card. _"But I didn't so I'll just hang onto this." _Lance thought before adding the card to his hand. "Royal Firestorm Guards, attack her defense monster!" Lance commanded and the demon flew towards the monster, revealed to be Magician of Faith (1/300/200) which was quickly destroyed. "I'm guessing that your about to use her effect?"

"That's right." Chloe responded with a nod before picking up and searching through her deck, however when she saw one monster she knew what she was going to do. _"I forgot that I had used Mathematician's effect on this monster but if I play my cards right I can do some major damage to Lance!" _Chloe thought before picking up the Spell Card she discarded for Thestalos's effect and adding it to her hand. "Anything else you can do Lance?" Chloe asked as she returned the other cards to her graveyard alongside Magician of Faith.

"No, go ahead and take your turn." Lance told her and Chloe nodded before drawing her card. _"She hasn't played any Spell Cards that could help her right now so that card she retrieved is likely the card I targeted for Thestalos's effect, she never did reveal what that card is." _Lance thought as he watching Chloe make her move.

"I activate my Spell Card Spellbook Inside the Pot!" Chloe played the card and both duelists drew three cards. "And no, Spellbook inside the Pot wasn't the card you made me discard."

"I had a feeling it wasn't because if it was you would've played it by now." Lance responded as she sent her spell card to the graveyard. "So what was it?"

"I'll show you! I activate Level Modulation!" Chloe played the card and Lance did a double take.

"You never sent any Level Monsters to the graveyard!" Lance protested and Chloe shook her head.

"Remember when I summoned Mathematician earlier?" Chloe asked and Lance nodded as he drew two cards. "I'll give you one guess as to which monster I sent to the graveyard via his effect!"

"Silent Magician Level Four!" Lance quickly realized and sure enough the younger version of Chloe's signature monster appeared on the field (4/1000/1000). "Do you really think I'm letting her stay on the field long enough to summon your best monster you have another thing coming."

"That's good because that wasn't my plan to begin with." Chloe responded before playing a card. "I activate Level Up!"

"I just knew you were going to play that card." Lance sighed to himself as Silent Magician Level Four started glowing and growing until she reached her final form, Silent Magician Level 8 (8/3500/1000).

"Level Modulation may have prevented Level Four from attacking but Level Eight? She's about to dismiss your guards!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician pointed her staff at the demon before a white beam of light emitted from it vaporizing the demon and bringing Lance's life-points down to 4600."It seems the tide has turned in my favor!"

"We'll see about that Chloe! Don't forget that you're still behind on life-points." Lance pointed out and Chloe frowned when she realized that he had a point. "Can I take my move?"

"Give me a sec." Chloe responded before picking up the third card she drew with Spellbook inside the Pot. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chloe announced and Lance drew his card.

"_D.D. Dynamite, and thanks to Chloe's move I now have Inferno Tempest in my hand." _Lance thought as he looked at his two cards. _"Unless she draws Megamorph I have more than enough life-points to take the hit, on the other hand if she draws a monster then I will lose the match and my place in Obelisk Blue I'll have to act fast." _Lance thought before setting the cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Lance is taking a big risk if Chloe draws a decently powerful level four monster then she has this match in the bag." Chelsea commented as Chloe drew her card. "I really hate this, as far as I'm concerned they both deserve a promotion for how far they've come since they joined the academy."

"Agreed and they've certainly shown it since the duel began." Andreas responded with a nod. "That said, as much as I like Lance, I have to say that Chloe deserves her promotion more than he does because of how little experience and self-confidence that she had when she joined."

"Yeah and look at her now." Marcus agreed with a nod. "When we left for Battle City I thought someone like Brandon or Otto would come in third but Chloe surprised us all."

"Otto included." Chelsea added with a grin before they turned their attention back to the duel.

"_Great, I drew a Spell Card and it's not even one I can use!" _Chloe thought as she looked at the card. _"Well, it's now or never!" _Chloe thought before pointing to Lance. "Silent Magician, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the magician pointed her staff at Lance before firing a beam of light…

"I activate my trap card Nutrient Z!" Lance activated the long forgotten about trap and sighed in relief as his life-points shot up to 9000 before wincing as they dropped to 5500.

"What?" Chloe asked with a confused look on her face. "Why didn't you wait until my next turn when that attack would've won me the duel?"

"I have two reasons and they are my remaining facedown cards! Go Inferno Tempest!" Lance activated the Spell Card and Chloe's eyes widened as it hit her. "You've seen enough of my duels to know how this works Chloe."

"Yeah, that Quick Play Spell forces us both to banish all monsters in our decks and graveyards since you just took over three thousand points of damage." Chloe responded with a nod before they went to work first banishing the monsters in their graveyards before moving on to their decks, however once they were done Chloe realized something. "Lance, how many cards do you have left in your deck?"

"I have just the one." Lance said as he patted his bulky blazer pocket. "Just my luck that most of the cards I had left in my deck where monsters, you?"

"Believe it or not I can say the same thing." Chloe responded as she held up her duel disk confirming that fact. "I've heard of duels being down to the wire but this is ridiculous!"

"Tell me about it!" Lance responded with a grin before frowning. "But you don't have to worry about losing the duel via deck out! I activate my trap card D.D. Dynamite!"

"Holy shit, how much damage will that cause!?" Chelsea exclaimed as she stated doing the math in her head whilst a stick of dynamite appeared on the field. "They still had a fair amount of cards left in their decks before Lance used that Spell Card so….."

"I'll save you some time." Andreas responded as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "More damage than either of them can spare!"

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this but hey, if I'm going to be promoted to Obelisk Blue I may as well end this duel with a bang!" Lance added as the dynamite went off resulting in a huge explosion that enveloped the field, Lance and Chloe started coughing as the smoke cleared. "Chloe, are you okay?"

"I'm better than okay!" Chloe responded as the smoke started to clear. "In fact I'm still in this duel!"

"Chloe are you so desperate to get out of Osiris Red that you're resorting to denial….." Lance started before looking at Chloe's life-point counter which showed that her life-points were untouched. "But how? I'm pretty sure I just inflicted enough effect damage to end ten duels!"

"Did you forget about my own facedown card?" Chloe asked as she pointed to her trap card. "You may remember it from my expulsion duel!"

"You happened to draw Power Guard? Are you kidding me?!" Lance exclaimed once he recognized the artwork. "It doesn't matter anyway! We're both down to our last cards and there's no way that you can draw another monster at this point since all of them are removed from play."

"Then I'll just have to make my last move count." Chloe responded as she played the card she just drew. "I move to my Second Main Phase and I activate Megamorph!" Chloe played the card and Silent Magician doubled in size and power raising her attack all the way up to seven thousand. "Unless your last card is another Nutrient Z this match is over!"

"I don't have another Nutrient Z and to be frank it's hard enough to find one copy of that card nowadays." Lance responded as he took a deep breath. "I guess it comes down to just one card."

"Yeah, I guess it does," Chloe responded with a nod. "Lance, before I end my turn I want to say something."

"Go ahead." Lance responded with a nod and Chloe grinned a bit.

"Win or lose this has been one of my best duels to date and I'm glad that I got to face you again." Chloe said with a happy sigh and Lance nodded.

"The same goes for me Chloe." Lance nodded in agreement ad Chloe bit her lip.

"_Depending on what he draws I have the match won or lost, but if I lose at least I can say that I didn't go down easily." _Chloe thought before nodding to Lance. "I end my turn." Chloe announced and Lance closed his eyes before he drew his final card.

"_Here it goes, if I drew the right card I have this match won." _Lance thought as he took a deep breath. _"I didn't even have a good look at my last card when I was done resolving Inferno Tempest's effect all I saw was that it's a Spell Card." _Lance thought before finally looking at the card. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

"Huh?" Chloe asked as she stared at Lance confusingly.

"Chloe, I'm not going to lose this match…..but I'm not going to win either." Lance said as he played the card. "And neither are you, I activate Heaven's Lost Property!"

"Wait, seriously?!" Chloe asked before the card's hologram showed up. "Lance you realize what this means right?"

"Yeah, the match will end in a draw due to a double deck out." Lance responded as they drew their cards, once it was registered that they could draw no more cards the holograms disappeared.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this match has been declared a draw!" Martin announced and most of the crowd cheered, the other half booed as they clearly wanted to see a winner come out of the match. "Chloe, Lance, I applaud your efforts in the duel and since she was able to draw against a student from a higher dorm Chloe will be promoted to Ra Yellow!" Martin announced and Chloe, despite her disappointment over how the match ended Chloe couldn't help but grin at that. "As for Lance, I will need to review the footage of the duel with the other teachers so please wait a moment."

"Way to go Chloe!" Chelsea said happily as she wrapped her arm around her roommate's shoulders. "That was a great duel!"

"Thanks Chelsea." Chloe responded with a grin as she turned to her, Marcus and Andreas joined them on the arena clearly happy for her. "I just wish it hadn't ended in a draw."

"The same goes for me Chloe." Lance responded with a nod. "Still, to be honest I wouldn't have minded losing a duel like that but I guess we can't have it all."

"Chloe, Lance, can I have your attention for a moment." Martin's voice rang out and they looked up seeing him standing by the arena alongside the Ra Yellow Headmistress. "Sarah is here to get you fitted for your blazer Chloe. Don't worry, it won't take long." Martin added and Chloe nodded before hopping off the arena. "And Lance, I think you had better follow them."

"Wait, does that mean?" Lance asked and Martin nodded.

"Yes, as your life-points were higher than hers at the time of the draw you are now officially an Obelisk Blue Student, welcome to the dorm." Martin responded and Lance pumped his fist in celebration as Marcus and Andreas patted him on the back. "You had better get going the changing room for new Obelisk Blue Students isn't that far from the one for Ra Yellow so Sarah will show you the way."

"Right, right, I'm on my way." Lance responded before hopping off the arena. "You're not coming as well?"

"Chelsea's promotion duel is next and I'm her opponent." Martin responded as she turned to him. "Please do keep that temper of yours under control during the match Chelsea."

"Just don't give me detention for the rest of the year after I beat you." Chelsea responded with a big grin on her face as Andreas and Marcus returned to their seats and Lance followed Sarah and Chloe to the changing room.


	107. Promotion Duels Part Two

Whilst the first promotion duel of the day was wrapping up and all eyes on the island were on the duelists competing to earn their spots in a higher dorm a speedboat had pulled up at the dock near the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm and a pair of cloaked figures hopped off.

"Stupid Juliana, I did all that paperwork for her and she still didn't put out!" Jack grumbled under his breath as he stepped off the speedboat. "Okay, you have your target and your orders."

"Yeah, I'm targeting the girl that wields the Eye of Timeaus." The other figure responded with a nod whilst trying to keep himself from laughing at Jack's grumbling. "Is there anything else Mr. Blue Balls?"

"First off, never call me that again!" Jack growled at him and the other figure laughed. "Second, our initial Intel said that she's an Osiris Red Student, as of twenty minutes ago that is inaccurate."

"She won her promotion duel?" The figure asked and Jack shook his head.

"It was a draw but they promoted her since it was against a Ra Yellow student." Jack responded and the figure nodded. "Also that was just the first promotion duel of the day, from what I've heard there's still at least ten students left so you find a place where your unlikely to be spotted and wait for further instructions."

"Understood, do you have any suggestions?" The figure asked and Jack thought for a moment.

"Yeah, I can think of one." Jack responded with a nod. "The hot springs and the nearby lake, that area's mostly used by students who fancy a swim but have to compromise because the school's too cheap to build a swimming pool in the main building, since all the students are either watching or participating in the promotion duels in the main building it's extremely unlikely that you'll be spotted."

"I got it." The figure responded with a nod. "How long will I have to wait?"

"Give me a sec." Jack responded before putting a hand to his earpiece. "Victor, how many promotion duels are left?"

"The second one between the Obelisk Blue Headmaster and Chelsea Cunningham will be starting in a few minutes he still has plenty of time to get into position." Victor responded and Jack nodded before relaying the info to the figure. "Also, Juliana sends her regards and thanks for the paperwork." Victor added and Jack face faulted.

"Great, even my boss is mocking the fact that I got cock blocked by his secretary." Jack grumbled under his breath before hopping in the boat. "Well tell that cock blocking bitch to go suck a thousand dicks!"

"That "cock blocking bitch" is also on the line Jack." Juliana's voice rang out and Jack sweat-dropped.

"_Ugh, can this day get any worse?" _Jack thought as the speedboat sped off.

*meanwhile*

"Yeah I still don't know how Royal Firestorm Guards' effect worked on Lava Golem in hindsight." Lance sighed to himself as he tried on an Obelisk Blue Blazer he was in the Obelisk Blue changing room and since Martin was busy preparing for his match against Chelsea Tracy was in the room with him to make sure he found the right sized blazer. "I mean Royal Firestorm Guards' effect specifically states that it only works on Pyro Type monsters so I don't know why it worked on the fiend type Lava Golem."

"Don't sweat it Lance, the Duel Academy duel disks have a history of being faulty." Tracy responded as she watched him try out a blazer. "The last time it happened was just last week."

"Right, when Chloe used Ultimate Offering's effect as if it was her own Trap Card." Lance responded with a nod. "Guess it's a good thing that Lava Golem isn't a banned card or I wouldn't have been promoted to Obelisk Blue."

"That's true, and don't worry about the error." Tracy reassured him before handing over an Obelisk Blue Duel Disk. "It'll be logged as a technical error and it won't affect your new standing as a new Obelisk Blue Student." Tracy added as Lance took the duel disk, removed his old one and put it on before putting his decks in the respective slots. "Now, what do you want to do about your stuff that's still in your old dorm room?"

"I get a choice in the matter?" Lance asked as he flexed his hand a bit. "What are my choices?"

"Either you can head straight to your new dorm room and leave it to the teachers or do it yourself." Tracy explained with a nod. "However if you chose to leave it to the teachers you won't be allowed to attend the welcome party for new Ra Yellow students."

"Well, that settles it, I'll do it myself." Lance decided with a grin. "I still want to say bye to the friends I made during my time there and…I have something to ask Chloe."

"In other words, you want to ask her out." Tracy responded with a smirk and Lance nodded. "Why are you waiting until the party though? Especially if you feel that way about her, if I were you I'd ask her as soon as possible."

"Yeah but there's the thing, there's still the rest of the promotion duels to watch and that doesn't leave me with a lot of time to ask her." Lance responded as he started making his way out of the room. "Basically I want to get some alone time with Chloe at the party, ask her out and hope for the best."

"If you say so and don't worry, I won't tell Chloe or Sarah." Tracy responded and Lance nodded before leaving the changing room.

*meanwhile*

"_It's been a long time coming but I've finally made it to Ra Yellow." _Chloe thought as she removed her old Osiris Red Blazer and replaced it with her new Ra Yellow Blazer, much as she did with her old blazer she left it open to show the crop top underneath as Sarah moved about in the background. "So how long before I can move into my new dorm room?" Chloe asked as she glanced over her shoulder.

"As soon as the promotion duels are finished and even then I have to find a dorm room for you." Sarah responded as she turned to Chloe. "After that I have to find you a roommate but if you have any suggestions that'll make my job a lot easier."

"That's good because I have one already." Chloe responded as she turned around. "If she gets promoted as well can Chelsea be my roommate again?"

"I don't see why not, you two already know each other and you get along great with her." Sarah responded with a nod and Chloe grinned. "Just keep in mind that it's not guaranteed that she'll win the match, Martin is no pushover."

"Considering that he's the Obelisk Blue Headmaster I'd be worried if he was to be honest." Chloe responded and Sarah nodded in agreement. "So what will happen with my stuff that's still in my old dorm room?"

"That's up to you, the teachers are more than happy to take care of that for you or you can handle it yourself." Sarah responded and Chloe frowned. "Don't worry Chloe, any sensitive items like underwear will be handled by female members of staff only."

"I have a lot of stuff and I don't want to miss the welcome party so I guess I'll leave it to the teachers." Chloe decided and Sarah nodded in response. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." Sarah responded and Chloe nodded.

"How strict are you about dress code?" Chloe asked as she turned around. "I mean some of my old schools wouldn't even let me get away with this much stomach exposure and I'm not showing off that much."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Sarah nodded in understanding as she handed Chloe her new Ra Yellow Duel Disk. "You've probably noticed that the teachers here are pretty relaxed about it and so am I, most of the girls I look after are in your age range and I trust them enough to make their own choices regarding how much skin to show off." Sarah added before frowning. "That said I draw the line at outfits that may as well be from a strip club."

"You mean like Jessica Stevens' uniform?" Chloe asked and Sarah nodded in response.

"I don't know why Tracy lets her get away with that, being comfortable in your own skin enough to show off your body is all well and good but she crossed the line between what's acceptable and what isn't long ago, and don't even get me started on some of the comments she's made towards you and Chelsea." Sarah responded and Chloe frowned knowing what she meant. "I always say this to all my new students, but if you feel like someone's taking their bullying to far my office door is always open."

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks." Chloe nodded in response before she loaded her decks into her new Duel Disk. "Speaking of Chelsea isn't her match starting soon?" Chloe asked and Sarah checked her watch.

"It'll be starting in a few minutes, yes." Sarah responded after she checked her watch. "I'm going to assume that you want to watch your friend's match?" Sarah asked and Chloe nodded before following her new dorm headmistress out of the changing room.

*back at the arena*

"Welcome back to the promotion duels everyone." Hamden's voice rang out and the crowd cheered as Chelsea got ready for her duel. "I have been asked by Martin to take over from him as he gets ready to take on Chelsea Cunningham from the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm, her roommate Chloe was promoted to Ra Yellow a few minutes ago so let's see if she can follow in her footsteps!"

"_Oh, I know I can follow in her footsteps!" _Chelsea thought confidently as she stepped onto the arena. _"I mean, I was slated for Ra Yellow after I won my test duel but my temper kept me in Osiris Red, not this time!"_

"I am glad to see that you are feeling confident Ms. Cunningham." Martin commented as he stepped onto the arena. "Whether or not that confidence will translate into a win for you is another matter entirely."

"Please, you may as well get my new room ready for me already!" Chelsea responded as she activated her duel disk, Martin did likewise and they drew their opening hands. "You may have a lot more experience than me but I've never let that stop me before."

"I seem to remember you using similar trash talk during your test duel." Martin responded and Chelsea frowned at that. "You don't need to worry about your temper keeping you in Osiris Red Ms. Cunningham, we did that in an effort to curtail your temper and it's obviously worked but all the same keeping your temper under control would be appreciated."

"_I just know that that's going to be easier said than done." _Chelsea thought with a frown as she looked over her hand.

"Good luck Chelsea!" Chloe's voice rang out and Chelsea looked over her shoulder seeing her now former roommate sitting with the others in her new Ra Yellow Blazer.

"I don't need luck to win this but thanks anyway!" Chelsea responded with a grin before she turned back to Martin. "So who's going first?"

"Duel Academy tradition has always left that decision to the teacher in times like this." Martin answered as he looked over his hand. "I intend to try out a new deck in this duel so I will go first."

"_He's using a new deck? He's not using his regular deck?" _Chelsea thought as she glanced up at Martin. "How many decks do you have anyway?"

"I have two, my regular deck and this deck." Martin answered as he picked up a card. "Don't get angry but you'd be lucky to last five turns against my normal deck."

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Chelsea snapped at him and Martin sweat-dropped.

"_I knew that was wishful thinking." _Martin thought with a frown before getting an idea in his head. "Chelsea, do you remember when you were told that you were being placed in Osiris Red?"

"Huh?" Chelsea blinked as she started to calm down. "What does that have to do with anything?" Chelsea asked and Martin cleared his throat.

"I think you'll find that it has everything to do with this situation." Martin responded and Chelsea frowned as her confusion grew. "You were placed in Osiris Red rather than Ra Yellow because of your temper, obviously you felt extremely disappointed at the time especially after you found out that it was your temper that kept you out of Ra Yellow."

"_That's the understatement of the century." _Chelsea thought with a frown before she got the idea. "So what you're saying is that every time I even think of losing my temper during this duel I should think back to how I felt that day?"

"I meant during this duel and beyond." Martin responded and Chelsea nodded. "Quite frankly I'm surprised Maria hasn't tried this tactic during the months you've spent here."

"Talk about with her after I kick your new deck's ass!" Chelsea responded and Martin frowned.

"And besides, some of us would like to have our promotion duels before the weekends over." Andreas chimed in and Martin nodded.

"Very well, I summon Sylvan Bladefender to the field in attack mode!" Martin played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall man in what looked like a Samurai's outfit complete with a katana (4/1900/700).

"Sylvan?" Chelsea asked as she stared at Bladefeather. "I heard of that archetype but this is my first time seeing it in action."

"Then consider this an educational experience as well as a chance at promotion." Martin responded as he picked up two other cards. "To conclude my turn I set one card facedown and I activate a field spell, Mount Sylvania!" Martin played the cards and after the facedown card appeared on the field the scenery changed to a beautiful looking valley with a mountain in the distance.

"If I was a tourist I'd be impressed." Chelsea commented with a dull expression on her face. "But I came here to duel my way to Ra Yellow, not look at some pretty scenery!" Chelsea added as she drew her card. _"Let's see here, several cards that activate from the graveyard, Beckoning Light and Wattdragonfly! this is one of my best hands to date!" _Chelsea thought before picking up two cards. "I also set a card facedown and a monster in defense mode!" Chelsea announced as her two facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn."

"Not so fast! My field spell's effect activates!" Martin announced as the scenery started glowing a bit. "Using this effect I can excavate the top card from my deck during my opponent's end phase and if it's a Plant Type Monster it goes to my graveyard, if it isn't then I get to choose if it goes to the top or the bottom of my deck."

"I can just tell that that effect is going to get annoying fast." Chelsea commented under her breath with an annoyed look on her face as Martin looked at the top card of his deck. "So, what's the verdict?"

"It is indeed a plant type monster and a very potent one." Martin responded before showing her the card. "Sylvan Hermitree (8/2700/1800)."

"Hah! It looks like your Field Spell's effect has backfired already!" Chelsea commented with a grin as Martin sent the monster to the graveyard. "That's a pretty powerful monster that you were just forced to mill!"

"Perhaps but it has other uses, when Hermitree is sent to the graveyard by a card effect in this manner his effect activates, allowing me to look at any three cards in my deck and place them at the top in any order." Martin explained before picking out three cards and with no wasted motion he placed them at the top of his deck in the order he wanted.

"You did all that before drawing your card?" Chelsea asked and Martin nodded as he quickly snatched up his card. "I've heard of some broken effects before but that takes the cake!"

"This card is perfectly legal Ms. Cunningham, and besides you've only seen a fraction of my deck's power!" Martin announced as his trap card flipped up. "I activate my Continuous Trap Card Sylvan Waterslide! But I will get to its effect later, now Bladefender, attack her defense monster!" Martin commanded and the samurai drew his sword before charging at the monster, revealed to be Wattdragonfly, which was quickly destroyed.

"Since you just destroyed my Wattdragonfly I can activate his effect!" Chelsea responded before quickly picking up her deck.

"Yes, I am very aware of that monster's effect but Bladefender has an effect off his own." Martin announced as Bladefender sheathed his sword. "With this effect every time I destroy a monster as a result of battle I can excavate the top card from my deck, if it's a plant monster it goes to the graveyard, if it isn't then it goes to the bottom of my deck."

"You have got to be kidding me! You just rearranged the top cards of your deck via your other Sylvan monster's effect!" Chelsea protested but her protests fell on deaf ears as Martin picked up the top card from his deck.

"Exactly which is why I don't need to look at the card to know that it's a monster!" Martin responded as he sent the monster to the graveyard. "Furthermore the monster I just excavated was Sylvan Flowerknight and when he is sent to the graveyard in this fashion I can choose another Sylvan monster and add it to the top of my deck."

"Oh for fuck's sake, is there any card in your deck without that effect!?" Chelsea exclaimed and Martin didn't answer her as he made his move. _"Just chill Chelsea! Remember what he said!"_

"Now, don't you have your own effect to resolve?" Martin asked and Chelsea blinked before nodding.

"That's right, and I'm bringing out the big guns! I use Wattdragonfly's effect to summon Wattaildragon!" Chelsea played the card and the massive, electric blue dragon appeared on the field with a roar (6/2500/1000). "Next turn your samurai's toast!"

"Bladefender won't be around long enough for you to attack him! I move to my second main phase and I activate Mount Sylvania's other effect!" Martin announced as Bladefender disappeared from the field. "By sending one plant monster from my hand or the field to the graveyard I can take one Sylvan monster and place it on top of my deck."

"Huh?" Chelsea asked as Martin made his move. "But why did you do that? Bladefender has decent attack and you could've easily done the same move from your hand."

"I have my reasons, besides I'm not totally defenseless." Martin responded as he looked over his hand. "I shall end my turn without summoning a monster."

"Not before I activate my own Trap Card! Go Beckoning Light!" Chelsea activated the trap and picked up the remaining cards in her hand, discarded them and drew four more cards. "You're not the only one around here who can manipulate your deck!" Chelsea added as she shuffled her deck, once she was done she drew another card.

"This is crazy!" Marcus exclaimed as Chelsea looked over her hand. "It's barely turn four and Martin's made more moves and combos then I can count!"

"Indeed, it's easy to see why he was successful as a pro duelist." Andreas nodded in agreement. "Still, no deck is without weakness and these Sylvan monsters must have one."

"I'd almost say that that it's his Field Spell but his monsters have similar effects to it." Lance commented as he folded his arms. "Still, Chelsea's one of the most stubborn yet intelligent duelists I know, if anyone will keep at it until she finds a weakness it's her!"

"I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not." Chelsea responded with a deadpan expression on her face as she looked over at her friends before looking over her hand. _"But Andreas is right! This deck's gotta have a weakness and I gotta find it if I want to win!" _Chelsea thought as she looked over the field.

"_Chelsea's taking her time with this move and it probably means that she's not sure what to do." _Martin thought as Chelsea decided upon her move.

"Okay, since I have a Level Five or higher monster on my side of the field I can reduce his level by one to special summon Level Eater from the graveyard!" Chelsea played the card and once Wattaildragon's level dropped by one a small, ladybug like insect appeared on the field (1/600/0). "But why stop there? Wattaildragon is still a Level Five Monster and I discarded two Level Eaters using Beckoning Light!" Chelsea played the card and once Wattaildragon's level dropped to four a second Level Eater appeared on the field.

"Interesting strategy but its ultimately pointless if you want to summon one of your Watt Synchros Level Eater isn't a Watt Monster after all." Martin responded and Chelsea grinned.

"Who said I was done? I summon the Tuner Monster Wattbetta!" Chelsea played the card and a goldfish appeared on the field that had balls of electricity attached to its fins (2/100/0). "I'm not wasting any time here! I tune my Level Eaters with Wattbetta!" Chelsea announced as the three monsters leapt into the air.

"A Level Four Synchro Summon? I see you've expanded your Synchro Monsters beyond Wattchimera and Watthydra!" Martin commented as the Synchro Summon was performed.

"That's right and this Synchro Monster fits in just perfectly with the others! I Synchro Summon Armory Arm!" Chelsea played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small cannon like machine that looked like it attached to the user's arm (4/1800/1200). "He may not look like much Armory Arm packs a punch….."

"Chelsea, I'm the headmaster of the Obelisk Blue Dorm, I am perfectly aware of what that monster is capable off." Martin interrupted her and Chelsea sweat-dropped when she heard that. "Basically it works in much the same way as a Union Monster does by equipping itself to one of your monsters and granting them one thousand attack points."

"Err right…and I equip it to Wattaildragon!" Chelsea announced as the cannon mounted it's self onto Wattaildragon's back boosting its attack to 3500. "Is it safe to assume that you know its other effect?"

"Yes, I do." Martin responded with a nod. "But I'll let you explain it."

"Thanks, I guess." Chelsea responded clearly unsure of what to think of that. "When a monster equipped with Armory Arm destroys an opponent's monster that monster's attack gets dealt as damage to the opponent!" Chelsea announced with a massive grin as Armory Arm charged up. "Not that it matters since you don't have any monsters full stop, but still, open fire!" Chelsea commanded and Armory arm fired at the defense monster.

"Thank you Chelsea, because by attacking me you have triggered Sylvan Waterslide's effect!" Martin announced as his trap card glowed. "With it I can excavate the top card from my deck….."

"And if it's a plant type monster it goes to the graveyard." Chelsea responded as she ran a hand down her face. "And you just put another monster on top of your deck!"

"Exactly, and the monster I just excavated was Sylvan Peaskeeper." Martin responded as he turned the monster around (1/400/100), once he heard the groans from the students he cleared his throat. "Yes, I am aware of the terrible pun but that's beside the point, when it is excavated in this manner I can Special Summon one Level Four or Lower Plant Type Monster from my graveyard." Martin explained as he retrieved the contents of his graveyard.

"If I had known that your moves were going to take this long I would've brought my IPod!" Chelsea protested and Martin shook his head.

"And nearly deafen yourself with that noise you call music?" Martin asked and Chelsea growled. "Remember what I said Chelsea."

"_I'm beginning to think that Martin was hired because of his ability to troll students." _Chelsea thought as Martin played the card and a small pod of peas that had comical looking eyes appeared on the field. "Let me guess, Peaskeeper?"

"Yes, this is Peaskeeper and this monster does have an additional effect, when it is Normal or Special Summoned I can excavate the top card of my deck and if it's a Plant Type monster it goes to the graveyard, if not then it goes to the bottom of my deck." Martin explained before picking up his deck. "I think you know the routine by now."

"Yeah, yeah, just get it over with whilst I order a pizza." Chelsea responded half-jokingly and Martin chuckled at her comment.

"I'll allow it only if you save a slice for me." Martin responded and Chelsea stared at him.

"_I can't tell if he's joking or not." _Chelsea thought with an annoyed sigh as Martin excavated the top card from his deck. "Just get that monster's effect over with."

"As you wish, the monster I just excavated was Sylvan Snuffspy." Martin responded as he held up the monster (1/900/400). "When this monster is excavated and sent to the graveyard I get to excavate the top card from my deck again and if it's a Plant Type Monster it goes to the graveyard, if not then it goes to the bottom of the deck." Martin explained and Chelsea face-faulted when she heard that.

"Let me get this straight, its Excavation effect triggers another excavation?! What I is this? Inception, Duel Monsters Style?" Chelsea exclaimed as she got back to her feet. "This is the most convoluted deck I've ever seen!"

"You joke but I'll have you know that Inception is one of my favorite movies." Martin responded with a chuckle and Chelsea face-palmed. "Now as I was saying I shall excavate another card." Martin added before picking up the card. "And what luck, this card can help me greatly! It's called Sylvan Ferrylotus."

"Do I even want to know what that card's effect is?" Chelsea asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"No but you're going to find out anyway! When this monster is excavated I can take up to five other Sylvan monsters from my graveyard and place them on the bottom of my deck in any order." Martin explained and Chelsea sighed in relief as the five monsters where placed at the bottom of his deck. "Don't look too relieved Ms. Cunningham, after all I have plenty of ways to place them back on top and I haven't used Mount Sylvania's second effect yet."

"So, just so we're clear, you can use your monsters effects when I try to make a direct attack or when I end my turn." Chelsea responded and Martin nodded in response. "This is gonna be a long duel!"

"Don't you have an attack to do?" Martin asked and Chelsea blinked before grinning.

"Damn right I do! Wattaildragon, pop that pod!" Chelsea commanded and the cannon charged up again before firing at Peaskeeper destroying it and bringing Martin's life-points down to 7600. "Please tell me it doesn't get an effect when destroyed by battle?"

"No, it doesn't." Martin responded and Chelsea sighed in relief.

"Fine, I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chelsea announced and before Martin drew his card the scenery glowed again. _"Here we go again, well so far the cards he's used don't destroy monsters or traps so Wattaildragon and my facedown Trap Jammer should be safe, I'll just activate this the next time his field's empty and he won't be able to resolve any effects when I launch a direct attack."_ Chelsea thought before Martin excavated the top card in his deck.

"I have very bad news for you if you planned on using that facedown card Chelsea." Martin announced as he held up the monster. "The monster I just excavated is Sylvan Komushroomo."

"What about it?" Chelsea asked before a bunch of vines ensnared her facedown card before ripping it to pieces. "Not my Trap Jammer!"

"Yes your Trap Jammer, when Komushroomo is excavated and sent to the graveyard I can target one Spell or Trap Card on the field and destroy it." Martin explained as he drew his card. "Shame too, that is a very good card and would've prevented me from using Waterslide's effect."

"Just make your move already!" Chelsea said through gritted teeth and Martin nodded.

"Well, there goes the "decking out" theory if Martin can just recycle his cards." Lance commented with a frown as they watched the duel. "If you guys have any theories for the Sylvan's weakness I'm waiting for it."

"As soon as I think off another you'll be the first to know." Andreas responded with a sigh as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Why do I get the feeling that Martin made sure that the rules for the second round didn't apply here so that he could use his new deck to its fullest potential?"

"Makes sense to me." Marcus agreed with a nod. "If someone ran a Sylvan deck in the tournament they'd run out of time before their second turn was done."

"Good, I think it's time for a change of pace." Martin commented and Chelsea grinned.

"Does that mean you're not going to do a move that takes what feels like hours to complete?" Chelsea asked and Martin shook his head.

"Not what I meant." Martin responded as he played a card. "I activate Sylvan Charity! With this I draw three cards." Martin explained before drawing three cards. "But that's not all!"

"Just when I thought that there was a card in his deck without a massively complicated effect!" Chelsea muttered under her breath as Martin held up two cards and showed it to her. "Is that Sylvan Cherubsprout? And I don't recognize the other one…." Chelsea trailed off as she tried to read the card's name but the best that she could tell was that it was a Plant Type Monster. "Okay, I'm afraid to ask but why are you revealing those cards to me?"

"Indeed it is, and the reason why is simple, after I draw the three cards using Sylvan Charity I can reveal two of them and place them on top of my deck in any order I like." Martin explained before doing just that. "The alternative was basically doing that with my entire hand."

"Yeah but that still leaves you with two cards that you know are on top of your deck." Chelsea pointed out and Martin nodded. "Can I take my move already?"

"I set three cards facedown and a monster in defense mode to conclude my turn." Martin announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"_Limit Reverse, I added this card recently, if I play my cards right I can bring out Wattchimera, provided that it doesn't' get destroyed like Trap Jammer." _Chelsea thought before picking up and setting the card. "I set one card facedown and I summon Wattcobra!" Chelsea played the card and the electric colored snake appeared on the field (4/1000/500). "Wattaildragon, attack his defense monster!" Chelsea commanded and the cannon charged up again…..

"Not this time! I activate Dimensional Prison!" Martin activated the trap and Chelsea's eyes widened as Wattaildragon was sucked into a portal she quickly pocketed her dragon whilst sending Armory Arm to the graveyard. "You still have a monster that you can attack with."

"I know that!" Chelsea responded with a frown. _"As much as I want to use Wattcobra's effect doing so will just open him up to use Waterslide's effect again!" _Chelsea thought before pointing to the defense monster. "It's not often that I say this but fuck it! Wattcobra, attack his defense monster!" Chelsea commanded and the snake leapt towards the defense monster…..

"I activate my other trap card, Compulsory Evacuation Device!" Martin activated the trap and a giant spring appeared on the field. "With this I will bounce back one monster on the field and I chose…my own defense monster!"

"What?" Chelsea asked as the spring bounced the monster back into Martin's hand. "So now I'll have to attack if I want to maintain my lead."

"Yes, but doing so will trigger Waterslide's effect." Martin responded with a nod. "Choose wisely."

"_On one hand I've already got a small lead and I've already got plenty of monsters thanks to Beckoning Light." _Chelsea thought before making her mind up. _"On the other hand there's definitely a chance that I'll lose it on his next turn, I don't have a choice." _Chelsea decided before pointing to Martin. "Fuck Sylvan Waterslide! Wattcobra, attack his life-points directly!" Chelsea commanded and the snake leapt towards him.

"Sylvan Waterslide's effect activates." Martin announced as his trap card glowed and he picked up the top card from his deck. "The top card is the Plant Type Monster Sylvan Cherubsprout!" Martin announced as he sent the card to the graveyard. "And now Cherubsprout's effect activates, as I just excavated it I can special summon one level one Plant Type Monster from my graveyard, Cherubsprout fits the bill and it doesn't have the restriction that some of my other monsters have!"

"Oh give me a break!" Chelsea exclaimed as the monster appeared on the field revealing it to be a small creature that looked like a plant crossed with a bunny (1/100/100). "What now?"

"Cherubsprout's effect activates, I name a number, either one or two, and I excavate the same number of cards to my graveyard." Martin explained and Chelsea nodded. "I chose two!"

"Well that's just great!" Chelsea commented as she ran a hand down her face.

"The first monster I excavated was another Bladefender and as a result he goes to my hand." Martin explained before returning the monster to his hand. "And finally the other monster was another Peaskeeper!" Martin announced as the other monster appeared on the field. "Care to try again?"

"You know what? I will!" Chelsea said as Wattcobra leapt over Martin's monsters and bit him in the arm bringing his life-points down to 6600. "And now I get to do some deck manipulating of my own through Wattcobra's effect!" Chelsea announced before resolving Wattcobra's effect. "Wait, you didn't use Waterslide's effect?"

"It is an optional effect Ms. Cunningham, make no mistake about that." Martin responded and Chelsea nodded.

"I end my turn, go ahead and use your Field Spell already!" Chelsea announced and Martin nodded before doing so.

"It isn't a Plant Type Monster so it goes to the bottom." Martin announced and Chelsea nodded, Martin went to draw his card but stopped. "You know what? I think I'll demonstrate Waterslide's other effect!"

"It has another effect?" Chelsea asked and Martin nodded.

"Yes, in exchange for my draw phase I can excavate another card and….well you should know the drill by now." Martin said before picking up the card. "It's isn't a plant type but that's fine, I'll place it on top of my deck." Martin announced before activating a trap. "And now I'm going for my big finish! I activate my trap card Sylvan Blessing!"

"Okay, so what does that do?" Chelsea asked as Martin placed Bladefender on the bottom of the deck.

"In exchange for placing one card from my hand on either the top or the bottom of my deck I can Special Summon one Sylvan Monster from my hand or graveyard." Martin announced as he retrieved a monster from his graveyard. "And I summon Hermitree!" Martin played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a massive old looking tree with multi-colored leaves (8/2800/1800). "He is unaffected by card effects but that's not why I summoned him, next I tribute my weaker Sylvans to summon another Hermitree!" Martin played the card and the two weaker plants disappeared and in their place stood another tree.

"_That can mean one of two things, either he wants to attack with them both or….." _Chelsea's thoughts trailed off as the Overlay Network opened up. "Oh for the love of crap, you're doing a Rank 8 XYZ Summon?"

"Exactly, and I use my Hermitree's to XYZ Summon one of my strongest monsters in this deck, Alsei, the Sylvan High Protector in attack mode!" Martin played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a massive four legged beast like monster with white and green fur that looked more like leaves and had several branches protruding out of its back (Rank: 8/2300/3200).

"That's one of your strongest monsters?" Chelsea asked as she stared at the monster. "Those trees you summoned to summon that thing were stronger."

"Being someone who runs a Watt Deck you should know that strength isn't everything." Martin responded as he picked up the top card from his deck. "I activate Alsei's effect, with it I declare one card name and excavate the top card from my deck, if it's the card I say it is then I add it to my hand, otherwise it goes to the bottom." Martin explained and Chelsea nodded. "I declare the name, Relay Soul!"

"_Yet another card I've never heard off." _Chelsea thought as he turned the card around and added it to his hand. _"It doesn't sound like it belongs in a Sylvan Deck but if it's anything like his other cards I'm not going to like it."_

"Next I set one card facedown." Martin announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And I attack Wattcobra!" Martin commanded as the beast charged into battle.

"Not so fast! By removing A/D Changer from my graveyard I can change that…..thing…..to defense mode!" Chelsea announced before she pocketed the monster and the beast crouched down in defense mode. "He may have better attack than defense but it's brought me some time at least."

"Yes, it has." Martin agreed with her as he looked over his hand. "I end my turn." Martin announced as Chelsea drew her card. _"Soon your real test will begin Chelsea and we will truly see if you're ready for Ra Yellow!"_

"_I was going to Synchro Summon Wattcobra but I still don't know the full extent of that monster's capabilities, I'll play it safe for now." _Chelsea decided before switching Wattcobra to defense mode. "I switch Wattcobra to defense mode and end my turn."

"I chose not to use either Mount Sylvania's or Sylvan Waterslide's effect." Martin announced as he drew his card. "Nor do I choose to attack."

"Say what?" Chelsea asked with a confused look on her face.

"Most students either give up at this point but you haven't, you can consider this your final test as an Osiris Red Student Chelsea!" Martin announced as his trap card flipped up. "I activate my trap card Relay Soul!"

"That's the card you just declared." Chelsea realized as Martin played a card. "What does it do?"

"I'll show you, using this Trap Card I can summon one monster from my hand but the moment that that monster has left the field I lose the duel." Martin announced as he played the card.

"Did I really just hear that effect?" Chelsea asked as she stared at Martin strangely. "Why the hell would anyone, let alone you even run that card? You're practically committing suicide!"

"I have my reasons, as for Soul Relay's effect I summon Sylvan Hermitree once more!" Martin played the card and the massive tree reappeared on the field. "And here's the test, beat this monster in battle and win."

"You do realize that my strongest monster is currently occupying a spot in my blazer pocket, right?" Chelsea asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. _"I could really use Spiritual Light Art right now."_

"Whilst that would make things easier for you I didn't exactly mean use your strongest monster to do it." Martin responded before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Martin announced and Chelsea drew her card.

"Okay, this duel has just gotten weirder." Chloe commented as she watched the duel. "For most of it Martin was playing to win but now?"

"I know but it makes sense." Andreas agreed with her after he thought for a few moments. "As much as he wants to win he ultimately wants to see if Chelsea's ready for Ra Yellow, she's shown that in stride and now he's giving her the final test."

"And he couldn't just surrender, why?" Marcus asked and Lance shook his head.

"If I had to guess then I'd say that the teachers aren't allowed to surrender and that Soul Relay card has allowed Martin an easy way around that problem." Lance responded and the others nodded in agreement.

"_Okay, if I want to do this then I'll have to do it soon, otherwise I'm screwed." _Chelsea thought before looked at her drawn card and playing it. "I activate Gift from Zeus! With this I reshuffle three Light Type Monsters in my graveyard back into my deck and draw two cards." Chelsea explained before drawing her cards, once she had a look at them she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard and shuffled her deck. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Very well, I won't use either of my face up card's effects." Martin announced as he drew his card. "Alsei, attack Wattcobra once more!" Martin commanded and the monster charged into battle.

"_This is gonna hurt." _Chelsea thought before activating her trap card. "I activate Interdimensional Matter Transporter! For the rest of the turn Wattcobra is removed from play!" Chelsea announced as she quickly pocketed the monster and braced herself for the attacks.

"Very well, Hermitree, Alsei, attack her life-points directly!" Martin commanded and the monsters launched their attacks at Chelsea bringing her life-points plummeting down to 3000.

"That may have hurt…..a lot….." Chelsea responded as she got back to her feet. "But it's worth it! Go Damage Gate!" Chelsea activated the trap and retrieved a monster from her graveyard. "Guess whose back? That's right! I'm bringing back the Tuner Monster Wattbetta in attack mode!" Chelsea announced as the goldfish reappeared on the field.

"I end my turn." Martin announced and once Wattcobra returned to the field Chelsea drew her card.

"_Come on deck give me something I can use!" _Chelsea thought before looking at her drawn card, once she saw what she had drawn she grinned broadly. "Let's get this show on the road! I'm tuning Wattcobra and Wattbetta to Synchro Summon one of my favorites Wattchimera!" Chelsea played the card and as the Synchro Summon ritual was performed she kept her eyes on the prize namely Sylvan Hermitree, after the bright flash faded Wattchimera appeared on the field with a growl (6/1400/1200).

"So you've summoned your strongest monster, that doesn't mean that you'll pass the test." Martin responded and Chelsea grinned.

"Not only will I pass your stupid test but I'll pass it with flying colors! I activate my Spell Card Megamorph!" Chelsea activated the Spell Card and Martin's eyes widened as Wattchimera doubled in size and strength up to 2800. "Our monsters are both equally as strong and when I attack Hermitree the result will be a draw, at least as far as the duel is concerned." Chelsea added as she pointed to Hermitree. "Wattchimera, chop down Hermitree and earn me my place in Ra Yellow!" Chelsea commanded and Wattchimera leapt towards Hermitree before slashing at him with his claws, at the same time several vines ensnared the beast before tearing him to shreds and at the same time Hermitree fell down and shattered resulting in a draw as far as the battle was concerned.

But Chelsea had won the war.

"Here is your winner and the newest student to graduate to the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm Chelsea Cunningham!" Hamden announced and the crowd cheered a lot more happily then after the end of the last duel, Chelsea gathered up her cards and realized that Martin had already left the arena.

"Leaving already?" Chelsea asked as she walked up to the edge of the arena and folded her arms and Martin turned to her.

"My job for the day is done Chelsea, you have earned your place in Ra Yellow and for once your temper won't get in your way." Martin explained to her and Chelsea grinned at that. "Besides, I have to take over from Hamden in the commentary booth and he's up next." Martin added before letting a small smile onto his face and motioning behind her. "Besides, I think your girlfriend wants to congratulate you." Martin added before walking off and Chelsea turned around before getting a celebratory kiss from Beth, she returned it and it almost escalated to a full blown make-out session but the two girls remembered where they were and stopped.

"Heh, sorry about that guys, it was a force of habit." Chelsea said with a grin as the lesbian couple turned to the others. "Not that we were complaining!"

"Normally I wouldn't either but my promotion duel's next." Marcus responded and the two girls grinned at that. "That reminds me! Congrats Chelsea, you finally made it to Ra Yellow!"

"Yeah, I'll just say a giant "fuck yeah" to that fact!" Chelsea responded with a massive grin before turning to Chloe. "I'll talk to Sarah about us being roommates again Chloe."

"No need, I already asked her and provided that you won, which you did, she was okay with it." Chloe responded and Chelsea grinned at that. "Now we have to make sure that we all go up a dorm!"

"I can't help but agree." Andreas nodded in response. "Oh, Chelsea, Sarah's calling you over." Andreas added and Chelsea looked up seeing the Ra Yellow headmistress doing as Andreas had said she was doing. "It probably means that you are about to get your new duel disk and be fitted for a blazer!"

"Right, I'll try to be back in time for your duel." Chelsea said as she hopped off the arena. "See you in a few minutes Marcus." Chelsea added as she followed Sarah to the changing room.


	108. Promotion Duels Part Three

A few minutes had passed since Chelsea had been promoted to Ra Yellow and whilst the students in the audience where either getting a snack or going to the bathroom and the students were preparing for their own promotion duels were preparing for their own duels there was one girl on the island who couldn't be happier.

"_I've finally made it into Ra Yellow, now I just have to convince Martin to let me represent Duel Academy at next year's Battle City Tournament." _Chelsea thought as she tried on a Ra Yellow Blazer whilst Sarah and Chloe looked on. "So, I guess the big question is whether or not me and Chloe will still be roommates?"

"Yes, you will be." Sarah nodded in response and the two teenaged girls grinned at that. "I talked with Martin and the others about it on the way over and they feel that it would be for the best."

"Wait, for the best?" Chelsea asked as she glanced over her shoulder. "You're making it sound more like a punishment than something that we both want." Chelsea added and Chloe nodded in agreement.

"It's not, I assure you." Sarah responded as she shifted her weight. "Basically it's this, Chelsea, your temper is rather infamous and that showed during the course of your match against Martin, the other teachers were worried that any new Ra Yellow Students would be scared into dropping out of Duel Academy as a result, as for Chloe, she has her own problems stemming from her nasty childhood and since you know her better than any other female Ra Yellow student it would be best if you were there to help her if she had a nasty nightmare."

"You realize that I'm in the same room as you guys right?" Chloe asked with an annoyed look on her face and Chelsea sweat-dropped whilst Sarah cleared her throat.

"No offense was intended Chloe, I'm just paraphrasing what I was told by Martin." Sarah responded and Chloe nodded in understanding. "All though Chelsea, I'm surprised that you didn't request a room with your girlfriend instead."

"Yeah, that was my back-up plan incase Chloe either lost her duel or ended up being paired up with someone else." Chelsea responded as she turned to Sarah. "And even if Beth loses her duel, I know where her dorm room in Osiris Red is almost as well as I know where my old dorm room is so it's not like I can't get there if she invites me over for sex." Chelsea added before realizing something. "Oh yeah that reminds me, what's the plan regarding the stuff that's still in the room we originally shared?"

"You have two options, either you let the teachers handle it or you handle it yourself and anything that underwear would be handled by a female staff member." Sarah responded and Chelsea nodded. "Chloe has already opted to let the teachers handle it but if you handle it yourself you won't be able to attend the welcome party for newly promoted Ra Yellow students."

"I guess that settles it then, I'll leave it to the teachers." Chelsea decided with a nod as Sarah handed over Chelsea's new duel disk. "Just tell them to leave my laptop packed, I prefer handling that myself."

"Will do, I'll let you know where they put your laptop when I show you to your new room." Sarah responded with a nod as Chelsea took her deck out of her old duel disk and put it in her new one alongside her extra deck. "Though there will be a desktop for you to use each and it should be able to run the latest games."

"That's music to my ears!" Chelsea responded with a massive grin on her face. "My laptop's getting old so I can't really rely on it to run even the original Rome: Total War nowadays." Chelsea added as she turned to her. "Speaking of music, how strict are you when it comes to music volume because I usually have my metal on at full blast."

"Might want to reconsider that, the desktops will come with speakers and they are a lot more powerful than a laptop's speakers." Sarah responded as she shook her head. "But really, that'll depend on two things, how late or early it is and if any of your neighbors complain but since there's a few metalheads in the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm I doubt it'll be a problem."

"Sounds like I have some friends to make when I move in." Chelsea responded with a grin before checking her watch. "Oh yeah, it's match time."

"We'd better get going then." Chloe responded with a nod as she stood up. "See you later Sarah." Chloe added and the headmistress nodded as the two girls ran off.

*meanwhile*

"_Okay, so Chloe, Lance and Chelsea are now promoted." _Marcus thought as he shuffled his deck, his match against Hamden was drawing near and he was going through his deck to see if there were any last minute changes that he needed to do before his match started. _"Now it's up to me to follow in their footsteps!"_

"Having last minute concerns Marcus?" Andreas asked with a small grin and Marcus turned to the German Student.

"No, what gave you that idea?" Marcus asked as he finished shuffling his deck and Andreas chuckled.

"Not much, just the fact that you've shuffled enough cards for a hundred duels since Chelsea's duel ended." Andreas pointed out and Marcus sighed.

"Okay, so I am." Marcus sighed in resignation as he shook his head. "I mean, Chloe, Chelsea and Lance have all been promoted to Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue respectively and we have to make sure that we follow in their footsteps."

"Relax dude, if anyone's ready for Obelisk Blue it's you and Andreas." Lance responded with a grin as Chloe and Chelsea took their seats. "And speaking of well-deserved promotions, congrats on the promotion to Ra Yellow Chelsea, like I said you deserve it!"

"Thanks Lance." Chelsea responded with a massive grin on her face. "All though my head's still spinning from the effects of Martin's monsters."

"No love for me Lance?" Chloe asked with a grin and the others grinned. "What?"

"Chloe, we all know that there's plenty of love between the two of you!" Chelsea responded with a grin and Chloe blushed when she realized her slip-up.

"I meant in terms of how well-deserved my promotion to Ra Yellow is!" Chloe quickly asserted and her friends laughed.

"Sure you did Chloe." Chelsea responded as she regained her composure. "Seriously though, considering that your one of the most improved students at this school it was only a matter of time before you got promoted, rookie status or not!"

"Thanks! Now I just have to work towards Obelisk Blue!" Chloe responded with a grin before noticing that Hamden was on the arena. "Speaking of Obelisk Blue…." Chloe trailed off before motioning to the arena with her head whilst looking at Marcus and he looked up.

"Thanks Chloe! And I'm sure that I'll be promoted by days end as well!" Marcus responded with a grin as he hopped onto the arena. "Are you ready Hamden?"

"The real question is, are you ready for Obelisk Blue?" Hamden asked as he activated his duel disk and Marcus did likewise. "And we'll be answering that question in this duel!"

"Welcome to third Promotion Duel of the day!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "The next duel will be contested between the Headmaster of the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm Professor Thomas Hamden and Marcus Reynolds of Ra Yellow!"

"Anyone know what deck he runs?" Chloe asked the others and the others shook their heads.

"His Duel Spirit was Shinato, King of a Higher Plane, wasn't it?" Lance asked as the two duelists drew their opening hands and the others nodded. "Maybe it's some kind of Fairy Ritual Deck?"

"That would fit Shinato being his Duel Spirit. "Andreas agreed with a nod. "But there aren't that many ritual support cards."

"Err, yeah, there are." Chelsea chimed in with a shudder. "I dueled against a Ritual Deck when the Orichalcos Duelists returned, remember? As nasty as the Releaser of Rituals monsters were they were legit cards with the only exception being that damn Ritual of the Ancients Spell Card." Chelsea added with another shudder. "If I never hear the names of those monsters again I'll be happy!"

"_Unfortunately for her I have those monsters in my deck." _Hamden thought as he overheard Chelsea. _"And they are a key part of my strategy!" _Hamden thought before looking over his hand. "As Martin explained before his duel with Chelsea the order of turns will be decided by me that said I chose to go first."

"Not like I have a choice." Marcus shrugged as Hamden drew his card.

"I activate the Foolish Burial Spell Card!" Hamden played the card he drew and picked up his deck, once he found the monster he was looking for he sent it to the graveyard alongside Foolish Burial and shuffled his deck. "But there will be more on that later! Next I set one card facedown and I summon Senju of the Thousand Hands in attack mode!"

"I called it!" Lance called out from behind the duelists as the multi-armed fairy appeared on the field (4/1400/1000).

"Since I normal summoned this monster his effect activates allowing me to search through my deck and add one Ritual Monster from my deck to my hand." Hamden continued before picking up and searching through his deck again, once he found the monster he wanted he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck. _"Okay, I have everything set up accept for the Ritual Spell Card and I will fix that soon!" _Hamden thought before looking at Marcus. "That ends my turn." Hamden announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Okay, now I know for sure what he's running." _Marcus thought as he drew his card. _"If that monster he just retrieved isn't Shinato, King of a Higher Plane then I'm eating my copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Ancient Rules and nothing to use it on, that's just my luck! But it's not like that's the only move I can make!" _Marcus thought before playing a card. "Come on out Alexandrite Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the beautiful dragon made of ruby appeared on the field with a roar (4/2000/100).

"Thanks Marcus, you've played right into my hand!" Hamden announced as his trap card flipped up. "I activate Bottomless Trap Hole!"

"Oh you have got to be kidding me?!" Marcus exclaimed as a large pit opened up beneath Alexandrite Dragon causing the dragon to fall in, once the dragon disappeared from view Marcus pocketed the monster.

"As I'm about to demonstrate to you Marcus, my deck doesn't have a complex strategy or the latest cards like Martin's deck." Hamden continued with a confident grin. "But you don't necessarily need those elements to win a match!"

"I set one card facedown and end my turn!" Marcus announced and Hamden drew his card. _"I may be down one monster but Mirror Force will keep any monsters he summons at bay!"_

"I activate Spellbook inside the Pot, I'm sure you know how this card works by now!" Hamden played the card and both he and Marcus drew three cards. "Perfect, now I have everything I need to secure my victory but first things first, I activate the Quick Play Spell Card Mystical Space Typhoon!"

"Oh come on!" Marcus exclaimed as a tornado ripped the hologram of mirror force to pieces.

"Next I activate another Spell Card, this time it's a Ritual Spell Card called Shinato's Ark!" Hamden played the card and picked up one card from his hand, retrieved another from the graveyard and picked up Senju. "In order to perform this ritual I tribute Senju from my field, Djinn, Releaser of Rituals from my graveyard and A/D Changer from my hand to summon my strongest monster, arise Shinato, King of a Higher Plane!" Hamden played the card and the three monsters where sucked into the ark before the massive multi-armed and winged fairy appeared on the field (8/3300/3000).

"_He just had to use the same monster that nearly defeated me during my first Orichalcos Duel!" _Marcus thought with a gulp as he stared down the monster. _"I don't know what's worse, the fact that he used one of the Djinn monsters to summon it which pretty much means that his monster will have an extra effect on top of its normal effect or the fact that my field's wide open."_

"Chelsea, you faced the Djinn monsters before haven't you?" Chloe asked and Chelsea frowned as she turned to her roommate.

"Thanks for reminding me of my first Orichalcos Duel." Chelsea responded sarcastically and Chloe winced. "But yeah, I have, basically Releaser of Rituals prevents the opponent from Special Summoning monsters as long as the Ritual Monster that it was used to summon is face-up on the field."

"_Never mind, I now know which fact is worse thanks to Chelsea!" _Marcus thought as he looked over his hand. _"Now I can't use Ancient Rules full stop!"_

"Seeing as how Chelsea has just explained the effect of Releaser of Rituals I don't need to." Hamden added before pointing to Shinato. "But what I will do is attack your life-points directly!" Hamden announced and the fairy put its hands together as it formed an energy ball that was subsequently thrown at Marcus bringing his life-points down to 4700. "If you want to make it to Obelisk Blue Marcus you will have to do better than that."

"Believe me, I will do better!" Marcus responded and Hamden looked over his hand.

"I end my turn." Hamden announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_This is bad, unless I can draw something that can destroy Shinato my life-points will run out in no time!" _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Not the best but I'll make do." _Marcus thought before setting the monster. "I set one monster in defense mode and two cards facedown to end my turn." Marcus set the three cards and Hamden nodded before drawing a card.

"_I'll save this in case he finds a way to destroy Shinato." _Hamden thought before adding the card to his hand. "You faced off against Shinato in Battle City surely you know that even defending against him is pointless."

"I know that." Marcus said with a confident grin. "But how do you know that my facedown cards aren't another copy of Mirror Force?"

"For one thing Mirror Force is Semi-Limited in the TCG, the rule set that the school uses, so only one of your facedown cards can be another Mirror Force." Hamden responded and Marcus sweat-dropped.

"Good point." Marcus conceded as Hamden pointed to his monster.

"Fortunately for you under that same rule set Heavy Storm is banned but that won't stop me from attacking your defense monster!" Hamden announced as the fairy fired its attack at the defense monster, revealed to be Golem Dragon (4/200/2000) which was quickly destroyed bringing Marcus's life-points down to 4500. "Setting a weak monster as a counter for Shinato's effect, that's not bad."

"Yeah, well, I have a lot more where that came from!" Marcus responded and Hamden looked over his hand.

"I end my turn." Hamden announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_This is bad, no matter what position I place my cards in I can't win!" _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card and setting it. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

"I was expecting more of a fight from Marcus." Chelsea admitted as she rubbed the back of her head in confusion. "But all he's been doing is defending."

"Considering that the only monster in his deck that comes close to Shinato's power in terms of strength is the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that's to be expected." Andreas responded with a frown. "And thanks to Releaser of Rituals he has to summon it the old fashioned way."

"And that's if he can get two monsters on the field." Chloe added and Andreas nodded in agreement. "Still, Shinato is one monster that I'm glad I never faced in Battle City due to his effect." Chloe added as Hamden drew his card.

"_Ritual Raven, this could come in handy later." _Hamden thought before adding the monster to his hand and pointing to Marcus's facedown monster. "Shinato, attack his defense monster!" Hamden commanded and the fairy fired his attack at the monster however when Hamden saw the dragon that emerged his eyes widened. "Is that Exploder Dragon?!" Hamden asked as a large explosion consumed both monsters taking them both out.

"That's right!" Marcus responded with a grin before wincing as his life-points dropped to 3700. "I may lose a thousand life-points but it's worth it to take out your monster."

"You may have taken out one of my Shinatos but I have two others waiting in the wings." Hamden responded before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Hamden announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Oh yeah, that's the ticket!" _Marcus thought with a grin before playing the card. "I activate the Spell Card Ancient Rules! I couldn't use this earlier because of Releaser of Ritual's effect but since Shinato is destroyed I can go ahead and use this to bring out the big guns!" Marcus played the card and with a mighty roar the Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field (8/3000/2500). _"I don't have that Synchro Monster that Miranda has but I still have this powerhouse and that's good enough for me!" _Marcus thought before pointing to his dragon. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack his life-points directly with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon opened his maws to prepare his legendary attack…..

"I activate the effect of A/D Changer from my graveyard!" Hamden announced as the small ogre appeared on the field, it raised its red flag forcing the dragon into defense mode. "I knew that monster would come in handy."

"_Well, at least it's a one use card." _Marcus thought with a frown before checking his facedown cards. "I end my turn." Marcus announced and Hamden drew his card.

"_Not the best that I can hope for but it should do me well." _Hamden thought before playing the card. "I activate the Continuous Spell Card Alter of Mist, this Spell Card will remain on the field for three turns and at the end of those three turns I can add one Ritual Monster or Ritual Spell Card to my hand." Hamden explained and Marcus grinned.

"Fine then, I'll just destroy it before the three turns are up!" Marcus said with a grin and Hamden shook his head.

"You can try but it won't help you." Hamden responded and Marcus blinked. "This face-up Spell Card cannot be destroyed by card effects!"

"You're kidding?!" Marcus asked and Hamden shook his head again.

"I'm serious." Hamden said before setting a card. "For now I set one card facedown and end my turn." Hamden set the card and Marcus drew his card.

"_It's cool, all he's got is one measly facedown card and a Continuous Spell Card, if I can pull this off I'll make the comeback of the Century!" _Marcus thought before turning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon back to attack mode and his mighty dragon stood up. "I'm sending my dragon into battle alone this time!" Marcus said as he went to pick up a card but was cut off by a loud roar.

"You won't be sending any monsters into battle full stop thanks to my Threatening Roar Trap Card." Hamden responded as he sent his trap card to the graveyard.

"_In that case I'll save this for next turn." _Marcus decided before putting the monster he almost summoned back into his hand and picking up and setting a different monster. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Marcus announced and Hamden drew his card.

"So Hamden's deck is a Ritual/Stall deck?" Lance commented as he scratched his chin. "I've heard of weirder combos than that, that's for sure."

"I'm going to guess that my Warrior/Spellcaster deck is among those combos." Chloe commented and Lance nodded in response.

"Well you did say that your dad told you that you were taking a risk when you decided on your deck." Lance reminded her and Chloe laughed nervously as she remembered that conversation. "Especially considering how basic your deck was at first."

"Can we get back on track here?" Chelsea asked and the others nodded. "Okay, Hamden has two monsters removed from play, Releaser of Rituals and A/D Changer if he's smart he has a copy of Burial from a Different Dimension in his deck."

"Considering that he's the headmaster of the Osiris Red Boy's Dorm I don't doubt that for a second." Lance nodded in agreement as Marcus looked over his hand and waited for Hamden to make his move. "Even so he has to run out of ways to stall at some point, let's just hope for Marcus's sake that he hasn't brought out another Shinato by then."

"For the record, one turn has passed since Altar of Mist was activated." Hamden commented before looking at the card he had drawn. "Next I activate Preparation of Rights with this Spell Card I add one Level Seven or Lower Ritual Monster from my deck to my hand." Hamden explained before picking up and searching through his deck, once he found the card he was looking for he added it to his hand and shuffled his deck. _"Just need one more piece of my puzzle and in two more turns Altar of Mist will provide that puzzle piece, still it'd be good to prepare a back-up plan." _Hamden decided before picking up another card. "To end my turn I set one monster in defense mode!" Hamden announced and once the face-down monster appeared on the field Marcus drew his card.

"_He's setting up for another Ritual Summon but if I can beat him before he can summon another monster I'll be good to go." _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. _"A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon, normally I'd use this in a heartbeat but even if Altar of Mist could be destroyed using it on one Spell Card would be a waste and I have no way to bring back my dragon." _Marcus thought before adding the Spell Card to his hand. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack his defense monster with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon opened his maws before letting lose with the attack vaporizing the monster however Marcus caught a glimpse of the monster and frowned. "That was Magician of Faith!"

"Indeed, she has been quite popular since she came off the banlist, both with students and teachers." Hamden responded with a nod before retrieving a spell card from his graveyard and sending Magician of Faith to the graveyard. "Her effect may be slow by today's standards but she has her uses."

"Yeah, I noticed." Marcus responded before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Marcus announced and Hamden drew his card.

"_One more turn until my Altar of Mist Spell Card's effect lets me retrieve the Spell Card I need, for now I need something to defend myself with." _Hamden thought before looking at his drawn card and playing it. "I activate the Spell Card Burial from a Different Dimension! And I use this to return one monster I banished a few turns ago to my graveyard."

"_He's only returning one?" _Marcus thought with a confused look on his face as Hamden took the monster and returned it to the graveyard. _"He removed Releaser of Rituals and A/D Changer from play two turns ago, my guess is that he's returned Releaser which means I can inflict some major damage!"_

"And I end my turn at that!" Hamden announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Okay, I don't think he returned A/D Changer but if he did then I can force him to use up his effect right now." _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Raiding the Dragon's Cave, yet another card I can't use, man this duel has been full of dead draws!" _Marcus thought before adding the Spell Card to his hand and pointing to his dragon. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack his life-points directly with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon opened up his maws to unleash his legendary attack….

"By removing A/D Changer from play I can negate your dragon's attack by forcing it into defense mode!" Hamden played the card and the dragon crouched down before it could unleash the attack. "Nice try Marcus."

"_At least I forced him to use up his monster's effect!" _Marcus thought before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Marcus announced and Hamden drew his card.

"Then it's time!" Hamden announced before picking up his deck. "First I use Altar of Mist's effect to add one Ritual Spell Card to my hand." Hamden announced as the Spell Card vanished from the field and he added the Spell Card to his hand. "Next, I activate the Spell Card I just drew, Shield Crush!" Hamden played the card and Marcus shielded himself as the facedown monster shattered. "And now the stage is set! I activate Ritual of Destruction!"

"That doesn't sound good!" Marcus said with a wince as Hamden picked up a monster from his hand.

"For you it isn't! Under normal circumstances I need monsters whose combined levels equal seven or more." Hamden said as he turned around Ritual Ravel. "But with the effect of Ritual Raven (1/300/300) I can count it as the whole tribute as I am using it to summon a Dark Type Monster." Hamden added as he sent the monster to the graveyard. "I summon Garlandolf, King of Destruction!" Hamden played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a tall fiend with purple armor, goat like horns and red piercing eyes (7/2500/1400).

"I was worried for a moment there!" Marcus commented with a smirk. "But he can't even beat my dragon in defense mode!"

"What dragon?" Hamden asked simply and Marcus blinked before realizing that the Blue-Eyes White Dragon was gone replaced with a smoldering ash stain. "When Garlandolf is Ritual Summoned any face-up monster who's defense is less than or equal to the defense of Garlandolf is automatically destroyed!"

"At least it can't get any worse!" Marcus commented with a nervous gulp as Hamden shook his head.

"Actually it does! Garlandolf also gains one thousand attack points for each monster destroyed by that effect!" Hamden explained and Marcus's jaw dropped as Garlandolf's attack shot up to 3500. "Be thankful that I didn't have anything that could flip up your face-down monster as well because otherwise I could end this duel right now!"

"_That's what he thinks!" _Marcus thought as Hamden pointed to his monster.

"Garlandolf, attack Marcus's life-points directly!" Hamden commanded and the fiend put his hands together before firing up a dark energy ball that was launched at Marcus…..but the attack never hit as a translucent image of a dragon appeared just in time to block the attack. "I see you've added Phantom Dragon (1/0/0) to your deck."

"That's right! When you destroyed him by a card effect you gave me the chance to use his effect to remove him from play and end the battle phase." Marcus responded with a grin as he pocketed the monster. "You're not the only one with a few tricks up his sleeve!"

"Yes but how long will these tricks last against my deck?" Hamden asked before looking over the remaining cards in his hand. "I end my turn."

"You know, suddenly facing Martin's complicated deck isn't sounding so bad." Chelsea commented with a wince as she stared at the monster. "That thing would wreak havoc on my deck."

"I'll just say the same thing about facing Lance." Chloe nodded in agreement as she watched the duel. "What cards does Marcus have that could beat that?"

"Err, Five Headed Dragon?" Lance chimed in with a frown. "But his best method of summoning that thing, Future Fusion, got banned before the Expulsion Duels and shows no signs of coming back any time soon."

"People said the same thing about Magician of Faith and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, just saying." Chloe pointed out and Lance frowned in response. "Besides, he still has Dragon's Mirror."

"And how many dragons does he have in his graveyard?" Chelsea asked and Chloe paused.

"Err, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Exploder Dragon and Golem Dragon." Chloe responded after thinking for a moment. "So he needs two more monsters, does he run Burial from a Different Dimension by any chance?"

"_No but now that she mentions it I should look into that." _Marcus thought before looking at the card he had drawn and grinning. _"Sweet, I drew Masked Dragon! With this I can search out other dragons in my deck and hopefully summon Five Headed Dragon if I do draw Dragon's Mirror!" _Marcus thought before setting the monster. "That ends my turn."

"Very well, I draw!" Hamden responded as he drew the card. "From my graveyard I activate the effect of Ritual of Destruction!"

"That thing has another effect?" Marcus asked and Hamden nodded as he pocketed the card.

"Yes and I'll explain it momentarily, Garlandolf, attack his defense monster!" Hamden commanded and the fiend launched its attack at the set monster, revealed to be Masked Dragon, which was quickly destroyed.

"Hah! Thanks Hamden, since you just sent Masked Dragon to the graveyard….." Marcus trailed off as he sent the monster to the graveyard, or at least tried to as the monster ejected back out within seconds. "What the, is my duel disk busted?"

"No, this is the effect of Ritual of Destruction." Hamden responded with a smirk. "To put it simply, during the Main Phase I can remove it from play and from that moment onwards any monster that is destroyed by the attack of a Ritual Monster gets sent to the top of the owner's deck for the rest of the turn."

"You gotta be kidding me!?" Marcus blurted out and Hamden shook his head.

"I had a feeling it was a deck searcher when I saw the grin on your face." Hamden responded as he added the card he had drawn to his hand. "Honestly, sometimes you are worse than Chloe at poker faces."

"Gee, thanks." Marcus and Chloe said simultaneously as large sweat-drops rolled down their heads.

"I end my turn." Hamden ignored them and Marcus drew his card. "We both know that that card is Masked Dragon!"

"Yeah but he's not the only card in my hand, in fact he's about to get some company! I activate the Spell Card Raiding the Dragon's Cave!" Marcus played the card and Hamden frowned. "Since I have my Blue-Eyes White Dragon in the graveyard this trap card will let me draw two cards." Marcus added before making his draws. _"At least he's used up his Spell Card's effect but if he can summon Shinato this duel's over." _Marcus thought before picking up Masked Dragon and the other two cards he had drawn this turn. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Marcus announced and Hamden drew his card.

"_I may not be able to use the effect of Ritual of Destruction but I have him on the run." _Hamden thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Another copy of Releaser of Rituals, I think I have an idea." _Hamden thought before playing a card. "I activate Heaven's Lost Property." Hamden played the card and both duelists drew three cards and discarded two.

"_Really could've used another dragon in that draw but I have another in the graveyard and that's all that matters." _Marcus thought as Hamden sent his Spell Card to the graveyard.

"Next I set one card facedown." Hamden announced as the set card appeared on the field. "Now Garlandolf, attack his defense monster!" Hamden commanded and the fiend launched his attack at the set monster, revealed to be Masked Dragon, which was once again destroyed. "Now you get to use Masked Dragon's effect."

"That's right and I use it to summon Totem Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the strange green dragon appeared on the field (2/400/200). _"I hope this works."_

"I end my turn." Hamden announced and Marcus drew his card.

"I activate my Trap Card Dragon's Rebirth! I banish Totem Dragon…" Marcus trailed off as the small dragon vanished. "To bring back the big guy, come on out the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the legendary dragon returned to the field with a roar.

"I'd be worried if your dragon could defeat Garlandolf but the sad truth is he can't!" Hamden responded with a smirk.

"He won't need too because I'm taking a page from your book! I activate my trap card Burst Breath!" Marcus activated the trap and the Dragon Roared before firing up his legendary attack. "By sacrificing my Blue-Eyes White Dragon I can destroy all monsters on the field who's defense is less than or equal to the dragon's attack and I can see that Garlandolf fits the bill so your king's about to be dethroned!" Marcus added and Hamden's eyes widened as the two monsters launched their attacks destroying each other in the process.

"_It doesn't matter, I know Marcus hasn't made his normal summon yet and my facedown card is Mirror Force, crude but it still works!" _Hamden thought with a confident grin on his face.

"But if you think that my dragon is out for the count think again! I activate Swing of Memories to bring him back from the graveyard!" Marcus played the card and the dragon returned to the field with a roar. "But I have to say my good-byes to him again! I activate A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon!"

"_Well, so much for Mirror Force." _Hamden thought as he braced himself and the dragon took flight, the dragon beat his wings once as he disappeared into the sky destroying Hamden's facedown card. "You'll run out of ways to bring out your dragon eventually Marcus."

"Who said I planned to bring him back?" Marcus asked and Hamden blinked in confusion. "First I activate the card I drew, Heaven's Lost Property!" Marcus played the card and both players drew three cards before discarding two. "And now the stage is set for my big play, I activate Dragon's Mirror!"

"_Oh no, he's planning to bring THAT out." _Hamden realized as his eyes widened and Golem Dragon, Exploder Dragon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Masked Dragon and the monster he discarded for Heaven's Lost Property, Axe Dragonite, briefly appeared on the field before they were all sucked into a portal from which Five Headed Dragon emerged (12/5000/5000). "Very impressive but it won't finish me off."

"No, but the two remaining cards in my hand will, I activate D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation!" Marcus played the card and discarded the last card in his hand before retrieving another and without another word the Blue-Eyes White Dragon returned to the field for the third time. "Thanks for the duel Hamden but this match is over."

"The feeling is mutual Marcus, congratulations on your promotion to Obelisk Blue." Hamden nodded as he braced himself.

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Five Headed Dragon, finish this duel now!" Marcus commanded and the two dragons launched their attacks at Hamden sending his life-points plummeting down to zero.

"Here is your winner and the newest student to graduate to the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm Marcus Reynolds!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered and Marcus grinned broadly. "In just a few moments we will determine if another Battle City contestant will get to join him as Andreas Freshier from the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm takes on Maria Davis the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm Headmistress."

"Oh yeah, Obelisk Blue here I come!" Marcus said with a grin as he hopped off the arena and walked up to the others.

"Congrats Marcus, you just reduced the weight of the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm by a lot!" Chelsea teased him and Marcus laughed.

"Very funny Chelsea, so err, any chance of a celebratory kiss?" Marcus teased her and Chelsea grinned in response.

"Maybe I would if Beth wasn't here…..and if I was straight." Chelsea responded with a grin and Marcus grinned in response. "You'd better go get fitted for an Obelisk Blue Blazer."

"That's my next stop." Marcus responded with a nod as he started to walk off. "And hopefully they'll have blazers in my size!" Marcus added before walking off.


	109. Promotion Duels Part Four

(OOC: I would like to take a moment to dedicate this chapter to the memory of Robin Williams, as the Genie in Aladdin he was a big part of my childhood and he'll be missed)

A short time had passed since Marcus had beaten Hamden and was promoted up to Obelisk Blue but by now he had already been fitted for his new blazer and had been given his new duel disk and was currently on his way back to the arena.

"_I've fought long and hard to get where I am and, well, here I am wearing an Obelisk Blue Blazer." _Marcus thought with a grin as he looked over his new blazer feeling proud of what he had accomplished just a few moments before. _"I'm feeling so good right now that practically nothing can dampen my mood!"_

"Ah, there you are Marcus." Thomas Newborne's voice rang out and Marcus frowned.

"_Well, except for this asshole." _Marcus thought before turning to Thomas. "What do you want Thomas? I want to head back to the arena and watch my friends duel!" Marcus said as he went to leave.

"That's precisely what I want to talk about." Thomas responded and Marcus stopped in his tracks before turning around. "Sure, you have your friends in the lower dorms but like I said they are beneath you and hardly worth your time."

"You want me to abandon my friends just because two of them won't be joining me in Obelisk Blue?!" Marcus snarled at him as his eyes narrowed. "I'm normally a lot more polite than this but you're not worth it, go fuck yourself Thomas!"

"Amusing, your acting like your German friend will be joining you and Alvers in Obelisk Blue!" Thomas responded and Marcus's eyes narrowed. "Come now Marcus, even an imbecile like you knows that Otto was the stronger duelist of the Freshier Twins."

"Otto was the stronger duelist? Give me a break! The guy ran Cyber Commander in his deck and he made it into Obelisk Blue because of connections." Marcus said before walking off. "Besides, he turned his back on the school the moment he started using the Seal of the Orichalcos, something Andreas has never done and he's about to earn his spot in Obelisk Blue unlike his brother." Marcus added before storming off.

"You're making a mistake Marcus!" Thomas called after him but the portly student ignored him and once he was out earshot Thomas shook his head. "That didn't work on Alvers and it didn't work on Reynolds, no point in trying it on Andreas I suppose."

"Still trying to recruit new Obelisk Blue Students huh?" Cameron's voice rang out and Thomas looked up seeing Cameron and Jessica standing behind him. "Don't bother all the new students in Obelisk Blue are still naïve enough to think that they can maintain friendships with the lower class."

"It's pathetic, really." Jessica scoffed in agreement. "Obelisk Blue is meant for the elites and the only other decent duelist who recognized that was unfairly expelled during Battle City!"

"Funny, I seem to remember Thomas losing to one of the "lower class" and Cameron almost having his winning streak ended by that same student." The three students froze in their place before they looked up seeing Tyler and Miranda standing behind them and it was Tyler who spoke up. "You idiots may not like it but the whole "Obelisk Blue is the only dorm that matters" mentality is a dying one."

"And besides, it's kind of hypocritical when Thomas is paired up with a Ra Yellow Student for the Tag Team Tournament, isn't it?" Miranda added with a smirk and Thomas grinned.

"I seem to remember that your team pretty much lost because your partner, an Osiris Red Reject, relied too much on your powerful strategies Miranda." Thomas responded with a scoff and Miranda's eyes narrowed at that. "Besides, we all know that bitch cheated….."

"Not another word." Tyler interrupted him in a dangerously low voice as he pushed past Cameron and Jessica and Thomas gulped. "Or did you forget that I attended that very same Duel Theory class? What you call cheating I call "handing your opponent a tuner monster on a silver platter despite knowing that she runs Colossal Fighter and that your deck has more than a few warriors in it and being surprised when she uses that Tuner Monster to summon her best Warrior monster."." Tyler responded and Thomas gulped. "There is no shame in losing to an Osiris Red Student even if she was promoted to Ra Yellow a half hour ago, the sooner that idiots like you realize it the better."

"And why should I do that?" Thomas scoffed as he folded his arms. "Osiris Red, Ra Yellow, it doesn't matter, she's still beneath me!"

"For someone who's below you, based on what Tyler told me, you practically handed Chloe the win on a silver platter." Miranda responded and Thomas growled. "Besides, like I said you're also teamed up with a Ra Yellow Student in the tournament and I noticed that he was among the students up for promotion to Obelisk Blue, are you really willing to condescend him as well?"

"Well if he doesn't make it then off course! That will just confirm that they made a big mistake by giving me Rajin as my tag team partner!" Thomas responded with a scoff and Tyler's eyes narrowed.

"That wasn't what she asked." Tyler responded and Thomas scoffed.

"Who cares? We all know that the Obelisk Blue Dorm is the only dorm that matters." Thomas said as he shook his head. "You're wasting your time with those pathetic rejects if you two had been teamed with a fellow Obelisk Blue student then you'd be through to the third round!"

"That hasn't stopped you from advancing even with a Ra Yellow Student as your partner." Miranda pointed out with a frown. "And besides, Tyler's team was facing two of the best duelists in Obelisk Blue and my team were facing two duelists who were no slouches either, our matches could've gone either way and unlike you we actually worked with our partners in our matches rather than dictating the pace of them!"

"If Rajin was actually talented he'd be Obelisk Blue already!" Thomas scoffed before brushing past Tyler. "Now if you excuse me I have no time to waste with a pair of idiots who are basically living off of their dad's legacy!" Thomas added and Cameron and Jessica soon walked off after him, Tyler clenched his fist but Miranda put her hand on her step-brother's shoulder.

"Let him go, we both know how wrong he is anyway." Miranda told him and Tyler took a deep breath before calming down. "You almost pulled a Chelsea there."

"Miranda, you know how closely I work with students in Osiris Red and Ra Yellow for example I don't think anyone else in my dorm bar Theresa and Brandon would've taken her up on her challenge when Chloe challenged me in the lead-up to the expulsion duels." Tyler responded with a frown. "And we both know that there are two things I won't tolerate."

"Yeah, people belittling students in Osiris Red and Ra Yellow and people insinuating that we only made it as far as we did because we happen to be the offspring of Seto Kaiba." Miranda responded with a nod and a frown. "But the truth is people will think that of us even after we graduate and until this school really cracks down on the snobs in our dorm the students in the other two dorms will continue to get a bad rap from then."

"Those facts don't make the pill any less bitter to swallow." Tyler responded with a frown. "I need something to take my mind off this."

"Well, Andreas's promotion duel should be starting soon and I know you love a good duel as much as I do." Miranda responded after checking her watch and Tyler grinned.

"Let's go." Tyler responded before the siblings walked off.

*meanwhile*

"_Okay, so, Lance and Chloe graduated, Chelsea graduated, Marcus graduated and now it's my turn." _Andreas thought as he stepped onto the stage and waited for Maria to arrive. _"I wish I knew more about Maria's deck but at the moment? I'll have to rely on instincts to defeat her."_

"Don't let my age fool you Andreas." Maria's voice rang out and Andreas looked up to see the elderly teacher stepping onto the stage, she did so with some difficulty clearly showing her age but that didn't seem to slow her down. "I may be the oldest teacher here and I may have been around since before Duel Academy was a concept but that just means that I have the most experience."

"I had no intention of underestimating you because you're older." Andreas responded as they activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands once they shuffled their decks. "I've been watching the duels with the others and your colleagues have certainly showed that age has not affected their abilities as duelists."

"That is good to know, but you need to know one other thing." Maria responded and Andreas raised an eyebrow. "Like Martin I am not using my regular deck."

"_I thought as much." _Andreas thought as he looked over his hand. _"Duelists with their experience would be dumb to not run more than one deck in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Hamden didn't use his true deck against Marcus either." _Andreas thought before turning his attention to Maria. "In the past two duels the order has been decided by the teachers, is it the same case here?"

"Yes and I will go first." Maria added and Andreas nodded before she made her first draw. "And I activate a rather popular Spell Card, Foolish Burial!" Maria played the card and picked up her deck before searching through it and once she found the monster that she was looking for she sent it to the graveyard and shuffled her deck. "Now I set one card facedown and I summon Double Fin Shark!" Maria played the card and a large, ugly purple shark with two fins appeared on the field (4/1000/1200).

"_What's she up too? That monster isn't very strong!" _Andreas thought as Maria retrieved the monster from her graveyard.

"When Double Fin Shark is normal summoned his effect activates." Maria added as she held up the monster. "This effect allows me to target one Level Three or Level Four Water Fish Type Monster in my graveyard and special summon it with its effects negated so I summon another Double Fin Shark!" Maria played the card and another Double Fin Shark appeared on the field.

"So your plan is a Rank 4 XYZ Summon, this isn't good." Andreas commented and Maria nodded.

"Indeed, now Double Fin Shark's effect prevents me from Special Summoning other monsters except for Water Monsters for the rest of the turn." Maria added as the Overlay Network opened up and the two sharks where sucked in. "Fortunately for me the XYZ Monsters that I intend to summon fit the bill."

"Wait, monsters? You're summoning more than one?!" Andreas asked and Maria nodded as she retrieved the monster from her extra deck.

"That is indeed what I plan to do, but first I XYZ Summon Bahamut Shark to the field in attack mode!" Maria played the card and a new monster appeared on the field in the place of the first Double Fin Shark, it was a humanoid shark that was blue and white in color and very muscular (Rank: 4/2600/2100). "Now I activate Bahamut Shark's effect, by detaching one XYZ Material from him I can special summon one Rank 3 or lower XYZ Monster from my extra deck as long as it is a Water Monster free of charge." Maria added as she sent one of the sharks to the graveyard.

"_I don't think I2 would create a card that powerful without some kind of drawback." _Andreas thought as Maria played the card and another humanoid shark appeared on the field, however this one was purple and white and was carrying a trident.

"Meet Tri Edge Levia!" Maria announced as the monster growled (Rank: 3/1800/1500). "He comes with an effect of his own but I'll get to that later, for now all you need to know is two things, Bahamut Shark cannot attack the same turn he uses his effect and I end my turn." Maria announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_She just summoned two XYZ Monsters in the same turn; I'd better play it safe." _Andreas thought before looking over his hand. _"Nimble Mogumba, Barrier Rat….I can set Mogumba use its effect to special summon two others and when Maria destroys one of them I'll use the remaining one with Barrier Rat to Synchro Summon one of my unicorns, it almost seems to easy so I had better play it safe." _Andreas thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode." Andreas announced as the two cards appeared on the field. "That ends my turn." Andreas announced and Maria drew her card.

"_I will save this Spell Card for later." _Maria decided as she added the card to her hand. "Tri Edge Levia, attack his defense monster!" Maria commanded and the trident wielding monster charged towards the defense monster, revealed to be Nimble Mogumba, which was quickly destroyed.

"I activate Nimble Mogumba's effect!" Andreas announced only to get an error message when he tried to send his monster to the graveyard. "Is my Duel Disk on the fritz?"

"No, you see any monster that's attacked by Tri Edge Levia is banished rather than sent to the graveyard." Maria explained and Andreas's eyes widened. "I am very familiar with your monster's effect and I know that the effect requires the monster to be sent to the graveyard." Maria added and Andreas frowned before pocketing the monster. "Bahamut Shark, attack his life-points directly!" Maria commanded and the shark leapt into battle.

"It's a good thing that I set a back-up plan then! I activate my trap card Break Tune!" Andreas announced as his trap card flipped up. "Since you just declared an attack I can use this to not only summon a Tuner Monster like Barrier Rat from my hand….." Andreas added as the rat appeared on the field (3/0/0). "But it also negates the attack to boot!"

"Very well, I end my turn." Maria announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_Okay, I have one of my best Tuners on the field and just need the means to summon something with it." _Andreas thought before looking at his drawn card. _"And I think I have it!" _Andreas thought before playing the card. "I activate One for One; I discard one monster to summon one Level 1 Monster from my deck, I summon Moja!" Andreas played the card and a small black beast with a yellow face appeared on the field (1/100/100).

"So you're planning a Level Four Synchro Summon." Maria commented with a frown. "Nice try but not good enough."

"I'm not done! The monster I discarded for One for One's effect was Chain Dog and since I have two beast type monsters on my side of the field I can summon it now!" Andreas responded as he retrieved the monster from his graveyard, played it and the large dog wrapped in chains appeared on the field (4/1600/1100).

"_So, he's planning on bringing out the big guns, fortunately I'm prepared." _Maria thought as Andreas's three monsters leapt into the air ready to do a Synchro Summon.

"I tune Barrier Rat with Chain Dog and Moja to Synchro Summon Lightning Tricorm!" Andreas played the card and in the place of Chain Dog stood the mighty tri horned unicorn (8/2800/2000).

"A better move would've been something similar to what you did in your last tournament duel." Maria pointed out and Andreas frowned. "You know it and I know it."

"Regardless, as I have just performed a Level Eight Synchro Summon with Barrier Rat its effect activates letting me draw one card for each Synchro Material Monster I just used to summon it." Andreas explained before drawing two cards. "Unfortunately one of the cards I have just drawn is a monster so I must discard it." Andreas added before sending the monster to the graveyard. _"Now it's decision time, Bahamut Shark's ability is certainly lethal but I don't know what tricks her Tri-Edge Levia has, I'd better play it safe and destroy Tri-Edge._" Andreas decided before pointing to the weaker XYZ Monster. "Lightning Tricorn, attack Tri-Edge Levia!" Andreas commanded and the beast galloped towards Tri-Edge Levia…..

"I activate my Trap Card Staunch Defender! Now your monster is forced to attack Bahamut Shark instead!" Maria activated the trap and Andreas's eyes narrowed as Lightning Tricorn impaled Bahamut Shark on its horn instead destroying him and bringing Andreas's life-points down to 7800.

"_She just threw away one of the best XYZ Monsters I've seen but why?" _Andreas thought with a frown. _"There has to be more to Tri-Edge Levia than his banishing effect, there's no other explanation for it." _Andreas realized before picking up the other card he drew with Barrier Rat's effect. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced and Maria drew her card.

"_Andreas has one of his best monsters on the field and two facedown cards, no matter, I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve." _Maria thought before looking at her drawn card, adding it to her hand and playing another card. "I activate Salvage, with this Spell Card I can take two Water Monsters with 1500 or less attack in my graveyard and return them to my hand." Maria played the card and retrieved both monsters from her graveyard.

"_Either one of those Sharks would've served her better in the graveyard, why would she return them to her hand?" _Andreas thought as Maria sent her Spell Card to the graveyard.

"Now I activate Moray of Greed, with this Spell Card I shuffle the two Water Monsters that I just added to my hand back into my deck and draw three cards!" Maria explained before picking up her sharks, shuffling them into the deck and drawing her cards. "I set two cards facedown and I end my turn at that." Maria announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_She didn't switch her XYZ monster to defense mode but why? It makes no sense." _Andreas thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Well, it's time I made an XYZ of my own!" _Andreas thought with a small grin on his face. "I summon Rescue Rabbit!" Andreas played the card and the small bunny rabbit in the worker's helmet appeared on the field (4/300/100). "And I activate his effect, banishing him so that I can summon two Mad Dogs of Darkness!" Andreas announced as the rabbit disappeared from the field and two rabid looking yellow dogs appeared on the field (4/1900/1400).

"_His strategy couldn't be more obvious, he's summoning Diamond Dire Wolf." _Maria thought before chuckling. _"If he had summoned one of the weaker Unicorn Synchros first he could've used Lightning Tricorn's effect in combination with that monster but he didn't and that will cost him."_

"I now construct the Overlay Network with my Mad Dogs!" Andreas announced as the two dogs turned into white orbs of light and Overlay Network opened up, Andreas retrieved an XYZ Monster from his graveyard and played it. "Come forth Silver Fang, Protector of the Forrest!" Andreas played the card and from the overlay network emerged a large silver wolf that resembled the old monster Silver Fang, however this one was clearly older than the original and it let out a howl as it got ready for battle (Rank: 4/2200/1800).

"Well, that's certainly new." Maria commented with a raised eyebrow as she stared down the new monster. "But so far all I see is a retrained version of Silver Fang."

"True, I could've gone with my old standby and summon Diamond Dire Wolf instead but I realized yesterday that I'd need some new tactics if I was going to win this match." Andreas responded as he folded his arms. "After all, you watched my progress through the Battle City Tournament alongside the other teachers."

"Your deck was already much different than it was during that tournament before you added that monster." Maria responded with a frown. "But if you summoned it instead of a useful monster such as Diamond Dire Wolf then it must have a powerful effect."

"I assure you that he does." Andreas responded with a grin. "But I'll get to that later, for now I attack Tri Edge Levia with Lightning Tricorn!" Andreas announced as the beast charged into battle.

"You'll do no such thing! I activate my trap card Water Barrier!" Maria activated the trap and a stream of water shot up from out of nowhere preventing Lightning Tricorn from getting any closer. "This trap card will protect Tri Edge Levia from one attack by my opponent's monster."

"Yes but encase you didn't notice I have two monsters and they are both stronger than Tri Edge Levia, Silver Fang, attack Tri Edge Levia!" Andreas commanded and the wolf charged towards Tri Edge Levia….

"There's a reason I always teach my students to never end your turn if there's a backup plan available and here it is, my Trap Card Zeus's Breath!" Maria announced as her second facedown card flipped up. "This trap card not only negates the attack but since I control a Water Type Monster it'll also deal you eight hundred points of damage!" Maria added and Andreas grunted as his life-points dropped to 7200.

"_Okay, she's drawn first blood through a card effect I'm not doing as badly as Marcus did at first though so there's that!" _Andreas thought before picking up a card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"Any ideas about what Maria's planning?" Chelsea wondered as the Osiris Red Headmistress drew her card. "Or what Andreas's new XYZ monster does?"

"No to all of the above." Lance responded with a frown. "I heard about the new Silver Fang monster a couple of months back, would've read the effect but the only website with any news about it was in German."

"And as we all know, German is Andreas's first language." Marcus responded with a nod. "I'm guessing you shot him an e-mail about it?"

"Yeah, even if I could read German, or speak it for that matter, it didn't seem like it would fit in my deck since it was Earth Attribute and clearly a Beast Monster." Lance responded with a frown. "He asked if I wanted him to translate it for me in a reply but I was already running late for Duel Theory at the time so I said no and never got around to asking him afterwards."

"Well he obviously ordered the card since it's now in his extra deck so he must've found it useful." Chloe responded with a nod as she and the others watched the duel.

"_Like Lance I had learned of the Silver Fang monster before but I was too busy to look into it." _Maria thought before looking at her drawn card. "As you control two monsters I can summon Panther Shark from my hand without sacrificing Tri-Edge Levia!" Maria played the card and a new sea creature appeared on the field, it was an ugly yellow and purple shark with long fangs (5/1100/2000). "But I am not done since I now control Panther Shark I special summon his companion, Eagle Shark!" Maria played another card and another ugly sea creature appeared on the field this one resembling a shark with an eagle's head (5/1100/1800).

"_This is not good! She has everything she needs to make a Rank Five XYZ monster and those things are powerful." _Andreas thought with a frown as the overlay network opened up again and the two new sharks were sucked in.

"I use Panther Shark and Eagle Shark to construct the overlay network and summon Shark Fortress!" Maria played the card from her extra deck and a new monster emerged from the overlay network, as its name implied it was a heavily armored shark with what looked like green and white armor with propellers (Rank: 5/2400/1800).

"_What is she thinking? My Lightning Tricorn can easily defeat that monster in battle and she's clearly left it in attack mode!" _Andreas thought as he stared down the monster. _"No, Maria didn't get to be a teacher at this academy by being a poor duelist, she has something up her sleeve for Tricorn but for now I should be more concerned about Silver Fang really since her monster is stronger than him, luckily my facedown card will buy me some time."_

"Before I go on the attack…." Maria trailed off before picking up and setting a third card face down on the field. "You can worry about that facedown card later and Shark Fortress now! Shark Fortress, attack Silver Fang!" Maria commanded and the monster prepared his weapons….

"Sorry but I will have to worry about Shark Fortress later! I activate my Trap Card Half or Nothing!" Andreas activated the trap and the large imposing figure of the monster known as Judge Man appeared on the field. "With this trap card you get two choices, you can either continue your battle phase with the attacks of your monsters cut in half or end the battle phase immediately."

"That is an easy choice to make I chose to end my battle phase." Maria responded as the weapons powered down and Judge Man vanished from the field. "Before I end my turn there is one thing you should know."

"And what's that exactly?" Andreas asked with a curious look on his face.

"If you plan to attack Tri-Edge Levia first, don't, as long as Shark Fortress is on the field it is the only monster that you can target." Maria responded and Andreas frowned when he heard that. "That said I end my turn at that." Maria announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_If Maria was smart she would've waited until my battle phase before revealing that." _Andreas thought before he looked at his drawn card. _"This card will come in handy later but in the meantime I can attack Shark Fortress with Lightning Tricorn and finally finish off Tri-Edge Levia with Silver Fang!" _Andreas thought before adding the card to his hand. "Lightning Tricorn, attack Shark Fortress!" Andreas commanded and the unicorn charged into battle…..

"You've triggered my trap card and at the same time you have destroyed your own monster." Maria responded as her facedown card flipped up. "And that trap card is Covering Fire! Since you targeted Shark Fortress for an attack I can take Tri-Edge Levia's attack and add it to Shark Fortress's attack."

"Oh no….." Andreas trailed off as the revelation hit him and both of Maria's monsters glowed for a few seconds before Shark Fortress's attack shot up to 4200 and it fired its weapons at Lightning Tricorn destroying it and bringing Andreas's life-points down to 5800. "I set one card facedown to end my turn."

"That last move hit Andreas hard." Lance said with a wince as Maria drew his card. "Think he'll be joining me and Marcus in Obelisk Blue?"

"Dude, if anyone can pull it off its Andreas." Marcus responded with a confident grin. "Besides I won my duel against Hamden despite having the odds stacked against me for most of it, he'll be fine."

"Does Andreas have a monster as powerful as Five Headed Dragon in his deck?" Chelsea pointed out and Marcus went to say something in response. "Master of Oz may be nearly as powerful as Five Headed Dragon but he still doesn't count since there's no prize for second place and all that."

"He's been in tough spots before and besides, one of the main strengths of Andreas's deck is the ability to quickly swarm the field." Marcus pointed out as he turned to her. "Just watch and learn."

"I activate the effect of Shark Fortress." Maria announced as she sent Eagle Shark to the graveyard. "With this effect I can target one monster I control and for the rest of the turn it can attack twice at the cost of one of its overlay units so I'll target Shark Fortress itself."

"_This isn't good, Silver Fang's effect won't save it from being attacked and my only facedown card is Shock Draw." _Andreas thought as Maria played another card.

"Next I play the spell card Tribute to the Doomed, this may be an old card but like me it still has a kick to it!" Maria played the card and discarded a card from her hand before a mummified hand reached out of the ground to grab Silver Fang…..

"I activate the effect of Silver Fang, Defender of the Forrest!" Andreas announced as he took the two Mad Dogs and sent them to the graveyard. "Do you want to know why he's called Defender of the Forrest? It's because of his effect, once per duel and at the cost of both of its overlay units Silver Fang will protect one Beast Monster I control from destruction via a card effect." Andreas added as Silver Fang cut down the mummified hand. "Furthermore if my opponent has more monsters than me at the time of the effect's activation I can draw one card for each monster you control." Andreas added before drawing two cards.

"Well, if you think that will help you then by all means, especially since your hand is running low." Maria responded as Andreas drew his card. "But as you just said Silver Fang's effect doesn't protect it from attacks, Shark Fortress, attack Silver Fang and then attack Andreas's life-points!" Maria commanded and the fortress fired two missile volleys, one vaporized Silver Fang in an instant and the second hit Andreas bringing his life-points down to 3200. "You are fortunate that Silver Fang's effect prevented me from finishing you off now, Tri-Edge Levia, attack his life-points directly!" Maria commanded and the monster stabbed Andreas with its trident bringing his life-points down to 1400. "Unless you drew something good out of those two cards you'll have to wait until next time to move up to Obelisk Blue, I end my turn."

"I didn't draw anything useful with Silver Fang's effect." Andreas responded as he got up and activated his trap. "But maybe this will change that! I activate the trap card Shock Draw!" Andreas announced before drawing his four cards. _"If I play my cards right this may win the duel for me!" _Andreas thought as he drew a fifth card. "Looks like I'll get to take some more new cards for a spin."

"More new cards you say? I don't see how that can help you right now." Maria responded as Andreas played a card.

"Let me be the judge of that! First I activate Obedience Schooled!" Andreas played the card and picked up his deck. "With this Spell Card I can Special Summon three Level Two or lower Beast Type Monsters with different names as long as I have no monsters, so I summon Nimble Mogumba, Blade Rabbit and the Tuner Monster Elephun!" Andreas played the cards and the three monsters appeared on the field (2/1000/100) (2/400/300) (2/500/300). "Now this does come with a drawback, these monsters have their effects negated and they will be destroyed once my turn ends, but they won't be around for that long."

"Yes, you did mention that one of the monsters was a Tuner Monster." Maria responded with a nod. "But I am aware of that Spell Card's effect and I know that you can only Special Summon Beast Type Monsters once you use it."

"That's exactly what I plan to do! Next I banish one Spell Card from my hand to Special Summon Monoceros!" Andreas played the card and once he pocketed the spell card the large brown unicorn from his tag team duel against Chloe and Chelsea appeared on the field (3/1000/1000). "Now I tune Elephun with Blade Rabbit, Nimble Mogumba and Monoceros!"

"You're doing a Level 9 Synchro Summon?!" Maria exclaimed as the four monsters leapt into the air for the Synchro Summon.

"Yes and this is a monster that didn't exactly get a good showing the last time I used him." Andreas responded as the two Synchro Rings from Elephun surrounded the other three monsters in the Synchro Summon. "I summon Leogun, Lord of the Jungle!" Andreas played the card and once the bright flash faded the mighty lion like beast appeared on the field (9/2500/2000). "Before I continue I shall use Monoceros's effect to Special Summon Elephun in defense mode." Andreas added as the Tuner Monster returned to the field. "But he won't be around for long I activate Sacrifice to the Jungle Gods." Andreas announced as the Spell Card, depicting an ominous looking jungle, appeared on the field.

"I've heard of that card, it's supposed to be rare and expensive, how did you afford it?" Maria asked as she folded her arms.

"Months of saving up and a lot of patience on E-Bay." Andreas responded with a smirk. "Anyway to activate this I have to destroy one Beast Type monster with 1000 attack points or less." Andreas added as Elephun vanished. "And in exchange Leogun gets to attack twice, but that's not all." Andreas added as his life-points dropped to 400.

"Oh no…." Maria trailed off as Green Baboon Defender of the Forrest appeared on the field (7/2600/1800). "That's a lot of luck from Shock Draw."

"Well it was equal parts Shock Draw, Silver Fang and my regular draw to be honest." Andreas admitted with a smirk. "Next I banish Monoceros from my graveyard to activate Leogun's effect!" Andreas announced as he pocketed the monster and Leogun leapt towards Shark Trooper and cut the monster in half with his claws.

"You do realize that by doing that you forfeit your battle phase, correct?" Maria pointed out and Andreas nodded.

"Yes, as I said during my duel against Chloe's team I have to forfeit my ability to conduct a battle phase in exchange for this effect, never said anything about doing it twice!" Andreas added before pocketing another monster and Leogun destroyed Tri-Edge Levia. "Just out of curiosity, what was that card's full effect?"

"If I had drawn a card that would've added an overlay unit to Levia I could've reduced one of your monster's attack points by eight hundred and negate its effect." Maria responded and Andreas nodded.

"Then I am glad that you never drew that whilst Silver Fang was on the field." Andreas said before picking up another two cards. "I have two last cards to play, first Mischief of the Time Goddess to allow me to skip to my next turn's Battle Phase." Andreas played the card and time moved forward one turn allowing him to attack. "And last but not least, the card that I will win the duel with and like Tribute to the Doomed it is an old card with a kick to it, Rush Recklessly! And I target Green Baboon!" Andreas played the card and Green Baboon's attack shot up to 3300.

"You have won Andreas." Maria conceded with a nod. "You will do well in Obelisk Blue."

"I know I will, Green Baboon, Leogun, finish it!" Andreas commanded and the two monsters charged into battle, Leogun struck twice with its claws bringing Maria's life-points down to 3000 allowing Green Baboon to strike her with his club finishing the duel.

"Here is your winner and the newest student to graduate to the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm, Andreas Freshier!" Martin's voice rang out and Andreas smirked as the holograms disappeared. "In just a few moments his former headmaster Jeff Trenton will take on Beth McKenzie of the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm!"

"_It's been a long road but I can safely say that it's been worth it." _Andreas thought as he gathered up his cards and shuffled them into the appropriate decks and hopped off the arena. _"I just have to do a better job of representing the Boy's Dorm than my accursed twin brother did."_

"Congrats on being promoted Andreas, after all the shit you've been through you deserve it!" Marcus greeted him happily as Andreas approached them. "Well, its official, all our friends have been promoted."

"Not all of them." Chelsea pointed out as she pointed to Beth who was shuffling her deck. "Or did you forget that my girlfriend's up for promotion too?"

"Don't hurt me but I kind off did." Marcus responded with a nervous laugh and Chelsea frowned. "If you want to see how she does against Jeff then be my guest."

"You won't exactly get far on the island." Lance chimed in with a frown. "I wanted to leave to get a drink before Chelsea's duel but they are keeping us in here until they sort out the rooms for the promoted students."

"I guess we're staying put then." Marcus sighed as he sat down. "Andreas, I think they're calling you over to get you fitted for your new blazer." Marcus added and Andreas looked up seeing Tracy calling him over.

"Don't worry I'll be back in time for Beth's duel." Andreas responded before walking off. _"And hopefully my stay in Obelisk Blue won't cause me to change into a slightly younger version of my brother." _Andreas thought as he walked off.


	110. Promotion Duels Part Five

A half hour had passed since Andreas won his promotion duel against Maria and whilst the six remaining duelists were getting ready for their matches one of them was making some last-minute adjustments to her deck.

"Are you nervous Beth?" Chelsea asked as she sat next to her girlfriend in the spot previously occupied by Andreas who was still being fitted for his blazer, Beth looked and smiled confidently.

"I'd be more nervous if we had swapped opponents!" Beth responded before they shared a quick kiss. "But even with that in mind, yeah, I'm nervous as hell, Jeff didn't get to the position he's in by being a pushover."

"Same can be said for Martin and I still beat him." Chelsea responded with a grin and Beth shook her head.

"You mean after he had handed you the win on a silver platter by playing that Relay Soul Trap Card." Beth pointed out and Chelsea shook her head. "Then again he probably included that Trap Card because he knew his Sylvain deck would trip up any student he faced."

"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it, his deck did trip me up at first." Chelsea admitted with a grin as she watched her girlfriend shuffle some cards into her deck. "Are you adding more healing cards to work with Reficule?"

"That and some monsters, don't know if you noticed but the only other monster I played in this deck whilst I was still in the tournament was Sangan and, well, that was banned before the first round was over." Beth responded with a frown as she finished shuffling her deck. "I'm surprised you never added that card to your deck, you'd think Sangan would work great with Watts."

"Yeah well, the shop was always sold out of that card and by the time I finally ordered one online the banlist was out and it was too late to cancel the order." Chelsea sighed in response as she started to fiddle with her hair a bit. "I still have that copy in case I2 unbans it but considering that there's been a few banlists since Sangan was put on there and he still hasn't been removed I don't exactly have my hopes up."

"Well, don't forget that Pegasus's daughter Sophia is now in charge and she was a pro-duelist before she moved into the corporate world." Beth responded after thinking for a moment. "Looking back at the banlists I2 released after she came into power I'm beginning to think that she had a bad experience with the decks affected especially Dragon Rulers."

"Ahem." The two girls looked up and saw Andreas standing there wearing his new Obelisk Blue blazer and folding his arms. "Chelsea, I believe you're in my seat."

"And you were the one who was sitting next to my girlfriend the whole time." Chelsea responded with a grin on her face. "Tough luck Andreas but look on the Brightside, I kept your new seat warm for you!"

"Yes and your girlfriend's duel is going to start right about….." Andreas trailed off as he looked towards the large clock hanging above the duel field. "….now." Andreas finished and the two girls looked up seeing that not only had enough time passed between Andreas's promotion duel and Beth's but Jeff was waiting for her on the arena.

"Shit! Why didn't you say so?" Beth asked as she quickly fit her deck into the slot and ran up and onto the arena whilst Andreas sat down in her previous spot before noticing the dirty look he was getting from Chelsea.

"You couldn't let me spend a couple of more minutes with her?!" Chelsea protested as she folded her arms and Andreas shook his head.

"If I did the other students up for promotion would complain." Andreas pointed out as he motioned to the students next to him. "Besides, if she wins she'll be able to attend the Ra Yellow welcome party and once Jeff makes his speech you can always sneak off to your new dorm room for a bit off "quality time"." Andreas responded whilst providing air-quotes for the last two words and Chelsea quickly got the idea.

"Just hope for your sake that she gets promoted and we'll call it even." Chelsea responded and Andreas nodded in response before they turned to the arena.

"So Beth, so far you are the only student who failed to make it past the opening round of the Tag Team Tournament to be up for promotion." Jeff commented as Beth stepped up onto the arena and activated her duel disk. "Combined with the fact that you're facing me, well not many people would think that you had much of a chance here."

"It's a good thing that I don't value their opinions whatsoever then." Beth responded with a grin as they reshuffled their decks. "Besides, I was THIS close to winning that tag team match and if I had activated Rain of Mercy instead of attacking Kimberly's life-points directly then my team would've faced Miranda's…." Beth trailed off before a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "In hindsight losing the duel was the preferable option."

"If you are done trash talking I have a match to announce." Martin's clearly annoyed voice rang out over the PA system before he cleared his throat. "Welcome back everyone, the next duel will be contested between Osiris Red's Elizabeth McKenzie and the Ra Yellow Headmaster Jeff Trenton!"

"_How many times do I have to remind him that I prefer to be called Beth?" _Beth thought with an annoyed sigh before she turned to Jeff. "So, who's going first?"

"Normally I'd say lady's first but I would like to go first." Jeff responded and Beth nodded before he drew his card. _"Besides, I know how her Anti-Cure deck works and I need to be prepared." _Jeff thought before picking up a monster. "I send Gravekeeper's Commandant to the graveyard to activate his effect allowing me to add the Field Spell Card Necrovalley to my hand." Jeff announced before sending the card to the graveyard and picking up his deck.

"_Chloe was right, he's running Gravekeepers." _Beth thought with a frown as Jeff picked up the spell card and added it to his hand. _"Not too much of a problem, before that card was banned the only revival card I ran was Monster Reborn so Necrovalley's effect shouldn't affect my deck that much."_

"Now I activate the Field Spell Card Necrovalley!" Jeff played the card and the scenery changed to the Egyptian Desert. "I take it you know the card's effect."

"Considering how old that card is I'll be surprised if anyone doesn't know its effect." Beth responded before grinning. "Basically it means that the graveyard is almost untouchable and all Gravekeeper Monsters get a five hundred attack point boost."

"The Field Spell may be old but my deck has a few new tricks like Gravekeeper's Heretic!" Jeff played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall Egyptian man with wild silver hair who was wearing a black robe opened up to reveal his bare chest, pants and various jewelry and he was carrying a gold staff (4/1800/1500).

"If I was straight I'd probably be fawning over him like most of the other girls in the arena." Beth commented as she sweat-dropped as, like she said, most of the other girls in the arena fawned over Jeff's new monster. "Then again even if I was straight I like to think that I have better standards than most girls my age meaning that I wouldn't be drooling over anything with a six pack and a large cock." Beth muttered under her breath before shaking her head. "But besides that I don't see what's so special about him."

"Well for one thing you have probably noticed that he hasn't got the attack boost from Necrovalley." Jeff responded and Beth blinked before realizing that he was right. "Essentially as long as Necrovalley is on the field my Heretic is unaffected by all other card effects."

"_And that means that I can't beat him with traps, unfortunately my strongest monster is Nurse Reficule and she's too weak to stand up to him." _Beth thought before turning to Jeff. "Anything else or can I start my turn?"

"I set one card facedown and end my turn." Jeff set the card down and Beth drew her card.

"_Great, I haven't drawn Reficule yet, at least I have a way of summoning her directly and protecting her." _Beth thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Beth announced and Jeff nodded before drawing his card. _"Sangan may have been banned a few ban-lists ago but he's far from the only searcher in this game!"_

"I may have added some new toys to my deck." Jeff commented as he played a card. "But sometimes that old favorites work just as well! I summon Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier!" Jeff played the card and Beth's eyes widened as the spear wielding Gravekeeper appeared on the field (4/1500/1000). "Unlike Heretic he does get the bonus from Necrovalley." Jeff added as Spear Soldier's attack increased to two thousand. "And that's bad news for you because he also comes with a piercing effect, Spear Soldier, attack her defense monster!" Jeff commanded and the soldier threw his spear at the monster, revealed to be a large tomato with an evil looking face, (4/1400/1100) that was quickly destroyed. "You've added Mystic Tomato?"

"My deck needed a new searcher after Sangan was banned." Beth responded as her life-points dropped to 7100 and she picked up and searched through her deck. _"Summoning Nurse Reficule right now would be suicide since Jeff can just destroy her with Heretic and unless I draw MST and use it to destroy Necrovalley I won't be able to revive her." _Beth thought before playing the card she wanted and another Mystic Tomato appeared on the field. "Give me your best shot!"

"It's your funeral, Heretic, attack her second Mystic Tomato!" Jeff commanded and the Heretic pointed his staff at the second Mystic Tomato, a beam of light shot out of it destroying Mystic Tomato and bringing Beth's life-points down to 6700. "I suppose you're going to use that monster's effect to summon Reficule?"

"Am I really that easy to read?" Beth asked as she searched through her deck, she quickly found her ace card and played it causing the demonic nurse to appear on the field (4/1400/600). "And I think it's about time I paid you back for the damage I've suffered this turn, I activate my trap card Gift Card!"

"Oh no…." Jeff grimaced before bracing himself as the blast from Reficule hit him bringing his life-points down to 5000. "If you had set three of those cards you could've won."

"If I was that lucky I would've set the three Gift Cards as soon as I drew them." Beth responded as she sent the trap card to the graveyard. "Besides, as long as Reficule remains on the field this duel is mine for the taking."

"That's assuming that you'll draw Mist Body and find a way to destroy Heretic and Spear Soldier." Jeff responded and Beth frowned. "I end my turn." Jeff announced and Beth drew her card.

"I activate the Spell Card called Spellbook inside the Pot!" Beth played the card and she and Jeff both drew three cards. _"It's that monster I added to my deck recently this will help me strengthen my lead." _Beth thought before picking up the card. "I summon Silent Wobby…."

"Silent what…." Jeff trailed off before, to his surprise, Beth tossed the monster over to him.

"…..and I summon him to your side of the field!" Beth added and Jeff picked up the monster before reading through his effect, once he read it a couple of times to confirm Jeff nodded and played the card causing a large purple fish with a blue helmet to appear on the field (4/1000/2000). "Since you read his effect would you care to explain it?"

"I may as well." Jeff responded as he noticed the confused looks on the other student's faces. "Silent Wobby's effect states that Beth can summon it to her opponent's side of the field as she just did, normally I gain two-thousand life-points from this but with Nurse Reficule's effect…." Jeff trailed off as his life-points dropped to 3000. "And Beth gets to draw again." Jeff finished as Beth drew another card.

"And on a side not Jeff's hand size limit is down to three." Beth added with a grin. "And before anyone says it's broken, it's not as I can only use this effect once per turn." Beth said before picking up two cards. "Speaking of turns, I set one card facedown and I equip Nurse Reficule with Mist Body to end my turn." Beth announced as the facedown card appeared on the field whilst Nurse Reficule started glowing and Jeff drew his card.

"Your girlfriend's not wasting any time here." Andreas commented to Chelsea who turned to him. "She's giving Jeff a run for his money!"

"Why do you think I started dating her?" Chelsea asked jokingly and Andreas shook his head. "Joking aside, since she was eliminated from the Tag Tournament Beth's come to see that match as a reality check of sorts and she's seriously beefed up her deck since then."

"You mean with the additions of the Mystic Tomatoes and Silent Wobby." Andreas realized and Chelsea nodded.

"Despite what she said earlier she got her hands on the Tomatoes before Sangan was banned and if it wasn't banned she'd probably use them in conjunction with it." Chelsea added before frowning. "As for Silent Wobby, I don't even know when she got that card."

"If you think that I'm about to let Silent Wobby's hand size effect affect me then you're about to be disappointed." Jeff said with a grin as he pointed to Heretic and Silent Wobby. "Because thanks to you can now construct the Overlay Network with Silent Wobby and Heretic and make a Rank Four XYZ Summon."

"_Damn, I knew I forgot about something!" _Beth thought with a frown as the Overlay Network opened up and Heretic and Silent Wobby were sucked in.

"And my monster will make you regret ever facilitating this move for me, I XYZ Summon Maestroke, The Symphony Djinn in attack mode!" Jeff played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall man in a white suit and hat that was carrying a sword (Rank: 4/1800/2300).

"Okay but I don't exactly see the point." Beth commented with a frown. "You'd get the same result from battling Reficule with Heretic and switching Wobby to defense mode."

"Not exactly, I activate Djinn's effect!" Jeff announced before retrieving Silent Wobby and tossing it back at Beth. "To activate this effect I have to detach an Overlay Unit but in exchange I can target one face-up monster you control and flip it into defense position."

"But that means…." Beth trailed off as her eyes widened and Nurse Reficule disappeared from the field taking Mist Body with it.

"I wasn't born yesterday Beth, I know that centering a deck on one monster is one of the worst decisions a duelist can make, and that decision is about to cost you!" Jeff responded before pointing to Beth's facedown monster. "Spear Soldier, attack Nurse Reficule!" Jeff commanded and the soldier tossed his spear again, Nurse Reficule returned to the field again only to get impaled by the spear bringing Beth's life-points down to 5100. "It's your turn Maestroke, attack…."

"Not this time! I activate my Trap Card Changing Destiny!" Beth activated the trap card and Maestroke suddenly crouched down. "Since you just declared an attack Changing Destiny will force Maestroke into defense mode and negate the attack."

"Then why didn't you use it on Spear Soldier? You could've saved yourself some damage!" Jeff asked and Beth shook her head.

"Two reasons really, I was going to lose Reficule no matter what monster I used Changing Destiny on and Changing Destiny has another effect that you get to choose." Beth said with a grin as Jeff raised an eyebrow. "Either I gain life-points equal to half the attacking monsters attack or the same damage comes out of your life-points."

"Very well, as I'm behind on life-points as it is, you will gain the life-point boost." Jeff responded and Beth grinned as her life-points increased to 6000. "It won't last long however, next turn I will change Maestroke back into attack position…."

"Actually you won't." Beth interrupted him with a grin. "Any monster that's changed into defense position by Changing Destiny stays in defense position! Honestly I'd have hoped that you knew that being one of the teachers at this school and all." Beth added and Jeff chuckled. "Did I miss a joke?"

"Not at all, I knew Changing Destiny's effect but I wanted to see how well you knew your own card's effect." Jeff responded and Beth blinked in confusion. "The same can be said for Silent Wobby's effect and I have to say, so far you've passed all of your tests with flying colors."

"_He was toying with me this whole time, doesn't matter anyway, I have more than one copy of Nurse Reficule and as soon as I draw one I'll be back in the driver's seat." _Beth thought with a frown which only deepened when she looked towards Spear Soldier. _"Honestly I was hoping to use Changing Destiny on Spear Soldier and then use the Rush Recklessly in my hand to deal with Heretic but my misplay may have cost me the duel…."_

"I end my turn at that." Jeff announced and Beth drew her card.

"_Son of a bitch…." _Beth thought with a frown as she looked at the card she had drawn. _"Normally Call of the Haunted would be ideal in this situation but now? It's a dead draw due to Necrovalley." _Beth thought before adding thee card to her hand. _"On the other hand I can still use it." _Beth realized when she remembered the third card that she had drawn. "I set one card facedown." Beth announced as her facedown card appeared on the field. "And I activate the Blasting Vein Spell Card, the card I just set is destroyed and I get to draw two cards in exchange." Beth added as she played the card and her set card was consumed by fire before she made two draws.

"That was a waste of a perfectly good Spell/Trap Card." Jeff pointed out and Beth shook her head before holding up the Call of the Haunted Trap Card.

"It was a dead draw anyway due to your Field Spell." Beth responded as she sent the two cards to the graveyard, she looked at her two new cards and set them both causing a set monster and another facedown card to appear on the field. "I end my turn." Beth announced and Jeff drew his card.

"That's it? Even though I'm still unable to attack with Maestroke because of your trap card the same effect doesn't apply to Spear Soldier." Jeff responded before looking at his drawn card. "I set my own monster in defense mode." Jeff said as the facedown monster appeared on the field. "Now Spear Soldier, attack her defense monster!" Jeff commanded and the soldier threw his spear again, only this time the attack bounced off. "What?"

"You didn't think it would be that easy to penetrate me with a spear did you?" Beth asked with a grin only to subsequently face-palm out of embarrassment once she heard several students laughing. "I can't believe I just said that during my promotion duel." Beth muttered under her breath as she ran her hand down her face. "Forget I said that! In fact I'll let my monster speak for itself!" Beth added as the monster was revealed to be another Silent Wobby.

"Neither of my monsters can get past that." Jeff commented with a frown as he looked over the field. "But you realize that your hand size limit is now three, right?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Beth responded as she folded her arms. "Are you done?"

"Yes, I am." Jeff responded and Beth drew her card.

"_I need to get rid of Silent Wobby and fast, unfortunately I don't have any XYZ Monsters in my deck otherwise I'd do what Jeff did." _Beth thought with a frown before mentally counting the number of cards in her hand. _"Five cards, six counting the one I just drew, most of them are cards that heal the opponent but I don't have Reficule to use them with." _Beth thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Upstart Goblin, this could backfire big time but this is my chance." _Beth thought before playing the card.

"Getting desperate enough to pad my own life-points are we?" Jeff asked as Beth drew her card and Jeff's life-points increased to 4000.

"Like I said, desperate times call for desperate measures." Beth responded before looking at her drawn card and grinning. "And it just paid off big time! Guess whose back?"

"Beth, you're not going to start singing Eminem are you?" Chelsea called out to her girlfriend as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Come on, you know I have better taste in music than that!" Beth called back before turning back to Jeff. "As I was saying, I summon my second Nurse Reficule!" Beth played the card and her signature monster returned to the field. "But that's not all in fact I have more than enough healing cards in my hand to win this duel in this turn!"

"_That's what she thinks." _Jeff thought as Beth played the card.

"First I activate Rain of Mercy normally this spell card would let us both gain a thousand life-points…." Beth trailed off when she saw Jeff quickly discard a card. "You just discarded Effect Veilor, didn't you?"

"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Jeff asked as the Nurse stopped her spell and the rain fell upon both duelists increasing Beth's life-points to seven thousand and Jeff's life-points to five thousand. "But thanks for giving me two thousand life-points."

"Well your about to lose more than that because my nurse can still attack!" Beth responded as the nurse casted her spell at the facedown monster only to have it deflect off of it. "What now?"

"Gravekeepers Recruiter, that's what!" Jeff responded as the bald man in robes appeared on the field (3/1200/1500) and Beth's life-points dropped to 6900. "Now if you are done defeating yourself I would like to take my turn."

"Yeah, but not just yet, don't forget that I have to discard a card due to my monster's effect." Beth responded before discarding a trap card. "It's your move." Beth announced and Jeff drew his card.

"That's good, because I'm about to make my big play!" Jeff said as he played a card. "First I activate Double Summon, as you should know this Spell Card lets me to summon two monsters in this turn." Jeff said as the spell card appeared on the field. "But first I detach Maestroke's last overlay unit to flip Nurse Reficule facedown!" Jeff announced as the monster was flipped facedown.

"_Great, it's a repeat of the same move he made when he summoned Maestroke!" _Beth realized with a frown.

"Next I summon Gravekeepers Curse!" Jeff played the card and the Gravekeeper in the dark robe wielding a golden staff appeared on the field (3/800/800). "And when Gravekeepers Curse is summoned I can deal you five hundred points of damage." Jeff added as the Gravekeeper fired a sickly green beam of light at Beth bringing her life-points down to 6400. "Now I use my second summon to tribute Gravekeepers Spear Soldier, Recruiter and Curse to summon my best monster!"

"You're sacrificing three monsters?!" Beth realized as the three Gravekeepers disappeared from the field. "As incredibly unlikely as it is, you're not summoning an Egyptian God Card are you?!"

"Beth, if I had access to one of those things I wouldn't be teaching, I'd still be a pro-duelist!" Jeff responded with a deadpan expression on his face before playing the card. "But the monster I am summoning is almost as powerful as the Egyptian God Cards, I summon Gravekeepers Oracle!" Jeff played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, this one was a mountain of a man with dark skin and blonde hair with a matching beard who was wearing a majestic looking black robe and carrying a golden staff (10/2000/1500).

"You had me worried for a second there." Beth said with a sigh of relief. "But come on, three sacrifices for a level ten monster with two thousand attack points? His effect had better be amazing!"

"Actually the correct term would be effects and yes, they are amazing." Jeff responded as he grinned broadly. "First off, I had the option of either sacrificing three monsters you just one Gravekeeper Monster to summon him, as you just saw I chose three monsters and he gains up to three effects depending on how many monsters were used to summon him."

"And you used three." Beth said as her eyes narrowed. "I'm all ears."

"The first effect is that Oracle gains attack equal to the combined levels of the three monsters used to summon him times a hundred, just to recap I sacrificed two level three monsters and one Level Four Monster so, on top of the bonus he gets from Necrovalley, he gains one thousand attack points." Jeff explained as Oracle's attack points shot up to 3500. "The second effect is that he destroys all facedown monsters you control."

"Wait, what?!" Beth protested but it was too late as a beam of golden light emerged from Oracle's staff destroying her facedown Nurse Reficule. "I'm almost afraid to ask but what's the third effect?"

"That effect is simple, all monsters you currently control lose two thousand attack and defense points." Jeff explained as Silent Wobby's attack and defense dropped to zero. "Let's not forget about Recruiter, since I sent him to the graveyard just now I can add another Gravekeeper monster from my deck to my hand." Jeff added before picking up his deck.

"That's all well and good." Beth responded as Jeff added the monster to his hand and shuffled his deck. "But you sacrificed Spear Soldier to summon Oracle meaning you can't touch my life-points for another turn."

"Think again." Jeff responded before pointing to his long forgotten about facedown card. "Did you think I set this for no reason?"

"I was hoping you had forgotten." Beth admitted and Jeff shook his head.

"Far from it, I just waiting for the right moment to use it, and that moment is now! I activate my Trap Card Rite of Spirit!" Jeff activated the trap card and Beth's eyes widened once it hit her. "Normally I wouldn't be able to touch my graveyard with Necrovalley on the field but Rite of Spirit allows me to summon one Gravekeeper from my graveyard whilst ignoring Necrovalley."

"And I think I know what monster you're summoning." Beth responded with a frown as Gravekeepers Spirit Soldier returned to the field. "I knew it! Also, this is going to hurt!"

"Consider yourself honored Beth because you're actually the first duelist I've used this monster on! Spear Soldier, attack Silent Wobby and finish the job you started last turn." Jeff commanded and the soldier tossed his spear at Silent Wobby impaling it and sending Beth's life-points down to 4400. "Don't worry Beth this duel will be over soon, Oracle, attack her life-points directly!" Jeff commanded and the Oracle pointed his staff at Beth before another gold light beam hit her bringing her life-points down to 900. "Unless your next draw gives you a miracle you'll be the first student who won't be graduating today, I end my turn."

"Make that draws! I activate my Trap Card Shock Draw!" Beth activated the trap and quickly drew five cards before drawing a sixth to start her turn. "You just made your big play, now I'm about to make mine! And unlike your big play mine will win me the duel and my place in Ra Yellow!"

"I'd like to see you try." Jeff responded and Beth grinned.

"Gladly, first I summon my third and final Nurse Reficule!" Beth played the card and the Nurse appeared for a third time. "And thanks to Shock Draw I have several spell cards that would normally heal your life-points like Rain of Mercy!" Beth played the card and the nurse casted her spell as the rain fell increasing Beth's life-points to 1900 and reducing Jeff's to 4000. _"Good, he doesn't have another Effect Veilor." _Beth thought with a sigh of relief. "But why stop there? I activate Upstart Goblin." Beth played the card and drew once whilst Jeff's life-points dropped again to 3000, she played one more healing card, namely Rain of Mercy which increased her life-points to 2900 and reduced Jeff's to two-thousand.

"For all your talk about this move winning you the duel you haven't won yet and I still have two thousand life-points left." Jeff commented as she sent her final Rain of Mercy to the graveyard. "If all that bravado you displayed earlier was a bluff then you can consider it called!"

"It wasn't a bluff in fact I'll think I'll let my monster speak for itself again!" Beth responded as she tossed the card to Jeff and his eyes widened when he saw it.

"Very well, congratulations Beth and welcome to Ra Yellow." Jeff responded before playing the card and Beth's third and final Silent Wobby appeared on the field causing Jeff's life-points to drop to zero.

"Here is your winner and the newest student to graduate to Ra Yellow, Elizabeth McKenzie!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered whilst Beth groaned at being referred to by her full name again, still she left the field as did Jeff as the next duel was coming up soon.

"Hah, nice one Beth, Jeff never saw that move coming!" Chelsea said with a laugh as her girlfriend walked up to her. "Well, its official, we've all moved up a dorm."

"Yes and I'm very eager to see my new dorm room." Andreas grunted as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "But unfortunately we're stuck here for another five duels."

"Well, we may as well make the most of it." Lance commented with a shrug as Beth ran off to get fitted for her new Ra Yellow Blazer. "Who knows? Maybe we'll get some good duels out of it!"

*later the day*

The rest of the promotion duels went off without a hitch but unfortunately for the students their run of luck ran out after Beth's duel as only two of the remaining five duelists graduated to the next dorm above them namely Rachel Travis and Kyle Winston who managed to defeat the proctors that they had been placed against.

Right now though the students who had graduated were getting ready for their dorm's respective welcome parties, the school had spared little expense for each party as they had hired a well-known DJ to provide the music and a chef to provide the food for the students, whilst most of the students stuck to their new dorms welcome parties Lance, Andreas and Marcus had elected to attend the Ra Yellow welcome party for their own reasons.

But what about Chloe and Chelsea, well the two girls were still in their old dorm room and were getting changed for the party since it was one of few occasions when the school was allowing the students to not wear their uniform.

"I can't believe I finally made it to Ra Yellow." Chelsea said with a grin as she put on her mid-riff exposing Slayer top and jeans. "It's been a long time coming."

"We're definitely in agreement there." Chloe nodded in agreement as she put her crop top and jeans on before searching for a jacket to hide her arm scar. "Back when I was accepted into the school I thought I had done well enough for Ra Yellow but, well, obviously I didn't."

"Just be glad they didn't hold you back due to your temper like they did to me." Chelsea responded as she put on a denim jacket that was decorated with various band logos both new and old with the album cover for Amon Amarth's "Twilight of the Thunder God" album taking up most of the space on the back of the jacket. "And I'm hoping that the DJ is open to some metal songs being requested, pop songs can get boring after a while."

"Yeah, I think Lance told me he was and that he was taking some of his CDs to the party for that reason." Chloe responded as she put on a jacket and Chelsea grabbed a handful of CDs. "I'm ready to go when you are."

"I'm ready, let's go!" Chelsea responded with a nod as she tucked her CDs under her arm, the two girls subsequently left their old dorm room for the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm which was were the party was being held as it was quite a bit bigger than the Girl's Dorm.

*elsewhere*

Whilst the students who had graduated were looking forward to living in their new dorms there was a sinister force on the island and he had arrived before the duels had even started.

"Damien, it's Jack and it's time to move!" Jack's voice rang out through Damien's earpiece and he placed a hand to it. "The promotion duels just ended, all of our targets graduated but they are at the Ra Yellow Welcome Party at the boy's dorm."

"My, my, how considerate of them was it to make it easy for me!" Damien responded with a chuckle as he started making his move. "Who should I target?"

"Normally we'd give you a target but since they are all in the same place we figured we'd leave that up to you." Jack responded and Damien grinned. "Just make sure that we have all of their souls by the end of the night!"

"Understood, I will see to it that it's done!" Damien responded before walking off.


	111. Party Like it's the End of the World

The welcome parties for the new students in their respective dorms were about to begin, due to the size differences between the male and female dorms both welcome parties were being held in the Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorms but that didn't stop the female students who graduated all four of them from attending.

The gang was in the Ra Yellow Dorm alongside Theresa, Brandon, Tyler and Miranda for the Ra Yellow Welcome party but things were still being set up as the chef hadn't arrived yet and the DJ was getting set up at his booth, but at the same time several students were just hanging around the area waiting for it to start.

"So, you all made it." Brandon greeted them as he and Theresa walked up to Chloe, Chelsea, Beth, Lance, Marcus and Andreas who had a booth to themselves. "Congrats, you definitely earned out there."

"Thanks." Chelsea responded with a grin as the two Obelisk Blue students joined them. "That said, next time I face a Sylvan deck I'm bringing my IPod."

"Given how long Martin's turns were I don't blame you for that one bit." Theresa responded with a grin. "Just be careful girls you'll be held to a higher standard now that you're in Ra Yellow."

"That never stopped me so you should be fine." Lance chimed in and Theresa rolled her eyes.

"It will stop you in Obelisk Blue Lance, trust me on this, I'm speaking from experience." Theresa responded before turning to Chelsea. "I heard you managed to talk Sarah into letting you room with Chloe again."

"Chloe can take much of the credit for that." Chelsea responded as she motioned with her thumb towards her roommate. "That said I think they would've paired us up again even if she didn't ask."

"The rest of us don't even know if we'll get roommates yet." Lance added with a small grin. "Me? I don't mind either way as long as they don't complain about the noise."

"I'm pretty sure that every metalhead in the world has said that at some point Lance." Chelsea responded as she glanced at him. "Speaking of music, will the DJ be taking requests?"

"He should be, the DJs at the welcome parties usually take requests and aren't too picky about genres so you should be able to get the DJ to play any of the songs on the small pile of CDs that you and Lance have brought." Theresa responded as she pointed to two small stacks of CDs, one in front of Chelsea and the other in front of Lance. "Just give them to the DJ when he arrives and you'll be all set."

"Awesome! And I know just what I'm going to kick off with!" Lance said as he searched through his CD pile and produced the Steel Panther album "All You Can Eat".

"You actually like Steel Panther?!" Chelsea asked with a dumbfounded expression on her face. "Lance, my respect for your taste in metal just took a serious nosedive!"

"Oh come on! They are a funny band with a fun gimmick!" Lance protested and Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"Weird Al Yankovic is funny Evil Scarecrow is funny, feminine men singing about having ridiculous amounts of sex with various women in a sad attempt to parody glam metal ISN'T FUNNY!" Chelsea responded and Lance rolled his eyes.

"Wait, there's a band called Evil Scarecrow?" Brandon asked with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Yeah and they take themselves as seriously as the name suggests." Lance responded with a small laugh as other students started to pour in. _"Okay, as soon as the DJ arrives I'll go up with Chelsea and give him my CDs, once she's gone I'll throw in my dedication to Chloe, I have no idea what song I'll dedicate to her so I'll just ask him to dedicate whatever love song he has on his playlist and hope for the best."_

"Anyway my point is there's much better comedy metal bands than Steel Panther!" Chelsea chimed in snapping Lance back to reality. "Okay, you have an Edguy album in there you've redeemed yourself a little bit." Chelsea added once she spotted the Edguy album Mandrake.

"Thanks, I think." Lance responded as more students started pouring in. "Theresa, will we have to worry about the three stooges of Obelisk Blue crashing this party?"

"You won't, they are at the Obelisk Blue Welcome Party." Theresa assured him and the other students sighed in relief.

"That's good to know." Lance sighed in relief as Jeff, Martin and two people he didn't recognize, a man and a woman stepped in, the man stepped behind the DJ booth whilst the woman stood alongside the teachers. "Martin's not supervising the Obelisk Blue Party?"

"They left that in the capable hands of Sarah and Tracy, if you ask me they lost a bet." Theresa responded before noticing the look of surprise on Chelsea's face. "Something wrong Chelsea?"

"Huh?" Chelsea said with a blink before shaking her head. "Nah, its nothing, I was just daydreaming." Chelsea responded and Theresa frowned before deciding to drop it. _"Seriously, out of all the chefs in the world they brought her in?!"_

"Welcome new students to the Ra Yellow dorm." Jeff started his speech and the crowd cheered. "Now I know that there are both male and female students present at the party but don't let that fool you, Ra Yellow isn't a unisex dorm." Jeff joked getting some laughs out of the crowd. "I and Martin will be supervising the party and we'll make sure that everything goes as planned, with that said let me introduce the DJ for tonight, DJ Steve!" Jeff said before pointing to the DJ and the crowd cheered.

"Hi students, glad to be back!" Steve greeted the students who cheered in response he was a tall scruffy looking man with messy blonde hair and blue eyes. "Me and Jeff go way back so when he asked me to DJ again I just had too, that said I'm open to any requests as long as it's not anything by Black Veil Brides, Asking Alexandria, Sleeping with Sirens, Falling In Reverse, Pierce the Veil or Bring me the Horizon!" Steve added and the crowd cheered in response.

"I've never heard of any of those bands." Brandon commented as he scratched his head.

"You're lucky." Chelsea and Lance responded simultaneously.

"Thank you DJ Steve!" Jeff said as he stepped in front of the mic again. "Now I see some students checking out a female student I know very well so I'm going to save her the trouble of disappointing you, sorry boys, Chelsea Cunningham may be very attractive but she's also taken and in a lesbian relationship with Beth McKenzie." Jeff added and several male voices could be heard groaning whilst one female voice, namely Chelsea, started laughing. "That said we have one last guest to introduce before the party gets underway, she's flown in from LA, California and boy, are her arms tired!" Jeff joked but there was no laughter this time, in fact if you listened closely you could hear crickets chirping. "And now you know why I never went into stand-up comedy." Jeff sighed actually getting a laugh this time. "Anyway, she's a professional chef who works in a Michelin Stared Restaurant so naturally she'll be in charge of catering tonight and I'll let her take over, please welcome Jamie Cunningham!"

"Jamie Cunningham?" Theresa echoed before turning to Chelsea. "Wasn't Jamie the name of your older sister?"

"Yep, that's her." Chelsea nodded in response as Jamie took the stage, she looked like she was in her late twenties/early thirties and like Chelsea she had black hair that was tied into a ponytail and blue eyes and she was wearing a professional chef's outfit. "And if you're wondering about the large age difference, she was eleven when mom was pregnant with me but besides that, I didn't answer sooner because I was surprised that they flew her in."

"Hello students, I'm happy to be here." Jamie started and the crowd cheered. "As Jeff said, I make some pretty awesome food for a living and you can expect the same tonight, and before anyone asks, yes Chelsea Cunningham is my younger sister and no, that doesn't mean you get a free sample just for knowing her." Jamie added and the crowd laughed. "Love to stay and chat but I have some prep work to do in the kitchen but I'm sure we'll bump into each other a couple of times because that's also were the alcohol's kept, see you around." Jamie added before stepping off the stage and heading into a back door which led to the kitchen.

"I see you also share her sense of humor." Brandon commented with a chuckle as Jeff finished his speech. "Seriously, I knew there were sparing no expense but a chef who works for a Michelin Starred Restaurant?"

"Wait hold on, I thought Michelin was the name of a car manufacturer?" Marcus asked and Brandon shook his head.

"Tire manufacturer actually but close enough." Brandon corrected him as he shook his head. "Basically Michelin has been publishing guide books for restaurants for the past hundred years or so and whilst there are some controversies surrounding there bias for French Cuisine any restaurant that gets at least one of those stars has to work it's ass off to keep it." Brandon said with a smirk. "Being rich enough to afford to eat there my family has been to a few of those restaurants and if the food that your sister produces for a living is up to that standard then we're in for a treat from this chef."

"She's not just any chef." Chelsea responded with a satisfied grin. "She's the Sous Chef, it basically means that she's the Executive Chef's second in command and it's a very high paying job."

"And she still found the time to fly out here." Lance commented with an impressed whistle. "Is she doing the catering for both parties?"

"No, they got a different chef for the Obelisk Blue Party I think they come from similar restaurants though." Brandon responded as he shook his head.

"Now remember everyone." Jeff said as he started to finish his speech. "Whilst what Jamie said about the alcohol is true please drink responsibly and anyone who we know is under the age of eighteen and is caught drinking alcohol will have to spend the rest of the night in their dorm room, no exceptions." Jeff added and the crowd booed. "Sorry, Martin insisted, also proctors will come around each table and give you menus with what Jamie will cook, with that said the party will begin!" Jeff added and the crowd cheered as "The Final Countdown" by Europe kicked off the set and Chelsea and Lance made their way to the DJ Booth.

"I'm getting requests already?" Steve asked with a laugh as Lance and Chelsea approached the booth. "And quite a few from what I can tell."

"We like being prepared." Chelsea responded as they handed over their CDs and made requests. "If he requests anything by Steel Panther, ignore him."

"Ha-ha, very funny." Lance responded as he rolled his eyes, Chelsea returned to the table once she made her final request and Lance leaned over. "Look, could you do me a favor? See the girl sitting next to Chelsea over there?"

"You mean the one with the long dark brown hair?" Steve asked and Lance nodded. "What about her?"

"I'll be honest, I've been trying to ask her out for weeks and my luck has been shitty throughout." Lance admitted getting a laugh out of Steve. "But if you could dedicate any love long to her on your playlist that'll be great."

"Any love song? You don't even know which one?" Steve asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not exactly my area of expertise." Lance admitted and Steve laughed.

"All right man, I'll help you out, what's your name and what's her name?" Steve asked and Lance grinned before telling him their names. "Good luck, she looks like she'll be quite a catch."

"Thanks!" Lance responded before running back to the table and sitting down.

"What was that about?" Chelsea asked once Lance sat down.

"Well I was making my requests and we just got caught up talking about music, that's all." Lance responded as he shook his head. "Have the menus arrived yet?"

"If they have they must be invisible menus because I can't see them." Chelsea responded as the song ended, before she could say anything else she face-palmed as she heard a familiar intro. "Gangnam Style? At least we'll get a laugh out of students failing to do the dance properly."

"Can we even call the Gangnam Style dance a real dance?" Chloe asked as she took a sip from her drink, already several students were making fools of themselves by trying to do the dance and she couldn't help but shake her head. "This song is so shitty."

"Trust me Chloe, as a metalhead I've heard….." Chelsea trailed off before she started laughing hysterically. "Oh my god…."

"What?" Chloe asked and Chelsea pointed to the makeshift dance floor and she quickly got the idea. "Is….is that Jeff and Martin doing the Gangnam Style Dance?!" Chloe asked as she tried her best not to burst out laughing.

"Oh my god, it is!" Lance said with a hearty laugh as Chelsea started recording it on her IPhone. "We should not let them live this down!"

"Why do you think I'm recording it for my YouTube account?" Chelsea asked with a grin as she, alongside several other students, recorded the two teachers dancing. "All though I will admit that they are pretty much the best dancers on the floor right now."

"You realize that's not saying much, right?" Brandon said with a chuckle as the song ended. "How much are you willing to bet that they both had a lot to drink before they hit the dance floor?"

"Well I saw them sneak into the kitchen area whilst I was making my requests so I don't doubt it." Chelsea responded with a grin as Steve positioned the mic in front of his mouth.

"All right guys, it's time for the first request and it's from Ra Yellow's Chelsea Cunningham!" Steve said getting some cheers from the crowd though Chelsea was the most vocal about it. "Anyone who knows her probably knows that she's a metalhead so her first request is a heavy one called Ocean Quake by the Black Metal band Chthonic!"

"Hell yes!" Chelsea yelled out as Jeff and Martin quickly left the dance-floor and the heavily distorted guitars started playing accompanied by traditional Taiwanese instruments and black metal vocals.

"This is one of the weirdest music combinations I've ever heard." Brandon commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head, most of the students that were on the dance floor had left except for the metalheads who were headbanging to the song. "How do they even do that without hurting their necks?"

"We don't, we just get used to the pain after a while." Chelsea responded with a broad grin as the song came to an end. "All though there are certain bands that I flat out refuse to headbang too because of how fast their guitar playing is."

"Like who?" Brandon asked but was cut off by DJ Steve again.

"Okay, we have another request and this one's from Lance." Steve said and Lance grinned when he said that. "This one's a romantic one…."

"_He's playing my dedication already?!" _Lance thought as he glanced towards the DJ Booth.

"Because there's nothing more romantic than shooting blood out of your cock, this is "I Cum Blood" by Cannibal Corpse." The DJ said and whilst Jeff nearly spat out his drink when he heard the song title Lance grinned.

"_Thank god he didn't dedicate that song to Chloe!" _Lance thought with a sigh of relief as the song started and Chelsea gave him a broad grin. "I'm guessing Cannibal Corpse is one of the bands that you don't headbang too?"

"Yeah, they are one of the bands but I do headbang to some of their songs." Chelsea responded before she stood up and went to join the headbanging metalheads on the dancefloor.

"So Andreas, why aren't you joining them?" Marcus asked as he turned to his German friend. "I thought you were a metalhead too?"

"I am but I listen to Folk Metal exclusively." Andreas responded and Marcus gave him a funny look, he sighed before continuing. "It's basically what happens when you fuse metal with folk music, lyrics typically tend to deal with history and mythology."

"Okay, since you didn't bring any CDs with you…." Marcus responded and Andreas nodded. "You should play me some once we move into Obelisk Blue because I have to know how that's supposed to work!"

"You have a deal my friend." Andreas responded before getting an idea. "Hey Marcus, do you have your deck with you?"

"Yeah but not my duel disk, I left that back in my old dorm room for the proctors to transport to my new dorm room." Marcus responded as he reached into his jacket pocket and produced his deck. "Why do you ask?" Marcus asked and Andreas did the same.

"What do you say to a friendly match? No duel disks obviously but a best of three rounds match between the two of us." Andreas responded and Marcus grinned obviously liking the idea. "Loser gets the winner a non-alcoholic drink from the kitchen."

"You sure Jamie will mind? My uncle's a chef as well and he often tells me that prep work is the key to any successful service." Marcus asked and Andreas shook his head.

"I've seen several students go to and from the kitchen since Jeff finished his speech, I don't think she'll mind." Andreas said as he pointed to the door were a female Ra Yellow student was currently entering as the song ended. "We just need someone to keep score."

"I can do that." Chelsea volunteered as she turned to the two boys. "I'll even go with the loser to make sure he gets the right drink."

"Sounds like a plan to me Chelsea." Andreas responded as he handed her a pen and paper. "Will you need a calculator?"

"Nah, it's not like Duel Monsters deals with anything more complicated than additions and subtractions when it comes to math anyway." Chelsea said as she wrote down Marcus and Andreas's names on the paper with eight thousand life-points underneath their names. "Besides, I haven't seen Jamie in ages so I want an excuse to say hi to her."

"Why don't you go do that now?" Brandon asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"She's probably still hard at work doing the prep and besides, she also shares my temper and I managed to incur her wrath the last time I entered a kitchen that she was cooking in." Chelsea responded with a wince as "Romulus" by Ex Deo, one of Chelsea's requests, began to play. "It's a long story."

"And how long ago was that?" Brandon asked and Chelsea paused.

"I think it was the year before I applied for Duel Academy, she was practicing a Scallop Dish that was used at a restaurant she had accepted a job offer at." Chelsea remembered as she shook her head. "That restaurant ended up closing before she could start there but it led to her working in the restaurant she currently works at so I guess it works out."

"Okay, so we have our score keeper over there." Marcus said as he nodded to Chelsea. "So how do we decide whose going first?"

"Just do what I do whenever I have an old school duel." Chelsea chimed in and they turned to her. "Have a quick game of rock paper scissors."

"That works for me." Marcus responded before they played a quick game of Rock Paper Scissors which was won by Andreas, whilst their duel was going on Lance emerged from the bathroom and saw the DJ giving him a thumbs up in the middle of the song.

"_Okay, that probably means that he has my dedication to Chloe coming up." _Lance thought as he glanced towards Chloe who was watching the duel between Marcus and Andreas. _"I hope this works! My luck with Chloe has been shitty enough as it is!"_

"Lance Alvers?" Lance looked up and saw a proctor approaching him. "The menu is ready can you take this to your table?" The proctor asked as he handed over the menu.

"_Burgers, steak, lamb, some vegetarian dishes, did she design this menu with me in mind?" _Lance thought with a small grin before nodding. "You got it!" Lance nodded and the proctor nodded before walking off, Lance sat back down at his table as the duel waged on. "How's the duel going?"

"Andreas is in the lead and has summoned Voltic Bicorn, however the score is pretty much neck and neck." Chelsea responded as she looked at the scores.

"He won't be in the lead for long!" Marcus said confidently as he drew a card. "Is that a menu in your hand Lance?"

"I was half-expecting you to follow that up with "or are you happy to see me."." Lance admitted with a laugh before putting the menu down. "But yeah, that's the menu, no idea how Chelsea's sister plans on cooking all this for about fifty, sixty students plus staff but she's probably used to those numbers from working in that restaurant."

"That and she probably brought a couple of line cooks with her to alleviate the stress on her." Chelsea responded as she wrote down the results of the latest battle. "Okay, Blue-Eyes White Dragon has destroyed Voltic Bicorn which means Voltic's effect kicks in."

"Not a problem for me." Marcus responded as the two boys milled seven cards, after checking the contents of his graveyard he grinned. "Besides, Voltic Bicorn's effect has just backfired big time for you Andreas because I now have enough dragons in my graveyard to summon the big guy with Dragon's Mirror!"

"Ohhhhh, nasty," Chelsea said with a laugh as Marcus banished five dragons from his graveyard and summoned Five-Headed Dragon. "Don't know how you're going to come back from this Andreas!"

"Why don't you worry about giving us recommendations on what to order from the menu and keeping score?" Andreas suggested as he drew his card. "After all, Jamie's your sister so you must have had her cooking at some point."

"It's been a couple of years but yeah, I have." Chelsea responded before looking at the menu. "Honestly I'd recommend anything on the menu as long as you're not allergic to it she didn't get to cook in a Michelin star restaurant for a living on looks alone!"

"I never said that, I was just hoping for your honest opinion." Andreas responded with a shrug as he set a monster and a facedown card. "It's your turn Marcus."

"Yeah well, my honest opinion is that it's been a while since I've had her cooking and at the time the only thing I would eat was burgers." Chelsea responded with a sheepish grin and Lance laughed.

"Honestly Chelsea, I'm guilty of the same thing." Lance admitted with a grin before noticing something. "Is it me or is there something written on the back?"

"It's a menu, she probably put desserts there." Chelsea responded as she rolled her eyes.

"No, they are a bit further down on the front." Lance responded and Chelsea scrolled down the menu before confirming it. "Besides, the text on the menu is printed, the text on the back is obviously hand written."

"Okay, you got me curious." Chelsea sighed in defeat before flipping the menu over. "Huh?"

"What does it say?" Chloe asked as she leaned in to read it.

"Chelsea, I know it's been a while and I'll be busy for most of the night but are you up for a catch-up chat?" Chelsea read it out before glancing towards the kitchen. "I didn't think she'd have the time."

"Chelsea, she's your sister and she hasn't seen you in how many years? If I were in her shoes I'd want to chat too." Lance pointed out and Chelsea grinned.

"Bear with me a moment guys." Chelsea told Marcus and Andreas before quickly writing a reply. "Sounds great Jamie, if I don't get caught up with my girlfriend in one of the dorm rooms I'll try to chat with you ASAP." Chelsea wrote down the reply before handing it back to Lance. "Once we've decided on what we're eating could you tell the proctor to give it back to Jamie?"

"If I can manage to make myself heard over the sounds of Kreator then yeah, I'll try." Lance responded as he turned to the others. "By the way Chelsea, you made a nice choice in which Kreator song." Lance added and Chelsea grinned at that, once he got the orders from the others he took it to the proctor with the instructions. _"I would've thought Steve had played the song by now."_

"All right guys and gals, are you having fun tonight?" Steve asked as "People of the Lie" by Kreator ended and the crowd cheered. "Okay, the next song is another request but off a different kind, Lance over here wanted me to dedicate a song to a girl he's got a crush on and I was willing to help."

"_Yes!" _Lance thought with a grin as he glanced towards the DJ. _"Come on god give me a break with her for once!"_

"But being a metalhead he had no idea what to dedicate so he just said any love song on my playlist." Steve added and the crowd laughed. "This goes out to Chloe!"

"Oh god, he dedicated a song to me." Chloe groaned as she face-palmed. "I hate it when boys do that!" Chloe added as she ran a hand down her face.

"Hey who knows? Maybe the DJ decided to be merciful and selected one of the few good love songs!" Chelsea suggested with a grin, however her grin quickly turned to a look of horror when she heard the intro. "Oh god no…."

"Oh whoa, oh whoa, oh whoa…."

"_No…." _Lance thought as a look of horror washed over his face.

"You know you love me, I know you care  
>Just shout whenever, and I'll be there<br>you are my love, you are my heart  
>and we will never ever, ever be apart."<p>

"_NO!" _Lance yelled out mentally as he glanced frantically between Chloe and the DJ. _"I can actually see my chances of dating her crumble! I would like to wake up now!"_

"_Lance, this isn't a dream." _Thestalos's voice rang out and Lance face-palmed.

"_YOU'RE NOT HELPING THESTALOS!" _Lance yelled at his duel spirit as, unfortunately for him, the song continued.

"Baby, baby, baby oooh  
>Like baby, baby, baby nooo<br>Like baby, baby, baby oooh  
>I thought you'd always be mine (mine)<p>

Baby, baby, baby oooh  
>Like baby, baby, baby nooo<br>Like baby, baby, baby oooh  
>I thought you'd always be mine (mine)."<p>

"_Seriously, what did I do to deserve such shitty luck?!"_ Lance thought as he quickly tried to sneak into the shadows and not be noticed by Chloe. _"At least it can't get any worse."_

"_Lance, Chloe just stormed out of the party in tears, and Silent Magician says that she's angry at you." _Thestalos responded and Lance groaned.

"_Thestalos, I refer you to my previous comment about not helping!" _ Lance responded as he left the main hall. _"Right now I just want to bash my head against the wall for the rest of the night for not thinking this through!"_

*meanwhile*

"_Chloe, please calm down." _Silent Magician tried to reason with her as she ran out of the Ra Yellow Boy's dorm and towards the lake the separated the dorm from the Obelisk Blue and Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm. _"He didn't mean any harm, even if the song the DJ chose for him left a lot to be desired."_

"_I know he didn't!" _ Chloe responded as she sat down beside the lake figuring that most of the students didn't see her storm out_. "But dedicating a song to me? That's so cliché that I hate it, do you know how many boys have tried that on me since I hit puberty?"_

"_Yes, I do, I have access to your memories remember." _Silent Magician reminded her not noticing Damien approaching them. _"And I also know that you share his feelings for you."_

"_That's beside the point!" _Chloe protested with a groan. _"Why didn't he just ask me out? I would've said yes!"_

"_That's a huge improvement over the girl who wasn't sure if she was ready to take that leap." _Silent Magician responded and Chloe sighed.

"_What can I say? I had some time to think it over!" _Chloe responded and Silent Magician went silent, excuse the pun, for a few moments. _"Silent Magician, are you still there?"_

"_Chloe, we must leave, you are in grave danger." _Silent Magician responded catching her protégé's attention, she looked up and saw Damien's duel disk and frowned.

"_And let this bastard hurt someone else? I don't think so." _Chloe responded as she stood up and glared at the duelist. "Don't you idiots know when to quit?"

"How charming, I take it by that you've noticed the elephant in the room?" Damien asked with a scoff as he held up his duel disk. "I am Damien and no, I'm not the idiot you faced in your first Battle City Match, but what I am is the last duelist you'll ever face."

"Why don't you go ahead and ask every other Orichalcos Duelist I've faced since Battle City started how that worked out for them?" Chloe asked mockingly as she activated her duel disk. "Then again that would be pretty hard since most of them are in jail or are trapped in the Orichalcos!" Chloe added and Damien chuckled as he activated his duel disk. "And that was before I got my hands on my Legendary Dragon!"

"I am not like the others you've faced Richardson." Damien responded and Chloe frowned as he removed his hood revealing shoulder length messy black hair and blue eyes. "I actually know what you're capable off."

"Then why bother battling me when you know that you're going to lose?" Chloe asked as Damien activated his duel disk. _"Besides, thanks to Lance's little stunt I have a lot of frustration to take out on this idiot so it shouldn't take too long."_

"I will go first, any objections? No? Good!" Damien announced and before Chloe could object Damien drew his card. "Well, it looks like I'll get the party started early! I activate Terra Forming!" Damien played the card and picked up his deck. "Considering how many of my allies have used this same combo in duels against you and your friends I shouldn't have to explain what this card does or what I'm about to do."

"Yeah, you're about to search for the Seal of the Orichalcos and play it once Terra Forming's effect has resolved." Chloe responded with a frown as Damien searched through his deck. _"Silent Magician…."_

"_Message has already been sent to the other students with Duel Spirit Partners." _Silent Magician responded and Chloe grinned at that.

"Well, since you know what's about to happen why should I waste any more time?" Damien asked rhetorically as he added the field spell card to his hand and shuffled his deck. "I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!"

"_Here we go again." _Chloe thought as she braced herself for the Seal, the dreaded field spell quickly encircled both duelists and she glared at Damien. "You really think that the Seal scares me anymore? I know its effects, I know it's broken but I also know that it's a double edged sword for the user!"

"That may be true." Damien responded as the pentagram appeared on his forehead. "But I'm willing to bet that you have never faced a deck like mine."

*meanwhile*

"So do you think they are ever coming back?" Marcus wondered out loud as he ate his steak, Andreas had ended up winning the third tie breaker round but after what happened they didn't feel like getting a drink.

"I'm surprised you're complaining since you've eaten their meals for them." Chelsea responded with a grin as she finished her burger, she sighed in annoyance as she set her plate aside. "But seriously though, I'm worried about both of them, Chloe hasn't come back in since Lance's ill-fated grand declaration of love backfired before he could even get that far and I haven't seen Lance since the crowd left the dance floor to eat their meals."

"It is worrying, yes." Andreas agreed as he ate his food. "But they should be able to look after themselves, Chloe's eighteen and has grown a lot as a person since she joined and the same can be said for Lance."

"Andreas, encase you've forgotten Chloe's an eighteen year old that has been shown on multiple occasions to be emotionally fragile due to her rough upbringing." Theresa pointed out as she finished her drink. "I think one of us should go search for them once we're finished."

"_Your meal will have to wait." _Armed Dragon's voice rang out and Theresa blinked.

"_Is there something wrong Armed Dragon?" _Theresa asked and the dragon sighed.

"_Lance has been slamming his head into the hallway wall for the past ten minutes and Chloe…." _Armed Dragon trailed off and Theresa bit her lip. _"She's in an Orichalcos Duel."_

"WHAT?" Theresa yelled out only to get odd looks from the students at the other tables, she laughed nervously before sitting back down and the students returned to their meals. "I'm guessing you guys got the same message?"

"Loud and clear, Chloe's going to need our help." Chelsea responded with a nod before she turned to Marcus and Andreas. "Guys, where's the quickest route to the main hallway?"

"Take a right at the DJ booth and go through that door at the back." Marcus responded as he pointed to the door. "What's the plan?"

"I'm going to try to get Lance out of his rut and I'll meet you guys outside." Chelsea responded and the others nodded before they ran off in opposite directions, Chelsea left via the door Marcus had pointed out to her and looked around. _"Great, Lance could be anywhere…."_

"_You'll find him in between rooms 104 and 105." _Wattchimera told her and she grinned.

"_What would I do without you Wattchimera?" _Chelsea asked as she looked at the doors. _"Okay, that's room one hundred, rooms one to ninety nine are on the left so….." _Chelsea trailed off before walking to the right, at first she counted the doors to make sure that she didn't get lost but that quickly became unnecessary as she heard the sound of something banging against the wall accompanied by frequent cries of "stupid". _"If that's not Lance then I'm giving up Duel Monsters to become a stripper."_

"_What would your parents think?" _Wattchimera asked and Chelsea groaned.

"_Does sarcasm not exist in the spirit world?" _Chelsea asked as she shook her head, once she turned a corner she saw Lance slamming his head into the wall. "Lance, I thought you knew that the only headbanging us metalheads do is to a kickass song?"

"Not…..in…..the…..mood…..Chelsea….." Lance responded in between head-butts. "That DJ screwed up any chance I had of getting with Chloe."

"And you didn't think about asking her?" Chelsea asked and Lance paused.

"I have, plenty of times." Lance sighed as he turned to her there was now a sizeable bruise on his forehead from where he had been head-butting the wall. "When Theresa got her Legendary Dragon, when we went for the swim in the lake last week, but the damn Orichalcos kept getting in the way!"

"And you figured that asking her out after dedicating a song to her would be your best shot?" Chelsea asked and Lance nodded, Chelsea sighed as she shook her head. "Lance, I'm not exactly a power metal fan and I will be the first to admit that love songs aren't exactly my forte either but even I can think of a dozen Power Metal ballads that would've done the job well, by leaving it up to the DJ you were pretty much playing Russian Roulette with your dick."

"Did you have to use an analogy that involved a gun and my genitals?" Lance asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "What are you doing here anyway? I thought you'd still be enjoying the party?"

"Well, excuse me for wanting to help a friend!" Chelsea snapped at him and Lance winced. "Hell because of your stunt I haven't had a chance to chat with my sister because I was too busy getting Chloe to calm down and by the time she stormed out Jamie had already left so don't give me that "What are you doing here bullshit" when it was your dumb stunt that got her in this mess to begin with!"

"How the hell was I supposed to know that would the DJ chose "Baby" by Justin fucking Bieber?!" Lance demanded and Chelsea glared at him. "And what do you mean by "this mess"? Last I checked Chloe ran out of the dorm crying on her own accord!"

"Oh right, I forgot to tell you." Chelsea realized as she took a deep breath. ""Look, the party's dying down anyway and we have bigger problems then you being constantly cock-blocked, Chloe's in an Orichalcos Duel right now!"

"WHAT?" Lance yelled out as his eyes widened. _"Thestalos, why didn't you tell me?"_

"_I tried but you kept telling me to shut up." _Thestalos responded and Lance groaned.

"Do you know where she is?" Lance asked and Chelsea nodded.

"According to Wattchimera they are dueling near the lake." Chelsea responded and Lance blinked in confusion. "You know the one in between the dorms?"

"Oh you mean that lake, why didn't you say so in the first place?" Lance asked and Chelsea face-palmed. "I know a quick route from here to the lake, came in handy whenever I was late for class, follow me."

"Like I have a choice?" Chelsea asked before stopping him. "Before we go save Chloe, friends?" Chelsea asked as she extended her hand out for a handshake which Lance accepted before walking off, Chelsea took another deep breath before she followed him. "You realize that Chloe's not happy with you because of your stunt right?"

"She's still my friend, hopefully potential girlfriend." Lance responded as he led Chelsea down the hall. "We'll work it out."

"You know what she told me after we arrived at our old dorm room to get changed for the party?" Chelsea asked and Lance turned to her. "She said that after you two had that promotion duel she felt like she was finally ready to make the big leap and start a relationship with you."

"And I've fucked that up with my epic fail of a stunt." Lance sighed as he paused for a second. "It's still not the craziest thing I've done in the search for a girlfriend."

"Tell me later the details later, I'll need the laugh, but for now we need to get to Chloe." Chelsea responded and Lance nodded before the two teens walked off. _"I'm almost tempted to say "thank god I'm gay" but then again I've often tried similar stunts in an attempt to get a girlfriend." _Chelsea thought with a chuckle as she followed Lance.

*back at the duel*

"I set one monster in defense mode and two cards facedown." Damien continued as he set the two cards. "That ends my turn." Damien announced and Chloe drew her card.

"_I don't have any monsters with decent attack points and I don't know what deck he runs." _Chloe thought with a frown before picking up two cards. _"I guess for now defense is the best offense." _Chloe thought before setting the two cards. "I set two cards facedown." Chloe announced as the two set cards appeared. "And I summon Mathematician in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and the old wizard appeared on the field (3/1500/500).

"Do you really think that old man can stand up to my masters of sorcery?" Damien scoffed and Chloe's eyes narrowed.

"_Well that's one mystery solved, he's running Spellcasters." _Chloe thought before picking up her deck. "Since I summoned Mathematician I can activate his effect which allows me to send one Level Four or lower monster to my graveyard from my deck." Chloe announced before finding the card she was looking for and sending it to her graveyard. "And I attack your defense monster!" Chloe announced as the old man pointed his staff…..

"Foolish girl, you have done exactly what I wanted you too." Damien said with a smirk as his trap card flipped up. "I activate Magician's Circle, this trap card…."

"You know what I'm capable off, yet you don't know that I have that trap card in my deck?" Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I did know that, I just got caught up in explaining the effect." Damien responded as both duelists picked up their decks and searched through them. "My summoned monster will be Gagaga Girl!" Damien played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, as her name suggested she was a young girl most likely in her early teens wearing a purple and gold sorcerer's hat with a matching outfit and a pink skirt (3/1000/800) and her attack increased to 1500 thanks to the seal.

"_Gagaga, where have I heard that name before?" _Chloe thought before she picked her monster. "Mathematician isn't able to destroy your monster without taking himself out but Gemini Elf will do the job just fine!" Chloe played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900).

"I am so scared of a pair of lesbian elves and an old man." Damien scoffed and the elves glared at him.

"They may not scare you but I can." Chelsea's voice rang out and Chloe looked up seeing the gang arriving. "Sorry for the wait Chloe, I had to go find Mr. Blue Balls here."

"Never call me that again." Lance groaned as he blushed like a madman, once he saw the look Chloe was giving him he winced. "Look, Chloe I'm sorry I embarrassed you back there but…."

"Lance, why don't we just talk it over when I win this duel?" Chloe interrupted him with a sigh of annoyance and Lance nodded. "As for your apology, it's accepted."

"Unfortunately for you you'll never get to "talk it out"." Damien scoffed before turning to Chloe. "A new monster has appeared on the field which means…."

"That a replay must occur, I may have just graduated from Osiris Red but I'm not exactly a novice at this game!" Chloe cut him off before pointing to Mathematician. "And my Mathematician is going to continue where he left off!" Chloe announced as the spellcaster powered up his staff….

"He'll do no such thing, I activate Negate Attack." Damien announced as the beam from Mathematician's staff bounced off of the portal negating the attack.

"_Well, so much for that." _Chloe thought with a sigh before looking over her hand. _"He must've protected his monsters for a good reason and right now the only one I can think of is either a Synchro or an XYZ Summon." _Chloe thought before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Chloe announced and Damien drew his card.

"You've met Gagaga Girl, now meet her male counterpart! I flip summon Gagaga Wizard!" Damien flipped the card over and another new monster appeared on the field, he was wearing the same garb as Gagaga Girl but clearly designed for males (4/1500/1000). "Now I activate my wizard's effect…"

"Hold on…." Chloe said as she put her hand up. "Am I the only one seeing a resemblance to Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl here?" Chloe asked and everyone else face-faulted.

"Chloe, this is hardly the time to accuse I2 of recycling monster designs!" Chelsea yelled from the sidelines as she got up. "And besides, Gagaga Wizard looks like Dark Magician? Maybe but Gagaga Girl looks like Dark Magician Girl? Please! She doesn't even have Dark Magician Girl's tits!"

"Are we seriously having this conversation?" Damien asked flabbergasted before shaking his head. "If the dyke over there could stop drooling over Gagaga Girl…."

"YOU'RE LUCKY YOU'RE HIDING BEHIND THAT WALL ASSHOLE!" Chelsea interrupted him and Damien growled.

"STOP INTERUPTING ME!" Damien yelled out be clearing his throat. "Where was I? Oh yes! Wizard's effect! With it I can declare any level between 1 and 8 and his level will increase to the number I declare, in this case six." Damien explained as Wizard's level increased to 6. "Now I activate Gagaga Girl's effect, with it I can target my wizard and increase her level to match his." Damien added as Gagaga Girl's level increased to 6. "She has another effect, as does Wizard, but that will come in the next stage of my plan, using my two monsters in a XYZ Summon!"

"Wait a minute, a Rank 6 XYZ Summon?!" Chloe yelled out as the two monsters were sucked into the overlay network. "Do any of you know any Rank 6s?"

"Not off the top of my head Chloe!" Chelsea responded as Damien retrieved a card from his extra deck.

"Then consider this an educational experience you won't forget, I XYZ Summon Magi-Magi Star Magician Girl!" Damien played the card and from the overlay network emerged a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to Dark Magician Girl, however her clothing was darker and she had a sinister gleam in her eye (Rank: 6/2400/2000) and her attack increased to 2900 thanks to the seal.

"Okay, now you can accuse I2 of recycling monster designs." Chelsea said as she stared at the monster. "But other than that she doesn't look so tough."

"Your friend will regret that statement once she sees what my monster can do! First there's Gagaga Girl's effect, since I used her in an XYZ Summon I can target one Special Summoned monster on your side of the field and reduce its attack to zero." Damien explained and Chloe's eyes widened as Gemini Elf's attacks dropped to zero.

"That's why you activated Magician's Circle; you wanted me to summon a strong monster with it!" Chloe realized and Damien grinned.

"Guilty as charged, now I activate Star Magician Girl's effect." Damien announced as he sent Gagaga Wizard to the graveyard. "Well I should say effects really as there are two of them but the one I'm activating will allow me to take control of Mathematician until the end phase!"

"Wait, what?" Chloe exclaimed before her old magician made his way over to Damien's side of the field, as soon as he appeared on his side of the field the pentagram appeared on Mathematician's head and his attack increased to 2000. _"This is bad but at least I have something in my graveyard to protect me!"_

"I could reveal the other effect but what fun what that be?" Damien asked rhetorically before he pointed to Gemini Elf. "Star Magician Girl attack Gemini Elf!" Damien commanded and the female spellcaster pointed her staff at the elves.

"I remove A/D Changer from my graveyard to force Gemini Elf into defense mode." Chloe announced as she pocketed the monster and the elves crouched down just in time for the attack to hit destroying them but protecting Chloe's life-points.

"You realize that you could've forced Star Magician Girl into defense mode, don't you?" Damien asked with a frown and Chloe shook her head.

"I have my reasons." Chloe responded and Damien smirked.

"Your reasons won't matter, Mathematician, attack your former mistress's life-points directly!" Damien commanded and the old magician pointed his staff at Chloe….

"I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Command Silencer!" Chloe activated the Spell and an ear piercing screech rang out causing Mathematician to back down. "Not only does this Spell Card prevent your attack but I get to draw a card to boot." Chloe added before drawing her card.

"Fine, I set one card facedown and end my turn which means your pathetic old Spellcaster returns to your side of the field." Damien announced and Chloe drew her card as Mathematician made his way back to her side of the field, the pentagram on Mathematician's head disappeared and he shook his head apparently feeling a migraine.

"_I forgot that the monsters are as real as the duelists in the Orichalcos." _Chloe thought with a frown as she turned to Mathematician. "Sorry, that won't happen again."

"You're acting like you have a choice in the matter." Damien scoffed as Chloe looked at her drawn card.

"_Spellbook inside the Pot, normally I'd activate this in a heartbeat but I don't want to give him an advantage as well." _Chloe thought with a frown before she noticed the monster that she had drawn with Command Silencer. _"Hey wait a sec…."_Chloe trailed off as an idea formed in her head. _"It's a risky move, my facedown card isn't Pitch Black Power Stone and I'll need to have him draw four times for it to work."_

"Are you going to make a move sometime this millennium?" Damien demanded breaking Chloe's line of thought as she glared at him.

"Fine, but you'll wish that you hadn't rushed me!" Chloe responded before playing the card. "I summon Silent Magician Level Four!"

"WHAT?" Her friends yelled out simultaneously as the younger version of Chloe's ace monster appeared on the field (4/1000/1000) whilst Damien laughed hysterically.

"Do you honestly think that I'm about to let you get that little bitch powerful enough to defeat my Spellcaster?" Damien asked as he slapped his knee whilst laughing not noticing the glare that Silent Magician Level Four was giving him for that comment. "Are you sure that you didn't graduate to Ra Yellow on a fluke?"

"Who said I was done?" Chloe asked and Damien stopped laughing. "In fact I'm about to speed up the process, I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"So what you should know that Silent Magician doesn't gain counters per draw, just every time I draw." Damien pointed out as they drew three cards each and Silent Magician gained her first counter alongside five hundred attack points. _"Besides, she has just helped me more than she knows." _Damien thought with a smirk.

"_These cards will buy me some time, I don't know if it'll be enough time though." _Chloe thought with a frown before picking up one of the cards. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"I never thought I'd say this." Lance commented with a frown. "But I have to agree with the Orichalcos Duelist, can Chloe buy herself enough time to get Silent Magician powerful enough?"

"That's the million dollar question Lance, thing is that none of us know the answer, not even Chloe." Chelsea pointed out with a frown. "She's already used up A/D Changer and Command Silencer and I don't know if she can keep it up."

"I draw and your blasted magician gains her meagre power boost." Damien announced as he drew his card and Silent Magician's attack points increased to 2000. "But a two thousand attack beatstick is as good as any other so I detach Star Magician Girl's last overlay unit…."

"I don't think so!" Chloe interrupted him as she held up her copy of Effect Veiler. "By discarding Effect Veiler your magician's effect is negated which means you just wasted her last Overlay Unit!" Chloe added as she discarded the monster and Damien growled as his magician stopped her spell."

"Fine, if I can't have her than neither can you, Star Magician Girl, attack Silent Magician Level 4!" Damien commanded and the magician powered up her staff.

"This may cost me more life-points but it'll be worth it in the long run." Chloe announced as she activated her trap card. "I activate Shift which forces your magician to attack Mathematician instead!" Chloe added and Star Magician Girl changed her target to the old wizard who was subsequently destroyed in a ray of light bringing Chloe's life-points down to 6600. "And since Mathematician was just sent to the graveyard as a result of battle I get to draw an extra card." Chloe added as she drew a card.

"Why are you even bothering? Do you really think you can keep this up for two more turns?" Damien asked and Chloe frowned. "No one is that lucky."

"We'll see about that, in the mean time I activate my other facedown card Damage Gate!" Chloe activated the trap and retrieved a card from her graveyard. "The damage I just took may be too low for Gemini Elf and Mathematician but it isn't too low for Effect Veiler." Chloe added before playing the card and the green haired female Spellcaster appeared on the field (1/0/0).

"_Effect Veiler is a Tuner Monster, there's only one reason she would summon something that weak from her graveyard and that's a Synchro Summon." _Damien thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Star Magician Girl may be out of Overlay Units for the moment but I have more than one trick up my sleeve." _Damien thought before picking up and setting his drawn card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn."

"A duel is going on? Nice, at least I'll have something to do now that the party's over." Jamie's voice rang out and Chelsea looked up seeing her older sister who had gotten changed out of her chef's outfit and into a t-shirt and jeans.

"Jamie? I thought you had left already?" Chelsea asked and Jamie shook her head.

"My flight back to LA isn't until tomorrow and the ship needs refueling so me and Gordon, the chef in charge of the Obelisk Blue Party's catering, are stuck here on the island for the night." Jamie explained as she walked up to her sister. "Besides, I wasn't going to miss out on a chance to catch up with you!"

"Well you kinda picked a bad time." Chelsea said with a nervous laugh as she motioned towards the duel and Jamie looked up, once she saw the Field Spell in play she frowned.

"So this is the Seal of the Orichalcos that I heard so much about." Jamie commented with a frown. "What's the score so far?"

"Chloe's losing but she seems to have some kind of plan in place." Chelsea responded as she pointed to her roommate. "The guy's name is Damien and he was the one who played the seal."

"Wait, where did you hear about the Orichalcos?" Brandon asked and Jamie frowned.

"One of the line cooks at the restaurant I work at was following Battle City, I was too busy to follow it myself so I asked her to keep me updated since I heard that Duel Academy had sent some students to compete in it." Jamie responded as she turned to Brandon. "I was disappointed to hear that Chelsea wasn't among the students competing at first but after she told me about the Seal, or the "insane field spell" as she called it, I was glad that she was safe and hoped that you guys would make it out okay."

"Yeah, I've been in two duels were that field spell has been played." Chelsea responded with a wine. "Trust me sis, it's about as fun as a root canal."

"And she's being generous by saying that." Lance chimed in and Andreas frowned.

"Yes, especially when you are on the receiving end of a loss at the hands of the Orichalcos." Andreas responded with a shudder. "Something I know all too well from my one and only duel in the Battle City Finals."

"Yes, yes, we all know that the Orichalcos is dangerous and what not." Damien said as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "But I will thank the older Ms. Cunningham for being here she's just given me an extra target by being here."

"Just try it asshole." Jamie said as her eyes narrowed before pulling up her sleeve revealing a duel disk of her own. "I may not have Chelsea's experience as a duelist but I'm pretty damn good in my own right." Jamie added and the others turned towards Chelsea.

"Don't look at me the last duel I haven't faced Jamie in a duel since just before she left for culinary school." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "And that was back when I had my beatdown deck."

"And I still beat her." Jamie responded with a smile and Chelsea laughed nervously.

"ENOUGH! God, this sisterly bond bullshit makes me want to puke!" Damien yelled out in disgust as he turned to Chloe. "It was your turn last I checked." Damien added whilst ignoring the glares he was getting from the Cunningham sisters.

"_Man, I think I think we know who taught Chelsea the art of the death stare." _Chloe thought as she glanced towards the two sisters before drawing her card. _"Anyway, if this works then I won't even have to wait for Silent Magician to get strong enough to beat Star Magician Girl." _Chloe thought before playing her drawn card. "I summon Magical Exemplar!" Chloe played the card and the black haired sorceress in the green dress appeared on the field (4/1700/1400). "Next I activate Heaven's Lost Property!"

"I know what that Spell Card does, we both have to draw three cards and then discard two." Damien interrupted her and Chloe frowned before both duelists drew their cards and discarded two, Chloe made her decision fairly quickly whilst Damien hesitated before discarding his.

"As you should know by now that means Silent Magician gets her third counter." Chloe added as her young Spellcaster's attack increased to 2500. "And as an added bonus Exemplar gets counters as well, two for each Spell Card played." Chloe added as two floating orbs appeared around Magical Exemplar. "And finally by giving them both up I can Special Summon a Spellcaster type monster who's level matches the number of Counters Exemplar has so say hello to Magicat!" Chloe played the card and the cat in the magician's robe appeared on the field (2/600/500).

"Nice, Chloe used a variant of this combo during our last tag duel." Chelsea said with a grin as Jamie turned to her. "Only differences were that she used Foolish Burial and my Damage Gate but other than that she's about to do a Synchro Summon."

"I don't' use Synchros all that much but I recognize a Level Seven Synchro Set-Up when I see it." Jamie responded with a nod. "Then again this is basic math we're talking about."

"Will you two shut up?" Damien demanded earning glares from the two sisters. "God, you're almost as annoying as my bosses' secretary!"

"If you find them annoying then you're about to hate my move! I tune Effect Veiler with Magical Exemplar and Magicat!" Chloe announced as the three Spellcasters leapt into the air, Effect Veiler dissolved into a single Synchro Ring that quickly surrounded Magical Exemplar and Magicat. "Come on out Arcanite Magician!" Chloe called out as she played the card and once the bright flash faded the white robed Spellcaster appeared on the field (7/400/1800). "He may not look like much but then again neither do you."

"If that's your idea of trash talk then no wonder you started out in Osiris Red." Damien grunted in response and Chloe rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, I have some effects to resolve." Chloe responded before retrieving a Spell Card from her graveyard. "Since Magicat was sent to the graveyard to Synchro Summon a Spellcaster Monster her effect now activates allowing me to take one Spell Card in my graveyard and place it on top of my deck." Chloe continued as she placed the Spell Card on top of her deck. "Also since Arcanite Magician was Synchro Summoned he gains two Spell Counters and one thousand attack points for each one." Chloe added as two orbs appeared around Arcanite Magician bringing his attack points up to 2400.

"Yes, yes, and if you remove one of those Spell Counters you can target one card I control and destroy it." Damien responded and Chloe frowned. "As a Spellcaster user I value knowing the effects of all released Spellcaster monsters."

"Well that knowledge is about to cost you big time, I remove one of Arcanite Magician's Spell Counters to destroy Star Magician Girl!" Chloe announced as one of the orbs vanished and Arcanite Magician's attack dropped to 1400 before he pointed his staff at the female Spellcaster, a beam of light soon shot of it destroying her. _"Shame that I can't use Arcanite Magician's effect more than once per turn because otherwise I'd use it to take care of his facedown card as well, still I'm not about to let this opportunity slip me by!" _Chloe thought before pointing to Damien. "Silent Magician, attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the young magician pointed her staff at Damien….

"Oh, so close, yet so far, I activate my trap card XYZ Reborn!" Damien activated the trap and smirked devilishly. "Think of this Trap Card like Call of the Haunted except it specifically targets XYZ Monsters in the graveyard." Damien added as Star Magician Girl returned to his side of the field with her power boost intact. "There's an added bonus as well, you see this Trap Card also becomes a new Overlay Unit for my monster!"

"You're kidding, right?!" Chloe asked as her eyes widened but her fears were confirmed when the trap card was absorbed into Star Magician Girl's body. _"Damn, I should've attacked first and then used Arcanite Magician's effect, worse yet is that I have nothing that can stop him from using his Spellcaster's effect again next turn." _Chloe thought before sighing. "I end my turn."

"Good and for once I am happy to let your Spellcaster get another counter." Damien said as he drew his card and sure enough Silent Magician's attack rose to 3000. "In fact I'll cut to the chase, I detach Star Magician Girl's overlay unit to take control of the little runt!"

"You can't!" Chloe responded as her eyes widened and Damien smirked evilly as Silent Magician went over to his side of the field.

"I just did." Damien responded and Chloe growled as the pentagram appeared on the Silent Magician Level Four's head raising her attack points to 3500. "Star Magician Girl, destroy that joke of a Synchro Monster!" Damien commanded and the magician pointed her staff at the Synchro Monster and a beam of dark energy hit him in the chest bringing Chloe's life-points down to 4100. "Silent Magician Level Four, show your former mistress what real power is all about!" Damien commanded and Silent Magician hesitated before firing her attack at Chloe sending her flying against the Orichalcos wall.

"You bastard, you'll pay for that." Chloe grunted as she pulled herself up to her feet and watched as her life-points dropped to 600.

"How do you plan on making me pay with only six hundred life-points left? I end my turn with a facedown card." Damien announced as the pentagram on Silent Magician's head disappeared as she walked back to Chloe's side of the field, Chloe drew her card and realized that Silent Magician was looking at her and she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"It's not your fault Silent Magician, we'll make him pay." Chloe reassured him and Silent Magician nodded before turning to Damien.

"Before you get any ideas, I activate Thunder of Ruler!" Damien announced as his trap card flipped up. "Now you can't attack this turn."

"Maybe not but I can still activate this." Chloe responded as she played the card and Spellbook inside the Pot appeared on the field again. "You can thank Magicat for the draws you are about to make."

"Depending on what I draw it may be the last Spell Card you ever play." Damien responded as they both drew three cards and Silent Magician's attack shot up to 3500. _"Excellent, I drew XYZ Regen, as soon as my turn begins I'll use this to add another Overlay Unit to Star Magician Girl and take control of her precious monster, if Silent Magician thought nearly defeating her mistress was devastating enough just wait until she defeats her!"_

"_I know Heavy Storm is banned but it's not like these guys have been playing by the rules up to this point, this could backfire but it's my best shot." _Chloe thought before setting two of the cards that she had drawn. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"And I'm about to end this duel." Damien said with a smirk as he played the card. "I activate XYZ Regen! This spell card lets me target one XYZ Monster I control and it becomes a new overlay unit!"

"Oh shit, that means that he can take control of Silent Magician Level Four again!" Chelsea realized as her eyes widened and the Spell Card was absorbed into Star Magician Girl's body.

"Your friend is becoming quite observant isn't she? Too bad it won't help her when she faces me next!" Damien responded with a smirk as he sent the spell card to the graveyard. "Now I take control of your pathetic magician one last time…."

"I don't think so!" Chloe interrupted him as her trap card flipped up and Damien's eyes widened when he saw the Trap.

"NO! Not Fiendish Chain!" Damien yelled out as chains ensnared his magician bringing her down. "You'll pay for that you little bitch!"

"Funny, because next turn I'm going to make you pay for turning my own monster against me!" Chloe responded and Damien growled.

"_I have nothing that I can use to break my Magician free of her trap or anything that can stop her from attacking next turn." _Damien thought with a frown as he glanced towards Silent Magician. _"She know has enough counters on her Magician to summon her strongest monster but I have more than enough life-points to survive the turn." _Damien thought as he glared at Chloe. "Just take your damn turn already." Damien demanded and Chloe drew her card.

"_This may be my only chance, I can't risk him drawing a card like Mystical Space Typhoon next turn if he manages to bring her back from the dead again." _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card and getting an idea. "First since my Magician has all five of her counters I can special summon her older version and my best monster, Silent Magician Level Eight!" Chloe played the card and Silent Magician started glowing and growing until she was older, wiser and more powerful (8/3500/1000). "Next I activate Emergency Provisions, I use it to destroy Fiendish Chain and gain back one thousand life-points!" Chloe announced as she played the card and Fiendish Chain dissolved bringing her life-points up to 1600.

"You may have padded out your life-points but I have more tricks up my sleeve than Star Magician Girl!" Damien responded and Chloe scoffed.

"Really, because all you've done in this duel is rely on Star Magician Girl and her monster stealing effect even bringing her back from the graveyard after I destroyed her." Chloe responded and Damien growled. "Do you even have any other monsters besides Gaggaga Magician, Gaggaga Girl and Star Magician Girl in your deck?"

"Off course I do, I just haven't drawn them"! Damien responded and Chloe scoffed. "Why don't we make things interesting then and add an ante to this duel?"

"Aren't ante duels banned in Duel Academy?" Chloe asked as she scratched her head.

"Only if they are between students Chloe, trust me, I asked." Theresa responded and Chloe grinned at that.

"Then we have a deal, I'll offer up the three monsters that I've played in this duel." Damien continued and Chloe nodded. "And you offer up your Silent Magician cards."

"I can't accept that!" Chloe insisted and Damien frowned.

"_Don't be so hasty Chloe." _Silent Magician communicated with her telepathically. _"You may be behind on life-points but you can do this, take his offer."_

"_Wait, why aren't you speaking out loud?" _Chloe asked and Silent Magician sighed.

"_Do you want to try explaining Duel Spirits to Chelsea's older sister without sounding insane?" _Silent Magician asked and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"_Good point." _Chloe admitted before looking up at Damien. "On second thought, you have a deal."

"Good, it's not like you'll need you whore magicians when I'm done with you." Damien responded with a smirk and Chloe growled.

"_Stay calm Chloe, he's messing with your head." _Silent Magician reassured her and Chloe took a deep breath.

"_I'll try." _Chloe thought before pointing to Star Magician Girl. "Silent Magician, take out his Spellcaster for good!" Chloe commanded and Silent Magician pointed her staff at Star Magician Girl before firing a beam of white light at the XYZ Monster destroying her and bringing Damien's life-points down to 7400. "Now I activate my facedown card Call of the Haunted!"

"Let me guess, your plan is to bring back Gemini Elf?" Damien asked as Chloe searched through her deck.

"Why go with her when I can summon something that can do more damage?" Chloe asked as she retrieved the card. "I summon Night's End Sorcerer!"

"Oh no, when that card is Special Summoned his effect automatically removes two cards from my graveyard from play!" Damien realized as his eyes widened and the sorcerer in raggy clothes appeared on the field (2/1300/400). "When did that card end up in your graveyard? I never destroyed it!"

"Remember Heaven's Lost Property? He was the card that I discarded alongside Magicat." Chloe responded with a grin. "As for the cards you're banishing, I chose Star Magician Girl and XYZ Reborn." Chloe added and Damien frowned before pocketing the two cards. "Oh and guess what? It's still my Battle Phase, Night's End Sorcerer attack his life-points directly!" Chloe commanded and the sorcerer launched his attack at Damien bringing his life-points down to 6100. "I end my turn." Chloe announced and Damien drew his card.

"I activate the Spell Card called Card of Variation!" Damien announced as he quickly played the card. "Now I draw two cards but unless I discard one during my end phase I take three thousand points of damage." Damien added before drawing his cards. "When I said that I hadn't drawn my other monsters I meant it, I summon Breaker, the Magical Warrior!" Damien played the card and the monster that Chloe was all too familiar with appeared on the field (4/1600/1000) and his attack increased to 2400, three hundred from his effect and five hundred from the seal.

"_Damn it, I should've resolved my effects first and then used Emergency Provisions instead, my life-points would be at the same level but I wouldn't have lost any life-points this turn." _Chloe thought with a frown as she glared at her opponent.

"_That's true Chloe but as long as I'm on the field you're safe." _Silent Magician responded and Chloe nodded in response.

"Breaker, destroy that Tuner Monster now!" Damien commanded and the Spellcaster charged towards Night's End Sorcerer before cutting him in half with his sword bringing Chloe's life-points down to 500. "You're lucky you drew Emergency Provisions last turn otherwise this duel would've ended, I end my turn but before I do I discard a card to keep my life-points safe from Card of Variation's effect." Damien announced as he discarded a card and Chloe drew her card.

"_At this point I can't risk him drawing something like Compulsory Evacuation Device and winning the duel, I have to win this now." _Chloe thought before looking at her drawn card. _"This may help." _Chloe thought before playing the card. "I activate Arkhasic Record, with this Spell Card I get to draw two cards but if I've used any of them they get removed from play." Chloe announced before drawing her cards. _"Okay, Message in a Bottle and….." _Chloe's thoughts trailed off when she saw the other card. _"It's risky but where would the fun be in Duel Monsters if there wasn't any risks involved?"_

"_I hope you don't mean the Orichalcos Chloe." _Silent Magician said as she glanced towards her.

"_Silent Magician I said risky, not almost suicidal!" _Chloe responded as she sent her spell card to the graveyard. "I haven't used either of these cards so I get to keep them both."

"It won't matter if they were dead draws." Damien pointed out with a smirk and Chloe shook her head.

"They weren't dead draws, far from it!" Chloe responded before she activated a card. "I activate another Spell Card and this one's called Message in a Bottle, with it I can target three monsters with different levels in my graveyard and Special Summon them all with their attacks reduced to zero and their effects negated so I summon, in order of level going up, Effect Veiler, Mathematician and Gemini Elf!" Chloe played the cards and all three Spellcasters appeared on the field again.

"Are you insane? If you don't do an XYZ Summon with those three monsters you'll lose the duel and their levels are completely different!" Damien asked with a laugh and Chloe glared at him.

"I'm being called insane by the one who played the Seal of the Orichalcos if that's not a case of Pot calling the Kettle Black I don't know what is." Chloe responded and the others sweat-dropped. "What?"

"Chloe, you just called yourself insane." Jamie pointed out and Chloe sweat-dropped as a look of panic washed over her face. "What do you think "pot calling the kettle black" means?"

"How about we just pretend that I never said and move on?" Chloe asked with a nervous laugh and the others nodded in response. "Anyway I wouldn't have used Message in a Bottle if I didn't have a plan and here it is I activate another Spell Card called Star Light, Star Bright!" Chloe played the card and Gemini Elf started glowing.

"What are you doing?!" Damien demanded and Chloe smirked.

"Setting up my own XYZ Summon, that's what! With this Spell Card I can target one monster I control, in this case Gemini Elf and each monster whose attack points match hers gain a level until their levels match hers." Chloe explained as Mathematician's and Effect Veiler's levels increased to four. "And that means the stage is set! I use Gemini Elf, Mathematician and Effect Veiler to construct the overlay network!"

"_A three monster Rank 4 XYZ, this could be trouble." _Damien thought as the three monsters were sucked into the network.

"I've been waiting for a chance to debut this monster and now I have it!" Chloe continued before she retrieved the monster from her extra deck and played it. "I summon Alchemic Magician in attack mode!" Chloe played the card and a new monster appeared from the Overlay Network, she was a teenaged girl likely a couple of years younger than Chloe long green hair who was wearing a blue and green outfit and a crystal ball was floating around her (Rank: 4/1500/1500).

"Hah! That's your big play?!" Damien scoffed and Chloe's eyes narrowed. "She's not even strong enough to defeat Breaker!"

"Look again." Chloe told him and Damien did so, to his surprise Alchemic Magician's attack points had shot up to 2700.

"Where did all those attack points come from?!" Damien demanded and Chloe smirked.

"They came from all the Spell Cards I've activated since the duel began." Chloe responded as she held up her graveyard. "Spellbook Inside The Pot, Heaven's Lost Property, Emergency Provisions, Arkhasic Record, Message in a Bottle and Star Light, Star Bright, that's six in total and Alchemic Magician gains two hundred attack points for each one."

"Wait a minute let's not be too hasty here." Damien said with a gulp as Chloe pointed to Breaker.

"Alchemic Magician, attack Breaker!" Chloe commanded and the XYZ monster casted a spell at Breaker destroying him and bringing Damien's life-points down to 5800. "Silent Magician, it's your turn!"

"_And I'll attack him with pleasure Chloe!" _Silent Magician responded telepathically before launching her attack at Damien bringing his life-points down to 2300. "Face it Damien, you've lost! You may as well give up!"

"Give up to one of you brats? NEVER! I'm still in this duel" Damien said defiantly as he got back to his feet. "Are you done?"

"Not yet, Alchemic Magician has another effect and unlike you I'm going to reveal it." Chloe responded as she detached Effect Veiler. "I end my turn which lets me activate my Magician's effect! During my end phase I can detach one overlay unit and discard a card from my hand…." Chloe trailed off as she discarded a card and picked up her deck. "And with it I can pick one Spell Card from my deck and set it facedown." Chloe added before setting the card and shuffling her deck. "It's your move." Chloe told Damien and he growled before drawing his card.

"I set one card facedown and a card in defense mode." Damien announced as the facedown cards appeared on the field. "And I end my turn." Damien added and Chloe drew her card. _"This is perfect, my facedown Mirror Force will wipe out her magicians and any other monsters she summons allowing my facedown Night's End Sorcerer to finish the job!"_

"I activate my facedown card Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy the facedown card you just set." Chloe announced and Damien's eyes widened as the storm blew away his Mirror Force. "And since another Spell Card was just sent to my graveyard…."Chloe trailed off as Alchemic Magician's attack rose to 2900.

"Wait a minute, let's talk about this!" Damien pleaded as he started sweating bullets.

"The time for talk is over and I'll be taking your three monsters as we agreed! Alchemic Magician, attack his last line of defense!" Chloe commanded and the magician casted her spell at Damien's Night's End Sorcerer destroying him. "Silent Magician, finish him!"

"NO! NO!" Damien yelled out as the beam of light from Silent Magician's staff hit him bringing his life-points down to zero, Chloe breathed a sigh of relief as the seal closed in around Damien claiming his soul as the rest of the holograms disappeared.

"Nice going Chloe." Chelsea complemented her as Chloe waited for the seal to vanish before going over to claim her prizes. "Are we sure those cards are legal? I've never heard of them."

"Their legal, you can trust me on that." Jamie chimed in as she walked up to Chloe. "That line cook I mentioned earlier? She's a duelist as well and she runs a similar deck to his with Star Magician Girl as her main card, if they work on her duel disk then they should work on yours."

"We should probably tell the staff that an Orichalcos Duelist snuck onto the island, they'd want to know." Chelsea pointed out but before Chloe could respond they heard footsteps approaching.

"No need, I witnessed most of the duel." Sarah responded as she walked towards the group. "The guards reported that you girls never arrived at your new dorm rooms and missed your dorm check, I had a feeling something was wrong so I came out here to investigate."

"And that's when you saw me dueling him?" Chloe asked and Sarah nodded. "Wait, dorm checks? What time is it exactly?" Chloe asked and Sarah checked the time on her watch.

"Twenty past midnight, an hour and twenty minutes past curfew." Sarah responded and the two girls winced when they heard that. "However under the circumstances I'll let this slide but don't make a habit of it girls." Sarah responded and the two girls nodded. "The rest of you had better had back to your dorms I'll talk to your headmasters in the morning and explain the situation."

"Thanks Sarah." Lance responded with a nod before turning to Chloe. "So, about what happened at the party?"

"Let's leave that until tomorrow Lance, I think a good night's sleep will help me clear my head on that matter anyway." Chloe responded and Lance nodded before the group departed.


	112. Post Party Hangover

It was the day after the promotion duels, the party that followed and Chloe's duel against Damien outside the Ra Yellow Boy's dorm and at the moment the students were getting settled into their dorms including Chloe and Chelsea.

"Oh man, do I have to get up yet?" Chloe moaned as she used her finger to run some sleep out of her eye, the girls' new dorm room was much bigger than their old one and had two desktop PCs one for Chelsea and one for Chloe, and two separate beds, Chelsea looked up from her desktop and smirked.

"Don't blame ya I didn't want to wake up either." Chelsea said with a grin as she turned to her roommate. "Don't get me wrong, I'll miss sleeping with you in the bunk bed in our old dorm room but….." Chelsea trailed off before blushing like a madwoman as Chloe laughed her head off. "Not a word of this to anyone, especially not the boys!"

"You got a deal Chelsea." Chloe responded as she stopped laughing and sat up. "How about you just try that sentence again?"

"What I meant to say is that I'll miss sleeping in the top bunk of our old bunk beds but it feels good to have my own bed again, not to mention a comfy bed at that." Chelsea responded with a sheepish grin as Chloe got out of bed. "Speaking of the boys, what do you plan to do about Lance?"

"I'll pop by his new dorm room later, I still need to figure out if I want to go through with this relationship upgrade and he's probably getting himself sorted out." Chloe responded before she started making her way to the closet nearest Chelsea.

"Oh right, almost forgot, we also have our own separate closets, mine's the one nearest my desktop and yours is the one nearest your desktop." Chelsea told her and Chloe nodded before turning around and walking over to her closet.

"Thanks for the warning." Chloe sighed as she made her way over to the closet. "I was actually wondering something about your sister last night but by the time I got around to asking you, well you had dozed off."

"It was nearly half past midnight by the time we found our dorm room, give me a break." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "What were you wondering?"

"It was the age difference, the only other time I saw an age difference that big was in a family with five kids in it, is it the same situation with you?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded.

"Yeah, I'm the youngest, Jamie's the oldest." Chelsea responded as she turned to Chloe. "We have three brothers, Danny's the second youngest, Mark's in the middle and Chris is the second oldest." Chelsea added with a grin. "Because of that they affectionately called me runt growing up but they thankfully dropped that nickname when I hit puberty, mostly because I threatened to kick them in the nuts every time they called me that."

"I'm almost tempted to ask if you really meant it but knowing your temper…." Chloe trailed off and Chelsea sighed.

"Yeah I did get an earful from my parents for that but it did get the message across." Chelsea responded with a grin. "Nowadays the boys refer to me as a boy who was born a girl due to my hobbies and lesbian status but Jamie doesn't." Chelsea added with a grin. "Then again the last time I saw my brothers was when they took me out for a good old Deep Pan Pizza at my favorite pizzeria to celebrate my admittance into the academy though I still talk to them on Skype occasionally."

"So they took you out to eat a pizza that's not as good as the pizza in my home city, good to know." Chloe said with a broad grin as she got changed into a crop top and jeans and Chelsea's eyes narrowed.

"Oh you did NOT just say that!" Chelsea said as she span around in her computer chair. "No offense Chloe but New York pizza fucking sucks! It's nowhere near as good as Chicago Deep Pan!"

"Please, they make the pizza that way to make up for its awful taste!" Chloe said as Chelsea stood up. "New York pizza is so much better that it can't even be compared!"

"I don't know what pizzerias you've been too in Chicago but they must've been shit if you think that!" Chelsea responded as she marched up to her roommate. "Because otherwise I could smell the bullshit you're spewing from the North Side of the island!"

"Fine, be delusional, but we both know New York's pizza is better!" Chloe responded with a smirk.

"Chicago!" Chelsea yelled and Chloe frowned.

"New York!" Chloe responded and the two girls went back and forth on the subject for a few minutes.

"_Silent Magician, should we intervene before they hurt themselves?" _Wattchimera asked as the telepathic forms off the two duel spirits appeared alongside their passionately arguing protégés.

"_Normally I would, but I was expecting a dull day today so I may as well enjoy this whilst it lasts." _Silent Magician responded as they watched the two girls go back and forth, eventually their arguing was cut off by a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." Chloe said after a few seconds before she took a deep breath and answered the door, she saw two girls standing there and one of them looked Italian. "Err, hi, something wrong?"

"Well, we heard you two arguing and we didn't want to disturb Sarah." The girl who had knocked on the door, a short girl with shoulder length red hair and green eyes, explained to them and Chloe and Chelsea sweat-dropped in response. "So are you two okay?"

"We're fine." Chelsea said as she approached the door. "We were just having a friendly discussion."

"You call that friendly? It sounded like you were about to come to blows!" The red head pointed out and Chloe shook her head.

"It was a pizza discussion, I'm a New Yorker and she's from Chicago." Chloe explained and the two girls nodded in response. "It was friendly compared to some of the arguments I've seen on that topic, I'll say that much."

"I'll bet." The Italian girl, who was quite a bit taller than her friend and had elbow length dark brown hair, said with a grin. "I'm Gabrielle and she's Stacy, we're new students and your new neighbors."

"I'm Chloe and the girl with no taste in pizza is Chelsea." Chloe introduced herself and Chelsea laughed hysterically.

"That's rich coming from the girl from New York!" Chelsea responded as she wiped away tears of laughter. "Seriously though, we just graduated from Osiris Red ourselves and I've known Chloe so long that I could never hurt her, you had nothing to worry about."

"If you say so as for pizza well I'm from Indiana and I'm not even a big fan of pizza." Stacey responded and the two girls rolled their eyes.

"You just haven't had good pizza, like from New York!" Chloe chimed in and Chelsea scoffed.

"And by that she means Chicago." Chelsea responded and Chloe went to retort but Gabrielle shook her head.

"You're talking about pizza in front of a girl from Italy do I even need to say anything else?" Gabrielle responded as she shook her head. "Seriously, American pizza can't even compare to pizza from Italy!" Gabrielle added and the two girls went to say something but stopped.

"It's not worth it Chloe, I lived next door to an Italian family back home and my dad, also known as the biggest pizza enthusiast I know, gave up arguing about it with them after a while," Chelsea responded and Chloe sighed.

"Look we're sorry for disturbing you guys, we're only just getting settled in to our new rooms and I haven't even used my desktop yet." Chloe admitted as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "Honestly as long as you don't mind Chelsea playing Heavy Metal we shouldn't have any more problems right?"

"Sure, just don't play it too loudly and we have a deal." Stacey responded with a nod before she and Gabrielle returned to their room, Chloe closed the door behind her as Chelsea returned to her desktop.

"Well, that was stupid." Chloe grunted as she sat down at her desk and Chelsea looked up.

"You mean the argument about pizzas? Yeah, I guess but to be fair how were we supposed to know that one of our neighbors is Italian?" Chelsea asked with a shrug. "Thanks to your duel last night we didn't exactly get a chance to get acquainted with them."

"In my defense I didn't think that it would take as long as it dif." Chloe responded with a frown on her face. "And I also thought that my duel against Lance would be my last one of the day."

"I guess those are good points." Chelsea admitted with a nod. "Speaking of your duel against Damien, I looked up that XYZ Monster you used against him."

"You mean Alchemic Magician?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"You didn't play any others last I checked." Chelsea teased her and Chloe sweat-dropped. "Anyway that card is ridiculously rare, it's not even out in the states yet, how'd you get your hands on it?"

"My dad, that's how." Chloe answered before pausing. "My stepdad that is, I told you he runs a card a card shop right?"

"Yeah, you did what about it?" Chelsea asked and Chloe turned to her.

"Well he was going to get me a laptop for my eighteenth birthday but he couldn't find a decent one online." Chloe started with a sigh. "He promised to make it up for me and when my eighteenth birthday did roll around I got Alchemic Magician in the post."

"Seems like a fair trade to me." Chelsea responded with a grin. "Don't feel too bad about the laptop though, I know from personal experience that it's nearly impossible to get a halfway decent computer of any size or make for a reasonable price and hey, who knows? Maybe you'll buy yourself one once you graduate?"

"That's the plan actually I've been saving up for it since my eighteenth birthday." Chloe responded with a grin. "Speaking of computers, didn't you promise to help get me set up so that I have an idea of what I'm doing?"

"Sure, just give me a sec to finish transferring my albums from my laptop to the desktop." Chelsea responded and Chloe grinned.

"That's what you've been doing all morning?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "Jesus Christ, how many albums do you have?"

"A lot and the CDs I took to the party last night didn't even make up half of my collection." Chelsea responded and Chloe looked at her dumbfounded. "Before you ask were I've been keeping them, well at our old dorm room I kept them under the coffee table that originally housed my laptop but now they are on that shelf above my desktop." Chelsea added as she pointed to the shelf.

"That reminds me are you still going to use your laptop or are you moving to the Desktop permanently?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"I'll be alternating between the two, as good as the desktop is it isn't good enough to run games whilst my laptop was a gaming one I brought years ago and besides, I still need my laptop for IT." Chelsea added before noticing that Chloe was going to say something else. "You're about to ask what I'm going to do when I move up to Obelisk Blue right?"

"Am I that obvious? Don't answer that." Chloe responded and Chelsea smirked.

"I know I'll be doing the same thing when I move up to Obelisk Blue but I have a while before I get to that point at least, besides I have a ton of USBs for that purpose so I have that going for me." Chelsea responded as she transferred another album.

"By the way, have you heard from Beth? I heard she has a roommate now." Chloe asked and Chelsea frowned.

"Yeah, her roommate is the only other girl who graduated with us, you know, Rachel Travis?" Chelsea asked and Chloe nodded. "Fortunately Rachel is okay with me popping over thee for sex with Beth as long as it's not on a study night or if she's out of the room." Chelsea added and after half an hour she was done and she walked over to Chloe. "Okay, let's get you set up!"

*meanwhile*

Whilst the four girls who graduated to Ra Yellow were getting settled in to their new dorms on their own it was a different story at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm as they had chipped in to help each other pack.

"Dude, just how many porno mags do you have?" Marcus asked Lance as he carried a ton of porno mags from a small bag that Lance had brought with him. "And how do you plan on explaining this to Chloe if she stops by your room for sex and she sees all these?"

"Marcus I don't even know if she wants to speak with me after my stunt last night, let alone wants to start dating me." Lance responded with a frown as Marcus plopped the mags down. "And if she does find them I'll tell her the truth, that I have them for my "personal time"." Lance said adding air quotes to the last section and it took Marcus and Andreas, the other boy helping him, a second to figure it out.

"Lance, you just sped past the "too much information" line on a motorcycle whilst jumping over seven school busses and through a ring of fire." Andreas responded with a deadpan expression on his face. "And as for your stunt last night, I think it would've gone over better if you hadn't chosen "Baby" by Justin Bieber."

"For the last time the DJ chose that song for me, and before you point out how poorly thought out that idea was Chelsea beat you too it last night." Lance responded with a frown and Andreas shook his head. "Hopefully we'll be able to talk it out at some point anyway."

"Chloe's likely getting settled into her new room with Chelsea as we speak so you should have some time to think about what you're going to tell her." Marcus responded as he put the last of the porn mags away. "Seriously dude, you realize that the school never bothered to install a firewall on the network right? You can look this stuff up on the internet."

"Marcus, the first time I did that the technicians caught it and I almost got expelled during my first week at the academy." Lance responded with a frown. "I have ways to protect me from suffering through that again but at least with the mags I won't have to worry about some stuffy technician catching on and getting me in trouble."

"As much as I disagree with the idea of porn I'll admit that that is a well thought out plan." Andreas admitted as he shook his head. "Really though, as long as you're not one of those boys who base their expectations of sex on porn you shouldn't have a problem with Chloe."

"Do I look that stupid? Don't answer that." Lance responded and Andreas sweat-dropped. "Speaking of Chloe…."

"You're going to try your luck with her again?" Andreas interrupted him and Lance turned to him. "Don't you remember how long she tends to sleep in from the Battle City Tournament?"

"Yeah I do, and I bet she's thankful that the school decided to hold the promotion duels on a Saturday because of it." Lance responded before shaking his head. "Like I told Chelsea last night when she came to collect me, I'll work it out with Chloe later right now I just want to get settled into my new dorm room."

"Well you would get settled in much quicker if you would actually help us!" Andreas responded as he unpacked Lance's belongings. "I thought we made it clear that we're not touching your clothes with a ten foot pole?"

"And that is why I'm waiting for you guys to leave." Lance responded as he rested his hands behind his head and leaned back. "Besides, I've had a tiring day."

"You woke up barely an hour ago." Andreas responded with a deadpan expression on his face and Lance waved him hand dismissively.

"Details, details, complaining isn't going to get the job done any faster, you know?" Lance asked him and Andreas shook his head. "Besides, neither of you have tried to get me to help in any convincing way so who will?" Lance asked and before either boy could respond there was a knock at the door.

"Are you going to get that or have you been stricken with a case of lazyitus so bad that you can't be bothered to get out of that chair?" Andreas asked and Lance shook his head, Andreas sighed before getting up and answering the door. "Nicola? You came over from the Osiris Red Girl's dorm?"

"Well, I'm here, aren't I?" The autistic teenager asked with a grin on her face. "I wanted to congratulate you on your promotion yesterday but they weren't letting Osiris Red students into the party so here I am."

"That sucks but I guess I can see why." Lance responded as he leaned forward. "How are things in the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm now that Chloe and Chelsea have moved out?"

"Boring, that's what." Nicola responded with a sigh. "Since I got accepted into the academy Chloe is the only one I could hang out with since I knew her from Battle City and, being a fellow New Yorker, we had some things in common, that eventually extended to Chelsea but after they graduated the Girl's dorm is just boring."

"You realize that you can still visit them in Ra Yellow, right? I mean, the dorm differences didn't stop you from coming here." Lance pointed out and Nicola nodded. "Hell I plan on doing that myself later but I still got some stuff to pack."

"And by that he means "get us to pack most of his stuff for him."." Marcus muttered and Lance rolled his eyes. "Seriously dude, what did your last slave die off?"

"He died of non-stop complaining." Lance responded with a deadpan expression on his face. "Anyway, you were saying Nicola?"

"The Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm is my next stop but I figured I'd stop by here and…." Nicola's response was cut off by a very annoying and very familiar laugh. "Jessica Stevens is behind me, isn't she?"

"I can't even see the hallway from here but yes, I'd recognize that laugh anywhere." Lance responded with an annoyed expression on his face as Jessica stepped into view. "Sorry lady but the convention for "annoying strippers posing as students" is two islands over, can you please leave before you annoy us to death?"

"Is that anyway to speak to a fellow Obelisk Blue student Alvers?" Jessica asked as she pushed Nicola out of the way. "Besides if anyone needs to leave it's the retard here before she gets hurt…."

"EXCUSE ME?!" Nicola interrupted her as she stepped into Jessica's view clearly furious over being called that. "I expected some trouble from the students in this dorm but to be called that?!"

"What are you going to do about it huh? I'm at least five inches taller than you and I can duel you under the table any day of the week!" Jessica responded before laughing again as Nicola's frown deepened. "Aww, the retard's trying to be angry I'm so scarred…." Jessica said in a mocking tone and Nicola clenched her fist.

"Nicola, let me handle it, she's not worth getting in trouble over." Andreas whispered to her and Nicola took several deep breaths before unclenching her fist. "She won't do anything but I will!"

"And what are you going to do about it?" Jessica asked him and Andreas smirked.

"What I'm going to do is place Nicola under my protection, effective immediately." Andreas responded and Jessica's smirk quickly disappeared. "Now if I were you I'd hurry on over to the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm before I report your disgusting comments to Martin, am I clear?"

"Crystal." Jessica sneered before glaring at Nicola. "Your boyfriend won't be around to protect you forever." Jessica warned her before storming off and Andreas let Nicola in to Lance's dorm room before closing the door behind them.

"Thanks Andreas, I don't know what I would've done if you weren't there." Nicola responded as she took her final deep breath. "But what was that about me being under your protection?"

"It's something Tyler told me about last night at the Ra Yellow party, basically it's an unofficial rule that states that an Obelisk Blue Student can place a student from Ra Yellow or Osiris Red under their protection for as long as they are at Duel Academy and it's a rule that the staff take very seriously." Andreas explained with a nod. "Depending on how respected that student is any students under their protection won't be bullied and, despite how my tenure in the tournament ended, my status as a Battle City Semi-Finalist should stop most of the bullies from harassing you."

"So theoretically we could do the same for other students?" Lance asked and Andreas nodded.

"It is possible for a student to be protected by more than one Obelisk Blue student, Tyler told me that he considers all members of the Ra Yellow and Osiris Red dorms under his protection, but in the meantime I need to use your desktop quickly Lance." Andreas told him and Lance nodded before finally standing up and letting Andreas take his place.

"Reporting those comments to Martin?" Lance asked and Andreas shook his head as he logged Lance out and logged himself in.

"No, I'm going further up the chain of command and reporting them to Kaiba himself." Andreas responded earning dumbfounded looks from the other students. "Another thing Tyler told me, he said that his step-father takes bullying very seriously and will happily resolve any issues that occur about a student being bullied, on top of that that Nicola being the academy's first ever autistic student was a major PR move for him so if anyone will make sure something gets done about those comments its him."

"Yeah and I'm sure that the teachers will be just thrilled about having a pissed off Kaiba yell down the phone to them so that should keep Jessica out of Nicola's hair." Lance responded with a grin as Nicola hugged Andreas tightly.

"Andreas, you're the best." Nicola said with a broad grin and Andreas chuckled.

"I do try my best to not make the other students feel insignificant to me." Andreas joked as Nicola let him go. "Oh for fuck's sake, I just sounded like Thomas Newborne, didn't I?"

"If Thomas Newborne was a German Student you mean." Marcus responded before pausing. "If anything you sounded more like Otto."

"Gee, thanks for me feel even worse." Andreas muttered sarcastically under his breath as Nicola looked around the dorm room. "Lance, are you sure about having a girl in your dorm room when most of your magazines haven't been packed yet?" Andreas whispered to Lance as he pointed to Nicola. "Especially considering her close friendship with Chloe?"

"Oh come on, what's the harm?" Lance asked with a shrug. "I know she's on the High Functioning end of the autistic spectrum but for all we know she's never even heard of some of those mags."

"Lance, what are some of these magazines?" Nicola asked curiously as she looked at the mags. "They look like the porno ones my brother keeps in his room." Nicola added and Lance's eyes widened before he rushed over and blocked her view.

"Nothing, nothing, just some duel monster magazines…..that happen to feature topless and/or naked women on them…." Lance trailed off as he started sweating bullets. "I have a huge collection of them for no reason whatsoever!"

"…..why would Duel Monster magazines feature that on their cover?" Nicola asked with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't those things put out by I2? I don't think Sophia Pegasus wants that kind of bad press a few months into her reign as CEO of I2 and I didn't see anything about Duel Monsters on the covers."

"Sure there was, let me show you!" Lance responded before quickly turning around and pretending to search through the remaining mags but in actuality was writing on one of them with a pen. "See? This one has details about the next banlist!" Lance added before turning around and holding it up whilst covering the model's naked breasts and the rest of the text with his free arm.

"Well a new banlist was announced today on I2's website." Nicola responded not sounding entirely convinced. "In fact that was the other reason I stopped by."

"Oh that's a coin…..what was that about a new banlist?" Lance asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Andreas?"

"Looking it up now, I've already sent the e-mail to Kaiba." Andreas reasoned as he looked it up. "Okay, nothing new is banned but some cards were unbanned or had their limits lifted."

"What cards were limited?" Marcus asked as Lance put the magazine down and the three teens approached the computer screen.

"Infernity Archfiend is limited, Soul Charge and Super Polymerization are limited…." Andreas trailed off as he took a sip from a drink he had helped himself too. "As for the unbanned cards, Grow-Up Bulb and Raigeki are now limi…." Andreas said before spitting the drink back into its can "WHAT?! Raigeki is limited?!"

"Isn't that the card that could basically wipe out the opponents monsters with no cost?" Lance asked as his jaw dropped. "Magician of Faith I could understand since her effect doesn't really hold up nowadays but Raigeki? And they didn't bring back Heavy Storm?"

"Unfortunately not all though it is funny that you bring up Magician of Faith." Andreas responded as he recovered from the surprise. "As for the semi-limits they are Gale the Whirlwind, Gorz, Ceasefire and Transmigration Prophecy, the unlimited are Coach Soldier Wolfbark, Magician of Faith, Reinforcement of the Army and Formula Synchron."

"Well I can think of three people off the top of my head that'll be happy with the unlimits." Lance commented as he folded his arms. "Chelsea since she's been teching Magician of Faith in her Watt Deck, Chloe since she runs Magician of Faith and Reinforcement of the Army and Hu since he runs Fire Fists."

"Indeed but I can't see anyone being happy that Raigeki is back." Andreas responded before turning to Nicola. "Nicola, I'm sorry for what happened with Jessica back there."

"Yeah in hindsight I should've invited you in and avoided the trouble." Lance added and Nicola nodded.

"It's fine, really." Nicola sighed as she glanced towards the door. "Even as a high functioning autistic person I face difficulties sometimes, usually from idiots who don't know better like Jessica, as you can imagine being called….that word….just pisses me off."

"We understand if anyone uses that disgusting word against you or bullies you in any other way you know where to find me." Andreas responded and Nicola nodded in response. "Well this got depressing quickly, any ideas for a change of subject?"

"I have one." Nicola said and the boys could've sworn they saw a light bulb go off above her head. "I haven't had a decent duel since Battle City ended, not even the proctor I faced to gain admittance to the school was a challenge, what do you say Andreas? Are you up for a rematch?" Nicola asked with a determined grin on her face and Andreas blinked for a second before nodding.

"Now that sounds fun." Andreas said with a grin as he logged out of Lance's desktop. "Just be warned that I'm a lot better than I was back in Battle City."

"I noticed." Nicola responded with a grin.

"You're not going to duel in here I just got the place cleaned." Lance sighed and the two teens shook their heads.

"That wasn't what we were suggesting and besides we've been doing the work for you!" Andreas responded before turning to Nicola. "Name a time and place and I'll be there." Andreas added and Nicola thought for a moment.

"Besides the lake in twenty minutes, that should give you enough time for Lance to get you to finish packing his stuff." Nicola said with a grin and Lance laughed nervously.

"I'll see you there." Andreas responded and Nicola grinned before leaving.

"Quick question, has she even dueled since she joined the Academy?" Lance asked and Andreas shook his head.

"Not from what I've heard, she's been using her first week here to get used to living away from home and the school's schedule." Andreas responded as he looked at his deck. "I did ask several students who were at the duels how she did and she wasn't wrong."

"Didn't she tell you that her deck's improved a lot since Battle City?" Lance asked and Andreas nodded.

"She did but I guess I'll have to see for myself." Andreas added before standing up. "One thing I know for certain is that she still runs Crystal Beasts, that's what I've heard from the students who actually went to the duels, anyway Lance you're helping this time because I don't want to keep her waiting, let's finish packing already."

"Right, let's do it." Lance nodded in response before they started packing his stuff.

*meanwhile*

"Have you had any problems so far Chloe?" Chelsea asked her roommate after she paused a game of Total War: Rome II and Chloe groaned.

"You've asked me that about ten times already and the answer's still no." Chloe responded as she turned her attention to Chelsea. "I've mostly been doing some work in Word and looking at any Duel Monster websites I know are safe."

"Good and sorry, most first time users of computers, in my experience anyway, encounter a few problems and I usually have to bail them out." Chelsea responded and Chloe raised an eyebrow.

"Let me guess, your bothers right?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Yes and no, Chris is a college major and he majored in IT, if anything he helped me get as good at tech as I am today, with mom's help off course, Dan and Mark on the other hand are total geeks in areas that have nothing to do with tech, namely sports and creative writing." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "All though, to be fair they are making careers out of their hobbies, Mark's working on getting his first book published and Dan plays college football back home in Chicago."

"So like you and Jamie in other words?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "I didn't think Jamie would go to culinary school and work for a Michelin Stared Chef if she wasn't seriously into her cooking."

"Yeah, I'll be the first to admit that as far as hobbies and careers go me and my siblings are pretty diverse." Chelsea responded with a nod before sighing. "That said I think that's why my parents have been so hard on me every time I've gotten expelled from a school, they want me to do as well as my older siblings but my damn temper keeps getting in the way."

"Jamie looked like she had a temper during my duel last night and she's done well for herself." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea shook her head.

"Chloe, she's a chef, having a short temper is practically a job requirement for her." Chelsea responded before there was a knock at the door. "Is it Stacey and Gabrielle again?"

"I'll check." Chloe responded before standing up and answering the door, when she opened it she grinned seeing a familiar female Osiris Red Student. "Hey Nicola, what's up?"

"You guys mind if I come in for a sec?" Nicola asked and Chloe turned to Chelsea who shrugged her shoulders in a way that seemed to say "why not" and Chloe let her in. "Thanks, I wanted to congratulate you on your promotions yesterday." Nicola added as Chloe closed the door behind her.

"Thanks Nic, but looking back it was all down to luck of the draw." Chelsea responded with a frown and Nicola shook her head.

"Don't most duels come down to that at the end of the day?" Nicola asked and the other two girls sweat-dropped in response. "Anyway, there is another reason I stopped by here, I stopped by the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm first to see Andreas."

"Considering your crush on him is almost as obvious as Chloe's crush on Lance that's not really a surprise." Chelsea responded earning mock death glares from the other girls. "What? I'm just saying!"

"Anyway…." Nicola trailed off as she shook her head. "Long story short, after a nasty encounter with Jessica I ended up challenging Andreas to a rematch from our first encounter during Battle City, I was wondering if you could give me some insights into how much his deck has changed."

"Well just of the top of my head, he uses a lot more swarming cards and his extra deck nowadays is a hybrid of Fusion, Synchro and XYZ monsters." Chloe responded and Nicola nodded in response. "Wait, what was that about Jessica Stevens?"

"It's nothing, really." Nicola lied and Chelsea shook her head.

"Nic, trust me, with that bitch it's never just "nothing"." Chelsea responded as she stood up. "We're friends aren't we? You can tell us."

"Fine, like I said I bumped into Jessica outside Lance's new dorm room." Nicola said as she folded her arms. "And….."

*meanwhile outside the dorm*

"_Finally found my sister's new dorm." _Jamie thought with a grin as she approached it, her flight wasn't due to leave for a few hours so she still had time to chat with Chelsea. _"We may have run out of time last night but I don't think they'll be a problem today, as long as Chelsea keeps her temper in check…."_

"SHE CALLED YOU A WHAT?!" Chelsea's clearly enraged voice rang out from inside the dorm and Jamie sweat-dropped.

"_I've literally known her all her life and I still get caught off guard by Chelsea's temper." _Jamie thought with a sigh as she approached the girl's dorm. _"Better see what this is about before she hurts someone."_

*back inside the dorm room*

"Seriously, you call THAT nothing?!" Chelsea asked as Nicola gulped. "At least tell me you filed a complaint against her?"

"Andreas filed the complaint for me." Nicola responded with a nod. "Not only that but he filed it to Kaiba himself, I don't think Jessica will be bothering me for a while."

"What was Jessica even doing in the boy's dorm?" Chloe asked as she folded her arms. "I thought I heard that Cameron had gone to his parents' home for a couple of days following an incident at the Obelisk Blue party?"

"He did but if I had to guess she was cheating on him with someone, it's pretty much the worst kept secret at Duel Academy." Chelsea responded as she shook her head.

"Look, it doesn't matter okay?" Nicola sighed as she sat down on a chair. "Like I said, Andreas reported the insult to Kaiba himself and as far as I'm concerned that's the only thing that matters." Nicola added and the two girls frowned.

"_It seems that Nicola is getting stressed just talking about that incident." _Silent Magician commented as she appeared alongside Chloe in her transparent form. _"I'd suggest changing the subject."_

"_Can't help but agree there Silent Magician." _Chloe responded before sighing. "Nicola, we're sorry we pressed you about the incident with Jessica, we've had our own nasty run-ins with her and we know what she's like."

"Don't worry about it Chloe, I shouldn't have brought it up in the first place." Nicola sighed in response and Chelsea sighed. "I should've known better and I really don't need this stress right now, not with a duel coming up."

"Wait, you're facing someone in a duel?" Chelsea asked and Nicola nodded. "Well if anything it'll be a good stress reliever, who's the duel against?"

"Andreas, we were talking about the incident with Jessica and he decided to try to take our minds off it." Nicola explained as she took a deep breath. "The duel was my idea as I haven't had a decent challenge since I enrolled here and we agreed to meet up near the lake in twenty minutes."

"Well to be fair, you haven't done much dueling either." Chelsea pointed out and Nicola shook her head.

"I wanted to get used to the school schedule and living away from home first." Nicola explained before there was a knock at the door. "Is twenty minutes up already?"

"From the sounds of it you challenged him a couple of minutes ago, relax, you're okay for time." Chelsea reassured her before going to answer the door, when she opened it she grinned broadly. "Jamie, I thought you had left!" Chelsea greeted her older sister who shook her head.

"My flight isn't until much later and besides, I wouldn't miss out on a chance to chat with my little sis." Jamie responded with a grin as Chelsea let her in. "I recognize Chloe from the duel last night but who's she?"

"Hi, I'm Nicola." Nicola introduced herself with a grin. "I'm a friend of Chelsea's."

"Nice to meet you I'm Jamie, Chelsea's older sister." Jamie responded before turning to Chelsea and frowning. "I heard you yelling from outside the dorm Chelsea." Jamie commented and Chelsea sighed.

"Nicola, you okay with me telling her?" Chelsea asked and Nicola nodded. "I'll keep this short and sweet, Nicola's the academy's first ever autistic student and she had a nasty run-in with a student in Obelisk Blue."

"How nasty are we talking here?" Jamie asked and her tone of voice made it clear to the three girls that she didn't like where it was going.

"The student, god I hate saying this word, called Nicola a retard to her face, twice." Chelsea responded and Jamie's frown deepened. "A complaint's already been filed but I was pretty pissed about it."

"I don't blame you, especially since she doesn't seem that different from any other student." Jamie responded with a frown. "Let me guess, your high functioning right?"

"That's right." Nicola responded with a nod. "Truth be told, I probably would've punched her if Andreas hadn't talked me down."

"Based on what you told us I doubt you would've gotten in trouble for that since you would've had three students, including Andreas, backing you up," Chloe pointed out and Jamie frowned.

"Andreas was just playing it safe, not saying I support the idea of solving the issue with your fists but I don't blame you either." Jamie responded before turning to the girls. "Anyway, Nicola, it's been great meeting you, same to you Chloe, but me and Chelsea have a lot of catching up to do."

"I understand I have a duel to get too anyway." Nicola responded as she stood up and turned to Chloe. "Are you coming Chloe?"

"I wouldn't miss it." Chloe responded as she walked up to Nicola and glanced over at Chelsea. "You'll try to make it in time for the duel right?"

"That's like asking how long a piece of string is, can't really make any promises but I'll see what I can do." Chelsea responded with a nod and the two girls nodded before leaving.

*later on*

Whilst Chelsea was catching up with her older sister another reunion of sorts was happening not far from the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm, however this one was more of a reunion of how these two duelists met than them catching up.

"Okay Nicola, standard rules apply of course." Andreas commented as the two teens stood opposite each other with the large lake in the background. "I'd suggest using the Battle City rules except neither of us have any locater cards to spare and ante duels are forbidden at the academy."

"Well that and Battle City used the traditional format which the school, obviously, doesn't." Nicola responded and Andreas nodded in response. "Hell I've heard that they are dropping the traditional format for next year's tournament."

"Given the ridiculous amounts of banned cards used in that tournament, some by my fellow students." Andreas commented and Lance started whistling innocently whilst Chloe laughed nervously. "Seriously people, Mirage of Nightmare and Delinquent Duo? I'm surprised you didn't bust out Raigeki at the time!"

"That is coming from the guy who once ran Zemen the Ape King and actually led Duel Academy to ban that card after you fought Rajin and only won because he surrendered." Lance pointed out and Andreas sweat-dropped in annoyance. "Hello Mr. Pot, I'm Mr. Kettle and I must inform you that you are black."

"Yes, yes, I get it I once ran that damn card." Andreas grunted in annoyance as he turned to Lance. "But I've since sorted out my differences with Rajin and that card's in some scrap heat somewhere, besides I only used it once!"

"And I can say the same for Delinquent Duo!" Lance pointed out before pointing to Chloe. "Hell she's even worse than the both of us because she used Mirage of Nightmare several times!"

"Lance, do me a favor and leave me out of this before I get a headache." Chloe responded as she pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Besides, I thought this was supposed to be a rematch between Andreas and Nicola, not a dick measuring contest between you and Andreas."

"Well we both know who'd win that contest but your right." Lance responded with a grin and Andreas shook his head. "Where were we again?"

"I was basically saying that this duel will be under Duel Academy rules." Andreas responded with a sigh before they activated their duel disks and drew their opening hands. "Now if I remember correctly I went first when we faced off in Battle City, just for the sake for fairness you should go first this time Nicola."

"That sounds good to me." Nicola responded as she made her first draw. "For starters I activate Terra Forming!"

"_Nicola runs Crystal Beasts so it's a safe bet that she's retrieving Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins." _Chloe thought as Nicola picked up and started searching through her deck. _"I'll take that field spell over The Seal of the Orichalcos any day of the week."_

"I think it goes without saying that I'm retrieving Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins." Nicola continued as she found the field spell, added it to her hand and shuffled her deck. "And now I activate it!" Nicola played the card and the scenery changed to the ancient ruins with the rainbow above them.

"It has been too long since I've seen this Field Spell." Andreas commented as he looked around. "Very beautiful indeed, almost as much as you….." Andreas trailed off before realizing what he had said. "I did not mean to say that out loud."

"Sure you didn't." Marcus teased him earning a death glare from Andreas.

"Ahem, anyway, I still remember the Field Spell's effect and I know that you need to have at least one Crystal Beast Monster in your Spell/Trap card zone if you want to keep it around long enough to take full advantage of it." Andreas continued and Nicola smirked. _"And with Mystical Space Typhoon in my hand it'll be a simple matter to destroy it."_

"That may be true but I think you forgot that I have a Crystal Beast Monster that can add another one to the Spell/Trap Card zone." Nicola responded before she played another card. "I summon Crystal Beast – Sapphire Pegasus!"

"_Okay, so it won't be that simple." _Andreas thought with a frown as Sapphire Pegasus appeared on the field (4/1800/1200).

"And when she's summoned her effect activates letting me place another Crystal Beast in my Spell/Trap Card zone from my deck, hand or graveyard, I chose deck because Sapphire Pegasus was the only monster in my hand." Nicola continued as she picked up her deck again and searching through it, once she found the card she wanted she placed it in her Spell/Trap Card zone.

"Yes and since you have one in your Spell/Trap card zone your field spell can't be destroyed." Andreas responded with a frown. _"Doesn't matter, I have everything I need to summon Thunder Unicorn on my turn and since she doesn't have enough monsters in her Spell/Trap Card zones to cut the damage in half I'll be able to do some decent damage."_

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Nicola announced and Andreas drew his card. _"Did he really call me beautiful? Oh man, maybe I have a chance with him after all!"_ Nicola thought before shaking her head. _"Focus Nicola, focus, he may have protected me from Jessica earlier….and from those boys back when we first met…..but he's still my opponent!"_

"_I don't have enough destruction cards to get rid of all her cards, really missing Heavy Storm right now, but I can destroy one." _Andreas thought before playing the card. "I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I destroy the facedown card on the left!" Andreas announced and Nicola braced herself as the tornado ripped her facedown card to shreds. "It's true that I could've destroyed the Crystal Beast card instead but knowing your deck you have more than one way of getting Crystal Beast monsters in there."

"Yeah, well, you may have destroyed my facedown card but you still have to contend with Sapphire Pegasus!" Nicola retorted as Sapphire Pegasus neighed at Andreas.

"Yes but that will soon be remedied." Andreas responded before looking at his hand. _"I was going to summon Thunder Unicorn but this is a much better move." _Andreas thought before discarding a monster from his hand. "By discarding one Beast Type Monster from my hand I can Special Summon the Tuner Monster Egotistical Ape!" Andreas played the card and the large monkey shadow appeared on the field (5/1200/1200). "And since I special summoned my Ape this way I can activate one of two effects, either I can decrease its level by the level of the discarded monster or I can increase it by that same level."

"You said it was a Tuner Monster so I'm guessing that you're going to decrease its level?" Nicola asked and Andreas nodded as Egotistical Ape's level decreased to four.

"And for my normal summon I bring out Lock Cat!" Andreas played the card and the white cat with the gold lock around her neck appeared on the field (3/1200/1000). "This in turn activates Lock Cat's effect…."

"Aww she's so cute!" Nicola cawed and the others sweat-dropped, once Nicola realized that she said it out loud she laughed nervously. "Sorry, I'm a bit of an animal lover in general but cats are my favorite." Nicola explained as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"Anyway as I was saying, by summoning Lock Cat I activate her effect, this allows me to special summon one Level One Beast Monster from my graveyard with its effects negated." Andreas said as he retrieved the monster he discarded for Egotistical Ape's effect. "As you may remember I discarded such a monster for Egotistical Ape's effect so I summon Key Mouse!" Andreas played the card and the small mouse with a lock around his neck and a key around his tail appeared on the field (1/100/100). "Key Mouse's effect may be negated but effect or no effect he's still a tuner monster!"

"And what good will two Tuner Monsters do you?" Nicola asked as she tilted her head in confusion. "I don't even use Synchro Monsters and even I know that you only need one Tuner Monster for the Synchro Summon."

"Why don't I show you? I tune Egotistical Ape with Lock Cat!" Andreas announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, the Synchro Summon was performed successfully and Voltic Bicorn appeared on the field (7/2500/2000). "Now I could go on the attack but I won't, not just yet anyway." Andreas responded before pointing to Key Mouse. "Now I tune Voltic Bicorn with Key Mouse to Synchro Summon another Synchro Monster!"

"Wait, another Synchro Monster? What are you summoning now" Nicola asked and her question was soon answered when the Synchro Summon was performed and Lightning Tricorn appeared on the field (8/2800/2000). "You do know you could've summoned it quicker by just using Egotistical Ape and Lock Cat right?"

"I have my reasons." Andreas responded with a frown. _"She's clearly not familiar with the Unicorn series of Synchro Monsters I guess I'll have to give her a crash course." _Andreas thought before pointing to Sapphire Pegasus. "Lightning Tricorn, attack Sapphire Pegasus!" Andreas commanded and the unicorn charged into battle….

"I activate my Trap Card Beast Soul Swap!" Nicola activated her trap card and Andreas frowned when he heard the name. "And being a Beast Type user you should know what this does!"

"Yes, it'll allow you to send one Beast Type Monster you control back to your hand in exchange for Special Summoning a monster with the same level." Andreas responded with a nod as Sapphire Pegasus disappeared from the field. "And since you said that you only had Sapphire Pegasus in your hand…."

"You got it! Sapphire Pegasus is coming back!" Nicola played the card and Sapphire Pegasus returned to the field crouching down in defense mode. "You know what the best part is though? Sapphire Pegasus doesn't care if she's normal, flipped or Special Summoned, her effect activates anyway!" Nicola responded before picking up her deck and searching through it.

"_It would appear that I destroyed the wrong facedown card." _Andreas thought as Nicola placed another monster in the Spell/Trap Card zone. _"Luckily I have some tricks off my own." _Andreas thought as Nicola shuffled her deck. "I'm in no hurry to give you a third monster Nicola so I'll end my battle phase." Andreas continued as Lightning Tricorn stepped down. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas set the two cards and Nicola drew her card.

"_I wanted to use Crystal Raigeki to clear his side of the field like I did in our first duel." _Nicola thought with a frown as she glanced at her graveyard. _"But Andreas put a stop to that with Mystical Space Typhoon I guess I should be lucky that he didn't draw another destruction card."_

"_Nicola's taking her time, which likely means she's planning her next move." _Andreas thought as he glanced at his field. _"But my two facedown cards will keep her at bay for the moment."_

"_Hello…." _Nicola thought with a grin as she looked at her drawn card. "You've played a cat and now it's my turn!"

"Oh no, don't tell me you drew Amethyst Cat?" Andreas asked as Nicola played the card and Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat appeared on the field (3/1200/400).

"You know it and I'm about to draw first blood with her effect! Amethyst Cat, attack his life-points directly!" Nicola commanded and the cat leapt over the much larger unicorn before slashing Andreas with her claws bringing his life-points down to 7400. "The damage may be cut in half by Amethyst Cat's effect but Battle Damage is still Battle Damage."

"And I'll be dealing a lot more when I attack with Tricorn." Andreas responded with a frown. _"Nicola has two monsters in her Spell/Trap Card zone meaning that any battle damage I inflict will be cut in half thanks to Rainbow Ruins, at most I can inflict eight hundred points of damage." _Andreas thought before turning to Nicola. "You have any other moves?"

"Nope, I'm done." Nicola responded and Andreas drew his card.

"_It seems that my luck is paying off, with the monster I just drew I can replenish my hand next turn and Synchro Summon Thunder Unicorn this turn." _Andreas thought before frowning. _"However Nicola has seen my new monsters in action twice, when I competed against Chelsea and Chloe in the Tag Tournament and when I dueled Maria in my promotion duel, should I run the risk?" _Andreas thought before looking at his hand. _"It appears that I'll have too, I don't have any cards that I could use outside of this combo!"_

"_Andreas is taking a while which is strange since he practically has me on the ropes." _Nicola thought with a frown as Andreas looked over his hand. _"When he does decide to make a move I'll be ready!"_

"By banishing one Spell Card from my hand I can Special Summon Monoceros!" Andreas pocketed the Spell Card and the large brown unicorn appeared on the field (3/1000/1000). "And for my normal summon I bring out the Tuner monster Uni-Horned Familiar!" Andreas played the card and the small, ugly beast appeared on the field next to Monoceros (2/0/100).

"_He's doing another Synchro Summon, this could be trouble." _Nicola thought with a frown as she realized what Andreas was up too. _"Just have to stay calm Nicola, your only facing your future husband…..did I really just call Andreas that?!"_

"From the look on your face you know what's next." Andreas commented as his two weakest beast monsters leapt into the air. "I tune Monoceros and Uni-Horned Familiar together to Synchro Summon the third member of the Unicorn family, Thunder Unicorn!" Andreas played the card and once the bright flash faded the midnight blue unicorn with the orange mane appeared on the field (5/2200/1800). "Before I continue, since I used Monoceros in a Synchro Summon I can use his effect to Special Summon the tuner monster used in the Synchro Summon."

"I know I watched your duel against Maria." Nicola responded as Uni-Horned Familiar reappeared on the field in defense mode. "But unless you're planning another Synchro Summon I don't see the point!"

"I am not and I will get to the point of this later, for now I activate Thunder Unicorn's effect which allows me to reduce the attack points of one of your monsters by five hundred." Andreas continued as Amethyst Cat's attack dropped to 700. "The damage may be cut in half by the effect of your field spell but this will put me in the lead, Lightning Tricorn, attack Amethyst Cat!" Andreas commanded and the stronger unicorn charged towards Amethyst Cat before impaling her on its horn bringing Nicola's life-points down to 6950.

"I think you know how my Crystal Beasts work by now Andreas." Nicola commented as Amethyst Cat appeared in her Spell/Trap Card Zone. "And since I have three monsters now in my Spell/Trap Card Zone the third effect of Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins can be activated."

"Yes, that effect…that I can't remember you explaining for the life of me." Andreas admitted and everyone else face-faulted. "Give me a break, the last time I dueled her was when the Battle City Tournament was on its second day!"

"Honestly I can't remember explaining it either." Nicola admitted as she got up. "But I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, are you going to attack Sapphire Pegasus?" Nicola asked and Andreas frowned.

"_Now this effect I do remember, attacking Sapphire Pegasus will give her four monsters in her Spell/Trap Card Zone which means that she'll be able to draw an extra card during her main phase and besides, I have Mirror Force in my hand which will solve the problem for me if she tries to attack Uni-Horned Familiar." _Andreas thought before shaking his head. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced and Nicola drew her card once the facedown card appeared on the field.

"_Rare Value, I could use this to gain some draw power but I don't trust his facedown card and I need my three Crystal Beast Monsters in the Spell/Trap Card zone to deal with it." _Nicola thought before adding the Spell Card to her hand and moving Sapphire Pegasus to attack mode. "Sapphire Pegasus, attack Uni-Horned Familiar!" Nicola commanded as the Pegasus charged into battle…..

"That's just what I was hoping for! I activate Mirror Force!" Andreas activated his trap card with a smirk before closing his eyes. _"Any moment now she'll get anxious because she screwed up like she did in our first duel…."_

"Gotcha!" Nicola called out breaking Andreas's train of thought, when he looked up he saw that Sapphire Pegasus was gone alongside his trap. "By activating that trap you allowed me to activate the third effect of Rainbow Ruins, all I needed to do was send Sapphire Pegasus to the graveyard and your trap card is negated!"

"Yes but you seem to have forgotten that your still basically defenseless even with my trap card negated." Andreas pointed out and Nicola shook her head.

"Not for long! First I move to my second main phase and activate Rare Value!" Nicola played the Spell Card and Andreas frowned. "Oh, so you remember this effect?"

"Considering how long ago our last duel was and how long it's been since I've seen you duel I'm surprised that I remember that many of your cards." Andreas commented before nodding. "I chose Amethyst Cat to go to the graveyard allowing you to draw two cards."

"That suits me just fine!" Nicola responded before sending her monster to the graveyard and drawing her cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Nicola announced and Andreas drew his card.

"_Nicola might be on the autistic spectrum but she's not stupid, I'll bet my bottom dollar that those facedown cards are something to protect her." _Andreas thought before looking at his drawn card. _"I can't use this, not yet anyway but it might make for a decent combo with Uni-Horned Familiar, first things first though." _Andreas thought before reaching into his pocket. "The spell card I banished to summon Monoceros last turn was Card from a Different Dimension, since a turn has passed since I banished it I get it back and we both draw two cards."

"Thanks for the extra cards." Nicola responded as the two duelists drew their cards.

"Don't thank me just yet, next I set two cards of my own facedown." Andreas announced as his two facedown cards appeared on the field. "Now then Lightning Tricorn, attack her life-points directly and give me an even bigger lead!" Andreas commanded and the golden unicorn charged towards Nicola.

"That's just what I wanted to happen!" Nicola responded and Andreas blinked. "I activate my Trap Card Crystal Raigeki!"

"Oh shit…." Andreas trailed off as one of the monsters in Nicola's Spell/Trap Card zone vanished from the field and Lightning Tricorn was consumed by Crystal mid-charge before shattering.

"You're in Obelisk Blue yet you still fell for that one." Nicola said with a smirk before realizing that Andreas was chuckling. "What's so funny?"

"You are and I'm about to explain why." Andreas responded as he retrieved a monster from his graveyard. "Do you remember the Synchro Summons I performed earlier? It may have been easier to summon Tricorn using Lock Cat and Egotistical Ape but I get more of an advantage this way!"

"What do you mean?" Nicola used before Andreas played the card the Voltic Bicorn returned to the field. "Where did he come from? You didn't play any revival cards!"

"I did, you've been staring at it this whole time." Andreas responded as he held up Lightning Tricorn. "You see, when Lightning Tricorn is destroyed, either via battle or card effect, his own effect activates and this effect allows me to Special Summon either Thunder Unicorn or, in this case, Voltic Bicorn from my graveyard." Andreas explained before frowning when he saw Nicola's hair overshadow her eyes. _"She may be a much better duelist nowadays than when I faced her in Battle City but Nicola is still prone to anxiety attacks whenever she screws up, if she can't handle it now how will she handle it in the pro leagues?"_

"_I don't think that's the case Andreas." _Master of Oz responded and Andreas frowned.

"_You weren't even partnered with me at the time Master of Oz, how would you know that?" _Andreas asked before turning his attention to Nicola. "You can stand there feeling sorry for yourself all you want Nicola but I have a duel to win! Thunder Unicorn, Voltic Bicorn, attack her life-points directly!" Andreas commanded and the two unicorns charged into battle…..

"Who said I was feeling sorry for myself? You just fell for my bluff Andreas!" Nicola responded as her remaining Trap Card flipped up. "I activate my own Mirror Force!" Nicola announced and Andreas's eyes widened as the attacks where reflected back to his unicorns destroying them both.

"You were bluffing?" Andreas asked as his jaw dropped. "But I remembered your anxiety attacks from your duels against me and Theresa like they were yesterday….."

"It's like you said Andreas, that was months ago!" Nicola interrupted him as Andreas regained his composure. "My duels against you and Theresa helped build up my confidence enough for me to get over my anxiety problems in time for my duel to determine if I would join the school or not, do you want to know how many misplays I made during that duel?"

"I get the feeling that there was more than a few." Andreas responded and Nicola nodded.

"Yeah, misplays that I wouldn't normally make, must've been stage fright or something, do you want to know how many anxiety attacks I had?" Nicola asked and Andreas raised an eyebrow. "None, I put on that little show because I knew you'd expect it!"

"As happy as I am for you Nicola Voltic Bicorn has an effect of its own to resolve." Andreas responded as he held up the monster. "Like Lightning Tricorn this effect activates regardless of whether it was destroyed by battle or card effect and with it we have to send seven cards from our decks to the graveyard." Andreas explained as they both milled their cards. _"Let's just hope that Rainbow Dragon was one of them."_

"You do realize that you could've helped me get enough monsters in my graveyard to summon Rainbow Dragon right?" Nicola asked and Andreas nodded in response.

"I am aware of that risk yes, but for now I end my turn." Andreas announced and Nicola drew her card. "Hold on a minute, if you didn't know about Lightning Tricorn's effect then why didn't you use Mirror Force first?"

"I didn't but I figured you had sent Voltic to the graveyard for a Synchro Summon for a good reason so I wanted to see it through." Nicola responded before looking at her drawn card. _"Not Rainbow Dragon but maybe it got sent to the graveyard?" _Nicola thought before turning her attention to Andreas. "You mind if I go through my graveyard quickly?"

"Be my guest." Andreas responded and Nicola grinned before retrieving the contents of her graveyard. _"This could mean one of two things, either she has drawn Rainbow Dragon and wants to make sure that she has enough monsters to summon it or she didn't draw Rainbow Dragon and wants to see if it was one of the monsters she milled through Voltic's effect, either way this could be trouble."_

"_I'm short two monsters to Special Summon Rainbow Dragon." _Nicola thought with a frown before sighing in relief. _"At least I didn't mill Rainbow Dragon, I only have one copy in my deck and I don't have that many cards that can add monsters to the hand from the graveyard." _Nicola thought with a frown before she played her drawn monster. "I summon Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth!"

"_Another blast from the past, I'd better be ready for his attack." _Andreas thought as the mammoth with the amber crystal in its forehead appeared on the field (4/1700/1600). "I chain his summon with one of my trap cards, Limit Reverse!" Andreas announced as his facedown card appeared on the field. "This trap card lets me Special Summon a monster with one thousand or less attack points in attack mode however it'll be destroyed if I move it to defense mode!" Andreas explained as Key Mouse returned to the field. _"Nicola's not the only one who can bluff, let's see if she takes the bait."_

"Well, thanks for making this an easy target for me." Nicola responded with a grin before pausing. _"Wait, maybe he wants me to attack Key Mouse? He still has one facedown card that he could use to destroy Amber Mammoth at worst and at this point I really can't afford to let him hit me with a direct attack." _ Nicola thought before shaking her head. "Nice try Andreas but I'm not falling for that one, Amber Mammoth, attack Uni-Horned Familiar!" Nicola commanded and the mammoth charged into battle…..

"_Perfect!" _Andreas thought before pointing to his tuner. "By attacking Uni-Horned Familiar whilst it's in defense mode you have allowed me to activate his effect, it requires me to banish Uni-Horned Familiar and one other monster." Andreas explained as Uni-Horned Familiar and Key Mouse disappeared from the field and he pocketed both cards. "I'll get Uni-Horned Familiar back during my stand-by phase but until then you must attack me!"

"So you activated that to take a direct attack?" Nicola asked with a raised eyebrow before shrugging. "It's your funeral! Amber Mammoth, attack him directly!" Nicola commanded and the mammoth continued his charge.

"Not quite Nicola, I activate my trap card Battle Instinct!" Andreas activated his other trap and grabbed a monster from his hand. "As you should remember this allows me to Special Summon a Level Four or lower Beast Type Monster from my hand to counter a direct attack!"

"Yeah, I remember!" Nicola responded as Andreas played the card and Berserk Gorilla appeared on the field (4/2000/1000). "So does the effect about me being required to attack him still apply?"

"Yes, it does." Andreas responded and Nicola sighed as Amber Mammoth continued his charge only to be met with a punch from Berserk Gorilla bringing her life-points down to 6650.

"Since Amber Mammoth was destroyed I send it to my Spell/Trap Card Zone instead of the graveyard." Nicola continued as she placed the card there, she then looked at the two cards she had drawn with Card from a Different Dimension and set them. "I end my turn by setting these cards facedown."

"_I've been in control of this match for most of it but I'd be a fool to discount Nicola at this point, she got accepted into the school for a good reason!" _Andreas thought before retrieving a monster from his pocket. "Uni-Horned Familiar returns to the field." Andreas said as the tuner appeared on the field again. "Next, since I no longer have any need for Limit Reverse I activate Magic Planter, destroying Limit Reverse in exchange for drawing two cards." Andreas played the card and once the now useless trap card shattered Andreas drew two cards.

"_It's clear to me what he's up to, he plans to use Berserk Gorilla and Uni-Horned Familiar to Synchro Summon a Level Six monster but I'm ready for it." _Nicola thought as she glanced towards her facedown cards. _"As long as one of the cards he drew with Magic Planter wasn't a card that can destroy either of my facedown cards."_

"And I'm not going to waste any time here, first I activate Foolish Burial!" Andreas played the card and picked up his deck, sent a monster to his graveyard and shuffled his deck. "Next I move Berserk Gorilla to defense mode."

"Wait, what?!" Nicola asked as Berserk Gorilla moved to defense mode and, true to his effect, was destroyed. "Why would you even do that? Berserk Gorilla was your best monster!" Nicola asked but it soon hit her when Andreas's life-points dropped to 7000. "Unless…."

"That's right! The monster I sent to the graveyard with Foolish Burial was Green Baboon, Defender of the Forrest!" Andreas played the card and the massive green baboon appeared on the field (7/2600/1800). "But Uni-Horned Familiar won't be neglected, for my normal summon I bring out Beast Striker!" Andreas played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a humanoid boar that was wearing blue jeans and carrying a giant hammer (4/1850/400).

"I thought I had seen it all when it came to weird monster designs but that takes the cake." Nicola commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head.

"That may be true but Beast Striker has a very lethal effect." Andreas responded as Beast Striker slammed his hammer down. "I can only use it once per turn and to use it I must discard a card from my hand." Andreas explained as he sent a card to the graveyard. "But in exchange I can summon this from my deck!" Andreas played the card and a small strange black being appeared on the field, it had a yellow face with big black eyes and yellow teeth (1/100/100).

"That's the lethal effect? Andreas even my weakest Crystal Beast can destroy that thing!" Nicola responded and Andreas chuckled. "Wait a sec you played that card when you and the others took on Chloe's dad didn't you?"

"Thanks for the reminder." Chloe grunted in annoyance and Nicola laughed nervously whilst sweat-dropping.

"Bad memories aside, no, I didn't play Moja during that duel." Andreas responded as he shook his head, "In s way you could say that I played his older brother, the King of Beasts, however I can't summon that monster via his effect right now so instead I'll do the next best thing, I tune Uni-Horned Familiar, Beast Striker and Moja together!" Andreas announced as the three monsters leapt into the air.

"_He's already summoned his three unicorns so I don't think he's bringing out another copy of one of those monsters." _Nicola thought with a frown as Uni-Horned Familiar dissolved into two Synchro Rings that surrounded Beast Striker and Moja. _"So what's he summoning?"_

"I Synchro Summon Sacred Horseman!" Andreas played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, well I say new but in actuality it was a heavily armored version of Mystic Horseman that was carrying a sword and a spear (7/2300/2550).

"Hold on, first Leogun gets an upgrade, then Silver Fang and now Mystic Horseman?!" Nicola asked with a raised eyebrow and a quick glance around the others confirmed that they were thinking the same thing more or less. "What next, Witty Phantom gets an XYZ version?!"

"_Considering we actually met a Witty Phantom a couple of months ago that's not exactly outside the realm of possibility." _Andreas thought before shaking his head. "These three monsters were released shortly after Sophia Pegasus took over I2, considering that she's known to be a Beast Type user like myself I can't help but wonder if that has something to do with it."

"We can speculate on that later." Nicola responded before turning her attention to Sacred Horseman. "Does that thing have an effect or did you just Synchro Summon it to be a beatstick?"

"It has an effect, one that I'll get into shortly but in the meantime." Andreas said before pointing to his monsters. "Attack her life-points directly!" Andreas commanded and the two beasts charged into battle….

"I activate my Trap Cards, first up is Draining Shield which I use to negate Green Baboon's attack and restore a good chunk of my life-points!" Nicola announced as Green Baboon's club bounced off a transparent shield raising Nicola's life-points to 9150. "As for my other Trap Card, it's an old one but an old favorite none the less, Call of the Haunted! I use this to Special Summon a new Crystal Beast monster!"

"First upgraded versions of old Beast Monsters and now a new Crystal Beast Monster, this is just confirming my theory." Andreas responded as Nicola retrieved her monster. "I'm guessing that was one of the monsters you milled when Voltic Bicorn was destroyed?"

"You got it, say hello to Crystal Beast – Malachite Dog!" Nicola played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, like Nicola said it was a dog that closely resembled an adult Labrador that was green in color (3/100/1000) almost as soon as it appeared the dog crouched down into defense mode. "Don't bother trying to attack it, as long as I have at least one Crystal Beast in my Spell/Trap Card Zone Malachite Dog can't be destroyed by battle."

"We'll see how long that lasts." Andreas responded as Sacred Horseman called off the attack. _"I could use Sacred Horseman's effect but I can't risk being defenseless if she's able to summon Rainbow Dragon." _Andreas thought before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Andreas announced and Nicola drew her card.

"_Okay, I have the lead for now but unless I get a way to summon Rainbow Dragon and fast that lead won't last very long." _Nicola thought before looking at her drawn card. _"This card may end up helping Andreas more than it helps me but at this point I'll take anything." _Nicola thought before playing the card and the hologram of Spellbook inside the Pot appeared on the field.

"You realize that that Spell Card helps me as well, right?" Andreas asked as the two duelists drew three cards and Nicola shook her head.

"At this point I'll take anything I can get." Nicola responded as she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard and looked over her cards. _"I drew Rainbow Dragon! Okay I have Malachite Dog on the field and four other monsters including Amethyst Cat, Amber Mammoth and Sapphire Pegasus in my graveyard just need two more monsters in my hand or graveyard and I can turn this around!" _Nicola thought before she spotted the other two cards she had drawn with Spellbook. _"Let's hope he doesn't draw anything that can destroy facedown cards." _Nicola thought before setting the card. "I end my turn with a facedown card." Nicola announced and Andreas drew his card.

"Sorry to say this Nicola." Andreas said as he picked up one of his cards. "But Spellbook inside the Pot will prove to be your downfall."

"What do you mean?" Nicola asked with a nervous gulp as Andreas played the card.

"I'll show you what I mean, I activate Forbidden Chalice and I target Malachite Dog!" Andreas played the card and Nicola's eyes widened as the chalice appeared in front of Malachite Dog, the dog started licking the contents of the chalice but doubled over in pain after a few licks. "As you should know Malachite Dog gains four hundred attack points from Forbidden Chalice in exchange for losing his effect, this in turn activates Sacred Horseman's effect."

"I'm afraid to ask but what effect?" Nicola asked and Andreas smirked.

"When a Quick-Play Spell Card this increases the attack of an enemy monster is activated Sacred Horseman gets the ability to inflict piercing damage for the rest of the turn." Andreas announced before pointing to Malachite Dog. "It's a pity that you don't have enough Crystal Beasts in your Spell/Trap Card Zones to reduce the damage by half but you don't hear me complaining! Sacred Horseman, attack Malachite Dog!" Andreas commanded and the Horseman charged into battle before decapitating Malachite Dog bringing Nicola's life-points down to 7850.

"Like all Crystal Beast Monsters Malachite Dog's effect allows me to send it to my Spell/Trap Card Zone instead of the graveyard." Nicola said as she placed the monster in the Spell/Trap Card Zone. "And that means that the damage I'll take from Green Baboon's attack will be cut in half."

"Battle damage is still battle damage, no matter how much it is." Andreas responded before pointing to Nicola. "Green Baboon, attack her life-points directly!" Andreas commanded and Green Baboon charged into battle…..

"Sorry but I have to intervene here, I activate Battle Instinct!" Nicola activated the trap and Andreas frowned. "And since my favorite Crystal Beast is a Beast Monster I'm using it to summon my second copy of Sapphire Pegasus!" Nicola played the card Sapphire Pegasus returned to the field. "And that in turn lets me use her effect!" Nicola added before retrieving a card from her deck and placing it in the Spell/Trap Card Zone previously occupied by the now destroyed Call of the Haunted.

"_She could've used it to summon another Malachite Dog as that monster was clearly a Beast Type, what is she planning?" _Andreas thought before pointing to Sapphire Pegasus. "Fine, have it your way, Green Baboon, your new target is Sapphire Pegasus!" Andreas commanded and the baboon span around before smashing Sapphire Pegasus with his club bringing Nicola's life-points down to 7450.

"You should know the routine by now Andreas." Nicola commented as Sapphire Pegasus appeared in the Spell/Trap Card Zone that was once occupied by Battle Instinct. _"I have the four monsters I need to use this Spell Card, better hope this works."_

"_She's setting something big up, fortunately I can bide my time with the other cards I got from Spellbook inside the Pot." _Andreas thought before setting two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Andreas announced and Nicola drew her card.

"_Okay, here goes nothing." _Nicola thought before drawing another card. "Since you were kind enough to give me four monsters in my Spell/Trap Card Zone I can draw an extra card during my Main Phase." Nicola explained as she drew the card. "But to be honest, that will be the last time I use that effect during this duel because this one's over!"

"_I knew it." _Andreas thought with a frown. _"But my Negate Attack trap card will block any attempt she makes at my life-points."_

"I activate my Spell Card Crystal Abundance!" Nicola played the card and Andreas's eyes widened as the four monsters in Nicola's Spell/Trap Zone shattered. "Since I have four monsters in Spell/Trap Zone I can send them and all cards on the field to the graveyard!" Nicola added as the field spell crumbled into dust alongside Sacred Horseman, Green Baboon and Andreas's facedown cards. "And since you had two monsters on your side of the field I can Special Summon two others from the graveyard, I chose Sapphire Pegasus!" Nicola announced as the two monsters appeared on the field. "And you know what that means!"

"Yes, I do." Andreas responded as Nicola placed two monsters in her Spell/Trap Card Zone from her deck. _"I'm surprised she hasn't decked out yet, she can't have that many cards left." _Andreas thought as Nicola shuffled her deck. "If your plan is to summon Rainbow Dragon next I have bad news for you, I've kept count of the number of monsters in your graveyard and you had four before you used Crystal Abundance, sent four there with Crystal Abundance and Special Summoned two with Crystal Abundance, in short you have six in your graveyard and two on the field meaning that you have to many cards to summon Rainbow Dragon."

"I'm well aware of that but you seemed to forget that part of Rainbow Dragon's requirement is having seven monsters with different names on my field or in the graveyard." Nicola responded before playing the card she just drew. "And I'm about to correct that, I activate Rare Value!"

"I see and I take it that it is a safe bet that neither of the monsters in your Spell/Trap Card Zone are currently in your graveyard?" Andreas asked and Nicola nodded. "Since it appears that I don't have a choice I chose the second monster." Andreas announced and Nicola sent the monster to the graveyard before drawing two cards.

"_Shit, those were my last two cards!" _Nicola thought as she glanced towards her empty deck slot. _"It doesn't matter, I have more than enough fire power to cause a OTK, sorry Andreas but your first day as an Obelisk Blue Student is about to end in defeat!" _Nicola thought before playing the card. "Now that I have seven different Crystal Beasts in my graveyard I can Special Summon my best monster, Rainbow Dragon!" Nicola played the card and the massive silver and gold dragon appeared on the field (10/4000/0).

"I have to say, I wasn't exactly in a hurry to face that thing in a duel again." Andreas admitted as he stared down the monster.

"Then you have nothing to worry about because the combined totals of my three monsters' attack points are 7600, more than you have since you paid for Green Baboon's effect!" Nicola responded as she pointed to Andreas. "Sapphire Pegasus, attack his life-points!" Nicola commanded and the two Pegasus charged into battle….only to be stopped by an invisible wall. "What the…."

"I sent two facedown cards to the graveyard thanks to the effect of Crystal Abundance." Andreas explained as he held up one of them. "One of them was Negate Attack and the other was Sacred Jungle Shrine!"

"I don't understand…." Nicola trailed off and Andreas shook his head.

"Sacred Jungle Shrine is a Trap Card that can only be activated by banishing it from the graveyard during the turn that it was sent there." Andreas explained as he pocketed the Trap. "But by doing so I have negated the attack of a Beast Type Monster and ended your battle phase, nice try but you can try again next time."

"There won't be a next time." Nicola sighed as she held up her duel disk revealing the empty deck slot. "I decked myself out when I played Rare Value the second time around that was meant to be an OTK."

"And it would've worked if I hadn't drawn Sacred Jungle Shrine when I did." Andreas responded and Nicola responded. "I'll save you the indignity of losing via deck out by allowing you the chance to surrender."

"Well I would've lost either way." Nicola sighed as she surrendered, the holograms subsequently disappeared and both duelists retrieved their cards. "Thanks for the duel Andreas, one of these days I will beat you."

"It's like you said, you would've won if you hadn't decked yourself out." Andreas responded with a nod as Nicola walked up to him. "Maybe next time you should dial down on the number of drawing cards, you go through your deck fast enough with Sapphire Pegasus as it is."

"Yeah, I guess." Nicola nodded in response before blushing a bit. "So err, about that beautiful comment earlier…." Nicola trailed off and Andreas laughed nervously.

"How about we talk about that later, away from prying eyes?" Andreas offered and Nicola nodded before walking off in the direction of the Osiris Red Dorms. _"She's definitely not the same duelist I faced in Battle City but is she really ready to take our relationship to the next level?"_

"_She seems to be Andreas, and I know you are too." _Master of Oz responded as the others approached him.

"Dude, why didn't you go after her?" Marcus asked as he patted Andreas on the back breaking his train of thought. "She's obviously crazy about you!"

"That may be the case." Andreas responded as he regained his composure. "But she obviously isn't thinking straight because she cost herself the duel and lets face it, that's not exactly an easy thing to get over." Andreas responded and Marcus nodded. "I'll talk it over with her tomorrow after the tournament duels, that should give her plenty of time."

"And speaking of talking things over, Chloe are you up for a chat about last night?" Lance asked as he turned to her and Chloe thought for a moment before nodding.

"Sure, let's go somewhere a bit more private though." Chloe responded before the two teens walked off.

*meanwhile*

The duel between Nicola and Andreas may have been watched by their friends but they weren't alone in that as someone else was watching it from his penthouse in Los Angeles, California.

"Very interesting indeed…." Victor trailed off as he watched the closing moments of the duel through a security camera that Jack had hacked into. "Andreas is as skilled as ever but this Nicola Hastings girl could be a potential threat…." Victor trailed off before picking up the phone and pressing the button to contact his secretary. "Adriana?"

"Yes Victor?" His secretary responded and Victor frowned.

"Has Dr. Schwartz reported on his progress towards targeting either Nicola Hastings or Chloe Richardson next?" Victor asked and Adriana was silent for a moment.

"Yes, he just sent in his latest report." Adriana responded and Victor smirked. "Chloe will take longer but Nicola is good to go."

"Excellent, tell him to target Nicola tonight, in the meantime you are to send a message to Sarah, she is to drop off two more duelists on the island overnight, I don't care who they target as long as we have more souls." Victor responded as he waited for the answer.

"I'll get on that right away sir." Sarah responded before hanging up.

"_And now I wait, purifying this wretched world is a tough job but if anyone's qualified it's me." _Victor thought as he put the phone down.


	113. Rainbow in the Dark

(OOC: The part with Ash and Hu was partially written by Muromae)

Whilst the small crowd of students that had gathered for the duel between Nicola and Andreas that had just ended had dispersed in different directions two of the students had gone in the same direction away from prying eyes and ears.

"Okay, Chloe, can I just say something before we get started?" Lance asked as the two teens came to a stop behind the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm. "I'm sorry if I upset you with my shortsighted plan yesterday, had no idea you hated song dedications that much and I get the feeling that the fact that DJ Steve chose Justin Bieber for me didn't help matters."

"No, it really didn't but thanks for apologizing." Chloe sighed as she leaned against the wall. "Thing is Lance, you could've just asked me out and I would've said yes! I mean honestly, how long have we known each other now?" Chloe asked and Lance sighed.

"It's gotta be at least three or four years now." Lance admitted as he scratched the back of his head. "But every time I tried to ask you out over the past few weeks…."

"The Orichalcos got in the way, Chelsea filled me in whilst she was getting me set-up on my desktop." Chloe responded with a nod of understanding. "And that means that last night's dedication was a last-ditch effort, right?"

"Right, I didn't think that the Orichalcos assholes would crash the party, which they didn't to their credit, but like I said, I had no idea you hated song dedications that much." Lance responded with a sigh and Chloe shook her head. "In fact, why don't I just come out and say it? You okay with that?" Lance asked and Chloe nodded. "Chloe, this is going to sound incredibly cheesy but I've been developing feelings for you for a while, I only realized it after you got your Legendary Dragon."

"That's a random point to realize something like that isn't it?" Chloe asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head and Lance shook his head.

"Yeah, I know I don't even know why I realized it then but it is what it is." Lance responded with a shrug. "Like I said earlier, we've known each other for a few years now and whilst we've often been teased about you being my girlfriend and vice versa, especially after the incident on the first night of the Battle City tournament."

"You mean the one where the others walked in on you consoling me because I had a bad dream involving my dad?" Chloe asked with a slight laugh and Lance nodded. "Oh man, we never lived that down, didn't we?"

"No, we didn't." Lance responded before sighing. "What I'm getting at is, well, everyone thinks we're in love, why not make it official?" Lance asked and Chloe looked away for a few seconds. "Look Chloe, if you don't want to do it I'll understand…."

"Lance, just shut up for a sec and come here." Chloe responded and Lance walked up to her until they were inches apart, once he was close enough Chloe walked up to him and kissed him passionately on the lips which Lance returned once he got over his surprise, they stopped before things could get more intimate and Chloe grinned. "Never knew you were such a great kisser."

"Same can be said for you." Lance responded as they kissed again before breaking apart. "So is that a yes?"

"Nah just felt like randomly passionately kissing my best friend." Chloe teased him and Lance frowned. "Lance, I'm kidding, off course that's a yes!" Chloe added and they both grinned.

"Well, it's about time." Jeff's voice rang out and they face-faulted in response, once they got up they saw Martin and Jeff standing nearby. "Martin, I believe you owe me ten bucks?"

"I knew I shouldn't have betted on Summer Break." Martin grunted before handing over the ten bucks.

"Two questions, how long have you been standing there and you were betting each other on how long it'll take us to finally take the next step?" Lance asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down their heads.

"We were walking by when we heard you two talking, we put two and two together when you mentioned the incident at the party." Jeff responded and the two teens frowned. "And the bet wasn't between just me and Martin, it was between me and the other teachers."

"That only makes the fact that you were betting on when we'd start dating even worse." Lance responded with a deadpan expression on his face.

"Maybe it does but I have ten bucks to collect from the other teachers." Jeff responded before walking off.

"So err, you still want to start dating me Chloe?" Lance asked awkwardly and Chloe nodded.

"Come on, I'm not about to let one bet between teachers stop me from dating you." Chloe responded before frowning. "But at the same time let's not rush into it, besides the fact that I'm still a virgin I don't want this relationship to just be about sex, you know?"

"I wouldn't have suggested that." Lance responded and Chloe gave him a skeptical look. "Seriously, for one thing I want a chance to buy condoms first before we get that far, unless you want to explain to your dad how I got you pregnant when you go home for Summer Break."

"Good point." Chloe admitted with a slight laugh. "Wait, Martin, you're still here?" Chloe asked and the two teens turned to the Obelisk Blue headmaster.

"Well if you're wondering what you're going to do for your first date I can arrange something." Martin responded and Chloe sweat-dropped.

"A forty year old man is going to help two eighteen year olds out with their first date?" Chloe asked and Lance chimed in.

"He previously did the same for Theresa and Brandon when they started dating." Lance responded getting confused looks from Martin and Chloe. "When I first started developing feelings for Chloe I went to Theresa and Brandon for advice, well technically I went to Brandon for advice but Theresa was in the same room as him, and Theresa told me about how you helped them out."

"Right, it'll be trickier with you two because you're in separate dorms." Martin nodded in response after thinking for a moment. "But it's still doable, by the way have you seen Andreas and Nicola?"

"They were just in a duel but they are probably in their dorm rooms by now." Chloe responded with a nod. "Is this about the comments Jessica Stevens made?"

"Yes, due to the severity of it I've been taking witness statements from everyone who witnessed it, I haven't gotten the ones from Lance and Andreas now that I think about it." Martin responded and Lance frowned. "I know you want to talk it over with Chloe some more but the sooner we get this done the sooner you can spend more time with her."

"And since I only found out about Jessica's comments after the fact….." Chloe trailed off as she started to walk back to the front door. "I'll catch you tomorrow before the Tag Tournament starts again right Lance?"

"Ah yes, thank you for reminding me Ms. Richardson." Martin interrupted Lance before he could respond and the two teens turned to him. "There will be an announcement on the Duel Academy website about it later but classes are cancelled tomorrow and the next day of the tournament has been moved to Tuesday."

"Normally I wouldn't complain about a four day weekend." Lance responded with a frown. "But I get the sneaking suspicion that it has to do with the Orichalcos Duelists."

"We've barely been a couple for five minutes and you're already reading my mind." Chloe commented with a chuckle before shaking her head. "Is Lance right?"

"He is, as a response to the recent attacks on students the school's getting a security upgrade, more security cameras, more guards, you get the idea." Martin responded and the two teens shared uneasy looks. "This will be paid for by Kaibacorp and Chancellor Wilkins made sure that the students' day to day lives would not be interrupted."

"Yeah I was at a school that went through a similar upgrade once." Lance commented as he folded his arms. "They said the same thing at the beginning to boot but after a few months the metal detectors were installed, and then they suspended me for wearing a trench coat to school even though I had worn that same trench coat god knows how many times before and they never raised a stink about it."

"What happened there?" Chloe asked and Lance sighed.

"My mom saw the writing on the wall and pulled me out of that school, we moved to Domino City shortly afterwards, we met and the rest is history." Lance responded before turning to Martin. "So you'll excuse me if I don't take your word for it."

"I assure you that we won't be doing anything quite that drastic and if we do suspend you it'll be for a legitimate reason." Martin responded before Lance walked up to him to give his witness statement.

"I'll catch up to you later Lance, I'm going to see if Chelsea's finished chatting with her sister." Chloe added before she walked off. "Oh and one more thing, I don't mind if you tell the other boys that we're an item now." Chloe said before frowning. "But don't say anything along the lines off "and then we fucked", trust me I've ended a few relationships I've been in because my boyfriends at the time spread similar lies about me."

"Come on Chloe, you know me better than that, I wouldn't say anything like that!" Lance responded and Chloe shook her head.

"I thought I knew the boys that spread those rumors as well but you know how that ended for me." Chloe responded and Lance sighed.

"Okay Chloe, if it makes you feel any better I promise to only say that we're an item and that we did nothing beyond sharing passionate kisses." Lance responded and Chloe grinned at that. "I'll even get the other guys to back me up on it."

"Don't go that far, the fact that you actually promised not to do that is good enough for me." Chloe responded and Lance grinned at that. "Just remember what I said about my past boyfriends and we'll be good." Chloe added and Lance nodded before she walked off. _"Come to think of it wasn't Ash Lance's roommate before he got promoted?" _Chloe thought as she entered the girl's dorm. _"Wonder who his new roommate will be?"_

*meanwhile*

"Well, this is going to be...quiet," Ashitaka said to himself as he looked around his now half empty room. He wore a casual black and purple yukata and had his long hair down instead of up in a ponytail. Due to Lance's promotion into the Obelisk Blue dorm, the Bujin-duelist was now living alone in the double. There was much more space for this his kendo gear and boken. He even had a plan for creating a small Shinto shrine in the corner where Lance used to keep his "personal" magazines.

The dark haired duelist sat on the floor in front of a small table, drinking tea across from his spirit. "Yamato-kun, we haven't come in contact with any more Orichalcos duelists. Do you believe that we are safe or is it a lull before the storm?"

"Ashitaka, you must relax. Please, focus on your life right now and do not worry about the pending disaster. As of right now there is little we can do to stop the organization. Look at our relics. We must be the sword used to assist our friends in any way necessary. Though right now, focus on your school," the wise spirit said, looking down at the cup of tea in front of him. "Now, you've been making many changes to our deck recently. I haven't seen you use the same list in a very long time. You also gave Bear back to Hu. Don't you remember what that card means?"

"We need to become stronger Yamato. I think you know exactly how I feel, you felt the same way all those years ago," Ashitaka said, looking into his duel spirit's eyes.

Yamato flinched as Ashitaka looked on. While Ashitaka was usually a serious man, this was a side of him that Yamato had never seen. "Stronger...you...I will be with you and together we will become strong," Yamato said, hesitantly at first before becoming more affirmed.

Ashitaka's stare become softer; he took another sip from his tea and smiled. "We keep on getting lucky with the ban lists," The teen said, trying to lighten the mood. "I could've sworn that we would've had Crane at least semi limited or limited at some point, though with this new pendulum system and all these new cards. I mean I've been making changes but it's just been more new Bujins that have been released. Maybe we need to look past the Gods for our help with this one," Ashitaka concluded, realizing that he must expand his horizons, an improved deck how could you not be excited by the thought?!

"At least with Lance gone you'll have more time to really contemplate your decisions. He's a great friend though you two were kind of complete opposite personality wise," Yamato stated.

"Ya, from what I heard little Romeo requested the DJ to play "Baby" for his Juliet last night. Poor boy probably got his dick cut off, all though I'll miss him, just not his metal music and porn. Though I wonder if I can keep this entire room to my..." Ashitaka said before being cut off by a loud knocking on his door.

"One moment please," the teen said as he placed his tea on the table, stood up, and started to put his hair up while making it to the door. "Who is it?"

"You know who it is," a familiar and quite obnoxious voice firmly stated before the door was kicked in.

"...Hu what are you...wait are those bags?!" Ashitaka exclaimed with a concerned look on his face.

"You got it buddy! From today on we're going to be roomies! I overheard that since Lance got promoted though there were no new boys to fill his spot, you were going to keep this very spacious room all to your lonesome self and as your dearest friend and rival I felt terrible for leaving you alone. So I decided to move in! Isn't this great?!" The brash Chinese duelist stated with a huge grin on his face. He proudly walked right past Ashitaka and dropped his bags on the ground before jumping on the empty bed. "AND FREAKIN' COACH SOLDIER WOLFBARK IS BACK AS UNLIMITED BECAUSE HU WUKONG'S LIFE IS DOPE AND HE DOES DOPE SHIT! I CAN'T WAIT TO KICK YOUR ASS TONIGHT!" Wukong screamed at the top of his lungs with a passion and a heat that could only be matched by his monsters.

Yamato floated over to Ashitaka. "Well...you had some peace and quiet...and look at the time I have some spirity heaveny things to me. Get back to me when you decide what you're going to do with your deck!" the spirit said very rapidly before disappearing.

Ashitaka looked down at his tea, which was now spilled, probably from Hu just walking around. He then looked at Hu who was already unpacking his cards. There was no way out...welcome to the rest of the semester.

*back with Chloe*

"_Meh, I'll ask him next time I bump into him, shouldn't take me to long since we're both in Ra Yellow now." _Chloe thought to herself as she walked up the stairs that would take her to the room that she shared with Chelsea, the hallway was mostly empty and besides herself there were several other female students in the hallway, some were chatting amongst themselves whilst a few were going over their decks, after a few minutes she reached her dorm room and shook her head. _"I may have wanted this for a long time but living in Ra Yellow instead of Osiris Red will take some getting used to." _Chloe mused before knocking on the door, a few seconds later Chelsea answered the door and gave her roommate an odd look.

"Chloe, we're roommates, you know you don't have to knock." Chelsea reminded her and Chloe shook her head.

"I wasn't sure if Jamie had left yet or not and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't invading your privacy." Chloe responded and Chelsea shook her head.

"She's still here but she just told me that she has to get going soon." Chelsea responded before letting her roommate in, Jamie was still there but was gathering up her things. "Well sis, it was great chatting with you again, you have any idea when Dan, Chris or Mark is coming over for a visit?"

"I talked to them on Friday not long after I checked into my hotel." Jamie responded as she slung her bag over her shoulder. "They told me that they'll be stopping by next week but wanted to know the dorm you lived in and what dorm room to look for and I should probably update them whilst I'm getting checked out at the hotel since you were still in Osiris Red at the time." Jamie added and Chelsea grinned broadly at that, when Jamie saw the look on Chloe's face she raised an eyebrow. "Looks like you've got some big news of your own Chloe."

"You can read people that easily?" Chloe asked and Jamie nodded.

"Comes with being a chef, especially handy if a new cook at the restaurant tries to serve raw salmon or bland, tasteless risotto in the same service and lies to you about it more than once." Jamie responded and the two girls gave her an odd look. "Yeah, that actually happened, the executive chef fired those cooks after that service though."

"Sad thing is that's not the worst story she's told me about her career as a chef." Chelsea added before shaking her head. "Okay Chloe, spill the beans."

"After Andreas's duel with Nicola ended I had a chat with Lance about last night and whether or not we should take the relationship to the next level." Chloe responded as she sat down at her desktop. "To make a long story short, I'm officially dating Lance now."

"Wait, seriously? It's about time!" Chelsea said with a grin as she patted her on the back. "So, what color's his underwear?"

"We didn't go that far!" Chloe quickly asserted as she blushed like a madwoman. "I mean yeah, I pretty much sealed it by French kissing him for about twenty seconds but that's it." Chloe added and Chelsea shook her head. "Besides, even if we did get as far as Lance taking my top off or me unzipping his jeans to make taking them off easier it would've gotten awkward quickly with Jeff and Martin standing nearby."

"Yeah, I guess you right, wait, what were they doing there to begin with?" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"They happened to be walking by the girl's dorm, probably on the way to the main building, when they overheard us talking." Chloe responded with laughing a bit. "Sad thing is there was a bet going on between the teachers on how long it would take us to get together." Chloe added and Chelsea started laughing as well. "What? It's true!"

"Oh, I don't doubt that it's true." Chelsea said as she regained her composure. "I'm just laughing at the fact that it was so obvious that you two would get hitched together that the teachers were taking bets on it, who won anyway?"

"Jeff did." Chloe responded as Chelsea calmed down.

"Well as unprofessional at that sounds, I have to agree with Chelsea that is pretty funny." Jamie responded with a slight chuckle. "That said, Chloe are you sure he won't start bragging that you did go that far with him? Because most boys his age probably would if they got hitched with a good looking girl like you."

"Heh thanks." Chloe responded with a sheepish grin. "Seriously though, before I came over I made sure he knew that if he started bragging like that the relationship would be cut short, I don't want those kinds of rumors dogging my early days as a Ra Yellow student."

"Considering what we're talking about maybe you should've used a phrase other than "dogging", just saying." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe blushed like a madwoman. "Seriously though, I may be gay but even I can tell that that was a good move."

"Chelsea would be right but that would depend on how he reacted to your request." Jamie responded and Chloe grinned.

"He insisted that he wasn't going to brag like that but I kept on him and he eventually promised not to." Chloe responded as she turned on her desktop and waited for it to boot up. "Even so I'll probably wait until tomorrow to make sure that he kept his word."

"Considering all the effort he put into trying to date you in the first place I don't think he's about to throw it all away." Chelsea pointed out before turning to Jamie. "You mind letting me know when Dan, Mark and Chris decide to pop by next week."

"I'll make sure they tell me." Jamie responded before she made her way towards the door. "Chelsea, remember what I told you about your temper all right? Believe it or not your siblings and I do want to see you succeed."

"I know, I know." Chelsea grunted in annoyance and Jamie smirked.

"Chloe, it was nice meeting and good luck with Lance." Jamie told her and Chloe grinned at that. "And if you see Nicola at some point tell her I said hi, for now I'd better get to the ship quickly so that I don't miss my flight."

"We will and don't be a stranger okay?" Chelsea responded and Jamie left the room closing the door behind her, once the two teens were alone again Chelsea turned to Chloe with a grin on her face. "So, how good a kisser is Lance?"

"Why are you asking about him? I didn't think you'd be interested since you're a lesbian and all." Chloe responded and Chelsea shook her head.

"I may be a lesbian but that doesn't stop me from being curious!" Chelsea responded with a grin. "Besides, I told you before that I was straight once upon a time and, well let's just say that I've done my fair share of tongue wrestling with both boys and other girls."

"Tongue wrestling?" Chloe asked and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"It's what my dad likes to call French kissing, don't ask me why, me and my siblings kinda picked up that habit from him." Chelsea responded and Chloe shook her head with a laugh. "But back to my original question."

"If it gets you to shut up, he's a great kisser and he said the same thing to me." Chloe responded with an annoyed sigh and Chelsea grinned in response. "Kinda makes me wonder how good he is with his tongue in other areas….." Chloe trailed off once she realized what she was saying out loud and Chelsea laughed hysterically. "Oh god, I'm already wondering how good he is at sex!" Chloe realized as her eyes widened and she blushed like a madwoman.

"Hold on, hold on." Chelsea said in between fits of laughter before grabbing her IPod and turning on her camera. "I have to record that for my YouTube channel, say it again!"

"Chelsea, you may as well be asking Kaiba to admit that Yugi's a better duelist than him!" Chloe responded as she marched up to her roommate and snatched the phone out of her hands before turning it off. "Seriously, remember what you said after your slip-up earlier?" Chloe asked as she put down the phone.

"You mean the one where I said that I'll miss sleeping with you in the bunk bed?" Chelsea responded after making sure that there was no-one close enough to the door to overhear her.

"Yeah, and I'm about to make the same request, not a word of that slip-up to anyone, not the other girls in this dorm, not the boys and especially not Lance!" Chloe insisted and Chelsea sighed in annoyance before agreeing with a nod. "Besides, I'm still a virgin, I don't really know what to expect….."

"Wait, you're a virgin? You're not seriously telling me that a girl with your good looks hasn't had some boys try to get in your pants!" Chelsea asked and Chloe shook her head.

"I have but every time they tried to make a move on me right away I turned them down because I didn't want to rush into anything and Lance is no exception." Chloe responded before letting out an annoyed sigh. "Unfortunately a few of the boys weren't used to not getting their way with a girl they wanted to bang and the rumors started."

"At which point you kicked them to the curb." Chelsea responded and Chloe nodded, Chelsea sighed as she shook her head. "They sound like assholes so you probably made the right choice there but I've heard a few similar stories to that that ended with something a lot worse than slut shaming for the girl involved."

"You mean rape, don't you?" Chloe asked with a shudder and Chelsea nodded. "I guess I was lucky enough to never encounter anyone like that or hear any stories of that."

"Yeah, I heard those stories back when I was in high school in Chicago, fortunately they were never at my school and they always ended up on the news, usually something along the lines of "student arrested for/found guilty of rape" and even then those stories were, thankfully, few and far between." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "But it did scare my parents enough to move to Domino City, at the time Dan, Chris, Jamie and Mark had moved out but I was still fifteen so that wasn't going to happen for a while." Chelsea added and Chloe shook her head.

"Yeah but that led to you meeting me and the others so it works out." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea nodded with a grin. "Anyway, I think I'd better get to the Card Shop." Chloe said as she logged off, having checked her e-mails, and stood up. "As of the new banlist Reinforcement of the Army and Magician of Faith are unlimited and I want to get to the shop before they sell out."

"Good idea." Chelsea nodded in response as she logged out. "In fact it's so good that I'm coming with you to do the same thing!" Chelsea added before the two girls left their dorm room.

*meanwhile*

Whilst that was going on at the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm Lance was finally returning to his room after giving his witness statement about what happened between Jessica and Nicola.

"_Man, did Martin really have to drag it out as long as he did?" _Lance thought as he walked down the hallway that led him to his new dorm room with his hands in his pockets. _"Honestly, all I wanted to do was avoid talking about my porn stash but Martin wouldn't let it go until I admitted it, at least he said that he won't tell anyone."_

"Hey dude." Marcus greeted him as he exited his dorm room. "I think Martin's looking for you."

"If it's about the incident between Jessica and Nicola earlier I've already given him my statement." Lance responded and Marcus nodded, "I'm guessing you've done the same?"

"Yeah, didn't take me that long and the same can be said for Andreas." Marcus responded and Lance grunted in annoyance. "Let me guess, yours ran a lot longer than ours did?"

"Yeah, and it was all because I wanted to avoid talking about my porn stash." Lance responded earning a confused look from Marcus. "Basically I was telling him what happened before the incident between Nicola and Jessica and for obvious reasons I wasn't exactly in a hurry to tell my new headmaster that I had a porn stash in my room."

"So you tried dodging the issue but Martin wouldn't let up." Marcus responded and Lance nodded reluctantly. "So what happened?"

"The world's longest staring contest happened." Lance responded and Marcus gave him another confused look. "He said that he'd keep me in his office all day if he'd had to and I tried calling his bluff, I gave up after an hour and twenty minutes mostly due to my need for a bathroom break."

"Yeah, trying to call Martin's bluff is never a good idea." Evan commented and the two boys looked up seeing Lance's tag partner for the tournament behind them. "I heard the argument between Nicola and Jessica but I didn't want to get involved."

"I'll sum it up for you, Jessica casually called Nicola a retard twice to her face and it probably would've ended with a broken nose for Jessica if Andreas hadn't talked Nicola out of punching her." Lance responded and Evan frowned at that. "Needless to say I let Andreas borrow my desktop so that he could file a complaint on Nicola's behalf."

"Sounds like the right call to me, I don't know Nicola all that well but she seems nice enough." Evan responded with a shrug. "Anyway, what's this I hear about you and Chloe making out behind the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm?" Evan asked and Lance face-faulted.

"Where did you hear about that?" Lance asked as he got up and Evan shook his head.

"A couple of Ra Yellow girls happened to see you two kissing, gossip spread, you get the idea." Evan responded and Lance groaned in response.

"Okay, just so I can set the record straight, we never did anything beyond kissing, I went behind the girl's dorm with Chloe to talk about what happened at the Ra Yellow Party last night, we talked and Chloe decided to give being my girlfriend a chance, the kiss was just to seal the deal." Lance responded before grinning broadly. "But she is a great kisser!"

"So in other words, rumors spread and became exaggerated." Evan responded and Lance nodded. "If I where you then I'd send a text to Chloe before gossip reaches her and she thinks you started it."

"Oh fuck your right!" Lance responded before grabbing his phone, after a few minutes he started writing the text. "Chloe, apparently some girls from your dorm saw us kissing and got the completely wrong idea, they started gossiping with the other girls in the dorm, rumors spread, you know how it goes, get back to me ASAP." Lance read the text out-loud as he typed it and after a quick Spell Check he sent the text to her. "Thanks for the save man, she actually told me that she'd cut off the relationship if I spread those kind of rumors."

"Not a problem, I had a feeling she would say something like that." Evan responded with a nod before patting him on the shoulder. "And before I forget I have to say congrats on getting her interested in dating you and escaping the friendzone."

"Self-imposed friendzone, it was only recently that I realized that I felt that way about her." Lance said with a grin before his text-tone went off and he answered it. "Lance, thanks for the head's up, literally heard some girls gossiping about it as I got the text so great timing on that, Chelsea thinks she knows who started the gossip so we'll take care of them." Lance read the text out loud and grinned before pocketing the phone. "It sounds like they have the situation handled at least."

"Yeah but since the latest banlist positively affected both of their decks they are probably on their way to the card shop first." Evan responded as he shook his head. "Speaking of banlists, I figured I may as well tell you ahead of our match against Kristopher and Lamont that I'm retiring the Prophecy Deck."

"Wait, seriously? Man I hoped to see it in action more than once." Lance responded and Evan shook his head.

"It was a decision I made after the second banlist came out, your deck can survive such hits because it's pretty versatile but when Sophie Pegasus approved those banlists she killed my deck, plain and simple." Evan responded with an annoyed sigh. "As for what deck I am using, I'm going back to my old deck with some improvements, don't worry it should be just as strong as the Prophecy deck."

"I hope your right, for now I'm heading into my room to rest my feet, give me a shout when dinners ready okay?" Lance responded and the two boys nodded before he entered his room.

*later on*

Whilst it did get really hot on Duel Academy Island, which was part of the reason why the school was so lenient when it came to uniforms, they did occasionally get a storm but most of the time those storms were far away enough from the island that the students barely noticed them usually only finding out about it via a weather report later that day.

That night was one of the rare occasions where a storm hit the island.

"Ugh, how can anyone expect to get any sleep?!" Nicola, who was now in her pajamas, moaned as she used her pillow in an attempt to block out the noise from the storm outside, unlike Chloe and Chelsea's old room Nicola's was a single room and as a result she didn't have a roommate or a bunk bed, just a large single bed. "I mean seriously, the staff are probably thanking god that they did cancel tomorrow's lessons!"

"_You must go to sleep soon Nicola if you want to be up early in the morning." _An unfamiliar female voice rang out from inside her head and Nicola sat up before looking around.

"Whose there?" Nicola called out but when she got no answer she plopped back down on her bed with a moan. _"Great, first the storm's keeping me up and now I think I'm going crazy! At least it can't get any worse." _Nicola thought and after twenty minutes or so she finally fell asleep.

*inside Nicola's dream*

"What the…." Nicola trailed off as her eyes opened and saw nothing but a dark, unfamiliar void around her, seeing nothing of interest in front of her she looked down at her outfit which only caused more confusion for the Autistic Girl. _"Why am I in my uniform? I was in my pajamas when I went to bed!" _Nicola thought before noticing that her duel disk was also on her arm. _"This is weird, even for my dreams, wait, how do I know that it's a dream?!"_

"_Nicola, you must leave at once!" _ The same female voice from before rang out and Nicola looked around trying to locate the source of the voice.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Nicola called out but there was no answer, after a few seconds a giant spell card appeared in front of her and Nicola stared at it. "Sad Story – Atrocious Day, I've never even heard of that card, is it a new one I2 is coming out with?" Nicola wondered out loud before realizing that the scenery was changing, once it became clearer the Spell Card disappeared and Nicola quickly recognized the scene. _"This is when I met Andreas and Marcus for the first time back in Battle City, but that wasn't a sad story, was it?"_

"But the match isn't over yet, I activate my trap card Nutrient Z!" Andreas activated the card and smiled. "This trap can only be activated if I'm about to lose 2000 or more life points, it gives my life points a boost of 4000 points before the attack hits!" Andreas said as his life points shot up to 4900 and was brought back down to 900 by the attack.

A: 900

N: 5400

"Thanks for the heart attack dude!" Marcus called out from the sidelines and Andreas smiled.

"Anytime." Andreas said cheekily before turning to Nicola. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm done." Nicola nodded.

"Though you may as well give up son, her Rainbow Dragon has more than enough power to finish you off." Nicola's dad chimed in and Andreas smiled closing his eyes.

"_Yeah I remember this was when Andreas said that he wouldn't give up as long as he had life-points left." _Nicola remembered as a small smile crept onto her face. _"Come to think of it I haven't heard Chloe say that in ages, wonder if she'll mind if I borrow her catchphrase…."_ Nicola's thoughts where interrupted when a single gunshot rang out interrupting Andreas's sentence, Past-Nicola turned around and her eyes widened in horror as she saw her dad collapse to the floor with a single bullet wound in his head. "Wha….what the…." Nicola managed to blurt out as she saw the scene play out before her.

"Nicola, get down!" Andreas, having turned off his duel disk, called out to her as she turned around but he was to slow and another gunshot rang out striking Nicola in the head.

"_This is wrong, this is all wrong!" _Nicola thought as she dropped to her knees and started sobbing as the chaos unfolded around her, after a few minutes Nicola clenched her fists and stood up. "THIS IS ALL FUCKING WRONG!" Nicola yelled out and the scene shattered around her and she wiped some tears from her eyes. _"I don't usually swear but that…."_

"Is it now?" A voice rang out breaking Nicola's line of thought and she looked around for the voice, it didn't take her long to recognize the voice, she'd recognize her own dad's voice anywhere, but the location remained a mystery…..before she realized that her dad's corpse from the vision was still there and talking to her. "You have been a burden on my family since the day you were born!"

"Dad?! What are you saying?" Nicola blurted out as the corpse rose to his feet and turned to her, the bullet was still in his head and his eyes were bloodshot.

"You know exactly what I'm saying." Her dad responded before snapping his fingers and before Nicola could react several chains whipped out from the darkness and ensnared her completely. "The day you were diagnosed with autism should've been the day I killed you."

"My dad would never say that!" Nicola insisted as she struggled to even move because of the chains. "He's always been supportive of me and he never let my autism get in the way of that!"

"Are you blind of willingly naïve?" Her dad asked as Nicola glared at him. "All the financial hardships your family suffered have been brought on by you and you alone! Why do you think you had to wait a whole year before you could even apply for Duel Academy?"

"Because my dad wanted me to prove that I could handle the pressure." Nicola grunted as she glared at the being that she was convinced wasn't her dad. "My stay in the Battle City Tournament was short lived but I still did well enough to convince him to let me apply for the school!"

"Then you are as naïve as I thought!" Her dad responded as he started to walk away.

"_Nicola, don't listen to him!" _The female voice rang out again catching Nicola's attention. _"He's playing mind games with you, now I can get you free but you must keep him talking."_

"_Normally I wouldn't trust a strange voice in my head but I'll take it." _Nicola responded before she turned her attention to her dad. "If you're really my dad then you wouldn't walk away from me!" Nicola called out to him and her dad stopped in his tracks.

"I should've done that from the beginning." Her dad responded as an evil smirk crept onto his lips. "After you killed your own mother off course….." He trailed off and Nicola lowered her head.

"_My mom…." _Nicola's thoughts trailed off as a tear ran down her cheek. _"I never even got to meet her and this bastard mocks her?! That tears it he's definitely not my dad!"_

"_Nicola I am ready to free you, just say the word!" _The female voice rang out again and Nicola glared at him.

"You bastard….." Nicola trailed off as a white light emerged from her.

"Don't you dare talk to your dad like that you little…?" Her dad trailed off when he saw the glare Nicola was giving him.

"SAVE IT!" Nicola interrupted him as she glared at him. "You dare mock my mom…..MY MOM DIED WHILST GIVING BIRTH TO ME!" Nicola yelled out and to her dad's surprise the chains shattered and she landed on her feet glaring at the being in front of her. "I've argued with my dad before but he never brought that up not even in our nastiest arguments, I had already figured out the truth, that your nothing but an imposter, but that just confirms it!"

"And the fact that I have a bullet wound in my head when your real dad doesn't didn't tip you off?!" The being posing as her dad mocked her and Nicola glared at him. "Besides, I was waiting for you to break free."

"What do you mean?" Nicola demanded before realizing that a duel disk had appeared on his right arm a few seconds before. "You want a duel? You went through all that just to duel me?!"

"Why duel you when you are at full mental capacity when I can break you first?" The being responded as he activated his duel disk but Nicola didn't. "Your too scared to face me little girl?!"

"Why should I?" Nicola asked as her eyes narrowed and she removed her duel disk. "You've mocked me for the past five minutes, claimed that my family would be better off without me and mocked my dead mom! If anything I should just beat you to death with my duel disk!" Nicola added before clutching onto her duel disk with both hands and charging at the being.

"A valiant effort but I don't think so!" The being responded before snapping his finger again and another chain whipped out of the darkness this time wrapping itself around Nicola's leg tightly causing her to trip and fall losing grip of her duel disk in the process, she struggled to get to her feet but the chain pulled her backwards until she was back where she started. "I wouldn't try that again if I were you, not if you want to get out of this alive."

"A little chain isn't going to kill me!" Nicola responded and the being chuckled before snapping his fingers three times and three chains shot out, two ensnared Nicola's arms whilst the other wrapped itself tightly around her neck.

"I already knew you were pathetic Nicola." He added as he walked up to the Autistic Teen as she struggled to breathe and kneeled down to her until he was looking her in the face. "But you've somehow managed to make yourself look more pathetic than usual."

"…..let…..me…go…." Nicola wheezed out as the chain continued to strangle her.

"Well, as you wish." The being responded before snapping his fingers four times and each chain unraveled itself from Nicola's body starting from her foot and ending at her throat before walking back. "It would be far too easy to kill you that way so instead I'll prolong your suffering with this duel but when I win the chains will come back and finish the job."

"You….you coward…." Nicola wheezed as she struggled to get to her feet. "Wasn't mocking me enough?"

"It's never enough for me." He responded before kicking Nicola's duel disk in her direction, the device skid across the floor before stopping just sort of Nicola's feet. "Besides, it's more fun this way." He added as Nicola bent down and, whilst keeping an eye on the being, grabbed her duel disk and when she had it back on her arm the being was back in his original spot. "I suppose a seasoned duelist like you should know the rules, oh wait, you're a rookie with a months' worth of experience."

"I had a months' worth of experience back in Battle City, that was months ago, do the math." Nicola retorted as she activated her duel disk and the being did likewise. "What am I supposed to call you anyway? There's no way in hell I'm calling you dad!"

"If it's convenient for you, you may call me Nightmare." The being, now known as Nightmare, responded before activating his duel disk.

"_I'd almost laugh at how cliché his name is if I weren't so angry at him." _Nicola thought with a frown as they drew their opening hands. "Let me guess, you want to go first?"

"Actually you can go first." Nightmare responded and Nicola's eyes narrowed before she drew her sixth card and looked at it.

"_Great, my hand is full of Crystal Beasts and I don't have a single Sapphire Pegasus among them, at least I can get Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins on the field." _Nicola thought before picking up her drawn card and playing it. "I kick things off with the Spell Card Terra Forming!" Nicola played the card and quickly picked up her deck to search through it.

"Gee I wonder what Field Spell you are going to search for." Nightmare muttered sarcastically and Nicola ignored him before she found the card she was looking for and added it to her hand before reshuffling her deck. "I have access to your memories remember? I know you run Crystal Beasts so there's nothing that you can do to stop me from beating you!"

"Just because you know what cards are in my deck doesn't mean I can't beat you!" Nicola retorted as she sent Terra Forming to the graveyard. "Just ask Andreas….." Nicola trailed off before quickly covering her mouth once she realized what could mean for Andreas.

"Thank you for the excellent idea, I think I will pay a visit to your crush when I'm done with you." Nightmare responded and Nicola glared at him. "Oh yes, I know how you feel about him! Such a shame that you'll never get a chance to marry him, like you dream about night after night…."

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Nicola snapped at him as she glared at him. "You know nothing about him! I activate Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins!" Nicola played the card and sighed in relief as the scenery changed to ancient ruins with the rainbow in the background. "That's much better!"

"We'll soon see about that." Nightmare grunted as Nicola looked over the rest of her hand. "Are you going to play Sapphire Pegasus next?"

"No but I have something that's almost as strong as her! I summon Crystal Beast – Amber Mammoth!" Nicola played the card and the amber colored mammoth appeared on the field (4/1700/1600). "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Nicola announced and Nightmare drew his card.

"_If she thinks she knows what Crystal Beasts are truly capable off then she's in for a rude awakening." _Nightmare thought before holding up his drawn card. "Would you look at that? I drew my own Terra Forming! And I think I'll activate it!" Nightmare played the card and to Nicola's surprise Nightmare shuffled his deck not by hand but by putting some commands into his duel disk, the deck stopped shuffling when it found the card he had asked as and Nightmare picked it up as the deck reshuffled. "What's the matter? Never seen an auto-shuffle duel disk before?"

"_Those things must be new because I'm sure that Duel Academy would've gotten them by now if they weren't." _Nicola thought as Nightmare sent his own Terra-Forming to the graveyard. _"I can't think about that right now, especially not when Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins is about to be destroyed before I get to use any of its effects!"_

"So tell me Nicola, you've used Crystal Beasts ever since you started playing." Nightmare continued as he picked up his card. "How well do you know the archetype?" Nightmare asked and Nicola scoffed.

"What kind of question is that? I know each monster, spell and trap card effect like the back of my hand and I could probably recite each effect off the top of my head." Nicola responded and Nightmare shook his head.

"Please don't." Nightmare responded before playing the card. "Here's the thing, I run Crystal Beasts as well and I intend to prove that I am the better Crystal Beast duelist! I activate the Field Spell Card Advanced Dark!" Nightmare played the card and the scenery changed, this time however rather than simply changing the bright colors of Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins were slowly consumed by an almost unnaturally dark shade of black until even the rainbow in the background was consumed.

"Wha…what have you done?!" Nicola stammered as she looked around the area.

"I made this duel a lot more interesting that's what! And besides, what's the fun of a Crystal Beast Mirror Match when we both rely on that overpowered field spell!?" Nightmare responded and Nicola's eyes narrowed. "Honestly if this archetype was even slightly popular your damn field spell would've been banned long ago!"

"Yeah I'm just going to file that under "yet another thing you couldn't be more wrong about"." Nicola responded as she glared at Nightmare. "So are you going to explain your field spell's effect or not?"

"I never thought you'd ask." Nightmare responded with a chuckle. "Why don't you just look at your mammoth?" Nightmare added and Nicola did so, it didn't take her long to figure out what was wrong as Amber Mammoth's eyes were glowing red. "For starters all Crystal Beast monsters on the field and in the graveyard are now Dark Type Monsters."

"Okay, I don't see the point in that." Nicola responded despite clearly being disturbed by what was happening to her mammoth.

"Oh believe me, there's a point, for now I set one card facedown and I summon Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus!" Nightmare played the card and it didn't take Nicola long to recognize the monster as Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, however something seemed off about this version of Sapphire Pegasus as it seemed more evil than Nicola's monster (4/1800/1200).

"Advanced Crystal Beast?" Nicola asked as she did a double take.

"Well, well, what do you know? It seems you don't know as much as you thought little girl!" Nightmare mocked her and Nicola glared at him. "For all intents and purposes Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus is treated as Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, she even shares regular Sapphire Pegasus's effect!" Nightmare added before inputting more commands.

"_Okay, I still don't see what's so special about this Advanced Crystal Beast stuff." _Nicola thought with a frown as Nightmare found the card he was looking for via his duel disk, placed it in the Spell/Trap Card Zone and the deck reshuffled. _"Wait is that monster what I think it is?"_

"However the monster I added to that zone won't be staying long." Nightmare responded as he played another card. "I activate E-Force! With this Spell Card I can select one Crystal Beast in my Spell/Trap Card Zone and Special Summon it! Do you recognize this card?"

"Yeah, it's Crystal Beast – Ruby Carbuncle." Nicola responded as Nightmare played the card and the weakest of the Crystal Beasts appeared on the field (3/300/300) and as soon as the small creature appeared on the field its eyes started glowing as well. _"This is wrong on so many levels and not just because of how cute Ruby Carbuncle is, if he wanted to use that effect why use it now and not build up a sizeable force first to take full advantage of Carbuncle's effect?" _Nicola thought as he eyes narrowed. _"I don't know what he's up to but at least my facedown will protect me."_

"And now onto business, Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, attack Amber Mammoth!" Nightmare commanded and the Pegasus charged into battle.

"Close but no cigar! I activate my Trap Card Amber Crystal Circle!" Nicola activated the trap and Amber Mammoth started glowing. "Since you attacked my Amber Mammoth this trap card gives him a major boost, namely the combined attacks of each face-up Crystal Beast Monster I control."

"You should've saved that for when you had more monsters at your disposal." Nightmare mocked her as Amber Mammoth's attack shot up to 3400 and it charged at Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus before impaling the monster on its tusk destroying it and bringing Nightmare's life-points down to 6400. "Regardless Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus shares one other effect with its regular counterpart." Nightmare said as the monster appeared in his Spell/Trap Card Zone. "But I guess that's what I get for expecting a good strategy from someone with your condition!" Nightmare added and Nicola went to respond. "And don't give me that "high functioning" crap! Autism is still autism you're just not as stupid as the others!"

"_Great, as if I didn't hate this guy enough already." _Nicola thought as Nightmare looked over his hand. "It doesn't matter if I'm autistic or not and besides, you just handed me an early lead on a silver platter!"

"Keep telling yourself that, for now I end my turn." Nightmare responded and Nicola drew her card.

"_He left Ruby Carbuncle in attack mode, it's almost like he wants me to attack." _Nicola thought with a frown before looking at her drawn card. _"Amethyst Cat, normally I'd summon her without a second thought but that facedown card has me worried." _Nicola thought before getting an idea. _"Okay, I'll attack Carbuncle with Amber Mammoth and if that facedown card is something like Mirror Force I'll go to my second main phase and use my normal summon to set Emerald Tortoise in defense mode, not exactly my best strategy ever but a plan's a plan I guess." _Nicola thought before she added Amethyst Cat to her hand. "Amber Mammoth, attack Ruby Carbuncle!" Nicola commanded and the mammoth charged into battle…..

"I activate my Trap Card Dark Spirit Art – Greed!" Nightmare activated the trap and Amber Mammoth stopped in his tracks as Ruby Carbuncle was consumed by a dark light. "Thanks to Advanced Dark Ruby Carbuncle was a Dark Type Monster which allows me to tribute him to draw two cards, that is unless you have a Spell Card in your hand to reveal to me and negate the effect."

"_Damn it, the only Spell Cards I had in my hand where Terra-Forming and Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins." _Nicola thought with a frown before shaking her head in response and Nightmare drew two cards. "I may not know as much as I'd like to think I do about Crystal Beasts but I do know that since Ruby Carbuncle left the field a replay occurs and since you have no monsters I can cut to the chase and have Amber Mammoth attack directly!" Nicola commanded and the mammoth started charging towards Nightmare….

"And I negate the direct attack with Battle Fader!" Nightmare played the card and the small clock like fiend appeared on the field stopping Amber Mammoth in its tracks (1/0/0). "And since I summoned him in response to your direct attack…"

"The attack is negated and my Battle Phase ends immediately." Nicola responded with a confused look on her face. "But why even run that in a Crystal Beast deck? Even with your Field Spell in play there isn't a lot of Dark Type support for it!"

"I have my reasons." Nightmare responded and Nicola frowned.

"_Whatever those reasons are I bet I'm not going to like them." _Nicola thought with a frown before looking at her hand. _"Amber Mammoth may still be on the field but I'd better set up some defenses all the same." _Nicola thought before picking up another monster. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Nicola announced and Nightmare drew his card.

"_Her trap card may have given her a brief lead but it'll be I that wins the day!" _Nightmare thought before grinning. _"Especially after I rigged my duel disk to give me exactly what cards I need." _Nightmare thought before looking at his drawn card. "You are probably wondering what Battle Fader is doing in a Crystal Beast deck."

"The thought did cross my mind." Nicola responded and Nightmare smirked.

"Well for starters, outside of Emerald Tortoise the defensive capabilities of Crystal Beasts are garbage! The damn boss monster of the deck has zero defense points for Christ's sake!" Nightmare responded and Nicola's eyes narrowed, like Chelsea she came from a religious family and the fact that Nightmare was speaking of Christ didn't seem right to her.

"Okay first off, don't speak of Christ when it's clear to me that you couldn't have less to do with him or god!" Nicola snapped at him and Nightmare smirked. "Second, what's your point? I2's released more Crystal Beast monsters to rectify that anyway!"

"Oh, I know that all too well." Nightmare responded as he played the card. "I know you have Malachite Dog and Garnet Dolphin in your deck but do you have all of them?"

"I'm working on it." Nicola grunted and Nightmare chuckled. "But you still haven't answered my question! What's the point of this?"

"I was getting to that the card I just drew is one of those new monsters." Nightmare responded as Battle Fader vanished from the field. "And I tribute Battle Fader in order to summon that monster, he is the mighty Crystal Beast Diamond Bear and I summon him in attack mode!"

"_Oh shit…." _Nicola thought as her eyes widened and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large bear that was seemingly made of diamond that had razor sharp claws (6/2400/1200) and just like the other Crystal Beasts its eyes started glowing. "Didn't I2 ban that card before it could get released because of how broken it is?"

"Yes, it's the very same monster." Nightmare responded with a laugh. "First, since it was tribute summoned using a monster that isn't a Crystal Beast monster I can Special Summon one Crystal Beast or Advanced Crystal Beast from my Spell/Trap Card Zone, guess who's back?" Nightmare asked mockingly as Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus returned to the field. ""And since she was summoned…."

"I know you get to replace her with another Crystal Beast." Nicola responded and Nightmare smirked as the he imputed the commands. "So far Diamond Bear doesn't seem as broken as something like Makyura the Destructor!"

"A monster doesn't need to allow you to activate a trap card from your hand when it's sent to the graveyard to be banned before he comes out." Nightmare retorted as he placed the monster in his Spell/Trap Card Zone. You see he has one more effect, I return Ruby Carbuncle to the Spell/Trap Card Zone to destroy your facedown monster." Nightmare announced as Diamond Bear leapt into battle and slashed Emerald Tortoise with its claws destroying it. "And by the way, he still gets to attack!"

"_No wonder that monster got banned." _Nicola thought as she braced herself. _"How did a card that broken ever get made? Oh, wait never mind this is the same company that approved the Baby Dragon Rulers and Spellbook of Judgment."_

"Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, attack Amber Mammoth and finish what you started last turn!" Nightmare commanded and the Pegasus charged into battle again, this time Amber Mammoth didn't counter the attack and Sapphire Pegasus stabbed him with her horn bringing Nicola's life-points down to 7900. "Remember that lead you had? Say goodbye to it!" Nightmare said as Nicola sent Amber Mammoth to the Spell/Trap Card Zone. "Diamond Bear, show her the real power of the Crystal Beasts and attack her directly!" Nightmare commanded and the bear charged towards Nicola before slashing her across the stomach knocking her on her back in the process and bringing her life-points down to 5500.

"Is that the best you…." Nicola trailed off as she got back to her feet only to grunt in pain and clutch her stomach. "What the….."

"I knew I forgot something." Nightmare responded as Nicola got back to her feet. "This is a Shadow Game! The monsters are real and so is the damage, just look at your stomach." Nightmare added and Nicola removed her hand, her shirt now had three slash marks where Diamond Bear had hit her and whilst it did show off some of her midriff it also showed three nasty looking slashes across her stomach. "If you think that's bad, just wait until he delivers the final blow."

"That final blow isn't going to happen!" Nicola responded as she grunted in pain.

"We'll see about that, for now I end my turn." Nightmare responded and Nicola drew her card.

"_The only monster I have that's capable of beating that bear is Rainbow Dragon and that new XYZ Monster I got recently but I don't have nearly enough monsters in my graveyard or on the field to summon Rainbow Dragon and that XYZ Monster isn't easy to summon." _Nicola thought before looking at her drawn card and smirking a bit. _"If this isn't the most perfectly timed draw in my career as a duelist I don't know what is." _Nicola thought before quickly picking it up. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn!"

"That's it? How pathetic compared to my brilliant strategy!" Nightmare responded as he drew his card. _"Drat. I needed Rare Value to send a monster to the graveyard and use Diamond Bear's effect but still this has its uses." _Nightmare thought before setting the card. "I set one card facedown, now Diamond Bear attack her dense monster!" Nightmare commanded and the bear charged towards the monster only for his attack to have no effect. "What?"

"What's the matter? I thought you'd recognize Malachite Dog!" Nicola responded as the dog appeared on the field sitting down (3/100/1000). "And since you were kind enough to destroy Amber Mammoth last turn he can't be destroyed in battle!"

"In that case I end my turn." Nightmare responded and Nicola drew her card. _"She can't stall forever, Andreas was able to use Forbidden Chalice to put that dog down and I happen to have a copy in my deck!"_

"_Spellbook inside the Pot, this could backfire big time like it did against Andreas but I'll take any help I can get." _Nicola thought before playing the card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!" Nicolas called out as she activated the card and both duelists drew three cards. "_Garnet Dolphin, Crystal Beasts' first tuner monster and I didn't get the Synchro in the same pack." _Nicola thought before looking at her other cards. _"Wait a sec, I can't use it for a Synchro Summon but if this works I can turn this around!" _Nicola thought before playing the card. "You want new Crystal Beasts? Fine, I'll give you a new Crystal Beast! I summon Crystal Beast Garnet Dolphin!" Nicola played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was red crystal dolphin with the ruby in its head the splashed around happily (2/500/200).

"Oh, I'm so scared of you having a tuner monster without a Synchro Monster to summon with." Nightmare mocked her and Nicola growled. "Seriously, why even include that in your deck?"

"I'll show you! First I activate Garnet Dolphin's effect! I send Amber Mammoth to the graveyard to add his level to Garnet Dolphin!" Nicola added as she sent Amber Mammoth to the graveyard and Garnet Dolphin's level increased to six. "Unfortunately he'll be destroyed during the end phase since his new level is over Level Five but if things go well he won't be around that long."

"What are you talking about? You don't have the Synchro Monster!" Nightmare pointed out and Nicola grinned.

"Who said that my goal was to summon the Synchro Monster? I activate Crystal Surge!" Nicola played the card and both of her Crystal Beasts started glowing. "Have you heard of the Spell Card called Resonance Device?"

"Yes, it allows the user to match up the levels of two identical monsters and it's usually used to build overlay networks." Nightmare responded with a frown. "What of it?"

"Crystal Surge is like a Crystal Beast exclusive version of Resonance Device that works in the exact opposite way! Oh and before I forget, the whole attribute part of the effect applies to their original attribute and not their current one so Advanced Dark can't prevent it!" Nicola added and Nightmare growled.

"I knew that! Just get on with it!" Nightmare responded and Nicola grinned.

"Since Garnet Dolphin is now a Level Six Water Type Sea-Serpent monster and Malachite Dog is a Level 3 Earth Type Beast Monster I can increase Malachite Dog's Level to match Garnet Dolphin's!" Nicola announced as Malachite Dog's Level increased to six. _"Okay, here we go Nicola, first ever XYZ Summon! Let's do it!" _Nicola thought with a smirk as the Overlay Network opened up. "And now, using my two monsters, I build the Overlay Network!"

"_No! She's summoning that monster!" _Nightmare realized as his eyes widened and the two monsters were sucked into the Overlay Network.

"I XYZ Summon Crystal Beast Jaspis Lion!" Nicola played the card and a new monster emerged from the overlay network, as the name suggested it was a large lion that was ruby red in color and was very majestic looking (Rank: 6/2300/2000). "I know he doesn't look that strong for a Rank 6 but he comes with a nifty effect, by detaching an overlay unit…." Nicola said as she sent Malachite Dog to the graveyard. "I can target one monster my opponent controls and cut his attack points in half!"

"Do I even need to ask what monster you're targeting?" Nightmare asked and his suspicion was confirmed when Diamond Bear's attack dropped to 1200.

"Did you really think I'd let you keep such a broken card on your side of the field? No chance! Jaspis Lion, attack Diamond Bear!" Nicola commanded and the lion charged towards Diamond Bear before chomping down on his neck.

"I activate the effect of Advanced Dark!" Nightmare announced and Nicola blinked in confusion as he sent a monster from his deck to the graveyard and his deck reshuffled. "Is there something wrong? I know Autistic people are slow but…."

"SAVE IT!" Nicola snapped at him as her eyes narrowed. "I've already been called a retard once today and I'm not putting up with that again! And yeah, there's a problem! Why didn't you take any damage?"

"Did you really think I'd play Advanced Dark just to change the attributes of a few monsters?" Nightmare asked rhetorically and Nicola frowned. "Advanced Dark comes with a few other effects and the one I just used allowed me to send one Crystal Beast from my deck to the graveyard and in exchange I take no damage." Nightmare explained before holding up Diamond Bear. "As for Diamond Bear I'm sending him to the graveyard as well." Nightmare added as he sent it to the graveyard.

"_I'm willing to bet anything that the last effect has something to do with Rainbow Dragon." _Nicola thought before smirking. _"But if I keep up the attacks I can force him to thin his deck so much that he'll run out of cards in a couple of turns and unlike Andreas I won't spare him from going through the process of losing via deck out." _Nicola thought before looking at the rest of her cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Nicola announced and Nightmare drew his card.

"_I have two of the monsters I need to summon my ace but that's not enough, fortunately that foolish girl gave just what I needed to rectify that!" _Nightmare thought before playing a card. "I activate Painful Choice!"

"Wait, WHAT?!" Nicola asked as her jaw dropped when she saw the card's hologram. "That card's so insanely broken that Yata-Garasu has a better chance of coming back than it does! Why the hell is it working on your disk?"

"At what point did I indicate that we were playing by tournament rules?" Nightmare asked as he picked up five cards from his deck. "Now I reveal five cards to you and you get to choose one, the one you chose is the one I keep, the others…."

"Are discarded, my dad made sure that I was familiar with each card on the banlist when I first started playing and whilst the banlist's changed a few times since then that fact hasn't!" Nicola responded and Nightmare said nothing before showing her the five cards which she quickly recognized. _"Amber Mammoth, Amethyst Cat, Emerald Tortoise, Cobalt Eagle and Topaz Tiger, five different Crystal Beasts plus Diamond Bear and an unknown Crystal Beast, that can only mean one thing." _Nicola thought with a gulp. _"Rainbow Dragon…."_

"Are you going to choose or not?" Nightmare asked and Nicola frowned.

"You can keep Emerald Tortoise." Nicola responded and Nightmare nodded before adding the card she chose to his hand and sending the others to the graveyard. _"How did he even get his hands on Painful Choice to begin with? It's one of the rarest forbidden cards in the game!"_

"Next I set a monster in defense mode and I set two cards facedown." Nightmare set the three cards down and the three holograms appeared on the field. "And I end my turn."

"_I see what he's up to." _Nicola thought as she drew her card. _"If I attack Sapphire Pegasus he'll use Advanced Dark's effect again to send another monster to the graveyard but on the other hand that will leave him with too many cards in his graveyard to summon Rainbow Dragon with so one of his facedown card is probably something like Shift which would force me to attack his defense monster and I'd be surprised if it wasn't Emerald Tortoise." _Nicola thought with a frown. _"Really wish I had my copy of Trap Jammer facedown right now but my best bet will be Sapphire Pegasus, let's just hope that those facedown cards are bluffs."_

"Are you going to make your move or not?" Nightmare asked and Nicola frowned.

"I'm getting to that." Nicola responded before she looked at her drawn card. _"Dead draw but I can use Jaspis Lion's effect to give him extra incentive to use Advanced Dark's effect at least." _Nicola thought before sending Garnet Dolphin to the graveyard. "I detach Garnet Dolphin to use Jaspis Lion's effect one last time!" Nicola announced as Sapphire Pegasus's attack dropped to 900. "Now Jaspis Lion, attack Sapphire Pegasus!" Nicola commanded and the lion charged into battle…..

"I activate my Trap Card Shift!" Nightmare activated his trap and Jaspis Lion stopped in his tracks. "Your new target is my facedown monster!" Nightmare added and Jaspis Lion changed course before chomping down on the revealed Emerald Tortoise and destroying it. _"Now I have her exactly where I want her! This duel is over!" _Nightmare thought as he sent Emerald Tortoise to the graveyard.

"_I have no choice to defend and basically hope for the best." _Nicola thought before setting her drawn monster. "I end my turn." Nicola announced and Nightmare drew his card.

"Well, well, here's a card that was recently unbanned and a very infamous one at that." Nightmare said as he looked at his drawn card. "Neither your lion nor your facedown monster can save you from this! I activate Raigeki!"

"No!" Nicola yelled out but it was too late as lightning struck Jaspis Lion and her facedown Ruby Carbuncle destroying them both. "Jaspis Lion may be gone but not for good, if he's destroyed by a card effect then the two monsters I used to summon him go to the Spell/Trap Card Zone!" Nicola said as Carnet Dolphin and Malachite Dog appeared in her Spell/Trap Card zone. _"Let's just hope this works."_

"To bad because now you're finished!" Nightmare responded as he held up a monster. "Seven Crystal Beasts, all Dark Types, I now banish them from my graveyard to summon my best monster!"

"That…..that's not Rainbow Dragon's effect!" Nicola said as her eyes widened and Nightmare chuckled.

"You were expecting that overrated piece of junk? Please! My monster's much better!" Nightmare responded as he played the card. "I summon Rainbow Dark Dragon!" Nightmare played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it looked a lot like Rainbow Dragon but it was jet-black and incredibly menacing (10/4000/0). "I'll now do what you told me to do earlier and do the math, the combined attack scores of my monsters are 5800, your life-points are at 5600, you fall just short of surviving these attacks! Sapphire Pegasus, soften her up!" Nightmare commanded and the Pegasus flew towards Nicola before biting her in the stomach ripping off more of her shirt and leaving a nasty gash whilst reducing her life-points to 3400. "Rainbow Dark Dragon, kill her!" Nightmare commanded and the dragon charged up his attack….

"I activate Nutrient Z!" Nicola shouted and Nightmare's eyes widened when he heard the name.

"WHAT!" Nightmare shouted as the attack hit her but not before her life-points shot up to 7400 causing her life-points to plummet down to 3400, however when the smoke cleared Nicola was on her back with her hand scattered around her and whilst she was breathing she wasn't moving. _"How did she draw Nutrient Z? My Duel Disk fix only applies to me!" _Nightmare thought before smirking. _"Ah well, if she doesn't move within the next five minutes I'll call it a forfeit, either way I get paid!"_

"_Oh god, that sucked so much." _Nicola thought with a moan, it was hard for her to pinpoint where she hurt the most but needless to say she was hurting all over. _"How can I beat him? His monster seems unbeatable!"_

"_Nicola, no monster is unbeatable!" _The female voice from before rang out and Nicola groaned. _"I know it hurts but you can't let him win, remember what Andreas once told you!"_

"_Remember what Andreas once told me?" _Nicola thought before thinking back to their Battle City Duel.

"Thirty more seconds…." Nightmare trailed off as he mentally counted along the seconds before Nicola's defeat. "Twenty…..ah let's cut to the chase, it's not like she's getting up! Five, four, three, two, one…."

"Hey asshole, I think you need to go back to school and relearn basic math!" Nicola said with a pained grunt as she got back to her feet and gathered up her cards whilst Nightmare just stood there with jaw agape. "I'm pretty sure you were about ten seconds off there!"

"How….how are you even standing?!" Nightmare demanded as he pointed to his dragon. "You just took four thousand points of direct damage!"

"But I still have life-points left." Nicola retorted as she glared at him, once all her cards where back in her hand she laughed a bit. "I can't help but find it funny that whatever sick, twisted individual decided to target me for this attack chose the day I met Andreas to set this all up!"

"What do you mean?" Nightmare demanded and Nicola glared at him.

"The cut-off point for that flashback was when Andreas was going to turn things around in our first duel." Nicola responded as she glared at him. "But just before that he told me something that has pretty much stuck with me ever since, to never give up as long as you have life-points left and I have 3400 life-points left!" Nicola responded as she held up her duel disk to show the life-point counter and Nightmare laughed. "What's so funny?"

"You are, if you honestly think that Andreas feels the same way you do about him." Nightmare responded and Nicola glared at him. "He's a smart kid, good grades, an exceptional duelist, why would he actually want to date an autistic girl like you? He only humors you out of pity!"

"Keep talking moron, you just prove how wrong you are with each word!" Nicola responded as she glared at him. "Whilst it's true that Andreas is a smart guy and a great duelist, not to mention handsome, he didn't learn about my autism until after I dueled him in Battle City and he and Marcus were about to look past my diagnoses and see me for who I really am, smart, witty, beautiful and a great duelist, I just needed to come out of my shell and they helped me do that!" Nicola said as her eyes narrowed. "Ever since I met him I've grown more confident in both my dueling skills and social life but most importantly he likes me for who I am, no diagnoses will change that that's something that you couldn't possibly understand!"

"Ugh, I've had enough of this mushy stuff! I end my turn!" Nightmare responded and Nicola drew her card.

"_I drew Sapphire Pegasus! Yes! If I play my cards right I can turn this around, I hope." _Nicola thought before looking over her hand. "I set one card facedown and I summon my own Sapphire Pegasus!" Nicola played the cards and her Sapphire Pegasus appeared on the field (4/1800/1200). "And now her effect activates…."

"Finally Nicola, you have summoned me!" Sapphire Pegasus said, in the same female voice from before no less, and Nicola did a double take.

"Huh…..what…am I going crazy from the pain?!" Nicola asked as she scratched her head in confusion and Sapphire Pegasus shook her head.

"Your pain may be great Nicola but I am talking to you." Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola just stared at her. "I guess there's no way around it, you are now my protégé."

"You're saying words but all they are doing is confusing me." Nicola responded and Nightmare chuckled.

"Just as I suspected, you have a duel spirit guide!" Nightmare said with a smirk and Nicola looked more confused than ever.

"Nicola, I'll explain later but for now resolve my effect!" Sapphire Pegasus told her and Nicola shook her head before nodding.

"Err, right, as I was saying I use Sapphire Pegasus's effect!" Nicola announced before searching through her deck and placing a monster in her Spell/Trap Card Zone. "Now I activate Call of the Haunted! And I use it to Special Summon one of the monsters you sent to the graveyard with Raigeki!"

"What good would Jaspis Lion do you without any Overlay Units?" Nightmare asked and Nicola shook her head.

"Who said I was summoning that? I'm basically doing what you didn't do earlier and using Ruby Carbuncle's effect!" Nicola responded as the weakest Crystal Beast appeared on the field alongside Malachite Dog, Garnet Dolphin and Amethyst Cat all in defense mode. _"I only hope that my hunch is right about this Field Spell." _Nicola thought before glaring at Nightmare. "I end my turn."

"That's it? How pathetic, if that's all you can do than why bother using Nutrient Z!?" Nightmare retorted as he drew his card. "In fact the spell card I just drew will seal your fate! I activate Big Bang Shot and I equip it to Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus!" Nightmare played the card and his Sapphire Pegasus started glowing as her attack points grew to 2200. "But before I deliver the killing blow, Rainbow Dark Dragon, attack her Sapphire Pegasus!" Nightmare commanded and the dragon started firing up his attack…..

"I activate Last Resort!" Nicola announced and Nightmare's eyes widened as the darkness started to dissipate. "I don't use this trap card often because it's about as situational as you can get but since you just declared an attack I can activate my second copy of Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins from my deck!" Nicola said as she picked up and searched through her deck, once she found the card she was looking for she played it and the darkness completely vanishes returning the field to the bright colors of Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins.

"But that means….." Nightmare trailed off as Advanced Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus screamed in pain before shattering. "How did you know that my Sapphire Pegasus couldn't survive without Advanced Dark?"

"Honestly? I didn't, I was wondering why you waited until after activating Advanced Dark to summon your Sapphire Pegasus and I figured out that she depended on the Field Spell." Nicola responded before her eyes narrowed. "And that's just like how you rely on dirty tricks!"

"What?" Nightmare demanded and Nicola grinned.

"I figured out a couple of turns ago that your duel disk was rigged, I mean come on! You happened to draw Painful Choice, Raigeki and Rainbow Dark Dragon right when you needed those cards? Not to mention all the other "lucky draws" you've had since the duel began!" Nicola asked as she shook her head. "If you had drawn one of them right when you needed them I would've called it dumb luck, two of them I would've called it a coincidence but all three? Not even Yugi Moto had that much luck!"

"So you figured it out, I don't care!" Nightmare snapped at her and Nicola glared at him. "But Rainbow Dark Dragon doesn't share the restriction that the Advanced Crystal Beasts do!" Nightmare added and seconds later her Sapphire Pegasus was destroyed by Rainbow Dark Dragon's blast bringing her life-points down to 1200. "Well, well, it seems I won't need Big Bang Shot to destroy you after all!"

"That's if you make it to the next round!" Nicola responded as Sapphire Pegasus appeared in her Spell/Trap Card Zone and Nightmare growled.

"I activate Double Spell! With this I discard one Spell Cards from my hand…." Nightmare played the card and quickly discarded Rare Value. "And I can use Spellbook inside the Pot's effect as its own!" Nightmare added and Nicola would've shrugged if not for her pain as they drew three cards. _"Perfect, I drew Stop Defense! Next turn I'll use this to force Ruby Carbuncle into attack mode and destroy her!" _Nightmare thought before turning to Nicola. "I end my turn!" Nightmare announced and Nicola drew her card.

"_Okay, I have Rainbow Dragon but I can't summon him with what I've got." _Nicola thought with a frown as she looked over her field. _"I have four weak Crystal Beasts on my field and three in my graveyard, wait hold on…." _Nicola thought as an idea popped into her head. _"Yeah, this could work." _Nicola thought before turning to Nightmare. "You know what? You were right earlier, Rainbow Dragon is all about power, take that away and he's nothing!"

"Glad to see we agree on something but it won't save you." Nightmare responded and Nicola grinned. "What's your point?"

"My point is that the same can be said for Rainbow Dark Dragon! I activate Shield and Sword!" Nicola activated the Spell Card and Nightmare's eyes widened as Rainbow Dark Dragon's attack plummeted to zero whilst Nicola's Crystal Beasts benefited from the Spell Card. "He's not so mighty now, is he? I switch my monsters to attack mode!" Nicola announced as her Crystal Beasts stood up. "And I activate Crystal Promise to bring Sapphire Pegasus back from my Spell/Trap Card Zone!" Nicola played the card and Sapphire Pegasus returned to the field.

"It's good to be back." Sapphire Pegasus said with a grin as Nicola placed another monster in her Spell/Trap Card zone.

"I'm still not used to this but I can't focus on that right now." Nicola responded as she shuffled her deck. "Now I activate Crystal Blessing! I take Emerald Tortoise and Jarpis Lion from my graveyard and place them in my Spell/Trap Card Zone!" Nicola added as she placed the cards in her zones. "They'll be destroyed during my end phase but there won't be one! Encase you haven't noticed I now have seven monster cards on my field!"

"Oh no…." Nightmare trailed off as Rainbow Dragon appeared on the field (10/4000/0).

"Let's find out who's really mighty! Rainbow Dragon, attack Rainbow Dark Dragon!" Nicola commanded and the dragon launched its attack at the dark counterpart destroying it and bringing Nightmare's life-points down to 2400. "And this, this is for mocking me, my autism and my dead mom! The rest of you, finish him off!" Nicola commanded and the rest of her beasts charged into battle.

"No, no!" Nightmare yelled out as the attacks hit him reducing his life-points to zero, Nicola finally just collapsed from pain and exhaustion as the holograms, aside from Sapphire Pegasus disappeared.

"I can't believe I'm about to thank a duel monster." Nicola said as she shook her head. "But thanks Sapphire Pegasus, I don't even want to think about what could've happened if you weren't around."

"You are my protégé Nicola it is my duty to protect you." Sapphire Pegasus responded before turning to Nightmare or at least what was left of him, all that was left was his suit and duel disk, not even his deck remained. "I don't think you'll have to worry about him anymore."

"He may be gone but this incident, I think it scared me for life." Nicola sighed as she turned to her monster. "Even if cards like Advanced Dark and Rainbow Dark Dragon are real I want nothing to do with them!"

"I understand completely." Sapphire Pegasus said before walking off. "You should be waking up soon and I recommend seeking the help of Chelsea and Chloe as soon as you can, they'll know what to do."

"I'll take your word for it." Nicola responded before a blight flash enveloped her vision.

*in the real world*

"AHHH!" Nicola yelled out as she shot up in bed, she took several deep breaths as she sat there. "That…..that was my scariest nightmare ever!" Nicola muttered under her breath as she went to stretch only to yell out in pain. "Argh, my arm, hell everything hurts, was…..was that even a dream?" Nicola muttered to herself before shaking her and lying back down, she realized that the storm had long since stopped but even then she struggled to get to sleep. _"I'll go to Chloe and Chelsea's dorm room in the morning but now, I just want some sleep!"_

*meanwhile*

"Go to Duel Academy Island in the middle of the night he said, it'd be fun he said, there won't be any storms he said!" Jack grunted as he dropped the duelists off on the island. "It'll take me a month at least to dry off this cloak!"

"My apologies Jack but Sarah was unavailable and I only had the weather reports for the Los Angeles area." Victor said over the earpiece and Jack grunted. "How about I let you use my personal dry cleaner to make up for it? Free of charge."

"Now that's more like it!" Jack grinned before turning to the duelists. "You have your orders but if I where you I'd find a place to dry off ASAP unless you want to duel with a cold."

"Don't need to tell us twice and don't worry, we know the island well." One of the duelists, they were both women but she was clearly taller than the other, responded with a nod. "Are you coming Matilda?"

"I'm always coming Felicia." The shorter woman laughed before walking off and the boat sped off.

"_Man I'll miss staring at their sweet asses if they lose." _Jack thought with a grin as the boat sped away. _"But if they are as good as Victor says they are then we'll have many souls by tomorrow night!"_


	114. After the Storm

(OOC Note: All custom cards used by Jason in this chapter were created by Colossal Fighter GX, creative credit goes to him).

It was now Monday morning and whilst the storm had passed almost as quickly as it hit the island the previous night most of the buildings on the island were soaked, thankfully it hit the island past curfew so the students were able to avoid the rain all together.

But for one girl in Osiris Red the storm was the least of her problems.

"Has she answered yet?" A short female Osiris Red student asked her taller roommate as they waited outside Nicola's dorm room, the shorter of the two girls had shoulder length raven black hair and blue eyes whilst the taller of the two had long light brown hair in a ponytail and blue eyes, neither student had made any changes to their uniform and the taller of the two girls shook her head. "I'm worried Sam, first that scream we heard last night and now she isn't answering?"

"If she had answered the door already I would've dismissed that scream as her just being spooked by the storm, putting her autism aside Nicola's a city girl so she's probably not used to storms like that." Sam responded with an accent that sounded like she was from one of America's Southern States as she looked up at her roommate, the two girls where Nicola's new neighbors who had moved into Chelsea and Chloe's old room the day after they were promoted to Ra Yellow. "Cindy, I like her, don't get me wrong but I think we should tell Maria about Nicola's scream, I'm getting seriously worried here." Sam added and Cindy shook her head.

"I don't want to get her into trouble though." Cindy responded as she stepped forward. "Let me try, if she doesn't answer then feel free to fetch Maria, deal?"

"Okay, deal." Sam responded as she stepped aside and let her roommate try.

"Nicola?" Cindy called as she knocked on her door. "It's Cindy, me and Sam want to make sure your all right after the storm last night, can we come in?" Cindy asked and the two girls waited for a few minutes. "Maybe she's on the toilet or in the shower?"

"Bathroom breaks don't take that long and neither do showers." Sam responded before letting out a reluctant sigh. "I'm off to get Maria…."

"Come in." Nicola's voice rang out stopping Sam in her tracks, her voice sounded tired and the two girls shared a look.

"Maybe we woke her up." Sam suggested with a shrug and Cindy shook her head.

"We should check on her anyway." Cindy responded before opening the door, Nicola was still in bed and had her back turned to her neighbors. "Did we wake you up Nicola? Sorry if we did, we heard you scream last night and…."

"Not exactly….." Nicola trailed off before sitting up in her bed with a pained grunt her hair was a mess and her eyes where almost completely bloodshot.

"Nic, have you been up all night?" Sam asked once she saw Nicola's look and Nicola nodded.

"I had a terrible nightmare and the storm woke me up." Nicola responded as she stood up and yawned as she stretched a bit, her pajama top lifted up a bit with her arms briefly exposing her naval and the scars from last night's duel before she put her arms back down lowering the top at the same time. "I couldn't exactly get back to…." Nicola trailed when she saw the concerned looks from the other girls. "What?"

"Nicola, this is going to sound weird but can you lift up your top again?" Cindy asked and Nicola gave her a confused look. "Don't take it off completely just lift it up above your naval." Cindy added and Nicola gave her another confused look before nodding.

"Err, okay." Nicola responded before doing so, when she did the other girls grimaced. "Guys, you're confusing me even more."

"Nicola, where did you get those claw marks and that gash? They look nasty!" Sam asked and Nicola blinked before looking at herself in the full length mirror next to the en-suite and seeing her wounds from last night.

"_First my body aches and now my wounds return from the duel? What the hell happened last night?" _Nicola thought before lowering her top and shaking her head. "I don't know, outside of my duel against Andreas and my trips to the Obelisk Blue Boy's and the Ra Yellow Girl's dorms I spent most of yesterday in here and even then I spent most of the day doing school work on my laptop." Nicola responded as she pointed out her laptop.

"So you have no idea how you got those scars?" Cindy asked and Nicola nodded. "Sam, get Maria, I think we'd better get Nicola to the school nurse."

"I'm on it." Sam nodded in response before leaving the room.

"You guys are doing to let me get dressed first, right? I'm not going to the infirmary in just my pajamas!" Nicola protested and the two girls nodded before leaving the room and Nicola sighed to herself before she plopped down on her bed. _"First the weird dream and now my injuries are showing up? How the hell do I explain this?" _Nicola thought before an idea popped in her head. _"Chloe and Chelsea, Sapphire Pegasus said I should talk to them as soon as I can and maybe they'll meet me in the infirmary?"_

"Are you all right Nicola?" Cindy's voice rang out breaking Nicola's train of thought.

"Err, yeah, I'm fine, I'll call you when I'm dressed." Nicola responded before grabbing her phone and sending a text to Chloe. _"Chloe, explaining would take me to long but I had a weird dream last night that involved a duel against some kind of spirit posing as my dad and when I woke up I was injured, I'm about to be taken to the infirmary, can you and Chelsea meet me there?" _Nicola read the text in her head as she typed it before sending it and putting her phone aside. _"I still don't know how to explain this but hopefully they can shed some light on it." _Nicola thought before she started getting changed out of her pajamas.

*meanwhile*

"And so I said "are you kidding? I could duel your skanky ass under the table blindfolded!", unfortunately for me I ended up insulting the principle's daughter." Chelsea said as she shook her head and Chloe listened on whilst trying not to laugh, the two girls had been up for a couple of hours now and since there was nothing going on today they were passing the time by telling old stories.

"And that's how you got expelled from one school during your first week?" Chloe asked as her text message tone went off and she grabbed her phone whilst Chelsea shook her head.

"Nah, that was just one incident among many!" Chelsea responded with an annoyed sigh as Chloe read her text, once she saw the worried look on Chloe's face her mood turned serious. "Something wrong Chloe?"

"Nicola just texted me, she said that she had a weird dream last night that involved a duel with a spirit of some kind." Chloe said with a frown as she read the text. "Posed as her dad, injured when she woke up, sound familiar Chelsea?"

"Those bastards actually targeted her for a dream duel?!" Chelsea asked angrily and Chloe nodded. "Does she want us to go over to the Osiris Red Girls Dorm and check on her?"

"No, she said in the text that she's being taken to the infirmary." Chloe responded as she showed Chelsea the text. "If I had to guess then I'd say that her new neighbors heard her scream and decided to check on her."

"And that's how she found out about her injuries." Chelsea responded and Chloe nodded, she turned to her desktop and quickly logged in. "You go on ahead, I'm going to e-mail the others." Chelsea told her and Chloe nodded. "If that was a dream duel then we can't let it go ignored."

"Agreed, I'll meet you and the others at the infirmary okay?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded before she left the dorm room.

*later on in the main building*

It didn't take Chelsea long to get to the main building since it was a ten minute walk at most from the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm to the Main Building but due to her not visiting the infirmary all that often it took a while to locate it, by the time she did Chloe and the others were outside.

"Chloe filled us in." Theresa told her as Chelsea approached the group. "And you were right her injuries were discovered by her neighbors after they stopped by her dorm room to check on her."

"How bad does it look?" Chelsea asked as she leaned against the wall and the others frowned.

"We haven't seen the injuries for ourselves but we had a chat with Sam and Cindy, her new neighbors in the Osiris Red Girl's Dorm, and according to them the injuries looked nasty." Chloe responded with a frown on her face. "The nurse put Nicola on some painkillers and as soon as her wounds are dressed we can go in and have a chat."

"Still can't believe that they'd target her in such a way." Andreas commented with a frown. "How do the Orichalcos Duelists even know about her? She's been flying under the radar ever since she enrolled in this school."

"Otto knew about her and we know he's back working with them, as much as I hate to say it." Lance pointed out with a frown on his face. "Besides that, maybe they caught a glimpse of the rematch between her and Andreas and decided to take her out?"

"I sincerely hope that you're not implying that it's my fault that she got targeted Lance." Andreas warned him in a low voice and Lance gulped. "Because if you are then you're about to wish that you had angered Chelsea to the point of violence instead, am I clear?"

"No one's saying that and besides, wasn't the duel her idea in the first place?" Theresa pointed out and Andreas took a deep breath before nodding. "Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage physically speaking so she should be fine, mentally however…."

"There's no way she's 100% mentally speaking." Chelsea pointed our as she shook her head. "I'm still shaken up from my dream duel and that was over a week ago!"

"That's a great point Chelsea." Tyler nodded in agreement as he frowned. "However we must take every precaution we can with these duels, the duels Andreas and Chloe were in were child's play compared to these."

"I think we should make this a priority." Brandon said as an idea popped in his head. "I say we, if we ever find ourselves in another dream duel, should make sure that our Duel Spirits contact Silent Magician or Armored Dragon ASAP, they seem to be the most powerful of the Duel Spirits."

"That won't help someone like Nicola though we don't even know if she has a Duel Spirit." Chelsea responded with a frown. "So far the only duelists we know of with a Duel Spirit Guide outside of our group are Ash and Hamden."

"And Ash is pretty much an honorary member whilst Hamden is our mentor of sorts." Chloe responded with a nod and before anyone else could say anything the door to the infirmary opened and the nurse stepped out. "How is she?"

"She's banged up but she'll live, Maria is with her at the moment but she isn't against letting you see her." The nurse responded before stepping aside to let the students in. "She's lying down on the last bed on the right."

"Thanks Nurse, you mind leaving us alone with her?" Theresa asked and the nurse nodded before going off to check on a male Osiris Red student with what looked like a broken arm. _"Poor guy probably broke it thanks to the storm at least it passed during the night." _Theresa thought as they walked down the hall of beds and saw Nicola lying on the bed, her hair wasn't as messy, presumably because she had stopped to brush it before coming to the infirmary and she was now in her uniform. "Hey Nicola, are you feeling better?" Theresa asked as she and the others took seats.

"Not really, right now I just want to catch up on the sleep I missed." Nicola moaned as she sat up in her bed. "Wait, didn't I only text Chloe?"

"You did but once we realized what had happened I e-mailed the others." Chelsea responded as she took a deep breath. "I know this isn't exactly easy Nicola but what can you remember?" Chelsea asked and Nicola shifted her weight.

"I was going through my deck for most of the day after the duel against Andreas." Nicola responded with a frown. "By the time the dorm check came about I must've swapped out at least half of my Spell Cards for ones I used to keep in my Side Deck, not long after that the storm hit and that ended up keeping me up for a while."

"Join the club." The other duelists said in unison and Nicola sighed.

"After about twenty minutes or so I finally fell asleep, only I wish I had just stayed up all night." Nicola added with a frown as she pointed to the bandaged part of her abdomen. "During the dream I was shown a vision of when I first met Andreas back in Battle City, only it ended completely different."

"Let me guess, a giant card called "Sad Story – Dreadful Day" showed up right before the vision?" Chelsea asked and Nicola shook her head.

"It was called "Sad Story – Atrocious Day" but aside from that your spot on." Nicola responded before she cast her eyes downward. "The vision started just after I attacked Andreas with Rainbow Dragon and he activated Nutrient Z, but before he could tell me that he'd never give up as long as he still had life-points left two gunshots rang out."

"Didn't the Orichalcos Duelist I faced have a sniper on the roof overlooking the ally?" Marcus remembered and the others nodded. "Yeah, I remember, it was to keep us from calling the others for help but Michael showed up and dealt with him."

"Can we please stay on topic here?" Theresa asked and Marcus gulped before nodding. "Let me guess, you got hit? As in your vision self, not you…"

"I know what you meant." Nicola responded with an annoyed sigh. "My dad was the first to fall in the vision, Andreas tried to save me but I got hit next, after that I lost track of the chaos until I finally dispelled the vision." Nicola added before shuddering. "That was when my dad got off the floor and started berating me, basically calling me a waste of space."

"I haven't spoken to your father much Nicola but that still sounds ridiculously out of character for him." Andreas responded and Nicola nodded in agreement.

"It was but there was one moment that pretty much sealed it in my mind, the imposter posing as my dad basically blamed me for my mom's death." Nicola said with a heavy sigh and an uneasy silence fell upon the others. "Sad thing is he's technically right, my mom died whilst she was giving birth to me, complications from childbirth basically, growing up he told me that they had split up after my diagnoses and that she basically wanted to do with me rather than tell me the truth, he didn't tell me that until I was sixteen."

"As terrible as it sounds, I do understand his reasoning." Maria chimed in and the students turned to her. "Losing his wife whilst giving birth to his daughter must have been terrible for him and he must've felt that that would be a good cover story until you were old enough to understand the truth."

"That's basically what he told me when he decided to come clean." Nicola said before sighing. "Being Autistic I'd occasionally get violent episodes for no reason, my dad called them meltdowns, and they usually resulted in an argument between us, he never brought that fact during any of them, not even during our nastier arguments, that's why that incident nailed it for me."

"So, you faced him in a duel once you called him out?" Chelsea asked and Nicola nodded. "Let me guess, monsters and damage were real right?"

"Yeah and to make matters worse he was running a Crystal Beast deck but a different variant to mine." Nicola responded as her eyes narrowed. "His strategy relied on two cards, a Field Spell called Advanced Dark and a dark counterpart to Rainbow Dragon called Rainbow Dark Dragon, he almost beat me but, obviously, I won."

"I've heard of those cards but they are incredibly rare." Tyler commented and Nicola turned to him. "Even rarer than your Crystal Beast monsters, Victor must have access to them."

"Wait, who's Victor?" Nicola asked and the others sweat-dropped.

"Sorry, I forgot you were new to this." Tyler responded with a frown. "Victor Santiago is a former business associate of my father's but their business relationship didn't end well."

"How badly did it end?" Nicola asked with a curious look on her face.

"Let me put it this way, my father refuses to talk about it, if you bring up Victor's name during a meeting he will kick you out, if you bring him up in a conversation he will end it five seconds later…." Tyler trailed off and Nicola sweat-dropped.

"I get the idea." Nicola responded with a nod. "And I'm guessing this guy's in charge of the new batch of Orichalcos duelists?"

"It seems to be the case but we have no solid proof, we found a laptop that was being used to monitor the duels after the second duel and we're hoping that it'll give us some valuable info." Chelsea responded with a nod before frowning. "But there's a problem, initially me and Tyler worked on it to try to get the info but sometime during Tyler's first tournament duel a thief tried to steal it but, since the two laptops are identical, he ended up stealing mine instead."

"I tracked down the thief and defeated him before he could finish the job but as a result we decided to hand it over to the technicians and we haven't heard anything about it since." Brandon responded before they heard the door open but paid no attention to it. "If the teachers would be a little bit more forthcoming about the info we'd be a better place regarding those bastards."

"Unfortunately we know as much as you kids do." Maria responded with a frown. "The technicians are highly qualified and know what they are doing but that laptop has proven to be a tough nut to crack for them."

"Hopefully they'll sort it out soon." Nicola sighed before her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "Dad, you came all this way?" Nicola asked happily and the others looked up seeing him.

"I'd travel to the moon and back to see you Nicola, we both know that." Her dad responded as Maria stood up to let him take her seat and he did so. "I was planning to drop by yesterday but my flight from New York got delayed, and when I finally got here I learn that you are in the infirmary being treated for mysterious injuries?"

"Yeah, I don't know how they happened." Nicola sighed as she sat up. "I was fine before I went to bed but when I woke up my whole body ached and I had claw marks and a gash near my naval."

"Are you sure you didn't fall out of bed and stayed asleep?" Her dad asked earning confused looks from the other students and he chuckled. "It's happens sometimes, some people are sleepwalkers, my daughter's a sleep faller."

"That explains why I and Chelsea sometimes heard a thud coming from her room in the middle of the night." Chloe realized and Nicola shook her head in response.

"I'm a restless sleeper, what can I say?" Nicola responded with a shrug before shaking her head and turning to her dad. "Normally I would chalk it up to that dad but like I said my injuries included three claw marks and a gash both around my naval." Nicola responded and her dad frowned. "Last time I checked the island didn't have any wild animals and the school doesn't allow pets on the island so I have no clue where they came from."

"The fall would probably explain the gash but the claw marks? I agree that's quite a mystery." Her dad nodded in agreement before turning to Maria. "And I understand that an Obelisk Blue student called her the R word."

"Ugh, I should've known that would reach you eventually." Nicola grunted in annoyance as she shifted her weight. "Andreas took care of it dad."

"I know that and I wanted to thank Andreas for it." Her dad responded and Andreas smiled at that. "However I'm not comfortable with the fact that certain students can call her that without fear of reprisal."

"It's not just Nicola that gets shit from that student." Chelsea chimed in and Nicola's dad turned to her. "Just as an example, I'm gay and it's pretty much one of the worst kept secrets at this school, as a result I've put up with a lot of homophobic slurs from her."

"I do appreciate your honesty Chelsea but at the same time I want to know what's being done about this student." Nicola's dad responded and Maria nodded.

"She is being dealt with Andreas filed the complaint to Kaiba himself after he declared Nicola to be under his protection." Maria responded and Tyler gave Andreas a small smile for following his advice. "If it puts your mind at ease perhaps I can take you to see Martin so that he can tell you what they are doing about the incident?"

"That would put my mind at ease, let's do it." Nicola's dad agreed before walking off with Maria, once they had left Nicola sighed in relief.

"I never thought they'd leave." Nicola commented earning confused looks from the other students. "There was one detail I left out of the story I told earlier because I wasn't sure if Maria would understand, same goes for my dad."

"What's that detail?" Lance asked and Nicola grabbed her duel disk, which was on the coffee table next to her bed and retrieved her deck.

"Before and during the dream I kept hearing a strange female voice, at first I thought it was my imagination which I have a lot of, just ask my dad." Nicola explained as she started searching through her deck and holding up one of her copies of Sapphire Pegasus. "However just before the duel ended I summoned Sapphire Pegasus and, as crazy as it sounds, she talked calling me her protégé and my opponent referred to her as my Duel Spirit Guide."

"And she helped you win, right?" Chelsea asked and Nicola nodded. "Nicola, believe it or not that doesn't sound crazy to us."

"Don't tell me we've all gone insane." Nicola moaned and the others shook their heads.

"Not quite." Lance said with a laugh. "Well okay, in Chelsea's case she might be going slightly more insane than usual but aside from that….."

"Rethink that sentence before I whack you in the nuts with my duel disk." Chelsea warned him and Lance sweat-dropped whilst laughing nervously. "And no, I don't care if you just started dating my roommate."

"Wait, when did that happen?" Nicola asked as she scratched her head and the others sweat-dropped.

"Yesterday after your duel against Andreas, we talked for a while and she decided to give being my girlfriend a shot." Lance explained and Nicola nodded. "What I was saying was that basically we all have duel spirit guides."

"So it wasn't my imagination running wild to take my mind off the pain." Nicola commented as she sat up. "This is going to take some getting used to."

"We've had our spirit guides for a while now and we're still not used to it." Chloe responded and Nicola frowned. "Yeah, now that I've said that out loud I realize how little that actually helps."

"Well Nicola, if you want any help with your Duel Spirit Theresa, Chloe or Professor Hamden will be your best bets." Lance commented with a smile. "Theresa and Chloe have the two most powerful ones at their disposal among our group and Hamden's the only professor that we know of who has one himself." Lance added and the two girls nodded.

"That's good to know and there's one other thing I wanted to discuss with you, quickly before my dad comes back." Nicola responded and the others nodded. "When you guys went to finish off the group that terrorized Battle City Lance told me to stay behind because he didn't want to see me get hurt, not this time."

"Nicola, are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" Andreas asked and Nicola nodded.

"I want to help you guys fight the Orichalcos, don't try to talk me out of it my mind's made up." Nicola added and the others exchanged uneasy looks. "Look, I'm not the same in over her head rookie I was back in Battle City and I did defeat my first opponent that worked for them, besides, when that bastard accused me of killing my mom he made it personal."

"That's the thing Nicola, how do we know you won't let your anger get the better of you?" Chelsea asked and the others looked at her oddly. "Yeah, yeah, I know, pot calling the kettle black and all that shit but my point still stands!"

"I know I can control it under pressure, outside of one instance where I just wanted to beat it to death with my duel disk I kept my cool during the duel against him, I only lost my temper a couple of times and that was because he was starting to push my berserk buttons." Nicola responded and the others looked at each other. "Please guys, I haven't even forgiven them for what they did to Andreas and that was months ago."

"To be fair, we haven't forgiven them for that either." Lance admitted before turning to the others. "You mind if we have a quick meeting outside Nicola."

"Not like I'm going anywhere until the nurse lets me leave, knock yourself out." Nicola responded and they nodded before leaving the infirmary. _"I hope they accept my request! I'm not sitting on the sidelines whilst they battle the Orichalcos like I did just after Battle City ended." _Nicola thought as she plopped down on the infirmary bed with a bored moan. _"How long do I have to be here anyway? I've taken the painkillers the nurse gave me."_

"_Are you always this impatient Nicola?" _A voice Nicola recognized as Sapphire Pegasus's voice rang out in her head and Nicola sighed.

"_Only when I'm bored and being stuck in here for the past twenty minutes or so has definitely left me bored." _Nicola responded before shaking her head. _"So how long have I had a spirit guide for anyway?"_

"_I have existed since before Battle City, however our partnership was only made official last night, I only wish that I had come to you under better circumstances." _Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola sighed to herself.

"_Tell me about it." _Nicola responded in agreement before the door opened and the other students returned taking their previous places as they did. "So, what's the verdict?"

"It was a split decision, some were against it and some were for it, however one side won out in the end." Theresa responded and Nicola waited for her to continue. "Before I reveal what the decision was Nicola are you absolutely sure this is what you want? You saw what the Orichalcos did to Andreas after his duel against Otto."

"I haven't been this sure about anything since I finally made my mind up about joining this school." Nicola responded and Theresa nodded in understanding.

"In that case, we gladly accept your help," Theresa responded and Nicola grinned broadly at that. "Just be careful Nic, these guys mean business and if you end up dueling one of them you won't be able to use Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins if they play the Seal."

"Rainbow Ruins might be one of the best cards in my deck but I've won duels without using it before, I'll be fine." Nicola insisted and Theresa nodded. "Just out of curiosity, who was for and against me helping you guys?"

"Andreas, Lance and Brandon were against it, the rest of us were for it." Theresa responded and the three boys frowned. "Also we talked to the nurse on the way out and you should be able to leave soon."

"That's a relief." Nicola responded with a grin as she sat up. "But guys can you do me a favor and don't tell my dad? He's really overprotective of me and I don't want to worry him."

"Don't worry, our lips are sealed." Lance reassured her and Nicola grinned at that. "So are you going to be okay after that?"

"I'll be fine, whilst it was definitely the most painful dream I've had it doesn't beat the dream I once had the involved me getting wet with Andreas in his bed….." Nicola trailed off realizing what she had just said far too late and blushed like a madwoman whilst the others laughed. "I meant to say that he was on top of me and we were naked and…oh shit…." Nicola moaned as the students laughed even harder with Marcus nearly falling out of his chair at one. "I'm just going to shut up before I dig a hole big enough to contain the whole island if that's okay with you."

"Nicola, I think you're past that point." Lance said once he stopped laughing and Nicola moaned. "I mean it's nothing to be ashamed off, I have those kinds of dreams all the….." Lance never got a chance to finish as Theresa quickly covered his mouth.

"Lance, please don't finish that sentence when I remove my hand, I'd rather not know who you have wet dreams with." Theresa told him only to wince when Nicola moaned again, Theresa removed her hand from Lance's mouth and when Lance said nothing she turned to Nicola. "Sorry Nicola."

"Is there something wrong over here? I keep hearing Nicola moan." The nurse asked as she poked her head around the corner and Nicola shook her head.

"It's nothing really, just me digging myself to China and back whilst talking about dreams I've had." Nicola responded and, despite the confused look this got from the nurse, she left them alone. "How about we just agree to never let the past few minutes of this conversation leave the infirmary?"

"Great idea, besides you can always act out your fantasies with Andreas," Lance responded and the two teens gave him death glares. "Was it something I said?"

"On a more serious note, I think there's one thing we should do once the nurse let's Nicola out of here." Chloe chimed in and the others turned to her. "If she's going to be part of our group then we should get her Duel Spirit acquainted with either mine or Theresa's."

"How will that work? I'm assuming that your duel spirits are your best monsters, Silent Magician Level 8 and Armed Dragon Level 10 and if that's the case then you won't be able to just play them, right?" Nicola asked and the other two girls went to answer but paused for a second.

"You know, I never realized that until you just mentioned it." Chloe admitted before shaking her head. "Fortunately Duel Monsters rules don't seem to apply to duel spirit partners when you want to summon them for a chat with the group, hell I bet Andreas could pull it off using his Duel Spirit."

"Considering the fact that my duel spirit is Master of Oz and the fact that the infirmary is tiny I don't think that's advisable right now." Andreas responded and Chloe sweat-dropped when she realized that. "Not unless you feel like explaining to the teachers why the infirmary has a new giant-head shaped hole in its roof and to your parents how they are going to pay for the repairs, I get the feeling that that won't come cheap."

"Err, yeah, I think I'll pass." Chloe responded with a wince before turning to Nicola. "Back on topic, are you up for that Nicola?"

"Summoning Master of Oz or letting our duel spirits have a chat?" Nicola asked jokingly but got nothing but crickets chirping. "Geez, what a tough crowd you guys are." Nicola added before shaking her head. "Seriously though, if it helps me make any more sense of the current situation I'm in, or at least I will be as soon as the nurse lets me leave."

"I almost suggested doing it in here but then I realized that we'd have to explain to the nurse why our duel monsters were having a conversation." Chloe realized as she shook her head. "Ah screw it, I may as well ask." Chloe muttered to herself before she turned to the nurse. "Hey nurse, can Nicola leave yet? I think at this rate she's getting bored to tears."

"Are you feeling well enough to leave Nicola?" The nurse asked and Nicola nodded without a second's hesitation. "Then you can leave, just remember to follow the instructions on the painkillers and try to get some rest."

"Considering that there are no classes today I might just sleep for the rest of the day." Nicola responded as she hopped off the bed and turned to the others. "So, where too?"

"Maybe you should see if your dad wants a private chat first, he did come a long way to see you." Andreas pointed out and Nicola nodded in response.

"That's fine by me I'll just have to catch up with you guys later." Nicola responded before frowning. "Just one more question remains, were do we meet up?"

"We've been using the north side of the island for meetings like this since, despite the fact that Duel Academy has loosened up on the rules regarding that side of the island, it's still pretty quiet most of the time." Tyler responded after thinking for a moment. "I don't see why this one should be any different."

"I'll send you a text when we decide on a meeting spot Nicola." Chloe added and Nicola nodded before the two groups parted ways. _"Silent Magician, what do you make of all this?"_

"_Nicola has certainly come a long way since her Battle City days she'd have too in order to be considered for a Duel Spirit Partner." _Silent Magician responded as her transparent form appeared next to Chloe. _"However she's still a rookie and that concerns me."_

"_So am I and I've fought more than my fair share of Orichalcos Duelists since the gang arrived in New York for Battle City." _Chloe responded with a confident grin on her face. _"In fact, if my math is correct then Nicola's experience level is roughly the same as mine when I competed in Battle City."_

"_I believe you are right however there is one big issue that separates you and Nicola." _Silent Magician responded with a frown on her face. _"And that's Nicola's autism."_

"_Crap, I almost completely forgot about that." _Chloe thought with a frown before shaking her head. _"Give her a chance Silent Magician, I mean we both know that Nicola's not someone who lets her disabilities get in the way of her goals and right now her goal is to help us out."_

"_I hope you are right." _Silent Magician responded as her transparent form disappeared and Chloe ran to catch up with the others who were pretty far ahead of her.

*meanwhile*

Whilst it was a pretty eventful day for several students for most of Duel Academy's student body it was pretty much a four day weekend and whilst the storm did bother Nicola the same couldn't be said for several other students in her dorm.

"Morning Jason, you sleep okay?" Mike Alvers asked his roommate as he awoke with a grunt his roommate was Jason Hutchins who, outside of a duel against Chakra Silvers the previous weekend, hadn't been up to much since he arrived at Duel Academy. "I'm surprised that you slept through the storm last night."

"I'm a heavy sleeper and besides, that wasn't even that bad a storm." Jason responded as he got out of bed and got dressed. "Has anything interesting happened yet?"

"Not much, heard that Nicola Hastings, you know the Autistic girl over at the girl's dorm, is in the infirmary being treated for mysterious injuries but outside of that not much has happened." Mike responded with a shrug as Jason put his uniform on and Jason gave him an odd look.

"What do you mean by "mysterious injuries"?" Jason asked with a confused look on his face. "You're not telling me that she woke up with injuries on her body, are you?"

"Actually that's exactly what I'm saying." Mike responded and Jason frowned at that. "More specifically claw marks and a nasty looking gash on her stomach, fortunately the injuries seem to be not as bad as they look from what I've heard."

"Claw marks? There aren't any animals on the island, domesticated or otherwise." Jason pointed out and Mike nodded. "And how do you get a gash whilst asleep?"

"I don't know, maybe she fell out of bed whilst she was having a bad dream but that didn't wake her up." Mike responded before frowning. "Then again I also heard that she was up the entire night so maybe the storm spooked her?"

"Yeah, maybe that's the case." Jason responded before shaking his head. "Maybe we can ask her if we bump into her later, in the meantime you have any ideas for what we can do later since the school's pretty much closed for the day."

"I was hoping that you'd have some ideas since I don't." Mike responded with an annoyed sigh. "I was tempted to pop by my brother's new dorm room but I'd have to find out where his new dorm room is first."

"From what I heard his latest attempt to become Chloe's boyfriend involved him dedicating Baby by Justin Bieber to her at the Ra Yellow Party." Jason responded with a frown as he folded his arms. "I don't know about you but if I were him I would've gone into hiding after that."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Mike responded with a sigh and before Jason could respond there was a knock at the door. "You want to get that? I'm checking my e-mails."

"That's what you say every time there's a knock at the door." Jason responded with an annoyed sigh before walking up to the door and opening it. "What are you doing here?"

"I may be in Obelisk Blue Jason but I can still go wherever I want." Chakra Silvers responded with a frown on her face and Mike looked up. "I'll make this short and sweet my duels against you and Chloe last week weren't exactly fair, were they?"

"If by that you mean you used Ultimate Offering twice after it had just been banned because your duel disk had been configured for the OCG ban-list then yeah, they weren't exactly fair." Jason responded with a deadpan expression on his face. "What are you getting at exactly?"

"Well, it took me a week but I've finally found a replacement for Ultimate Offering." Chakra responded as she grinned. "And to make sure that it works well with my deck I'm offering, no pun intended, you a chance at a rematch against me."

"There's a catch to this, isn't there?" Jason asked and Chakra frowned. "No Obelisk Blue student would challenge an Osiris Red student if there wasn't some kind of catch, unless that student was one of the Kaiba siblings or Theresa and Brandon."

"No catch I just want a fair duel against you and Chloe." Chakra asserted and Jason gave her a look that told her that he wasn't convinced.

"Then why didn't you go visit Chloe first?" Jason asked with a frown. "She's in Ra Yellow now and the Ra Yellow Girl's Dorm is a shorter walking distance from the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm than either of the Osiris Red Dorms."

"First off, I know that she was promoted, I was in the audience for the promotion duels too." Chakra responded with a frown. "Second I did stop by her new dorm room first but by the time I got there she had left with that roommate of hers, I asked their neighbors were they had gone and they told me that they were visiting a friend in the infirmary."

"That friend wouldn't happen to be Nicola Hastings, would it?" Jason asked with a raised eyebrow and Chakra nodded.

"Yes, I had heard that she got injured during the night but that's all I heard." Chakra responded and Jason frowned. "Rather than intrude on them I decided to come here first, so what do you say Jason?"

"I say that I still don't believe you about there being no catch to this." Jason responded before sighing in resignation. "But on the other hand I haven't seen much dueling action since our duel two weeks ago, I accept your challenge just name a time and a place."

"Normally I'd suggest the Obelisk Blue Duel Field but that, alongside the Ra Yellow and Osiris Red Duel Fields, is closed for the day due to the security upgrades." Chakra responded with a frown as she folded her arms. "Fortunately I found a good spot on the North Side of the Island after the Obelisk Blue Party and they haven't closed off that part of the island so we should be ok."

"As long as we stay clear of the Abandoned Dorm and volcano you mean." Jason pointed out and Chakra shook her head.

"I checked, the location is nowhere near the dorm or volcano, trust me, we'll be safe." Chakra responded and Jason nodded. "So if we're all set…."

"Wait, how did you go from a party to the north side of the island?" Mike asked and Chakra blushed like a madwoman. "Unless….."

"I had one to many drinks and before I knew it I was in a three-way with two other girls from Obelisk Blue in that clearing which quickly turned into a four-way after a male Obelisk Blue student stumbled upon us and joined in." Chakra interrupted him with an annoyed sigh. "It wasn't exactly my finest hour and no, I'm not telling you who they were."

"Not even if we ask politely?" Jason asked half-jokingly and Chakra glared at him. "And I'm dropping the subject I'm fine with that location as long as I don't step in any body fluids."

"We did make sure to clean up after ourselves once we woke up the day after." Chakra responded before shaking her head and getting her cell-phone out. "Tell me your number and I'll text you when I get there."

"So that I can meet you there I take it?" Jason asked and Chakra nodded, Jason told her his number and once Chakra stored it on her phone she nodded.

"I'll see you there, and don't even think about spreading word of my drunken misadventure or else." Chakra added and Jason nodded before she walked off.

"Jason, are you sure about this?" Mike asked as Jason grabbed his Duel Disk, put it on his arm and grabbed his deck. "I haven't seen her duel but I still remember what you told me about Chakra's deck."

"I'm sure and besides, I know what her deck's capable off and what I can expect from it in this duel." Jason responded as he slid his deck into place. "What's the worst that can happen?"

*a bit later on*

A few minutes had passed and Chakra had finally reached the spot where she would duel Jason, whilst it was still on the Northern side of the island it was relatively close to the main building and the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm were the party was held for the new Obelisk Blue students.

"_Not that Lance, Andreas and Marcus actually showed up to the party." _Chakra thought with a frown as she stepped into the clearing. _"On the other hand I can't exactly blame them since it was a choice between being with their friends and being with Jessica, Thomas and Cameron, still I have no doubt in my mind that they'll get acquainted with the other students in their new dorm." _Chakra thought before hearing a pair of footsteps nearby and frowning. _"Strange, I thought most of the students were using the day off to relax in their dorm rooms especially after last night's storm." _Chakra thought before walking to the edge of the clearing to get a better look.

"How long have we been hear Matilda?" Felicia asked as the two female Orichalcos Duelists walked around the forested area, once Chakra saw their duel disks her eyes narrowed. "It feels like we've been here forever!"

"We've only been here for a few hours Felicia, you're just impatient." Matilda retorted as she turned to her, she almost caught site of Chakra but the Obelisk Blue student was able to duck behind the tree before they could see her. "Besides, we should be able to find a duel soon as this island is full of them!"

"_Orichalcos Duelists and I have no idea where the students who competed in Battle City are, this is not good." _Chakra thought with a frown as her eyes narrowed. _"Jason can't be that far behind so I guess he'll have to do."_

"Chakra, there you are." Jason's voice rang out and Chakra looked up seeing Jason alongside his roommate Mike. "He insisted on coming along and watching us duel."

"Normally I wouldn't object to having an audience." Chakra responded as she turned to the two boys. "But we have a problem, a much bigger one than whether or not I beat you fairly."

"What do you mean?" Jason asked and Chakra motioned for him to come forward, once the two boys reached the edge of the clearing Jason quickly spotted Felicia and Matilda. "Let me guess, Orichalcos Duelists?"

"Yes, normally I'd leave this to the guys with the most experience fighting them, namely the students who competed in Battle City, but I don't know where they are." Chakra added and Jason frowned. "Mike, your brother competed didn't he? Do you know where they are?"

"Sorry, I don't know where Lance and the others are." Mike responded as he shook his head and the older students frowned. "I could go look for them whilst you challenge them though."

"Wait, I never said anything about challenging them!" Jason objected and Chakra shook her head.

"Would you rather duel them now or wait potentially risking them getting away and defeating two other students stealing their souls in the process?" Chakra asked and Jason frowned once he realized that she had a point.

"Okay, Mike, see if you can find your brother and his friends, we might need their help." Jason told him and Mike nodded before running off. "I'm ready when you are Chakra."

"Good." Chakra responded with a nod before motioning him to follow her, he did so and they stepped out of the clearing. "You two are looking for a duel right?" Chakra called out to the two Orichalcos Duelists and they turned around. "Consider that challenge accepted."

"Good, I was wondering when someone would be dumb enough to challenge us." Felicia responded as the two women removed their cloaks, they were both attractive women in their early twenties with shoulder length black hair and blue eyes who were wearing revealing outfits though one outfit was a lighter shade of color than the other as was their skin tones as one was clearly tanned whilst the other didn't have a tan. "I'm Felicia and this is my twin sister Matilda." Felicia, the one with the tan, added and the two teens frowned.

"I kind of guessed that." Jason responded with a frown as he stared at the two women. "Why don't we duel in that clearing next to us?"

"Fine, if you want a tag team duel you've got it!" Matilda responded and Felicia nodded in agreement before the four duelists entered the clearing and activated their duel disks. "As for the order we'll go in, I say that I go first followed by Chakra, then Felicia and finally Jason."

"How do you know our names?" Chakra asked as the duelists changed their positions until it was the easiest way for the order to play out.

"We looked up potential targets on the boat ride over." Matilda responded as they drew their opening hands and Matilda drew another. "It was easy enough since the school has profiles on its students." Matilda added before looking over her hand. "But you don't need to worry about that when I just drew the card that'll seal your fates."

"_Here we go, she's about to activate the Seal." _Chakra thought before looking at her hand and grinning. _"No matter, when my turn begins I will activate Silver Dungeon and do something that the students who represented the school in Battle City never even tried to do, destroy the Orichalcos!"_

"I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Matilda played the card and the two duelists braced themselves as the seal circled around them, the seal's pentagram appeared on Matilda and Felicia's heads and they grinned. "Don't worry, it'll be over soon."

"We'll see about that." Chakra responded and Matilda grinned sadistically.

"Why don't you worry about the move I'm about to make? I set two cards facedown and I summon Depressed Angel!" Matilda played the cards and a new monster appeared on the field, as her name suggested she was an angel but it was one that bared a pretty striking resemblance to the old monster Unhappy Maiden (1/0/0) right down to her hair and dress color (1/500/200) and her attack increased to 1000 thanks to the seal.

"_There's only one reason that she would summon something that weak in attack mode on her first turn." _Chakra thought with a frown as she stared down the monster. _"Either she's a tuner monster, has a powerful effect or she's bait for those facedown cards, guess I won't know until she ends her turn."_

"That ends my turn." Matilda announced and Chakra drew her card.

*a few minutes earlier*

Whilst the tag team duel was underway another meeting was taking place not far from the clearing however this meeting was a lot more laid back in tone as it was between Nicola and the other duelists with Duel Spirit Guides.

"I never thought you'd guys would arrive." Nicola commented as the other teens entered the clearing having just missed Matilda and Felicia. "So how should we do this?" Nicola asked as Chloe stepped out in front of the group and activated her duel disk.

"Activate your duel disk for a start, you know, like we're about to duel." Chloe responded and Nicola nodded before activating her duel disk. "Now instead of drawing your opening hand just search through your deck until you find Sapphire Pegasus and I will do the same for Silent Magician Level Eight."

"Are you sure this will work?" Nicola asked as the two girls searched through their decks, it didn't take Nicola long to find one of her copies of Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus and she looked up at Chloe. "So should I just go ahead and play it?"

"Go ahead, I just found my Duel Spirit." Chloe responded and Nicola nodded before playing the card causing Sapphire Pegasus to appear on the field in front of her, Chloe did likewise and Silent Magician Level Eight appeared in front of her.

"So, you are the new Duel Spirit Guide I sensed." Silent Magician commented as her eyes rested on Sapphire Pegasus. "How has your protégé been handling her new situation?"

"Well, considering the unfortunate nature of my revelation to her, relatively well." Sapphire Pegasus responded as she glanced over at Nicola. "I hope to aid her soon in a duel that isn't a life or death situation."

"I'll be sure to call on your assistance next time I'm in Duel Theory." Nicola said sheepishly and Sapphire Pegasus nodded before turning to Silent Magician.

"Wait, hold on a sec, you knew there was a new Duel Spirit Guide and didn't tell us?" Chelsea asked with a confused look on her face and Silent Magician sighed.

"Yes I did know about Sapphire Pegasus but at the time I first sensed her I had no way of knowing what duel monster it was or who it would be, for all I knew it could've been Jessica and her Duel Spirit could've been Acid Golem of Destruction." Silent Magician responded as she glanced over at Chelsea. "If Nicola had been allowed to attend the Ra Yellow Party I would've known it then but…." Silent Magician trailed off before she turned to Sapphire Pegasus. "Do you sense what I sense?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Sapphire Pegasus responded with a frown. "It looks like we'll have to cut this short."

"Wait, what?" Nicola protested and a quick glance over at Chloe confirmed that she shared her confusion. "But we only just got started!"

"Unfortunately your attention is needed elsewhere." Silent Magician responded as she turned to her protégé. "Chloe, do you remember Jason and Chakra?"

"Err yeah what about…..don't tell me they've gotten themselves in an Orichalcos Tag Duel?" Chloe asked as realization hit her and Silent Magician nodded grimly.

"Well, it's nice to know that the school's security upgrades are going so well!" Lance said sarcastically as he looked at his fingers. "What next? Will another Duel Monster come to life and attack? Or will they just send every agent they have and cut out the middle man?"

"Please don't give them ideas." Silent Magician responded with an annoyed sigh. "Fortunately they are in a clearing not that far from here, if you hurry you can get there before it's too late."

"Then we have no time to lose." Chloe responded as the two girls deactivated their duel disks and returned their cards to their decks. "Let's go!" Chloe added and the teens ran off.

*back at the duel*

"Okay it's my move." Chakra commented as she looked over her hand. _"This isn't too bad a start but I should focus on destroying this field spell." _Chakra thought before picking up a card. "Sorry to disappoint you two but I'm about to blow your strategy out of the water." Chakra said confidently and the sisters scoffed in response.

"Oh really, and how do you plan on doing that on your first turn?" Felicia asked and Chakra grinned as she held up her Silver Dungeon Field Spell.

"Let me put it this way, I was following Battle City and from what I saw Orichalcos Duelists like the two of you would be up a creek without a paddle without your field spell." Chakra responded as she turned her field spell around. "And I'm about to take the Seal out of the equation completely by playing a field spell of my own! I activate Silver Dungeon!" Chakra played the card and the two sisters seemed to be worried as the scenery started to change to the silver medieval dungeon…..but laughed when the Seal repelled the dungeon destroying it. "What?"

"For someone who was following Battle City you don't seem to know a lot about our field spell." Matilda responded and Chakra glared at her. "Do you need it spelt out for you? The Seal of the Orichalcos can't be destroyed!"

"_So that's why they never tried that." _Chakra thought as she sent her field spell to the graveyard. _"One of the duelists must've tried to destroy it during their first Orichalcos Duel and got the same result, this is, off course, a problem because Silver Dungeon makes up most of my deck's power." _Chakra thought before picking up three cards. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defense mode to end my turn." Chakra announced and Felicia drew her card.

"_Good, now our plan can come into fruition!" _Felicia thought as she looked at her drawn card. "I set one card facedown." Felicia announced as her facedown card appeared on the field. "And I summon Laughing Demon!" Felicia played the card and another new monster appeared on the field, this one looked like another old monster namely Saggi The Dark Clown (3/600/1500) but his clown outfit was a darker shade of color than its counterpart and the monster had taken on a more demonic appearance (3/600/400) and it's attack increased to 1100 thanks to the seal.

"As if I wasn't scared of clowns enough, then you went and summoned that thing." Jason commented dryly as he stared at the monsters. _"Two monsters, Depressed Angel and Laughing Demon, both based on outdated cards but even with the boost from the Orichalcos they are both very weak, why would they play them on their first turn?" _Jason thought before frowning. _"They must have effects that relate to each other why else would they summon them one after another?"_

"So, you're scared of clowns? Cry me a river! I end my turn." Felicia announced and Jason drew his card.

"Guys, there you are." Chelsea's voice rang out and Jason glanced over at them seeing the group entering the clearing. "How are you doing against them?"

"Well my turn just started and Chakra already screwed up." Jason said with a frown as Chakra glared at him. "Ms. High and Mighty Obelisk Blue here tried playing her Silver Dungeon Field Spell whilst the Seal was on the field."

"I didn't realize that the Seal couldn't be destroyed until it was too late!" Chakra quickly asserted as her eyes narrowed. "And besides, it's not about how you start it's about how you finish and we're going to finish this duel on top!"

"Keep dreaming." Felicia scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "If they had arrived sooner they could've helped you but now it's hopeless!"

"Says the woman whose team has nothing but the Seal and two weak monsters face-up on the field and besides that it's my move." Jason responded before he looked at his cards. "I set one card facedown and I summon Genex Searcher in attack mode!" Jason played the card and the poorly built robot appeared on the field (4/1600/800). "I end my turn." Jason announced and Matilda grinned before drawing her card.

"Should I go ahead with our plan Felicia?" Matilda asked into an earpiece that was hidden underneath her hair.

"Do it, I'll handle the rest on my turn." Felicia responded and Matilda grinned.

"I start my turn by activating my Trap Card, Weeping into Heaven/Laughing into Hell!" Matilda announced as her trap card flipped up depicting an image that was split down the middle and depicting two very different scenes Saggi the Dark Clown laughing as he was cast down into the abyss on one side whilst Unhappy Maiden sobbed into her hands as she flew towards the pearly gates of heaven on the other side. "This trap card requires that we have both Depressed Angel and Laughing Demon on our side of the field, with it I can declare any number between one and ten and that number becomes the level of both monsters."

"But with that you can summon any XYZ Monster you want!" Jason realized as his eyes widened and the two women grinned.

"That's the idea but you can relax, the trap is only good for one use and we're only going to use it for one monster." Felicia responded before nodding to Matilda. "And if she's summoning the card I think she is then the level she'll declare is two."

"That's right." Matilda nodded in agreement as Depressed Angel's level increased by one whilst Laughing Demon's level decreased by one. "And now I use our two monsters to construct the overlay network!" Matilda announced as the black hole opened behind the two monsters, Depressed Angel turned around and looked scared of the hole but before she could get away Laughing Demon grabbed her around the waist and dragged her in, for the next several seconds nothing happened but the sounds of a horrified woman's scream accompanied by mad laughter could be heard from within the black hole.

"I don't even want to know what's going on in there." Nicola said with a wince as the screaming intensified. "But it sounds wrong on so many levels!"

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Lance nodded in agreement as the screaming finally stopped and Matilda played the card. "And considering what it's implying I'm going to take a wild guess and say that these cards aren't authorized by I2."

"Look, we didn't design the monster we're summoning and we are just as clueless about what just happened as you are." Matilda responded with a clear look of disgust on her face. "All we were told was to put a copy in our extra decks each, he never mentioned anything about the XYZ Summon being this disturbing!"

"Who's he?" Lance asked and Matilda grimaced.

"Never mind, I said too much." Matilda responded as she shook her head. "And for the record, Laughing Demon, Depressed Angel and Weeping into Heaven/Laughing into Hell are all authorized by I2, they are coming out in a set that'll be released next month, look it up online if you don't believe me!"

"Even if you are telling the truth I don't think I'm going to add Laughing Demon to my deck after that display." Brandon commented with a frown. "And don't you have a card to play?"

"Oh, right." Matilda nodded in response before playing the card. "I XYZ Summon Fallen Angel – Marie the Corrupted!" Matilda played the card and if there was any doubt as to what happened to Depressed Angel during the XYZ Summon it was gone now, the monster that emerged was a grotesque being with a split face that had the face of a beautiful woman on one side and the face of a demon on the other and her outfit was similarly split showing a flowing white dress on one side and a demonic looking robe on the other, the monster crouched down into defense mode whilst the duelists looked on in disgust (Rank: 2/0/2000).

"Err yeah I don't think I'm going to summon my copy of Marie." Felicia commented with a grimace as she stared at the monster. "At least Marie isn't the only Fallen Angel card."

"There are others?" Jason asked and Felicia nodded.

"Yeah, they are all XYZ Monsters that require the materials to be one Dark Type Fiend Monster and one Light Type Fairy Monster, our decks contain meet those requirements when we team together so we run copies of the Fallen Angel cards in our Extra Decks when we team together." Felicia responded before turning to Matilda. "Anyway, Matilda can you get the basics out of the way already?"

"Huh? Oh, right, Marie's effects." Matilda said as she shook her head. "As long as she's on the field Marie is treated as both a Dark Type Fiend Monster and a Light Type Fairy Monster and since I, unfortunately, used Depressed Angel and Laughing Demon to summon her she gets two effects from those monsters."

"The first effect is from Laughing Demon and as long as she's on the field in defense mode you can't attack anything but her, not even my life-points since I lost my monster so that she could do the XYZ Summon." Felicia added before smirking. "And two thousand defense points would be hard enough on its own to get by if not for the effect she gets from Depressed Angel."

"And that effect is a lot like the effect of the monster she's based on, Unhappy Maiden." Matilda added with a smirk. "As long as she has XYZ Material attached to her I can end the battle phase at any time, I may lose an XYZ Material during the end phase of the turn I use that effect but for now I'm safe."

"That's it? You went through all that effort to summon a glorified wall?" Chakra asked with a skeptical look on her face and Matilda shook her head.

"Oh there's more but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." Matilda said before looking at her hand. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Matilda announced and Chakra drew her card.

"_I don't like this, there has to be more to that Fallen Angel monster than meets the eye." _Chakra thought as she stared at the monster. _"On one hand I have a few cards in my deck that can get past their monster even without attacking but on the other hand I still don't know their monster's effect."_

"_I hope Chakra has an idea because I'm stumped at the moment." _Jason thought as he looked over his hand. _"If they destroy Searcher I can search my deck for one of my tuners and add it to my hand but that's the easy part, keeping a monster on the field long enough for a Synchro Summon is the hard part."_

"I activate my Trap Card Pharaoh's Treasure and from my hand I chain the Spell Card Silver Pot of Chains!" Chakra activated the trap and quickly played the Spell Card causing the silver Pot of Greed wrapped in chains to appear on the field. "Since I activated Silver Pot of Chains at Chain Link 2 I get to draw two cards." Chakra said before drawing her cards. "Next since Pharaoh's Treasure was activated I get to place it face-up in my deck and shuffle it." Chakra added before placing the card in her deck and shuffling it.

"Is that all? Please, Matilda did a lot more than that on her second turn." Felicia scoffed and Chakra frowned before looking at her hand.

"Not exactly but I needed to get a chain going to activate my Spell Card anyway." Chakra responded before deciding on a move. "And it was worth it! I sacrifice my facedown monster to summon Iris, The Earth Mother in attack mode!" Chakra played the card and her facedown monster vanished from the field, she was a tall attractive blonde woman who was wearing a long flowing purple dress so tight at the midriff that you could see her naval through it (6/2400/1200).

"Humph, if we could pull off a dress like that Jack would never get anything productive done." Matilda commented with a smirk and Felicia shook her head.

"He never gets anything productive done when we're in the same room as him." Felicia pointed out and Matilda laughed. "He spends half the time checking us out and the other half trying to get in our pants! I mean honestly why doesn't Victor just fire his useless ass already?"

"You realize that the Seal doesn't stop me from listening in through your ear-pieces, right?" Jack's voice rang out and the two women winced, "By the way, great job saying my name out loud IN FRONT OF OUR MAIN TARGETS!"

"Oh shit." Felicia realized as her eyes widened. "Can we just pretend that the past few seconds never happened?"

"Too late, who's Jack?" Brandon demanded as his eyes narrowed and the two women sighed.

"All we're saying is that he and Sarah are Victor's top enforcers and they are basically his second in command." Matilda responded as she glared at him. "Let me put it another way, there's only three people who are allowed in Victor's Main Office, Victor, Jack and Sarah, there's rumors that he lets his secretary in his office so that he can play "sexy secretary" with her but everyone else has to get their orders through Jack, Sarah or by video call."

"And where is Victor's main office?" Theresa demanded and Felicia shook her head.

"Don't push your luck." Felicia responded before turning to Chakra. "Don't you have a move to finish?"

"I was getting to that." Chakra responded before pointing to Marie the Corrupted. "Iris, attack her XYZ Monster with Earth Song!" Chakra commanded and Iris started singing a harsh tune.

"I'm going to have to cut Michael Jackson Karaoke Night short I'm afraid! I use Depressed Angel's effect to end the Battle Phase!" Matilda announced and Marie started casting a counter spell.

"That was just what I wanted, I chain my facedown card Chain Detonation and I throw in Silver Pot of Chains from my hand for good measure." Chakra played the cards and the two women winced as their life-points dropped to 7500. "Not only does Chain Detonation inflict five hundred points of damage but since I activated it at Chain Link 2 it goes back to my deck." Chakra added before shuffling her trap card back into her deck. "And since we're at Chain Link 3 Silver Pot of Chains lets me draw three cards." Chakra explained before she drew three cards and then drew a fourth.

"Hold on, you're at Chain Link 3 not 4! Put that card back!" Matilda protested and Chakra shook her head before pointing to Iris as her attack was negated.

"There was a reason why I summoned Iris when I did! You see if a Chain Link of Three or higher is activated she lets me draw a new card." Chakra explained before frowning. "Only downside is that every link in the chain has to be unique otherwise I'd just use my three Silver Pots in a Chain with Accumulated Fortune with her effect."

"I dread to think about the possibilities that deck has with Exodia." Lance commented with a wince and Chakra nodded.

"That's why I'm prepared for the day that Silver Dungeon and Silver Pot of Chains is released to the public, knowing Sophia Pegasus's recent trend of banning anything that even slightly helps a troll deck I have more than enough back-up plans." Chakra responded before turning to Matilda. "Back to my move, I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Chakra announced before discarding a card due to the hand size limit and once Matilda detached an overlay unit Felicia drew her card.

"_On one hand none of the Fallen Angel cards that are easy to summon can beat Chakra's monster, on the other hand I'm talking about raw power and as the old saying goes there's more than one way to skin a cat." _Felicia thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Bingo!"_ She thought before playing the card. "I activate a drawing card of my own, the ever popular Allure of Darkness!" Felicia played the card before drawing two cards and pocketing one. "And I follow that up with another Spell Card, D.D.R. Different Dimension Reincarnation!"

"I'm going to assume that there's no prizes for guessing which monster your about to summon?" Jason asked and Felicia nodded before discarding a card and retrieving the monster she had just banished.

"Well okay, there is a prize, if you can call getting your souls stolen by the Orichalcos a prize." Felicia responded before playing the card. "I summon D.D. Archfiend!" Felicia played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small winged demon that was blue in color and hard one single massive eyeball (4/0/0). "Yeah, I realize that he's pretty pathetic for a level four monster but his effect makes up for it."

"Considering that your other monsters that you normal summoned had similar stats I would've been surprised if that wasn't the case." Jason responded with a frown as D.D. Archfiend's attack points increased to five hundred thanks to the seal. "So, are you going to reveal his effect yet?"

"Not just yet, I'll leave that up to my partner but what I will reveal is that the only way to summon it is by removing it from play first." Felicia responded before picking up a card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Felicia announced and Jason drew his card.

"_If that monster is anything like Laughing Demon then they are going to use it for another XYZ Summon." _Jason thought as he drew his card. _"Hopefully that monster won't be haunting my nightmares like Laughing Demon when they do summon it." _Jason thought with a frown. "No point in going on the attack so I'm passing my turn." Jason announced and Matilda grinned fore drawing her card.

"Too bad for you Jason because now we can go on the offensive, I flip summon my facedown monster Corrupted Angel!" Matilda flipped the monster up and a new monster appeared on the field, she was an angel like her name said but her dress and wings were blood red and she had devil horns coming out of her head (2/100/500).

"The more I see of her deck the more it offends me on a religious level." Nicola sighed to herself as Corrupted Angel's attack points rose to 600 thanks to the seal.

"Tell it to someone who cares! Anyway since I have a Fallen Angel on my side of the field I can activate Corrupted Angel's effect, this allows me to target one Dark Type Fiend Monster on the field and change Corrupted Angel's Level until it matches the level of the fiend monster and guess what? D.D. Archfiend fits the criteria!" Matilda explained as Corrupted Angel's level increased to four.

"And this is turn activates D.D. Archfiend's effect, this is one of those effects that are so powerful that I can only use it once per duel so don't even think about raising a stink over this effect being broken." Felicia added as D.D. Archfiend started glowing. "In a way it works like Weeping into Heaven/Laughing into Hell but rather than increase levels it increases ranks."

"What are you talking about?" Chakra demanded and Matilda grinned.

"It's simple really, when D.D. Archfiend is targeted for the level changing effect of a Light Type Fairy Monster…." Matilda trailed off before noticing the odd looks she was getting. "What?"

"That thing's a fairy?" Jason asked and Matilda sweat-dropped.

"So is Marie the Fallen One so your argument is invalid." Matilda responded before shaking her head. "Honestly, when was the last time any of your idiots actually read the bible?"

"I read it last night actually." Chelsea chimed in and Matilda's sweat-drop grew bigger.

"The lesbian rock chick happens to be a Christian you know I normally expect that kind of hypocrisy from Politicians." Matilda muttered under her breath and Chelsea growled. "Anyway…."

"THAT'S REAL FUCKING CUTE COMING FROM THE ORICHALCOS DUELIST RUNNING A FALLEN ANGEL DECK!" Chelsea snapped at her angrily and Matilda winced.

"How about I just shut up before I give her a reason to try to beat me to death with her duel disk?" Matilda suggested and the others nodded in agreement. "As I was saying, since D.D. Archfiend was targeted by Corrupted Angel I can declare one rank between one and six and the monsters used in the XYZ Summon are treated as monsters of that level, I declare rank six!"

"And that means that we can finally go on the offensive!" Felicia responded with a grin as the overlay network opened up and D.D. Archfiend was sucked in alongside Corrupted Angel.

"I use Corrupted Angel and D.D. Archfiend to XYZ Summon Fallen Angel – Peter the Lustful!" Matilda played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, like Maria the Corrupted this monster was clearly a half devil/angel hybrid and he had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes, if it weren't for his corrupted appearance he would look like someone straight out of a cheesy romance novel as he was very muscular and was only wearing white pants (Rank: 6/2500/1200) and the monster winked at Iris the Earth Mother suggestively as his attack increased to 3000 thanks to the seal.

"Let's get the basics out of the way first, like Marie the Corrupted Peter the Lustful is treated as a Dark Type Fiend Monster and a Light Type Fairy Monster." Felicia explained with a grin.

"We'll get to the rest of his effect in a minute but there's one effect to resolve." Matilda added as she drew a card. "Since Corrupted Angel was used to XYZ Summon a Fallen Angel Monster we get to draw a card." Matilda added as Felicia drew her card. "But if I where you I'd be more worried about Iris! Peter the Lustful, attack Iris the Earth Mother!" Matilda commanded and Peter charged into battle…..

"I activate my Trap Card Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!" Chakra activated the trap and Peter the Lustful stopped in his tracks as a scarecrow made of scrap iron appeared in front of Iris. "This not only negates Peter the Lustful's attack but I can set it back down for future use!" Chakra added as her trap card set down. "Better luck next time girls!"

"Then I guess it's a good thing that "next time" is right now! I activate Marie the Corrupted's effect! When a Fallen Angel monster of a higher rank's attack is negated I can ditch her remaining overlay unit to allow that monster to attack again." Matilda explained as she tossed Laughing Demon back at Felicia who swiftly sent it to her graveyard. "And I happen to know that you can only use Scrap-Iron Scarecrow's effect once per turn so Peter, why don't you pick up where you left off with Iris?" Matilda suggested and Peter charged into battle again….

"Then it's a good thing I'm here! I activate Shift forcing Peter the Lustful to attack Genex Searcher instead!" Jason activated his trap and Peter changed course before punching a hole through the robot's chest and bringing Jason's life-points down to 6600. "And since Genex Searcher just kicked the bucket I can use his effect to search through my deck for a Genex monster and add it to my hand." Jason added before picking up and searching through his deck.

"That's not all your Trap Card did Jason." Chakra added as she nodded to him. "I seem to remember Marie the Corrupted needing an XYZ Material in order to end the battle phase, and you just ditched her last overlay unit."

"Oh shit." Matilda cursed under her breath as realization hit her and Jason added the monster he wanted to his hand. _"I knew I should've saved that effect for when I drew XYZ Regen, good thing Felicia has a copy in her extra deck."_

"Oh shit is right, we may be teaming for the first time but it would appear that Jason and I make an excellent team." Chakra added before grinning. "But, despite the fact that you are twin sisters, you don't seem to know anything about that."

"What?" Matilda asked clearly confused. "What the hell are you talking about? We've been teaming together ever since we discovered this damn game!"

"You're not exactly showing it though." Jason responded with a grin. "Felicia's been supplying her own monsters for your XYZ Summons whilst leaving herself vulnerable this whole time that may have been counterbalanced with Depressed Angel's effect but Matilda can't use that effect anymore because she was more focused on dealing damage to us than helping her teammate!"

"_Shit, I realize what they are doing! They are trying to break up our team!" _Matilda realized as her eyes widened and she quickly turned to Felicia. "Don't listen to them sis! You've been a valuable part of this team since the duel began!"

"Shut it!" Felicia snapped at her and Matilda froze. "We may be twin sisters but you were always the favorite between the two of us! Hell I'm the older sister I should have gotten everything you had and more! And this duel has just been another example of that from the start and thanks to your dumb move I have nothing to protect myself from a direct attack as soon as Marie the Corrupted is destroyed!"

"That was one mistake! How was I supposed to know that Jason had set that Trap Card down?" Matilda protested and Felicia glared at her. "Come on sis! It was supposed to be you and me against the world! That's what you said when we moved out of our parent's home!"

"Is there something wrong Chelsea?" Nicola asked when she noticed the uncomfortable look on Chelsea's face and Chelsea sighed.

"Long story short, I had many arguments like this with my older sister Jamie growing up and this is bringing back some bad memories." Chelsea explained as she folded her arms. "But, aside from the fact that I and Jamie aren't twin sisters, there's a big difference between them and my family."

"What's that?" Nicola asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"We always talked it out between us after each argument and our bond as sisters grew stronger as a result." Chelsea responded before turning her attention to Matilda and Felicia. "And, even if I didn't have an older sister, I can just tell that those two have never had a convo like that."

"It may have been us against the world then but that was years ago." Felicia responded coldly before turning her attention back to their opponents. "As far as I'm concerned we may as well be fighting those guys separately because you're on your own from now on."

"But…." Matilda pleaded before realizing that their teamwork had just gone out the window. "Fine, we both know that you can't summon the Fallen Angels in your extra deck without my fairy monsters so let's just see how long you last!" Matilda responded before looking at her drawn card. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Matilda announced and Jason drew his card.

"_Chakra's plan to divide them has worked perfectly let's just see how long it lasts." _Jason thought before looking over his hand. "First I activate my Trap Card Attribute Synchron! I'll get to its effect in a minute but first say hello to the monster I searched out with Genex Searcher, Genex Controller!" Jason played the card and the small, cute big-eyed robot appeared on the field (3/1400/1200). "Next, since I control a Genex Monster I can Special Summon Onmi-Genex!" Jason played the card and the large, single eyed robot appeared on the field (5/1000/1000).

"I remember that monster from our duel." Chakra commented as she glanced at the robot. "With it you can practically summon any Genex Synchro Monster, correct?"

"That's right and this combo's gonna blow them away but first I tune Onmi Genex with Genex Controller!" Jason announced as the two robots leapt into the air for the Synchro Summon. "I Synchro Summon Vindikite R-Genex in Attack Mode!" Jason played the card and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large green airplane robot with a jet booster sticking out the back (8/2400/1000).

"I was worried for a sec but come on! That thing can't even compare to Peter the Lustful." Matilda said with a scoff before realizing that Attribute Synchron was glowing. "What's going on with your trap card?"

"Remember when I said that I'd get to Attribute Synchron's effect in a minute? Well that minute's up! Attribute Synchron has several effects that depend on the attribute of the Synchro Monster that I'm summoning and in this case since I summoned a Wind Type Monster his effect lets me destroy all Spell/Trap Cards you guys control for every three levels the monster I summoned has, to save you from doing the math that's more trap cards than you've got!" Jason explained and his opponents' eyes widened as their trap cards blew up. "I would've destroyed the Seal as well but Chakra's mistake earlier means that I know that it'd be pointless to try."

"You may have wiped out our trap cards but your robot will crash and burn if it tries to battle Peter the Lustful!" Matilda pointed out and Jason grinned.

"That's why I'm going for broke with this move! I activate Limiter Removal!" Jason announced and Matilda's eyes widened as the plane doubled in size alongside its attack points. "Chakra…."

"Go ahead and use Iris the Earth Mother." Chakra told him and Jason blinked. "We're a team aren't we? Use her!"

"Right, thanks for the monster." Jason nodded in response as Iris walked over to his side of the field. "Iris, the Earth Mother, take out Marie the Corrupted now with an encore performance of Earth Song!" Jason commanded and the woman started singing her harsh tune, this time Marie was unable to save herself and she was destroyed by the attack. "That just leaves Peter the Lustful, Vindikite R Genex attack Peter the Lustful!" Jason commanded and the jet flew towards Peter…..

"Did you really think it would be that easy? I activate Peter's effect! By banishing a fairy type monster from my graveyard I can allow him to survive one attack per turn." Matilda announced before pocketing Depressed Angel and Peter survived the attack just barely. "I still take damage but that's a small price to pay since you just wasted a perfectly good Limiter Removal!" Matilda added as her life-points dropped to 6200.

"Who said that he was staying around long enough for that? I move to my second main phase and I activate De-Synchro to split Vindikite into its Synchro Material Monsters!" Jason played the card and Vindikite vanished from the field leaving Genex Controller and Onmi-Genex in defense mode. "Next I equip Onmi-Genex with Demotion reducing his level by two." Jason said as he activated the spell card and Onmi-Genex's level dropped to three. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Jason announced and Felicia drew her card.

"_We don't need the other Fallen Angel monsters, not when we have the best one on our side of the field and besides, I have other powerhouses in my deck." _Felicia thought as she glanced at Peter the Lustful. "I'm taking control of Peter the Lustful."

"HEY!" Matilda protested as Peter walked over to Felicia's side of the field. "What happened to not needing my monster?"

"I said I didn't need you, the monster on the other hand is the best one we've got." Felicia responded before turning her attention to Jason. _"I'd be able to cause some damage by attacking Iris the Earth Mother but I can't have Jason doing another Synchro anytime soon, especially since I don't know what the other effects of his Trap Card are." _Felicia thought before pointing to Genex Controller. "Peter the Lustful, attack Genex Controller!" Felicia commanded and Peter charged into battle again….

"I was hoping you'd do that! I activate my Urgent Tuning Trap Card to Tune Genex Controller with Onmi-Genex once more!" Jason announced as his trap card flipped up and the two monsters leapt into the air for a Synchro Summon. "I Synchro Summon one of my favorites, Geo Genex in attack mode!" Jason played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large dome shaped brown robot that looked like it served the purpose of a drill not helped by the fact that it appeared on the field by drilling through the ground (6/1800/2800).

"Hah! That thing's even weaker than the first monster you Synchro Summoned!" Felicia scoffed with a laugh as Attribute Synchron glowed again. "Honestly, what was the point in…?" Felicia never got a chance to finish as Peter the Lustful screamed in pain before his hologram shattered into a million pieces alongside Matilda's facedown monster. "What?"

"When I Synchro Summon an Earth Attribute Synchro Monster Attribute Synchron lets me destroy one monster for every three levels of the monster I summoned, Geo Genex is a Level Six Monster so I got to destroy two monsters!" Jason explained and Felicia's eyes widened when it hit her. "Normally I'd hope for your sake that you have a Battle Fader in your hand but considering the fact that you're an Orichalcos Duelist I'd be wasting my breath!"

"And you accused me of making a dumb move?!" Matilda demanded and Felicia shook her head.

"We're still in this! Losing Peter was just a minor setback." Felicia asserted before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Felicia announced and Chakra drew her card.

"_They said that losing Peter the Lustful was a minor setback despite him being their best monster, either she's an idiot or there's more to their decks than the Fallen Angel monsters." _Chakra thought before looking at her drawn card. "First off there's an effect to resolve, since I activated Silver Pot of Chains at Chain Link 3 last turn I must send three cards from my deck to the graveyard." Chakra added before milling the three cards.

"So you just milled three potentially cards because you got greedy with your Spell Card, that's fine by me." Felicia responded before Chakra held up the card she had drawn.

"That may be true but it makes for a potent combo with the card I just drew, the copy of Pharaoh's Treasure I activated earlier." Chakra added before sending the trap to the graveyard. "Since I drew it after it was activated I can send it to the graveyard to retrieve one other card from it." Chakra added before adding the card to her hand.

"Chakra if you want to use my Synchro Monster, go ahead." Jason told her and Chakra nodded.

"Thank you Jason, I think I will." Chakra responded as Geo Genex appeared on her side of the field. "Now onto business, Iris, attack Matilda directly with Earth Song!" Chakra commanded and the woman got ready to sing her song….

"From my hand I summon Battle Fader to negate the attack and end the battle phase." Felicia announced as she played the card and the small clock-like fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0).

"What happened to me being on my own?" Matilda asked as she turned to her sister and Felicia shook her head.

"Do you think I'm stupid enough to face two duelists in an Orichalcos duel at the same time?" Felicia asked and Matilda shook her head. "I may be a damn good duelist but I'm not suicidal."

"Sorry to interrupt the cat-fight but it's still my move." Chakra interrupted them before looking at her hand. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Chakra announced and Felicia drew her card.

"_Good, at least with this card we can recycle the two Fallen Angel monsters we've used." _Felicia thought as she looked at her drawn card. "I activate Cast into the Abyss!" Felicia announced as the card flipped up depicting Marie the Corrupted being sent into hell. "This Spell Card requires that we have at least two Fallen Angel monsters in our graveyards and with it I can return them to the extra deck." Felicia explained before turning to Matilda. "Well?"

"Once again I thought you weren't going to help." Matilda retorted before retrieving Marie the Corrupted and Peter the Lustful from her graveyard and returning them to her extra deck.

"Need I remind you that I have no intention of fighting those two alone?" Felicia responded before turning to Jason and Chakra. "In exchange for that we both get to draw two cards." Felicia added before the two sisters made two draws. _"Excellent, with this we won't need the Fallen Angels." _Felicia thought with a grin before turning to Matilda. "Matilda if you want to win this match then you'll do EXACTLY as I say, got it?"

"And why should I listen to a spoiled brat like you?" Matilda scoffed and Felicia sighed in annoyance before showing her the monster she had drawn. "Okay, I see your point."

"Good, now I remove one Dark Type Monster from my graveyard from play." Felicia said as she held up Laughing Demon.

"And I remove one Light Type Monster from play." Matilda added as she held up Corrupted Angel, the two women pocketed their monsters and Matilda grinned. "You two should feel honored, we only save this monster for special occasions!"

"And since you've managed to beat two of our Fallen Angels I think this qualifies." Felicia added before playing the card. "I summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning."

"Oh shit." Jason cussed out loud as the infamous monster appeared on the field (8/3000/2500). "How did you get your hands on that monster? That's one of the rarest monster cards in the game, especially after it came off the Forbidden List a while back!"

"Our employer has deep pockets and contacts all over the world it was pretty much like child's play to him." Matilda responded with a grin. "And if you think this is bad let me tell you something, someone else we work with has his even more broken brother in their deck."

"Well that's great we're going up against someone with Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End in their deck." Lance said sarcastically and the two women smirked. "Any chance you could tell us who?"

"Sorry but no, even if we did know we've already revealed way too much about our employer." Felicia responded before turning to Jason and Chakra. "Besides, if I where you I'd be more worried about them!"

"Oh trust me, I am worried." Lance responded with a wince as he stared at the monster. "But Chloe and Chelsea were able to beat that thing in the first round of the Tag Team Tournament so that thing isn't unbeatable."

"I can't help but find it hilarious that you think that one student poorly handling this monster means it can't be beat and besides, he didn't have the Orichalcos." Felicia responded as Black Luster Soldier's attack increased to 3500 thanks to the seal. _"Now I could use its effect to banish Geo Genex but that would leave me unable to attack and we need the lead now." _Felicia thought before pointing to Geo Genex. "Black Luster Soldier, reduce that robot to scrap metal!" Felicia commanded and the soldier charged into battle….

"I wouldn't count on that! I activate Negate Attack!" Chakra activated the trap and Black Luster Soldier's sword bounced off of an invisible force-field. "Better luck next time."

"Unless Jason draws something that can help him destroy our soldier then "next time" will be on my turn." Matilda responded as Felicia looked over her hand.

"But just in case I set one card facedown and end my turn." Felicia set the card down and Jason drew his card.

"_I don't have anything that can beat her soldier but at least I can do some damage to Matilda." _Jason thought before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Genex Power Planner!" Jason played the card and a small silver dome shaped robot appeared on the field (1/300/300). "And by summoning it I can activate his effect, this effect lets me add one Level Three Genex Effect Monster from my deck to my hand."

"Search out all the monsters you want." Felicia scoffed as Jason picked up and searched through his deck. "We all know that unless you Synchro Summon another Earth Type Monster you can't beat Black Luster Soldier."

"We'll see about that." Jason responded before adding the card to his hand and shuffling his deck. "Besides, I didn't summon Power Planner just so I can use its effect."

"What are you talking about?" Matilda demanded and Jason smirked.

"What I'm talking about is the fact that I didn't summon Geo Genex just so I could use Attribute Synchron's effect either." Jason responded as his machine started glowing. "I activate Geo Genex's effect, you see once per turn as long as I control a Level Four or Lower Genex Type Monster I can switch Geo Genex's stats around until the end phase!" Jason said with a smirk as Geo Genex's attack and defense scores got switched.

"Big deal, you used your copy of Limiter Removal earlier and we all know that's a limited card so your monster falls just short of beating Black Luster Soldier." Felicia pointed out and Jason chucked. "What's so funny?"

"Whoever said that Black Luster Soldier was my target?" Jason asked before pointing to Matilda. "Last I checked her field was wide open!"

"Err, Felicia, please tell me you have another Battle Fader in your hand." Matilda said with a nervous gulp and her eyes widened when Felicia shook her head. "Oh god, this is gonna suck!"

"Please do us a favor and don't talk about god when you have the Orichalcos in play and run a Fallen Angel deck." Chelsea responded with a deadpan expression on her face and Matilda flipped her off.

"We should aim to cause as much damage as possible so you can borrow Iris." Chakra told Jason who nodded in response as Iris the Earth Mother made her way over to his side of the field.

"Then let the games begin! Geo Genex, Power Planner, Iris the Earth Mother, attack her life-points directly!" Jason commanded and the three monsters launched their attacks at Matilda sending her life-points plummeting to 700.

"You…..YOU WILL PAY THAT!" Matilda snapped at them as she forced herself to her feet with a pained grunt. "Felicia, I know we're not on speaking terms but I want to make that little shit pay for that and your Black Luster Soldier is my best shot at that!"

"Say no more." Felicia responded with a nod as her sister returned to her original spot. "Besides, you may have taken a lot of damage just now but I have a way to turn that into an advantage."

"How the hell are you going to turn taking five thousand points of damage in a single turn of an Orichalcos Duel into an advantage?!" Matilda snapped at her as she glared at her sister. "In case you've forgotten the damage is real in an Orichalcos Duel and I'm going to be sore all week after we win!"

"You said the same thing before you were gang banged in that brothel we worked in and you turned out just fine." Felicia responded and Matilda glared at her. "Trust me on this!"

"Why am I not surprised that those two worked in a brothel?" Chelsea commented out loud and the two Orichalcos Duelists glared at her. "Just saying, you definitely look the part."

"We were young, we were desperate and we needed the money, as it turns out perverts will pay a lot of money to either watch twins have sex with each other it or fuck two twins at the same time." Felicia retorted as she shook her head. "As it turned out Victor pays a lot more than any of those perverts could and we don't need to sell our bodies!"

"Err, yeah, if I had to choose between prostitution and using the Orichalcos I'd chose prostitution any day of the week." Chelsea retorted and Matilda shook her head.

"If you worked in a brothel for a year you wouldn't be saying that." Matilda responded before turning to Felicia. "Anyway, what the hell do you mean by advantage?"

"Just watch, I activate my Trap Card Shock Draw!" Felicia activated the trap and Matilda grinned. "Thanks for the five free cards Jason."

"Those won't help your sister much if Chakra eliminates her on her turn." Jason responded as the two sisters drew five cards.

"With that cards I just drew that won't be a problem." Matilda responded as she looked over her hand. "Anyway, are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm done." Jason responded as Geo Genex's attack returned to normal and Iris the Earth Mother returned to Chakra's side of the field whilst Matilda drew her card.

"Don't screw this up Matilda." Felicia said as her eyes narrowed. "You don't exactly have the life-points to spare if you fuck up this time and I just risked decking myself out to bail you out." Felicia added as Black Luster Soldier made his way to Matilda's side of the field. "Do you understand?"

"I understand perfectly." Matilda responded before looking over her hand. "I set three cards facedown and I activate Burial from a Different Dimension, I use this Spell Card to return Depressed Angel and Corrupted Angel to my graveyard."

"I fail to see how those monsters will help you from the graveyard." Chakra responded as she folded her arms and Matilda sent the three cards to her graveyard. "Especially since they were obviously designed with XYZ Summoning in mind and you can't XYZ Summon from the graveyard."

"That is true but at the same time they have other uses as my sister's already demonstrated." Matilda responded before retrieving the two monsters from her graveyard. "By removing two Light Type Monsters from my graveyard I can Special Summon Soul of Purity and Light!" Matilda announced and a new monster appeared on the field, it was the transparent form of a blonde naked woman (with her nipples and vagina censored) with large white wings that seemed quite friendly in appearance (6/2000/1800) but any friendliness vanished almost instantly as the seal appeared on her forehead increasing her attack to 2500.

"Oh great, as if I didn't hate her deck enough then she goes and summons that monster." Nicola with a wince and Matilda rolled her eyes.

"Do you really think I care what an autistic girl thinks of me or my deck? I've got bad news for you Nicola, I don't!" Matilda retorted and Nicola glared at her. "Anyway Soul of Purity and Light as usually my other method of summoning Peter the Lustful but she has other uses." Matilda said as she picked up another card. "I sacrifice Soul of Purity and Light to summon one of the lesser used Monarchs, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch!" Matilda played the card and Soul of Purity and Light vanished from the field, in her place stood one of the famous monarchs and this one was green and silver in color and was very muscular (6/2400/1000) and his attack increased to 2900 thanks to the seal. "When he is Tribute Summoned his effect activates and this allows me to destroy one monster on the field, sorry Iris but Karaoke Night is over!"

"This is not good." Chakra winced as Iris screamed in pain before shattering.

"Oh, you have no idea, but just in case…." Matilda said before playing a card. "I activate Emergency Provisions and I use this Spell Card to clear the field of my facedown cards whilst giving me some of my life-points back." Matilda announced as her three cards vanished and her life-points increased to 3700 whilst Felicia's life-points increased to 11000. "Much better, now I don't have to worry about one of the other possible effects of Attribute Synchron wiping out the rest of my life-points."

"_Well, she isn't exactly wrong there." _Jason thought as he looked at his trap card. _"If I summoned Genex Thermal Attribute Synchron's effect would've burned them for four hundred points of damage times the level of the monster, unfortunately I don't have the means to do that right now."_

"Now I could go on the attack but there's something you have to know about my traps." Matilda added as she held up the three cards which depicted the Dark Scorpions running away from an explosion whilst carrying treasure. "They were all a trap card called Deadly Treasure but despite its name it does nothing but benefit me, when this trap card is sent to the graveyard by my own Spell, Trap or Monster card I can draw one card and since I sent three…."

"You get to draw three." Chakra responded as Matilda drew three cards.

"Yeah but it does have a slight drawback." Matilda added as she picked up two of her cards. "If I send more than one copy of this trap the graveyard I have to discard two cards once I draw my cards." Matilda added before discarding the cards.

"So it's a trap version of Graceful Charity that activates from the graveyard is what you're saying." Jason responded and Matilda nodded.

"Basically yeah but you have bigger problems." Matilda said with a sadistic grin. "Black Luster Soldier, attack Power Planner!" Matilda commanded and the soldier charged into battle before slicing the small machine down the middle and bringing Jason's life-points down to 4700. "And I'm not done! I use Black Luster Soldier's effect to attack Geo Genex next!" Matilda announced as the soldier spun around and sliced the Synchro Monster in half bringing Jason's life-points down to 3500. "Get him Zaborg!" Matilda commanded and the monarch shot thunder at the Osiris Red Duelist bringing his life-points down to 600. "Don't worry Jason, it'll be over soon! Your turn isn't until after Felicia's and I doubt that Chakra can draw anything that can help you at this point!"

"Stranger things have happened." Jason responded with a pained grunt. _"That….that actually hurt, I'll have to be careful from now one."_

"Well, well, it seems my little sister actually made a good move for once." Felicia mocked her and Matilda glared at her.

"Fuck off Felicia, I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Matilda announced as her facedown cards appeared on the field and Chakra drew her card.

"_I could've protected Jason with Scrap Iron Scarecrow but I have no way of knowing if either of them drew Mystical Space Typhoon when Felicia activated Shock Draw." _Chakra thought before looking at her drawn card. _"But if they fall for a bluff this could help but first I'd better help Jason." _Chakra decided before playing a card. "I set two cards facedown and I activate Emergency Provisions to send them both to the graveyard, whilst I'm at it I'll throw in Silver Pot of Chains one last time."

"Like that will help you." Felicia scoffed and Chakra shook her head.

"Actually it helps us both! I noticed that your Spell Cards affect both players so I figured the same rule applied to us." Chakra added as her life-points increased to 1000 and Jason's increased to 2600.

"Thanks." Jason thanked her and Chakra nodded as she drew two cards.

"Think nothing of it." Chakra responded before picking up and setting two cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"Humph, is that all? I expected better from an Obelisk Blue Student." Felicia responded as she drew her card. "Then let's get this over with, I'm borrowing Zaborg!"

"If it gets this duel over with I'm all for it." Matilda responded as Zaborg made his way to Felicia's side of the field.

"Sorry Jason but it seems your friends out there couldn't save you." Felicia added before looking at her drawn card. "But why not prolong your agony a bit?"

"Can I object to that?" Jason asked and Felicia laughed.

"You wish! I summon Mystic Tomato!" Felicia played the card and the evil looking tomato appeared on the field (4/1400/1100) and his attack increased to 1900 thanks to the seal. "Mystic Tomato, attack Jason's life-points directly!" Felicia commanded and the tomato leapt towards Jason…..

"I don't think so! I activate Scrap Iron Scarecrow!" Chakra activated her trap and the scarecrow made of scrap iron appeared on the field again. "And this…."

"Won't save you this time, I activate my facedown card Mystical Space Typhoon!" Matilda activated her trap and the storm blew away the scarecrow leaving Mystic Tomato free to continue its attack bringing Jason's life-points down to 500. "Nice try but Jason's done for!"

"Sorry Jason." Chakra sighed and Jason shook his head.

"Don't apologize it was me who couldn't keep up." Jason responded with a sigh as he braced himself.

"At least he's honest. Black Luster Soldier, finish him!" Felicia commanded and the other duelists looked away whilst Jason closes his eyes as Black Luster Soldier neared him.

"Honestly, I was hoping that you'd fall for that bluff." Chakra interrupted and the others turned to her realizing that she had activated a trap card, a trap card that made Felicia and Matilda's eyes widen.

"IS THAT MIRROR FORCE!?" The two women yelled simultaneously as the attack bounced off of the invisible barrier before reflecting back at their three monsters destroying them all.

"Chakra, I don't know how to thank you." Jason said once his surprise wore off.

"Look Jason, you weren't about to lose because you couldn't keep up, you were about to lose because they saw you as the weak-link and sort to take you out quickly." Chakra encouraged him and Jason nodded. "And it's your job to prove them wrong!"

"You got it." Jason sighed with a grin. "And thanks, that's one of the nicest things anyone's said to me."

"Don't worry about it." Chakra nodded in agreement and whilst that was going on the exact opposite was going on across the field.

"And you accused me of making a dumb move?!" Matilda snapped at her sister as she glared at her. "Mystic Tomato, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, Black Luster fucking Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, all gone because you charged into battle without taking Chaka's facedown cards into consideration!"

"Says the woman who wasted Mystical Space Typhoon on an obvious bluff, Stevie Wonder could've seen that coming!" Felicia snapped back as she glared at her. "This was bad enough when you wasted Jack's cards…."

"Wait, Jack's cards?" Chakra asked with a raised eyebrow. "The Fallen Angels aren't really yours, aren't they?"

"No, they belong to Jack and he leant some of them to us in preparation for this duel." Felicia responded as she folded her arms. "He's done it before and our high success rate speaks for itself."

"Well it's obvious that you've never faced duelists like us." Jason responded with a grin. "Can I go yet?"

"Yeah but know this, you think Peter the Lustful and Marie the Corrupted are powerful?" Felicia asked as Jason drew his card. "Think again. Those cards are the weakest Fallen Angels and he kept the strongest ones to himself!"

"I look forward to meeting them." Jason responded before drawing his card. _"I can summon my best monster with this and I need the life-point boost so let's do this!" _Jason thought before playing the card. "First I activate Monster Reincarnation, I discard the monster I retrieved with Power Planner last turn to add Onmi Genex back to my hand." Jason announced as he discarded the card and returned the monster to his hand. "Now I summon Genex Controller once more." Jason played the card and Genex Controller returned to the field. "Next I bring out Onmi-Genex." Jason added as the robot appeared on the field again.

"Let me guess, Vindikite?" Matilda scoffed as she folded her arms. "You are so predictable it's pathetic!"

"Actually no, I'm not summoning Vindikite." Jason responded and Matilda blinked. "I'm aiming a bit higher actually, I'm summoning my best monster and I'm tuning my monsters together one more time!" Jason announced as the two monsters leapt into the air for the Synchro Summon.

"What could you possibly be summoning?" Felicia asked as the Synchro Summon was performed.

"I'll show you! I tune Onmi-Genex and Genex Controller together to summon Genex Dragon!" Jason played the card and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, it was a massive robotic dragon with the symbols for each attribute of Duel Monsters on its chest, it let out a massive mechanical roar as it appeared on the field (8/2800/2400).

"Is that supposed to scare me?" Matilda asked but any confidence she had went out the window when Genex Dragon's attack shot up to 4000. "Where the hell did that power come from?!"

"My graveyard but first let me explain what happens when I Synchro Summon a Light Type Monster with Attribute Synchron on the field." Jason responded before sighing in relief as his life-points increased to 2900. "Basically I gain life-points equal to the monster's level times three, I'll save you the basic math lesson by telling you that that means that I gain 2400 life-points."

"But that doesn't explain where the power boost came from!" Matilda responded with a nervous gulp.

"I was getting to that, Genex Dragon gains two hundred attack points for each Genex Monster in my graveyard, I counted six which means he gains 1200 attack points." Jason responded with a grin. "In other words, I'm about to finish what I started last turn, Genex Dragon finish Matilda off!"

"No! No!" Matilda yelled out but it was too late as the dragon's breath of fire hit her sending her life-points down to zero. "I'm sorry Felicia…." Matilda trailed off just as the seal enclosed around her stealing her soul.

"You may have eleven thousand life-points Felicia but let's face it, with a monster that powerful on our side of the field it's only a matter of time before we reduce your life-points to zero." Chakra pointed out as she turned to Felicia. "Consider this your last chance to surrender."

"I said I wasn't stupid enough to fight you two alone in an Orichalcos Duel." Felicia said before sighing and surrendering. "And I meant it." Felicia added as the seal enclosed around her stealing her soul as well.

"Sorry we didn't get here sooner." Chloe said as the group approached them, Jason sat down on the grass and turned to her. "But we had other business to tend too."

"To make a long story short, those bastards targeted me last night." Nicola added with a sigh. "That's how I got injured."

"I heard about that but I'm glad that you appear to be okay." Jason nodded in response and Nicola smiled a bit.

"You can thank the pain killers for that." Nicola responded as she sat down. "Speaking of which, you want to head to the infirmary?"

"Well, my body aches like hell so yeah, I do." Jason responded with a nod as he got up with Chakra's help. "But guys, if you ever make a serious assault against those bastards give me a call, I'll be happy to help."

"The same goes for me." Chakra nodded in response and the others nodded.

"I get the feeling that we'll need your help." Andreas said with a nod of appreciation. "Whilst you're at it Jason, you had better tell the teachers everything that happened, I think they will be interested to know that an Orichalcos Duel took place today."

"I was planning too, thanks Andreas." Jason nodded in response before turning to Chakra. "Any chance I can count on you to help me file the report?"

"You didn't need to ask." Chakra responded as the group left the area.

*meanwhile*

"Leave some of my cards in the hands of amateurs and what happens?" Jack sighed as sat on the speedboat sat in Domino City Harbor and he watched the end of the duel on his laptop before switching over to his skype chat with Victor. "Victor, did you get the footage?"

"Yes I did, for now you are to remain in Domino City." Victor responded and Jack blinked in confusion. "I have dispatched two of my best agents to meet you outside the local branch of my company there."

"Did you say two of your best agents? What's the occasion?" Jack asked with a chuckle.

"The occasion is that I'm targeting two of the best duelists in the school and two of our targets' most valuable allies." Victor responded and Jack grinned at the sound of that. "You may know them as the Kaiba siblings."

"Now we're talking! I don't think they've been targeted before!" Jack responded with a hearty laugh.

"They haven't." Victor responded with a nod. "Wait until this evening, they are tightening security on the island so we must restrict our drop offs to the middle of the night."

"As long as I don't get caught in another storm I won't complain." Jack responded before Victor hung up, he closed the laptop down and left the speedboat. _"At least they got one thing right my Fallen Angels are far superior to the ones they faced." _Jack thought as he walked away.


	115. Day 11 Back to the Tournament

A few hours had passed since Jason and Chakra dueled and defeated Matilda and Felicia in an Orichalcos Tag Team Duel and security had already removed their unconscious bodies from the island, Jason and Chakra were still in Martin's office giving their reports on the incident but what about the other students who were present at the duel?

"Well, they weren't lying." Tyler commented as he read the webpage on his desktop PC, he and the other students with Duel Spirit Guides were in his dorm room looking up information on the opponents that Jason and Chakra had faced in an attempt to find out more about the Orichalcos Duelists.

"They weren't lying about what?" Chelsea asked as she stepped forward.

"Everything, the card list for the next set was leaked over the weekend and Depressed Angel, Laughing Demon, Weeping into Heaven/Laughing into Hell and D.D. Archfiend is among the leaked card names." Tyler responded as he showed her the list. "The only names I can't find are Corrupted Angel and the two Fallen Angel monsters they used."

"Yeah, I think it's a safe but that those monsters were custom made for Jack, whoever he is." Chloe responded as she read the list. "Can't see any other cards that look like they fit in with the cards those women used though."

"Well rumors are saying that I2 are coming out with new fiend and fairy type XYZ Monsters but nothing about monsters that are treated as both." Tyler responded before changing tabs. "Speaking of those two it took some searching but I was able to confirm that they were prostitutes before they worked for Victor, have a look at this news article I found from the Salt Lake Tribune." Tyler added and the others walked over to read that article.

"Sixty men and women arrested for prostitution in whore house sting operation, police officers among them." Chelsea read the headline aloud and frowned before folding her arms. "They did mention that they worked in a brothel but Salt Lake City isn't exactly a small place so that could've been any whore house."

"Keep reading." Tyler responded with a sigh and Chelsea did so.

"Okay, so a Matilda and a Felicia were among the hookers arrested, you do realize that those are pretty common female names, right?" Chelsea asked and Tyler turned to her with a frown on his face. "I'm not defending them but your proof does have some holes in it, just saying."

"I was getting to that part." Tyler said as he switched to another tab. "I looked up the mug shots from that arrest and, despite a depressing number of girls around our ages being among the prostitutes arrested, I found what I was looking for." Tyler said before scooting backwards and allowing the others to see the mug shots. "Look familiar?"

"That's them all right, they look a little roughed up but that's definitely them." Chelsea said as she scratched her head. "Maybe they liked it rough in the sack."

"I'm not even going to comment on that." Tyler responded with a slight blush. "But I did some more digging and that wasn't their only arrest for prostitution, they had both been arrested for drug possession as well."

"So they were crack whores, what's the big deal?" Chelsea asked with a shrug. "All that's telling me is that Victor likes recruiting criminals to use the Seal."

"The big deal is that after the arrest at the brothel they dropped off the radar almost completely." Tyler responded with a frown. "No further arrests, no records of home ownership in Salt Lake City or Utah, it's like they just vanished."

"Only to come back a year later but as Orichalcos Duelists, I bet Salt Lake PD will be thrilled to know about that." Chloe commented with a frown as she read the article. "What about the guy they mentioned, Jack?"

"Well like Chelsea said, Jack is a common name." Tyler responded with a frown. "However I was able to find a Jack among the men arrested for soliciting prostitutes, apparently arrested whilst in the middle of snorting coke off of a hooker's ass, he has a similar history to them."

"You mean he had prior arrests before vanishing after that big one?" Chelsea asked and Tyler nodded. "Either this is a hell of a coincidence or we're dealing with the same guy."

"Unfortunately, as you know, we didn't get a description or even a last name from Matilda or Felicia and they aren't exactly in any condition to tell us at the moment." Tyler sighed in annoyance before switching to another tab. "But I was able to find the mugshot of the Jack they arrested at the Brothel, his full name was Jack Hass."

"Let me guess, false name?" Chelsea asked with a slight laugh and Tyler nodded. "Thank god for that, what parent would name their kid "jack" with a surname like that?"

"His idea of a joke I guess, his real full name is Jack Haynes and he has quite the rapsheet in Salt Lake City." Tyler said as he scrolled down. "Forgery, counterfeit, generally small time stuff oh and about fifty counts of soliciting prostitution…."

"Did you say fifty?!" Everyone else in the room asked and Tyler shook his head.

"I'm just the messenger but the guy was apparently a frequent customer of the whore house." Tyler said before chuckling. "That said, all the prostitutes, when asked about him and yes that includes the twins Jason and Chakra thought, all had the same thing to say about him, he was a rude misogynistic a-hole who was a bit…lacking downstairs." Tyler said and Chelsea fell over laughing when she figured it out.

"Oh my fucking god…." Chelsea said as she rolled over laughing her ass off. "You know you've got it bad when the girls whose jobs are basically to fuck you complain about your dick size!"

"Once again, I'm not commenting on that." Tyler said as he shook his head. "I can only think of one reason why they put up with despite all that and that's the possibility of him….."

"Let's cut the bullshit Tyler he compensated for his dick size by throwing money around." Chelsea interrupted him and Tyler sweat-dropped. "Most rich boys tend to do that in my experience, mostly thanks to my experiences here at Duel Academy."

"We're just going to ignore the fact that you said that whilst sharing a room with two rich boys." Brandon commented as he cleared his throat and Chelsea sweat-dropped. "And don't even think about asking Theresa about that Lance!"

"I was going to get a drink!" Lance asserted as he walked towards Tyler's mini-fridge which Theresa was standing by. "You got any good sodas in there Tyler?"

"I picked up a few 24 packs over the weekend and I don't exactly drink all that often." Tyler responded before clearing his throat. "Back on topic and ignoring Chelsea's comment…"

"I said most rich boys, not all!" Chelsea pointed out and Tyler cleared his throat. "How did you find all that out anyway? I don't think the Police Department's website would have such private info on it, just the basics of the arrest."

"Your right, it doesn't but like I said I did quite a bit of digging." Tyler responded with a nod as he switched tabs. "And by digging I mean hacking, fortunately I know how to cover my tracks and they'll never know I was there but that's not important, I was looking for reasons why Victor would recruit those three people from the arrest for his Orichalcos revival."

"I'm going out on a limb and saying that the sisters had daddy issues or something along those lines." Chelsea responded with a frown and Tyler nodded.

"It does seem to be the case, however as I am not a psychology major and I don't think anyone else is in this room is either so I'm not qualified to make such a statement." Tyler responded as he shook his head. "And I'm not about to reveal that I've hacked a foreign police department's database to the school by asking the opinion of one of the shrinks they have on staff."

"Maybe you could but switch around the details." Chelsea suggested with a shrug. "Names of the hookers, names of their clients, what they said in their interviews, even the city name, say that it's for a creative writing project or something."

"Well I am a member of the creative writing club so that could work." Tyler admitted as he scratched his chin in thought. "However that isn't the important detail, what is the important detail is how those three out of all the sex workers and clients at the brothel were selected by Victor or even why he chose that particular brothel."

"What about the brothel itself, what happened to that?" Chelsea asked and Tyler checked his info.

"The city tore it down as the madam in charge of it was wanted in another city for murder of a hooker they've built a small nursery where the brothel once stood." Tyler responded and the others sweat-dropped. "And no, the irony of that isn't lost on me either."

"Hey, we're back." Jason said as he entered the room with Chakra behind him. "What did we miss?"

"Tyler's been doing some background checking for the past hour or so." Chloe responded as she turned to them. "So far the most we've learned is that the Orichalcos Duelists you faced and this "Jack" character they referred too might be connected beyond the fact that they work for the same guy."

"What do you mean?" Chakra asked and Tyler motioned them over to his desktop, the two of them walked over and Tyler went over what he had learned with them. "He was snorting coke off a hooker's backside when he was arrested and several hookers were complaining about the size of his penis, how charming." Chakra muttered sarcastically and Tyler shook his head.

"Honestly I'm surprised that you were the first to bring that up." Tyler commented with a frown as he turned to them. "Obviously there is no way we can collaborate this unless we meet Jack in person and considering how high up he seems to be in the totem pole that might not be until we take the fight to them."

"Speaking of your duel, how are you holding up Jason?" Nicola asked and Jason shrugged.

"The nurse gave me some painkillers to cope with the pain but she thinks it'll be gone by Wednesday at the latest." Jason responded with a frown. "As for the meeting with Martin, well it went as well as any meeting with Martin would really, fortunately he kept it short and to the point." Jason added before turning to the others. "So aside from you guys and Nicola who else is helping out with this?"

"We have two Asian students from the Ra Yellow Boy's Dorm helping us." Tyler responded as he turned to them. "Ashitaka Tomoe or Ash as we prefer to call him since his first name's a bit of a mouthful and Hu Wukong."

"The Bujin and Fire Fists duelists from the qualifiers, those are good choices." Chakra commented with a smile. "But I get the feeling that we'll need more than just them."

"I've been trying to get my girlfriend Beth to help out." Chelsea responded with a frown on her face. "No luck there though even though she got kidnapped by an Orichalcos Duelist to lure me out back when they started again."

"Give her time, she'll help us out." Chloe responded before frowning. "Then again considering how dangerous the Orichalcos is I'm surprised that we're getting as much help as we are, you'd think that they'd think it was a terrible idea." Chloe added and Chelsea scoffed. "What?"

"You're talking about bad ideas when you used the Seal yourself last week?" Chelsea asked and the other students, aside from Jason, Chakra and Nicola, winced as their eyes widened. "What?"

"Oh, not much, you just picked the worst possible time to have said that!" Chloe said with a face-palm and Chelsea blinked.

"Huh?" Chelsea asked before it hit her like a ton of bricks. "Oh….."

*meanwhile outside the dorm*

"_So, someone else was targeted." _Ash thought as he approached the dorm with his hands in his pockets, he had just heard about the Orichalcos Tag Duel and since he wanted to get away from Hu for a while he decided to meet with the others. _"And since they often meet up in Tyler's dorm room it shouldn't take me to long to find…."_

"YOU DID WHAT?!" The voices of Nicola, Jason and Chakra rang out simultaneously from inside the dorm and Ash sweat-dropped.

"_I wonder what that's about." _Ash thought before shaking his head and continuing towards the dorm. _"One way to find out I suppose."_

*back inside the dorm room*

"Yeah, I activated that damn field spell." Chloe sighed in annoyance as she stared down the three furious students. "That wasn't my wisest idea."

"And that's gotta be the biggest understatement ever." Lance commented as he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Not the time or place for smart ass comments Lance." Chloe sighed before turning to the other students. "Basically my opponent used the Exchange Spell Card to get it into my hand…."

"You still could've discarded it for an effect!" Jason pointed out and Chloe frowned.

"I didn't have any cards in my hand that required me to discard a card otherwise I would've done so!" Chloe retorted as her eyes narrowed. "But instead I left it in my hand until he played a Spell Card that forced me to use a Spell Card or lose the duel."

"And you didn't just take the damage instead because…." Chakra asked and Chloe sighed.

"I was worried that the bastard would get away." Chloe responded as she shook her head. "In hindsight that was a moot point because the others were there alongside Professor Hamden so he wouldn't have gotten far if I had taken the damage."

"That still doesn't excuse the fact that you used the Orichalcos Chloe." Nicola responded and Chloe turned to her. "Hell you saw what it did to Andreas and god knows how many other duelists back in Battle City so why would you even be tempted to use it?!"

"After my opponent used Exchange a strange voice kept nagging me to use the Orichalcos, I eventually caved in." Chloe sighed just as the door opened. "If you want to chew me out for it Theresa beat you too it the day after and I haven't even thought about using that Spell Card again!"

"How do we know that's true?" Jason asserted as he stepped up to her. "How do we know that you haven't been an Orichalcos Duelist all this time acting as a mole to the other duelists and have been helping them onto the island?!"

"Excuse me?!" Chloe demanded as her eyes narrowed. "What the hell would I have to gain from something like that? The only mole among the Battle City duelists was Otto and he was expelled not long after Battle City!"

"How do we know that you weren't another mole?" Jason asked not noticing Lance walk up to him. "They got to Otto, what's to stop them….." Jason never finished his sentence as he was flawed by a punch to the jaw not from Chloe but from Lance.

"Jason, that's enough." Lance said as he stared down at him and Jason glared at him. "Yes, Chloe made a huge mistake last week but you seem to forget a couple of things, the fact that Chloe's cover would've been blown due to the other female duelists having rooms literally right next to hers and if she was a mole why didn't she reveal herself during the finals like Otto, Karen and Felix did?!"

"Okay, I get your point." Jason grunted as he rubbed his sore jaw. "But did you have to punch me?!"

"You were accusing my girlfriend of being a mole for the enemy." Lance said as he glared at him. "So yeah, I did!" Lance added before grabbing him by the scruff of his t-shirt. "So either you apologize or you get another, make your choice because I'm feeling really punch happy right now!"

"Lance, that's enough!" Chloe said as she put a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "Yeah, he crossed the line with his accusations but…."

"And you didn't be activating the Field….." Jason trailed off as Lance went to punch him again only to be stopped by Ash's kendo stick blocking his path.

"It would appear that I chose an interesting time to come over." Ash sighed as his eyes narrowed. "Lance, I hate to do this but unless you let go and help him up you're getting a face full of my kendo stick." Ash warned him and Lance glared at him before letting go and standing up. "Do I even want to know what this is about?" Ash asked as he seethed his kendo stick and Lance helped Jason up.

"It's a long story, partly caused by Chelsea's big mouth." Lance responded whilst ignoring the glare he was getting from Chelsea. "Gonna keep this simple, well as simple as I can really and the four of you must promise not to reveal this to anyone, not even your roommates."

"Lance, Hu is my new roommate." Ash responded with a sigh as the others turned to him. "He pretty much badgered Jeff into letting him by my new roommate and he did so to shut him up basically, in short I'll have to tell him."

"Well tell him not to tell anyone else." Lance responded and Ash nodded in response. "Like Chloe said, she was backed into a corner, was worried about her opponent getting away, used it, instantly regretted it, are we clear?"

"Yeah, we're clear." Nicola said as she shook her head. "I'm just surprised that she used it in the first place, I watched her first Battle City duel on and that looked ridiculously painful."

"Thanks for the reminder Nicola." Chloe responded with a shudder and Nicola winced. "Look it wasn't exactly my finest hour and besides, the likelihood of me ever using that damn spell card again is the same as Chaos Emperor Dragon coming off the ban list."

"Not that the ban list seems to matter to those bastards." Nicola commented with a frown. "They mentioned that one of their associates uses Chaos Emperor Dragon and my opponent in my dream duel used Painful Choice to make summoning Rainbow Dark Dragon easier."

"Dream duel?" Jason asked with a look of confusion on his face which Chakra shared.

"We're not exactly sure how but those bastards have the ability to target us when we're asleep, think the Nightmare on Elm Street movies but with Duel Monsters." Lance responded as he shook his head. "At first they targeted Chloe and Andreas and they were pretty low Ki, when they targeted Chelsea they upped their game big time."

"Yeah, to the point where I still have nightmares about it." Chelsea added with a shudder. "And considering my taste in music and movies that should tell you something about how nasty it was." Chelsea added before turning to Ash. "I'm guessing you didn't come over just to stop Lance beating the shit out of Jason?"

"You still haven't apologized by the way." Jason was quick to add and Lance shook his head.

"Apologize to Chloe first." Lance responded before turning to Ash. "Is she correct Ash?"

"I didn't even know you had company." Ash responded as he nodded to Jason, Chakra and Nicola. "But yes, she is correct though it is to do with Jason and Chakra."

"Let me guess, word reached your ears about our duel?" Jason asked and Ash nodded. "Well I'm doped up on painkillers at the mo but we didn't come out of that duel all that badly."

"That is good to hear." Ash responded with a nod before turning to the others. "So have there been any new developments since my Orichalcos Duel?"

"Nicola, Jason and Chakra have volunteered to help us." Chelsea said as she motioned towards the three teens. "And we think we know who one of the top henchmen in the organization is."

"I'll be the first to admit that it is a longshot." Tyler chimed in as he motioned Ash over to his desktop and Ash walked over. "But by using the fact that the sisters that Jason and Chakra faced a few hours ago pretty much admitted that they were ex prostitutes I did a little digging and found out that the Jack they mentioned might have been a frequent customer of the brothel they worked at."

"Your right, it is a longshot." Ash responded as he read the newspaper article. "But considering how little we actually know about the Orichalcos Duelists as a whole it's the best lead we have but correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there also a female henchmen."

"You're going to have to be a little more specific." Chelsea pointed out and Ash nodded.

"I remember being told that towards the end of your Orichalcos Duel and the Tag Team Orichalcos Duel that you managed to find a female henchman nearby." Ash responded and Chloe frowned before reaching into her blazer pocket.

"Yeah, but we don't know much about her." Chloe responded before retrieving the picture that Sarah had dropped whilst running from them. "We got a name earlier, Sarah, but besides that the only info we have is that she dropped this picture whilst running from us."

"And the picture itself just raises more questions." Chelsea added as she folded her arms. "It's a picture of Chloe's step-parents when they were younger with a three year old girl but according to Chloe that girl's too young to be her when she was adopted."

"She is I wasn't adopted until I was seven years old." Chloe responded with a nod as she looked at the picture. "I asked my dad about it but all he said was that the girl was someone else's kid who they babysat for until she was killed in a horrible car accident a year before they adopted me." Chloe responded before an idea popped into her head. "Hey Tyler, can you see if you can find any articles on that accident?"

"I can try." Tyler responded before turning to his desktop and opening a new tab. "Where did your parents live at the time?"

"They've lived in Domino City all their lives." Chloe responded and Tyler nodded before going to Google.

"Then it shouldn't take me too long to find the article." Tyler responded as he typed into the search engine, however when he saw the time on his computer clock he frowned. "Actually we should meet up again after the tournament duels tomorrow, it's almost curfew time, Jason, Nicola, don't worry you have enough time to get back to the Osiris Red Dorms if you hurry."

"Then I guess we'd better get going." Jason said with a nod as Andreas let Nicola out of the room whilst holding the door open for her, however before Jason could leave Lance cleared his throat. "Seriously dude? Can't this wait until tomorrow?"

"Why so hesitant? All you need to do is say one simple word to my girlfriend and I'll be out of your hair." Lance pointed out and Jason sighed before turning to Chloe. "And it had better be sincere."

"Fine, Chloe I'm sorry I said those things to you and I shouldn't have said them in the first place." Jason apologized and Chloe nodded with a small smile on her face before nudging Lance with her elbow.

"Huh? Oh, right, and I'm sorry for punching you." Lance apologized and Jason nodded before leaving the room with Chakra. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow Chloe, want to meet up for the Duels?"

"Sure, let's meet up outside the main building." Chloe nodded in agreement before she left with Chelsea, once the students who didn't belong in the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm had left Lance turned to Tyler. "I guess I'll see you in the morning."

"Sure, good night." Tyler responded and the other boys left in short order. _"Strange, I can't find any mention of the story Chloe mentioned a few minutes ago." _Tyler thought as he scrolled down the list of websites. _"She mentioned that it was a year before she was adopted and since she's eighteen I should be going back twelve years." _Tyler realized before adding "from twelve years ago" to the search bar and hitting enter. _"Well that didn't help much all I can find is a similar story about a couple losing their daughter in collision with a drunk driver….wait a minute…." _Tyler thought whilst he read the preview for the article and clicked on it, once he read through the article Tyler's eyes widened. _"Oh my god, Chloe's not going to like this."_

*the next morning*

Thankfully for the students on the island there wasn't a repeat of the storm that had plagued the proceeding night and most of them were able to get to sleep without much hassle and those who didn't only didn't get any sleep because they were with their boyfriend/girlfriend and thus it took them a little longer to get to sleep.

"Good morning Chloe." Chelsea greeted her roommate when she heard her yawn Chloe sat up in her bed and swung her legs over. "Just warning ya, you'd better get dressed ASAP."

"Why?" Chloe asked as she checked the time on her watch. "The tournament duels aren't starting for another couple of hours at the least."

"I know and that's not why I mentioned it." Chelsea responded as she called her roommate over and Chloe walked over to Chelsea's desktop which was showing Duel Academy's website.

"Martin's called an assembly two hours before the duels begin?" Chloe asked as she read the headline. "Bad timing isn't it? I mean if it's about the security upgrades yesterday then wouldn't it have been easier to just post it on the website?"

"Chloe, given how long we've known him, not to mention the fact that he used a Sylvan Deck against me in our duel on Saturday, I'm surprised that you're surprised by that." Chelsea joked as she shook her head. "Seriously though if he's calling an assembly this early then it's probably about more than just the Security Upgrades, might have to do with that new type of card that I2's releasing in a couple of sets."

"A new card type? Even so then that still doesn't make any sense to me, I mean if this new card type is anything like the Synchro and XYZ Monsters then it should go in the extra deck right?" Chloe asked as she walked over to her closet and started searching for an outfit to wear.

"Actually Chloe, from what I've heard this new Card Type is something that will change the way Duel Monsters is played." Chelsea responded as her roommate started getting dressed. "But all I know about them is its name, Pendulum Monsters."

"What, you mean like that old Machine Monster Pendulum Machine?" Chloe asked and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"Chloe, Sophia Pegasus may be giving old monsters new chances, mostly beast type monsters but still, but I don't think she'll be bringing back that old, outdated monster." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "I mean seriously, a Level Five monster that could easily be beat by more Level Four monsters than I care to count? I know the early Duel Monster rules were radically different to what they are today but come on!"

"What's even sadder is the fact that that Pendulum Machine isn't even the worst offender of the bunch!" Chloe responded with a grin as she put her Ra Yellow Blazer on and left it open to show her crop top underneath. "Crawling Dragon anyone?"

"Yeah but on the other hand if we're going to sit here and joke about terrible early Duel Monster cards we're gonna be here all day and miss the assembly and Tournament Duels." Chelsea responded as she logged off and stood up. "And honestly, I managed to miss one assembly and I'm not doing that again!"

"You mean when you and Beth missed the assembly that sent me and the other students off to New York for Battle City because you were making out with each other?" Chloe asked with a grin and Chelsea shook her head.

"The sex was worth missing the assembly, that's all I'm saying." Chelsea responded with a grin as she made her way to the door. "Anyway, I'm ready to go when you are."

"Let's go." Chloe nodded in response before following her roommate out of the dorm.

*a bit later on*

The assembly hall wasn't used all that often, in fact the last time it was used was when the students who competed in Battle City returned to the island, due to the fact that the school preferred posting announcements on the its website rather than calling assemblies just to make an announcement, however when they did call assemblies it was usually for something major and as a result most of the time all of the students attended and this was no exception.

"Good morning students, I hope you've enjoyed your four day weekend." Martin greeted them as the students sat down. "Now as you know there was several promotion duels that were held on Saturday which resulted in eight students being promoted, whilst most of their former rooms have been filled up we are still looking for students to fill in their former rooms so if you fancy the former dorm rooms of Beth McKenzie, Kyle Winston and Rachel Travis in Osiris Red and Marcus Reynolds and Andreas Freshier in Ra Yellow don't hesitate to ask your headmaster but keep in mind that it will be done on a first come, first serve basis."

"_That's it? He called an assembly for that?" _Chloe thought with a look of confusion on her face._"Nah, it can't be, there's probably more to this."_

"Our second piece of business is security, as you may have noticed there's a few more security guards stationed at various points including the duel fields." Martin added and some members of the crowd groaned. "And judging from that response I can already tell that some of you have had bad encounters with them, rest assured that they have only been hired in response to the recent wave of Orichalcos Duels on the island including one that took place after the Ra Yellow Welcome Party ended and they have been instructed to only hassle you if they think you're up to something suspicious."

"_So in other words it's up to them who will get in trouble and they'll probably ignore everything Jessica and Cameron do." _Lance thought with a frown as he glanced over at Chloe who was also frowning, the new couple were sitting next to each other near the back of the class. _"Yep, this is definitely reminding me of the school I was at before I moved to Domino City."_

"However they are also willing to listen to you if you have any grievances with other students and they will deal with it to the best of their ability otherwise they will report it to myself or one of the other teachers at which point we will take care of it." Martin added before one of the proctors stepped onto the stage wearing what looked like a Duel Academy disk but with extra slots and buttons just below the life-point counter. "And now onto our last piece of business, starting from today the school will be using new Duel Disks supplied by Kaibacorp."

"_New Duel Disks? Is this a response to the new Pendulum Monsters?" _Chelsea thought before noticing that Nicola, who was sitting next to Beth, looked uncomfortable. "Is there something wrong Nic?"

"I'll tell you after the assembly." Nicola responded as she glanced up at Chelsea who nodded in response.

"You may have noticed that this duel disk has several features that are different from the standard issue Duel Disk." Martin continued as the proctor loaded a deck into the duel disk. "And Proctor Thompson here will be doing a demonstration of these features, first off show them the auto shuffle feature."

"Yes sir." Thompson responded before pressing a button on his duel disk, the Duel Disk shuffled the deck for several seconds before stopping.

"As you can see you no longer have to do the shuffling yourself, the duel disk does it for you." Martin added before turning to Thompson and activating his own Duel Disk. "Before you ask, we won't be having a duel, I am merely assisting in the demonstration, Thompson and I will now draw a card each." Martin added before they drew a card each before Thompson drew another.

"I summon Front Observer in attack mode!" Thompson played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small blue and yellow machine with a propeller on its head, a claw on its right hand and what looked like a gun in its other hand (4/1000/1500). "I set one card facedown and end my turn, this in turn activates Front Observer's effect, since it's the end phase of the turn that I summoned this monster I can add one Earth Type Pendulum Monster from my deck to my hand!" Thompson added before pressing some buttons on his duel disk, as the deck shuffled Martin heard some confused murmuring from the crowd.

"It'll all be explained in due time students." Martin responded before Thompson added the card he was looking for to his hand and shuffled the deck again. "My turn." Martin announced before drawing his card. "I summon Sylvan Bladefender!" Martin played the card and the plant themed samurai appeared on the field (4/1900/700). "Bladefender, attack Front Observer!" Martin commanded and the samurai charged into battle…..

"Not if I negate the attack with Negate Attack!" Thompson activated the trap and Bladefender's blade was stopped by an invisible force-field.

"Very well, I end my turn, don't worry students this demonstration won't take too much longer." Martin added and Thompson drew his card. "Thompson, it is time to demonstrate a Pendulum Summon!"

"Off course! In my right Pendulum Zone I place the monster I searched out last turn, Rescue Hamster!" Thompson played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a small hamster wearing a yellow worker's helmet similar to Rescue Rabbit's (Pendulum Scale: 5/4/300/100). "And in my right Pendulum Zone I place Odd Eyes Pendulum Dragon!" Thompson played the card and another, much larger monster appeared on the field, it was a large red dragon that was odd in appearance as it was in name (Pendulum Scale: 4/7/2500/2000).

"Excellent, now you have a combined Pendulum Scale of Nine." Martin said with a nod as he stared at the two monsters. "And that means that you can Special Summon as many monsters whose levels are between the levels five and nine as possible."

"WHAT?" The entire crowd shouted simultaneously and Martin cleared his throat.

"Thompson, care to demonstrate that fact for the students?" Martin asked and Thompson nodded.

"With pleasure! I use the effect of my Pendulum Monsters to summon Summoned Skull!" Thompson played the card and the massive demonic fiend appeared on the field (6/2500/1200). "Summoned Skull, attack Bladefender with Lightning Strike!" Thompson commanded and the demon launched its attack at the Samurai destroying him. "Front Observer, attack him directly!" Thompson commanded and the machine flew towards Martin before hitting him with his claw.

"And that's the end of that demonstration." Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "Please give a hand for Thompson and do go easy on him, it's his first day here at the academy." Martin added and the crowd cheered.

"Best first day ever, right?" Thompson asked jokingly and the crowd cheered even louder as he left the stage.

"Now whilst I'm sure that most of you got a kick out of seeing me defeated there is one last thing to announce, as of five minutes ago the shop got its first shipment of Pendulum Monsters and you are free to go get them right about….." Martin trailed off as the bell rang. "…..now, and your new Duel Disks will be waiting for you in your dorm rooms." Martin added and the crowd cleared the room in a hurry to get to the duel shop, however whilst that was going on Thompson was making a call.

"Jack, the fool fell for it." "Thompson" whispered into his earpiece as he walked away. ""Sarah is a fucking genius for coming up with this plan!"

"It was my idea you idiot!" Jack snapped at him and "Thompson" sweat-dropped. "Anyway, what's going on there? Sounds like a stampede is going through the main building!"

"Martin just announced that the shop has the Pendulum Monsters on sale." "Thompson" added with a grin under his mask. "You know how kids are they are always excited to get their hands on the latest toy until the next one rolls around."

"Did you suddenly forget that some of those "kids" are as old as eighteen?" Jack asked and "Thomson" sweat-dropped. "Whatever, just try not to get trampled! In the meantime meet up with Delaney and plan your next move with her." Jack responded and Thompson grinned before hanging up and walking off.

*later on*

Whilst there was a rush to be the first student to get their hands on a Pendulum Monster and appropriate support cards at the end of the day most of the students were happy with what they got including the students who competed in Battle City and their friends.

"Timegazer Magician, Stargazer Magician, I just need a warrior to represent the other half of my deck and I'll be all set." Chloe commented with a satisfied grin on her face as she looked at the two Pendulum Monsters she had gotten from the Card Shop. "I'm surprised you didn't grab any Chelsea."

"Chloe, I run a Watt Deck, the only Level Six Monster I have that isn't a Synchro Monster is Wattaildragon." Chelsea sighed as she turned to her roommate. "Just saying, I would've been wasting my money getting those cards." Chelsea added before shaking her head. "Anyway I was wondering something about you during the assembly."

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"You told me a couple of weeks ago that Lance would be your first boyfriend if you got together." Chelsea started and Chloe frowned realizing what she meant. "And yet now that you're together with Lance you say he wasn't your first?"

"Yeah, I guess I should clarify on that." Chloe said with a sigh as she shook her head. "What I meant was that Lance was my first serious boyfriend, the others were just guys at my old school who only wanted to date me because I was one of the hottest girls at that school, I learned my lesson after the third one started bragging and I basically told myself that I wouldn't date another boy until I was sure that he would be my Prince Charming." Chloe added and Chelsea laughed. "You laugh but that was actually what I wrote in my diary, at the time I was into two things, romantic comedies and Disney movies, I even named one of my dogs after Nala from the Lion King."

"Well, I'll give you credit for having good taste in animated movies." Chelsea said with a grin which quickly turned into a frown. "That said if you wanted to make sure that Lance was the right guy for you then why did you make him promise not to brag about having sex with you? Don't you know him better than that?"

"I do, I just…." Chloe trailed off before sighing. "Off all the times to have a brain fart….." Chloe muttered under her breath before shaking her head. "I guess I'm just insecure about trusting anyone after dad lied to me about my biological dad's conviction for eleven years."

"That's fair enough but you still forgave him in the end." Chelsea pointed out and Chloe nodded. "Like I said on Sunday, Lance has put so much work into getting you to be his girlfriend that he'd be stupid to screw that up."

"Yeah, maybe your right, how long do we have before the Tournament kicks off again anyway?" Chloe asked and Chelsea checked the time on her computer clock. "Though I will admit one thing, it's kinda strange getting a new duel disk barely a couple of days after I got my old new one."

"My guess is that they scheduled the Promotion Duels first and got the new Duel Disks from Kaibacorp sometime yesterday but yeah, it'll be weird." Chelsea commented before turning her attention back to her computer clock. "Err we have about half an hour left, if we want to get good seats we'd better hurry."

"Who's competing today again?" Chloe asked as she grabbed her duel disk and Chelsea checked the schedule.

"Well your new boyfriend's team is up first against Kristopher O'Neil and Lamont Berry, after that Vernon Chan and Charity Hensley is taking on Latoya Conley and Loella Schneider." Chelsea responded as she read the schedule. "Should be a good couple of duels anyway and a decent break from the Orichalcos Duels at least."

"Honestly at this point, especially after what happened yesterday, I'll just be happy to never hear that card's name again." Chloe sighed and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Sadly it'll be a long time before that happens."

"Yeah, but we've got something to use against them that they seem to be terrified off, namely the Legendary Dragons…." Chelsea trailed off before wincing at the uncomfortable look on Chloe's face. "And that's if The Eye of Timeaus trusts you again after you used the Orichalcos, open mouth, insert foot."

"First off if you're into that kind of kinky stuff, at least keep it between you and Beth." Chloe responded with a grin and Chelsea grinned as well.

"Ha-ha, very funny, seriously Chloe, leave the smart ass remarks to me, there is a reason why I was called Queen Smart Ass at one of my old schools." Chelsea responded and Chloe shook her head.

"I thought you gave yourself that title after you got the principle to laugh at one of your jokes?" Chloe asked as the two girls left the dorm room and Chelsea shook her head.

"Details, details, anyway what was the second thing?" Chelsea asked and Chloe grinned.

"Second, let's just get going." Chloe responded and Chelsea grinned before they walked off.

*meanwhile*

"He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…." Nicola trailed off as she leaned against the wall of the Obelisk Blue Boy's dorm, she had agreed to meet Andreas there so that they could attend the duels together, at the moment though she was passing the time by going through the old "he loves me not" routine using her deck instead of a flower. "He loves me….crap, a spell card, I have to start over." Nicola sighed to herself before reshuffling her deck by hand.

"Ah there you are Nicola." Andreas's voice rang out and Nicola jumped dropping her deck in the process. "You do remember the part about the Duel Disk having an auto-shuffle feature now right? Wait, that's your old Duel Disk?"

"I haven't been back to my dorm room since I woke up this morning." Nicola responded as she bent over to pick up her cards. "Besides, even if I did go back to my room I'm still a bit iffy about using it."

"Yes, Chelsea did mention that you looked uncomfortable when they demonstrated the auto-shuffle feature." Andreas said with a nod before sitting down on the grass. "Here, let me help you."

"Thanks." Nicola responded as they started picking up her cards, Nicola sighed after a few minutes before looking around and plopping down on the grass. "All though honestly, it ties into the dream duel I had on Saturday because my opponent was using a Duel Disk with an auto-shuffle feature and he was blatantly cheating to boot."

"Ah yes, that." Andreas sighed as he shook his head. "If it makes you feel any better you could always ask Martin how easy it is to rig the auto-shuffle feature to give you the cards you need outside of a card effect." Andreas added and Nicola frowned.

"Wouldn't that make him think that I intend to cheat whilst using it?" Nicola asked and Andreas shook his head.

"Not if you word it correctly, say that you heard about some pro-league duelists using an exploit in the auto-shuffle feature to win their duels, something along those lines." Andreas responded and Nicola grinned at that idea. "How are your wounds anyway?"

"They're healing up, went to the nurse's office after I got the Crystal Beast Pendulum Monsters for a checkup and the good news is that the claw marks are barely visible and the gash has cleared up mostly." Nicola added and Andreas smiled at that. "She thinks that they'll be completely healed by the time the weekend's here."

"That is excellent news." Andreas said as he handed her one of her cards. "Maybe now you'll wear crop tops more often." Andreas added and Nicola shook her head.

"Dad only let me get away with a couple of them and they are buried in my closet somewhere, he doesn't even let me wear swimwear that exposes my stomach." Nicola responded with a grin as she gathered up her cards. "When I said that he's overprotective I meant it, only reason I have any tops that show off some skin is because mom brought them for me the day before I moved to the island."

"Your mom, wait, I thought…..." Andreas trailed off and Nicola shook her head.

"My dad remarried when I was seven years old, he told me that he got tired of the bachelor life-style when he came clean about, well, you know." Nicola responded as a small grin appeared on her face. "She already had a son from another marriage, he's a few years older than me and he attended Duel Academy a few years ago, but before he introduced me to them he made sure that they knew I was autistic and what that meant."

"That makes sense I'd probably do the same in his shoes." Andreas nodded in agreement as he gathered up and handed over more cards. "So how is your step-mom?"

"Well, obviously I can't compare her to my birth mom." Nicola responded with a sad sigh and Andreas nodded. "But she's awesome, I basically couldn't ask for a better mom, well besides…." Nicola trailed off as a few tears rolled down her cheek.

"I understand." Andreas nodded in understanding and Nicola grinned at that. "What of your brother? I believe you mentioned him when you stopped by Lance's dorm room on Sunday?"

"Yeah, his name is Zach and we get along great." Nicola responded as she thought of him. "I mean yeah, I did catch him "enjoying" his porno mags a couple of times but he doesn't' care if I'm autistic or not, I'm still his little step-sister."

"So you know the nature of Lance's magazines." Andreas said as he raised his eyebrow and Nicola laughed.

"I'm autistic, not naïve." Nicola responded with a grin. "I basically played along with him because I found his whole routine funny."

"I will admit that I had to stop myself from laughing a couple of times." Andreas admitted as he thought back to that day, he picked up the last card from Nicola's deck and handed it to her. "You know, I did hear you going through the "he loves me not" routine."

"Oh god…." Nicola said with a slight blush on her face. "I needed something to pass the time and I first thought of you and me…..well, as a couple." Nicola said as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. "I only used my deck because there were no flowers around."

"Well, that kind of improvisation will help you at the school." Andreas said as he got up and helped Nicola up when she got up she was inches away from Andreas's face and blushed a bit. "As for why you were doing that, I think you know the answer."

"Really…." Nicola trailed off and Andreas nodded, the two teens leaned in for a kiss when…..

"Err, guys, the duels are about to start." Marcus's voice rang out and they both face-faulted. "That and I don't think you want an audience whilst you deflower Nicola."

"That wasn't even remotely what I had in mind." Andreas responded as he blushed like a madman and he helped Nicola back up. "Nicola, I think we'd better continue this conversation away from prying eyes."

"Err, yeah, let's do that." Nicola said with a blush before following the boys into the main building and putting her deck back in its slot, Nicola absent-mindedly drew the first card from her deck and looked up at Andreas when she saw what it was. _"Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus, that's the last card Andreas gave me after he finished gathering up my cards and it just happened to be my Duel Spirit Card, Andreas's specialty is Beast Type monsters so maybe it's a sign that he does love me? I mean we did almost kiss." _Nicola thought before shaking her head. _"It can't be I mean it has to be a coincidence."_

"_I think we both know the answer to that Nicola." _Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola sighed.

"_Maybe but what will I say? My autism makes finding the right words hard enough but confessing my love to him?" _Nicola thought as she put her hands in her blazer pockets. _"That and he's in Obelisk Blue now, how many Obelisk Blue students do you know who are dating Osiris Red Students?"_

"_Well you're already the first autistic student at this school you could always be a first in another area." _Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola sighed.

"_I need some time to think on this." _Nicola responded before returning her monster to her deck.

*a bit later on*

By now the stadium that was hosting the Tag Tournament was filled up with students and the students who were working together to eliminate the Orichalcos made sure to sit with each other, thankfully for them Jessica Stevens, Cameron Matthews and Thomas Newborne were sitting across the arena from them so they could enjoy the duels in peace.

All except for one of the students and that was because he was competing next.

"Fire Fists and a video game based deck." Lance chuckled under his breath as he leaned against the wall. "How hard can it be? Sure they beat they're first round opponents but they haven't faced me yet!"

"Getting cocky before we even step into the arena Lance?" Evan asked as he approached his teammate and Lance looked up. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, I heard several Obelisk Blue Students say the exact same thing in the first round and their teams ended up being eliminated."

"Maybe but why wouldn't I be cocky?" Lance asked with a shrug before he kicked off the wall. "I've been riding high ever since I was promoted to Obelisk Blue and whilst I couldn't find any Fire Type Pendulum Monsters when I looked I think I'll be fine without them."

"Your deck has gotten us this far despite it being hit by several banlists in a row." Evan responded with a nod and Lance frowned. "At least you didn't have to change your deck because the banlists crippled it."

"Yeah, that reminds me, are you sure about using your old deck after how well you used the Prophecy Deck? I mean I get why you changed it but won't that leave you at a disadvantage?" Lance asked and Evan shook his head.

"Trust me, I was running this deck long before the Spellbook and Prophecy archetypes were a concept being proposed to Pegasus, we'll be fine." Evan responded with a confident look on his face as the two boys entered the arena. "Just remember what I said, having a little confidence is okay and all but there's a thin line between cocky and arrogant, keep that in mind."

"Trust me, I will." Lance responded before they stepped onto the arena.

"Welcome to day eleven of the Tag Team Tournament!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered as both teams stepped onto the arena. "We apologize for the delay but anyone who saw the announcement on the website should know why the delay was put into effect, without further ado let's introduce the first match of the day and it is between Evan Grant and one of the new Obelisk Blue Students Lance Alvers and Kristopher O'Neil from Osiris Red and Lamont Berry of Obelisk Blue."

"I liked this match better when I wasn't outnumbered three to one by Obelisk Blue Students." Kristopher muttered under his breath but adjusting his glasses. "But then again I guess congratulations are in order Lance."

"Yes, yes, I know, I'm now in Obelisk Blue." Lance said with a confident grin as Kristopher chuckled. "You may bow before me and say that I'm not worthy." Lance added and everyone else face-faulted.

"You ARE kidding, right?" Kristopher asked as he and others got back to his feet. "Anyway that was one of the things I wanted to congratulate you on, the other thing is finally getting to do the bedroom funky monkey with Chloe after all this time." Kristopher added and it was Lance's turn to face-fault whilst the other competitors looked at him strangely. "What?"

"Bedroom funky monkey…." Evan trailed off as he stared at the Osiris Red Student. "That is the strangest euphemism for sex that I have ever heard and I stumbled upon Lance's po…." Lance swiftly got to his feet and covered his partner's mouth in one swift motion.

"Did you suddenly forget that Chloe is in the audience?" Lance whispered into his ear as he pointed his girlfriend out. "Let me spell it out for you, she hasn't even seen the inside of my dorm room yet, let alone my porn stash!"

"Right, got it, now please remove your hand." Evan responded and Lance nodded before walking back to his spot. "As I was saying, and I stumbled upon the porn stash of an Obelisk Blue student who shall not be named completely by accident."

"Could've sworn you were about to say Lance's name." Kristopher commented as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Nope, not at all, he was referring to that new Obelisk Blue Student, Lane, yeah, that's it." Lance responded and Kristopher nodded.

"I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PORN STASH!" An unknown male voice from the audience rang out and the three students sweat-dropped.

"Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my fellow Obelisk Blue Students." Lamont muttered under his breath as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Martin, can you please announce the order and get this duel started before I develop a severe migraine?" Lamont called out to him and Martin cleared his throat.

"An excellent idea Lamont, the order will be as follows, Lance, then Kristopher, then Evan and finally Lamont." Martin announced and the students moved into position and drew their opening hands. "Now, let the duel begin!" Martin added and Lance drew his card.

"Just for the record Kristopher, I haven't gotten that far with Chloe yet." Lance said as he looked over his hand. "Sure, we made the relationship official over the weekend and don't get me wrong, I definitely want to go that far with her but she's the kind of girl who prefers to take things slow with a relationship like this, are we clear?"

"Crystal." Kristopher responded with a nod. _"Must resist blue balls joke…."_

"Lance, before you continue…." Evan trailed off with a sigh. "I understand that you're new to this but you just embarrassed your new girlfriend in front of the entire school." Evan added and Lance's eyes widened when he realized that. "If I were you I'd start thinking up a million ways to apologize to her, pick one that you think is the best and apologize as soon as possible."

"_Oh shit…." _Lance thought before glancing over at were Chloe was, which was easy enough since his friends where all in the front and second rows, and realizing that she was blushing like a madwoman. _"Even after I start dating her fate seems determined to kick me in the balls regarding her, better start brain-storming." _Lance thought before looking over his hand. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Great Angus." Lance played the cards and the large blood red warthog appeared on the field (4/1800/600).

"I can't believe you still use that outdated card." Lamont said as he shook his head. "Especially now that you are an Obelisk Blue Student and after we were introduced to the Pendulum Monsters during the assembly earlier."

"First off I couldn't find any Fire Type Pendulum Monsters no matter how hard I looked." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "Second, who am I to say no to a decent fire type beat stick like Great Angus? I mean hell, people still use Gemini Elf and Apprentice Magician and those cards are even older than Great Angus."

"Those are some great points, I will grant you that." Lamont admitted with a nod.

"Anyway, I'm pretty sure I wasted most of the time limit already so I end my turn." Lance added and Kristopher drew his card._"The guy runs a Video Game Deck, how tough can he be?"_

"_Didn't you say the same thing when you first heard of Chloe's deck?" _Thestalos asked and Lance shook his head.

"_That was before I knew just how dedicated she is to making a Spellcaster/Warrior deck based on the Fantasy Novels she read growing up work." _Lance responded as he glanced up at Kristopher. _"And in her defense there's plenty of support for warriors and Spellcasters but Video Game cards? Last I checked there were only a handful of those cards released, including Enemy Controller."_

"I start with a Field Spell, I activate World 1!" Kristopher played the card and it didn't take the four duelists long to recognize their surroundings once the scenery changed, it was the opening level to the original Super Mario Brothers game and they could've heard the iconic music that went with it in the background.

"You're kidding." Lance said as he looked around. "Sophia Pegasus actually approved a field spell based on the opening level of Super Mario Brothers."

"Trust me I was as surprised as you were when I found this card and other cards like it in the pack I got when the Card Shop sold out of Pendulum Monsters." Kristopher responded before shaking his head. "But there's more to this Field Spell than just Super Mario Brothers, after all there are plenty of other NES Games."

"We're not going to go through them all are we?" Lance asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "I ask because I am in no hurry to put up with the horror of Action 52 as a Field Spell." Lance added and the three duelists gave him an odd look.

"Action 52?" Kristopher asked as he scratched his head. "I don't think I have that game in my extensive video game collection, then again I do mean extensive since I have pretty much every console ever made since the Atari 2600 and a gaming PC…."

"First off, how the hell can you fit that many consoles and a Gaming PC in one Osiris Red Room?" Lance asked as an even larger sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Those rooms are tiny!"

"I managed it with great effort and perfect space management." Kristopher responded with a smirk. "Now I don't want to risk running out of time so can we get to your second point?"

"My second point is that you should be thankful that you've never heard of, or played, Action 52." Lance responded and Kristopher frowned.

"I guess I'll take your word for it, for now I activate one of World 1's effects, for the cost of not conducting my Battle Phase this turn, a moot point as it is my first turn, I can add one monster with the name "Video Game Hero" in its name from my deck to my hand." Kristopher added before he started using the auto-shuffle feature to shuffle through the deck.

"_That's going to take some getting used to." _Lance thought as he watched Kristopher pick up his card.

"I now summon the monster I retrieved, Video Game Hero – Mario!" Kristopher played the card and an unmistakable figure appeared on the field, it was Mario, the famous video game character and Nintendo's mascot as he appeared in the original Super Mario Brothers (4/1000/1500).

"Is anyone else beginning to think that Sophia Pegasus is a bit of a gamer chick?" Lance asked as he looked at Kristopher's two cards. "I mean seriously, what else am I supposed to take away from this?"

"Well, her step-dad was known for his love of cartoons and eccentricity, well that and rumors surrounding his sexuality that I'm not about to get into, maybe that rubbed off on his step-daughter in regards to Video Games?" Kristopher offered before shaking his head. "But like Lance I've wasted enough time here, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Kristopher set the two cards down and Evan drew his card.

"_This field spell concerns me." _Evan thought as he looked around the field. _"On one hand, I love the old Mario games as much as the next guy who grew up on the NES but there's one thing I remember from the games and that's hidden dangers." _Evan thought before picking up three cards. "I will not waste as much time as my partner or Kristopher, I set one card facedown, a monster in defense mode and I activate Arcane Barrier."

"Right now I'm actually glad that Heavy Storm has been banned for several banlists." Lance commented absentmindedly and Evan nodded.

"Indeed, in any case I end my turn." Evan announced and Lamont drew his card.

Meanwhile in the audience the crowd was eagerly anticipating the next move as much as they could, however for one group of duelists they were distracted by one thing.

"Guys, where's Tyler and Miranda?" Chloe realized as she looked around having finally gotten over her prior embarrassment. "You'd think they'd be here with us."

"I stopped by Tyler's dorm room earlier, benefits of being an Obelisk Blue Student." Andreas said as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "He said that he was busy with something and Miranda would be joining him shortly, he also added that he planned to watch the matches as soon as they were uploaded onto Duel Academy's YouTube channel."

"This makes no sense to me." Chelsea admitted as she folded her arms. "Whatever he's doing, surely he can put it on hold, right?" Chelsea asked with a frown. "Unless it's an online multiplayer game, I know he's a pretty avid gamer."

"I seriously doubt that it was something as simple as an Online Multiplayer Game." Andreas responded with a frown. "The one thing that gave it away was his tone of voice, to put it simply it sounded like he had uncovered information that could turn our war on the Orichalcos Duelists on its head, curiously enough he also said that he wants you to come over to his dorm room as soon as the duel ends or, if you have a class right after the duels, as soon as you can Chloe, he didn't say why but it was clear that your presence is vital."

"I get the feeling that I'm not going to like where this is going." Chloe admitted as she took a deep breath. "But if it helps us against the Orichalcos I'll be there as soon as I can." Chloe added before turning her attention back to the duel.

"_Right then, let's see how this thing works." _Lamont thought as he played his drawn card. "I start my turn with a Spell Card called Fire Formation – Tenki! Now since Lance uses this card in his deck and he is good friends with another Fire Fist Duelist…."

"If you mean Hu then I have to correct you." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "I don't really know him well enough to consider him a friend, the only thing I know about him, aside from what deck he runs, is that fact that he's my old roommate's new roommate so if anything he's more of an acquaintance."

"Fair enough, now then, do you want to explain the effect or should I?" Lamont asked and Lance shook his head.

"Go ahead." Lance responded and Lamont nodded.

"For now this Spell Card acts as a Fire Type Beast Warrior exclusive version of Reinforcement of the Army." Lamont added before adding in some commands onto his disk…..or at least trying too. "How hard can this thing be? I've entered it correctly."

"_Normally I'd say "That's What She Said" but this is my first duel as an Obelisk Blue Student." _Lance thought as he watched Lamont struggle. _"Besides, Obelisk Blue Students are held to a higher standard than the rest so they are probably above such childish…."_

"That's what she said!" Daniel Troy's voice rang out from the audience and the four duelists sweat-dropped.

"_Or not…." _Lance's thoughts trailed off as Lamont finally figured it out.

"Okay, I think I just wasted a good amount of time trying to figure this out so I'll go through this as quickly as possible! First I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear in attack mode!" Lamont played the card and the large armored bear appeared on the field (4/1600/1200). "And since Tenki is on the field Bear gets a slight power boost." Lamont added as Bear's attack increased to 1700. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lamont added and Lance drew his card. _"Note to self, after duel make Daniel pay for that joke."_

"_Inferno, this monster isn't much use to me right now." _Lance thought as he looked at his drawn card. _"My graveyard's empty and the only facedown card I have that could be useful is Reckless Greed and that could backfire big time." _Lance thought before shaking his head. _"What have I got to lose?" _Lance thought as his facedown card flipped up. "I activate Reckless Greed! Now in exchange for skipping my next two draw phases I get to draw two cards."

"Using such a risky card this early Lance? You must me getting desperate." Lamont responded as Lance drew two cards.

"Considering that my first card was a dead draw I consider the risk worth it." Lance responded as he sent his trap card to the graveyard before looking at his drawn cards. _"This is more like it!" _Lance thought before picking up one of his drawn cards. "From my hand I activate the effect of Flamvell Baby! In exchange for sending this monster to the graveyard I can give Great Angus a power boost." Lance added he sent the monster to the graveyard and Great Angus's attack increased to 2200.

"So you gave your above average monster a power boost? I still don't see the point." Lamont responded and Lance grinned.

"Oh, you'll get the point!" Lance responded as he retrieved the monster from the graveyard. "For starters I remove Flamvell Baby from play so I can summon another old favorite, Inferno!" Lance said as he pocketed the card and played another causing the small flame with the demonic expression on its "face" to appear on the field (4/1100/1900).

"You're going for a Rank 4 or something?" Kristopher asked and Lance shook his head.

"If I was going for a Rank 4 I wouldn't have used this combo for it, for one thing that would be a waste off Flamvell Baby's effect especially when I have level four monsters that I can normal summon like Great Angus." Lance responded before picking up another card. "Speaking of normal summons, I use mine to summon another Tuner Monster, Laval Forrest Sprite!" Lance played the card and the young, red haired girl in the blue dress appeared on the field (2/300/200). "All right, that's enough messing around! I tune Inferno with Laval Forrest Sprite!" Lance announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, the two Synchro Rings quickly surrounded Inferno and seconds later Flamvell Urquizas appeared on the field (6/2100/400).

"Two powerful monsters and one with the ability to do piercing damage no less, not bad." Lamont commented with a chuckle. "But the question is who your target is?"

"That question's easy enough to answer as Mario over there is a sitting duck!" Lance said as he pointed to Mario. "Great Angus, attack Mario!" Lance commanded and the beast charged towards the famous video game character.

"Sorry Lance but your princess is in another castle." Kristopher responded as his trap card flipped up depicting the famous "your princess is in another castle" scene from the original Mario game but with Marauding Captain in Mario's place. "Literally, my trap card is called "Your Princess is in Another Castle and how it works is easy! When you target a monster of mine with "Video Game Hero" in its name I can remove him from play until my end phase."

"Why bother with that when Interdimensional Matter Transporter would've done the job just as well?" Lance asked but his question was soon answered when another familiar figure appeared in Mario's place. "Is that one of the Mushrooms from Mario?"

"You got it in exchange for removing my monster from play I can summon a Mushroom Token in defense mode." Kristopher said with a grin as the small token crouched down (1/0/0). "And since I removed Mario from play using my Trap's effect my token can't be destroyed by battle or card effect until your next turn."

"That would've been a good move but you didn't say anything about battle damage being negated and as your partner just pointed out Urquizas can inflict piercing damage." Lance responded as Great Angus backed down and Urquizas charged into battle.

"That's what I have my other Trap Card, What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse!" Kristopher activated the trap which depicted the cover of the NES Game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest with Vampire Lord and Monster Tamer in the place of Dracula and Simon respectively,when Lance saw the card's artwork he sweat-dropped. "What?"

"I'm sorry but I would've thought that Sophia Pegasus would make cards based off of GOOD NES Games, not poorly executed sequels to a classic game." Lance responded and Kristopher growled.

"Hey, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest was ahead of its time! In my opinion the Metroidvania Games wouldn't have existed if not for Castlevania II!" Kristopher asserted as he pointed a finger at Lance. "I mean seriously, have you even played Castlevania II or are you basing your opinions on the Angry Video Game Nerd's review of the game?"

"Dude, I grew up on the NES and N64, off course I played that game!" Lance responded with a frown. "And you know what I remember? No warnings about the day/night mechanic, bad controls, the wall tornado thing!"

"Do you know what they're talking about?" Evan asked Lamont as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"If I did I have no doubt that I would've joined in on the debate, personally I've always been more of a PC Gamer." Lamont responded as he scratched his head in confusion. "All though we should probably stop them before the time limit runs out."

"Those are nick picky points at best….." Kristopher trailed off before being interrupted by Lance.

"YOU COULD BEAT DEATH BY WALKING OUT OF THE FUCKING BOSS AREA!" Lance yelled out and Kristopher sweat-dropped.

"Okay, I admit, the bosses in that game weren't great." Kristopher sighed before shaking his head. "But many classic NES games can say the same…."

"ENOUGH!" Evan and Lamont yelled simultaneously and their partners face-faulted.

"Kristopher, can you please resolve your trap card's effect before the time limit runs out." Lamont added as they got up and gathered up their cards.

"Oh, right, when a level six or higher monster declares an attack on a Video Game Hero monster, and before you ask the Mushroom Tokens count as Video Game Heroes if World 1 is in play, I can negate the attack and destroy the monster." Kristopher responded as Urquizas screamed in pain before shattering. "However if that monster was anything except for an Effect Monster the Field Spell I have in play is destroyed."

"That's an oddly specific restriction." Lance commented with a sweat-drop as the Field Spell shattered. "Ah well. Guess we'll never find out World 1's other effects."

"World 1 may be gone but not forgotten, if the field spell is destroyed by a Trap Card's effect I can take a different Field Spell from my deck and add it to my hand." Kristopher responded as he inputted some commands on the duel disk. "Think of it like your advancing to the next level of a NES video game." Kristopher added before the auto-shuffle feature found the card he was looking for and gave it to him before reshuffling his deck.

"Whatever you say, anyway I've wasted enough time this turn so I'll end my turn." Lance announced and Kristopher drew his card once Great Angus's attack returned to 1800 and Video Game Hero – Mario returned to the field.

"As I said, by destroying World 1 with my Trap Card's effect I was able to search out another field spell from my deck." Kristopher added as he picked up his card. "However the effect isn't universal, the field spell has to have the words "World" or "Level" in its name."

"If it weren't for the fact that it has to be a Field Spell it could be used to search out pretty much any Level Monster." Lance pointed out and Kristopher nodded.

"True but now you get to put up with this effect, I activate Level 2!" Kristopher played the card and the scenery changed to another famous level, this time depicting the second level of the original Castlevania.

"Now this is more like it!" Lance said with a small grin on his face. "I always preferred the Castlevania Games to the Mario Games."

"Well, considering your taste in music that doesn't surprise me." Kristopher commented before he shook his head. "I activate my Field Spell's effect, in exchange for discarding a monster with the name "Video Game Hero" in its name I can take a Warrior or Spellcaster with Video Game Hero in its name and add it to my hand." Kristopher announced before adding more commands to the auto-shuffle feature.

"_The school definitely picked a good day to introduce the Auto-Shuffle feature." _Lance thought as Kristopher retrieved the card from his deck and it was shuffled. _"But I still don't know what half of those monsters do."_

"Next I activate Video Game Hero – Mario's effect, at the cost of five hundred life-points I can summon another Video Game Hero that's level six or higher with one less tribute than is normally required." Kristopher announced before his life-points dropped to 7500. "Pretty fitting because if it weren't for success pf the original Mario game none of the classic games would've been created."

"Just continue your move before the time limit runs out." Lamont sighed and Kristopher nodded.

"Fine, I summon Video Game Hero – Belmont in attack mode." Kristopher played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, like Mario it wasn't hard to recognize him as the hero of the NES Castlevania Games Simon Belmont as he appeared in the first Castlevania complete with the Vampire Killer Whip (6/2000/1500).

"Sorry to disappoint Simon but Dracula's not around to battle him." Lance said with a grin and Kristopher rolled his eyes.

"That joke was obvious and not funny at all." Kristopher responded before pointing to Great Angus. "But it's not like Dracula was the only monster Simon battled in the early days of Castlevania! Belmont, attack Great Angus!" Kristopher commanded and the monster prepared to whip Lance's monster…..

"Did you forget about my own facedown card? It's not as new as your cards but you know what? It still works! I activate Negate Attack!" Lance activated the trap and the whip bounced off the invisible barrier. "It looks like my monster gets to live for another turn."

"Won't do you much good, you won't be able to draw for another two turns thanks to Reckless Greed, remember?" Kristopher asked before looking at his hand. "I end my turn." Kristopher announced and Evan drew his card.

"_I hope Lance knows what he's doing using Reckless Greed this early is a big risk especially if it backfires like his attempt did." _Evan thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Hello…." _Evan thought before picking up and playing the drawn card. "Lance may not be able to conduct his draw phase for a couple of turns but I can help him along the way! I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"Did you forget that that card benefits us as well?" Lamont asked as the four duelists drew three cards. "And honestly, that card's getting as overused as Card of Sanctity was before it was nerfed and practically every duelist in Battle City used that card including the students who were competing!"

"Hey, I admit that I probably would've lost my first Battle City Duel if it weren't for me drawing Card of Sanctity when I did but I only used that card a handful of times." Lance asserted as he folded his arms. "And besides, my fellow students were worst offenders in that regard, believe me!"

"I do but that's beside the point, anything else you want to do Evan?" Lamont asked and Evan nodded.

"First I flip summon my facedown monster Apprentice Magician!" Evan flipped the monster up and the young blonde female Spellcaster appeared on the field (2/400/800). "This activates her effect, considering that Lance's new girlfriend uses this card in her deck I shouldn't have to say it out loud."

"Do it anyway." Lamont responded and Evan nodded.

"Her effect lets me add a Spell Counter to Arcane Barrier." Evan added as his Spell Card glowed. "Next I activate Book of Moon to flip her back facedown and protect my life-points." Evan played the card and the magician disappeared from the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Evan set the card down and Lamont drew his card.

"Okay enough childish video game discussion…." Lamont trailed off before noticing the glares he was getting from Kristopher and Lance. "Oh come on! Consoles can't compare to PC…."

"Don't give me that PC Gaming Master Race bullshit I get enough of it from Chelsea." Lance interrupted him as he pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "The only reasons I haven't argued with her about it are that 1: I like to think I'm better than that and 2: I'm stupid enough to argue with Chelsea."

"A wise decision but in any case, I summon the Tuner Monster Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Boar!" Lamont played the card and a tall muscular bold man with the ghostly form of a boar alongside it (4/1100/1400) and his attack increased to 1200 thanks to Tenki. "You may have Synchro Summoned Urquizas only to use it unsuccessfully Lance but with this Tuner Monster I'm sure I'll have better luck! I tune Bear and Boar together!" Lamont announced as the two monsters leapt into the air.

"A Level Eight Synchro Summon, I just know that that's going to be bad news." Lance sighed as Boar dissolved into four Synchro Rings that quickly surrounded Bear.

"Bad news for you that is, I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Kirin!" Lamont played the card and once the bright flash faded a new monster appeared on the field, he was a tall bearded man with black hair who had ridiculously long hair and an elaborate green and gold robe (8/2000/2800) and thanks to Tenki's effect its attack increased to 2100.

"And mom thinks I should get a haircut now that I'm in Obelisk Blue!" Lance exclaimed when he saw the monster but calmed down when he saw the stats. "Besides, that guy's pretty weak for a Level Eight Synchro."

"There's more to a monster's strengths than just an attack score Lance, unless we are suddenly in the old school style of dueling, anyway when Kirin is Synchro Summoned I can take one Fire Formation Spell/Trap Card from my deck and set it on the field." Lamont explained before inputting the commands on his duel disk, retrieving the card he needed and setting it down. "But you can worry about that later, you see for each Spell/Trap Card I control whilst Kirin is on the field all of your monsters loose one hundred attack points."

"That doesn't apply to Kris's cards as well, right?" Lance asked but his fears were soon confirmed when Great Angus's attack points dropped to 1600. "Can we talk about this?"

"Sorry, but no, Kirin, attack Great Angus, I feel like having wild boar for dinner!" Lamont commanded and the Beat-Warrior charged into battle…..

"I activate my trap card Shift, this forces you to attack my facedown Apprentice Magician instead!" Evan activated the trap and Kirin changed course instead attacking the facedown monster and destroying her. "This in turn lets me activate the effects of Arcane Barrier and Apprentice Magician!"

"Well played." Lamont complemented him as Evan's Spell Card got another counter and he inputted some commands on his duel disk. "But I simply don't see Lance being able to take advantage of this, because of his Reckless Greed Trap Card he can't draw until the turn after his next one!"

"I didn't need reminding of that." Lance grunted as Evan set the monster facedown.

"Good to see that you don't suffer from short term memory loss, I end my turn." Lamont announced and Lance didn't draw due to Reckless Greed.

"_Well, at least after this turn I won't have to wait much longer until I can conduct my Draw Phase again." _Lance thought before looking over his hand. _"Nice, this combo could work!" _Lance thought before playing a card. "First I activate Burial from a Different Dimension to return Flamvell Baby to my graveyard!" Lance played the card and retrieved the monster from his pocket before returning it to the graveyard slot.

"And what good will that do you? Flamvell Baby's effect only activates from the hand." Kristopher pointed out and Lance nodded.

"I know but I didn't say anything about being done, did I? I summon Royal Firestorm Guards!" Lance played the card and the strange red demon appeared on the field (4/1700/1400). "Since I summoned Royal Firestorm Guards I can activate its effect, this allows me to take four pyro type monsters from my graveyard, shuffle them into their respective decks and draw two cards."

"That glorified Pot of Avarice won't help you." Lamont responded as Lance shuffled the monsters into their respective decks. "Or have you forgotten about Kirin's effect?" Lamont asked as the monster's attack dropped to 1500.

"No, I haven't and trust me, as soon as I get a method of taking Mr. Steroids down I will." Lance responded as he drew two cards.

"Lance, you can't see his body mass because of that robe, how do you know he's on steroids?" Evan asked as a sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Details, details, besides that you have seen how big that guy is, right?" Lance asked before looking at his drawn cards. _"These cards aren't of much use right now since I've used up my Normal Summon so now what?"_

"_Lance, did you already forget about that Rank 4 XYZ Monster you got this morning?" _Thestalos asked and Lance grinned.

"_No but thanks for the reminder." _Lance responded as he played a card. "Next I activate Eternal Fire! Using this card I can treat Great Angus as a Pyro Type Monster for the rest of the turn." Lance announced as Great Angus started glowing. "Only downside is that I can't summon anything except Pyro Type monsters for the rest of the turn which is a good thing because I'm opening up the Overlay Network!"

"Since when did you have Rank 4 XYZs in your extra deck?" Evan asked with a raised eyebrow and Lance shook his head.

"Since this morning, that's when." Lance responded as Great Angus and Royal Firestorm Guards were sucked into the Overlay Network. "But anyway, using my two Level Four Pyro Monsters I summon Infernal Flame Vixen!" Lance played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, to put it simply it was flames in the shape of an attractive woman's upper body with the lower body of a horse, a white face that had blood red bat like wings protruding from it and it was carrying a scythe made of flames (Rank: 4/2200/2000).

"Valiant effort Lance but the only things that monster can destroy are either Mario or the Mushroom Token." Lamont pointed out as Flame Vixen's attack dropped to 2000. "Or did you forget about Kirin's effect?"

"I didn't, in fact I summoned this monster to get around that problem." Lance responded as he sent Great Angus to the graveyard. "I activate the effect of Infernal Flame Vixenby detaching an Overlay Unit I can increase her attack power by five hundred points." Lance announced as Infernal Flame Vixen's attack increased to 2500. "And that's more than enough to bring him down! Infernal Flame Vixen, attack Brotherhood of the Fire First – Kirin!" Lance commanded and the monster charged towards the monstrous man before decapitating him with her scythe setting the body alight in the process and bringing Lamont's life-points down to 7600. "Huh, that was pretty metal." Lance commented as Infernal Flame Vixen's attack increased to 2700 now that Kirin was no longer on the field.

"If you say so but my deck has more than just one trick up its sleeve." Lamont responded and Lance frowned.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Lance set the two cards down and Kristopher drew his card.

"_Lance's monster is powerful but if Lamont can get Kirin back on the field that won't be an issue." _Kristopher thought before he looked at his drawn card. _"Perfect! Now I can show of real power of this deck!" _Kristopher thought before playing the card. "I activate Power Up! In video games power ups, well, power up the character and this card does something similar."

"And how does it do that exactly? Does it give Mario a magic mushroom? Or does it give Belmont one of the holy items?" Lance asked as the Mushroom Token disappeared from the field.

"None of the above, by sacrificing one monster on my side of the field I can target one Video Game Hero and allow him to use his effect with no cost for the rest of the turn, I target Mario." Kristopher responded before picking up the card. "So I summon Video Game Hero – Richter with Mario's effect!" Kristopher played the card and a new monster appeared on the field and like the others it was easily recognizable as another Castlevania Hero, this time it was Richter Belmont, the main character of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (6/2200/1800).

"Wait a minute, Rondo of Blood was a PC Engine Game and no, I don't count that bastardization of a SNES port as that game!" Lance pointed out as he folded his arms. "I thought this archetype only covered the NES era?"

"I never said that, in truth this archetype features several cards based on characters from the late eighties/early nineties era of video games." Kristopher responded with a grin. "There's a card based on Sonic the Hedgehog, several Mortal Kombat Characters and even the first Pokémon game."

"As curious as I am about those cards you are on a time limit." Lamont chimed in and Kristopher sweat-dropped.

"Well let's just hope that they drop the time limit for the third round." Kristopher responded with an annoyed sigh before pointing to his monsters. "Anyway, I now use my two Level 6 Monsters to do a XYZ Summon of my own." Kristopher added as the overlay network opened up and the two vampire hunters were sucked in.

"_Okay, we've seen two monsters from Super Mario Brothers and Castlevania, what's next? Also why did I just sound like an impatient Smash Bros. Fan?" _Lance thought as Kristopher retrieved the monster.

"I XYZ Summon Video Game Villain – Dracula!" Kristopher played the card and from the portal emerged the form of Dracula that was used in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night complete with robe (Rank 6:/2500/2000).

"You used two vampire hunters to XYZ Summon Dracula." Lance said as he stared at Kristopher like he had grown a second head. "What next, will Mario and Luigi by used to XYZ Summon Bowser?"

"Yes, yes, I realize that there's a great irony in using those monsters in particular to summon Dracula." Kristopher admitted as he folded his arms. "However Dracula requires two level six Video Game Hero monsters regardless of who they are, same goes for the other XYZ Monsters in the archetype really."

"Wouldn't it make more sense to use villains to summon them? I mean aside from Bowser occasionally going go karting with Mario they don't exactly hang out that often." Lance responded and Kristopher shrugged.

"Well every good, non-casual game needs an antagonist so in effect the heroes create the villains, the same can be said for most fiction really." Kristopher responded as he shook his head. "Besides, isn't your new girlfriend into fantasy novels? I'm sure she could think up a few examples of this just off the top of her head."

"As much as I'd like to ask Chloe we're in the middle of a duel and I think you'd better hurry up." Lance pointed out and Kristopher sweat-dropped.

"Great point before I go on the attack I activate Dracula's effect, Minion Summon!" Kristopher announced as he sent Richter to the graveyard. "By detaching an overlay unit I can special summon one Level Four Monster from my deck as long as it's a Dark Type Monster, however the monster can't attack and it'll be destroyed during the end phase." Kristopher added before inputting the commands into the duel disk.

"_I've seen that thing used several times over the course of this duel and I'm still not used to it." _Lance thought with a frown as Kristopher played the card which Lance quickly recognized. "Wait, a Fleamen, seriously? Please tell me that thing's not going to be as annoying to kill as they were in the games?" Lance asked as the tiny man hopped up and down on the field (1/0/0).

"Considering that that thing has zero attack points I doubt it Lance." Evan responded as he folded his arms. "Besides, he just said that it'll be destroyed during the end phase."

"That's true but in this case Fleamen has taken inspiration from The Creature bossfight in the original Castlevania." Kristopher responded as the Fleamen hopped onto Dracula's back. "I activate Fleamen's effect you see it is a union monster that allows any Video Game Villain it's attached too to attack twice in the same Battle Phase as well as an additional five hundred attack points that come as standard." Kristopher announced as Dracula's attack increased to 3000.

"That's going to be a pain in the ass." Lance commented as Kristopher started imputing more commands on his duel disk. "Okay, now what?"

"When Video Game Hero – Richter is sent to the graveyard I can special summon a specific monster from my deck so please welcome Video Game Heroine – Maria!" Kristopher played the card and another new monster appeared on the field, it was the young blonde woman from Castlevania Symphony of the Night who had previously appeared as a young girl in Rondo of Blood (4/1700/1500).

"Wait, why does her adult form count as a heroine? She only had a starring role as an adult in the botched Sega Saturn port of Symphony of the Night and that was never released stateside!" Lance pointed out and Kristopher shrugged.

"If I had to guess it was to avoid confusion with the Madolche Monsters." Kristopher responded as his deck shuffled. "Only downside to summoning Maria this way is that she can't attack the same turn she was summoned but, obviously, Dracula comes with no such restriction! Dracula, attack Infernal Flame Vixen." Kristopher commanded and the video game boss unleased three fireballs at the monster destroying her and bringing Lance's life-points down to 7700.

"By attacking Infernal Flame Vixen when she has an attack power of 2500 or more you've allowed me to activate her effect!" Lance announced as he sent Royal Firestorm Guards and Flame Vixen to the graveyard. "And this effect lets me remove any three monsters from play from any graveyard and whilst I'd rather not run the risk of any of the cards in your graveyard having effects that activate from there I'd rather not deal with Kirin again so I remove Boar, Bear and Kirin from Lamont's graveyard!" Lance announced and Lamont frowned as he pocketed the three monsters.

"You may have removed my partner's monsters from play but you still have to deal with my monsters! Dracula, use your second attack to attack Lance directly!" Kristopher commanded and the Fleaman hopped up and down a couple of times before Dracula prepared to launch his attack….

"Not this time! I activate Defense Draw!" Lance activated the trap and the attacks hit, he grunted in pain but took no damage before drawing his card. "Thanks for the extra card."

"Doesn't matter, at this rate you'll deck yourself out before Evan's turn begins." Kristopher pointed out before looking at his hand. "I end my turn." Kristopher announced and Evan drew his card.

"_As much as I hate to admit it, he's right, at the moment I've lost count of the number of additional draws I've made since I activated Reckless Greed last turn." _Lance thought with a frown as he glanced over at Evan. _"My match against Chloe to secure my place in Obelisk Blue ended in a draw due to double deck out and if it weren't for Nutrient Z I'd still be in Ra Yellow, not to mention the fact that Nicola lost her rematch against Andreas because she accidentally decked herself out, here's hoping Evan has drawn something good."_

"_Lance has been doing a lot of draws since he activated Reckless Greed and whilst it is a good tactic it's not without its risks." _Evan thought as he glanced up at his partner. _"Lance's promotion duel on Saturday ended in a double deck out partially thanks to a countered attempt at his usual Inferno Tempest combo and I seem to remember hearing that Andreas's last duel ended with his opponent decking herself out, hopefully we can avoid that." _Evan thought before flipping up his monster. "I flip summon my Facedown Monster!"

"Let me guess, Apprentice Magician again? You really are predictable." Lamont commented as he closed his eyes with a chuckle." Honestly I preferred the deck you used in the first round."

"Yes, I should've used a deck that had been crippled by two ban lists in a row rather than a deck that's actually benefitted from it." Evan responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Sarcasm aside, who said I summoned another Apprentice Magician?"

"Hmm, what do you….?" Lamont trailed off before he recognized the monster. "Magician of Faith,why on Earth would you summon her and not Apprentice Magician instead? Magician of Faith's effect is good but Apprentice Magician's effect would've benefitted your Spell Card."

"I know and if you'll give me a moment I'll show you why." Evan responded before retrieving a Spell Card from his graveyard and adding it to his hand. "Next I set a monster in defense mode and a card facedown, your move Lamont."

"_If that isn't an obvious trap then I'll happily accept my demotion to Osiris Red." _Lamont thought with a chuckle as he looked at the monsters. _"Magician of Faith is a decent flip effect monster that may have been lethal in her heyday but doesn't hold up nowadays, not to mention the fact that he left her in attack mode and with a measly three hundred attack points she won't last long against even my weakest monsters." _Lamont thought before looking at his drawn card. "I summon Coach Soldier Wolfbark."

"Gee, that's a move I never saw coming." Lance commented with a deadpan expression on his face as the small, grey humanoid wolf appeared on the field (4/1600/1200). "Pity that you can't use his effect since I banished the three monsters you had in your graveyard when Kris destroyed Infernal Flame Vixen."

"First of all you've used the same Fire Deck with improvements since you joined Duel Academy don't tempt me to make a "Pot Calling the Kettle Black" joke because I will." Lamont responded before shaking his head. "Second, I may not be able to use Wolfbark's effect but he still has 1600 attack points, 1700 actually thanks to Tenki." Lamont added as Wolfbark's attack rose to 1700. "And those 1700 attack points are aimed at Magician of Faith!" Lamont commanded as the monster charged towards the much weaker Spellcaster…..

"I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Book of Eclipse! This Spell Card flips all face-up monsters into facedown defense mode." Evan activated the Spell Card and smirked. "Not only does this protect my life-points but it gets rid of Kris's Union Monster!"

"Did you really think that it would be that easy? I activate Video Game Heroine – Maria's effect!" Kris responded before discarding a card. "It can only be activated in response to the activation of a Spell Card but this effect lets me negate the activation off and destroy that Spell Card as long as I discard a monster from my hand." Kris added before a series of small monsters swarmed over the spell card destroying it, with no Spell Card to stop him Wolfbark continued the attack destroying Magician of Faith and bringing Evan's life-points down to 6600.

"Just so we're clear, does Maria's effect apply to Spell Cards already in play?" Evan asked and Kris shook his head. "Well in that case Arcane Barrier gets its last Spell Counter." Evan added as the Spell Card glowed again.

"Maria's effect may not apply to it but there's other ways that I can destroy it before you can use its effect." Kris responded before looking at his drawn card. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Kris announced and Lance didn't draw due to Reckless Greed's effect.

"_Okay, so I can't draw thanks to Reckless Greed for another turn, Kris has a three thousand attack beat-stick that can attack twice and special summon monsters alongside another monster that can negate Spell Cards and Lamont is one monster away from either another Synchro Summon or XYZ Summon, in short, things aren't going well." _Lance thought before looking over his hand and finally noticing the card he had drawn with Defense Draw. _"Inferno Tempest and D.D. Dynamite, normally I'd use this combo in a heartbeat but Maria's effect will just negate it."_

"_Lance is taking his time, I think it's safe to assume that his usage of Defense Draw didn't help him beyond protecting his life-points." _Evan thought as Lance looked over his hand. _"He had better think of something soon because Kris could wipe out his life-points during his turn otherwise."_

"_My other card is Spellbook inside the Pot but like I said, Kris could just negate it, on the other hand he might save Maria's effect for a card he views as a bigger threat." _Lance thought before playing the card. "I activate Spellbook inside the Pot!"

"_Is he trying to trick me into using Maria's effect?" _Kris thought as his only female monster glanced over at him. _"No, that can't be it, I neglected to mention that Maria's effect can only be used once per turn and he's clearly never heard of this archetype before this match." _Kris thought before shaking his head. "Normally I'd negate it but who am I to say no to some extra cards?" Kris asked as all four duelists drew three cards.

"Normally? I thought you said that you got these cards earlier today?" Lance asked with a raised eyebrow and Kris shook his head.

"I meant in general, I mean honestly Maria isn't exactly the only card that can negate Spell Cards in the game." Kris pointed out and Lance nodded.

"Good point." Lance admitted before looking over his hand. _"Mystical Space Typhoon, Fire Recovery and Heaven's Lost Property, just my luck that I happen to draw three spell cards in a row! Heaven's Lost Property could help since it's essentially Graceful Charity's effect applied to both players though." _Lance thought before playing the card. "Next I activate Heaven's Lost Property!"

"Another drawing card? Did I miss the memo that you had suddenly decided to include the Exodia pieces in your deck or something?" Lamont asked as the four duelists drew three cards and discarded two.

"No but if you could see my hand you'd understand why I played this Spell Card." Lance responded before looking over his hand. "I set four cards facedown and end my turn."

"Draws six new cards and not a single monster among them, how ironic." Kris commented as he drew his card.

"It may be ironic but I'm about to ensure that you can't use Fleaman's effect, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon!" Lance activated the Spell Card and the four duelists braced themselves as a storm washed over the field. "Since Union Monsters are technically equip cards when they are attached to a monster I'm using my Spell Card to destroy Fleaman!"

"You're in Obelisk Blue yet you used such an amateur move? I use Maria's effect to negate the effect of Mystical Space Typhoon!" Kris announced as he discarded a monster from his hand and the storm subsided as several small animals swarmed and destroyed the Spell Card. "No wonder you needed Chloe's help to enter Obelisk Blue."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna pretend you didn't say that." Lance grunted as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard.

"In a moment you'll wish that I never made this move either! I detach Dracula's last overlay unit to summon one of Castlevania's most memorable bosses!" Kris announced as Dracula stretched out his cape again and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a gigantic ball of wailing human flesh that was horrifying to look at (1/?/0). "Legion!"

"Great, I could never beat that boss as a kid." Lance grunted as he stared down the monster.

"Am I the only one slightly concerned that my partner just summoned a massive ball of flesh?" Lamont asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Seriously, this was in a Nintendo game? I thought Nintendo was meant to be family friendly!"

"First off, the Castlevania series might have gotten its start on the NES but Legion over there made its debut in Symphony of the Night, a PS1 Game." Lance responded as he pointed towards the monstrosity. "All though I think it went under a different name back then, it's been a while since I played that game."

"It did, for some odd reason it went by the name Granfaloon but that's not important." Kris responded as he pointed to the monster. "And before anyone asks, this thing is a Zombie monster as it would drop down zombies to attack the player character during the boss fights and like its game counterpart Legion draws its power from my graveyard, in game turns Legion gains a thousand attack points for each monster with video game in its name in the graveyard and thanks to Dracula and Maria I have four monsters." Kris added as Legion's attack shot up to four thousand.

"I'm not scared, size isn't everything you know." Lance responded and the other boys shared a look before snickering. "What?"

"Did Chloe say that to you when you had sex with her for the first time?" Kris asked and Lance face-faulted.

"Okay first off, I'm well-endowed, second I can't believe I just said that in the middle of a school duel, third, as much as I'd like too, I haven't had sex with Chloe yet." Lance responded as he got back to his feet. "Fourth, another comment like that and I'll just skip the duel and beat the shit out of you."

"Didn't really need to know the first point." Kris responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. "But who knows? Maybe Chloe will be generous enough to play naughty nurse with you after I beat you! Legion, attack his life-points directly!" Kris commanded and an opening between the bodies that made up the creature opened up allowing a blue laser to shoot out.

"That thing fires lasers?" Lamont asked as the attack hit Lance bringing his life-points down to 3200.

"Trust me, that's not the weirdest part about Symphony of the Night." Lance responded as he got up. "And as much as that hurt you just fell into my trap! Activate Inferno Tempest!"

"Ugh, that thing." Lamont grunted as Kris quickly inputted commands into his duel disk. "You do realize that that Spell Card hurts your partner as well right?" Lamont asked and Lance went to answer when….

"Up, up, down, down, START!" Kris interrupted him and Lance looked up. "Recognize this Lance?"

"You're Konami Code Trap Card!" Lance realized as his eyes widened. "Wait, I thought that could only be used with the Gradius monsters?"

"Actually there are two versions of that trap, the one I used last time and this one called Konami Code Failed!" Kris responded and Lance had a closer look at the artwork before realizing that the player had hit the select button instead of the start button. "In this version since the Konami Code failed it instead negates the activation of a Spell Card."

"Why didn't you just use Maria's effect again?" Lance asked as the Spell Card's hologram shattered. "Unless you don't have a monster to discard!"

"Close but no cigar, I neglected to mention that Maria's effect can only be used once per turn." Kris responded and Lance gave him a funny look. "I forgot, so sue me! Dracula, finish him off!" Kris commanded and the vampire prepared its attack….

"Nice, you fell for my bluff! I activate my real trap!" Lance announced as the trap card flipped up. "Mirror Force!"

"No!" Kristopher yelled out but it was too late as the attack was reflected back at the opposing team's monsters destroying them all and taking Level 2 with it. "There's a couple of things I should explain, first if Fleaman is equipped to a Video Game Villain he forfeits the ability to take the bullet for the monster it's equipped too, second if Dracula is destroyed whilst having no Overlay Units attached he takes the Field Spell I have in play with him."

"Don't tell me, Level 2 shares World 1's effect?" Lance asked and Kristopher nodded before he started inputting commands.

"Exactly but I won't activate my third Field Spell just yet." Kris responded as he added the Spell Card to his hand and waited for his deck to shuffle. "I end my turn with a facedown card." Kristopher announced and Evan drew his card.

"_Well, that monster will certainly be haunting my nightmares for the rest of my time at the academy." _Evan thought before shaking his head. _"At least Lance's trap ensured that its stay on the field was a short one, now I have to work on turning things around." _Evan thought before flipping his remaining monster up. "I flip summon Apprentice Magician!"

"So that's why you summoned Magician of Faith instead of another one." Lamont commented with a frown. "You already had your third copy in your hand."

"I've had this copy in my hand since my first turn but that's not important! Normally I'd use her effect to add another counter to Arcane Barrier but since it already has four counters that is irrelevant." Evan continued before his final Apprentice Magician vanished alongside Arcane Barrier. "And now I sacrifice my two cards to use Arcane Barrier's effect and let me and my partner draw four cards."

"Dude, did you happen to forget what he said about my deck? I've gone through enough of it as it is." Lance pointed out and Evan shook his head.

"Your fine, you have plenty of cards left." Evan responded and Lance nodded. "I can't say the same for them on the other hand! I summon Breaker, the Magical Warrior!" Evan played the card and the sword wielding magician appeared on the field (4/1600/1000) and the monster's attack increased to 1900 thanks to his effect. "Now I use his effect to destroy Kris's facedown monster!" Evan announced as the swordsman leapt towards the facedown card destroying it.

"_Well, there goes part of my strategy, good thing that trap can activate from the graveyard." _Kris thought as he sent the card to the graveyard.

"Next I set one card facedown." Evan announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And I attack Kris's life-points directly!" Evan commanded and Breaker charged towards the Osiris Red Student before slashing him with his sword and bringing his life-points down to 5900. "I end my turn." Evan announced and Lamont drew his card.

"_Kris may have cost me my monster but we have more tricks up our sleeves." _Lamont thought as he looked at the card he had just drawn. "First I activate Burial from a Different Dimension in order to return the three monsters Lance banished earlier to my graveyard."

"That card doesn't exactly fit into a Fire Fist deck." Lance pointed out and Lamont shook his head as he moved the three monsters from his blazer pocket to his graveyard.

"I like being prepared for anything." Lamont responded as he sent his Spell Card to the graveyard. "In any case I set a card facedown and a card in defense mode to end my turn." Lamont announced and Lance grinned before drawing his card.

"_Great, now that I can move again I can make a comeback!" _Lance thought before playing a card. "I activate Fire Recovery, using this Spell Card I can discard a Fire Monster to my graveyard…." Lance said as he sent the monster he had drawn to the graveyard. "And special summon another Fire Monster from my graveyard, so I summon Great Angus!" Lance played the card and the blood red boar appeared on the field again.

"Still resorting to your old tricks huh?" Kris asked with a chuckle.

"Hey if it ain't broke don't fix it!" Lance responded as he sent Fire Recovery to the graveyard. "Besides I have four other cards to play with so if I were you I'd be more worried about them."

"Yes well call me when you're done recycling your old moves." Lamont responded and Lance shook his head.

"Actually I'll settle for calling you when I'm done attacking Kris's life-points directly!" Lance responded and Great Angus pounced towards Kris before tackling him and bringing his life-points down to 4100.

"Why did I suddenly become the target of your attacks?!" Kris protested as he got back to his feet. "I'll freely admit that Lamont is a much better duelist than I am!"

"We'll get to him once we're done with you and besides, you summoned a monstrosity last turn that will haunt my nightmares, if you ask me you earned it." Evan countered and Kris rolled his eyes.

"I only summoned that thing for an OTK and honestly, if you're going to lambast anyone for using OTKs look no further than your partner!" Kris pointed out and Lance frowned. "I mean honestly, I'm convinced that his Inferno Tempest/Return from a Different Dimension combo is what got Return banned a couple of ban-lists ago and not Dragon Rulers."

"I only used that combo twice in Battle City and both times were against Orichalcos Duelists." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "If you ask me you're full of shit."

"Yeah, off course you'd say that." Kris muttered under his breath as he shook his head. "You also used that combo against a National Champion to win your expulsion duel, for all we know he used his clout to get that card banned."

"That was before Dragon Rulers were even a thing!" Lance protested before shaking his head. "And even if what you say is true there were several banlists since then before Return was banned, you'd think that that card would've showed up on the next banlist after those duels!"

"Touché, anyway don't you have a turn to finish?" Kris asked and Lance nodded.

"I set three cards facedown and end my turn." Lance set the three cards down and Kris drew his card.

"_Okay, so I lost most of my best monsters and my life-points in one fell swoop, not a problem, I still have one last trick up my sleeve." _Kris thought before picking up the Field Spell he retrieved from his deck last turn. "If you are expecting my next Field Spell to be level three then don't because technically the game this Field Spell takes inspiration from doesn't have levels, only cities and towns."

"You realize that you just described most RPG games right." Lance pointed out and Kris shook his head.

"Details, details, just let me play the Field Spell!" Kris responded and Lance nodded. "I activate the last Field Spell that cane with this set! Pallet Town!" Kris, not noticing that a massive goofy grin had appeared on Lance's face, played the card and the scenery changed for the last time depicting Pallet Town from the first Pokémon game, you could even hear that original Pokémon Anime theme in the background. "Apparently someone at Kaibacorp is a big Pokémon fan, anyway….."

"I WANNA BE THE VERY BEST! LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS!" Lance started singing along to the anime theme song loud and proudly, unfortunately for everyone else Lance was a horrible singer and the other duelists, alongside the teachers and other students, immediately clutched their ears in pain but Lance didn't stop until he had sung the theme in full at which point he noticed the others rubbing their ears. "What? Pokémon's my favorite game and anime series even if the anime gets stupid at times."

"I'm not going to lambast you for that because you have good taste, at least as far as games go." Kris said as he recovered. "But…."

"Lance Alvers, if you ever sing in public during your tenure in Duel Academy again you will face a second expulsion duel." Martin interrupted them and Lance's jaw dropped whilst the other students cheered.

"Oh come on! Was my singing really that bad?" Lance protested but nothing could prepare him for what happened next.

"YES!" Everyone else in the school yelled out at him and Lance face-faulted.

"You guys have no taste!" Lance yelled back as he got back to his feet. "But since I no better than to call Boldilocks and the Three Hairs on his bluff why don't you just continue the move?"

"_Did he really just call Martin "Boldilocks and the Three Hairs"?!" _Evan thought as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head. _"May god have mercy on his soul the next time he has Duel Theory."_

"Yes, before you interrupted me with…..whatever that noise was that just came out of your mouth I was going to explain Pallet Town's effect, you see there's a reason why I played this last as its effect depends on the number of field spells in my graveyard and on the field." Kris responded as he stretched his arm out. "This effect allows me to summon three Starter Tokens, one for each Field Spell, in attack mode!" Kris announced as three monsters appeared on the field which Lance quickly recognized as the Kanto Region's Starter Pokemon, Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur (1/500/500).

"Okay, I'll take Charmander." Lance commented earning a confused look from Kris. "I always chose the Fire Starter whenever I played a Pokemon game, even in the first game."

"I'm not even going to comment on the stupidity of that since that left you at a disadvantage going into the first two gyms." Kris sighed as he shook his head. "Anyway, since I summoned three of them my tokens can't be used as Tributes or to Synchro Summon a monster so I set this." Kris announced as the facedown card appeared on the field. "And end my turn." Kris announced and Evan drew his card.

"_Three weak monsters, all in attack mode and only a single trap to protect him, either this is the most obvious Mirror Force bait since the card was created or there's more to his Field Spell than an effect that summons tokens." _Evan thought before grinning. _"Fortunately my own trap card will do away with that!" _Evan thought as he activated the Trap. "I activate Pitch Black Power Stone and I use its effect to add a token to Breaker!" Evan announced as Breaker glowed and his attack power increased to 1900 again. "However I use his second effect again to destroy Pallet Town."

"You couldn't let me enjoy this nostalgia trip for a couple of more minutes?" Lance protested as Breaker's attack decreased to 1600.

"Consider this revenge for your atrocious singing!" Evan responded as Breaker leapt towards the scenery.

"Fortunately for Lance it won't be that easy! From my graveyard I activate the Trap Card Power Down!" Kris announced as he held up the trap depicting Mario powering down from his Fire Flower state. "In a way this works like Fiendish Chain except it can activate from the graveyard as long as I banish it from my graveyard, and before you ask this was the card you destroyed with Breaker's effect last turn but anyway it requires me to have at least three Video Game Hero monsters on my field to activate it this way."

"Let me guess, the tokens count." Evan asked and Kris nodded as Breaker stopped mid-jump and his attack dropped to 1600 again.

"Yes but the downside to this is the fact that I can't stop you from attacking with it." Kris responded with a frown as he pocketed the Trap. "So, care for round two?"

"_On one hand this could backfire in any number of ways, on the other hand if the attack goes through I can set things up for Lance to finish of Kris on his next turn." _Evan thought before pointing to Breaker. "Breaker, attack the monster in the middle."

"Charmander." Lance corrected him and Evan nodded.

"What he said." Evan added and Breaker charged into battle…..

"It won't be that easy either! I activate Rare Candy!" Kris activated the trap which depicted the Pokemon item Rare Candy. "In the Pokemon games this item increases a selected Pokémon's level, came in handy whenever said Pokemon was on the verge of evolving and you didn't have the patience to level it up the old fashioned way, in this game however it levels up a start token that's been targeted for an attack in a different way, namely it adds the attacking monsters attack points to the attacked monster's."

"And that can apply to any monster in the game?" Lance asked and Kris nodded as Charmander breathed fire at Breaker as its attack increased to 3100 incinerating the magician and bringing Evan's life-points down to 5100. "Yep, I can see that Trap Card among the forbidden cards on a future banlist."

"Says the guy who has a card that can banish every monster in the graveyard and deck." Kris pointed out and Lance sweat-dropped. "Honestly, why hasn't Infernal Tempest been banned yet?"

"Probably because Infernal Tempest requires me to take over three thousand points of damage before I can use it." Lance responded with a frown as he folded his arms. "Honestly, are you going to try to find a reason why Great Angus or Royal Firestorm Guards should be banned next?"

"Considering that Great Angus is basically just an old school style beatstick and that Royal Firestorm Guards isn't as universal as Pot of Avarice, no." Kris responded before turning to Evan. "Don't you have a move to finish?"

"I was getting to that, I was just waiting for you two to stop bickering anyway I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn." Evan announced and Lamont drew his card.

"_It's obvious to me that Kris needs those tokens on the field for whatever reason, otherwise he would've used that Rare Candy trap card on something stronger and inflicted more damage." _Lamont thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Another dead draw but at least this monster can destroy Great Angus." _Lamont thought before playing the card. "I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dragon!" Lamont played the card and an attractive Japanese woman in green Samurai armor appeared on the field, however what caught the other boys' eyes wasn't her good looks but the various small dragons surrounding her (4/1800/400) and her attack increased to 1900 thanks to Tenki. "Dragon, attack Great Angus!" Lamont commanded and the woman charged into battle….

"As your partner is fond of saying it won't be that easy! Activate Trap Card Negate Attack!" Lance activated the trap and the woman's charge was stopped by a force-field. "Better luck next time."

"Depending on what my partner has in mind there might not be a next time, for now I end my turn." Lamont announced and Lance drew his card.

"_Lamont has a point, this could be my last turn." _Lance thought before looking at his drawn card. _"But the big guy could help!" _Lance thought before playing the card. "I sacrifice Great Angus to bring out another old favorite of mine, Thestalos the Fire Monarch!" Lance played the card and Great Angus disappeared from the field only to be quickly replaced by the monarch of fire (6/2400/1000). "I think Martin mentioned during the last turn that my monarch's effect applies to both players?"

"Yes, I did and that was one of the few rules that didn't change between rounds." Martin responded over the PA system and Lance nodded.

"Okay guys, hold them up!" Lance told them and his opponents nodded before holding up their hands, Thestalos threw a fireball at Kris's middle card and another at the card on the far right of Lamont's hand. "So did I get lucky?"

"You are referring to the duel and not your girlfriend, right?" Kris asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Whilst I am hoping to get lucky in both areas I mean the duel." Lance responded and the two boys shook their heads.

"You hit another copy of Power Up." Kris responded as he held up the Spell Card before sending it to the graveyard.

"And you hit a Trap Card." Lamont added before sending the trap to the graveyard.

"_At least Kris will have to use his next Video Game Hero's effect at a cost." _Lance thought before pointing to Charmander. "Thestalos, attack Charmander!" Lance commanded and the monarch prepared another fireball…..but it was intercepted by a force-field. "What the….."

"Remember the monsters I discarded for Maria's effect earlier? They weren't random monsters." Kris responded before holding up the cards. "Video Game Hero Support Cast and Video Game Hero Shield, on their own they don't add up to much but if I have both in the graveyard I can banish them to protect one Video Game Hero monster from being destroyed by battle or card effect."

"You can't protect them forever! I end my turn." Lance announced and Kris drew his card.

"You know what? Your right! I can't protect them forever!" Kris responded as the three tokens started glowing. "I activate the second effect of Pallet Town, if all three of the Starter Tokens are still on the field during the stand-by phase after they were summoned I can destroy all three to summon stronger tokens." Kris explained as the three monsters grew up, or evolved, into monsters that Lance recognized as Wartortle, Ivysaur and Charmeleon, the first evolutions of the original three starters (4/1600/1200). "First Evolution Tokens!"

"Were those really the best names Sophia Pegasus's marketing team could come up with?" Lance asked as a sweat-drop rolled down his head. "Because if it is then she needs to fire them all and hire new ones!"

"Lance, we have bigger problems, especially if he's drawn another copy of Rare Candy." Evan pointed out and Kris shook his head.

"I'm not at liberty to say, however I will say that none of my monsters can attack unless a certain Video Game Hero is on my side of the field so you're safe, for now." Kris responded before picking up and setting two cards. "But for now I'll settle for making you sweat with these facedown cards, I end my turn." Kris announced and Evan drew his card.

"_He could have dealt me some serious damage if he had played that monster so why wait?" _Evan thought as he looked at his drawn card. _"Gemini Elf, I'm not about to risk the possibility of either of Kris's facedown cards being another copy of Rare Candy because that could cause me some serious damage but Lamont's monster is easy pickings." _Evan thought before glancing up at Lance. "Can I borrow Thestalos?"

"Knock yourself out." Lance responded with a nod as Thestalos made his way to Evan's side of the field.

"Good but first things first, I summon Gemini Elf!" Evan played the card and the twin elves appeared on the field (4/1900/900). "Thestalos, attack Dragon!" Evan commanded and Thestalos threw a fireball at the female samurai destroying her and bringing Lamont's life-points down to 7500. "Gemini Elf, it's your turn!" Evan commanded and the elves casted their spells at Lamont bringing his life-points down to 5400. "It was about time that you took some damage!"

"I could argue that point all day but why bother when I can activate Damage Gate!" Lamont activated the trap and started inputting commands into his Duel Disk. "I use this trap to summon Boar from my graveyard!" Lamont played the card and the Tuner Monster returned to the field.

"And here comes another Synchro Summon!" Lance commented as he rolled his eyes. "And you call me predictable!"

"You are but that's not the point." Lamont retorted before turning to Evan. "Is that all?"

"Yes, I end my turn." Evan announced and once Thestalos was back on Lance's side of the field Lamont drew his card.

"Good, now the real fun can begin! I summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Dog!" Lamont played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a young, armored woman accompanied by the transparent form of a dog (2/1100/1200). "Now I tune Dog with Boar to summon one of my favorites!" Lamont announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, Lamont played the card and grinned as Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Horse Prince appeared on the field (6/2200/2000).

"I remember that monster from the last round, it allows you to search out another Fire Fist monster at the cost of summoning another Level Five or higher monster for the rest of the turn." Lance commented and Lamont nodded.

"Yes and I use it to summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Rooster in defense mode!" Lamont said as he searched through his deck, once he played the card and the young man in rooster like armor appeared on the field (3/1500/100). "This in turn activates Rooster's effect which lets me add another Fire Fist Monster to my hand!" Lamont added before inputting more commands.

"Let me guess, that's another Tuner Monster that you'll be tuning Rooster with next turn?" Evan asked as Lamont added the monster to his hand and let the auto-shuffle feature do its work.

"Now, now Evan, as a Spellcaster user you should know that a good magician never reveals his tricks." Lamont responded with a chuckle. "Besides, if I were you I'd be more worried about Gemini Elf, Horse Prince, attack his elves!" Lamont commanded and the horse mounted monster charged into battle before destroying the elves and bringing Evan's life-points down to 4700. "I end my turn."

"Quick question, why didn't you summon Rooster in attack mode?" Kris asked as Lance drew his card. "You could've done more damage."

"And Lance would've destroyed it with Thestalos ruining my plans." Lamont responded with a nod before realizing something. "And I just said that out-loud during Lance's turn."

"Thanks for making my choice easy for me but why attack one monster when I can take them both out? I activate my Trap Card Call of the Haunted, no prizes for guessing which monster I'm bringing back." Lance played the card and Great Angus returned to the field. "Thestalos, dethrone that Prince, Great Angus, roast that rooster!" Lance commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Lamont's monsters and whilst Great Angus's attack dealt no life-point damage due to Rooster being in defense mode the same couldn't be said for Thestalos's attack which brought Lamont's life-points down to 5300.

"It's only a flesh wound, I'll recover from it." Lamont responded as he sent his monsters to the graveyard.

"Sure you will, for now I end my turn." Lance announced and Kris grinned before drawing his card.

"I activate Pallet Town's second effect one last time to evolve my three monsters to their final forms!" Kris announced as he played the three monsters evolved into their final forms, Charizard, Venusaur and Blastoise (8/3600/1000). "Final Evolution Tokens!"

"Three tokens that are slightly stronger than my girlfriend's best monster, thanks for that." Lance grunted before grinning. "Besides, if they are anything like your last tokens then you can't attack with them without a certain Video Game Hero monster." Lance responded and Kris laughed. "What's so funny?"

"Oh nothing, just the fact that I've had it in my hand this whole time." Kris responded and Lance's eyes narrowed. "I drew it with Spellbook inside the Pot earlier but without Pallet Town on the field it was a dead draw, not anymore! I summon Video Game Hero – Red!" Kris played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, Lance quickly recognized it as Red, the protagonist of the first few Pokemon games (1/0/0). "Let's get the basics out of the way, Red can't be summoned without Pallet Town on the field and as long as he's on the field neither him nor my tokens can be destroyed or targeted for an attack, in short you are out of the tournament unless your facedown card is another Mirror Force."

"I'm saying nothing." Lance responded as he put his hands up.

"Too bad! Venusaur token, dethrone that monarch!" Kris commanded and the Venusaur prepared his attack.

"You do know that grass types are weak against fire types, right? I activate my trap card Blowback!" Lance activated the trap which depicted a man opening a door only to be met by raging flames and to Kris's surprise both the token and Thestalos were consumed by flame. "I added this card on the off chance that I ended up facing Chloe in another duel but this is a good a time as any."

"What's going on? Red protects my monsters from being destroyed!" Kris protested and Lance shook his head.

"But not from being sacrificed otherwise you would've mentioned that." Lance responded and Kris grit his teeth before nodding. "The only downside to this trap is that until the end phase of my next turn I can't summon monsters to my side of the field but the effect makes up for it, when a Level Eight or higher monster attacks a Fire type monster of a lower level the two monsters get sacrificed."

"So it's a Fire Specific Trap Version of Share the Pain, I still don't see how that helps." Kris responded and Lance grinned.

"But wait, there's more! If the fire type monster was Level Six or higher the attacking monster's attack points gets dealt as damage to the opponent, or should I say opponents?" Lance asked and their eyes widened as their life-points plummeted to 500 and 1700.

"You'll pay for that!" Kris said as Lance sent his trap to the graveyard. "Right now! Charizard Token, attack Great Angus!" Kris commanded and the monster took flight before breathing fire at the monster….only for his attack to be stopped by a wall of flame. "What now?"

"If Blowback is in the graveyard when a Fire Type Monster I control is targeted for an attack I can remove it from play to end the Battle Phase." Lance explained as he pocketed the trap. "Downside is that I can't summon cards to my side of the field next turn but I think your partner's in trouble."

"Oh shit….." Kris trailed off before looking over at Lamont. "You have a way to survive until your next turn, right?"

"Unfortunately, no." Lamont responded and Kris's eyes widened. "Don't worry Kris, with those remaining tokens you have them on the run, you can win this even without my help."

"I hope your right." Kris commented with a gulp. "I end my turn." Kris announced and Evan drew his card.

"Lance, I require the usage of Great Angus." Evan told him and Lance nodded.

"Go for it." Lance responded as Great Angus made its way over to Evan's side of the field.

"Then let's end this! Great Angus, attack Lamont's life-points directly!" Evan commanded and the boar charged into battle before tackling Lamont to the ground and bringing his life-points down to zero. "One down, one to go."

"Unless Lance recycles both Blowback and Thestalos I don't see me losing any time soon!" Kris countered and Evan shook his head.

"I guess we'll have to wait and see, for now I end my turn and since Lamont was just eliminated the turn jumps to Lance." Evan announced and Lance drew his card.

"_I hate to admit it but he's right, I don't know how I'm going to get past his monsters….." _Lance thought before looking at his drawn card and grinning broadly. "Well, well, well, looks like I get to summon a card after all."

"But you said….." Kris trailed off before being interrupted by Lance.

"I said that I couldn't summon monsters to MY side of the field, your side of the field on the other hand? I can summon as many monsters as I want but I only need one." Lance responded as he held up the card. "Here's some hints, I used it in my promotion duel, it's a Level Eight Fiend Monster and it inflicts burn damage!"

"Oh shit…." Kris sighed as Lance tossed the card to him confirming it to be Lava Golem. "Okay, what monsters do you want me to tribute?"

"Your tokens." Lance responded as the two tokens were consumed by lava from Lava Golem and the cage dropped down around Kris, suddenly Red screamed in pain before shattering into a million pieces. "I thought so, Red needs those monsters to stay on the field, doesn't he?"

"Yeah, in the games this was known as Blacking Out and happened when the player ran out of useable Pokemon, in this game if all three tokens leave the field Red is automatically destroyed." Kris responded with a disappointed sigh. "Just go ahead and end your turn, we all know how this is going to end."

"I end my turn and the duel!" Lance responded and Kris didn't bother looking at the card he had drawn as the lava burned him bringing his life-points down to zero.

"Here are your winners, Lance Alvers and Evan Grant of Obelisk Blue!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "Next up is Veron Chan of Ra Yellow teaming up with Charity Hensley of Osiris Red to take on the combination of Latoya Conley and Louella Schneider of Ra Yellow!"

"Wasn't Veron the guy who run the Skill Drain Normal Monsters deck?" Lance asked Evan who nodded.

"Yes, he was also the one who found his deck amongst his girlfriend's sex-toys." Evan nodded in response before grinning. "Try to avoid a similar situation with Chloe." Evan added and Lance frowned.

"Considering that she was living with her foster family before she enrolled here I'd be surprised if she did have sex toys." Lance responded as he folded his arms. "Besides, I'm pretty sure she's a virgin so I doubt she has any even if she kept them hidden."

"Good point, anyway I'm assuming you're off to join Chloe and your other friends?" Evan asked and Lance went to confirm when he saw her leaving the building.

"Actually it looks like she's going out to stretch her legs so I'll go join her outside first." Lance said as he walked off. "Catch you later."

"Catch you later." Evan nodded in response before walking off.


	116. Day 11 War of the Normal

The second duel wasn't starting for a good couple of minutes yet but most of the students were using the time to chill out and stretch their legs either outside the main building or nearer the main school arena and in the case of Chloe she was sitting on the main steps and chatting with her roommate Chelsea.

"I can't believe Lance sung the Pokémon theme during the duel!" Chloe said with a laugh and Chelsea shook her head. "On the other hand though, I probably would've enjoyed it more if he could sing!"

"Yeah, we're not taking him out on Karaoke night if we decide to do that over summer break." Chelsea responded with a grin not noticing that Lance was approaching the two girls from behind. "Not even if we found a metal club that did Karaoke because I'm pretty sure his vocals are bad even by metal standards."

"He also happens to be standing right behind you." Lance chimed in with a grin and the two girls looked up seeing Lance standing behind him. "My singing might have been bad but that doesn't mean you can talk about it behind my back."

"First off Lance, I'm not even sure if that noise that came out of your mouth counted as singing." Chelsea retorted and Lance rolled his eyes.

"This coming from the girl who practically listens to nothing but Death Metal." Lance retorted and Chelsea sweat-dropped. "Anyway, you guys mind if I join you for the next duel?"

"Well I think it goes without saying that I don't mind." Chloe responded with a grin before she stood up and kissed Lance. "Chelsea on the other hand I'm not so sure about."

"As long as you don't destroy my eardrums with more Pokémon covers I won't complain." Chelsea responded as she put her hands up and Lance rolled his eyes. "And don't even think about bringing Death Metal into this because that I'm used too! Whatever that noise that you tried to pass off as singing was I'm not used too."

"Hey I can sing! I just didn't have time to prepare during the duel!" Lance protested and Chelsea scoffed not noticing that a female security guard was approaching the trio.

"Keep telling yourself that but at the moment you rank just below Jingle Bells as sung by barking dogs." Chelsea responded earning confused looks from the other teens. "And yeah, it exists."

"Now I'm morbidly curious, I'll have to look it up on YouTube after the second duel." Lance responded before noticing the security guard. "Chelsea, we've been joined by a rent-a-cop." Lance added and Chelsea looked up seeing the female guard and quickly stood up.

"Don't mind me kids, I'm just doing the rounds." The guard responded apparently unfazed by Lance's comment. "Have you seen any suspicious persons around here?"

"Yeah, they are all dressed the same, in fact their outfits look similar to yours." Chelsea responded with a grin and the guard chuckled.

"I'll take that as a no, also the duel should be starting in a couple of minutes." The guard added and Lance checked the time on his watch.

"Shit, she's right." Lance said and Chelsea quickly stood up before jogging up the stairs to meet her friends. "Err, thanks….."

"Name's Rachel, we should be seeing each other around." The guard responded before the three students walked off and she walked off towards the northern end of the island, once she was out of earshot of any student she laughed sadistically. "Kids these days are so gullible, I could've told them that I was one of Santa's elves and they would've believed me."

"I wouldn't get too cocky if I were you Delaney." Jack's voice rang out and Delaney frowned. "Especially since you're using your real first name."

"Hey I was told to use the name of the member of staff I was replacing, not my fault that we happened to share the same name." Delaney retorted before shaking her head. "How long do I have to keep this damn masquerade up anyway? This island's so fucking hot it's like an island sized sauna!"

"I know, it's pretty much the only reason why the school's so lenient about the dress code, as for your question wait until the second duel has finished, Thompson's waiting for you in the north side." Jack responded and Delaney sighed.

"You do realize that the first duel ran so long that I'm surprised that they didn't just move the second duel to tomorrow, right?" Delaney responded and Jack sighed.

"I checked up on him whilst you were talking to those brats, trust me, he's still there." Jack responded and Delaney nodded. "Look, just go meet him, if you hang around too much the actual security guards will start asking questions."

"And if they do I'll tell them that I was taking a call and needed to get away from the students." Delaney responded as she entered the north side of the island. "I mean those idiots, not counting the ones we already replaced, didn't even realize that the Rachel Delaney that started yesterday wasn't the same one who did the training with them despite the fact that she's shorter than I am."

"That's true but everything else matches, if anything they probably assumed that you were wearing shoes that made you look shorter." Jack responded and Delaney nodded. "And besides, it's not like Delaney or Thompson are around to spill the beans."

"Or any of the ones we replaced for that matter." Delaney commented with a chuckle and Jack laughed as well, before she could say anything else she spotted Thompson ahead of her. "Jack I've got to go, I've spotted Thompson."

"Just remember to stick to the plan and only target the Kaiba siblings." Jack responded and Delaney nodded before entering the clearing.

*meanwhile*

"This makes no sense." Tyler grunted as he read through the article for what felt like the thousandth time since he stumbled upon it the night before, next to his desktop monitor were several empty cans of red bull and one freshly opened can which he was using to keep himself up as he had been up all night. "Why would he lie to her again? Theresa told me that she didn't take him lying to her the first time well at all but this?"

"You realize that talking to yourself if a sign of madness right?" Tyler looked up and saw his older step-sister Miranda standing in the door with her arms crosses and a smirk on her face. "Seriously though, I came over to see what you were up too since you didn't turn up for the duel."

"I had some work to do and besides, I already figured that Lance and Evan would win the match." Tyler responded as he turned to his sister. "Lamont and Kris are good duellists but their decks are pretty mismatched."

"That's true but couldn't you have shown up anyway and do the work after the duels?" Miranda asked with a curious look on her face, however she quickly frowned when she saw the red bull cans. "Better question, how much Red Bull have you been drinking?"

"I lost count after ten." Tyler admitted and Miranda sweat-dropped. "This won't be like the last time this happened, for one thing my team's already been eliminated from the tournament."

"I know but you still have classes later." Miranda responded as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. "At least tell me you were up all night getting homework done."

"I would but that would require me having homework to begin with." Tyler responded as Miranda approached his desk. "You remember the meeting I had with the other students combatting the Orichalcos, right?"

"Yeah, you told me that Nicola Hastings, Jason Hutchins and Chakra Silvers agreed to help you out." Miranda responded with a nod. "What about it?"

"Towards the end of the meeting Chloe requested that I do some fact checking for her." Tyler responded as he pointed to the article. "Remember the picture Chloe found after Chelsea won her first Orichalcos duel?" Tyler asked and Miranda nodded. "Well according to her dad the girl in the picture was a neighbour's kid who they were babysitting for them only for her to be tragically killed in a collision with a drunk driver."

"It's sad and all but what does that have to do with the Orichalcos?" Miranda asked as she pulled up a chair and sat down.

"For one thing it fell out of the pocket of a robed woman who was observing the duel, since then we figured out that she's another Orichalcos Duellist." Tyler responded with a frown. "She seems to be working in the background with another agent and so far all we have on them are names, Jack and Sara."

"And considering how common those names are you may as well start searching for needles in haystacks." Miranda responded with an annoyed sigh and Tyler frowned. "In a way they sound almost like that Michael guy that kept showing up towards the end of the initial portion of Battle City."

"You know I don't like talking about him." Tyler responded with a deep frown and Miranda winced. "Never thought I'd say this but I liked it better when I thought he died in that fire all those years ago." Tyler added before he went to take a sip of his the last red bull can only for Miranda to snatch it from him. "HEY!"

"Oh no you don't, I'm pretty sure you've got enough caffeine in your system to kill an elephant." Miranda responded and Tyler's eyes narrowed. "And I swear to god, if I hear that you turned up to Duel Theory more jumpy on a rabbit on speed I'm telling dad about this."

"That can was almost done anyway." Tyler responded and Miranda gave the can a shake showing it to be mostly full. "You try staying up all night without that stuff."

"Yeah because that makes the situation that much better." Miranda responded sarcastically before spotting Tyler's mini-fridge. "How many cans do you have in the fridge?"

"Five." Tyler responded absentmindedly as Miranda stood up and walked over to the fridge, once she opened it up he quickly got the idea. "Miranda…."

"Trust me bro, you'll thank me for this later." Miranda said as she carried an arm full of red bull cans into the en-suite and emptying the contents one by one. "Besides, staying up all night whilst hyped up on red bull isn't going to impress the teachers."

"Would you prefer that I turned up to class half asleep." Tyler responded as Miranda returned to her chair. "Besides, you know I can order more."

"And I'll be there every time to empty your mini-fridge of legalized crack." Miranda responded before checking the time on her watch. "Besides, the last duel of the day is about to start."

"Fine but after the duel I'll tell you what I've found, deal?" Tyler asked and Miranda nodded giving him the cue to switch tabs.

*meanwhile*

Whilst the siblings were watching from the confines of Tyler's dorm room the arena was filling up with the other students who weren't ill ready for the second and last duel of the day, and so where the two teams that were taking part.

"Are you ready for this Vernon?" Charity asked as she walked up to her tag team partner, the two partners were currently in the hallway that would lead them to the main arena. "Or did you misplace your deck among your girlfriend's sex toys again?"

"I'm never going to live that down, am I?" Vernon asked with an annoyed sigh and Charity nodded with a giggle. "There's a slim chance that I would've done that again if I still had a girlfriend."

"Come again?" Charity asked and Vernon sighed.

"My girlfriend broke up with me just before the second round started, turns out that I unintentionally got her in trouble with the school officials when I revealed why I was late to the duel last week, that and she didn't exactly appreciate the whole school learning about something that private." Vernon added and Charity winced. "To make matters worse, I'm pretty sure most of the Ra Yellow girls have boyfriends."

"What about the girls who were promoted last weekend?" Charity asked and Vernon shook his head.

"Chelsea's in a lesbian relationship with Beth, Chloe got hitched up with Lance the day after the promotion duels and I'm pretty sure Rachel has the hots for Kyle." Vernon responded as he walked down the hallway. "And I'm not about to try dating one of the Obelisk Blue girls on the off chance that one of them is just as bad as Jessica Stevens."

"Is that even possible?" Charity asked jokingly and Veron shook his head. "What about the Osiris Red girls?"

"Most of them are fifteen years old and most of the older students were the girls that got promoted." Vernon responded and Charity shook her head.

"I was talking about me, dumbass." Charity responded and Veron paused. "I mean hell I'm still using the Normal Monster deck after the disaster last week and I do have sex toys in my room, difference is I'm not embarrassed by it."

"If I was dating girls only for the fact that they had sex toys my bodily fluids would be swimming in STDs…..no offence." Vernon pointed out and Charity chuckled.

"And I always practice safe sex." Charity added and Vernon paused.

"I'll get back to you after the duel, win or lose." Vernon responded before nodding to the door. "And speaking of which….."

"Third round here we come!" Charity interrupted him enthusiastically before they entered the arena.

"Welcome to the second match of the day!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered in response. "The second duel will take place between Vernon Chan of Ra Yellow and Charity Hensley of Osiris Red as they get ready to take on Louella Schneider and Latoya Conley of Ra Yellow."

"If you think your Skill Drain deck will trip us up think again." Louella said confidently as she and Latoya started shuffling their decks. "We know what to expect from it and how to beat it."

"Is that a fact?" Vernon asked as he and Charity started shuffling their decks. "Well I'll have you know that I've never been beaten off by a girl and I'm….." Vernon trailed off before he realized far too late what he had said, not helped by the crowd's laughter. "I am actually glad that my girlfriend broke up with me after last week's duel."

"Wait, she broke up with you?" Latoya asked with an amused look on her face. "Let me guess, it had to do with the sex toys incident."

"I'm not saying anything about that but what I will say is yes, that's pretty much the reason why I'm back on the market." Vernon commented with an annoyed sigh. "Anyway how about we let our actions in the duel do the talking for us?"

"We would be we're waiting for Martin to announce the order." Louella responded and sure enough Martin cleared his throat.

"The order will be as follows, Vernon will go first followed by Louella followed by Charity and finally Latoya." Martin announced and the duellists got into position. "Let the duel begin!" Martin announced and the four duellists drew their five cards before Vernon drew a sixth.

"_Perfect, I drew Skill Drain on my first draw, this means that I'll be able to stop the effects of their Gemini Monsters and Dark Monsters." _Vernon thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a monster in defence mode." Vernon announced as the two set cards appeared on the field. "That ends my turn." Vernon added and Louella drew her card.

"_I'll bet good money that his facedown card is Skill Drain and the monster is likely something like Prevent Rat." _Louella thought before looking at her drawn card and her hand. _"Unfortunately I don't have my copy of Mystical Space Typhoon in my hand so I may as well risk it." _Louella thought before playing the card she had drawn. "I summon Dark Valkyria!" Louella played the card and the twisted version of Dunames Dark Witch appeared on the field (4/1800/1050). "Next I activate Double Summon, normally this would allow me to summon another monster but in this case I'm using it to activate my monster's Gemini Mode…"

"I think not! Activate Skill Drain!" Vernon activated the trap and winced as his life-points dropped to seven thousand. "Your monster may as well be Dunames Dark Witch as long as this is on the field!"

"_I should've known, what's worse is that I've just wasted a perfectly good Spell Card." _Louella thought before sending Double Summon to the graveyard. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Louella announced and Charity drew her card.

"_Okay so Vernon wasted no time in activating Skill Drain, unfortunately I don't have Imperial Custom in my hand or a way to search it out, better hope that Latoya doesn't have a Trap Eater in her hand." _Charity thought before playing a card. "I summon Vorse Raider!" Charity played the card and the halberd wielding beast-warrior made famous by Seto Kaiba appeared on the field (4/1900/1200). "And I end my turn." Charity announced and Latoya drew her card.

"_She didn't set a card?!" _Vernon thought as his eyes widened. _"Crap, if her hand has Trap Eater in it then our decks may as well be normal monster decks."_

"If you were hoping that Skill Drain would be around as long as it was during your last duel, think again!" Latoya said as she played a card and a tongue appeared from out of nowhere and quickly wrapped itself around Skill Drain's hologram. "I destroy Skill Drain to summon Trap Eater!"

"_I just had to go and jinx it." _Vernon thought with a frown as the tongue pulled the card towards its source and the purple fiend appeared on the field (4/1900/1600). "Do you honestly think I'm stupid enough to just run one copy of a trap card that's a key to my strategy?"

"I don't know, I mean you were dumb enough to lose your deck among your girlfriend's sex toys." Louella countered and Vernon face-faulted.

"I just knew that you were going to bring that up at some point." Vernon sighed as he got back to his feet. "And for the record, she's now my ex-girlfriend, she broke up with me after last week's duel."

"Ouch, that's a rough day if I've ever heard one." Latoya winced before looking at her hand. _"Trap Eater was my only monster and I'd ask Louella if I could use her monster in a Synchro Summon but I'm pretty sure that she still needs that monster." _Latoya thought before picking up two other cards. "I end my turn with two facedown cards" Latoya announced and Vernon drew his card.

"_Okay, no need to panic, they've only destroyed my strategies' key card on the first turn and as far as you know there's no way to search for trap cards." _Vernon thought before looking at his drawn card and grinning. _"Recycling trap cards on the other hand? I have just the card to do that." _Vernon thought before picking up his drawn card and setting it on the field. "First I set a monster in defence mode, now Charity, will you live up to your namesake and let me use that monster of yours?"

"If I had a dollar for every time a guy began a pick-up line with those exact words with the intent to use it on me after learning my name I'd have enough money to open up my own Duel Academy." Charity sighed in annoyance before nodding. "Go ahead." Charity added as Vorse Raider made his way over to Vernon's side of the field.

"Excellent, and I'll try to avoid making similar puns in the future." Vernon commented before pointing to Dark Valkyria. "Vorse Raider, attack her monster!" Vernon commanded and the Beast-Warrior charged into battle before decapitating the Gemini Monster with his halberd bringing Louella's life-points down to 7900. "I do believe that's first blood to us."

"I'm guessing that's not counting life-point payments?" Louella asked sarcastically and Vernon nodded. "Are you done?"

"Give me a moment." Vernon responded as he looked over the remaining cards in his hand. _"I have a monster that could take out Trap Eater but without Skill Drain on the field he'd be open to monster effects, besides I've already used my normal summon." _Vernon thought before nodding to Louella. "I end my turn." Vernon added as Vorse Raider returned to Charity's side of the field.

"Good, in that case I'll activate my trap card!" Louella announced as the trap card flipped up. "The ever useful Call of the Haunted! And since, between me and Latoya, there's only one monster in our graveyard you get no guesses as to what I'm bringing back," Louella added as Dark Valkyria returned to the field, she promptly drew her card and looked at it. _"Blazewing Butterfly, I already used my copy of Double Summon last turn so I can't use its effect and Dark Valkyria's effect on the same turn."_

"_I know that luck, she has two really good moves in mind but she can only use one." _Vernon thought as his eyes narrowed. _"That's something that's plagued many duellists no matter how experienced they are."_

"_I have a way to get Tuned Magician into my graveyard fairly quickly and if I summon Blazewing Butterfly I can use its Gemini Mode effect to bring out Tuned Magician, I may lose the ability to activate Valkyria's Gemini mode but that's a small price to pay for Black Buldrago!" _Louella decided before playing the card. "I activate Heaven's Lost Property."

"Considering how long its predecessor has been on the ban list I'm surprised that Sophia Pegasus hasn't banned that card yet." Vernon commented as all four duellists drew three cards and discarded two.

"An effect that affects both players, or in this case teams, makes all the difference Vernon." Louella responded before looking at her drawn cards. _"Okay, this changes everything, I just have to hope that Charity doesn't draw something like Mystical Space Typhoon." _Louella thought before setting the card. "I set one card facedown and I activate Dark Valkyria's Gemini Mode!" Louella announced as Dark Valkyria started glowing and her attack increased to 2100. "But that Spell Counter won't be around for much longer, I activate her second effect and I use it to destroy Vorse Raider!"

"Oh shit!" Charity cussed as Dark Valkyria's attack dropped back down to 1800 and she casted a spell at Vorse Raider destroying the monster. "Vernon, you realize that they have enough firepower to deal some serious damage to my life-points right?"

"Yes, I've already done the math in my head, their two monsters have a combined attack power of 3700." Vernon responded as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "If you had actually bothered to set a trap last turn you wouldn't be in this mess!"

"I DIDN'T HAVE ANY TRAP CARDS IN MY HAND MR. "I MUST CRITIZIZE MY PARTNER'S USUAL DECK AND CLAIM THAT MY BORING ASS DECK IS FAR SUPERIOR TO HERS"!" Charity snapped at him and whilst Vernon rubbed his ear in pain the other students sweat-dropped, Charity quickly followed suit once she calmed down. "Great, we're not even dating yet and we're already arguing like an old married couple!"

"I was merely stating the facts at the….." Vernon trailed off as he stopped rubbing his ear and noticed the glare Charity was giving him. "For the sake of my hearing I'm not going to finish that sentence."

"That's probably a good idea." Latoya responded with a chuckle before raising an eyebrow. "Wait, not even dating yet?" Latoya asked and Charity blushed like a madwoman.

"Err, I….." Charity trailed off before being cut off by Louella.

"Don't tell me you tried to jump on his bone as soon as you heard that he's back on the market?" Louella asked and Charity sighed in annoyance before nodding. "Oh good grief, he's not even that good looking!"

"I'm standing right here." Vernon grunted in annoyance only to be ignored by the three women.

"Give me a break, I felt sorry for the guy!" Charity groaned as she ran a hand down her face. "Besides, it's not like we had pity sex in the hallway before we came out for the duel, I was merely suggesting it!"

"You suggested having pity sex in the hallway?!" Louella asked as she tried not to burst out laughing and Charity face-faulted.

"NO!" Charity snapped at her as she got back to her feet. "And besides, if we did do that don't you think you would've heard…..well, you know…."

"Yeah, I know, and considering that Beth McKenzie is my new neighbour in Ra Yellow I've learned to block out those kind of sounds whenever her girlfriend was spending the night with her." Louella responded and Charity shook her head.

"Anyway, I was suggesting that we, as in me and Vernon, go out on a date sometime and he said that he'd answer after the duel." Charity added and Louella went to respond….

"Speaking of which." Vernon quickly interjected before Louella could respond. "Did you ladies forget about the time limit?"

"Oh shit!" Louella cussed as Trap Eater made its way over to her side of the field. "Trap Eater, Dark Valkyria, attack Charity's life-points directly!" Louella commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Charity bringing her life-points down to 4300. "I end my turn." Louella announced and Charity drew her card.

"_Okay, I just took a ton of damage thanks to Vernon forgetting about Louella's facedown card but we won our last match with lower life-points than that so this should, hopefully, be a breeze." _Charity thought before looking over her hand. _"I have nothing strong enough to defeat Trap Eater or Dark Valkyria, I'd better defend." _Charity thought before picking up two cards. "I set one card facedown and a card in defence mode to end my turn." Charity announced and Latoya drew her card.

"Hey Louella, quick question." Latoya asked as she glanced up at her partner. "Do you need Dark Valkyria for anything other than her effect?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Louella responded with a nod. "So if you plan to use her in a Synchro Summon, don't."

"Got it." Latoya responded with a nod before looking at her hand. _"At least I can use Synchro with something other than Trap Eater." _Latoya thought before playing two cards. "I set two cards facedown now, Louella, can I borrow Dark Valkyria?"

"You let me borrow Trap Eater during my last turn so I don't see why not." Louella responded as Dark Valkyria made her way to Latoya's side of the field. "Just remember what I said."

"Got it, now onto business, first I attack the monster Vernon set last turn with Trap Eater!" Latoya set the card and the Fiend Type Monster's massive tongue whipped out towards the facedown monster, revealed to be a strange, yellow mask (2/900/400) that was quickly consumed by the tuner monster. "Mask of Darkness? People still use that card?!"

"Why not? Magician of Faith has made a comeback since it came off the Forbidden List." Vernon shrugged as he retrieved the sole trap card in his graveyard. "Besides, do you have any idea how rare Taking the Bait is? I was lucky enough to get one copy in a booster pack!"

"Well, that answers my follow up question." Latoya commented before shaking her head. "Valkyria, attack his defence monster!" Latoya commanded and the monster launched her attack only for the spell to rebound. "What the?!"

"Sometimes a good defence is the best offence, just ask my good friend Giant Soldier of Stone." Vernon responded as the giant stone statue appeared on the field crouching down (3/1300/2000) whilst Latoya's life-points dropped to 7900. "Yes, I realize that this is an old card and one of the more obscure members of Yugi Mutoh's deck but a defence of 2000 is still one that can't be beat by most Level Four monsters."

"That may be true but unless you have a card that can prevent Synchro, XYZ or Tribute summons that won't last long." Latoya responded before looking over her hand. "I end my turn." Latoya announced and Vernon drew his card.

"_Perfect, this is just what I need." _Vernon thought before setting a card. "First I set a card facedown and now I tribute my Soldier to summon Cyber Tech Alligator!" Vernon played the card and Giant Soldier of Stone vanished from the field, in its place stood the humanoid alligator in red, high tech armour (5/2500/1600). "Cyber-Tech Alligator, attack Trap Eater!" Vernon commanded and the alligator sprang into action…..

"I don't think so, I activate Astral Barrier!" Latoya activated the trap and the attack went over Trap Eater and aimed for Latoya instead. "And I negate the direct attack by summoning Battle Fader!" Latoya added as the small clock like fiend appeared on the field (1/0/0).

"That was a lot of effort to go through just to keep your Tuner Monster and life-points safe." Vernon commented as Cyber-Tech Alligator returned to his side of the field. "I end my turn." Vernon announced and Louella drew her card. "And I activate Skill Drain!"

"And the award for most predictable move in Duel Academy history goes too Vernon Chan!" Latoya snarked as her other trap card flipped up. "In fact it was so predictable that I set this Trap to negate it, Seven Tools of the Bandit!"

"God damn it." Vernon cussed as his life-points dropped to 6000 whilst Latoya's life-points dropped to 7000 and his trap card shattered. "All I wanted was to bring Duel Monsters back to a simpler time with my deck but you just had to keep negating my trap!"

"Wait, that's why you run that deck?" Louella asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down her head. "Sorry to break it to you Vernon but unless your deck can travel through time those simpler times won't be coming back."

"Not to mention the fact that there were plenty of Effect Monsters around back during Yugi's prime." Latoya added and Vernon winced. "They just weren't as prevalent as they are today."

"A guy can dream, can't he?!" Vernon protested and the girls shook their heads.

"Dreaming big is good but dreaming so big to the point of your dreams being unrealistic? Yeah, get new dreams Vernon." Louella responded before playing a card. "Anyway back to business, I summon Blazewing Butterfly!" Louella played the card and the butterfly from her previous duel appeared on the field (4/1500/1500). "Next I activate Supervise allowing me to activate Blazewing's Gemini Mode!" Louella played the card and Blazewing glowing for a few seconds before disappearing. "I use its effect to summon one of the monsters I discarded for Heaven's Lost Property last turn, Tuned Magician, with its Gemini Mode active!"

"Why do I get the feeling that I know what's coming next?" Vernon asked as Tuned Magician appeared on the field (4/1800/1600).

"Hey my moves may be predictable but at least their fun to watch! Anyway since Blazewing Butterfly was just sent to the graveyard with Supervise equipped to it I can bring it back as a normal monster." Louella responded as the butterfly returned to the field. "More on that in a second, I'm tuning Tuned Magician with Dark Valkyria to summon my ace!"

"Black Brutdrago." Vernon commented with a frown as the two monsters went through the Synchro Summon and the massive black dragon appeared on the field (8/3000/2800). "Your monster doesn't scare me!"

"He's about to give you a reason to be scared! I active Brutdrago's effect! By sending a Gemini Monster from my hand to the graveyard I can target your Cyber Tech Alligator!" Louella announced as she sent the monster to the graveyard and Cyber Tech Alligator started glowing. "Now Brutdrago, turn that alligator into alligator shoes!"

"I think you mean Crocodile shoes." Vernon corrected her as Brutdrago breathed fire at the alligator destroying him and bringing Vernon's life-points down to 5500.

"If I were you I'd be more worried about your life-points, since I just sent a monster targeted by Brutdrago's effect to the graveyard I can use his effect to bring back Tuned Magician, complete with his Gemini Mode active!" Louella added as Tuned Magician returned to the field. "Tuned Magician, Blazewing, attack his life-points directly!" Louella commanded and the two monsters launched their attacks at Vernon bringing his life-points down to 2200.

"Not a problem, I'm still in this!" Vernon said confidently but his confidence quickly vanished when Louella's facedown card flipped up. "URGENT TUNING?!"

"That's right! And I have more than one copy of Brutdrago!" Louella responded as the two monsters went through the Synchro Summon causing another Brutdrago to appear on the field. "Any last words before I finish you off Vernon?"

"Can my luck get any worse at this point?" Vernon complained as the dragon breathed fire at him bringing his life-points down to zero. "Charity, they have more than enough firepower to finish you off, I think you know where I'm going here."

"Your right." Charity sighed to herself before surrendering. "I knew I should've stuck to my old deck."

"Here are your winners, Louella Schneider and Latoya Conley!" Martin announced and the crowd cheered. "That marks the end of the second round and tomorrow the third round will start, however it will also end on the same day." Martin added causing looks of confusion between the qualified students. "Each team that has qualified for the third round must nominate a representative, that duellist will compete with the others in a battle royal style duel that will determine the fourth round's matches!"

"He can't be serious!" Chelsea exclaimed as her eyes widened. "Chloe, that means that either of us will have to face either Cameron, Jessica or Thomas at the same time."

"And something tells me that Thomas won't let Rajin get a say in the matter." Chloe responded with a frown.

"Here's how it'll work, the first representative eliminated will face the second as will the next two teams, the third to last representative eliminated will go straight to the fifth round, the second to last team eliminated will go to the next round whilst the last two teams will compete in a match to determine who will go through to the finals." Martin explained and the crowd cheered. "I expect each team to confirm their nominations with me by the end of the day otherwise your choice will be made for you."

"Okay, we'd better talk strategy." Brandon said as he turned to the others. "Chloe, you've faced Cameron and Thomas before so I think you should represent your team."

"Err, Brandon, you realize that that will just cause them to team up on her right?" Chelsea responded with a wince and Brandon nodded.

"Don't worry, I have it covered." Brandon responded with a nod. "Theresa, you protected Chloe during the Battle Royal in the Battle City Semi-Finals, think you can do it again?"

"I know I can." Theresa responded with a confident nod. "What about you Lance?"

"Are you kidding? She's my girlfriend now, I'll have her back." Lance responded with a grin and a thumbs up. "I'll have to chat with Evan about it but he likes Chloe and hates Cameron and Jessica, he shouldn't have a problem with it."

"That just leaves the Troy's." Andreas commented as he folded his arms. "Theresa, do you think you can talk with them at some point today?"

"Provided that they haven't made their minds up already I shouldn't have a problem." Theresa responded with a nod. "That just leaves two teams, the team that just qualified and Amelia's team, unfortunately I don't know either team that well."

"Hold on, we haven't even asked if Chloe wants to represent the team yet." Chelsea protested and Chloe put her hand up.

"Chelsea, I made my mind up, I'm representing the team in the next round." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded reluctantly. "You may not like it but if I can get us through to the finals we won't have a problem."

"You realize that that's easier said than done, right?" Chelsea responded and Chloe nodded. "Okay, I may not like this but I don't have any better ideas so I guess we're set."

"Right, I'll try to find Evan and chat with him, afterwards I'll meet you guys at Martin's office." Lance responded as he and the other students stood up and left the arena.


	117. Best of the Best

A few hours had passed since the last duel of the second round and it hadn't taken long for the remaining duellists to nominate themselves, only thing was that they had to wait outside Martin's office until he was ready to see them.

"Man, that lesson ran long." Chloe groaned as she stretched her arms, she was walking with Chelsea and Nicola as they had just gotten out of Duel Theory which featured a match between Chelsea and Nicola that ran throughout the entire class. "Can't believe the class ended just as you were about to win with an Armoury Arm/Honest assisted Wattchimera attacking Rainbow Dragon."

"I know right?" Chelsea asked with a frown as she turned to her roommate. "It's no secret that I hate losing but I hate my victories being interrupted by outside forces beyond my control."

"Don't worry, I'll get you next time." Nicola responded with a grin and Chelsea shook her head. "Seriously though, that was fun! We should definitely have a rematch outside of class."

"Now you're speaking my language!" Chelsea responded with a grin which Nicola returned. "I guess the only thing is whether or not we should go through official channels."

"You mean with a Duel Request Form?" Nicola asked with a frown and Chelsea nodded. "Let's not, the few times I have used one of those things my requests always get refused by Maria due to my poor handwriting."

"Seriously?" Chloe asked and Nicola nodded.

"Just blame the fact that I'm a lot more comfortable writing on a computer than with a pen and paper." Nicola shrugged as the three girls neared Martin's office. "So do you know who's going to represent you guys in tomorrow's match?"

"I am, we made that decision shortly after the match was announced." Chloe responded with a grin only for the grin to disappear when she heard a familiar male voice scoff. "I was hoping to avoid you Tom."

"That's Thomas too you!" Thomas Newborne responded angrily as he approached the three girls. "And since you are representing your pathetic little team this is perfect! I can get my revenge for the injustice you inflicted upon me."

"Thomas is representing his team, what a fucking shock." Chelsea muttered under her breath sarcastically and Thomas glared at her. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Rajin never got a say in the matter."

"You'll treat me with respect Cunningham!" Thomas demanded and Chelsea glared at him.

"Here's a reality check for you Tommy!" Chelsea responded and Thomas growled. "You can't just demand respect, you have to earn it and so far you've done nothing to earn it from me, Chloe or any of our friends!"

"What? Being your better doesn't earn respect automatically?" Thomas scoffed and Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"Considering that the last team we beat are now both in Obelisk Blue, not really." Chelsea responded and Thomas rolled his eyes.

"Andreas wasn't even in Obelisk Blue at the time and Damien? He's not exactly in the same league as the likes of myself, Cameron, Jessica, the Kaiba siblings, Brandon or Theresa." Thomas responded as he folded his arms. "Call me when you idiots beat an Obelisk Blue Student that's worth a damn."

"I would since I kicked your ass once but I don't have your number nor do I want it." Chloe responded with a grin on her face and Thomas fumed when he heard that.

"You cheated in that match, we both know it!" Thomas responded and Chloe glared at him.

"That's not what she told me." Nicola chimed in and Thomas turned to her. "She told me that you practically gift wrapped a Tuner Monster for her to use against you and only complained after she beat you with Colossal Fighter!"

"If I wanted the opinion of a re….." Thomas went to insult Nicola but Chelsea quickly grabbed him by the collar of his blazer.

"YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT FINISHING THAT SENTENCE AND I'LL FIND A WAY TO SHOVE YOUR HEAD UP YOUR ASS WITHOUT BREAKING YOUR SPINE!" Chelsea threatened him and Thomas started sweating bullets.

"What's going on here?!" A familiar voice rang out and the girls looked up seeing Tracy emerge from her office. "Well?"

"Nothing, we were just minding our own business when this jackass decided to interrupt us for the sole purpose of being a prick." Chelsea responded as she let go off Thomas. "Things only escalated when he almost called Nicola that R word." Chelsea added and Tracy frowned once she got the idea "Ask Chloe and Nicola, they'll back me up."

"Is she telling the truth girls?" Tracy asked as she turned to Chloe and Nicola.

"Aside from leaving out most of the argument we had, yeah she is." Chloe responded with a nod as did Nicola. "Really, before he almost insulted Nicola he was practically trying to brag about the size of his microscopic penis." Chloe added and Chelsea burst out laughing when she heard that, Thomas, obviously, wasn't amused.

"I'll have you know that I could pleasure you in ways that your new boyfriend can't even dream off!" Thomas protested and Chelsea just laughed harder whilst Chloe rolled her eyes. "If you had any decent taste in men…."

"I still wouldn't go out with you because boys who can't take a loss, especially when it's to a girl like me, aren't boys I normally go for." Chloe interrupted him and Thomas growled.

"You little bitch…." Thomas grunted as Chloe glared at him. "I knew trying to deliberately get either Chloe or Chelsea in trouble so they'd miss tomorrow's match was a bad idea but did Cameron and Jessica listen…..I just realized that I really should've muttered that under my breath."

"Is that a fact?" Tracy asked as she marched up to the students and got in between Chloe, Chelsea and Thomas. "Chelsea, Chloe, do you have anything else you need to do in the Main Building?"

"Duel Theory was our last class, I just need to make sure Martin knows that Chloe's representing the team tomorrow." Chelsea responded and Tracy nodded.

"Go ahead and do that then, I'll deal with Thomas." Tracy responded and Thomas went to protest. "Normally I'd punish her for losing her temper/threating to force someone to do yoga…..and I'm pretty sure that no one's ever said "threatening to force someone to do yoga" before…..but considering what you almost called the school's only autistic student and the fact that you deliberately tried to get another student in trouble when she did nothing wrong I consider it a fair trade off."

"You can't honestly be showing favouritism to Ra Yellow and Osiris Red Students…." Thomas protested as Chelsea walked past him and Chelsea scoffed.

"Oh yeah, because when the school shows bias towards Obelisk Blue it's perfectly okay but show bias towards the other dorms and suddenly the teachers are in the wrong?" Chelsea asked only to get a nasty glare from Tracy.

"Chelsea…." Tracy warned her and Chelsea sweat-dropped.

"Going, going." Chelsea responded with a nervous laugh as the three girls quickly left the scene, once they were out of earshot from the two of them Chelsea burst out laughing. "Man that was so worth it!"

"Worth potentially getting in trouble for?" Chloe asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Says the girl who had the balls, so to speak, to call a guy's penis microscopic to his face?" Chelsea pointed out and Chloe grinned at that. "Seriously, I'm really regretting not taking a picture of the look on his face when you said that."

"It's a good thing I did." Nicola responded as she pocketed her IPhone and the other girls gave her an odd look. "What? I wanted to get revenge on him somehow for nearly calling me….you know…."

"Don't tell me, your gonna post that on the Duel Academy website and forums?" Chloe asked with a grin and Nicola nodded with a big grin on her face. "And I thought Chelsea was ruthless."

"Nah, she aint as ruthless as me, for one thing if I knew that you were gonna say that I would've taped it on my IPhone and posted it to YouTube." Chelsea responded as the three girls walked down the hallway. "Seriously though, you realize that that thread will be locked within minutes of the admins seeing it right?"

"That's still long enough for word to get out considering how small the island is." Nicola responded with a grin as they neared Martin's office. "Before you go meet with Martin can I ask you guys something? I'll make it as quick as I can since I know that you only have until the end of the day."

"Go ahead, we have plenty of time." Chloe responded once she checked her watch and Nicola grinned.

"Okay, well, there's this boy I really like, as in developing a crush on him." Nicola started as she blushed a bit. "I don't want to reveal his name because I don't him to overhear this…."

"It's Andreas isn't it?" Chelsea asked and Nicola face-faulted. "Nicola, you had a wet dream about him, I think the secrecy boat has sailed long ago, just saying."

"And I'm just saying that it wasn't nearly as dirty as I was making it sound." Nicola responded as she got up and Chelsea gave her a curious look. "Honestly, it wasn't even dirty at all, can't a girl have a dream where she and her male friend are naked and on…..I'm going to shut up before someone else hears me."

"Smart move." Chelsea said as she tried not to laugh. "What did you want to ask?"

"Well, obviously you are both in relationships, differences in sexuality aside, any tips for a girl who's never dated before?" Nicola asked and Chloe and Chelsea looked at her confused. "Yeah, I know, I'm a good looking girl who's never dated anyone before but well, having autism makes social interactions difficult."

"You're not having any problems now." Chelsea pointed out and Nicola shook her head.

"I'm talking about before I duelled Andreas back in Battle City." Nicola responded as she folded her arms. "Just ask Andreas how I acted before and after the duel, he'll be happy to tell you how socially awkward I was."

"Point taken." Chelsea admitted before shaking her head. "Before we go any further, does it look like he shares your feelings?"

"Looks like it, hell we were this close to kissing right before the duels started earlier but Marcus interrupted us." Nicola responded before rubbing the back of her head nervously. "He caught me in the middle of the "he loves me not" routine but instead of using a flower I used my deck, problem was that I ended up dropping the deck."

"Good grief, I haven't done that since I was a kid, except I actually used a flower." Chelsea responded with a small grin. "You want my advice? Try to get Andreas alone, see if he's still interested and if he is pick up from where you left off." Chelsea added and Nicola grinned. "Now if you decide to take it a bit further and actually rein act the wet dream…" Chelsea trailed off and Nicola face-faulted.

"For the last time, I WASN'T HAVING DREAM SEX WITH ANDREAS!" Nicola asserted only to cover her mouth when she realized what she had said in the presence of several other students. "If you want me I'll be hiding in my dorm room for the rest of the day." Nicola sighed as Chloe helped her up and she quickly walked off.

"Did you really have to say that?" Chloe sighed as the rest of the students, aside from a couple of chuckles from the immature ones, resumed what they were doing and Chelsea shook her head.

"I didn't know that she was going to say that out-loud." Chelsea asserted and Chloe frowned. "Look, I'll stop by her dorm room later and check on her, I'll even apologize for unintentionally embarrassing her, deal?"

"Deal, now let's get our involvement in the Battle Royal sorted out." Chloe responded before they approached the office and saw several of their friends there, however Chloe caught a conversation between Kimberly and Nathan, who were sitting opposite each other that caught her attention. "Sorry to interrupt but let me get this straight." Chloe said with an amused grin as she turned to Kimberly who had a big grin on her face. "Cameron and Jessica actually argued over who should represent their team tomorrow?"

"Yep, I could hear them arguing from my dorm room whilst me and Nathan were deciding on who should represent our team and my dorm room is nowhere near Jessica's." Kimberly responded before shaking her head. "According to my friends they had makeup sex once the argument ended."

"Wait, where your friends spying on them making out?!" Chelsea asked with a cheeky grin on her face and Kimberly laughed before shaking her head.

"Nah, the walls in the Obelisk Blue Girl's Dorm are really thin, you could hear a pin drop from across the dorm." Kimberly responded as she shook her head. "They said they heard Jessica and Cameron moaning in between Jessica shouting "harder, harder, right up the ass" and my personal favourite "punish me, I've been a bad girl" and put two and two together."

"I could've gone my whole life without knowing what Jessica Stevens shouts out during sex and been a lot happier, thanks." Chloe moaned as a massive sweat-drop rolled down her head and Kimberly put her hands up defensively.

"I'm just the messenger here, anyway I don't know what they said after they had sex but Cameron stopped by the office alone, I think it's safe to say that he's representing their team." Kimberly responded and Chloe frowned at that. "So who's representing you and Chelsea?"

"I am, I know they're likely to gang up on me but I don't care, I have unfinished business with Thomas and Cameron." Chloe responded with a look of determination on her face. "Any idea about who's representing the other teams?"

"Latoya's representing the team that won the last match and Amelia's representing the team that got a free pass." Kimberly responded before looking around. "By the way, where's your boyfriend?"

"He's trying to convince Evan to let him represent the team in the match tomorrow." Chloe responded as she leaned back. "He sent me a text once I got out of Hamden's class saying that he had a class to get too but didn't say if he had convinced Evan or not."

"Why is Lance being so secretive?" Chelsea asked with an annoyed look on her face and Chloe shook her head.

"The text mentioned that he was late for class so it's likely that he just rushed through it." Chloe answered and Chelsea nodded. "Considering how short the last match was I'm surprised that he ended up late to class, especially considering how close the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm is to the Main Building."

"Evan can be really stubborn sometimes, what can I say?" Lance's voice rang out and they looked up seeing Lance approaching them, or more specifically Chloe, he shared a quick kiss with Chloe before sitting down. "Besides, I wasn't that late to the class, only by a couple of minutes' tops."

"That's good to know." Chloe responded with a grin before moving over to the vacant seat next to her boyfriend. "Did Evan relent in the end?"

"Yeah, I just had to point out that two of your enemies where in the match and that the fact that they would gang up on you was inevitable." Lance responded before frowning. "But he did bring up a good point."

"What point?" Chelsea asked as she turned to him.

"Why are we so worried about Cameron and Thomas ganging up on Chloe?" Lance asked and the others gave him odd looks. "Think about it, when she competed in the Battle City Battle Royal a few months back she was triple teamed by Axel, Eddie and Otto and only had Theresa around to have her back, though that went out the window pretty quickly, here? She only has Cameron and Thomas to worry about and me, Theresa, Kimberly, and basically anyone in the match who hates Cameron and Thomas."

"At this point Lance it's harder to list students who don't hate those pricks." Chelsea pointed out and Lance nodded.

"Good point but even still, she gets on fine with the other competitors." Lance responded and Chloe shook her head.

"Aren't you forgetting something else Lance?" Chloe asked as she looked up at her boyfriend. "In Battle City the only duellist with any animosity towards me was Otto, for the others it was nothing personal, Thomas and Cameron on the other hand both hate my guts."

"And let's face it, Cameron hates you because he's an elitist prick who you would've beaten if he hadn't taken a cheap shot at your family whilst Thomas hates you because he's an elitist prick that you actually defeated." Chelsea responded as she folded her arms. "They have similar motives for wanting to make your life hell is what I'm saying."

"Not to mention the argument we had with him on the way over." Chloe responded as she shook her head. "Seriously, I beat that asshole once in a duel without using my ace monster and I turned him into an enemy for life? Has that guy even heard of appropriate response?"

"Go back to that argument you had with him." Theresa said with a raised eyebrow and Chloe sighed.

"Me, Chelsea and Nicola had just gotten out of Duel Theory and we were on our way here to make our decision regarding tomorrow's match official, I think Nicola just tagged along since we were in the middle of a conversation as we exited the class." Chloe said as she leaned back. "We would've gotten here sooner but Thomas decided to be an asshole."

"Chloe, you realize that you just implied that there are times when Thomas isn't an asshole right?" Chelsea asked her roommate and Chloe sweat-dropped. "I'll take over from here, at first it was just typical trash talk but then the subject of the match they had right before the Duel Spirit duels came up and things escalated from there."

"What do you mean escalated?" Brandon asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Exactly what it sounds like, Thomas went as far to say that he could pleasure Chloe in ways Lance couldn't….." Chelsea trailed off as Lance barely contained his laughter. "And Chloe retorted that she doubted it since he has a microscopic penis." Chelsea added and Lance nearly fell out of his chair with laughter.

"Oh my god, I wish I had been there to see the look on his face." Lance said in between fits of laughter and Chloe grinned.

"Luckily for you Nicola took a picture of it and plans on posting it on the forums and website, I don't think it'll take long for the thread to be locked but it should be long enough for you to see it." Chloe responded and Lance grinned.

"As funny as your retort was, let's get back on track." Theresa chimed in and Chloe turned to her. "Aside from apparently insulting Lance's prowess in the bedroom what else did he say?"

"Usual bullshit about how I cheated when I beat him, except when Nicola backed me up he almost called her a retard." Chloe sighed and Theresa frowned at that. "I know he didn't say it but his words were "If I wanted the opinion of a re…." and considering who we're talking about I don't think there's much room for interpretation there."

"Your right, there isn't." Theresa agreed with a nod. "I'm guessing Chelsea cut him off."

"By threatening to shove his head up his ass." Chelsea said calmly and the others sweat-dropped. "Oh come on, you know that's hardly the first time I threatened another student."

"Yeah but that's the first time I've heard that particular threat used by anyone, let alone you." Brandon responded before shaking his head. "I swear to god Chelsea, you're going to get yourself in serious trouble one of these days."

"Don't you think I know that?" Chelsea asked as she folded her arms. "My temper got me expelled from three schools and caused one school to not even consider accepting me as soon as they saw my name on the app form, it got to the point where my parents' choices were either home schooling or, well, this school."

"Yeah, I know, you've told us before." Brandon responded before realizing something. "You have any idea what might have caused your violent mood swings Chelsea?" Brandon asked and Chelsea shrugged.

"Beats me, my mom thinks I inherited it from my dad but that doesn't explain my four other siblings, aside from me Jamie has the worst temper in my family but she keeps it under control when she isn't in the middle of a dinner service." Chelsea added before shaking her head. "Besides, I don't remember asking you to analyse me like a shrink would."

"I'm not, I'm just trying to be helpful." Brandon insisted and Chelsea shook her head.

"Do me a favour and don't, I've seen god knows how many psychiatrists since I hit puberty and the only thing they gave me were pills that didn't help with my temper at all and a headache!" Chelsea responded with an annoyed grunt and Brandon sighed in defeat.

"Err, sorry to interrupt." Martin's secretary chimed in and the students looked up at the petite, cute blonde who had been typing away at her desktop computer this whole time. "But Martin's ready to see the next team."

"Go ahead babe." Lance told Chloe as he rested his hands behind his head. "Lady's first and all that."

"Thanks Lance." Chloe said with a grin before giving him a quick peck on the cheek and standing up. "Coming Chelsea?"

"As long as it won't take too long, sure." Chelsea responded with a nod as she stood up, the two girls entered Martin's office and closed the door behind them. "I think you know why we're here."

"Well, unless it's about that argument you had with Thomas Newborne or tomorrow's match then no, I don't." Martin sighed as he looked up at them and Chelsea winced. "Don't worry, Tracy filled me in on the details whilst you waited and he will get punished for his actions, I can assure you of that, now which one of you is representing the team tomorrow?"

"I am." Chloe responded and Martin nodded before writing it down. "I have unfinished business with both Thomas and Cameron and as I understand it they are representing their teams tomorrow."

"You are correct about that, yes." Martin nodded as he set the pen down. "I understand if you have any concerns about Thomas and Cameron ganging up on you Chloe but please understand that this duel were set in place long before the match-ups were announced, we've been planning this tournament since the Battle City finals."

"And it still got delayed several times before the tournament actually started." Chelsea responded as she rolled her eyes and Martin sighed.

"Well we did need to make sure that all the students we had paired up could actually compete, regardless of whether they were expelled or had their souls captured." Martin responded and the two girls shared an uneasy look when he mentioned those events. "Now, is there anything else or can I move on? I still have to hear from Lance's team about who's representing them before I can post it on the DA Website."

"Just one quick question, the time limit will be dropped for this round, right?" Chloe asked and Martin chuckled.

"If I had a dollar for every time a student in the Battle Royal asked that question I could retire early." Martin responded before shaking his head. "The time limit will only be used for Round 2, however the order of play will still be decided by me going forward."

"That's a relief, I could barely keep track of the limit during our match against Andreas and Damien." Chloe commented with a relieved sigh. "Well, I guess we're off then." Chloe added as she made her way towards the door alongside Chelsea.

"Oh Chelsea, do you have a moment?" Martin asked and the Chicago native turned to him with a look on confusion on her face. "It won't take long and don't worry, you're not in trouble."

"Yeah, I've heard that line so many times since I hit puberty that it isn't even funny." Chelsea said as she rolled her eyes. "And it's usually because I'm in trouble."

"Well, unlike all the others who said that line to you, I'm being honest." Martin responded and Chelsea frowned.

"_Fuck it, I may as well humour him." _Chelsea thought before turning to Chloe. "I'll catch up with you back at the dorm room Chloe, all right?"

"Sure." Chloe responded before leaving the room and shutting the door behind her, as Chelsea sat down she heard Chloe telling Lance that Martin wanted to speak with Chelsea and she raised an eyebrow.

"Those walls are pretty fucking thin, aren't they?" Chelsea asked as she folded her arms. "I mean, Lance is nowhere near the office door."

"Indeed, I've been trying to get the board of directors to approve soundproofing this and the other offices but it's just a question of funding." Martin responded before frowning. "On the other hand the walls being so thin has its advantages, like being able to overhear rants from promising but troubled students like you."

"_Son of a bitch, I should've known!" _Chelsea thought with a frown. "If you're going to suggest that I see the shrinks that Duel Academy employs don't bother, how exactly could they help me where so many others have failed?"

"You haven't even met them yet." Martin responded and Chelsea scoffed.

"Trust me teach, I'm talking from experience." Chelsea responded and Martin frowned. "You met one psychologist, you've met them all and besides, I'm handling my anger issues just fine on my own?"

"Oh really?" Martin asked before reaching into his draw and retrieving a large folder with Chelsea's picture on it, namely the one that was on Duel Academy's website that was taken when she was still in Osiris Red. "Do you know how many incident reports related to your temper are in here Cunningham?"

"Is that a trick question?" Chelsea asked before it hit her. "So what if there's been a few complaints about my temper? I'm not exactly the only student here with a short temper!"

"No but you're the only one who not only has a history of violence but a juvenile record related to your temper." Martin responded and Chelsea's frown deepened. "Your parents had to promise us that you'd be on your best behaviour during your stay at the school in order for us to even consider accepting the application but the number of reports here tell a different story."

"And just how many of the reports are about incidents that were either caused by other students or by my life-points being in the red during a duel?" Chelsea asked and Martin hesitated. "Well?"

"The majority of them." Martin responded and Chelsea leaned back with a satisfied grin. "And I know what you're going to say next, that the most violent you've been since you started here was during a duel and that you never even considered turning off the safeties."

"Well, yeah, do I look stupid?" Chelsea asked and Martin shook his head.

"Far from it, all your teachers have nothing but high praise for you, myself included." Martin responded as he put the folder away. "We realize that you're a bright girl with an even brighter future in both Duel Monsters and technology once we get past your temper but said temper is a major hurdle."

"Yeah, I know, I've been told that more times than I can fucking count." Chelsea grunted in annoyance as she stared at him. "What's your point?"

"It isn't obvious?" Martin asked and Chelsea frowned. "Your future may be bright but if you continue down the route you are taking said bright future will be nothing but a dream, as I said, Tracy sent me the incident report after her chat with Thomas but that was the closest you've gotten to a physical altercation and if Tracy hadn't come out of her office when she did then who knows what would've happened?"

"If you read the incident report then you know that he was asking for it." Chelsea pointed out as she shifted her weight. "And if it had escalated then I would be saying the same thing."

"Except you'd be facing your second expulsion duel." Martin responded and the confident look on Chelsea's face disappeared in an instant. "I suppose you've heard what happens to students after their second expulsion duel if they win?"

"Automatic 30 day suspension." Chelsea responded with a frown. "Is that why you wanted to chat? To warn me that I was on thin ice?"

"Essentially yes." Martin responded with a nod. "You may go, however there is one thing to keep in mind and that's the fact that just because Chloe's representing your team doesn't mean you won't be on the arena floor, same applies to the other students."

"And that's on the off chance that their team is one of the last two standing, right?" Chelsea asked and Martin nodded which Chelsea took as her cue to stand up and leave. "If that's everything I'm off back to my dorm room."

"You may go but please tell Lance that I'm ready to see him." Martin responded and Chelsea nodded before leaving. _"I hope she takes our chat to heart, hate to see such a promising student's potential wasted like that." _Martin thought before shaking his head. _"She's smart, I'm sure she will." _Martin thought before there was a knock at the door.

*meanwhile*

Whilst the students who were still in the tournament were busy preparing for tomorrow's match two of the eliminated students were still in Tyler's dorm room at the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm going over what Tyler had discovered the previous night.

"Tyler, are you absolutely sure this is correct?" Miranda asked after a few minutes of reading through the article. "Her dad lied to her once and from what Theresa told me she took it pretty hard."

"Hard enough for her to consider dropping out of the Battle City tournament and giving up Duel Monsters." Tyler responded with a frown on his face as he nodded. "Fortunately Jeff was able to get her out of her funk in time for the finals but if she finds this out?"

"She might not take it quite as hard." Miranda responded and Tyler gave her a curious look. "Look, according to Theresa when she found about the first lie it came from her biological dad's mouth and by all accounts he was a horrible human being."

"That doesn't even begin to describe it." Tyler responded with a sad sigh as he shook his head. "I haven't seen it but she has a large scar on her right arm that starts from the shoulder and goes down to her elbow, it was apparently caused by her dad and broken glass from a broken beer bottle and he apparently intended for the scar to go down to her hand."

"Jesus…." Miranda trailed off with a look of disgust on her face. "Still, as horrible as it is, it lends credence to my idea, since her biological dad was walking proof that there should be a parenting test before anyone can be allowed to breed she gets along well with both of us."

"I think I get what you're saying." Tyler responded with a nod. "She might take it easier if we break the news to her but that still leaves the question of how we go about it, especially considering her trust issues."

"Leave that to me, I'll come up with…." Miranda trailed off when there was a knock at the door and the step-siblings turned to the door. "You want to get it or should I?"

"Allow me." Tyler responded before standing up and walking over to the door, he opened it but saw no one on the other side. "Odd."

"Maybe someone was knocking on Daniel's door?" Miranda asked and Tyler shook his head.

"The walls in the Boys' Dorm aren't as thin as the ones in the Girls' Dorm and even if they were Daniel had to go home for a few days due to a family emergency." Tyler responded before spotting something on the back of his door. "Someone left a note?"

"This is getting weird, I thought the fact that the students in all three dorms are close like family was true among all dorms?" Miranda asked and Tyler nodded.

"It is, especially here, when Daniel explained why he was leaving the island for a few days we pooled together to get him a card, as in a greetings card, wishing him a safe journey home, even Thomas and Cameron chipped in on it." Tyler responded before grabbing the note and reading it. "Tyler, Miranda, be at the first clearing on the north side before midnight or more souls will be stolen." Tyler read the note aloud and the siblings' expressions darkened.

"Those Orichalcos creeps are at it again?" Miranda asked and Tyler nodded as he scrunched up the note. "Just how many agents do they have?"

"How long is a piece of sting?" Tyler retorted as he threw the note in the trash and grabbed his duel disk. "I noticed that you don't have your duel disk with you?"

"My new one's being looked at by the IT Techs, it broke down during a practice duel with it." Miranda said with a frown. "Luckily my old duel disk still works and has my deck in it, unfortunately its back at my dorm room."

"Okay, that could be a problem if they use the new Pendulum Monsters." Tyler responded with a frown and Miranda shook her head.

"It won't be, my deck hasn't changed and last I checked my skills as a duellist haven't degraded since my team was eliminated." Miranda responded with a confident grin on her face. "How about we meet up outside the main building?"

"Good, it'll give me time to text the others and tell them what's going on." Tyler responded as the siblings left the dorm room. _"I just hope Miranda's right." _Tyler thought with a frown as they walked down the hallway. "Miranda, I'm going to text the others so that they know about the situation."

"Thus allowing them to give us support." Miranda responded before pausing. "Stop me if I'm wrong but the Orichalcos can't be destroyed once it's played right?"

"Exactly." Tyler nodded in response and Miranda frowned as they exited the boy's dorm. "Also the monsters and damage are both real, be careful."

"Thanks for the heads-up." Miranda responded before heading in the direction of the south side of the island and Tyler got his phone out.

*meanwhile*

Whilst that was going on the other students who were active in opposing the Orichalcos were back in their dorm rooms including Chloe, she was at her Desktop Computer going through a popular Fanfiction site.

"MPreg Scar/Simba slash fic?!" Chloe wondered out loud not noticing that the door to her room had just opened and that her roommate was standing by the dorm. "Who writes this stuff?!"

"Girls with way too much time on their hands." Chelsea commented as she closed the door behind her and Chloe glanced up from her desktop. "Didn't know you were into Fanfics." Chelsea commented and Chloe shrugged.

"Eh, I read but I don't write and besides, I mostly stick to stuff I like such as The Lion King or any Disney Renascence film." Chloe responded as she closed the tab. "How did the chat with Martin go?"

"Not well." Chelsea responded with a frown and Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Let me put it this way, when he said that I wasn't in trouble he may as well have had a big fucking neon sign above his head with the words "I'm a big fucking liar" on it."

"It couldn't have been that bad right? I think I would've heard if my roommate was being punished for something." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea nodded.

"Yeah, technically I'm not in trouble for the incident with Thomas back in the Main Building, the convo I had with him was about my notoriously short temper though." Chelsea responded as she folded her arms. "But if I had punched him like I was planning too before Tracy interrupted us I would be facing my second expulsion duel."

"You're kidding?!" Chloe asked with a look of surprise on her face and Chelsea shook her head. "Look I'm not usually one to play Devil's Advocate when it comes to my friends but since the convo was about your temper he did have a point."

"Don't you think I know that?!" Chelsea snapped at her and Chloe winced. "Sorry, it's a touchy issue and I'm just glad that he ended the convo after he brought that up."

"Yeah, I can see why." Chloe responded with a nod before sighing. "And I'm sorry, I know it's a touchy subject but I just don't want to see one of the first friends I made when I joined this school get expelled."

"Hey I hear ya but don't worry, I've already achieved one of the goals I set for myself when I officially joined the school, namely claiming my rightful place in Ra Yellow, and right now I'm focussing on my other goal." Chelsea responded and Chloe blinked.

"Do I even need to ask what the other goal is?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"Nah but I'll say it anyway, my other goal is leaving the school on my own terms." Chelsea responded with a frown. "Getting expelled from one school was bad enough for me, especially since it forced me to end my first lesbian relationship, but three in a row? It didn't exactly do wonders for my self-esteem, that's all I'm saying."

"You don't seem like you have any self-esteem issues." Chloe pointed out and Chelsea shook her head.

"I'm good at hiding it, besides my self-esteem issues aren't that severe." Chelsea responded before shaking her head. "Besides, you know what will happen to me if I'm expelled from Duel Academy and I really don't want to go over it again so can we change the subject?"

"Sure." Chloe responded before realizing something. "Come to think of it you never talk about your first girlfriend, what was she like?"

"She was awesome, that's what, the only reason I never talked about her is because she never came up." Chelsea said before sighing. "Her name was Kaylee, I met her at a high school party and one of the other students had snuck some alcohol into the party so it got pretty wild pretty fast."

"I bet." Chloe responded with a grin. "What happened at the party? That was when you were still straight right?"

"Yeah, I went to the party with my boyfriend at the time, the one I talked about before? Anyway I could handle my alcohol a lot better than he could so he was passed out within two hours, Kaylee ended up keeping me company as I was introduced to her through a friend and well one to many drinks later she suggested that we go have some fun in the bedroom, didn't exactly take me long to figure out what she meant." Chelsea responded before shaking her head. "Her initial idea was waking up my boyfriend and taking him up with us but he was too far gone by that point so we went up on our own."

"So you were a lesbian fresh out of the closet and she was bi-sexual, am I reading that right?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded.

"That's pretty much it except for one thing, I did experiment with bi-sexuality for a couple of weeks before I realized that I was a lot happier with a girlfriend than a boyfriend, I came out of the closet the same week with her support." Chelsea said before sighing. "She also got me into heavy metal and it looked like we were a match made in heaven, then I got expelled and whilst we did try to make it work when my parents made the decision to move to Domino she made it clear that her parents couldn't afford to move that far and well, we kind off realized that long distance relations just don't work so we broke up on friendly terms."

"That sucks." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded in agreement. "Do you keep in contact with her? And what about your boyfriend at the time?"

"Yeah, I keep in contact with her, she's got a boyfriend now and he seems like a nice enough guy." Chelsea responded before frowning. "As for my ex, well, he was pissed that he missed out on a three-way with me and Kaylee and unfortunately it didn't end on good terms…." Chelsea trailed off before noticing the confused luck on Chloe's face. "Don't tell me you never heard of the fact that it's every straight man's dream to have sex with two women at the same time?"

"I didn't even have a boyfriend until this past weekend, what do you think?" Chloe asked and Chelsea nodded. "So I'm just going to take your word for it."

"Chloe trust me, try going up to Lance and telling him that another girl wants to join in on your first time with him and watch his face light up like a Christmas tree, and he'll be doing victory laps around the island guaranteed." Chelsea responded and Chloe shook her head.

"I think I'll pass." Chloe responded with a giggle.

"Anyway, luckily for us he wasn't much of a duellist so I doubt the possibility of those Orichalcos creeps recruiting him." Chelsea added hoping to get the conversation back on track.

"That's a relief." Chloe responded before remembering something. "Did you stop by Nicola's dorm room on the way over by any chance?" Chloe asked and Chelsea shook her head.

"I was planning too before the convo but I didn't want to risk snapping at her like I snapped at you." Chelsea responded before sitting down. "My plan is to give myself two hours at most before I pay Nicola a visit, that should give me more than enough time for my temper to cool down."

"And what are you going to do in the mean time? Play some Total War?" Chloe asked as Chelsea sat down and booted up her laptop, after a few minutes she recognized the menu music from Rome: Total War and raised an eyebrow. "You're playing a game where your goal is to conquer the world in order to calm down? I thought you said that you had uninstalled the first Rome: Total War to make room for Total War: Attila anyway?"

"I did and make no mistake, I am playing Rome 2 I just have a mod installed that makes it so that the game plays the first Rome game's menu music instead of the infinitely inferior Rome 2 menu music." Chelsea responded as she clicked on some options. "And besides, conquering the world is a great stress reliever, now, do I conquer the world as Rome, Carthage or some Barbarian faction?"

"You're asking a girl who didn't even know the names of most of those Barbarian Factions before you installed that game for advice on who to play as?" Chloe asked with an amused look on her face as her text message ring tone went off and whilst she checked it Chelsea shook her head.

"Nah, I was just wondering out loud, besides I decided to just play as Rome and kick the world's ass." Chelsea responded with a grin as she started up the game before glancing over her shoulder at her roommate and seeing the frown on her face. "Let me guess, Orichalcos?"

"Yep and this time they've targeted Tyler and Miranda." Chloe responded and Chelsea nodded before saving the game as soon as it loaded and closing the application. "I think you should have a text from him too."

"Give me a sec, I put my phone on silent earlier." Chelsea responded before reaching into her jeans pocket and retrieving the phone. "Yep, I got a text from Tyler too."

"Maybe we can ask him why he missed the duels earlier whilst we're at it." Chloe suggested as she stood up and grabbed her duel disk. "Anyway, what about the game?"

"I saved it as soon as it loaded so I'll be able to pick up where I left off later." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "Then again I could've done that just by starting a new campaign as Rome but that's beside the point."

"Either way you can pick up where you left off after the duel." Chloe pointed out before grinning. "And besides, those idiots targeted the two best male and female duellists in the school, the fact that they were eliminated in the second round notwithstanding, with any luck they'll finish them off even faster than Louella and Latoya finished off Charity and Vernon earlier."

"Chloe, be realistic, yes Tyler and Miranda are the best duellists in the school and yes, they kicked our asses in back to back matches but whilst the Orichalcos Duellists are insane to even consider using that card in the first place they're not stupid, they likely sent two of their best duellists to deal with them." Chelsea responded with an annoyed sigh and Chloe nodded reluctantly. "Anyway, I'm ready to go when you are."

"Let's go." Chloe nodded before the two girls left.

*meanwhile*

"Okay, so the fact that I'm representing the team tomorrow is official and all that's left to do is compete in the match." Lance commented as he walked alongside Evan, he had finally been let out of Martin's office primarily because he was busy setting up the first date between him and Chloe which took a lot longer than he expected. "Now I just have to give Chloe the good news."

"I'm still surprised that it took you this long for your friendship with her to be upgraded like that." Evan commented and Lance frowned. "Yes, I know you've had some bad luck including dedicating a Justin Bieber song to her at the Ra Yellow Welcome party…."

"No, I told the DJ to dedicate a random love song on the playlist to her and he happened to pick "Baby" by Justin Bieber." Lance interrupted him with a look of annoyance on his face. "Seriously, why do people think that a guy who requested metal songs to be played at the party would randomly dedicate that song to her?!"

"Word spreads, truth gets diluted, you should probably be glad it wasn't something worse." Evan responded and Lance gave him a funny look.

"Unless your idea of "worse" is "How You Remind Me" by Nickelback I doubt it could've been worse." Lance responded and Evan shook his head.

"If it was that awful song then the worse that would've happened is that the entire room would be counting sheep whilst the Orichalcos Duellist she defeated was free to go about his business." Evan pointed out and Lance nodded with a laugh. "All though you weren't that far off as I was thinking of a band."

"A band worse than Justin Bieber and Nickelback?" Lance asked before it hit him. "Oh no, don't tell me you mean…."

"One Direction." Evan said and Lance shuddered.

"If that did happen I would've said "fuck it", dove in the ocean and swam back to the mainland." Lance responded with a frown. "I'd rather risk freezing to death than be known as the metalhead guy who dedicated a fucking One Direction song to a potential girlfriend."

"Well at least she agreed to be your girlfriend even after that incident." Evan responded and Lance nodded before his text ringtone went off. "Me? I'm still searching."

"Well there's plenty of fish in the sea." Lance responded before reading his text, once he read it through he frowned. "Evan, I'm going to have to cut this convo short."

"Let me guess, Chloe's ready to have sex with you for the first time?" Evan asked as he looked over his shoulder but when he saw the frown on Lance's face it didn't take him long to figure it out. "That's not the case, is it?"

"I wish, Tyler and Miranda have been targeted by Orichalcos Duellists." Lance responded and Evan frowned when he heard that. "Unless you want to come with me I'll speak to you later."

"Love too but I have homework to do back at my dorm room and I've put it off long enough as it is." Evan responded and Lance nodded as he turned around. "I'm confident that they can handle themselves but do tell me how it goes."

"Will do, see you later." Lance nodded in response before running down the hall.

*later on*

"Where is this clearing again?" Tyler grumbled as he walked ahead of Miranda who was now wearing her Duel Disk complete with her deck. "You did bring the note with you right?"

"Yeah, I grabbed it after you tossed it in the trash, luckily it's not that damaged from your scrunching up of it." Miranda responded with a frown as she retrieved it from her blazer pocket. "Problem is that there are so many clearings on this side of the island that finding the first one is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"Remind me to ask Martin if he can convince the board to create a map of the North side." Tyler responded and Miranda went to say something in response but Tyler stopped. "Miranda, I hear footsteps."

"Aren't you forgetting how many students live on the island? Not counting the new ones?" Miranda responded as she folded her arms. "For all we know Chloe and Lance came up here hoping for some privacy whilst they have sex for the first time."

"Two things, one, I think we would've heard them by now, two, Chloe's a virgin and even if she wasn't I don't think she'd want to risk her first sexual encounter being interrupted by the new security guards." Tyler pointed out and Miranda frowned.

"Good point." Miranda admitted before glancing over her shoulder. "I don't see anyone behind us and we're not that far from the Main Building, the footsteps must be coming from one of the clearings."

"And that means we've found them." Tyler responded and Miranda nodded before jogging up the pathway to catch up with her step-brother, they entered the clearing and Tyler was surprised when he saw who it was. "Proctor Thompson?"

"The new guy who duelled Martin earlier?" Miranda asked as she entered the clearing, once she saw him she frowned. "Sorry Proctor, we thought you were someone else."

"Don't worry about it." Thompson responded as he put his hands up. "Besides, I'm helping one of the new guards find someone up here."

"Well, maybe we can help." Miranda offered and Thompson grinned before turning away to make a call, once his back was turned Miranda tapped her brother on the shoulder. "Am I the only one who finds it a bit odd that a guard would ask a proctor for help with that?" Miranda whispered in his ear and Tyler nodded.

"I noticed that too, the proctors have two jobs, assist the teachers during classes and evaluating potential students." Tyler responded with a frown as he folded his arms. "Last I checked searching for unruly students wasn't one of those jobs."

"Sorry about that kids, had to let the guard know that I had enlisted some help." Thompson responded as he turned to him before noticing the suspicious looks on their faces. "Something wrong?"

"Thompson, if that is your real name, we've been at this school for about four years now and during that time we've come to learn what the different job roles at this school are." Tyler responded as his eyes narrowed. "Proctors are rarely seen outside the Main Building because they are basically teaching assistants and evaluators, why would a guard go to one to get assistance in searching for a student in the maze like north side of the island?"

"Just because my job requires me to stay in the main building doesn't mean I know the basic layout of the island." Thompson responded and whilst the students couldn't see it due to his mask he was sweating bullets. "Look I understand that the situation with those Orichalcos guys have the students on edge but you're barking up the wrong tree here, no pun intended."

"Are we?" Miranda asked with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, if you know the island's layout so well then what's the fastest route from the Main Building to the abandoned dorm?"

"What? Are you kidding?" Thompson asked with a nervous gulp. "I've never even seen that building, we were just told about it and warned to not let any students near it."

"Wrong answer." Tyler responded as his frown deepened. "Did you forget that our dad founded this school? We know that it's standard procedure for all staff to converge on that building if there's any suspicious activities going on there during the day, you'd know that if you had attended the training course."

"_Shit, I told Jack to make sure we knew that detail." _"Thompson" cursed before chuckling. "You know, I wasn't lying when I said I was looking for a student, only telling a half truth, I was looking for two." Thompson said before putting his hands to the sides of his neck. "And I'm looking at them!"

"You're the one who left that note!" Miranda realized as Thompson removed his mask revealing an ugly man with a shaved head and brown eyes one of which had a scar down it. "What happened to the real Thompson?"

"Oh he's alive but I wouldn't count on him telling you anything." The man responded before reaching into his pocket and producing an Orichalcos card with the real Thompson on it. "I shut him up for good."

"And please, do you really think he could move around the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm without raising suspicion?" A female voice rang out and the teens looked up seeing Delaney standing there. "All he had to do was wait for you idiots to show up, I went to the dorm and left the note on your door, if anyone asked I told them that I was investigating a noise complaint."

"So let me get this straight, your boss instructed you to infiltrate the academy posing as new staff members whilst eliminating the ones you were impersonating." Tyler commented and Delaney nodded. "I would ask why you didn't try that when the new students joined but I'm going to guess that none of your agents are in their mid-to-late teens."

"That's exactly right and just so we're clear it wasn't the bosses' idea, it was Jack's idea." Thompson responded as Delaney removed her mask, unlike Thompson's impersonator she was a good looking woman with shoulder length black hair and brown eyes. "And the only reason we're revealing this to you is the fact that you won't be around to tell anyone once the match is over."

"We'll see about that." Tyler responded as the siblings activated their duel disks. "So, how are we doing this? Tag team match?"

"Exactly." Thompson responded as they activated their duel disks. "May as well kill two students with one duel."

"Not if we have anything to say about it." Miranda retorted as she and Tyler drew their opening hands. "And seeing as how you're clearly not Proctor Thompson or…." Miranda trailed off as realization hit her. "Come to think of it I never met you whilst you were in costume."

"I was posing as Rachel Delaney, a security guard." The woman responded as she and Thompson drew their opening hands. "And I think I know what you are about to ask."

"That depends on if you think I'm going to ask what your real names are." Miranda responded and they nodded in response.

"His name is Vince and I'm Michelle." Michelle responded as they drew their opening hands. "Happy?"

"Very, now if you don't mind I would like to go first." Tyler responded and the other duellists said nothing. "I'll take that as a yes." Tyler added before drawing his card. _"Not bad." _Tyler thought before playing a card. "I summon D.D. Telepon in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and a small weird robot appeared on the field, it was chrome in colour and had multiple legs (2/500/1800).

"Hah, you're supposed to be one of the best duellists in the school yet you left the weak monster in attack mode?" Vince scoffed as Tyler's eyes narrowed. "This will be a piece of cake."

"I don't recall finishing that sentence with "I end my turn"." Tyler responded before sending another card to the graveyard. "From my hand I activate Time Escaper's effect, by sending this monster from my hand to the graveyard I can banish one face-up Psychic Type Monster on my side of the field and guess what? D.D. Telepon fits the bill!" Tyler announced as his monster disappeared from the field. "This in turn activates my monster's effect, when I banish it whilst it is face-up on the field I can also banish one Psychic Type monster with fifteen hundred or less attack points from my deck."

"Err, Tyler what are you doing?" Miranda asked with a worried expression on her face as Tyler took a monster from his deck and pocketed it alongside D.D. Telepon. _"I've never even heard of the two monsters he just used, what's he up too?"_

"Trust me Miranda, there is a method to my madness." Tyler responded before picking up two more cards. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Tyler announced as the two set cards appeared on the field and Vince drew his card.

"_He's a cocky little punk but he should be thankful that we can't attack until his next turn." _Vince thought before looking over his hand. "I will set some cards facedown as well, five of them in fact." Vince announced as the five cards appeared on the field. "And that ends my turn."

"_Okay, so he obviously hasn't drawn the Seal yet otherwise he would've played it the moment he drew it." _Miranda thought as she drew her card. _"But at least Tyler summoned a monster, this guy? All he did was nearly empty his hand." _Miranda thought before looking over her hand. "I set two cards facedown and a monster in defence mode." Miranda announced as the three cards appeared on the field. "That ends my turn."

"Humph, is that all? At least your brother made an interesting move." Michelle scoffed as she drew her card and Miranda rolled her eyes.

"Yeah well, unlike my brother I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket." Miranda responded and Tyler shook his head.

"Weren't you the one who summoned three of her best monsters in one turn only to be hit with a Mirror Force during your last tournament duel?" Tyler asked and Miranda shook her head.

"Yeah but I didn't do that in one turn." Miranda responded and Michelle cleared her throat.

"As entertaining as it is to watch my opponents squabble I do have a move to make so pay attention." Michelle added before looking over her hand. "I set two cards facedown and I summon Great Sorcerer of the Necroz!" Michelle played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, he was an old man with a long grey beard clad in blue and gold wizard garb and carrying a staff with a strange design on top (4/1500/800).

"_Necroz? That archetype isn't even out over here yet." _Tyler thought as his eyes narrowed. _"Well if anything that narrows down the location of their base of operations." _Tyler thought but Miranda wasn't impressed.

"For a so-called "Great Sorcerer" his stats aren't all that impressive." Miranda pointed out and Michelle grinned.

"Your dad may have specialized in over-compensating with his big dragons but any decent duellist knows that power isn't everything." Michelle retorted and the sibling's eyes narrowed at that. "I end my turn at that, now let's see if there was a method to Tyler's madness." Michelle announced and Tyler drew his card.

"I'll let you be the judge of that, now that it's the first standby phase since I banished Telepon and that monster from my deck two effects activate, first thanks to Telepon's effect the monster I banished is Special Summoned, come on out Psychic Commander!" Tyler played the card and the small psychic type monster in the hovering cannon appeared on the field (3/1400/800). "Now onto Time Escaper's effect since it's been a turn since I banished D.D. Telepon with his effect I can special summon Telepon as well." Tyler added as D.D. Telepon appeared on the field.

"_So that's what he was up too, he was setting up a Synchro Summon." _Miranda thought as Tyler looked over his hand. _"My first thought is Magical Android but he hasn't normal summoned a monster yet."_

"Now I tune Psychic Commander with D.D. Telepon!" Tyler announced as the two monsters leapt into the air, the Synchro Summon was performed and Tyler played the card. "And I summon Magical Android in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a woman enhanced with cyber implants that made her look alien like and was wearing an elaborate dress (5/2400/1700). "Before I attack I use my normal summon to bring out another tuner monster, Mental Seeker!" Tyler played the card and a much smaller psychic type monster appeared on the field, it was a young boy in futuristic purple and black armour with a purple visor over his eyes and blond hair (3/800/600).

"If you think a weak Synchro monster and a Tuner Monster are going to scare me you're delusional!" Vince scoffed and Tyler grinned.

"Maybe you should worry about your empty field, Magical Android attack his life-points directly!" Tyler commanded and the android prepared her attack…..only for Vince's five trap cards to suddenly shatter. "What…." Tyler never finished as he felt a sharp pain, as did Miranda, as their life-points dropped to 7000.

"Did you really think that I set those cards because Heavy Storm ain't coming back any time soon?" Vince asked with a grin as he played the card. "Please, they were set so I could bring out the heavy machinery, Snow Plow Hustle Rustle." Vince played the card and a massive snow plow appeared on the field, it was red in colour and had a large green shovel (10/2500/3000).

"That still doesn't explain the damage we just took!" Miranda responded as they stared at the monster.

"Actually it does, when Snow Plow Hustle Rustle is summoned this way it also inflicts two hundred points of damage for each spell/trap card destroyed." Vince responded with a grin. "But that's not all, three of the trap cards I destroyed were a card called Dummy Marker and when it's destroyed whilst facedown I get to draw one card." Vince added before drawing three cards. "So what are you going to do Tyler? End your turn?"

"Actually I'm going to continue my attack." Tyler responded as he pointed to his trap card. "Only difference is that I'm not going to destroy that oversized toy, I activate my trap card Battle Teleportation!" Tyler announced as Magical Android started glowing before she disappeared. "With this trap card I can target once Psychic Type monster and have it attack you directly."

"What?!" Vince asked as Magical Android appeared in front of him and punched him bringing his life-points down to 5600 before Magical Android returned to Tyler's side of the field. "There has to be some kind of drawback!"

"Normally it does as Magical Android would go over to your side of the field once I hit my end phase." Tyler responded as his other trap card flipped up. "But there's ways around such drawbacks, for example since it's still my battle phase I can activate Urgent Tuning!"

"Ah crap!" Vince cussed as another Synchro Summon was performed this time with Magical Android and Mental Seeker.

"I see that I have you worried right now, good! I tune Mental Seeker with Magical Android to summon Thought Ruler Archfiend!" Tyler played the card and the massive, ugly fiend appeared on the field once the bright flash faded (8/2700/2300). "Remind me to apologize to Homer Simpson."

"Huh?" Vince asked as he and the other duellists, including Miranda, gave him an odd look.

"Because I'm about to put his snow plough business out of business! Thought Ruler Archfiend, attack the monster with the ridiculous name!" Tyler commanded as the monster prepared its attack…..

"Not this time Tyler! I activate a trap card your sister should be familiar with, Defence from Beyond!" Vince announced as he held up the trap card. "Since I sent it to the graveyard with my snow plow's effect I can force you to end your battle phase by removing it from play." Vince added before pocketing the trap card. "Nice try rich boy."

"_That solves the question of what four of his trap cards are but what was the fifth?" _Tyler thought as his eyes narrowed. _"I doubt that it was another Defence from Beyond, that card was limited by the recent ban-list much to my sister's annoyance."_ Tyler thought before looking over his hand. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Tyler announced as the facedown card appeared on the field.

"_I didn't draw the Seal with my Dummy Marker combo, I'd better hope that I draw it or Terra-Forming next." _Vince thought as he drew his card, when he saw it a large grin spread across his face. "I'm about to seal your fates!"

"If that card's what I think it is then please, save the bad jokes for my brother." Miranda deadpanned and the other duellists sweat-dropped in response, especially Tyler.

"My Homer Simpson joke wasn't THAT bad." Tyler asserted and Miranda scoffed.

"If that's true then Jessica Stevens is a model student." Miranda retorted and Tyler went to respond but stopped himself.

"You win this round." Tyler admitted before turning to Vince. "Don't you have a move to do?"

"Yes, I do and I'm kicking it off with the most dangerous Field Spell in existence!" Vince responded as the Field Spell Card slot opened up on his Duel Disk. "I activate the Seal of the Orichalcos!" Vince played the card and the two teens braced themselves as the Seal formed and encircled both of them, then the Pentagrams appeared on Vince and Rachel's foreheads and they grinned sadistically. "And as you know the Seal gives all out monsters a five hundred attack point boost."

"Look, this may be my first Orichalcos Duel but I've watched enough of them to know the Field Spell's effects like the back of my hand." Tyler responded as he folded his arms. "Please get on with it!" Tyler added as Snow Plough Hustle Rustle's attack increased to 3000 and Great Sorcerer of the Necroz's attack increased to 2000.

"Then I'll cut to the chase, Hustle Rustle, run that ruler over!" Vince commanded and the massive machine started charging towards the Psychic Synchro….

"I may be found of new cards but the old ones work just as well, activate Negate Attack!" Tyler announced as his trap card flipped up and the machine's charge was stopped by an invisible force-field. "Now unless you have anything else to do I believe that my sister has a move to make!"

"I end my turn but unless your sister can get her dragons out your out of luck." Vince announced and Miranda drew her card.

"_If he saw my last match then he'd know that I have several ways to get my dragons out or otherwise search for them." _Miranda thought before looking at her drawn card. _"And I just drew one of them." _Miranda thought before playing the card. "I activate a Spell Card, The Melody of Awakening Dragon! With this all I have to do is discard one card….." Miranda continued as she sent a card to the graveyard. "And I can search my deck for….."

"Sorry to interrupt Miranda but is that Lord of Dragons wielding a dragon shaped electric guitar is that my red bull withdrawal symptoms talking?" Tyler asked as a large sweat-drop rolled down his and the other duellists' heads including the other students who had just arrived.

"This card was recently released, if that doesn't say something about Sophia Pegasus I don't know what does." Miranda responded as she picked up her deck. "As I was saying, this Spell Card allows me to search for two dragon type monsters with 3000 or more attack and 2500 or more defence."

"Is that meant to be a joke about the fact that dad often used Lord of D and Flute of Summoning Dragon to bring out his Blue Eyes White Dragons during and after the original Battle City?" Tyler asked as his sweat-drop grew larger and Miranda added the two cards to her hand.

"Wouldn't surprise me." Miranda responded as she sent the monster to the graveyard. "But here's what I do know, the monster I just sent to the graveyard is called Kidmondo-Dragon and if I send him to the graveyard I can Special Summon one Dragon Type Monster from my hand, fortunately for you I can only do this once per turn but this still gives me plenty of firepower!" Miranda added before playing the card. "So I summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in attack mode!" Miranda played the card and her father's famous dragon type monster appeared on the field with a roar (8/3000/2500).

"The only thing missing from that combo is Ancient Rules to summon the other one." Tyler responded with a grin and Miranda nodded.

"Trust me, if I had that Spell Card in my hand I'd play it." Miranda said before turning to her nervous looking opponents. "Luckily for you two Kidmondo-Dragon's effect also prevents me from conducting my Battle Phase the turn I use his effect so I end my turn." Miranda announced and Michelle drew her card.

"I start my turn by discarding the monster known as Necroz of Clasolous from my hand." Michelle stated as she held up the monster. "Using this effect I can add one Necroz Spell/Trap Card from my deck to my hand but since there aren't any Necroz Trap Cards out right now I'll make do with a Spell Card." Michelle added before she added the Spell Card to her hand. "And now I'll play it, Necroz Mirror!"

"A Ritual Spell Card?" Miranda asked once the card's hologram appeared on the field. "I wasn't aware that anyone still used those."

"Your one to talk Ms. "I must use my daddy's horribly outdated dragon monsters despite there being much better monsters available"." Michelle mocked her Great Sorcerer vanished from the field. "Besides, Necroz Ritual Spells are special because I can banish monsters from my graveyard to Ritual Summon Monsters so I tribute my level four Great Sorcerer and I banish my level three Clasolous to Ritual Summon Necroz of Grunjir!" Michelle played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, she was a young red haired woman with long flowing hair who was wearing armour that resembled Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (7/2500/1700).

"That's a lot of effort to go through to summon a monster that can only defeat my monster." Tyler pointed out as the monster's attack increased to 3000.

"That's the point and if I where you I'd be a lot more worried about what I'm about to do to your deck but first my Great Sorcerer's effect kicks in!" Michelle responded as she typed in commands to her duel disk again. "If he's sacrificed for a card effect I can add one Ritual Type Necroz Ritual Monster to my hand." Michelle responded as she retrieved the monster from her deck which then auto-shuffled. "I activate my Trap Card Grisaille Prison!"

"Oh shit…." Tyler trailed off as he turned to Miranda. "You weren't hoping to summon Azure Eyed Silver Dragon on your next turn were you?"

"Yeah, why?" Miranda asked as she gave Tyler a worried look.

"I'll tell you why, if I control a monster that was tribute, ritual or fusion summoned this Trap Card's effect kicks in, until the end of Miranda's next turn neither of you can Synchro or XYZ Summon Monsters!" Michelle explained and the sibling's eyes widened when they heard that. "I do believe I just crippled Tyler's deck."

"My deck may specialize in Synchro Summons but it's far from a one trick pony." Tyler responded as he glared at her.

"We'll see about that, Gungnir attack Thought Ruler Archfiend!" Michelle commanded and the female warrior charged towards the field before punching through his chest destroying it and bringing Tyler's life-points down to 6700. "Good luck defending with most of your arsenal crippled."

"I don't need luck." Tyler responded as he looked over his hand. _"This will be tricky but I could still pull this off."_

"I end my turn." Michelle announced and Tyler drew his card.

"I activate Spellbook Inside the Pot!" Tyler announced and all four duellists drew three cards. _"This could work but it'll be tricky." _Tyler thought before playing a card. "I activate an old favourite of mine, Emergency Teleport! And I use it to summon Krebons!" Tyler played the card and the psychic in the jester like outfit appeared on the field (2/1200/400).

"Have you gone deaf? What part of "can't Synchro Summon" don't you understand?" Michelle asked and Tyler grinned.

"No I haven't, my intention isn't to Synchro Summon with Krebons but use it in a Tribute Summon!" Tyler responded as Krebons vanished from the field. "I summon Storm Caller in attack mode!" Tyler played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it was a large light/dark blue robot with what looked like a satellite dish on its head (6/2300/2000).

"Hah! Is that the best you can do?" Vince scoffed as he stared at the monster. "From a powerhouse like Thought Ruler Archfiend to that thing? And this guy's in Obelisk Blue!"

"Didn't your partner say something about strength not being everything?" Tyler asked as he played another card. "First I use Double Summon so that I can get a second normal summon! I use this one to summon Psychic Jumper!" Tyler announced as the monster appeared on the field resembling Frankenstein's monster and wearing a long leather trench coat and jeans (1/100/1500). "Now before I continue Storm Caller has two effects of its own."

"Oh I'm so scared!" Vince scoffed and Tyler grinned.

"You should be, for starters when I destroy a monster with any of my other Psychic Monsters I can send them to the top of your decks instead." Tyler explained and his opponents shared a confused look. "As for the second effect, well when Storm Caller is destroyed by a card effect I, or in this case my team, will take damage equal to its original attack."

"Its official, my brother has gone insane from Red Bull Withdrawal Symptoms." Miranda muttered under her breath with an annoyed sigh as Vince and Michelle laughed their asses off.

"Not just yet." Tyler responded as Psychic Jumper started glowing. "I activate Psychic Jumper's effect, by paying a thousand life-points…." Tyler said as his life-points dropped to 5700. "I can swap Storm Caller with that overgrown Snow Plow!"

"WHAT?!" Vince yelled out as he stopped laughing and the two monsters changed sides. "So what? It's not like I'm going to destroy my own monster and Hustle Rustle loses the power boost from the Orachalcos!" Vince pointed out as Hustle Rustle's attack dropped to 2500.

"Who said I was done? I activate Psychokinesis!" Tyler played the card and Storm Caller shattered. "Since I control a Psychic Type monster I can destroy one card on the field!"

"But that means…" Vince trailed off as his life-points dropped to 3100 and Michelle's life-points dropped to 5700.

"That move cost me another thousand life-points…." Tyler trailed off as his life-points dropped to 4700. "And whilst I can't Synchro Summon I can attack, Snow Plow, attack his life-points directly." Tyler commanded and the machine charged into battle…..

"Nice try but I'm not about to let you eliminate my partner this early! I activate my Trap Card Scrap Iron Scarecrow!" Michelle activated the trap and a scarecrow made of Scrap Iron appeared in the monstrous snow plow's path negating the attack. "This trap card not only negates the attack but its secondary effect lets me set it facedown after activation." Michelle added as the trap card returned to its facedown position.

"_If Vince draws something like Remove Brainwashing I'll be in trouble, the only thing I have on the field is Psychic Jumper and aside from the fact that it's a tuner monster and its effect it's not that special." _Tyler thought before looking at the sole remaining card in his hand and promptly set it on the field. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Tyler announced and Vince drew his card.

"Hah! I hope you weren't counting on keeping my train because I'm about to take it back but first things first!" Vince stated as he picked up a card. "I summon Night Express Knight in attack mode!" Vince played the card and a massive robot appeared on the field, it was silver in colour, was wielding a sword and a shield and was on a hover board of some kind (10/3000/3000).

"Okay, I've seen some pretty broken bullshit from the Orichalcos Duellists since you guys came back from the dead!" Chelsea protested from the side-lines and Vince glanced over his shoulder at her. "But a level ten monster with three thousand attack AND defence summoned without a single tribute? That doesn't just take the cake, it takes the entire fucking bakery!"

"….I was about to say something but Chelsea put it better than I ever could." Tyler responded as a large sweat-drop rolled down his head.

"Something tells me that you wouldn't have used as many swear words as she did." Miranda responded and Tyler shook his head.

"I do swear! Mostly when I get ripped off in PC Games but I still swear." Tyler defended himself as Vince's sweat-drop grew bigger with every word. "Besides, not even a sailor swears as much as Chelsea does! Anyway why were you able to summon Night Express…..."

"WILL YOU JUST LET ME EXPLAIN MY MONSTER'S EFFECT ALREADY?!" Vince interrupted him only to stop. "Wait, you were about to do that, never mind! Anyway Night Express Knight can be normal summoned without a tribute as long as I reduce its attack and defence score to zero." Vince added as Night Express Knight's attack dropped to zero. "Unfortunately that also included the boost from the Orichalcos but it's not like Night Express Knight will be around for much longer anyway."

"What do you mean? You've used up your normal summon and I control the Snow Plough with the ridiculously long name." Tyler responded before sweat-dropping. "Please give me a moment to reflect on the fact that I just said "Snow Plough with ridiculously long name" in a duel." Tyler said before closing his eyes for a few moments. "That's better." Tyler added as he opened his eyes. "As I was saying, if you want to do an XYZ Summon then your out of luck!"

"That's what you think! I activate a Spell Card called Owner's Seal! This lets me take back Snow Plough Hustle Rustle!" Vince announced and Tyler's eyes widened as the snow plough returned to its owner's side of the field. "Now I could do an attack but since one of my monsters has zero attack points that won't do the damage I'm looking for so instead I'm opening the Overlay Network!"

"A Rank Ten XYZ Summon?!" Tyler yelled out in shock as the portal behind the two machine monsters opened up and the monsters entered it.

"That's right and the monster that I'm about to summon will be your doom!" Vince added as he retrieved the monster from his Extra Deck. "I XYZ Summon Skypalace Gangaridai!" Vince played the card and a new massive monster appeared on the field, it was a spaceship at least twice the length of the main building that was red in colour and hovered over the field (Rank: 10/3400/3000).

"Oh crap! That's stronger than my dragon!" Miranda said as her eyes widened and the Orichalcos seal appeared on the machine's body boosting its attack to 3900. _"Only monster I've got that can beat that thing is Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, actually summoning it is another story all together!"_

"Oh trust me! I know all about my mighty machine's power!" Vince responded with a mad cackle. "But unlike your dragons my machine doesn't just rely on raw power to get the job done! I activate the effect of my Skypalace!" Vince added before sending Night Express Knight to the graveyard. "By detaching an overlay unit I can target one monster on the field and destroy it."

"So you're going after my dragon?" Miranda asked and Vince scoffed.

"Michelle can do that on her next turn but personally I have a problem with that Psychic Jumper monster your brother has on the field." Vince responded as the machine fired up its weapons. "And here's an added bonus, when it destroys a monster using its effect it inflicts one thousand points of damage to the opponent!" Vince added as the machine opened fire on the tuner monster destroying it and bringing Tyler's life-points down to 3700 and Miranda's life-points down to 6000. "I could finish you off now but my Skypalace can't attack the same turn it uses the effect so I'll end my turn."

"Then why didn't you just attack?" Tyler asked as Miranda was about to draw her card and she stopped in her tracks, "You would've inflicted a lot more damage if you had just attacked Psychic Jumper, hell you could've finished me off during that turn by attacking Psychic Jumper and then activating Skypalace's effect and using it to destroy the Blue-Eyes White Dragon."

"Tyler, are you sure that you haven't gone insane from Red Bull Withdrawal Symptoms?" Miranda asked with a deadpan expression on her face. "You're criticising them for not finishing you off? You do know what could've happened if they did finish you off, right?"

"I've seen enough Battle City duels to know the effects of this Field Spell like the back of my hand so yes, I do know what could've happened."

"Then why are you complaining about it?!" Miranda asked with an exasperated look on her face. "Honestly, sometimes I wonder if you would've ever gotten into Obelisk Blue without dad's money and this happens to be one of those times."

"I appreciate the kind words Miranda." Tyler muttered sarcastically and Miranda rolled her eyes. "Trust me on this, why didn't you just attack?"

"If you must know I'm setting things up so that Michelle can land the final blow." Vince responded with a grin. "We're just following Jack's advice, to drag out your defeat as long as….."

"Wait a second, Jack?" Tyler asked with a raised eyebrow. "Long shot but that wouldn't happen to be the same Jack who gave Felicia and Matilda the Fallen Angel monsters, would it?"

"Err, yeah." Vince responded with a confused look on his face. "Why?

"Oh, no reason." Tyler responded as he folded his arms with a smirk on his face. "But I did do some research after that duel, turned out that Jack went to the same brothel they went too, though the women working there all had the same complaint about him, that he was…..lacking downstairs." Tyler trailed off as an awkward silence filled the clearing.

"Tyler, after we win I'm buying you a year's worth of red bull out of my own money." Miranda commented as she shook her head. "Seriously, first you ask them why they didn't finish you off when they had the chance and now you're accusing someone higher up the food chain of having a tiny dick? If I didn't know any better I'd say you were suicidal."

"Err, Michelle….." Vince trailed off as he turned to her. "Do you know if what he's saying is true?"

"If you're asking if I've ever slept with Jack, no I haven't!" Michelle responded as she glanced over at Vince, "And I'd ask the twins except for the fact their souls were captured yesterday! If you want to ask the man himself….."

"I DON'T HAVE A TINY DICK!" Jack yelled into their earpieces loud enough for the other duellists and students to hear and Vince and Michelle winced. "My dick is as long as a fucking barge pole and the only reason those girls complained about my dick size was because I was the only one in that brothel not using Viagra!"

"_Perfect!" _Tyler thought as a big grin appeared on his face. "Jack if you can hear me, thank you for confirming your identity as Jack Haynes, or do you prefer to go by the name Jack Hass?" Tyler asked and another awkward silence filled the air.

"OH SHIT!" Jack's yelled out and Tyler's grin grew wider. "Vince, Michelle, finish those punks off quickly, I'm going back to HQ!"

"How are we supposed to get back?" Vince asked with a frown on his face.

"I'll send the speedboat back to the island when I reach the mainland, just finish that idiot off before he can spread word about this!" Jack responded and Vince turned to him.

"Okay, as much as I hate to admit it, that was pretty clever." Vince admitted before looking over his hand. "I end my turn." Vince announced and Miranda drew her card.

"_Well, that was certainly an interesting way to determine if Jack Haynes is their boss." _Miranda thought before looking at her card. _"But on the other hand they can wipe out Tyler's life-points with just one attack from that XYZ Monster, Tyler has that facedown card but can it help?" _Miranda thought before looking at her drawn card. "Time I got rid of Scrap Iron Scarecrow before it became a nuisance."

"I'd like to see you try!" Michelle retorted and Miranda grinned before playing her drawn card.

"Then see my try, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and I use it to destroy your facedown Scrap Iron Scarecrow!" Miranda played the card and Michelle braced herself as the storm washed over the field destroying Scrap Iron Scarecrow.

"You may have rid the field of Scrap Iron Scarecrow but what's the point? You can't beat Vince's Machine Monster and if you attack my monster it'll be a draw!" Michelle pointed out as she sent the trap card to the graveyard.

"Necroz of Grunjir is strong enough to match my dragon point for point but there's more than one way to destroy a monster." Miranda responded as she picked up a card. "But first I'm going to help you Tyler by activating Heaven's Lost Property!" Miranda played the card and the four duellists drew three cards and promptly discarded two. "But the monster I just sent to the graveyard won't be in there for long, I activate Silver's Cry!"

"What does that do exactly?" Michelle wondered but quickly got her answer when a second Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field. "So what? Now you've got two monsters that will be destroyed if they tried to attack Necroz of Grunjir!"

"You'll see soon enough, I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Miranda announced and Michelle drew her card. _"God I hope that Tyler's new card can help him!"_

"Vince, I need your Skypalace." Michelle commented and Vince nodded as his monster floated over to her side of the field. "Oh I can't wait for the rewards we'll get for securing this soul, Grunjir, attack his life-points directly!" Michelle commanded and the monsters prepared to attack…

"I ACTIVATE MY TRAP CARD….." Tyler yelled out but the monster hit him at such speed that smoke was left behind it before he could get another word out.

"TYLER!" Miranda yelled out as the smoke started to clear showing Tyler struggling to get to his feet. _"Shit, this is bad!"_

"Is that the best you've got?" Tyler asked and Michelle grinned.

"Oh, you want more do you?" Michelle asked before pointing to Skypalace. "Skypalace, finish him!" Michelle commanded and the massive machine monster launched missiles at Tyler sending him flying back.

"You bastards!" Miranda grunted as she wiped tears from her eyes. "Fine, if I have to take you on alone to avenge Tyler then I will!"

"You won't need to do that." Tyler responded as he walked back into position slowly but surely and Miranda turned to him. "Because I'm still in this duel!"

"Hah, you must be deluded out of fear of what the Orichalcos is about to do to you!" Michelle commented with a smirk which quickly disappeared when the seal didn't close in on Tyler. "I said, what the Orichalcos is about to do you!"" Michelle repeated but once again nothing happened. "I said….."

"We heard you the first time, don't waste your breath! I activated a trap card before the attack hit, I just never got around to explaining the effect." Tyler said as the smoke around his Trap Card started to clear. "Thanks for giving me six thousand, nine hundred life-points by the way!"

"WHAT?!" The two opposing duellists yelled out before Tyler showed that his life-points were now at 10,600.

"But how?" Michelle asked as the smoke finally cleared revealing Tyler's trap card. "Rainbow Life?!"

"I would like to thank Miranda for keeping me in this duel with Heaven's Lost Property." Tyler added as he sent his trap card to the graveyard. "Otherwise, well I'd rather not think about what could've happened to me if those attacks had the desired effects."

"I…." Michelle trailed off as her eyes narrowed. "I end my turn!" Michelle announced and Tyler drew his card.

"Way to go, you just gave him all his life-points and then some back!" Vince commented with a grunt of annoyance and Michelle shook her head.

"The guy has one card in his hand and it's the one he just drew, what can he really do with it?" Michelle asked as Tyler looked at his drawn card.

"It may just be one card but it could change the tide of this duel in our favour! I activate Arkhassic Record!" Tyler announced as he played the card. "I draw two cards but if I used either of the cards that I'm about to draw then they both get banished."

"Yet another risky move Tyler?" Vince asked as Tyler went to draw.

"Risk is inherent in this game, making sure those risks payoff is what makes you good at it!" Tyler responded before drawing the two cards and grinning. "And the risk rewards me with two cards that I haven't use in this duel, now I set one card facedown and I summon Mind Protector!"

"Wait, what?!" Miranda called out as the monster appeared on the field, it was a small orange robot with a disk shaped head that had purple gems in its head and hands (3/0/2200). "Tyler are you sure you haven't lost your mind due to Red Bull Withdrawal Symptoms?"

"It was the only monster that I had available to me thanks to my spell card." Tyler responded as he shook his head. "I wasn't about to leave my field unprotected!"

"With a monster that has no attack points you may as well have!" Vince scoffed and Miranda shook her head.

"That's not even the worse part, Tyler will have to pay five hundred life-points during each of his standby phases to keep that thing on the field and it can negate the attacks of non-Psychic Type monsters." Miranda responded and the other duellists frowned. "As long as their attack points are two thousand or less!"

"Hah! That card wouldn't have helped you against me even if I didn't have my Skypalace out!" Vince scoffed with a big grin on his face. "The only card that qualifies in my deck is Night Express Knight and that monster won't lose its attack points if I summon it normally, there's no weaklings in my deck because only the strong survive!"

"And yet my weaker cards have managed to run roughshod over your big machines." Tyler responded with a grin. "Any decent duellist knows that in the current Meta monster effects are even more important than attack points and whilst your monsters do have powerful effects, well, you haven't made effective use of them."

"I'll show you an effective use of my card's effects as soon as my turn begins because I'll blast your sister's outdated dragon to smithereens with my Skypalace's effect!" Vince growled and Tyler smirked.

"Go ahead and try, I end my turn." Tyler announced and Vince drew his card.

"_This couldn't be easier, I'll use my Skypalace to blow up Miranda's dragon and when she passes the turn over to Michelle she'll go on the offensive!" _Vince thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Another Night Express Knight, not that it matters because I have no way to summon another Rank 10 monster." _Vince thought before pointing to Skypalace. "I activate the effect of my Skypalace!"

"That's just what I wanted to hear! Activate Trap Card!" Tyler announced as his trap card flipped up which depicted Psychic Jumper blocking a blast from an unseen monster meant for Marauding Captain. "Psychic Shield! This Counter Trap requires that I have a Psychic Type Monster with a thousand attack points or less and if a monster effect that targets activates, well first the Psychic Type monster gets destroyed." Tyler said as Mind Protector vanished. "But in return not only is the effect negated but the monster whose effect was negated gets destroyed as well!"

"WHAT?!" Vince yelled out as Skypalace crashed and burned destroying it. "You'll pay for that!"

"With your only monster gone I doubt it!" Tyler retorted and Vince growled.

"I use the effect of my second Night Express Knight to summon it in defence mode!" Vince played the card and the robotic knight returned to the field crouched down and like before it lost all its attack points. "Summoning it this way may reduce its attack points but not its defence points and since the strongest monsters you guys have match my monster's defence and Grunjir's attack, we're not out of this yet!"

"We'll see about that." Miranda responded with a nod. "Are you done?"

"Yeah I'm done." Vince announced and Miranda drew her card.

"_Okay, looks like I'm picking up the slack from Tyler, at least he got rid of that XYZ monster." _Miranda thought before looking at her drawn card and smirking. "Hey Vince, what's your life-point score again?"

"3100, why?" Vince asked and Miranda grinned.

"Good because this duel is over for you!" Miranda responded before playing a card. "I activate Stop Defence, this Spell Card's almost as old as my dad's dragons but in this case it's just as lethal!" Miranda added as Vince's eyes widened as Night Express Knight stood up in attack mode. "What was that about you not having any weaklings in your deck?"

"Just end it!" Vince demanded as Miranda nodded.

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon, why don't you show that knight what really happened to any knight that went up against a dragon? White Lightning!" Miranda called out and the Dragon opened its maw before letting lose its famous attack destroying Night Express Knight and bringing Vince's life-points down to a mere 100. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon number 2, finish him with White Lightning!" Miranda commanded and the dragon let lose its attack once again bringing Vince's life-points down to zero. "One down, one to go."

"And trust me, she can bring out her third dragon pretty easily." Tyler chimed in and Michelle frowned. "Your turn may be next but how long will you really last? As soon as Miranda brings out her third dragon she can crash it into Grunjir and have the other two dragons finish you off and that's just one example of how she could finish you off."

"Let me guess, you're trying to get me to surrender?" Michelle asked and Tyler nodded, she looked over the field and her hand and sighed. _"It would be one thing if I could get another Ritual Monster out but I don't have any in my hand, I guess he's right." _Michelle thought before surrendering. "Enjoy your victory whilst it lasts, they'll be others coming, some even better duellists than me and Vince and some of them were able to infiltrate the academy staff like we were, good luck because you'll need it."

"We won't need it." Tyler responded as the seal closed in on Michelle and took her soul, Tyler turned to Miranda and sighed. "I'm sorry about the scare I gave you."

"Don't worry, it was worth it for the look on their faces when they realized that you had played Rainbow Life." Miranda responded with a grin which disappeared as quickly as the seal did. "But what Michelle just said concerns me, they weren't the only Orichalcos Duellists to infiltrate the staff and that could be a problem."

"It won't." Hamden's voice rang out and they looked up seeing Professor Hamden standing on the edge of the clearing. "I watched the whole duel and once I realized that Thompson and Delaney weren't who they claimed to be I called Martin to let him know, he's going to be holding an emergency evaluation of the new staff tonight and if he finds any Orichalcos Duellists among them he'll duel them personally."

"That's a relief, thanks Hamden." Miranda responded with a nod before turning to the others. "And as for you guys, well if you want some serious firepower whenever you go up against those bastards have Tyler give me a call and I'll be there."

"We will, thanks Miranda." Lance said with a grin which Miranda returned. "At the rate we're going we'll have the entire student body on our side when facing off against those bastards."

"Unfortunately I think we'll need it." Chloe nodded in response. "But we'll be ready for them."

*meanwhile*

Whilst Marcus was watching the duel his dorm room in Obelisk Blue was empty except for his deck and duel disk which he had left because he didn't think that he'd need it in that moment in time and he thought that it would be safe.

And it should be since he locked the door, unfortunately for him it wasn't.

The window to the dorm room opened up and a female robed figure entered the room, it was pretty dark in the room as it was getting dark out but the mystery woman didn't seem to mind that.

"_Perfect, he left his deck unattended." _The woman thought as she approached the deck and removed it from its holster, she searched through it and grinned when she saw the cards she was looking for. _"Red-Eyes Black Chick and Red-Eyes Black Dragon! From what I've heard he hasn't used them much because he's shifted his focus to his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, well it's his loss." _The woman thought before removing her hood revealing her to be Maria, Marcus's childhood friend who had fallen in with the Orichalcos Duellists in Battle City. _"And my gain!"_


	118. Dragons Clash

A couple of hours had passed since the tag duel between Tyler and Miranda and Vince and Michelle ended and for the most part the classes were over and the students were either in their dorms chilling out or duelling each other and in some cases those duels were practice duels in preparation for the Battle Royal tomorrow.

"_Man I'm beat." _Lance thought as he walked down the hallway of the Obelisk Blue Boy's Dorm with his hands in his blazer pockets _"Still at least I don't have any lessons today and since Tyler and Miranda defeated the latest Orichalcos Duellists to be sent to the island I can relax for the rest of the evening, maybe watch some porn, listen to metal, watch porn whilst listening to metal….." _Lance thought as he neared his dorm room only for the door to Marcus's room, which was next door to his, to open up. "That you Marcus?"

"No, it's the tooth fairy, who do you think?" Marcus asked as the overweight student stepped out of his dorm room. "Lance, you didn't notice anything suspicious in the past few hours, right?"

"Err, no, I've been hanging out with Chloe, and no that's not a euphemism for sex since I'm still waiting for the condoms to come in, since Tyler and Miranda won that tag team duel earlier." Lance responded and Marcus frowned. "Something wrong?"

"When I returned to my room earlier the window was wide open when I had left it closed all day, after I closed it I checked to see if there was anything missing but my computer and laptop were left alone." Marcus responded before folding his arms. "Then I checked my deck."

"Shit, someone stole some of your cards?" Lance asked and Marcus nodded. "Do you know which ones?"

"Yeah, two of them, Red-Eyes Black Chick and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, whoever stole them decided to leave Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon almost like they were rubbing it in." Marcus added and Lance frowned.

"Why would they leave that card? It's a monster that specifically requires Red-Eyes Black Dragon to be summoned." Lance asked and Marcus shrugged.

"You got me, I was looking up duel monster news and I2 are releasing new Red-Eyes Black Dragon support cards, a new fusion, a new XYZ even their own version of White Stone of Legend! As you can imagine I was pretty excited." Marcus responded as he folded his arms. "But those cards won't be out over here for a few months and just as I had started saving money for them my cards got stolen."

"What was that about cards being stolen?" Tyler's voice rang out and the two boys looked up seeing Tyler behind them. "Start from the beginning." Tyler added and Marcus explained the situation. "Are you sure you haven't misplaced those cards."

"I left my duel disk in my room because I didn't think I'd need it and besides I did a thorough search of my room before I realized that someone had broken in, from now on I'm locking my window as well." Marcus responded with a frown on his face and Tyler nodded in response.

"Okay, Lance can you report the theft for us whilst we have one last look?" Tyler asked and Lance nodded in response. "Try Martin's office here at the dorm room first but if he isn't available look for one of the security guards, I'm sure they'll be happy to help."

"Didn't Hamden say that Martin was going to do an emergency evaluation of the new staff after your match against Vince and Michelle?" Lance asked and Tyler nodded.

"I did but that was hours ago, from what I've heard they had to start looking for new staff members because so many of the new staff members that were already hired ended up being Orichalcos Duellists." Tyler responded as he shook his head. "With any luck he will have finished by now and will be ready and willing to help."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do, be back in a sec!" Lance responded with a nod before turning around and walking back down the hallway, Marcus opened the door to his room first and held the door open for Tyler before closing it behind him.

"Okay, so walk me through what happened when you returned to your room following my duel earlier." Tyler said as he looked around. "Looks like whoever broke in knew what they were looking for since the rest of the room is undisturbed."

"Yeah, but what caught my attention was that the window was open, I had left it closed because it was pretty chilly today." Marcus explained as he pointed to the window. "What was even weirder was that when I went to close the window I noticed that there was a ladder propped up against it, that sent me into panic mode and I started looking for anything that was missing."

"I can't blame you." Tyler nodded in understanding as he approached the window and saw the ladder Marcus mentioned. "Aside from the two monster cards what was stolen?"

"That's pretty much it, whoever broke in left my money, laptop and desktop alone and went straight for my deck." Marcus responded with a frown as he looked around. "Here's what I don't get, my deck features monsters like Five Headed Dragon, Trident Dragon and Blue-Eyes White Dragon, why ignore those monsters and go for Red-Eyes Black Chick and Red-Eyes Black Dragon instead."

"That's a great question." Tyler nodded in agreement as he looked around before noticing something by Marcus's laptop. "Was that USB stick by your laptop when you left earlier?"

"No, I use an External Hard Drive for backing up my files, why?" Marcus asked as he walked over to the laptop and saw the USB stick in question. "Think it was left by the thief?"

"One way to find out." Tyler responded as Marcus brought the laptop out of sleep mode, typed in his password and once he was logged on to his laptop he plugged in the USB Stick. "Might want to scan it for viruses just in case."

"Good idea." Marcus responded with a nod before scanning it with him Anti-Virus, when the file came clean Marcus opened it. "One video file, that's a minute in length."

"Message from the thief maybe?" Tyler asked just as there was a knock at the door. "Door's open and we're decent." Tyler called out to whoever was on the other side and the door opened up revealing Martin and Lance at the door. "This day just keeps getting more eventful for you, doesn't it Martin?"

"Yes, it does." Martin sighed as he entered the room and let Lance in before closing the door behind him. "What do you know so far?"

"The thief used a ladder to get in through the window, ignored the laptop, money and electronic equipment in favour of Marcus's deck." Tyler responded as he motioned them over, Martin and Lance walked over and Tyler moved to the side. "Whilst I was looking around I spotted this USB Stick and Marcus said that he uses an external hard drive to back up his files so it can't be his."

"And yeah, I scanned it as soon as I popped it in, there aren't any viruses on the USB stick as far as I can tell." Marcus responded before pointing to the video file. "Just that video file."

"Have you watched it yet?" Martin asked and Marcus shook his head.

"We were about too when you guys came a knocking so we decided to fill you guys in first." Marcus responded before clicking on the video file, Windows Media Player loaded up not long afterwards and the video started playing showing the inside of Marcus's dorm room and the female robed figure who had broken in.

"Marcus, if you're watching this then you've already figured out that I've stolen two of your cards." She said as she held up Red-Eyes Black Chick and Red-Eyes Black Dragon. "I know you have a few questions so let me get a couple of them out the way, first I'm not associated with the Orichalcos Duellists, not anymore." She added before removing her hood.

"Wait, isn't that the girl you duelled after Battle City ended?" Lance asked as he leaned in. "Marie wasn't it?"

"That's her." Marcus nodded in response. "But what's she doing here? I heard that she escaped prison time by testifying against the other surviving Orichalcos Duellists but she's been under the radar since then."

"Second, you don't have to worry, your cards are safe with me." Marie added as she held up a regular Duel Disk and put the two cards into her deck. "But if you want to see them again then you'll meet me on the North Side of the island within the hour, any later and you'll never see me or your dragons again." Marie said before putting her hood back on. "And come alone, if I even see a glimmer of light reflecting off of Martin's bald head I'll rip the cards in two." Marie added before turning around and the video cut off.

"Do you think she's serious?" Lance asked as he folded his arms. "Why is she doing this to begin with? She surrendered the duel to Marcus because she found out that the reasons for her anger were misguided."

"That's a great question." Marcus sighed in response before walking over to the desk where his duel disk sat. "She never really got over the fact that her parents died before she could get to know them and as you can imagine that fact morphed her into the troubled teen you met at Battle City."

"Yeah, I remember your dad hoping that she'd get the help she needed once she was freed." Lance nodded in response with a frown on his face. "If anything it seems that she isn't as messed up as she was when you duelled her but that doesn't explain the theft."

"Well whatever the reasons for the theft were I'm going to meet her." Marcus responded as he strapped on his duel disk and did a quick deck count. "I beat her once and I know I can do it again, even if she hadn't surrendered I still had her beat."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Martin asked as he folded his arms. "You said it yourself, she's not exactly of a sound mind and she does have a criminal history, how do we know that she's telling the truth?"

"As crazy as it might sound, the girl I saw on the video reminded me of nothing of the girl I duelled in Battle City." Marcus sighed as he loaded the deck into the slot. "For a lot of the kids at that orphanage my dad ran I was their only friend and that included Marie, back then she was a sweet girl with anger issues, kinda like Chelsea only a lot younger and not a lesbian, she got me into the game and dragons in general but when she started committing those crimes I refused to believe that it was her, it took her being found guilty for me to face the truth."

"And you think you'll get through to her." Tyler responded and Marcus nodded in response. "Okay, let's say, hypothetically, that she has gotten better since Battle City, why would she break into your dorm room and steal those dragons?"

"I don't know, I guess old habits die hard." Marcus responded as he went to leave the room. "Call the others and tell them what's happened, I want some back-up encase I beat her and she tries to make a break for it with the cards."

"You don't trust her?" Martin asked and Marcus shook his head.

"After finding out that she was affiliated with the Orichalcos Duellists that invaded Battle City I honestly don't know what to believe about her." Marcus responded as he left the room. _"Why would Marie return after all this time? Better yet, why would she come to the island and specifically seek me out? There's a lot of questions on my mind and I intend to get some answers!"_

*meanwhile*

Since the incident in the hallway earlier in the day Nicola had been in her room either doing homework, going over her deck or watching YouTube videos though that wasn't exactly the only thing on her mind.

"_The Orichalcos Duellists not only got onto the island but managed to infiltrate the new crop of staff, I know I'm not the only one who feels uneasy about that." _Nicola thought as she looked over her deck and stopped when she reached one of her copies of Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus. _"I know I should've been there to support Tyler and Miranda but there's way I can show my face in public for at least a couple of more days after the incident in the hallway."_

"_Unfortunately the staff won't let you get away with that and you know it." _Sapphire Pegasus reminded her and Nicola sighed.

"_A girl can dream can't she?" _Nicola asked her duel spirit before putting her deck but in its holster. _"Besides, Tyler and Miranda won their duel without me being there to support them so who knows? Maybe I can afford to skip out on a couple of Orichalcos Duels?"_

"_Ideally you should be avoiding them at all costs." _Sapphire Pegasus responded and Nicola sighed.

"_Well yeah but it's not like the others have had much luck in that department." _Nicola responded before there was a knock at the door. "Who is it?"

"It's me, can I come in?" Chelsea's voice rang out and Nicola grinned when she heard her friend.

"Sure." Nicola responded and the door opened, Chelsea stepped in and closed the door behind her. "If you want to apologize for the incident earlier, don't, I've gotten over it and it was my fault as much as yours."

"Maybe but I still wanted to come over, especially after you didn't show up for Tyler and Miranda's Orichalcos Duel." Chelsea responded as she glanced around. "Mind if I sit down?"

"Knock yourself out, just don't damage the wall." Nicola responded with a grin and Chelsea laughed before sitting down on a chair. "Like I said, it was my fault as much as yours so don't worry about it."

"I know, I still felt like shit about it." Chelsea responded as she folded her arms. "Speaking of the duel, I didn't see you there, didn't Sapphire Pegasus alert you?"

"She did." Nicola nodded in response as she glanced up at Chelsea. "But I want to wait for any chatter about what a blurted out in the hallway to die down before I go anywhere outside of the Osiris Red Girl's dorm and yeah, I know I'll have to attend my classes in the morning."

"You could always fake being ill, worked wonders for me when my first boyfriend broke up with me….at least until mom checked my temperature." Chelsea admitted and Nicola laughed in response.

"I wouldn't even last that long." Nicola said once she stopped laughing. "Only way that would work out for me is if I went out of my way to make myself ill and I'm in no hurry to do that." Nicola added before realizing something. "Wait, boyfriend? I thought you were a lesbian?"

"I am but I did try dating guys for a while which didn't work out." Chelsea responded and Nicola nodded. "It doesn't really help that the last guy I dated basically dumped me for another girl but never bothered to actually tell me so I didn't find out until I saw him kiss the other girl in public, dad actually had to talk me out of having a shouting match with him."

"And knowing your temper it would've escalated from shouting match to, well, an actual match." Nicola pointed out and Chelsea grinned. "Did he ever find out that you knew?"

"Yeah, when he next came round to my house I read him the riot act for cheating on me before telling him to get the fuck out of my life and that was the last I saw of him." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "Anyway, you sure you're okay with what happened earlier? Because if I where you then I'd still be fuming."

"Well yeah but I don't have your temper." Nicola responded and Chelsea let out an annoyed grunt. "And now it's my turn to ask if something's wrong with you."

"It's nothing, it's just you're not the only one who's made a comment about my temper today." Chelsea responded as she shook her head. "First Brandon told me that my temper was going to get me in trouble one day and then Martin, as if he was reading Brandon's fucking mind, basically told me that I was on thin ice."

"Let me guess, Martin heard about the argument we had with Thomas?" Nicola sighed and Chelsea nodded. "Why would he warn you about that anyway? It was Thomas that started it."

"It was less to do with the argument and more to do with the threat I made against him when he almost called you…..well, you know….." Chelsea trailed off and Nicola nodded when she got the idea. "He basically said that if I had hit him then I'd be facing my second expulsion duel, which would've meant an automatic thirty day suspension if I had won it."

"He doesn't pull punches with his threats." Nicola sighed as she shook her head. "Then again I guess he wasn't wrong."

"Yeah I know, doesn't make the fact that pretty much everyone I know has been nagging me about my fucking temper all day!" Chelsea grunted in annoyance and Nicola winced. "Anyway I'm heading back to me and Chloe's dorm room and before I forget, sorry for embarrassing you earlier."

"And I'm sorry for upsetting you by reminding you about your talk with Martin." Nicola responded and Chelsea grinned before standing up. "I almost asked if you were up for meeting up for tomorrow's duels but I forgot that your team is, technically, competing tomorrow."

"It's cool, we can still meet up after the duels, see you around." Chelsea responded before leaving the dorm room and closing the door behind her. _"Seriously, does the entire universe feel like getting on my case about my temper today?"_

"_Well to be fair your temper has been a problem for a long time." _Wattchimera responded and Chelsea rolled her eyes.

"_Wattchimera, do me a favour and don't start!" _Chelsea responded before walking off.

*a bit later*

"_She can't be that far away now." _Marcus thought as he walked through the forests that made up the island's northern edge, he had checked a couple of clearings but so far the only people he had seen were couples having make-out sessions under the stars. _"You'd think that the new security guards would deter them, anyway I can't be late because the time stamp on the vid she made was about twenty minutes before I returned to my dorm." _Marcus thought before looking into another clearing and spotting her. _"Found her!" _Marcus thought before entering the clearing. "Marie, didn't think I'd see you again."

"And I didn't think the DA would accept my offer to testify against the other surviving Orichalcos Duellists but here I am." Marie responded as she folded her arms, she had discarded her robe revealing an outfit similar to the one she wore to Battle City except the midriff bearing tank-top was now red in colour and she was wearing jeans instead of shorts. "Thanks for accepting the invite by the way."

"Like I had a choice?" Marcus asked and Marie frowned. "Why are you doing this Marie? I thought I heard that you had changed your ways."

"Oh I did, your dad even helped me get adopted at long last." Marie responded as she folded her arms. "But then word reached me that the Orichalcos was back and I wanted to make up for past mistakes by helping you guys out."

"You call stealing two of my cards helping?" Marcus asked and Marie frowned. "And where is your adopted family in this anyway?"

"At first they didn't want me involved, they were worried that I'd go back to my old ways but I kept badgering them and they eventually relented hence why it took me so long." Marie responded and Marcus frowned. "What? You don't believe that I want to help you?"

"Well let me put it this way, the last time we met you had practically been driven mad by anger and let's not forget the fact that you broke into my dorm room and stole two of my cards!" Marcus pointed out with a frown. "Seriously, the only reason I haven't called security on your ass is because I want to see my cards again!"

"And you will." Marie responded before turning around and grabbing a duel disk, when she turned around she revealed it to be a standard issue duel disk and not the Orichalcos Duel Disk she had used during her previous duel with Marcus. "Is this enough to convince you that I'm on the level?"

"Not exactly, how do I know that it isn't a disguise that will fall off when you activate it?" Marcus asked and Marie laughed.

"I'm flattered but I'm not that creative." Marie responded before activating the Duel Disk and sure enough it stayed the same shape and size. "Besides, don't know if you've noticed but the duel disks that I and my former partners used where larger and completely different in shape than regular duel disks, if that doesn't convince you then I don't know what to tell you." Marie added and Marcus hesitated.

"Good point." Marcus admitted before activating his duel disk. "But you'll forgive me for not completely buying your story."

"Fine, I guess I'll have to let my actions do the talking." Marie responded as she drew her opening hand and Marcus frowned.

"Yeah, about that, your actions at Battle City and your actions tonight have already spoken volumes about how you're not the same girl I knew growing up." Marcus retorted as he drew his opening hand. "But enough talk, who's going first?"

"I am!" Marie responded before drawing another card. "And I'm kicking things off in a big way! I summon Black Stone of Legend in attack mode!" Marie played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, it looked a lot like the tuner monster White Stone of Legend except it was black in colour and seemed to be glowing a crimson red (1/0/0).

"You call that kicking things off in a big way?" Marcus asked as he stared at the monster. "If I summon the right monster I could deal a big blow to your life-points!"

"You're welcome to try and besides, good things come in small packages, just look at me!" Marie responded and Marcus frowned. "What? No comment? Whatever, I set two cards facedown and end my turn!" Marie set the two cards down and Marcus drew his card.

"_Well, she isn't lying about the small packages part, that thing probably has an effect similar to White Stone of Legend but that won't stop from crushing it! As for her, well she is the only girl I know who's even shorter than Chloe but I don't know about the good things part." _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. "Normally I'd say that you were better off setting that thing in defence mode but with the monster I just drew that wouldn't have helped either way! I summon Spear Dragon!" Marcus played the card and the strange dragon with the long beak appeared on the field (4/1900/0). "Spear Dragon, attack Black Stone of Legend and make her pay for stealing my cards!" Marcus commanded and the dragon took flight.

"Err, no, I'm going to have to take a rain check on that payment! Activate Trap Card Silver Dollar!" Maria activated the trap and the attack hit only for Black Stone of Legend to withstand it. "Since you just attacked a monster with one thousand attack points or less this trap card protects it from being destroyed and negates the battle damage!" Marie added before grinning. "And don't think for a second that I don't know about Spear Dragon's drawback."

"Oh crap." Marcus cussed as Spear Dragon crouched down into defence mode. _"At least I won't lose any life-points when she goes on the offensive." _Marcus thought before looking at the other cards in his hand. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Marcus announced as the two facedown cards appeared on the field and Marie drew her card.

"_Perfect, I can bring out the big guns already." _Marie thought before playing the card she had drawn. "I activate Silver's Cry! Using this I can Special Summon one Dragon Type Normal Monster from my hand and I'm pretty sure that the monster that I'm about to summon needs no introduction!" Marie played the card and sure enough the Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared on the field with a roar (7/2400/2000) however when the dragon saw Marcus its eyes narrowed.

"That's the dragon you stole from me, isn't it?" Marcus asked and Marie frowned.

"I was hoping to reveal that fact myself but yeah, it totally is." Marie responded before grinning. "But why settle for one Red-Eyes Black Dragon when I can bring out two?"

"What?!" Marcus yelled out and Marie's grin grew bigger.

"Just watch, I activate the effect of Black Stone of Legend, well technically it has two effects but I can only activate one effect per turn and once per turn so you don't have to worry about the other effect yet." Marie announced as Black Stone of Legend vanished from the field. "You see I can tribute my Black Stone of Legend in exchange for bringing out a Level Seven or lower Red-Eyes monster from my deck as long as it's not Red-Eyes Black Chick so I'll cut to the chase and summon the big guy!" Marie played the card and sure enough a second Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared on the field. "And before you ask, this guy was one that I obtained legally."

"If you can obtain one Red-Eyes Black Dragon legally then why come all this way to steal mine?" Marcus asked and Marie frowned.

"Two reasons, one, in the booster pack that has the reprinted version of this card Red-Eyes Black Dragon is the rarest monster in the pack, I had to buy a lot of booster packs before I got my hands on that dragon and the only upside was that it helped me get my hands on all these support cards." Marie responded as she folded her arms. "My other reason is not so much about practically as it is personal, I wanted to prove a point!"

"What point?" Marcus asked and Marie grinned.

"My point that I want to prove is that I'm a lot better at handling big things than you'll ever be." Marie responded before blushing like a madwoman. "And by "handling big things" I mean these dragons, not penises!"

"I had a feeling that was the case." Marcus responded with a frown. "And I still wouldn't have made such a joke anyway! How could I since I've known you since you were four years old?"

"That never stopped your friends from dating, what were their names again? Chloe and Lance?" Marie pointed out and Marcus frowned.

"Except they haven't known each other since childhood, which would be kind of hard since Chloe's from New York and Lance is from Arizona." Marcus responded with a frown. "Besides, before they made it official a couple of weeks ago it was pretty obvious that they wanted more out of their relationship."

"Which they obviously got." Marie responded as she folded her arms. "Who knows? Maybe we could make that leap?"

"The last time I saw you before tonight you were with the Orichalcos Duellists, when you came back into my life you stole two of my cards one of which you're currently using against me." Marcus responded as he shook his head. "Sorry Marie but you have a long way to go before I count you among my friends, let alone potential girlfriends!"

"Fine, I'll get to my point then." Marie responded clearly unhappy with Marcus's response. "I basically wanted to prove that I can use these dragons better than you ever could and what better way to show that than to use them in a way you've never heard off?"

"Is that why you left Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon in my deck?" Marcus asked and Marie nodded.

"Darkness Dragon is a good card but unless you a shitload of dragons in your graveyard you can't really get that much mileage out of it." Marie responded as her grin grew wider. "And no, I'm not going on the attack with my dragons either! Instead I'm building an Overlay Network!"

"An XYZ Summon?!" Marcus yelled out as the portal opened up behind the two dragons and they were sucked in.

"That's right! This card I'm about to summon won't be out for another year over here so enjoy this sneak peak whilst it lasts!" Marie responded as she retrieved the monster from her extra deck. "I XYZ Summon Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon in attack mode!" Marie played the card and a huge dragon emerged from the portal, its scales where a metallic red in colour and it was intimidating to say the least (Rank: 7/2800/2400).

"That's thing's huge!" Marcus said with a gulp as he stared at the monster. "Good thing my Spear Dragon's in defence mode."

"It won't be a good thing for long! I activate my Trap Card Dragon's Rage!" Marie activated the trap and Marcus's eyes widened when he heard the name. "Being a fellow dragon user I shouldn't have to explain this Trap Card's effect to you or how much trouble you are currently in! Flare Metal Dragon, attack Spear Dragon with Metal Flare Blast!" Marie commanded and the dragon let lose a massive fireball that consumed Spear Dragon and brought Marcus's life-points down to 5200. "And trust me Marcus, my dragon has a lot of tricks up its sleeve! For now I end my turn!" Marie announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Okay, so she has a really powerful dragon type XYZ Monster that she summoned using my copy of Red-Eyes Black Dragon as one of the XYZ Materials and has Dragon's Rage on the field, this could be bad." _Marcus thought before looking over his hand and at his two trap cards. _"Heh, I forgotten that I had set this, it might help." _Marcus thought before picking up a monster. "I set a monster in defence mode and end my turn."

"Really? That's the best you can do? Seems that your skills have degraded since we last fought." Marie commented as she drew her card. "I start things off with a Spell Card called Sacred Sword of the Seven Stars! All I need to do is banish one Level Seven monster from my hand and I get to draw two cards." Marie pocketed the monster and quickly drew two cards. "Well, this worked out pretty well."

"If it worked out pretty well for you then it's probably bad news for me!" Marcus responded and Marie grinned.

"Oh, you have no idea!" Marie responded as she sent her Spell Card to the graveyard and quickly played another one. "I activate Burial from a Different Dimension! Using this Spell Card I'll move the monster I just banished to my graveyard." Marie announced before retrieving the monster from her jeans pocket and moving it to the graveyard.

"I'm almost afraid to ask but what was the point of that?" Marcus asked and Marie grinned.

"The point was so I can demonstrate Black Stone of Legend's other effect!" Marie responded as she retrieved the monsters from the graveyard. "When Black Stone of Legend is in my graveyard I can target one Level Seven or Lower Red-Eyes Monster that was also in my graveyard and shuffle that into my deck." Marie added before moving the card into her deck and hitting the auto shuffle button, once it was done shuffling she held up Black Stone of Legend. "And here's an added bonus, in exchange for that Black Stone of Legend goes back into my hand!"

"Meaning you can use that card's effect all over again." Marcus realized and Marie nodded.

"Be thankful that I can only use each effect once per turn but there is one other move I can make." Marie said as she played a card. "I summon Black Metal Dragon!" Marie played the card and another new monster appeared on the field, it was a dragon made entirely of metal that was easily dwarfed by Flare Metal Dragon (1/600/600).

"Black Metal? You mean the music Chelsea likes?" Marcus asked and Marie shook her head. "Wait, how do you know about Chelsea? She didn't compete in Battle City."

"Neither did Ashitaka, Hu, Jason, Chakra, Chelsea's girlfriend or Miranda Kaiba." Marie responded with a grin. "Nicola did compete but like me she was eliminated during the city stage of the tournament and Tyler didn't compete but he was present, I don't exactly have the resources of the Orichalcos Duellists but I know all about the allies you guys have recruited for your battle against my former employers and trust me, you'll need all the help you can get."

"How do you know about them?" Marcus asked and Marie frowned.

"I've said too much, for now, just know that my friends have their ways." Marie responded and Marcus blinked.

"Friends?" Marcus asked and Marie covered her mouth.

"Oops, there's my big mouth again." Marie responded before she folded her arms. "Tell you what, survive the next two rounds and I'll tell you more about them, in the meantime I activate Black Metal Dragon's effect, in a way this little guy acts like a Union Monster but he isn't classified as such, basically I can equip him from my hand or from the field to one Red-Eyes Monster I control except for Red-Eyes B. Chick."

"Wait, I'm confused, if your cards can't be used on Red-Eyes Black Chick then why did you steal it in the first place?" Marcus asked and Marie frowned.

"I have my reasons but for now I'll get back on track, when Black Metal Dragon is equipped to a Red-Eyes Monster that monster gets six hundred extra attack points so I'll just go ahead and equip him to Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon and really put the hurt on you!" Marie announced as the small dragon flew onto the much larger dragon's back and Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon's attack increased to 3400. "Now not even your Blue-Eyes White Dragon can beat my monster which is really bad news for that facedown monster! Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon, attack his defence monster! Flare Metal Blast!" Marie announced and the monster launched its attack…..

"I activate my Trap Card Rainbow Life!" Marcus activated the trap and quickly discarded a card from his hand. "My monster gets toasted but this turn only the Battle Damage I would've taken thanks to Dragon's Rage gets added to my life-points instead!" Marcus added as the monster was revealed to be Masked Dragon (3/1400/1100) which was quickly incinerated but thanks to Marcus's trap his life-points went up to 8500 rather than drop to 2900. "And as a fellow dragon user you should know what Masked Dragon does!" Marcus added as he used the features on his duel disk to search out a card.

"It won't matter what you throw at me Marcus, my dragon's unstoppable!" Marie said confidently as Marcus played the card, however she did a double take when she saw the monster. "Armed Dragon Level 3? You're kidding?!"

"Nope!" Marcus responded as the small orange dragon appeared on the field (3/1200/900). "Do you remember what this little guy does?"

"How could I forget? Aside from Rainbow Life you used that same combo in practically every duel we had growing up!" Marie responded with a small smile on her face. "Marcus, look, when I said that I was no longer affiliated with the Orichalcos Duellists I meant it, the fact that pretty much every survivor from the Battle City incident was facing serious jail time when we awoke made me realize just how big they were in the backstabbing department."

"Considering what I and my friends went through thanks to those bastards during the tournament that doesn't surprise me one bit." Marcus responded before realizing something. "Marie, are your friends fellow former Orichalcos Duellists?"

"You figured it out a lot faster than I thought you would but I've spoken too much, for now I end my turn." Marie announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Okay, so she's working with other former Orichalcos Duellists, doesn't narrow it down." _Marcus thought as Armed Dragon Level 3 started glowing and growing. "Since Armed Dragon Level 3 is on the field during my Standby Phase I can level him up to Armed Dragon Level 5!" Marcus announced as the big, burly dragon appeared on the field with a roar (5/2400/1700). "Next, I activate the Spell Card Cards of Consonance! I discard one weak tuner from my hand….." Marcus said as he discarded the monster. "And I get to draw two cards!" Marcus added before drawing two cards. "And another thing, you used Black Stone of Legend? Well I'm about to use the original's effect!"

"White Stone of Legend." Marie nodded in acknowledgement as Marcus started searching through his deck. "But I wouldn't be so liberal with your card effects from now on."

"Huh?" Marcus asked before looking at his score. "What the hell? When did I lose a thousand life-points?"

"Did you notice that your life-points seemed a bit too high when you used Rainbow Life? Because that's one of Flare Metal Dragon's effects, whenever you use a card effect you also lose five hundred life-points." Marie explained as she folded her arms. "Anyway that was a good combo but isn't it a bit tired and dated? I remember you using it during Battle City."

"Yeah, back when you were with the Orichalcos Duellists." Marcus responded as he added the card to his hand and the duel disk shuffled his deck whilst Marie frowned at being reminded of that fact. "And now I'm going to render Flare Metal Dragon obsolete even if it costs me more life-points!" Marcus said as his life-points dropped to 7000. "It'll be worth it since your dragon will be toast! I activate Armed Dragon Level 5's effect! Since its effect applies to a monster's original attack I'll just discard a monster with three thousand attack points!"

"But there's only one monster in your deck that that's strong, I should know, I had to look through your deck to find the cards I stole." Marie realized as the dragon started breathing fire. "Discarding the Blue-Eyes White Dragon so you can bring it back later, clever."

"I like to think I am." Marcus said with a grin before pointing to Metal Flare Dragon. "Armed Dragon, incinerate Metal Flare Dragon!" Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the much larger dragon consuming it with flames. "So how do you like your dragons? Personally I like them Medium Rare!"

"I like them not destroyed!" Marie responded with a massive grin on her face and Marcus blinked as the flames evaporated…..revealing that Metal Flare Dragon had survived! "Surprised? You should be, as long as Metal Flare Dragon has an Overlay Unit it can't be destroyed by Card Effects."

"When you said that your dragon has more than one trick up his sleeve you weren't kidding." Marcus admitted with a gulp. _"This is bad, the only way I can take that thing down now is if I summon Five Headed Dragon and even though I have enough dragons in my graveyard to summon it with Dragon's Mirror I'd have to draw it first." _Marcus thought before looking at the two cards he had drawn with his Spell Card. "I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Marcus set the two cards down and Marie drew her card.

"_Let's see, three facedown cards and Armed Dragon Level Five, it's like he wants me to attack." _Marie thought before looking at her drawn card and adding it to her hand. "I summon an old favourite, Black Stone of Legend!" Marie played the card and the black stone appeared on the field again. "Now I activate Black Stone of Legend's effect!" Marie added as the stone disappeared from the field and in its place stood the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. "Flare Metal Dragon, why don't you show Armed Dragon some real firepower? FLARE METAL BLAST!" Marie commanded and the massive dragon breathed fire at the Level Monster incinerating it and bringing Marcus's life-points down to 6500. "Red-Eyes Black Dragon, attack with Inferno Fire Blast!" Marie commanded and the dragon prepared its famous attack….

"I activate Birthright!" Marcus responded as his trap card flipped up. "This may cost me another five hundred Life-Points but I'll take that over twenty-four hundred life-points any day of the week and like your dragon my monster needs no introduction." Marcus added as his life-points dropped to 6000 and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field with a roar (8/3000/2500).

"Well, you didn't exactly waste any time in bringing out the big guns either." Marie commented before shaking her head. "Red-Eyes, call off your attack." Marie commanded and the dragon cancelled the attack. "Your dragon may be strong enough to destroy my Red-Eyes but not my Flare Metal Dragon."

"No monster is truly invincible Marie and I'll find a crack in your dragon's armour soon enough." Marcus responded and Marie smirked.

"I'd like to see you try, for now I'll end my turn." Marie announced and Marcus drew his card.

"_Wingbeat of Giant Dragon? That would only destroy Dragon's Rage and my face-down card…..wait a minute…." _Marcus thought as an idea popped into his head. "Just for reference, Black Metal Dragon is being treated as an Equip Spell right?"

"Err, yeah, why?" Marie asked and Marcus grinned.

"Not for long! I activate my Spell Card A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon!" Marcus announced and Marie's eyes widened when she heard that card name. "You should know this effect but I'll tell you anyway, Blue-Eyes White Dragon is going back to my hand and he's taking all Spell/Trap Cards with him!" Marcus added as the dragon took flight and flapped his wings causing a massive wind blast, first Dragon's Rage was destroyed followed by Black Metal Dragon, Birthright and Marcus's facedown cards. "All for the cost of five hundred life-points!" Marcus added as his life-points dropped to 5500 whilst Flare Metal Dragon's attack dropped down to its original score.

"Black Metal Dragon has another effect, when it's sent to the graveyard from the field I can add a Red-Eyes monster to my hand as long as it's not Red-Eyes Black Chick." Marie responded as she inputted some commands on her duel disk. "Nice try Marcus but ultimately it was all for naught, even though you've weakened my dragon the only monster you have that could've stopped him is back in your hand."

"Yeah but who said I was done?" Marcus asked as he played another card. "I activate Trade-In, this costs me another five hundred life-points obviously." Marcus said as his life-points dropped to 5000. "But in return I'm sending my Blue-Eyes White Dragon to the graveyard and making two draws." Marcus added before drawing two cards.

"If you want to defeat yourself by using card effects whilst Fare Metal Dragon is on the field, go ahead! I won't stop you." Marie responded as Marcus sent his Spell Card to the graveyard.

"We'll see about that." Marcus responded before looking at his drawn cards and grinning. "Marie, you are definitely in trouble now, first I activate Swing of Memories to bring back my dragon for one more turn." Marcus announced as the dragon returned to the field with a roar and his life-points dropped to 4500.

"So what? He'll be gone by the end of your turn and once he is they'll be no saving you from my cards!" Marie pointed out and Marcus grinned.

"Who said I was done? I activate another Spell Card, DRAGON'S MIRROR!" Marcus activated the spell and it quickly dawned on Marie just what he was up to even as Marcus's life-points dropped to 4000.

"_Spear Dragon, Masked Dragon, Armed Dragon Level 3, Armed Dragon Level 5, what else am I missing?" _Marie thought before it hit her. _"Oh yeah! White Stone of Legend, wait, five Dragon Type Monsters…..oh shit!" _Marie thought as she started laughing nervously. "Err, you know, the whole theft business was nothing personal, there's no need to use Five Headed Dragon on me….."

"Too late!" Marcus said as he retrieved the five dragons from his graveyard and pocketed them, soon afterwards Marcus's strongest monster appeared on the field with a mighty roar (10/5000/5000). "And you're out of luck since Five Headed Dragon is a monster that can only be destroyed by Light Type monsters."

"Yeah, and all more Red-Eyes monsters just happen to be Dark Types!" Marie responded with a gulp as she stared down the two monsters. _"Stay calm Marie, there's more than one way to skin a dragon." _Marie thought as she braced herself.

"First, the big guns! Blue-Eyes White Dragon, attack Metal Flare Dragon with White Lightning!" Marcus commanded and the dragon opened its maw ready to unleash it's legendary attack at the larger dragon, the attack was launched and the massive dragon was vaporized bringing Marie's life-points down to 7800. "Good riddance, now for your third Red-Eyes! Five Headed Dragon, attack Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" Marcus commanded and the five heads unleashed simultaneous attacks at Red-Eyes Black Dragon destroying it in an instant and bringing Marie's life-points down to 5200.

"Okay, so we're back to where we started, I think." Marie grunted as she picked herself off the grass having been knocked back by Five Headed Dragon's attack. "But if you think I'm surrendering to you again then you have another thing coming!"

"Well my dad's not around to talk sense into you so there's that." Marcus responded before looking over his hand. "I end my turn which means that my dragon goes back to the graveyard." Marcus added as Blue-Eyes White Dragon vanished and Marie quickly drew her card.

"_Okay, this won't be easy but I could pull this off, I hope." _Marie thought before looking at her drawn card. _"Here we go!" _Marie thought before playing the card. "I activate Fusion Conscription! All I have to do is reveal to you one Fusion Monster in my extra deck." Marie said as she retrieved the monster in question and tossed it to Marcus.

"Err, okay." Marcus said before reading the card. _"Black Skull Archfiend Dragon, whoa that's pretty powerful." _Marcus thought before tossing the card back to Marie. "Okay, now what?"

"Now I can add the fusion materials listed on that card to my hand from my deck or graveyard, for this I'll add the Red-Eyes Black Dragon I stole from you from my graveyard and one monster from my deck." Marie added before taking the two monsters, adding them to her hand and sending the Spell Card to the graveyard whilst returning the monster to her extra deck. "Unfortunately I can't do anything with these cards right now, but I can do this." Marie added as she played another Spell. "I activate Cards of the Red!"

"Okay, I'll bite, what does that do?" Marcus asked and Marie grinned.

"I'll show you, first I send one Level Seven Red-Eyes Monster from my hand to the graveyard." Marie said as she sent the monster to the graveyard. "And yes, that was the monster I searched out with Black Metal Dragon, anyway in exchange for that I not only get to the draw two cards." Marie added as she drew her cards. "But I can send another Level Seven Red-Eyes Monster to my graveyard, this time from my deck." Marie added as she sent another card to the graveyard.

"_She's thinning her deck a lot, what's she planning?" _Marcus thought before Marie picked up the two cards she had drawn.

"I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Marie announced and Marcus, despite his surprise, drew his card. "What? Were you expecting a monster?"

"Maybe." Marcus responded before looking at his drawn card. "Let's cut to the chase! Five Headed Dragon attack her life-points directly!" Marcus commanded and the five heads prepared their attacks…

"I don't think so! Activate Trap Card Red-Eyes Spirit!" Marie activated the trap and it flipped up. "This trap card lets me target one Red-Eyes Monster in my graveyard and special summon it to my side of the field." Marie added as she retrieved the monster. "So why not bring out Flare Metal Dragon for one last hurrah?" Marie asked as the massive dragon appeared on the field again.

"Fine by me, all you've really done is put off the inevitable, Five Headed Dragon, attack Flare Metal Dragon!" Marcus commanded and the dragon breathed fire at the XYZ Monster destroying it and bringing Marie's life-points down to 3000. "Unless you have another trick up your sleeve then this duel will end the same way our last one did!"

"Marcus, encase you haven't noticed I'm wearing a tank top, I don't have any sleeves to hide anything under." Marie responded before glancing over her shoulder. "Well unless you count the robe I was wearing for the break-in/video." Marie added and Marcus leaned to the side seeing the robe behind her. "As for why I discarded it, well encase you haven't noticed it gets really hot on this island even at night, I could only walk around in that robe for so long!"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Marcus admitted before glancing at Marie's other Trap Card. _"I have no way of knowing what the other card she set is, she could've activated it when I attacked Flare Metal Dragon again but she didn't." _Marcus thought before looking at his drawn card. _"Well I won't give her a chance!" _Marcus thought before playing the card. "I move to my Second Main Phase and I activate my Galaxy Cyclone Spell Card."

"Okay, that's a new one." Marie admitted as the spell card appeared on the field. "And here I thought I was the only competitor in this match with new tricks up their sleeves, so to speak obviously."

"Obviously, as for Galaxy Cyclone it destroys your set card!" Marcus added as the storm washed over the field destroying Marie's set card. "It has another effect but I'll get to that later." Marcus added as he sent the Spell Card to the graveyard. "But unless you have another card like Cards of the Red I don't think you've got any traps left!"

"_That's what you think." _Marie thought as a small smile appeared on her face. "Are you done?"

"Yeah, I'm done, and you'll be done soon because as soon as I get a direct attack from my dragon to hit this one's over." Marcus responded and Marie drew her card.

"Remember the card I showed you last turn through Fusion Conscription's effect?" Marie asked as her grin grew wider. "Well I'm about to summon it! I activate Red-Eyes Fusion!" Marie played the card and the Spell Card's Hologram appeared on the field. "This Spell Card lets me Fusion Summon one Red-Eyes monster from my extra deck as long as I don't mind the fact that it will be treated as the Red-Eyes Black Dragon as long as it's on the field or the fact that I can't normal or Special Summon monsters for the rest of the turn, so I'll fuse together Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning and Red-Eyes Black Dragon!"

"How many new Red-Eyes monsters are there?!" Marcus asked as the two monsters appeared on the field, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon he recognized but he couldn't say the same for the other one even though it looked like a black version of Summoned Skull (6/2500/1200), both monsters were sucked into the portal and Marie retrieved the monster from her extra deck.

"Enough for me to construct a deck that isn't a one trick pony! I Fusion Summon Black Skull Archfiend Dragon!" Marie played the card and a new monster appeared on the field, on the outside in looked a lot like the old fusion monster Black Skull Dragon but it had a lot more red in its colour scheme than the older dragon did and was a lot more intimidating (9/3200/2500). "Sure, he may not be as strong as Five Headed Dragon but you saw the monster last turn so you should know its effects."

"Yeah I know and if you think I'm dumb enough to attack that dragon think again!" Marcus asserted and Marie giggled. "What's so funny?"

"You may not be dumb enough to attack my dragon but you were dumb enough to fall for my bluff." Marie said as she retrieved a card from her graveyard. "Remember the trap card you destroyed last turn?" Marie asked before turning it around.

"It's another Dragon's Rage!" Marcus realized as his eyes widened. "You wanted me to attack you!"

"Off course, how else would I pull off this combo? I activate Megamorph and I equip it to Black Skull Archfiend Dragon!" Marie played the card and the dragon roared as it doubled in size and power, all the way up to 6400. "Black Skull Archfiend Dragon, attack Five Headed Dragon!" Marie commanded and the dragon unleashed its attacks at the Five Headed Dragon bringing Marcus's life-points down to 2600. "Sure, doing so brings his attack points down to half its original score." Marie admitted as the dragon's attack dropped to 1600. "But there's an added benefit, I move to my second main phase and I activate Black Skull Archfiend Dragon's effect, since I attacked with it I can target one Red-Eyes Normal Monster in my graveyard and inflict damage to you equal to that monster's original attack points so why not go with the classic?"

"You act as if I have a say in this." Marcus commented before wincing as his life-points dropped to a mere 200. "But even with two hundred life-points left I can still beat you, and since Black Skull Archfiend Dragon is a Dark Type Monster that means that my dragon survived the hit." Marcus added as Five Headed Dragon roared.

"I guess you're right, my monster's attack power is so low that that you could finish me in one hit with that dragon of yours." Marie admitted as her eyes narrowed. "But I'm not as weak as I once was, I won't surrender to you this time Marcus!" Marie added before looking over her hand. "I set one card facedown and end my turn." Marie announced and Marcus drew his card. "What are you waiting for? Christmas? Finish it already!"

"You wanted it? You got it! Five Headed Dragon, attack Black Skull Archfiend Dragon and end this duel!" Marcus commanded and the dragon prepared its attack….

"Gotcha!" Marie said with a smirk and Marcus blinked. "I activate my Quick Play Spell Card Tailor of the Fickle! Using this I change Megamorph's target to Five Headed Dragon!"

"NO WAY!" Marcus yelled out as his dragon shrunk considerably in size as its attack power dropped to 2500 whilst Black Skull Dragon's attack rose to its original score.

"Yes way! And since you only have two hundred life-points left, well you were right about Five Headed Dragon ending this but just not in the way you intended!" Marie responded as her Dragon flew over the five blasts effortlessly and unleashed its attack again, Five Headed Dragon survived the attack but the same couldn't be said for Marcus as his life-points plummeted to zero.

"How….." Marcus trailed off as the holograms disappeared and Marie approached him. "When did you get so good?"

"Little thing called practice, maybe you should try it." Marie added as she turned off her duel disk and returned her cards to her deck. "I was hoping you'd be a better challenge then that, especially since you're in Obelisk Blue nowadays, oh well." Marie added as she started to walk off.

"Wait, what about my Red-Eyes?" Marcus called out to her and Marie stopped.

"I said that you'd see that card again but I never said anything about giving it back." Marie responded with a grin before reaching into her pocket. "But I will throw you a bone, I also said that you'd see Red-Eyes Black Chick again and despite what you may think of me I'm a woman or my word." Marie added before retrieving the card and tossing it at Marcus, he caught the card and looked at it.

"This isn't over Marie, I'll be back for my dragon!" Marcus called out to her as she bent over to pick up her robe.

"I look forward to it." Marie said after she picked her robe up and put it on. "I can't really stay here, Martin's probably got his goons on the prowl for me already, but like I said, I'm not the only former Orichalcos Duellist working to bring down Victor and we will be watching closely but I will give you this tip, look closely at the USB stick I left in your room, there's more than just that video on it." Marie added before disappearing into the forest.

"Marie, wait!" Marcus called out to her but Marie was long gone. _"I'd better get back to the dorm, tell the others what happened, but if she is on our side and is telling the truth about the others I'm glad she's on our side." _Marcus thought before walking off.

*meanwhile*

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" Jack cussed as he paced back and forth in Victor's office, it was the following morning already in America and Jack was in Victor's office ready for the debriefing. "They know who I am now! All they need to do is look at my employment history and we're screwed!"

"If you weren't so insecure about your tiny dick we wouldn't be in this mess!" Sara responded as she folded her arms. "Any ideas Victor?" She asked as she turned to him.

"We need to target Tyler directly before he can get word of this to the teachers." Victor responded with a frown as the two underlings nodded. "You'll escort another underling to…."

"No, I'll do it!" Jack insisted with a frown. "That punk won't get away with this! I'll go the island on my own and drag him out of his room by his hair if I have too."

"Jack, you know the policy about that…." Sara started but Victor put his hands up. "Boss?"

"If he wants to handle this himself, let him." Victor responded and Jack grinned sadistically. "Tyler is now a priority target, be ready for anything."


End file.
